Parenting | Have fun with learning

Read, read and read some more

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Priscille d'Arifat-Koenig

If your child likes reading then you’ve won half the battle towards him or her being motivated to learn.

Reading is learning in disguise.

It stimulates the mind, brings knowledge and it improves vocabulary and memory skills. Moreover unlike tablets and screens it allows us to be more focused and relaxed.

For many children though, the act of reading in itself is boring and tedious. That’s because they are still learning to be comfortable with it and have to spend a lot of energy into working out what the words are and understanding them.

Continue reading Read, read and read some more

Do you model a great work life for your child?

Posted on September 21, 2016September 21, 2016 by Priscille d'Arifat-Koenig

Learning is not only about stocking a lot of information.

There usually is an ultimate purpose behind every learning endeavour.

If a child learns to ride a bicycle, the purpose might be to be able to go for a trip with his dad. It might be because he or she wants to be able to do like his/her friends. Or it might just be to feel the thrill of speed and the wind on their face.

If you learn to use the internet, the purpose may be to get access to any information when you need it. Or it might be to connect with friends who live overseas.

Learning at school is no different.

Except that most of the time, we hold the purpose for

Continue reading Do you model a great work life for your child?

Get to know your child’s teacher

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Priscille d'Arifat-Koenig

No. I certainly don’t mean that you need to befriend every teacher your child will have, nor have lengthy conversations with him or her. I don’t mean either that you need to know every detail about his or her personal life.

What I mean is keep an attentive eye for the strengths of your child’s teacher.

There are lots of information that can be gathered just through the quick interaction with him or her – may it be in direct contact, via a message book or how your child talks about him or her.

What you want to pay attention to are those resources, character traits and strengths, that makes that particular teacher different from others.

Focusing on those will not only help your child see his teacher as resourceful, but will also allow for better communication with him or her should you encounter an issue in your child’s school pathway.

Give your child some time to adapt from the ‘lazy’ holiday rhythm to the more structured school days

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Priscille d'Arifat-Koenig

The first few days of school after a break or holiday can be strenuous for some children.

The rhythm goes from, let’s be honest, pretty much doing nothing all day and enjoying life to structured time tables, lots of thinking and concentration requested from them as well as a much more fast paced routine.

Of course, most children won’t articulate it in such a way, but they might show signs like being a little more irritable or cranky, or slower in doing everyday task, or just plain tired.

Be understanding and support them during these first few days by lifting some of the weight off their shoulders.

After that first week, they’ll have adapted to the school routine and they should be back to normal.

Being smart is being responsible… in a different way

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Priscille d'Arifat-Koenig

Are you raising responsible children? Or are you raising smart children?

I love this article about raising smart versus responsible kids.

In her article Paz takes the very traditional meaning of responsibility in the sense that we have obligations to do things in a certain way. And in that sense, I completely agree with her.

Society is evolving and the world is changing. And with the economic and environmental challenges that the world is facing today, I’d rather see some smart and creative adults tomorrow than responsible and conforming ones.

I do have certain reserves about including children in very important decisions, because I believe that our role as parents is also to give a secure structure and environment to our children and that includes to me bearing the opportunities and challenges of such decisions.

And at the end of the day, I believe that if you raise smart kids… they’ll definitely be responsible too!

Indulge in your child’s interests

Posted on March 18, 2015June 11, 2015 by Priscille d'Arifat-Koenig

I strongly believe that when we lead with our children’s interest, we can go a mile longer than if we ignore or criticize them.

This is actually something we do quite naturally and very easily when our children have interests we can relate to.

However, when they have interests we can’t really relate to… then we will be more critical of them.

So even if you don’t completely understand your child interest, it is important to still engage with him about it.

This is very easily don by having conversations about it. You can also be being present with him from time to time while he is involved in it and try to spark even a little interest for it yourself. Yes, even if it is skateboarding or playing PS3 games, there are still healthy ways to indulge in those!