Terry Wizen – Director Kornmehl

Purim

The children will start next week learning about the festival of Purim with all its traditions, stories and fun. We will be telling the story of Purim with all its lively characters – Haman, Mordechai, King Achashverosh and Queen Esther. Parents are invited to join us for our festive and colourful Purim Parade at 9.30 am on Thursday 21 March. This will be followed by a magician show. The children will also be making their own Hamentashen and will perform the mitzvah of swapping Mishloach Manot with a friend. This is a good time to start thinking and discussing with your child what they would like to wear for Purim – please no Super Heroes. Please keep costumes simple and not too overwhelming for your child. Parents are invited to dress up too for the parade.

Open Day

The Pre-school looked fabulous on Wednesday for our Open Day. We had about 50 families through the centre and many of them commented how beautiful the rooms looked, as well as how calm and engaged the children all were.

Many thanks to Gail Mackenzie for all her hard work in co-ordinating this event. It is always a pleasure working together.

Thank you to the maintenance team and Ben Marshall for their help and expertise too.

Thank you to the amazing Kornmehl team for always going above and beyond and for the incredible job they do each and every day. The happy, engaged and confident children are testament to how you are able to foster their love for learning and curiosity.

Let your children be bored … how to handle a bored child

Parents often feel guilty if children complain of boredom. But it’s actually more constructive to see boredom as an opportunity rather than a deficit. Children need the adults around them to understand that creating their own pastimes requires space, time and the possibility of making a mess (within limits – and to be cleared up afterwards by the children themselves).

They will need some materials too, but these need not be sophisticated – simple things are often more versatile. We’ve all heard of the toddler ignoring the expensive present and playing with the box it came in instead.

But to get the most benefit from times of potential boredom, indeed from life in general, children also need inner resources as well as material ones. Qualities such as curiosity, perseverance, playfulness, interest and confidence allow them to explore, create and develop powers of inventiveness, observation and concentration. These also help them to learn not to be deterred if something doesn’t work the first time and try again. By encouraging the development of such capacities, parents offer children lifelong values.

If a child has run out of ideas, giving them some kind of challenge can prompt them to continue to amuse themselves imaginatively. This could range from asking them to find out what kind of food their toy dinosaurs enjoy in the garden to going off and looking for bugs. Of course, it’s not really the boredom itself that’s important – it’s what we do with it. When you reach your breaking point, boredom teaches you to respond constructively, to make something happen for yourself. But unless we are faced with a steady diet of stultifying boredom, we never learn how.

It’s especially important that kids get bored – and be allowed to stay bored – when they’re young. That it not be considered a problem to be avoided or eradicated, but instead something kids grapple with on their own.

Most parents would agree that they want to raise self-reliant individuals who can take initiative and think for themselves. But filling a child’s time for them teaches nothing but dependence on external stimulus, whether material possessions or entertainment. Providing nurturing conditions and trusting children’s natural inclination to engage their minds is far more likely to produce independent, competent children, full of ideas.

Children need time to themselves – to switch off from the bombardment of the outside world, to daydream, pursue their own thoughts and occupations, and discover personal interests and gifts.

Just letting the mind wander from time to time is important… for everybody’s mental wellbeing and functioning. 

A study has even shown that, if we can engage in some low-key, undemanding activity… the wandering mind is more likely to come up with imaginative ideas and solutions to problems.

A creative imagination and problem-solving ability are important life skills, so it’s good for children to have these moments of boredom and having to find ways to entertain themselves.

And it will also encourage the ability to be quiet and mindful as an adult, without the constant need to be on-the-go or entertained. In fact, there’s a lesson here for all of us. Switching off, doing nothing and letting the mind wander can be great for adults too – we should all try to do more of it.

“Boredom teaches us that life isn’t a parade of amusements. More important, it spawns creativity and self-sufficiency.” Pamela Paul

“Children need to sit in their own boredom for the world to become quiet enough that they can hear themselves.” Dr Vanessa Lapointe

Below are some links to videos and information about boredom in young children.

https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/videos/10153855961346479/

https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/videos/10154288988566479/

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/opinion/sunday/children-bored.html

https://www.melbournechildpsychology.com.au/blog/the-benefits-of-boredom/

http://theconversation.com/how-kids-can-benefit-from-boredom-65596