Lastest Articles
6 Ways to Teach Kids Creative Thinking
Why is creativity so important? Research shows that creativity can improve your brain’s cognitive abilities. Plus it has been shown that creative thinking can help our brains develop neural connections and learn new concepts. As you may have experienced, creative activities often improve your child’s mood and help them de-stress or calm down right? And so it is clear that fostering creative thinking in your kids will lead to stronger emotional & brain health. But sometimes, determining where to start can be tough. Read on for 6 tips to help your child explore their imagination and learn to think creatively. Tip #1 Encourage free-play It is recommended to provide some unstructured free time as a way to support creative thinking. Give your child a little time each day to independently explore their own ideas and interests. Also, make time for creative play—or free time that encourages curiosity or creative thinking. Offering your child a pack of crayons and some paper or encouraging them to play pretend with siblings can be great ways to support creative play. Zooboo book ‘I spy’ is all about two siblings playing a game of I spy while learning about primary & secondary colours. Explore this creative book with your kids name in it! Zooboo book: I Spy Tip #2 Explore outdoors Research has shown that getting outside into the nature has known to enhance curiosity, encourage flexible thinking, and help you recharge. Next time the weather is good, pack a picnic in the park. Or read a book with your child in the garden. This Zooboo book ‘Bo-peep’ shows your kid exploring a nature park & learning about the various animal features. Personalize it for your child here! Zooboo storybook: Plays Bo Peep Tip #3 Teach them to ask ‘What if’ questions If you can get your children to ask questions about the world and how it works, they’re more likely to come up with their own unique answers. For example: What if animals could suddenly talk? What if you got wings one day P.S: This Zooboo book ‘Gets Wings’ is a great start to your kids creative thinking journey. Personalize it with your childs name today! Zooboo book: Gets Wing's Tip #4 Bring nature into their learning Involve nature in your child’s day-to-day activities. This helps jiggle their innate sense of curiosity and fosters STEM (Science- Technology-Engineering-Maths) based thinking. For example, for a counting activity let them count leaves instead of blocks. For sorting, encourage them to sort leaves from stems. Introduce your child to the natural elements and weather conditions in this Zooboo book ‘What’s behind the door?’ Zooboo book: what's behind the door? Tip #5 Ask them open-ended questions Asking open-ended questions can help children learn to form their own ideas and develop creative thinking. These are questions that require a longer answer than a yes or no. For example, If you saw a dog outside the temple, chewing on your dad’s shoes, what would you do? This NEW Zooboo storybook ‘Finds a story’ is all about the child thinking about an original story plot. Customize it for your 9-10 year old and let them enjoy a story about thinking creatively. Zooboo book: Find's a story Tip #6 Read Together Research has shown that reading with your child can boost your child’s imagination and problem-solving skills. Make a goal to read a book together every day. If your book has pictures in it, ask your child to guess what the page is about before you read it together. This can help children practice problem-solving, as well as reading comprehension. Inspired to buy your kids some personalized storybooks? Check out 15+ book titles that can be customized as per your kids name & character. Suitable for all kids aged 0-12 Use code STORY for Rs. 300 off on your order!
Tips & benefits of raising independent children
Younger children always seem to want to do things on their own. This tendency is the starting point of independence and it is really important for us to encourage this. In order to help children grow into self-sufficient and successful global citizens, let us try to encourage independence while they are young. Why is it so important? 3 key benefits of raising independent kids: Confidence + sense of achievement It provides them with the belief that they are competent and capable of taking care of themselves which makes them resilient to external challenges. It makes them happy and healthy as they feel a great sense of achievement and success as a direct result of their own actions Equips them to be decisions-makers It allows them to become good decision-makers as they have the freedom to consider various options before choosing the one they feel is best. Develops key Life skills It gives your child a sense of importance and belonging which is essential for building social relationships and for contributing to the world. Life skills like patience, concentration, self-help, cooperation, self-discipline and self-trust are also developed 4 helpful tips to raise self-sufficient, independent children Encourage Exploration Once your children have established their sense of security, it’s down to you to encourage them to explore the world beyond your safety net. Let your kids be the eager explorers. Let them imagine freely and go on many adventures. Zooboo’s book ‘What shape would you be?’ allows kids to imagine themselves as different shapes! Allow them to make their own decisions As they grow older, let them make their own decisions – however simple they may be. For example, in Zooboo’s personalized ‘Birthday’ book, the child decides the menu, balloon colour for his/her birthday party. They also create their own birthday banner. You can also give them the opportunity to come up with solutions to problems. Try asking them “how?” questions such as “how can we clean up this mess we’ve made?” Provide choices When thinking about how to encourage independence in your children, one of the easiest ways is to give them the choice. There are so many decisions that are made every day, so pose the question to them. Do you want an apple or banana today? Do you want to wear your red shoes or blue shoes? Remember to always give them options that are both perfectly acceptable. For example in the Zooboo book Noisy Holiday, the child finds the city to be too noisy. His/her grandparents then give them to option to spend the weekend in a farm. They don’t enforce a decision of staying in the city on their grandchild. https://zooboostory.com/book/noisy-holiday And then honour that choice After you offered the options and your child picked the one they want – go through with the decision. Honour their choice. If you don’t then you will land up lower their self esteem and confidence. Enlist their trust that you will respect their choice especially one that was offered by you in the first place! For example in the Zooboo book ‘Slays the fear monster’, the child’s mom suggests different options that can make him/her feel calmer. When the child decides to try it out, their mother trusts his/her decision and helps them through it. https://zooboostory.com/book/slays-the-fear-monster If you’re interested in any of the personalized storybooks mentioned here, you can now order them at a discounted price! (till stocks last) Save Rs. 300 on every order & get your books from Rs. 99 only. Use code STORY SHOP HERE
6 Tips to make family reading time more fun!
Reading together with family is very good for kids of all ages. Right from inspiring a love of reading books in young children to helping you connect as a family. Most of all, it’s also really fun! But we know that it’s not always easy to plan a family reading time in advance. So forget thinking about reading as something you need to tick off your list and instead imagine storytime as an amazing show that’s about to begin and the excitement in the kids will naturally follow. Here are 6 tips by Team Zooboo to help make family reading time easier to plan and a lot more fun! Read outdoors Make a picnic out of it or carry your books during garden time. A change of scenery adds some excitement to reading time. You can also spot your favourite natural elements around you while reading. Add a game like – Act it out Adding a game gives a fun twist to reading. Give the entire family a few roles to enact. Let kids get into the character and act it out. They will gain confidence + work on their language skills too. Personalize a storybook Personalizing a storybook in your kids name boosts their curiosity while reading it. Studies have shown higher language skill development, vocabulary development and confidence level in kids who read personalized books. Click here to check out personalized storybooks for your kids. Involve every one Sometimes it is good to let someone else take over the lead while reading. Invite an older cousin, neighbour or grandparent to read stories with you. The diversity in voice modulation and creativity piques a kids interest and involvement. Set up a schedule Make a reading schedule. Pin it up at a place where it is visible to all. Try to add a star chart or some reward upon finishing the required reading time. P.S: Making the reading chart can be a fun art activity too! Reading corner A cute cozy dedicated reading corner helps calm them and sets a routine. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. A few curtains and pillows with easily accessible books and good light does the trick. Mind buzzing with new ideas to try out? We hope so! If you’re looking for some books to get you started, browse our bestselling personalised books on a wide range of topics and that too for all age-groups! Explore all the 16 book titles here!
