I was always amongst the youngest in my class, and for some reason, it filled me up with a lot of pride. If you asked me why back then, I had no idea, other than maybe the fact that despite being the youngest, I could outperform my peers academically. After all, we come from the generation when performing well academically was more important than anything else.   This was true however only right up till the time I went to b-school, and realized that my batchmates, who were older and had more experience were by and large more worldly-wise than I was (not true of all for sure, there were batchmates younger still who thrived in the environment). The point is, I eventually reached a stage where I felt that it was important to gain more experience before being thrown at the deep end of something I was potentially unprepared for, and it also gave me the chance to introspect what I had missed out during my earlier journey. For instance, while I was a good student, I missed out on a lot of e

My mother, who is also my partner at work (this may seem odd, but we do complement each other in our skillsets, this makes us a good team), takes some of the batches in our online homeschooling in India program. These are live and interactive sessions, where parent and child attend together and are part of small groups of children for guided learning sessions. She also handles communication with the parent body, something we have learned is a very crucial aspect - at times, it is our responsibility to give the right guidance to parents as much as addressing queries which they may have. So two instances happened in the last couple of months, where a concerned parent called us up to tell us that their child was only interested in some of the activities, which seemed more fun in nature, while they tended to either show disinterest, or run away from some of the other activities.  Their query to us had two dimensions -  1. Should the nature of activities be changed? 2. Were we pushing the c

A few weeks back we had done a blog post on sending your child to daycare in the Covid era . Today, we go one step ahead in that. A child is the most precious being in any parent's life. Parents spend months preparing for their arrival, and then spend the next few months to years creating the most secure and loving environment for them. However, there comes a day when the child must leave the security of that nest. For some, it happens as early as six to eight months, when they go to daycare, for some, it happens a little later, when they go to preschool. At this stage, every parent and child goes through what is known as separation anxiety. We have witnessed that over the years at Morning Glorie, preschool and daycare in Gurgaon. For any parent, this can be a particularly tense experience, handling it right can lead to a rewarding outcome. Understanding Separation Anxiety First up, it is important to understand why separation anxiety occurs. For this, we need to put ourselves in t

In a fast-paced world, everything has moved ahead. We are in a constant rush to go places and to achieve goals. This is also reflecting in developmental landmarks among children, writing skills included. At Morning Glorie, playschool in South City 1, Gurgaon, we have had parents of children as young as 2.5 years of age asking us why their child is not showing an interest in writing, and what they can do to encourage the development of this skill.  This is more apparent in our online, homeschooling program, where parents are witnessing growth day in and day out, and are active participants in the early learning journey, for possibly the first time since the concept of preschools popped up. Some important aspects - There is No One Right Age to Learn to Write The ability to write depends upon the development of fine finger motor skills. This depends in part upon the strength in the little fingers. While children around 3 to 3.5 years of age typically develop these skills, a few months eit

Morning Glorie established as a preschool and daycare in South City 1, Gurgaon almost 10 years back. Like any other institute, we had a core set of philosophies we started out with. One of the most important ones was - Gizmo Free! We have the below given poster on our premises, actively talk about it during admissions counselling, because parents do ask us whether we have smart screens, or whether we show videos or movies to kids in both preschool and daycare. I stand by us being gizmo free for kids when they are coming to us on the physical premises. These children are stepping away from home, and we are being entrusted with their social and emotional development as much as learning, if not more so. We do not need to delegate that task to screens to make our lives easier. An almost 10-year experience also tells us that children do not need screens in preschool or daycare to be engaged in any manner. The toddler age group and older children alike are able to bond over a set of games an