The 'Excel Kids' program uses the philosophy of the 'Arini Method' and is designed for early childhood educational providers, and parents and carers who offer early childhood education at home. It is easily incorporated into the Early Childhood Frameworks’, that are Government mandated.

 The 'Excel Kids' program is personalised to each child’s developmental needs so they can aspire towards excellence. The 'Excel Kids' program is designed around the notion that every child is smart or is capable of excelling to the best of their ability, in at least one area, if not many more of
the 9 multiple intelligences or smarts and to ultimately develop qualities of character that will enable a child to live a fulfilling life.

Peace begins at home. The mother is the first educator, if parents can create peaceful homes we will have peaceful communities; if we have peaceful communities we will have peaceful nations; ultimately peaceful nations will lead to a peaceful world community. The methods we use to raise our children matter ‘The Three R’s’ (reading, writing, arithmatic) are necessary but are not enough.

How does the 'Excel Kids' program educate?

The first step in this approach is to identify the particular communication mode of both, the parents/carers and the child. This is a powerful tool that will assist you to communicate effectively with the child and understand their particular way of learning and perceiving the world. You will know how to sooth your child when s/he is upset and lay a strong foundation for building his/her neural emotional and social capacities.  

The second step involves preparing the right physical and emotional environment suited to their particular way of learning, to support the alignment of body, mind and spirit.

The third step offers guidance on how to help parents/carers stimulate and build on the child’s natural curiosity to discover the world around them and develop their innate capabilities.

 Support is provided to empower Parents/ Carers to find solutions to any of the unique challenges that arise in adopting this programme. Initial training is available and a forum is provided so carers can exchange ideas and support each other on the learning journey.

Where do we start?

The first four years of life are critical to the education process. The mother, as the first educator, will set the emotional resonance of her child from before and after birth. This pattern will influence the quality of emotional-social relationships for the rest of the child’s life. This does not mean that they cannot be changed, but that it will be with difficulty and require particular interventions.

The ideal scenario is that the parents and carers both become familiar with the 'Excel Kids' program so that each environment where the child plays and learns will reinforce similar approaches and concepts. For example, if the learning environment is set up with similar colour coded toys and resources, related to developmental areas of the child, this can accelerate their learning process. We provide a manual and training on how to set up and interact with the learning environment.

Learning in the 21st Century

Our current education systems were developed at the beginning of the 20^th Century. A century later we have gained many insights into the learning process yet education very often has failed to benefit from the latest research, and we live in very different social conditions. We have learned many lessons over the last century and one of the most critical is that early attachment to parents and care-givers influences later adolescent behaviour and mental health.

Your early support to a child’s growth and development will be critical to their future well being. We need to think what society will be like in 20-30 years time, as that is the world in which your child will need to be competent. If we earnestly desire to live in a peaceful, prosperous and harmonious society we can make that difference and develop capacities whilst the child is young, laying down necessary neural pathways that can easily be built upon.

Capabilities of the 21st Century Citizen

We would all agree that the pace of life is moving rapidly and is always changing. How to educate a child to keep pace with this will be challenging. Knowledge will not be enough - knowing how to learn and reflect upon our actions will be the greatest gifts we can give our children. Children will need to be educated to become both ‘learned and good’. Character education research has clearly demonstrated that academic success is dependent on teaching children how to be respectful and responsible, towards not only themselves but also others, through developing virtuous actions. Our curriculum will emerge from children’s interests and build on these qualities to develop capabilities required for 21^st Century living.

A capability is made up of aspects of knowledge, skills, attitudes and virtues, which can be encouraged and reinforced as soon as they appear in young children. What the knowledge, attitudes, skills and virtues look like in each area of capability, have been developed as a detailed guide for carers so they can reflect and plan how to constantly evolve the ‘play and learn’ environment.

What are the Capabilities?

Six capabilities are used as the goals towards which the learning process moves. Early foundation knowledge and skills are developed through children’s play in prepared and natural environments. Parents and care-givers can be mindful of the goals and seize the moment when a child becomes fascinated with a particular topic or toy. Or provocations are created to help challenge the child to be curious about another area of interest.

Children learn first through their senses, then the stimulation of their imagination, as a foundation to learning to think. If a child becomes interested for example, in animals or trains, this focus can become the source of developing capability in the different areas of intelligence. Exploring the following capabilities helps a child to become smart in all the areas of intelligence from a very young age.

Howard Gardner has identified nine areas in which people can be inherently smart they are referred to as the multiple intelligences. These intelligences are integrated as part of a developing capability. The areas of intelligence will be critical to the development of the particular capability.

Children undertaking the 'Excel Kids' program will develop foundation skills
in the 6 C’s of Capability necessary for complex 21^st Century living:
 

1.      Caring

This involves intra personal intelligence, (self-smarts), and refers to the development of the emotional capacity of children as they develop self-identity and self- esteem and learn how to reflect about how their actions impact upon themselves and others.

 

2.      Critical thinking;

Children’s natural curiosity will be evoked as they explore and discover their world around themselves. It begins with the use of the senses to perceive the world and develop their capacity to think and discover truth as they learn to collect data and information, problem solve, developing their cognitive or thinking skills. The logical and mathematical (number smart) and naturalistic intelligence, (nature smart) is engaged through developing scientific knowledge of the world they live in.
 

3.      Creativity;

The use of children’s expressive and imaginative capacity is just as important as their ability to think. This involves the use of the linguistic,(word smart) visual spatial (picture smart) and musical intelligences (sound smart). The use of expressive language and the arts should be for the purpose of upliftment and the creation of ways of evoking a feeling of beauty in the world we live in.

4.     Creative Problem Solving;

1.    This capability is the application of the sciences into practical action through the use of technology and the crafts. Critical to this capability is the use of the kinaesthetic intelligence (movement smart) or what is often referred to as fine motor and gross motor development. The process of making and doing, lies at the foundation of applying knowledge to develop the physical world. It involves construction and making things.

5.     Connection;

Our ability to relate to different people and other cultures helps us to develop interpersonal intelligence (people smart). It involves the social and emotional development of children and begins in the family, extending out to the wider community and the national and global community. It is all about the world of people and how they lived in the past and how they live now and what they value in their culture. Interaction with others will ultimately provide opportunities to solve conflicts and build harmonious relationships.

6.     Contribution;

Being able to use our talents and skills to help others and to enhance their quality of life provides opportunities to contribute to the happiness of others. This begins with simple acts of service of helping other children in need or by sharing something they value for example, their toys. By developing small projects to raise money or access resources to enable children less fortunate than they are, to have an education, begins the process of socially responsible entrepreneurship. It is referred to as Existential Intelligence or (Life smart).

 

Our World

Learning about different subjects such as Mathematics, Languages and Writing are critical foundation skills but are simply tools to help us explore the world we live in. Children need to experience the beauty and magnificence of the world they have been born into. Hence seven worlds will be explored as children’s interests naturally emerge through our guided support. Children will have opportunities to discover and explore:

• The World of History and Culture
  
  

• The World of Creation
  
  

• The World of Science
  
  

• The World of Nature
  
  

• The World of Animals
  
  

• The World of People
  
  

• The World of Space and Wonderment
  

Usually children develop a keen area of interest and they want to know everything about that subject. For example: We see a child becoming fascinated with Dinosaurs. Everything revolves around this interest. We can use such a fascination to learn about other intelligences or smarts. Such a child is interested in the world of animals and likes to develop their naturalistic intelligence so we can use this fascination to develop their word and number smarts by using picture books and number cards around Dinosaurs, as a practical example.

What basic capabilities are required of the 21st century child?

The use of the key capabilities will help to provide a framework for tracking development and to identify emerging natural talents in the child. This framework helps in recognising emerging interests and how to challenge the child to advance to new stages of development.

Caring

Caring

This involves intra personal intelligence, (self-smarts), and refers to the development of the emotional capacity of children as they develop self-identity and self- esteem and learn how to reflect about how their actions impact upon themselves and others.

Intra-personal Intelligence

Emotional and physical development encourages:

• Caring for self

  • Know and care for your body

  • Self-help skills

  • Healthy eating

  • Promoting independence

• Emotional awareness

  • How to deal with fear

  • Self-Soothing

  • Self-expression of feelings and ideas

  • How to sooth when sad

  • Reflection

  • Self-control

  • Self- Regulation

• Caring for others

  • Awareness of others feelings

  • Development of virtues

  • Development of sharing and turn taking

  • Multicultural awareness how similar and different from others

 

Critical Thinking

Children’s natural curiosity will be evoked as they explore and discover their world around themselves. It begins with the use of the senses to perceive the world and develop their capacity to think and discover truth as they learn to collect data and information, problem solve, developing their cognitive or thinking skills. The logical and mathematical (number smart) and naturalistic intelligence, (nature smart) is engaged through developing scientific knowledge of the world they live in.

Cognitive, Logical, Mathematical, and Naturalistic Intelligence

Emotional and physical development encourages:

• Environment

  • Explore the environment in which we live

  • Care for the environment

  • Recognise plants and animals

• Logical/Mathematical

  • Think logically - step by step

  • Understand concepts such as numbers, shapes, large, small and
    name recognition

  • Differentiating, matching and identifying

  • Cause and effect

  • Develop ability to predict

  • Develop problem solving skills

 

Creativity

 ivity

The use of children’s expressive and imaginative capacity is just as important as their ability to think. This involves the use of the linguistic,(word smart) visual spatial (picture smart) and musical intelligences (sound smart). The use of expressive language and the arts should be for the purpose of upliftment and the creation of ways of evoking a feeling of beauty in the world we live in.

Musical    Linguistic    Spatial Intelligence
Language, music & movement encourages

Emotional and physical development encourages:

• Creativity and Imagination

  • Self-expression

  • Creative experiences, arts and crafts

  • The exploration of a variety of musical instruments

  • Concepts such as rhythm, tempo, beat and volume, fast/slow
    and loud/soft

  • Free movement experiences and musical appreciation, and eye and
    foot coordination

  • Form mental images 

• Language development

  • Language skills

  • Listening skills

  • Express meaning

• Colours and shapes

 

Creative Problem Solving

 

 This capability is the application of the sciences into practical action through the use of technology and the crafts. Critical to this capability is the use of the kinaesthetic intelligence (movement smart) or what is often referred to as fine motor and gross motor development. The process of making and doing, lies at the foundation of applying knowledge to develop the physical world. It involves construction and making things.

Bodily Kinaesthetic Intelligence

Fine and gross motor encourages

• Promote exercise and movement
  
• Development of large and small muscle coordination; balance; running; jumping and throwing
  
• Sensory and tactile experiences
  
• Hand-eye and foot coordination
  
• Setting and achieving goals
  
• Making & building things
  
• Interaction and sharing between children as a team to accomplish a task
  
• Self expression through making things

 

 Connection

 

Our ability to relate to different people and other cultures helps us to develop interpersonal intelligence (people smart). It involves the social and emotional development of children and begins in the family, extending out to the wider community and the national and global community. It is all about the world of people and how they lived in the past and how they live now and what they value in their culture. Interaction with others will ultimately provide opportunities to solve conflicts and build harmonious relationships.

Interpersonal Intelligence

• Social and dramatic play encourages

• Exchanging ideas and feelings with others

• Social and emotional confidence

• Social interaction

• Cooperative play

• Development of sharing and taking turns

• Development of virtues

• Taking responsibility

• Belonging to family and community

• Understanding other people/cultures

• Accepting people who are different

• Wise Choices

• Conflict resolution

• Understanding role identities

 

Contribution

 

Being able to use our talents and skills to help others and to enhance their quality of life provides opportunities to contribute to the happiness of others. This begins with simple acts of service of helping other children in need or by sharing something they value for example, their toys. By developing small projects to raise money or access resources to enable children less fortunate than they are, to have an education, begins the process of socially responsible entrepreneurship. It is referred to as Existential Intelligence or (Life smart)

 

Application of all intelligences

Service to others encourages us to:

• Empathize
  
• To show love and caring
  
• Do acts of kindness and helpfulness
  
• Feel good
  
• Use special talents to share with others
  
• Work on projects together
  
• Experience virtuous actions
  
• Make a contribution to their entre, family and community