Issue 6 2019

CORPORATE VISION / Issue 6 2019 57 , Oct18601 Masterminding the Future Masterminds Nurserywas founded by Tania Sidiqi. We speak to her about the rationale behind this innovative company and how it can help enrich the lives of both children and parents. “The inspiration for Masterminds Nursery was conceived along with my daughter, Athena,” begins Tania, who founded Masterminds Nursery, the first of its kind in the United Arab Emirates. “Like every parent, I wanted to provide my child with every opportunity in life. This triggered a global quest to find the most pioneer- ing thinking in early childhood development.” After researching numerous options worldwide, Tania finally came across a globally renowned institute pioneering early child- hood development which had been in operation for 60 years. Following a visit to the campus, Tania explains that she knew she had found something extraordi- nary. “There were these amazing, happy and kind three, four, and five year olds, all of whom could read, do maths, talk about the great artists of the world, speak three languages, play the violin, do gymnastics and have a love of learning that I had never seen before.” Tania took the programs home and started doing them with her daughter when she was almost two and personally witnessed the extraordinary results of these programs. “I saw how her development in one area had influenced development in many other areas, including skills in activities that she had never done before, as well as her confidence and social development. My biggest frustration was that I was doing these great enrichment programs with her at home but she was spending the best hours of her day at a Nursery which was good but simply not equipped to stimulate her to what I knew to be her extraordinary potential. I thought that wouldn’t it be great if there was a Nursery that did these enrichment programs with my child and also engaged me in her development? This is the fundamental philosophy behind Masterminds Nursery.” Masterminds Nursery offers a joyous, enriching and integrated early learning curriculum that combines a mother’s tradi- tional wisdom with 60 years of leading-edge research in child development to create intellectu- al, physical and social excellence in children between 18 months and six years. Its daily curriculum includes French and Arabic immersion, violin, gymnastics, swimming as well as enrichment programs which ensure that all children can read, do maths and have excep- tional knowledge by the age of six. The specialised methodology of these enrichment programs has been proven to multiply the child’s intelligence, physical abili- ties and social development. “Children would rather learn than do anything else,” explains Tania. “As long as the process is joyous and operates at the pace of the child. For a young child, learning is the highest and best form of play. They want to learn about everything and anything and they want to learn right now. Children have within them the capacity to learn virtually anything from birth to the age of six. What they can learn without any conscious effort at age two, three or four years of age can only be learned with great effort, or may not be learned at all, in later life. What they learn at this age remains with them for the rest of their lives and ignites a love for learning that can never be diminished. “At Masterminds, we simply har- ness this innate desire through personalized attention and provide opportunities, experi- ences, and guidance to develop intellectual, physical and social excellence within each child.” The ethos at Masterminds Nursery is that there are only two lasting bequests a parent can give to their children: One is ‘roots’, the other ‘wings’. “Our deepest desire is to give your child both a strong foundation in life and the ability to soar in all are- as going forward, so that together we can create a world that we are happy to leave our children with.”