JEDDAH, 3 November 2006 — The Al-Shaqaiq Society, which has previously run various programs teaching young women the basics of marital life, has planned a new three-course program.
The new program — which will start tomorrow and run until Dec. 21 — has been prepared to help mothers and kindergarten teachers learn more about how to raise and educate children.
“The success we achieved in the previous pre-marital awareness programs made us think of the next step — about organizing a program focusing on how to raise children and kindergarten-aged kids,” said Almas Al-Hijn, head of the consultancy committee at the Al-Shaqaiq Society. Al-Hijn is also a supervisor of the program.
The first of the three courses is aimed at teaching mothers and kindergarten teachers about the emotions of young children.
Mothers attending the course would learn how to handle the reaction and behavior of children and understand how they think.
A child’s personality begins to develop in the first few years of his life when he is away from home — while at kindergarten. Children then need guidance from a person who can understand their emotions and ways of thinking. “This program will teach mothers how to create a healthy studying environment at home. It will also teach them how to support their children using entertaining ways of education that would make them eager to learn instead of the old methods like memorizing that do not work anymore with children,” Al-Hijn said.
The first course will be 36-hour long, run twice a week and will be presented by psychologist Sahar Kurdi.
There will be a morning session and an evening session to cater for both housewives and working mothers.
The second course also teaches mothers how to be successful kindergarten teachers. “There are some new kindergarten teachers who do not have any experience in dealing with young children and how to exploit their talents and skills,” said Al-Hijri.
The third course is about teaching children how to be independent and how to educate themselves. Both the second and third course will last for two days only and will be run by Hamda Al-Ghamdi, a kindergarten specialist.
Al-Shaqaiq Society has distributed flyers about the program to many schools in order to benefit the largest number of women. Telephone 02-6900109 for further information about the program.
