Last week, I was handling a storytelling workshop for my kid and his gang of friends. All these kids approached me to conduct a week-long workshop, after attending a similar workshop with another blogger friend of mine.
I was under the illusion, that it's going to be a simple storytelling workshop that would keep the kids engaged during the hot sultry afternoons of Chennai (India) and take their minds away from all the bad news and sufferings happening in the outside world. I was requested by most parents to remove the kid’s insecurities about the pandemic and its repercussions.
Initial two days, it was purely a storytelling session and sharing our views about the pandemic, and how as an individual we can contribute for the betterment of the society. The kid's thoughts were very creative and innovative and gave me a total dimension to the current picture.
1. Resilience
Kids are born with the inbuilt resilience and it's being spoiled by the over-pampering of the family members. Though the lockdowns are stressful, the kids are not viewing them as stressful. Instead, they are thinking of making better use of the available free time, without any distractions. They started picking up new skills, by helping their parents in the kitchen and around the house. The surprising fact is that they are not thinking of these activities as tasks to be completed. They are looking at these activities as fun activities and enjoying every single minute of them.
Lesson learned: “As long as we are able to add the fun elements into the activities to be completed, they will never be boring or routine”
2. Leadership Qualities:
Most people say that Leaders are born and not made. But why do we find really very few leaders in the market today? What is happening to all those born leaders, where are they disappearing?
I found the answer to my above long-pending question during my workshops only. The inherent leadership skills in the kids are once again being destroyed by their surroundings, as they are not allowed to voice their opinions or raise their objections. Once the kids understand that they wouldn’t be snubbed or judged, one can see the real changes in them. The inborn leadership qualities come out automatically and they try to lead the teams without making any conscious efforts themselves.
Lesson Learned: Allow the space and flexibility to the kids with limited boundary lines so that their inherent talents can come out.
3. Kids are born teachers:
Kids emulate their teachers right from the tender age itself. Especially the kids who study in the Montessori schools, take up the onus on themselves to teach the younger children about the things the younger ones don’t know. One can get to see the sheer bliss in the senior kid's faces when the younger ones master the skills these kids are teaching. They teach for the pure love of sharing their knowledge with others.
But unfortunately, these teachers, who teach just for the love of teaching are moving towards other profitable professions and leaving the teaching jobs. That’s why teaching is not considered an important profession these days.
Lesson Learned: Love what you do, then the best results would come out automatically.
4. Kids are open to trying out everything
Kids don’t have any bias and when they see their friends trying out new stuff, they also would be interested in trying it out. It’s only our beliefs and limitations that put the blocks in the kids learning.
Lesson learned: Don’t impose our limitations and beliefs on the kids and let them try out everything.
5. Kids are creative
As parents, we take the onus on us to manage the schedule of the kids. But honestly, when left alone, the kids would be able to manage it better, and that too with more responsibility.
So, as parents, we need to trust our kids to manage themselves and be present to help them if the situation arises instead of pushing them everywhere.
Lesson learned: Don’t try to place your kids into a box and schedule their activities or studies. We need to give them some space and time to express their creativity.
Of course, the above-mentioned lessons are nothing new and most of the parents know them internally, but tend to forget them in the rush of parenting in the modern, competitive worlds. That’s the reason why we need a little downtime for ourselves to understand our kids better. Then only we can forge strong connections with our kids.
