parenting tip from grace teh

http://raisingceokids.com/2010/01/04/parenting-tips-from-grace-teh/



Can you imagine the delight it was to interview someone thousands of miles away in the country of Malaysia all because of modern technology? It was such a privilege to talk to Gloson Teh and then also to his mom, Grace. Gloson is the youngest blogger in Malaysia as well as they youngest poet. They were so proper and both had so much wisdom to share. Grace emphasized the importance of exercise – her boys exercise for 2 hours a day! She emphasized the importance of EQ not just IQ. Grace and her husband encourage their boys to read a LOT, think for themselves, and research really well the the things that interest them. I love what she shared with me about the importance of kids learning about business. Grace stressed that kids have time on their hands when they are young to really investigate the world of business without the demands that adults have with bills and such.

Here is the rest of her interview and you can find the recording of it in the Audio section for MEMBERS.

Grace – Hello, Sarah.

Sarah – Hello, thank you. Hi, how are you?

Grace - Fine, thank you very much.

Sarah – I just applaud you and congratulate you for what you and your husband are doing to support Gloson and also your other son. I just think it’s amazing.

Grace – Thank you.

Sarah – So, what are some ways that you have encouraged Gloson in his writing and his blogging?

Grace – Since he was young, I have been always encouraging him to do a lot of reading because I believe when you read a lot the writing skill will come spontaneously.

Secondly, also encouraged him to do a lot of thinking, like a thinking bee or a thinking pooh bear to researching and to analyze so that he can understand better and fast.

Thirdly, I encourage him to do research on things that he wants to know, especially through the internet.

Sarah – That’s great. So why do you think it’s important to encourage the kids to just explore the things that are important to them rather than telling them to do things that we want them to do?

Why do you think it’s so important that you’ve encouraged him in his poetry?

Grace – To me to develop the talents of kids is very important because I believe we are all born with so many talents; we can sing, dance, write, count.

You see, we also know that there is, that was a research done by Dr. Howard Gardner about eight months before intelligence. So I believe we have probably many talents.

The thing is we should a very important because I also believe the talents can be disappeared slowly or become more difficult to develop later or become dormant or the children lose interest in whatever they have been good at.

And the last point is, they don’t have enough time to do it when they grow up only did they realize it. The last point will bring to another point is why I encourage my sons or the children of the world and the parents to help the children to explore in business.

In real life in our school, we were taught all basic knowledge like mathematics, science, languages, geography, history, etc. We are good at a lot of basic knowledge like that but we might not be good at any particular one, firstly.

Secondly, we might not truly know who we are, what we are truly love for, we are really good at. Then when we grow up, we will struggle of thinking what are the jobs suitable for ourselves.

That is the struggle that I believe we can avoid if we teach the children to explore being in business when they are young.

Sarah – That’s great. I love what you said about when they’re older, they have so many responsibilities and so many things that they’re required to do.

So when they’re young, it’s a great time to get them interested in business and in their talents because they have a little bit more time. Yes, they’re busy with school and maybe activities but if we can encourage them right now and they’ll develop a lifelong desire to be successful and to explore their talents.

So thank you for sharing that. What are some ways that you and your husband have supported your kids?

I know Gloson talked a little bit about helping him get his blog started and you sent the book into the Prime Minister and the first lady.

And I’m sure you’ve done lots of other things. Can you share with us some things that you’ve done that other parents could learn from?

Grace – Something; I mean, any help I have done to my son?

Sarah – Yeah, anything that you’ve been helpful? Anything that you’ve… do you read a family poetry?

Do you help him learn about blogging? Like what are some things that you’ve done to support Gloson in becoming a better poet?

You did talk about some already; reading poetry and thinking, encouraging him to think on his own. Just anything you can share.

Grace – I mean –

Sarah – That’s okay, we’ll go onto the next question. So have there been any struggles? Has there been a time in the last year or so that Gloson has or maybe in the last couple of years that – have there been any hard times that you’ve had to help him work through?

Grace – Do we help him work through?

Sarah – Like has he gotten discouraged?

Grace – I believe that he has not much problem in doing all this stuff because his EQ (Emotional Quotient) and IQ (Intelligent Quotient) are very good.

Sarah – That’s good.

Grace – So the only factor that I feel that I am not capable of helping him is his physical needs. He needs to eat so much suitable and nutritious food. Sometimes I felt that I cannot provide all.

Sarah – All the support for him.

Grace - Other than that, I mean he’s a very good child. He’s EQ, IQ, I mean, very good.

Sarah – That’s awesome. It sounds like he’s extremely smart.

Grace – Yes. I believe it was because when he was born I really trained him in something like memory skills, creativity thinking, logical thinking, analysis, and reasoning. A lot of stuff which I also now have forgotten about.

And I stopped teaching him when he was two years plus because at the time my husband started to face some financial difficulties. And, but I noticed that that two early years of his life, he has been really brain stimulated.

And after that he carried on all the learning by himself. He learned everything by himself, I never sent him to any classes. But I noticed that he can do whatever he put his hand into. For example, he can learn a lot of things on the spot. He can write poems spontaneously, everything.

Even he learned to speak good English when he was five years old when I moved to a place that the children are speaking English.

When he was young, we were talking in Mandarin. Soon we had moved to a new place and he was five, he couldn’t communicate with children in English.

But then from that time suddenly he wanted to make friends with them; he started to pick up English and he picked up so fast. And he writes good English. Yeah, I really admire his diligence and dedication for learning.

Sarah – Well congratulations to all of your efforts with helping him to be successful. That is just amazing. So is there anything as we finish up, is there anything that you would like to share with kids listening as well as with parents that will be listening?

Grace – To the biz kids, I would like to advise to you all you biz kids there:

firstly always desire and open your heart for learning. Listen to advice from good friends and good parents.

Secondly, try to understand yourself and also the facts and reality of life.

Thirdly, learn to discern what and who are really helpful to you. That’s my points to the kids.

And to parents, I would like to say that try to understand your children’s true passion, talents and focus on it.

And do not think that; don’t have prejudice over which job is better than the other one. For example, perhaps people commonly think that being a doctor is better than being a singer or vice versa.

So do not think which job is the best for your children because the children must enjoy their true talents, abilities and their passions for that job.

Secondly, I would like to encourage parents that they must spend time to show love, to show concern to their children.

Any 10 minutes heart-to-heart talk at least a day and those who are full time mothers they can do more to show their concern to build up their emotional quotient (EQ). To me, emotional quotient for children is far more important than IQ development.

Thirdly, I believe they must also mentor their children step by step according to how much work the child can take now.

And secondly, how much hard facts the child can face now so that the parent can administer, council the facts of life to the children as early as possible.

To me, to teach children to exploring business is very important. To me, it’s almost the most important thing in life because you see when we wake up in the morning, the toothbrush and the toothpaste we use, and until we retire to bed, the bed we sleep on is all about money; we need to purchase it.

So we monitor their mental maturity and tell them the real life is all about money, I believe is important. Of course this must be done after we have told them what invaluable things are like love, kindness and responsibility – these are more important than money.

After we have done all this, we must have to teach them the hard facts of life is all about money.

I believe if they realize on the money and on the facts and money matters is better than the realize later. And I remember there’s one movie called “Catch me if you can.”

This is a real life story which was made into movie. The real person was, (I think he is still living) Frank McNeil Jr. He started to cheat the bank when he was 16. And then after when he was about 30+, he repented from all his mistakes and he said a word that really touched my heart.

He said, “How good if you can be, we can have 20 year old body with a 40 year old brain.” I believe what he meant is if we can be mature as young as be so that we will find happiness in our life earlier and do not have to go through unnecessary mistakes.

Sarah – Right. Right. That’s excellent. I know we saw part of that movie and I think it’s important what you say that we need to learn early to be responsible and kind and gracious and loving and faithful and true and also learn about money and about business. Because then when they’re making money, when the kids are making money then they will know how to manage their money; they’ll know how to handle it.

So that’s excellent. Thank you for sharing all those things. So thank you both for your time Gloson and Mrs. Teh, thank you for your time. I so appreciate you staying up. I know that it’s like two o’clock in the morning, right?

Grace – Oh it’s all right. It was our pleasure to be invited.

Sarah – Well, thank you, thank you, thank you. And you both have a fabulous day.

Grace – Thank you very much.