On the third day of the class, her grandma asked me, ‘What magic did you do to  Ashana? In her entire day she waits till the clock strikes 3 pm to come to your class, she even spoke to her mom and shared lots about you.’ If you call kindness and empathy as magical, yes that is the magical experience we give to the children, says Kiran Jha, an educationalist, Director of Arise ‘n’ Shine and MyBeeClub, who runs her education center in Adyar, Chennai.

 Ashana, a 5 year old girl who was settled in the USA came to Chennai for vacation. Since both her parents were working, she stayed with her grandparents. She was new to Chennai, missed her mother and was feeling low. Ashana’s grandma enrolled her on one of the MyBeeClub programmes to keep her engaged. She was not opening up and got angry quite easily.

My first priority was to make her feel comfortable. I started with knowing her interests, building stories around her interest which helped her to start opening up which later led to long conversations.

She is a visual learner. I started telling her about Arise ‘n’ Shine’s activities which she could relate to with the American culture like the yard sale, children keeping stalls, lemonade stand, celebrations and crafts. This made the relationship stronger.

Ashana was enrolled onto Drawing Level II where we draw according to shapes. In the first few classes when I discussed with her about shapes, she couldn’t imagine the objects related to those shapes. But later her imagination became very creative and she would discuss various options to draw from the given shapes. Her drawing and social skills greatly improved.

Ashana’s grandma mentioned that she became bubbly and happy.  She started socializing with her relatives. There was a change in the way she interacted with others, it became more meaningful.

On the third day of the class, her grandma asked me, “What magic did you do to Ashana? In her entire day she waits till the clock strikes 3 pm to come to your class, she even spoke to her mom and shared lots about you.”

If you call kindness and empathy as magical, yes that is the magical experience we give to the children to comfort and unleash their hidden potential. They play an important role in nurturing happiness and self-esteem in children. When we create the climate of kindness and empathy inside our school walls, the natural next step is to take it home to our families, out into our community and then beyond our borders into our global world.