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Weekend with Islay
Since Jon was busy with his assignment, this weekend was pretty much a Mama weekend!
On Saturday (March 6, 2021), we went to the Peel Park and met a Spanish mother with a baby girl and a 3 year-old boy Davin. He was staring at Islay’s ball so I invited him to kick it, then he was so excited and they started playing together. Davin was responding to his mother in Spanish and to us in English and that was impressive. Later, I saw a Polish father with a girl, speaking in Polish, too. I love this diversity and I am sure I will miss this environment in Japan.
After the park, we went to Lidl. We wanted to buy flower bulbs and multi-purpose compost but they didn’t have neither of them, so we just bought a pretzel (that Islay called big doughnut!), a small pizza, baby cucumbers and other stuff. We found a picnic area near the river and sat down and enjoyed the lunch. The weather was really pleasant -no wind, comfortably warm, not too bright. There was nobody except us in the area. We could hear birds chirping and saw a few people walking, running, or cycling occasionally on the other side of the river. Islay loved the pretzel and the cucumbers so much that she did not moan even for a second. I haven’t been relaxed at a meal time like this for a while as she rejects food at every meal nowadays. So it was a really nice picnic after all.
On Sunday, we went to the Eliburn Park. We met a Scottish father and his little girl, Lily-Jane. Well, she wasn’t ’little’ for her age -I thought she was older than Islay but it turned out she wasn’t (2 years and 3 months)! Islay started copying Lily-Jane at the octopus object and picking up the sand and wood chips, then they ended up doing the slide (the one that is shorter and steeper) again and again and again! Islay wasn’t confident doing the slide alone at first as she knew that it would be much faster than the long slide at the other side of the park, but she saw Lily-Jane doing it and having a blast, and eventually she started enjoying it, too. It was good for me, too, that Islay played with her because then I could sit on a bench and watch, sipping a hot tea from my flask. After more than 1.5 hour hanging out with them, we headed to the reservoir (Islay calls it the duck pond) and fed the swans. Last weekend we fed them vegetables and so did we this time, and we now know that the swans definitely love carrots and ducks are not interested in vegetables.
Even though I was knackered after the park visits on both days, I had great times watching her running, interacting with other kids, and playing with full of smiles.
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Reading note
I’m currently into reading about parenting as well as how young children learn. In the book I recently finished, I learnt about the Theory of Multiple Intelligence, first proposed by an American developmental psychologist Howard Gardner in 1983. According to him, human beings have eight different types of intelligences that reflect different ways of interacting with the world (some claim there are nine or more). The theory is a critique of the standard intelligence theory as well as traditional measures like IQ tests. Each individual possess all the types to some degree.
Here are the summary of eight intelligences (copied from https://www.verywellfamily.com/what-are-multiple-intelligences-4002039).
1.Spatial(視覚・空間的知能): Visualizing, creating, and manipulating something in a space, such as what an airplane pilot, architect, or chess player may do.
2.Bodily/Kinesthetic(身体・運動的知能): Using one’s gross motor skills or fine motor skills to express oneself or to create, learn, or solve problems; involves coordination and dexterity and the use of one’s whole body or parts of the body, such as the hands.
3.Musical(音楽・リズム的知能): Expressing oneself and understanding and creating through music—by singing, playing musical instruments, composing, conducting, etc. Involves musical abilities such as sensitivity to rhythm, pitch, tone, and timbre.
4.Linguistic(言語・語学的知能): Being attuned to the meaning of words and the sound, rhythms, inflections, and meter of words, the way a poet might. May involve reading, writing, speaking, an affinity for foreign languages.
5.Mathematical/Logical(論理・数学的知能): Understanding and recognizing the patterns and relationships between numbers and actions or symbols; possessing computing skills; having the ability to solve various problems through logic.
6.Interpersonal(対人的知能): Being attuned to other people’s feelings, emotions, and temperament. Individuals with high interpersonal intelligence are often associated with leadership and tend to be good at communicating with and understanding other people and are good at working with others. Sometimes referred to as social intelligence.
7.Intrapersonal(内省的知能): Awareness of one’s own feelings, thoughts, anxieties, and traits, and the ability to use that understanding of oneself to control one’s own impulses and behavior and make plans and decisions.
8.Naturalist(博物的知能): Understanding nature—plants, animals, the environment, etc.—and identifying, observing, categorizing, and understanding distinguishing features. This intelligence helps us use elements and patterns in the natural world to create products or solve problems.
Out of curiosity, I did an online assessment that contains 63 questions to find out about my intelligences. I scored high in the interpersonal and naturalist intelligences (4.29/5 in both) with the mathematical/logical intelligence being the lowest (2/5), which was not surprising at all.
The theory is widely applied in educational settings and by parents. Here are the things we parents can do at home (copied from https://www.verywellfamily.com/what-are-multiple-intelligences-4002039).
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Spend time with kids and see what they like: do ordinary things like having dinner or playing games.
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Value strengths instead of what kids can’t do: build your child’s sense of pride in things they are good at.
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Engage your child in different ways: if a child is struggling with something, suggest different approaches to it.
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Consider the expectations we have today: do not put additional social pressure on your child.
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Know that intelligence is a snapshot: expose your child to a variety of experiences as their MI profile is not static.
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Look at the value of all the intelligences: educations tend to focus on linguistic and math but all the intelligences should be valued equally.
I find that, while the theory has received criticisms in the relevant academic world, it gives a good guidance for parents to raise children. It gives ideas for the ways we communicate, play and study, and depth to activities and experiences in everyday life.
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