Flykiddz

The impact of Covid-19 lockdown is so overwhelming that even kids fear it is incessant. Every day my daughter prays to God to finish the virus so that she can step out of confinement. The children were not meant to be part of this pandemic but now they are at greater developmental risks affecting both physical and mental growth. Their learning graph is slow-moving in an unconducive environment.UN policy published recently corroborates this fact. According to UN 188 countries have imposed countrywide school closures, affecting more than 1.5 billion children and youth. Parents, schools, policymakers- all are stumped because of the inconceivable situation for which they never rehearsed. The immense challenges hardly provide a quick fix in the contemporary scenario but will put up us in state of readiness for the future. Let us discuss these challenges: Impact of Covid-19 on learning What are the challenges for parents? The routine of kids has gone berserk. There is no designa

On my recent visit to my hometown, I attended a workshop on children conducted by the British Council. The theme was learning through fun. The events that followed were storytelling sessions, scrabble, draw and tell- unleashing imagination through illustrations. It amazed me to see that children were unaware of the incredible talent they possessed. The excitement of kids in storytelling or sketching their adorable characters from stories was a pure joy to watch. The council designed all the activities to strengthen a natural inclination for books in children. Reading at an early age stimulates that part of the brain that helps in enhancing language skills. However, it is observed that in the initial years of school most children are not comfortable in reading books, but once they are asked to narrate stories or draw pictures, they unwind themselves. This is a way to say"hello" to books, a beginning of interaction with books where the role of adults is only to introduce kid

 A play on Elvis Presley was being enacted in my son's school.  Filled with curiosity, his ever inquiring mind bombarded me with several questions from Presley's early life to why at the age of eleven Elvis’ accepted a guitar instead of a bicycle to the gospel music he heard in church and his interest in music. While discussing  Presley's interest in music, I realized the magnetic field of music is vast, open and one of the best means of expression. Music is a magnetic healer. Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time but for infants and toddlers it is sound appealing to ears; one which is pleasant to hear. It has nothing to do with an order but it keeps them nourished emotionally. As they grow, music becomes a medium of self-expression for them, a collection of thoughts organized into a rhythm. Why is music healthier for kids? In simple words, music provides pure joy. Music helps the body and the mind to work in coordina

Every morning melodious number rhyme sweetened our little home. "One, two, three ....seven mangoes.....interruption...mummy clap".Every day my toddler headed straight from bed to balcony to count the number of mangoes hanging in a nearby mango tree and was so contented to see the count increasing as the summers advanced. This was his daily pattern until one day when out of his habit he ran to the balcony and found no tree. "It is gone" he cried. I followed his footsteps only to find that the tree had been axed. It was equally difficult to control an inconsolable child and sight of fallen branches kissing the deserted roadside. "One, two, three.....". These words echoed in my ears for days. The events that followed - people showing solidarity to protect trees from being axed in Delhi, a  meet in Kolkata on awareness of widespread environmental degradation in megapolises, the concerns to improve the urban living standards by adopting eco-friendly, green ar

Stress management is a pre-preparation of mind and body in response to various challenges in everyday life. A little stress is healthy and motivational to cope with a situation or finish our work timely but too much stress harms our body. In the past few years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of crimes by juveniles and suicide cases by school students. The reasons being either exam phobia or lower percentage in exams or  comparison with others in peer-group or  inability to cope with a family crisis or  violent video games etc. How to manage stress? The children are easily falling prey to negative thoughts, extreme sadness and anger.  This is alarming !! Kids might not understand that what haunts them are stress and anxiety and taking revenge or ending their life is no remedy. The only solution is to trick one's mind and checkmate stress. DESTRESS Reasons for stress in preteens Performance in school and acquiring good grades in exams Acceptance in

In dictionary language "counselling" is advice by an expert about a particular problem. During some of the other phase of life, there is a time when kids need counselling and parents often consult specialists to handle the situation. The question arises Can parents counsel their child themselves?/"How can I counsel my child?"  Are we competent enough to deal with the issues bothering our child?  Though we may not be expert in each and every matter we are the first teachers of our child and who knows our child more than we do. We as parents can be the first counsellors. Nevertheless, counsellors are highly trained  people  and well equipped with updated techniques but as parents, we can give first try to counsel our child unless the situation is alarming . How can I counsel my child?  How can I counsel my child ?   The phrase "my child" is significant because it is difficult to counsel our kids as they are familiar to us. They may be hesitant to open