We believe that when children connect, learn and grow with the nature around them the experience and the learning outcomes they get are very, very different.  It also stays with them forever. In order to attain this we take children for a lot of visits that help them connect to nature better.

 One such visit was to the park nearby and Anika, Aliyah, Zohar and Het were in one such group that went to explore the park. As we started from our school we came across a tree which had a hole in it. Upon seeing it Zohar said, “Ma’am caterpillar lives in it” and to this Anika added her perspective she said, “I can see many ants in it they have made a big hole and they are living in it”. Aliyah said, “The spiders also make their home like this and they make sure that no one comes in”. (Children are beginning to relate to the need of basic shelter and what purpose it serves in the lives of different living things.)

 Then as we started moving further we saw another tree which was bent and upon seeing that Anika said, “The rain came and splashed a lot of water on the tree that has made the tree to bend”. She also connected the bend with the mountain and said that it also looked like a mountain. (Explaining and understanding causality for natural phenomena is the beginning of scientific inquiry in a child and visualizing and connecting the shape to things not present in the immediate surroundings displays the child’s ability to make creative connections)

 Zohar touched the tree with his little finger and said it is too rough. (Beautifully connecting his learning back in class to the real life and using the right kind of vocabulary to describe it)

 As we moved forward they started to speak about the rain. Hearing the conversation the facilitator asked the children, “Where does the rain come from?” to which Anika said, “It comes from the plants.” The other children were observing the trees around them. Zohar who saw a coconut tree near a house said, “Coconuts”. On hearing this Aliyah connected her previous trip and said “Yes, when I came with Priya Ma’am we saw a coconut which was on the road it had an oval hole in it.” (It is amazing what children remember and take away in trips and the amount of detail they tend to process when they are totally involved in a learning journey.)

 We continued to walk and as the children walked they made sure they did not stamp on the leaves when asked why they were walking carefully, Aliyah said “They will get hurt if we stamp them”.

 As we continued our journey we saw a tree which was cut down and the leaves had turned brown, seeing that a conversation erupted between three of them.

Anika: Someone has cut it down
Aliyah: Yes, Anika that is why the leaves have turned brown and they are sad
Het: “No, no they are crying”.

 Connecting to and learning through nature helps children to look at learning in different and more meaningful ways. It also enables them to apply their learning practically and develop deeper empathy for their surroundings.

 Finally, as we reached the park. Anika saw big stones which looked like pumpkin on the ground and said, “I can see pumpkins on the ground.”  Then we came across a big white tree Zohar said, “Ma’am the branches are also white in colour” the children were asked why this tree alone looks white and Anika responded saying, “Someone took a big scissor and they have cut the brown part away”. While returning to our school Zohar saw a lot of leaves which were fallen down and said, “Oh, no Ma’am look there someone shook the tree and all the flowers have fallen down”. It was a sad moment for all of them when they realized that loss and change are such an integral part of Mother Nature.

 Children tend to look at the nature around them and extend metaphors from their lives and how they feel onto nature. Every trip we make is an experience for us and children to look at the world with a new pair of eyes and see what others might have missed and to feel what only we can feel for who we are!


Contributed by Sujitha M, Learning & Innovation Engineer at Sparkling Mindz

As children we are natural Kinesthetic learners. As adults too, we may not realize it but many of us feel drained and are unable to think of ideas unless we move our bodies around. Our mind-body is a connected system and for many of us restricting our body movements can lead to an inefficient learning experience. So, then, why are classrooms, conference rooms, training rooms designed the way they are? Well...that's an interesting question best answered through an interesting design that we used for our classrooms. Keeping in mind that children needed multiple kinds of learning experiences and not merely "Auditory or Visual" lectures we chose minimal furniture and a design that let children move around, dance, huddle in groups and achieve maximum learning through movement. We chose to use stories, role plays, drama, experiential and hands-on activities to engage students through multiple modalities of learning outcomes. Most importantly, we chose learning outcomes that would engage their whole being in the learning experience - developing a positive attitude, perseverance, focus, deep engagement and multiple connects with prior knowledge, a thirst to learn more, perspective to look at problems as challenges and more...

A child who can connect with learning outcomes higher than mere knowledge, use their entire mind-body to experience learning and work with others confidently to achieve desired results is going to be successful in any economy, any crisis, any situation that you put her in. In fact, she might be the one that chooses the toughest situations to spend her energy on because she can, because it is worth her while and because nothing LESS will do!

Seriously, as parents it is time for us to collectively decide, NOTHING LESS will do for your child. It is important that they experience learning in enriched visual-kinesthetic spaces with facilitators who understand the importance of visual-kinesthetic learning. It's upto you, you can choose to give them an EDGE today.

I often crave for new experiences. I do take out time to explore and experience new things. Whether it is trying my hands at a new instrument (I have no prior knowledge of music), a new cuisine, meeting new people or a genre of book I have never experienced. There is a myriad of emotions that one feels over new experiences. One feels a tinge of fear, a tinge of anticipation, a lot of excitement and so many unnamed emotions that gives you a feeling in your tummy. When we are born, everything is new for us. The excitement to explore and tinker is visible in the sparkle of our eyes.

Over time we start losing our ability of being so open to the new experiences and soon we start shunning them. The fear of messing things up and making a fool of ourselves overrides the sheer pleasure of doing and feeling something new. Having said that, what is so great about the new experiences anyway?

New experiences positively correlate to both creativity and enhancing learning skills. Having a diversified array of experiencing things forms a big pool of knowledge and experiences which can then be connected to make progress in Creativity and Innovation.

At Sparkling Mindz, we see new experiences as a culture. We ensure children get to experience new things and so do we. New experiences are not a luxury, they are a necessity. It is all around us, the world is full of them, we just need to see it with the curious eyes of a toddler!

When was the last time you experienced something new? How can you bring novelty as a part of your daily life?

With a lot of festivals coming up till year end, its holiday season!

While some take this situation with a smile on the face and peace in the mind, for many it seems to be a question of - What do we do now? So much free time!!!!

If one ponders over why such reactions to holidays, it raises more questions. Are we too busy being busy to be able to enjoy the free time we get? Do we get "bored" with the free time because we are habituated to our lives being run by a schedule?Are we unable to enjoy the holiday time unless there is a to-do list?


Lets leave the adults aside for a minute. Have any of us tried asking our children how do they feel about holidays? What is it that they want to do with the free time?
 
If their response is anywhere close to the points listed above, we know where its coming from and need to do some serious thinking.
 
If not, its a great opportunity to help them/guide them/lead them to manage their free time to make the most of life! 

• Try a new game/class together that you have never attempted before
• Try to reverse roles at home - you can make your day's calendar together and take their 2 cents in terms of managing time
  
• Have them read you a story book before you go to sleep

We have a lot more creative and whacky ideas to share in terms of engaging the children during holidays and quite a few engaging games to offer. Contact us at +91 8095267849 if you are interested to find out :)

By Anubha Jain - a Learning Facilitator with Sparkling Mindz

There are lots and lots of exams and tests that children take all throughout schools. But we are not talking about that here. We are talking about what we as parents do with our children.  A test need not always be in the written form or in a formal set-up. So then what is a test? Is it a way to find out what a child doesn't know or what he knows? 

We often test our children when we ask, "Do you know the names of all the continents in the world?"  instead of saying " Let us talk about continents!".
 
Would a child be happy and eager to be tested if the tests only exposed their ignorance or shortcomings? Would the child see the test as a fun activity or a stressful one? In fact, they begin to associate the 'whole' act of asking questions with the 'act' of testing rather than a 'fun' way to learn and explore. Which is the sad part :(.
 
While a certain amount of testing is definitely needed to evaluate, motivate and challenge the child, if we want them to learn more - there other ways to do so:

• Provide opportunities for the child to showcase what he/she already knows
• Engage him/her with new challenges in a positive environment to make learning fun
• Be encouraging and supportive in both cases

Do share with us other ways to make learning enjoyable for children.

Contributed by Anubha Jain, currently a learning facilitator with Sparkling Mindz. She is an MBA graduate from a premier institute and an Engineer prior to that. She also has several years of corporate experience under her belt. She has chosen to shift her career to work with children.

I was at a children's book library recently when i glanced upon a book with an intriguing title and cover page.
Thought of giving it a shot and little did i know i would stumble upon something so entertaining yet full of learning for children in the 8-13 years age group.
 
The book i am talking about is called "The Diary of Amos Lee - I Sit, I Write, i Flush" - written by Adeline Foo.
 
The bold title may turn some parents off due to its apparent setting, but in reality it offers a lot of lessons to pre-teens without being preachy. It is written as the diary of a 9 year old boy; Amos and is set in Singapore. The book has gained huge popularity among the Asian audience and here is the author's summary of the book for those unfamiliar with it: http://www.amoslee.com.sg/home.html

In simple but engrossing language, the book shows that the everyday life of child like Amos is laced with opportunities and challenges and how he uses various thinking skills to tackle them. Amos helps his mother with her writing assignments and demonstrates creativity and communication skills in his own writing. He is faced with challenges at school in the form of a bully and trouble with best friend and after some hiccups, he resolves them by using interpersonal skills and making the right decisions in line with his values. Throughout the book he takes up interesting assignments and even tries his hand at entrepreneurship - all of which require him to be resourceful, apply critical thinking and work in teams.
 
The creative illustrations help keep up the entertainment quotient of the book and its a delightful read for the young and adults alike.

As the Junior Masterchef's end drew closer and competition intensified, lots of clarity in 'thinking' and 'strategies' began to emerge.

Jack, every time he faced a challenge, put on a 'creative hat', decided to do a twist on a recipe like 'snail porridge' that had taken the original chef himself over 10 years to perfect and came out in flying colors! It was because of his creative thinking capability that he was able to score 3 times 11/10 in the final challenge, a feat that not even someone in Masterchef has achieved, so far!

Isabella, on the other hand, every time she was faced with a challenge used her 'critical thinking' abilities. She fell back on the time-tested recipe's of her grandmother. Something that she knew she could execute to perfection, something that she knew that only she knew, something that would stand her out. It stood her too in good stead. However, for the final challenge, she was able to win it only when she combined her 'critical thinking' ability with a more open-ended 'creative thinking' process to achieve a perfect '10' from 5 of the judges and become the first ever 'Junior Masterchef' in history!

If you ask me, even Jack had to use his 'critical thinking' abilities to approach his 'creative problem' and execute it to perfection but his lead system was always 'creative' and Isabella's was always 'critical'! It stood them apart in style and brought their individuality out, so well! 

It was not just this, in the final moment when the results were announced, Jack showed such a unique interpersonal skill that not even adults show! He told Isabella, "You deserve it, Izzy. Friends going in, friends going out!" What better sportsmanship can a child, all of 13 years, aspire to show? 

Shows like this help create good role models for our children in India and don't miss the next show as it rolls in the next season!

We have been watching Junior Masterchef with a lot of glee. First, it validates the age group we work with 8-13 years. Next, aren't the kids doing an exemplary job? It is all about trust and preparation and children never cease to amaze us. We know it and we have seen it, the show exemplifies it to such a degree that I could not prevent myself from posting here!

Not sure, how many of you are fans of the show yourself. But, I've watched Masterchef previously and when I started watching Junior Masterchef, I noticed how differently they were handling the children and it once again, proved our approach with them. This is exactly how we approach the children in our sessions, trusting them, guiding them where required, letting them be creative with resources, appreciating their unique talents and moving them forward positively. Parents ask us, what will you do when a child gets stuck, what do you do when a child does not perform. We don't have such issues, in our sessions - the child comes up with an idea, the child presents and they know how much effort to put in to make it happen too!

Anyway, coming back to the point, the major differences I noticed with the way Junior Masterchef was handled is a lesson for all adults and parents who deal with children, so here goes:

1. Every single child's dish was appreciated for something good they had in it, not even in the expression did the chefs given out what they really felt about the dishes! If they didn't like it, the praise was on the low side, that's all, but it was praised and their expressions were amazing. For children, your expressions and body language hurts more than your words itself, so you know where to create the change first! All those who have attended our communication parent workshop know this for a fact now and are implementing it. Now, you know it too.

2. When they did a MasterClass with the children, they didn't just gather them around and show them how it is done. They got them to do it along. Exactly how children learn new things well. By Doing It! It is simple: Don't Preach. Don't Teach. Guide, just show them how. Let Them Do. 

3. When it came to selecting a team, in MasterChef generally, the team leaders choose the team. Knowing very well that the children may not be ready for it, they created a random team selection game for them. No fighting, no complaining, no politics. Simple, effective way of dividing the children into groups! Wow!

4. Next, the taste test. They brought in a HUGE, GIANT 8.5m pizza for the children to dig in and taste at the same time. Children love to do work, when it is done in a fun way. They love to apply thought and learn, when the fun is not taken out of it. Loved this test!

Overall, at every point, they took so much care of the children's feelings and how to not hurt them or show them that they were inferior in anyway. Every single elimination, children got mementos and takeaways. Kudos to a show well done! Do observe and let us know if you found any other nuances of how they dealt differently with children than adults and how we can apply it in our day to day lives!