Each family in which there are children is faced with a difficult moment of their first separation. The decision to arrange a child in a modern kindergarten is accompanied by a host of important questions: how will your child be met by peers, how will a child eat porridge cooked not by his mother, how will he be able to fall asleep not in his bed, will someone else's aunt be obeyed? But of course, the most important will remain the issue related to health, both physical and emotional.
What are the corners of solitude in kindergarten
Even a child who is psychologically prepared at home as a family, arriving for the first time in a kindergarten, is in a stressful atmosphere. Here everything is different from your home: furniture, the usual daily routine, toys, dishes, food. And most importantly, those around you, children, nannies and carers. The kid experiences a lot of new impressions, feelings change one after another. The state of joy and delight is quickly replaced by anger, resentment, jealousy and anger. Every morning, while remaining in the kindergarten, the baby is afraid of separation from his mother.
Three-year-olds are not yet able to control their emotions, including negative ones. And their suppression by adults can cause irreparable damage to the psyche that has not yet formed.
A modern kindergarten should be organized in such a way that each baby is cozy and comfortable in it. A properly organized environment will help the little man adapt to a new place faster and learn how to manage his emotions. One of the most effective tools for optimizing the work and managing the mental load on the child are the corners of solitude in kindergarten. Educators are increasingly formalizing them in their groups, adopting the successful experience of their colleagues.
The psychological unloading room will help children of the younger groups to gently adapt, and will also contribute to the release of negative emotions and create an easy and good mood. Such a place will become indispensable so that the child can take a break from collective studies and again feel safe.
How to arrange privacy corners in kindergarten
When designing, it is important to remember a few simple rules that will help make this place truly loved and effective for children. It should be located in a secluded place, in a corner or under the stairs, so as not to remain in sight all the time. Lighting matters, it should be muffled, create a feeling of burrow, personal and limited space. Soft pillows on which you can lie down and relax will become a buffer for the overexcited nervous system of the crumbs.
Psychological unloading room can be equipped with a children's tent or mobile screens, sliding curtains between two cabinets or a ceiling ledge with falling light curtains. The corner should not be bulky and take up a lot of space. In all the rest, the desire and imagination of kindergarten workers or parents will help.
Design Features
Dreaming alone with yourself, reading a book, relaxing and taking a break from your group mates - all this will be available to children if there is a privacy zone in the group . The design of such a place is a creative and important matter, it should be approached seriously, it is better even with the assistance of a child psychologist.
You should use calm, muted colors, miniature upholstered furniture, pictures with a soothing plot, kind soft toys. In interior stores you can buy beautiful relaxation lamps or mini-waterfalls, which are also favorable for calming the baby.Toys for mental balance
Today, many games and toys have been invented to help restore the balance of an unstable child psyche. Such toys that fill the corners of solitude in kindergarten can be:
Darts. In addition to relieving irritation or anger, it develops coordination and accuracy of movements.
Box of reconciliation. It has openings for the hands on two opposite sides. Helps make peace with quarreling children, develops communication skills.
Puzzles and mosaics. Perfectly help calm down and focus.
A table for creativity with paper, pencils, felt-tip pens, plasticine, modeling dough, crayons. With the help of "works of art" the child is able to splash out the accumulation of negative emotions.
Finger puppet theater. It will give an opportunity to reveal itself in composing dialogues between heroes.
Mirror of mood. An album with faces depicting different emotions is adjacent to the usual mirror surface, preferably a rounded shape. The kid, leafing through the image, “tries on” each emotion to his face, while analyzing which facial expressions express it more.
"Home" corner
If the group is small, it’s nice to have in the corner a small family album of each kid or some other items related to him. And every bored child should be able to call her mother and tell her everything on a magic phone.
The corner "My mood " should at least remotely remind the kids about the home environment, comfort and tranquility. And small sets of furniture that can be moved at will, will help the baby to recreate his own room and move into it at least for a while.
The attitude of parents and carers
For a long time after the collapse of the Union, the foundations of children's educational institutions did not go beyond the usual collective framework. And now, today every child, his personality and psychological characteristics are put forward by teachers and child psychologists.
In modern preschool institutions, educational work is carried out taking into account the characters and behavior of each child. The priority is the pedagogical approach, which is able to reveal the positive aspects and potential of the child, but not break it, adjusting it to the template and team.
But there are still those kindergarten workers who are against individual corners. They see this as a child’s unwillingness to work in a team, and negatively relate to the possibility of temporary solitude. Parents also disagree. But, as practice shows, more and more kindergartens are introducing into their practice the design of such corners that undoubtedly help in the work, favorably influencing the psychological climate in the group.