So summer holidays have started now for my daughter and most of her friends, a bunch of highly energetic 6 year olds marching alarmingly towards 16 and armed with world views on almost everything one can think of.
They are looking forward to more than 2 months of blissful holidays.
Of course, most parents are getting jittery at the same thought.
"How do we make sure our kids are engaged during the long summer holidays?" one of my friends recently asked me. She was probably just back from an employee engagement session at office.
Parents are worried. Some are running around frantically trying to find new and exciting hobby classes to enrich their kids' minds and expand their skills (cooking, badminton, swimming, skating and the works). Others are busy trying to enrol them in the friendly, neighborhood summer camps (apart from the usual art, craft, dance and music focused camps, there are now specialized camps ranging from nature camps to science camps to horse-riding and what not). And then there are few, who have the luxury of time and/or money and are either heading home to grandparents' or planning for vacations in exotic places..
Keeping the children engaged during the sultry summer has become serious business. Savvy business people are cashing in on this 'market need' and positioning their offerings aptly. Not just daycares, anyone with knowledge of a specific skill is now using Facebook or other marketing methods to announce a new camp. And parents are willing to shell out serious money to keep the tiny tots' inquisitive minds occupied or to just cool down the temperatures in their homes with the children, hopefully more gainfully employed than just running around and shouting.
But this summer, we have decided to take a very different and laidback approach. We have decided to appeal to our daughter's vast knowledge and increasing world view and let her choose how she wants to spend her time. We are wondering just how she will 'structure' her time, something she will get ample opportunity to do as she grows up and starts working in almost any job.
Stupid, you might say.. So we were told by many people for not organizing every moment of her holidays with some soul uplifting knowledge. She will sit and watch TV all day, we were warned when the grandparents come visiting.
Well as we waited and watched, a very interesting pattern emerged.
T.V. started off as a daily request but the bravery of Chota Bheem and antics of Horrible Henry were soon found to be too boring and discarded with disdain.
Long conversations and strategic planning sessions with her gang in our apartment resulted in the following -
plan for endless sleepover parties and long, unhurried evening get togethers, visits to the local library to borrow books ranging from Enid Blyton to Geronimo Stilton to Horrible History, plans to write stories in their new diaries, new songs being learnt and new skills being shared from skipping to skating to swimming (more like jumping into the pool, of course)...
Highly strategic that these kids are, they now directly call the 'aunties' (friends' mothers) for their specific requirements based on their moods. So if they want stories one day, they call the aunty who is a good story teller; if they want cookies, they know who to call; if they want to learn some new craft activity, they have an answer for that as well.
Their days are full and busy and long.
Yesterday, when I returned from office, I found my daughter and her friend hard at work creating paper wallets and paper money. Cute idea, I thought. And then she showed me her sample paper money - the note said 100 Lakh Rupees only (not very consumerist, these kids...I must say). On her note, Gandhiji had been replaced with the face of a stylish girl with long hair and at the corner of the note, she had written - USE ME. They had set up an imaginary shop where they were buying and selling things with their paper money with all the seriousness of hardened shopkeepers. Hilarious, you would say? Creative too?
Creativity and innovation, you ask? Our kids have both in abundance. Summer camps can wait so can the latest new hobby class. Let's give them freedom and time and watch them dazzle us with their creativity.
They are looking forward to more than 2 months of blissful holidays.
Of course, most parents are getting jittery at the same thought.
"How do we make sure our kids are engaged during the long summer holidays?" one of my friends recently asked me. She was probably just back from an employee engagement session at office.
Parents are worried. Some are running around frantically trying to find new and exciting hobby classes to enrich their kids' minds and expand their skills (cooking, badminton, swimming, skating and the works). Others are busy trying to enrol them in the friendly, neighborhood summer camps (apart from the usual art, craft, dance and music focused camps, there are now specialized camps ranging from nature camps to science camps to horse-riding and what not). And then there are few, who have the luxury of time and/or money and are either heading home to grandparents' or planning for vacations in exotic places..
Keeping the children engaged during the sultry summer has become serious business. Savvy business people are cashing in on this 'market need' and positioning their offerings aptly. Not just daycares, anyone with knowledge of a specific skill is now using Facebook or other marketing methods to announce a new camp. And parents are willing to shell out serious money to keep the tiny tots' inquisitive minds occupied or to just cool down the temperatures in their homes with the children, hopefully more gainfully employed than just running around and shouting.
But this summer, we have decided to take a very different and laidback approach. We have decided to appeal to our daughter's vast knowledge and increasing world view and let her choose how she wants to spend her time. We are wondering just how she will 'structure' her time, something she will get ample opportunity to do as she grows up and starts working in almost any job.
Stupid, you might say.. So we were told by many people for not organizing every moment of her holidays with some soul uplifting knowledge. She will sit and watch TV all day, we were warned when the grandparents come visiting.
Well as we waited and watched, a very interesting pattern emerged.
T.V. started off as a daily request but the bravery of Chota Bheem and antics of Horrible Henry were soon found to be too boring and discarded with disdain.
Long conversations and strategic planning sessions with her gang in our apartment resulted in the following -
plan for endless sleepover parties and long, unhurried evening get togethers, visits to the local library to borrow books ranging from Enid Blyton to Geronimo Stilton to Horrible History, plans to write stories in their new diaries, new songs being learnt and new skills being shared from skipping to skating to swimming (more like jumping into the pool, of course)...
Highly strategic that these kids are, they now directly call the 'aunties' (friends' mothers) for their specific requirements based on their moods. So if they want stories one day, they call the aunty who is a good story teller; if they want cookies, they know who to call; if they want to learn some new craft activity, they have an answer for that as well.
Their days are full and busy and long.
Yesterday, when I returned from office, I found my daughter and her friend hard at work creating paper wallets and paper money. Cute idea, I thought. And then she showed me her sample paper money - the note said 100 Lakh Rupees only (not very consumerist, these kids...I must say). On her note, Gandhiji had been replaced with the face of a stylish girl with long hair and at the corner of the note, she had written - USE ME. They had set up an imaginary shop where they were buying and selling things with their paper money with all the seriousness of hardened shopkeepers. Hilarious, you would say? Creative too?
Creativity and innovation, you ask? Our kids have both in abundance. Summer camps can wait so can the latest new hobby class. Let's give them freedom and time and watch them dazzle us with their creativity.
This post reminds me of a great TEDtalk I heard recently. Amazing how much kids can learn and teach one another, when left alone.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html
Thanks so much for sharing this. I read another interview as well of Sugata Mitra's school in the cloud idea. Hope these ideas really take off and that we can let children be free and learn from each other. And that we can stop imposing them with ideas which are no longer remotely relevant in today's world
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