What is normal is for children to learn from us, but oh the amazement and joy when the child becomes the teacher! At times you laugh because you wouldn’t expect the child to know such a thing. I have had experiences where children, both mine and others’, have given me some coaching. Here I share 4 amazing lessons I have learnt.
Lesson 1: Educated in vocabulary
While we were still in South Korea we had the opportunity to visit my brother-in-law and his family in the Philippines. By then, their daughter, Maka, was in kindergarten and must have been around 4 or 5. So she asked uncle David what shape the moon was. Of course, same as you, he said round (I had the same thought, too). Maka taught us about the oblong moon! How we laughed, I don’t think in my vocabulary of shapes that word even existed 😁.
Even if I knew that word, I wouldn’t have used it thinking it was beyond her. I thought young children should just know the basic shapes, round, square, rectangle, triangle! Lol. But now in our homeschool we use even big words. The kids will ask what the word means and that is how we introduce it to them. The brain has such a capacity for learning I have seen we are the ones who dumb things down for children; they get it more than we give them credit for.
Lesson 2: Schooled in science fiction
As I walked going into the living room, I saw my son Tara just coming in. He then asked,’ Mum, how did I teleport here?’ Pardon? Tele what? I had to google the word to know what he was talking about. Science fiction, that’s what! He was talking about getting from place to place very fast, in my world I would use the word ‘transport’.
Exposure, within reasonable boundaries of course, helps children expand their horizons. I am not a science-fiction person, but it took watching it to know I didn’t quite enjoy it! My child became my teacher, in trying to understand him I learnt what I didn’t know. If he keeps enjoying it I may join him 🤷.
Lesson 3: Training in technology
I am acutely aware that I don’t use my phone’s features to the fullest. Why, even the baby seems to show me some things I didn’t know MY phone could do! That sense of adventure and discovery I don’t possess. Just satisfied with texting and calling, shame on me😁. There are photo editing features that I thought one needed to download some software for, only to be surprised when I went through my photo gallery! The kids knew where to find them and how to use them..
When it comes to technology we are way behind our kids. And it seems they are just born knowing how to get around it. That comes as no surprise, as they are born surrounded by it. Growing up, we didn’t have the same. The pros and cons is a whole other conversation which I am not getting into now.
Lesson 4: Mentored in human relationships
We got new neighbors who had little girls some time ago. My children went out to play with them outside. When they came back, my daughter began to explain that for the little girls to understand her she had to say bicycllle (with the ‘l’ drawn out, you see the girls are Indian). My initial response was to laugh, and then to hope the girls’ mother wasn’t offended. Later on I realized she meant no malice, but was just communicating so they understood each other. She picked up how the little girl was speaking and tried her best to mirror her.
That reminded me when my daughter was also young and we went to visit my cousin, who had just had a baby. She has twin boys, Ivan and Ethan, and they must have been around 7 years or thereabouts. Although they spoke English, they tried their best to find Shona words, our home language, to use so their 2 year-old cousin could understand them.
I was impressed and still am, at how children do their best to communicate. They could speak different languages but still find a way to include each other. We see these differences in color, language, or even social classes but these are non-existent to children. Let the child be the teacher in emotional intelligence. And we would do well to learn from them!
