JOIN USThe joys that lie in teaching your kid
I am not a teacher. Neither do I take tuitions nor am I involved in noble causes like educating underprivileged children. Now that we know a bit about me, let me tell you about that time of the day when I make my daughter do her homework. To begin with, it’s extremely difficult to get her to the study table. I usually manage the situation by offering her some goodies.
That day, it was one of her mathematics exercise. The problem went like this: “Manish had six chocolates. His father gave him three more. How many chocolates does Manish have now?” I ask her this and she starts blinking. So to make it more relevant to her, I say, “Look Chintu, you have six chocolates in your left hand and three more in your right. How many do you have now?”
After some head-bending exercise, she comes up with the answer: 10. She is too small, let me explain it to her, I think. “Okay, Chintu, let me put it this way, you have six oranges and I give you three more, how many you have now?”
After a brief period of mental maths, she tells me, “nine.” I am relieved. I don’t have to go through the pain of drawing picket fence like structures to practically show her the sum.
“Very good, now the same way you think and tell me, if you have six chocolates on your left hand and three more on your right, how many do you have now?” “10, Mummy”. I could feel the blood gushing through my ears. “What is 6+3?”
“Nine.” “Then how many chocolates do you have with you if you have six on your left hand and three on your right?”
“Ten.”
“How on earth?”
“Mummy did you forget that I already have one in my pocket that you just gave me…”
Story time
She has searched through the rummage and picked up a copy of Rapunzel. She holds it close to me and says “Tell me this story.” I begin reading, “...Rapunzel grows up to be the most beautiful child with long golden hair. When she reaches her twelfth year, a witch shuts her away in a tower in the middle of a forest with neither stairs nor a door, but only one window. When she visits her, she stands beneath the tower and calls out “Rapunzel, let down your hair” and upon hearing these words,
Rapunzel lets her long hair through the window and the witch climbs up the hair to reach the top”
“Mummy, I have a question,” she interrupts.
“What is it?”
“How did they reach the tower top for the first time when they did not have any hair for them to climb?”
My mind goes numb. It’s beyond my capability to answer that. So, I tell her that I would continue with the story tomorrow.
There are plenty of such episodes that teach me something new everyday. Talk about the joy of learning. Did I once hear that child is the father of a man? Now I know it is true.
And her story times know no punctuality. She needs a story when I pick her up from the daycare centre, and a story after that. There is just no stopping.
Where are the friends?
Children growing up in metros and other big cities are robbed of their best and dependable source of entertainment: their friends. At a time where toddlers are getting sexually abused by even their near and dear ones, it is hard to trust your child with anyone, even the parents of your child’s friends.
The lack of space for playing outdoor games also adds to the problem. Children therefore are left with machines to entertain them. But the fun and joy in sharing and caring can never be matched by a machine.
This is where a parent has to play the role of a friend for the child. Though it is difficult to entertain the child for long hours, it is better than getting the child hooked onto electronic machines where you have little control over what is being viewed or learnt.
That is why stories become part of a connectivity-building exercise between a parent and a child. Many things that you want the child to imbibe can be told through stories. Mythological stories, bed-time stories, moral stories - there are plenty of them. It shows that you can go the extra mile to bridge the gap and keep the child engaged.
It is, indeed, quite a task every time to think of a story when all you want to do is to sleep. Yet, the joy she gains is among the best gifts you can ever give.