English Avenue's Leadership Camp at the Plantation, Karak
on 29th -31st August, 2014
As
an observer throughout the training camp, it was an unusually thrilling
experience. I took the standpoint of a parent when I wrote this article. I might not have known the “hidden” part of our
children if they were confined to our usual indoor. This out-of-the-classroom
learning has revealed to me more on their characters and serves as a positive
confirmation of their social adaptive skills. It didn’t take them long to learn
how to set up their own tents or set the fire for barbeque dinner. One of the
nights, we were “stranded” in the heavy downpour which had drenched our dining
area so badly that we had to wait for the rain to stop to take our dinner. The
children were hungry but they endured without complaining. Modern parents will
never allow this to happen so this is the only time the children get to
experience hunger in its real sense. Food was all cleared up, no waste of food
that night!
As many people have the belief that children
are too shy to express in front of their parents, I still think parents should
observe the training camp to discover more about their own children’s embedded
ability which most of the time is overlooked because of parental
over-protectiveness.
Our
students were allowed to express themselves through short sketches, they
experienced how to deliver serious messages of Mother Nature through
improvisation along with their choice of music. Our busy urban living has much
deprived us of the chance to express, let alone stopping to say “Hi” to Mother
Nature. I particularly am impressed by the way students connect themselves with
nature. They were told to choose a spot in the nature-surrounded camp site,
observe their surrounding and look for similarities in themselves with the
nature they were in. Some compared themselves with a robust tree – they want
themselves to be as useful and protective as the huge tree they saw.
Through
fun games and exciting activities, there was an obvious focus on learning about
worldviews and care for environment, then narrowed down to individual
development, for example, encouraging our children to be adventurous and courageous
to take the first step to try something new or challenging. Let’s hope our children
would retain what they have experienced and apply it at home and in school.
Written by:
Hannah
Siew
1-10-2014
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