“Fun activity worksheets to help kids overcome depression and stress.”
ENIGMA:
I came across the above tag recently.
“Depression and stress for kids???” I wondered.
I was not able to digest this, but of late this has become a very common thing.
Why do kids have to go through this painful thing? Don’t they deserve a playful, peaceful, happy childhood? Of course, learning is important, but it’s not the only thing that a child is supposed to do, and more importantly, learning need not be a strenuous process in the first place.
INVESTIGATION:
Now, let’s probe into this matter diligently.
Finding the Right Learning Methodology
Learning can be done in a fun and more effective way. Every kid is a good observer. They do the things they observe more than what they are told to. Ways that work for one kid need not necessarily work for another kid.
There are four common types of learners:
- Visual learners
- Auditory learners
- Kinaesthetic learners
- Writing/reading learners
A visual learner would definitely have difficulty paying attention to lectures. Similarly, the other types have their own difficulties and when forced to follow a single template they just don’t fit in. Some kids somehow manage to endure and survive the taming process, but unfortunately, many kids with great creativity and extraordinary capabilities become poor performers or even get branded as having ADHD. Their creativity and even some unique talents become buried deep inside.
My son, Agnivesh, is a kinaesthetic learner and it’s very difficult for him to sit idle in a place and learn; he needs to be moving around and even does better on a skateboard or a skate scooter, especially when learning things like multiplication tables or anything that needs to be memorized. He would verbalize about solar systems, planets, and black holes when he was four years old, but wouldn’t know a rhyme; indeed he would sing all the rhymes in perfect tune, but with his own lyrics 😄 and not to mention he was very adamant about starting alphabets from letter H, maybe that was his favorite letter.
Now, if you see all this as incapability and tried to correct then his genius creative brain would have been shattered, as it happens in many cases.
Every kid is unique and special in one way or other; gifted with some exceptional talent and creativity. It’s the parents’ and educators’ responsibility to identify and nurture every kid’s unique talent. Also, it’s very crucial to identify what type of learner the child is at the very early stages and choose the right methodology, that way, maybe this crisis of “depression and stress in kids” could be addressed.
FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION:
The main problem I see here is that we look into this critical scenario through our perspective and try to find out solutions that might work for us, adults.
Why can’t we get down to the level of the little ones and understand their world the way it is…
… that’s way different from ours.
Today’s kids,
- Do they even have a childhood where they just play around happily? They are being burdened with too much to digest starting from very early age.
- Do they get the care of mother at least till the age of three. Some kids are even sent to school as early as 2; some because of busy parents but some just because parents want to get rid of, not ready or not being able to. What would a child know at that age? This is the sad truth of today’s parenting.
Mother’s care in early childhood plays an important role in shaping the child’s future.
Refer to the following link for more insight. https://www.indiaparenting.com/child-development/262_6626/10-important-roles-of-a-mother-in-child-development.html
Its very important for kids to play in a natural environment.
Now, referring to the title, its about worksheets. People destroy forests 🌳, the lives of many beautiful species to create activity worksheet’s to engage kids to overcome depression, which again the kids are supposed to do within the four suffocating, lifeless walls…
Quite an irony… isn’t it.
A simple but effective method should be to just let them play freely in Nature, and explore their world in their own way. Let the child climb the tree and not become the reason to cut and consume it.
“JUST LET THEM BREATHE!”
In my next blog, I will write more about nature learning methodology and it’s benefits to kids.
