Welcome FlowerChild

Sir Ken Robinson is a visionair and a creativity expert with a very clear view on our current education systems; “schools kill creativity”. Everybody having and/or working with children should watch this presentation. Because why is being good at math so much more valued than being good at dance or drama. Surprising, because there are so many people making a very good living with artistic professions. My wish for the next generation is to turn schools into talent development centers.

With 30 children in a class and only 1 teacher it is very hard to give all the students enough attention and develop their talents to the max. Dave Eggers, who is a writer of books and storywriter for magazines, realized that one on one tutoring is the best encouragement for children. He set up a network of volunteers, most of them writers with flexible working hours, to help children with their homework in a fascinating and innovating way. Dave gave a presentation and won a prize with his initiative. The presentation video on the homepage is really funny and heartwarming and makes you want to participate too. (www.onceuponaschool.com)

Rotterdam European Youth Capital 2009

The city of Rotterdam has announced itself to be the first European Youth Capital of 2009. Rotterdam wants young people between 12 and 27 years old to be more active in the city. The city wants young people to feel at home, improve the atmosphere and create opportunities for young people to develop themselves and be active in several activities to contribute to a better life for youth in the city. Finally a positive initiative where young people are taken very seriously.

Not all teachers realize how important and motivating they can be for children. In any case the teachers I used to have in primary school didn’t. They were just doing a job and following a method to teach children the necessary knowledge from books. I have not seen nor felt passion with any of them. The definition of teacher means to me now that he or she brings out the talent in each child. That is a difficult job, but a very fulfilling one. When you succeed to pass on a passion to a child, it will, even as an adult, never forget that teacher. Daniel Pennac (1944) used to be a very bad pupil in school, he hated school, he was hopeless. But he became a passionate teacher himself and a great writer thanks to his 4 passionate examples. He recognizes the chronic school-haters and makes even them enthusiastic about their language; French. Daniel Pennac wrote Chagrin d’Ecole (School Pain) and was awarded with the Renaudot prize in 2007

Unfortunately not all children are born with parents from different nationalities. Because learning languages from birth is the ideal situation. But also at the age of 5 children have amazing brain capacities and the flexibility to learn two or three languages at the same time. That is scientifically proven and I have the proof in my own house with two daughters (age 5 & 6) who speak three languages fluently. Most children in and outside Europe start learning languages at college, but at 11 a child is so adapted to the mother tongue that it is extremely difficult to learn to speak without accent. On top of that adolescents are more afraid to make mistakes and cannot learn in a playful spontaneous way anymore. What can parents do to stimulate their children to learn languages at a young age.
1. travel a lot with your children to different countries
2. encourage them to find correspondents (by letters or mail) abroad
3. invite children with different nationalities to come and play
4. take a summer au pair who does not speak your own language
Speaking several languages is not only important for our future in business or work, but it opens our interest and understanding of other cultures.