Why Teaching Respect Matters

What is the Character Essentials curriculum?

Within the Life Essentials® curriculum at nebula montessori is Character Essentials, a curriculum that uses character education to derive learning from each interaction. The educators at nebula montessori find opportunities to teach your child important character-building cornerstones including respect, sharing, manners, friendship, and compassion.

Why and how does nebula integrate respect into the curriculum?

By learning to recognize and appreciate the rights, beliefs, practices, and differences of other people at a young age, children are better equipped to develop respectful character traits as they get older. This can have a big impact on a child’s ability to build relationships and ultimately thrive.

Educators at nebula, serve as role models for character education, always offering children real-life examples of how to show respect. This includes:

• Teaching manners by speaking politely, following rules, sharing, etc.

• Using positive guidance

• Encouraging active listening and taking turns

• Demonstrating proper ways to respect both classroom and personal materials by using and caring for them properly

• Practicing conflict resolution through various forms of role playing

How can I teach respect at home, so it extends beyond the classroom?

Teaching respect at home can be as simple as modeling respect for your little ones. For older children, you can encourage them to treat other’s ideas, thoughts, likes and dislikes with thoughtfulness, kindness, and positivity.

Teaching respect can even take on the form of a fun family activity, such as creating a kindness box. Each family member will be tasked with writing down when they see another family showing respect. At the end of each week, you can reflect upon everyone’s efforts together.

Creating a solid foundation for good citizenship and strong social-emotional development is central to everything we do at nebula montessori. If you’re interested in learning more about our curriculum and how we integrate teaching respect, visit our website or schedule a tour.