One Tip to Foster Strong Relationships with Kids -Encourage Their Interests

The basis for having a group of daycare children who listen to your guidance and follow your lead is having a strong positive relationship with each child.  Little ones are not always going to be eager to follow instructions. What two year old wants to clean up their toys so they can take a nap? However, when you have a strong bond with each child, they are more willing to be helpful.

One powerful way to foster a strong relationship with each of your daycare children is to encourage their interests.  Pay attention to what they like, ask questions, join them in their interests, or create a game/story/craft with their interests.

When you display curiosity towards a child’s interests you are sending them the message that you find their preferences important.  They will receive the powerful message that you view what they like as important and you view THEM as important.  Perfect, you have now got their attention. The next step is to find time to sit down with them one-on-one and create that game/story/craft together.

Depending on the child’s interests, I will think of several ideas of a shared activity that I believe the child and I will both enjoy. We both need to find it fun because kids can tell when someone is faking their enjoyment.  I might wait for a day when I have a smaller group of kids if I know one is coming up soon.  I’ll also wait for nap time so I know we won’t be disturbed by the babies. Here is an example of one such activity.

I have a little boy who loves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  These little toys are brought to daycare and played with all the time. I am not interested in encouraging ninja fighting skills in my daycare.  However, I do love crafts. I googled Ninja turtle crafts to see if we could meet in the middle of our interests.

I found these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Puppets on You Tube. We watched the video together and then I asked him if he would like to make his own set of puppets with me?  He smiled the biggest smile and said, YES!

I collected the art materials for the next day and he brought his ninja turtle toys to ‘help’ us. The puppet heads are made with styrofoam balls.

He painted four styrofoam balls with green paint and let them dry.

My ninja turtle fan chose the colours of felt he wanted for their eye masks. He explained he wanted the masks to be cut with bumps above the eyes and straight below the eyes just like the masks his toys wore.  I carefully followed his instructions and showed him the first mask.  Was it exactly how he wanted it? I could cut another one if it wasn’t how he envisioned it? He loved it!

I try hard to make this special activity a time when the child feels cherished. They are the focus of my attention and their opinions are very important.

I hot glued the first mask on the ball head as my assistant decided what masks were going to go on what ball heads.  He had his turtle toys helping out the whole time.  I asked him to decide the order of who got glued next, the spot on the ball, choose the eyes, count out enough eyes for each ninja, etc.  Whatever little tasks I could think of to have him actively involved in the process helped keep him feeling special.

We glued the eyes on and he cut the wooden skewer sticks to his preferred length.

He pushed the sticks into the styrofoam balls and the craft was complete.

Each toy helper turtle lined up above his puppet turtle for the photo.

The child put on a puppet play for the other daycare children.  It was a fun bonding time for him and for me.  I really enjoy spending time one-on-one with my daycare children.  The time I invest into creating strong relationships with each of my daycare children reflects back in the way we function as a group on a daily basis.

May you find the time to create special memories with your little ones.