How to Raise kids to love Nature

What our kids might be missing ?- is a fairy tale 

In this digital age when I see kids so attached to the Ipads and Phones, I really wonder would they know the joys of nature as we had enjoyed. The life styles today have double income families, stressed tacky job situations and consumerism. Thus due to both parents working, children and families often have less time to spend together. Which parents prefer to either spend shopping, catching up latest movie or socializing with Friends

The increasing high rise apartments are making it more difficult with the common play areas and parks are being overly crowded and mostly meaning swings/ slides with not actually much of trees/nature around

Interaction with nature in early years is very helpful in developing reasoning, emotions, social skills, general awareness and most of all imagination and creativity

This interaction with nature helps in bonding with beauty , reduces stress and brings self control and peace in life.

Few ways of introducing nature in life of your little one: 

--        Have a small terrace garden – If you can afford one this is a must. You can let you kid water the plants see them grow, flower and enjoy

--        Take kids to zoo park, nature museums on free days

--        Let them enjoy sunset, sunrise, rain and wind along with you

--        Let them play on nature apps, like apps related to zoo, museum etc

--        When you pick a location for vacation insist on  hill station or an adventure camp

Kid’s childhood should be spent in fresh air catching butterflies, jumping over puddles, collecting wildflowers, climbing trees. In short,  Enjoying Nature. 

It is important to raise kids that love nature and understand that nature aids our survival. 

Some words for my love for Nature 

There on  mountains melting white…...touching frosted pines that STAND TALL in the snow

There as Thumbelina …  cuddled in a moss carpet….Gliding on silver ferns…...HOPING to reach home

Like a  pony ….with wind in her mane …..the KINDNESS in her eyes, eyes full of LOVE for green of pastures…

and I am still here now ....watching sunsets……with sun  spilling orange everywhere…Like KNOWLEDGE 

                                                                                                     - Spell and Charm 

How to deal with stubborn child / Tantrum control

How to deal with stubborn child / Tantrum control

Dealing with kids temper tantrums /pester power of stubborn child is important part of parenting. Temper tantrum in toddlers are common but sometimes these continue to kids in teen and they become too stubborn to deal with. 

In India with rise double in income families and rise of middle class, we have seen generous parents and influential kids .Kids have become "Influencers" in purchase decision-making. Also with the rising nuclear family culture, the child’s say in decision-making has increased a great deal. They display an incomparable power to pester their parents and completely influence the purchasing decision. In addition to their own needs and demands, kids are also influencing general buying decisions in the family.

Working parents develop a guilt of not being able to spend enough with kids .Parents want that the little time they spend with their kids to be very happy one. and The want to compensate for all the time they are not there by agreeing to child's demand.

For instance, the choice of a sofa set for the family, colors of the wall, which soap to use, brand of car to be bought, curtains in the house or the furniture, which movies to watch—they are involved in the decision-making for all these purchases. Though their inputs might not be the final word on a purchase, they are definitely able to influence decisions.

Today children are born in a world where they see internet , cameras, phones, TV,s all staring at them. Letting children make their own choices includes teaching them the outcome of the choices on life forward early on gives you a good headstart. 

Big Steps - 

- Don't agree to everything- teach child how to take 'no' for an answer. If you go shopping do buy few things of kids choice but not everything. Also for initial times help them to take no sometimes by empathizing with them and pacifying them 

- Stay Calm & Be firm - Be calm, punishment and being strict with kids does not help in solving the matter. Also It is important that both parents be firm on the decision. Playing a "good parent and bad parent " has more adverse affects  

-Sometimes agree to a middle path - Kids are little people who see themselves as individual capable of deciding .So sometimes in-front of guest or public they situation they want to be heard and agreed too. In such situations something like middle-path a win win has to be forged. 

- Discipline and reward for good behavior- encouraging routine discipline and rewarding kids on good behavior is very motivating  

Small Steps -

-Don't buy out of comparison - Dont buy anything because kids compare and because you can afford . Kids do like little toys and treats at intervals but make them understand that few things cannot be bought . 

-Don't agree out of guilt - Try and make whatever time you spend with kids quality time by teaching them good manners, having fun..avoid indulging in new toys all the time 

- Food decisions- parents are kids role model- So what we eat outside and don't,  affects kids a lot. Also making kids understand of the goodness of what you eat. Substituting chips with cakes, Juices with fruits etc. When you eat outside insist on term like freshness, germs free ,cleanliness, fat free ,less sugar, calories etc

- Emphasize on goodness of small things, like good manners, sharing and simplicity

-Limit children’s TV,  small screen time (including Internet and computer games) to less than two hours daily.  

You can deal with these in peaceful way with your kids in your own way. Observing kids behavior and knowing kids what they like helps a lot 

                                             Start early. Being patient with kid is the key here 
                                                                                                                           - Spell and Charm 

World Environment Day- Nature

Plant Trees- Love Nature 

If you want golden mornings….
Green sunny days ….
Orange evenings…
Silver starry nights…..

By Spell and Charm                                 
-On World Environment Day ( 5/June) 

How to help kids follow Routines

Parenting Today- 2015- Part 4 - Following Routines- early years 

Routines help us organize every day tasks and manage time 

Routine here refers to sequence of doing things as well as time maintaining same time daily 
Kids are fast learners and teaching them from early years is helpful

-Important routines that have to be managed by parents essentially include Early morning routines, Food timings, nap time. It is easier to make a routine if you follow the same for yourself like eating food with child , sleeping at same time as child .

-Start with eating food every day at same time in same setting with kids 

-Kids are great observers and Imitators .Food and nap time are important as they develop eating and sleeping habits. Kids whose parents follow a routine of sleeping early and waking early are most likely to follow the same. 

-Slowly delegating these routines and having kids follow them builds confidence. Begin with small things like  washing hands, brushing teeth, closing doors, switching off lights, then move on to setting table , clearing table, combing hair, Organizing toys .Encourage them as accomplish small things. 

-As much as it is difficult believe me it is worth the pain. As you see kids grow up self learning, follow routine without nagging and sleep and wake up on time .It helps them be more disciplined and thus settle more easily in school

Routine help lead life more easily, be organised and develop good habits 

                                                                      - Spell and Charm 

How to Develop Communication Skills in Toddlers

Developing communication skills For toddlers leaning to talk and making a complete sentence on their own is a big milestone. For this we need to encourage them in all ways possible to develop their communication skills.
In continuation with earlier posts, here is part 3 dealing with communication in toddlers
http://spellandcharm.blogspot.in/2015/06/parenting-today-2015-part1.html
http://spellandcharm.blogspot.in/2015/06/parenting-today-2015-part-2.html

Communication is key to happiness .With good communication you can communicate your thoughts and understanding clearly to other people.This will help in getting along in relations and in life.
Developing communication skills and inculcating self-learning early on is very helpful in kids . The aim is to help development of both right and left side brain activities in young kids so as to have balanced development. Few tips on developing these in time you get with kids. An early start is best in this case. :
- Developing the bond-to get child to communicate it is important to develop the bond, spend some quality time with kids. Show them the world - For small kids, parents are their guide- eyes and ears. Take them out to garden, evening walks, picnics ,at a outdoor event
- Communication with signs - This is very helpful as facial expression and body language are very important parts of communications. So body language, smile, eye contact and voice all play important role.
-Talking to Infants - this would involve telling them what is going and asking lot of questions making them feel the that interaction is required from both sides. Try and do this very slowly , try and speak clearly and use simple language to encourage them
- Taking toddler to library, letting them play with books, and getting them lot of picture books helps a lot. Also they observe in library that even adults read books, which makes them more interested in books as kids think of themselves as little adults. They want to do everything big people do.
- Listening and making them sing . Music in any form as rhymes, poems or songs is easy for kids to grasp
- Story telling - Let them be free and creative as they listen their favorite animal stories or fairy tales. Tell them famous children stories and be prepared to listen few from them. Appraise them even if their stories and mindless chatter don't make much sense to you
- Create a place for child at home, a small corner of his own - A place where kids self learn, create, read , play, doing small things and where they enjoy talking to self .- Reduce Digital time , in these initial years bonding is really important reducing TV, Ipad, games time and substituting it with playing with toys, crayons, clay. 
Don't stress around kids at anytime, remember spending quality fun time with kids should be the priority. So if for few minutes everyday you have to become child with your kid and play with them, Enjoy every moment of it.
                                                                                                                                        

-Teach them by doing it yourself- Start with using conversational words like good morning, thank you, sorry ,please ,wait ,stop etc more often. And as you get use to them so will they.

-Taking children to regular outings, where they can see and interact with other kids their age is also helpful.
                                                                          - Spell and Charm 

How to Choose the School for kid

How to Choose the School for kid

Dear Readers
This is in continuation of the blog below 

http://spellandcharm.blogspot.in/2015/06/parenting-today-2015-part-1.html

One of the most important and difficult decision for a parent is deciding on school where for a child will spend the best years of his life. Schooling forms most important part of child learning and also memories. Below are some of the important points to consider when checking out for schools:

•   Plan in advance – Start the research well in advance to understand on admission calendar at various schools, In some school getting admission in pre-nursery levels is much easier than in KG level. Some schools specialize in early years while other pay more attention to high grade schooling. It is good to visit the schools and check out rather than depending on information available at site or from reviews as they might not be updated. Also entering your name in interested parents database of school helps a lot.
•  Location – Filter all the schools from yellow pages for the location you are looking at .There are various sites which maintain a directory of schools area wise. Try and keep location as close as possible for minimizing travel time for kids. It is good to keep most number of options so that you have a back plan as well
•   Cost – There is huge disparity between the cost of education at various schools. List the schools which fall in your affordability. 
• Accreditation – it is important that you check for past record and accreditation of school. A check of management and teaching staff is also helpful.
•  Safety and Infrastructure – The premises of school must be safe and audited as per safety regulations. The need of managing health and safety in a planned way on daily basis is very important.
• School Ideology – many schools have in their roots different way of teaching and treating kids. In India though most of the schools have academics at their core, but some schools are religiously inclined, some give equal importance to sports/ music etc. Visiting school and knowing how they nurture kids, also taking reviews from parents will be really helpful. It is necessary here that you understand kids inclination and his way of learning. 

Every kid is unique and compatibility between the child and school goes a long way in determining what child takes from the school. 
                                                             - Learn and Grow 

Parent and child relation

Parent and child relation 

My advise to parents whenever you get very angry at child remember what happiness they gave you the day they were born 

It's amazing how the parent child relation grows, from the time when child is conceived to the birth and that is just the beginning of a beautiful , mystical relation 

When the parent look at child -all the worries disappear and there is magic , 

As mother sits, smiling at the thought of perfect moment

When she would hold the little angel, and ever so lightly kiss ..She is happy

and as parents think ,the pain of their past life disappears and a hope is born 

As if they are reborn

and When She gave birth, and they see the Angel cry

In those magical moments , a life long bond of purest form of love is born 

                                                                                                                       - Spell and Charm 

How to encourage Imagination/ Creativity in children

Encouraging Imagination/ Creativity in children 

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” – Albert Einstein

Children by birth are Imaginative and inquisitive . The important thing for parents is to answer their questions and let the curiosity grow .The child has lots of creative thoughts and ideas, and they express them though play, relationships, situation handling. 

Imagination and creativity can be encouraged in kids by parents ,teachers in early years of learning through :

- DIY- do it yourself, this is the best tool available today to make kids understand and also help them use their creativity as they make .Building blocks, Drawing, painting, craft ,clay modelling are the great way to boost imagination , Don't worry for the mess kids make as they play, it is worth it! 

-Role Plays of various favorite characters, like doctor, policeman , teacher are learning with fun. Kids are very good mimics, so what they observe and see they can role play with mush more ease than adults 

-Listening Music, learning and making music is one of the best ways to stir kids minds. 

-Exposure -taking kids places, like museum, parks, historic places ,helps them understand various aspects of learning with ease

-Story telling and reading to child - Other than tries and tested fairy tales being the best for imagination. Real life stories are a great way to help child understand people, situations and responses. Child should also be encouraged to make there own stories 

- Drama/ theater - enacting a scene of kids favorite story/ movie along with input from kid is a fun way of enhancing both creativity and communication skills

- Question, Questions & Questions - These are the best means of understanding and gauging child curiosity, how well  we handle these further encourages the child  

Creativity goes a long way in deciding what kids make and what they make of their life as well. 


                                                                                                              -Spell and Charm 

Parenting today- 2015-part 1

Parenting today- both difficult and easy

Parenting today is tougher today for parents around the world as kids get more demanding and expectations are high on all ends. Being a parent and living in city,  i felt a gap between how we were brought up and how we are parenting today.

Support for parents today

Parenting today is tougher in metro India than it was in long gone times. The urban life styles today requires double income families more due to tacky job situations and consumerism. Thus due to both parents working, the kids are increasingly being left over with either grand-parents or outside institutions to be take care off.  With a small study of any of metro cities, it is apparent that there are many options available for parents today with regard to help bring up kids. But the goods ones are either very few or too expensive. Also for new parents without much assistance it is very difficult to decide on what is best for Kids. This is where the newly propped up consulting websites with databases, reviews and blogs come in picture. So parents can easily filter there requirements, compare options, read reviews and decide. Parents today are much more tech savvy, informed, and on their toes always updated with what’ s new and trending in market . Parents can get help regarding children development, schooling, medical suggestions and even Fashion trends. Life is sorted for parents who are more informed, socially connected and who have planned beforehand.       


                                                                                                                - Spell and Charm