Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

‘Raise a Genius!’

‘Are Your Kids Smart Enough?’

’10 Tips on How to Raise Smart Kids!’

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Ever heard or seen similar taglines somewhere?

If you have followed my blog long enough, you’ll notice that I don’t write about such topics.

My reasons?

Because to me, in reality there are so many other aspects in a child’s life that should be developed, nurtured, valued and appreciated, other than one’s intellectuality alone.

 

 

I mean, what if a child’s school grades are just ‘average’ (despite having given his best), but he has a genuine compassion for nature conservation and awesome social skills?

Or, what if a child, who studies hard, is somehow ‘stuck’ at getting an average of 70% in her Maths, Science and English tests, but this same child draws and paints beautiful art pieces?

Would the parents, the school and the society still value and accept the child?

I sincerely hope so.

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Now. Don’t get me wrong though.

I’m NOT saying that parents therefore should NOT nurture their children’s intellectuality.

What I am saying is, as parents we should try to find a better balance when nurturing, guiding and encouraging our children’s growth and development: physically, intellectually, emotionally, linguistically, socially, culturally, morally, spiritually, etc.

A ‘holistic brain development’, experts say.

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Anyway.

In this post, I’d like to share some activity ideas with you in relation to what I’ve shared above.

ie. Things that we did in the past and things that we still do today in order to encourage/stimulate a more all-rounded growth and development in our children.

(Btw, these activity ideas are more for children between the age of 2 to 5. Our kids are now aged 12, 9 and 4 =)

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>> INTELLECTUAL (How our kids process information)

Activity ideas:

– Play with colourful alphabets

Use colourful alphabet fridge magnets and let the kids learn to recognise it through play, eg. Sort similar colours together, point to the right alphabet when asked.

(I find this activity helpful when I need to be in the kitchen and the toddler needs to be kept occupied. The child is kept physically away from the stoves, yet he can still see Mommy =)

– Count and count

Whenever we can, count and say the numbers together with the kids.
eg. How many toes / fingers / ears do we have, how many apples are we placing into our grocery basket, etc

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>> MOTOR : GROSS MOTOR & FINE MOTOR (How our child moves, walks, climbs, draws, etc)

Gross motor skills involve coordination of the child’s arms, legs, and other ‘large body parts’ (muscles) and movements.

Activity ideas:
– Allow children plenty of opportunities to run, crawl, hop, climb, learn to put own clothes, catch a ball, play sports, etc.

 

 

Fine motor skills are involved in smaller movements that use the child’s hands, fingers, wrists, feet and toes.

Activity ideas:
– Draw, scribble and paint (eg. Using coloured pencils, crayons, watercolour, cotton swabs, etc)
– Place marbles into plastic bottles
– Cut a piece of paper (using children-friendly scissors, of course)

TIPS:

We’ll be tempted to overly comment and nag our children when they don’t paint or write the way WE thought they should.

Eg. We want our son to draw colourful circles, but instead, the child gets more interested in drawing blue lines everywhere on paper.

When that happens, I remind myself to not comment much and just let the child draw and create =) It’ll do more good to the child.

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>> COMMUNICATION (How our child expresses herself)

Today, there is less and less opportunities for children to interact and verbally communicate with one another, because they’re more engaged with flat screens in their hands.

It’s an unfortunate reality.

I hope everyone who reads this post is encouraged though, to introduce more ‘real interactions with real people’, especially between parents and their children.

Activity ideas:
– Let them talk and tell us stories (even when we don’t quite understand what they’re trying to say at the time)
– Listen (it sounds simple, but it’s tough to do when we are itching to check what’s happening on social media)
– Read books together
– Encourage them to always say ‘Hello’, ‘Thank you’ and ‘Please’ to other people
– Talk to them, tell stories (even when they don’t seem to respond
– Ask questions, wait for them to answer and say the right answer if the child is not yet able to respond with full sentences

For example:

Mom: Oh look! Can you see the small cat near that blue car? What colour is that cat?

Child: *points to the cat* Cat. Cat. Blue car.

Mom: Yes, that’s right. That’s a black cat near the blue car.

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>> EMOTIONAL (How she shares his toys, imitates, expresses emotions)

Children between the age of 2 to 5 go through emotional ups and downs almost everyday. They could be laughing hysterically one minute, and throwing tantrums a minute later.

I believe, instead of denying their emotional outbursts by saying, ‘You must not be angry!’ or ‘You’ll be fine! Forget about it. Stop crying!’, we parents need to let our children learn to understand the different kind of feelings they may be having and learn how to handle them.

Activity ideas:
– Allow opportunities to interact with adults and children (eg. At birthday parties, play dates, playground, etc).

Because the more practice he has in various social settings, the more chance of his learning about different expectations at different places by different people

– Help children understand and identify different kinds of feelings (and how they should learn to handle them) through reading books together and talking about them, or watching age-appropriate programmes together and discussing the scenarios and characters.

For example:

Mom: *while reading a book with her 4yo son* The boy in story starts to cry when his friend wants to borrow his toys because he doesn’t want to share them with his friend. His friend is sad.

When we have friends coming to our place, should we share our toys with our friends? *Pause and let child think for a while* Yes, we should always share our toys with others. They’re happy when they can come and play at our home. You know, Danny is coming over to play with you this afternoon. If he wants to play with some of your toy cars, you share some of your toys with him ya? *smile and hug the child*

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Okay, I think I’ll stop here =)

There is actually so much more that I’d love to share about how we parents can encourage our children to grow and develop different aspects of their lives.

I guess, I’ll write about it some other time =)

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To end the post, I’d just like to say, we parents naturally want the best for our children.

And to me, out of all the ‘best’ things’ that we’ll give to our children, what we should always remember to give is ourselves, our time for them and acceptance of them.

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Moms,

There is this #MomenCerdasnya contest right now that’s worth checking out!

You’d only need to share a photo and a short story of how your child learns and grows (open for parents of children between the age of 1 to 6)

There are 7 ‘themes’ available for you:

1. Reading a book
2. Riding a bike
3. Drawing and colouring
4. Self-feeding
5. My birthday
6. Playing musical instruments
7. Drinking from a glass

TWELVE shopping vouchers are up for grabs too!

Deadline: 30 April 2016

For details, go to : http://bit.ly/MomenCerdasnyaLA

Don’t miss out!

Go and join in the contest!

Here’s wishing you all the best! =)