How to spend time with kids, this is one things I get often asked. Mindful parenting is something which makes you a better parent. Summer holidays have started, when most parents are searching for summer classes, there are some like me who do not want their children to get out there in the parching sun.
SO how do you manage to spend time with children and yet continue to hold your cool.
I did quite a lot of thinking on how to spend this time with my children so that they do not get bored repeating the same thing again and again and also feel special during that complete their holidays.
I spend most of my time in front of the laptop, being a Work From Home Mom makes me busy almost the complete day. If I need to spend time with my children, it has to be done with a lot of effort.
However, spending time with the children is not just sitting with them, while they gaze the idiot box, no- you need to be interactive and engage with them.
This is actually called mindful parenting and quality time spent with children.
How To Spend Time with Your Kids
A simple search in the internet will give you a lot of people giving tips on how to spend quality time with your children. But Alas! None of them seemed to suit me. Most tips seemed to be teaching good parenting and about giving more time to children and not about what to do in that time.
Well, Â with no option than to find by myself as to what to do in that parent child time, here is what I have come up with.
Children Time
Make a schedule that would include a special children time where in you would make it a motto not to while away the precious time in watching TV or on the internet.
There has to be a lot of one on one interaction plus an activity that would give work to all motor skills of my children.
Crafty Mondays
Start your Mondays dedicated for Do-It-Yourself kind of things that usually involves the right brain function of your child. You can use artificial clay, make flowers out of papers, paper Mache work, bead making, and so on.
I even have begun trying it already. I gave a portion of dough that was prepared for the night’s dinner to my children and asked them to make shapes out of it.
Raksh my elder son made a beautiful fish out of chapatti dough. He told me to get a soft drink cap to finish off with the eyes too.
The success actually has boosted me to prepare detailed schedules for the rest of the days.
Muddy Tuesdays
Playing in mud and water is something every child loves. So spend Tuesday evenings doing some gardening.
This way the children would be able to do what they like the most – becoming muddy all over. However, they would also learn how to prepare seedbeds and sow seeds.
Maintain the plants they have sown, this would give them some responsibility which would help in a positive development in the long run.
To Market Wednesdays
Teaching children addition and subtraction and so on would be easier if we could take them to the market and let them so the calculation on their own. Take your children to the market and show them how to pick good vegetables.
Use the below guide
Organic Vegetable Buying Guide- How To Identify The Organic Vegetables
This would be a practical way of teaching children math as well the complete process of vegetable buying. I really hope they would stop playing football with tomatoes after that.
Back to Eighties Thursdays
I have always wanted my children to play games like Gilli-Danda, Pandi, and Pallanguli and so on that I used to play as a small child. Want of time had hindered me from doing this and had let me sought to other games which had coaches available such as skating and chess.
Lets try to get our children go back to traditional games. You would be really glad to know that tour Indian Traditional games have a lot of brain development characteristics than the new world games.
Special Dish Fridays
Dedicate Fridays to cook special dishes involving children in the whole process of preparation. Children for sure love to help us out in the kitchen, when you give them proper training they would eventually help themselves when they grow up.
You could bake cookies and cakes; prepare sweet dishes and simple desserts.
This would be a good idea if you are planning to send your children abroad. Try some no stove recipes that will help children
Outdoor Saturdays
Saturdays would be picnic days. Take your children to nearby places, taking some food that you prepared on Fridays and some story book. Choose a quite place and settle down.
Read for your children and tell them stories. Carry along their painting kits and let them paint the scenery there. Playing football or some other such game would also be great.
Although we spend a lot of time at home spending time in the right way is what makes the difference.
So, are you ready for a right approach to spending time. Tell us what other ways you would want to spend time with y our children this summer
