Allow the child to grow into an adult

Today I read the story of a forty-three year old man breaking the arm of his father just because the seventy-one year old man stared at him for shouting at his mother.

Now, even if the old man was not the father, breaking someone's arm just because of a stare is obviously too much. The picture I got in my mind then was a gangster whose ego is such that even a stare cannot be tolerated. In my youth I have come across such a gangster who asked me what I was looking at. In my adolescent recklessness I told him how could he know I was looking at him if he had not been looking at me. So "Why the hell are you looking at me," I shot back. But, please do not emulate my then stupid action. For me at that time, I had the body of a body-builder and every other person is a coward if he is not confident of winning the fight. With no weapon and a body less rugged and faced with a guy who was certainly not timid, he knew the odds and went off.

In the present story, apparently he knew the father was too old to retaliate and dared to break his arm and kicked him. And he knew the others would not dare to intervene as he had a bowie knife in his hand. What a hero! Would he be brave enough to tackle someone his age and size?

Now, I detest such types; they who would take on someone weaker and show their sadistic streak harming those unable to defend themselves because of age, less strength and less power. They people should put their need to satisfy their ego to better use.

And once a child is big enough to be on his/her own, parents must let go and allow the grown-up child the freedom to find his/her own destination. In this sense I agree with parents in certain countries who get their children to be out of their homes or pay for their own expenses once they are capable of earning a salary. In this way, some children would have the opportunity to develop some maturity and be able to think right. When a child is not able to think correctly, his words and actions will not be right. And when words and action are not controllable by the brain, the person will always be in danger of committing wrong.

So, parents must allow the child to grow into a man/woman. Like a kite-flyer, parents must gradually lose hold of the string that hold and retards their child's growth mentally and spiritually. Allow the child to grow into an adult with all the capabilities of a fully-developed one.

To stimulate the brain.

When we wish to proceed with a project, and we have settled the problem of giving time to it, then we ought to start with it immediately when we know what to do to achieve the necessary success. As we already know, we should start developing our children's brain, together with its body, the day the children are born, if not after the fourth month of conception in the womb.

The next question is what can we do to stimulate the growth and development of our beloved children. Yes, the aim is to stimulate so that the brain would respond and develop to accommodate the knowledge or skill necessary for the child's growth in every possible sphere.

Knowledge involves understanding while skill involves movement. Together they help the child to develop every part of him/her to the highest potential possible. Both ought to be developed together.

In stimulating the brains of our children, the parents are the most important people. They are the children's first and most suitable teachers. Teaching begins with them and they are the ones most knowledgeable or understanding of their own children. If, due to circumstances beyond their control, parents are unable to spend sufficient time with their children to make a difference, then these parents still have the responsibility to ensure the right guardians or child-minders are selected to do the job of stimulating the minds of their children.

Where does all the stimulation and training start? Well, the whole world is our classroom and all audio visual aids as well as practical training venues are found in it. How big your world is depends upon the time available and the expences needed. Everything else in here in this world.

For a start, the cot and the surrounding space in a room is the baby;s world. In it are also the parents, possibly brothers or sisters and grandparents. Of course, there are the toys hung above the cot.

Linguistic intelligence and interpersonal intelligence are the starting points. Parents and other humans who come into contact should speak in proper language and not baby talk which will be useless and discarded soon. Talk to the baby even though there is no responce. Greet the baby, ask questions or make comments on the baby's actions, smile, toys, food and the weather. We could talk as though the baby understands everything there is to say. Vocabulary is being registered in the brain. Later, all this will quicken the child's learning process.

Play with the child, get him/her to smile and laugh. Move the toy hung above the cot and get his eyes to follow the action as early as possible. The suitable toy should provide sound as well as moovement. Let the baby enjoy and register the sound of bells or any other clanging sounds.

Next, we can introduce texture to the child. Let the child know smoothness and roughness and any other textures available. Introduce the new words on textures. Allow the baby to mouth his/her fingers and toys after ensuring that they are clean and safe from dirt, germs and lead.

Then, there is movement. Get the child to move his hands and legs as well as turn his/her head.

Carry the baby and give the baby a chance to bond. Play with your baby. Let others bond with your baby too so that your child has an early start at interpersonal intelliegence development. Some children are so used to only their parents and siblings that they avoid strangers and find it difficult to enjoy the closeness of others.

From the cot and the home, the child widens his/her world into the garden and the neighbourhood. Talk about the new things he/she encounters here. Let the child experience the places. Parents' method of stimulating the child's brain for knowledge and skill is similar with slight variations. Again the verbal-linguistic intelligence is stimulated except that the child by now could start to ask questions which needed to be answered. If the parents can read up or learn in order to provide interesting and provoking answers to arouse curiousity, the brain would want to know more. Of course, the more is known, the more there is to know. If parents cannot provide the right answers, then the parents can take the child further afield to the library, the book-shop, the internet, the acquarium (At this point I still remember very well the little boy I saw at an acquarium shop who was full of questions for his delightful mother on all the fish and creatures seen in that place), the sundry shop, the supermarket, the wet-market, the public gardens, the zoo, art studios, musuems, the sea-side, the hills, the swamps, the rivers and any other place we can find in and around our town or village.

From here on, go and explore wherever and whatever is possible and within reach. Let the child know all there is to know within those six or seven years of his/her life.

Teach him/her to read and stimulate his/her love for reading. A love for reading is important as it is through books and the experiences of other people that we know and understand so many other things which is beyond our time and expenses to have.

Play is an important part of learning. Imagination is just as important. A child may discover the wonderful feeling of being able to cure others through pretending to be a doctor with a toy stethoscope and a stringe. Playing and taking apart watches and radios may anger parents as the expensive objects are destroyed in the process but it could be the result of curiousity to understand the workings of such things. We may be having an engineer or an inventor in our midst.

Talking about imagination, there was a time I saw parents dressing up their little children in graduates' attire and having them photographed. That was good, had the parents continued the process by telling the child that the first step to graduation is the ability to understand words well, read books and able to put thoughts and ideas on paper or in words. Then constantly remind the child of the path towards it with more stimulation towards whatever interests which could move the child towards that goal.

Many things in life require some kind of skill. For instance, a start could be made on skill development when the child has a bicycle. Show the child how to change a tyre or a bulb. Later, when the child grows up and is stronger, this child would know how to do it with a spanner and other instruments. Start with simple skills and go on to more difficult ones. Once a child has some skills mastered, he/she will be more than willing to learn whatever skills he/she comes across.

What about the child's bodily-kinesthetic intelligence? It all starts with walking, running, jumping, balancing, riding a bicycle, kicking footballs, throwing balls, bouncing balls; all of which leads to development of balance, agility, coordination, control, strength, stamina and endurance. With all these well developed, a child has the confidence to take on any sport he/she is interested in. He/She will not be left out in this field. Not only that, as many everyday actions require all these developments, he/she will find life so much easier to enjoy and be happy with. Almost anything would be within his/her reach. And the child will be stronger, healthier and fitter too. I wish to especially stress this point as an increasing number of parents think physical development not as important as verbal-linguistic development.

I remember that the one most important factor that removed whatever inferiority complex that I had as a child, was a strong and healthy body able to take on anythign physical as well as linguistic. With a healthy body, circulation is better and therefore, concentration is longer; and concentration is important in the classroom or the lecture room.

Well, all this will come to nought unless there are parents who would take on the job of developing their children's brains and bodies to their highest potential.

God moves in mysterious ways.

Even as Muslims and Christians in Malaysia face the problem in the use of the word ‘Allah’ and due to the fanning of emotions by certain quarters with the disastrous results of places of worship being burnt, seven churches were reported to have been burnt, and stones hurled into the premises of a mosque, a group of Muslim NGOs have come forward with volunteers to help prevent further attacks on churches.

This must be one of those mysterious ways God has to solve the problem of ‘brothers’ being thrown against each other into a conflict that should never be. It is proof that there are people who truly believe in God though we see many who profess their faith in a certain religion, yet act as though they believe otherwise. (I shall write more on this which, in a way explains my inability to ‘belong’ to any religion, for I belong to God and not human-set ideals of what should be. )

I really am impressed by the following words of Muslim Consumers Association Malaysia executive secretary Datuk Nadzim Johan’s, ““We wouldn’t want our Christian brothers to be in danger. This is an offer of peace and goodwill,” He called them his Christian brothers.

A man who can think of another human being, especially one who is of a different race or religion, as his brother, deserves my respect and love. For someone to treat all fellow humans as his brothers and sisters, he must be someone who truly believes in God, that all of us come from Him and we are all His creations. As such, we should look upon each other as brothers and we are a ‘One World Family’. If all humans can open their minds up to the true will of God, all our earthly petty quarrels become insignificant and not worth any of the precious time God has bestowed upon us to achieve our true mission in life. (One day, I hope to find time to show how those who think that their calling is to destroy some of the creations of God is actually going against God. In fact, think with full awareness of the previous sentence and that realisation can be clearly reached.)

Yes, as Man sincerely reach out to God and believes as well as understand His power and not the power-cravings of another human, he realises that all of us, no matter what religion we belong to, are His creations; that He created us, existed before us and we belong to Him and not Him to us as he is not Man but the all almighty God.

Perhaps, without the problem of fighting over who can call Him ‘Allah’ and the present church burning, there could not have emerged the understanding of Datuk Nadzim Johan’s that all human beings are brothers, that places for worship, regardless of what humans call them are built in the name of GOD. (For me, the most sincere place for worship is my heart. Prayers of truth come from our hearts. Are you aware of this?)

Without the present situation, the thought that our Christian brothers are in danger could not have come about. For someone who is not a Christian to think of the possible danger such acts of violence can cause the Christians, I dare to say, he is a true man of God. If we have everyone as true to God as this, then there can be no possibility of ‘The End of the World’ for God would then certainly look upon us with even greater love. With such thoughts, I see the light of salvation growing stronger and brighter for all mankind.

Perhaps, through this particular problem, we reach a better understanding of God, an understanding which hopefully can reach into the hearts of those who merely claim to believe, yet those words of belief only comes from the mouth and not from the heart.

It is, in fact, this belief in God from the mouth and not the heart, that is the source of our present world problems. (As this is of utmost importance, I will certainly word my thoughts on this matter in future postings.)

Giuliano Stroe: Unbelievable Super Strength and Agility.

In the internet, search for Giuliano Stroe and you can see him in action in a good number of websites as well as on You-Tube.

Giuliano Stroe, from Romania, is not just any five year old neighbourhood kid. No kidding. I do not know whether we can ever see a kid like him, ever.

For one thing, at the fantastic age of five, he had entered the Guiness Book of World Records after appearing on an Italian TV show doing some incredible hand-walking skills with a weight between his legs. His feat was the fastest ever ten metre handwalk.

He is not just too young for his feats! He is not just a body-builder with a muscle bound body. He is one well-trained gymnast too!

To show his gymnastics skills, he did the 'Crouching Tiger' wall flip, back flip-flak on a kitchen table, back somersault and stunts on a high bar.

He does weight-lifting too. However, from the way he jerks the weights upwards, they are obvously too heavy for him.

According to the father, Iulian Stroe, aged thirty-three, this fantastic little guy has been going to the gym with his father 'since he was born'.Then, at the age of two, he had been training in that gym in Italy. Imagine that! How could that little two year old be interested in weights and gymnastics then? It is just beyond me!

As a guy who had taken up weight-lifting and gymnastics during my younger days, I still remember the aches of the muscles after each weight-lifting session. To me, weight-lifting is not just an exercise; it is a discipline to go back there every alternate day for another day of sweat and ache. But then, as a teenager, I had the advantage of motivation; I was motivated by the need to improve my strength and health. Thus, I am puzzled how this two year old could be similarly motivated or inspired. Was it the father or the environment of the gym?

No matter how we look at it, this little boy certainly has shown great strength, endurance and discipline.

According to the father, there is no danger of harm to his son as he himself had been training all his life.

Hwoever, I beg to differ. Although the father had been training all his life, when did he start his training? If he had started as a teenager, he would have his skeletal structure already fairly well developed. There would not be the problem of tight well-developed muscles impeding the growth of the bones.

I have noticed at national level gymnastics competition where I can remember at least one sure prize-winning well-developed muscle-bound gymnast who won top prize all the way from Under-12 year level to Under 18 year level. Through the years we watched him sweep prize after prize. Right or wrong, one opinion all coaches were unanimous about: He was a little too short. And we believed the muscles bound his skeletal structure too much.

Of course, all I can offer is based on observation and opinions. Perhaps, some expert on growth and development of the human body could tell us what is correct.

For the sake of that fantastic little boy, I hope to be proved wrong. I wish him all the best.

When growth starts, nutrition is important.

The other day I saw a pregnant woman smoking and drinking alcoholic drinks at a wedding dinner. Ought this woman take advantage of the free drinks available to the wedding guests? Even worse, she was smoking, sending nicotine to her unborn child.

That made me think: how many parents think of their children's nutrition before their birth? How many are aware of the toxic substances sent to the foetus through the mother?

The alcoholic content can reach the foetus. Would it have any effect on the foetus' kidneys and liver. (Adults who consume too much alcoholic drinks too often could get their livers burnt. What about the poor foetus?)What effect would nicotine have on the foetus?

Today's parents ought to know that growth for their child starts from the first day of his/her life in the womb. For that growth to be good and healthy, proper nutrition must be available to the foetus.

Since the necessary nutrition is made available to the foetus through the mother, the mother must be aware that anything that goes in through her mouth into her body and the bloodstream can reach the foetus.

From the nutrients through the mother, the foetus' development of all organs and body parts progresses. Based on this knowledge alone, we ought to realise the importance of the pregnant woman's health and diet.

Thus, pregnant women should be aware of the importance of nutrition. Of course, all of us have to be conscious of our nutrition. However, when one is pregnant, one is responsible not only for her own body but also that of her developing foetus. A pregnant woman has doubled responsibility.

The husband should be sympathetic to her cause and refrain from smoking or imbibing food and drinks that are not desirable for the growth of their child. He must ensure that her happiness, health and diet are well taken care of. That is the responsibility of the husband in a marriage. Together, they make everything go smoothly. They must work at it as one single family.

When it comes to development of the various organs and body parts, protein is of utmost importance. Then comes vitamins and minerals. The right kind of fats and oils are just as important as they play a part in the development of cells and tissues as well as other parts of the body. Some carbohydrates is needed as energy is required for organs to function and movement to take place.

Health care during pregnancy is easily available throughout the world. Seek the advice of gynaecologists for the latest knowledge and advice to ensure the children will be given the best possible start in life.

Today, we have cancer patients getting younger and younger each year. Where did those young patients get their carcinogenic substances from? Is it from the toxic food they eat as a child? Could it be through the mother even as a foetus? Whatever it is, would not it be better to eat less toxic and processed food with its toxic preservatives? If possible, take as much organic vegetables and fruits as possible. When it comes to meat, meat from grass-fed animals are better than those fed with processed feed containing antibiotics and growth hormones.

Yes, somebody could be taking unfinished hormones injected into animals. What could happen to us when ingesting such hormones? Could it fatten us faster? All I know is that it cannot be good for us. After all, we are no chicken, duck, goose, cow or pig.

Unless, of course, if we could grow angel's wings to fly us off to a paradise, a land without any toxicity.