When my daughter was 4 years old, she would often want me to drop everything and look at what she was doing. I would happily yield and it would be to show me something she had made – either a drawing or something she had built with legos. She was passionate about drawing and building. The smallest of appreciation would fill her with such happiness and joy – which is what encouraged her to create more.
Children love creating and especially love showcasing their work. They like appreciation. They like feedback and they like collaboration. As they get older and the school work starts to take up their entire day, the innate talents that should have been nurtured into skills, take a back seat and end up being neglected hobbies. Between classwork and homework, which are heavily driven by conventional metrics, there is little motivation to nurture ‘the creator’.
This is the gap the three of us wanted to address.
When Reema, Lakshmi and I set out to create online communities for children, it was to create safe, curated spaces that cultivate interactions between children with shared interests from diverse backgrounds and regions. We hope these communities serve as spaces that encourage experimentation, innovation and collaboration between children who may have never encountered each other otherwise.