picture source : Internet
I discovered a vast sea of knowledge in the course of
bringing up two children. Life’s first lesson for me, as a parent is
to, not force children into anything but to make them realize that it is they
themselves who miss out on the advantage if they do not do what they
necessarily ought to.
Here's one such example. Our daughter, our first-born, got so much comfort at home
that she refused to go to school. Every morning when it was time to go to
school, she would cry, cough and sometimes force herself to even throw up to resist going to
school. No amount of coaxing helped her. Even one of us going to school with
her and sitting with her in the class was of no use. Waking her up in the
morning was a task fit for the likes of a Superman! Worried and disheartened
after months of desperate effort, we took up the matter with the Sister
Superior of the school and other teachers, coming to a conclusion that we forget the past
months, take a break and start afresh.
During this time my parent brain was working overtime for an
idea to make our daughter see sense in going to school. Then suddenly I hit
upon this game one day while reading a story to her. I discovered her interest in the sentences that I read out from the story books. Narrating this to my
husband, we both got ready to set the wheels on motion. On the other hand during that time, my husband, an IAS officer had to leave for down South and stay on
for-a while to attend a refreshers course. So we took a trip down South playing the
game I had planned to, all this while.
Let’s start the game now. My husband and I
would have fun reading the banners and hoardings aloud, discussing their
contents, attracting attention of our daughter. The imagination in some even
brought a twinkle to our three year old daughter’s eyes! Gradually, she too
started showing interest in knowing what banners and boards had to say and unknowingly
joined in the game. We would take long walks reading and discussing only the contents of banners and hoardings. Sometimes I would sing, "Utterly butterly ..." and she would join in "Delicious Amul". I would ask her to point the word "Amul". She would try hard to guess. And thus, finally she asked the much awaited question: whether
she too could create words like that. We were almost achieving our goal! I got
down to the final part of the game by telling her that these words were nothing
but ABCs and their siblings, just placed in different orders to form different
words. So during the rest of the trip she was busy placing the alphabets in
various orders, juggling them to form different words. Our trip was almost
coming to an end when one fine day she asked, “Momma, when do we reach home? I
need to go to school tomorrow.” Boy, had we reached our goal!!
picture source : Internet
picture source : Internet
This elaborate narration is to share with other parents the
importance of being innovative and looking out for alternative methods when so
required in bringing out the intelligence in our children. Lastly, it is most
important to be alert and maintain regular interaction with our children so
that we can be up-to-date about their strengths and weaknesses and accordingly
take steps to ensure their proper development in every field.
awesome and what a great way to get the little one to go to school ... goood one mam
ReplyDeleteBikram
Thank you so much Bikram. Had wonderful time bringing them up.
DeleteThe tips you shared can definitely help others navigate this new normal more effectively. Plus, finding resources through the chuys coupon can make accessing learning materials much easier and more affordable.
ReplyDelete