Every child remembers one date in the year for sure, their own birthday! For every child it's all about 'I, me and myself' and it is no surprise that their birthdays hold a very prominent place in their idea of self. Since this day holds so much importance, we need to analyse the messages that we are passing on through the traditions or rituals we follow on that day.
Let us take the most popular ways that we celebrate the birthday of our children:
Cutting of the cake - While we are trying on one side to ensure that our children are fit and healthy by giving them the 'No Junk Food' rule, we are ourselves propagating unhealthy food with the cake. The sugar and maida in the cake are not good for our children and more importantly, you are sending the wrong message.
Blowing out the candles - We are encouraging children to blow out the candles. In most countries, lighting a candle represents dispelling of darkness and invoking of knowledge. Then why are we teaching our children to blow out the candles instead of lighting one?
Receiving gifts - The child looks forward to the gifts on the birthday the most. I have seen children who look at the hands of the guests walking in eagerly rather than accept the greeting! We are making our children materialistic by making birthdays all about the gifts.
Return Gifts - The friends of the child come to the party expecting a return gift. There is a competition about who gave the best return gift, putting a lot of pressure on the child. We are taking away the joy of giving.
Party Food - In the name of serving what children like, most often junk food is served in the parties.
At our school (Podar Jumbo Kids), we did away with all this and started follow the Montessori method of celebrating birthdays from the past six years, thus:
The birthday child is invited to carefully hold the globe and the teacher explains to the children that the earth orbits around the sun and one rotation around the sun takes one year of time. Essentially, the child's walk represents the Earth revolving around the Sun and another year that has passed. At the beginning of this activity, the students are told that the birthday child is waiting to be born and on his birthday, he begins to walk slowly around the “Sun” carrying the globe. The child walks around the Sun once while the students sing the birthday song:
Let us take the most popular ways that we celebrate the birthday of our children:
Cutting of the cake - While we are trying on one side to ensure that our children are fit and healthy by giving them the 'No Junk Food' rule, we are ourselves propagating unhealthy food with the cake. The sugar and maida in the cake are not good for our children and more importantly, you are sending the wrong message.
Blowing out the candles - We are encouraging children to blow out the candles. In most countries, lighting a candle represents dispelling of darkness and invoking of knowledge. Then why are we teaching our children to blow out the candles instead of lighting one?
Receiving gifts - The child looks forward to the gifts on the birthday the most. I have seen children who look at the hands of the guests walking in eagerly rather than accept the greeting! We are making our children materialistic by making birthdays all about the gifts.
Return Gifts - The friends of the child come to the party expecting a return gift. There is a competition about who gave the best return gift, putting a lot of pressure on the child. We are taking away the joy of giving.
Party Food - In the name of serving what children like, most often junk food is served in the parties.
At our school (Podar Jumbo Kids), we did away with all this and started follow the Montessori method of celebrating birthdays from the past six years, thus:
In the Montessori classroom children have the
opportunity to celebrate their birthdays by doing the 'Birthday Walk'. It is a
meaningful way to further their understanding of the passage of time and a
great way to introduce the concept of months, days of the month, concept of a
year, the earth, the sun, and how the earth revolves around the sun. The aim of
this birthday ritual is to help children recognize how they have grown and changed
since they were born, to help them understand why they have turned a year older
and to foster a sense of community and celebration in the classroom
environment. The birthday ritual is typically introduced during circle time and
an item such as a candle or yellow ball is placed in the center of the circle
to represent 'The Sun' in our Universe.
 |
| A birthday celebration in progress |
The birthday child is invited to carefully hold the globe and the teacher explains to the children that the earth orbits around the sun and one rotation around the sun takes one year of time. Essentially, the child's walk represents the Earth revolving around the Sun and another year that has passed. At the beginning of this activity, the students are told that the birthday child is waiting to be born and on his birthday, he begins to walk slowly around the “Sun” carrying the globe. The child walks around the Sun once while the students sing the birthday song:
The Earth goes round the Sun
(Tune: Farmer in the dell)
The Earth goes round the Sun,
The Earth goes round the Sun,
It takes a whole
year for the Earth to go round the Sun.
 |
| The months marked for the child to stand in the respective birthday month. |
After the child has walked once around “The
Sun”, the teacher explains that now the child is one year old; everyone claps
once and you show the picture of that child when he/she was one year old. The
birthday child talks about his/her picture and discusses what he/she may have
done when they were one year old, i.e., say “ma- ma”, learn to walk, drink from
a bottle, etc. Each time the child walks around “The Sun” you sing the song,
then discuss the age of the child and show the corresponding photo. When you
get to the child's current age, everyone sings 'Happy Birthday' and the child
gets to blow the candle (if a candle is used) and make a birthday wish. It is a
lovely ritual and it makes the birthday child feel valued and special!
The celebration is also enhanced with these pointers
Fruits - Instead of a cake, we invite the child to cut and serve fruits. Parent provide fruits for all the children in the classroom.
Sweets - Instead of the unhealthy chocolates, we encourage parents to provide with home made sweets that are made with jaggery and has no sugar.
Return Gifts - We mandate that only books are given as return gifts ( if they want to give ) and we at the school curate the books before they are given to the children.
With all these rituals and practices, our hope is to make celebration of birthdays more meaningful. We need all parents to adopt this so that this becomes a movement.
Let us bring about a change right from how we celebrate birthdays.
Happy parenting!
The celebration is also enhanced with these pointers
Fruits - Instead of a cake, we invite the child to cut and serve fruits. Parent provide fruits for all the children in the classroom.
Sweets - Instead of the unhealthy chocolates, we encourage parents to provide with home made sweets that are made with jaggery and has no sugar.
Return Gifts - We mandate that only books are given as return gifts ( if they want to give ) and we at the school curate the books before they are given to the children.
With all these rituals and practices, our hope is to make celebration of birthdays more meaningful. We need all parents to adopt this so that this becomes a movement.
Let us bring about a change right from how we celebrate birthdays.
Happy parenting!
