Some do’s & don’ts in early childhood & parenting
E arly childhood is the period when children learn the most. It doesn’t matter where you live city, town, mountains or deserts. Every place is a learning environment for kids. During this age group we need to inculcate following essentials in our children:- 1. Confidence, independence and responsiveness. 2. creativity 3. Co- operation 4. Positive attitude towards learning 5. Respecting elders To inculcate all these values it is not important to buy expensive toys/ games. Some of the things of daily use can polish their skills. Now let us learn from what children learn from simple things.
When children do these things
1. Put blocks in bucket and dump them out
2. Using animals plants & create a zoo
3. Balancing blocks over the other 4. Paper cutting & learning to draw. 5. Put on dresses while playing
6. Pretend to be grown ups
7. Separate cups & plates at clean up times 8. Finish a puzzle
9. Make a play dough 10. Playing catch a ball 11. Make the boats sink 12. Playing in a group 13. Listening stories and talk about what happened 14. Follow direction of a recipe 15. Decorate a cake 16. Create different sounds by different things. 17. Leaf or marble printing 18. Talk about things they see in their environment 19. Climbing on various things
They are learning
1. Understand weight, size, number (math's and science skills are developed)
2. Recreate the world around them (social skills).
3. Learn balancing & learn to co- ordinate muscles. 4. Polish their fine motor skills. 5. Self-help skills and writing skills will be developed.
6. Understand their role ahead and abstract thinking is developed. 7. Grouping objects in categories. 8. Complete a task leads to high selfesteem.
9. Recognize how materials change (science) 10. Develop eye hand co- ordination. 11. Develop logical thinking 12. Learn co- operation 13. Children develop love for books, they will be able to remember details, express their thoughts. Develop imagination. 14. They understand management 15. Leads to high self- esteem. 16 Explore cause & effect. Develop logical thinking. 17. Generate creative attitude in them. 18. Sharpen their observational skills. 19. Challenge themselves and imbibing the sense of achievement. Simple tasks help develop their personality. Some of the best activities for them:- 1. Playing with sand, 2. Building doll house 3. Playing dress-up games 4. Playing in water 5. Cooking under supervision 6. Coloring 7. Printing 8. Exploring things in computer 9. Listening stories 10. Playing in a group 11. Playing with a rope made of dupatta or a saree 12. Let them arrange table for dinner. 13. Let them play, sing, dance and explore their talent. 14. Make dough of wheat and allow them to make different objects out of it. One can add food color to make it colorful. Some do’s for parents:- 1. Answer each question of your child to satisfy their curiosity. 2. Allow them to do everything they want to do eg. Painting walls, spoiling their clothes etc. 3. Spend a lot of time with your children and develop a strong bond with your children. This is essential both for mother as well as father. 4. Give incentives to your child and make him understand various things. 5. Don’t hit your child. 6. Don’t use abusive language or the behavior which is not acceptable because every moment your child is learning from what all you are doing. Sometimes after a day long at work, this may be difficult but you will find this kind of attention has wonderful effect on children and makes your job as a parent full of fun and interest.