Grooming Tomorrow's World

A child groomed with good manners acquires social skills easily. Early years’ behaviour patterns depend on many factors—such as family atmosphere, social surroundings, emotional support, influence of media (mostly TV) and how parents deal with it. We should realise that grooming the child with good manners is a strategic methodology that need to be carefully practised. The best way is to be the role model and behave in the desired way. Then you may initiate your child to behave in the same way with gentle instructions. Children love to imitate their role models. But there are times when they do not behave the way we expect them to. They might be rowdy in public and might embarrass you in a mall. They might interrupt you, or worse, contradict you in front of the guests who have come for dinner. Or, they can be just unruly at the table in the restaurant. They might tear off story book of another child for no good reason. They might refuse to eat the pulao you made and want to eat chips/chocolate/noodles… and so on. There can be unending list of situations and scenario where bad manners might show up.

I may suggest a few tips. Invariably praise the good manners and show that it pleases you. If you need to rebuke at some bad manner, keep it short… maybe just ‘No’ or ‘Don’t’. Sometimes just a warning look should be enough. Even a one year old child understands approval and disapproval of the behaviour in terms of smiles, gestures, stern look and pointing finger. And always encourage them to even up the wrongdoing by saying ‘Sorry’. But don’t try to shame the child further because that will be damaging at this age. And NEVER SHOUT. It never helps. That’s for sure. Shouting creates a kind of distance and natural reflexes try to shut out the noise. So the meaning of those angry words yelled at high decibels will never be received by the child and hence, will be of no positive use. On the contrary, this may inflict a shock upon the child with further regretful consequences.

Children need your holistic care and a lot of love and affection to thrive and bloom into a prudent person. And that will be the most precious award for you, too!

Your little one is on the road to discovery!

Welcome to yet another new academic year at KITE School! This is the tenth year of pursuing our passion!

If learning is fun, you love to learn. This is true for all children—introvert to extrovert, shy to stellar. At KITE School, we take it as our prime responsibility to provide an environment where a child loves to learn naturally. As it takes a start, the child explores and discovers and enjoys it all. They experiment and learn as they participate in various group activities. They discover new words and associate them with things. They sing along and dance along and learn to follow instructions. They ‘play’ and learn the logic of ‘cause and effect’. They enjoy the puppets and learn to emote and express. They build their motor skills as they scribble, draw, fold, dab and stick. They make a line or take turns and develop social skills. Learning is never limited to the classroom. It’s a guided process. It’s a mapped methodology.

As a parent, you can be an enormous help by supporting our methodology. Your involvement is equally important. What seems to you an aimless scribble may be turned into a ‘success’ by appreciating the effort and guiding the child further. Show your praise and encouragement. Let her/him take pride in little new discoveries. This will open up the world of imagination and creativity.

Children have amazing ability to grasp and adapt to new concepts. You’ll notice new changes soon. You’ll be delighted to witness your little one marching ahead on the road to discovery. Cherish it!

KITE School | Mira Road | New Academic Session Begins

KITE School welcomes you all to the new academic session 2013-2014.
We are all geared up with new exciting projects, new energies, new teaching tools and sustained dream!
Here is our opening schedule:

Building A Nation's Character

We are witnessing increasing violence all around. This disturbing trend is affecting our life to the core and changing our priorities. It is re-enforcing the need to carefully imbibe the relevant social values and ethics in our education system and curriculum. At KITE School we introspect and review the study pattern and activities periodically. It is important to understand that value-education must start right from the preschool days. Child’s behaviour pattern should be monitored and should be corrected, if needed. Here ‘correction’ does not mean aggression. Parents should work towards attaining desired results with affectionate and tender training. More importantly, we should inculcate social and human values in children not by preaching or ‘teaching’ but rather by showing them in our daily life interactions. Children observe and learn and internalize.

When children watch adults’ behaviour, they take it as approved social norm, they take it as a model in their sub-conscious mind. Therefore various models, derived from ‘watching’ different day to day situations, accumulate in the sub-conscious and a certain character starts building up in the child’s personality. Therefore it is utmost important that we behave consciously in front of our children. It is also equally important that we do not expose our children to inappropriate situations, scenes and media. We need to set proper example, we need to provide proper paradigm.

Every incident leaves a mark, every experience leaves an imprint. This is how children develop sense of truth, equality, empathy, justice and commitment. This is how society gets healthy and happy. This is how a nation’s character is built. This is how we get sons and daughters who make us proud!

Learn How Children Learn

Festive season is in full bloom now. Navratri celebrations are just concluded. The music and rhythm of Garbas and dandiyas are still ringing in the atmosphere. Dassera is being celebrated today and Eid is just around the corner. Diwali and Christmas are not far behind. 

Festivals break the routine. Festivals bring joy. Festivals are universal stress-busters. And, I think, learning process should be exactly that… a life-long stress-buster … a festival forever!

Learning would be a festival forever… if we remove the burden from it, if it seems all play, if it is accepted as a gift, if it brightens relationships, if it brings families together, if it adds something new every time with the familiar, if it inspires, if it involves, if it is an endless celebration!

And when it happens that way, children learn. Children explore and learn from experiences. Children observe and learn by imitating. Children learn by memorizing and recall. If this process is set right then overall development is set into motion.

Children will learn well if adults learn about how small children learn.

Wishing you joyous celebrations!    

Learning From The Spirit Of Festivals

Festive season has already begun and one can hear the drums welcoming Maharashtra’s favourite Ganapati Bappa at the doorstep. And the worst fear of drought is swept away with enough downpours lately. So, there is relief, there is joy, there is celebration.

Let me wish you all a very happy and blissful festive season. Festivals have this inherent feeling of joy and excitement. And that is the soul of the process of true learning. I genuinely think that learning is a lifelong festival. All that we yearn in learning is embedded in the spirit of festivals… social values, joy of giving, celebration of life, knowing, sharing, helping, enjoying, happiness and bliss.

Let the child be a part of festivals. And that should not be limited to shopping only. Children learn a great deal through participation. Make the child a part of the whole process… explain little things, answer the queries—no matter how trivial they seem, interact and ask about his/her reactions…

Children are never too small to learn!!!

Child's Brain Building: Parents Have A Big Role To Play

A mom of a playgroup child told me last week how happy she is to notice the numerous learnings her child has picked up so soon. She is also happy to see the new positive changes in her child. We often get such reactions and compliments. And, of course, it reinforces our faith in our methodology. But today I would like to share the next step in the process of ‘Brain Building’ of your child.

Let us figure it out. A child is born with over 100 billion or 10000 crores brain cells or neurons – sixteen times the world population! And each of these cells is capable of making over 15000 connections. Through these ‘connections’ a child internalizes the experiences and acquires new learnings. Now, what should be our role? 

Obviously, learnings should be preserved and the stock should grow. Interestingly this stock does NOT grow automatically like a savings bank account. It will rather vanish if not strengthened. Yes, if they are not used, the learning pathways are obliterated. This is called the “use it or lose it” principle.

This is what you should be doing – helping the child to use a ‘connection’ repeatedly so that it becomes permanent in the brain. Repeat and revise what your child is learning at school. Please note that we are not promoting rote-learning. It should not be memorizing by repetition, it should be understanding, perceiving and comprehending by revision.  And it should be fun. No stress, no strain. A regular routine will help a long way.

Sensory learnings, activity-centric knowledge and words-phrases based language connections should be inculcated in the early years. Parents have a big role to play in this. You’ll be happy for doing this as you’ll proudly see your little one blooming. 

As they say, ‘the first years last forever’.