How to cultivate good habits

Ching Shi

Wellbeing and involvement lead and Year group lead

In addition to the assessment of different curriculum areas, the baseline assessment of Huili Nursery also includes the assessment of wellbeing and involvement. This drives two important questions: How are the children feeling? (wellbeing) How engaged are they in their activities? (involvement)  

High wellbeing contributes to the children’s mental health, helps children manage feelings, enhances their self-confidence, self-value, resilience, and it also broadens and builds positive emotions. High involvement children are engaged and not easily interrupted, full of energy and motivation and driven by curiosity, which is conducive to the occurrence of deep learning.

A clear understanding of the wellbeing and involvement of each child and how to improve this based on the individual’s needs is what every teacher pays great attention to before and after the baseline assessment. After the baseline assessment, we continue to understand the wellbeing and involvement of each child through screening and scanning to support the children’s psychological and academic development. We also welcome parents to share the wellbeing and involvement of their children at home with class teachers. 

In addition, I would like to share some information on the formation of habits with you.
In the early years, developing good habits is an important part of children's learning. "Persistence" is mentioned in lots of books, and the main point is, "be persistent to do one thing, after doing it for a long time, you will get used to it, then the habit becomes natural." So how can we better stimulate the inner motivation of the child to build good habits? Here are a few suggestions for parents' reference: 

Positive experience

A positive sense of experience can also help children develop to good habits. In the initial stage of cultivating children's good habits, help children to feel the comfort and pleasure brought about by forming good habits. For example, tidying up the toys so that they can be easily accessed the next time. Help children to want to do these things based on their motivations, instead of pushing them to do something because parents or teachers want them to. If a child wants to do something with inner motivation, they can cultivate the habit more effectively and it will last for a longer time.

Taking consequences 

As independent individuals, children need to be able to accept consequences. For example, if children do not tidy up their toys, they may bear the consequences of not being able to find them later. If they linger in the morning, they may be late to school and miss the time to explore with their friends. Many parents do not want to let their children take the consequences of their actions, so they try to solve the problem for them, such as tidying up toys on their behalf. It is better to let the child bear the consequences of this bad habit. Once they are aware of the negative effect of their behaviour, they will be motivated to change, and finally, cultivate a good habit.

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