Welcome to another school year. I hope that the transition back to routines has gone smoothly. As we begin a new school year, please remember that you (parents) and I (classroom teacher) are a team in the growth and development of your precious children. I feel privileged that I am your child’s teacher this year.

Our job as the community of adults surrounding the children we care for is to provide a safe and nurturing environment so that children can grow into strong, successful, self-sufficient, resilient members of the community.  One of the ways we can help our children to become strong individuals is to be supportive when adversity or challenges come their way. It is important to remember that we can help our children simply by listening attentively to what they are saying, asking relevant questions for clarification, and encouraging them to look for possible solutions rather than getting upset and/or solving the challenge for them.  Of course, we do not want to see our children hurt. However, if it is a challenge that they can overcome with no harm, we need to allow them the opportunity to face it and let them experience it. Safety, of course is paramount, and it may also be painful as caregivers to watch, but how will children learn if they are not allowed to experience it? Not being able to deal with each challenge, especially when they are capable of overcoming them with encouragement and support, has lasting negative outcomes. What will happen if they do not learn how to overcome a simpler challenge that can be overcome, perhaps with some help, when more difficult challenges occur?

As children grow older, the challenges naturally become more complex. However, if they have not been allowed to face easier challenges and build their problem solving skills, how will they be able to encounter when more challenging ones arise?  The best way to help your child is to allow them to ‘do it themselves’ and standby to encourage and support them if the need arises. If they need consoling, standby with caring words and help them talk it out. Help your child to see what happened and how they can change things for the next time to not experience the same feeling again.  Making mistakes is a critical part of learning. If we continue to do what we already know over and over again, how is this developing them to become stronger individuals? How are they gaining new skills and strengthening the skills they already have? Working out what happened, reflecting back on what went wrong, and looking at what can be done differently the next time is where the learning takes place.  It is important for children to encounter challenges and hiccups along the way so they can build resilience. Resilience is not something that happens magically with a wave of a wand or because the children reach a certain age. Rather, resilience is something that is built through experiencing challenges and overcoming them through encouragement and strengthened with support and guidance. Being able to face the challenge, learn from it, and bounce back stronger is what we want our kids to be. After all, building resilient children who will become stronger adults ready to embrace any situation is our goal as caregivers.