In yet another 10 year old child's case: his prompt was "a perfect evening". Sharing his visualization.

"I've been struggling to watch a particular angle of the moon for several days, got a picture uploaded it onto a forum that I've been following. I won a cash prize of $1000! Yayyyy!

When I told my dad in the evening, Dad and I decided to go for a celebratory walk (mom not joining...yay!!!). I saw a t-shirt at discount and bought it! Day was made!"

Facilitator: What was the perfect part S?
S: Of course, the cash prize and the new T-shirt! Duh!!!
F: In your visualization.

S is looking at external and materialistic things as making up a perfect evening and not seeing the satisfaction in his own effort of getting the snap of the moon or his evening spent in his dad's company.

Creating change makers of tomorrow needs children to learn to deal with successes and failures in their own terms. In one of our visualization games, the prompt given to the child reads 'overcoming fear of failure'. The visualization process helps a child become aware of moments when they have faced failure and how they have perceived it will determine what they have learnt. 
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One of our 10yr olds, R, is a proud recipient of this prompt. R attends our  After School Program, Young Thinkers and Achievers, developed to create inspired, independent and confident communicators. This is achieved by developing various skills such as creative and critical thinking, emotional and self- awareness skills, communication and interpersonal skills, decision making skills, and values. These skills are imparted through designed games which are considered to be the highest form of experiential learning; visualization games being one of the many that we play with children in the course of the program. 

Sharing R's visualization output.
"Doing something that I'm comfortable with is okay, when I'm doing something I've never done before and coming out of my comfort zone is overcoming fear of failure. In the baking committee I took on a challenge to make a cake which I hadn't done before. It was something completely new for me! I had never switched on an oven, or broken eggs. I had a 100 questions and was worried that when I break an egg, are egg shells going in or the yolk, should I put the vanilla essence a little bit or too much, then I was wondering will people like it or not? I told myself, "I'm going to do this and learn" a 100 times. It was a success, everyone loved it at school. But, the part where I baked and stepped out of my comfort zone is the part where I overcame the fear of failure!"

R is also a 4th grader (Leopards), at Sparkling Mindz Global School. Children were given a challenge to move beyond their comfort zone by opting to do something that they would like to  but have never done before, and R chose to bake a cake!

Raising challenges and building the sufficient skill set is imperative in raising a generation of inspired and confident learners and achievers. We at SMGS believe that every child is capable of anything that they put their mind to, all they need is a little push in the right direction towards creating the change that they want to make, to enable them towards a brighter tomorrow.

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#youngachieversacademy
#everychildcan

As narrated to Sreeja Iyer by Poonam Pradeep, Facilitator Young Thinkers and Achievers Program at the Sparkling Mindz Young Achievers Academy. 

It's the month of August, the month that's special for every Indian. It was the month in which India achieved Independence from the British rule 73 years ago. As the rest of India celebrates this month by reminiscing the sacrifice of the various people who contributed to the Indian freedom movement, our pre-schoolers (5-6 year olds) at Sparkling Mindz began their discussion with a prompt "What do they love about India?" and the following were their responses along with how the discussion moved forward.

*Sh: I love that India is a big country and I love the national anthem.
Sh: Why do we sing the national anthem?
Ash: We sing national anthem to wish India*

This opened up an opportunity to discuss about the geography of India. The States, union territories and their capitals. How big India was before Independence and how big is it now and a little about the national anthem.
*Ana: I love that freedom fighters fought for our country*

This led us to discuss about who did the freedom fighters fight against and why? Why did the British East India company come to India? Who were the freedom fighters and how did they fight (Violence and Non violence)?

*Em: everywhere I travel in India, I love the buildings*
This led us to discuss about the famous monuments or heritage towns in India.

*Aad: I love India because it's colorful*
This opened up an opportunity to talk about the diversity in language, food, clothing, culture etc. And how inspite of our difference we love each other.
*Tan: I love India because it's beautiful*
*Abh: But, there are also people who litter in India*
This statement ignited a spark in the class and everybody seemed upset and concerned.
Facilitator: Why do you think people litter in India.
Abh: Because they are bad people.
Facilitator: It is? Sometimes in class we forget to follow ground rules, does that make us bad people?
Class: No, they just don't know the ground rules.
Facilitator: what do you think we should all do about this?
Tan: When somebody litters we can take it and throw in the dustbin.
Facilitator: Do you think they will learn if we pick up all the garbage for them? Is it possible for us to pick up all the garbage in India?
Ved: We need to clean our roads.
Abhi: We need to have more bins on the pathways.
Avy: We need to have poop bins for the dogs on the streets.
Adi: If you don't find garbage bin, keep it in a bag and throw it when you see a dust bin.
Post this discussion, children began reporting about littering incidents they come across on a daily basis while traveling from school to home and other places.
Noticing the concern and the spark in children to make a change, the facilitator gave them a choice to come up with ways to educate people on keeping India clean.
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Few suggestions they came up with were-
1. Role play
2. Making placards
3. Making videos
4. Writing letters

Considering all their suggestion the facilitator helped them thread through a mime which they performed to educate their parents on Independence day. They also went about and wrote letters to people they see littering the streets. 

​Contributed by Yashika CG, Facilitator, Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool

Our cubs (4 year olds) were sitting on the mats near the doll house and were enjoying looking at other classes practice for Sports Day. The practice was paused for a bit to ensure a water spill was cleaned up. As I looked at the cubs from a distance, I saw them all watching keenly at the cleaning in complete silence. It looked as though something was running in their minds, and I was curious to know more; hence I took a place next to them on the mat.
 
Driti broke the silence looked at me and said, “It looks like we are sitting in an island, full of water”
Saanvi with a sad face said, “Yes we are stuck here forever”
I asked “What can we do now, how can we escape?”
“We can swim and escape”, said Driti casually.
Saanvi exclaimed, “I don’t know how to swim!”
Aliyah who was listening for a while agreed to Saanvi saying, “Me neither. Maybe we can build a
Ship and escape”
Saanvi agreed, “Oh ya! We can build one”
 
Just then Aliyah who was thirsty went to get water for herself from her bag.
Looking at Aliyah going Saanvi cried out, “Oh a big fish has eaten up Aliyah!”
To which I immediately asked to further tickle their imagination, “Should we help her? ”
Driti caught question and carried on, “But she knows how to escape, she can swim and come out of the fish easily, because the fish is big and Aliyah is small inside the fish!”
After a few seconds Aliyah returns not knowing what had happened.
 
Driti then said, “There! Aliyah has escaped”
She then held my hand and continued,  “I know to swim, so you can all hold me and keep swinging your hands pretending to swim, I will swim and take you out of the water”
All of them held hands and pretended to swim, Roshni, Zohar and Sara who were enjoying listening to the story joined us, all sitting in one row held each other’s hands and started swaying.
 
Just then Driti looked at me and said, “Ma’am swing the other hand too”
After a while of pretending, “Ah! Now we are out!” rejoiced Driti.
Everyone sighed with a relief of being escaped from the island.

It is such moments that show us children's vivid imagination, their inner voices in the face of challenges and how they motivate themselves to come out of even the most difficult of situations. The stories are not merely stories, they are maps for how they can swim through the ocean of this uncertain world and maps can be updated, refreshed and new ones can be drawn up. It's upto us to ensure they stay flexible that way.

Every moment of creative imagination is a chance to build a confident, inspired learner. Have you captured one with your child yet?

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#youngachieversacademy
​#everychildcanbecreative
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Contributed by Grace Veronica, Facilitator, Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool