As the pandemic restricts my child and more like him from experiencing school life, good vocabulary and concept based learning helps him more than online school As a parent, I have been fiercely against the use of screen time for children. When I had Prithvi, my 4-year-old son, I chose to not use videos beyond 15 minutes. No doubt, it was difficult as we are a nuclear couple . Our focus was on making him interactive and not dependant on screens alone. But with the Covid 19 Pandemic, the world has turned upside down. Prithvi has had no school beyond a tinny voice calling out to kids through a poor Internet connection. The ‘learning’ bit in online schooling for nursery and preparatory kids amounts to very limited knowledge. It doesn’t focus on conceptual development. So I have had to use screen time to develop his learning curve, and also to bring in a spirit of play while he learns. Youtube kids networks are often used by parents as a way of tackling the child while they ar...
My son, Prithvi, had just begun attending play school in 2019. He loved every minute of going there, after about a month of crying and sniffling when I would leave! And then came the pandemic. Covid 19 lockdowns meant I could no longer take him outdoors. My son speaks very little. He couldn’t quite express his confusion at being forced to remain inside but he felt it deeply. Our last year of living in Mumbai, where homes are small and the rent is high, made his life even more restricted. Recently we have moved to Noida, in Delhi NCR. The city provides ample space for children to step out. I have a young girl who lives with us and her primary job is to be his playmate. Missing out on school and not having kids around is unhealthy for a toddler, so I have made it a point for Soni to be around him. So while most prefer to send kids outdoors when the sun is down, we’ve taken our time to savour the sun in the day time across different parks. Soni and Prithvi make for a great park time ...