Looking for ways to keep your toddler engaged?

Talk to any parent today. Perhaps the hardest challenge for them is to keep their toddler/preschooler busy while they complete the most important household chores in the morning. Keeping a 2 year old glued to his/her place is probably the only activity in the world that needs a lot of creativity. This is a situation faced by mothers or primary caregivers in the house (when the mother is a working mum) in most families. 

Sometimes, we need to find an activity that will engage them steadily for at least an hour so that we can continue our kitchen work at a stretch without much worries. Can a bucket of building blocks do that trick? No. Can a game of blowing bubbles from soap water help out? Not really. You need someone along to play this one. Can an episode on lions on tigers on television achieve the target? Not always. 

Just like any other working mother who tries to crack this challenge at some point of time, I was breaking my head too. After all, I had to find a solution that was both rewarding as well as keep my toddler entertained while the people at home who take care of her while I am off to work, had some time to relax too. It is indeed a really commendable task to take care of a toddler (read as 'run behind a toddler') for an entire day and still manage to smile at the end of the day and celebrate each and every mischief that she does, in every conversation they have. Those credits goes to my mother-in-law who does that everyday while I am off to work. 

In my quest to find a way to entertain my toddler for one or two hours during the day so that she eats her food without a fuss or gives the elders some free time to read a book or finish kitchen chores, I found something really valuable. Although there are parents who argue that they want their children to grow up sans screen-time or electronic gadgets, I am someone who thinks it is okay in moderation. We as parents must not give in to make it an addiction for them. 

In the initial days, I noticed a lot of mothers talking about using rhymes to entertain their child while eating food or during travel. When my daughter was around 12 months old, we had reached a stage where we were just too desperate to make her gulp down her food. That is when I discovered this youtube channel - Chu Chu TV.

This was the first video rhymes I came across in their channel. A collection of the commonly taught rhymes for preschoolers like Baa Baa Black Sheep, Humpty Dumpty, Isy Bitsy Spider, etc. Alas! I had found my solution.

My daughter learnt very smartly to navigate through their channel on her own and watch the rest of the rhymes too. I had also started humming a lot of her favourite rhymes (even till now) like 'Five Little Monkeys jumping on the bed' and 'Mary had a little lamb'. Sometimes, my daughter used to have me in splits when she constructs her own lyrics. She sings 'Mary had a dining table, dining table.." and more such own lyrics. 

One of the popular ChuChu TV rhymes character that my daughter likes is the 'Surprise Eggs' series. The tune is very peppy, the video is interactive and conversational. It has animals or human characters who display a bunch of surprise eggs, opening one by one to discover either animal figures inside or colors or similar concepts. This series tries to educate children on colors, animals, numbers, hidden inside surprise eggs. The opening music of this rhyme video is in itself very appealing and attractive. It goes like 'ChuChu Tv Surpriseeeee" as a chorus sung by children. On a normal day, you can find atleast one of my family members humming this tune. That is how much easy it is for a ChuChu TV rhyme to find a place in your head.

Here are a five reasons why I would recommend ChuChu TV to young mothers:

1. ChuChu Tv's series of rhymes is not similar to other rhyme video channel. They run fresh and original content with new characters and colorful backgrounds.
2. The music they use in the videos is very peppy and keep your toddler entertained
3. They have only around 100 videos in their channel when compared to others who have hosted more. But I would take this one as their focus on quality rather than quantity.
4. A lot of their rhymes aims at being more educative rather than traditional. 
5. And they have consciously constructed storyboards and narratives to break stereotypes. Like for example, the inclusion of children characters in their rhymes with all kinds of complexion, subtly depicting that color is not a criteria to make friends. That is definitely a progressive thought, isn't it?

In those days when we were kids, playing with a pack of cards was not encouraged among children in some families because it was a gambling related game. My parents never objected it because they knew that it was just a game and part of play. I used to play all sorts of games with cards and still I am not a gambler today. In the same way, I think using media in various forms is becoming a part of childhood these days. Children are learning to operate gadgets more quickly than elders. So, a regulated screen-time, in my opinion, will not do much harm. Over usage can cause health issues, hence, regulation by parents is essential. In that case, I would happily recommend the ChuChu TV youtube channel to you, if you are a young parent looking for ways to engage your toddler in an educative manner.