Compassionate Kids

Curriculum Overview

Compassionate Kids is a FREE, content rich, social-emotional curriculum, split into two distinct levels of learning.

Learners will engage beyond basic emotions, to navigate the social topics of friendship, being a good ally and community member, and neurodiversity (through themselves and/or their peers).

With diverse learners in mind, accommodations have been set in the Instructor Guide for nonspeaking learners, as well as choice of books, videos, and general content based on comfort level of the learners.

Watch the video below for a more in depth explaination, and see samples of the curriculum at the bottom of this page!

Lesson Overview

Each lesson of Compassionate Kids is split into two levels, Chromatic and Prismatic

Chromatic level utilizes picture books (feature books that are used for 1 lesson) accompanied with informational texts (spines used throughout the curriculum, the nonfiction “meat” of the lesson). The journal for this curriculum has 2-3 pages per lesson that invites learners to engage with the lesson theme on a personal level, through creative activities.

Prismatic level utilizes graphic novels, novel-in-verse, and traditional novels (feature books used 1-2 lessons that apply the lesson through stories), alongside informational text (spines used throughout the curriculum, the nonfiction “meat” of the lesson) engage learners in understanding themself in relation to the world around them, which is also reflected in the journal activities.

Instructors will receive an outline of each lesson, including all books used for the lesson, video links, and journal pages for each level. A Lesson Flow (order of lesson tasks) will be included as well as Discussion prompts to help facilitate communication with your learner each lesson.

Why add Neurodiversity, LGBTQIA+ representation, and allyship?

The Short Answer

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is more than just “taking turns” and apologizing. It’s learning about yourself and the community around you, using empathy led thinking to support others, and establishing life long social skills. Children are interacting with diverse cultures, perspectives, and media daily, and deserve to see their own unique selves represented in media.

The Long Answer?

While these topics don’t seem like they fit with social emotional development, they absolutely do! I have taken a social approach with these areas. The neurodiversity lessons are exploring each topic from both a NT and ND perspective, allowing learners to draw empathy and understanding for their peers and the community of unique thinkers around them.

LGBTQIA+ identities are all around, in every community, found in even the earliest historical/cultural records. As much as conservative media likes to claim otherwise, especially in recent times, LGBTQIA+ characters in children’s books are not overtly sexualized with pornographic material or using mind control powers to make your kids into people they are not. (There are obscure, small exceptions to this, which many in LGBTQIA+ community speak about openly). Children deserve to feel seen in books and to see other children and families with unique make-ups and identities.

Learners are figuring out their beliefs, values, and how they view themselves as a human, especially during those 8+ years. While this is happening, being exposed to diverse cultures, gender identities, and sexual orientations allows for learners to connect to areas of their life they may be trying to find a name for, or to be a better support to the community of people they interact with daily.

The allyship lessons in Compassionate Kids will be covering social justice in a kid-friendly way, looking into topics like food insecurity, disability support, and general “good community member” areas. Learners will work with real, actionable steps within their comfort zone to be a help to people their age in their communities, as well as debunking stigmas and empathy led thinking (especially for Prismatic level!) These lessons aren’t promoting everyone get out there with a bullhorn and scream (absolutely fine if you do, the world is chaos!) but they focus on real steps to make a difference.

While some caregivers may be thrown off with these topics being introduced at a young age, children are learning their values and the way they see the world through the information they are exposed to. This includes the media they absorb, but also the way they view the people in the community around them. Caregivers are the biggest influence on children’s values, self worth, and opinions of the world.

For some caregivers, these topics may be newer to you, or you don’t have as much knowledge in certain areas, that’s perfectly fine! Each lesson guide has an introduction to the main concept of the lesson, alongside direct prompts for discussion with your learners. There are also extra resources for instructors, at the beginning of the instructor guide, which allows for more background understanding of these topics as well as others throughout Compassionate Kids. Compassionate Caregivers will also cover many of these topics and more as an extended resource option for instructors!

Can Both Levels Be Done At Once?

Compassionate Kids can be completed with multi-level households!

The content introduction and discussion for each lesson is the same. The book selections, although different titles, incorporate the same lesson content that will be talked about during the discussion and the closing activities. Journal activities will vary between the levels, but the Prismatic level journal is designed to be completed without learner active reading/instruction, allowing instructor to be able to focus on Chromatic level guidance.