If the curriculum is the "brain" of our program, then the guidance principles
are the "heart." Parents learn about the guidance principles during parent
education and have the opportunity to practice them during class time with the
children. When parents and educators use the guidance principles, they help the
children feel secure, respected, and empowered as well as help the children
build esteem and learn to problem solve in social situations.
In our classrooms, parents and educators:
- Use a warm, pleasant, reasonable manner to set clear, consistent limits and to
offer choices where possible.
- Sit at the child's eye level whenever possible, and make an effort to listen
to and understand what the child is saying.
- Encourage children to try new skills and let them participate at will. Limits
are set only when health, safety, or respect is compromised.
- Show a genuine interest in a child's work and understand that the product is
not generally the important factor; the child may simply be doing some basic
research into color, feel, or taste of materials.
- Respect each child's personality, and accept him/her as an individual, letting
the child work by his/her own methods.
- Offer encouragement ("You really enjoyed mixing the red and
blue paint on your paper") instead of flattery ("You are such a
wonderful artist").
- Encourage a child to complete tasks on his/her own so that s/he may grow in
independence; when needed, adults give enough help so that the child may feel
success in a task completed.
- Use a positive rather than a negative approach in talking with children, by
attributing developmental intent to the child ("You really want to climb. Let's
go over to the climber.") rather than thinking that the child is manipulative
("I told you not to climb on the table"). Adults avoid trying to change behavior
by methods that may lead to loss of self-respect, such as shaming or labeling
behavior as naughty or bad.
- Handle conflict in a consistent manner by redirecting the behavior and/or
coaching the children to express their emotions and needs in a socially
acceptable way. When appropriate, adults enlist the children's ideas for
solutions to the conflict.