Women Lines

Developing good food habits in kids has always been a challanging job for mothers.!

While searching for guidance around I gathered some tips which I want to share with my friends-

1. Praise healthy choices.- Give your children a proud smile and tell them how smart they are when they choose healthy foods.

2. Don’t label foods as “good” or “bad.”Instead, tie foods to the things your child cares about, such as sports or appearance. Let your child know that calcium in dairy products give strength to their sports performance.Discuss about the nutritional value of the food by relating to the benefits they will get.

3. Give the kids some control- Ask your children to take three bites of all the foods on their plate and give it a grade, such as A, B, C, D, or F. When healthy foods - especially certain vegetables — get high marks, serve them more often. Offer the items your children don’t like less frequently. This lets your children participate in decision making.

4. Sit down to family dinners at night. If this isn’t a tradition in your home, it should be. Research shows that children who eat dinners at the table with their parents have better nutrition  and are less likely to get in serious trouble as teenagers. Start with one night a week, and then work up to three or four, to gradually build the habit.

5.  Keep healthy food at hand. Children will eat what’s readily available. Keep fruit in a bowl on the counter, not buried in the crisper section of your fridge. And have an apple for your own snack. Remember, your child can only choose foods that you stock in the house.

Every parent wants to see their kid growing as a creative, happy child!  Isn’t it?

I, as a mother always try to find out various ways how can I help my kid to be more creative, and came across  few interesting ways which can definitely help your kids too.

1-Read, read, and read, at least for half hour daily to your kid. Make it a regular habit in your life. Make sure books you are choosing to read must be story books and can range between fairy tales, moral stories, stories about historical characters. Don’t read for the sake of reading. Try to be dramatic and read with all sort of expression you can but make sure you don’t overdo it.

2- Talk, talk, and talk to your kid. It should not be a parental talk about doing this, that or not doing certain things. Talks should involve  around certain things , may be how was your day if meeting after the whole day, or just inquire if anything interesting happened throughout the day. I f staying with him then you can discuss topics regarding nature if going out. Or if he is watching TV then ask his opinion about the show.Just give a thought, many ideas will come in your mind.

3- Colour, colour, and colour-

Coloring world is a beautiful world for kids. Their imagination boundaries are not restricted as their hands move freely. Their is no end to their imagination and at times you can get very interesting sketch up from your kids. If you also join them then painting can be really fun.

4-Music and dance-

Listening to music is a good relaxing exercise for kids. And with dance physical activity also happens. Just expose your kids to various types of music, be it guitar, piano, tabla, sitar and just observe which one is his favourite. Never pressurize him to learn music without his interest.

Singing and dancing together with kids can a fun activity and can be a bonding time for whole family.

I want to request my  friends that if they come across other ideas  to increase creativity in kids please share on this platform.

Suicide by 11 yr old girl-not a joke, a harsh reality!

11-year-old reality show participant Neha Sawant , committed suicide in India.  Police have cited pressure to perform well in studies as a possible reason for her suicide .

“Class VI student Neha was found hanging by a dupatta to a ceiling rod inside her Sai Darshan Apartment house, Dombivli, on 2 Jan morning, police said. She had participated in three TV dance  reality shows, including the popular Boogie Woogie, and was a student at a dance academy. Police suspect she might have taken the step after her family took her out of the academy as they wanted her to concentrate on her studies.”

I am in loss of words to express my gried, shock, sympathy….or any other emotion I want to express for this little girl. Its a check for every parent. Mind you, your kids are no more kids in today’s e-world. They are mature enough to understand meaning of death and how to carry suicide act successfully. Now who is to be blamed? Parents, for pressurizing her for studies, or the reality shows who makes stars out of our small kids and snatch their childhood from them. Should we blame Neha herself for taking such an extreme step.

No parent can ever imagine that their kid can take such an extreme step and that too at such a small age of 11 years. My whole hearted sympathy with them. At times I ponder that when we want our kid to excel in everything we forget to think that in process of achieving excellence are we ignoring our kids happiness. Why is it necessary that every kid should be a star. Why parents feel ashamed that their kid stood second in class and missed the first position by half marks. In order to satisfy our parental ego we just crush our kids happiness and never realize that what in reality gives him happiness. I never say that if your kid wants to dance then let him ignore his studies. Just trust your instict and communicate with the confidence with your kid eye to eye , explaining hin the importance of studies and how it will help him to excel in other fields. The most important thing you can give to your child is your time with such constructive communication (which should never sound as boring lecture).

Lets stop acting as a cop parent and create a world of fun and happiness around our child. His life should be filled with fun activities, shades of various colors, dance, music, and of course studies but in a fun way.

Mothers love to see their kids busy in some or the other activity and if the activity is creative what else they want!

Creative activities helps kids expanding their thoughts without boundaries.

1.PROBLEM SOLVING-What’s your opinion-

Interacting with your child can be constructive if we mould it creatively. At times ask your child open ended, thoughtful questions that have no right or wrong answers. Encourage your child to think about the answers and give an opinion. Avoid questions like “what colour is…? or “Ho wold are you?”

Ask questions like  ”What do you think about it?”, “What might happen if…?”, “How could we fix this broken…?”, “What do you think will happen next in this story?”

To help you get into this habit of asking open ended questions , you can write some questions in a piece of paper and post them.

2.RESPECT:I believe it means…..

Ask your child what respect means. Share what the word means to you.Does your child mention that we treat others as we want others to act towards us?

Make a list of words that are connected to respect, words such as honour, appreciation, praise, value, and consideration.

Help your child to think of times when respect was shown towards others. Examples might be when your child borrowed something and returned in good condition or helped a family member get a job done more quickly.

Kids cannot sit idle. With bubbling energy kids love to keep themself busy with various activities around. Whether its art craft activity, or dance, singing, any creative activity will bring out their real talent outside. Some activities really help to nurture certain specific skills in them. Through this series womenlines  wants to share those activities with its readers which will really help in meaningful way-

1-CREATE AND IMAGINE-

If you want to teach certain practicl knowledge for everyday living this activity will help you a lot.

Place a large sheet of paper on the floor.Ask your child to draw picture of your homein the centre of the paper and title the map with the  name.Draw your street, write your street name, and your house and telephone numbers.

Have your child plce on X on the map to mark important places in the neighbourhood. like school, store, shopping complex, friend’s house, fire station, police station, clinic, etc. Talk with your child bout which plce is nearest to your place. Post the map on the fridge and so that your child can have a look at it everydy. Encourage the child to put other places on the map also.

2-TIME MARCHES ON

This activity helps your child see and feel and see the difference between a “few second” and a “few minute”. It will help your child learn to be on time.

Make guesses about how long  a traffic light is red  or green. Then check your guessess, about how long it takes to eat dinner.Then check your guesses.How long does it take to get ready and go out. How close each one of you comr close to right answers.

Have fun while playing these games!