The Importance of Choice
Choices are an important piece of the Clover Kids program. Choices allows children to learn good decision making strategies - especially when they get to experience the consequences - good and bad - of those decisions. What opportunities do we have for offering choices?
We can let the children help us determine what topics we want to explore. Children can also choose between 2 activities that are going on at the same time. You can let children choose where to sit, what to eat, how to make open ended art and more! As adults, we make choices all day long, so encouraging CKs to start making them in our safe environment provides wonderful learning opportunities!
Choices also helps with group management and discipline. Choices eliminate power struggles. Choices also allows children to retain their dignity when they've done something inappropriate. It helps them understand that there are always options to fix any problems - and that helps them become self-sufficient problem solvers in the future!
I'd love to hear how you've been able to include choices in your program! It is an important part of the program!