The Power of Constructive Parenting (Part II)

Those of you who have watched the Colgate TVCs will be aware of the toys that came with the Colgate packs last month. The inside of the packs had small figurines of a royal family with a castle. I planned an interesting activity for our Little Vihaan with these toys. First, I made him learn the names of the characters and then, I let him explore them. He came up with three cute stories that amazed me of how a 2-year-old brain perceives the world around him. As a parent, I felt it was my responsibility to guide his little perceptions in the right direction and I did my part to help him bring alive his magical stories, all of which I have captured in this video below.

Here’s an outline of the story:

Once upon a time, there lived a King and a Queen in a beautiful castle.

King Queen

They had a pretty Princess.

Princess

Unfortunately, now the kingdom is in danger! The Witch has created a Dragon to destroy the kingdom by cutting trees, polluting the atmosphere and littering.

Witch

The King has called for all the Princes to combat the Dragon in three day’s time. And the one who saves the kingdom shall get married to the Princess.

Here’s our Prince, heading fast to save the kingdom from the Dragon.

Prince

And our Little Vihaan is ready to help the Prince!

Day 1

On the first day, the Dragon drives a car and destroys all the trees in the forest. And the Prince comes to save them. Vihaan is just beginning to frame sentences and he explained this as, “Car, trees, dabaal, dabaal” and “Prince trees, Prince trees” 🙂 To make him help his imaginary story come true, I took him to a nursery and made him plant an Exora in a small pot.

Day 2

On the second day, as the Prince reaches the King’s town, he sees the Dragon creating many automobiles and thus polluting the atmosphere. Prince rides a bicycle instead in order to make people change to pollution-free bicycles. Vihaan explains this as, “Car saa, car saa”. According to his language, ‘saa’ refers to anything that’s hot or letting out steam or smoke.

And he joins hands with the Prince for a bicycle ride. Everyday, I encourage him to ride his tricycle for as long as he likes to do as cycling is both healthy and environment-friendly.

Also, on the second day, under his nurture, the Exora buds are ready to bloom in the plant that he planted yesterday.

Day 3

On the third day, the Prince finally reaches the castle. But he is shocked to see that the Dragon has dirtied the castle environment by throwing garbage around the castle. Little Vihaan helps the Prince to clean the castle. This is one habit that I constantly reinforce in him; to pick even a tiny bit of paper and leave it in the trash.

Whoa! On the third day, Little Vihaan’s Exora flowers are finally there.

Thus the Prince has saved the kingdom and won the King’s admiration. The King gets the Princess married to the Prince. And our Little Vihaan showers the Prince and the Princess with the flowers from his plant.

The Prince and the Princess lived Happily ever-after!

The End

Children make parenting so interesting. I had explained him one day, during our drive, that vehicles on the road create pollution which is harmful to our health (with a coughing gesture). He asked me if his cycle lets out ‘saa’. I said cycle is the only vehicle that doesn’t cause pollution. It was a surprise to see him link that conversation in his story. And the best learning we did together out of this activity is planting a few plants. He religiously waters them everyday and keeps a track of the flowering process. Awh! It feels wonderful!

Constructive parenting is indeed powerful.

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