By: Bbiira Kiwanuka Nassa
I spent this weekend usually home. I enjoyed playing with my daughter Young, 3 sons Little, Senior and Success. I was however challenged with the creativity and task my wife is experiencing of late with all these guys at home. I was forced to reflect. Upto now, what is in my mind is what should occupy our children?
My naive thinking is that:
1. Don't buy for the children toys. Let them make their own.
2. Don't take them out. Take them to driving or riding.
3. Don't spend the whole day without an informal chat with the children
4. Spend at least one hour a week in a family meeting with the children. Let one of them chair the meeting.
5. Ask them what they like.
6. Don't allow the village nature or urban environment dictate what the children will be
7. Don't allow the children dominate their mother or father alone.
8. If you have a daughter at any age, don't allow her spend unmonitored time with their father or male relatives. This gender can turn out to be vampires
9. Ask them what they like
10. Introduce to the children to society issues such as Covid19, gold winning, governance etc
11. Monitor your children's friends and their actions.
11. Introduce to them financial literacy issues like budgeting, investment, savings etc
12. Give them money and monitor how they prioritize or spend it.
13. Allow them do minor mistakes and rectify
14. Talk to them in a local language. Using Lukonzo could be more important than bombarding them with the English tomments
15. Monitor their talk. One of them could be a mentor or a predator
16. Don't allow the community dictate what should be done. Set the stage.
17. Identify an enterprise or skill at home. They can be flower gardens, farming, urban farming, environmental health initiatives etc.
18. Let the children not spend all the time on a TV. They may never appear there if not mentored to qualify to be featured on the TV.
19. Do things that makes the children appreciate the difference between price and value. We need value based children not just kids
I hope you will pick one item to shape your children's future during this school lockdown.
I thank you
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