Parenting Tip #33 Are Their Eyes Shining?

Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Symphony gives an inspiring talk on TED http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html . He relates an “aha moment” he had when he realized that as a conductor, he doesn’t make a sound. He said his job was to “awaken possibility in other people.” Then he asked the question,“ How can you find out if you’re doing that? You look in their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you’re doing it.”

As parents, we are the “conductors” of our family symphony with our children being the orchestra members. It is our job to awaken possibility in them. We can do that by providing them with opportunities to create, explore and discover. Does that mean we enroll them in every enrichment class and lesson we can find? NO! It means we provide them with books, paper, crayons, glue, and ideas. We take them to the library, park, museums and concerts. We investigate, ask questions, and discover answers with them. We ask them for their ideas on solving problems.

And how do we know if we’re doing our job well? We look into their eyes to see if they are shining. If they’re shining, we know “we’re doing it”.
Look at this site for more ideas: http://www.ehow.com/how_4597204_help-child-be-creative.html