I just love Yertle the Turtle! I mean I just love the book Yertle the Turtle, it’s a great little book that is so helpful in explaining how not to treat others – it’s a book about communication and social skills. Yertle gets it very wrong in this entertaining tale.
Communication. It’s a big and important topic because our children are watching and listening to us, to learn how to speak to others. More to the point, they pick up how to treat others by the way we speak to them.
Within the Respectful Relationships curriculum on the Department of Education site, there are three examples or styles of communicators. They’re represented by animals, which makes it easy to talk to kids about this topic. I’ll explain it more:
The Meerkat
Is scared of disagreements and would rather agree than risk losing a friend. They give in easily to a louder voice and would sooner run away than voice their true opinions for fear of ridicule. Passive is the state we would associate with the Meerkat.
The Giraffe
It’s not difficult to imagine the Giraffe standing tall and remaining calm. With their assertive attitude they try their best to sort out problems in ways so everyone wins. Saying sorry if they are wrong, the Giraffe doesn’t show anger when they share what is on their mind.
Which leads me to…
The Lion
Is only interested in winning and doesn’t take into any consideration the feelings of others. The lion will threaten or hurt others to get what they want. Aggression is a normal way this personality expresses itself. The king of the Jungle will find himself quite lonely if he doesn’t amend his ways!
Having an emotional language can help in the conversations we have with our children about how they treat others and also how they are being treated. It’s a way of spelling out and identifying what we’re feeling, being able to name those emotions as sad, mad, frustrated, angry, happy, lonely, embarrassed, and so on. It means we can then use that language to express how we are feeling. It is a softer way for children to explain or have explained to them issues around social play and interactions with friends and family members.
I hope you can listen together on Wednesday to Yertle the Turtle. I love Dr Seuss, so much truth in such an engaging way!
I’ll be praying for all the Check In conversations!
As always. Love from my home to yours.