Photo source: Xiangshan library librarian Zhou Weiqing

"Most of our village is farmers, and young parents go out to work, leaving their children at home with the elderly. Of the 20 children in our Xiangshan library, 80% are taken care of by their grandparents. There is no concept of scientific parenting, as long as the children are not hungry or cold, especially the elderly people do not know the word, and do not have the ability and education level for early development and education of children."

Zhou Weiqing is a villager from Xiangshan Village, Wuhe Township, Tengchong City. At the end of last year, after joining the HPP Children's Library project, she began to bring parents and caregivers in the village to strengthen the early development and education of the village's 1-4 year old children through parent school and scientific parenting methods.

As the old proverb: A child is father of the man.. In particular, the age of 3 is very important for young children.

According to Zhou Weiqing, almost all the children in the library are about 3 years old, because of the lack of scientific parenting and correct guidance of parents in the past few years, these children are called a "free" and "active" when they first come to the library.

Lele and Tong Tong, is one of a pair of three-year-old twin brothers, parents go out to work, usually are taken by grandparents. When they first came to the library, they were very curious about everything, and they would flip through the paintings and play with toys. Both children played very happily.

But wherever the two brothers went, picture books and toys were thrown around, leaving a mess.

It can be seen that the two brothers are the lack of good behavior habits, because the grandparents at home have no awareness and no way to guide Lele and Tongtong to learn to pick up toys, they even think that the child is only three years old, the two old men have to chase and cajole them to feed them, not to mention picking up toys.. 

For such a long time, the correct guidance and scientific parenting needed in the growth of Lele and Tongtong are being lost.

In the days when Wei Qing teacher served as the person in charge of the library, she observed that the problems of children's emphasis on raising and neglecting education and the indulgence of grandparents directly affected the children's personality, behavior, communication, social interaction and other aspects.

"A problem has been found, and it must be corrected! Help your child change their bad habits. We have started late, and we have to slowly fill in those missing bits and pieces. And parents, we also need to teach them some methods and skills to raise children." Zhou Weiqing said.

Therefore, Zhou Weiqing began to "correct" the behavior and habits of Lele and Tong Tong in the library activities, and the first thing is to let them learn to put their toys back after playing.

When Lele and Tong Tong threw toys everywhere, Wei Qing led the two brothers to "help the toy baby go home" game began. After efforts, the toy baby went home smoothly, Wei Qing encouraged Lele and Tong Tong to seriously complete the game at the same time, but also guide the two brothers if lost can not go home what will happen.

It's gonna be sad. At this moment, Lele and Tong Tong remember to help the toy baby go home.

With the child's problem solved, the next step is to help Lele and Tong Tong's grandmother find ways to cultivate the behavior of the two brothers at home.

Zhou Weiqing specially at the end of the activity to communicate with grandma for a long time, today Lele Tong Tong's performance is great, I hope that back home grandma can continue to guide the two brothers to maintain such good habits, not only learn to pick up things, but also not to throw things, eat by themselves and so on.

Wei Qing told grandma, can not spoil the child too much, appropriate let go of the two brothers independent character, at home parents also want to put things well, set an example.

Now, the twin brothers in the library can be described as "big change". Not only them put picture books and toys back, but also put their shoes neatly when I enter the library, and I will also supervise other children to put their library play aids neatly.

For the transformation of Lele, Tong Tong and Grandma, Zhou Weiqing was happy. The library does provide a good environment for children and parents to grow up.

According to Wei Qing, parents who go to the library will ask her about children's picky eating, not taking napping, naughty solutions. It can be seen that the awareness of these parents and caregivers is also growing. It was a late start, but no one was more willing to give for their children.

"Now that the village has a library, people are changing their minds and starting to care about the upbringing and education of their children, which is a good sign." Zhou Weiqing felt that as the person in charge of the library, we should work harder in the future, make up for those missing bits and pieces, and lead everyone to get better slowly, "When these children grow up, they will have more opportunities to choose life."

Project introduction:

The Tengchong Genwell-HPP Community Library project is supported by GenWell Foundation and Planet Aid Inc. In cooperation with Tengchong Women's Federation and Tengchong Education and Sports Bureau, the project allocates village-level children's centers, recruiting and training child development and librarians, aiming to promote scientific parenting concepts and skills, improve community family education guidance services, strengthen scientific parenting publicity and advocacy, promote family construction and healthy development of children, and achieve sustainable development of rural children aged 0-4.

This project is supported by the Genwell Foundation.

This article represents the views of the author and does not represent the views or positions of the donor.