Developing my 3 year old’s potential

One of the few things that I do to develop DS’s potential is that I have enrolled him in aesthetics based enrichment classes. Personally, I do not see the need to enroll him in academic based classes as he is so young and at this point of time, and I am more concerned about nurturing his mind, ‘creative juices’and instilling a good sense of value system.

He attends Art and Music classes, which he enjoys tremendously and refuses to stop. He is so enthusiastic that his music teacher suggested that he is ready for group keyboard lessons. To me, his enthusiasm is more priceless than anything else. At home, we come up with our own band and play ‘rojak’ music using his daddy’s guitar, djimbe, some musical instruments (from yamaha) I managed to obtain from a forummer here.

I bring him for walks around the estate. Currently, there is a lot of digging in progress and he never fails to want look at the workers on the excavators and understand the whole process of construction work. So I let him and indulge in his questioning. He picks up new vocabulary words and learns to phrase sentences accurately.

At home, we’ve created our own road system like the CTE tunnel, speed strips and humps using cardboard boxes, paper and colour pencils as he is so crazy about the mechanisms behind them. I bought cheap racing cars/cars for him to experiment with them on our make-shift road system to satisfy his curiosity.

And oh, thanks to a forummer mrswongtuition, we were able to observe and talk about the life cycle of a butterfly with real caterpillars!

I have only but just started teaching phonics at home. He enjoys me reading to him. He enjoys asking questions about the plot. He enjoys asking questions, period. He’s got an insatiable thirst to know more, more and more. That, to me is VERY important. What I also like to do is to tell him a very short story and in turn get him to tell me one after that. And its really hilarious how he tries to develop his plot. His favorite name for his character is ‘Bumbolo.’

So in short, for me personally, to develop his potential means to allow him to experiment and explore (with limits of course), ask his questions freely and try my best to answer him to build up his General Knowledge, engage him in imaginative play, encourage his creative juices to flow but never ever with any force.

That to me, is what developing my child’s potential is all about – for now. After he started pre-sch, I actually considered stopping the classes, but my DS said he enjoyed attending them. The only thing I did was to change the classes from weekdays to Saturdays so that he would not be tired out after school. In this way, DH and I get to spend quality time together in our favorite cafe as DS is productively occupied.

Once he gained some confidence in Gym class, I replaced it with Music. If I do enroll him in chess class later on, he will have to give up on Art, unless if he insists otherwise as I too, do not believe in overwhelming him.