PARENTS' ROLE for first 7 years is crucial - Home schooling Vs online classes

PARENTS' ROLE  

IS HOMESCHOOLING GOOD? 

IS THERE A NEED OF ONLINE CLASSES FOR 5 YEAR OLD KIDS?

 

Each individual was sent to Earth for a purpose. Not merely to study, work, get married, produce kids, become grandparents and end life. Find out the purpose of why you were born in the first place, and what is it that you need to accomplish before stepping out from this world.

Covid has taught us many lessons like never before.

God sent every child to tap his/her gift that He bestowed with when born. That priceless gift must be tapped in every child’s lifetime and the sooner the better.  Help your child to explore the possibilities of that gift.  Keep a watch and help them to blossom in a way that they can contribute their worth to Society. Studying merely to get a good job and having no values is of no use.  Learning other than academics sets the tone for one’s personality. Be it a boy or a girl, the child has to learn the essentials of living to be independent and be able to survive in a crisis.  That would include: Cooking, Gardening,  Music, Sweeping & dusting at home, basics in Plumbing, some basics of Electrical work, Riding cycle, Climbing a tree, Basics of carpentry, garden composting procedures,  segregating waste, Painting a room, stitch a blouse /petticoat  or even sew a button and a button-hole, embroidery, clay-play, computer knowledge,  watering  plants for neighbors when they are away, baby-sitting, looking after pets, keeping drinking water bowls for animals and birds daily, cleaning the overhead tank, etc.

I recall the days when once in two months I would clean and wash the overhead tank. No dignity of labor involved here. The task was not an easy one as the overhead tank was fairly big. It used to take me roughly 3 hours under the supervision of elders in my school days.  My son too has done it and I am not sure how many parents teach such things for implementing. I recall climbing trees at home as a youngster to bring down mangoes and tamarind during the season and also help in de-seeding the tamarind from the baskets for the entire year’s quota for days together at a stretch soon after school hours after having a sumptuous, evening  snack. One learns much more of practical chores at home than in school. Mere bookish knowledge is not enough in life. Getting outstanding marks in one’s subjects does not mean that you have mastered life. So many have failed in life despite the best of education. Many who have failed in studies have made a mark in life by virtue of understanding what life is all about. It all boils down to that.  

Learning to meditate, say one’s prayers, perform Agnihotra (if above 7 years daily) would help in having focus and concentration. Agnihotra is a science of paying obeisance to the Virtual god for all religions, considering the Glorious Sun rises and sets with no alarm and with prejudice to none across the world. Without Sunlight we cannot live, neither can plants and animals survive. So, at a tender age every child must be taught to revere the ‘Pancha Bhootas’ or the Five Elements of Nature (Fire, Air, Space, Earth and Water) such that their life tunes in to the frequencies of the same.

A teacher can demonstrate values in class but experiential learning is imbibed at home. Covid is a great time for parents to utilize their efforts to inculcate and teach the child many things that they possibly could not have learnt otherwise. Home schooling for a year  or two can transform the lives of children.

Parents must not worry about academics, as that is not so important as many other factors. Writing exams and passing them or failing is not the be all and end all of life. There’s more to life. Allow the child to grow up and blossom, to learn practical things in life which will stand them in good stead. Teachers change each year but not parents. Parents have a greater role to play in the lives of their children. A teacher handles roughly 40 children in a class. A teacher can impact a child but beyond that it is the parents who need to mold by culture as each parent knows their culture and upbringing like the back of their palm.

Parents are to be blamed when children go astray. It is because of their not being able to devote time that children seek wrong experiments.  Having a dialogue with children during their first seven years is very crucial as that brings the bondage. Poonool (Sacred thread) ceremonies are performed by some parents just before their marriage, which is not a good idea. At the age of 7, a boy child should get into performing the Gayathri and Sandhya-Vandanam. Girls getting married late is also not good. All these cultures have changed from the past, because times are changing and parents are forced to make both ends meet. The Poonool can be a mass ceremony. Similarly, Covid has demonstrated that marriages can be a very simple affair. Donate your money to a home or a Centre for animal welfare and seek blessings. Simplicity can be taught only by upbringing, not in schools.

In my days, books were considered as treasures.  As a voracious reader, I had a whole library of them spanning different subjects with a multitude of authors. Today’s children hardly read any apart from their school texts.  They are certainly adept at the computers and tomorrow’s world is digital, yet, books can be companions like none other. The proof of the pudding lies in eating. Knowledge is vast. Learn languages. India is a land with so many dialects.  Communication is important in life and will come in handy even if it means to baby-sit or undertake translations.

Teach children to handle money. Count currency notes so that they learn to interact with shopkeepers and get the right change back. Don’t discuss property matters with children. Children should never be vested with properties in their names when they are in their twenties. Only after the demise of parents, they must inherit. Only then they realize the value of life. They can be joint owners but not sole owners.  As legal heirs, automatically what is set out for them, they will inherit only after your life time, not earlier.

Prioritize time. Utilize it effectively. Don’t waste time worrying.  Body cells change as per your thoughts.  If you think evil, your cells recognize that. If you think good, goodness follows you like a shadow.

Happiness is a choice. Choose to live happy and carefree. Be a responsible citizen. Look beyond inner circle.  Experience the next rings viz., Society and how can I impact it?  What must I do to help many around me by my acts? Life is full of ups and downs --- teach children that every day is not the same. What can’t be cured has to be endured.  Teach them the Concept of Karma. Enables them to rely on their intuition. Guide them to be in tune with their Divine and higher consciousness.

Adopt a stray dog as a pet if u can afford it. Devote some time for its upkeep. Learn to provide love. Teach children about planets and how they impact our life when they rotate on the axis. Explain about the 7.5 years Saturn period. Parents must let children to move with their cousins.  Not make them live within the circle of parents. Nuclear families have this disadvantage unlike Joint families of yester years. Children should be taught on behavior and how to mingle with others and not be secluded in life.  The one-child-syndrome can be dangerous unless the parents guide the child early in life and pave the way for his / her success.

Your child must be knowledgeable in more than one subject as laying all the eggs in one basket is risky.

Cell phone usage, TV serials and programs, Cartoon network, etc., to be monitored.  Parenting is a serious role as children ape their parents. So be careful.  If you treat your grandparents and parents badly, the child too observes and does so later on. You reap what you sow.

Parenting must demonstrate love and discipline. One needs to be strict and also encourage the right things. End of the day, make your child to check for 10 things he/she is grateful for. They should not repeat any previous day’s entries. Each day must be afresh for 40 days. This rewires their brain. You too could do this exercise, during Covid, as your cells are continuously changing and are on the go for a brink on a possible mutation. This exercise helps immensely to stay with confidence.  Being in gratitude does wonders. Stay blessed. Be safe.  Pass on your steady flame of good values to your children such that it guards them from the multifarious, evil winds of a corrupt environ, that could otherwise sway them, yet the steadiness of your love will get them back on track and lead them on to Higher Consciousness.

Coming to whether home schooling is good, I dare say it is. My experience with children who had home schooling reveals that they are far more matured in their thinking, respect all, know to interact well, have consideration for others and are well versed in many things that normal school going kids hardly know anything of.  Their knowledge spans vast, practical work which is the need of the hour and they can comfortably run a household with their skills from homeschooling even from a tender age, which is truly commendable.

On a different note, I can say my mother-in-law had studied only up to third standard. My grandmothers never went to school and yet they imparted so much to their children and by way of lineage. I have personally learnt so much from every one of them be it time management in a kitchen for a large household, communication, or life’s many lessons …. None of which, unfortunately were taught in school.  Today there are many subjects taught online on subjects that were unheard of; yes, you heard it right, it is a digital world. A platform that opens to a plethora of hitherto unknown topics , that are a necessity in terms of living and have become inevitable to opt for to sustain living. 

I would root for home schooling up to 5th standard  as i see that the formative years of bringing up in the right way, paying attention to learning our culture is far more important than cramming text books and appearing for exams at an age where one should not move up the school ladder each year based on the yearly examinations.  That impressionable age is that when children imbibe a lot and  that should be tapped upon to make them responsible citizens of society.

Malini Kalyanam

Founder Director - Artistic Pottery Training Academy 

Director - Therapeia Infinity 

Founder Trustee : 

    The PALM - a Charitable Trust

    Shirdi Sri Sathya Sai Kuberar Trust 

Director - AAHAA 5 Gen Mart ( P) Ltd.

 

( The article expresses my personal views and i look forward to hear from you on your thoughts. ) 

 

 #communication #valueoflife #healthyinteraction #tapyourindividualgift #rewireyourbrain #impartessentialsofliving #loveanddiscipline #reverenature #surviveincrisis #parentsimpactonchildren