Many of you are keen to unleash your child’s limitless potential. Recently, Jae was selected as a finalist in the national Chinese pen calligraphy competition. Here are some of my reflections on nurturing a child’s interest:
1. Expose
Expose the child to a variety of activities to let him explore his innate interests or talents.
For instance, Jae was introduced to pen calligraphy through some practice books that I got for the children. It happened to be Covid school closure, so he had plenty of time to explore.
2. Support
Support his interests with resources, time & space.
For pen calligraphy, all he needed were the practice books and pens. He also searched for related YouTube videos.
At one point, he was spending quite a bit of time beautifying his handwriting for homework.
Occasionally, I got impatient and later learnt to remind him to be mindful of his time.
Over time, he wrote just neatly enough for homework and more beautifully when time is not tight.
3. Participate
Participate in relevant events to learn from others.
His school organises an annual handwriting competition. After self-learning, he started doing well in the competitions.
The teacher-in-charge contacted me and shared more resources.
She also encouraged him to join State and national competitions. He was encouraged to keep learning and trying.
In the recent event, all the finalists’ entries were displayed in a gallery and he learnt from other excellent pieces. It’s a domino effect of one good thing leading to another.
4. Decide
Decide how far to go.
If he really wants to develop this interest, we can consider getting him a master teacher.
Since this is a side interest for him, he’s satisfied with self-learning. So it’s up to your family to decide how much time and resources to invest in supporting an interest.
As always, enjoy the process!
