Give her a fish or teach her to fish?

Daddy bought Qian Ning and Qian Hui a set of magnetic fishing toy the other day.

I opened up the package and thought of wanting to teach Qian Ning how to fish. After showing her a few times how to "catch" the fishes using the fishing rod with a magnetic bait, Qian Ning was all excited to try it on her own.

At first she did not get the gist of keeping her hands steady so that the bait would land accurately near the fish's mouth. She was using just one hand to hold the fishing rod and the bait was swaying left and right non-stop.

So, I insisted that she used both her hands to balance the fishing rod.

Still it did not work. And she reverted back to using one hand.

I kept on reminding her to use both hands whenever she did that. The cycle continued until a point that both her and myself started to get frustrated.

Qian Hui who was at the side was starting to meddle and splashing water here and there. I switched my attention to Qian Hui in an attempt to keep her still.

Then, I noticed Qian Ning managed to catch a fish. Then two, then three... up until all the fishes were removed from the pail of water.

And you know what?

She was using just one hand to hold the fishing rod. And it worked like a charm for her.

It suddenly struck me. Why was I so insistent of her doing it "my" way when obviously her way worked better for her?

And I realized, sometimes you don't need to teach your child how to fish, because they can fish just fine.

So, give her a fish or teach her to fish?

Obviously it's neither for me.

Just let her fish...