Introduce your child to Green life and TLC

The  lives of young parents is not easy these days.  Every day is a day of war in many ways, nurturing the child or children with the right food, right books, right toys or play materials and with the right people and simultaneously making time to be with the young toddlers are the biggest challenges. It is more difficult when both parents are working and live in a single unit family of three or four.  I am speaking about the parents who are raising children aged 3 to 12 years old.  This age is important to build the foundation for the type of child you want to see in the coming days.  The influence of family practices and inner culture, surroundings and family relations among the members are all contributing factors in shaping the future of a child.  This is the time to introduce the child with life – ethics and essentials without which growing up will not be complete.  At the very first step to life, the child should be introduced with soil, water and plants (maati, pani, gach, pakhi too).  This is required to help the child realise that we need to value these to live and to help let others live. Let your child start this journey as early as two or three, or even before!

But how do you go about doing this? Easy; do it naturally.  Take him/her to any plant nearby and tell him/her about the leaves, flowers, soil and water. Tell the story of plants and flowers in line with our lives. Give the liveliness that plants may lack at first sight and evoke images of a family of trees. Make the story real and develop real relations. Tell them how the leaves are the child of the plant and the flowers are the smiling faces!The branches are brothers and sisters and the neighbouring plants are the uncles, aunts and cousins. And the big trees are the grandpa and granny! Associate the story with our lives and make them understand the value of relationship in life. Involve them in daily care of these.  Teach them how to dig the soil, give a pinch of fertilizer and show them how to pour water on the soil.  Tell your child why damaging or squeezing of a leave or a branch hurts the mother tree and the effect of any bad touches.  With these learning, the child will grow better and this will be long lasting. Thus a journey of love and responsibility will begin. 

To develop the love for nature, it will also be necessary to keep your child away from any marathon TV watching and save his/her mind from the computer affect, both of which are not good means of a healthy growth.  We often push our children to these without understanding the long term effect on their lives.  A child should start his/her life with books – begin with the picture book and rhymes , make it a habit of reading and with the time he/she will grow his/her own choice, but give the right books to him/her. Please let him/her touch and speak to the plants every day as well.  

I would request our young parents to take your child(ren) to the everyday essential market i.e. kacha bazar/super shops or wherever you go for your purchase. Show them the items and name them. It is always better to show the real thingsthan showing the images!   Do not keep the learning limited to only plants… fruits – vegetables, fishes  … spread to other items (only not to the hanging meat pieces, this would be terrible to see in early life).  Take your child to the nearby park – or at least to the nearby nurseries where s/he will be able to see the gifts of nature.  Don't forget to tell him/her the value of water and why we need to conserve our trees &forest and water. Ask your relatives to present books, plants and flowers on your child's birthday and do the same.  Create a small garden for your child by naming that after him/her and transfer the ownership with rules and responsibilities.  We often hear the complaint of young parents and their frustrations of not being able to manage the young rebel. Teach the good things of life… life is not always so frustrating. We need to show the love to others first and make our children learn that.