It would be more apt if you hear from the children about the experiences they had. Here you go.

Milking Cow:
"It felt like jelly" – Layaa
"the thingy was like rubber" – Aarjith
"It was more like kneading slime" – Johanna
"I was so shy and afraid. I didn't milk however saw some of my friends milking" – Ajitesh

Waste segregation and Vermicompost:
"Enjoyed the waste segregation the most but didn't like touching the cow dung at all." – Aarjith
"I took the compost part which had earthworms and used for planting" – Sricharan
" I was so thrilled to do vermicomposting though he was not comfortable handling waste segregation and cow dung" – Pranav A

Handling Goats:
"Enjoyed handling goats – I really liked it because the goat I took was very fluffy, friendly and also hungry. It ate the whole branch in 2 minutes" – Bhargav
"I loved it soooooooo much. The adult goat ran away from me and my partner. ! thought it was kinda hard bathing the adult one, but the small goats were way harder but still, I loved lifting the small goat up in my hands with Sushma and Krithika aunty" – Johanna

Cleaning the cattle Shed:
"A wonderful and messy experience" – Bhargav
"It was so good I loved it I also cleaned cow dung there" – Ajitesh
"it was great but a little bit stinky" – Rishi

Working on fields in Hot sun:
" I still remember how hot that was. It was just a session for us but it is what the farmers do every day. This increases the respect on them" – Jesina
"I used my slippers to protect myself from the hot sun and in just a little bit of time the uncle let me do those work… he kicked me out ugh" – Johanna
" I liked the hot sun" – Sri Charan

Pump Set Bath:
"I loved the pump bath and the most fun part is Sahana and I had extra time at the bath he he.." – Johanna
"I loved bathing in the pump set" – Sricharan
"Best part – Pump set bath" – Aarjith
"I loved the bath in the field splashing water but my leg got stuck in the wet soil" – Ajitesh

Otherwise:
"Food was tasty. I ate more chappatis(8). I played torchlight fight with friends. I didn't have a secret code in the game (god, villager, doctor, police, mafia and wizard), but my friends always thought that I was the mafia…" – Sricharan
"The food was very tasty but the part I really liked was the time when Samridh, Pranav and I found a secret code written in invisible ink. The treasure was a new fountain pen which Pranav took. The trip was very nice. I wish we could go again." – Bhargav
"It was very fun playing mafia and all other games. The most fun was sleeping; We told each other some scary stories and we switched on our torchlight and put it up in the ceiling and tried to catch other's torchlight" – Layaa
"At night Sricharan, Logith and I woke up at 3 AM and we started chatting" – Aarjith
"The watermelon hunt was pretty good, but I had a lot of silly things like those dry weeds sticking to my pants. It was soooooooo itchy. I hate that one alone" – Johanna
"I loved the rice and sambar. I loved the lock and key catch and catch I was so tired during bedtime after a long day but I played a lot during the afternoon" – Ajitesh
"I was drawing when everyone playing mafia. And I took my torch and I was playing puppet show" – Rishi
"I was really excited had a lot of fun, waiting for the next trip with my friends and aunties." – Logith

Secrets:
Samridh claims he loved the trip the best for spending time with his friends. " It was… …sooooooooooooooooo cooooooooooooool. the happy thing I did is skipping the story session and playing detective games (which aunties are not supposed to know )also shadow games(only Pranav, Bhargav, Prakrithi, Johanna and I) and you do not tell others!!!!"
(Ok, we will pretend that we didn't read this part Samridh!)

"I loved doing secret codes with the boys and when all the were in Uma Aunty's story session, Prakrithi, Pranav, Samridh and I played mysterious game with codes and investigation. Then Prakrithi, Sahana, Layaa, Jesina and I got to the bed, we waited for Uma Aunty to fall asleep. Then we took our torches and played ghost game he.. he… and there must be a lot more things that aunties dint know about our secrets he,,, he.." – Johanna

Oh my God! So many things that we were not aware of, that these children have tried. Our children and we are completely yarning for our next farm trip.

There is a Montessori approach to every path we take, provided we go back to the CHILD with a question in mind, "What does this child need?". We decided to stay not just with the word but with the spirit of Montessori.

As Dr. Montessori advocates Education to aid life in the service of the child, it is not always about classrooms and schools, even though that's where we tend to practice it. Now with our life so much contained within our house, we are thinking about avenues to help the child with the needs of his life right now. We strongly believe that our children need a lot of inspirational moments to keep their love for learning active. We always believe learning is not all about writing alphabets and numbers.

Primary Age Group (2.6 to 6 years)
Need of the Child:
i. To explore their current environment sensorially and become aware of the world around them.
ii. To socialize – develop their language skills to communicate to the world around them (Not just learning the alphabets)
iii. To exercise their muscles- Both intricate fine movements and large gross movements.

Scope:
Engaging children online and expecting them to focus on what is being delivered is not an expectation that can be had at these age groups. We see this as an opportunity to think beyond Montessori materials sticking more closely to the Montessori philosophies and explore more in their home environment. As an AID to life, Montessori education will continue every single day in their environment. We know – The powers in this child – Sensitive period for sensorial learning and Absorbent mind.

Execution:
i. A lot of activities are possible with the materials available at home to meet the above needs of the child. We share a set of tasks for the parents for which the child may be interested in as well ready. Parents support us by getting the materials organized for the child and also inspiring the child towards the tasks.

ii. We send short AVs daily with songs/ book reading/ Stories/ Language games in all three languages. This helps children with their language needs. As they see only their aunties in the AVs it will be easy to withdraw from the screen time once the school resumes normal functioning.

iii. We get in touch with the parents to help them observe the child at work as well we take their observations later.

iv. We do not believe in replicating Montessori Materials at home or initiating worksheets for this age group. A lot of suggested activities will be to meet the movements and sensorial needs of the children. We should remember that Dr. Montessori has designed all these materials for the prepared environment only taking inspiration from what she observed from children in a regular environment. Sound boxes are inspired by looking at children keen on observing an object making different sounds on different surfaces. Daily activities like pouring liquid from a jug meet their need for controlled movement as well feed their mathematical mind.

vi. Children who are already in the writing and reading stage will have few activities to encourage them towards exercising what they have already learned. For other children who are on their path to it, we request parents not to stress yourself thinking about that now. There is a lot more for them to explore during this time which will help them in their focus, concentration, and learning capabilities.

Elementary Age Group (6 to 12 years)
Need of the Child:
i. To explore their current environment i.e. their home through their reasoning mind.
ii. To socialize – Not just limited to talking with people but also think of the society around them and relate to it. Being in touch with their peers is an urge for this group.
iii. To exercise their creativity both in writing and art form.

Scope:
As an AID to life, Montessori education will continue every single day in their environment. We know – The powers in this child – They are the explorers. Their reasoning mind makes them explore everything that they come across with curiosity. Their imagination needs a lot of feeding to aid their learning. They are the real Social being. We see this as an opportunity to think beyond Montessori materials sticking more closely to the Montessori philosophies and explore more in their home environment.

Execution:
i. A lot of activities are possible with the materials available at home to meet the above needs of the child. We would like to introduce our children systematically to the science behind every small thing, they come across in their home environment. This feeds their reasoning mind and becomes more aware of the current environment. This will also get them ready for a journey of curiosity that drives learning. We see this as a big opportunity currently to give more meaningful learning.

ii. Children will continue to have their group lessons on culture in Montessori Way. We will share the resources required with the child and give them directions for their follow-ups.

iii. Children's interest in ART and Geometry will also be met with regular group presentations.

iv. Children will be given small worksheets for the concepts that they already know in Arithmetic and language. We expect this remote working period will help us guide them to move more towards abstraction. We will continue to introduce new concepts in this area once we resume working at school.

We are happy to see the children, parents, and the team happy on this current journey. We strongly believe that this remote learning phase will soon end, and we will have our children back at school. All the help that we provide now with this self-directed remote learning will help us receive the child with the ticking interest to explore their environment further and settle well. We are sure we will be proud of the path we have traveled after reaching the other side of the pandemic.

But we know many grandparents, parents, uncles or aunts are being a Montessorian, without doing any course. Certainly, Montessori Course allows a person to specialize in this area and centralize the thoughts around the child. But that Montessori sense is within all of us, who thinks for the child's development.

Almost all parents have a dream of how they want their child to be in the future. Naturally, this very thought itself is the first step towards optimizing the child's growth. No one else can think so much about your child other than you as parents. In a way, you are the first and the best teacher for your child.

In this process, we always wish to fill the child's life only with happy experiences and memories. That's the natural tendency of a parent because we don't wish to see the child struggling or disturbed. Sometimes with this point of interest, we tend to go wrong. We go a little overboard on this thought and do many things for the child without giving enough experience for the child, at an early age, which hinders the child's natural path of development. All our love showered on the child becomes a little overdose unknowingly. We love our children more than anyone in this world! Isn't it? To understand this limit or draw a line for our love, we have to know what experience is. What does it mean as an experience for such a young child?

The word "Experience" is something related to middle age person, an experienced adult, a person who has experience in a field for a long time. After serving in a field for a long time a person gets that tag. But how does it relate to young children? The whole early years of life or to be more specific every action or movement of the child is an experience for the child. Every activity the child does is adding up to the child's experience.

Here is an example. A child is trying to drink water from a tumbler for the first time. This first experience is just a feeling. The child can't acquire the skill of drinking water at that very first time. The child may spill water, wet the dress, drop the tumbler down, throw out the water, many such incidents can happen. If the adult is disturbed about seeing the child struggling to drink water, then the child may not learn how to use a tumbler to drink water as the water would be given to the child by any other means. Only when the child gets the opportunity to drink water in tumbler many times it adds up to the experience. Such repetitive experience helps the child to acquire the skill. After a while, it becomes the child's mastered skill. Now it is an effortless task for the child because the child is confident after acquiring it. Now, isn't this learning important for life? This is education for life.

There are many such activities which can be given as examples of life skills for young children. Greeting the person coming home, eating the food using hands, combing the hair, tying a towel after a bath, cleaning themselves after using the washroom or also opening and closing a book. All such activities are real-life experiences at a young age which adds up to the child's knowledge and cultural values. Though academic education is equally important for every child, real-life experiences are those which help others to identify the grown-up adult as a person, and also as a member of the community.

Therefore it is very important to allow each child to experience his life to the best and not to hinder the natural path of development. All such experiences can be made as memorable moments if we know to optimize it.

As a family, each person's help or work with the child will allow the child to feel the experience. Everyone has to prepare the child for any new experience. Preparation can't be done at the last minute or just before the activity. Even as adults we don't like such surprises! We wish to be informed much earlier and get prepared for the new activity. Then why do we forget to inform the child alone? Maybe because we feel they are too young for it! But more than adults they have to be informed much earlier.

We have to sit and talk to the child, not by explaining the plan of action. We have to talk to the child to give a sense of security and develop faith in us to be with us for the new activity. The child has to gain confidence in the adult that, he feels valued and respected for every reaction he shows out. These two are the keywords "I am valued and respected" – that we indirectly pass onto the child to make the child stay relaxed and calm.

Only then we can expect the child to participate in the new activity. The child really can't work along with us as a passive member. Active participation of the child is very important to transfer our knowledge or values to the child. If the child is much older, we can also set a few expectations towards the new activity which makes the child contribute better in the work.

If we work more collaboratively along with the child, then he/she becomes aware of the environment around. The child slowly understands the routine and the mode of communication. Through this process, the child's self-esteem and self-confidence are built up strong and much prepared to face the future. The child would take this learning and it doesn't stop there. They pass it on to the generation following them and thus society is evolved. Their experiences become a lesson for others too. This is how in the olden days the tradition, values, and culture were passed on for generations.

Sometimes its more important for us to stay away and watch the child attempting or struggling to do an activity. It's tough for an adult to watch and not interfere, but once we practice doing that, then more than the child is given time to learn, it is you who has won for the day. Because you as parents have taken the best lesson to observe things from a distance.

The most important and fundamental aspect to be kept in mind is that adults have to keep the home environment alive and not make it a classroom. There should be a routine and discipline which allows everyone in the family to work collaboratively and lead a harmonious life with faith and confidence in each other. Then eventually there is a much better opportunity for the child to grow with an optimized experience for life. You are now certainly a Montessorian!

I am sure somedays we feel so tired of this excess freedom. Are we all not looking forward to how things were a few months back? Why so? As much we all crave for freedom, we have a dire need for structure too. And more than adults, children enjoy having a little structure in the day more than a free day!

With no structure, life is chaos! And with too much structure, there is no creativity! And hence children naturally look forward to a balanced environment where there is a structure as well they have a bit of freedom too. And this what is the magic happening in the Montessori environment.

At Montessori Environment
As you a Montessori Environment, you will surely observe a neatly arranged sequence of activities so invitingly kept for the children. Children will find everything that they may need in a day, kept in a ready to use way. Also, you can notice well ventilated quiet corners for reading/writing created. We, Montessori teachers, go out of our way to make their classrooms feel like home. The reason we do it is simple, yet profound: "When children are in a comfortable and familiar place, they feel safe. And when they feel safe, their brains are relaxed and ready to learn."

Coming back to the topic, let's see the aspect of freedom and structure exercised in the Montessori Environment.

Freedom
1. I decide whether to work or not
2. I decide my place of work
3. I decide my work
4. I decide how long I can work
5. I decide to rest if I feel tired
6. I decide to talk to my friends or aunts
7. I decide to walk around the class just watching others
8. I decide to just be myself

Structure
1. I work with only any of activities that are shown to me
2. I can work only inside the environment and cannot walk outside
3. I can work only with the activities shown to me
4. If I choose an activity, I got to work with it atleast once
5. I can rest if needed in a corner of the room not disturbing others
6. I can talk to my friends or aunties without disturbing their work
7. I walk around the mat
8. I can be just Myself!

At Home
While we, Montessori teachers, strive to make the environment more like home for the child to feel safe, it is equally possible to take Montessori to your home with just a few changes. Again, defining freedom and structure for the child helps in making it quite possible and simple.

Freedom
1. I decide to wake up for the day
2. I decide to do my daily chores on my own
3. I decide to eat my food on my own
4. I decide to play/work/read
5. I decide to watch TV
6. I decide to talk to my friends or extended family over the phone
7. I decide to go to bed
8. I decide to just be myself

Structure
1. I wake up any time before x AM and roll my bed.
2. I can do my chores without wasting water. Also, I should remember to clean the place.
3. I can eat sitting at the dining place (no screens while eating)
4. I can play/work/read and remember to put back the stuff I used
5. I can watch TV along with any adult.
6. I can talk to my friends or extended families during the time of the day when they will be free
7. I can go to bed at my time but all I can do is only silent reading till I feel sleepy. (No screens definitely)
8. I can be just Myself!

Children above 4 years will be quite independent in many of the said tasks. For little younger children, we can quietly be behind them and withdraw as they are quite managing it.

More importantly, we should remember that all this freedom and structure applies to everyone in the family. Children learn a lot from seeing our behaviour than listening to our lecturing!

In a proper Montessori school, children learn concepts by working with materials. They work, rework, explore, explode and then move to abstract working. In this process, children are never corrected with their work. For eg: If a child records 2+5=6, he will never be corrected at that time. Instead, the adult will observe that the child needs more help and will re-present the work, where he will learn 2+5=7 without knowing that he was wrong earlier. Learning is always in positive way in a Montessori class. So along with learning the concepts, children blossom into a very strong confident individual. His love for learning is continuously fuelled everywhere in a Montessori Environment.

So, it is not a practice to give homework in Montessori Primary Classroom:
• As children are still working with materials, that are not available at home
• As children need a positive way of learning where they are not corrected for their mistakes at their work.
• Montessori doesn't believe in using work sheets and work books that calls for a repetitive work with less intellectual involvement from the child

Most parents feel homework will help a child get engaged at home for sometimes. Though it is not a right way to look at it, I personally encourage my parents to do some homework daily:
• Involve them in all house chores possible – vegetable sorting, folding clothes, dusting the house etc.
• Read books to them – Love for reading is the best gift you can give your child for life. And that work starts right now. Please enjoy reading as a fun habit like we may feed the pigeons, baking a cake or Sunday morning gardening.
• Planning for a day out as a family. Involve them in your planning and see how responsible and helpful they are for you. There is lot to talk and share with them in every such planning that helps them a lot than writing "A, A, A, A,…."

Some Montessori Schools starts giving little homework for Elementary Classroom. This homework is not given to engage the child back at home. They are not given to include the parents in what their child learns. Often we hear that children finish these works without even the parents knowing that they have homework. This homework:
• At First place, sow the sense of responsibility to the child
• Give a chance for the child to explore more on what he has learnt at school
• Encourage the child to relate to the concepts outside the classroom
• Should make him move slowly towards abstract learning
• Should give him more opportunities to read and write on self-motivation.
• Should fuel the minds for curiosity and create the thirst for knowledge. The homework will be like collecting leaves of different laminas they learnt in botany cabinet rather than copy drawing those laminas from the book. Finding the area of their living room rather than doing 10 addition problems on homework note.

It is myth that people say Montessori doesn't have Tests. I feel children undergo tests every day in a good Montessori Environment. Let me explain you this. Children will be introduced Scripts individually by tracing. He has to remember the sound of the letter, the way it is traced and also tries to come up with words beginning in that sound. He will be practicing this for his own development without realising that the adult is observing him from a distance. Only if he succeeds in his attempt to remember and recollect what he has been shown, he will be introduced with the next activity. Don't you feel this is a test which every child undergoes in the classroom every day? Children are constantly observed and taken to the next challenging activity only if they exhibit expertise in what they have learnt. But children undergoes these test with lot of fun and happiness (No butterflies here in the tummy!)

I'm sure there is another big question in every parent's mind. Will Montessori prepare my child to this competitive world? Let me answer you this. "There is no competition in Montessori Classroom" is also a Myth. Definitely Montessori sows the seed of competition at very young age. Yes. I can loudly say this hard fact. Competition is not with his friends in the classroom. Competition is within himself. "Where I was yesterday, where I'm today" is the inner voice of every child in Montessori. In a mixed age group, often children get so fascinated with the work chosen by their peers. But you can hear them clearly communicating among themselves. " Aunty will show me that work after I finish all this work". They feel responsible and so get self-motivated to learn to move ahead in their learning. What a lovely environment for a child to blossom!

Montessori supports homework, tests and competition in its own Style!

Here are the ways and means to help you give this best gift to your child.

Starting Early:
At just few months of age when the child can sit upright, an infant can look into the picture, listen to your voice and associate the mapping. Initially, when you start reading to the child, the child may cooperate for less time, may be 2 to 3 mins. But when we do the same activity of reading books everyday at a particular point of the day, the child will slowly get hooked to the books and starts looking forward for the reading time. Slowly this 2 or 3 mins can increase to even 15 to 30 mins. As they are in the sensitive period for language learning, they get hooked to the human voice and picks up the words we use while reading the books so easily and associate it to the pictures or objects they have seen.

Consistency:
As a parent we have so many important activities in a day to take care of the child. But it is equally important to include reading time in that. Scheduling time for reading with your child will bring in that order in the child as well your routine. Once the order is set in the child, they will be bringing you the book and demand you to read aloud for them. Please understand that this child is having the hunger for language now and as parents we must feed them on time.

How to read:

1. Infants: This child is hungry for sounds. So read anything to them in a very slow pace. Try to choose a book with one picture in a page. You can show that picture and read what is printed as well keep talking about the picture on details what a child can relate to. This child is ready to pick up only nouns at this stage. So be specific and clear in the nouns you use. For eg: If a Dog picture is printed on the page, Please refer it as "Dog" instead of using baby language like " Bow Bow" or "Tho Tho".

2. Toddlers: This child is now comfortably moving. To make a toddler sit in a place, one of the easiest magic wands is "Reading". This child now has words(nouns). He is also looking for more details about things he already knows. You can choose picture books or even short stories. You can either read the printed text or give your own narration on the story/picture. But it is important we stick to a language. Translation during reading is not required. The child can absorb the language you offer as it is. It is important you frame sentences as you flip the book. Eg: "This is an apple", "This is a banana" etc. instead of just saying "Apple", "Banana" etc. So, give the language beautifully using the help of the books. He may demand you to read a particular book over and again that might be a little boring activity for you. But remember he is the child who climbs up and down the stairs tirelessly as he started walking. So, repetition is very important at this age to quench their thirst for their development. Don't worry about introducing variety of books to your child, if he is interested only in selected books. He is still enjoying reading.

3. Threes and Fours: The child can comfortably talk framing sentences now. He is interested in books for more stories. His reproductive imagination is at play now. If you read about a white cat climbing into the hall through the window, the child can imagine this scene in his mind even if the picture is not printed in the book. So, it is important we read slowly for this child to follow on every detail of your reading. Please avoid questioning the child in the middle about their understanding of the story. After finishing the book, leave the child dwell in the story for a while. Children may not ask any question or discuss about the story immediately. Sometimes, children will come back to you after couple of days, with the discussion on the story when you least expect it.

4. Five to Seven: Most of the children explode into independent reading at this age. As parents, we will be interested in reading the book for the child with an intension to help their reading. Please move your finger slowly under the word you are reading making sure the child gets the sight of the word read. Continue to read out loud not expecting them to participate in reading. More reading will aid them in their sight words. But they may not be comfortable to read until they are really ready for it. It is important for us to continue with their interest towards reading books than helping them in self reading.

5. At any age beyond 7 years, if the child request you to read out loud for them, don't push them back asking them to read by themselves. Just be with them to quench their thirst for reading. You can introduce informative books to the child along with story books. A book is a gift you can open again and again. So, encourage your child to choose books for gifting his friends. Also, you find opportunities to gift books to your child. A regular trip to library and encouraging them to borrow books is the next milestone. Having set this preparation with your child, you have introduced your child into the world of books in a guided way. Am sure this child is now all set to immerse himself in any book he comes across.

Happy Reading!!

When we question, "What did you do at school?", the child might share "Nothing" or the same activity everyday. As a parent we really are so curious to know what's happening to my 3 year old.

"I sprinkled 3 seeds in a fertile soil with some distance between each. I also ensured that the place has enough sunlight. I sprinkled enough water every day. Suddenly one day, a seed started sprouting. The little green leaf is so lovely to watch. I continue to take care of that sprout as well the two seeds in the same way. At the same time, I was so curious to know what's happening with the other seeds. Not able to control my anxiety, I tried digging the place to see what's happening with the second seed. Immediately I had my friend stopping me from harming the seed's growth. But I was too late. In a couple of days, the third seed started sprouting. I waited for few more days to realise that my second seed was never going to sprout "

Every seed has the potential to sprout out, but it is hard to precisely observe and quantify the work of the seed. Similarly, every child has the potential to learn everything from their environment. They learn by socializing, working, listening or observing. Some children exhibit their growth much earlier while some children stay in their cocoon for a while before flying high.

In a Montessori classroom, on somedays, the child will work alone with so much focus undisturbed. On somedays, he will be brimming with the need to socialize and hence go around the class talking with everyone. On somedays, he will be very calm, sitting alongside his friend and observe his work for a long time. To us, the child has worked hard for his development on all the days. But it is impossible to quantify his work.

Observation has been the hall mark of the montessori method. Montessori directress rely on their power of observation daily to understand the intellectual needs of the child, to be sensitive to their unspoken emotional needs, to address to an impending crisis the child may go through. The tools of observation are their eyes, perceptiveness and the interpretive skills.

Though we highly rely on such observation power of the directresses in the environment, sometimes it becomes difficult to communicate these observations in words to this "Quantify Everything" world. Understanding the parent's anxiety on one side, and the child's natural growth on other side, it is always recommended, the parent meet the directress handling your child to know more about your child. Also, the parent practicing to share their daily activities with the child, with encourage the child to share things he did. What a happy day it would be to hear from the child on how their day was at school!

Parents, who really wanted to give the best to their child in every aspect, take this screen time exposure a little casual. There is certainly a knowing and doing gap here. Everyone base their experiences to arrive at their judgements. If you have witnessed any negative results in your child who had been exposed to excessive screen time, then you might understand that technology is not a good fit for your child. On the other hand, if you had a positive or neutral effect, then you might probably conclude that technology isn't that harmful for the childhood. Let's try dwelling a bit more on these thoughts.

1. Parent's claim: "Children learn a lot from the screen time. Especially they learn many words. My child picked up language so easily"
Our observations: Children learn from what they see in their environment. From Infant stage, children observe the lip movements carefully. They feel our jaws when we go close to them while talking. A child who can sit, roll their eyes and keenly watch the conversations that happens at home. This is the natural way a child picks up the language. These days children mostly keep listening to one-way conversations either the parents on phone or from their passive companion (the screen) talking to them one way. This impacts the language development in the child. We see many children beautifully talk to us but run away without listening to a reply from us.(Non interactive mode). Certainly, these children have not seen people converse much. They have picked up language mostly from seeing one-way communications. We all will definitely agree that this is not as healthy for the child as they child naturally learn language.

2. Parent's Concern "There are times when my child cannot be patient and quiet. To stop the tantrum, letting him watch something on the screen is the only way out. This gives me my time to work on everything else"
Our Observations: We have had many children crying their heart out during their settling time. Only way to calm them or getting little settled is to get their hands busy. It works quite differently for each child, but we have seen every single child settle well. Work to their hands typically will be age appropriate meaningful activity. A child who is settled by working with hands in the environment will never be seen crying anytime later. When we yield to child's cry by letting them get hooked to gadget, it sets as an order in the child. So, the child starts to demand the same with a huge cry. A child who is settled by giving access to gadget will repeat the same tantrum frequently. Our children will not learn to calm themselves or entertain them if we fill their unhappy, angry or boring moments with screen time.

3. Parent's concern "My child is a poor eater. Only way to feed him is to engage him on a gadget. It is important the child don't starve. Isn't it? So, I give only 15 mins screen time just to feed him."
Our Observations: Yes. It is important that the child is healthy physically. But at the same time, it is important the child is also healthy emotionally and mentally. For a child who is just 2 years now, if you take away the gadget after he is done with eating, he might get distracted into something else. But this same child as he grows into his 3s and 4s, he will demand for the screen time always. We have seen the same mom complaint of the child for demanding screen time always. We suggest read books or tell stories to engage your little ones to eat. Also, eating is an important activity. The child should connect with what he eats. So always the healthy practice is to have family dinner time. Involving the child helping you in washing vegetables while cooking or helping you in setting up the dining place will actually encourage the child focus more on the food he eats.

TIPS and Recommendations:
1. It is important the child eats their food knowing what they are eating. As a family rule, please avoid watching television or any form of gadgets while having food. Beware! We are the models for our children.
2. Restricting the screen time gradually will be an effective solution. A maximum of 15 mins screen time is advisable, if required. Even during that time, it is important we sit with our children while they are watching the screen and keep conversing to make it an active companion time.
3. Lengthy advices or reasoning may not appeal to this child who is < 5 years of age. Please give more work for their hands by involving them in household chores that they get diverted positively.
4. Yielding to the child's cry will not help us anyway. Being firm on our words will actually send a right message to the child. The child will eventually get into the groove. Having said all this, I understand it is not an easy task in front of you. For the hidden damages it might make, it is high time we take up this challenging task. "Hand is a tool of mind" – Engage those little hands in meaningful activities. Happy parenting with lots of laughs and love. Hands at work

We have been having lot of charts to mark the different development milestones of the child and also to get them into therapy if there are deviations. As a person who strongly believe not tagging the child, it left me dwell with many thoughts on the reason behind the increase in such children being tagged with various needs.

1. Shouldn't there be a screening for the couple getting into family way? (which is more important to fix the cause of the problem)
To say a few,
a. Non-Consanguineous marriage.
b. Both the parents less than 30 years (for the fertilized egg to be really healthy).
c. One of the parents be ready to spend the first 1000 days of the child in helping him meet all his physical and psychical needs. (this is really very important)

2. Anything the nature had been taking care in the earlier days, are fought against now with all our developed neonatal care(artificially nurtured environment).
Undeniably this advancement in neonatal is helping the humanity by increasing the mortal rates. And at the same time, that also leaves us with a different challenge of helping these differently skilled children.

3. Advancement in social media has become a big distraction not only to the adults but also the children who are completely left at the mercy of tabs/mobiles/ televisions. While the touch screens help the little finger comfortably navigate, the google suggestions makes them completely hooked to their screen time independently for long hours. This ultimately becomes their passive companion and prune their psychical growth.

While early screening of child's developmental delays is a challenging task, what do they do post screening? Children are recommended for various therapies.

Sensory Integration Play: Though all these terms may be new, these are nothing but giving lot of experiences through their senses, like playing in water, sand, grains etc. The way we all were allowed in our childhood to freely play in the courtyard, crawling behind the ants, doodling our hands in the rice sack etc is what the child needs now.

Speech/ Language Therapy: Help the child by talking at close quarters in the way/ topic the child may like. All this looks so much like how the normal lifestyle of our childhood in a joint family where one of the adults would be always conversing with the child. Isn't it?

This is really a challenging situation in front of us.

Some of the natural cause can be avoided by proper planning of the couple getting into family way. Nurtured cause of this situation can also be contained to an extent by the healthy family values. But inspite of parents being so sensible enough, if they get into such situation, they have to loudly pat themselves saying that "God has sent this special child to me just because he trust me that I'll take good care of this God's special child"

But the same children as they got into their elementary are ready for any challenge. They look forward for all new avenues to explore and we have been having children perform play or dancing or singing in elementary for last 2 years. But this year is something new and very special. A learning way for us as well our children.

As the Christmas season started (Dec 2018), we recollected the play children displayed in the previous year. We considered giving them a good story for the play for this year. It all started with a small thought. We arrived at a story after thoughtful considerations. We took it to the children and narrated the story as it is. Children were thrilled the moment they were told of the option of putting it as play. We narrated the story again and this time it helped children make up their minds about their choice of role. And there started a new journey for us. Children nominated themselves for their choice of role. When we have many children opting for the same role, we suggested having an audition. After having clear idea of what it means, children jumped into serious preparation towards it. They had 2 days with the dialogues to appear for audition. It was a delight to see our children in each corner of the class enacting their role to themselves during their practice time. We were little concerned about how to handle the situation as we have to choose the actors for every role. But to our surprise all the children self-judged and were easily taking up the roles that they got after the audition. We felt the positive competitive spirit in every child and their sportive nature to handle the situation.

Having crossed the first hurdle, we then wished to give them a proper experience of a production. Right from making props, back drop, arrangements, ticketing and costumes. Children got into committees and started putting in their thoughts to get the best out of their team. Am talking about my 6 to 9 years who came up with a beautiful perspective back drop, little props like rabbit tail to bird's claws, decided to have two shows for parents, they sold the tickets and settled the account in the office. Costumes discussion went into a fundamental needs lesson on dressing, while there was a long discussion about how the royal family would have dressed up in cold countries in those days.

Rehearsals went on for a week while they tested their aunties patience to their best. 😊 As they are great helpers we often mistake them to be grown-ups but ofcourse, we have to tell it to ourselves that they are still children.

On the day before the play, the entire crew got into clearing up the class room for stage arrangement. They had their final rehearsal on stage with our primary children as audience. They seem to be quite cool and we were unsure on how things are going to turn up the next day.

On the day of the play, our ticketing team very diligently stood at the gate on duty. Absolutely no tension about their dialogues they have to narrate just few mins later. (It is worth a mention as we have always seen people flipping through pages at the last minute). Infact, couple of parents missed to bring their tickets and our children were reluctant to allow them in. After they agreed to submit the tickets the next day, they were allowed. Our 8 years are so strict you see😊

As the play started, we saw everyone seamlessly playing their part to their best. No chaos, no prompting, no hesitations in any child. Narrators were looking so confident and strong with their script. Choir for the carols at its best. Special Effects on music behind the screen worth a mention here. Wow! It appeared as if they were waiting for a stage and a proper audience to bring their best. We saw few parents in tears at the end of the play is their testimonial. Our children rocked! Really proud of them.

Once the 2 shows are over, they got into clearing their classroom, cleaning the walls and putting back their materials in place. Ohh…this is like a complete contribution from them.

I now understood the courage in my elementary aunties to take up any work as they always say "We have our children. Don't worry. We will do it". They are such team players.

The play – "Pine in the Palace" was such a holistic experience for all of us I would say!