"Cultivating Happiness" is more than just a learning project.

International Day of Happiness (March 20) was officially announced at the United Nations Conference in 2012. This is considered a special day of the year - the spring equinox, when the sun is near the equator, the length of day and night is equal, symbolizing the balance and harmony of the universe. For this reason, International Day of Happiness also conveys the message: Balance and harmony are one of the keys to happiness.

With the mission of a pioneering school in integrated, humanistic and natural education, the organizers of the "Cultivating Happiness" program believe that Happiness is a necessary value to nurture the souls of students, teachers, staff and the entire Hanoi Adelaide School community. Nurturing happiness and taking care of the mental health of students, teachers, parents, etc. is done daily through various learning activities and most clearly through the Happiness Learning Project during the school years.

Continuing the message "Happiness is created by oneself" of the previous school year, the learning project "Cultivating Happiness" for the 2023-2024 school year is an opportunity for all members of the School to look within themselves to build positive connections with themselves and with loved ones. Throughout the project, students are given introductory lessons to learn about the elements of happiness and share their happiness with others. The children also prepare small gifts for their parents.

In particular, parents and students spread and cultivate happiness through physical, mental and intellectual activities. All learning activities are a combination and harmony of Body-Mind-Spirit, balanced and harmonious as the message of Happiness Day "Balance and harmony are one of the keys to happiness". It seems that simple activities such as playing tug of war together, picking up stuffed animals together, or simply sitting and chatting together... are normal. However, when witnessing parents and students having time for each other, understanding each other to complete the challenge, we see that happiness is really simple.

Participating in a running competition with her child, a parent who finished almost last shared, "It turns out that happiness is simply being able to overcome yourself with your child to complete the race, not necessarily winning."

Representative of the organizing committee of the program "Cultivating Happiness" - Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien - Deputy Head of Nextgen, Manager of the Happiness Learning Project at Hanoi Adelaide School shared: "The smiles, emotions, and bursting happiness of parents and children during the activities are probably what makes me happiest. We believe that happiness will continue to be cultivated, watered and increasingly developed by the strong connection between students, parents and the School, connecting together, learning together, growing together and being happy together".

"Cultivating happiness" is also an opportunity to connect families.

Participating in the "Cultivating Happiness" learning project, almost 100% of families will join their children in at least one physical activity such as tug of war, running competition, ball throwing competition... Many families not only have 2-3 members participating but also have extended family members coming to compete and cheer.

Sharing with reporters, Ms. Tan - mother of Gia Han, a 5th grade student, confided: "It's been a long time since I've been away from my phone and work and had a lot of time to play with my child like this. My child and I are much more connected." As for Mr. Duy, the parent of Thien An, a 1st grader, this is an extremely meaningful activity for him and his family. Seeing his children playing and enthusiastically participating in activities makes him feel very excited, dispelling all the fatigue after a busy time at work.

According to Ms. Quynh Chi (whose child is in grade 4 at the school), the "Cultivating Happiness" experience program is very fun, the children are very excited. In particular, when she saw a child crying because she missed her mother, the other children ran to comfort and encourage her. She realized that the children participating in these activities will be an opportunity for them to learn how to share and love each other. The children have learned SEL (Social Emotional Education) at school, and Linh Phuong's daughter herself has learned and shared a lot about this SEL subject with her. And when participating in the program, seeing the children sharing with each other the feeling of victory, as well as understanding the child opposite who is having negative emotions... she realized that the children have, are and will learn how to grow up through learning projects like this!

"Cultivating Happiness" has left different impressions on each student, each parent, each family... However, the echoes of this learning project will certainly help make the definition of happiness simpler for each person and the journey of cultivating happiness is not difficult, not far away!

Learning projects with diverse topics are implemented by Hanoi Adelaide School throughout the school year. Readers interested in learning about meaningful learning projects can refer to information at: https://has.edu.vn/

PV