Positive Parenting

In the middle of this month, news started spreading about PLE and USE results to be released soon. Our children and parents who were waiting for exams were engulfed by anxiety, awaiting to hear their performance. On 17 th Jan. 2019, PLE were released and majority got to know how things worked out. Some parents and guardians received news of the exam results with joy while others were disappointed by how their children performed. There are some who expected to get 4 or 5 aggregates, but they got 8 and above. I know one who cried uncontrollably for getting 11 aggregates instead of four and even the daddy showed his disappointment. It seemed as if the child was worthless – and had spent their huge amount of school fees in vain.  As others celebrated to have come in first grade, this very child in the same grade looked at himself as the worst failure. This was partly because of how parents also looked at him and joined him in lamenting and judging him as a failure.

Dickson Tumuramye The holiday has already started with most children back home from their respective schools. My children have already started their holiday as well. Unfortunately, instead of coming back home and have a relaxation from the pressure of books, they came with a lot of holiday package. I am now planning to first give them a week of rest and then we resume the holiday assignments. This means I will still be running back home from office to sit with them and we do this holiday work. All of us are more-less like students in class. The bitter part of it is that I never went through this high pressure during my school days. Holidays meant holidays except when I was in candidate classes and we had holiday coaching. Even then, there were no almost daily assignments to cover up as the case is today. Each one of these youngsters has already put before me his/her plan of how they want to spend their holiday. We have already agreed on the appropriate time they will be doing

Dickson Tumuramye The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience, said Eleanor Roosevelt, the U.S. First Lady and human rights activist. We all experience challenges and temptations in life. There are so many waves that heat us from all sides and you find yourself pushed to the wall. I look at the exodus of Israelites after they had immediately left Egypt and I can say they were in total dilemma. Imagine before you is a big (Red) sea and you cannot continue. You then opt to retreat and maybe return back to a miserable life than dying in the wilderness. Looking behind, you realize your enemies are running after you with all mighty. I don’t know what you would do if you were the one in such a state of quagmire. Notably, that is what we go through in our daily lives. There are so many things that come to squeeze us. Problems usually surface at the same time as if they had planned it.

By Dickson Tumuramye The New Year is here now, welcome to 2019. I am sure at the start of the year, each one of us has something you anticipate to achieve before the year ends. Such spirit should also be passed on to our children. As we all set plans for 2019, ask your children regardless of their age to each set goals annually and share with you. Goal setting is one of the most basic and essential skills someone can develop in order to realize a thriving life. Goal setting can be used to motivate children by ensuring that they achieve smaller goals on a regular basis. Children who have goals whether academic, business, spiritual or even personal ones – will do better in life than children with no plans at all. It also helps them focus and make better decisions.  Goal setting and planning are such important aspects we must take into practice at every start of the year. Benjamin Franklin once said “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” Therefore, this c

By Dickson Tumuramye The end of the month of December always comes with a lot of expectations for merry making. During this season, that is where most people lost in towns remember to check on their people back in the villages. That is when churches are filled to the capacity with people remembering to thank their creator for keeping them. Of course others do it for the sake of just going to church because the day is understood to be a Christian day to celebrate the birth of Jesus. A lot of shopping, savings, clean-ups, sorting all the mess in the house, gift sharing, putting up Christmas trees and other more things are done. Most Christians look forward to this festive season to celebrate with their families in a very special way. And indeed it is very good to celebrate and have good moments with your loved ones that you have taken long without interacting with. However, much as we like to celebrate this day, many people are so much absorbed into merry-making than the inc

By Dickson Tumuramye I was at my child’s school for their Sports Day recently. One of the children in the bicycle game race fell and became the last. The child cried till the end of other games. First of all, this child didn’t lose by his own making. They all started well but along the way, his bicycle got a mechanical problem. By the time it was fully fixed, all his competitors were way ahead, leaving him the in last position. There is no way I can blame this failure to win on him. He had no control over the mechanical problem of his bicycle but that didn’t stop him from breaking down as he looked at himself as a failure. In life, we are always bombarded with those moments of failure and most of the times; it’s beyond our own making. But the way we handle failures and life challenges makes a difference. Life is an endless barrage of problems but if we perceive them with a positive attitude, they can make life more meaningful.  We learn, develop and grow from every exp