Friday 31 August 2012

Show Your Kids That You Care. Accept Them As They Are.

Kids are supposed to be like wax, mould them as you wish. Really? The debate about nature versus nurture has been a never ending one. Child psychology says that nurture works best when you let the child follow his/her chosen path.

Somehow, parents have difficulty accepting this advice. The same adults who appreciate and respect individuality in other adults have trouble accepting that their child is an individual with unique likes and dislikes. Yes, parents are more than willing to say that their kid is unique, but not an individual. 

Each child is special and unique, and they are the happiest when they are allowed to be themselves. It doesn’t mean that there should be no discipline or guidance. What we want to say is that the guidance should be customized to suit the kid’s unique needs. 

Don't try to make a child something he or she is not. It is like trying to paint an orchid like a rose, because roses are popular. Trust us, it will hurt you and your child, and the results will not look good either. What can you do to show your kid that your love is unconditional?
  • Spend time with the kid and see what they like to do. Appreciate any thing    that they are good at.
  • If the child is discouraged that he/she lacks a talent or quality, tell the kid that no one has every talent. Use every opportunity to give inspiring examples of successful people with talents similar to the kid.  
  • Find or create opportunities for the kid’s talent to be recognized and appreciated. It could be through participation in contests, or by letting the kid use their talents to help some noble cause.
What do you think? We would love to hear from you!

Saturday 25 August 2012

Novel and Unique Platform for Talented Kids

Dazed at your little angel’s abilities?

Taken aback with your naive one’s capability to astonishingly intrigue fellow folks?

Kids these days have utmost potential and talent which seek a novel and unique platform where their flair can be acknowledged. Novel and unique because the conventional contests organized for them lack a very basic feature of comfort for the kids. The first and foremost requirement of the innocent souls to exhibit their knack is to be comfy with the environment they are asked to do so in. They need a completely amiable, stress-free zone where they can be themselves while doing whatever they are good at. Yes whatever they are good at; because talent should have no boundaries.

Quoted by the book, The Talent Code “greatness isn’t born, it’s grown”, CraftedKids, a nation-wide, fresh endeavour in the same line, seconds the opinion and launches its web resource, www.craftedkids.com. Named so with a belief that kids are actually created by God and meticulously crafted by their parents, the platform includes all the indispensable features necessary for providing a healthy yet stress-free competitive environment. Host for all sorts of contests, traditional or off beat, this venture provides an opportunity of online contests to ensure a hassle-free atmosphere. Not just this, users also get to judge and it’s completely free of cost; what else to ask for!

So, if you are looking for such a break in your kid’s life, grab your chance via www.craftedkids.com!


.........
Ankita

Wednesday 22 August 2012

The Story Behind CraftedKids


You could call it scratching your own itch, but the idea behind my startup is something very personal. So, here we go. I was in US for 4 years. One of the things that really impressed me there was their education system. Their practices and curriculum are such that kids are not pressurized about studies up to Std. VI.

Back in India, I wanted to make sure that my daughter also has a stress free childhood. I wanted her to learn naturally, at her own pace, and what she liked. Hence, we got her admission into Sishu Montessori School, where there are no books or homework for the first 3 years! . She is doing pretty well at school and we are very happy with her growth and learning in a natural way.


We gifted our daughter an ipad on her 3rd birthday. Just in a matter of few days she started solving puzzles on it. And within a month she was able to recognize a lot many countries and solve a good deal of jigsaw puzzles. You can imagine. I was a proud papa, and was basking in that glory J, not to mention the exhilaration of my wife.

Like normal parents, we were insistent that our friends and family also recognize the prodigious talent. Sure they were impressed, but sadly, their compliments were inevitably followed by a comment "Now beta you should also start performing so well in singing or dancing so that you can perform on TV and bring laurels to your parents". Tshhh. There goes the air from the bubble of happiness.

On a more serious note, what really bothered us was that everyone was so obsessed with the limelight and resultant adulation of singing/dancing reality shows, that every other talent was getting neglected. Why should anyone tell a child that one creative ability is better than every other one out there?

A child should be praised for any talent or creative ability, not just singing and dancing. We, the adults, should let the child choose their hobby and excel in it. We should NOT impose anything just because it is in trend, or because it has more opportunities. I always wanted to do something about it, but it never is easy to leave a well-paid job. More so when you are married, with a kid.

But one fine day I decided to take the plunge and CraftedKids.com was born. My family also supported immensely in this decision. Our vision is to provide a platform to kids for all sorts of skills other than singing or dancing. It is not that we do not admire singing or dancing, but those talents are already getting more than their fair share of attention, and there are more than enough platforms for kids with good singing and dancing abilities.

This is just the beginning. We know that there will be a lot of hurdles on the way. Let us see how it goes.

Meanwhile, please take a look at our website www.CraftedKids.Com, check out our contests, and kindly  comment, so that we know what you like and what we need to improve. 


Deepak Singhal
Founder, CraftedKids.Com