Today, when content is available at the flick of a button, what is the edge that you are giving your child? Buying them a laptop/iPad or the latest gizmo is not enough, are they equipped to leverage the tool or are they using it to play games? 

It is how you process the content and the resources that are available to them, what you do with it, how you analyze it, how you connect it with your experiences and make it your own differentiates you from the crowd. So, how do you do it? You THINK CREATIVELY!

The ability to be creative in a given situation is not a 'dress' that you can put on at whim. It is as much a science and an art mastered over time that becomes a skin that you can live and breathe in, the lens that you look at your world with, the world in your head that motivates you to create solutions to problems BIG & SMALL in simple, elegant ways that change the world around, for the better, for everyone around you. I want to live in a better world, designed by a generation of children who can Think!

Hence, creativity matters. 

We recently launched a few new batches of our communications module. We have been having very engaging and interesting conversations with children and parents on this front. I'm going ahead and talking about the broad spectrum of misconceptions, complaints and concerns around communication skills:


Children first...
1. "Communication is about talking" - nothing can be further from the truth! Within 2 sessions children realized this!!!

2. "Listening is boring" - shattering this myth takes a bit longer, the process begins early on in the sessions though! Listening is a fine skill, it can make the difference between a winner (a person everyone wants to be with, a confidant, a great boss, a great entrepreneur...) and a smart-know-it-all (that everyone puts up with, at best!) 

3. "Group, what group? Did I win?" - many children show a reluctance to work in groups, even going to an extent of changing their body language (wherein it seems smaller than usual or even contorted). Interestingly, even the ones that find it interesting, sometimes tend to dominate and not take the whole group with them (end up doing all the work and become the object of wrath from all the other members)

Parents..
1. "My child only needs communication skills" - for one, we acknowledge that as a parent your read may be quite right. However, there is a logic to putting communication skills in the middle of our program and running all three modules as part of a single program. Creative & Critical thinking helps build structure of thought in children along with confidence and a flexibility to start looking at the same problem, solution in different ways. This, in turn, leads to building a good foundation for the communication skills module. We see a large difference between children who have attended the 'creative & critical thinking' module and those who haven't when they come directly into the communication skills module. We would like to recommend that, if given a chance, you do it the order suggested. All the three modules are important for the whole brain development of the child.

2. "Child is shy, needs to open up/be more assertive" - becoming assertive in a group requires a set of skills to be developed ranging from awareness of emotions, self-awareness and flexibility to put forth a different response than the one you are used to, not to mention practice in this kind of behavior and positive feedback to take it forward. It takes time to develop these skills, it is not a one-shot exercise. It is possible to do and can be accelerated with your support and encouragement, but will not happen/sustain over night.

3. "Needs to open up at home" - several parents have this concern that child is not very communicative at home and we understand the concern because you genuinely want to know what is happening in the child's life. There are several reasons why a child may not share/be reticent at home and not be so at school/in a program like ours. For parents with this concern, please mention it to our facilitator and we can definitely help you out.

How to really understand communication skills? What is it really all about for children? ...will be covered in the next blog post - so keep checking for updates!

If you ask us in person, in a lighter vein, we would say everybody! But you know, hold on, even seriously - everybody!

It is not just if your child is not doing well in school or has any other behavioral issues. In fact, if they are doing well in school they might need the thinking skills program even more. Why? Ok, I'll list out the reasons for both:

1. If your child has problems in school/is showing behavioral issues - you are perhaps, frantically looking for a solution and you are right in doing so. The earlier a problem gets rectified the better. Now, the issue could lie in any of the thinking related corners of the brain and through our entire thinking skills program we provide a lot of opportunities for the child to create the right kind of spark at the right kind of moment so that they come out of their pattern effectively. It also builds a lot of confidence in them to stand apart, be unique and an initiative to better themselves.

2. If your child is doing well in school already - then you don't really need to teach them how to think, right? Well, not entirely true. A child who has learnt how to excel in school could have learnt the process of achieving it too or maybe just outsmarting the system. In the latter case, what happens when system changes? What happens when life throws open challenges at you? In the former case, the child may not have consciously internalized the process of figuring things out - "I just do it well, don't know how!" (as a child told me today). For a smart child, it could be one of the best gifts you could give them.

Our program has the flexibility to cater well to both the categories of children, without being exclusive about it! The beauty of being creative, huh? 

Moreover, our thinking skills program caters to a set of specific modules that help create a platform of success for the child, many of the modules are not covered in the regular school curriculum and hence, are not things that a child is generally exposed to. That adds to both the points above, that children today are in urgent need of these skills - reason being 'success' in life!

"Some men see things as they are and ask why.
Others dream things that never were and ask why not."
George Bernard Shaw

So is the case with children. However, the "some" needs to be replaced by "all" in the first sentence and "others" in the second sentence, then comes to define all those who are not "children" (at heart?).

We have had a fantastic week at HSR Layout, sparking creativity and curiosity amongst the children. The attitude went from "Impossible", "No way", "Oh! No" on the first day, when faced with problems to "Let's try", "I have an idea" and "Aha!" starting from the 3rd day onwards. It was a dream come true moment for us and personal victories for children for having created new pathways in their ways of thinking, their minds are stretched and the attitudes ingrained.

All that remains is a continued impetus and our "thinking skills" program starting in June combined with the nifty techniques we taught the parents will focus on precisely that! Looking forward to welcoming these kids back in June!!!