It’s not just fun time but learning time too
Sensory Mat & Sensory Play
A busy mother of a pair of active three-year-old boys, Dhineli De Zilwa started her company Sesame and Berry which creates products that encourage play-based learning after noticing that her children’s speech development wasn’t at the levels they were supposed to be at 18 months.
After speaking to a friend who was a speech therapist and being recommended to change the way they played at home, Dhineli began to cut off all screen time and initiated interactive playtime. “I was determined to help them develop their speech through our play-based learning journey and saw immediate results,” she says.
The best learning occurs during play time and it’s important to let children play every day, she says, adding that it is a powerful and important part of a child’s development. From playing dress up, building blocks, running around outside or playing with water, children are able to learn about the world around them.
Sensory Play, Small World Play and Bookish Play are few of the favourite play-based learning aspects that Dhineli and her sons engage in. “They allow children to discover their interests, work on new skills at their own pace, build on their speech and most importantly they are free to explore and imagine without feeling pressurized to keep up with a curriculum,” Dhineli explains.
With Sesame and Berry, Dhineli has opened doors for parents to incorporate play-based learning with their kids as she has her own range of products as well as active social media pages which helps her reach out to a lot of people.
Dhineli De Zilwa
Her first product was a sensory table mainly used for messy or sensory play. Recently she launched a kids’ activity book that she describes in three words as “simple, colourful and fun”.
Another new product was her Bookish Play Boxes that bring a storybook to life. This Play Box was inspired by her own children during lockdown as she thought of how to make storytime fun for her boys. “I made a few props and their eyes lit up. I knew instantly that this was something other children needed to experience as well,” she tells us.
She released craft boxes and sticker packs early this year which helps parents get involved with playing as well!
Dhineli posts a lot of play based activities she does with her boys on her social media pages hoping to inspire parents to try the same or different versions of activities at home. Her storytime videos were thought of during lockdown since children were at home and she wanted them to be able to access different story books without having to buy them.
“So far the feedback has been great. We have amazing reviews on our products and many are watching our story time. If anyone wants to join our play based community they can simply follow us on Facebook or Instagram @sesameandberry,” Dhineli says.
| A platform to safeguard children’s bodies | |
| Dhineli has also used her platform to reach out and educate parents and their children about safeguarding children’s bodies. As a concerned parent, seeing the number of incidents involving child abuse, sexual assault and murder over the past few weeks hitting the headlines, especially the incident where the victim was only 18 months old, she felt it was vitally important to focus on this little-talked about issue. “It wasn’t very long ago that my boys were that exact age. It took me a while to process it all in my head and I wanted to find a way to make my boys understand their private parts,” she says explaining that as children learn through visuals, she created a template to help educate them. “I thought a video on child protection, showing parents and explaining to them how easy and important it is to educate children would have a larger impact than just typing out a post,” she adds. The child protection video that she did garnered over 6000 views on both Instagram and Facebook and has been shared by many people and now even has Sinhala and Tamil translations to make it accessible to a wider audience. When asked about the stigma surrounding open conversations on child abuse Dhineli believes it is the duty of a parent to have that difficult conversation with their children regardless of what society thinks because they owe it to them. “I personally don’t think educating children on these matters is a taboo. I think the more children learn from home, the less awkward they would be to open up to you if something was to happen. Be open minded. Be that safe place for your child to be able to discuss difficult things. Be honest about these things because the stats are real,” she says, urging parents to be mindful of the role they need to play in safeguarding their children. |