By Li Fang, Wang Lifeng, Qingnian Road Kindergarten, Baoding city, hebei Province  First kindergarten

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) published the "Child-Friendly City Planning Manual" in 2018 "Creating a Beautiful City for Children", schools, as an important part of the city, also serve as crucial places for children to live, play and learn. Whether from the perspective of "creating a child-friendly city" or "realizing children's physical, psychological, cognitive, social and economic needs and rights", every effort should be made Build a children's campus that meets children's needs, respects their voices and safeguards their rights. Not long ago, the National Development and Reform Commission, in collaboration with multiple departments, issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Construction of Child-Friendly Cities", proposing that by 2025, 100 pilot projects for the construction of child-friendly cities will be carried out across the country.

First, guided by "children's rights", establish a friendly concept

A child-friendly city refers to a local management system dedicated to protecting children's rights. The "rights of children" mentioned therein originated from the Convention on the Rights of the Child formulated by world leaders in 1989. The Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly classifies "children's rights" into four categories, namely: the right to survival, the right to development, the right to participation, and the right to protection.

Reflecting on the current situation of preschool education in our country, it is not difficult to see that the first two provisions of "children's rights" can be met in the vast majority of kindergartens. However, when it comes to the third right, many kindergartens have not done enough. Whether in the construction of kindergartens or the handling of class affairs, in daily life or in teaching and education, although everyone has been advocating "putting children first", there are still many teachers who are afraid of losing control and dare not let go. There are also many kindergarten managers who do not recognize that "children are the masters of the kindergarten". In many decisions closely related to them, they are still handled in accordance with the habitual thinking of adults, while the existence of the dominant position of young children is ignored.

To make progress, the only way is to change. First, in the class, research on class-based courses should be carried out based on children's interests, truly discovering the entry points of teaching activities from the children's surroundings, promoting learning through fun, and facilitating children's development. Second, implement "autonomy in life", allowing children to independently study and discuss their daily activity arrangements in the kindergarten. By adopting the approach of "doing one's own things by oneself, helping with others' things, and having everyone do collective things", they jointly plan various life aspects within the kindergarten, truly returning life to the children. Thirdly, different levels of "Children's Deliberation Councils" should be established within the kindergarten and in each class to discuss matters closely related to children's lives, games and studies. Teachers can participate as peers, summarize various ideas and suggestions put forward by children, and offer reasonable suggestions for the final decisions on different matters.

Second, create a friendly environment based on the "child's perspective" standard

The most important aspect of building a child-friendly city is the construction of urban infrastructure. Compared with kindergartens, whether the construction of their environment can meet the four rights of children; Whether the daily life, play and study of young children can be guaranteed has become an urgent issue that kindergarten managers need to consider.

Change from "closed" to "open".

We once visited some kindergartens and found that a large number of them had many enclosed Spaces. Under the guise of "safety", they kept small animals in iron cages. Children could only observe from a distance and had no way to interact effectively with the animals. Under the name of "greening", rows of Holly are planted in the courtyard and surrounded by small fences, occupying the vast majority of the land. Under the name of "sports", all the ground was covered tightly with plastic and cement to prevent children from having close contact with the soil. Some kindergartens, out of fear of accidents, enclose high climbing walls, climbing frames, slides and other facilities, completely preventing them from being put to use.

To create a child-friendly kindergarten, it is necessary to change such an environment based on children's needs and with an open perspective. In this process, adults need to observe children, understand them and support them. For instance, when some children see small animals being caged, they might ask, "Why is the little duck caged?" How uncomfortable it is in the cage! It should be swimming in the water. My hands can't reach the little rabbit. How can I feed it delicious carrots? The wire mesh should be removed. I want to hug the little rabbit, but I can't get in. The words of children are the true expression of their thoughts. At this time, the teacher led the children to have a discussion on "How should we take care of small animals", guiding them to design a new home for the small animals together, and build a new home with bricks, stones, tiles, branches and wood. Because of the children's participation, this new home must be low and open, and children can come and go easily. Through the renovation of the house, the close interaction between children and animals has been enhanced.

In order to meet the greening standards set by the higher authorities, a certain garden has planted a large number of lawns and various trees. To protect the growth of the vegetation, it has been surrounded by tall fences. Whenever outdoor games were played, the children would stop outside the fence, looking longingly and gesturing with their little hands, but they could never touch the bright flowers and red fruits on the trees. Seeing such a scene, the principal removed all the fences during the courtyard renovation project and prepared wooden stools and ladders for climbing the trees under them. After such a transformation, in spring, children can observe here how the little bees gather nectar and what the little ants do on the grassland. In summer, children can read books and play hide-and-seek under the big tree. In autumn, children climb up ladders to pick apples and persimmons. Such changes not only offer children the opportunity to get close to and understand nature, but also increase their chances of free observation and independent challenges, promoting the harmonious development of their physical and mental health to the greatest extent.

2. Transform "singularity" into "richness".

A child-friendly environment should not only be open but also rich and offer children more choices. The previous courtyard of a certain kindergarten was rather flat and unattractive to children. Through investigation, teachers found that children preferred "high earthen slopes", "winding paths", "trenches where they could hide and not be discovered by enemies", and "undulating grasslands like waves". Then the kindergarten took advantage of the situation and made corresponding renovations to the courtyard by taking advantage of the different characteristics of the kindergarten's premises. This not only made children feel respected, but more importantly, through the children's creativity, enriched the environment in which they lived and played.

In the central courtyard of a certain garden, there is a large green area filled with blooming flowers and lush green grass. One day, a child who came here to play suddenly said, "If only my home were here." Another child said, "I want my favorite grandpa to live in such a beautiful place." It was just a few casual words that the principal overheard. She then, together with the class teachers, used the discarded furniture from the kindergarten to decorate the "Grandpa's Home" and the "Baby's Home" here. They also collected various daily necessities together with the teachers and parents and placed them here. Now, this place has become the children's favorite place to play house.

The children in the middle class began to have their own opinions and unique needs. When playing construction games, they found that the construction area in the class was really too small. They wanted a larger space to complete their construction works and thus made a request to the principal. After understanding the children's wishes, the principal made use of the outdoor open space to lay a large area of anti-corrosion wood flooring, set up a "super large construction area", and provided a large number of carbonized building blocks and auxiliary materials. Nowadays, every time it's game time, many children choose to come here to build together and always play until it's time to tidy up at the end before leaving.

The richness of the environment is truly achieving "giving children something to play with and something to choose from." "Love to play and still want to play."

3. Transform "routine" into "challenge".

A friendly environment should not only be "liked by children", but also allow them to experience their own growth and the joy brought by challenges within it. Conventional environments, such as playgrounds and ordinary equipment, cannot achieve the desired effect.

For this reason, based on children's ideas and teachers' understanding of the physical movement characteristics of different children, some kindergartens use tree trunks and thick ropes to connect them into rope ladders, rope Bridges and rope nets, providing children with places for large muscle movements such as balancing, climbing and hanging. Some kindergartens build tall tree houses on thick trees, allowing children to climb high and enjoy the distant view. They can also slide down the slides at high speed, experiencing the speed and excitement like "Tarzan". Some kindergartens make use of hillsides, lowlands or sandpits to build facilities such as zip lines, swing Bridges and suspension Bridges, allowing children to experience different kinds of sports and activities. These games played by the brave not only stir up children's excitement but also allow them to feel "I can do it" in challenges and understand "I can" in success. This confidence cultivated in early childhood will benefit them for a lifetime.

Participation enables them to truly feel the changes in the kindergarten and experience their own growth. While promoting their own development, they can also contribute their own strength to the construction of a child-friendly city.

1. Establish a child protection mechanism. Protecting children's lives and health is the top priority for teachers. To enable children to enjoy better rights to survival and protection, some child protection mechanisms can be set up in the kindergarten, such as: The "Safety protection mechanism" is established at the beginning of each semester. Through interaction between teachers and children, some safety issues closely related to children are discussed, such as "How to be safe when alone at home" and "What to do safely when crossing the road", in order to enhance children's self-protection awareness. The "Health protection mechanism", through measures such as inviting experts to the kindergarten and organizing "children's Council meetings", specifically targets high-incidence diseases among children such as "dental caries" and "myopia" to carry out protection activities. It leads children to have their teeth checked, learn the correct way to brush teeth, and do eye exercises, helping children maintain good dental and eye health. The "physical fitness training mechanism" is adopted in autumn and winter to comprehensively enhance the physical fitness of all children in the kindergarten through jogging, labor and nature-friendly education, and to strengthen their resistance to diseases. The "Left-behind Children Care Mechanism" conducts home visits and phone calls for left-behind children in the class (whose parents do not work locally), allowing love to reach every child and every household.

2. Promote child-friendly development. The most fundamental purpose of establishing a child-friendly kindergarten is to create a suitable environment and cultivate "friendly children". As Chinese people, friendly children should be socialist builders and successors who develop morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics and labor in an all-round way. To this end, kindergartens need to take "moral education and talent cultivation" as the fundamental principle, rely on traditional Chinese culture, carry out etiquette education, labor education, organize activities such as reading classics, experiencing national treasures, and experiencing intangible cultural heritage, so that every child can fall in love with the motherland and traditional culture, and be proud of being Chinese.

3. Evaluation achieves home-school co-education. In order to create a warm and friendly atmosphere within the family and promote the healthy growth of children, many kindergartens will carry out various evaluation activities for all parents in the kindergarten. For instance, there are "Civilized Families" evaluated based on the criteria of "respecting the elderly and loving family members, helping each other", "Happy Reading Families" evaluated based on the criteria of "loving reading and reading good books", and "loving each other and loving each other" The "Most Beautiful Family" and others, which are evaluated based on the criterion of "promoting growth together", encourage parents to establish correct parenting concepts through evaluations and contribute to the healthy growth of children.

In conclusion, to create a child-friendly kindergarten, it is necessary to be good at respecting children's wishes, listening to their voices, understanding their needs, supporting their participation, and on this basis, promoting child-friendly development.