Social Lesson - Making and Apology

We learn a lot of things in Kindergarten. As a parent I want my own children to learn about reading, writing, and math. Probably of greater value is that they learn how to work with other people. There are very few places on the planet where they will be isolated from other people. Learning how to apologize and ask for forgiveness is so important and will take our children places that being academically smart will never take them.

At Conferences I talked to most parents about some social lessons that we had been learning about. I realize that many of you are teaching your children about how to treat others, but there are experiences that the kids are going to have in school, particularly in Kindergarten, that won't happen around home. There will be times (maybe a lot of times) that I will stop everything else and help the kids through an issue they may be having. There are also days that I choose to teach a specific lesson using a book. A few weeks ago I used a book about Personal Space. Today, the book I read was called "Sorry, I Forgot to Ask! (My story about asking permission and making an apology.)" Apologizing can be one of the most difficult things for people to do. One thing that I see adults and kids do is to make excuses rather than apologies.

The author of this book is Julia Cook. She writes books based on the theme "Best Me I Can Be!". I don't have all of her books, but really recommend them. Check out her website. http://www.juliacookonline.com/ Some subjects she teaches about include; dealing with disasters, having a cell phone (maybe not for Kindergarten, but older kids still need guidance), making friends, using a social filter when talking, and more. The author does a great job addressing real problems that real kids have.

These stories teach kids important lessons and can be very helpful as a parent and a teacher to communicate good values. I may have about ten of these books, but would like to have more. If you would like to help buy one or more of these books for the classroom, send me an e-mail. adam-kreifels@cdolinc.net