List of suggested readings for your child

In one of our previous blogs we discussed about significance of reading habits. Often we feel confused about the age appropriate books for our child and we end up buying a wrong pile of books. Hence we are sharing a list of suggested readings below for your child according to different classes. This will help you save a lot of time to find the perfect read for your child. Keep Reading! Keep Learning!

Class I

• ·        Story of my Life (NBT)
• ·        Tyltyl’s Adventure (NBT)
• ·        Ripe and Ready (NBT)
• ·        Balloons for Me (NBT)
• ·        The Scare (CBT)

Class II

• ·        Bravo Kamla (CBT
• ·        Nine Little Birds (NBT)
• ·        A House of Bamboo (NBT)
• ·        Joy (Read India)
• ·        Smile Please (Read India)

Class III

• ·        Boond ( NBT)
• ·        Something Special ( NBT)
• ·        Rescue ( NBT)
• ·        Holidays Have Come by Rabindranath Tagore (NBT)
• ·        The Three Strange Travellers by Enid Blyton

Class IV & V

• ·        The Banana Robber by Enid Blyton
• ·        The Walkaway Shoes by Enid Blyton
• ·        Matilda By Roald Dahl
• ·        James and the Giant Peach By Roald Dahl 

Class VI & VII

• ·        Stories by Rabindranath Tagore for Children
• ·        Going Solo By Roald Dahl
• ·        George’s Marvellous Medicine By Roald Dahl
• ·        Treasure Island (Abridged / Illustrated Classics)
• ·        Robinson Crouse (Abridged / Illustrated Classics)

Class VIII & IX

• ·        Life of Pi by Yann Martin
• ·        A Town Called Malgudi by R.K. Narayan
• ·        The Village by the Sea by Anita Desai
• ·        Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
• ·        The Time Machine (Abridged / Illustrated Classics)

  

  

Give them wings, but don’t decide their flight!

Parenting is not just a difficult but a responsible job. With each step taken towards the betterment of our child, underlies little insecurity about the child’s untold future. Often we hear parents saying “I want my child to become an engineer, doctor, dancer etc. In such cases parenting guidance becomes ever bothering expectations and burdens a child. Though we all talk about holistic approach towards learning;which includes curricular and co curricular activities both given equal importance.  Yet many of us still feel afraid seeing their child’s developing interest in any other co-curricular activity e.g. music, arts, dance etc. The reason is we still think that this may lose a child’s interest in academics or the child may lack in other important skills to be developed. Hence, this leads to restricting of a child’s natural talent or molding your child’s hobbies and interests according to your own interests.

An educated parent of today enrolls the child in variety of hobby classes which is commendable, but at times those classes are decided by a parent not by a child. It’s also noticed many a times that we often feel very irritated if our child frequently changes his/her interests and criticize this habit thinking the child is indecisive or good for nothing. This negative attitude stops a child in exploring his/her innate talent. In the attempt of giving best to our child, we don’t give them scope of trying something new and to make mistakes. As a parent we have to understand the fact that our task is to do our jobs sincerely without pressurizing our child.

We need to provide them exposure of variety of skills be it curricular or co-curricular and let them decide what they want to become in their lives. We need to support their disappointments and celebrate their success. We all should aim to make our child find his/her special interest rather than pursuing the approach “Jack of all but masters of none”. We can nurture them, guide them, provide them opportunities; yet we have no right in making them what we want. 

Young children are like little birds waiting to fly high.

Give them wings, but don’t decide their flight. 

Inculcating Reading Habits in Your Child

“Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body” by Joseph Addison

The current developing scenario of our Indian education system, aims to achieve holistic growth of a child. And we as a responsible parent are working and supporting our child to reach to his maximum potentials of learning. We make our child learn, help in project works, send him to his favourite hobby classes, take him outdoors to rejuvenate himself , yet in all the above mentioned things we forget to feed his/her mind. “Reading” is the most neglected component of learning and hence there are only few among us who actually lay emphasis on this. We crib upon poor writing skills of our child but forget to understand that writing is the last component of learning which comes after Reading. Our child is becoming a robot, he doesn’t read, he rote learn the concepts due to poor reading habits. Reading is the exercise to the mind; it generates curiosity, imagination, creativity, empathy and so many endless qualities in a developing child. As a parent we should follow few tips given below to inculcate reading habits in a child since the beginning of childhood:

1. Become your child’s role model:

Read in front of your child to develop his interest in books.

2. Take him to a book tour:

Take your child to a nearby book fair or any library / book store to give him the exposure to variety of colourful and beautiful books.

3. Listening is a Key:

Reading aloud to your child develop his interest in the books even when He is an infant and has not yet started speaking and reading.

4. Share bed time stories:

Go back to the roots! Remember we all enjoy our grandparent’s bed   times Stories. Take out some time and read at least one story to your child before he sleeps.

5. Create a small Reading Corner:

Use your creativity and make a small reading corner or a reading shelf at home. Fill that corner with some interesting and attractive books with colourful characters. Believe it! Your child will surely pick a book and start reading.

In the end, remember not to combine technology with reading habits especially during childhood. There are various E- book readers i.e. Kindle etc. available these days and you might think to gift it to your child. Don’t do that, as those E-readers are not as attractive as colourful books and can never turn a non-reader into a reader. You can save this idea of gifting E- reader to your child for future, but not at this tender age. Hence, Keep Reading! Keep Learning!

Parenting Vs. Over Parenting

With development of our country, the educated parents now a days are more vigilant and concerned towards their child’s mental and physical growth. Now they understand the importance of education and strive hard for making their child a competent individual in the upcoming future.A good parenting is indeed a necessary responsibility yet there is a thin line between parenting and over parenting. While loving and nurturing our children, we as parents sometimes forget our own individual lives and start taking their lives as our own. Giving our whole life to them is not the making of an ideal parent. Recently a friend of mine shared that his child who has just started with his play school, behaves in a stubborn way and can’t tolerate whenever his facilitator denies him anything. Then during the talk we have discussed that may be he is not habitual to these things at home and gets what he wants. While parenting we need to remember this fact that preparing your child to become independent is as necessary as providing them with protective environment to grow. Similarly, on the other day I was reading a psychology book in which Sigmund Freud earlier cautioned that too much parental love and affection turn their children into immature and dependent adults. Over parenting makes you a machine who is always monitoring the child, leaving no scope for doing mistakes and learn from them. Such children too often feel irritated and assessed all the time. Children with over parenting problems behave as a free bird the moment they are out of their parents’ sight. Sometimes, they even display contrary behavior at home and at school. Moreover, loving your child doesn’t mean always worrying for their well-being. Nurturing your own life will help you understand an individual’s need and helps you fulfill the communication gap between two of you. Instead of over parenting, become your child’s support system which is ready to accept their mistakes and always ready to discuss their problems. Hence, become your child’s best friend and nurture the spiritual bond between two of you.