We have been fortunate to stay in places with enough greenery. This has always ensured that we have plenty of live specimens to study, mostly ants and spiders. The latter was one of the first interests V had, primarily because of their multiple limbs.

Soon, I stopped dusting off spiders immediately, and we got to see a small web in our balcony. The fact that the web practically came out of nowhere was nothing less than magic to us. As always, we researched ( I highly recommend the I wonder why book) and learnt that it is mainly to catch its’s food. Below are some play ideas to take our learning further.

SENSORY PLAY

We love using transparent slime, rainbow rice, black urad and cooked spaghetti as play-bases. Sensory play is a wonderful way for the child to explore or learn to play on her own.… Click to read the rest

When V had just started talking, she obviously had a lot of screaming episodes because she couldn’t express her emotions. We weren’t sure when to start helping her label her feelings, but we did, when the meltdowns became more frequent.

Modelling emotions

We started with ourselves. We would smile, and tell her what we feel. “Wow, a gift. I’m feeling delighted!” or “Why isn’t the gas working? I’m feeling frustrated.” Or when she would jump on me, “V that hurts. I feel upset when you don’t listen to me.” The upside to this approach was, that along with the words and situations, she was learning that it is perfectly healthy to express one’s emotions.

Facial expressions

The first step is of course, that the child understands her own feelings. But when her emotional intelligence starts developing, she would start picking up cues from others’ facial expressions as well. At this point, drawing attention to the expression along with the word for it helps.… Click to read the rest

I had not given much thought to this, ever. Primarily, we are Hindus, however I am not very religious but deeply spiritual. We thought we had time to figure out and collect our thoughts. However V loved the idols of god at home, especially Ganesha. She enjoyed hearing stories about them and one fine day, V asked a pertinent question, “Amma, why do we pray?”

And then it just came naturally to us. We had a clear idea of what not to tell her.

God is watching you.
We did not want her to grow up fearing anything unfathomable or mysterious. We prefer using direct consequences to discipline as well.

God created everything.
While many people believe this, I think it would be difficult for a child to imagine the world coming out of nowhere. She knows about evolution and loves reading Darwin’s Origin of Species for children.… Click to read the rest