Notes From Mar 18th Class

Today (Mar 18th), I learnt about various cycle of life.

• Early Childhood – Children should be welcome into family and made to feel safe & secure. This is the age till child becomes a teenager.
• Late Childhood – Children must learn to care about others & fit into larger community. Generally speaking teenager onwards till adulthood.
• Adulthood – We must become teachers, caretakers and nurturers. During this time, we put off some of personal wants to meet children’s needs. Average adulthood phase in USA starts around when you get a child (around 26 years of age)
• Elderhood – This is when we must pas on the stories, vision, lessons, culture with patience, appreciation and acceptance.

We talked about “How the child models parents”, means how your good or bad behavior is picked up by child.

We also learnt about importance of

• Personal rite of passage – This is related to helping your child grow as a happy and secure citizen. Help your child develop self esteem, love for self, love for family. Examples of things that you could do for that are.
• Create personal space for your child
• Send personal / special message to your child
• Provide interaction with other role models
• Ask your child about their value system, role models, dreams, aspirations.
• Help your child to be independent and confident by giving working opportunities under supervision
• Encourage self-discipline and hard work
• Clear Instructions – Tell what is expected and remove guessing work. Show, role-play or practice with your child.
• Special Time – Give individual time to each kid separately and let the child know their importance and how much you love him / her. This builds parent child bond. Here are some of the ground rules of special time.
• For younger child – 15 min a day.
• For older child – 1 hour twice a week
• No questions, no directions, no criticisms. Listen to your child, repeat what child says, ask questions to help the child think, Share information about yourself.
• Try to have a set schedule for special time
• Spiritual Rite of Passage – From spirituality, the child will develop courage, love, joy, peace, gentleness, charity, faith, humbleness and patience to face obstacles without complaint.