Preparing Child for School

School Readiness
You should assist your child in having the kinds of experiences that will help them be successful in school at an early age. School readiness means being sure your child has the social, academic, independence, and communication skills that are required to do well in school. Talking, reading, and playing with others will help your child prepare for their school career.

Academic Readiness
Before beginning kindergarten, children need to know about their families, themselves, and the world. Children can start school with a lot of skills that teachers can build upon, if they have already had good learning experiences at home and with their parents. You can do the following things to prepare your child academically: 
• Try to read to your child every day and talk about what was in the story.
• Ñheck out books in the library.
• Sing songs and finger plays.
• Help your child to recognize his or her name in print by writing it in various places that will be seen by your child.
• Teach your child to write.
• Help your child to learn colors by pointing to and naming items like, red pencil, green rug, or yellow shirt.
• Puzzles and games that involve counting and problem deciding are good to learn by.

• Let your child write, draw, cut, and paste.
• Teach your child the alphabet song, and show them toys that will help him or her to better understand the alphabet.
• Choose childcare that teaches children with fun activities.
• Allow your child dance, sing, run, and ride bikes or tricycles.
• Visit with your child various places, like the store, playground, zoo, or an amusement park. Speak with your child about the things that they did and saw.

Social Readiness
Social readiness is also very significant. Children need to learn to be in harmony with other children, obey rules, share, take turns, and to leave their parents during school. You should do the following to prepare your child socially:
• Establish rules and give punishments when they are broken.
• Give your child a bedtime and a time for meals.
• Speak with your child about how to play and talk with other children.
• Teach your child to take turns and share.

First Day at School

First day at school is very important for your child. First impression plays important part in general impression forming and the child’s desire to study. That’s why you should make appropriate preparation for your child’s first visit to school.

Here are some tips on how to make your child’s first day at school or kindergarten exciting and unforgettable:

• First day at school shouldn’t be the first. It would be better for you and your kid if you make introductory visit to school. It’s a great chance for the child to get familiar with the classroom and teachers.

• Acquaint your child with his or her classmates. It won’t be that scary to enter the classroom for the first time if you know somebody in there. How to arrange it? You can ask phone numbers of other parents from the school staff and make a couple of phone calls before the school begins. Arrange a meeting with their kids. This will contribute greatly to your child’s confidence.

• Give your child an opportunity to communicate. Social skills play important part in your child’s adaptation in the new environment. If your child attended kindergarten or any other pre-school institution, he or she probably won’t have any troubles in getting along with people. But if he or she doesn’t have such experience you should try to arrange it. You can take your kid to summer camps or play groups in order to develop his or her social skills.

• Familiarize your child with school (kindergarten) routine. If you have an opportunity to visit school in advance try to explain all rules in the school. Accent that nobody is allowed to fight, the teacher is main hear, toys are for everybody and no talking during classes. Also you can involve the teacher into your explanation.

• Your child must have self care habits. It will be much easier for you and your child to get used to the school. Children at age of 6-7 years have to dress by themselves.

• Try to set your child’s mind at rest. Explain that there is nothing to worry about. Ask him or her what are the main questions he or she would like to get answers on. You have to assure your child that there in nothing to worry about, especially if your child asks such questions as how often he or she will be able to use the bathroom or which bus to take after school.

• Help your child to pack all things into the schoolbag in the evening before the first school day. It will be useful to write down your child’s name on the back of schoolbag and lunch bag etc. Explain the purpose of each item to your child so he or she will be able to pack the schoolbag by his/her own.

• Before the school begins check your child’s health. Such checkup should include vision and hearing screening. Very often students have problems in school because of health problem. Also all necessary vaccinations should be given to your child before school.

The Fourth International Conference o Environmental Education

For the first time, India hosted the International Conference on Environmental Education, held every 10 years. The 4th ICEE was jointly sponsored by UNESCO and UNEP. India bid for this Conference as an opportunity to showcase the sustainable development work being done by its government and corporate sector. CEE was the nodal and host agency for 4th ICEE.

ICEE brought together approximately 1500 participants around 600 of which participated from outside India. The participants included key policy makers, communication specialists, field practitioners, researchers, educators, youth representatives as well as persons from various UN and other international agencies.

An International Advisory Committee composed of experts in one or more technical areas related to EE and ESD provided guidance to realize the Conference objectives, and helped in consolidating the outcomes of the Conference in the form of Ahmedabad Declaration and Conference recommendations. ICEE examined what has emerged out of the discipline of EE since Tbilisi and the role of EE within ESD. Further, it sought to explore how EE can support ‘ESD’ – the emerging specialized discipline. The Conference aimed to establish linkages between EE and ESD and helped set the roadmap for progress through the DESD. Since by its nature EE needs to foster partnerships with many disciplines, ICEE looked into identifying such partnerships in consultation with practitioners from these areas.

The plenary sessions included special sessions to address the role of education in the context of Climate Change, Education for Water Resource Management, and HIV AIDS.
The thematic discussions at ICEE were structured as thirty workshops, reflecting the EE and ESD concerns and issues that have evolved in the areas over the last 30 years since Tbilisi. Every workshop took stock of their specific area in the context of ESD and identified the role of EE within this. The workshops also reviewed and reformulated EE in the context of the DESD. The workshops ran in parallel, from 21st to 28th of November. Individual working group sessions varied from one day to five days.

Crosscutting themes on Climate Change, Water and Food and Sustainable Lifestyles were addressed throughout the Conference. These were discussed during the plenary sessions and in various working group sessions.

ICEE provided an exciting forum for discussion, debate and professional networking. The exhibition area had arrangements for poster presentations, interactive exhibits, live demonstration areas etc. A dedicated section on DESD showcased activities undertaken by various Governments as initiatives towards achieving the objectives of the Decade. Special events included a Campaign for Sustainability by the Auto-rickshaw Driver’s Association of Ahmedabad, the launch of Hand Print for Sustainability, workshops for children etc.

The CEE campus which served as the Conference venue was planned based on an environment-society-and culture-friendly strategy. An attempt was made to limit waste generation. For example, participants were given a refillable bottle at the beginning of the Conference and filtered water coolers were placed all over the campus, in order to avoid use and throw bottles /glasses.

‘Energy modesty’ meaning energy saving and efficiency is keenly followed at CEE. The buildings are designed to harness natural light and air. The wooded surroundings helped in reducing the campus and indoor temperature by 2-3°C.

The ICEE Daily helped delegates keep track of the multitude of events during the Conference.

Parallel Workshops:

1. Reorienting Formal Education towards ESD (Strategies, Pedagogy and Assessment)
2. Teacher Education: A crucial contribution to the UNDESD
3. Supporting Sustainable Development through Open and Distance Learning, including Technology Mediated Open and Distance Education (TechMODE)
4. Higher Education for Sustainable Development
5. Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs)
6. Non Formal Spaces of Learning
7. Youth: Trend setters of ESD
8. Health Concerns
9. Art, Design and Ecology - The Role of Artists and Designers in Creative Environmental Education for Sustainable Development
10. Workshop on Education for Disaster risk Reduction
11. Education towards sustainability concerns of Natural Resources in Fragile Ecosystems
12. Efficient use of energy and Alternative systems – addressing climate concerns through focused information support and capacity building
13. Education for Innovation and Technology
14. Mobilising Knowledge for Sustainable Development
15. Integrating Values of Sustainability into education: The promise of the Earth Charter
16. Linking Knowledge, Skills and Practices for Fostering Community Leadership, Education and Benefits – GEF UNDP Small Grants Program
17. Meeting Challenges of Knowledge Management in Water and Sanitation
18. Education for Sustainable Livelihoods
19. Education for Sustainable Cities
20. Sustainable Waste Management
21. Responsible Corporate Citizenship: Key to a Sustainable Future
22. Media and ESD workshop - ‘Building Public Awareness and Understanding of Sustainability’
23. Roadmap for Creating a Research Foundation to Support the DESD
24. Monitoring and Evaluating Progress during the UN DESD
25. Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage Sites: Learning Laboratories for Sustainable Development
26. Making Zoo Education Sustainable – with special focus on Fund Raising, PR and Marketing
27. Education for Sustainable Consumption through the DESD
28. Government Session - Sharing experiences and promoting collaboration
29. UNEP’s Global Environment Report Volume 4(GEO 4) 2007: Promoting Environmental Research and Learning for Sustainable Development
30. Role of Education in addressing Livestock, Environment and Development issues.

Valedictory Session
Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, addressed the valedictory session on 28th Nov 2007. He highlighted ten key aspects emerging from the Conference:

1. The importance of the contribution of EE to ESD and to the DESD.
2. The urgency of right decisions and the right actions.
3. The non-formal and informal approaches to EE and ESD should be recognized as just as important as the formal education system.
4. Teachers are a cornerstone of effective ESD programmes. They must draw upon local inputs, contexts and values as well as foster community ownership of the curriculum.
5. It is necessary to unpack the category ‘learners’ in order to devise and implement suitably targeted approaches. They may include politics, business, media, professions etc.
6. The importance of research into ESD along with the effective dissemination and utilization of research results.
7. DESD has stimulated the launch of serious work on monitoring and evaluation and on the development of indicators of ESD.
8. The Conference engaged with different frames of reference for ESD and EE, each capturing a dynamic link between the global and the local.
9. ESD is a great vehicle for respecting our differences and building a common vision.
10. We must listen to the voice of the youth.

Conference materials on the internet

• Presentations of plenary sessions
• Workshop reports, recommendations and presentations
• Overall recommendations
• Conference Declaration in English, Spanish, French and Japanese
• Conference photo gallery
• ICEE daily networking newsletter

Participatory Budgeting

Sanskriti Menon, Centre for Environment Education

Participatory Budgeting programmes are innovative governance processes. They can provide citizens with the opportunity to give their inputs in resource allocation and to monitor public spending. Social and political exclusion can be better addressed as low income and traditionally excluded citizens or groups get the opportunity to participate in decision-making.

Over 250 cities are applying participatory budgeting methods. The majority of these are in Brazil (where participatory budgeting began, in Porto Alegre). Participatory budgeting initiatives have been taken up in recent years in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia as well as in some European cities.

The basic pattern of participatory budget processes is that community groups identify spending priorities and submit these to their local civic offices / representatives who transform community priorities into concrete project proposals; facilitators provide technical assistance in project proposal development; once local lists of projects are ready, citizens prioritize these and vote on which projects to fund; the public authority then implements the projects.

Participatory Budgeting has been tried in a few Indian cities as well, especially in Karnataka and Kerala. In Bangalore, Janaagraha facilitated a participatory budget process in 2002-2003 across 10 wards. The experiences gained from this exercise, as well as the materials produced – a book on participatory planning, a video on surveying neighbourhoods, survey forms to record citizens requests for works, etc – are now helping participatory planning and budgeting processes in cities such as Hubli-Dharwad and Pune.

Participatory Budgeting in Pune
In Pune, the municipal corporation initiated participatory budgeting in 2005. Meetings of citizens and civic officials were organized through local agencies such as the National Society for Clean Cities and Nagrik Chetna Manch. A few hundred citizens participated and submitted requests for projects. The experience helped lay a base for citizen engagement in ward level budget processes of the municipality. In 2006-07, a more detailed and formalized process was followed, with facilitation support provided by Janwani and CEE.

Citizen engagement in the slums was done through the Urban Community Development Dept (UCD) and the Community Development Society (CDS) structure promoted under the Urban Self Employment and Wage Employment schemes. Community volunteers were trained to conduct the budgeting meetings with members of the self-help groups and neighbourhood groups.

For citizen engagement through the ward offices, CEE and Janwani worked out a more elaborate process. This was needed as there is no outreach mechanism parallel to the CDS structure. Fourteen students from the Economics Dept of University of Pune were selected and trained as facilitators. For CEE, this was part of its work as the Sectt of the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies Regional Centre of Expertise on Sustainable Urban Development.

The main tasks for citizens were to survey and identify works for their neighbourhoods, submit these in the specified format and to attend a prioritization meeting. At the prioritization meetings, citizens were grouped by electoral ward and they sorted through the lists of requests to arrive at the final lists within the allocated ward budget.

Community Meeting at Bhawani Peth
The meeting was held under a large peepal tree in a courtyard in a slum neighbourhood. Over a hundred women attended. The issues they discussed included:
a. Inconvenient timing of waste collection as it is water filling time; the consensus was that this was a management issue, not of infrastructure
b. repair of drains and manholes
c. lighting needed in the common meeting space

When the meeting was about to end, a karyakartas of the local councilor arrived on the scene. He demanded to know what was going on; he reprimanded the women for describing the issues of their neighbourhood/ community to ‘outsiders’ (since the meeting was being filmed) and asked why they did this when ‘hum hain na’. The women argued back that here was a chance for directly asking the PMC for some of the works they needed done, and that he should not interfere. For PMC, the main tasks were their own preparedness, publicity about the process, fine-tuning the works in conjunction with the citizens who submitted the ideas, costing the suggested works, holding prioritization meetings and preparing the final lists.
The sequence of activities was as follows:

1. Preparatory Meeting at PMC- Head of the PMC Citizen Facilitation Centre, Zonal Commissioners, Ward Officers and Junior Engineers
2. Publicity through the press, e-groups, phone calls to citizens groups and housing society representatives
3. Citizens’ Meetings at 4 Zonal Offices to explain process and timelines
4. Classification and Costing of Works at Ward Offices and preparation of electoral ward-wise lists
5. Prioritization Meetings
6. Finalized lists of Citizens Works

Participation of the Poor
Writings about participatory processes have highlighted that poor women often find it difficult to make the time to participate in planning processes, in addition to their domestic and wage-earning responsibilities.

In Pune, attention was drawn to this by Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Sanghatan (KKPKP) when the timings of the NHG meetings were revealed। Since the overall focus of the requests was to be localized neighbourhood improvement or repair works, KKPKP felt that it wasn’t a big disadvantage that rag-picker women were not present in the meetings। On the other hand, being able to submit requests for sorting sheds in the areas where they work for scrap collection was seen as a valuable opportunity (see ‘The Ward as Work Place’).

The Ward as Work Place

The city is also a work place and should be conducive to a range of economic activities। While commercial spaces are generally planned for, informal economic activity often survives on ‘informal occupation of city spaces’. City planning, and therefore neighbourhood planning has to take into account the role of a range of informal economic activities, and allocate space for these. As a case example, the participation of waste-pickers / waste collectors was especially sought as their services are related to the municipal function of SWM, and it is also an economic activity for them. The municipality policy for SWM encourages decentralized sorting and processing of different materials. A key component in managing different streams of waste materials is space for sorting of recyclables materials and their sale to scrap shops. With the help of the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (ragpickers’ trade union), waste pickers participated in the citizens budgeting exercise, and requested that budget allocations be made for sorting sheds in a few locations. These are envisaged as public amenities just like bus stops, hawker zones, vegetable markets etc.

Changing Governance Patterns
Participatory budgeting processes can help governance become more transparent and accountable. In Pune, Municipal Commissioner Nitin Kareer stressed that the PB process is departure from the 'you ask, we give' mentality. Describing this as a method of making democracy more effective, the Municipal Commissioner said that the next step would be for citizens to locally decide how their area is developed, including inputs into the development plan.

Announcing a participatory budgeting scheme in UK recently, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Hazel Blears said "The public will be able to decide whether their priority is play areas, youth facilities, traffic calming or more community wardens. Participatory budgeting is not just consultation. It is where people come together, set priorities and vote on what is going to happen."

Pune Mayor Rajalaxmi Bhosale expressed similar sentiments when after the Pune participatory budgeting exercise she said “This will help consolidate the relationship between the municipality and the citizens. The corporators will be under constant scrutiny from the citizens.”

Highlighting the role that elected representatives could play, Hazel Blear said "councilors must not feel their democratic mandate is bypassed, and instead recognize that it will strengthen their relationship with their local community". Also, that, "I think the world has changed. I think voting every four years and basically handing over responsibility and power to other people and then doing nothing again for four years, I think our democracy is not like that any more."

Citizens realize this too. Having attended a prioritization meeting, a citizen in Pune said, “The projects have been listed along with the name of the recommender. It is the responsibility of the concerned citizen to keep an eye on the progress of the work. The corporation also has the responsibility of providing details about the development of the work and clarifying doubts of the citizens.”

In Pune, as the city prepares for another round of participatory budgeting, several citizens, and the new municipal commissioner too, are asking for an assessment of last years’ process and how many projects have been or are being implemented। There is recognition that some project ideas are mundane (fix a pavement), and that the fact that citizens have to say it is a telling comment on how these very aspects are ignored in conventional budgeting processes। There are the not-so-usual ideas as well – sorting sheds, composting units, benches, hawking zone platforms, etc। There is also recognition that there is a long way to go to streamline and encourage this fairly new process.

References

• Dove, Lesley (2004), Providing environmental urban services to the poor in Andhra Pradesh: developing strategic decision-making. Environment and Urbanization 2004; 16; 95
• Cabannes, Yves (2004). Participatory budgeting: a significant contribution to participatory democracy. Environment and Urbanization 2004
• Wintour. P. “Voters to get direct say on local spending”. Guardian, July 5, 2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2118822,00.html (accessed July 15, 2007)

For more information contact
Ranjit Gadgil
Programme Director, Janwani
MCCIA, ICC
Senapati Bapat Road
Pune 411005

Sanskriti Menon

Ward wise meetings of citizens to discuss priorities for neighbourhood projects - a very important aspect of the participatory budget process.

Prakriti Environment Education Bus

Gopal Kumar Jain and Keren Nazareth, CEE

The green bus with its vibrantly painted exterior is now a familiar sight in Ahmedabad, Surat, Bharuch, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Tapi and many other places around Gujarat.

The idea for such a bus came five years ago from the Club of Youth Working for the Environment (CYWEN). They felt:
- Young people could be Environment Educators
- Young people need resources to carry out awareness programme

CEE started to explore the concept of a mobile resource centre – Prakriti Environment Education Bus – with support from BG India and Gujarat Gas Company Limited (GGCL). The content and communication design was decided through discussions with teachers, youth, educationists etc.

Prakriti was launched in September 2005 by Shri Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat in Gandhinagar. The launch began an era of CNG as well as accessible environment education beginning with the districts of Ahmedabad, Surat and Bharuch.

The Bus Structure
The bus is built on a Swaraj Mazda chassis and it runs Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

The sides have been modified to make information panels. While the bus is moving, these sections are closed and covered by glass shutters. The side panels have:

• A collage featuring people, lifestyle and places (cultural heritage) of Gujarat appears on one side of the bus
• Panels on natural heritage highlighting the richness of biodiversity

The back of the bus is used to display 3D models and to screen films. The bus carries with it a screen, speakers, LCD projector, generator, computer system and a public address (PA) system.

The bus is a one stop-shop for environment education. Users can set up an exhibition, activities, games, film shows, demonstrations, puppet-shows and conduct group discussions. Reference resource materials on various issues are also placed inside the bus, for those interested in more details on any particular issue.

Prakriti Visits and Partnerships
Having created the bus, the next step was to organize its visits, mainly to areas where access was limited or existing systems had not been able to reach.

CYWEN chose to partner with local organisation working with youth: Nature Club Surat and the Nehru Yuva Kendra, Bharuch. Both these local partners have a strong youth volunteer base and youth were trained and oriented to carry out Prakriti programmes in their respective districts.

The first point of entry of the bus was through rural and urban schools. Over the years this expanded to events, programmes organised by groups, companies, corporate social responsibility projects, colleges and schools in neighbouring districts such as Gandhinagar, Tapi, and Vadodara.

A typical activity includes the bus exhibition, games, activities, film shows, demonstrations and discussions.

All these require well grounded, patient and enthusiastic individuals. The core team comprises one programme staff, one project staff, two interns, and the most important member, the driver of the bus. The strength of the Prakriti bus is its core team and the volunteers that help organise and carry out events.

Prakriti works on strengthening existing forums and platforms by providing resources, support, guidance and expertise over a period of time, to help such forums conduct their activities more effectively.

Prakriti also reaches out to schools through the eco-clubs set up and run as a part of the National Green Corps programme of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. Eco-clubs have taken up the issues of health, biodiversity, plastic management, renewable energy, herbal medicines and plants, deforestation, noise pollution in their yearly projects.

Prakriti Projects
Projects have been undertaken by schools on concerns in their immediate environment. One such issue focussed is biodiversity. Projects include those on Spiders, Birds, Mosquitoes and their impact on health; medicinal plants and how they can be used to make home remedies for various ailments. A school in Surat has also done a survey on the types of trees in Surat city.
“The children interviewed doctors from the local hospital to get their expert advice on the types of mosquitoes, their life cycle and the diseases they cause.” Eco-club teacher, Bharuch
“The children were shocked to find out the number of birds that had either gone extinct or were on the verge of extinction in their areas.” Eco-club teacher, Bharuch

Few eco-club Prakriti schools focussed on maintaining the greenery on the school grounds and also cultivated green patches with flowering plants; vegetable plants and medicinal plants. Two schools have initiated the practice of giving children from the eco-clubs saplings to plant in their homes and take care of them. “We do a continuous follow up with the children as to how their plants are faring. Those who don’t have space around their houses, we’ve given them potted plants.” Principal of Anjuman-E-Islam High School, Ahmedabad

At the end of the year an event which brings together the entire year’s learning, partners, collaborators, groups of youth and children is organised. It is a meeting of ideas, innovation, creativity and a platform to share and learn from the experiences of the students, teachers and youth volunteers. The event is held either at a district level or at the State level and has competitions, presentations, training sessions, workshops, cultural programmes, bird watching sessions and other excursions.

The event also provides an opportunity for the Prakriti team to evaluate the year gone by and plan for the up coming year.

Prakriti’s programmes have evolved over the last three years from generic outreach to all NGC schools to a more focussed one with selected schools that are interested in collaborating with Prakriti.

Prakriti has also collaborated with the Gujarat Paguthan Energy Corporation (GPEC), for their CSR programme in ten villages in Bharuch. In the past year (2008) Prakriti focused on “Eco-friendly festivals” to convey the impacts of synthetic colours used during holi on health and the environment, while also providing an option of organic colours.

During the last three years, over 100 youth particularly from the three project districts have been involved as educators for conducting programmes. For these young people, engagement with Prakriti was a good learning experience.

Using the Prakriti experience, a youth organisation in Vallabhvidyanagar has initiated its own resource centre. Nature Club Surat too is developing a programme to provide opportunities for youth to play the role of educators. Resource centres such as these are good tools for environment education.

Learning Mathematics for Life

People from many countries have expressed interest in the tests students take for the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Learning Mathematics for Life examines the link between the PISA test requirements and student performance. It focuses specifically on the proportions of students who answer questions correctly across a range of difficulty. The questions are classified by content, competencies, context and format, and the connections between these and student performance are then analysed.

This analysis has been carried out in an effort to link PISA results to curricular programmes and structures in participating countries and economies. Results from the student assessment reflect differences in country performance in terms of the test questions. These findings are important for curriculum planners, policy makers and in particular teachers – especially mathematics teachers of intermediate and lower secondary school classes.

The High Cost of Low Educational Performance

While governments frequently commit to improving the quality of education, it often slips down the policy agenda. Because investing in education only pays off in the future, it is possible to underestimate the value and the importance of improvements.

This report uses recent economic modelling to relate cognitive skills – as measured by PISA and other international instruments – to economic growth, demonstrating that relatively small improvements to labour force skills can largely impact the future well-being of a nation.

The report also shows that it is the quality of learning outcomes, not the length of schooling, which makes the difference. A modest goal of all OECD countries boosting their average PISA scores by 25 points over the next 20 years would increase OECD gross domestic product by USD 115 trillion over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010. More aggressive goals could result in gains in the order of USD 260 trillion.

Television & Kids

Undoubtedly that Internet, television, interactive video games can be exceptional sources not only for kid’s entertainment buy also has great educational value. That’s why we should not forget that too much screen time can have unhealthy effects and harmful influence on your precious child. That's why it is of current importance to limit and control the time your child spends watching TV programs, shows films etc. during a day.

The American Academy of Pediatrics insist that kids under age of two should not have screen time at all, and that kids older than two should watch no more than one to two hours per day of television programming. Despite this fact the typical child spends over four hours a day in front of the TV screen.dangerous-television

Little children cannot easily differentiate between real world and the world of fantasy. Small child finds frightening images that nowadays overfill TV industry and this can easily lead psychological trauma. Scenes of violence can provoke real fears, shock and even to traumatize; child can acquire a fear of becoming a victim of violent crime. Fear of violence may influence and reduce the amount of time children spend outside house.

Television frequently depicts dangerous and harmful behaviors such as drinking alcohol, taking drugs, and smoking in an attractive light. Negative behavior becomes something regular and usual for kids, especially for teenagers.Children need time to communicate with parents, relatives, friends; to discover their imagination. Children learn something by doing it, with the help of practise. Passively sitting and watching educational or educational TV programs is a poor alternative for interesting game or creative thinking.
It is a brilliant idea to provide kids with wide variety of leisure time activities like reading books, playing with friends, doing sports, which plays a vital role in developing a healthy body and mind.