Gabby loves playing with her dough. It comes in different colors, texture and consistency, shapes, sizes, scents. I allow her to play with them for a longer period of time rather than play with her dolls and toy kitchen set. Brain stimulating activities allow children to explore their creative skills. With clay or dough, they use their imagination to create and form something out of it, like a flower, an animal, a structure, etc. Instead of watching too much TV, I encourage her to play more with educational toys and activities such as this.
Character formation and development a.k.a. discipline should start at a young age. A solid foundation for sound and complete spiritual, mental, physical and emotional aspects make up the character in a child. Just like sowing and reaping, right? If you are a screamer, you raise a screamer. If you are violent, you raise a violent child. If you feed them too much TV, you raise a dull child. There have been studies showing the adverse effect of too much TV viewing time on children. It makes a child dull and lazy therefore are less expressive yet too emotional! Uh-oh. This is not good. Imagine your child 20 years from now, totally pissed off or was hurt by someone, he wanted to shout and confront that person. However, since he is not used to expressing himself well, kept it to himself. Then ended up throwing things around, or letting the heat off drinking at a bar, or loosing control by spending all his money on a shopping spree, or worst is to hit or punch that person right on the face. Worst, he resorts to drugs.
TV distorts their sense of reality. Therefore I have opted to schedule and shorten her TV/DVD viewing time to at least an hour a day even if it also means no TV for me. I choose the right program and/or movie for her and watch it together. Remember, kids are like a sponge. They absorb everything and anything they see and hear. They imitate us, their parents, for we are the most influential people in our child's life. Indeed, we have a vital responsibility and duty on our shoulders in raising intelligent and emotionally complete children who will be contributing members of our society in the future. Let's be Smart Parents, start now!
