My son is now getting to the age where he is getting super bored staying in the house with mommy. It is cold outside so, not many options to go out and play. He got the maximum out of his toys. How many new toys can we buy? He loves books but I cannot ask him to read books all day. I cannot spend the whole day with him as I am working from home. So, what are my options?
We started looking around for day care centers and pre schools. I would probaly prefer a day care center as it is less structured and more free play. So, while I was looking around for these, I started wondering.. when me and my brother were kids, we stayed with our ammamma (grandma) when our parents went to work. We went to school when we were 3.5 yrs old. Did we get bored at home? What did we play? Then again, we grew up in a place where we could go out an play any day of the year. It did get hot in summers but we still played outside in the evenings. There were so many people around all the time. We went to visit people with our grandma. My son does not have all that. I also think that kids these days are much smarter than us. They learn very quickly and need more input and stimulation.
But, I want my son to enjoy these years before he gets into school. These years are precious. I do not want a very tight structure for him and I want him to learn to share and play with other kids and enjoy. So, we decided day care is a better option than pre school. The day care centers I saw also teach kids some reading and writing and give them age appropriate activities. I liked them.
Even though I am all for sending him to day care, I keep wondering how I can encourage him to talk Telugu at home. I definitely do not want him to forget his mother tongue. In fact I am planning to teach him reading and writing Telugu. Will I be able to do that? Will I be able to make him understand how good our language and culture is? I am planning to get a job. So, will I have the time to teach him all this and make it fun for him? I do not know. All I know is I want to create an interest in him to learn everything. I know every Indian family who is living abroad faces similar situations and challenges and they have been successful in teaching the kids Indian culture and language etc.. I just hope I can do it too.
Discover more from The Beat in My Heart
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
My mother’s sister spoke to her son only in her mother tongue, although everywhere else he spoke and heard English. He is 24 now and mixes with relatives in India with no difficulty at all.
She used to talk a lot to him, and he knows more about everybody in the family than many of us here in India do 🙂
She also taught him about Indian mythology… but here he is a little confused, because whenever he comes to India, he finds people here are willing to freely discuss our epics while he has been taught this was unacceptable, Gods could do no wrong… I think the only problem with a single person teaching everything is that the child does not get many other points of views. Interacting with others, with slightly different points of views, and reading about various cultures might help there.
Well, I am not the only one to speak to my son in Telugu. My husband teaches him a lot too. In fact sometimes he insists more about the language. So, I have some help. 🙂