Sharing with you all the three R’s, the basic values we are trying to inculcate in our son from early on

Respect: Respect for everyone regardless of age, gender or profession. To raise a kind and compassionate child, they need to treat everyone with the same amount of respect. They need to see you doing the same.

• We do not yell or scream at each other. Anytime Rey raises his volume to gain attention, we simply request him (in a calm tone) to speak gently and the minute he does it, we acknowledge with a response.
• Anytime, anyone comes knocking on the door – be it the sweeper or the courier guy or our house help, we ensure to thank them for their help. If Rey is around when they arrive, we ask him too to say Thank You to them for helping us out.
• We ensure we and Rey say hi or jai to people we meet, from relatives to neighbors to society guards. There are times when he is not in the mood to do so, then we wait a few minutes, let him get comfortable and request again.
• Our day starts with a prayer and thanking the almighty for all that we have.
• Watering the plants – not plucking flowers or leaves – teaches him to respect nature
• Be compassionate towards animals – it helps that we have extended family who have pets at home.

Be Responsible – A child who learns to take care of himself and his belongings turns out to be a more responsible and self-disciplined human being. It’s easy to get swayed by the love we have for our children and pamper them. However, it is also important to realize that always picking up after your child is not the only way to show love.

• Small things like not relying on the house-help or nanny to do your work goes a long way. We encourage Rey to keep his dishes in the sink. He does so many times, though it is usually accompanied by a loud noise (he does a basketball throw as he isn’t tall enough to reach the sink yet)
• Recently (maybe 2 months now), I got wall shelves installed in Rey’s play room. It not only helps me keep his toys and books organized, it also serves another purpose. Everytime Rey asks for a new book to read or another toy to play with, I make him hand me the one he was playing with. I explain to him that I’ll keep the toy (one he is not playing with any longer) back before I give him the new one. Now whenever Rey wants a new toy, he himself hands over the old one and asks me to “peep it bat” translated from toddler lingo – its, yes, Keep It Back.
• Don’t let them take the easy route out. I do not jump to help Rey whenever I see he needs help. Let the child make an effort.
• Many more examples – bottom line, they will do as they teach them to do.

Relationships – Families that value each other, stay together. We are living in the times when people are more concerned about themselves than others, neighbours kill each other over parking slots, even families shatter and break at the most trivial of issues, it is important to keep your close ones close. Teach the children to value and respect family. And this can happen only if you speak positively about family members to them.

• We ensure Rey spends time with family as and when possible. We take him to his Nani-Nanu’s (maternal grandparents) house at least twice or thrice in a month which includes a short stay as well.
• He spends quality time with his uncles and aunts and we try and meet them often. He is as fond of them as they are of him.
• He is an only child and we try to get Rey to meet and spend time with his big bro #Keebomiester and baby bro (cousins). Being children, they bond well and we hope we can keep this bond as strong once they grow up.

It is said that by the time a child is 5 or 6 years old, they start differentiating between right and wrong. They look up to their parents (who play a dominant role in modeling the child’s personality) and follow in their footsteps.

Children see, children do. I  do not tire of quoting this line. Children emulate what their parents and family members do. So as a child’s biggest influencers, we need to practice what we preach to our children.

I would love to know what are the basic human values you swear by? How are you teaching them to your children?

The post Inculcating Values In Children appeared first on Raising Rehaan.

Well, it is a personal choice. Parenting is personal. I try not to judge parents who allow too much screen time, having said that it’s not something I appreciate a whole lot either. I am not perfect, neither do I expect others to be. Sharing with you all today my views and how I have been raising my son as a screen-free child.

Welcome to my world. I am a work from home mom which makes screens an inevitable part of my daily routine. Even then, I have managed to keep my son away from all screens, be it TV, laptop, mobiles or tablets. How?

Read on.

Start.

It helps to start off on the right track. An infant has no demands except for milk and sleep and a lot of cuddles. There is absolutely zero requirement of any other thing. Studies indicate that introducing screen to them at such a delicate age can have lasting negative effects on their still-developing brain.

• We made it a rule to have no screens around Rey when he was an infant. Phones were kept out of sight and he was hardly ever in a room with the TV on. And when he was, his line of vision did not capture the screen.

Set an example.

Children see, children do. They will never ask you for something they don’t see you and anyone else doing. You cannot be glued to the screen and expect your child to not follow suit. Avoid screens in front of the child. This one is a little difficult for those parents and families whose favourite time pass is watching TV or playing games on the mobile or being obsessed with social media.

• It helps that neither my husband nor I am a fan of TV. We do follow series, however, we catch up on them only after our son has settled for the night. My husband watches football matches but that’s only once in a while. As for the mobile, it is strictly off-limits for our son. His father is not a smartphone fan and I try limiting my usage when he is around. I do click a lot of his photos and make videos but switch off the screen the minute I am done. My son thinks of the phone as a camera as I haven’t let him look at the screen beyond selfies and photos. I openly discourage anyone from showing him their phone as well. Well, yeah – I am only watching out for my son. Sue me!

Phones are not a substitute.

Parenthood can be overwhelming. Yes. It can drive you nuts. Agreed. It may even make you question your sanity. Has happened to me too. But all it takes is those weak moments to give in and start the circle. Ask someone to step in if you can. Keep extra toys handy. Keep activities ready. Head out for a walk with the baby. Plan your day. Leave room for boredom

• For the last two years, I have been solo parenting to an only child, Monday to Friday from morning to night. I know how it feels to want a break. But it’s doable.

Habits.

It’s never too soon to start forming good habits. A general rule in our house is “No phone, No TV” for children.

• By the time my son was 18 months old, he would not l̥ook at the TV or pick up a mobile

Hold your ground

Children quickly learn and realize what they can get from where. If you give in too easily, they will only come on stronger next time. Hold your ground.

• Although Rey hasn’t shown any interest in screens, if anytime something catches his eye and I see him glancing at a phone, I am quick to whisk it away and not give in to his request. On those rare occasions or when on a video call – when he does look at the screen, I ensure he does not get the phone in his hands.

Now he is almost 2 and a half years old and even if TV is on in the house, he pays no attention. If there are phones lying around, they are just boxes for him, he doesn’t try to switch them on and fiddle with them.

I have, on days, switched on the TV, put on a cartoon, and recorded his reactions to whether he starts watching TV. His response instead has been to ask me to play with him and not even glance towards the screen.

I realize screen time is inevitable with so much digital influence directed towards kids – from videos to games to educational apps. I will introduce it to him slowly and gradually.

But for now, as a wise man once said: “A child should know how to hold a pencil before he learns how to operate a mobile phone”.

The post Screen or Scream – Not Really. appeared first on Raising Rehaan.

Everyone has it, yet it works differently for different people. It receives input from the sensory organs in the body and sends coordinated output to the muscles.

Even though we are all born with the five senses, we do not start fully exploiting them all at once. Babies see and feel more from their fingers. Maybe that’s the reason, they want to grab and hold everything that comes their way from mommy’s hair to stuffed toys.

Kids love to feel new textures as it’s fascinating for them, for better or for worse. They love to feel and explore objects with their hands. It’s their way of inferring the world around them. It comes naturally to them owing to their curious nature. Taking advantage of this and letting kids experiment with textures through thoughtful activities and play can help set a solid foundation in many areas like language familiarization and developing motor skills.

In my previous blog post, I wrote extensively on Early learning, STEM concept and the impact of toys on the young and the impressionable minds. Recently we got our hands on one such toy that helps and aids early learning.

The Sandpaper numbers from Skola Toys.

The kit comes in a beautiful doodle box with a small set of crayons inside. It contains 10 placards made out of wood with numbers 0 to 9 textured on it with sandpaper. There’s also a small placard tray to stack them up. This toy looks deceptively simple, yet a great way to introduce numbers to your kid.

• The wooden placard has the number symbol with a rough sandpaper-like texture. The child starts by tracing his fingers on the symbol and calling out the name associated with the image on the card.
• This simple activity uses three senses – visual sense, audio sense and touch-feel sense. The kid starts correlating the three in tandem.
• This move also helps hone their hand-eye coordination which is the ability for the brain to understand and communicate to the eyes and hands to work as one.
• By tracing over the textured numbers with their fingers, children improve their pre-writing skills.

So what are Pre-writing skills? Prewriting skills are the fundamental skills needed before a child starts learning to form letters and developing the writing skills. They could be strokes and lines. Scribbling, drawing, doodling, and creating marks meant to represent letters and numbers are some common forms of pre-writing. In fact, according to the National Early Literacy Panel (NELP, 2008), early writing is one of the best predictors of children’s later reading success. Prewriting readiness activities are an essential foundation for learning to write successfully.

• Playing with the toy, children learn to connect number symbols or shapes to sounds which initiates them into the number system. As children play with this toy repeatedly, they commit the name-numeral correlation to their memory increasing retention and recall.
• Once they start recognizing individual numbers, they then proceed to learn the sequential order
• Following this, children then start associating the numbers to the quantity. They learn that every number represents a corresponding quantity.
• And while they’re learning the essential pre-learning skills, they can practice colouring on the doodle box!
• Skola sandpaper numbers are a fun way to introduce the number concept to children above 2.5 years of age. What better than for them to learn numbers through textures.

One Two – buckle my shoes, Three Four – shut the door.

This and many more such rhymes make up our and our kid’s childhood moments. Listening to such rhymes, Rehaan already knows a few numbers and their sequence and can point to them when prompted. Although he is not yet 2, we are happy to be on Stage 1 already. He likes to spread the cards out and point to the numbers when asked to and wants Mommy to recite the rhymes one more last time.

So here’s to happy counting!

Skola Toys:

Website: www.skola.toys

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skolatoys/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skolatoys/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SkolaToys

The post Fun with Numbers appeared first on Raising Rehaan.

I clearly remember my school days. 7.30 AM – Maths. 8 AM – English. 8.30 AM – Science. 9 AM – Arts. The topics and books as easily forgotten as the ring of the gong that announced the end of that subject, only to be remembered again the next day when the teacher walked in. As I grew up, I often wondered if and how will this help me live and thrive in the real world. There was just no connection.

Thanks to the research in the field of education, we are now better equipped to utilize these crucial years into developing the child.

WHAT IS STEM?

STEM – One of the most talked about topics in education. It stands for four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is a unique approach to teaching and learning, that focuses on a child’s individual style of learning. It not only keeps the young mind interested and engrossed but also helps develop creativity and problem-solving skills in real-world scenarios.

The STEM methodology integrates concepts that are usually taught in silos, as separate subjects or as individual lessons. STEM puts more emphasis on the connection amongst these four disciplines in a way that they would relate to each other. It is an educational framework that brings reality into the learning experiences.

STEM is not just about Maths learning or technology learning, but it is a combination of any of these 4 areas that combined produces more logical thinkers and creates adults who can in their life ahead be employed in jobs that are related to science and technology. In other words also creating innovators and doers.

STEM learning starts at the age of 7. However, the foundation for the formal learning is laid down much before then.

Early START to STEM

• The important thing to remember is that children are natural learners. The key to starting early is by tapping into their curiosity by allowing them to explore and investigate the real world, to instill a lifelong interest in these fields.  It does not have to be a subject. It can be an activity or a game or a toy.
• Immerse them in everyday activities and explain how they work. Then explain the concept behind it.  Make it interesting, let them have a hands-on experience where ever possible.
• Plan DIY’s and get your child to assist you. Reward them with knowledge and appreciation. Focus more on the process and less on the outcome.
• Play activities that stimulate creativity and reasoning. Begin with learning about how things work by letting them test, explore and investigate with their tiny fingers, watching them change, listening to sounds, and feeling textures.
• Get them toys which promote STEM learning.

Being a mother to an inquisitive toddler, I am always on the hunt for ways to keep his sharp mind engaged. Outdoor play isn’t a year-round option for us owing to the extreme weather experienced by the city we live in. Hence more often than not, I rely on indoor activities, games, and toys.

And when it comes to selecting activity toys, I prefer to pick toys that not only keep my son engrossed but also add value and prepare him for what lies ahead. For example, the popular toy brand Skola create toys that encourage STEM learning. Skola’s ultimate purpose is to improve fine motor skills which certainly helps engineering, but more importantly using fingers helps children think clearly and enhances concentration and cognitive ability which is directly a STEM requirement.

For example –

Cascade cars help a child to understand cause and effect. This is where a child is exposed to science. It helps a child to register, process and comprehend.

Colour wheels encourage children to use fingers to rotate wheels and then find the matching colours which involves examination, observation analysis, and discovery.

This process is true for all Skola Toys and hence creates thinkers.

Learning is a never-ending process. It’s never too soon or too late to begin. But it’s always better to start early to build a strong foundation. Give your children the right resources and tools to get them started.

What do you think about early learning and building a solid foundation?

The post Early START to STEM appeared first on Raising Rehaan.

It’s the festive season with Diwali (one of India’s biggest and most celebrated festivals) just around the corner. Diwali or Deepavali – meaning a row of lamps, known as the Festival of Lights is celebrated with great aplomb and fanfare in India.

• Promote development of fine motor skills making them more independent and confident
• Explore alphabet and words in a fun manner setting a solid foundation to read, write and communicate during their formal education
• Create an understanding and recognition of shapes, sizes, colors etc through sensory experience
• Introduce the concept of Numbers and counting and arithmetic calculations with the aid of tangible objects
• Help in building focus, analyzing situations, solve problems putting their own little minds to work.

• Perfectly safe for the little ones. Let’s face it, babies put anything and everything they can grab in their mouth. With toys made from unreliable plastic, that’s a big health hazard.
• Wood is a far robust material than plastic, hence lasts longer. So no matter how many times it’s thrown or smashed, it will survive the blow and tantrums. It can be passed on to newer members of the family.
• Wooden toys like puzzles, building blocks and games encourage imaginative play and help children with developing their fine-motor skills.
• Wood can be recycled, so in a way, you are securing your child’s future by not contributing to the growing piles of non-biodegradable plastic on our planet.

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