Welcome back to After School Tea Time! Take a look at what we’re spilling this week! We have questions from all over Connecticut, so grab your tea cups and get comfortable. This is the tea you don’t want to miss!

Question from New Haven County – We have two children in our program who are siblings. My staff and I have noticed that when we are doing activities or playing games these siblings become very competitive against each other. They end up hurting each other’s feelings because they pick on each other. How can we talk to them and explain that this dynamic is not appropriate?

Answer: Hey New Haven, thank you for sharing this! Competition between children is a difficult topic especially if they are related to each other. This is a dynamic that can turn intense very quickly so it’s great that you are trying to find solutions now. I would first start by speaking with each sibling separately and getting their perspective of what is going on. After speaking with them separately, I would then speak with them together to see if there is an opportunity to facilitate a conversation that will create solutions to this issue. If speaking with them separately or together turns out not to be productive, I would then reach out to their parents/guardians and see if they have any insight as to why this may be happening between them.It’s important to make each sibling feel heard and understood. It’s also important to emphasize that being competitive is fine, but it needs to be friendly competition. Here are some tips on how you can incorporate emotion regulation into your lesson plans. You can also learn how to encourage self-awareness in your classroom by reading this article. We hope this helps!

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