Why Are Children Easily Frustrated - Part 2

Assalammualaikum all!

Yes, our mini series "Why Are Children Easily Frustrated?" is still on-going and we are on to the 2nd poster now. As we know, there are many different reasons to why our children can get easily frustrated. Let's see what the 2nd point says.

Imagine that your child spots a beautiful toy car in a store. And he is transfixed. He has temporarily fallen in love, and it scares you. You detect danger. He wants this toy car, and you know it even before he speaks the words "I want that car Mama!". Oh he wants the car badly. You know what will happen if you say no, and you do not want him to throw his tantrum yet again. So you succumb to his 'want' and gets him the car.

This, dear readers, is a form of instant gratification.

Instant gratification is becoming more and more significant in our lives these days. We now live in an era when everything can be obtained in a blink of an eye. Need to shop? Go online instead of queuing up at the mall. Looking for a mobile phone? Just purchase it now instead of waiting two more months for the big sale. It is hard enough for us adults to wait and be patient, imagine how challenging it would be for our children!

Why is delayed gratification important?

Delayed gratification is basically resisting a smaller but immediate reward in order to receive a better reward later. It is important for a child to practice delayed gratification as this will make them grow into a person who is less impulsive and more patient and adaptable in life situations. A renowned research by Walter Mischel in the 1970's called the "marshmallow experiment" shows that children who demonstrated delayed gratification grew up developing better emotional coping skills, higher rates of educational attainment, and lower rates of addiction.

How do we train delayed gratification to our children?

One way to practice delayed gratification is through avoidance. It is the embodiment of the saying "out of sight, out of mind" - if it is not visible, children will not be reminded of it. Start storing those cookies and chocolate at a 'safer', less reachable place. Put your phone away when you are with your child so that they are getting limited screen time.

Another way to impose delayed gratification is through positive distraction. Have you ever been in a situation where your child is screaming because you are taking too long to prepare their food? Try singing a song with them while you prepare the food, or get your child to tell you how their day was. Before they know it, inshaa Allah, their wait comes to an end :)

May Allah bless our efforts and deeds.

Let's go for SPA!

Assalammualaikum all!

It is the season for SPA, and this will be the final round for 2016!

SPA, which stands for Students-Parents Activities, is an initiative done by Genius Aulad as an invitation for parents to become 'teachers for a day' in their child's centres. SPA is held every alternate month throughout the year and every SPA has a different theme.

Our latest SPA theme is My Favourite Things, which means parents get to relive their old hobbies and games that they used to play when they were little. How cool is that?

We are in the midst of having SPA in our centres all around the country. Alhamdulillah, participation from parents and students have been nothing short of amazing. Parents not only obtained the opportunity to experience being a guardian for a group of children; they also managed to spend quality time with their child at school.

Check out some of the activities they had in the recent SPA:

Assembly time before the games begin.

One of the games they had was teng-teng, equivalent to hop-scotch. In this picture, we can see the children are learning to compromise and practice queuing up as they wait for their turn to jump jump jump!

Seen here, a mommy is teaching the curious crowd to play congkak, a traditional game of marbles in a special board usually made of wood. Look how interested the children are to learn, masyaAllah.

This outgoing daddy is demonstrating how to play dam, also known as checkers. Notice how the blue and green pieces are made of plastic bottle caps? This is an excellent example of recycling and having fun!

How precious is this picture? A boy is trying to main getah, a game similar to jump rope. Two teachers are both holding the end of the rubber-band rope for the boy to jump over it. The little onlookers must be watching to see if they can jump higher!

So there you have it, some of the activities that we had during our recent SPA session. The children sure had a lot of fun, and we recognize that parents' involvement in their child's play time is crucial to the child's development. We hope to keep having this activity in years to come, inshaa Allah.

Watch out for our next SPA session next year at you nearest Genius Aulad centre. Announcements would be made in Facebook as well!

May Allah bless our efforts and deeds.

Why Are Children Easily Frustrated - Part 1

Assalammualaikum all!

Alhamdulillah, we have started a new mini series and we just posted our first poster on Facebook this morning! The mini series is titled "Why Are Children Easily Frustrated?" and it features on why it happens or what triggers the issue, and how can we as adults and parents help with the situation.

Victoria Prooday, an occupational therapist with 10 years experience, mentioned in her blog that over the years, she has witnessed a decline in children's social, emotional, and academic functioning. This is causing children to feel bored at school, unable to wait, and get easily frustrated.

Why are children easily frustrated?

In this technology-driven age, it is a norm for everyone to have gadgets. We use it a lot for leisure, work, and even keeping in touch with loved ones. The thing about technology is that it evolves every day; it becomes more and more user-friendly and caters to users of any age. That is why nowadays, children have no problem using gadgets.

Exposure of technology to children from a very young age may not be such a good idea. Why? Long hours of exposure to virtual reality makes it challenging for children to process normal information because their brains are used to the high levels of stimulation that the gadgets provide. Basically, they can process complex information but find it challenging to figure out the simple things, and that can frustrate them.

So, what can we do about this? How can we help our children?

The worrying part here is not whether they can or cannot use these gadgets, but it is about how much time they spend on the gadgets. Limit the use of gadgets and connect emotionally with our children so that they can learn to be more attentive and responsive. In the long run, the ability to emotionally connect helps tremendously in building relationships.

Connect emotionally by doing activities together with your children. It could be as simple as crawling together at home or dancing to a silly song, to learning how to ride a bicycle and flying a kite in the park. The direct interaction with children will help a long way in building their confidence and social skills.

In the end, it all boils down to how much time we spend with our children. Every moment we have with them is precious and irreplaceable. So let's start relying less on technology to keep our children company and spend more quality time with them instead. Let this be our investment in dunia and hereafter, inshaa Allah.

Stay tuned for the next "Why Are Children Easily Frustrated?" mini series. May Allah bless our efforts and deeds.

Well, hello there!

Assalamualaikum and welcome to the Genius Aulad official blog.

Inshaa Allah, we will be using this platform to better communicate and reach out to more people in future. We have so many activities and events going on at the moment, so we would like to document all that and share the excitement with you!

Stay tuned for more posts!

Meanwhile, do visit our official website here.

May Allah bless our deeds.