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The Diverse Harvest Festivals in India – a closer look

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The Diverse Harvest Festivals in India – a closer look

With the harvest festivals like Makar Sankranti, Bihu, Lohri and Pongal right around the corner, we are all excited to see what this harvest season has in store for us. We were taught that these harvest festivals are one of the most fun-filled but equally important festivals for the farmers across India.

Therefore, it is our duty to educate our kids about these harvest festivals and their significance in India. This will be a fun-filled opportunity for them to see how these festivals are celebrated and why they are important.

Here are some ways that people celebrate these harvest festivals across India:

Pongal O Pongal!

Pongal is one of the most celebrated festivals in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is a 4 day long festival during the season when rice, turmeric, sugar-cane and other cereals are harvested. Typically, the celebrations consists of boiling rice in an earthen pot and making a sweet dish out of it, in the process allowing the rice to boil out of the pot while the people shout ‘Pongal O Pongal’.

The word Pongal means ‘to boil’ in Tamil. The first day is celebrated as Bhogi where useless house articles are thrown in the pyre and burnt.

The second day is when the rice is boiled in a pot outside of the house accompanied by sugarcane and other sweets for consumption. [Read more…]

Tips for potty training in toddlers

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The Parenthood

Being a parent for the first time is an experience one is unlikely to forget in a hurry. Raising a child, as parents soon find out, with sleeplessness and having to deal with illness, is a full-time job. Probably the concept 24×7 was coined by a young mother raising her child single-handedly. A young mother is easy to spot – she is that haggard looking individual, with dark circles under her eyes and who tends to doze off in the middle of a conversation.

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A helping hand

If one is lucky enough, having one’s partner at hand to share some of the parental duties is a boon. Having one’s parents living with or even having them on a short visit is even better. Your mother knows how best to soothe a wailing infant, while your father will stay by your bedside to lend you the strength and extend moral support you so desperately seek.

 

A New Challenge

You heave a sigh of relief when the difficult initial months are over, only to be confronted by a new challenge – potty-training your child. This is the single most difficult challenge parents face with its potential to restrict your mobility and the need to clean-up often. The high cost of diapers and the anxiety to get your child to do what other children are already doing further weigh you down.

[Read more…]

The Importance of Self Directed Play in Toddlers

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Consider the following things and how important they are in your life.

  • Successfully finishing a meeting and coming closer to winning the contract.
  • Having close buddies that you can trust with your life
  • Getting the best deal out of your interior decorator/land contractor or other similar expensive deals
  • Having a great relationship with your parents and siblings

The above pointers are largely broad generalizations, but I’m sure you understand the gist of it.

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[Read more…]

Can you imagine your toddler riding a bicycle?

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All this while Indian parents have been used to buying their 1-year old a tri-cycle. First they (the parent) will push the tricycle and then the toddler will try and start pedalling. The tricycle teaches the baby to learn to pedal and steer, but poses a pretty serious risk of tipping over when the toddler goes too fast, turns or tries to get off. This causes injury, pain and definitely doesn’t prepare the child for the bicycle.

Later, at around four years of age parents buy their child a bicycle with trainer wheels. What do the trainer wheels do? If you actually think of it, they actually impede the process of learning balance. The child becomes used to the fact that he / she has four wheels, and focusses on pedalling and steering. After a while, the parent says, ‘ok, let’s remove one wheel’ and that’s when falls and bruises start! Some children get so scared of falling that they fail to learn an easy and basic gross motor skill of balance.

Brilrider, India’s first balance bike has turned this concept of learning balance on its head. Come Brilrider, the good-old tricycle may be passé, as parents can start their children off on this cool bicycle as soon as their baby can walk stably!

Yes, that’s normally as early as 13-18 months or sometimes even earlier. Brilrider’s exceptional design, with low centre of gravity allows the seat to go as low as 11” from the floor and has no pedals. This, minimal and simplistic design helps toddlers place their feet firmly on the ground and start walking with their new balance bike.

As the child progresses, he becomes more confident and starts walking faster with the Brilrider. Children love the Brilrider as it is extremely light (Much lighter than tricycles and 48% lighter than other bicycles in the category) and easy to handle.

Since there is no handle-bar limiter, the probability of injury due to the handle bar getting wedged against the chest or stomach is virtually zero. As the toddler gets more and more confident, they start running and then slowly lifting their feet off the ground and balancing.

This means children as young as 3 years can actually start balancing without the need for tricycles or trainer wheels. The best part about Brilrider is that falls are greatly minimized as children can put their feet firmly on the ground at the slightest feeling of doubt or lack of confidence.

If you start an older kid (probably 3-4 years of age) on Brilrider, you will see that some of them may start balancing in a matter of weeks or even days.

The Brilrider also has moulded footrests as part of the body so children can rest their feet up and zip away once they get confident! Learning to ride a bicycle will never be the same again thanks to the Brilrider, and it’s great for kids from 1-5 years of age.

The following is our first video sent by happy parents of Rohan- a 4.5 year-old child. Rohan had never balanced a 2-wheeler before, but learnt to balance in just over 3 days with his new Brilrider. Watch him having a blast with his Brilrider in this video.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcLAK-dfOHk

To buy the Brilrider please visit www.brilindia.com