Dear Parents and Colleagues

I presented Connecting with Children through the Noise and Clutter at a local school last week, and I asked the audience to raise their hands if they had experienced the following feeling recently – “Stop the world I want to get off!” Surprise, surprise, the majority of the audience raised their hands. We are living with a sense that time has speeded up and yet we still have the same 24 hours each day. What has changed, however, is the rate of change and amount of change that we are having to assimilate – on a daily basis. Just one current issue of the New York Times contains more information about changes than an average farmer from the early nineteenth century would experience in a lifetime. There are days when we have to learn new things not just by the day but by the hour in order to keep up, and it exhausts us. It is becoming increasingly clear that this rapid change is not just a phase that we are going through, but rather, it seems to be the new reality. We need to learn how to survive and thrive in a constantly shifting environment, where rules are made, changed and broken on an ongoing basis in this new Game of Possibility with which we are engaged. For more on this click here http://www.brightideasoutfit.com/2007/02/06/newsletter-january-2007/.

Now think about a preschool child who so able to cope with change and continual learning, in fact every day is an adventure of epic proportions. Admittedly they do take an afternoon nap which helps keep them balanced. Wouldn’t we all do well to have a little siesta each day – bring on those power naps! These little explorers are actually carrying round within them a natural blueprint for success in the 21st century. Let’s look at just some of the characteristics with which preschoolers are so naturally imbued:
- Inquisitiveness and curiosity about their world and how it works
- They are natural explorers
- Physical learners (they create understanding and meaning by trying things out for
themselves, by doing)
- Original thinkers and highly creative (anything is possible)
- Love learning (can’t get enough of it)
- Are not afraid of failure (no matter how high the couch is or how far they may tumble)
- Adaptable and resilient (there are many more characteristics!)

As parents, we need to ensure that these characteristics are nurtured and kept alive throughout our children’s education and not just in the preschool years. If you can preserve them then it also means that you are probably practicing and role modelling most of them yourself – you have become future literate – you are a player in the Game of Possibility and your child will become a professional player too.

Alvin Toffler, futurist and author of the classic Future Shock (written in 1970) was deadly accurate when he said:

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

In her book Seven Times Smarter veteran US educator Laurel Schmidt says:

“Curiosity is the best toy in the store”.

If we can rekindle our sense of curiosity and learn to not only to ask “Why?”, but “Why not?”, then we might not want to stop the world and get off. In an era where anything is possible, we can become the creators of our own reality, and there is nothing more challenging and exciting than that!

For more on this topic watch out for the book Dr Graeme Codrington and I are co-authoring on 21st century parenting. I will keep you posted on the publication date – at this stage not before end 2007, but you can watch this newsletter and my website for snippets.

WORKSHOPS – WINTER SERIES IN MAY 2007

These workshops are filling up fast. A reminder of the dates:

Nuts & Bolts Workshop
Parents of under 5s
Wednesday, 9 May 2007 9.00 – 11.30am R150.00 per person

Connect the Tots Workshop
Parents of children from birth to 6 years
Wednesday,16 May 10:00 – 11.30am R75.00 per person
Thursday, 17 May 7.30 – 9.00pm R75.00 per person

Parenting on the Run Workshop
Parents of children from 4 – 7 years
Saturday, 26 May 2007 9.00 – 11.30 R150.00 per person

Our Toy Season series at the end of 2006 was oversubscribed. Please remember that payment secures your seat, so book soon to avoid disappointment. Refunds will be entertained up until two weeks prior to each talk. Thereafter, payment is non-refundable.

Watch out for the continuation of the Winter Series in June.

REMSPECED

Paula Barnard, occupational therapist, OT lecturer at Wits University and a long-time colleague of mine, sends out a very interesting online newsletter covering remedial and special education issues in South Africa. To take a look log on to: www.remspeced.co.za. There is also a print edition coming out every second month (starting February 2007) available free of charge in waiting rooms of your local OT, NDT physiotherapist, speech therapist, psychologist etc. l will be writing a regular column touching on issues I am passionate about – helping parents connect with their kids. This 20-24 page magazine will be full of interesting articles, tips and insights to help parents cope with their child who requires additional support in learning, developing and behaviour.

GAME/TOY REVIEWS

1. Zingo (ages 4 and up)

This is a junior bingo game with a very nifty dispenser for the sturdy plastic bingo tiles. This is essentially picture bingo with the words printed beneath the pictures for sight reading. The first person to cover his or her board yells out Zingo! Thoroughly enjoyed by children from 4 – 7. It’s a game that stimulates visual discrimination and matching skills and requires concentration and speed to win. Priced at R120.00+, it’s available at both large toy stores and independents. To view the game or to find out where to get it, log on to www.ttdistributors.co.za. Think Tank Distributors also supplies the following well-known games: Rush Hour, Rush Hour Jr, Safari Rush Hour, River Crossing, River Crossing Jr, Subtrax, Tipover, Toot and Otto and Smart Mouth).

2. Blokus (ages 7 to adult)This strategy game carries a golden seal stating that it is the most awarded game of the 21st century. As we are only at the beginning of this century, I guess it doesn’t have much competition yet. I decided to take a look to see what these claims were all about. Well, this is a must have game that will make it onto my ‘Classics’ list of games every child should have! For a preview of Blokus, go to www.blokus.com where you can play against the computer, obtain advice on the game, place orders for lost pieces, meet other players and see your international ranking! Wow!

Seriously, this is a game for the whole family involving chess-type thinking but in a faster game format. The goal is to strategically place as many of your 21 differently shaped Perspex pieces on the board as possible. The only rule is that you may only place a new piece on the board if it touches another piece of the same colour but only at the corners. Pieces of the same colour cannot be in contact along a straight edge. There are no set moves and every game is different. No reading is required to play this game. It is about thinking skills, problem solving and strategy.

This is a game for two to four players. The age guideline on the box is accurate – from age 7 to adult. Both my children aged 7 and 11 thoroughly enjoyed it and we all wanted to play again and again. The Blokus game board and playing pieces are of a very high quality. Blokus is distributed by Pegasus Toys www.pegasustoys.co.za and retails at R275.00+.

Keep on connecting with your kids!

NIKKI BUSH

This entry was posted on Monday, March 5th, 2007 at 9:09 pm and is filed under 21st Century Parenting, General, Newsletters, Noise & Clutter, Toy Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.