Parents’ Voice | 如何重新定义“木桶定律”？与双牛津博士家长进行心灵深度对话

Imagination is the wing of the intellect and curiosity is the nourishment of the intellect.

Catherine, a K0 child, had gradually revealed her curiosity and imagination in the early stages of her development and had begun to develop a 'strong sense of self'. Her courage to say no to things that go against her sense of self-made us very interested in the background of her upbringing.

Catherine's mum and dad studied for ten years in the UK and have a PhD in Materials Science from Oxford University, and they have their understanding of parenting enlightenment.

How can I help my child 

develop a peaceful mindset?

Does a child have to surpass his parents?

...

With these questions and a desire to explore, Catherine's parents brought their wonderful sharing.

Catherine's Parents (K0)

PhD in Materials Science

University of Oxford

Studied in the UK for 10 years

Worked in the field of process 

industrial design for 10 years

1. The Reason for Choosing CKN

The first one is location. Concordia is located in the centre of Ningbo, very close to where we live, which saves time to send your child to school.

Secondly, it’s about the healthy food. I have been informed that Concordia has its own farm, and it provides healthy fruits and vegetable for students to choose from. At such a young age, our students might be more vulnerable to unhealthy food compared to adults. 

The third point is about happy learning. We appreciate the philosophy of happy learning at Concordia. Instead of being spectators we want our children to receive a lot of knowledge that they can understand. We want our children to explore the world gradually and to keep their creativity and imagination. 

Furthermore, we think this might help them to form the right attitude towards learning rather than having a lot of pressure whenever she thinks she needs to learn. It helps them to build up good mental health. 

2.The Highlights and Surprises did you Find as Catherine Grew Up at CKN

Dad: We brought Catherine back from abroad after raising her until November and expected her to immediately enter a learning process with her peers. In this case, we chose Concordia. The best thing about her arrival at the Concordia Kindergarten is that her world has become bigger and she has more friends. She can read more books, play with more toys and has more playgrounds to play, interact and even make noise with everyone, which is all we would like to see.

Also, she loves to read some books more quietly, even if she is not sure what she is reading and can't understand the words in them, but she goes through them page by page very patiently. Thus, in terms of both movement and quietness is the improvement we want to see.

Mom: I think the teachers at Concordia are very inclusive and they are willing to accept children with different personalities. For example, Catherine is a different child. At the beginning, she didn't want to co-operate and the teacher had to take her to a separate room to sleep, which was very frustrating for us. 

But the teachers at Concordia are willing to work on these issues and help children with different personalities to integrate into the community. They have worked out various ways to do this and now Catherine can sleep at the same time as the other children on her own, which no doubt requires the help of the Concordia teachers, something we both appreciate.

3.What are Catherine's Distinctive Character Traits? 

Dad: In a good way, she is very independent. She wants to choose the book she likes, pick the food she likes. She is not picky but just likes eat the food she loved the most and eats a lot.

On the other hand, Catherine will not a entirely follow your idea. So she will say “No”. For example, she doesn’t like to wash her hand before the meal. There is a very distinct change after we put her into Concordia. She is self-minded and then becomes cooperative without using language. That’s a special point because our child is quite young. I don’t know how Concordia’s teachers manage it but they did their job well.

Mom: I think my baby is very cautious about everything when it comes to some new tasks or playing with some new toys. She would evaluate the risk she might take first. After the assessment, she finds out that maybe the risk is lower than what she accepts. It is a good characteristic.

4. The Hopes for Catherine's Future?

Dad: My philosophy is to use the least amount of energy to gain the most knowledge. The diversity of learning is already evident from Concordia Kindergarten, where Catherine's daily lessons include music and reading a variety of different books. Although my daughter cannot talk yet, I can see that her interest in things is gradually increasing.

Mom: Concordia is an international school and it gives our children an international learning environment at a very young age. This is important because we have all spent a lot of time abroad. 

When we first went to study abroad, we had culture shock. I remember one of our English teachers once said that Asian students think differently from foreign students. We Asians think logically in a spiral way, but Western students think logically in a very straight way. This means that different people will have different modes of thinking.

If a child is exposed to different modes of thinking at a relatively early stage in her life, it is crucial for her future decision-making. Just like when we do modelling, the more complete the parameters you put in, the more accurate the results will be. Therefore, that's one of the things I think is very good about Concordia.

5.The Understanding of the Statement "Do children have to Outdo their Parents"?

It was meant to be a question. She will certainly surpass her parents in some ways, and in others she will not. We insist on the concept that life is a Barrel Principle. Your height is the smallest of your shortcomings. 

For example, our favourite author - Qian Zhongshu - is very good at literaturee. There are times in life when it is good to think about this using the long board principle, and you can get relatively good answers. Overall, I want my daughter to be far ahead of our parents in her long game. On her shortcomings, she does not necessarily have to surpass her parents.

6.The Advice and Suggestions for Other Parents Who are Choosing a Kindergarten

Dad: I think it’s just have a peaceful mind. I believe our children will be in good hands. They can take care of the child from both living, they have good food, environment, and playing ground to study. They have a good education system, teachers are professional, they can understand child better than we can as parents. 

Mom: It is not fair to let your child meet your anticipation and become the person you want them to be. They are individuals and they should do what they want to do. Our role as parents is to guide them and support them when they meet problems. Try to relax and don’t let them receive too much knowledge which they cannot cope with at the moment. Let them have more free time to play and explore the world, and to have a happy childhood like we used to.