Shapes and colours - A photo story

On Monday morning, as I was leaving for work, my daughter was upset and said, “Amma, when are your holidays? You are never with me”. I reminded her that Sunday was a holiday and we were together. She replied, “No, you did not do drawing or colouring with me”. That is when I realised, over the past three weekends, our time was spent attending family functions and temple visits. Though we were together all the time, her version of holidays was doing something exclusively with her. Yesterday, after returning from work, I tried out a Montessori activity I had once seen in a video. A simple activity were both of us were involved and enjoyed.

We chose ice-cream sticks and wooden cutlery, white sheet, crayons and black pen. I was surprised to find so many different types of ice‑cream sticks in my collection!!

I showed her how to colour ice-cream sticks with crayons.

While she coloured the sticks, I drew outline of the shapes and added colours to it. 

Outlines are ready.

Filling colours into outlines, with matching colours being added on the ice-cream sticks.

Lost in colouring.

Our masterpiece is ready!!

She placed the sticks on the coloured shapes.

Finally, she brought colours and shapes together. Learning through playing.

PC: Paramesha. M 

Balancing Work, Parenting, and Creativity

Children seek parental attention every day, especially from their mothers. As working parents, we are constantly balancing professional and parenting responsibilities. I had not sketched in a long time, so I picked up my sketch book, while Shloka, my daughter, was busy with her playdough. The moment she saw me with my book, she came running and said, ‘Amma I will draw’. I told her, ‘You draw in your book, and I will draw in mine’. She was not convinced; she wanted my book. She sat beside me while I browsed my Pinterest folder for drawing ideas. A handprint doodle came up randomly, and it occurred to me, why not draw Shloka’s handprint?

I asked her to place her hand in my sketch book, and she was thrilled. I traced her hand outline, and rest of the time she hovered around me, curious to see what I will do next with the outline of her hand. I doodled it. She was excited that Amma is doing something connected to her. She observed me closely. This was not only about sketching, but it was also about sharing a moment with my daughter, my creativity meeting her curiosity. 

The next day, I traced her footprint. As before, she was excited and followed me closely. Soon, she would tell me to put my hand on her book and try to make outlines of my hand.

Parenting articles suggest involving children in your daily activities, so they learn by doing. This simple activity gave me space to sketch while keeping her engaged. Sometimes children may join in, sometimes they may make a mess, but either way, they are learning.

Reading The Rabbit Listened with My Daughter

The Rabbit Listened is a lovely pictorial children’s book by Cori Doerrfeld. My sister shared a PDF version of the book, and when I began reading it on my laptop, my 2.5-year-old daughter joined in. So, I read it aloud to her and explained as we went along. She connected with the illustrations; it was wonderful to see her expressions change along with the little protagonist Taylor’s emotions. The illustrations are simple and gentle. Taylor reminded me of my nephew Atharva, who is always up to building something. I have read books earlier to my daughter, but this book in particular made me understand how deeply children can feel and understand stories.

The story is about little Taylor, who decides to build a structure that is new and amazing. After he builds it, unfortunately, it collapses when birds fly near it. He feels heartbroken. Different animals visit Taylor and try to comfort him in their own ways. For instance, the chicken nudges him to talk about it, bear says, ‘let’s shout about it,’ elephant suggests rebuilding if he remembers it, kangaroo wants to clean up, hyena says, ‘let’s laugh about it,’ and the snake suggests destroying someone else’s creation! But Taylor did not feel like doing any of these things, so none of the animals stayed, they all left. Taylor was left feeling sad and alone.

Then came the rabbit. He did not talk, he simply sat beside Taylor, close enough until Taylor could feel the rabbit’s warmth. Taylor asks the rabbit to stay by his side, and slowly Taylor starts talking, shouting, and laughing. Eventually, Taylor wishes to build again. The rabbit just listened and stayed by his side.

The story conveys that simply being present and listening can be enough to help someone feel better. It also shows that everyone’s feelings are important and can vary. Maybe the reactions of the hyena, elephant, kangaroo, chicken, and bear reflect their personalities.

For adults, the story may seem simple, but if we look deeper, it’s about being there for someone who is upset. For children, Taylor’s emotions are relatable, they may feel like he is one of them. They learn that being present for someone is a meaningful form of support and showing empathy. Children’s books or Aesop’s fables for that matter, all of them teach us how to live, behave or advocate morals through storytelling. These stories help shape good citizens out of young children.

Overall, this story reminds us that simply being present and listening can be enough to help someone feel better. Never mind if you are an adult, go ahead and read it. It takes hardly 10 minutes but can bring joy and comfort that lasts much longer.

Sometimes, listening matters more than words!