When we call Orange as ORANGE, why not Apple as RED? This is just a sample of questions posed by curious kids which parents have to answer convincingly.
Parenting involves such and many more challenges. Anxieties are endless — on what is good parenting, are they guiding the child well, are they pampering, are they helping the child discover the talents, are they overburdening the child, are they clarifying the doubts correctly, are they developing the emotional and intellectual quotient, are they instilling good values and the list goes on.
Discussion with other parents, teachers, psychologists and educationist could go a long way in finding a the answer. Yokibu, an online network of parents, enables this and much more on a platform where parents can communicate with each other.
Started in 2007, Yokibu is an easy connectivity for parents' community facilitated through schools. The website is a pool of information, with articles from experts, allowing further discussion, forums, write-ups by parents, information on knowledge resources, information on school programmes, articles on vacations, space to recognise young achievers and online quiz. The website has recently launched a Book Review Section, where parents can review a book of their choice.
Apart from this, Yokibu sends information to parents on school happenings through messages and e-mail.
Talking about the technology-enabled connectivity, B. Chandrasekar, founder- director, Yokibu, says that the initial idea was to bridge the communication gap between the schools and parents. Later, it went on to be an exclusive site for the parent community, where in anything pertaining to parenting could be discussed. “Earlier, when we lived as joint families, parenting seemed easy. There were elders to guide parents. But now, internet is all that parents have to reach for solution or information,” says Mr. Chandrasekar. K. Ashok, vice-president, business development, says that there are 4 lakh parent members and 300 schools in Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai enrolled with Yokibu. “They cite from their experience and feel the need to be informed when it comes to children,” says Mr. Ashok, pointing out how seriously people take up this responsibility.
Workshops, seminars
Yokibu also conducts workshops, contests and seminars in the city for parents, teachers and students.
Book reviews will be shortly opened for student contributors and Yokibu is planning on launching a website exclusively for parents.
To become a member or to contribute articles, all that one need to be is a parent, says Mr. Ashok. By the way, what does Yokibu mean? Yoke means connectivity and ibu, in Indonesian, means mother/parent, thus Yokibu means Parent Connectivity. “We wanted to keep it short (not more than six letters) and interesting. Now, that's the ice-breaker question on the website,” says Mr. Chandrasekar. Yokibu can be contacted at 4350 6903. For more details, log on to >www.yokibu.com
