Several killed in attack on Pakistan govt compound

At least five people were killed on Monday after militants including a suicide bomber attacked the compound of a senior government official in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

By News Wires (text)

 

Militants including a suicide bomber attacked the office of a senior official in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday, killing five people, officials said.
The top political official, Mutahir Zeb, for the northwestern tribal district of Khyber was holding a meeting in his office but was not hurt in the attack.
Khyber, part of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, is currently in the grip of stepped-up fighting as part of a long-running military operation against the Taliban and other Islamist insurgents.
At least five people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the entrance to the Peshawar complex, which also contains cells where police detain suspected militants, officials said.
"We have five dead. Seven are injured. They have been admitted with serious injuries," Jamal Shah, spokesman for the Lady Reading Hospital.
"The dead include four security officials and one civilian, an old man of about 60," he added.
Some officials suggested the militants staged the attack to free detainees and unconfirmed reports indicated that some prisoners may have escaped.
Muhammad Iqbal Afridi, local leader in the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party headed by former cricket star Imran Khan, told AFP that he heard heavy gunfire.
"We were inside the office when we heard gun shots. Suddenly firing started and then they hurled some grenades," Afridi said.
"Then there was intense exchange of firing between the militants and the security forces. Later, security forces evacuated us from the building. While leaving, I saw two dead bodies and blood everywhere," he added.
Witnesses said there had been three attackers. Security officials told AFP that soldiers were combing the area for the other two.
"One of them blew himself up, killing two local police officials and a search is on for other suspected suicide bombers," one of the officials said.
Violence has recently increased in Peshawar as Pakistan prepares to hold historic general elections by mid-May, which will mark the first time an elected civilian government completes a full-term in office.

Anglo-French rivalry peaks as Cameron plugs trade in India

British PM David Cameron arrived in India on Monday for a three-day trip just days after French President François Hollande’s visit ended with boosted Franco-Indian trade ties as the European states compete in a fast-growing economy.

By Leela JACINTO (text)

 

India had barely bid adieu to French President François Hollande - who left town optimistic about a $12-billion contract for French fighter jets - when British Prime Minister David Cameron touched down at Mumbai airport on Monday amid a scandal engulfing an Anglo-Italian helicopter deal.
Kicking off a three-day visit to India with the largest trade delegation taken abroad by a British prime minister, Cameron said the UK could forge one of “the great partnerships of the 21st century” with India.

FRANCE - INDIA Rafale jets top agenda on Hollande's India trip

After more than a century of colonisation, Britain is still seeking markets in India, but this time under very different terms with Europe’s debt-stricken states competing to tap into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
The days of the classic Anglo-French colonial competition may be over, but in India these days, it has been reignited in a very different postcolonial guise.
Last week, during his first visit to an Asian nation as president, Hollande’s team reported progress on talks to seal a $12-billion contract for 126 Rafale fighter jets from France’s Dassault Aviation. The two sides also concluded long-running talks on a $6-billion pact for short-range surface-to-air missiles, which will be jointly produced by French missile-maker MBDA and Indian weapons developer DRDO.
Serendipity for Hollande, bad timing for Cameron
Hollande’s trip came at what the Indian press called a “serendipitous moment” following the showcasing of Rafale jets during the French-led intervention in Mali last month.
In contrast, the timing of Cameron’s trip is far from ideal.
On Friday, the Indian government said it wanted to cancel a $750 million contract for a dozen helicopters made by AgustaWestland, the Anglo-Italian subsidiary of Italy's Finmeccanica, over bribery allegations.
According to Indian officials, Cameron is likely to face further questions about the contract for the AW101 helicopters, which are being manufactured in southwest Britain.
India launched an investigation into the deal after Italian authorities arrested Finmeccanica's Chief Executive Giuseppe Orsi last week for suspected international corruption and fraud related to the contract.
The Indian government, which is keen to be seen as tough on corruption ahead of the 2014 general elections, has asked Britain for a “fully fledged report” on what London knows about the scandal.
The British government has said it wants to wait until the Italian investigation ends before submitting its full report. But London has provided New Delhi with an interim report on the subject.
Out with the Typhoon, enter the Rafale
Cameron’s latest visit comes more than two years after his first trip to India, when the British prime minister pressed the case for the part-British Eurofighter Typhoon, which was competing for the $12 billion Indian Air Force contract.

THE FRANCE 24 INTERVIEW THE INTERVIEW Mira Kamdar, Author, 'Planet India: The Turbulent Rise of the Largest Democracy and the Future of Our World'

But the Typhoon lost out to the Rafale when New Delhi selected the Dassault-made medium multi-role aircraft. The Rafale deal is still not finalized although Hollande’s recent trip is believed to have pushed the negotiations further.
Britain voiced disappointment over the French deal, with Cameron telling parliament last February that he would do everything to persuade New Delhi to opt for the Typhoon.
A year later, British persistence appeared to have considerably dampened. "We respect the fact that the Indians have chosen their preferred bidder and are currently negotiating with the French,” a Downing Street official told the British daily, the Guardian. “Of course, we will continue to promote Eurofighter as a great fast jet, not just in India but around the world."
But the corruption allegations into the AW101helicopter deal is not expected to aid Cameron’s chances of peddling the Eurofighter Typhoon.
Diplomatic delicacy

Instead, British officials were keen to stress the vast potential for economic ties between the two countries in bilateral trade – including urban infrastructure development, finance and the retail sector.
At a meeting with Unilever workers and business leaders in the Indian commercial capital of Mumbai on Monday, Cameron stressed the wide-ranging economic ties between India and Britain. "With me I've got architects, planners and finance experts who can work out the complete solution” to India’s chronic urban infrastructural problems, Cameron told his audience.
On the diplomatic front, Cameron also faces choppy waters. New Delhi is upset over Britain’s recent attempts to broker a deal between neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan at a London summit earlier this year.
During his last visit to India in 2010, Cameron issued an unexpectedly blunt warning to Pakistan about "the export of terror". The remark went down well in New Delhi, but provoked a furious response in Islamabad.
It also helped cool some of the furore sparked a year ago, when then British foreign minister David Miliband linked the 2008 Mumbai attacks to the lack of a political solution in divided Kashmir.
India resents any foreign involvement in the contested Himalayan region, which it sees as a bilateral issue between New Delhi and Islamabad.

Armenian president wins re-election in disputed vote © AFP Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian claimed re-election victory on Tuesday, with official results handing him over 58 percent of the vote. But main rival Raffi Hovannisian insisted he was the real winner and called on Sarkisian to concede defeat. By News Wires (text) Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has won re-election with over 58 percent of the vote, official results published Tuesday showed, as his main rival cried foul. The Central Election Commission said that tallies from all voting precincts, following Monday's election, showed former foreign minister Raffi Hovannisian trailing in a distant second place with 36.75 percent of votes cast. But Hovannisian insisted he was the real winner and called on Sarkisian to concede defeat, despite the official results which gave him 58.64 percent of the votes. Referring to himself, Hovannisian said: "Our people deserve a de jure elected president." Hovannisian's camp has alleged a range of sometimes bizarre electoral violations, including the use of "vanishing ink" to allow multiple voting and "caravans" of taxis and buses to take pro-government voters to the polls. However Eduard Sharmazanov, spokesman for Sarkisian's ruling Republican Party, said exit polls showed the president "was the only favourite" and called the vote "the best in the history of independent Armenia", rejecting allegations of fraud. Police also dismissed the allegations as an "obvious fiction". Voter turnout was 60 percent in the polls seen as a crucial democratic test for the former Soviet state. A Gallup exit poll had also found Sarkisian, president since 2008, set for re-election to another five-year term. The five other candidates were said to be scoring in single digits. Former prime minister Hrant Bagratian was on course for three percent, as was the Soviet-era dissident Paruyr Hayrikyan, according to the exit poll. The outcome had become predictable back in December when the highly popular leader of the Prosperous Armenia party -- super-rich former arm-wrestling champion Gagik Tsarukian -- said he was out of the race and Armenia's first post-Soviet president Levon Ter-Petrosian said he was too old for the country's top job. The election was clouded both by the lack of strong opposition to the incumbent, and a mysterious assassination attempt against Hayrikyan last month. The authorities were hoping for a peaceful process that would improve the country's chances of European integration. The vote that brought Sarkisian to power in 2008 ended in clashes in which 10 people died. Hovannisian said the election marked "the most crucial day in our country's modern history" but denounced irregularities in voters' lists and voting procedures. "These were shameful elections with a huge number of violations. The results of the exit poll do not show reality but what the authorities wanted," Hovannisian's spokesman Hovsep Khurshudian told AFP. He vowed that Hovannisian's supporters would stage a protest on Tuesday evening. International observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe have monitored voting and are set to give their verdict on Tuesday. Sarkisian, 59, is a veteran of the 1990s war with Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh and derives much of his popularity from a tough can-do militaristic image. Hovannisian, 54, was born in the United States and practised law in Los Angeles before moving to Armenia following its devastating December 1988 earthquake. All the candidates made populist promises to fight poverty and unemployment. The World Bank estimates that 36 percent of Armenians live below the poverty line, while economic hardship and unemployment have driven nearly a million Armenians out of the country over the past two decades. But campaigning has also focused on Armenia's long-running disputes with neighbours Turkey and Azerbaijan. No final peace deal has been reached with Azerbaijan over the Armenian-controlled Azerbaijani region of Nagorny Karabakh as the risk of a new conflict remains palpable.

Armenian president wins re-election in disputed vote

© AFP

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian claimed re-election victory on Tuesday, with official results handing him over 58 percent of the vote. But main rival Raffi Hovannisian insisted he was the real winner and called on Sarkisian to concede defeat.

By News Wires (text)

 

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has won re-election with over 58 percent of the vote, official results published Tuesday showed, as his main rival cried foul.
The Central Election Commission said that tallies from all voting precincts, following Monday's election, showed former foreign minister Raffi Hovannisian trailing in a distant second place with 36.75 percent of votes cast.
But Hovannisian insisted he was the real winner and called on Sarkisian to concede defeat, despite the official results which gave him 58.64 percent of the votes.
Referring to himself, Hovannisian said: "Our people deserve a de jure elected president."
Hovannisian's camp has alleged a range of sometimes bizarre electoral violations, including the use of "vanishing ink" to allow multiple voting and "caravans" of taxis and buses to take pro-government voters to the polls.
However Eduard Sharmazanov, spokesman for Sarkisian's ruling Republican Party, said exit polls showed the president "was the only favourite" and called the vote "the best in the history of independent Armenia", rejecting allegations of fraud.
Police also dismissed the allegations as an "obvious fiction".
Voter turnout was 60 percent in the polls seen as a crucial democratic test for the former Soviet state.
A Gallup exit poll had also found Sarkisian, president since 2008, set for re-election to another five-year term.
The five other candidates were said to be scoring in single digits.
Former prime minister Hrant Bagratian was on course for three percent, as was the Soviet-era dissident Paruyr Hayrikyan, according to the exit poll.
The outcome had become predictable back in December when the highly popular leader of the Prosperous Armenia party -- super-rich former arm-wrestling champion Gagik Tsarukian -- said he was out of the race and Armenia's first post-Soviet president Levon Ter-Petrosian said he was too old for the country's top job.
The election was clouded both by the lack of strong opposition to the incumbent, and a mysterious assassination attempt against Hayrikyan last month.
The authorities were hoping for a peaceful process that would improve the country's chances of European integration.
The vote that brought Sarkisian to power in 2008 ended in clashes in which 10 people died.
Hovannisian said the election marked "the most crucial day in our country's modern history" but denounced irregularities in voters' lists and voting procedures.
"These were shameful elections with a huge number of violations. The results of the exit poll do not show reality but what the authorities wanted," Hovannisian's spokesman Hovsep Khurshudian told AFP.
He vowed that Hovannisian's supporters would stage a protest on Tuesday evening.
International observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe have monitored voting and are set to give their verdict on Tuesday.
Sarkisian, 59, is a veteran of the 1990s war with Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh and derives much of his popularity from a tough can-do militaristic image.
Hovannisian, 54, was born in the United States and practised law in Los Angeles before moving to Armenia following its devastating December 1988 earthquake.
All the candidates made populist promises to fight poverty and unemployment.
The World Bank estimates that 36 percent of Armenians live below the poverty line, while economic hardship and unemployment have driven nearly a million Armenians out of the country over the past two decades.
But campaigning has also focused on Armenia's long-running disputes with neighbours Turkey and Azerbaijan.
No final peace deal has been reached with Azerbaijan over the Armenian-controlled Azerbaijani region of Nagorny Karabakh as the risk of a new conflict remains palpable.

Cameron confronts colonial past on India visit

© AFP

British Prime Minister David Cameron laid a wreath at Jallianwala Bagh in India’s northwestern city of Amritsar on Wednesday where hundreds of Indians were massacred by colonial forces in 1919, calling the act ‘’a shameful event in British history”.

By News Wires (text)

 

Britain’s prime minister laid a mourning wreath Wednesday at the site of a notorious 1919 massacre of hundreds of Indians by British colonial forces, calling the killings ‘’a shameful event in British history.”
David Cameron was the first British prime minister to make a gesture of condolence at Jallianwala Bagh in the northwest city of Amritsar, but stopped short of issuing a formal apology for his country’s actions 94 years earlier.
‘’This is a deeply shameful event in British history – one that Winston Churchill rightly described at the time as ‘monstrous,” Cameron wrote in the visitors’ book at the site. ‘’We must never forget what happened here. And in remembering we must realize that the United Kingdom stands for the right of peaceful protest around the world.”
The park was the site of an attack by British colonial troops on unarmed Indians attending a rally calling for independence. More than 300 Indians were killed during the massacre, which galvanized the national independence movement and marked the beginning of the end of Britain’s rule over the Indian subcontinent.
Queen Elizabeth II visited the same site in 1997 and laid a wreath there. She called the killings ‘’distressing.”
Cameron’s visit to Amritsar came at the end of his trip to India. The trip was aimed at boosting trade and investment between the two countries in the areas of energy, infrastructure, insurance, banking and retail.

Deadly explosion hits crowded market in southern India

Two bombs rigged up to bicycles exploded in a bustling market-place in India’s southern city of Hyderabad on Thursday, killing at least 11 people and injuring dozens of others.

By FRANCE 24 (video)
News Wires (text)

 

Two bombs placed on bicycles exploded in a crowded market-place in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on Thursday, and the federal home minister said at least 11 people were killed and 50 wounded.
All major cities in the country were placed on high alert, television channels said, adding that as many as 15 people may have been killed in the explosions.
Hyderabad is a major IT centre in India, only second to Bangalore. Microsoft and Google have major centres in the city.
“Both blasts took place within a radius of 150 metres,” federal Home (Interior) Minister Sushil Shinde told reporters, adding the explosives were placed on bicycles parked in the crowded marketplace. “Eight people died at one place, three at the other.”
The explosions come less than two weeks after India hanged a Kashmiri man for a militant attack on the country’s parliament in 2001 that had sparked violent clashes.
Witnesses told Reuters they heard at least two explosions in the Dilsukh Nagar area of Hyderabad just after dusk but there could have been more.
TV showed debris and body parts strewn on the street in the area, a crowded neighbourhood of cinema halls, shops, restaurants and a fruit and vegetable market.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called it a “dastardly attack”.
“I appeal to the public to remain calm and maintain peace,” he said in a Twitter message.
In July 2011, three near-simultaneous blasts ripped through India’s financial capital, Mumbai. At least 20 people were killed and over 100 wounded in the blasts set off by Muslim militants, authorities said.
Last year, four small explosions occurred in quick succession in a busy shopping area of the western Indian city of Pune.

South Korea swears in first female president

© AFP

Park Geun-Hye was sworn in as South Korea's first female president on Monday, continuing a controversial legacy founded by her father, Park Chung-Hee, who became president in a 1961 military coup. He was later assassinated.

By News Wires (text)

 

Park Geun-Hye was sworn in as South Korea's first female president Monday, capping a political career founded in privilege and personal tragedy.
Unlike her predecessors, she already knows the presidential Blue House well, having lived there as a child and served there after her mother's murder as first lady to her later-assassinated father.
Park was just nine years old when her father, Park Chung-Hee, came to power in 1961 in a military coup that set the stage for 18 years of authoritarian rule.
Her presidential victory was, in some ways, a referendum on the legacy of her father whose name still triggers polarised emotions in many South Koreans.
Admired for dragging the war-torn nation out of poverty, but reviled in some quarters for his repression of dissent, his shadow loomed large over Park's election campaign last December.
In an effort at reconciliation, Park publicly acknowledged the excesses of her father's regime during her campaign and apologised to the families of its victims.
Park was attending graduate school in France in 1974 when she was called back to Seoul after her mother was killed by a pro-North Korean gunman aiming for her father.
She left the presidential palace after her father was shot dead by his spy chief in 1979 and began her political career in 1998 as a lawmaker in her home town.
Park, 61, never married and has no children -- a fact she used to gain traction with voters tired of nepotism and corruption scandals surrounding their first families.
"I will earn the trust of the people by ensuring that our government remains clean, transparent and competent," she said in her inauguration speech, in which she also invoked the past image of a more caring, compassionate Korea.
"Reviving that spirit once again and building a society flowing with responsibility and consideration for others will allow us to be confident that a new era of happiness that all of us dream of is truly within our reach," she said.
The nurturing, maternal political image is at odds with that pushed by her critics, of an aloof aristocrat they call the "ice queen".
But even dissenters acknowledge her strengths as a campaigner that helped her party secure strong results in local and national polls in 2004, 2006 and this year, earning her another royal moniker as the "queen of elections".
And despite her privileged upbringing, Park has demonstrated a tough streak.
In 2006 an attacker at an election event where she was speaking slashed her face with a knife, leaving a wound that needed 60 stitches.
She will face numerous challenges when she begins her five-year term on Monday, not least dealing with a North Korea that triggered global outrage by conducting a nuclear test just weeks before her inauguration.
Even before Park won her party's presidential nomination last August the state-run Korean Central News Agency had attacked her candidacy, warning that "a dictator's bloodline cannot change away from its viciousness".
Park has signalled a break from outgoing President Lee Myung-Bak's hard line on Pyongyang, and even held out the possibility of an eventual summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un.
But she will be restricted by conservative forces in her party as well as an international community intent on punishing North Korea.
The North's February 12 nuclear test is almost certain to draw toughened UN sanctions -- a move likely to anger Pyongyang and further heighten tension on the peninsula.
While Park's election as South Korea's first woman president marks a major breakthrough in a male-dominated country, not everyone sees her victory as paving the way for greater women's rights.
Kim Eun-Ju, executive director of the Centre for Korean Women and Politics, believes Park is a female political leader "only in biological terms".
"For the past 15 years, Park has shown little visible effort to help women in politics or anywhere else as a policymaker," Kim told AFP.

South Korea swears in first female president

© AFP

Park Geun-Hye was sworn in as South Korea's first female president on Monday, continuing a controversial legacy founded by her father, Park Chung-Hee, who became president in a 1961 military coup. He was later assassinated.

By News Wires (text)

 

Park Geun-Hye was sworn in as South Korea's first female president Monday, capping a political career founded in privilege and personal tragedy.
Unlike her predecessors, she already knows the presidential Blue House well, having lived there as a child and served there after her mother's murder as first lady to her later-assassinated father.
Park was just nine years old when her father, Park Chung-Hee, came to power in 1961 in a military coup that set the stage for 18 years of authoritarian rule.
Her presidential victory was, in some ways, a referendum on the legacy of her father whose name still triggers polarised emotions in many South Koreans.
Admired for dragging the war-torn nation out of poverty, but reviled in some quarters for his repression of dissent, his shadow loomed large over Park's election campaign last December.
In an effort at reconciliation, Park publicly acknowledged the excesses of her father's regime during her campaign and apologised to the families of its victims.
Park was attending graduate school in France in 1974 when she was called back to Seoul after her mother was killed by a pro-North Korean gunman aiming for her father.
She left the presidential palace after her father was shot dead by his spy chief in 1979 and began her political career in 1998 as a lawmaker in her home town.
Park, 61, never married and has no children -- a fact she used to gain traction with voters tired of nepotism and corruption scandals surrounding their first families.
"I will earn the trust of the people by ensuring that our government remains clean, transparent and competent," she said in her inauguration speech, in which she also invoked the past image of a more caring, compassionate Korea.
"Reviving that spirit once again and building a society flowing with responsibility and consideration for others will allow us to be confident that a new era of happiness that all of us dream of is truly within our reach," she said.
The nurturing, maternal political image is at odds with that pushed by her critics, of an aloof aristocrat they call the "ice queen".
But even dissenters acknowledge her strengths as a campaigner that helped her party secure strong results in local and national polls in 2004, 2006 and this year, earning her another royal moniker as the "queen of elections".
And despite her privileged upbringing, Park has demonstrated a tough streak.
In 2006 an attacker at an election event where she was speaking slashed her face with a knife, leaving a wound that needed 60 stitches.
She will face numerous challenges when she begins her five-year term on Monday, not least dealing with a North Korea that triggered global outrage by conducting a nuclear test just weeks before her inauguration.
Even before Park won her party's presidential nomination last August the state-run Korean Central News Agency had attacked her candidacy, warning that "a dictator's bloodline cannot change away from its viciousness".
Park has signalled a break from outgoing President Lee Myung-Bak's hard line on Pyongyang, and even held out the possibility of an eventual summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un.
But she will be restricted by conservative forces in her party as well as an international community intent on punishing North Korea.
The North's February 12 nuclear test is almost certain to draw toughened UN sanctions -- a move likely to anger Pyongyang and further heighten tension on the peninsula.
While Park's election as South Korea's first woman president marks a major breakthrough in a male-dominated country, not everyone sees her victory as paving the way for greater women's rights.
Kim Eun-Ju, executive director of the Centre for Korean Women and Politics, believes Park is a female political leader "only in biological terms".
"For the past 15 years, Park has shown little visible effort to help women in politics or anywhere else as a policymaker," Kim told AFP.

encouraging Learning by Playing

encouraging Learning by Playing

In order to encourage learning by playing, it is important that kids be allowed to learn in their own way. There is a difference between guiding and pressurizing, and as a parent/teacher, you ought to know where to draw the line. Here are some guidelines that will help you aid learning through the process of playing.

• The activities and games introduced to children should be age-appropriate.
• The activity that kids are allowed should be divided into structured and unstructured play. This means, say for 30 minutes, an adult should be guiding kids in their activities, and for another 30 minutes, the child should be allowed to do what he pleases, i.e. free play.
• Schools should allot specific periods for children to free play and engage in teacher-led activities. This can be a time for structured play, during which they can enhance communication and other skills.
• They should be allowed to be in control of the situation, even during structured play. This helps them develop their own methods of working on different activities.
• A child should be allowed to indulge in play for as long as he wants to, and should not be forced to sit through a period of play just because it has been allotted. What is meant to be a fun activity to aid learning should not get frustrating for the child.

All in all, this idea of enabling children to learn by playing can be implemented in different manners. Not all children take to a particular activity and may have other ways of imbibing knowledge and wisdom. Yet, this is a very effective way of laying a strong foundation of concepts that are not taught by books to children. There is a lot for children to learn in life, and though not everything, playing with children and teaching them in the process will be highly beneficial to all of them.

examples of How Children Learn by Playing

examples of How Children Learn by Playing

• Why are kids taught mathematics on the Abacus before they are taught it in the classroom? It is because the abacus lays a strong foundation upon which the subject revolves. The basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are all taught on this colorful tool, where kids learn how these concepts work by manually moving the beads. This makes it a playful activity that allows learning by playing.
• Board games such as Monopoly teach children how to use money wisely at a young age. It teaches them how to carry out transactions, and how to make decisions for themselves. Games such as Scrabble help children strategize and score more points by placing appropriate letters in the right spots.
• In the digital age, a lot of educational computer games and video games have been designed to teach children basic concepts such as strategy, the importance of teamwork, along with enhancing focus and concentration. Some schools in the US have started allowing kids to design video games that help them learn in the process of designing.
• In the classroom, children are also taught the power of healthy communication, of group effort, and the benefits of team building. It teaches children not only to function as a group, but to lead and manage large groups of people, thereby helping them develop leadership skills.
• Similar is the case with outdoor games and activities. Being the captain of a football team teaches a child how to lead, manage and achieve goals by means of the aforementioned concepts. In activities like camping, children are taught the importance of nature, and the value of having the comfort of a home and a bed, when they are roughing it up outdoors.

What Children Learn By Playing

What Children Learn By Playing

Instead of having kids cram information and simply talking to them about various concepts, parents, along with several educational institutions, are adopting the art of teaching by playing with children. This, they believe, is a better way of inculcating not only concepts but also essential values, particularly in the most formative stages of a child's life. It is human nature to learn by experience, rather than when told or explained by someone else. Children should be allowed to learn from the consequences of their actions, and then realize why they were or weren't asked to do something. With parent and teacher participation and involvement, for children, learning can be made fun rather than a mundane, stressful task that emphasizes only on cramming as much information as possible.

A lot of concepts that education cannot impart are taught by the simple act of engaging in various indoor and outdoor activities. Here's what kids learn when they engage in such activities:

• By being allowed to play, children are free to explore their surroundings and develop experiences that are unique to them.
• They learn to take control and are capable of making their own decisions.
• They learn to respect rules and the choice of others around them.
• Children learn how to use their imagination in play and this helps develop creativity. The use of imagination also helps them shut out unpleasantness and tackle inherent fears.
• Free play allows kids to indulge and appease their inquisitiveness.
• Interactions with others help develop communication skills and aid personality development.
• The involvement of parents in the entire process helps strengthen the bond between the child and parent, as children learn how to share their experiences with their parents.

How Children Learn by Playing

How Children Learn by Playing

The idea of children learning by playing may seem outrageous to some parents and educational institutions, which firmly believe that learning is all about getting good grades in school. Here, we talk about how the focus of learning goes beyond grades, and how kids can be taught some of the most complex concepts simply by playing and engaging in some activities.

The concept of learning by playing is not new. In fact, for ages, children have been taught highly complex concepts by means of games and activities - concepts that they wouldn't have otherwise grasped. Such games and activities enhance personal learning and development that no book can provide. It is true that a school provides education, but knowledge is subjective and can be increased and improved by means of some very simple methods such as playing games. There are so many things that you have your kids do, without realizing the kind of message it is imparting to them, or the kind of effect it has on their minds. Playing particularly has a positive effect on kids and helps develop their personality and skills.