Practising the IB PYP Learner Profile at Home

Parents can support their child's development of the IB Learner Profiles at home. Now that it is the school holidays, this is an opportune time for families to engage their little lights in IB practices and mindsets. 

Here are a few activities and opportunities to encourage IB Learner Profiles development even at home: 

Communicator

- Encourage your child to communicate with their relatives near and far through written messages, letters, video calls, or online messaging.

- Communicating with your child positively can help improve listening skills. Being a good listener is an important part of communicating with others.

Open-Minded

- Encourage your child to try new things, food, games and activities.

- Expose your child to different festivals, celebrations and traditions and be a role model for open-mindedness, giving a positive perspective towards different cultures.

- Explore cultures through books or the internet. You can read the source in advance to ensure a positive perspective has been put in place. Remember to accompany your child and discuss as you explore the internet.

Thinkers

Some questions that you can ask your child when he/she is facing challenges:

“Do you have any ideas about how we might begin?”

“How can we show this work in a different way?"

“I had never thought of that. Tell me more about it.”

Caring

- Role model the caring behaviour you want to see in your child always.

- Using kind words, helping people without being asked, and being an active listener show your child that you care about people. 

- Smile.

Knowledgeable

- Encourage your child to read books at home that correspond with the topics covered in school. 

- Encourage your child to become familiar with current events, read the newspaper and watch the news when appropriate.

Reflective

- After an experience, ask your child what went well, what he/ she liked the most during that experience, and what the points were.

- Ask your child to talk about how he/she felt before, during and after the experience.

- Ask your child to think of what will allow him/her to perform better next time. What new strategies does she/he need to adopt, what new learning he/she needs etc.?

Inquirer

- Encourage areas of your child’s interest by visiting the library to borrow books that explore these topics.

- Model being an inquirer. Admit when you don’t know the answer to a problem or a question, and seek answers together with your child.

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Balanced

- Encourage your child to participate in a wide variety of structured activities.

- Exercise and play

- Discuss the food groups with your child. Spend a few minutes during mealtime deciding if what your family is eating is balanced.

- Role model this attribute. Spend time as a parent or family doing many different things.

- Practising self-care is essential. Allow cool down time or soothing activities for you to enjoy with your child. 

Principled

- Involve your child in deciding on the rules for a game or activity and then ensure that they stick to the ones that have been decided upon. 

- When playing a game, don't change the rules or let your child win. Losing graciously (such as by celebrating the winning team) is just as important as being a good winner.

Risk-Taker

- Cook something different for dinner together

- Try an activity as a family that you haven’t tried before.