Every Child’s Rights

• Every child has the right to grow into an individual with their own unique personality and identity.
• Children have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
• Each child has the right to access quality education and the opportunity to reach their full potential.
• Children have the right to express their opinions and have their views considered in matters that affect them.
• Every child has the right to health care, proper nutrition, and a standard of living that supports their well-being.
• Children have the right to play, relax, and engage in activities that promote their social and emotional development.

The Skill to Care

Every child needs to feel cared for. The care could come in many forms tangible or not. Mainly children are dependent on adults for their needs. A good care provider is someone who watches over the child and is sensitive enough to know what and when the child needs help. Care comes from the heart, and by this means that the child receives support whenever possible with empathy, love, sensitivity and affection. This task requires a skill of the heart to feel the needs of a child and to carry it out for instance in the following scenarios:

• Dressing and undressing
• Eating
• Playing
• Sleeping/ relaxing

The Skill to Teach

Children before formal schooling start need to learn life skills. The childcare professional is expected to teach these lessons in a creative and interesting way and in a language understood by children. Vocabulary should be simple and familiar to kids or if not, it should be something that can be supported with visuals. Life skills aren’t learned from theories, mainly from adult’s life experiences passed on to children. However, every childcare professional should also remember that experience is different for everyone, so teaching should be in line with the goals of childcare for each country. You can check your own guidelines from the institution that handles this, for instance the Department of Education. The teaching should be fair and does not favor anyone regardless of age, race, religion, physical appearance or cognitive ability. Teaching life’s lessons could be in the following examples:

• Asking for forgiveness – saying sorry, excuse me or polite words to express feeling sorry
• Expressing right feelings for every right situations – it means not showing happy when someone is hurt
• Helping someone in need
• Applauding or giving good comments when someone has done a good job
• Showing feelings – sad, happy, sorry, joy, excited, thankful, regretful, angry etc..
• Learning to play, write, sing, dance, and anything that is not bounded by theories.
• Being polite and respecting other people
• Knowing what to do or say in given situations common in daily life
• Knowing how to behave when eating and what to do before it
• Putting toys back on their own places after use
• Knowing the rhythm of daily life
• Respecting other people as they are
• Knowing that everyone is a different person and can be different in ways, thinking and behavior
• Knowing it is okay to make mistakes and learn from experiences

The Skill to Raise

It means that a childcare provider is equipped with the knowledge and skills to raise in an ethical way and that does not restrict the child’s freedom or the pursuit of learning. The child must be able to think on their own and their opinions must be heard and not ignored. The role of childcare provider is more so in the support of the child’s decision making process, helping him out to decide what is best for him without hindering him of his own rights to express what he or she thinks of the things that surround him or her. Raising a child is also looked at through socialization wherein through interaction with others, the child can learn the value of friendship, family, own happiness and something that he can associate himself with in the future not just for the moment. The aim after all of raising a child is to help a child become the best version of himself in preparation for his adult life.

This information is inspired by the Finnish Early Childhood Education and Childcare system.