Allow your child to benefit from his interest.

Allow your child the opportunity to benefit from his interest.

As your child grows, he/she develops certain interests in things in and around his environment. Unless it is something which you simply cannot accommodate no matter how much you want to, allow him/her to develop his interests. You will be happily surprised at the amount of knowledge, experience and benefits he/she will gain from it. Besides, you can never know where such interests can lead your precious child to. Such interests are the best incentives to acquiring knowledge and experience.

Take my nephew, Ong Jin Hock, for instance. Today, my newphew is good at English due to his interest in story-books and inspirational books by Napolean Hill and Dale Carnegie. His excellent English and encouragement from me lead him to take part and win elocution contests. He developed confidence through his popularity among his peers and his ability to imitate Michael Jackson as well as sing his songs. In this manner, he develop in leaps and bounds to the boy who made a name for himself in Malaysia through the fantastic, never heard of results he created in the 2000 SPM examination. He did it through his courage and determination to be the best, to assure himself of a scholarship. He proved that all things are possible to those who truly believe in their abilities and have the courage to put into action what they have conceived.

As for my son, Jin Seng; in my previous posting, I have written of his success through his interest in animals and fish. As a result he finds biology his favourite subject. He had also an excellent command of English through his interest in English books and English books on nature.

Then, when he was given the privilege of studying in the Pokok Sena Science School, a boarding school, where only 5% of the non-Malay school population are given places, he found the study of the Japanese Language very interesting. To help him develop his interest I bought Japanese Language tapes and discs with films and serials. In the year 2000, at the age of fifteen, he took part in a national competition. As a result, he won the first prize which was a sum of money and a trip to Japan, with his ability at understanding a Japanese film and writing a commentary on it in the English Language. So, in 2001 he had the opportunity to travel to Japan, see places of interest there, was amazed at the advanced Japanese technology and was thrilled by the wondrous beauty of Japanese tourist spots.

My younger son, Jin Ho, found himself in a university with the subject of his choice, engineering through his own development of his interest which I have already gone into in a previous posting.

I know a dentist’s son whose interest in cars lead him to further reading in magazines and books. This lead to improved English and of course triggered his thirst for knowledge. Today, he is studying to be a doctor.

Thus, we can see how the simple act of encouraging our children to have interest and in such a manner stimulate the thirst for knowledge can lead our children to greater development and success.