Constitution for Happier Homes - Part 2

Plan Document for Children’s upbringing:

Steps that can be taken by pregnant women to educate the child in the womb:
Moral Behaviour:
Married couples should transform themselves into ethically & morally upright individuals, imbibe higher values etc, before deciding to give birth to a child	Listen to spiritual, moral and educative discourse through TV, Radio, CD’s
Daily read a chapter of Thirukural or other similar moral text	Worship god daily according to the culture(If a believer)
Read moral stories and books in mother tongue, Amar Chitra Katha books etc	Visit place of worship/mediation twice daily (If a believer)
Education
Read history of India’s Freedom Struggle	Read good spiritual, women and current affairs magazine
Read books like ‘Kudumba Vilaku’, Premchand’s work or Shakespeare etc	Dream about the bright future for the child

Highest duty of the father is to educate his son/daughter to become the tallest among the scholars

– Thirukural (67)

For Children below 3 years:
Moral Behaviour:
Make them obedient to the advice of elders. Show respect towards God (If a believer) and Elders	Teach ‘Athichudi’ or small moral sayings/couplets
	Listen to Amar Chitra Katha and similar stories from elders
Education
Teach about family relationships, basic food habits, cleanliness, security measures	Teach some small songs

For Children below 5 years:
Moral Behaviour:
Parents should remove their shortcomings in ethical behaviour in order to become a role model for their children	Reading Short stories, Poems, Illustrated Books etc
Reading Thirukural or similar books	Training in personal hygiene
Visiting Temple/Church/Masjid and worshiping God	Habit of saying thanks
Speaking only Truth	Eating and Table manners
Habit of sharing things and food	Respect to National Symbols, Values and Leaders
Knowledge about current and past leaders of India	Helping in household chores. Children should be tutored to voluntarily share work
Practice simple exercises and yogic postures etc	Their decision making capacity can improved by asking them what to do for a particular issue/task.
Saving Habit
Saving money in piggy bank
Education
Check for learnability disorder, Autism and Dyslexia	Eye, hearing check-up
Teaching about objects at home, about the family’s history and tradition etc	Introduce all relatives and friends and explain the relationship
Sports
Teach the habit playing together with other children
Other Skills
Ability to dial and make phone calls	Make them memorise home address and phone number

For Children below 10 years:
Moral Behaviour:
By hearting full Thirukural or similar texts	Knowledge about religion and devotional songs
Learning about methods of worshiping God	Teach worshiping God through Bajans or devotional songs
Getting up early in the morning	Habit of watching TV and listening to Radio within the limits of time and appropriateness
Teach the habit of loving all things in nature	Teach them to respect all religion, caste, race, colour, sex etc
Take them to religious and tourist spots within the district	Allow them to watch only Good quality Children films
Tell them why certain religious and cultural habits are followed at home and explain the reason and the benefits of them	Knowledge about religious and cultural functions and events, its significance, method and benefits
Make them take part in cleaning and ordering things at home and make them obedient to all elders	Dressing should be simple and should evoke respect
They should be regularly taken to tour of Villages, Slums, hospitals, crematory functions to make them understand the realities of the world.	They should be made to derive happiness by sharing than possessing something
They should be taught about value of friendship and familial relations
Saving Habit
Open Children saving account in Post office
Education/Art
To improve handwriting consult good Graphologist	To refer spelling, meaning, details use Spelling dictionary, dictionary and Encyclopaedia
Teach Music, Dance, Painting etc	Learn letter writing skill (Snail Mail)
Create a Children library at home	Learn reading of Newspaper/Magazine
Teach them Kolam/Rangoli. It improves dexterity of hand and sharpens the mind	Learn about geography and History of India beyond the limits of the text books
Teach them Mother Tongue/ Tamil/ Hindi/ Sanskrit/ Arabic/ English etc	Read Gokulam(Tamil/English), Amar Chitra Katha, Tinkle, Magic Pot, Tell me why, Wisdom, The Hindu – Young World, Champak, Bal Bharati (Hindi) etc
Take up membership in Local/District Library, Bal Bhavan, British Council/ Alliance Frances/ American Centre etc	Practice hobbies like Stamp collection
Select schools like Navodaya, Army School, Military School, Kendriya Vidyalaya etc. Adopt CBSE syllabus - NCERT Textbooks	Make a excursion to outstation tourist spots at least once a month
Participate in spelling bee contest	Take part in Quiz, Art and Culture, Sport, Literary competitions
Sports
Habit of playing sports like Football, Badminton, etc	Participate in District level Sports competitions
Take up mind games like Chess, Business, Scotland Yard etc	Should participate in Independence day and Republic Day parade/march past
Other Skills
Learn Cycling, Swimming (Both Compulsory) ,Wheel Skating etc	Should have concern for environment, reduce wastes, plant trees etc

See Part 3

Constitution for Happier Homes - Part 1

When a mother hears from others that her son/daughter is a role model for them, she would have the greatest happiness. This would be greater than the happiness she would have experienced when she gave birth to the child –ThiruKural (69)

Constitution for Happier Homes

Peaceful individuals lead to Peaceful families lead to Peaceful Societies lead to Peaceful World

Two discipline for happier homes:

1.      Members should not do any harm by thought, word or action to any being’s body, mind or life.

2.      Members should do their best to help the suffering beings

Characteristics of Happier Homes:

1.      Members should always have a smile in their face

2.      This family should be a role model for the society

3.      This family should be one of the bedrocks of the peaceful society

4.      This family should be one of the fountain of service to others

5.      This family should always exhibit tolerance at any circumstances

6.      This family as a University should produce role models rather than just humans

7.      This family should be base of Satyagrah (Bringing change of heart through ‘love’ and ‘truth’, for example to correct a erring child/wife a husband may undergo some hardship himself)

8.      With harmony within, this family should endeavour to bring harmony within/among other families

9.      Elders of the family should have a special status and role in the family

Identities of Happier Homes:

1.      This home can have a family symbol or Emblem, motto, song, day etc

Common activities of the Happier Homes:

1.      ‘Family council’ should be convened every Sunday to discuss about the plan of action, issues, to search for solution and to celebrate success. Children should also be heard.

2.      All members should have a joint meal at least once in week

3.      Family should decide and act upon daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and 5-year plan

4.      Family should have a well thought out ‘Reminders’ for important work and ‘Checklist’ for repeated works like family celebrations, excursions etc

5.      Each family members should be allocated an aspect of families function like (Children’s education, saving & investment, families health etc). They should monitor and act as main consultant on that aspect.

6.      As in the society, within the family, democracy should exist within, that is all decision should be based upon consultation and consensus.

7.      Family should have separate special fund for education and for philanthropy

8.      Family should remove the undesirable aspects of the prevailing culture and religious acts and strictly follow the same as it is the basis for building the next generation

9.      Family should go for a family excursion at least once every month

10.  Family should go to place of worship/mediation at least once in every week. Members can jointly worship the family god at least once in a year (If only they believe one)

11.  Elders of the family (60 years and above) should convene a review meeting of the individual families. Performance with respect to disciplinary code and plan achievement should be reviewed and reform measure should be suggested. Record of all proceeding should be maintained.

Common Disciplinary code for the Happier Homes:

1.      No one should tell a lie or steal (including bribe)

2.      No one should use violence (including violent words)

3.      No one should smoke, take drugs or alcohol

4.      No one should have the 6 sins of Greed, anger, possessiveness, inferiority-superiority complex, adultery or revenge. If they have any of them, they should convert these to content fullness, calmness, charity, equanimity, chaste or forgiveness

5.      Non vegetarians should try to become vegetarians within their lifetime

6.      Members should have a measured and healthy approach towards entertainment activities

See Part 2