Mommy, I am bored! 9 practical tips to overcome this during Diwali holidays!

     - Mommy, I am bored!
     - So, watch cartoons.
     - No, watched it already.
     - Then, go and play on Ipad.
     -  No, I want to do something exciting. All my friends have either gone out for holidays or are unwell. What should I do?

          Come holidays and this situation is repeated in each and every household. I remember we used to get 3 weeks of Diwali holidays and we used to be out of our house at the first opportunity. All our colony friends used to gather around to practise for cultural programme, draw rangolis, make imaginary forts of Shivaji with mud and bricks, spring-clean our houses and stick ourselves on the kitchen counter to check what's going to roll out from the steaming kadhai! I think we never had time to say we were bored!

          Cut to today's situation - nuclear families, double income generating parents, kids living in daycare centres, and most importantly no time on hands for dabbling in simple creations has led the kids to get bored. Yes, the onus lies on us. Imagine for how much time will they watch TV? Or for that matter, play games on Ipad.

          So, I am listing here some ways for parents to enjoy your holidays with your kids without making yourselves fret out and the kids also can have a gala time.

• Shopping - Diwali is the time for shopping. Make sure that you plan your shopping well in advance so that there is no last-minute rush. Involve your kids in making shopping lists and try to take them along. Kids enjoy to shop for crackers, diyas, lanterns etc.

• DIY - Some things like diyas, greeting cards, sweets etc. can easily be made at home if parents have time. You can also draw rangolis in front of your house. Kids will enjoy in creating something of their own and it is also time well - spent. Be ready to supply all the materials to the kids. It can also be a great bonding time between you and your child.

• Movies - Watch some children's films related / unrelated to Diwali. This is the only time when children can spend 2 hours at a stretch. Have open-hearted conversations asking what did s/he like in the movie, what was the story about etc.

• Stories - Tell stories about Diwali to make them understand our culture - why do we celebrate Diwali?, What is it's importance? etc.

• Journey - If time permits, go on a short Diwali break. Encourage them to note down or make a scrap-book of what they saw, what did they do there. Tell them to note down important snippets like climate, food, people, culture, natural topography etc.

• Visit to an orphanage - Take your children to an orphanage or an old-age home since this is the best time to inculcate generosity in your kid. Explain to them that not all people are as fortunate as you and hence, you are liable to spread festive cheer in others too. Your kids will be humble and more respectful of what they have without you admonishing them for wasting things.

• Play-dates - Organise play-dates in your neighbourhood so that only one parent will have to look after all the kids instead of everyone having their kids at home. Kids also gain some experience in social behavior. Also, they themselves will be able to judge what liberties they have which are not allowed in other households.

• Help in the house - Involve your children and encourage them to help you in cleaning your home. Give them small tasks wherein their decision-making skills will evolve. Like, tell me where should we place our lantern?

• No TV - And more importantly, restrict their TV time by encouraging play through sports, board games etc.

          I hope these tips will help to tide over not only Diwali Holidays but also Christmas and Summer vacations fruitfully. So, what do you think of these tips? How would you like your children to spend their Diwali Break? Leave a comment if you also have some tricks up your sleeves.

Have a very Happy and safe Diwali!

Image Courtesy: Google Images

Come join a set of fabulous bloggers sharing their Diwali moments , easy Crafts, DIY ideas, Recipes and book recommendations with you .

Starting from today till Diwali and beyond, each one of us will be writing a post related to Diwali.

Participating blogs

Artsy Craftsy mom . Reading Rabbits Library . Food and fads . Cherish Dream Live . My little Moppet . On-board the Mommyship . Roohi's Collection . Colours Dekor . Bumps n Baby  . Hello Mommyhood . A spoonfull of ideas . CraftIsland . Perfect Skin care for you . ParentingMantras . Whats Cooking Mom . Orange kitchens . Quilts & Quills . Fun Activities for Children . Something’s cooking . Obsessivemom . The Design Enthusiast . Fantastic Feathers . Little aadi ali

So sit back, relax and check out all the fabulous Diwali Dhamaka posts in the linky.

An InLinkz Link-up

Day 26 : Gardens!

          The mere thought of gardens takes me back to the time spent in my childhood in parks and gardens which I and my sister would used to frequent. We were truly blessed to have them in our home's vicinity where all the children from nearby homes would come and play. Just one hour of play taught us so many things - co-operation, team spirit, victories and defeats, sportsmanship!

          Alas, today, there are very few gardens available in metros thanks to all the out-of-this-world-shopping-malls creeping up at every open place. Parents today, don't realize the importance of free play with fresh air and greenery doing wonders to their children. The weekends too are typically spent in this order - shopping, lunch, movie, dinner - that too in one mall!

          At least we have books to inculcate gardening and love of nature in us. Gardens was the prompt for today. Here are the books read -

1. Bondapur ki ek ajab kahaani (hindi) by Shamim Padamsee
2. Farm counting
3. Night sky wheel ride from Tradewind books
4. Spincy spider by Harminder Ohri
5. Brahma's butterfly
6. Storm in the garden
7. Magic vessels
8. The hedgerow circus by Ruth Thomson
9. Riki tiki tavi from Ladybird retold by Sampoorna Chatterjee
10. Hungry pants by Mary Batten
11. Topsy and Tim go green
12. Adam and Eve from Bible
13. The enormous turnip
14. The seed
15. The snail storm in the garden
16. The ugly duckling
17. Pinochchio
18. The green ship by Quentin Blake
19. Ruby Nettleship and the ice lolly adventure
20. The giving tree by Shel Silverstein
21. Tabby McTat
22. Room on the broom
23. The champa flower who took my strawberries
24. The tamarind tree
25. Oh, say can you seed
26. The prized pumpkin from Berenstain Bears
27. Tales of Peter rabbit
28. Flower fairies by Cicely Mary Barker
29. Sea in a bucket by Deepa Balsavar
30. Amelia Bedelia goes camping
31. Flowers - picture book
32. Farmer Donald's pumpkin patch from Mickey Clubhouse Storybook collection
33. The pig's egg
34. Geronimo Stilton
35. Cinderella
36. In the night garden
37. Wangari's trees of peace
38. Zhaad (marathi)
39. Teddy and a magic trick
40. A rainy day adventure
41. Bees and butterflies by Gina Philips
42. Little fox's picnic by Debie Glior
43. The oak tree
44. Pepper learns about recycling
45. Pepper learns to take turns
46. How does your garden grow by Disney
47. One mole digging a hole by Julia Donaldson
48. Alphablock
49. Eric Carle's ABC
50. The little gardener by Jan Gerardi
51. The butterfly children
52. Peekaboo in the farm
53. The tamarind tree
54. Busy bees' flower friends by Nicholas Hawkins
55. Come to the circus - Fenelia gets into trouble
56. Phonics first
57. The little mouse, the red-ripe strawberry and the big hungry bear
58. Tell me a story before I go to bed
59. Bubbles goes to school
60. Read and grow with Pepper series
61. A busy day with patches the puppy
62. Peppa's Easter egg hunt
63. Sid the seed by Daniel R. Panag
64. Hop on pop
65. Upside down
66. Even Stevens Odd Todd

          A whopping number of books were read today. While doing so, don't forget to take your kids to a little bit of greenery this weekend!

          AS for Swara, she is truly blessed to have a garden for herself and her friends in our backyard thanks to the green hands of my father-in-law.
 Happy reading!

 

Day 25 : Food!

          Food! The mere sight of something delicious on the table churns us inside when we are so hungry! If I am not satiated, I tend to lose my patience. Everyone at home knows this fact and so to calm me down, they always offer something to bite on!
 
          However, when it comes to children, we all know how they are so fussy about their foods, messy about their table manners and grouchy and not willing to gobble that food into their mouths. I am experiencing this and with time I have just learnt one thing - If Swara does not wish to eat I don't force her. I just leave the plate there and whenever she feels hungry, she comes on her own! Then, even if the plate is full of her unfavourite spinach, she will finish it. Try this - you will be seriously amazed. I should warn you though - you will have to take an effort to neglect your kid!

          And coming to this challenge, how can it be exciting without food as today's prompt. The books related to food are as follows -

1. Today is Monday by Eric Carle
2. Gajapati kulapati
3. Book on time
4. Blueberries for Sal
5. Lassi, ice-cream or falooda?
6. The magic melon from Usborne by Rosie Dickens
7. Junior Kumbhakarna
8. The dog and the bone
9. The talking cave - a Panchatantra tale
10. The silly story of Bondapalli
11. The fox and the goat
12. The magic porridge pot from Ladybird
13. The big pancake from Ladybird
14. Three for free by Greystone - Taiwanese folktale
15. Enna Seiyalam (tamil)
16. Adventures of Fixy the fox
17. The sandwich swap
18. Scrummy
19. 10 apples up on top by Dr. Seuss
20. I'm the best artist in the ocean by Kevin Sherry
21. The runaway bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
22. Pancakes, pancakes
23. Samira's awful lunch
24. Stone soup
25. Green eggs and ham
26. If a pig wants a pancake
27. Pepper eats too much cake
28. Jalebi curls from Tulika
29. Chocolate mousse for greedy goose
30. What shall I make? from Tulika
31. The why why girl from Tulika
32. Pepper learns about recycling
33. Pepper gets a new pet
34. Chatur yojana (hindi)
35. The gruffalo
36. Good night Alfie Atkins by Gunilla Bergstorm
37. Sushila's kolam by Sridala Swami
38. What does baby Mickey find?
39. The very hungry caterpillar
40. Food for a party
41. Monsters munch lunch
42. Where there's a bear, there's trouble by Michael Catchpool
43. The tiger who came to tea by Judith Kerr
44. The tiny seed by Eric Carle
45. Bubbles is greedy
46. Bubbles has a toothache
47. Alphablock
48. Happy birthday little pokie by Sandra Boynton
49. Lunchbox, the story of your food by Chris Butterworth
50. Billy Tibbles moves out by Jan Fearnley
51. Billy Bogglesworth and the road to Muffinville and other stories by David Whitney
52. Pink Pepparoni by David Whitney
53. Cookie rookie by Salem de Bezenac & Amy Upshaw
54. Pat the cat
55. Pat the puppy
56. Yummy yucky by Sandra Boynton
57. Apples are magic by Julia Seal
58. The ugly vegetables by Grace Lin
59. The lion and the mouse retold by Jerry Pinkney
60. Baby's first library : numbers
61. The runaway dinner

          And here is a choco chip cookie recipe which I made it with my daughter! Truly, we had an amazing bonding time. Its simple, attractive and healthy too! A Must-try!
Happy reading!

Day 16 : I feel..

          I remember when my daughter couldn't express herself due to lack of speech and less emotional development and I used to fret over her for not understanding her. Add to it, that I used to get so impatient that eventually I used to scold her which resulted in more frustration and tears. Thankfully, those days are gone! Being a first-time mother, I may not have handled the situations tactfully. Slowly, when it started repeating itself, I would patiently calm myself first and then pay attention to my daughter!

          So, when Bubble Ink introduced this prompt I felt relieved to see so many books bang on the prompt. I wish I had read some books to Swara when she was smaller!

          Anyway, better late than never! I will start over just after completing this blog post!

1. Baby happy baby sad
2. Tell me something happy before I got to bed by Joyce Dunbar
3. Have you seen this?
4. Giraffes can't dance
5. Piano notes from the book
6. Are you my mother?
7. Green eggs and ham
8. Corduroy's Easter
9. Siri's smile by R. Amarendran
10. Malu bhalu by Kamala Bhasin
11. The song of the scarecrow
12. Bhakt Prahlad
13. Mr. Happy, Mr. Uppity, Mr. Jelly, Mr. Worry, Mr. Greedy, Mr. Grumpy and Mr. Rude from Mr. Men series
14. Alibaba and forty thieves
15. Grumpy bird by Jeremy Tankard
16. A is amazing by Wendy Cooling
17. Happy or sad? (making faces) by Caroline Davis
18. Opposites in Tinga Tinga tales
19. The snail and the whale by Julia Donaldson
20. Night night little pookie by Sandra Boynton
21. The rainbow fish
22. The great race
23. Magic vessels
24. Each peach pear plum
25. Roald Dahl's Esio trot
26. A bond of love from NBT
27. Brahma's butterfly
28. The twits by Roald Dahl
29. Rooster and the sun from Tulika
30. Kantala and Paahuni (marathi)
31. Nini's Sports day
32. What is your name?
33. Pepper watches too much TV
34. Sam and the firefly by P. D. Eastman
35. Mr. Brown can moo, can you?
36. The Gruffalo's child
37. Arthur goes on vacation by Mark Brown
38. Shrinking Sam
39. Pepper is jealous
40. Pepper throws a tantrum
41. The watermelon route
42. Hug
43. My truck is stuck
44. Too much noise
45. Bani from Pratham books
46. Seesaw or sad story by Henrique Komatsu
47. A very funny tale by Enid Blyton
48. My many coloured days
49. The true friendship moral stories
50. Where, oh where is Huggle buggle bear? by Katherine Sully
51. The noisy night monsters by Julia Seal
52. Spot's first picnic by Eric Hill
53. The bad-tempered ladybird by Eric Carle
54. There's a wocket in my pocket
55. Rhino bath
56. The magic porridge pot
57. Rabbit in the moon
58. The complete set of Pepper - 48 books
59. I'm not scared - Scholastic reader 1 by Hans Wilhelm
60. Where's Gola's home? from Tulika

As for us, we read the last two of the list!
Happy reading!

Creativity and children

Scene 1: A 6 year old dabbles in hand painting, making a mess of her study-table, spilling paints everywhere, staining her clothes. The mother enters her room and seeing the mess, shouts her to stop immediately and clean herself and the room as well.

Scene 2: Same situation. Just a little bit of difference. Here, the mother encourages her to try new patterns and the mother's hands are also stained with paints. After it's over, the mother along with the child clean themselves and the room.

Now, according to you, which child is more creative? I would say both of them! But that creativity will get nipped in the bud in the first scenario, whereas, the other child will be free to experience her creativity all through her life.

As mothers, we don't like so many things of our children!(their eating habits, their friends, how they spend time). But, instead of admonishing them, we need to take a step back, observe them carefully and ask ourselves 'Are they enjoying this activity?' If you get a positive answer, encourage them, maybe get involved for a few minutes. I'm sure they will cherish being together even if it's just fifteen minutes.

After all who is going to remember all that mess a few years down the line if a Picasso is getting trained at home?

    "Children tend to imitate their parents, despite the teachers' attempts to teach them good manners." 

          I had long read this quote in Reader's Digest. Being a teacher and a parent, I couldn't agree with more. This thought came to my mind recently when I was busy with my daughter's Nursery school admissions.

          As is the normal case, forms are distributed, parents have to fill the forms (which run into pages - but more about that later), and then draw of lots take place. I was standing patiently in a line along with other parents to submit the forms and other documents. The final bell went off and the other school students were coming down the stairs so we had to move a little away. Suddenly, two ladies broke the line and came forward and were trying to accommodate themselves in the original line. Other parents showed their displeasure and complained to the authorities. One went back but the other one stayed put and she was shouting on top of her voice. That time I remembered this quote.

          Imagine you are coming to a school for your own ward's admission process. How you behave is a direct window to how you instill manners and etiquettes in your ward. If that lady could have waited patiently for her turn to come, I may not have recalled her, but by behaving in this way, I cannot at least forget her, that's for sure.
   
          So many times, a teacher is teaching children value education and traffic rules. She says, "Stop at a RED signal". Still, parents in their hurry to drop their children at school, jump at red signals. So when the teacher asks the next question, "Whose parents do not wait at a red signal?" I am certain that at least a few hands go up in the air. Are we not shaming our kids by behaving inappropriately?

          Parents are role-models to their children and then comes the role of teachers.

          So let us pledge that we as parents will be on the same wavelength as of their teachers.