No Instructions

Been hanging out with my 2 younger kids the past week, bringing them to different playgrounds around Barcelona. Parc de la Granota in Castelldefels is a wonderful hill side park. I left Sienna (six) and Quinn (three) to their own devices and watched them navigate the various obstacles in the playground. Some parents feel the need to watch over their child's every step, explaining how every obstacle can be overcome. I prefer to let the kids figure things out on their own. Use the imagination and creativity they have in spades. The photo above captures this idea quite well. Parents who helicopter over their kids will tell them this is a tunnel. Go under. Crawl through it. Sienna and Quinn looked at it and figured it's probably easier to go over than under, and that's exactly what they did.

One significant benefit of not giving kids instructions is that life does not come with instructions either. Life is full of complexities and ambiguities, and there's no user manual to guide us. In some ways, life is the exact opposite of school. School is about instructions and rules. Is it any wonder kids who have been asked to colour inside the lines their entire lives struggle when they get out in the real world? What do they do when there's no one lording over them telling them what to do? How do they figure things out when there are no instructions?

Not only does giving kids instructions not prepare them for life, it also kills their innate curiosity, creativity and imagination. There's little room for creative expression when kids are constantly being told what to do and how to do it. Probably explains why kids are most creative when they are younger.

Quinn drew this at the playground. He said it's his happy face. Hopefully, he can still draw like this when he's a little older, after he's been told a happy face is two dots and an arc.

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Till the next issue!