Saturdays is always full of excitement and new challenges. Just imagine a bunch of young champions, some jumpy, some grumpy, some full of smiles and some geared up roaring to learn. Each and every face has his or her unique story to tell. These are special little ones at “Mindchamps”. My Saturday is spent usually over at “Mindchamps” aiding as a trainer aide. For those who are still clueless about what “Mindchamps” is about, it is a place where everyone discovers the champion in them. Being on the “Sparks of Genius” team, I mainly deal with kids’ age of 6 to 8. These kids spend two good hours at “Mindchamps” being exposed to a whole new experience of learning and allow them to see the fun in education which plainly most government institutions still lack despite it being their focus.
Education has been so jammed pack with activities and more activities. The current society has imposed the “survivor of the fittest” theory within many parents and thus they nature their kids to have such a mindset. Not to say that it is a bad thing but I believe this slightly over done and definitely too much of a good makes it not so good after all. Each and every Saturday, I never fail to hear them whine about how tired they are after their whole line up of activities. It is evidently a problem when a child at the age of 6 is looking so lethargic. Being kids, they seldom get the choice. Have parents really considered what the kids really want? Some may argue that a kid is too young to choose what they want and that as parents; they feel that they have the right to choose the “best” for their kid. Indeed, which parent doesn’t want their kid to be the best? But is choosing for them something they do not want, the “best” for the kid? The ideals of parents can at times be really ridiculous. They enroll the kid in sports programmes, piano lessons, dance, abacus, etc. Do they really think every kid is able to take the stretch so many ways? It kind of pains my heart to see a young champion come up to me give me a hug and says, “Trainer Leon, I am tired”. That poor little child is only 6 years old! I am quite fortunate I still had that passable amount of childhood.
Often parents have this belief of rewarding the child upon seeing “good” results. It maybe stereotyping but well it is still apparent because having spoken to numerous parents from “Mindchamps”, they generally adopt this “vicious” practice. There is nothing wrong in rewarding a kid for their hard work (that their parents put them through). The problem comes only when they are overly dependant on the incentive and studies only for the sake of the reward. Then the reward that they ask for gets larger and sometimes they even attempt to “negotiate terms”. The approach towards education these days seemed to have deviated slightly from my times or maybe I am just from a real strict family.
Just imagine yourself in your child’s shoes, much that we love to start fitting into yours. Parents play a huge role in how the child grows up to be, exclusive of distractions in the midst of growing up. However I did not mean it in a very literal manner. I believe parents should focus more on emotional aspect of a child. Making a child happy isn’t always about bringing them to Disneyland, buying the latest toy or gaming console etc. Essentially these are only wants that can be satisfied via one’s purchasing power. Does that mean that the “poor” will be always grumpy children? Happiness is in many various forms and it is ever changing. Listening to the child, hear their story and their perspective of things. You can be quite surprised of how they perceive certain things and their simplistic take on them. And usually it is the simplicity that allows us to understand the situation better.
We should take some time from our hectic lifestyle, take a step back and relax. Just like how I love Saturdays.
