James – holistic development

In the spirit of what we call school readiness, we believe it’s so important for children zero to 1, 2, 3, coming into 4 to start to develop their cognitive development and that’s important, how they think and act and develop their mental capacities are very, very important. But other aspects of education are equally important, such as, again those soft skills, those aspects of children getting along with each other and knowing how to act in a group and being aware of the learning and the educator and being learning about concepts such as of kindness and sharing and we must place emphasis on those, they are so equally important to all of the cognitive development.  

It’s important for children to develop and in areas that learning used to be associated with so heavily, such as reading and writing and but balancing that, again that aspect of balance, to make sure that children remember the Dene laws of helping each other and sharing, as well as the kindness, and as well one of the most important aspects of that other aspect rather than cognitive is having children experience a sense of belonging and love and nurturing. I read in the literature that if children don’t experience that sense of belonging, they don’t advance to other more higher levels of learning. But when they know and this is also another spiral guide, when they know that they belong, that they’re important, that they’re loved, then the confidence, their confidence and their learning and their growth just develop so naturally.  

So, we just need to remember that in the early learning world is when the children experience kindness and there’s food and there’s a recognition of their space and presence through all the activities that we have in the early learning world, is that their growth and development will be just natural in terms of especially in terms of developing their confidence and their relationship of self, who they are as people. We know that they’re very egocentric, so self is so important but the other, the other relationships of respect are gained to be developed in terms of respect for others, especially Elders, if there’s Elders in the classroom space or the early learning space. And then if they go out on the land, or they practice the spiritual aspects of prayer, ceremony, protocols, relationships and sharing food and things like that. So that’s very important in terms of not emphasizing that, or not encountering too much at cognitive dominance that parents sometimes think are the most important part of early learning. So, balancing all aspects of the growth of the mind, the body, the heart, and the spirit.