Nurturing your child to be innovators in the 21st Century

Inventors are not born. They are nurtured. What would you feel if your kid came up with an idea, product or service that would change the lives of millions? Pretty amazing right? 

Think along the lines of the creators of the tissue paper, zipper, safety pin, radio, TV, the humble toothpick... and the list goes on and on...

How do we inspire our young ones to become inventors and motivate them to have a vested interest in making their world a better and more creative place?

Here are some ways in which ideas are formed and nurtured:

The Piggy Back
Often several people will invent the same thing at the same time. Why? Because something already existed that inspired the inventors. For example, the Internet, inspired many inventors to come up with social media sites. Facebook and Twitter are two inventions that exist because of the Internet.

The Incubator
Some ideas need time to “cook”.  Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, started thinking about how to organize files on his computer ten years before he invented the WWW. By 1990, he had how invented HTML, the “language” of the WWW, figured out how to give each website its own address, and created the first web browser.

Reinventing The Wheel
Many inventors realize that existing inventions can be used to perform other tasks. Johannes Guttenberg, inventor of the printing press in the 1400s, incorporated a machine called the screw press that crushed grapes to make wine in his new invention.

Happy Accidents
“Happy Accidents” are invention ideas or discoveries that are made when people least expect them. Many things we use and enjoy today came about this way. Post-it Notes, ice cream cones, chocolate chip cookies, and even potato chips are a few examples!

The "Aha! Moment", otherwise known as the "Eureka! Moment"
This involves first being stuck on an idea and then relaxing your mind to let the solution surface. This can happen at the oddest times – in the bath, during a walk or even watching the clouds roll by. Scientist Albert Einstein was riding a bus when he came up with the idea of “special relativity”, to solve a theory he had been working on for years about space and time.

Coming up on the JLPC calendar is the "Young Innovators" workshop series (July to Sept 2013) which aims to inspire kids from 6yrs to 12yrs to become innovators in the 21st Century. Details coming up real soon! Watch out for it!

Last Call For Registrations To The Young Entrepreneurs Camp - 4th to 7th June 2013!

Hear ye! Hear ye! Registration for The Young Entrepreneurs Camp (for kids 7yrs to 15yrs) will be closing this Friday 24th June. Please do send in your registration forms by then or earlier if you can, if not done so yet.

What an exciting month of May it's been, and it's almost over too! Where has the time gone! We've got a good number of sign ups and enquiries about our camp, and received wonderful feedback from our previous participants and their families too! A BIG thank you to them for sharing their thoughts. We will certainly take all your feedback and suggestions to mind and applying them to our upcoming camp in June.

To add to the buzz of activities, JLPC has been featured on a number of websites this month too and here are the links to them. DO share with your friends and family!

"Encourage Entrepreneurship From A Young Age" by Felicia Chin from sg.theasianparent.com (http://sg.theasianparent.com/encourage-entrepreneurship-from-a-young-age/)

"JLPC Encourages Entrepreneurship From A Young Age" by Fiona Lim from kidlander.sg (http://sg.kidlander.com/highlights/jlpc-encourages-entrepreneurship-from-a-young-age/)

"Taking The Plunge by Lorraine Paul for FlexiWerks (http://flexiwerkz.com/archives/taking-the-plunge-by-lorraine-paul)

"June Holidays - The Young Entrepreneurs Camp" by Wong Meiling for Universal Scribbles  (http://www.universalscribbles.com/) 

Calling all young entrepreneurs...

We're counting down to the start of camp and preparations are now underway to make our June entrepreneurship camp at Victoria Junior College as successful, if not more so, than last year's Super Spies camp. Do check out our events listing (2013 Events) for details of The Young Entrepreneurs Camp and programme highlights. 

And to give you an idea of what we did back then in Nov 2012, take a look at this video:

Meantime, here's what a couple of moms of our past participants have to say about JLPC's Entrepeneurship Camp.

“What I liked about the camp was that it encouraged kids to think “out-of-the-box”, challenged them to communicate and collaborate with one another and really helped to strengthen their interpersonal skills. I was also very impressed by the presentation that the boys had to make at the end of the workshop and the enthusiasm they exhibited throughout the 5-days period.” – Wong Meiling, mother of 2 kids aged 9yrs and 7yrs.

“Christian would come home every day really excited and give me hints about what he was building because it was a secret. I could see the pride he had that he played a part in those inventions. On the reveal day, am always amazed at the kids' creations. Definitely a thumbs-up experience. Can't wait for my younger daughter to attend!” – Mandy Goh, mother of 4 kids, aged 8yrs, 6yrs, 3yrs and 7months.

“What I look for in holiday programmes is how much I think my kids will enjoy the activities and whether in having fun learning new skills and new things, they become more confident and creative in their thought process. To me these experiences are priceless as I believe that the love for learning is nurtured best through games and exploration activities. My 12 year old thoroughly enjoyed herself at the JLPC entrepreneurs camp last November. Now my 7 year old girl who is finally of age to participate is so looking forward to going to the same camp. I think what is most unique about the JLPC programme is that it allows children of different age groups to come together to learn concepts in a novel and creative way.” - Luana Lim, Mother of 3, ages 13yrs, 7yrs and 6yrs

Open House Details in May 2013

For those who missed out on our last Open House, here's good news... we'll be holding another one in May just before the start of the Young Entrepreneurs Camp.

Here are the details:

Date: 26th May (Sunday)
Time: 4.30pm to 6.30pm (2 hour session that includes activities for kids & a talk for the parents about 21st Century Education and why we focus on this in our program)
Venue: Casa Merah Condominium (function room), 50 Tanah Merah Kechil Ave, Singapore 465524 (see map attached)

And to thank you for taking time out from your busy schedule to come for this session, we're extending to you the special Open House offer of $395 per child for registrations to The Young Entrepreneurs Camp (U.P. $450).

For planning and preparation purposes, please email your name and contact number, as well as your child's name and age, to lapaul232@gmail.com. before 20th May.

Are You Registered For The Young Entrepreneurs Camp in June 2013?

The Young Entrepreneurs Camp - For Innovative Kids Aged 7yrs to 15yrs.

You are never too young to be an inventor, neither are you too old to learn new skills. And while you're busy inventing, it helps that you also learn how to sell your ideas too because no one just invents things for themselves right?

Anyone can gather lemons from a tree but what would you do with them? How many times would you make lemonade just to perfect your recipe? Where would be the best place to set up a lemonade stand and how much would a glass of that refreshing drink sell for?

So why not start grooming our kids to be entrepreneurs by equipping them with skills that will take them from the classroom to the boardroom and beyond! We'll expand their minds to the world around them and help them acquire the skills to be a creative thinker.

This June, we're joined by the student leaders from Victoria Junior College (VJC) who will no doubt inject new levels of energy, as well as youthful perspectives, into our camp activities.

JLPC will be working together with VJC's Student Leadership Programme to provide these students with leadership training, team facilitation know-how as well as a workshop on financial literacy prior to our camp. Thereby ensuring that our student leaders are prepared to navigate through the different invention challenges as well as handle the rigours of preparing our young entrepreneurs for the Investors Fair, which is the main highlight of our camp.

Here are the camp details:

Dates: 4th to 7th June 2013 (Tuesday to Friday, non-residential)

Timing: 9.30am to 5.30pm (we will allocate an hour before and after camp for working parents to drop off and pick up their kids. Any other arrangements, if necessary, will need to be highlighted to JLPC prior to camp.)

Venue: Victoria Junior College Campus, 20 Marine Vista, Singapore 449035
(Camp will be held at the covered concourse just behind the General Office.)

Meals: Lunch and breaks will be provided daily. Please advise us if your child has allergies or special meal requirements.

Fees: $450 per child ($400 per child for group sign ups of 3 or more kids in a group)

Early Bird Offer $410 per child is valid till 30th April 2013.

Registration for camp closes on 24th May 2013. Email lapaul232@gmail.com for a registration form now!

Here's the program line up for our camp. Please note that the number of activities may vary according to how fast (or how slow) the kids are able to complete the various challenges within a day.

Weather is also a consideration as some of the activities need to be done and measured outdoors.

Day 1 – Things that zoom or fly

-          Magic paper ring  

-          Gravity cars
-          Wind powered cars
-          Rocket Cars
-          Propeller Cars
-          Paper Flyers
-          Handocopters
-          Aluminium Gliders
-          Circuit game (optional)

  

Day 2 – Things that float or blast into space

-          Tallest Tower

-          Gravity Boats

-          Propeller Boats

-          Aluminium Ferries

-          Cartesian Divers

-          Straw shooters

-          Straw Rockets

-          Paper Canons

-          Pneumatic Rockets

-          Water Rockets

Day 3 – Invention Day – Developing the BIG Idea

-          Teams will spend the early part of the day being introduced to building a simple business/action plan, brainstorming and deciding what type of game they want to invent.

-          Second part of the day will be spent building their prototypes.

Day 4 – Investor Fair – Selling the BIG Idea
-          Most of the day will be spent finishing up their prototype, followed by ‘quality testing’, evaluation and revision of prototypes. After which, teams will prepare for their presentations and develop promotional POS materials to ‘sell’ their inventions at the Investors Fair.

-          There will be an Investors Fair at 5pm where parents and guests will turn investor for the day, sit through their kids’ presentations, proceed to try out and sample the merchandise on offer and provide the kids with objective feedback on the feasibility of their idea to venture.

More details will be provided to all camp participants and their parents prior to the start of camp.

For more information about the camp or to register your child, please email your contact details to lapaul232@gmail.com.

Of Familiar Faces And Making New Friends

Just want to give a BIG shout out to friends of JLPC who came to the Open House last Saturday, as well as to the new friends we made that day.It was great seeing you all there!

What was rather significant for me that day was the question and answer session during the talk that I gave to the parents. It was such a refreshing change to have parents also share their concerns about their kids and how they've coped with these challenges. Such information is priceless in my books because we can learn so much from each other.

The kids had so much fun too! So much so that we had a couple of residents of Casa Merah, where the open house was held, enquiring about the program right there and then! Their enthusiasm must have been pretty contagious!

A very big thank you also goes out to my fellow trainers - Uncle Wee Pin and Aunty Sharon, who hosted the Open House and were the ones championing the kids activities that day. Well done and great job guys!

For those who couldn't make it, don't fret as we will be hosting another one on Sunday 26th May. Details of that event will be coming out soon.

In the meantime, just wanted to remind everyone that we will be closing our early bird promotional offer for The Young Entrepreneurs Camp on 30th April 2013. So don't miss out on your chance to register your child at only $410 instead of $450.

The details of our camp is listed under 2013 Events so do go check that out! It's going to be a blast and we hope that you're planning to be a part of it this June.

Have a great week ahead!

JLPC Team

Thinking is not the same as doing... So do it!

Challenge: Create a mini rocket from bits of cardboard and some straws that will launch with the help of a rubber band.

Simple right? Well, on paper it looked so easy but it took us a couple of tries before we got the formula right. Launching it was another matter all together. How can we do that? What can we use as a secure platform to launch? Why did this version not launch as well as the last one? So many questions came up in the process.



This is why kids should be encouraged to invent and create. In doing so, they not only have fun transforming recyclable materials into a gadget, gizmo or toy (and save you lots of money in doing so) but it'll also get them to think more about their environment and how things are made and refined to suit our lifestyles.

This will be just one of the activities that we'll do at the Open House this Saturday. We'll be on hand to answer your questions about the program as well. Do join us then.

Here are the details again:

Open House

 Date: 20th April 2013, Saturday
Time: 1pm to 3pm
Venue: Casa Merah Condominium (function room)
50 Tanah Merah Kechil Avenue, Singapore 465524

For planning purposes, please register your attendance with me before this Friday, 19th April, by emailing your child's name, age and school, as well as your contact number to lapaul232@gmail.com.

If you come for the open house, you will also get to enjoy a fabulous one time offer of $395 (U.P. $450 per person) if you register your child for The Young Entrepreneurs June holiday camp, which will be held at Victoria Junior College from 4th to 7th of June 2013. More details can be found under the 2013 Events page on this site.

So please help spread the word about our Open House, and come with your friends and family!

I hope to see you then!