Celebrating festivals with family and friends is always a time of great joy, harmony and peace in our homes and lives. Festivals are those precious times when there is a lot of excitement in people’s homes. Everyone looks forward to spending time with their loved ones. Every family has a way of celebrating festivals that are unique to their family traditions and culture that is passed down from generations. Children will learn about it all only when they are made a part of such celebrations.   Learn about one’s tradition and culture: Based on factors like religion, region and language, every family celebrates a particular set of festivals. They follow various traditions and rituals as part of their celebrations. Children, being very inquisitive about everything around them and their surroundings, love to enjoy every aspect of the celebrations. They observe and participate in those traditions and rituals and learn about their significance in their family. All these get imbibed into their minds and stay with them all their lives. This way, they carry their family traditions and culture with them wherever they go and pass on to their children when they grow up too.   Form strong family relationships and bonds: Any relationship grows strong when enough time is spent together. This time of togetherness means spending time doing lots of things together. It could be participating in preparing decorative things during festival times, cooking a special dish together, sharing chores, talking, or explaining the importance of family traditions and so on. Time spent together increases a sense of belonging, a sense of being cared for and loved. Spending time together during festivals makes children feel connected to their parents. Every family member feels a tight bond with one another. Strong family relationships are important for children to be emotionally stable and make them happy individuals. They grow up to be confident individuals because they know that their family has their back at any point in life. Strong bonds once formed during childhood last a lifetime.   Learn respect and build social relationships: Schools also celebrate all festivals with children through fun activities and games. This teaches children about festivals that may not necessarily be celebrated at home. They learn to respect other religions and festivals celebrated by others in their community. They learn to build social relationships with people from other cultures and traditions. This makes children more tolerant and understanding towards other cultures and festivals they see around them. They learn to appreciate others and form wonderful friendships too.   We see how celebrating festivals with children can have such a profound impact on their lives. Childhood is made even more beautiful when parents, family members and schools celebrate with them and give them a great opportunity to participate in every aspect of the festival. Festivals are not just exciting times where we eat special food or decorate our homes or wear new traditional clothes but it is also the most valuable family time where children make bonds forever. Children bond deeply with their mother, father, sister, brother, grandparents, other family members and close friends. Fun things like decorating the house with flowers or lights is a family activity. Children can also help their parents in preparing delicious delicacies like special sweets or meals, dressing up together and helping each other is all part of the celebration. Children can be dressed up in traditional clothing and jewellery during these special times. It gets them very excited and enjoy the festivities with their whole heart, mind, and soul.

It is only human that every first-born experiences new feelings on the arrival of a sibling or a new born baby in their home. They feel a range of emotions and feelings like being overwhelmed, jealousy, confusion, frustration, anxiety, insecurity and so on. Parents must prepare ahead and make all necessary efforts to create positive sibling relationships right from the beginning. This goes a long way in managing or even driving away feelings of sibling rivalry from the minds of the little ones. There are several ways or strategies that parents can adopt in order to build such healthy sibling relationships.   Encourage siblings to bond: Siblings must be allowed to bond right from the birth of the second child. Speak to the elder sibling and help them bond with the little baby through play time, story time and so on. Sibling bonds are formed at this stage although it keeps changing as they grow up. Parents must encourage positive relationship building between the siblings by intervening whenever necessary to help them form a strong bond. During daily chores, meal times and play time, parents can actively spend time with the siblings and encourage them to bond organically.   Focus on giving enough care and time to elder sibling: Often parents feel overwhelmed on the arrival of their second child with increased responsibilities and sleep deprivation. During this time, the elder sibling feels left out or not cared for as parents majorly focus on the newborn sibling. The elder sibling starts to have feelings of jealousy, anxiety, possessiveness and so on. Giving the elder sibling enough one-on-one attention, care and showering them with love will fill the elder sibling’s love tank. This helps the elder sibling in forming a wonderful bond with their younger sibling and with the parents too.   Avoid comparison: Any kind of comparison between siblings will lead to sibling rivalry. Parents and family members must consciously avoid saying things that make a child feel inferior or less cared for compared to the other sibling. Parents who always compare siblings indirectly push their children to dislike each other or have negative feelings towards each other as they grow up. Sibling rivalry indirectly creeps into their lives because of the way parents or immediate family members treat or talk to the siblings. Educate yourself as a parent and educate your family members in order to create positive sibling relationships that last a lifetime.   Encourage taking turns: As siblings grow up, they will argue or quarrel for the same toys or books and throw tantrums. If parents are partial towards the younger sibling, there is a high chance for sibling rivalry to creep in. Parents must actively work towards not letting sibling rivalry get worse. Sibling rivalry often starts when both siblings want the same thing and quarrel with each other. This is when parents must intervene and create a healthy playing environment where taking turns is encouraged during play time. Parents must keep in mind that this is done gently and politely making it easy for siblings to learn how to share and care for each other.   Model behaviors and appropriate communication: It is a known fact that children mimic whatever they see and observe around them. This means parents must take full responsibility for their own actions and words so that their children learn the right thing to do. Modeling appropriate behaviors and actions while dealing with siblings helps children mimic the same during their interactions. Communication is key to building positive sibling relationships.   Expressing equal love and compassion: Parents always must see that siblings are shown the same love, kindness, and compassion without any partiality. Siblings can easily sense when they are not loved like the other siblings. They immediately get affected by such behavior and in the long run, this leads to sibling rivalry. It’s important for parents to treat their children in the same way whether it’s through their words or actions. Even if on an occasion, parents fail to do so, they must try to speak to the child and say sorry and convey to them how much they love and care for them.   Having strong sibling relationships is key to strong family relationships when they grow up to be adults. Positive and happy family ties help family members deal with everything with ease because they have the social, emotional and mental support. In the absence of which, people tend to suffer from loneliness, anxiety, depression and so on. This shows the great role of building positive sibling relationships right from their childhood. Peace between siblings means peace in the family that binds them tight and prepares them to face the big world together. Siblings with strong bonds are there for each other to support and care for even in the absence of their parents.

Books. Books fill a child’s mind with lots of wonder and amazement! Children innately are extremely curious about what is inside these magical books! The colorful images and words bring out their desire to know and understand things around them. Early exposure to books in a child’s life plays a vital role in the development of several skills that shape their personality, character and future. Like to know how? Read for yourself here! Cognitive and Language Development Children build their vocabulary to a large extent through listening. When you read a book, the child picks up vocabulary and language skills that are crucial for communication and building confidence as well. They are better equipped to express themselves verbally with a good grasp of the language they listen to. Additionally, they also pick up a new language other than their mother tongue! 2. Building Creativity and Imagination Listening to books boosts a child’s creativity and imagination as they go into a fictional world where their imagination thrives. A child gets to think creatively, think out of the box because imagination then comes naturally to them. Creativity as a skill is one of the major skills a child will benefit from to a great extent in their everyday life. 3. Help make bonds and associations Children form strong bonds and associations with the people who read to them and also with the characters or the things in those books. It helps them connect better with the people and world around them. This is essential for them to learn how to build relationships with people in real life and strengthen those bonds too. 4. Listening and Comprehension skills The attention span of a child is hardly a few minutes and therefore reading books that they love or are curious about helps them learn to pay attention for a longer time. That is, it helps improve their attention span. Children get engrossed as they listen to the words, expressions and emotions in the books, thereby enabling them to comprehend the content they listen to in a meaningful way. 5. Emotional and Social Development Books also build a child’s emotional skills as they listen, see and understand the different pictures, emotions and feelings, expressions and reactions from you. Their emotional intelligence grows exponentially through book reading. They also learn key social skills through the way the characters in the books interact with each other. Educational books for kids help learn some major skills like reading, writing, listening, and speaking and more! There are plenty of educational books for 2- 4 years olds and older kids in the market today. For younger children, look for Pre-Nursery books or toys that are backed with research and are proven to build skills in children. All these skills mold a child in a beautiful way and give them the life skills they need to be successful in every aspect of their life. Click here to check our blog on top 5 picks based on FirstCry rating for your little one!

Every child is born with unique traits, talents, attitudes and personalities. As parents, you love your child just the way they are, don’t you? After all, they are a piece of your heart! Children are a precious gift from above! As parents, you are responsible for bringing up their children with the right values, provide education and mould them into kind and compassionate humans. We all agree that parenting is not a smooth ride. It’s beautiful but comes with some challenging times as well. This makes parenting a roller coaster ride- filled with adventurous and sweet memories too. While a father and mother are considered role models, sometimes we do not act in a healthy positive way towards our children. In this fast-paced world filled with endless opportunities to gain knowledge and skills, we end up comparing our little young minds to others children or even their siblings. Now, for some, this might sound like the ideal thing to do to push or motivate children to perform better either in their academics or sports but this is NOT the way to go if you want to build your child to become their confident self when they grow up and achieve their full potential. Let us look at ten reasons why as a parent, you must never compare your child with other children or siblings. Causes low self-esteem: Children look up to their parents for their attention, unconditional love and care. And when that parent, compares them to others, especially to point out their weakness, they get thrown away in an instant! It’s a terribly frightening experience for a child to hear. It makes them feel less about their capabilities and makes them feel unloved, and lonely too. Over time they suffer from low self-esteem. Causes anxiety and increases stress on their tiny minds It’s common that children feel anxious every time they underperform. Each child is different- not everyone is good at math. Each child has different strengths and weaknesses. Some are good at cricket and some can swim well. The same applies to us adults as well, don’t you think? So, when you compare your child for not performing up to your expectations, it puts a great amount of stress on their mind. Anxiety and stress in a young mind deteriorate their mental health. This hinders a child’s growth even in areas where their strength lies. Lose their confidence Put yourselves in your child’s shoes for a moment. How would you feel if your boss compares you to other colleagues in front of others? Think about how you would feel if no matter how hard you work, you are never appreciated? And how would you feel if your boss things that make you feel you can never be good enough for the job? Now, think of your child in the same way. You are not a boss to your child. But, you are their mother…you are their father! You are their everything! So, when you compare your child in a negative light, you are indirectly hurting them; you are displaying that your love is conditional and that you don’t value them. Your child feels worthless and it makes them lose their confidence. What a tragedy is that! No parent would want this for their child. Yet, many say such things without realising the life-long damage it does to their little one’s mind and soul. Pause and think before you use words that you feel might hurt your child. Makes your child feel unimportant When do you, as an adult or as a parent feel important? You would feel important when you are heard; when you are loved through words and actions, right? Would you feel important if your spouse or family member or friend does not value how you feel; does not listen to your words or says hurtful things about your capabilities? Absolutely no, right? Your child also feels the same – that he/she is not important in the family. That they are not a valued member anymore. Makes a child feel shy and insecure The consequence of losing confidence is that the child feels shy and prefers to stay away from interacting with you and others. This humiliation creates an insecurity. Gradually, it leads to feelings of loneliness causing developmental issues in some children. Child resents parents/siblings/other children If parents continue to compare throughout the early years, the child starts to resent his/her own parent or siblings to the extent that the bitterness gets into the mind of the child forever. This impacts the kind of relationships the child forms even with others in the society. In many real-life cases, it has been observed that the child grows up to behave exactly like their parent! We need to break this chain of resentment and hatred to create a more compassionate world. It all starts with you as a parent. You hold a big role in the society, so be the parent you would want to have yourself. Good parenting is a necessity. Child becomes introverted Comparison makes a child introverted and effects their confidence. They do not freely share their opinions or thoughts. They refuse to socialise. It changes their personality forever because of the huge negative impact on her mind. Negative impact on relationships Children grow up to have very less interaction with their peers leading to few or no strong relationship with friends or family. Fear of rejections creeps into them. Therefore, they end up leading lonely lives. Makes a child unhappy This is obvious, isn’t it? How can children be happy if they feel their mother or father always blame them or point out their weakness? Unhappy. Sad. Frustrated. These are just a few words to describe what they feel. Prolonged unhappiness leads to mental health issues like depression creating a void that is hard to fill. It’s a parents responsibility to not let this happen. Impacts child’s future in a negative way Parents wish only good, only the very best for their children.

There is a drastic change in education. Education during pandemic is heavily relying on online or virtual learning platforms. There are diverse ways one can make classes interesting. Some are using new technology-based products and teaching aids available in the market. Audio content is one aspect that makes learning fun and engaging for children. Anything in addition to paper-based products gives a sense of excitement. We should note that both audio and video content have benifits. But in this blog, we will look into how audio content helps a child in grow in various aspects. Before the emergence of video, audio content was a major source of entertainment for the young and old. However, during the pandemic, there is extensive use of video. While video has its own positive and negative effects on a child’s development, let’s see uses of audio content. 1) Language skills: Auditory, Visual and Kinesthetic learning environments gives effective learning. Every child has a unique style of learning that works the best for them. Use of all three learning styles is beneficial to the overall development of a child. Audio makes the listener, in this case, a child to pay attention to the language being used in the audio. To learn from audio, a child doesn’t need to sit still, doesn’t have to look at a screen or doesn’t even need to be alert or awake. This means development of skills mentioned above. 2) Vocabulary, Pronunciation & Accent: Childs focus in audio is to the language used, the words spoken. Even the accent, the pronunciation and the expressions. Children imitate these words in the accent and pronunciation they heard them in and develop their verbal language and presentation skills. A child’s vocabulary improves to a large extent through rhymes, action songs and stories. 3) Sentence structure: Listening to audio content like rhymes or stories help a child understand the sentence structures. Improves their grammar expressions and feelings too. When a child listens to an audio story, they hear and understand and use it in real life. 4) Communication skills: Learning in audio format does wonders to a child’s ability to communicate. Listening to stories, singing rhymes, dancing to songs enable a child to learn communication skills. 5) Listening skills: Building listening skills is essential for a child’s life-long learning and development. Without this skill, it is difficult to teach or learn anything at all. Listening to music, songs, rhymes, stories, sounds in audio format develops their listening skills. You can play any entertaining educational audio content at home and children can listen to it while they play and go about their day-to-day activities. You could use this as one way you help stop your child’s phone addiction. Passive listening teaches them so much! 6) Imaginative & Creative skills: When a child listens to a story, they start to image it. For instance, when a child listens to ‘Mary has a little lamb,’ he/she paints a picture of how the lamb looks like. They think how Mary might look like and how they may have played together or lived together. This imagination or visual representation in the mind of a child will not happen when they see a video as they get to see what they listen to. This is how audio helps a child grow in a way that video does not. 7) Builds confidence: Audio learning boosts their confidence levels. The child feels confident to speak out their thoughts. Building confidence in your child goes a long way. It helps to be more independent, bold, courageous. 8) Attention to detail: Attention to detail is a skill that children need to master. This is not just for their education but also for their career. This keeps them focused which helps a child strengthen their memory as well. 9) No eye strain: There is no strain on the eyes with audio form of learning or entertainment. Age-appropriate, child friendly educational and enjoyable content is beneficial to a child. Loud or inappropriate content as it can be detrimental to the child’s growth and development. Audio learning sure has certain advantages that video learning. Now that you are aware of it, go ahead and ensure your child has a fair share of audio learning. In case you have nothing available, just use your own voice. You can sing a rhyme with expressions, actions and voice modulation and see the magic you create in your child’s eyes!