Their apples can be blue. Their oceans can be pink.
Their cars can sail on water. Their spiderman can go to school.
In their world, reality doesn’t matter.
Because, it is their childhood!
Because, they are children!
This year, it’s going to be about
the Things that really matter to Children!
Like most moms, I as a new mom, wanted my little son to master alphabets, numbers, animals, vehicles, maps, and this and that. On his second birthday, he could identify all the alphabets, solve the alphabet puzzle, point out and identify an alphabet picture book of words. Yeah, one of my goals was achieved. He could also pedal his tricycle by two. Yes, my next goal was done. But as I continued working on my goals one after the other, I slowly began to read him closer – his frustration when I wanted him to colour within the outlines of pictures, his unwillingness when I wanted him to climb up and come down the slide and his disinterest when I showed him how a toy car is played with, to name a few!
From there, I left my version of the goal-oriented mom. I gradually grew up to a mother who my son would need, to allow him to grow exactly the way he wants to. Today, as he is nearing six, he is still learning to write alphabets but that doesn’t worry me. In the other layers of his childhood, he has been exploring risky plays, he has been manifesting his deepest imaginations in his creations and he has been developing a curious bond with the nature around him.
As a parent, one of my constant learnings has been to come to terms to the things that matter to my children! This April, I am going to blog about the things that really matter to young children (0-7 years).
Some of it might matter to your children as well while some might only to my children. But at the end of all, I hope we, as parents, understand the things that really matter to children – your children, my children and all the children in the world! At the end of it, I hope we take added interest in their stories behind their scribblings. I hope we understand their eagerness to get wet in the mud. I hope we’ll redefine the things we value in their learning!
And I also hope to learn many new things from all of you which I haven’t figured out yet in my parenting journey. If you are reading this, please remember to join in the discussion in April. I will be posting one post a day from 1st to 30th April, Mondays to Saturdays.
List of posts in the Series
The Art of Emphasizing Art to Children
Boredom in Children: How we handle a bored Child matters!
Children’s Collectibles: How Collectibles matter to Children!
DIY: How Do-It-Yourself matters to Children?
Experience Vs. Education: What do you think matters to Children?
Family Time: What it means to Children, matters!
Gender Identity and Roles: How Children perceive being a Boy or a Girl
Humour: Seeing Humour in Children – where it belongs to!
Independent Play: Allowing Children to do their Work
Junk: The Secret Ingredient of our Little Inventors!
Knowledge: What should Children Know?
Love: What Ultimately Matters to Children!
Mess: The Mandatory Identity of a Home with Kids
Nature: Nurturing our child’s bond with Nature
Originality: Preserving your Child’s Originality against all Norms
(Grand)Parents: Shoulders to fall back for Parents and Children
Questions: Children build their first world from our Answers!
Reading Aloud: The World, Books take Children to!
Screen Time: How de we help before it matters too much to Children?
Tantrums: It’s acknowledgment not reformation that matters to children
Uncanny Intuition of your Child: Why not to Dismiss it!
Voice of Music: Creating Musically Enriched Lives for our Children
The Woods are lovely, dark & deep; Let’s put our Promises away to Sleep
Xennials’ and Millennials’ Parenting: What matters to Children of Gen Alpha?
Yelp!: Do we hear what matters to Children with Health Impairments & Disabilities?
The Zest of Childhood: Let’s keep it alive in our Children!
Related Reading
The Power of Play – Play is more than ‘Just Fun’
Identify your Child’s Types of Play
For your information, here’s what happened in the last two Aprils!
In 2017, I came up with a series of 26 posts on Motherhood Emotions. My second little one was six months then; a phase when the emotions of the just-born mom had revived in me. Every word of what I had written for the series remains a cherished bunch in my heart and on the blog. She’s two and a half now and with the first one nearing six, I am six years into motherhood now! And with every passing-by year, it feels I have even more to write on motherhood.
In 2018, I blogged a series of 26 posts on the evolution of marital relationships. Though I terribly failed to keep up the AtoZ blogging timeline, I managed to complete the series on the 31st December. The timeline part apart, writing this series was a reflective experience of its own kind. If writing can bring in life-changing contemplation, it happened to me with this series.
Good luck.
Going to write from first hand experience? That’s great.
Yes, my experience, mistakes and learning with my children and also things that I learn from others children and parents. Thank you. Please do keep visiting here often, Matheikal ji.