Teaching South Asian Culture to my little one!

Being a stay at home mom to a growing and demanding toddler has been a constant struggle. I'm always falling short of ways to keep her occupied and match up to the energy levels! They seem to never get tired, I wonder how!? Anyway, coming to the point on what today's blog post is about I wanted to share my experience on how I'm coping up with educating D about South Asian culture. 

I want to give her maximum exposure to the Indian ways, hoping that she will grow up with a natural love and attachment towards it. 

As she spends the maximum time with me, I do realise that the responsibility

of giving her a taste of Indian culture rests solely upon me. Though I really miss having the elders of the family around. 

Last month when D's dada, dadi were here, it made such a huge difference to D's learning curve. I could see how quickly she picked up things from them. The way they kept her busy, I can possibly not imagine doing that. It almost felt like this is how D would grow up if she were in India. 

Now we're again back to the two of us and I constantly try and do my bit. Here are a few things that I've been practicing on a daily basis which have surly helped me come a long way. Sharing them on the blog here. 

1) Praying with her: 

We pray together every morning. By now, she knows that the mandir is where we join our hands together and do jai jai. After giving her a shower we both sit together and as I do my Puja she claps to the gayatri mantra being played on my phone. She knows it's a routine and I'm glad she likes it. We also try and visit the temple as often as we can. 

Diwali Puja- 2017

2) Listening to Indian rhymes/ Indian songs: 

Ever since D was born, I've played Hindi bhajans to put her to sleep and calm her down. It helped a lot as she would just doze off to the tune of hey ram in the car seat or even at night. Also, when it comes to rhymes she has had equal exposure to both English and the Hindi ones. I can't forget her obsession with this one particular rhyme bandar mama pehen pajama. It was to the extent I had "bandar mama" on her 1st birthday cake. Sometimes I laugh at how silly the rhymes sound but I also know how important role are they playing in teaching her the language. 

D on her 1st birthday - devouring her very favorite bandar mama!

3) Speaking to her in Hindi all the time:
This is one of my biggest fear and concern of raising her here in America. I really want D to be able to communicate in her mother tongue. For that, RJ and me make sure that we speak to one another and to our little one in only Hindi all the time. Eventually we know she will learn to speak English but Hindi she will only learn with a conscious effort from us. Doing this has helped a great deal because I can see how she understands the language and responds when we speak to her in Hindi. Her first words now that she has started talking a little, are all Hindi!

4) Indian baby books: 

Since books are one of the bests ways to induce curiosity and learning in children, I've made sure to add ample of Indian books to D's library.  My personal favorites are - 

#Meet My Hindu Gods and 10 Noisy Rickshaws from Desi Babies. 

#Padmini is powerful and Harini & Padmini Say Namaste from Bharat Babies 

#The flash card set of Indian gods from Jai Jai Hooray

Every single day, we read from one of these books together and D has begun to recognise the contents of each book.

5) Celebrating festivals: 

This Diwali while I was decorating the house and prepping up for the festivities , I knew D could feel there is something special going around. Maybe she is too young, but I know that when she sees the celebration of festivals repeatedly year after year she will be able to associate with them as part of life. During Navratra, we took her for dandiya and she had so much fun dancing to the tune of garba songs while watching everyone else perform. 

Dressed up for our  1st Dandiya night together!

6) Indian home cooked meals: 

I've been feeding D with ghar ka khana ever since she started eating solids. Initially it was upma , kichidi, and daals to go easy on her stomach. I was lucky to have my mom here when D had just begun eating solid food. Her guidance and experience made it really easy for me to not touch packet food and make everything fresh and home made.  Now that D can chew and has also started eating herself, she eats almost everything that I make for myself. Its saves me a lot of time and energy and I'm happy she relishes Indian food. 

All of this said and done, one thing that I'm really looking forward to, is a trip to India with my little one. Though it wont happen this year, RJ and me definitely plan on taking D next year around March/April. As she turns 2 in April, hopefully we can ring in her birthday with the entire family back home. I know for sure that spending time in India will give her an actual feel of her culture and I can hardly wait to share that experience together! 

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