Blessing Schools

18/12/2024

The year ended with the ICT WALK and THE MONEY IDEAS CONTEST PITCHES.
Congratulations to OASIS ORGANIC FOOD PROJECT.

05/12/2024

28/08/2020

Thanks friends for caring. We are encouraged by your likes on our page.

28/06/2020

How to sustain learning at home

Receive greetings from Blessing Schools. From our first post we encouraged parents to position themselves to sustain learning at home. I hope some adjustments have been made where need was.
In this post, we are going to share the basics. We appreciate the anxiety parents feel when children are not at school currently. However, there are life lessons that can still be taught at home. We can use this opportunity to instill the same. Don’t underestimate these lessons. They are the lessons that will go with your child in employment, relationships, marriages… etc.

Lessons on common courtesy

Welcoming and greeting guests
Teach your children how to great people in their local language. This, I have noticed , is absent in many homes. I witness it during introduction ceremonies when groups of children and youths are ushered in to greet visitors. During such events, I don’t concentrate on the dances and dress code but the greeting . By my observation, it is sadly lacking. So, dear parents this is the future of homes, work on it.

Appreciation and apology

Train your children to say ‘ thank you’ and ‘I am sorry.’ Did you know many adults don’t have such vocabulary in their mouths and it’s part of the reason marriages and relationships are failing? Fill children’s brain and mouths with such courteous words of for even the smallest of things. Don’t allow them to skip ‘a thank you, mum or dad’ after giving them a small gift, meal, some kind of help like making a child’s bed, polishing their shoes, ironing their clothes, or grooming their toe or finger nails. Purpose that each of your kids forms this habit.
And in case they make mistakes or errors, tell them to apologize. There’s a stage when children start to dislike these words possibly age 3 onwards. They adamantly refuse to say ‘I am sorry.’ Don’t take it lightly. Push this child until they are able to say they are sorry. You are simply shaping them for future success in human relationships.

Table manners

Now you have the time to check how your children behave during meals. Check those who don’t want to share or are inconsiderate of others, those who talk with mouthfuls of food, those who cannot use the words ‘Excuse me’……, ‘May I’……., ‘Will you please pass me the ………...?’ Let them learn this etiquette. Find out those who can’t wait on others. Check those who eat so fast or too slow. Discourage those who rattle the cutlery or dishes, those who make strange sounds as they sip drinks or chew food.
If bad habits are not checked at this stage, it may be difficult to change them in future ………and people with bad table manners can be irritating?

House chores

Whether you have boys or girls, all domestic chores must be learnt by either s*x. Role segregation should be avoided at these early stages. Let boys, like girls learn to peel, cook, do dishes, laundry work, serve meals, grow crops , look after animals and so forth. Allow each to learn. It pays in the present and future. At such times, as a parent , guide and monitor what the children are doing and how well they do the chores. Your role should be much of a supervisory one to ensure that they learn these survival skills.

Family talk.

As parents, we have ideas and so do our children. Depending on the age of your children, engage them to talk over these matters. Allow their wildest imaginations to have space here. This helps you as a parent to know how they feel or think. You can discuss matters ranging from growing up to careers and employment. Listen closely to check the misconceptions they have about life.
Recreation
Discourage most of the television time by deliberately advocating for games; both indoor and outdoor. If there are games you know, let them learn. I have personally taught my own children the game of scrabble. I currently appreciate their vocabulary growth and other skills like decision making and critical thinking they have so far achieved.

Running errands

There are skills children pick from sending them for shopping and delivering messages or packages somewhere. Give them opportunities based on their age. Look for reporting/feedback skills, negotiation and how they practise use of courteous behavior. All the above are learning opportunities which school may skip.

13/06/2020

Greeting to all parents.

We appreciate your continued support for our schools. We thank you for the care you have taken for our precious children since the 20th of March 2020. We know it is not easy working and managing children. The Lockdown has had , and will in the future present, bigger challenges for us as communities and nations in case we don’t continue to educate ourselves on child minding or management as parents. The writing is already in the wall that these unusual times need unusual strategies.

Most parents are focused and strained with feeding and healthcare without casting an eye on the social, spiritual and emotional development of children at such times.

As Blessing Schools, that exists to train the Head, Heart and Hands for holistic child development.

Grant us the opportunity to share from experience on ‘How to sustain Learning at Home.’ We intend to post weekly on our page and your feedback will be much appreciated.

Did you know that Parents are the first teachers on a child? Most parents claim not be teachers and that’s why the stress of living with their own children is unbecoming for these th*****me or so months. First, absorb the fact that you, as a parent, are required by law to take wholesome care of that child up to--- at least eighteen years. The new normal may require us to adjust to staying with our children longer, like you experience it now. The tables have turned. Teacher – parenting, on which many parents had relied in the past, is no longer at your rescue.

What do the teachers know? It is how to raise children before they have their own. What do parents ought to know? It is how to raise their own children first.

The Missing link
Many of today’s parents were not raised in stable homes while others entered the parenting club as teenagers with hardly any assimilated experience. The result of these bad experiences is the failure to know the least on how to handle children. This is reflected in poor communication and physical violence against children by their own parents. Before a stranger harming a child, I am afraid, it may be a parent from some such home environments.

Habits to unlearn as parents

Stop using vulgar language in homes with or without children (children will pick this language and sanitize it as Mum or Dad’s).

Don’t bark at children (talk to them calmly).
Expect mistakes. You are not dealing with angels. These are kids with no experience. Expect mistakes from your children and deal with them both sympathetically and empathetically.

Don`t give your children ultimatums (If you don`t do this or that by …………………. etc.). These can act as triggers to stress and open rebellion in teens.

Stop imposing your thoughts/ ideas on them especially as they grow to teen age. Ask for their thought or opinion.

Don`t push your child to relatives unless you are with them especially in such a time.

Don’t keep quiet about what worries you and your child ( re-opening of schools, the lack of money, food, bills, debts). Depending on their age, let them know what you are battling with.

Abstain from violence against spouses and children. Restrain yourself as much as you can to save your children heartache.

Now that you are at home, don’t involve children in conversations meant for adults.


See you on our next post and please we beseech you to like our page. +256 752 638 109

13/07/2019

27/04/2019