It’s not always easy to get people of different age groups (especially children and elderly) to come together for games and bonding these days.
Greying hairs and wrinkled skin shows years of experiences, but children these days often miss out on the stories of those experiences and opportunities because lack of interaction with the elderly.
Young children are sometimes afraid of senior citizens because they are unsure of their appearances or mannerisms. Other children might feel as though they won’t have anything in common with a person so much older.
This year, our children and teachers came together to plan for a couple of activities to work with the elderly at United Medicare Centre (UMC), elderly from Toa Payoh Care Corner and their own grandparents to bridge the generation gaps.
Our children displayed their empathy, care and kindness towards the elderly which help to build an outgoing attitudes of love and concern in them.
We as teachers set a good role models by speaking in an elevated, friendly voice when interacting with the elderly. Our modeling of comfortable and friendly interactions with the elderly helped our children to see what are involved when interacting with elderly people.
- A visit to united Medicare Centre (UMC)
Our children had the opportunities to interact with the elderly. They performed for the elderly, made sandwiches for them and talked with them during the National Day Celebration this year.
- Visit to Botanic Garden with the elderly from Tao Payoh Care Corner
Our children had a memorable picnic with the elderly. They shared food and had fun playing small games with together after picnic. Everyone felt very comfortable and felt closer after the games. They laughed, cracked jokes and engaged in conversation. Both elderly and children agreed to have another round of fun activities in the near future.
- Terrarium Making With Grandparents
Grandparents of our children were invited to the school to make terrariums together. They learnt the positive interaction with their grandparents during this activities. They brought their terrarium home and took care of it together.
From the above activities, our children are proud that they have spread their happiness and joy for all the elderly. From our observations, we feel that the benefits of encouraging relationships between our children and the senior community include opportunities to learn new skills (i.e: patience, empathy and perspective taking) and methods of doing things when interacting with the elderly, to accept people of all ages, capabilities and limitations.
