Have Reasons for the Things You Say and Do.

While we are using and celebrating all 4 of our life rafts all of the time, we do have a focus life raft that allows us to explore more deeply by having discussions in our classrooms, designing tasks for classes to learn from or put into practise as we play certain games.

From this week we focus on our next life raft - Have Reasons for the Things you Say and Do: If you don’t know why you’re doing something then don’t do it because it’s most likely wrong. Through games and classroom activities we will be exploring over the coming weeks questions like...Why does thinking before we say and do things keep us and those around us safe? And...Why is it difficult to trust someone who doesn’t think before they say and do things?

When discussing this life raft with your child, or using it at home, do not accept the shrug of the shoulders as an answer. We encourage them to think through the 'why'. Acknowledging that they said or did something because they were trying to be unkind or annoy or felt angry is important for them to verbalise, changing their actions from emotive to thinking.

We are playing Pegasaurus - The object of the game is to be the player with the most pegs left on your back, while someone else tries to steal them. One of the lessons discussed with the children in this game is - If you want to beat your problem you must have the courage to turn around and face it. No one can run away fast enough to escape their problem. The problem will always beat you, unless you turn and face it.