Supporting Social Growth: Making Connections and Building Friendships from Early Years

Here at My Ohana, we believe in bridging the justified fear of our children’s ability to make friends at school with early experiences and opportunities to build valuable social skills and early friendships.

Selecting a reputable nursery for your child is one of the best first steps you can take to help them form and recognise the value of early connections and friendships – encouraging them to spend time with children from different backgrounds and walks of life and get to know their place in a group of peers.

As you browse our website, you may have noticed that we operate a child-led approach which empowers the young people in our care to make decisions about what they do and how they do it. While the typical day at nursery is lightly planned in terms of mealtimes and different activities, we believe that by encouraging young people to take control over some of the key decisions relating to the activities they do and engage in, we help them build a number of skills…

1.      Social skills. This underpins all of the activities that we offer and engage in at nursery, not just in terms of deciding what to do but also with regards to play, sharing toys and resources, and making friends. Prior to integration in the school system, spending time with children of the same age but with different interests is an important part of your child becoming more confident in their own skin, and more open with others.

2.      Negotiation. This is an important one and is what allows even very young children to have positive discussions with their peers. Our child-led ethos forms a major part of the development of good negotiation, through open discussion and opinion-based conversation.

3.      Balancing the three prongs of our enrichment program. With a balanced approach to characteristics, educational development, and outside play, we use our enrichment promise to help children develop a positive relationship with education and play as interchangeable parts of their day. This in turn develops a respect for how others learn as well as themselves.

And that’s not all.

These skills are also integrated into our curriculum through our emphasis on mind, body, and world-related activities. From cultural diversity to healthy lifestyle choices and habits, a high percentage of what we do and offer at each My Ohana nursery is built on developing and sharing good habits with others – holding each other accountable to different behaviours and actions.

Booking a space at a reputable nursery for your child is one of the best ways of ensuring that their early experiences are shaped through positive communication and the establishment of friendships from day one. We work directly with parents to ensure that children feel safe and supported in our nurseries and spend time creating a balanced curriculum with emphasis on what our little ones enjoy most!

Encouraging children to manage their own time and determine their own approach to the day is an excellent way to build social and life skills effortlessly. This enables them to appreciate and value the thoughts of others as second nature, helping them grow into resilient and empathetic individuals as they enter the school system and beyond.

Find out more about our nurseries and availability by getting in touch!