Teach With Purpose: Hellos & Goodbyes

As early childhood educators, we know hellos and goodbyes are important. At University City Children’s Center, our teachers help children build trust, comfort and emotional strength by investing in intentional salutations. This emotion fortitude is vital for children and their ability to learn in the classroom. 

Intentional Salutations: Hugs to Silly Faces

Families have all sorts of hello and goodbye routines. Some bid farewell with a special wave or by pounding on classroom windows. Others make silly faces at each other through the glass. And families like the Andersons say goodbye with a big bear hug. 

“My son is affectionate,” said James Anderson. “He likes to cling on until we walk away. So it's important to show him that love as a kid and as a father. I had my father to do that for me.” 

The Matsuo family does goodbyes a bit differently.

“Our ritual is that we do a heart shape and blow a kiss. Then sometimes, Tate makes a really silly face and then we show the shock,” said Tate’s mom, Jocelyn Matsuo.

The Importance of Hellos & Goodbyes

Predictable, consistent routines help children feel safe and secure as they transition from home to school. Goodbye routines encourage children to build inner comfort, while helping them avoid feelings of abandonment as they learn to trust that their parents will return.

Intentional hellos and goodbyes also acknowledge and further the relationships built between parent and child as well as teacher and child. Secure relationships give children a sense of safety. That feeling of security is the foundation from which children feel comfortable taking risks. And taking risks is an essential part of learning and developing in the classroom. 

Roxeanna Steiner, an early childhood specialist at LUME Institute explained: “The feeling a child has that their parent is going to return is so crucial for life. It prepares them to take risks. It allows the child to say, ‘I'm not alone in this world, someone is always going to be there for me.’”

Teach & Parent With Purpose

It takes a village to raise a child, and genuine hellos and goodbyes from parents and teachers are just one aspect of teaching and parenting with purpose. Learn more about what it means to teach with purpose at University City Children’s Center.