The Parenting Series: Always Kind

Today was the second forum in our new series focusing on the idea of Always Kind.  

We began by sharing some kind experiences that we have had and discussed what was the feature of the experience that made them kind:

• Selflessness
• Empathy
• They Saw Me
• Thoughtful

From this discussion we watched the following video below from Harvard’s Center for the Developing Child, which unpacks the role of Executive Function in supporting the skills needed to be kind and get along with others.  The three key components of Working Memory, Inhibitory Control and Mental Flexibility were explored as critical to being able to be selfless, showing empathy and controlling our emotions when things change.

We went on to consider how Always Kind is built into our values and school curriculum.  From our Vision and Mission, to our Profile of an ISU Student to the list of values that we aspire for our children.

We also revisited the role that the different components of our curriculum play in supporting kindness including the following:

• Social Skills and Self Management in our IB programme
• Using tools such as zones of regulation, THINK and PAWs in our advisories
• Building compassion and empathy through Action and Service

We went to explore Kindness in our Homes, Ms. Diana reminded us that we can make kindness the norm in our homes and communities.

Diana shared a list of ideas that you can do at home to strengthen kindness:

Two books that you may want to consider exploring include: 

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