How To Engage Kids At Home (Tips That Work)

0:00 First step to raising mindfully engaged children is to acknowledge that you are not a superhuman. You are just another parent. What we always feel is that we tell our kids, okay, read now. Okay, read now. Instead of saying, switch off the tv, can you change your tone to saying, hey, I got out the world map puzzle. Can we do this activity together? Children always resolve to screen time when they don't find a constructive activity time.

0:30 Hello, everyone. And this is me. My name is Mansi and I'm the founder of kidstop Press. And what we're really looking at talking about today essentially is really talking about mindfully engaging the kids and really understanding children and how we can ensure that we are, you know, we are understanding, we're not overreacting. Because for all of us, this time has, has been pretty stressful. Is very stressful. I think the mistake that all of us make is also not acknowledge that, yes, this time is exhausting.

1:04 Yes, this time is, is difficult. And I'm no superhuman. I am just another parent like anybody else. So I, I would definitely like to say that first step to raising mindfully engaged children is to acknowledge that, that you are not a superhuman. You are just another parent. So that is, that is step number one. So when we're talking about mindfully engaging children, second is how as parents, we can save time to ensure that we are doing more with them and spending less time researching.

1:40 Because I don't know if that happens with you guys that I am so engrossed in just researching everything. And by the time I spend 80% of my time researching and only about 20% of my time doing, and when I'm in that doing phase with, with my child, I am so exhausted that it kind of saps me out. And I'm like, you know, chuck it. I'm like, done. Or I get angry. And what also happens is that our expectations of what we see as our resource pool, whether it's on Instagram or it's on Pinterest or any of that, those expectation levels are so much higher that we just feel that when we actually do it and if it doesn't turn out like that, like sometimes what we might see on our inspiration board on Pinterest or Instagram or any of that is, you know, this child doing it and the child getting it.

2:22 And then when we actually sit to do it, maybe it was an age appropriate for our child, right? So there are multiple barriers that come so right from spending a lot of time on research to not finding age appropriate activities. There can be multiple, you know, multiple Milestones that might happen in your journey and it might become very, very difficult and frustrating at some point in time. Also, more often than not, I always feel that parents, you know, children have something to show to their kids.

2:49 And you know, you know, kids have something to show to their parents and the parents will be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, just hold on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just hold on. All it requires is even if you're just like, right, right, just right. Like me in the midst of this life and my daughter is like coming behind to show me this amazing painting that she's made. I literally, you know, like slyly just put my thumb out and.

3:13 Which I must share with you guys, which is just painted. Is this right? And this is what she's done for Earth Day. Okay. And this is, this is really. Now you're holding it. Okay. So it's basically like this. Okay, this is like this. Anyway, so what I was trying to say is acknowledge that moment, right? I could have said, okay, go away, I'm in that life. Go away, I'm in that life. But I just, like I said, I slightly did this.

3:43 So. So she felt acknowledged. So that is very, very important, I would say. Next up is, we're also going to talk about reading and how to raise readers. Now my daughters are 11 and 7 and I've had great reading success with them. And it again depends on what you define by success, right? So for me, reading success meant not to say that over summer my kids have finished 500 books. That's really not my goal of success for to raise readers because both my husband and me love reading.

4:14 And what we've realized, we want them to enjoy the process of reading. We want them to ask the right questions after they're reading. We want them to pick up and be exposed to genres they've never, you know, like, which are not like very typical, right? Like you don't expect like currently my 7 year old is reading all about mythology and she's just going nuts. Like literally to the point that she's read three different authors and three different versions of the Mahabharata.

4:43 She's read Devdut's the Boys who Fought. Then she's also read the Amarchitra Katha version of it, which is a comic version of it. And she's also read Samita Arni's book. Now you know, a simple insight that I experienced as a parent and I want to know if you guys have faced this too. We send our kids to class, we don't know what has happened. There's absolutely no follow up. Let me know if you feel that. Right, so that is, that is one question I want your response to.

5:09 The other one I want to know your response to is, do you feel like your kids end up reading the same books or your book collection is defined by, okay, these are the best sellers. This is what New York Times has recommended. This is what, you know, this is what Goodreads or Barnes and Nobles or any of these guys have recommended. Let me go with this. Do you pick books basis that. Why do we stick to, stick to only international authors for our children.

5:39 Why don't we explore Indian authors? Our kids are not growing up in Toadstool, you know, in the woods in Toadstool, Mushrooms and, and a little picnic under the tree. I mean all of that is great, but India also has a great offering of some amazing fiction work. Amazing illustrators, amazing artists, amazing authors, amazing real life stories. Right? So why are we not exposing our children to that? Third is what we always feel is that we tell our kids, okay, read now.

6:10 Okay, read now. Instead of saying, switch off the tv, can you change your tone to saying, hey, you know what? I found this great activity. Let's do it together. Hey, I got out the world map puzzle. Can we get, can we do this activity together? Children always resolve to screen time when they don't find a constructive activity time. And I'm not saying that you have to always keep them engaged and you have to always find them.

6:35 You need to always have them stimulated. That's definitely not on my agenda. That always give them some sort of stimulus and let them figure out stuff, of course on their own as well, by being bored. I'm all for boredom, but very, very important to understand what the child's mind is as well. Right? And what is it that we can talk about, you know, in terms of understanding, understanding what the kids really, really want. So when we're talking of reading, let's, let's ensure that we are not wasting time in finding the best books, but heading over to Summer Fun Factory on Kidstop Press.

7:11 Okay? I have age wise selection, I have genre wise selection. Then those the right questions to ask are also there after my child has finished reading book. And then also say that there is an imagination bank where actually, which actually lets me as a parent understand whether my child has understood what the activity is, what the book is to have those right conversations. What if the child got an opportunity to be the author? How would things be different?

7:37 Like all of that is all possible if we just, if we just stop researching 200 things and start doing one thing right. So that is my insight into. Into reading. Also. When we, when we pick books, we always like I said, either we pick the same genre, we pick books that have been recommended only by friends. I'm saying that is absolutely okay. Those are not wrongs at all. Because the process of discovering books is. Is constant, right?

8:04 You constantly discover more and more books. So that is absolutely okay. The interesting part is how do you know that a child's book is age appropriate? Where do you find books to read at this point in time? When you've run out of books at your place or you find a great book list but don't know where to read right now? These are exactly the tips and tricks that we've taught you in Summer Fun Factory because we've recommended some great apps where you can actually find the best collection of books that you can actually read to your child.

8:37 Also a lot of you guys ask question on understanding reading level difficulties of children. So if your child is making no mistakes, he's happy to just remember the five finger rule. You don't treat books as a punishment and you treat books as a reward. Second, make sure that you are reading age appropriate books. Reading is a form of storytelling. So make sure that you're constantly storytelling, okay? Children love stories. Even if you've created a story on your own, that is absolutely okay.

9:08 Please make sure that that you are constantly driving that storytelling. Whether it is about your childhood stories, whether it is how you love to do something, whether it is about a childhood friend, Childhood storytelling is the best form of inculcating reading into your child, okay? Also ensure that you know you are constantly keeping books around. You know the difference between the story, between reading that our parents did and what we are doing is we are telling them here's the book.

9:42 Go read. Our parents said, okay, you read this book or you know this story. What happens after? Do you think what Arjun did was correct or not? Do you think Saiba should have done this? Do you think what would you do if you were in his place? Our parents parents had time for those conversations, right? So having the right conversation with your child after is most important. Next is also to have a very creative bank. Thus the fiction or non fiction, both will teach your child something or a critical thing, right?

10:12 So example. It could be on empathy, it could be on values, it could be on money or it could be on anything, right? What is important is to unders to ensure that your child has understood. How do you ensure that there is constant understanding in that is what you make sure that you do is you give parallels to your child. Now I understand that we are all working moms, we're all busy, we're all managing our homes.

10:34 We're also managing our children. We're managing multiple things right now. Right. And we're also dealing with ourselves. So I'm saying that save yourself that trouble. It becomes very easy. Our kids are growing up in the 21st century. They are going to be exposed to screen. My kids are in front of a device, I think at least about six hours a day, that is four hours of school and maybe an hour of homework and maybe one hour cumulative where they are chatting on video, conferencing with their nannies or their cousin or their friends or, or something like that right now or they're taking an online class.

11:11 So if it is under two years, they would say that less than one hour is, that's the maximum that your child can get. Now that one hour could be mindfully engaging your child to some sort of app that you're using to learn. So that is less than two years. Has to be definitely less than one hour. But yes, I understand that these times are difficult. Can they talk to their cousins and dada, dadi, nana nani, whoever it is, on a device?

11:38 Yes, that is okay. Between two to six years old, of course, less than two hours. And the Indian Academy of Pediatricians has listed this down age wise. We already have it on the website. Also. The other thing I would say is that, guys, please understand that using screens at this point in time is only a way of, you know, only a way of learning as well with your children. Right. So I think all of our kids, I think learned how to change the virtual backgrounds on Zoom way before.

12:07 Before we did. Right? Because they are so intuitive. They literally just get it. So that is one second is on Kidstoppers week. I have personally curated a bunch of five or six apps which are totally worth your while. Now what do I mean by this? Your child at this point in time is not going to be able to go out in the garden and figure out, okay, this is a plant and how do I dissect it?

12:33 And you know, what do I do with it and how do I learn all about it? Can they do that using AR in terms of to understand the dissection of a plant? This is the flower, these are the pollens, these are the petals, this is the stem. What goes inside the stem? How does the plant make food? Can I do all this now? Trust me, once your child has seen that app, he's never going to forget the way a plant grows and doing B with them.

13:02 Right? Okay. So I will give you money. I will give you, hypothetically a cookie if this is done or if you bring, if you clean my room for me, I will give you a cookie that I have just baked. Or I can give you this necklace to wear for one hour if you help me clean my room. So they understand that you have traded that for a service and not for a product. So product to product butter and product to service butter.

13:26 Right? So this is what they'll understand. So that is what you would perhaps start with a four or five year old. As simple as making sure that you are, you know, having the right conversations. We have done, we've created a course, we have created a course literally on Kidstore Press which says value of money and how you can teach this to your kids. Right? So right from the evolution, right from ensuring that we are talking about, you know, we're talking about the value, the barter system, the all of these definitions of paytm digital payments, how does money transfer?

14:02 What is Google pay? All of these questions are all listed with answers and activities that you can actually do with your kids. And guys, thank you. And if you have any more queries on how do you mindfully engage, engage your kids all through this down time, then make sure that you please reach out to me personally. My handle is Ansi severi or you DM us on at KidStockPress and we'll be very, very happy to address any of your queries one on one.