Emotional Intelligence
Moss & Heart is committed to supporting Emotional Intelligence and Regulation in the young child.
Healthy emotional development is of utmost importance during the early years of life. Experiences before the age of three years are said to live within the body, meaning that an individual’s perspective of the world is largely created by how they are treated during this time. Around age 3 years, the child begins to build long-term memories through narratives, which are more easily accessed and understood into adulthood. Therefore, it is essential to provide responsive caregiving and enriching environments during these early years of life.
Our Guides understand that the young child is not manipulative. An upset child in our school will never be ignored to “teach independence”, as we understand these to be the moments when the child needs the adult’s attention most.
School rules can be generalized as refraining from behaviors that are…
Dangerous - towards the self or other individuals (physically & emotionally)
Disruptive - to the self or others
Destructive - towards the environment - e.g. materials, resources - in the classroom and world at large
Our teachers kindly redirect children using positive communication to foster a sense of validation and safety within boundaries. We believe that no child is “bad” and that we are all continuing learners.
"There are many who hold, as I do, that the most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. For that is the time when man's intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being formed. But not only his intelligence; the full totality of his psychic powers."
Dr. Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, p. 21