What specialties should children learn?

Many parents are very concerned about their children's special talents and learning. Some begin learning various musical instruments from an early age, some take painting or dancing training classes, and others specialize in a sport. There are many talents, and parents don’t know what talents their children should learn. It is understood that no matter what kind of specialty, it is more important to make the child interested first, and the second is that parents should accompany and persevere.

We don't let our children learn something in order to develop a special skill. We study in order to develop life skills in our children. While cultivating children to have a special skill, we should also cultivate their good qualities such as overcoming difficulties, resisting temptations, defeating negative emotions, and improving their perseverance in doing things.

1Children's specialties are acquired

When it comes to children, we can only see whether they have certain talents, but we cannot see what their special abilities are. I think children’s specialties are cultivated by their parents. No child is born with special talents.

Some children have artistic talent, which is innate. For example, Mozart had a gift for music since he was a child, but his piano skills were also cultivated by his parents. He did not know how to play the piano when he was born. His talent was greatly developed through acquired training, so the music he wrote at the age of 5 is still a must-practice for all children learning piano. Such children are called geniuses, and they are rare. Most of the kids are normal kids. If children are not educated, they will not have any special talents. But every child has his or her own talents, which parents need to pay attention to and discover.

Nowadays, many children cannot persist in doing anything. They are enthusiastic for three minutes and then say they have no interest. This is easy to understand. Who can maintain lasting interest in a hard and boring task? Most adults can't do it, let alone a curious child. Looking at those young people who claim they have no interest in working after just a few years, you will know that they have lacked endurance and perseverance training since childhood. I guess they must have given up halfway when they were learning things when they were young.

There are also many children who practice various musical instruments, painting or dancing since childhood, but not many can really persist, and most children give up halfway. In fact, this is an adult problem, not a child problem. This is because adults don’t really understand why they should let their children learn a skill and what abilities they want to develop in their children. During the children's practice, adults have to put in a lot of hard work. Even these weekly classes, rain or shine, for years are so hard that many parents cannot persist and will get bored and tired.

We always say that adults are the mirrors of children. If adults cannot persist and always complain, how can children persist?

When I was taking my child to learn piano, I heard many adults complain and criticize their children: "Is it easy for me? I have to take you to practice piano every week, which takes up a lot of my time, and you don't practice well. I still spend so much money. Is it worth it? If you don't want to practice, then don't practice." What will children think when adults say such things? They must be thinking: I didn’t want to practice in the first place, and it was all because of you. You are the ones who forced me to learn this meaningless thing. As children, they have no idea why adults want them to learn this. Even adults themselves don’t know why they force children to learn this. Many parents watch other people’s children learn and then let their own children learn.