In recent times, children’s relationship with their parents, great outdoors and nature has changed dramatically. The days of the free-range childhood, where kids spent hours outside playing in local parks, building forts, fording streams and climbing trees, have been mostly replaced by video games, TV watching and organized activities like sports and clubs.

   Indeed, we have traded green time for screen time which could have deleterious impact on their well-being and development. For fuller, wholesome lives, much could be done if we spare a thought for this crucial task that has largely to do with parenting.

   Pondering over the minutiae of child rearing, an intriguing initiative was taken this year by the Tagore School of Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan before the school closed for vacation. The school’s ebullient executive director Palak Ahlawat hit upon the idea of assigning homework to the parents and guardians of their....