Quality time with kids

Too much worried about my 4 year old daughter’s behavior. She behaves very cranky at times, sometimes shouts and many a times I feel that she don’t listen to what I am saying.


Yesterday evening I realized that now a day she is not talking to me anything about her school. Before as soon as I reach home she used to come and narrate the things. Now that was not happening. I asked her about her school, she was not ready to talk to me. She replied that she forgot what she did in school and committed that she will explain it the next day. I felt very odd.

Sat near her and talked to her and explained that she needs to tell about school and all. After some 10 min discussion, she finally told me all about her school. I knew that there is nothing to curse my little one.

The entire mistake was at my end. I didn’t took effort to ask her how her school went and what all she did in school. I was too busy with my own tasks in office and many house hold things.

Every day I rush from office, pick her up from home and speed to playground. There she will be playing with her friends. Back home, after a good bath, we sit to finish the home work and then dinner. As I complete my work, she will be playing on her own. Then sleep.

In between, somehow I missed to spend some good Quality time with my daughter. I realize that with a heavy mind. And now it’s time to act. But How?

I started recollecting all the information which I had gathered. I was not like this; I used to spend some good amount of quality time with my daughter before. And it used to reflect in her nature and her face. Her face used to be smiling always.

I said to myself. I should do the following.

1. Try to find time for a story every day. As per my opinion, this is the best way of bonding. Reading it aloud, narrating the plots etc etc. Visit the library can also be scheduled.



2. Spend an evening together and go for a good walk. Yes, I remember she used to talk a lot when we used to go for a walk. Now a day, I always commute in my bike and the talking time is reduced.



3. Do some activity together. Sit with her and do some art works which she will enjoy. Her creativity will be boosted. Oh god, I used to do that also. But where I deviated, and why I am not doing it now.



I really don’t know what had happened to me in the past one month. I was not doing anything of this sort. Now I know that it’s high time I start all that. And I am happy now, just realizing that I was not so a bad-mom as I thought. I used to do all that with my daughter and somehow for some reason, I was not able to do that for the past few days.

Quality time with kids is very very important for bonding with your kids and I as a parent is responsible for kids behavior. This is what I believe as a parent.

Baby Page Toppers

Many a times, we will be confused as to what need to be put as a Caption for photos .. 

Bundle of Love


You are my sunshine

Run...Run Away (from Mom)

Why walk when you can crawl

Daddy's Little Angel

Little boys/girls do cry

There's only one pretty baby in the world, and everybody has it

With my good looks, I can stop traffic

Check this link which can be used ..

Check this link for more captions ..

http://www.dennydavis.net/poemfiles/bbypgs.htm

Raise a book lover

Found a good article which talks about Reading to a Child.. 

http://www.parentree.in/Parentree-editors/journal-719/Raise-a-book-lover.html

Rhymes

Jack and Jill went up the hill …

Twinkle Twinkle little star ..

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed …

No comparison for a little one singing a rhyme and doing the actions. Everyone will love that for sure.

Rhymes are the first thing which kids learn from the school. Now a day’s many parents teach their kids rhymes as soon as they start talking. Initially the kid many not understand the words and may not be able to sing along. But constant repetitions will teach the child the rhymes.

Researchers have shown that singing rhymes have very great effects in the brain development of the kids. Also their language skills will be improved by the constant use of the rhyming words.

A few things which can be incorporated in our daily life with kids.

• When ever we get a chance, sing a small rhyme.

• Ask the child to sing along.

• Make some small rhymes with your daily routine things

• Pick rhymes books from library and sing showing the pictures

• Explain the meaning of the rhymes and assist them in imagining



I am against Rhymes CD. I feel it’s a readymade package where the kids will lose their imaginative power. They listen to the rhymes in TV and see the pictures and just associate it together. There will not be any need for them to imagine the things.

Instead spend some time with the kids, sing a small rhyme and enjoy the moments together. Trust me, these moments will be a treasure.

No .. No .. No

No, Don’t take that knife. You will get hurt.

No, Don’t go there. You might fall.

No, Don’t say like that. It’s bad manners.

No, Don’t talk loud. Your throat will pain

“No” . this is the word which I use most now a days.



The list continues. These are the sentences which I usually tell my 4 year old daughter. Sometimes I feel tired of saying No these many number of times and I take a decision, not to say anything for the coming 10 min. And definitely, as if to break my decision, she will be doing something and I will again have to chant the same mantra starting with No.

So my search term today was “Alternatives to No” and I came across many interesting articles. I was consoled that I am not alone in this. However, some articles explained beautifully how to handle this

Some points which I learned

1. Rephrase the sentence. Instead of saying No, Don’t do that , we can tell “Why don’t you do this”

2. Just watch her actions and before she commits something, slowly and carefully divert her attention

3. Many times instead of shouting, kids will understand with your actions and facial expressions. Try that.

4. Appreciate the kids when they do something good, which will motivate them.

Let me try these out from today onwards. Only time will tell my success percentage.

Wonder Kid photography

For all the parents here in bangalore .. just check this site.. For cute phographs of your kid ..

http://www.wonderkidsphotography.com/

The link talks the rest  :) 

Developing vocabulary for kids

For the past few days, I am doing some research in developing vocabulary of kids ..Google search, discussion with my friends etc etc . Just jolting down my findings


Reading books is the foremost thing which is necessary for increasing vocabulary.. Read books To your kids again and again ..

For small kids, who don’t know alphabets and all, they listen and then learn the sounds and words

For kids who know letters and words, during reading point to the words / letters and stress the word so that they will notice it and remember it.

For kids who know to read, give them appropriate books( books depending on their age), so that they can read and their vocabulary will automatically increase.

My daughter is now 4 plus and she knows the alphabets and some three letter words and four letter words. She is having Montessori system of education where

They will be recognizing words with sounds and given one word, they make the spelling with respect to words.

One activity which I am practicing with her now is this ..

Take a set of 6 – 8 words .. I took 4 simple ones and two new ones .. and written it on small pieces of post-it notes.

I read those letters to her and asked her to stick it in some place of her reach.. and we made Sentences out of it .. Whenever we are together in that place, we say those sentences again and again ..

Like two words were ‘ice cream’ and ‘happy’

And we made the sentence that

“I am happy when I eat icecream”

Small small sentences .. Which they will remember…

Now they can remember those words and make sentences ..once thorough with these, introduce other set of words ..it helps a lot..

As mentioned before, Cross words is a good idea to make kids get to know about the spelling and words .. in the net, there are sites which help us to make our own crosswords. So collect a few words which the kid know and make a cross word of your own.

To teach more than one language, like hindi and English , tell one word in English and then tell the word in hindi ..They will then relate the words and learn it ..

For a kid of 4 years , repeatition is the key. You will have to repeat, repeat and repeat and they will remember it .

Make learning fun for the kids and yourself, and enjoy the learning process.