During our baby watching sessions, children are taking notice of how Mareikura is held, how she is spoken to, her care routines, how she is loved...everything!
Good role models demonstrate how to interact and care for babies with kindness, patience and empathy. Emily, Mareikura’s Mum is a good role model.
By watching her interactions with Mareikura, children learn how to recognize and understand the needs and feelings of babies. They learn the importance of fulfilling duties and being reliable caregivers. Children learn how adults respond to babies’ cues and in turn learn how to express themselves with kindness and in respectful ways.
Through play, all of this is practiced in a kindergarten environment in the family corner, where baby dolls are readily available for children to play with. An immense amount of learning happens during pretend play and this is something we are definitely seeing an increased interest in here at kindergarten. It’s all about the ‘squishy babies’, which is the name our kindergarten tamariki have given our baby dolls.
Having Mareikura and her Mum Emily come in to spend time with us every week as role models and ambassadors of love and respect has been absolutely fabulous!!
