Author Archives: Maria

Best Time To Start Preschool – How To Know When It Is

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As soon as our children celebrate their first birthdays, we all start pondering about the best time to start preschool. Well, there is no reason to blame anyone. After all, we took care of them for the entire 1 year and now it’s time we get a few hours for ourselves. If you are thinking that, there is nothing to be guilty about. However, if this is the reason, a preschool doesn’t have to be the solution. There are other options for you that will benefit your child in a better way.

<alt>best time to start preschool</alt>So, when is the best time to start preschool?

My son started school at the age of 2, which is usually the best time to start preschool. However, there is no hard and fast rule about the right age for starting preschool. It all comes down to your child’s development and if he is ready to start school or not.

A Major Misconception

Most parents I know, have the misconception that a child needs to go to school if he is not very social and is not eager to learn and explore. They think a preschool will develop his social and learning skills. That is not true and in reality, the factors to determine the best time to start preschool are totally different.

So, how can you tell when your child is ready?

  • Does he follow instructions carefully?

A pre-school program includes a lot of play based and educational activities. Your child should be able to understand and follow instructions. Failing to do so can lead to frustration in both the teacher and the child. You may consider working on activities with him to develop his ability to take instructions.

  • Does he get along with other children well?

Good social skills are important for your child to benefit from a preschool program. If your child never warms up in front of other children, sending him off to a preschool might not be the best idea. He will likely sit in a corner with a blank face, avoiding all participation in group activities. To help him develop social skills, a day care facility or a mother/child playgroup facility is a good option, as compared to a rigorous preschool program. When you think his social skills are developed, it is the best time to start preschool.

  • Does your child play and work on activities alone?

Does your child ask you for assistance in everything like clay work, painting and colouring or does he work on these activities alone? If he plays alone, his focus and concentration are good enough for preschool. On the other hand, if he doesn’t focus on any activity without your assistance, you may have to encourage some solo play time to develop these abilities before you start school.

A preschool, nursery, or a Montessori school, whatever you call it, is a huge transition for the child. Your goal should be to put him in a program that will benefit him, not belittle him. If your child isn’t ready, he is likely going to hate going to school. For him, a loving and nurturing day care facility might be the best option.

On other hand, if your child is an active explorer, plays alone all the time, indulges in role play, gets himself engrossed in books and puzzles and is happy with other children, a preschool will benefit him greatly and it is definitely the best time to start preschool.

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Are Mosquito Repellent Lotions Safe To Use by Children?

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offYou may call me an advertising agent for mosquito repellent lotions. Whenever someone in my family talks about mosquitos and their hazardous bites and how to ward off those tiny, disgusting creatures, I always recommend them those utterly bitter and equally disgusting in taste and smell, mosquito repellent lotions. I am a huge fan of those tubes and bottles. The main reason is that they truly work. Apply them on the skin of your child and you will not have to worry anymore about those itchy bites.

Mosquito bites are no longer just an irritating nuisance but these bites can cause serious and fatal diseases like dengue fever. In fact, I became a fan of this product after my mom got infected with dengue.

However, today when I was thinking about adding a new post to my long forgotten blog, it suddenly occurred to me that I had never researched about mosquito repellent lotions and whether they are safe to use.  Hence, I sat down to research about it to find out the inside truth whether these products are safe or not.

What gives mosquito repellent lotions the bitter taste?

You may be wondering how I know about the taste of mosquito repellents. No, I did not find it on Google. I actually tasted it; not deliberately of course, but accidentally. You can also do it. Apply a mosquito repellent on your child and kiss his skin. Lick your lips then and you will feel as if you have tasted poison. Yes, your whole mouth goes bitter and you run to the bathroom to rinse your mouth.

So, what is it that gives them such a horrible taste? There are obviously loads of chemicals in such products. People are often cool when it comes to applying lotions and creams. My grandmother often adds in when she recommends some sort of cream or lotion “there is nothing to worry about this cream because we are not eating anything; we are just applying it.” Well, that is a misconception. If something is hazardous, its equally harmful for you whether you take it or apply it. This is because the cream does not form a layer on your skin; it eventually gets absorbed by the skin and enters your body. Plus, it may cause allergies and other serious reactions on your body. Hence, you should definitely get worried when applying mosquito repellent lotions.

So, are mosquito repellent lotions safe to use?                                                       

Most commonly available mosquito repellent lotions like OFF mosquito repellent have DEET as the active ingredient. DEET is a chemical that repels mosquitos. There are other chemicals also, which are present in other lotions like N N Diethyl Benzamide.

DEET is actually harmful for a baby under 3 months of age. For babies under 3 months, this chemical can cause allergic reactions on the delicate skin of the baby. Hence, it is recommended to apply on the clothing and the bedding and not directly on the skin.

For older babies and children, DEET is safe to use. However, there are certain precautions that go with it. Over exposure to DEET can be harmful and can cause serious damage to the functioning of those exposed parts of the body.

It is advised to use these lotions only once in a day on the exposed skin. These lotions should only be reapplied when mosquitoes start biting again. Do not apply if they are not biting again.

Also, care should be taken when applying mosquito repellent lotions on irritated, broken or bruised skin. It may cause further irritation and allergic reactions.

Mosquito repellent lotions should also not be applied on the skin, which is under the clothing. My research on Google did not yield any reason for this precaution and the danger associated with it but since its a precaution given my experts, our duty is to abide by it.

Lastly, such lotions should not be used in large quantities.

Bottom line                                                                           

This research is only for the products that contain DEET like OFF mosquito repellent. If you are using other products, check its ingredients to see what active ingredient it has. Some ingredients like the oil of eucalyptus should not be used by children under 3 years. If you want to go the safe road, use the products containing DEET like OFF mosquito repellent.

 

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Best iPad App For Teaching Phonics to Kids

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Phonics instruction helps children learn to read by recognizing the sounds of the spoken language. Children are first taught to recognize the sound each letter makes, pick out the beginning sounds and ending sounds of words, and finally combine different sounds to make words.

 

Interactive tools not only motivate your child to learn but they also make learning more interesting. Your child may not be willing to sit down with a paper and pencil but he may just love to play educational games on iPad or iPhone. I wonder sometimes if Apple already knew how their products would benefit these young people the most.

 

Since my son would never sit with me and play with flash cards *peacefully* like some other kids do, I have been fishing for the best phonics app and here’s my catch:

 

Abc Pocket Phonics

 

Pocket Phonics is a simple app that teaches children how to write, recognize, and spell out common and most frequently used words. This app will surely give your child a head start in learning and will help him develop early literacy and reading skills.

 

The design and interface of PocketPhonics is rather simple. There are no bells and whistles and no colourful interactions like in other children’s apps. Despite that, it is still my favorite app so far and I am clearly impressed.

 

This is how this phonics app teaches your child to develop phonics recognition and reading skills.

 

 

  • The app demonstrates how to write each letter, saying the letter sound at the same time. Your child is asked to trace a set of letters with his fingers. This tracing quiz is good for developing penmanship skills. The small cartoon figures that cheer up after successful completion of this level will motivate your child to trace.

 

 

  • Your child is asked to recognize the letter from the sound that is played in the recording and pick it out from a set of 5-6 letters. This quiz helps your child learn phonics and letter recognition.

 

 

  • The recorded voice then shows how to spell out common words with the letters your child picked.

 

 

A unique thing about this app is that it doesn’t introduce letters in alphabetical order. Instead, it teaches in sets of letters that are more useful and more frequently used. This will help your child in starting reading sooner.

 

Verdict

 

This is a must have app for every preschooler eager to read and write. The price is only $2.99 and it is totally worth it!

 

Get it now!

 

 

 

 

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Bad Sleeping Habits – Sleepy Voice At 10 am??

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I know its common around here in Karachi for people to keep sleeping past noon but still I always hate it when I call someone at 10 am and I am greeted with a sleepy voice!!! And when this happens at noon, I really want to go kill that person.

Should I change myself and be considerate towards those people who have such sleeping habits or should they change themselves? I know its them who need a wake up call and really need to improve these bad habits. But if you got to live in Karachi and get along well with people, then its the other way around. This means, I really need to control myself when I feel the urgency of calling someone in the morning. I should perhaps assume there is a time difference between me and all those people out there who sleep until late.

I know that in Karachi our mornings start very late. I know that you keep sleeping late in the morning. But for the love of God, cant you just pretend you werent sleeping when someone calls you?? At least show some embarrassment at sleeping so late!!! Whenever I am greeted with a sleepy voice, I really want to hit that person in the head but instead, I always end up apologizing. Because, I have to live in Karachi.

Once, I called my best friend at 1 pm hoping for a nice and lively chat, only to find her screaming at the other end of the line. She was actually angry at me to call her at such an early hour. Huh?? Get a life! Its 1 pm and my day is half finished!

Maybe even foreigners are aware of our bad sleeping habits. A few days back, I got a call from a US university about a scholarship application I sent to them accidentally. They called me at 1 am at night when I was fast asleep. I dont know what I said to him because I was half sleeping but I only remember the last part when he said Good day. Huh? In one way, he was right because in Karachi, people are actually very very awake at 1 am, except me.

The last thing I can do is hope that one day all my dear friends and family will understand the importance of early to rise, early to bed.

But in the meanwhile, keep expecting my calls at such early hours. Because I cant delay MY work because of this…If I need to call you, I will do it, although I will never expect to have a nice friendly chat with anyone at such hours. My apologies to everyone in advance :P

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Should you ask a stay-at-home Mom to host an Online training session?

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I don’t think that’s a very good idea. If the mommy has a 3 year old, it gets almost impossible to host an online training session from home with her child sitting on her lap. Especially if it is her first time!

Well, this is exactly what happened with me. My employer asked me to give online training to new writers who were going to join his team. I told him it is not a very good idea but he said this is how I will learn. I agreed. I decided to just put my fears away and go ahead with it. What worse things could happen? My son could decide to start crying, could sit on my lap and start typing on the keyboard, could press the power button and switch off the laptop, or could even want to go potty when I am in the midst of the training. Believe me these all are some very bad things that could happen.

Anyway, I put my fears aside, got a nice pair of headset, and invited all the trainees to the training session. I organized it on Wednesday at 4:30 pm because I thought Rafay would be taking a nap at that time. Little did I know that he would choose to wake up exactly the moment I started training. Out of panic, I cancelled the training session and blamed the software, which I was using. I said there were some problems with the software and I have to sort it out first.

Then, I organized it the next day on Thursday at 4 pm, half an hour earlier than before. Now, my son must have sensed something because this time he woke up half an hour earlier. I panicked again but this time I could not give any excuse because the software was working just fine and I was afraid of losing the writers. Only two writers out of four turned up that day but I decided to start it anyway. Half past the training session, my son felt the need to go to the bathroom. He first told me in low voice. I acknowledged him. Then he decided to say it in my mic that he wanted to go potty. Now, that was the worst thing that could happen. I apologized my trainees and told them about my little sea monkey. Such nice people they were, they said it is perfectly fine. Anyway, I had to cancel the training before the presentation was complete.

My point is, it is not a very good idea to have mommies host an online training session from home.

Do you agree?

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When Potty Gets Serious

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Never in my life had I envisaged that I will have to spend almost an hour in the bathroom standing with my son, encouraging and waiting for him to poop. I know that’s gross but this is what I have been doing today. The only concern I had was the fear that my neighbours would hear as I shouted and instructed my baby how to poop….
The worst part was when I spent 45 minutes in the bathroom, which I would have rather spent on writing and would have written 1 good article and earned some money, and then coming out without any success. It seems like he is too good at holding it.

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3 Things Rafay Assumes About Me

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  1. I am a super hero and I have magical powers 
Rafay asks me to pour back the water that has spilled from his glass. He asks me to take out his tears. (he loves his tears). He tells me to play YouTube videos when our beloved Prime Minister has blocked YouTube. He tells me to turn on the light when we don’t have power and the battery of UPS is fully drained. He asks me to do all that stuff which no ordinary person can do. Hence, he assumes that I am some more of super hero. 

  1. I am a guru and whatever I say is correct 
I do look like a guru with big, black framed spectacles. I am amazed how he trusts me on everything and believes everything I tell. Whenever he is confused about anything, he comes to me among all the people present there. Whatever I tell him, no matter how confusing, he would believe it.
  1. I love him unconditionally

 

Well, that’s something really fascinating that how these little monkeys think their mothers love them unconditionally from the moment they are born. We don’t need to prove them anything. They just know it. I remember when I was little, I always used to call ‘mamaaaaaaa’ even when crying after my mother had scolded me. Rafay does the same. He just knows that even when I scold him or am harsh with him, I still love him unconditionally.

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Is There Anything Like Happy Potty Training?

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My son, at 3 years 6 months finally got potty trained. Is it something to be proud of or ashamed at? Ashamed because I know 3.5 years is too late for that. I was ashamed of asking my friends and relatives about potty training because they would all just say “oh my god, you still haven’t trained your kid yet!”. If I was ashamed of asking them, how could I announce that I am finally successful without getting embarrassed under their mocking stares?

Anyway, this potty training thing wasn’t easy at all. I don’t get it how people just say one day “we are going to train now” and the next time I meet them, their kids are peeing and poohing in the toilet, just like grown up kids. Sigh. I started training when my son was 2 years and it took 1 and a half year to be finally successful. The hardest part of this long potty training session was the horrible visions I had about my son asking his wife to diaper him so he could poop. Oh my God, that’s horrible! shivers running down my spine at such a horrible thought.

 

Training my baby to pee in the toilet was not easy. He would hold it for hours but not pee in the toilet. But a few tickles always did the trick and he eventually got trained. Not talking about accidents; they still happen.

 

The one thing which was different than what I read on the Internet was that no kind of potty training seat or toilet seat was useful for me. Although I bought them, but they were of no use.

 

The hardest part was training him to pooh in the toilet. He used to ask me to diaper him whenever he felt the need. And when I didn’t, he used to lie down on the floor with tummy pains and develop constipation. He was kind of afraid of poohing in the toilet. Perhaps, the diaper gave him a sense of security. Lol. I asked experts on the Internet and they gave stupid advices like encouraging him, etc, etc. These are not stupid advices but who doesn’t do that or know that?

 

So, what finally did the trick? Well, a pain in his hip bone and an injection was finally helpful in convincing him that toilet was better than diaper. Due to vitamin D deficiency, he had a pain in his hip bone and the doctor had to give him a vitamin injection. I took advantage of the opportunity and told him it was because he did potty in his diaper that he had got pains and had to be injected. As the prick of the syringe was still fresh in his mind, he finally did it. And I became successful.

 

Hurray! I want to celebrate! Is there anything like happy potty training?

 

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Review of The Forty Rules of Love

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After reading this book, I can only say one thing: that I am grateful to the salesperson in the book store who recommended this book to me. It is worth reading!

The author of the Forty Rules of Love is a writer from Istanbul, Elif Shafaq. I was having my doubts because I didn’t want to read about Istanbul. But I took the word of the salesman anyway and purchased the book. And I didn’t regret it!

The forty rules of love is not any ordinary love story but it is about the extra ordinary and divine love that was between shams of Tabriz and Maulana Rumi. A person with little knowledge about history, I didn’t know who they were. Reading the book, I found out how important these figures were in the history of Islam. Shams of Tabriz was a Sufi while Rumi was a scholar. Shams of Tabriz travelled the world to meet Rumi with the mission of enlightening him. The moment they both met, was iconic that changed the life of Rumi. Rumi transformed from a scholar to a poet and a Sufi. The love between these two men was immense. They both considered them as reflections of each other. If you kill one person, the reflection would be gone forever.

The story, as it shifts from 2008 Massachusetts to 13th century Konya, is about a 40 year old American housewife, Ella, who gets a manuscript to review from the literary agency where she works. During a confusing period in her life, Ella doesn’t want to read a manuscript about historical times in Konya and about Islam and mysticism. However, reading the manuscript and exchanging emails with the author of the book, her life changes and she is able to make some important decisions in her life.

The best thing which I liked about the book is the wisdom of shams of Tabriz, the stories he tells to everyone and his forty rules. The rules related to patience and changes in life were the best rules because I could relate to them. I liked how Shams of Tabriz was so reckless and didn’t care about what the society thought of him. The way he talked to common and downtrodden people and encouraged them was very heart touching.

In the end, when shams was murdered and Rumi cried and mourned, it was so provocative that I wanted to cry too. Rumi became a poet after the death of shams.

Everything in the book from beginning to end was perfect. However, I have some doubts about the accuracy and truth of the events described here. The book doesn’t have any reference section, which gives me the doubts. While I loved the wisdom of Shams of Tabriz, there are some things which were contradictory to Islam. I have really begun to love Shams of Tabriz so I like to believe that all those things which are contradictory are portrayed wrongly in the book. I am believing all the good parts and disbelieving all the bad.

This book definitely leaves a long lasting impression on the reader. I am feeling enlightened after reading it. I am even thinking of copying those forth rules and treasuring them somewhere!

Overall, this book is worth the time and money. It is definitely recommended for all!

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The New Definition of Patience

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“Patience does not mean to passively endure. It means to be far-sighted enough to trust the end result of a process. what does patience mean? it means to look at the thorn and see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn. impatience means to be so short sighted as to not be able to see the outcome. the lovers of God never run out of patience, for they know that time is needed for the crescent moon to become full”
I am reading a new novel: the forty rules of love, by Elif Shafaq. It is a remarkable book. outstanding!
I am loving every page of it.

This quote from the book relates to me even more. This is the definition of patience I never knew before. We always thought of patience as enduring, not as far-sightedness. There is no doubt patience always bears its fruit and after all the time of endurance, there surely follows a time of happiness and contentment.

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