Family holiday painting programme

This is a type of family holiday where you go and paint! Rivers, tress, majestic mountains, clear blue skies and quiet locations entice you to take your paint brush in hand and put the picture on the paper. This will surely delight your kids as well. Sometimes, the final outcome does not matter as long as you enjoy the process of it!

These special painting tours are a real stress buster for people who have busy schedules, love to paint but do not get enough time. All most all types of art are covered in such programmes. Some of the common names are: Pencil and charcoal, water colour, gouache, acrylic, oil medium and mixed media as well. Some of them also include sculpture art in this. Depending on what one wants to learn, one can choose the holidays plan.

All kinds of supplies are provided: from brushes to paint tubes to pastel crayons and graphite sticks and charcoal powder, stumps, canvas, pencils etc. The cost of this is included in the total programme cost and such holidays are usually planned for five to six days!

Let your kids also taste the joy of holiday painting. Ensure that you take all the supplies that are required to paint there. Buy crayons and canvas that are especially available for kids. I am sure that your kids will love this kind of a trip. Go in large groups to have more fun as well as to learn from each other.

Your children need your presence more than your presents. - Jesse Jackson

The quote says a lot in few words. Modern and fast urbane lifestyle demands a lot from working parents. Time seems to be getting extinct.  Their children have some great companions to share their stories with - soft toys, cartoons, play stations, Barbie doll, superman, the room pillow or sometimes the pet dog…

A study shows that kids are lacking social skills to a great extent. No need to explain why. Kids are increasingly being dependent on non living things with which they are seen talking! Their social needs are being unfulfilled.

Working parents should make sure that home is where the heart is- especially for your children! There are parents who feel that their kids just do not talk. They feel that they should give some time to their kids but even after doing that their kids just do not seem to communicate with anybody. The main reason for this is that your children might fear talking to people. It is necessary that your child talks to you! Ask your child about what he does in school. Take him out and tell him about your work and what do you do in office. Tell him interesting stories.

Try and make a scrap book which contains all the favorite things that your child likes. Ask him to talk on it

Invite all your son or daughter’s friends at home and observe how he reacts with others. Does he talk or keep mum?

Visit a relative’s place and take your son or daughter. Make him feel comfortable. This will encourage him to develop some social skills.

The greatest present you can give your child is your own presence! A child want to be love and be loved in return!

Face painting for kids:

Kids love face painting.  Gone are the days when birthday parties were celebrated with ring-a-ring-a-roses and oranges-a-lemon. Today kids enjoy at parties through face painting, hair braiding, nail art, tattoos and other techno-savvy games!

However, to the contrary belief, face painting is an old art and has existed since a long time. Children are excited to put colours on their face. They feel they can become spider man, super man and he-man for a day! Girls get their face painted with colourful butterflies, flowers, balloons etc. Children also love stars and glitter on their face. Teens can get tribal designs too. Face painting is very common in birthday parties. This concept has emerged from the US.

If you are planning a birthday party for your kid and want to arrange for such services for all the children you can contact an event management company and they will take care of the rest. However if you want to arrange for face painting and hair braiding and such other fun things, you can do it by consulting individual face painting artists. However, you need to make sure that the materials that he uses are not harmful to children’s skin.

For theme based birthday parties such as the Halloween party, one can create bumpy noses or big eyebrows. Stencils are used so that the color does not smudge. One can also give a colourful face painting kit to children as a return gift who has been invited for the birthday party. However, while using this kit parent’s supervision is must!

 

Gym for your kids

The concept of ‘gym for kids’ emerged in the US when a lot of American kids were found to be over-weight due to the couch potato syndrome and other gaming and computer gadgets which got the kids addicted. This started as a concept where the ideology was that kids should have fun while they indulge themselves in some physical activity. For children from six to thirteen, these gym services are available. These gyms develop extraordinary programs that facilitate emotional, physical and cognitive learning for your child. It is not just plain exercise but dance, music, aerobics, sports that helps the child enjoy the process of nourishing his body.

Today, with stress levels continuously rising, it is necessary that children spend little time where they can have fun at the same time indulge in physical training. With new colourful gym equipments available in the market are specially designed for kids. Promoting healthy living at this very age is what will help children to grow up to be healthy human beings. Kids learn the art of balance, meditation, co-ordination, concentration and flexibility. It also helps to boost confidence and self esteem.

There are special instructors that help kids to perform various exercises. The nutritionist guides the children to eating right and eating healthy. Though this concept is new in India, there are a few gyms that are now specially designed for children. There are many children that are seen visiting a usually gym. With this concept, kids will feel motivated with the kind of environment and other children that they meet.

Is your kid a good sketch artist?

Most kids love to paint and draw and some of them have an innate ability to sketch beautifully. Identify if your kid has this talent and let him or her grow in his/her pursuit. It is magically how a few strokes of lines make such a splendid image! If we were to define a sketch, it would be called a drawing that is executed through the use of strokes and lines. A sketch is one art that can be easily acquired with practice and patience. It is the basics of visual art medium.

Well, there is no clear cut classification but broadly these are the different categories of sketching that one can think of:  Pencil Sketching, Pen Sketching, Charcoal Sketching, Sketches with brushes and paint. Your kid will require minimum tools to make a sketch. Sketching is indeed an inexpensive art and not just that it allows the creativity in you to flow like a river!  

You can let your kid start from what is called the ‘pencil sketching’. Just as the name suggests, all your kid will need to start with is paper and pencils and erasers too. However you need special pencils of varying degree but they are easily available. These pencils are called the following: HB, 2B, 4B and 6B. HB is the usual pencil that most of us use. As far as the paper is concerned, you need an A3 or an A4 size drawing book paper that is available for kid in the market!

So what are you waiting for? Give a pencil and a drawing paper to your teen and let him/her play with his/her thoughts.

Surprise birthday party for your kid!

Planning a surprise birthday for your little one is an exciting thought. However, it will require some prior preparation on your behalf.

 

Here is a list of all the things that you need to ensure before you throw a surprise party.

 

• Make an entire list of guests that you need to call. This should include all the friends and the classmates that your kid might have. Since you are giving a surprise to your kid, make sure you know his/her friends well and can contact them.
• It is a good idea to make a rough budget to know how much you will have to incur for this party. You will also be able to cut on the costs where you want to.
• If you plan to give the to a even management agency, then you will not have to worry about the management and preparation of the event. However, if you are doing things on you own, then you need to know what birthday supplies will you need and how much should be bought.
• Birthday decoration can be so much fun! Buying festoons and dangles and all of that will enthrall you as well! You can even prepare your own birthday party invitations.
• Make sure about the food and the catering. It is advisable to give this to a catering service unit so that things become easier to manage.
• One also needs to plan about the cake. Today innovative musical cakes and other types of fancy cakes are available in the market. Go to a cake shop and place the order two days in advance.
• If you plan to distribute return gifts, make sure you buy them according to the units that you will need them in and also try buying them from a wholesale market so that you can get them at an affordable price!

What should you do when your child lies?

There may be situations when a child lies. This starts either because the child has seen his or her parents lying or he may have come across situations in school or amongst his friends where he or she has lied or had to lie!

 

Most children express whatever they feel. They learn to lie only when they reach a certain age. So what should parents do when they know that their kid lies? What is most important is to find out the reason your child lied. For example if your child lied because he thought if he would tell the truth he would have been bashed by you (parents). In such a case, make sure that you explain the child he or she should not have been scolded and that he should have confronted about his actions. After you have done that, you can now explain him why he should not have done those actions in the first place.

 

Sometimes, when parents do not know till a long time that their child is lying, lying becomes like a habit. In some cases it is a behavioral disorder and tackling such cases indeed requires counseling.

 

As parents one thing that should be made sure is “practice what you preach”. If parents make a conscious effort and not lie then the kids too will follow your example. Also, do not mock at your children in front of outsiders by calling him a liar. This will not help at all and the kid may go under depression.

Humor at home

 

What is the value of humor at home? In today’s time, I will say it has tremendous value. It is now imperative to instill humor (even if that is purposive) at home. Today, kids are growing up in an environment that is full of tension and stress. Fathers have their work tension. Mothers too have their work tension along with the household chores. Children are also seen burdened with a lot of things. All these things in a daily life leave no room for humor.

 

Hence, we have to make a conscious effort to spend some time with the family and share a few joking moments together which will re-instill smiles and laughter on your faces as well as on your children’s faces!

 

This may seem unusual but if your children are teenaged, ask them to prepare a joke book and share it with the family. I am sure; all the members will have a great time. Children love to spend such light moments after a heavy day that includes school, tuition, classes etc. Try and not talk about academics immediately after your child comes home. This will further alleviate the stress in him. Just change the environment and share a few hearty laughs with your kids.

 

Today, there are a host of comedy TV programs. Watch them together with your family. You will sure have a great time. The idea is to make your home, a home where humor and happiness lives!

 

 

How important are your kid’s marks?

 

Education has become so important in today’s competitive scenario that all parents worry about their children’s grades. Most of the parents keep high expectations from their kids and expect them to come first in class! There is no doubt to it that academics is important but putting unreasonable pressure on your kid to come first in class is indeed not right!

 

Marks are not all that your child can get! There is much more to a kid than plain academics. Encourage your child if he or she is interested in a particular extra curricular activity or sport. You never know perhaps your kid may be good at cricket and wants to become a cricketer.

 

Today there are new career opportunities that have opened up. So, marks are not the only way to evaluate your child. Make sure to positively push him to do better but do not indulge in being overtly competitive demanding your child to bring more and more marks.

 

As a parent it is also important that you do not make comparisons between your child and others. This will make them feel dejected and at this young age they may feel depressed and unhappy. Hence understand your child and respect his capabilities and potentials and as a popular film says “Every child is special” which is indeed true!

Sibling Fights

 

If you have more than one child you will surely know what I mean! Sibling fights can be quite frustrating for parents: you will see them fighting, scratching, pulling, pushing and what not between your two children. This is especially the case between two daughters or two sons who have little age gap between them.

 

How can you avoid such situations and make your child understand not to fight and quarrel? What you should not do at all is scold one and leave! This will make the other child feel that you show favoritism towards the one child. For a child, this can be emotionally very disturbing. Just be neutral and try resolving the matter like an outsider through peaceful means.

 

Sometimes I have seen parents who actually give more attention to the child who is good with his or her academics than the other. In this case, the second child who may not be as good as the first one starts feeling jealous of the first one. Because of this, he or she fights with the other and when at that moment you start comparisons between the two, the child will feel unwanted and dejected. Hence, as a parent you should make conscious effort not to make comparisons between your kids.

 

Here is what you could do when siblings fight: Sit with each child separately and try to know why they fight. Try and buy identical and yet separate things for your kids. If one child is actually at fault do not scold him in front of the other, patiently explain him when he is alone Physical abuse should be absolutely avoided.