Gaurav Bhandari's Blog

Parents plan a lot for their children - education, support, hobbies, sports. In all these activities the child will perform differently based on his/her interest, skill, strength. It is the parent's duty to see the pattern in the performance of the child. This finding is extremely important at every stage in child's development but more so in the early years.   Parenting needs a lot of patience, especially if it has to be good parenting. Therefore, all activities of child's life have to be analysed with patience. Only when we see some trend emerge, we can conclude that the child loves a certain activity over the other. Is the love for the activity sustained over a period of time or was it just a passing charm? Once we understand's child's interests over many different activities over a certain period of time will we be able to help the child plan for future. This pattern finding can include judgement of just parents, other well wishers could also chip in with opin...

The decisions that impact a child's life are taken mostly by parents. While it is true that impulsive nature has its merit but a careful analysis of self, family and the child is very necessary in case we want to bring out the best in the child. Therefore, in many cases, it is our(the parent)depth of judgement which decides how the child is going to walk on the decided path.  This can be understood by a simple example. If a parent decides on the school for a child there are many factors that come in play. Distance from home, the quality of academic staff, demonstrated results, company of children are some of the choices that the parents have to navigate through. There will never be a hasty decision taken because the quality of decision impacts the child's future. Similarly, when planning for building life of a child, it is important to consider all the factors that will decide what the child will become. Mentoring, quality of support, detailed look into extra curricular acti...

  A new season, a new academic year and possibly some more changes for children. Each family has a different set of circumstances and therefore the transition from March to April is filled with different types of motions. Somewhere there must be transfers and therefore change of location. In another family, parents must be planning a change of school or a change of board. In senior students there must be talks of choosing career institutes that help children prepare for competitive exams. So the season brings a lot of changes. It also brings a lot of hope for the future because the idea of a brighter future fills all of us with joy. We love to contemplate all that can happen to us - our dreams fulfilling and we reaching those heights that we always thought of. However, happiness always doesn't come alone. It brings its share of uncertainties and apprehensions. What if I don't achieve my aim, what about the financial expenses. The fear of rejection and what others will think can...

  A child's career planning is one of the most important duties of a parent. It needs time, patience and a lot of continuous effort.  Even being at the helm of affairs may not be enough because of the changing dynamics of a child's life. So what is the best way forward. Lets find out. From the start, the child needs to be given  a lot of exposure in different fields in life. He has to be motivated to learn and understand about so many things happening around us and then decide which ones suit us and which ones don't. So awareness and knowledge is the first step. The second step is to find a group of friends who have a similar belief system and those who want to do something great in their lives. These two preliminary steps can step up the base where parents participate in the process of knowledge sharing and a good group of friends ensures forward momentum with happiness. Next comes the in depth exploration of things so loved by us that we are willing to spend a good time...

  Every child becomes better if he keeps acquiring different skills over a period of time. By acquiring new skills we become good in many diverse activities. In present we do not know which skill will be employed where but later we will thank ourselves that we picked up that skill because one day it will reward us handsomely. Children are good at learning things. They take lesser time than adults and can also improve much faster. Hence parents must give exposure to children and let them learn a lot of different things in life. Some of the skills which could be useful are  1. Some new language 2. A sporting activity 3. Something interesting in technology on computers 4. Speak very well confidently 5. Movements while dancing 6. Playing instruments These are some of the examples but when we learn a skill we tend to become good at it after sometime.  C hildren enjoy the praises from others and if that happens they are motivated to do much more. At start something is tough but...

  Developing a child's life requires that the child is equipped with a lot of knowledge from different fields. In today's world, what kind of knowledge should parents give to children? If this is understood, a lot of problems can be solved easily. Let us consider a scenario where parents interact with children and provide different kinds of information. On the other hand there is a house where parents are very busy and do not interact with children and thus the children do not benefit from knowledge. Over a period of time the gap increases tremendously and the child who had the support of parents and who got knowledge regularly would have built a large knowledge base. This child will be confident and will be able to express an opinion on different things. We all want our children to be smart, confident and clever. But all these qualities are built in a child on basis of the knowledge that he/she acquires. Therefore it is the parents duty to provide books, reading material and a...

  All days of our lives have a long list of tasks that have to be done. As parents, you also have to do a lot of things for your child's development. Let us compare a few things and see if parents get the work done for children as they would do for daily household chores or their profession. 1. If one parent has to bring vegetable from market, the vegetable will come home before dinner so that they can be cooked. On the other hand, if a certain amount of time was to be given for the child's academic supervision, it may so happen that the time was not given. If dinner was important that day then 2 - 3 hours of academic work was also important. Why one was favored over another? This is the question that demands an answer from parents. Equal time has to be given, painfully, everyday. There is no shortcut. 2. The child may be in  class B town / city in India. There may not be enough friends who are working on developing their personality and communication skills. Have you taken ou...

  Add caption Every parent wants the child to do well in all aspects of life. They also put in a lot of efforts to see that their dreams come true. However, parents choose the fields in which their child should be good based on the environment they live in, the social space in which they interact with people and their own background of many years too has a bearing on their choices. Just to simplify, the parents need to focus on four aspects that could help in the process of development: 1. Academics - Being good in studies is expected but not everyone is. Parents want their children to have a sharp brain but how does a sharp brain evolve. What are the steps that must be taken so that the brain can do much better? If home cannot provide the necessary, then outside sources must be used. But parents must understand what does it take to become good. 2. Good personality - It is of utmost importance that child develops a great personality. It helps to stand out from the crowd and make a ...

  A common topic of discussion among children and even among their parents is the identification of a stream which could be easy to study and be rewarding at the same time. Shortcomings in a student makes him choose something which appears to be easier yet which doesn't snatch all the possible options. Lets understand the difficulty level and the requirements first. Each of the subject that you will study as student has introductory work, preparatory work and extensive reading and thinking is required. There is no subject in  academics in which can be excelled in without any effort. The knowledge will never flow towards the brain. So, to do well, one needs to put in all of the above work and then only a certain degree of confidence starts coming in  an individual. Therefore History is equally tough as Physics and Geography is as easy as Chemistry.  There are some minds who have heard from many years that a particular subject is easy but another is full of difficultie...

  How do you see your child's life today. In a country such as India, there are more than 20million children born every year. Of course about 70% of them are in rural areas whereas the rest 30% find themselves in urban surroundings. Is the place where one is born a good determiner of the future of child. Can a parent see the child's life and feel the 'TRAP' or is everything fine. As the child goes ahead in life, there are a lot of elements that take up parts of life. Initially, as a toddler it is just parents, grandparents and some friends. Later on friends from school and teachers come on board. Subsequently, we may change location and new friends come in whereas we may be in touch with some of the old ones. The changes keep on coming. But what is happening is that the child and family may respond to these changes as and when they come. But your job as a parent was not to respond to them but to have decided beforehand which of these were you willing to take and which y...

  WHAT MAKES A PERSONALITY GREAT? 1. Relevant Knowledge: Every person, whether a student or a professional is expected to know the details of present occupation. It not only shows seriousness but also willingness to understand role and responsibilities. Students must know their subjects well. In today’s world it will be very wise to also understand the implication of those subjects and how they could impact the world. Any working person must have detailed knowledge about his/her profession. Subject awareness leading to a mature perspective is appreciated as well as rewarded. 2. Communicating knowledge: One may know a lot but the ability to convey one’s knowledge is extremely important. In the present world order, time is precious and therefore the number of chances that one gets is limited. It is of utmost importance that the speed of thoughts travelling from brain to tongue increases and maximum impact is created in a short span of time. Besides speed, the quality of communi...

  Hesitation – When a person cannot express himself / herself in the best possible manner at that point of time, he / she is hesitant. One can hesitate in presence of many people, in a public gathering or in front of any one person. Hesitation stems from lack of confidence, from doubt on one’s ability and from a fear of being judged. The approach we recommend is to do what makes you extremely uncomfortable or nervous. By doing this, one would face the fears head on. There is no escape and one could measure the full force of fear or hesitation. Once that is done, the worst is known. From there, there is only one road and that road leads to improvement. The following will be very helpful: 1. Speak to strangers – When one speaks to any stranger, one overcomes fear and builds a certain amount of confidence. This confidence increases as one approaches more and more people. It could be shopkeepers, government office employees or just random people in public places. 2. Removing lang...

  Focus is one of the most important things when it comes to a child’s development. But who’s focus are we talking about. There are three parts of focus and each of them has a very important role to play : 1. Parent’s focus - How much do the parents know about the child’s life plan and how much time are spending on it. More important than time is the quality of focus that they have on their child’s life. Is it on daily basis or is it weekly. Is there a pattern at all or is it just a random exercise which is done whenever the parents get time or whenever they remember. The latter is not productive, it causes problems and leads to frustration. What is needed is a proper plan under which everything about the child’s development is covered on a regular basis. This focus has to be laser sharp. 2. Child’s focus - If the child has been assessed, he/she knows what is needed to be done as part of a plan. That knowing has to translate into action on daily basis, only then the plan will s...

  Mathematics is seen as a mountain which needs to be climbed and the challenge seems too tough to many students. But is this true. Should a subject, which comes handy in many of our our future actions in life, be treated with so much of fear. No, it should not be but many students and parents do so. Let us look at reasons why this happens and how to avoid falling in the trap of fear. 1. Assessment (Why) : The reasons are not obvious why a student fears Maths. But from our point of view, we understand deeply that once you let a concept go by you, you keep falling behind. So, why wasn't the child good in the first concept of the class. It could be because of lack of time spent, lack of practice, lack of a good support structure or unsuitable family atmosphere. But knowing is very important and here assessment plays a major role. 2. Follow up and monitoring : Once we know what is the issue, the child has to be motivated enough to do the required. No two children are same and therefor...