Preparation for parenthood is not just a matter of reading books and decorating the nursery. Here are 13 simple tests for expectant parents to take to prepare themselves for the real-life experience of being a mother or father.

1. Women: to prepare for maternity, put on a dressing gown and stick a beanbag down the front. Leave it there for 9 months. After 9 months, take out 10% of the beans.
2. Men: to prepare for paternity, go to the local chemist, tip the contents of your wallet on the counter, and tell the pharmacist to help himself. Then go to the supermarket. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office. Go home. Pick up the paper. Read it for the last time.
3. Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who are already parents and berate them about their methods of discipline, lack of patience, appallingly low tolerance levels, and how they have allowed their children to run riot. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners and overall behavior. Enjoy it - it'll be the last time in your life that you will have all the answers.
4. To discover how the nights will feel, walk around the living room from 5pm to 10 pm carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds. At 10 pm put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1am. Set the alarm for 3am. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2am and make a drink. Go to bed at 2.45 am. Get up again at 3am when the alarm goes off. Sing songs in the dark until 4 am. Set the alarm for 5am. Get up. Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. Look cheerful.
5. Can you stand the mess children make? To find out, smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains. Hide a fish finger behind the stereo and leave it there all summer. Stick your fingers in the flowerbeds then rub them on the clean walls. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?
6. Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems. First buy an octopus and a string bag. Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that none of the arms hang out. Time allowed for this - all morning.
7. Take an egg carton. Using a pair of scissors and a pot of paint turn it into an alligator. Now take a toilet tube. Using only scotch tape and a piece of foil, turn it into a Christmas cracker. Last, take a milk container, a ping pong ball, and an empty packet of Coco Pops and make an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower. Congratulations. You have just qualified for a place on the playgroup committee.
8. Forget the Miata and buy a Taurus. And don't think you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that. Buy a chocolate ice cream bar and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there. Get a quarter. Stick it in the cassette player. Take a family-size packet of chocolate cookies. Mash them down the back seats. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car. There. Perfect.
9. Get ready to go out. Wait outside the toilet for half an hour. Go out the front door. Come in again. Go out. Come back in. Go out again. Walk down the front path. Walk back up it. Walk down it again. Walk very slowly down the road for 5 minutes. Stop to inspect minutely every cigarette end, piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue and dead insect along the way. Retrace your steps. Scream that you've had as much as you can stand, until the neighbors come out and stare at you. Give up and go back into the house. You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.
10. Always repeat everything you say at least five times.
11. Go to your local supermarket. Take with you the nearest thing you can find to a pre-school child - a fully grown goat is excellent. If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goats eat or destroy. Until you can easily accomplish this do not even contemplate having children.
12. Hollow out a melon. Make a small hole in the side. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side. Now get a bowl of soggy Weetabix and attempt to spoon it into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane. Continue until half the Weetabix is gone. Tip the rest into your lap, making sure that a lot of it falls on the floor. You are now ready to feed a 12-month old baby.
13. Learn the names of every character from Postman Pat, Fireman Sam and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. When you find yourself singing "Postman Pat" at work, you finally qualify as a parent.

1. Grow an indoor garden - get your child's help in digging the sand, filling the pot, planting seeds and watering. Let him lookafter it daily

2. Do art work  such as clay art, papier mache art, paper art or mosaic art - anything he/ She is interested in

3. Give him the junk materials such as bottle cap, plastic bottles, egg cartons, milk cartons, tissue paper rolls, kitchen rolls, curd container anything which would go into trash.. and ask him to make something using his creativity.

4. Help him make greeting cards for his loved one's b'day or anniversary

5. Give him a piece of cloth or big newspaper and ask him to come up with his own costume using his creativity

6. Give him a set of different geometrical shapes and let him create someother object with those shapes

7. Provide him with stickers, beads, glitters, glue, color paper and ask him to decorate a paper bag or frame

8. You scribble something and ask him to draw and complete the picture. for example you make a zig zag line, he might come up with a snake or a girl or Lamp. Take turns in scribbling and completing the pictures.

9.  Provide him with some object and ask him to pretend to use it as a different object. for example my DS pretended to use the tennis racket as guitar. and a sauce pan (kadai) as a fisherman's hat

10. Give a block or magnet construction toy and ask him to come up with a structure. for exmaple a robot, a sofa

11. Get his help in cleaning his shelf or utensils plates even if the work is not perfect and clean.  

12. Teach and help him fold his clothes. he will learn very fast to fold by himself

13. Bake cookies or cook food together

14. Teach him to make a knot or tie a shoe lace

15. Read books together thro parnership reading. both of you take turns in reading one page each and continue to read alternately till you finish the book. he will learn to be a good listener too.

16. make him write a journal about his daily activities or the places you visit

17. Do a pillow fight..

18. play cards or board games with him

19. Let him play in his cycle or scooter

20. Enroll him in a music and / or sport class

21. pretend play with the toys such as cooking set, doctor's kit, tools etc./

22. While my DS was busy doing these activities, i took some pictures and he wrote a vacation journal everyday with pictures and decorations. It is a nice reminiscence of our last vacation which he got to share with his classmates and teacher the next year.

My DS is 5 yrs old. I keep teaching him certain things which I want to share.

1. First and foremost is I teach him about good and bad touch. But how to teach a very small child about the private parts. What I told my DS is the parts covered by bathing suit are private and you should not touch someone else’s and nobody should touch yours except for Mommy or daddy or the caretakers to help you keep yourself clean and the doctors to help you stay healthy but always in either of the parents supervision.
2. If someone is touching you in private parts, and you feel confused or scared, say a big NO and try to run away from the place.
3. Tell a trusted adult about the incident. And scream for help till you get the attention.
4. If someone is telling you to keep a secret you should come and tell mom or dad or trusted adult.
5. If anyone is trying to take a picture of you, you should come and tell mom or dad or trusted adult
6. If someone is coming to pick you up from school or gymnastics class other than the person who is supposed to pick you up , you should inform your coach or teacher and should never go with anyone even if the person is known to you.
7. Have read to him the book “Never talk to strangers”by Irma Joyce many times which talks about the different situation a child can come across that could be dangerous.
8. Always discuss with him about his day , a new friend he met, anyone who is trying to be nice with him.

I find the following link to be very useful to teach our children about strangers..
http://www.parentree.in/Parentree-editors/journal-473/Teaching-children-about-strangers.html
 

1.       Frequent Hand washing: Make the kids wash their hands with soap and warm water as often as possible esp before meal time and snack time, after coming from the playground, before going to bed.  It’s even better if you apply alcohol based hand sanitizer after every wash which would kill the germs that are left out.

2.       Cover your mouth while sneezing:  Teach your kid to sneeze on the elbow instead of using their hand to cover the mouth in order to avoid spreading germs from the hand. If you use tissue dispose them immediately in the trash bin.

3.       Warm clothing: Use warm clothes during the days when it’s very chill

4.       Avoid close contact with the sick person

5.       Keep the kids away from the smoke area esp. cigarette smoke which affects your kid’s respiratory track.

6.       Keep the kitchen sink clean as it’s one of the places where you find more germs. Scrub it clean with disinfecting cleaner

7.       Avoid taking the kids to supermarket or any crowded places where they are susceptible to germs by touching the elevator walls or buttons, grocery cart handle, escalator railings

8.       Make them eat healthy food with lots of vegetables and fruits in the diet

9.       Encourage them to drink lot of warm water

10.   Allow them to have a good sleep daily

11.   Get vaccinated for the seasonal flu

But if anyone falls sick, try your best in not spreading the germs to other family members

1.       Wash hands regularly

2.       Apply alcohol based hand sanitizer after every hand wash

3.       Use hot water for washing the clothes. Avoid touching your mouth or nose while handling the clothes after washing.

4.       Avoid any close contact with the person with cold and fever

5.       Keep the sick person away from kitchen to avoid spreading germs to others thro food and water

6.       Don’t allow the child to share his / her things such as the toys, towel with other family member

7.       Wipe clean everything that your family members touch such as door knobs, stair case railing, phone, remote control etc with alcohol based disinfectant .  do this atleast twice or thrice a day until the sick person gets well.

8.       Wash the toys with soap and hot water