Early Childhood Character Education through Children’s Stories

Yosi Wulandari, M.Pd. and Fitri Merawati, M.A. are two lecturers of Indonesian Language and Literature Education (PBSI) study program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FKIP) Ahmad Dahlan University (UAD) who have special attention to literature for early childhood. Through a training of children's story writing which was held in 2017, a collection of children's stories was compiled in a book entitled Si Kembar Berambut Kriwil. The book contains 18 children's stories by teachers of Early Childhood Education / ABA TK in Bantul District.

The stories compiled in this book take on a variety of themes, all of which are close to the environment of early childhood. Equipped with illustrations created by a PBSI student, Rita Nur Dayanti, each story in this book contains learning contents for children.

The story entitled "Gara-Gara Sepotong Cokelat" by Ratmi Dalmini, S.Pd. is about a child named Kiki who loves to eat chocolate. He always brings chocolate wherever he went. However, he never forgets to brush his teeth regardless his fondness for chocolate. His mom always reminds Kiki to diligently brush his teeth, so as not to easily have toothache. However, Kiki is a bit careless. He often puts his chocolate in any place. One day, Kiki was frightened to find his schoolbag filled with ants because he forgot to put his remaining chocolate in his bag. Ratmi Dalmini, as the writer wanted to deliver a message for children not to be careless.

The story entitled "Si Kembar Berambut Kriwil" which also becomes the title of this book teaches children on what to do when they get lost in a crowded place. The curly twins, Adel and Nabil, were separated from their mother in a traditional market. Instead of crying, Nabil just asked Adel to return to the place where they got separated from their mother. When they did not find their mother, Nabil asked Adel who was crying to go and find the police. He had secretly memorized the names of his father and mother and their home address. The story is written by Sukarti, a kindergarten teacher of ABA Bogoran.

This book holds a lot of good moral values and teaching materials for early childhood character education. Unfortunately, this book is not yet available for PAUD teaching materials in Bantul District. (dev)