My book Spinning Top – in stores now!!
In it you will meet:
Zack a little boy who wants a pet and gets one…but only after he proves his responsibility with the most unusual one.
An adorable dog named Chip who had the chance to be anything he wanted to be…and the wise choice he makes
Joey- a boy who looked upto his dad and wants to be just like him
Bobby who will teach you some opposites while looking for his lost ball
Laila and Mili sisters with the problem all sisters have…can’t live with each other and cannot live without
Natalia who got to be an angel in her school play…because she was just like one.
Transport vehicles that have a race
Friends on the farm who decide not to speak to each other for a day
Nikki- a girl afraid of clowns until she made a clown cry.
Misty a mischievous monkey who learns his lesson the hard way….
And many more.
As a teacher and a writer, I find that I like to write stories…not just for children to read and enjoy but also for the adults.
I believe in the power of story telling. I believe it is the most effective tool every parent, teacher and adult has to not just educate and entertain but also to discipline a child! In fact, I believe stories are the most effective yet untapped disciplinary instrument.
Making ground rules and subsequently threatening with strict punishment if they’re broken, shouting, bribing, nagging – may have their place.
But what I have discovered is, many of them can be very easily avoided if something as simple as a story had been used to begin with.
It may sound too bizarre to think of telling a story at the moment when all you want to do is scream…or too simplistic even, who would believe a story can result in required behaviour?
And yet it does…
Picture this..a curious toddler walks towards a hot cup of tea placed on the table. The adult in the room is most likely going to panic, then scream, then scare the child.
The child is most likely going to get scared, then curious and maybe even a bit amused and/ or defiant.
Instead I would prefer to suppress the panic, skip the screaming, move the tea cup out of reach and then calmly break into an animated and exaggerated memory of my own experience with a hot liquid when I was little..of how I went too close, the liquid spilt, I got slightly burnt, cried a lot, had to rush to the doctor, etc.
The result is immediate and effective! The child identifies with my character in the story, understands what could go wrong if he did the same and yet doesn’t feel reprimanded as empathy quells the defiance.
And it works for almost all childhood situations – going to school tantrums, hygiene lessons, behaviour in public spaces, arrival of the new sibling.
So the true test of parenting…how well-behaved and well-mannered a child is, depends eventually only on the parent’s imagination.
Sunset Effect - Nitya Satyani 