For a child entering to a new world may be very frustrating and challenging. This new world can be a kindergarten or a new classroom where the child enters for the first time. Six municipalities in South-Western Finland started 2010 to build a network between early years of education and primary education personnel in order to ease children’s transfer from kindergarten to school environment.  The project was funded by the Finnish National Board of Education. Young children start building their self-esteem already at the early years of their education. In this process we adults – parents, teachers and all the other adults working with children – play a crucial role as well as the peer group. Children observe the world with high interest. They learn very easily their position among others. As Cole and Cole (2001, 590) stated, early affection of the environment the children are living in is correlating with one’s self-esteem at school and also later in the quality of their social interaction. It has been said that self-esteem is one of the most important characteristics of a human being.

In the Finnish Government Degree N:o 1435 on the General National Objectives and Distribution of lesson hours in Basic Education Referred to in the Basic Education Act, Chapter 2: National educational objectives, Section 2: Growth as a human being and a member of society is stated that “The objective of teaching and education is to support the growth of pupils into balanced individuals with healthy self-esteem and into members of society who appraise their environment critically”. In the Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2004 in chapter 4.1 Cooperation between home and school is stated among other things that “the objective of education under this joint responsibility is to advance the child or young person’s prerequisites for learning, as well as his or her feeling of security and well-being in school” (p. 20). This means that both school and home are responsible in enhancing healthy self-esteem of pupils in mutual understanding.

The concept self-esteem can be defined in various ways. Reasoner (2010) has found more than a hundred definitions for self-esteem. Tafarodi and Milne (2002) have made a literature survey covering different definitions, theories and models of self-esteem, and they made a conclusion that there is no one way of understanding self-esteem. One of the main aims in the project was to enhance the self-esteem of children. The teachers (n=16) who participated the project were introduced into the model of self-esteem and trained to use different practical tasks. The theoretical framework is based on the ideas of Robert Reasoner (1992) and Michele Borba (1989, 1994, 2000). They have built a five stage model of self-esteem. According to them self-esteem is a combination of security, affiliation, selfhood, mission and competence. Teachers as well as parents should be aware how the self-esteem can be enhanced. In this presentation we will concentrate on two of these building blocks: sense of security and sense of affiliation.

Borba, M. (1989). Esteem Builders. A K – 8 Self- Esteem Curriculum for Improving Student Achievement, Behavior and School Climate. Torrance, CA: Jalmar Press. Borba, M. (1994). Home Esteem Builders. Torrance. CA: Jalmar Press. Borba. M. (2000). Strengthening at Risk Students Self-Esteem: What Works! A workshop material. Helsinki, Finland 2.8.2000. Cole, M. & Cole, S. R. ( 2001). The Development of Children. New York: Donnelley. The Finnish Government Degree N:o 1435. National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2004. Helsinki: Finnish National Board of Education. Reasoner, R. W. (1992). Building Self-Esteem in the Elementary Schools. Teacher’s Manual. Palo Alto, CA.: Consulting Psychologists Press. Reasoner, R. W. (2010) The true meaning of self-esteem. (National Association for Self-esteem) Available online at http://www.self-esteem-nase.org/whatisselfesteem.shtml. Tafarodi, R. W. & Milne, A. B.( 2002). Decomposing Global Self-Esteem. Journal of Personality 70(4), pp. 443 – 483.