Recently my Son had his Learning journey and when he came back from school, he was excitedly mentioning all that he saw and loved in the art gallery that day – How he saw paintings and who is Mona Lisa. Just then my Daughter quipped, “Every day is a Learning Journey. We learn new things Everyday”. Very true, isn’t it? Life is a long journey and every single day teaches Kids something new. Be it a new art form or sports or a life lesson, learning never stops.
In today’s volatile world, kids must be ready to learn, adapt and take on any issue in their stride. We teach them reading, writing and so on anyways. Life skills like problem solving, communication skill facilitate them to tackle and succeed in every situation. After the fire incident, I have become more aware about this. This article gave me some great pointers on how kids can learn life skills even at home.
I am documenting a few things that my kids learnt or are learning in the past few days.
1. Be safe, adaptable and resilient:
Recently our kitchen caught fire and it was a very scary yet an eye-opening experience for all of us. Kids learnt not to take anything for granted, what to do in case of emergency and be grateful.
We got help from our neighbors, firemen and can’t thank them enough. Kids also learnt to salute the heroes who work hard round the clock to ensure that we are safe in our homes.
Adaptability to different situations is an important life skill and kids really practiced it that day when we had to live in someone else’s home and had to be without proper dinner and all for a few hours. Kids quickly adjusted themselves and made them as comfortable as possible.
2. Practice makes man perfect
The Littlest is learning piano. He showed some talent and inclination towards music so he is attending piano lessons.
Boy learns some new notes in every lesson. Once his teacher gave feedback that he needs more practice. Sometimes, kids get bored to do things repetitively. He said that why to play the same song over and over again? His dad explained him how the fingers need to move smoothly and seamlessly on different keys and how it is important to practice achieving this.
I am sure he is slowly but surely understanding that Practice makes us perfect.
3. No pain, No gain:
Daughter learns drawing from the mentor. Since June was a holiday month, she was a in a la-la mode but the mentor decided to conduct extra classes on figure drawing and other sketches.
Ha! Her first reaction was why should I do this in holidays??? Holidays are for fun – eat, sleep and do nothing! But no choice since it was a professional class and she must attend. So lazily she dragged her for the first session. She drew something which was not that great and Sir pointed out to the errors.
Love for art is such that you cannot stop it. Girl who was reluctant to attend holiday classes, started putting in efforts, focus and now she can draw figures pretty well.
In her own words – Oh! I can draw this? Not bad…
She is learning to be hardworking. She sacrificed her holiday sleep and pursued arts. Creative endeavors give joy like no other thing!
4. Love elderly, help elderly:
My mum was visiting us last month and kids were extremely happy to be with her. Grandma has arthritis and need some support while walking.
Lovely to see kids helping elderly in their own special ways! They never left her side when we went out. If grandma had stick in one hand, another hand was held by grandchildren.
My Daughter gifted her Fidget Spinner to grandma because Fidget Spinner can help reduce stress it seems. She told grandma to use it, relax and forget about anxiety if any. Heartening!
Grandma’s visit made kids learn about the needs of the elderly – physical and emotional. Kids demonstrated how to help elderly and make them feel special.
In the nuclear family, as a parent, what do you do so as our kids will respect elderly? Do share your tips n tricks.
5. Help Parents in the house work:
Recently, our helper auntie had gone on a home leave for 2 weeks. Working parents, 2 kids and no helper means added work for mom!!! Should only mom do every work at home? Nah, ALL should help – Dad and kids too.
I was expecting that things will turn topsy-turvy without helper but we managed surprisingly very well. Dad helped in everything right from cooking, buying groceries, taking care of kids. Kids with their little hands contributed their bit too. Girl vacuumed the home and boy helped to dry and fold the clothes. They cleaned the messy stuff they spread and they behaved so maturely.
They learnt to be independent and manage their own work. Kids realized that the both parents have to put in extra work. They chipped in and contributed their tiny bit to lessen the burden.
We think kids are too young etc. But children can think beyond their age and as a parent, you can count them in for every single task – big or small. They are wonderful team players.
Life is the greatest teacher and as a parent, I try to make my kids aware of it. When they succeed, they should be ready to face failures too. When they get lots of toys, they should be ready to go thrifty as well. Life might not be like a dream always. They should be ready to taste the reality too.
What are your kids learning now-a-days? Do share.
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This was so heartfelt, plus we certainly can learn something from them every day 🙂
Thanks for stopping and sharing these insights. Precious!
You are blessed with a sweet and thoughtful girl. (:
To add on, I believe our kids also look to us as an example of a life-long learner.
– Mary @Simply Lambchops
Very useful skills to pickup, I always prefer getting kids trained by society, rather than schools (too much emphasis on grades).
cheers, Andy
(SengkangBabies.com)
They are important lessons we all have to learn in everyday life.
Great life lessons! I really like it that your kids gave Grandma their fidget spinner. That’s real sweet.
Oh yeah! Totally agree with all the points you have stated there and I am always teaching my kids on that. Every day we are learning!
I like what you said about life being the greatest teacher. We don’t necessarily have to plan for activities to keep them learning and occupied all the time. Let them play, they’ll learn about sharing, imagination, storytelling, let them be bored, they’ll learn from boredom and be creative, take them for walks and let them learn from everyday people on the street. And finally do chores and be a contributing part of the family.
Wonderful lessons are learnt if only we open our eyes to them.. thank goodness you all are safe from the fire!
Ai @ Sakura Haruka
My kids were next to me when I was reading this n said the drawing ur daughter drew was really nice!!!
Yes, very important to get kids started with doing their share in chores… Teach them about responsibility…
Xoxo,
Jamie chaw
http://karmie080808.blogspot.sg/
Isn’t it amazing that kids nowadays are very smart and talented? You should be proud as their parent. 🙂 I want my little one to learn piano too!
Kids are definitely our teacher
Aww it’s nice seeing kids learning so much these days, especially on self-enrichment skills that aren’t limited to academic topics! So cute how the kids would gift their grandma a fidget spinner !
What an interesting learning journey. It never stops, it shouldn’t. Thank you for sharing these wonderful thoughts on your blog so that we can check our own learning milestone as well.
Thanks for your information. For my knowledge when I have kids in future.
So heartfelt post. I can’t agree more on every point you said.
You are absolutely right… We learn new things everyday and our kids as well as… Thank you for sharing such great tips…
Thankyou so much for sharing this. Great tips for new parents 🙂
I definitely second the notion that life is a learning experience whether it is for the kids or for ourselves…
i love how you jot down the growing journey of your kids. Great way to document how kids learn and experience life. I wish I can do the same next time when I have kids.
That’s so true! We learn new things everyday even for adults. It’s important to teach children good values and family traditions.
I always thought that adult have less things to explore and learn. I was proven wrong as I’m stepping into real adulthood surrounded with working society.
I always try and involve my kids in my work. They help me with some few small task in kitchen and arranging house. we have to teach them to be a good human.
Very well written… Our kids behaviour reflects our brought up….??
Loads of love for writing such beautiful and meaningful posts.. My son is small now but soon I will be needing these tips 🙂
Agree with you ! as a parent we needs to teach them and also let them experience life.
Every little thing teaches us about life and how to appreciate it – we just to look a little closer than we used to do. You have beautiful children and that reflects on how the parents teaches them.
This is the right age to learn many new things, habbits, etc. To teach them values of life is very important. You are doing great job as a mom.and this post is really inspiring for us also.
Kids need to learn how to fall and get up at young age. This is how they will learn up the real life.
Even my son has started noticing things around him.. I love the fact that even at this small age he is quite analytical.. ? it feels good.
This is really good way to understand the learning of ur kids
That’s true. We learn something everyday – some from experiences and some from setbacks. Cheers!!