As children enter the kindergarten phase, sometimes before and sometimes after, they begin to developmentally reach an ‘age of modesty’. It is important for all children that they understand they are in control of their own body and have rights to privacy. But we do not want children to think their body is something embarrassing, to be ashamed of or in any way “bad”.
One older (kindergarten) child start saying, “Eew!” as the younger children were changing into swim suits. The word “naked” came up as a bad thing: i.e., “Eew! You’re naked.”
So, in my usual form, I went over the top to tell children the definition of naked, meaning ‘without clothing’. And we went on the afternoon talking about parts of our bodies that are often naked. Our feet, boys chests in swim trunks, girls stomachs in two-piece suits and so on.
It was only natural that songs began to follow: “Julie’s feet are naked all through the day, she splashes in the water, it’s more fun to play.”
So we, at Caring Connection want to take the BAD out of the work NAKED. Everyone gets naked while changing, showering, bathing and so forth. We get to choose privacy, but being naked is not bad.
