Children Room Archives | Kidoz | Return Gifts & Personalised Gifts

Screen time for Children – Good or Bad?

inknuts — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 11:13:59 +0000

It’s really sad that today’s kids are more comfortable and love the air-conditioned closed playrooms than playing and falling on swings outdoors.
Children at a very young age are spending more time immersed in screens, tablets and smartphones. They are therefore not exposed to fun filled outdoor play- swings, hopscotch, fun and silly outdoor running games. Particularly in early childhood brain is developing fast and is sensitive to environmental input. Too much of screen time at early ages can impede the development of cognitive, social and physical development. Unfortunately increase use of screen time is an easy way for a child to spend their day. So the question is if my child loves and learns easily with my smartphone what is the problem?
1.The problem is with too much screen time children are not able to play with their peers, interact or sleep. It is displacing face-to-face interactions with family and friends.Kids don’t prefer to play with traditional toys like blocks, snakes n ladders instead play with technological toys.
For babies under 2 years, should not be exposed to any kind of screen time. Technological puzzles and games look attractive but physically holding a block or sorting shapes are beneficial. One should restrict screen time for toddlers 2- 5yrs. A “real world” playtime is any day better than watching best of cartoons. Children like to copy their parents and grandparents, so a best way would be to restrict your screen time when you are with children.
Tips on how to curtail screen time:
 Have few days in a week with no screen time. Try and do it yourself with the kids.
 You may have many fun filled activities instead :
A lovely painting/ art session with your toddler. Choose from our array of Craft DIY kits….. (link)
 Reading a book together is a perfect way spend the evening. Encourage them to tell their own version to story.
 Role play activities are are also fun and help them to build their
imagination skills.
 Cleaning up their room together.
Should you make your Child eat in front of TV?
Eating is not only about calories. Paying attention to what you are eating gives satisfaction and hunger pangs. But yes, some parents would be happy feeding their anything while watching their Ipads. Kids seem to have no idea how much are they eating. I know the kids might eat but the downside is kids associate mealtime with TV.
Add some fun element by eating together on a mat. Make food look pleasing making a smiley with the pasta . Another replacement to TV if your child insists could be books and puzzles. Eat with your child. Children would watch and start eating with you. IT IS ALSO A GOOD WAY OF BONDING WITH YOUR FAMILY.
Getting them involved in making food or laying the table could be also a great way to help them get involved.
Ashima Khaitan
Kidoz

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When the Walls Talk

inknuts — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 11:09:30 +0000

Sometimes all your kid needs is his/her own Alice in Wonderland moment. Their own world of fantasies, a world where the bar of chocolate never finishes, where toys appear magically everywhere, and where rooms are made up of icecreams! After all, what’s a childhood without dreams. What if you could fill up their room walls with their fantasies! Decal stickers by Kidoz help you do just this. Imagine your child waking up to a sight of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory! Or a her favourite Princess staring right at her when she’s busy studying. Kidoz wooden wall decals might just be the best gift to give your child. It’s just about pulling off the sticker and placing on the wall, and your child’s room could be full of all that he/she dreamt of. You could even get your decals personalised. Just send us a picture and we’ll make your decal sticker. And guess what, it’s reusable too! Better still, you can recreate the same magic in school too. So, all those teachers who’ve been racking their brains for innovative ways to teach children, here’s one. You could just put decals of the alphabets, fruits, vegetables or even tables! Learning has never been so much fun.

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Being Mommy in Life Unplugged

inknuts — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 11:10:09 +0000

Last century in the time of our great great grandpas, world saw a speedy halt to life brought along by a global epidemic starting in Europe then stretching across nations, called the Spanish Flu that took up two years to leave our homes. Back then I’m sure even if in its relatively slow pace, humanity may have witnessed strange times practising social distancing or even a lockdown at that. Fast forward to the next century we find ourselves in a historical repeat of another pandemic, affecting millions of people worldwide, bringing life to the same halt. Every single nation has rephrased professional and existential commitment to convenient levels in the fight to brave the wicked Corona Virus or Covid 19 as it shall be remembered. Even as life unplugs on earth, there is still one job that has got to deal with at least twice as much work if not three times more. Can you guess which job am I talking off? You may, may not have guessed so let me tell you it is your, mine and every mother’s job whose small, slightly big, and even big burly children need to be mothered and appropriately so. Can you imagine if without going nuts we can see ourselves through these tricky times successfully, we may be coronated as the only super-humans on this planet. So, to maintain high-quality parenting we’ve chosen for ourselves, lets try and understand the impact of a compressed environment we will have to brace through, by first analysing, analysing, and analysing some more that will lead to clarity, clarity will lead to strategy, and strategy will help lay out the day even in uncertain circumstances. Our fair points to decode could be factors starting from our duties, the child’s personality, our resources, strengths and weaknesses (daddy at home may/may not be as useful as one thought) and also factors beyond our control. Assuming we have come a few weeks into the lockdown already, the nature of isolation is apparent to us. Time is what we all have sort of found on our side, so lets start by tricking time to believe nothing changes fundamentally, but for a few hitches here and there. Mothers of pre or older schoolers can put kids to routine with the assertion of pre-corona life barring weekends in which they can recover. Mothers of babies and toddlers can motivate their mind by enjoying little developments of growth that would otherwise go unnoticed. In fact little ones can be given a break from routine, much the opposite of an older child, to explore their wild wild end, because haven’t these younglings lived with rules their baby lives this far. Mums of older kids can derive motivation from the independence of their kids, who can moderate their day even in strange situations like these. Mothers should also make recovery time for themselves even if a twenty minute long bath or half hour long meal, or maybe a small walk if area permits. If one can follow a fitness regime routinely, nothing like it. Lastly, accept the role with or without co parent help, all encompassing as the captain of your ship and steer it towards clear waters with good food for fuel, and good hopeful thoughts for a normal tomorrow.
Niha Siddiqui
Former Journalist, Full-Time Mother, and Aspiring Author

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The Good Bored Child

inknuts — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 11:21:28 +0000

Bore, boring, bored. Let these words sink in not in that order, but let them sink in into your child, who with a click of a button has been exposed to instant gratification that new age parenting has produced over the past one decade at least. Meaning new age parenting has made children highly dependent on external stimuli round the clock, to keep them involved in daily lives with an illusion of high interest, further alienating the art of simply wiling away time doing technically nothing at all. Boredom is also a state of emotion we often avoid in fear of the stigma around it. Doing nothing or nothing doing is frowned at, for a child, who’s expected to constantly keep busy on an invisible leash like loop. Now, what if I told you research says boredom isn’t bad or unhealthy, in fact more often it can reap highly favourable results in child rearing? Going ahead with this finding let us first start by talking of the timeless art of old school parenting that may have had the liberty of a slow paced life. Slow because of limited options that one could avail and slow because bringing up little children was not so uphill or ambitious a project, nor replete with a slew of structural protocols. Another important factor in past parenting was two or more than two kids, which generated easy parenting with ample time and space given to a child to do as they liked. Today, however, challenges are many and children may find themselves bogged down by so much on their small plates. This is here we as adults can make a concentrated effort to step back, let a child shrug off routine as often as they can, and bore them self out so they find their neural stimulation, not get easily satisfied, let their mind day dream and wander off to attain maximum creativity, they can best achieve. Further, children can also develop the ability to imaginatively do a boring task, hone their problem solving skill, resilience and grit to see a task till its end, and far more importantly they can develop strong interpersonal skills, that has almost been lost to this technology driven race. So aren’t there so many super positives for you to let your child drop their gaurd and day dream a few hours of their time? Now time to leave you with a quote slightly tweaked, “ Children make life so interesting, do you know that in a life full of wonders, they have managed to invent boredom”.

Niha Siddiqui
Former Journalist, Full-Time Mother, and Aspiring Author

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