If you have ever wondered if you should spend the time and money on getting your child to learn skills that they may not use as an adult, this is for you. For example, you may wonder, “Why these guitar classes? Is he really going to be a musician when he grows up?” Or, “What is the practical purpose of learning charcoal sketching?” Or even, “Why is my child being forced to learn Kannada when we don’t plan to stay in Karnataka for long?” The age we live in is an age of specialisation. We believe in streamlining our time and efforts in one direction. The general opinion is that the more specialised we are, the better our prospects in life are. So, we start looking at all activities from a perspective of “how useful” it is. If it is not useful, it is a waste of time. The child is nudged to choose one profession that they want to pursue. “What do you want to be when you grow up? A doctor or an architect?” The emphasis is on finding out what that ‘one’ profession is going to be and ...
Kids will scribble on anything. In my experience, they don’t mind if it is a wall, a fridge, the floor, cupboards, mirrors, bed sheets, plates, human beings, dogs (not cats, cats wouldn’t stand for such a thing) … There are two ways of dealing with this. Plan A: You watch your child like a hawk every time he/she has access to crayons or pencils. You keep repeating ‘only on the paper’ to them like a parrot. You stop them as soon as you see their hand move away from the paper. As you can guess, this is not a great plan, for a hundred reasons. So plan B: You learn to get the stains off whichever surface they choose to deface. I’m sharing how I get crayon and pencil marks off walls. 1. I get a tube of white toothpaste. You will need more than a tube if the damage is widespread across multiple walls. 2. I apply the said toothpaste liberally over the crayon/pencil marks. I use my finger to spread the paste thickly over the area. 3. I use a clean cloth and a good amount ...