After a whole semester on values, the parents who make up VIDA said goodbye to their young K4 apprentices with many laughs and a VIDA insignia, “Armonía.”

The 25-30 year old school program which runs by the name of VIDA, is fully oriented to the teaching of values and is directly linked with the school’s proposal of the well known character counts. The program is introduced and practiced by the actual parents of each classroom and is addressed to each grade’s students, respectively.

“The most unique feature of this program is that the parents are those who come and share, for a while, this space at school with the children,” Patricia Sucerquia, ASOPAF directress commented, “the school has helped us to organize the pedagogical part of this because we know that the parents are not pedagogues or teachers, so with the help of Adriana Jaramillo we did all the pedagogic part of the manuals, being only 6 lessons in the manual from K4 to 5th grade.”

The fortnightly meeting requires some moments of preparation from the parents’ side, over the theoretical aspects, for just 30 minutes of practical use with the children. Each session is intended to be fun and ludic for the kids in order for them all to enjoy the teaching of such important and basic topics for their lives.

“The activities try to be playful through messages, through stories, through songs, metaphors, symbolisms and finally reminding them of the importance of living values,” commented Andrés Rendón, K4 parent, “I think that the fact that our students, our children are permanently, systematically being permeated by experiences associated with training in values is very good.”

The five pillars come along with multiple characters who make up the carrousel of values. Each value is represented by an animal: bear, lion, giraffe, camel and kangaroo, which are each used as a media to create an immediate relation with the pillar for the children. Despite these characters, there is a main mascot, “Armonía” which directly translates to english as “Harmony” the bear, mentioned before, and used in the last session of VIDA for this year.

“Each session has as its central axis one of the values: trustworthiness, caring, citizenship, respect, responsibility and fairness,” added Sucerquia.

High School counselor Andrés Rendón is one of the many parents that make up this values based program and by having the multiple perspectives regarding it has a strong criteria over the important subjects covered in VIDA.

“I think that the subjects are fundamental; the part of the humane formation, the value formation, the skills for life, are some of the most important aspects that one can leave as a parent to a child,” Rendón said.