Your April cover story detailing creative summer options for active children was useful and relevant (PW April). I especially enjoyed the DIY section which featured the socially purposive activity of building bird feeders and bird baths, and plogging which combines jogging with picking up litter.
Also thank you for advocating that boredom is good for children as it boosts their creativity and cognitive development. In today’s intensively competitive world, parents feel it’s their duty to enroll children in as many summer activity camps as possible to learn academic, sports, music and sundry other life skills.
Unfortunately this tendency of parents to cram their children’s summer holidays with activities is stressing them out instead of preparing them for success in life. After a action-packed school year, children deserve some quiet time for introspection. Summer holidays should be a time of rest, leisure, outdoor games and boredom as well!
Sumita Raghupathi
Chennai
Sports activities recommendation
Thank you for your cover story ‘Creative summer options for active children’ (PW April). As a parent who has spent 13 summers with her child, I know how difficult it is to keep children occupied and entertained during the two-month summer holidays. Most frighteningly, it’s difficult for parents to get children off television and digital devices and participate in non-digital indoor and outdoor activities.
From personal experience, I believe encouraging children to participate in sports activities during the summer break is a great way to expend excess energy and keep children healthy, as well as help them discover a new sport. A friend of mine, whose son was training as a swimmer, enrolled him in a tennis coaching class last summer, and he discovered that his passion was tennis rather than swimming. He is now playing and winning local tennis tournaments.
Summer holidays should also be a time for family bonding. It could be a summer vacation, weekend getaway or just parents taking few days off to spend time with children.
Sreelatha Muniraju
Coimbatore
Excellent child safety guidelines
The column by Dr. Gita Mathai on making homes child-safe was excellent (PW April). I am a teacher in a primary school in Bangalore and vividly remember some years ago reading about a three-year-old child who died when a television set fell on him at home. It was a tragic accident.
I remember inviting our school parents to counsel them about making their homes child-safe. I am so glad that Dr. Mathai has given a detailed list of common household safety hazards and dangers. Especially now that summer holidays have begun, parents need to take special care to make their homes child-safe to prevent accidents.
Preethi Reddy
Bangalore
Kidzone contribution
My children loved your new Kidzone feature (PW April), especially the short story and Fritzee’s Fact File. Can children contribute to this section? Please advise.
Dina Rosario
Mangalore
Yes children can contribute to the Short Story section. Please email the short story (600 words) to [email protected] — Editor
Environment conservation imperative
We are in the grip of a long, cruel, hot summer even as citizens face water shortages and cope with rising vehicular pollution. Many of our cities are becoming uninhabitable. We need to educate children about sustainable living, improving the green cover, waste recycling and water conservation.
As a parenting magazine, I think you need to strongly advocate the cause of green parenting by introducing a section on natural living. Sensitising parents to the impending environment disaster is not a choice but an imperative!
Ananya Rajkumar
Bangalore
