Flying Elephants – Part 2

In my previous blog, I mentioned that I will tell you all about my experience in “Flying Elephants”. When the workshop started, I was not at all surprised, as I could see many of the participants had a body language which said “I am sitting here, just because my parents forced me to attend this session”, few of them openly said that also. This is exactly what I anticipated.

The participants were of various age group ranging from 7^th standard to college 2^nd year student. As usual they had some ice-breaker games which enabled the kids to talk to each other. Then these 35 members were divided into 5 groups. I was assigned as the coach for one of the group. Well, I had very less job to be done, as my team had 7 extremely talented girls (2 – 11^th Std, 4 – 12^th Std and 1 – B.Arch 2^nd Year).

The first activity on grabbing opportunity did the magic of making them be little attentive, according to me that was the first step to grab their attention. From that time onwards, kids started slowly paying more attention to what is being told, again not all of them, at least few of them became alert.

The next magic happened when they did an activity to learn the power of their own thoughts. I would say that is exactly where even I started paying more attention to the words and the actions happening around me. From that time onwards, kids were completely with the MindFresh team till the end.

Workshop was conducted in such a way that the kids and coaches never felt bored, we all had lots and lots of fun and the key to their success is that they ensured that each and every fun activity had a learning in it. MindFresh team was at its best to bring out the talents of each and every kid. Each group kept getting points for each of their talents which includes – Dancing, Singing, creativity, Writing blogs, poems and many more….

There is one thing which we all can get free of cost, people will be generous enough in giving that to you even if you don’t ask for it. Advice!! MindFresh team didn’t do that mistake in those 3 days. They never gave any instructions to the kids, all they did is: make the kids understand the consequences of each and every thing – Wasting time, getting distracted, negative thinking etc.

Time management was one of the  key topic covered. They took Stephen Covey’s 4 quadrants and made the kids realize where they are spending their time. It was amazing to see kids talking about strategies to focus on 2^nd Quadrant activities, this is something which I learnt 2 years back. I don’t know whether I am too late or the kids are learning too early!!!! I can hear you guys saying, both are correct J

In nutshell, this workshop focused on rewarding the kid for their creativity (lots of activities were conducted for bring out their creativity), killing their fear factor (they encouraged every kid go to the stage and talk), teaching them the importance of human values, learning skills, time management, how their brain works and how to control emotions. At the end of the 3^rd day, I felt it was worth the money and time spent by each parents and kids.

Do you know which group won the Championship?? Of course, it was the team which adapted me as their coach!!! As I said, they were every talented and matured little girls and they won the championship absolutely because of their own talents… J I had a great learning and experience in Flying Elephants. Thanks to MindFresh team for this great opportunity.