"Parenting" Walking to school makes you smart!

Recently, my son suggested walking my child to school, saying that it would stimulate the neurological development of the brain, and that it would be a good exercise. I know exactly what he's trying to do. He's trying to entice me, who is not a big fan of exercise, to walk my kids. It worked! I did walk my little girl to school.

Don't say that the little girl just started to wail and wail, "My feet are sore! Stop walking! Even I, who is used to driving, felt that it was asking for trouble to walk in the morning when I was in such a hurry. However, after my gaijin's constant "enlightenment", I slowly got used to reserving time to take my daughter to school on foot.

Has the daughter gotten smarter? I don't know. But school is really fun.

At first, I took her on a walk. Along the way, she looked at the dog, the cat, her loving mom, and laughed as she pointed out a bunch of funny store names on the street. When we walked past a park where dried radishes were drying in the sun, my daughter gasped and said, "Who would dare to eat these things on the ground? I said, "That's how the crunchy dried radish you loved was dried on the side of the braised pork rice that mom gave you last time"! Then she went to school screaming all the way, it was so funny!

Later, my daughter asked her to take me instead. She decided whether to turn left or right, and she began to learn to read street names and memorize signs. One time, she decided to turn through the door of a buffet to try to get to the school, and when she did, she said, "Oh, my God, that's the side door to the school! There's the side entrance to the school!" I should have taken a picture of her face as if she had discovered a new continent. When I told my oldest daughter, she said, "Isn't that the same road that Daddy drives us to school on every day?"

"Yeah. That's right! But this time it is my sister's own will that decides." The eyes that roam in the will are agile, the mind is fresh, the senses are lively, and even the same thing can be felt in a completely different way.

My youngest daughter, who had tasted free will, said to me at bedtime, "Mom! Tomorrow I'm going to take a new route." She began to think about changing her route to school.

The experience of "walking a new path" is not new to me. When I was a child, it was common for me to walk to school by myself. Schools were usually a bit far away and there were many roads, so it was not uncommon for curious kids to get lost as they explored every road.

However, there was one occasion which was quite exaggerated, as I had not returned home even after 7 pm, thus alerting the police.

That time, I followed the wrong dog, thinking that it was the little yellow dog next door to my house, and naively thought that it would take me home. Who knows, it took me to the middle of nowhere and ran away. Later, I got on a tricycle, and although I could not even tell you the name of the road, the old man on the tricycle was amazing and managed to get me home safely. To modern people, who are always in a sense of crisis, this is a fantasy.

What was even more amazing was that as soon as I arrived at the entrance of the alley, I could see my family waiting for me at the door from a distance. My mom was crying and she was going to hit me with a broom because she was angry with me for running away. This is the way my mom loves her children. She scolds her children when she is sad, but she doesn't say "I'm worried" very often.

When I saw everyone, I was so happy to say goodbye to the old man and bowed to him to say thank you. When I was about to jump off the tricycle and rush home, the old man insisted on taking me home. Later, while I was eating my meal, I told my mom, "That's very kind of the old man to take me to the door. Mom glared at me and said, "Do you know how much you paid for the ride? Of course he came to collect the money!

Dad kept asking me how I knew to call it a tricycle. And he said, "Getting lost has made me smart!"

I think my father was very powerful, in those days, who understand the brain neuroscience, but my father said "lost will become smart" and my son said "walking on the school will become smart", but there is a difference in the same way!

Excerpted from Mandarin Daily by Poon Yuk Ling