Welcome FlowerChild

I hear a lot of parents complain about them, I read a lot about them and I think a lot about them: adolescents. A new research has proven that even after twenty years the brain continues to grow and is one big construction site. This explains why their behaviour is sometimes incongruent, impulsive, lacks concentration, irresponsible or just very annoying. They cannot help it, because they are simply unable to foresee the implications of their actions. This means parents can relax, it is not their fault. The adolescents just need a lot of sensible advice and a lot of positive stimulation by means of rewards for good behaviour. And even when your ado is lying in bed most of the weekend, he is working really hard in his/her head.

As we grow older all our experiences give us wisdom, knowledge and unfortunately also patterns with which it is safe for us to live and sometimes to survive. Our experiences then prevent us from living the life we deep down in our heart want, but do not dare to go for. Simply because our experiences made us insecure, scared, ashamed or guilty.

Young children are still free of these ‘negative’ experiences. They have the freedom to explore their unique core competence. We as parents and teachers, have a duty to observe our children objectively, so we can together discover, cherish and motivate their passions. Make sure they will not forget later in life what it is they do best and enjoy most without any effort. In that way we secure a happier next generation.

When you experience this, your day cannot be better. Big fun.

This little 6-year old girl from New Zealand has an amazing talent. And it must be great to know at a very young age what your strengths are and to be able to practice and develop your talents. There are not many young people who have the same opportunities. Often school, homework, parents’ wishes, TV, games, and other obligations drive children away from their first and inner passion. As a result later as adults they feel they do not lead a fulfilling live, they are dissatisfied and suffer from depressions or will finally get a burnout. To find out what the inner passion of a person is we need to change the school systems and make parents and teachers aware that it is not important how much children learn, but how they can find out what drives them from the inside. I hope that very soon there will be new systems installed that make our children people with strong inner desires.

It is a bit ironic how we get to work on projects that are very commercial on the one hand and very equitable on the other. This week at JuniorSenior we have had creative sessions about what tweens (9-12 years old) like to win in competitions and it is amazing how hard it is to satisfy a group as young as these kids. Most of them already own gadgets worth at least € 1.000,00.  They have mobile phones, MP3’s, Nintendo DS’s, cameras, computers. For less ‘cool’ gadgets they are not motivated to join in prizewinning competitions.

We also worked on another problem: how to teach this same group of tweens to manage money and become wise and well informed consumers. When we want to develop a financially sound society, the best place to start is with our youth. Make them aware that every manufacturer wants a share of their money and that it is very important to take control of it.