Child Development: Knowing My Junior

It's been a while now since I posted about this series on Child Development. For this post, I will be talking about the stage which my 2 sons are in - the Junior stage. My oldest son is now turning 11 this December and my second son is 9 years old. Let's see what do the books say about this stage.

Late Childhood / Junior (9-11 years old) - Personified Exuberance

Emmuel is playing basketball with his cousins.

Physically.  A junior is very energetic. He likes to do a lot of challenges and is excited over physical adventure.  He can become very involved in physical achievement that sometimes he neglects proper physical care like good grooming and caring for personal possessions and my room. 

This so describes my Emmuel, he likes to play basketball very much, which by the way he just started playing since March this year. It is also at this stage that physical changes has been occurring in their bodies, so I have to remind them of good grooming often. 

Mentally.  A junior is more accurate in his observations and can reason more logically.  He is interested in different things - experiments, reading books, doing art - which depends on his personal exposure in the home, his friends, his school and church influence.  This is said to be the golden age of memory for them, which means he can memorize anything he finds interesting.

My second son Yuan has been very interested in origami since we bought this set of art & craft books last year. He's been doing a lot of origami lately (he's even searching and watching a lot of YouTube video tutorials) that I have to tell him to refocus his attention on his studies. One of these days, I'll make a post of the wonderful origami he's been making. And it's amazing how he can MEMORIZE the steps in making all those origami. It is indeed a golden age of memory. But only if they find something interesting. I certainly hope that my boys would find their school subjects a lot more interesting, too.

Socially and Emotionally.  A junior is able to gain control over his emotions but still displays it freely.  There are times that he tries to hide his feelings, so that others may believe that he is fearless or all right.  He does not like sentimental expressions that when he says "Good night, mom and dad", he tries to hide affections.

Hmm. My two boys are quite different with respect to this aspect may be because of their personal sentiments and age. I noticed that Emmuel is now naive when I kiss him goodbye when going to school. While Yuan is still that sweet boy who says "I love you, mom" with a matching kiss and hug when going to school. Emmuel sure is growing really fast.

This period is also a social adjustment for a junior.  He begins to seek independence in preparation for adolescence.  He is becoming friend conscious and at times he relies more on his friends than his parents and teachers.

A junior loves to identify people he admires so he's looking for worthy examples to follow.  He tends to separate from the opposite sex unless there are social activities for girls and boys together.

Now, these boys really love to sleep overnight in their friend's house - a taste of independence. We allow them to do so once in a while. Emmuel also often asks us if he can invite his friends over. Well, it's better that we get to know who he is hanging out with. 

When they are with their friends, it seems that they do not want to separate from them anymore. Also, they tend to do more what their friends do than listen to mom or dad. Sigh. So, we better implement firmly the house rules. 

And oh boy... they're starting to give attention to CRUSHES.

Spiritually.  A junior is a hero worshiper so he should see heroes in people who can lead him to Christ as his ideal.  When he accepts Jesus as Savior, he needs to grow.  This will prepare him for teen life.

He can understand the teachings of the Bible especially when coupled with personal application.  He is a doer and interested in living the truth but he needs good examples.

My two sons are in a critical stage when it comes to their faith life. If we cannot as parents guide them to believe in Christ now and be good examples to them, it will be more difficult to win them to Christ when they enter their teen life. I try as much as I can to teach them the principles of God's word in a practical way - in a way that they can see how it applies to their everyday lives. For instance, I ask them to memorize "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" so that when they are faced with something difficult, they will turn to God and trust Him for help. 

My special prayer for Emmuel and Yuan is that as they enjoy this stage of their childhood, they would ask Jesus to come into their hearts and be their Savior and Lord. 

The next post will be the last one for this series - Early Adolescence.