Give Your Kids Some Credit
- Therese Morris
- Apr 16, 2017
- 3 min read
Every kid is a genius at something. Truly, they are! And it's our duty as parents to unlock their awesomeness by exposing them to the best of everything, I guarantee they'll quickly shows you where their gifts reside.
When kids are born they know nothing about limitations and that's the beauty of their innocence, they're like sponges willing and ready to be filled with the tools to fulfill their destiny. The concept of "it's above them" or "they won't understand/remember it" is redundant because... Ahhhh you're suppose to teach them so that they do grasp it, understand it and remember it.
I've discovered that kids have the amazing ability to learn, remember and use, in their own timing, whatever knowledge they're naturally interested... like from before my big son's second birthday he already knew all the planets in our solar system through quizzical sky glazing, videos and songs, the StoryBots Outer Space video is what I started him with as it's a super cool yet informative introduction to planets for kids... By age two he was drawing the solar system and explaining their characteristics... Now at age 3 he's upped the anti by creating solar system cut outs and pasting them all over the house, he takes imaginary space missions to each planet, he taught me about the dwarf planets in the Milky Way and now ventures to know about Earth-like planets from other galaxies such as Kepler-452b (go ahead and Google it).
Once we were watching a Dr. Bioncs video about the skeleton system, to my surprise my son started identifying the bones and correctly repeated the names as he heard them, so some time after when I showed him a diagram of the human skeleton I got printed for him he was beyond elated, like he beamed hugging the paper, began studying it then asked if he could sleep with it that night. Couple days later I was feeding him some food by hand when he accidentally bit my finger...
Me: Aaaaahhhhh...
Israel: I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!
Me: Aaaaahhhhh...
Israel: Ok! Ok! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!
Me: Aaaaahhhhh... I understand you're sorry but it still hurts and you have to let me...
Israel: Was it my mandible that crushed your finger?
Me: Yes *shocked face*
PS. The mandible is your lower jaw bone, the strongest bone in your head.
The point is feed your kid whatever they're interested in, go as deep as they're willing to go, learning should be fun and intuitive so trust their intuition, I mean who knows your kid better than him/herself? Yes, parent's are a close second but just trust them to reveal what they're naturally good at then open the doors of information and hands-on experience as wide as you can for them explore.
Now this is not to say if your kid really likes a particular things or shows they're gifted in a certain subject area then all toys, all shows, all games, all books, their whole life should be consumed by that interest... I mean my husband's favourite dish is lasagna but if I cooked it for every meal each day he'd get sick of it pretty quickly, so it's all about an enriched balanced diet.
Body builders, ballerinas and marathon runners all have to eat from the same basic food groups but they each have to maintain a uniquely balanced diet and training regime according to their purpose... Likewise kids need to play, express themselves and learn through fun so just observe each child's purpose and feed them accordingly.
