Engage in Our Children’s Interests
Toy guns! Our little one simply loves them. Ha!Ha! He also loves striking poses with them.
“I want to be a police” repeated Darren. So it is not difficult to guess that his liking for guns arises from a wish to be a police or is it the other way round? *hehe*.
A suggestion for parents: When a child enjoys a certain ‘healthy’ topic or item, parents can tap on his/her interests to encourage him/her to express it through :
- writing
- drawing
- a play
- story telling or ’show and tell’ (schools here are exposing children to ’show and tell’ too)
This helps a child in his/her expression and creativity. It expands his/her knowledge as well. In addition, it aids the child to feel motivated when parents are engaged in his/her topic of interests. With parental guidance, young children can also start finding out more about the topic or item through internet search.
Actually for us, we went a step further as our boys gave us the idea of creating a “library, museum or shop concept” to showcase or market their creations (as a playtime at home), topic of interest or even ‘researched’ topic for our older boy. It gives our boys many opportunities for teamwork too.
[This concept is educational and fun and we will share this in another post.]
For our boys, they get interested with different topics and objects at different stages. While Brendan fancied toy cars when he was young, Darren has been keen on toy guns since a year ago. We explained to him that a “real gun” is not like a “toy gun” and that police does not use his gun without discretion.
See how we enter into Darren’s world of police and toy guns through his drawings, ’show and tell’ and role play where he plays the police while mommy is the lady villain:)
Expressing his newly gathered knowledge through drawing
Expressing the difference through ’show and tell’
Our brave policeboy on duty in pyjamas *haha*
With interests and time from parents since our children’s young age, I am sure our children find it exciting and fun to invite the parents into their world WHILE parents gain much insights and bonding moments too - through the eyes and minds of our young ones.
I always learn something new and informative from our boys.
Don’t you?
I guess most boys love guns. My younger one like it too but I have not bought any for him for fear of him having idea of using it wrongly. Need more to educate him. Need to learn from you more :) Thanks for the tips.
Hi Michael,
It is better to understand and be engaged in our kids’ topic of interests and correct any misconceptions (that they might have). I know of some parents who deter their kids from many participations and interests (also not explaining to them fully) and at the end the kids grow up and attempt them, anyway, out of curiosity and rebellious. The kids grow up not wanting to share with their parents anymore their interests and thoughts. I usually keep those round marble bullets from Darren cause it might injure Brendan or himself.