CosmoKidz

Children’s social skills begin to develop the moment they are born and how well those skills have developed from kindergarten onwards has a significant impact on their relationships decades later. The sooner we start to teach young children about their role in the co-creation of relational and social worlds, the better.

The co-developers of CosmoKidz, Marit Eikaas Haavimb and Kim Pearce, knew how important it was for even very young children to have opportunities to talk together about their social worlds and to learn how to shape their environments and relationships with others in more mindful and compassionate ways. Yet, Marit and Kim also knew that these kinds of conversations are often in very short supply for young children: typically, not something attended to in any systematic way at school and not something that many parents seem to focus on at home.

Drawing on their understanding of CMM, Marit and Kim began a long-term reflexive, co-constructed process with young children to learn what was in their minds and hearts regarding their social worlds and how the CMM Institute might contribute to providing opportunities for them to learn the skills and abilities that would serve them and their relationships with others well.

In 2012, a number of discussion groups with 5 to 7 year-olds occurred in the United States and Norway in which young children told us what social issues were important to them. Of the 31social scenarios in our final set of CosmoKidz discussion topics, all but a very small handful came from the children in these early discussion groups. We beta-tested these conversational topics with children in a variety of contexts and geographical areas in multiple states and countries and found that these topics resonated with children regardless of where they lived.

Marit and Kim have continued the Cosmo line of activities with new and yearly CosmoKidz topics and two CosmoTweenz activities: Three Choices and Then What Happens and Environmental Awareness Conversations/Activities researched and developed by educator and environmentalist Erin Taylor. Consistent with their belief that activities for this age group need to begin with the voices of the children, every topic in the deck of 51 cards for Three Choices came from tweens ages 8-12 from around the world. A working group led by Marit and Kim are in the early stages of developing CosmoTeenz (ages 13-17) working with a diverse group of teens and the CMM Institute to develop the actual CosmoTeenz products and not just the topic areas.
Why are we spending our time and energy developing activities and conducting research to measure what differences these conversations and activities are making in the lives of children and the schools of which they are a part? One answer is that the CosmoKidz activities fit in with the new move in educational thinking: a shift from training students for cleverness, competition and success to helping them become fulfilled individuals, whatever their talents, and active, compassionate citizens.

We know from our decade long research and development program, that CosmoKidz helps to cultivate:

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