With the heavily advancing technology, increasing nuclear families, working parents, social media addiction, smartphone savvy generation is quite a normal thing I would say.
It is not an exaggeration to say that our kids learn from us- Parents. They do what they see !
It had become a dangerous menace in today's world. Kids as young as 6-7 months have been see sitting in front of mobile phones and iPads. Why? Because it keeps them happy and entertained. Well, a win win for the caregivers I would say.
It is day by day turning out to be quite a nasty struggle to keep kids away from mobiles/ iPads/ laptops/ TV.
Even I faced this problem when we suddenly migrated to Bahrain from India. There was a sudden vacuum in our lives. Both me and my son had no idea how to curb our loneliness. But I soon realised this was doing more harm than any good.
Being a first time mom, I was quite enthusiastic. I joined lot of Groups on FB, surfed Pinterest, downloaded Diy activity worksheets from Google, researched about age appropriate activities and chores and prepared a daily routine for my then 2year old son. I'm proud to say we follow it even now when he is 3.9 years old
* We do lot of colouring, water painting, thumb& fingerprint, cutting & pasting, sticker activities.

* Some daily chores are fixed- folding his blanket, folding his washed clothes, cleaning and putting back his toys after playing

* Pretend play/ role play- teacher-student, chef, policeman, construction worker, superheroes,etc

* Writing 1 or 2 pages- tracking alphabets/ numbers/ patterns . Practicing for pre writing skills

* Going to park in evening. Observing the sky, pattern and colour of sky, clouds, birds, sounds of birds, best in trees, types of flowers, footprints in the sand, collecting and counting pebbles, sticks, leaves,types of leaves, colours, maintaining a nature's journal,etc

*Independent play- Lego building blocks,wooden puzzles, vehicles, animals, farm set, kitchen set,etc !

*Reading books- Repeating the story, enacting the story, narrating own created story,etc to enhance creativity and imagination power
Other than that weekend trips to zoo, beaches, farms,etc also help children to grow and learn.
I won't say to avoid the screen time completely but avoid as much as possible especially for kids below 2 years. After that 30 mins screen time a day can be given over 2-3 times a week.
#bbcreatorsclub #anjalisays #anjaliwrites