Tag: Tips

5 Routines to spend Quality time with Kids during School days

Most of the schools have opened back post the summer holidays to add to the stress of parents, especially the moms. As parents, we are always with our schedules and our deadlines. So when we are neck-deep in completing one task after the other, obviously the time spent with the kids would be taking a toll.

But most of the moms say that they always spend my time with the kids, cooking for them, making them do their homework and various other projects/assignments, driving them and back to the extra classes. So, where is the need for extra quality time and where do we find that extra time? And dads argue that most of their time is spent only in the office as they have to work hard so that they can support their families. As per their argument, its tough survive in the office, considering how competitive the world has become. But kids are the ones who are getting neglected in this whole process. And they still won’t have the way to express their inner needs which is to spend quality time with their parents.

Qualitytime, Kids, Parenting, Tips, Routines, Schooldaysroutine, shravmusingswrites
How to Spend Quality Time with Kids during the School Sessions

More and more studies show that the parents who spend their time with the kids on a one on one basis, have a better connection with their kids and the kids are less prone to the problems during their teenage (which is very crucial for them). This quality time improves the kid’s self-confidence and self-esteem.  So here are my simple tips that will enable all the parents to spend their time with the kids.

Morning Routine:

As soon as the kid wakes up as the natural instinct, the kid would be searching for his mom and that’s the time when as a mom, we have to give our undivided attention to the kid for just 5 minutes with the kid, cuddling them and if they are ready for the morning exercises, involve them for few stretches and squats.  If they are not ready for exercises, listen to the soothing music in the morning just by sitting next to the kid. All this takes just 5 minutes.

Before the School Routine:

While sending the kid to the school, preparing him for the day ahead is of utmost importance, as the kid needs to face the world without you and have to continuously concentrate on learning in the schools. So it’s the time for you to be creative in inventing a fun routine to spend time with the kid. It can be a song or a small dance number which you would like to do with your kid. Or at least a small prayer to keep the day going.

After the School Routine:

While picking up the kid from school, set aside all your work and devote some time completely to the kid. Instead of hurrying them to change the uniform and send them to other activities, please spend those 5 minutes, unwinding along with the kid by doing his favorite activity. This time would definitely set the mood for the entire evening for him.

Bedtime rituals:

Bedtime rituals are a must in each and every family. Instead of letting the kid fall asleep on his own, read him a story or sing a lullaby to him. Have a pillow talk with him, when all the lights are switched off in the room. This is the time when you can really boost his confidence by providing positive suggestions. Even if the corrections are required in the kid’s behavior, do positively tell him. Positive suggestions get implemented faster than negative suggestions and corrections.

Weekend Routine:

The weekend is the time, where you can build a few family traditions into your family. Take the help of kids, plan the weekend nights (it can be a movie night or dinner outside in the garden or camping out in the night, sleepover in other rooms of the house, game nights). Plan stuff, which you also can enjoy. If nothing else works out for you, at least try and learn an activity along with the kids. Kids enjoy playing a teacher role to the parent.

 

Time flies very fast and it’s on us as parents to steal a few chunks of time from our busy schedule, so that we can have our quality time with the kids. So that the kids could have wonderful memories to recollect in the later stages of their life. These memories are the ones which would drive our kids to have stronger connections with their kids so that life comes full circle back with our grandchildren.

 

 

How to raise an Avid Reader

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty.  It should be offered to them as a precious gift. —Kate DiCamillo

These days, unfortunately, we as the parents are giving the gadgets as gifts to the kids and forgetting the most important gift, which opens the entire world in front of them. A wise old man had already said that “Books are the Window to the World”. But honestly, how many of us are really opening this window to our kids?

As a toddler, most of the kids would be happy to see the big pictures on the board books and they will spend more time with board books. But as they grow up, they get more attracted to gadgets and lose touch with books.  This trend would continue even after they enter the school, which will be followed by lower marks and grades and the permanent struggle for parents.

To avoid this struggle, it’s easier to keep the kids in touch with the books, even after they have been introduced to gadgets. As a parent, one needs to take efforts to make books attractive to kids along with the gadgets. Since we can’t avoid the entry of the gadgets into kids life, we can use the very same gadgets cleverly to increase their love for reading.

  • Introduce Audiobooks:

Audiobooks are a great way to engage a toddler who has not yet started reading and get him glued to the interesting stories. We have a wide variety of books available in the form of audiobooks and there are a lot of apps which offer the audiobooks to the kids. We can download a few of them on our gadgets and make the kids listen to them.

  • Introduce them to EBooks:

For the kids, who started reading and are not willing to sit down with books, Ebooks is another option. These days, a lot of Ebooks are coming up in multiple languages with beautiful pictures too for kids. Subscribing to Kindle app is the best way to keep the kids engaged with books even while using the gadgets. This habit, in fact, would reduce the load of the books to be carried while traveling.

  • Give them puzzles on the gadgets using the storyline from books

Some of the kid-friendly apps have puzzles designed from their story books. One can download those apps and these apps do provide Ebooks as well as the puzzles that go with these books. Otherway, would be for the parent to prepare the puzzles for the kids. Puzzles are always an interesting start for the kids to prepare them for a new book.

  • Books from the Movies:

A lot of kids movies were built on the children’s fiction books. So making the kids read the books after watching the movie together would give the kids far better insights into the plot and the author’s creative skills. This will interest them to pick up more books before they watch the movie.

 There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book. —Frank Serafini

So it’s upon us as the parents to help the kid find out the right book to rekindle the love for books which he had during his early toddlerhood days. There are different genre books which the kid would love based on his interests:

  1. Joke books: We can use these books, to make the kid sit down for a couple of minutes and enjoy a joke or two in the book.
  2. Growth Mindset books: For the kids who are having difficulty in dealing with various emotions, the growth mindset books which capture the various emotions or the struggles faced by a person and how he overcame would help them in dealing with their feeling emotions and feelings
  3. Fiction: For kids who are interested in storytelling, fiction would help them in their creativity
  4. Non-Fiction/History: Helps the kids gather the facts and details about their point of interest.

This list can go on endless but have captured the most important categories for the kids. So we as parents, if we want to give the best and greatest gift to our kids, then its only books and books

One of the greatest gifts adults can give—to their offspring and to their society—is to read to children. —Carl Sagan

This article is written for the topic number 5 under “BookBlogTrain, Season 2”. The topic is “Tips and tricks to increase reading in kids”

This article is written as a part of #Thebookblogtrain conducted by Vidhya Thakkar and Siddhi Palande powered byPenguin India and Redwolf should not be repurposed, republished or used otherwise. The content herein is owned by the blogger. Hosts are not responsible for any infringement caused.”