We all strive to provide the best of everything to our children. From feeding them in the finest restaurants in the city to getting them admitted to the best CBSE School in Ahmedabad, we make sure not to make a compromise when it comes to nurturing them. However, when it comes to building a connection with them, our dilemma often rules us.

Here are some tips that will help you overcome the dilemma and help in parenting:

Be aware of your Hot Buttons and Strengths.
The more you sensitize and understand reactions and emotions, the better you’ll be able to manage your behavior the next time a “situation” occurs. We have fewer parental regrets when we respond thoughtfully.

Take Good Care of Yourself!
Parents at times are tired, stressed, overwhelmed and overworked. It is tough under these circumstances to respond as the caring, loving parent you are. The simplest and most effective way of taking care of yourself is by focusing on your breathing. As you breathe deeply and calmly, you start a healing process that affects your body, mind and spirit.

Be a Model for your Children.
Children learn from what we do, not from what we say. If you want them to have strong self-esteem, be sure that yours is even stronger. If you want them to be loving & kind, be the same yourself. If you want them to take responsibility for their actions, be responsible in your own life.

Each Child is Special.
As it seems, each child possesses unique qualities, characters, and spirits. We should adapt our behavior as per the child’s uniqueness and individuality to have a better relationship with them.

Turn your Problems into Learning Opportunities.
Regardless of their age, kids can get involved in offering solutions to problems. As maturity is a gradual process, we need to provide them with as many opportunities as possible.

Set Limits.
Limits are necessary for kids to understand the extent to which they should pursue their actions. It is like a fence that helps children learn that it is safe to play in the yard. Adults should put up these fences, as initially, children are too young and inexperienced to do it by themselves.

Pen Down the House Rules.
House rules for a well-functioning family act similar to job descriptions and organizational policies for successful companies. By planning, we can include every family member in the decision making and reduce daily stress.

Envision the family you want.
How do you want your children to behave? What do you expect from yourself? How do you want your home to look? What kind of future do you want? The more you envision and design the desired outcome, the more likely it is to happen.

Opportunitize.
Every time you are with your children, you can appreciate them, tell them how much you love them and how happy you are to have them as a part of your life. A touch, a look, a gesture or a word can express the deep caring and connection you have with them.

Parenting is a process, where your child as well as you, both learn. The role of your child being in the best CBSE School in Ahmedabad will be an add-on for sure. So, keep an eye on each of your actions and reactions and enjoy the beautiful journey.

We all crave to live the life before COVID. The empty premises have given mental and financial downfall to everyone. Schools, businesses, restaurants, malls & offices, each want to overcome this new normal and resume the old normal. However, the possibility of this will be when we all come together and fight for our freedom from COVID.  

Government is taking a lot of steps towards awareness of COVID and vaccination. As responsible citizens, let us cooperate with the authority and worked towards the sole goal, that is normalizing the situation.  

Reports reveal that post-vaccination COVID has helped an individual stay safe from the severe effects of the disease and has shown no records of mortality. Hence, we appeal all our parents to get fully vaccinated before the third wave dives in. 

Thus, to encourage vaccination, we, being one of the Top CBSE Schools in Ahmedabad India, declare a campaign, ‘#Vaccination4Education’. By this campaign, we request all our parents to get vaccinated with both doses by considering it a priority. All the classes, in which all the parents will get fully vaccinated on or before 31st October 2021, will get a fee waiver of 5% in the annual fees. The objective of incentivizing the campaign is to motivate our parents to take the vaccine. 

So, roll your sleeves and join our campaign #Vaccination4Education. Remember, a healthy you will shield the health of your child from COVID.  

Parents are requested to upload their vaccination certificate once they are fully vaccinated. The link to upload the vaccine certificate is already sent to our parents and you can check the statistics on http://zmx.360.myftpupload.com/vaccination4education-campaign

Let us all work to get everything back in the routine. 

Let us all come forward and take the vaccine. 

The year 2020 has been a transforming year in all aspects. The pandemic made the whole world hung amidst possibilities and decisions. Changes were plentiful with the pros and cons attached to it. Everyone tried well to get through and survive the aspects of the new normal.

With innumerous experiments, education too observed a sudden change. Gradually, all CBSE Schools in Gujarat as well as worldwide adopted methods considering the new normal situation. The pandemic bought the following modifications in education.

Transition to Online Classes
The most change which the Education world has experienced is the change to the on-screen learning. So, students learn from home and save their travel time, thus have more time to perform other activities. With the drastic change in Education, teachers have been working hard to compensate classroom learning and deliver the best to their students.

Independent Learning
The principal benefit which online learning has rendered is the self-dependency to students. During the contemporary mode of schooling, they used to ask even the smallest doubts to the teachers. With the reduced number of hours and remote learning, students try to solve simple problems on their own, which further makes them use their brains more and learn better.

Online Exams
Unlike regular schooling, the way of conducting exams have changed. Routine written tests got substituted with multiple-choice questions. Teachers create an online form, of which the link is sent to the students. The students need to open the link on the prescribed time and submit the test within the allotted period. The frequency of conducting descriptive examinations, on the other hand, lessened up. Moreover, there is a specific manner to conduct such written tests, which gets proctored online by keeping the cameras on and submitting the sheets after scanning it. The questions asked in such exams are to be levelled up as compared to the class exams. Schools are also conducting open book tests for students in the crisis.

Techno-Savvy Schooling
As learning is online, teachers are obtaining every possible tool available over technology to make it more productive for students. For this, the school arranges frequent training sessions to upgrade their technical skills. Even students have thus got familiar with many software and have learned working on them. To make students ready for the classes, especially to the young learners, even parents had updated themselves technologically.

Assignment & Homework Submission
With no physical submission of assignments, all students need to submit their work online after scanning it. Students can access worksheets from the Assignment Module of MST, while Notebook Work, Videos related to the subject, Answer Keys of Assignments, and presentations can get accessed from the Files Module of MST. Further, links of study material and videos get shared over WhatsApp.

The ‘NN’ Tribute
The online transition has Nurtured Nature in many ways. From reducing the carbon footprints due to less vehicle usage to saving numerous papers, online classes are healing nature to a great extent. The ozone layer is getting cured due to less usage of transportations. Moreover, the techno transition has increased the use of computers thus reducing the number of papers. All the circulars and communication to the parents from schools, as well as tests conducted, got online. Further, students give multiple-choice questions on google forms which again helps save nature.

A Good-Bye Message
All the best English medium schools in Ahmedabad have made it a responsibility to deliver the most desirable education to their students, even when they are bound to present schooling remotely. The schools are striving the best to handle the change superbly and reduce all the ill-effects of the pandemic on education. Constant experiments by educators and feedbacks from parents are something undertaken regularly to make the new normal schooling mode more comfortable.

Let us know more about the pros and cons of virtual schooling and help us work better.

A child’s learning and cognitive development is most influenced by family. According to many studies and research, lack of quality time with family and over-use of gadgets by children and adult alike, leads to grave consequences. The impact is often noticed in social settings and class rooms.  Global Web Index report states that every Indian parent spends 2 hours and 40 minutes  on an average  daily on social media, which accounts for 40 days in year. This preoccupation of family members in gadgets creates major impact in their interpersonal relationship.

To throw light on this serious issue, we conducted an internal survey asking our teachers to suggest the best ways how our students can spend ‘quality’ time with parents.

With exams over, during this session break, fortify your bonding with your child, so that he/ she comes back to school with renewed energy and motive.

Below are some tips shared by our educators which can be easily implemented.

1- Play word games

Play word games, Atlas games, mental math games, spell check games with children around the dinner table. Life becomes fun and bonds are strengthened. This spills over to school too. I remember teaching numerous word games and activities in the classes which students could play with their parents at home.
– by Dr.Vijaya lakshmi

2- Growing green things together

Gardening is a wonderful hobby to bond families. Whether you live in an apartment, home with just a small veranda or a large bungalow, you can have fun growing green things together. It teaches responsibility and highlights the importance of taking care of the environment and also introduces a child to scientific concepts. – by Geeta Chaudhury

3- Tidy the house all together

You could choose to tidy the house all together, as a team: Any household chores can be made fun with kids. It will be fun and helps the children to learn about teamwork and leadership also. And it provides the family a chance to bond while doing something that needs to be done. – by Geeta Chaudhury

4- Reading together

I think the best way parents can share quality time with their children is by reading together. In the case of extremely young children, parents can read aloud any story. For grown up children, instead of the entire family engaged in using their mobiles, all of them can read an interesting novel. Later, they can discuss the book. It is a general tendency of parents to ask what the child enjoyed seeing in a movie. But when a book is read, the question asked is what the child learned from it. This tends to create an impression in the child’s mind that movies are fun to watch while a book is read only for the purpose of gaining knowledge. There are very few who read for entertainment. If parents are avid readers, children will also inculcate this healthy habit and avail of all the incredible benefits of reading. – by Mahafreen Jambusarwala

5- Cooking together

Making a meal or small snacks together in the evening or on Sundays will imbibe values like teamwork/distribution of work, advance preparation, sharing and empathy. – by Shaweta Bhatia

6- Ring the bell

Remember how we ring the bell at Pizza Hut when we like the meal and the service? A family can have a traditional bell in any corner of the house (easily available in Fab India) where in any member who feels like announcing something or sharing an exciting news or just to say thank you mumma/ thank you son for all your help, rings the bell to assemble together for sharing the happy times. – by Manisha Sethi

7- Play Karaoke with child

Karaoke is fun! Now that we have many apps and instrumental music available for karaoke, why can’t we make our weekends more fun? How about antakshri? New vs old? – by Manisha Sethi

8- Kabhi aage kabhi peechche!

What if we change the venue for dinner in and around the house to make it livelier? If we take a walk back to memory lane, we used to pack our meals to the parks, to the picnic spots to share it with family and friends. Can we start this once more? The place could be your terrace, balcony or even a clean park somewhere around your home!  – by Manisha Sethi

9- Be nostalgic with your child

In these holidays, become little nostalgic and make a collage with your kids of all the pleasant and happy moments that you shared together. If you wish you can frame it as well. – by Smita Jalla

10- Greetings and daily updates

Good wishes and morning pleasantries should be exchanged first thing in the morning so that the child feels confident throughout the day. Similarly, after the parents return from office, they should enquire in the evening, as to how did the child do during the day’s proceedings. This will make the child feel more secure and confident. – by Smita Jalla

11- A walk with your child

“Health is wealth”, a walk through the nature with the child in the morning should be included in day to day life. – by Smita Jalla

12- Dinner with family

Parents should ensure that dinner sessions are being held in the presence of all family members. During this the topic of discussion should be “IDEAS” and not “PERSON or EVENTS”. Also, each member of the family can be asked to share 5 good things that happened with them during the day. This will help the child to develop positivity in their outlook and have an optimistic point of view. – by Smita Jalla

13- A special Creativity day

Choose one day in a week and dedicate it to creativity. Show your art in any field. Draw, paint, craft, arrange, dressing, do make up, decorate room.
– by Tapasswini Gajjar

14- Communicate with Child

On touch screen, a swipe makes everything come alive, it proves to be magical for children and hence they get hooked easily. Older children find virtual world more comfortable than the real world as they can escape from criticism and competition. Need of the hour is to have explicit and expressive communication (eye to eye contact, a hug more often) so that they feel more emotionally secure and confident. Having meals together again is an excuse to talk and reflect on the day. – by Monika Rakundla

15- Board when they are Bored!

Rather than giving them phone or tablet to play with, sit and play board games with them like Scrabble, Pictionary, Monopoly and many more. – by Smita Jalla

16- Brain storming games with child

Some fun things that can parents can do with their children are Science DIY Kits, solve LogiQids, learn maths from Mindspark and so on. These are enjoyable for children and adults alike and can deepen their bonding. These activities are not academic but educative. Also, try school cinemas for exposing your child to value based movies – by Manan Choksi

Along with the above tips, devise your own ways of bolstering your family ties and make it a way of life !