Festival of South Asian Children's Content

The Festival of South Asian Children's Content 2018 event by ‘Toka Box’ was a wonderful event.

We met several likeminded content creators, educators, and parents.

I was pleasantly surprised to be surrounded by creative works of my peers that had a traditional Indian influence. I saw books that brought to life good old traditions and foods. These books are a great way to help our kids see what our childhood was filled with.

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Kids did an awesome job presenting facts about reducing, reusing, recycling, water conservation, and wildlife conservation. Simple tips like printing on both sides of paper was well received.

There was lot of interest around instilling mindfulness in kids and inspiring them to give back to the community. We did a small game together about being mindful where we learnt that mindfulness is simply being present in what happens now.

As professionals, we all read about social responsibility for major corporations. Some of us support the ‘Green’ companies and embrace their products. While this is all happening, as parents, we must start thinking about building the next generation to be more socially aware and responsible.

In today's fast paced world, we all run around every single hour of the day and lead our life by a preset timetable. To foster creativity, free play is very important. Encourage kids to be curious, and explore.

Spend more time as a family. One of the first steps that we can take is to start enjoying Nature’s bounty. Spend quality family time hiking a trail, biking around the neighborhood, gardening in the yard. Weather permits, lounge in your porch, balcony, patio and gaze at the night sky. This is one of my all time favorite activity to do.

If I ever drive home with kids and it is dark, we spend few minutes gazing up at the sky. Every time we do this, I stand astonished by the mystery of the Universe.

Simple things create long lasting memories. Silly activities help strengthen the family bond.

When kids are raised in a happy environment, they are more likely to become compassionate adults who would want to give back to the community.