Today, we have a guest post from a travel blogger, a good friend of mine and my partner for our new blog Dash de Petites. Jamae blogs at I Will Take You There. Take a look at her discoveries while she travels around Asia and the world! Take a peep at a parcel of her life and her personality which she shares on her blog. But before you do that, check out what she discovered about assembling Gundam Robots while she was in Singapore. Hmmm…I didn’t realize the assembling these toys have life lessons too. Imagine that. This girl really get lessons from just anything and everything!lol. (winks*) But I think that is a good thing. Curtains up! Lights! Camera, here she goes…
The first time I heard about Gundams was way back highschool and college days when all the guys talked and assembled these toy robots. I shrugged at the thought. And then I met Boss Junior – Mr. Daryl Wee in Singapore- a 16 year old smart-industrious guy who is really into this. He captured my attention with his amazing interest in these robots. Well, I’m not really into gundams nor robots… I just came to a thought one day while I was reading posts from mommies and travel bloggers from around the globe.
Little girls and even grown-ups have this peculiar interest in dolls. Lalaloopsies to be particular. I have noticed this for the past travels that I have made. Little boys and even grown-ups are into video games and these robot toys which led me to a thought – can they be hobbies that’s all worth it? Another thing I have noticed from going around is that parents have different tolerance to their children’s hobbies or interests. Most of them join the fun! Which is actually a good thing. These stuff take too much of your time actually but from what I have noticed, it teaches kids and teens valuable lessons. Let me take you to a journey through to Gundams as I myself learned lessons big time and let me know what you guys think!
1. Patience. Looking at every piece of it to the desired output, I shook my head in disbelief. Growing up, I had my dolls, my cooking toys… I even had toy cars and stuffed animals or puzzles and board games – well, legos too! But I can’t remember having been into building stuff as tedious as Gundam Building! Notice how Mr. Daryl Wee turn tiny bits and pieces of materials into a beaming piece of a Gundam Robot! Surely it will teach you the patience. As a traveler, I smiled to myself.
2. Perseverance. If you envisage something to turn out well, if you are into a goal, you’ll get to indeed persevere. Well, with every step you need to hold on to that goal. It is quite inspiring at how they can suppress the difficulty, rather turn them into a game. I thought these stuff were boring but not to Daryl. It bores him when he’s not building.
3. Focus. Not all kids or teens may be into the same hobbies or interests but you will be surprised at how focused they can be when they are into it! In today’s generation, they have their own ways to shut their doors, windows and all that just to be wrapped up in their own worlds with their toys. Daryl can do that too and in just a few hours, after every tiny bits and pieces of gundam parts – voila!
These lessons were “Ouch” to me as a traveler. But then again, I ain’t perfect but looking at it as a whole, you’ll notice it’s never easy to have that PATIENCE, that PERSEVERANCE and the FOCUS. We aren’t always usually sure. Surely these lessons learned will even guide these kids/teens into the path they’d want to head to. It may confuse them at the moment but they’ve got the gift of parents. That’s another thing I have noticed from these kids with these hobbies. They indeed have the support that they need. That’s what parents should actually do – support their kids. Like what Kareen Liez does to Bella with its love for Lalaloopsies!
Well as for Mommies, would you think that a passion for toys and stuff is good for your kids? I’d wish to be a mom soon so I would appreciate if you share with us your thoughts. (*wink!) And of course! Visit me and my journey through my blog.
I have patience half of the time, perserverance all the time, and focus… well, let's just say it depends on the situation! LOL That is some talent to put that together – I'm not sure I would have patience or focus to do that, but somehow I think my perservarance would prevail even if it took me the rest of my life!
Growing up my brothers would make model cars as teens. Some people think its not worth the $ but I think its worth paying extra for an interest that your child (or even spouse) enjoys that isn't technology related. Its so easy to just sit in front of screens all the time, its great to invest (emotionally and financially) in interests that are screen free in my opinion.
That seems like a lot of work, and I'm not sure I'd have the patience for it, but I think it's good for kids to tackle something that forces them to focus, even if it's a toy.
We have a lot of Lego's. i think that it is a really great hobby, it helps their little minds develop.