Comprehension is understanding the meaning of the text being read. It is different from phonemic awareness and fluency in reading. Since comprehension skills come naturally to most of us, we often seem to use the words reading and comprehension interchangeably. Most children transition smoothly from early reading to comprehension. Nonetheless, comprehension is an important milestone for all children in their literacy skills development journey. This happens to be a topic very close to my home and heart.

We can all agree that general comprehension goals are as follows:

• Understanding the main idea behind the story (e.g. a little girl undertakes a journey to visit grandma, pigs build houses to protect themselves)
• Asking questions/ wondering what happens next
• Predicting what follows (e.g. something bad happens, a danger looming ahead)
• Making inferences based on prior knowledge (e.g. wolf is bad, witch is cruel, knights are brave)
• Visualizing the story (e.g. princess is pretty, castles are huge)

A simple example is illustrated below. There is a picture prompt based on which we can write a sentence. All the sentences are correct. But, you’ll notice that each sentence is more intuitive than the previous one. The first one is factual and merely states the answer to “what do you see?”. The last one attempts to draw inference from the same picture prompt and visualize a probable relation between the two subjects.

After reading through numerous articles addressing this learning goal, I have been able to summarize the following strategies that will help yield desired results in most children, if not all.

Increasing vocabulary

Learning new words with the help of pictures, reading stories and real-life conversations will further the comprehension skills. Having a bigger cache of words to reach out to while reading a new text will improve understanding. The rule of thumb in building vocabulary effectively would be the sight words list, which is segregated as per the grade level. As soon as a child masters the first set, you are free to work with the application of those high-frequency words through worksheets and books corresponding to that reading level. To find the grade-level wise sight words list, follow this link

Sight Words - A step towards comprehension

When I first came to Canada, I was unaware of the list of Sight Words. Tillthen, I had been teaching or rather playfully introducing my son (thenthree-years-old) to popular nouns and action words. My friend introduced me tothese high-frequency words that even though widely used are hard to visual…

Dig a DimeDebjani Sinha

Enhanced language skills are the key determinant in why certain children naturally transition from simple reading to great comprehension without much difficulty. Children dealing with a learning difficulty might find it challenging to pick up new words but with repetition and adequate reinforcements, great progress can be made over time.

Reading books

No surprise here that reading books will eventually pave the way for better comprehension. It would be ideal to select books that interest your child and then engage in active reading with them once a day. Active reading with a child will include things like animated reading, asking leading questions to encourage thought, reinforcing the main events and outcomes, discussing the pictures, and what they suggest in detail. While working on comprehension, these familiar sequences, structures, and patterns will help them relate and interpret the information.

Sequencing the story

Visual break-down of the story might help a child gain a better understanding of the story. Once the child can follow the narrative, we can test their understanding by a simple three-point sequencing of the story - beginning, middle, and ending. These would be broad headings for the basic flow of the story without requiring an in-depth understanding of the story.

For beginners, we can simply encourage them to draw pictures to express their understanding. Significant adult support and guidance might be required at this stage. However, soon we can transition to short phrases and help them structure simple sentences to explain the sequence of the narrative.

Ability to retell or recount the story

Once children can understand the story structure and sequence of the narrative, encouraging them to retell the story in their own words will help us understand which aspects they seem to retain easily and which important bits they missed. In my son’s case, he will always remember appropriately all the animal characters. We have to revisit the story to clarify the role the other characters played in the narrative. I usually resort to guiding questions to help him tell the story in his own way.

Story maps

As the child matures as a reader, breaking down the story into a visual story map, outlining the following will help meaningful and increased comprehension over time. Story grammar is the various elements that come together to build the story. To read through a more detailed take on story maps, follow this link

Story Maps - A step towards comprehension

Story grammar is the various elements that come together to build the story. Itincludes setting, characters, problem, solution. The plot, climax and suspensecan also be a part of the story grammar. Any child struggling with comprehension will benefit from using the framework ofstory grammar. A …

Dig a DimeDebjani Sinha

For beginners, selecting already loved stories to populate these fields will help them think in these lines going forward. With enough practice with story maps, comprehension of text and stories in general will improve.

Answering questions

Finally, the objective of comprehension at a kindergarten or Grade 1 level is to successfully answer questions at the end of the story. As a strategy, we can encourage them to try and answer from memory after they finish reading the text once. Next, we tell them to go back to the story and find the answers for the ones they missed or answered incorrectly. Also, reinforcing the questions they succeeded in answering will help improve their confidence.

Hopefully, these five strategies will give you a few leads in working with your child’s comprehension skills. I too am in between these above-mentioned stages of development in my son’s road to comprehension. He is a fairly good reader for his grade level, but comprehension is something we have been working on for quite some time. Hence, do leave your comments on what worked for you and your child and what didn’t.

When I first came to Canada, I was unaware of the list of Sight Words. Till then, I had been teaching or rather playfully introducing my son (then three-years-old) to popular nouns and action words. My friend introduced me to these high-frequency words that even though widely used are hard to visualize as well as do not necessarily follow the basic phonic principles.

The Dolch word list is a list of frequently used English words (also known as sight words), compiled by Edward William Dolch, a major proponent of the "whole-word" method of beginning reading instruction. The list was first published in a journal article in 1936[1] and then published in his book Problems in Reading in 1948.[2]
Dolch compiled the list based on children's books of his era, which is why nouns such as "kitty" and "Santa Claus" appear on the list instead of more current high-frequency words. The list contains 220 "service words" that Dolch thought should be easily recognized in order to achieve reading fluency in the English language. The compilation excludes nouns, which comprise a separate 95-word list. According to Dolch, between 50% and 75% of all words used in schoolbooks, library books, newspapers, and magazines are a part of the Dolch basic sight word vocabulary; however, bear in mind that he compiled this list in 1936.

Source: Wikipedia**

Introducing kids to the Dolch sight words at an early age will help them develop a ready cache of words. So, when they read a book or text, they don't necessarily need to process and decode every word, thus making reading a less tedious task for new readers. It will also help build the confidence of the child and make reading enjoyable experience. To read about a more detailed take of strategies for developing comprehension follow this link

The list of 220 Dolch sight words are categorized as per the grade level to provide for easy guidance to educators and parents alike. While introducing a new list, I find it useful in breaking down the list to a set of around 10 words for the first day. Next day we start with revising the old 10 and go on till 20 words. Each grade level doesn't have same number of words, hence I have divided the respective alphabetically sorted list into three columns. Hope you find this format useful.

Download free printable pdfs here:

Dolch Sight Words List - Pre K

Dolch Sight Words List - Kindergarten

Dolch Sight Words List - Grade 1

Dolch Sight Words List - Grade 2

Dolch Sight Words List - Grade 3

Story grammar is the various elements that come together to build the story. It includes setting, characters, problem, solution. The plot, climax and suspense can also be a part of the story grammar.

Any child struggling with comprehension will benefit from using the framework of story grammar. A story map is the visual representation of the key elements thus identified. Using guiding questions like "When did the story happen?", "Where did it happen?", "Who are the people in the story?", "What happens to the main character?", "What's the problem?", "What do they do next?", and "How did the story end?" to populate the fields will be helpful in reinforcing the understanding/ comprehension.

For a detailed read on what else can help develop comprehension skills, follow this link

Here are a few simple formats for the story maps that you can use. The simple one is being able to tell the beginning, middle and ending to a story by writing or drawing pictures. The other two are step further with opportunity for detailing the setting and characters of the story.

A example of a story map for the popular story of Red Riding Hood to provide some inspiration, if you need any.

Download free printable pdfs here:

Comprehension Story Map - Simple

Comprehension Story Map - Freehand

Comprehension Story Map - Write

Continuing our series on learning basic concepts, these worksheets will help kids identify whether objects or containers are "full" or "empty".  All the four worksheets are free to download as pdf files. The first two worksheets encourage kids to identify and circle "full" objects/ containers and cross out the "empty" ones. The later two encourages them to appropriately label the objects correctly by printing "full" or "empty".

After working on these, kids should develop a basic understanding of the concept full and empty, which can be further reinforced through day-t0-day real life examples. Hope you and your kids enjoy working on these worksheets.  

Download free printable pdfs here:

Worksheet - 1

Worksheet - 2

Worksheet - 3

Worksheet - 4

Download the complete pack below:

Complete pack

The natural progression from early reading skills would be to familiarize kids with the correct sentence structure. This can happen simultaneously with handwriting practice. These simple sentence building worksheets have a visual clue as to what the sentence is indicating and includes both the building of sentence by cutting out words as well as writing them.

For the sentence building section, kids would need to cut out the words with scissors and paste them in the provided word slots. In the writing section, 4 lines writing template has been provided. For a start, the worksheets have sentences with only 4 and 5 words. The next step would be to remove the visual clue and hope that they are able to figure out the correct structure.

A fun acronym for remembering the rules of building a sentence can be CLAPS:

• CL - First word of the sentence begins with a capital letter
• AP - A sentence should end with appropriate punctuation
• S - Spaces between words (finger spaces for beginners)

Download free printable pdfs here:

Sentence Building- Cut and Paste - 1

Sentence Building- Cut and Paste - 2

Sentence Building- Cut and Paste - 3

Sentence Building- Cut and Paste - 4

Download the complete pack below:

Complete pack

I would describe myself as an avid book reader. Books have always been a big part of my life since childhood. Reading has always offered me a refuge from reality, an escape into an imaginary world where I could be anyone but myself. I have spent years if not all my adult life passionately defending the fact that an e-reader can never hold a candle to a real book. Simply put, the weight of a book, the comfort it offers, the feeling of leafing through the pages, and even the musty odor of a library book, contributes to an experience that is deeply personal to the relation of a reader with his book. During 2015-2016, I read 65 novels, all borrowed from the Toronto Reference Library, which was a stone’s throw away from our apartment. This year, 2020, I managed to complete only one book “Educated” by Tara Westover. Also, now I am a mother to two young kids in a world knocked over by a pandemic.

Like many things unthinkable and incomprehensible before 2020, I am embracing technology over my tradition of reading books only in their hardcover or paperback forms. Once, my husband and I were discussing what we should grab in case of a fire, and I instantly said that we should first pick up our son, grab the signed hardcovers by Salman Rushdie, Marlon James, and Yann Martel, and then we should be good to go. As you can imagine, we deliberated animatedly for some time on what I considered essential vis-à-vis the essential. That was 2015. Now, fast forward to 2019, there was a fire that required us to evacuate our building at midnight. I remember picking up our sleeping baby, packing jackets in a grocery bag, grabbing the files containing our passport and other documents, taking our six-year-old by the hand, and walking out into the night through a smoke-filled corridor as the alarms blared and red lights lighted our way. Time changes us all.

This year, I often borrowed books from the library but had to return them unread. Also, while I had the borrowed library books, I had to keep a watch on whether my toddler thought it fun to sit on it, or stomp on it like a dinosaur or even my worst nightmare, give it a good lick just to sample its taste. One can imagine with COVID redefining our access to the library and our self-imposed restrictions on where we venture out and what we bring home; borrowing books, picking them up, and reading them while averting attacks by a hyperactive two-year-old became too much of a strain. Thus, like I have adopted social media to stay connected with family and friends, even neighbors whom I have not seen in months, I chose an e-reader over a book as a gift for my birthday. If you are based in North America and choose economy over sentiment, then like me you too would be willing to wait for the Black Friday deals to finalize your birthday gift.

I am pleased with my choice, which is a Kobo libraH20 and allows me to access the Toronto Public Library through the Overdrive app. It also has a backlight that allows me the flexibility to read at night, after the kids go to bed. The reason I decided to splurge on this model as opposed to the popular and affordable Amazon Kindle e-reader, was because I intend to borrow e-books and not buy them. The Toronto Public Library is truly one of the best in the world and they are gradually building up their e-book collection. I will continue buying books every time I attend the Author Talks & Lectures at the Appel Salon of the Toronto Reference Library. Books that are timeless and I want to own will also find a place in my personal collection. For now, an e-reader is the new normal for an old-fashioned book lover like me, when the choice was between reading e-books or not reading at all, I made my peace with the former.

I call my mom every other day at a designated hour to go through the same routine questions about food, kids, weather, and chores and I often hear her yell back at my dad shushing him as she is speaking to her son, my brother. I am so used to this that I continue speaking without batting an eyelid or bothering to clarify that it is me, her daughter that’s taking out the time to call her and not her son (who calls once a week). Does this ever happen with you?

Growing up, I had to make my peace with the fact that she loves my brother more than me and now I simply blame it on her age and pretend I didn’t even notice. But since we welcomed a second baby into our lives, and started making the same mistake that my mother does, we were plagued by parents’ guilt. We started looking for ideas to get the names right and I even considered post-it notes for a while; but how do you label babies when they start moving around? You can’t!

In course of our research on how to not muddle up names, we chanced upon a study published by Duke University, which proves that this is a cognitive mistake arising out of how our brains categorize names. Simply put, our brains happen to slot and store names of related individuals (siblings, friends, family, etc.) in the same folder/ drawer.

Researchers find the brain stores close relationships in a special ‘family folder’
 
'It's a cognitive mistake we make, which reveals something about who we consider to be in our group,' said David Rubin, a psychology and neuroscience professor at Duke, and one of the authors of the study.
'It's not just random.'
Researchers conducted five separate surveys of more than 1,700 respondents to determine the many ways people mix up the names of their loved ones.

While fetching for a name, our brain at times inadvertently picks another one from the same folder. This proves that my mom has always treated both me and my brother alike, and her brain has assigned us the same sibling folder. My husband and I have shed off the burden of meaningless guilt for not being able to love the toddler as dearly as our first-born.

The study also found that phonetic similarity can trick the brain. Names with the same beginning or ending sound (e.g. Barry and Harry or Michael and Mitchell) would lead to more chances of being misnamed than usual.

A fun finding of the study is that people sometimes happen to categorize the name of their pet dog with family or children. So, kids growing up with pet dogs have at times lovingly been misnamed as their pets.

I hope this article resonates with all who have either grown up in a big household with siblings and cousins; or are now as parents raising more than one child. Bottomline, we can now go on calling our kids by the wrong names (without the guilt) and hope that one of them will do the chore being thus assigned to them.

I am a newcomer to Canada. My family moved here in 2018 as permanent residents. Before this, we had spent two years in Toronto during 2014-2016. On both occasions, my husband was the one with a salaried job and I was a stay-at-home mom. Having worked for several years, I was used to a lot of if not complete financial independence. Thus, we jumped at the opportunity of me becoming an additional credit cardholder or authorized user linked to the primary credit cardholder’s account (i.e. my husband). For the entire span of two years, I used my card with great ease and convenience.

Cut forward to 2018, we move here and I try to get a phone connection in my name. My application is denied as I had no credit history. I tried to emphasize that I have always used credit cards in Canada and am surprised that my use (and timely payments) did not leave a credit footprint. That is the point when I started studying and researching the different types of credit cards and their corresponding impact on one’s credit history. So, it turns out additional cardholders or authorized users do not create a credit history.

Additional cardholders and authorized users
 
If you’re an additional cardholder or authorized user on a credit card, you get a credit card that is linked to the primary cardholder’s account. This card allows you to make purchases and use the account as the primary cardholder. Some credit card issuers will allow an authorized user to be under the age of majority. If you’re an additional cardholder, keep in mind:

• the credit card account belongs to the primary cardholder
• you may not be responsible for paying back any money owing on the credit card account
• any purchases you make using the card won't help you build your credit history.

I have now applied for and been issued a secured credit card from the bank where we have our savings and chequing account. I am a year away from hitting forty but my credit score and history are barely a year old.

Being a mother, I started thinking about creating a credit history for my kids. The minimum age to hold a credit card in your name in Canada is 18 years. But, if like me you are a parent who wants to set your kids up for success, you too would be interested in knowing what you can do to start a good credit history for your child.

Why Your Credit History is Important
 
Building a good credit history is important for your financial health. If you ever want to borrow money to purchase a house or car, a good credit score can mean the difference between your loan being approved or denied.
In today’s society it’s almost a certainty you’ll need to borrow money from lenders for major purchases like a house or car. Establishing a solid credit profile means you will have a better chance of being able to borrow money at the lowest interest rate.

Since I am not a financial planner or adviser, I have referred and referenced a large number of websites in this article. Hopefully, this article and the linked resources will help you when you are at the threshold to make a decision as a parent. If nothing else, you would become an informed parent who is aware of the options available to us in 2020.

Teaching Children About Credit and Savings
 
You may be teaching your children about money and budgeting, but are you teaching them about the importance of saving money and handling credit?
It can be tempting to try to prevent your kids from making money mistakes by keeping them away from credit cards – or by not discussing credit at all. But you may be missing an important teaching opportunity.
You can actually begin talking about credit fundamentals when your kids are quite young. As they get older, your explanations can become more detailed as they ar better able to grasp the nuances of credit reports, credit scores and identity theft.

As a young ten-year old, I remember being given an allowance (pocket money) during the Durga Puja festival (usually a five-day celebration) to spend as I deemed fit. Most of it would be gone within the first day or two. But that taught me budgeting and planning for all the five days of the festival as I knew my allowance was non negotiable and non renewable.

After conducting my research, I have been able to come up with a possible plan of action that would be easier to implement and also starts as soon as our kids are matured enough to understand money and its purchasing power.

Prepaid credit cards first

No matter the number of discussions we have with our teenagers, they are still kids with a lot of figuring out to do at that age. Hence, the safest way to introduce responsibility and accountability would be by giving them a prepared credit card. That way, even if they decide to splurge or make a bad decision, the damage is hedged beforehand by the limit set by you. A few pocket friendly prepaid credit card options are given below. Please compare and make an informed choice. Even we have one for our use in unfamiliar places like a random gas station purchase, or a small shop outside our neighborhood.

KOHO: Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card | No Fees & Instant Cash Back on Everything

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Authorized user

A possible next step would be to add them as an authorized user onto your existing credit card. Keep the credit limit low and increase it gradually as a reward for (demonstrated) responsible usage. Being an authorized user will give them the extended bandwidth to make purchase decisions, track spending v/s budget, and make payments in a timely manner. Since you would be the primary card holder, you would have the opportunity to keep a track of their credit card usage. One word of caution is that include your child as an authorized user only if you have a great credit history yourself and are being able to make your payments on time.

Student credit card

A student credit card is a credit card offered by a financial institution specifically for young people attending a post-secondary institution. There are many operators in this category and all the major banks come up with exciting offers to lure the young adults. I must add that this qualifies as a great high school graduation gift.

Start building your credit history fro the get-go with a student credit card
 
Student credit cards can be a great entrance into the world of credit. While paying on plastic gives a sense of financial freedom, this liberty comes with lots of responsibility. You’ll want to make sure that you’re able to pay off your balance in full each month, and one way to do this is to stick to a low monthly credit limit.

Secured credit card

For some reason if you or your kid end up with a bad credit score, the safest and surest way to gradually salvage your credit history would be by using more credit and making payments on time. Secured credit cards are excellent for building a good credit score and are often than not issued with simple paperwork. With steady and responsible use of a secured credit card it is possible to make a positive impact on your credit history.

What Is a Secured Credit Card?
 
A secured credit card is a type of credit card that is backed by a cash deposit from the cardholder. This deposit acts as collateral on the account, providing the card issuer with security in case the cardholder can't make payments. Secured credit cards are often issued to subprime borrowers or those with limited credit histories (so-called thin-file borrowers).
With standard reporting to credit reporting agencies, these cards can help borrowers improve their credit profile.

Hopefully this article will answer a few basic questions that you might have about credit history and its relevance. You might also find yourself intrigued and curious to find out more about these options. Either ways, I would consider that a success because I want all of us to catch that early train to our children's credit worthiness.

This book made Eric Carle the household name that he is today. Apparently, this book simply introduces the concept of metamorphosis to young kids in a way that they might be able to comprehend. The story follows the life cycle of a caterpillar from the time it hatches from an egg till the time it forms a chrysalis and finally becomes a beautiful butterfly. These are probably the most popular take-aways from the children’s book for all age-groups:

Kids (early childhood) -  For kids that are picky eaters and parents struggle to introduce any new food, this one is worth a shot. I resorted to this book for the very reason and reading it every day with tons of emphasis on the variety of food items, I did have some successes. But this book has such strong undertones of life lessons that I came to value it more with every passing day.

Teenagers - Every living being goes through different phases to become the person they are supposed to be. In the end, we all shall find the beauty of a butterfly even though we might have to go through certain awkward and unsure stages (read teenage/ early adulthood) like the caterpillar.

Parents/ Adults - Finally, the book discusses the effect of human greed and gluttony. The consequence of a binge eating spree on Saturday, much like our weekend binging (be it food or Netflix), is an unhealthy discomfort. It makes the caterpillar go back to consuming one green leaf on Sunday. I believe this is us abandoning the race to satiate our material desires and returning to simple values and life choices.

I hate to add COVID made us abandon a lot of undesirables and realize what is actually important for a holistic life. But, I really miss shopping in malls, enjoying brunches in restaurants, and watching movies in theatres without the constant fear of contracting infections.

Meanwhile, here is me reading the book to my toddler, who doesn’t seem to appreciate the caterpillar but comes around in the end when he sees the butterfly.

Body balance. Body coordination. Body awareness. Simple phrases that we hardly attach much importance to while going on with our daily lives.

What is balance and coordination?

Balance is the ability to maintain a controlled body position during task performance, whether it is sitting at a table, walking the balance beam or stepping up onto a kerb. To function effectively across environments and tasks, we need the ability to maintain controlled positions during both static (still) and dynamic (moving) activities.
Static balance is the ability to hold a stationary position with control (e.g. “Freeze” or “statue” games). Dynamic balance is the ability to remain balanced while engaged in movement (e.g. running or bike riding).

Source: Balance & Coordination

I must confess that I never gave these any second thoughts because my older son met all his physical development milestones like walking, climbing, and running on time. In 2018, when his kindergarten teacher pointed out that while descending the stairs, he seemed unsure and wobbly, I laughed it off because he had never had an accidental fall or tumble from the stairs. But one day, while waiting to pick him up after school, I happened to see his class come down and what looked perfectly fine and inconsequential till that moment changed. I understood what she was trying to convey earlier.

Thanks to COVID, this summer went by without any swimming lessons, neither could I enroll him for a dance nor martial arts class. As per the advice of the occupational therapists, these are the best ways to improve body balance in a fun way. We are doing what we can at home and I’m sure his gym class at school is helping.

So, I decided to turn my focus to the toddler. Is he developing his body balance, control, and awareness in time? Crawling, cruising, walking, and running are the obvious ones, but I wanted to share a few ways we are working with him or rather making him work for a well-balanced future, no pun intended.

Crawling/ Walking on the plank

Ideally, we would require a little elevated platform and some mats underneath to create a safe plank/ platform for a toddler who is walking and is learning to run with a few tumbles. But, as an improvement, I let my son walk on the retaining walls bordering the pavements. I am always at arm’s length to break his slip or fall. The first time I dared to take him outdoors this summer, he started crawling on those tiny walls. But after a month, he could walk across without holding onto me for support. Earlier, I would discourage him to climb and walk anywhere but pavements, but now I see the advantage of the exercise under a strictly supervised setting. If you have kids play gym around, use it, if you don’t create one at home. Depending on their age and body balance, we have to keep raising the bar.

Bouncing/ Jumping off

Somewhere between 2 to 3 years of age, kids should figure out how to jump and land on their two feet and it requires well developed bilateral coordination. Instead of waiting for my toddler to reach the two-year milestone, we are encouraging him to jump on the trampoline. It has rails that he can hold onto and a net covering that keeps him safe from falling off. He loves bouncing and I am now noticing that he is trying to hop on his own, which as of now is a poor imitation of the ‘up and down’ movement, but he is trying.

If you don’t have a trampoline, the nearest and safest alternative would be the crib. Since it has raised rails all around, the toddler can bounce without any potential hazard. Of course, adult supervision is required.

Riding a balance bike

I know it might seem a little premature, but we have already bought a little balancing bike. And it is so small that he can ride it at home. It is a work in progress and he hasn’t figured it all out. But I am hopeful that before next summer, he would be able to use it the way it is meant to be used. Meanwhile, I am confident he is getting some exercise, developing his gross motor skills and we might even have a smooth transition to the usual pedal bike. Do watch the video as we could capture him gliding at the end of a day’s outing!

Descending/ Walking down the stairs

The little one is learning to descend the stairs at the playgrounds, whenever we happen to visit. I have also tried to take him up the stairs in our apartment building but found them to be too high and also risky given the ongoing pandemic. In winter, I plan to set up stools and tables on a thick rug/ floor mat to build a couple of steps for him to go up and down. The only concern is that I’ll have to make sure it is stable and doesn’t have sharp edges. Just into fall now, we still have a few cold but snow-free months ahead, do encourage your toddler to climb up and down a couple of steps in the playgrounds. Just remember that descending is harder than ascending.

Kicking and Throwing the ball

My toddler's first word was ‘car’ and the second was ‘ball’. He doesn’t get much practice outdoors, so we have bought a few light colorful balls that are safe for kicking and throwing indoors. Kicking is an extremely important milestone for physical and motor skill development. The toddler would need to have significant body control to be able to raise afoot to kick a ball. Usually, this happens after two years. But, using ‘kick’ and ‘throw’ prompts for early receptive language development, we have already started practicing with him. He is yet to successfully throw a ball but imitates the action of doing so.

There are many other fun activities that we can do to improve body balance and overall body control and coordination. But, I chose these five ones to ‘kick’ start the discussion. I am ‘throwing’ these ideas out to you. You can either ‘catch’ or ‘dodge’ them. Hoping you will ‘ride’ along and help your kids to ‘walk’ the walk.

I have been contemplating what thanksgiving would mean in 2020, amidst the onslaught of a global pandemic that has not only brought the world economy to its knees, but families across the globe have been torn apart.

Eight months have passed since this pandemic arrived at our doors. And over the anxious days and sleepless nights, we have all been through testing times. With the second wave catching momentum, we hold our breath and stare at a long wintry night. As Game of Thrones fans would say….Winter is coming!

But like so many of you I am here to tell the tale. So, amidst all the things we are missing and making do without, let us take a moment to cherish the things that really matter and the everyday comforts we still enjoy.

How do we teach this lesson to our kids?

Well, I have found writing down always helps reinforce ideas for my son and my family. I have created a very simple thanksgiving gratitude note where kids can write what they are thankful for. Ours is going up on the wall for us to revisit from time to time.

Download Gratitude Chart for Kids pdf here:

Thanksgiving 2020 - Kids Activity

Today, I helped my son to list the things that he is thankful for. I must confess I had to intervene and change the ranking a little. A tip, the current number 4 was his number one priority!

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is a timeless bedtime story about a little bunny falling asleep. It has been illustrated by Clement Hurd. The pages of the book take kids through the process of saying good night to everything around them. Starting with a 'green room' and slowly encompassing the stars, moon, and the air surrounding us. I had bought this book for my older son and it stayed with us as we moved across countries. At a deeper level, this Margaret Wise Brown book talks about gratitude for all the comforts we have in our lives, be it the room or the random comb.

In this video, I read the book with my younger son, who is equally enamored by the simple story and even decided to get his friends midway through the story...maybe it is his way to say good night to his little world.

To share a funny anecdote,  I first came to know about the Goodnight Moon book while watching the house tour (by Architectural Digest) of Neil Patrick Harris. While showing off the nursery of his mansion, he spoke about the love his twins have for this particular book. I was hooked. Of all the fascinating things adorning his house that was out of my reach (physically and financially), this book was the one I could immediately add to my son's book collection and I did.

"Where's Spot" is a classic and one of the most enduringly popular kids' books. Written and illustrated by Eric Hill. It is a story about a mother dog looking for her naughty little puppy Spot at supper time. She goes around searching every nook and corner of the house and is greeted by different wild animals. All the animals are hidden in common areas like closets, attic, rug, to name a few. Kids are also introduced to appropriate prepositions playfully through the text like "under the bed", "inside the clock", "in the piano", etc.

The text of the book is structured in a question-answer format. And there are flaps incorporated in almost every page to hide the wild animals. Kids simply love lifting the flaps to discover what's underneath. You'll notice that the book I am reading in this video has all the flaps taped in because my over-enthusiastic toddler happened to rip off all the flaps in his quest to know where's Spot. Again, this one also belonged to my older one and has made the journey from Kolkata to Toronto with us and is still here to give my younger one company.

The art of reading could possibly be the best gift you can give your child. It goes a long way in developing their imagination, vocabulary, communication skills, and knowledge. Introducing your child to the world of reading at an early age is like handing him the keys to a wonderland full of pictures, stories, and fantasy. Reading will entertain, empower, and enrich their thoughts and character all through their lives. I have always believed that introducing storytime and books to kids at an early age helps develop much more than language and vocabulary.

I am afraid to start all my blogs with a tinge of nostalgia, in fear that I might be accused of being a sentimentalist. Well, I am! Back when I was a little girl, puzzles meant crossword puzzles, the Rubik’s cube, and the vintage wooden floor puzzles that were often handed down generations as prized family possessions.

A show of hands of people who remember watching the movie Jumanji, the original one, starring the late Robbie Williams? Whenever I think of puzzles and board games the movies flashes before my eyes.

Today, I can go on for pages listing the innumerable types of puzzles available for all those who enjoy a little challenge in their lives. But like me, all of you must be juggling many hats, and so to make this read worth our stolen moments, I shall talk only about my favourite four must-have puzzles for toddlers and kids.

Pegs Insert Puzzles

Scoring very high on the easy to solve quotient, peg puzzles are possibly the first puzzle I introduced my son to when he was a baby. The pegs are easy to grasp and help develop gross motor skills in babies. At first, I would be happy if he could partially insert the piece into the slot. From there, as the dexterity of his fingers improved, he could properly insert all the pieces and took less time to finish. Peg inserts come in many categories like farm animals, transportations, wild animals, fruits to name a few.

To keep peg puzzles interesting, with age the number of inserts go up and the size of the pegs reduce. Here is my son working on a peg puzzle which is appropriate for kids with fine motor skills.

Jigsaw /Floor Puzzle

This is probably the oldest version of a puzzle, popularly known as a jigsaw puzzle. I believe that holding each puzzle piece and turning it around to find the perfect interlock with the next piece helps kids develop their gross motor skills. There are many themes for floor puzzles from maps to solar systems to complex pictures. Ideally, a simple 24-piece puzzle would be appropriate for the 3-5 age group and kids in the age group of 6-8 can tackle a 100-piece puzzle. But at the end of the day, the ability to solve a puzzle largely depends on the interest of the child.

A jigsaw puzzle introduces the concept of a whole and a piece to a child. He will realize that his step by step action to interlock the tabs would lead to the development of the whole picture. It's a very important life lesson for a budding human mind. It also develops goal-oriented action taking towards solving a problem.

The 2-piece first word puzzles are an excellent way to start. These basically have a picture that needs to be matched with the correct word. It introduces first sight words to toddlers in a fun and relatable manner.

Shapes & Size Sorting Puzzles

Sorting puzzles are very popular and have many options for different age groups. These are excellent for developing their ability to recognize, categorize as well as compare objects on the basis of their colors, shapes, and sizes. We can choose the difficulty level depending on the age and the learning objective.

The sense of accomplishment that comes with solving a puzzle or winning a board game acts as a motivation to undertake complex and challenging tasks in future.

Tangram Puzzles

This is the most exciting new addition to our collection of puzzles. It is believed to have been invented in China over 200 years ago. This is indeed a timeless puzzle challenging minds over centuries. We have multiple versions of tangram puzzles for kids and I find that the magnetic one is easier to work with for beginners.

For the uninitiated, tangrams comprise of the following seven geometric shapes:

• 2 large right triangles,
• 1 medium-sized right triangle,
• 2 small right triangles,
• 1 small square, and
• 1 parallelogram.

It amazes me that these seven shapes can be arranged and rearranged to form shapes. In addition to logical reasoning and creative thinking, it also teaches the life lesson that even with limited tools (only seven) one can achieve numerous possibilities. You only need to put your mind to it.

No matter which puzzle you choose, the following are the most common benefits that make a puzzle a must-have toy for kids of all ages.

• Memory retention
• Fine motor skill
• Hand-eye coordination
• Concentration/ prolonged attention
• Problem-solving
• Logical thinking
• Sense of accomplishment

Now that I reflect on the blog, I wonder if I should have named it best gift ideas for kids? Leave a comment.

Do you remember hearing this or saying this? I believe this is not so uncommon an observation of parents of kids in kindergarten or just starting Grade 1. Kids who are enthusiastic readers, great communicators but pulling their weight when it comes to writing. For this blog, let us assume that there is a genuine impediment that is holding them back and making the effort of writing too overwhelming for our otherwise smart kid.

Without further adieu let me take you to pre-writing skills.No, I am not referring to the tracing and connecting worksheets that we encourage our toddlers to work on. Tracing those zigzag lines and shapes are effective as a stepping stone for writing, but I would like to take you a little deeper and even further away from the pencil - fine motor skills.  

Fine motor skills involve the movement of the smaller muscles/ muscle groups in your child’s hands, and fingers. They form the foundation of any child’s ability to maneuver a pencil to form a perfect or near-perfect letter, number, or shape. It is the reason kids can do their buttons, open and close their water bottles, zip and unzip their backpack, put on their shoes, and all the other activities that need them to form a grasp with their tiny fingers. So what can we do to improve the dexterity of those tiny hands?

Sorting Activities

Using those tiny fingers

Let’s start with this one. Small is a relative term, but depending on your child’s age, small could mean anything between small toy figurines/ animals to beads. With my six-year-old, I often plan this activity to get some work done around my kitchen. I give him a bowl of frozen veggies (frozen veggies were a part of our COVID 19 panic buying spree) and get him to sort through it and separate the peas, corns, carrots, and beans. Some get squished in the process but I do end up with bowls of segregated veggies to use as I please. You could carry out the same activity with M&Ms, beads, cereals, and pulses.

Using tongs and tweezers

We should have either of these tools in our house to set up an activity. I usually have a packet of pom-poms lying around. So, depending on the mood, I ask my son to sort them as per size ‘big’, ‘medium’ and ‘small’ or as per colors. I use post-its to label the bowls so that he subconsciously reads and commits the words to his memory. You can use fruit loops, pulses, M&Ms for this activity, the only condition is that your child will have to use the tong/ tweezer and not their hands.

Crafting Activities

Cutting skills/ using scissors

This one is fun. Pick up any old newspaper or flier and get your child to cut out pictures they like for their scrapbook or a craft project. To add an element of classification and grouping of objects, I usually label the page randomly as ‘five fruits’, ‘my breakfast’, or ‘rainbow colors’. The idea is to teach our children how to cut paper. With practice, get creative and draw a line, zigzag, or shape and see if they can cut along them. There are worksheets for this sort of activity, but I find that my son enjoys cutting pictures when it is part of a bigger project.

Most kids I know would be thrilled to cut colorful construction paper to create animal puppets, banners, gift boxes, cards, to name a few. So, our objective here is to supervise and encourage them while they work on these craft projects. Please use the kids-friendly scissors as they are designed to safeguard those delicate fingers. And adult supervision is necessary when young kids use scissors.

Painting

This activity is the reason for my son’s decent fine motor skills. He is passionate about drawing and coloring, be it crayons, markers, watercolors, or hand paints. So, we always bought all sorts of colors for him to play with and explore as a toddler. This is still the number one motivator for him to do any homework/ project. Crayons, chalks, and paint brushes require them to form the pincer grip.

Threading beads

While growing up, making a flower garland was a part of my daily routine for my grandma’s shrine at home. Depending on the seasonal blooms, the garlands were always fragrant and colorful. Little did I know then, that the time spent threading together the flowers would eventually help develop my dexterity and enable me to hold my pencil with a “dynamic tripod” grasp or popularly referred to as the “pincer grip”, where the thumb, index, and middle fingers are holding the pencil. The easiest way to replicate this activity would be to thread beads together for making a bracelet or anklet. Do select the size of the beads and needle depending on your child’s age. If your child is working with beads, kindly ensure there is adult supervision to avoid any choking hazard.

Family Games/ Activities

Puzzles and legos

Doing a puzzle is a great family activity. Kids love all sorts of puzzles. Putting the pieces together and helping them interlock to form the entire picture requires dexterity and hand-eye coordination. It also encourages patience, concentration, and a sense of accomplishment in the child’s mind. Legos, because of their tiny sizes and numerous possibilities, are very good tools for developing fine-motor skills, as well as problem-solving and mathematical/ logical thinking.

Storytime

We can leverage storytime to improve not only reading skills but also writing skills. We simply have to encourage our children to turn the pages one at a time. This requires manipulation of their hands and fingers and it grows with age and practice. Board books are easier and a good way to start, and then we can move onto books with many pages. During storytime kids eagerly turn the pages to see what happens next and our mission is easily accomplished.

Daily/ Routine Activities

Opening and closing bottles

Yes, it is that simple. As a parent, I unknowingly always happened to loosen and open the bottle caps for my son. Be it the cap of a chocolate milk bottle or the cap of a toothpaste tube. I used to even apply the required amount of toothpaste and handed the toothbrush to him. Now I don’t. Opening bottle caps, lunch boxes, turning doorknobs, and even unzipping and zipping his backpack, lunchbox and jacket are excellent for developing the pincer grip. So, let us encourage our kids to open their bottles, get that door for us, and put on their jackets themselves. These daily routine actions will help develop much more than just writing skills.

Using utensils

With kindergarten, came the realization that my son needs to be able to use utensils independently. We have been working on that ever since. Both my sons, the school-goer, and the toddler find the use of forks relatively easier when compared to other utensils. So you can start with that too.

Brushing teeth

As I discussed in my last blog, brushing teeth and opening/ closing faucets improves fine motor skills. The hand-eye coordination required while brushing teeth is quite significant. Standing in front of a mirror helps them to complete the routine more effectively. These activities are part of our daily routine and though you are not doing anything new, you are now aware of the connection between brushing and your kids’ writing skills. While you are at it, make your child fill a cup or pour water in a cup to rinse his/ her mouth after brushing. Pouring also requires simultaneous use of the eye and the hand and processing of the information. All the more reason for dental hygiene.

Dressing up

My six-year-old can do all the buttons in his nightshirt but needs some time to get them right. For many years, I kept telling myself that this is not a goal for him as most outfits here have zips, are pull-overs, or pull-ups. But at four years old when he started doing all his buttons on his own, we were thrilled. For practice, get him/ her to do their buttons. It requires a significant amount of hand-eye coordination, which again is very important for writing skills.

If you get the essence of the above points, you will realize that any activity that requires hand-eye coordination and dexterity helps develop fine motor skills. Fun activities like cooking, baking, stirring, putting on the jacket, doing the zip, putting on shoes, and socks, can help your child with his/ her writing skills. Keep trying out these activities with your child with stuff available at home. With time, we should be able to notice a shift in the attitude of your child, when writing will no longer be such a bad thing after all!