The most natural thing about being a parent is that you want to do the best within your possibilities for your kids. Whether it is about buying that expensive toy, taking a trip to that exotic amusement park or stocking those organic vegetables for your kids, you want to stretch yourself to give your kids the childhood they will cherish.
While this is commendable but here is another secret which even though we all know, we try to overlook it all the time. Children are happiest with the simplest, cheapest and the most effortless of activities.
So, let's enlist five of the most simple things that you must do with your children that will not only make them wonder at the marvels of the world but will also ensure happy memories for a lifetime to come.
1. Grow a vegetable together: In our busy lives that are led with a clock work precision little do we realise that we are teaching our young kids almost nothing about where real food comes from. Do not let your kids believe that food comes from refrigerator. Teach them the basics of the mother earth and get down and dirty with them. Buy a few gardening pots, soil and seeds and plant a few veggies with them.
Whether it’s a bell pepper, an aubergine, lady finger, tomato or a lemon plant involve your child in every stage from swing the seed to watering the soil, to watching the first tiny shoots sprout to nurturing the plant and then waiting for its first fruit to show up. The magical stages will leave your kids with wonder and awe at their ability to grow their own food.
And tell us, is there anything more sweet that the freshly squeezed lemonade that came from the fattest and juiciest lemon you planted with your kids? Did we say, do not forget to take a picture of your kid with their first fruit of labour. It’s a memory to cherish for a lifetime.
2. Scent of Nani/Dadi/Ma's kitchen: What are your happiest childhood memories? My most memorable moments from childhood include that delicious aroma of ghee wafting from my dadi’s kitchen as she labored over her special chane ki dal ka halwa that she used to make for us as kids. Many years and many culinary adventures in some of the world’s finest kitchen too have not been able to match the potent taste and love-laden in that spoonfuls of halwa that dadi served us.
Create these special memories for your kids too. If you have either set of grandparents near to you then ask them to make that one special dish you’re the kids every once in a while that the kids will remember as their grandmom’s specialty created for them. Food and nostalgia, when combined together, is one of the most powerful memories to cherish.
3. Feed the birds:: Kids during their toddler years are most impressionable. How lovely it will be then, to instill values such as love, compassion and caring for meek beings in them early on. If this sounds like more of a chapter from the moral science book, then wait to hear how easy it can actually be to do.
Break the monotony of the predictable playground run in the evenings and set aside a portion of an evening to feed the birds. And no you don’t have to go to an expensive far-flung zoo to do that. Just ride up your terrace and spread some grains and put some water for birds to have. When you do this regularly, the birds with their strong instincts will start flocking you as soon as they spot you. Involve your kid in the routine and watch them in glee as they feed the birds.
When you do this regularly, the birds with their strong instincts will start flocking you as soon as they spot you. Involve your kid in the routine and watch them in glee as they feed the birds.
4. Visit an observatory: How wonderfully innocent are the first five years of life when kids living in their own little worlds believe that this is all that exists in the universe? Introduce them to the wonders of the world that we live in by taking them to an observatory.
Show them the telescope and let them view the sky in its infinite bounty, the stars and the moon and explain the concept of planet and solar system. They may not understand much beyond the joys of moon and star spotting but their little minds will definitely wonder about the miracles in the sky. The expression on their faces will be priceless.
5. Create a memory box: Ask your little ones to pick up their favourite things from every holiday, mall outing or even a trip to the park and collect them in a scrapbook. Your baby’s first movie ticket, the sea shells picked from a beach holiday, a peacock feather from the trip to a wild life park – preserve them together and every once in a while sit down with your kids to talk about this memorabilia.
While 3-5-year-olds may not be able to describe so much but they will definitely love it if you pick out a pair of tiny socks and say this is the first pair of socks you wore when you came home from the hospital. This memory scrapbook will be one of their most treasured possessions growing up.
Also Read: 30 brilliant ways to make your child truly clever!
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[All images courtesy: Pixabay]
