In the month of February, educators at Centro San José of the CSP in Mexico City plan activities for the children to learn about the importance of friendship and to work on the development of social skills.
Presently, the center attends daily to 110 children between the ages of two and six. It is quite common to witness conflicts between children. They fight for a variety of reasons: over a toy, or over any object that they believe is their own, or because a friend doesn’t want to play, or just to be first in line, or because someone made a face or stuck out his tongue or pushed them…
These fights are normal with children of this age group, and many children defend themselves by hitting a classmate or crying out of frustration. Some prefer to go tell the teachers, who tell them over and over again, “Hands are for touching, not hitting”… with irregular success.
On a daily basis, teachers at Centro San José spend much of their time resolving conflicts and misunderstandings. During the month of February, the teachers made an effort to work on the importance of friendship, in order to promote love, respect and affection among the children for their classmates.
On February 14, St. Valentine’s Day, Day of Love and Friendship, educators, together with children, organized an activity so that the children could show their appreciation to their companions at the center. They all brought a little gift to exchange with their classmates. It actually was a very moving activity, filled with thoughtful gestures and hugs.
We want to promote the bonds of friendship among the children at Centro San José, so that they learn, already at their very young age, to respect each other, to apologize when there has been a clash, to treat each other nicely and to value the others as real treasures in their lives.
