WEEK ONE: INTELLECTUAL WELLNESS

Goals From Week One: During week one, our goal was to illuminate the importance of intellectual wellness. So, the children were taught what intellectual wellness is, and how they can achieve this category of wellness on a regular basis. Some of the ways the kids were taught to promote their intellectual wellness was by picking up a hobby, traveling to new places, reading for fun, learning about a different language, and more. The kids were then posed with three questions to answer to assess their understanding of intellectual wellness, and they were asked to ask a caregiver these questions as well and record both answers. Below is a summary of how the kids responded to each question, and what they seemed to have taken away from the first successful session of the year!

Question One: The first question we posed was: “What are your hobbies? What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? Or what do you wish you had time to do?” The kids’ answers for this question ranged from coloring, to watching TV, to cooking, to playing sports, and more. They also recorded a caregiver’s answer which hopefully encouraged them to see the importance of carving time out for hobbies.

Question Two: The second question we posed was: “Do you imagine yourself traveling to distant places? Have you taken a trip recently and/or do you look forward to future travels?” The children had varying answers for themselves. Some noted they have traveled before and look forward to traveling again, noting special recent trips like beach vacations. Many students noted that they would like to travel to new, foreign destinations like Mexico, Thailand, and more. The kids were able to share their travel goals and acknowledge the role traveling plays in their lives.

Question Three: The third question we posed was: “Why do you think it’s important to be open minded?” This question was more philosophical and open-ended, making it slightly tricker for the kids to answer. The overarching theme from the kids’ answers was that it is important to be open minded because you can learn new opinions and perspectives from other people that you may not have thought of. Many noted that this allows you to learn something new and may encourage you to try something a new way. Overall, while this question was ticky, many students were able to grasp the concept of open-mindedness.

~ Emily Milgrim, University Of Pennsylvania ‘25