At a training session a few months ago we discussed how the jobs of today will become obsolete in the future and how the majority of today’s children will spend their working lives in jobs that do not exist today.

The challenge of how to prepare children for such a life, when we have no idea what it will look like, is immense. When I think of the things I learned at school and how few of them are relevant to me today it only makes the problem seem more difficult. The answer, according to Jack Ma in this video, is to give children the soft skills that will make them adaptable, resilient, confident, that is, able to cope with the challenges their future will bring.

This is an interesting read on the importance of supporting children’s emotional development in early years. Children who struggle to regulate their emotions exert pressure on family relationships and struggle to develop friendships. Emotional development also is crucial to the development of academic ability with children more able to persist with a task, bounce back from a failure and more able to cope with the stress and anxiety of tests or exams. Far too often we focus on the academic outcomes of “education”. In the early years we need to get the social, personal and emotional foundations right. A solid and stable base upon which education can be built.

https://www.parentingforbrain.com/self-regulation-toddler-temper-tantrums/