Womenlines welcomes Rupali Sarkhel Desai as a guest writer and is sharing her write-up about ‘Fine Motor Skills in Kids’ with its readers! 

Twiddling your Thumbs as a toddler can take you far in life! 

My recent experience with a bunch of kids at my creative workshop led me to write this article on ‘Fine Motor Skills’. The workshop also made me realize the stark gender differences between children. One major realization was that girls are much faster than boys when it came to finishing their artwork/tasks. (already proven fact!)  It’s very easy to make sweeping statements like ‘boys are not interested in artwork as much as girls are.’  ‘Boys are too lazy’ ‘Boys are interested in more physical activity compared to girls’ not being too convinced by these stereotypes, I decided to dig deeper.

It was very easy to understand one simple fact – girls were able to somehow fold paper very well (we did origami @ the workshop). Boys took twice as much time to do the same. The very basics of  origami – which meant folding paper, led them to delay at every other stage, which led them to be disinterested eventually in the ‘artwork’ It was very easy to discern the fact that the development of fine motor skills is so crucial and weaknesses of the same can eventually affect a child’s self esteem. Come to think of this, one of the student’s mother also mentioned to me that her son is slow in writing but exceptionally quick in reading!!!   

What is Fine Motor Skills? (FMS) 

FMS involves the small muscles of the body that enable such functions such as writing, grasping small objects and fastening clothing. FMS involves strength, fine motor control and dexterity. (1) FMS can be defined as small muscle movements those that occur in the finger, in co-ordination with the eyes. (2) Lack of the same, can affect a child’s ability to eat, write, fold paper, wear clothes, etc. Which can eventually affect his self-esteem? 

If you have already recognized that your child could be lacking in this area, you need not worry. These skills can be developed with the right kind of activities over a period of time, love and acceptance, and loads of patience. Following are some practical ways to develop the same:- 

1)   ‘Grasping in the mind’ – Let the concept of ‘writing’ fit into your child’s mind through his hands. Best way to do that is simply showing him how to write in the air. Can start with writing alphabets in the air. (for toddlers you can start with shapes, and for little bigger kids you can follow it up with short words). Also this can be turned into a fun play by taking it a step further. Writing in your child’s palm/hand/back can not only be fun at the same time quite interesting. Next you should now encourage your child to do the same to you! This activity will help to trace his fingers. Finger tracing is crucial step to writing. Kids can do this even on textured surfaces like sand, mud, etc. Give them a plate full of rice and let them draw alphabets on them!

2)   Puffed rice (toddlers)- A very easy way to develop the ‘pincer grasp’ is to give puffed rice, titbits, cereals, etc in a bowl as a daily/weekly activity to your toddler/child. This helps to pick up small objects using your thumb and forefinger thereby using the smaller muscles in the fingers.

3)   Exercise – Simple exercise like opening and closing of palm, moving your fingers – playing abracadabra , moving each finger at a time, playing inchworms etc. Also playing regularly with the ball – fetch and throw helps a lot to build up those small muscles. Twiddling your thumbs with your toddler can go a long way in his FMS development 😉

4)   Look out for toys/activities which claim to help in eye-hand co-ordination.

5)   Drawing /painting – Finger-painting is an excellent and fun way to work on the small finger muscles, which help in FMS. Fine tracing also can be introduced. All you need is a pencil, a book with good pictures and a tracing paper. Teach your child to trace objects from a book/magazine etc. This not only helps in learning to draw also helps to develop FMS. Spray painting with a toothbrush also is extremely effective. Try taking print-outs of template and cutting it out and spray painting on it. Can be fun activity. Lots of templates are available on the net. You can try for ex – http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/cartoons/zoo.html. This site has lots of templates of animals, cartoons, etc. Watch out for totally fun and crafty ideas !

6)   Placing and pasting activities –  place variety of forms eg blocks, felt, paper, string, yarn, cereal, cotton on outlines. Also you can encourage your child to match shapes, color, pictures to a page and paste them within the outlines.

7)   Dough/clay play – let your child squeeze, knead, pat, roll out dough. If you have moulds then it gets even more interesting for your child to try different veggies, food items, etc. A plastic toy knife can be more helpful to cut the dough (with adult supervision). A dough kit I have at home also has a mini extruder which helps to make spaghetti. My lil one finds this the most interesting of all.

8)   Everyday activities – this would include –

• 1. Buttoning shirts,
• 2. Zipping pants, bags,
• 3. Locking and unlocking door knobs,
• 4. Tying and untying ropes, strings etc, tying shoe laces,
• 5. Manipulating coins different sizes – piggy bank activity.
• 6. Opening and closing lids of jars,
• 7. Sweeping, washing dishes,
• 8. Trying to use spoon, fork, chopsticks while eating their favourite maggie can also go a long way.
• 9. Pinching bubble wrap between fingers…
• 10.Playing the piano
• 11. Playing with a squeeze/stress ball!
• 12. Bead making, punching holes in paper and connecting them with yarn.

DOING ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES SPECIFIC FINGER MOVEMENTS. Get your child to be more involved in housework, indirectly you will help him in developing FMS!

9)   Typing – is also an excellent way to develop FMS for older kids…. so handover your laptop for a while, mums! Don’t we teach our children always to share their toys? It’s time to share ours 😉

Resources – A very important guideline to parents is to make the right kind of resources available to the child. The quality of resources can make a real difference in the actual learning ability of a child too. Bad/sad/cheap quality of colour pencils/crayons/sketch pens etc can make the child disinterested in creative activities sooner than you think. Variety is also equally important.             

 Vertical chalkboards; easels for painting; flannel boards; lite bright; magnet boards (or fridge); windows and mirrors; white boards, etc. Kids can also make sticker pictures; do rubber ink-stamping; use reusable vinyl stickers to make pictures; complete puzzles with thick knobs; use magna-doodle and etch-a-sketch as well. The benefits for these include: having the child’s wrist positioned to develop good thumb movements; they help develop good fine motor muscles; the child is using the arm and shoulder muscles.

There are occupational therapists who also help to do the same, incase you think your child could do some good with extra help. 

With time, patience, positive assurance and encouragement your child will be on his way to grasp Fine Motor Skills!!!

Rupali Sarkhel Desai

Optimistic Life Adventurer, Nutritionist, Mompreneur, passionate about Speaking & Writing on Weight Loss, positive Parenting & Business–meet Suria Mohd, a woman of substance!         

Suria Mohd is the founder of Anggun International which is into Support Group Weight Management Program and learning discoveries, a center to enhance child’s learning abilities. Womenlines wants to share her amazingly motivating journey to reach her goals, with its readers.

Let me share Suria’s Biodata first!

Suria is a Singaporean and is a married woman with 2 kids. She received her Nutrition degree from Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia and completed an exchange program with Illinois State University, USA. After returning to

Singapore in 1997, Suria attained a Postgraduate degree in the teaching of Food Science and Nutrition Studies from NTU/NIE Singapore and began her teaching career as a Nutrition Educator in secondary schools. Since 2003 Suria has been actively involved with the Singapore Health Promotion Board (HPB). She is a regular speaker and public educator at HPB’s community-based health forums and weight management programs. Suria has been featured on the cover of magazines, in local newspapers and has appeared on radio and television programs.She is also the author of “9 Greatest Weight Loss Secrets” and co-authors Best Selling Series “Living in Abundance” with Anthony Robbins & Dr. Wayne.

Suria conducts Nutrition and Weight Management seminars, workshops and programs for schools, organizations and business corporations. She established the Anggun Nutrition Academy in 2003 to provide introductory, diploma courses in Nutrition & Weight Management.

The interesting part of her journey is to know how she started from scratch again after the failure of her venture wellness training school. She closed down her shop and was in $80,000 debts. “It was an expensive “MBA” lesson for me from the University of Hard Knocks called Life…” she laments!

Suria shares “One of the lessons I learned was the reason for my failure. I failed for one reason; I did not have any education in business at all. If I were to re-start again I would have at least attended some sort of business training to equip myself with the nuts and bolts of the business. That was exactly what I did after that. I soaked up business knowledge like a sponge and started learning (self-study) by getting online and purchasing books, and participating in online courses on business and marketing. Meanwhile, to pay off my debts, I took on freelance jobs as a public speaker on Nutrition with the Health Promotion Board.”

She restarted her business again and the 2^nd time, it turned around a 7 figure sale in 2 years. She attracted 2000 clients each paying about $700 – $2000 each.

However, she got distracted and started investing her profits in all other sorts of businesses which were the reason for her 2^nd downfall. In her 2^nd business mistake, she lost close to half a million dollars.

She shares ‘I missed out on the 2^nd part – How to Keep and grow the money, i.e. what I missed out was the knowledge and education of Investing money wisely. So right now, what I am targeting for this year is to learn how to keep and grow my money wisely via proper investments vehicles. Given all my ups and downs in my business, I have also started teaching other aspiring entrepreneurs how to start and grow their business profitably so they don’t have to make the same kind of mistakes that I did.’

Suria says that “My lifelong learning never ends, and I am at peace for living my life to the fullest, contributing my purpose to the world and touching people’s lives as I continue this journey to live my higher goals in life…”

While Suria is best known for her expertise in Weight Loss & Nutrition her students testify that her biggest impact in their lives comes from her philosophy of “Beauty, peace and Ultimate Happiness manifests itself from within” –

Suria also owns and co-owns other businesses in Education & Fashion. She has expanded her Education business regionally to Malaysia and also to Latin America

Hardcore fan of Bollywood movies and Shahrukh Khan, Suria’s passion is reading books. Books motivate her to do better things in life.

Womenlines wishes her all the best for the journey towards excellence and abundance in life.
Follow her on

http://www.facebook.com/suriafan?v=info&ref=ts

Anggun International: http://www.angguninternational.com

In today’s busy pace of life, we at times wonder how we can possibly involve ourselves or show interest in our child’s education!

As both parents are working it is not possible for them to put much time with their kids for their studies. It is also possible that you have never performed well in school and never excelled in mathematics and then you are not eager to involve yourself in your kid’s studies as you are reminded of your days.

Getting involved with children in their studies does not mean that you have to involve yourself in your child’s studies only. Some activities like explaining to your kid about your family tree can be so much fun. In present times when Genealogy Bank has come up which can help you to discover the stories of your ancestors, the concept of a family tree can be really interesting to your kids.
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Simple ways like those listed below can definitely help you to relate to your child through studies-

1. Show interest in what they are learning. Ask them”What did you do at school today? Then you can discuss what are his problems in any particular subject or what is it that he likes most. Try to make your conversation very light one, not like a strict parent.

1. Do find time to attend his school meets and various other programmes. You can participate also in some activities which involve parents and kids both. This will boost his morale. Try to go to his co-curricular classes, and sports classes and discuss with him his interests. If you have a child going to college, you can guide him in choosing the right school with the help of the Academic Influence college ranking system.
2. What type of environment you have created at home also affects your child’s personality. Buy books, magazines. Provide him all those extra resources that will help him in his studies. If he will never see you involved in some type of study then he will never get motivation. Try to discuss books he is reading from the library.

These activities will help you in a better understanding of school activities. You can observe how well your kid is performing and progressing. Besides this, it gives a chance to the parent to personally interact with his child and thus helps in strengthening their relationships. When your child will see that his parent is so involved in his activities then his self-esteem will increase. He will grow with a positive attitude in life and will excel in all spheres.

Charu Mehrotra

Promoting Excellence in Women!

It is said that “Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions”. Teachers are considered to be builders of future pillars of our country. They should be given respect and motivation for the work they are doing.

I wonder why this job is taken for granted around the whole world and is not given required respect as it should be. Teachers are the builders of the future generation and they only sow seeds of education in our kids which when nurtured with love, care, and attention by parents, helps in their all-round development. It is necessary that to perform this job every teacher should be well qualified for it and properly trained how to handle kids. If they themselves are not competent in their subjects then how we can believe that they will teach students properly. Lily Tomlin said that -“I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. ” This statement is so true. Teachers have to have a vision for their students. In our society normally people prefer teacher’s job only when they are not getting any other job. Or Homemakers, when their kids are growing up then they think they can carry this job easily while managing their families. It’s good that we have teachers who know how to handle kids as they have handled their own kids. But are they qualified for it? Though most of the time it is the compulsory rule in school that teachers should have a degree in education. I really get bugged up when I come to know about incidences where the teacher just takes their work for granted and then just fulfill their duty by finishing off the course prescribed for the session and that too is sometimes missing in some schools. They are least bothered to check if she is successful in clearing her student’s doubts or they have understood the lesson fully.  I think that it is the content of assessment that largely drives the education. I really want to request teachers that they should emphasize on the ability of students to think creatively.They should be allowed to understand different factors related to the topic and not simply mug up the answers to get the marks.
Teachers have their own reasons for not taking their work seriously and the most common are that they are underpaid. I want to request the concerned authorities that they should include the teaching profession in the highly paid job list so that we can have talented teachers around.

Charu Mehrotra

Promoting Excellence in Women!

Kindness , as a definition can be defined as the act of being kind  marked by charitable behaviour, pleasantness, tenderness and concern for others.

In today’s times when every individual is running for something or the other and has no time to think about himself also then concept of kindness is loosing its impact. We have become robots who are programmed to just think about their goals and achievements and dreams. Whole day passes off  with activities related to individuals aspirations. Hats off to those people who can manage to take out time to carry out activities nurturing kindness, love, affection around.

There are so many ways through which you can show kindness to others. Small small activities if carried out in our mundane  days  can lead to precious moments of life filled with happiness and joy. In fact researches show that kindness can also make us happier. People who perform such activities like holding door open for a stranger, doing a friend’s dishes at her place, helping oldies to carry out their baggage’s have higher level of happiness. It makes no difference whether you are helping a loved one or a stranger but a small anonymous act might make you feel like a very good person.

Kindness also helps in keeping yourself  healthy.Helpful people are less likely to fall ill from chronic diseases and tended to have better immune system. Kindness also helps in regulating emotions which has a very positive impact on our health. There is this person named Villaveces who lives in Sydney with his family. He started doing act of kindness after getting inspired by someone who despite of living a very difficult life was able to maintain his generosity. Villaveces started a concept of giving out a card with each act of kindness and it asks the recipient to pass out the good deed to other person.  Visit  his website www.pifaustralia.org  to track the progress of the cards. Very interesting attempt I must say and that too for a virtue, this makes it a nobel concept which needs more volunteers.

In the series of noble attempts there is must read book and must watch movie called ‘Pay it Forward’ where a troubled school boy decided to start repaying every good deed done to him by performing three good deeds to others. Being a mother we can teach kids about this noble virtue and help them in building empathy by encouraging them to understand how others might be feeling.

Let’s start training ourselves to be kinder and then it can be our  attitude that you carry with you always which can create difference in other’s life.

Charu Mehrotra

Promoting Excellence in Women!

Friends are for always and that goes for women too!

We need friends to laugh with, to dance with, with whom we can get that support which we cannot get from our families. Friendship is very important for our emotional health and particularly friendship with our female friends. We need girlfriends for our coffee breaks, for a night out, morning walks or even when we take our children to park.

The whole day passes out and we are acting like mothers, wifes, employees, daughter-in-law, only friends are there who care about our opinions and feelings. They also enhance how we feel about ourselves.
Sometimes we are so caught up in daily chores that our girlfriends are the only person who reaches down to us and let us slow down. They can share our experience, listen to our stories, tell us jokes,

It does not minimize our other relations but we need different relations for different reasons.
Our female friends are those with whom we find our precious moments to reprieve with. We can let down our hair. We can let down our guard. We can be selfish. We can crack jokes. We can be ourselves and relax.
Friends are really precious to us so always take care of your friends!

Social responsibility is an ethical theory that every individual has some duties towards the development of the society at large!

Society progresses when growth happens evenly for all sections. It’s not necessary that every section of the society progresses together. As responsible human beings we should contribute towards the progress of the underprivileged section of the society. In order to continue with the concept in coming generations, it is very necessary that children should know about the concept at very early age so that they can carry out their responsibility very well when they grow up.
There are various ways through which social responsibility can be taught. First of all, we have to become role model ourselves, so in order to teach our kids first practice what you want them to do. Become a member of a social organization. Start doing volunteer work and help the needy as and when required. In this way, parents make valuable contributions to both societies and to their children’s own personal well-being.
Local food drives, in which various organizations collect foods  which are distributed to families in need, are an excellent opportunity for parents to introduce children to concepts of social responsibility. Even young children are able to understand what it is to not have food. Humanizing the issue makes it less abstract and easier for children to empathize with those in need.
Social responsibility of respecting each other and working together in a group is also an important lesson in life for children. They should be having the understanding to learn and respect the ideas of others in their classroom and work together happily with any group.
There are numerous ways and acts which we can carry out in our daily life to motivate our children to be socially responsible. We as a human are socially responsible for our environment, our surroundings, and our society, so work together for the pleasant progress of everybody!

In present times it is very important to teach kids about managing money. These tips can help you to play your role in guiding kids to manage money-

• Ask your child to keep records of money saved, invested, or spent. To make it easy you can use 12 envelopes, 1 for each month, and encourage your child to place receipts from all purchases in the envelopes and keep note of what they do with their money. 
• Spending money can be fun and very productive spending is well-planned. Explain to your child how to check for value, quality, reparability, warranty, and other consumer concern. Spending smartly at the grocery store like using coupon shopping sales, comparing unit prices, can help in saving lots of money. 
• Teach your child about the importance of budgeting. 
• Explain to your child about the importance of credit cards and how it works. It is important that he understands the concept that it’s a way to borrow money and unless you return it back next month it will be very expensive to use. Credit card must be used in a disciplined way. 
• Let your child take the spending decision. He should be encouraged to do some research work before purchasing anything and waiting for the right time to buy.

To look slim and gorgeous is every woman’s dream!

There are several ways through which you can dress up for a slimmer look. While searching for such ways I came across these interesting one which I want to share with my readers-

1. Avoid wide and broad belts if you have a large waist. If you have nice legs, go in for a knee length skirt with a basic shirt to bring more attention to the legs.
2. For the top-heavy women, always avoid clingy fabrics on the top area. Dark colours will be the better choice for you. You can go in for thin materials like cotton or cotton jersey. The one way to look slim would definitely be the use of one-colour dressing
3. Avoid shiny fabrics in loud colours. These reflect light and thus will make you appear larger.
4. Choose garments with vertical lines. This is one of the great ways to look slim. The use of vertical lines also elongates and slims down the body by adding height to it. Horizontal lines add width to the body, so avoid these in any form.
5. To give thin looks to your arm wear skinny or slim bangles and bracelet styled watch.

Charu Mehrotra
Promoting Excellence in Women!

• For many families, talking about money is taboo. The adults make it, the kids ask for it, end of story. Yet financial experts agree that understanding cash, credit, and consumerism is possible, and important, for building a sense of financial responsibility in children. Womenlines will share various ways in future how we can develop money sense in our children.
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  Take an active role in providing them with information. Observation and repetition are two important ways children learn.
• 
  Communicate with children as they grow old about your values concerning money how to save it, how to make it grow, and most importantly, how to spend it wisely.
• 
  It is very important to help children learn the differences between needs, wants, and wishes. This will prepare them for making good spending decisions in the future.
• 
  Setting goals are fundamental to learning the value of money and saving. Nearly every toy or other item children ask their parents to buy them can become the object of a goal-setting session. Such goal-setting helps children learn to become responsible for themselves.
• 
  Introduce children to the value of saving versus spending. Explain and demonstrate the concept of earning interest income on savings.
• Consider paying interest on money for children to save at home; children can help calculate the interest and see how fast money accumulates through the power of compound interest. Later on, they also will realize that the quickest way to a good credit rating is a history of regular, successful savings. Some parents even offer to match what children save on their own. (contd)

The most common bad habits of kids that parents want to tackle are: (i) Nose picking, (ii) Biting nails, (iii) Thumb sucking, (iv) Hair twirling

1.No Stick Approach: All kids love freebies, and to them, freebies are like hidden booty. Now, freebies can be in the form of presents or rewards or whatever you want. So, tell your child that if he doesn’t do such-and-such-a-thing he will be rewarded. Two things here – you have to be consistent with your rewards, and you have to reward them with meaningful things. If you reward them with chocolates or Pizzas, then you are only spoiling them. Books, stickers, sugar-free candy and a trip out to the movies are examples of good rewards. Okay, along with the reward, do not forget to heap praises on the child – praising him will positively motivate him to try harder!

2.Be Calm:When your kid gets into his bad habit groove, you have to calmly, yet clearly firmly, tell him what could go wrong if he keeps going on at it. Explain to him how his behavior will have an impact on his physical appearance and could also damage his psyche if his friends make him the butt of their jokes. Also, inform him that his bad habit annoys you. Remember once again: do not be harsh.

3.Form a Partnership: Another neat method of breaking bad habits is to involve your child in the breaking process. Make him your “partner in crime” as you break into his bad habits and destroy them. You can start this off by asking your child about his bad habit and whether he has faced any embarrassing moments because of them. Then, let him know that from now on both of you will be partners in making sure that the bad habit is finished off. This involvement will give the child a feeling of adventure and will motivate him to get rid of his bad habits – plus, he will learn to contribute ideas and learn what brainstorming is all about!

4.Patience and Perseverance: Kids are born flexible, but they can become very stubborn when they want to. Sometimes, all your motivation and firmness and rewards will bite the dust as your child refuses to back off from his bad habits. In situations such as these, patience and perseverance is the key. So, don’t give up or turn impatient. Also, do not try to break all his bad habits in one go – keep going and keep trying, and one day the results will show.

Try to involve your child in some hobby in order to kill the monotony of his routine. Many kids develop bad habits because they have nothing else to do. So, if you clue your child on to an interesting hobby, not only will he get rid of his bad habits, he will end up learning a useful thing or two!