Category: Agency and Participation

• Key idea: Humans and other living things are dependent on the natural world – e.g. participating in conservation and sustainability activities that connect your child with nature such as making compost, and examining the interaction of living organisms under the soil (UC3.4).

Emergent learning:

Our own behaviour as adult role models is crucially important.  Young children learn to understand what is fair, and what is unfair, at an early age. If we demand they do something, and simultaneously show them that we are unwilling to do ourselves, we demonstrate hypocrisy. Children always learn more from what the most significant adults in their life DO, than from what they SAY.  So talk to your child about your own daily tasks and responsibilities, and tell them about the pride and satisfaction that you gain from completing them. Just like ‘Democracy’, ‘Equality’ and ‘Social Justice’, ‘Sustainable Citizenship’ is something that we all aspire to achieve, it is a lifetime journey that we can share with our children, celebrating our progress in solidarity with our peers around the world.

Activity recommendation:

It is important for us to give children the experience of taking responsibilities from an early age.  It might be in taking out food waste to make compost, or regular feeding of a household pet.  It is important that we don’t introduce, or treat these responsibilities as duties or chores that children require discipline to carry out.  The trick is to give lots of praise and encourage when the child carries out the task, and then if the task isn’t completed on time, we must show them that we take pleasure in sharing the experience of doing it with them together. 

Other Book Recommendations: