Have you ever watched “Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends” on Cartoon Network? It has more than 2000 imaginary characters and the show has taken the kids world by storm in its first year itself. Did it make you think how many imaginary friends live in your house? You may argue it depends on individual “Parenting Style”, or it does not occur for “Preschool Children”, or even that it appears only in “Kids Stories”. I have been digging into this mystery and it’s answers for a while now.

A peek into one of the most intriguing childhood mysteries reveals that imaginary playmates are a staple of early development and persist well into the school years, later than researchers once thought. It is estimated up to 65 per cent of children will have an imaginary friend, generally from the age of three to nine years – and these kids tend to be more creative, or a first-born or only child.

There are lots of different types of imaginary friends, it can be an “invisible friend”, someone only the child can see, but it can also be a “personified object” like a toy figurine, a teddy bear or even an innocent doll, that have real and immense person-like attributes for the child. Sometimes the imaginary friend acts as a child’s alter-ego, taking the blame for the toys that didn’t get picked up or saying “bad words”, causing “behavior problems”. Sometimes the imaginary friend is just a wonderful playmate. Most kids, sooner or later, come to realize their make-believe buddies are not of this world and imaginary friends fade away but some studies have found that kids as old as 12 having imaginary friends.

This phenomenon is really misunderstood. It was always thought that its rare, child must be having problems, kid must be seeing invisible people like ghosts. Those days are gone when psychologists and parents started to worry about children’s well being after knowing about an imaginary friend. Pretend play is vital to children’s development. Imaginary friends are just an extension of pretend play, which is a normal, healthy and important part of a young child’s development. Pretend play gives children a chance to learn about roles, relationships, power, and control. Pretend play also gives children a chance to work through the multitude of feelings they experience daily. Although make-believe was long considered the realm of little girls, now it’s clear that both sexes engage in fantasy play, with some gender differences.

Main reason for having imaginary friends as believed by researchers is, loneliness, where the kid does not have access to friends. Not being able to interact with people and put his thoughts forward, makes the child to start talking to the toys and imaginary friends. The child has no fear or inhibitions talking to someone that’s so close to the reality. Children are testing and answering their curiosities when they interacted with an imaginary friend. They gain communication skills by having one side of the conversation but also inventing their imaginary friend’s side of the conversation. Children learn the complexities of spoken expression sooner with the help of an imaginary friend. They can act as a child’s trusted confidant when there’s no one else to tell their secrets to. Believe it or not even small children have issues that are too private to tell us, watch your child making up stories and try to analyze them. Dig into those stories with extra “Interest”.

As it is normal to have imaginary friends, it is also important for the parents to keep control over those imaginary friends. Use your parenting discipline powers, sometimes these imaginary friends can tell your kid to go for a walk without letting you know or may be, to throw things around. Here are some rules you can make for your child and the imaginary friend:

Don’t let the imaginary friend be your child’s only companion. Kids need to socialize with other children for their own development and learning. If your child does not have any friends and does not show any interest in having friends, talk to the teacher or the doctor and help him/her out.

Don’t let your child shift responsibility for every wrong thing they do to the imaginary friend.

Treat the imaginary friend with respect. This means remembering the name, greeting and wishing good on the occasions. Apologizing when don’t see the imaginary friend standing in your way.

Don’t use imaginary friend to manipulate your child, your child will start hating that confidant imaginary friend as well.

Have fun yourself and let the child have fun as well with the imaginary child.

Here’s the link to games and activities based on “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends” on “Cartoon Network”

Your grown child is now going to be a teenager, the bridge to adulthood.

This is the age when they start asking, fighting and arguing for more freedom, greater independence and test the limits of acceptable behaviour. They are looking for individuality, their own special acceptance in the society.Because of the raging hormonal changes inside their body, your child becomes moody, and their body, emotions and actions are affected. Their clothing, appearance, behaviour and thinking, all are changing very fast and more often than ever. This is also the most vulnerable age when they are getting more confused and more often they have to choose between the parents and the friends.

This is the time your child needs more support from you, more privacy and more time for themselves, so they can adjust to the occurring changes.

The school years are full of mental challenges for your kid. At this stage, their mind is bombarded by all kinds of information and knowledge. School, homework, play and physical activities are all parts of the world that influences your child’s further intellectual development.

At this age they are also influenced by the media around them – TV, radio, the internet, books and other reading materials.

If your child is not properly controlled at this stage of growing up, your parental influence on them can be diminished as the child is more influenced by his peers and friends. They also learns social skills and the different ways to interact with different kinds of people.

This is also the stage where your child’s interests can begin to show, and if they are gifted for any particular sport or studies, it becomes apparent.

In this pre-school period, you can easily see the difference among the learning performances of kids. Some kids learn fast, while some are slow to catch up.

The love and caring your kid gets from home, as well as the mental stimulation from his environment and the people around him affect his first grade performance.

It is at this stage that your child’s mind works so fast and his interest branches out in many different directions.

How fast he will go in any direction will depend on how much you, the parent, spend time on him, his individual pace of learning which is determined by his genes, and how much early stimulation he receives before age 3.

Attending a nursery school or a day care center that encourages early learning also helps.

During these years, your baby will turn into a toddler, a very young child.

She will gain enough control of her growing body to walk, climb, jump, run, and manipulate objects. She will learn to use language to communicate, ask questions, tell you what she needs, and tell stories.

Her learning style is becoming more evident. Her personality will be forming, as the genes she inherited interacts with the quality of her environment and your parenting.

Your toddler wants to be independent, but at the same time is scared of it all. She wants your help but at the same time, she doesn’t want it. This shift in emotions can give rise to tantrums. But this will ease as your child learns to talk better to express her feelings.

This is the stage where your kid grows so fast and change so much.

A baby’s brain builds itself by forming connections in response to the stimulation it receives even before birth. The fetus begins responding to sounds during month five in the womb.Even before your baby is born, he already has the 10,000 billion brain cells. After birth, the baby’s brain continues wiring itself in response to the child’s experiences of the world. The connecting links of these cells grow at a tremendous rate during the first few months of your baby’s life Learning is faster and effortless

This growth is partly stimulated by the activity of nerve pathways leading to the brain. The more stimuli your baby receives from his senses, the more connections are created among brain cells. At this early age, baby’s genes, together with his experience with the outside world, forms the temperament and personality that will determine how well he will learn as he grows.

Dictionaries describe the word “SMART” as prompt in action, intelligent, clever, witty, sharp, dashing, elegant and even cunning and shrewd.

Smart is not just the intelligence or doing great in school but being Intelligent and clever in every way of life, in the school, outside the school and even in our adult life.

How do we achieve this without making our kids life stressful. We as parents have to think and act smart to make our kids smart. This website is created for all those young parents who may need help on many of the topics that keep arising everyday. For the rest who think they know everything, please help us (the young parents), with your inputs. Our aim as the developers of this site is to provide all the possible information at one point.