Workshop: Preparing little ones for big challenges

A day of constructive activities for school children and parents.

ISLAMABAD: It was an instructive Sunday for parents and a fun-filled experience for their children as Beaconhouse in F-7/4 organised “Little Leaders”.

At the event, teachers told parents that leadership be can nurtured by increasing a child’s love and interest in mathematics, reading and learning through play.

Focused on children from ages three to eight, the workshop also stressed that parents should be able to readily give satisfactory answers to their children’s inquisitive questions, as this is a crucial developmental phase in any individual’s life.

To sometimes let children make their own decisions and train them to think independently was also encouraged -- even in everyday chores, such as picking what to wear to allow them to come to their own conclusions and observations. As parents engaged with teachers and their peers bouncing ideas back and forth, the children participated in pottery and art lessons.

Senior Mistress Afshan Anjum told The Express Tribune that “parents play an invaluable role in educating their children at home but we want to integrate that learning process into that of the school.”

She added that parents have to choose from a wide array of schools and pay fees. Hence they are entitled to know what their children are learning. Given the fast evolution and pervasiveness of the technological age, she said, there will be no room for a generation gap between parents and children in the near future. Therefore, parents need to equip themselves with the knowledge of computers and tech gadgets, so that they can guide their children to use these tools constructively and positively.

A similar event was hosted at Beaconhouse Kindergarten Satellite Town. While parents were being instructed in latest parenting techniques, children got to participate in storytelling, potter’s wheel, face painting, hand printing, snowman activity, frame making and puppet making.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2012