Mar 09, 2006 03:17 PM
16198 Views
(Updated Mar 09, 2006 03:17 PM)
A newborn baby is born with a 100 billion neurons. At birth almost all the neurons the brain will ever have are present. However the brain continues to grow for a few years. By the age of 2 the brain is about 80% of adult size. At birth the brain has laid its circuits and now it is up to the neural activity-no longer spontaneous but driven by a flood of sensory experiences to take this rough blueprint and progressively refine it. When babies are exposed to sights, sounds, textures to feel, smells, and tastes, more connections are made inside the brain.
Activity in the brain creates tiny electrical connections called synapses. The amount of stimulation a baby receives has a direct affect on how many synapses are formed. Repetitive stimulation strengthens these connections and makes them permanent, whereas young connections that don't get used eventually die out. These first three years are a very important and pivotal time for a developing young brain. This intense period of brain growth and network building happens only once in a lifetime. We as parents have a brief but golden opportunity to help our babies stimulate the formation of brain circuitry.
When Anoushka, our little bundle of joy took her first step and spoke her first word ''Mam-rna'' we felt the need to expose her to an environment where we could provide her with the right stimulus. Thus began a search, which concluded with Kangaroo Kids Toddlers club. The fact that it is located twenty kilometers from where we live did not deter us, as we wanted nothing but the best.
Quite frankly, one had apprehensions of what could be taught to a one year old. A month into the programme, we are delighted at our decision. Toddlers learn through play, the content at Kangaroo Kids has been designed around play, curiosity, and exposure to different sights, colours, textures, and objects. The small group and personal attention of the teachers make it all the more special.
Innovatively designed curriculum aimed at developing the skill sets of toddlers like drama, reading and motor skills. Interactive learning through tools and props, expanding the universe of the child through touch and feel of daily objects of use. Introduction to computers, painting, music and the world of laughter and joy, of watching other little beings of the same age. We will not forget the pool day when the toddlers were introduced to playing in a pool filled with toys under the watchful eyes of the teachers who prodded the little ones on.
What really makes Kangaroo Kids stand out are the cheerful and loving young teachers and its insistence of the parents attending providing the right environment for the parents to walk along as their children start their journey on the road of life. In these times, when parents are finding it increasing difficult to balance their careers and time spent with their child, Kangaroo Kids provides an opportunity to make up in quality what they miss out in quantity.
As a father, I feel deprived of not being able to attend due to pressures of time. When I see a roomful of tender little kids, colorfully dressed, wide eyed with curiosity, pit patter of those first tentative joyous steps, the child in me longs to break free. This, my heart says, is the opportunity to be innocent again, to look at the world through the eyes of your child, to look again at things we have stopped looking, the colour of trees, bark of the dog, the feel of sand in your hand, splash of water, the joy of being able to hold a spoon and bring it to your mouth, the music of poems long forgotten, of reviving characters and heroes long relegated to the past. Of living in the moment, without a thought for the past or worry for the future.
As the prophet Khalil Gibran puts it, you are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. As parents, with help of Kangaroo Kids we are satisfied that we are doing our best to ensure that the arrow may go swift and far.
