One of the things I love to do as an individual is to impact knowledge. I love it when people learn new things. I also love to learn. In fact it is my dream to acquire as much knowledge as is possible that I will be able to contribute to any topic I happen to come across. And what led to this? I do not like to answer a question with 'I do not know'. I avoid saying this, in fact I become ashamed when asked a question that I do not have an answer to.
I worked with different age groups while teaching them different things from academics to soft skills to language and even Sunday school. I have worked with teenagers, adults, and little children. Working with these people has taught me many lessons and I'll share one of them tonight.
The development of a child is greatly affected by the presence of older children i.e role models.
Take for instance the development of speech. My cousin has a two year old, Jimmy who happens to be the first born and my employer also has a two year old, Fidel who happens to be the last born. Fidel's speech is more fluent for a two year old than that of Jimmy. Jimmy only knows things learnt in school such as numbers and alphabets. Fidel communicates reasonably.
Also, presence of older children also influences coordination, character development and understanding. Sometimes last month, something happened in Fidel's house. His mum asked the older child to remove a green chair from the dining table. Upon hearing this, Fidel ran to the chair and sat. I was shocked, as this means he understands what his mum said. Did I mention Jimmy is a few weeks older than Fidel? Well, Fidel has stopped using pampers as he tells his mum and siblings that he wants to weewee whenever he's pressed. I even made a funny comment recently about his development, I said to his mum, ' you can now send this boy to the store to buy you things without any fear' and she agreed.
Also, the work of the parents is greatly reduced as after training the first one or two kids, they can serve as role models for the younger one still developing. The younger one will pick up traits and behavioral patterns from the older ones. Fidel now throws things when unhappy because that's what one of his siblings does. In essence, train the first two kids well, your work on the last is greatly reduced.
Teaching has taught me a lesson I hope to apply someday when I have my own kids. Thank you for reading.
I will continue this series some other time. If you like this post kindly upvote, resteem and follow. Thanks, I love you.