Reading Time: 4 minutes
Where is the time for the kids to be bored and tap into their inner creativity? Are the kids able to occupy themselves, even when there is no set schedule for them, asks Suveera, in the weekly column, exclusively for Different Truths.
I glance at my son’s expectant eyes staring at me. This is the third parent I have called, trying to fix and impromptu ‘play date’ (Ah! The audacity). No one is free. One six year old is learning coding, and the other two are at Judo and piano lessons. After checking and rechecking of the smartphones, I have been assigned a slot for the next week after school from 4pm to 6pm. Guess my son will have to wait.
I remember my childhood when we could just go to the park and would find children to play with. Back then, thankfully
Where is the time for the kids to be bored and tap into their inner creativity? Are the kids able to occupy themselves, even when there is no set schedule for them?
My friend who is a teacher often worries about how tired some children are, even at the start of the day. With a full day at school, followed by one activity after another, by the time they get home, there is only enough time to eat and sleep with homework squeezed in. Especially on Fridays, with a whole week behind them, they are exhausted and irritable. Unable to concentrate well.
Are we somewhere transferring responsibility? Instead of painting the sunset with our children ourselves, we send them to a painting class. We could go and play badminton with our 6-year-old, but instead, we hire an instructor to do it for us. I seriously wonder what a 2-year-old gets out of a soccer class that he couldn’t explore on his own in a playground with a ball. Research shows that left to their own, children are much better learners.
The other day, I quietly observed from a distance, while my son and his friends played in the park. They organised themselves into groups, took turns to take the lead, and made toys out of sticks and leaves. That is a teambuilding and utilization of resources exercise right there for us adults!
A few years ago, an intriguing experiment was conducted in India, by renowned educational researcher Sugata Mitra. He dug
My son has an interesting habit. He loves his Lego blocks, and whenever he buys a new one, he never looks at the instructions. He just tries to make the model on his own, looking at the picture on the box. (I guess he gets it from my dislike towards following instructions!) I encourage it. What he builds may not be as flashy, but it is beautiful and impressive as it is creative and original.
I am hoping for a middle path here. One that is between unregulated, meaningless screen time, and back to back dance and tennis lessons.
We have to expose our kids to options, but at the same time inculcate the ability to choose rightly. As parents, we aspire for the best for our kids. But now maybe we need to question ourselves and rethink, “what is the best?”
©Suveera Sharma
Photos sourced from the Internet from the author
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Great Thought , As always can’t agree more !