#6 - Captain Random to the rescue!
Hello all,
Welcome to the sixth edition of The First School! In case you missed any of the previous posts, you can skim through the summaries of the first 5 posts here.
Before I begin this week’s post, let me bombard you with a number of questions:
Does your environment often have conflicts (parent-child, teacher-child, child-child)?
Do you find it difficult to calm down children when they are dysregulated?
Do you want to create interesting ways to engage children in household chores?
Do you simply want some family or classroom fun?
If the answer to any of the above questions is a YES, check whether you have some stationary intact! Because at the end of this post, you might want to create..
The Wheel Of Choice
The Wheel of choice is a simple way to make problem-solving exciting! It is a pie-chart that consists of a number of solutions (at least two or more) to what one can do in a given situation.
When children encounter a problem or a dilemma, all they have to do is to spin the wheel (or use a spinner) and pick out an option from the choice wheel!
The Wheel of Choice can be used in a variety of scenarios, such as calming down an angry child, resolving conflicts, engaging children in household chores and what not! Below are two examples of what the wheel can look like:
Example #1: Household chores
Example #2: Calming down an angry child
How do you arrive at these solutions?
The reason why the Wheel of Choice is so special is that the caregiver and the child can brainstorm everyday conflicts and problems together, and come up with exciting and meaningful solutions.
Picture courtesy
When children participate in such discussions:
They take ownership of their learning. So it’s their solution!
They learn problem-solving in a fun way. (Sometimes, coding can wait!)
They learn to take responsibility for their actions.
But remember to personalize the options based on your environment so that children can relate to the solutions better! When you introduce an element of randomness, children are more likely to accept the solutions than when told what to do!
Children as young as 2 years old can be involved in this process! The younger the children are, the more visual the choice wheel needs to be!
How do you resolve conflicts in your environment? If you have any other interesting ideas, please do share them with the community! We are all ears!
If you find this article insightful, why not share it with your friends?
Children of younger ages (~ <2.5) find it overwhelming if many choices are presented. The choices adults give need to be limited (2-3 max), clear and something that the children can follow up once they choose.
The choices need to dynamically appropriate for the child as well keeping in mind his development and growing needs. These are some points that I wanted to add.
Thank you.This is so Good. will implement this