notjustmommying

If you have followed my blog-series on music, you would already know what I am talking about. Musical bonding holds a very special place for us and we have found our emotional connect to it; so, my series wouldn't be complete without a dedicated post on it. To get a better understanding of this parent -child programme for all my readers, I spoke to Aditi Shah, founder of Musical Bonding and here is what she has to say about one of her babies- "MB"!!      How did you come up with a programme that is so unique to Indian market? Musical Bonding did not happen as a planned programme for the Indian market. The music provided by The Music Class allowed us (my husband and me) to have lots of fun with our two kids, singing, dancing and learning. Musical Bonding started as a simple attempt to make some friends in a new country and for the benefit of my own kids.   Why Music, what does music mean to you? I have background in Indian classical music and k...

Gayatri mantra and music during pregnancy Babies respond to sound from the time they are in their mother's womb. The noise from outside the womb sounds more like multiple echoes to the baby and surprisingly babies can recognize their mother's voice from others even in the womb. As soon as I came to know about my pregnancy, I checked about garbh sanskaar and music that one should be listening to during pregnancy. I found a music CD that had mantras, hanuman chalisa etc, sung by some renowned Indian singers.  When a child is in the mother's womb, it is the most relaxing place to him, he is resting and getting nourished without any worries. Baby in the womb is in deep sleep but aware, quite as close to how people are when in meditation- relaxed yet aware at the same time.  If you see the ancient temples in India, the place where the deity resided and the monks meditated is also called garba graha, in the womb of the mother (the deity). So, the more one experime...

Is it too late or too early for introducing music to your little one?  It's never too early for music in life.  Babies respond to sound from the time they are in their mother's womb. If you are a mom, I am sure you can relate to it. Babies just love songs, rhythms and music and benefit from it just like grown-ups do from a musical environment. Scientists have found that the effect music has on the young minds of babies is far more significant than we can imagine. Various studies have shown that music affects the physical, emotional, and intellectual development of babies and children and strengthens cognitive and sensory development; not only does it improve speech but also reading, writing abilities and language skills per se. An Early introduction to music can happen in the Womb, however, if you have missed it, its never too late. Your new born will love the music you play for him. How music benefits the babies - Memory- Music helps little babies...

How we introduced music to our baby? All through my pregnancy I listened to various mantras from Garbh-sanskar (a musical CD with prayers and shlokas from Vedas and other Hindu scriptures) I have a detailed post on it.  To my awe when I play them now A either calms down or grooves to the rhythm of those songs/mantras or tries to repeat after me (he is 17months now, but has been doing this since he was 7-8 months old) A has been a light sleeper since the beginning and he gave us really tough time during first 3 months of sleepless days and nights at a stretch. We used different white-noises to make him sleep and for awake hours I had rhymes playing.  Hooplaa kidz rhymes (  Click here  )were our favourite for first 4 months along with his musical play gym and few rattles. As he grew a bit, we moved to supersimple rhymes, I became a clown dancing on those wonderful rhymes. Till the time he only listened to music without being too inquisitive about where i...

“Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use proper names for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.” - J.K. Rowling, HP That's the power of names! Well, I have a few interesting stories about names. My husband's name is Parul and in India Parul is a name for girls. My mother-in-law often narrated the story behind his name, how an influential friend visited them when he was born and suggested this name. It wasn't until he went to school that they realized, there were many girls called Parul and he was the only boy with that name. The first thing that I asked on meeting him for the first time was about his name. Anyway, now it doesn't matter, only once in a while people call me Parul ma'am or Ms. Parul and I have to correct them, saying that I am Rashmi and Parul is my husbandIn todays virtual world impressions are created by name and pictures that one puts up on social media. A lot of the times our name becomes our first introduction,...

Hello mommies! Well this particular review has been more than overdue, credits to my mommy brain dabbling into multiple things!! Here i am going to review one of our first and favourite toys, Activity box by Fisher Price. This activity box/cube was gifted to A by one of my very good friends from school. It was introduced to A when he was 6 months old. Initially it didn't interest him much. Just the lights and sound, what more can we expect from a 6mo. I used to put the cube infront of him and let him explore it. By the time he was 8 months old he knew everything that he could do with it, that was quite a lot, given the no. of activities. The shape sorting needs finer skills, so he couldn't do that, but he knew if if something was put from top it would come out from the hippos mouth. I keep rotating the toys, but this is one toy that has constantly been on our shelf since the time we received it. The box has 5 sides and multiple activities to engage your li...

Stay at home Vs Working Moms First of all, let me tweak the topic a bit; let me make it Stay at home moms and Working moms; let’s talk about the lives they lead, the challenges they face, the sacrifices they make and the rewards they take; for once let us NOT compare them. Versus often written as vs. is a Latin word meaning 'against' or it may mean to have a comparison or a competition between two teams/parties. Mothers do what they feel is best for their off-springs; whether they stay at home or work outside their homes, I would never wish to question their choices. When I was younger, studying and working, I couldn’t ever imagine myself not working or staying at home, changing diapers, feeding the baby and worrying about the piles of laundry and what to cook next. I could not visualize it because I have been brought up in a family where everyone worked and earned. My father has always insisted that women be financially independent. He has helped distant relative...