TOP

360 degree Learning

360 degree learning is an overall learning that nurtures kids. It does not make them robots that memorize, write exams and forget what they were taught. Here, learning is more to do with the overall development of the child.  360 degree learning is based on the theory that an organism functions properly only when he uses all parts of the body. Effectively using smell, sound, sight and touch, your child can learn through all the incidents and the activities that take place in his life. Your child can experience holistic learning right from the time he enters playschool or nursery provided you take the right steps to inculcate this process of learning in his life.

 This technique is based on the concept that an organism functions properly only when all parts coordinate and co-operate with each other in their individual functioning. Holistic learning involves through activities like story-telling, playing games, making the kid feel happy about what he learns and aiming at understanding of subjects such that it stays with kids for a long time.

 Overall learning and liberal education go hand in hand. Liberal education believes that a child should be allowed to learn what he enjoys the most and he is thus offered subjects that range from a variety of disciplines. He is not restricted to learning math, sciences and social sciences. He learns subjects like guitar, singing, painting, volleyball, poetry and many others. Overall learning facilitates to make kids use all their senses and use a ‘whole body’ approach towards learning.

Read More
TOP

Teaching Value of Money to Your Teen

Teenage is one of most troubled phases in a person’s life. Educational changes, hormonal changes and getting aware of new things on a regular basis makes this period extremely volatile. One of the important things parents need to teach in this phase is of handling money. Handling money appropriately does not come to everyone easily. Parents need to instil this virtue in the kids. Many parents are going through the problem of their teenagers’ inability to understand the value of the money. It requires years of hard work to earn respectable amount of money.

Teaching this value will require parents to have patience and adopt the understanding approach. One of the basic things that they can do is to have the teen some money and let him decide how to spend it, how much to save and if they are confused, helping them out. This is one skill your child is going to cherish forever if you teach him this value at the right time. Parents need to make child understand the value of money by taking them on shopping. They can demonstrate what to buy, what not to buy, what is worth buying and what to ignore. Also teach them, how bargaining is done and how to handle to handle the marketing gimmick.

If given a chance, allow your teen to earn some money doing odd jobs, daily chores or even a part time job. This by no means is disrespectful and child will have a wonderful experience about learning the value of money. Parents should allow child to decide their own shopping expenditures. Even if they have some bad experiences, they will learn quickly. You can also open a saving account for your child so that he can save some of his savings. Invest on the teaching money value on your teens and it is sure to return you good dividends.

Read More
TOP

Children and Art

Most kids love watercolors but are not good with the medium. In any painting, the planning stage is most important. Start your subject of drawing by using thumbnails- just a rough pencil outline. Once the rough thumbnail is in place, draw the required details. Many artist use tracing paper to give a detailed careful outline to the picture- remember that a good beginning is half the picture done!

 As beginners you could use tracing paper and draw and the light impression that is formed on the water colour paper can be used for further painting. Remember to keep your drawings light so that pencil marks are not seen. Now, it is important that on a rough paper you decide on the colour scheme that you want to use. It is here that you can try out all the different colour schemes. Once you have finalized on the colour scheme that you are going to choose, start preparing for the border of the page and if possible you can use a clip board. It is now that you can start painting your final product. Do not be in a hurry. Be patient. Start with a light wash of yellow so that in case you go wrong you can easily cover it up. Do all the basic coloring that is required and then proceed to do the detailing that needs to be done with fine brushes. Be careful with this! Now using the above techniques, you can easily do your water colour painting!

Read More
TOP

Parenting Pleasures

The concept of parenting has witnessed a drastic change in last few decades. The restrictions have loosened up and parents have become more lenient. The roles of friends have also changed. Parents are also counsellor and friends who rely more on communication instead of sticks. Parenting is no easy job. It is a full time job that requires considerable amount of patience and restrain. If we look back at our childhood and how we were parented, things seem to have changed for better. In modern era, parents have also become more protective. The increased money power has made kids recipients of all the luxuries of the world. Some of the old and cherished virtues are nowhere in sight. The phenomenon of working parents has also resulted in parents paying less personal attention to the kids and relying on baby caretaker or maids to do their jobs.

The emotional side of parenting is extremely crucial. Most of the parents today are able to provide basic necessities like food, water and shelter to the kids but they are somehow lacking in emotional aspect. Blame it on changing dynamics of parenting or busy state of every person but things are definitely not that encouraging. This phenomenon is even more prevalent in urban parts of the world.

Small things matter a lot in life especially in the sphere of parenting. Building their self-confidence, paying attention to their little requirements, little pep-talks and some close touch is all that is required for good parenting. A child must have the feeling that he is getting undivided attention of his parents. He must feel that security and bondage with his parents. Share your stuff with the kids. Watch them play and how they perform their daily chores. Share with them their interests in art, drawing or music or dance. After all, at the end of the day, sight of your smiling child is going to take away all your anxieties and will make you extremely happy.

Read More
TOP

How to use watercolors

Most of the kids fear this medium simply because it is difficult to make changes or correction once you have put your brush stroke on the canvas. However, practice is what will make you perfect here. Do not get discouraged if you do not get things correct in first few instances. Learn your mistakes and proceed. With the help of following tips, you can start with your water painting right away:

Just mix up a lot of water with water colour paint and with a thick brush, wash your canvas. Another technique is using the tip of your paint brush to dip it slightly in the water and then dipping it in the colour you want to paint in and using strokes to paint on the canvas. This is especially used to paint branches of a tree. Erasing the paint is yet another technique used commonly in water colour painting and this is achieved by using a thick hard brush, dipping it only in water and then slowing applying it to the canvas. Tinting is also another technique that is very easy to do but difficult to control. For example you want your painting to have more yellow in it, to be brighter. What you do is take some very thin yellow paint by using a lot of water, and carefully going over the dried portion of the painting that you wish to tint. However, there is no stopping from inventing your own technique of water colour painting.

Read More
TOP

Angry Children

Parents usually face the problems of having angry children. Anger, as we all know is quite dangerous. It is one of the most powerful negative energy that is capable of wreaking havoc. It is also a symbol of vent of frustration. If you have a child who is suffering from sudden bouts of anger, it is definitely a cause of worry. Parents must not take this thing lightly. Angry children have a bleak future if not guided and controlled early in life. Parents must pay immediate attention to the children afflicted with anger issues. Ager management is the key here. It is not only recommended for adults but also for kids.

If a child has got anger issues is rather easy to identify. For example, child will be prone to bouts of anger at slightest of provocations. He will display an obstinate behaviour. Simplest of issues will make him shout, yell and behave violently. If the child’s anger is turning into violent behaviour then that is a sure shot sign of trouble. Anger syndrome of child is dangerous for him as well as for his parents. It could include some short term as well as long term threats. He will have an imbalanced daily life. Child will feel alienated in school or family and that will further aggravate the situation.

Parents must take necessary steps to get rid of this problem. They should instil values in the child that will make him more accountable and responsible for his actions. Parents must be patient while dealing with angry kids. There is no point in parents getting angry as well. Keep your cool and calm and deal with situation in a soothing and understanding manner. Take care of his surroundings, his group, exposure to TV and violent video games etc. If nothing works, try to consult a counsellor.  

Read More
TOP

Unleash the artist in your kids with pastel crayons

Who will not agree that pastel is yet another great medium of art and is one of the best for kids and beginners? Here are some of the steps which will guide you in your artistic pastel journey:

The first step is to sketch an initial outline onto your paper. Professional artists do this with mechanical graphite pencils. Some artists especially students use a light pastel color for the outline. These outlines are generally done freehand however they depend on the subject that you choose to paint. Now the next step is to start applying some pastel crayons onto the paper. Use soft pastels for easy blending. Now what and how you will colour will depend on your subject but for e.g. if you are coloring sky, then you will start towards dark shades and slowly come down to the light blue shades. Remember to blend the colors at every instance. Blending can be done through your fingers as well.

Detailing needs to be taken care of. Take care while coloring and see to it that they do not smudge in areas where they are not supposed to smudge. Now continue coloring all the objects that are included in your drawing. For example if you are painting a tree care should be taken that while coloring the branch, the colour does not reach the leaves! While drawing objects that require too much detailing, care should be taken that the edges are clean and that the detailing is prominent. Use tip of the colour for detailing.

Remember to be patient and tactful. Do not overuse the colour or blend it too much. Take it step by step and use reference or guidance at points where you are not sure of the next step. Detailing is what is difficult in pastels and hence if you are a patient artist who is very careful with the detailing, things become much easier. Express yourself in pastels and frame your pictures in your room for that little streak of creative satisfaction.

Read More
TOP

First-Time Parents

A newly born baby is a sight to behold and a feeling to cherish. Try holding a young one or a newborn baby for few seconds and imagine the joy you would be getting. Everyone loves to hold and cuddle a baby but taking care of them requires more responsibility and dedication. If you are a first time mother or father, it will even be slightly difficult for you. But then there are certain guidelines following which you will be more equipped to handle your new born baby. A new born baby normally sleeps for 16 hours and you must provide her comfortable sleeping surroundings. Don’t fret if the baby is sleeping for long hours as that’s quite normal considering new born babies are not fully develop.

If you bottle feed your baby then make sure bottle is thoroughly washed and sterilized. The process of sterilizing is quite simple. All you have to do is to clean the bottle and then boil it for some time to get rid of the germs. Its winter time so parents must be prepared for that with woollen clothes, sweaters and trousers. These things will protect baby from the cold climate. During the summer, have pure cotton clothes for the baby because of the comfort factor.

Use bathing tub or seat while bathing your baby. Be very careful when you bathe your little bundle of joy. Use good quality baby cream or lotion to massage. Take time to take special care of the baby. Give her a caring and protective environment. Attend to her needs. Make baby feel loved and cared. That will help in her growth as a confident and competent person. If you devote enough time on your baby, she will turn out to be a healthy individual with a positive outlook in life.

Read More
TOP

Stories for children

We all have been grown up Cindrella, Snow White, Akbar Birbal, Panchtantra and many other stories. These stories narrated to us in our childhood have stayed with us till today. This is the magic of stories. They stay with you. That is why, most parents want to tell their children stories that give them a moral lesson at the end.

 Given the rich culture and heritage that India has, there are a lot of stories that form a splendid collection for people of all age groups. Stories are a great way of learning. Parents should always ask their children to read different kinds of story books. This nurtures a child’s creativity and imagination. Apart from this, their reading and concentration skills also improve a lot. There are many story books available in the market today. Stories of kings and queens, great Indian leaders, famous personalities, animals, fantasy stories etc are available.  Apart from these, there are also other short Indian stories for all age groups. Indian story books like the Panchtantra and the Jataka tales which contain short stories for children are also very popular.

 The beauty of these stories is that they are passed on from one generation to another and this oral tradition has been continuing past decades. Through the rich Indian stories, the children learn values and morals that have been passed through generations. Courageous stories, bold stories, stories of love, respect and other magical tales of adventure have truly wonderful to hear.

Read More
TOP

Building Self-Confidence in Children

One of the most important virtues in a human being is self-confidence. Not just for a child, it is an absolute must for adults also. Without the ample dosage of self-confidence, it is hard to make it big in any sphere of life. Self-confidence brings happiness and enhanced self-esteem. Parents must strive to develop this all important trait in the kid from an early age only. Encourage your child for every little thing often ignored by people. Give them the confidence that they can carry anything and can do anything. Little gestures and small words play a major role in deciding the future of the child. Celebrating his success, a pat on the back, a kiss on the forehead or a warm hug for small works well done will do a world of good to your child’s confidence.

So how should parents approach this task of enhancing self-confidence in kids? Actually, these are very simple and yet effective ideas. Like, by just being consistent, warm and caring, you would be doing a world of good to your child’s confidence. Start the process from an early age only. A child will make your image in his mind from the way you behave with him. It will be deeply ingrained in his psyche. It has been found that children with special bonding with the parents have higher chances of being more self-confident. So have that bonding with the kid as this will make him more secure.

Discipline is a key word here. If the mistake of child is avoidable one then ignore it else punished. While punishing make it clear that it is their behaviour that caused them this punishment and not that they are inherently bad. Whenever a child behaves well, praise him or reward him. This will make him aware of what causes him rewards and what brings punishments.

Read More