Have Faith in my Kid

Mrs. Yang (Guangdong)
August, 2009

Pillar my son was nine in 2009. He was as sturdy as a pillar and had sun-tanned skin. Under the recommendation of a friend, I sent him to a resort hotel in Shekou, Shenzhen to join a summer camp called “Move to Learn Summer Camp”. It was organized by a training company from Guangzhou and facilitated by a group of licensed Touch for Health and Brain Gym� instructors.

He was rough and tough. In my eyes (and even more so in his father’s eyes), he was a good kid, though his academic performance was not as high as what I preferred. This is the basic motive behind my sending him into this camp.

I planned to stay in the camp with Pillar throughout the whole process. Since I was there anyway, I talked to the organizer and had become a caretaker of the kids in the camp. Therefore, I was fortunate to have witnessed the growth of Pillar in the camp.

Approaching the end of the camp, I was disappointed. I had seen the kids, all 40 of them, indulging in various learning games led by the head coaches, Conrad Ho and Amy Choi. I had observed that many learning skills were taught. I could even see positive changes in the kids. However, Pillar was not one of them. During the camp, I was constantly bugging my friend Huang Jin Kun, who was one of the coaches, for his opinions. He referred me to Amy and Conrad, and suggested to let Pillar have a private session with either one of them. My husband also came to the camp and discussed with the head coaches direct. Still, frankly speaking, I felt restless till the end of the camp. Pillar had no observable improvements. So, I eventually decided to bring him to a private session with Conrad in two weeks, with high hopes.

Before the session, Pillar and I went for a trip to Beijing. While we were touring in the Tiananmen Square, I heard him murmuring to himself: “Humpty Dumpty”. It sounded so familiar. “What is it, Pillar?” He said it was the character of a story taught in the summer camp. He continued to explain that Humpty Dumpty was a naughty egg. It sat on a high wall and fell to its pieces with a huge splash. All the horses and men of the king had tried to re-assemble it unsuccessfully.

I was struck dumb. I could clearly remember the scene in that day when the story was told. Pillar was running around, fiddling with things and disturbing others. He seemed not to be paying any attention whatsoever to the head coaches. How come he could remember the whole story, down to minute details in Chinese, and a little bit of English, too?

With this doubt in mind, I brought Pillar to Shenzhen again to meet Conrad. He was to balance our whole family. In his smiles, Conrad said that this was related to the personal learning style of my kid. As adults, we tended to require our kids to be this and that; assume that effective learning only resulted from sitting still to read. In fact, in the free atmosphere of the Move to Learn Camp, the strong learning abilities of the kids were able to be expressed in their own unique ways according to their own decisions. Such active learning allowed the kids to learn the most. Of course, under appropriate drilling exercises in the camp, their learning activities could become even more efficient and energy-saving. The idea shocked me right through. When I saw Pillar “not concentrating”, I thought he was “not learning�, but that could be a wrong judgment.

We reaped even more after the private sessions. My husband, Pillar and myself left relieved and happy. Only after several days and the following changes were observed:
1) My son could go from his room to ours to say “good night” to his father. Before, even when all lights were on, he would not dare. What a nice surprise!
2) Pillar played with me and kissed me before bed. I felt much closer to him.

3) My husband also felt closer to him.

4) We talked to my father and mother and balanced them. They were eventually willing to follow our strategy of parenting. My mother, who had really fought with him in aggression, had agreed to interact with him as an adult.

5) Each day, before bed and upon rising, all three of us would do the exercises of core activation and cross crawl sit-ups.

I was expecting even more nice surprises to our family from Kinesiology and I was patiently waiting for them to happen. Thanks to Amy and Conrad!