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

I will choose to define Covid era as anything after 20 March 2020. Morning Glorie, daycare in South City 1, Gurgaon, had its doors open to children till about noon on the 20th, after which our doors were shut as a lockdown was announced. At that point, it was a blow to many parents, I concede. We had parents asking us when daycare was going to open, as they were struggling with childcare along with work - some parents did not have the luxury of being in industries with a work from home option.  Yet, there was nothing we could do at that time - government guidelines and advisories were to keep daycares closed. I should know, I would tweet to the authorities over and and over till they reverted.  Over time, different scenarios panned out. 1. Some parents lost their jobs. 2. Some managed at home with both partners taking turns between childcare and work from home, in addition to managing households. 3. Some families called grandparents over. 4. Some families moved back to their hometowns.

A while back, we had done a post on Toddler Milestones and Language Development.  In this post, we will more specifically examine the role which stories play at this crucial stage in a toddler's life. Language development can broadly be divided into two parts. Comprehension Language development in children starts with understanding or comprehending what is being communicated, and this starts as early as the fetus stage of life. Children can listen to sounds before they are even born, and they learn to distinguish the different sounds around them in the first couple of months of their life. Over time, they begin to understand the exact message that is being communicated to them through the medium of speech in the language which is being used at home. Which is why children as young as 2 to 3 months and certainly around 6 to 7 months seem to understand what their parents or other caregivers around them are saying. Speech Speech is the next step involved in language development, and ty

I completed my primary education from a convent school in a small town. There was tremendous focus on good and polite behavior. I remember learning how to use both please and excuse me as a part of our regular conversation. Excuse me miss, may I drink water please? Excuse me, is this seat taken? Could you pass me the salt please.  Fast forward to today - now, we are the ones in the driver's seat when it comes to raising kids. There seems to be a conscious effort on our part to follow a somewhat different approach from what our parents did raising us. To right what we thought was wrong? To keep up with changing times? Probably a bit of both. However, where does that leave terms like excuse me and please? And how do children use them these days? Excuse Me When it comes to the use of Excuse Me, there are some interesting observations, at least basis my experience with kids over the last ten years at our daycare in South City 1 , and more so now that we have kids coming in not only fro

I am an avid F.R.I.E.N.D.S fan. I first watched that series as a teenager in school, and have since watched the entire series like a 100 times. Ok. Maybe I exaggerate a little. But I am sure that my mom (who is also my partner at Morning Glorie , Daycare and Play school in Gurgaon) will whole heartedly say that I obsess a tad too much with the series. So there was this one episode, in season 9 I think, where Ross and Rachel are looking for a nanny for their daughter Emma, and in comes Sandy, who was this amazing nanny, with a bunch of references, and who was really really good with the kids. But, for Ross, what ended up being more important was the fact that he was a man. Now first up, I have to say, I found it amazingly wonderful, that in the west, early childhood education as well as care could be taken care of by the same person - not taking into consideration the gender of the person. Sandy was not just a nanny, who would feed Emma, or change her diapers, he was also part of his pr

Public Speaking. The moment you read these two words in the context of a child, it appears to become a heavy concept. After all, why should this be important for a 2 year old, or even a 5 year old, fundamentally speaking? Agreed that in due course these are important skills to acquire, but why should that be the case at this age? Bear with me, as I put across my point of view here. When Morning Glorie's physical premises were open (I am talking about both our preschool and daycare in South City 1 , Gurgaon), we prided ourselves on being absolutely screen free for the children. No smart boards, no tv viewing, no mobile videos! Notwithstanding the fact that this could be extremely tough for us caregivers and educators at times, we felt that this was crucial for the development of children across all ages. For the toddlers, this facilitated language development , and for the older ones, it ensured that social skills and communication were the focus points. After all, when there were n

Winter is coming! Or well, by Indian standards, it's already here in certain parts of the country. In Gurugram, where I stay, you can already see people in light jackets, and the kids can already be seen in sweaters. And you know what that means. It's soup season! 😃. And today we are here to share the Morning Glorie special! Yes, this is our tried and tested vegetable soup recipe, in use since 2011, loved by kids from 6 months to 10 years. Might I add that this was one dish we were not allowed to skip from the daycare (our daycare in South City 1 , Gurgaon) menu in any week. The soup, along with pasta/noodles was the Friday lunch special. It was one of the first meals (and wholesome to the boot) for our creche babies (when they started on solid food), and for the older lot it was just the most anticipated meal of the week. Even if the daycare centre in South City 1 was closed on a Friday for any reason, this meal had to be cooked on Thursday. Of course there could be some exce

Some research says that distinguishing sounds happens as early as the fetus stage - that is why it is common practice to speak to your baby even while they are in your womb. Even when a baby is born, they react to sounds, are able to follow their favourite people's voice, and as they start growing up are able to react to WHAT you are speaking. This is part of development of receptive language abilities. This is also why it is often said that Thought is faster than speech This is because, while a child is able to comprehend what they are hearing, they begin to express themselves verbally only around 11 months of age at the earliest. And do not worry, for some kids it happens earlier, for some kids it may take some time. Language development is a process, and our experience with our toddlers in creche, in preschool, and even in online preschool classes has taught us a lot, and we would like to share some tips on that LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT - SOME TIPS * Encourage your child to speak *