– The next question I have is about nighttime. We know that half of all adventures in places like this happen after “lights out.” How can this be arranged? After all, it’s impossible to force them to go to sleep. Or should there be no lights out?
– Well of course things have to be organized, and very clearly. There has to be a lights out, but the children have to be made thoroughly exhausted, especially before going to sleep, so they are really tired and take pleasure in sleep and rest. But if someone can’t fall asleep and everyone else is sleeping, then he has no right to bother them. He has to get up quietly and have a special room he could go to where “night owls” like him get together. They can sit there, talk, or watch our program on the TV or computer. And this is the only thing available. But afterwards we have to see what happens to them during the day?
So in this regard we also allow them to “let out steam” and avoid “taming” them into routine, letting them have an hour or so to themselves in the evening, like they do at home.
– With regard to the room where they sleep, is it better for it to be a big room for 10 children, or to have 2 to 4 kids to a room?
– It’s better when the whole group sleeps together and the educators are nearby as well, at a slight distance. For example, the door to where the children sleep is open and the educators sleep nearby. There are 2 educators and 10 children who have an apartment or a house where they are all together.
Again, all of this gets mixed around, including the children who are in the group and the educators. They have to stop seeing each other. This is very important. There shouldn’t be a scenario where one feels, “This is my friend.” What about the others? Aren’t they his friends, too? In other words, it doesn’t matter who is next to me because everyone are my friends.