I Am A Successful Parent; My Daughter Calls Herself A Super Girl

I am a mother to a 3-year-old daughter, and we call her Anaisha. But she calls herself super girl :).

So here I am sharing about one of the aspects of my parenting which I think has come out well..

So I remember one day we went to DLF mall Noida and there roaming around a girl called me seeing me carrying a baby.. and asked mam can I have ten minutes of yours and I agreed..

Thank god I did because that conversation really gave me a kick ..

She was advertising about Grolier Asia and convincing us about how books play an important role in our lives, especially in this starting and learning stage. Because living in this era of technology and smartphones, where kids learn to operate smartphones on their own and very quickly, they don’t how to flip the pages of the book.

This point wide opened my eyes, and after she gave the demo, we left.

But that thought kept running in my mind, and I became worried about how I will be able to incorporate good habits in my child, how will I be able to teach her, educate her in the right manner. And one day finally I went to the market, a book store and searched for some attractive and easy storybooks for my girl.

Luckily I found a good series of Bruno and Bernie..

And right from that night, I started reading one book from that, titled ‘Bruno finds the ball. ‘I selected this book because Anaisha loves to play with the ball, and I thought that would catch her interest.

And my daughter was that time 8 months old, so while reading the book, some thoughts rushed in my mind, whether is it too early? Whether Will she be able to understand? But still, with all the confusion, I continued reading a story to such a small child is really difficult and more challenging because we have to express more with our voice tone, expressions, and body language, so I read her that story twice or thrice and realized that she was taking interest..

Next day what happened really made me happy and proud. When I was sitting in a room, and my girl pointed towards the book kept on the table..

I understood that she wants me to read the book for her. With more confidence and happiness, I read the story to her..and this story continued every day. after few days, I asked her some questions that tell me Anaisha where Bruno is, and she put her finger on that whereas the ball, and she again answered by pointing. Really I felt thrilled.

After some days, I picked another book from the series..and it continued. Anaisha really enjoyed me reading the books, and she listened to them very carefully and enthusiastically.

Two good habits which developed by reading was that ..

Firstly I made a point of reading the book before sleep..

Secondly, whenever it’s her mealtime, I read the book to her and make her eat, and I succeeded again.

Because my daughter is a fussy eater, or maybe it’s difficult for all mothers to make their kids learn eating and that too healthy food..

And I was also dealing with the same trouble at that time and seeing other kids so much addicted to mobile phones. Their mothers give them the phones and feed them, really bothered me..so the greatest achievement for me was that, that my girl only eats when I am reading the story to her..of course, there were times when I was so exhausted and didn’t really want to do this, but her enthusiasm kept me upright. And then I completed all the books I got of the series, and each and every story was so good she liked all of them. I have to read her all the books every day..sometimes, her father helped me by reading the stories to her.

After completing all the titles of the series I got some more books for her such as ‘Lion and the mouse,’ ‘mercury and the woodcutter,” Lion and the hare’ and a few more .. what I have achieved by doing this is now my three-year-old daughter is able to recite 3 stories completely. Starting with the title, reciting the story with actions, and finishing it with the moral of the story.

Another proud moment for me was when she was in her pre-nursery last year and one day when I was reading her the book Mercury and the woodcutter she suddenly asked me that Mumma I want to narrate this story to my mam and I felt ok good and the next day when the online class started. I asked her teacher that mam Anaisha wants to narrate a story, and she said yes..and my supergirl started with ‘Mercury and the Woodcutter,’ and in a minute or two, she ended up. Her teacher felt so happy and proud, and she was awestruck that she narrated her story so well with all the actions and smiles on her face. That moment I was thrilled, just hugged my girl tightly and kissed her forehead.

We all know that books are a good friend and everyone wants their children to be book friendly but it the job and responsibility of us as parents to introduce it to them and make them enjoy doing it. Some key developments of reading I found were: concentration has increased, the curiosity of what will happen next, it boosts up the imagination, and lastly, we together had a great time, it also helped in developing a stronger bond. Be it reading or any other activity; it helps in developing the overall skills of your child.

And to date, I am continuing with the same practice of reading the book before bedtime..

The current book which I am reading to her is ‘The Fox and the stork’.

After this, I would like to pick some Panchatantra stories because they will teach her how to handle real-life situations and will also inculcate some moral values.