3 Important Discussion Questions! Childcare, Pronunciation, and Holi vs Easter Songs!

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Yes, 3 important topics for us all to crowdsource! I have high hopes from you. If nothing else, I hope to get a settled answer on the pronunciation.

Nephew A, who is now 4, has hit a spell of having too many bad thoughts to be able to sleep. Thoughts like Robots and Alligators and Dinosaurs. Scary scary things. And my sister has tried every possible placebo effect comfort thing to get him to just settle and SLEEP, without luck (dreamcatchers, washing the thoughts out of his head, thinking about cars chasing the thoughts out, etc.). As he points out, “that’s just PRETEND”. Versus his worries about Robot Dogs which are, of course, very real.

Any ideas? For those of you who have dealt with the 4 year old bedtime worries, what worked? Personally, when I was 4, I remember just focusing on the blinking fire alarm light over my bed. If I stayed awake and made sure it blinked every minute, everything would be FINE.

Next question! Is it “Sufi-ism” or “Suf-ism”? I’ve always thought of it as “Sufi-ism” and then I just heard someone pronounce it as “Suf-ism” and it made me question EVERYTHING.

And finally, very important in this festive season, which song is better? “My Name is Anthony Gonsalves” or “Rang Barse”???

20 thoughts on “3 Important Discussion Questions! Childcare, Pronunciation, and Holi vs Easter Songs!”

      • I know! I especially love the little chorus; they are so clearly having a good time. Even though the quality might be poorer than the versions we’ve heard a thousand times, I feel like it’s a special treat to hear filmi songs performed live : D Symphony NH did a concert of ’em with Juju Palakurthi and Mithilesh Patankar singing last fall and it was a ton of fun.

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  6. Pingback: 3 Vital Dialogue Questions! Childcare, Pronunciation, and Holi vs Easter Songs! – pankajsharmalife

  8. Pingback: 3 Important Discussion Questions! Childcare, Pronunciation, And Holi Vs Easter Songs! - News Hour 24/7

  9. I say Sufi rather than Sufi-ism.

    Rang Barse is a very holi song but Anthony Gonsalves is good for everything. So ‘My Name is Anthony Gonsalves’ for sure!

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  10. Childcare – stories. The 12 year old was terrified of racoons at 4. So, based on the advice of his preschool teacher, I made up stories about a raccoon family, and what they during the day. And the racoon family, was much like our family, with a dad, a mom, siblings. I can’t remember what the story was exactly, I remember I used repetition, maybe they were searching for key or something, searching under the chair – no key, searching in the teapot – no key, etc. And then finally they found the key, so they could drive to Grandma’s… The names had to stay the same night after night, but the places they could search would change. (I don’t actually remember if this was the plot but this is the idea). So from being scary, the Racoons became the family that had to work together, they became what he identified with. And the stories could every couple days, so then the family went to fair, but baby racoon was to small to ride X and too big to ride Z until finally they found the obstical course, which was just right.

    I can’t remember the stories, but honestly, it feels like the 12 year old was 4 years old just yesterday.

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  11. ARGH STUPID WORD PRESS!!!!

    I declare my childcare advice is important enough that I shall type it twice (and this time I will copy before I try to post)

    When the 12 year old was 4 he was terrified of racoons, so his preschool genius of a teacher recommended making up stories, with racoons as the main character at night. So I did, my stories followed typical picture books styles of the a family doing things together, with some sort of repetition. For example lets say the Robot Dog family was going to Grandma’s house, but then they couldn’t find the car keys, so the baby Robot Dog looked in his crib, no keys, big brother Robot Dog Looked in his toy truck, no keys! Mommy Robot Dog looked in her purse, no keys! And then Daddy Robot dog looked under his coffee cup, and there were the keys! So they unlocked the car and opened the trunk and brought their favorite stuffies, and drove down the block and onto the highway and by the lake to where Grandma was…. ya know, minimal conflict stories…. 

    And the 12 year old is my anxiety child so sometimes we could talk about how the Racoons/Robot Dog family went to the fair and it was so loud it scared big brother Robot Dog. And how there were so many people that he was worried he would loose his mother. But then mommy his hand, and every time he felt bad he would squeeze her hand, and she would squeeze back, and they walked all over the fair and he never lost his mommy. And even though at first he didn’t want to go on the big wheel ride, after walking past it, five times, and seeing it, from every spot of the fair, he decided to try. And he sat on the ride with his mommy, and they went higher and higher, and they could see EVERYTHING. The tops of all the buildings, the mountains far away, the lights of main street. And then they went down down down, and then they went up up up again! ANd they could see everything AGAIN! The clown walking around the fair, the cars in the parking lot. And then they went down down down….

    The stories ARE imaginary and that is okay, because bedtime stories are supposed to be imaginary.

    My second response was much longer than my first response.

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  12. This is the third time I have attempted to comment on this post. I hate WordPress. When the 12 year old was 4 he was terrified of Racoons, so his preschool teacher advised me to make up Racoons stories for him. I made up family stories with racoons, robots could easily replace racoons. It really worked, I couldn’t use the same story all the time, but we would repeat favorites, and anything he was anxious about the Racoons would do… He became fond of racoons.

    Once upon a time there was the Robot family, with Daddy and Mommy Robot, Big Brother Robot, and Baby Robot. They were going to take a vacation. Big Brother Robot was very excited. They were going to visit Grandma Robots house at the lake. It would be the first time Baby Robot had ever been to the lake, and Big Brother Robot couldn’t wait to show him the dock and the boats, and most important the life preservers and water protectors, because baby Robot couldn’t swim, and NONE of the Robot family could get wet. Water is fun, water is amazing, but Robots can’t get wet! Big Brother Robot got wet once, and he had to stay still, in the sun, for 10 hours until he dried out again, it was very boring. Sometimes Big Brother Robot wished he was a human so he could get wet. But he could do big math calculations much faster than humans, so being a robot did have some advantages. Big Brother Robot also wished that his family was the kind of Robot that had jet feet, so that they could fly to Grandma’s house. But they weren’t those kinds of Robots, so they had to drive the car.

    The whole family, Mommy, Daddy, Big Brother, and Baby Robot were at their front door, with their bags packed, when Daddy asked Mommy Robot if she had the car keys. Mommy Robot felt around in her pockets. She didn’t find the keys there. Mommy Robot felt around in her purse, but she couldn’t find the keys. Mommy Robot asked Big Brother Robot if he had the car keys. Big brother Robot looked inside his toy truck, but he didn’t see the car keys there. Big Brother Robot looked inside his special drawers, the one that held his socks and other cool things, but he didn’t see the car keys. Big Brother asked Baby Robot if he could find the keys. Baby Robot couldn’t talk yet, but he could understand. Baby Robot crawled to his crib, pulled himself up and looked in. He shook his head, no keys. Baby Robot crawled to his highchair, pulled himself up and looked in his chair, he shook his head, no keys. Baby Robot crawled over to Daddy Robot and pulled himself up his Daddy’s legs and patted Daddy Robots pocket. The whole family heard a jingle when Baby Robot patted Daddy Robot’s pocket. Daddy Robot looked into his pocket – there were the keys!!! Hooray!

    Daddy Robot, Mommy Robot, Big Brother Robot, and Baby Robot left the house, unlocked the car doors, put all their bags into the car, and then put themselves into the car. Mommy Robot started the car and backed out of the driveway, she drove down the block and turned onto the main road. Mommy Robot merged onto the highway and the Robot family drove out of the town, past the big city with the sky skrapers that were almost as tall as the clouds, past farms and fields full of sheep, and finally they pulled off the highway, and turned onto Grandma’s road. They pulled into Grandma’s driveway and there, behind the house, was the LAKE! They made it! Now all they had to do was not get wet.

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    • In a lovely series of transformation of creativity, I have now posted ALL the versions. Also, Naina says sometimes changing to incognito mode helps.

      And this is a great idea!!!! He does tend to grab on to things and obsess over them. He saw a Robot Dog one time in one cartoon months ago, and it still haunts him. So putting in the time to un-scary them should help a lot.

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    • Love this! A lot of what I did with my youngest to learn to manage fear focused on understanding how much is coming from your own imagination and how much you could use that same tool to turn the fear around. Recasting the scary figure in a fun story series is perfect.

      Emily

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      • This is making me want to rewatch Monsters Inc. Setting aside everything else about the movie, I am sure the filmmakers had in their minds “what if we take the terrifying monster in the closet, and give kids a nice happy version of who they are, a harmless monster”

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