{"id":360655,"date":"2022-07-21T10:32:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T08:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/?p=360655"},"modified":"2022-08-10T21:49:52","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T19:49:52","slug":"loadshedding-lesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/parenting\/loadshedding-lesson\/","title":{"rendered":"Valuable loadshedding lessons and fun games for kids and adults too!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wherever you live in South Africa today and however young or old you are, you have had first-hand experience of having to do without electricity. Whether you are privileged or not, all are having to do their homework by candlelight, for extended periods, and go without certain electricity-fuelled luxuries! However, in these dark moments there&#8217;s definitely some loadshedding lessons for all.<\/p>\n<p>We are all experiencing the frustration caused by this disruption, but loadshedding does provide teachable moments that we should not miss around resilience, resourcefulness and even entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a conversation between a dad and his two sons aged 8 and 11 recently:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dad:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>Why is loadshedding bad?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Kids:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We can\u2019t watch TV.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Dad:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Why is that bad?<\/li>\n<li><em>Kids:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Because we miss our favourite programmes.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Dad:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And what else?<\/li>\n<li><em>Kids:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We don\u2019t see ads for stuff and then no-one buys stuff.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Dad:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And what else?<\/li>\n<li><em>Kids:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Shops can\u2019t open because they have no lights and credit card machines don\u2019t work<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Dad:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And why is that bad?<\/li>\n<li><em>Kids:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then they can\u2019t make any money.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Dad:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And what about restaurants?<\/li>\n<li><em>Kids:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They lose business because they can\u2019t cook meals for their customers.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Dad:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Why is loadshedding good?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Kids:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Because we get to spend more time together as a family talking and playing games<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Dad:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And what else?<\/li>\n<li><em>Kids:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We now know what other people feel like who don\u2019t have electricity like we do.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Dad:\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Can you think of any business opportunities because of this thing with Eskom?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Kids:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 People can start businesses that sell generators.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Dad: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And what else?<\/li>\n<li><em>Kids:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 People can service generators or design machines to save electricity and sell them.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Loadshedding lesson: The moral of the story<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Find the good: in every bad situation we must teach our kids to figure out the good and, more importantly, to spot the opportunities. In times of crisis, human beings become innovative.\u00a0 Out of desperation comes innovation.<\/li>\n<li>Learn to think critically:\u00a0 One day they&#8217;re going to be in business too. They need to be able to think critically when things go wrong.<\/li>\n<li>Dont play the blame game: If we teach our children to throw their hands up in the air as victims, they may become victims of circumstance leading them to name blame and shame anything and everyone else for the situation and the circumstances they find themselves in.<\/li>\n<li>Step back and look for hope and even opportunities: teach them to step back when things are not going well to see what the opportunities are, what the positives might be. This is so important because it gives perspective and it gives hope. One of the most valuable loadshedding lessons is to empower them with possibility thinking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Loadshedding lessons: fun things to do when the lights go down<\/h2>\n<p>While you may need to go to Plan B when the lights go down, you can also make it fun too. Here are some ideas.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Read the book <em>Who Moved My Cheese<\/em> together as a family. It\u2019s a quick read that will appeal to all and help them understand that change means you need to change the way you think and what you do.<\/li>\n<li>Play word games, here\u2019s two:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"231\"><strong>I want a rhyme in double quick time<\/strong> and the word to rhyme is\u2026\u2026\u00a0 E.g. stop, rake, cat<\/td>\n<td width=\"238\">Listening skills<\/p>\n<p>Auditory discrimination<\/p>\n<p>Matching sounds<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"231\"><strong>Word Ball.\u00a0 This is a word association game.\u00a0 Let your imagination run wild, the kids do!\u00a0 Call out a word e.g. kettle. The next player calls out whatever word comes to mind setting off a train of thought, e.g. tea, coffee, milk, sugar, steam, engine, railway, clickety-clack, etc.<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"238\">Vocabulary<\/p>\n<p>Imagination<\/p>\n<p>Association skills<\/p>\n<p>Free thought<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>When the lights go down and screens go off, this is the perfect time to have fun with your kids and teach them important concepts (or loadshedding lessons) at the same time. Turn your frustration into healthy memories that will last forever. Be more emotionally present and learn to connect and create entertainment in a very different way. It costs nothing but a bit of your time and attention and it will create amazing memories for your kids. \u201cRemember what we used to do in the dark\u2026..\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We need to help our children to find a way out of their discomfort, out of the irritation, out of the frustration caused by loadshedding, by laughing with them and having fun. This shows them how to be resourceful and resilient when the chips are down.<\/p>\n<p>There may be nights when you have to eat sandwiches for supper instead of a hot meal or have a lukewarm shower because the geyser didn\u2019t heat up. Finding a workaround is a skill that will help them for life: another invaluable loadshedding lesson<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-360659 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/DC1_8487-2-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"loadshedding lessons with Nikki Bush\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/DC1_8487-2-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/DC1_8487-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/DC1_8487-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/DC1_8487-2.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>For more tips on raising resilient children read my book <em>Future-proof Your Child<\/em> for the 2020s and beyond (Penguin Random House, 2019).\u00a0 Read more<a href=\"https:\/\/nikkibush.com\/future-proof-child\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> here<\/a>. \u00a0 You can also join my Facebook group called Parenting Matters\u00a0 to continue the conversation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b><i>Note: If you enjoyed this article, and would like to stay updated with more, you can:<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li2\"><i><\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>Subscribe to our free weekly Jozikids\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/member-registration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s2\"><i>newsletter<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0 for parents in Gauteng<\/i><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><i><\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>Like us on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jozikids.co.za\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s2\"><i>Facebook<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><i><\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>Follow us on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/jozikids?igshid=1n8cwedrewul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s2\"><i>Instagram<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wherever you live in South Africa today and however young or old you are, you have had first-hand experience of having to do without electricity. Whether you are privileged or not, all are having to do their homework by candlelight, for extended periods, and go without certain electricity-fuelled luxuries! However, in these dark moments there&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":360661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[853],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-360655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parenting"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}