State of Things

We are learning states and capitals of India.
Good for Mamma...

Annual Day

It was Annual Day time again. And this time the frenzy seemed to be lesser as there was no shuttling of kids from small school to big school for practice and thereby it seemed to be less intimidating.

It just came upon us all of a sudden and here we were wondering what dance our kids are into. Thankfully the kids told us and also pointed out the relevant dance in the sequence given.

We were chatting away with other parents as we waited in anticipation for the show to begin and we realized that the series of sms-es we were being sent by the school regarding annual day telecast had an advantage that I had overlooked.

It was being telecast live on the internet and which meant that our families could watch the kids perform live from the comfort of their home!

As the show began, I sent frantic sms to Nana, nanai, mausi, mamu, periyappa and oh the joy! They managed to watch the performance live!

Ojas had a rocking, foot tapping spanish number- Feliz navada. He and his partner seriously performed some butt swinging complicated steps.

Tejas and his (girl) partner danced to jingle bells and at first we couldn't spot him. We spent a few confused minutes botching up our photos & videos and then all of a sudden we spotted him laughing and dancing- enjoying himself to the boot. As he came to the front, we could see the amused grin on his face as the Santa Clause came in- it wasn't real is what he said- it was a bog boy from school!

This time the dances were a little longer than the pre school dances, and it wasn't such a blink and you miss scene.

The costumes were good quality- some thing which can be used for sometime atleast.

Chaddi Tales

Yesterday Tejas came home without his undies.
Apparently a friend had tossed his undies somewhere when they were changing after the swimming class.
When I asked Tejas why he did not tell his teacher, he says - Ma'm may say shame shami-e so I quietly wore my pants.

Such a peaceful child! If only he was as tolerant at home with his Mamma or Bhai!

POLICE & CEO

The kids had to dress up as Helpers of the Society in school- which means dress up as a professional.

The easiest way is to find out what they want to be and work around. There were choices tossed around like doctor, fireman, gym instructor, artist and so on, until the final decision was taken heavily based on the props each one of them would be allowed to carry.

Ojas decided to be a policeman and insisted the dress could be either in blue or brown.

Saved me the trouble of looking for khakis.

The attire was a blue shirt, dark blue pants, a spiderman walkie talkie tucked in one pocket and a gun attached to his belt. A label was stuck on his pocket with a 2 way tape announcing his name and designation. He wore a normal blue cap. The only thing missing were the stars.

Tejas decided to be a CEO. The same shirt was used and he wore a tie given by D Mami. A mobile phone inside one pocket and a wallet with credit card & visiting card in another pocket. I stuck a label CEO on his old school ID card and he wore it round his neck.

I guess that completed the look. I Would have loved to give him his toy laptop if I wasn't worried it will get broken/ misplaced in school.

Compliment or Annoyance

When the kids' friends eat up the contents of their snack box, do I feel annoyed or take it as a compliment?

Abhi Se

Some boy in Tejas' class has been telling him
you should kiss girls, you should love girls and you should fly and give them a ring.

Pirates of the Bay of Bengal

First dress up day in school albeit on a very short notice of an evening was to dress up as characters from a book. Tejas said he wanted to be an octopus he changed his mind the moment he heard Ojas say he wants to be a Pirate and that a pirate will be carrying a sword.

I asked the kids what a pirate is supposed to wear and they come up with

- colourful clothes

-eye patch

-sword

-a belt that goes cross from shoulder to waist- I guess they meant sash

-hat

Ultimately this is how they went.

Another day, they had to pictorial represent things they do with water.

Here's what they did....

Attractive

Mamma- trying to find out ideas for lunch box- What do your friends bring for Lunch?

Tejas- Chicken Magnets! (nuggets!!!)

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Ojas- on seeing a tree after a cutting- tree had a hair cut

Homeworks

The dreaded home work has begin. Good in a way because now I feel they are learning something in school apart from the extra curicullar activities.

This time it is not very simple. There is a lot of comprehension and writing involved.
And also a dictation test.
We got a set of words that they need to prepare for the next test.

The steps that I followed to get them practising-

1. Ojas dictates to Tejas and vice versa so that each gets a hang of the words as he dictates
2. I dictate to both (and stop mid way, yawning away to glory)
3. The husband dictates to bot the next morning and identifies the problem words.
4. The husband gives them only the problem words to repeat 10 times verbally and subsequently to write 10 times .
5. Afternoon, I take out the scrabble (yes, the same scrabble you gifted AD) and dictate the words and they make them on the scrabble board.
Let me add, I am extremely proud of my ingenuity.
I found this by far the most interesting method apart from the method involving dictation to each other!

Edited to add- also ask them to repeat the spellings in the car during school drop time.

Grade I Boys

Yesterday the boys started Grade 1 in the big school.
Compared to the small and personal atmosphere in the junior school, I found this school huge, crowded, buzzing with activity and largely impersonal.
But they were very organised in spotting the newcomers and finding us the right section.
Like last year, both go into separate sections. They were better prepared for it but Ojas did balk at the prospect of getting in first and at the idea that Tejas will be with me until he gets into his class.
But within moments they were fine.
Ojas thinks his teacher is not his teacher because she is also his classmate's mom.
He insisted- Woh m'am nahin hai. woh N ka mamma hai.

The morning goes in a blur- I have 3 hours to do the following
- prepare breakfast
-rush to gym
-get fruits if needed on the way back
-wake the kids up, shove their food in and send them to get ready
-prepare their snack and lunch box (and pack them in their new Milton hot case)
-Fill cold water in their new Milton water bottles.
-Get the kids to pack their assorted boxes and bottles in their new Ben 10-Reebox bags- which was bought much to the disgust of the Dad who wanted to buy a boring and sensible American tourister
-Eat and get ready.
-Drive them to school and proceed thankfully in the same direction to work. Thank God for small mercies
The lunch and snack boxes are a challenge- making them as nutricious and delicious as possible is the key.
Combos and suggestions from my friends are pouring into my inbox thankfully.
Though as Ro suggests, I would love to outsource the lunchbox to eve's lungs

Swimming Day at School

The last 3 years I have been most curious to know what exactly they do in swimming classes at school.

The last couple of days I have seen just that. The school invited the parents to see what the kids have learnt.

While some kids needed the assistance of the swimming coach to traverse the 3 feet or so deep pool, many children did so without help, with the aid of the arm floats.

Some kids were really professional, diving through hoops and all. A result of additional coaching.

Skinny Tejas was ignoring us in the audience and doing his own thing- just treading water and in the baby pool after the mandatory one lap of the big pool was done. The teacher assured me that perhaps it was just one of the days when he doesn't want to get inside the water. The leg strokes were correct and he didn't seem scared of the water.

Ojas was sitting waiting for his turn, licking the water using his fingers from time to time and tried to escape notice by sitting among the kids who had already finished their lap. Ojas was most conscious and therefore nervous as he neared the audience side.His technique was right but he was swimming in the baby pool only on his own

Meet the Dancers

Tejas did the rain dance- dancing and swaying to its a rainy day together with an umbrella pop and Ojas was in the Michael Jackson dance troupe. They did their steps perfectly but I wish they were focusing on smiling and dancing rather than appearing so serious!

But I know they had fun practising for it. Inspite of missing a whole week of practice- they came back and performed with perfection- so the teachers told me.

Meanwhile in another news, Tejas has surprised his class by reading a newspaper section completely by himself and Ojas has received the remark- very good handwriting in his homework book.

In response to praise for Tejas- Ojas spent a good 20 minutes reading 4 story books and instructed me to tell his mam that he has read 4 story books on his own!

Tell Me How & What

1. How Do I make the kids eat a decent treat during parties. They just refuse to eat and I end up making noodles at home later on. The whole purpose of going to a birthday party is lost according to me.

2. How do I tell them that food that is junk food in school lunch pack remains junk food at home also. So they cannot demand the same at home whereas refuse to eat them in the snack box- something like Noodles?

3. What are the good options for a snack box. I am dreading class 1. Just because of the snack box demon. Long hours mean wholesome snacks and my kids will never eat on their own, the stuff that remotely look wholesome.

4. What makes my kids shy away from participating in any "fun" games organised by the event management people during parties? Or interact with the kids during a party.

5. What is the cure for clingfestness especially when I am busy organising a party or event?

What I Would Do

A few more thoughts post the post on parents doing kids' projects.

At school, we had SUPW & Craft as a subject- one that was graded A, B etc and not added to the total marks in ranking- thank God for that.

Because I was really bad. Every year we would get ambitious craft projects which I would find impossible to finish. I would take them religiously to school and work laboriously on them but finally, it would be completed by my Mom.

The teacher would grade me abysmally because of course she would judge that I haven't done it- considering the horrible, knotty, thready job at one end and a neat finish on the rest of the work. But then what could I have done?

Here I recall the horror tales of Craft class in school.

In Class 2 I was supposed to make a cross stitch table mat which I did maybe a bit- that got completed by my Mom and survived till recently. In class 4 it was knitting a scarf - I barely managed to complete one band that ties the scarf. Class 7 I did what is displayed below- all by myself- a cross stitch project which was the largest in my class and perhaps the largest project which I did anyday.

Class 8 we were supposed to crochet a shawl- I barely did a couple of lines and submitted my mom's knitted shawl- got graded badly for that- I was even asked to bring a knitting needle and do a sample pattern- I never did it of course and the teacher forgot to follow up with me. During the 2nd term, I did a lovely embroidery on a mosquito net cloth and made a table cloth and 2 side mats- it still is there with me. I got an A for that because the teacher had really seen me work on it.

I remember making 2 sets of table cloths- again partly. And I do remember embroidering a set of cushion covers, a skirt in bright yellow in class 9, which is still there somewhere- I had ironed the design on the cloth and worked really hard at it.

I guess it got easier in the higher classes as long as it was embroidery and cross stitch. But anything else, it would turn out a disaster.

Maybe today as parents we are more open about giving feedback. In today's context we do go up to the teacher and say I think this is too much for my child.

Where as during our student days, the teacher couldn't be crossed. PTA meetings were usually bad news except if you were a good student. And also education or rather schooling has become much more commercialised. A marketing game. The school / teachers have to look good in front of the customers/ parents and the parents have to feel good about the progress the child is making without of course compromising on the actual progress of the child.

In my kids' school, I find a lot of instances of teachers doing projects individually with the kids. There is a lot of hand holding and individual attention as againts our time.

At times I find it impossible to believe that my kids could have done that painting or some origami.

Well, I only wish there was such a balanced approach in my school days so that I wouldn't have to resort to underhand methods to submit my project!

What say my school mate NS? Remember those days? We, born to talented mothers couldn't really complete an arty crafty project!

Proof That The Lessons are Taken Very Seriously

Middle of the night in his sleep...
Tejas- Mamma, what is 0 + 0

Ojas- Mamma, who is a painter
Mamma- who paints the house
Ojas- So is Dadda a painter?
Mamma- Ah, well, whoever paints a house and gets money for it is a painter

Mamma- now tell me who is an architect
Tejas- who builds house
Mamma- no he designs a house
Tejas/ Ojas together- no, that is interior designer

Mamma- Why didn't you eat the boiled egg

O/T- because that has a baby chicken inside

Mamma- No, boiled eggs do not have chicken inside. Only raw eggs....(then saw the raw egg in the fridge so added)- only raw egges that are not kept in fridge have chicken inside

Ojas- yes, only eggs that are in the nest have baby chicken inside...

simple isn't it?

why didn't I think of putting it that way

Never Ignore

Tejas would on and off tell me that I have to take paper to school, we have to cut paper.
So I would just tell him, ok, take the newspaper.
Not really taking him seriously.
And since the school sends sms for everything that they are needed to bring to school, I would just take it as a whim of his.
2 days ago, as I dropped the kids at the class, the teacher asked him, where is your newspaper cutting. And said, you never bring it.
And then the bulb glowed for me. I did not know where to put my head.
I told the teacher, my mistake, he would tell but I did not know it was a specific piece of news to be brought every day.
Quickly I went to the car and brought the section which had something on benefits of groundnuts and cleaning of the beach and gave it to her. She promised to send one for Ojas to his class.
If only I had paid more attention to it, I would have loved to do it all this while with the kids.
Anyway never too late.
I also think it is a wonderful idea because it gives the kids a wider perspective than what is being taught in curriculum.
And they like it when their piece of news is put up on the notice board.
I like the enthusiasm of the teachers. I only wish I had been told earlier
:(

Sports Day

The morning dawned bright and clear and the kids were geared up for the sports day for which they had been practising with great excitement. The theme (I like that- having a theme for sports day) was helpers of the society. Each class selected a profession to represent- teachers, farmers, sports persons, doctors, bankers, fruit sellers, gardeners, courier boys and so on.
The Senior Kg event began with a spectacular dance on Jai Ho. Something they performed with amazing coordination. In the mass of 150 plus students, not a step seemed out of place and not a single child seemed to be the "joker of the pack" which is usually there in the "junior sections...huh"- like the one who removed his socks during a yoga session or the other who refused to skip the missed steps and continue out of step with others. Good for comic relief. The students get serious as they reach Sr Kg and looks like they are truly well deserved to be called seniors of the school!!!

There's Tejas waiting for his event to begin. He had been fretting the entire week as his relay team member seemed to be toos low for is taste and she was making every one "late". I told him to run with double speed because relay is all about team work, and one team member covering up for the other. They were pizza makers and they had to arrange 4 slices of a pizza on a tray and bring it to finish line.

That's Tejas standing with his team on the first position.

There's the Gold Medal on Tejas!

There's Ojas in the rightmost corner waiting for his race to begin- with a white "coat" and a bandage that has to be tied on hurt animals- they were the vet doctors.

There is Ojas tying a bandage on his teddy bear's limb- he was very systematic. Placed the bandage on the field, put the teddy 's lib on top of the bandage and began tying it. He had practiced a lot and would come first or second during the practice sessions in schools

He finished 4th and I liked the fact that the school gave away consolation medals also- yellow gold is what the kids said. And my baby Ojas says- Mamma, I won!
And one bonus pic- celebrity Mamma (err me ) was called to give away the medals to a section of junior kg students- err the one who never won any medal in any sport event!!! But that doesn't matter because these things skip a generation!

Progress Report

Somehow it feels that the kids' progress report is as good as the parents' progress report.
Because the work we are doing with the kids at home gets reflected in their actions in the school also.
The focus was more on overall assessment in behavioural and skill terms rather than academic terms.
The specific things the teachers told about the kids this time were-

Tejas- He is doing very well and he is the first child in class who can distribute the books by reading the names of the students on his own. His grasp of concepts in a holistic manner is excellent and he is very good in understanding what he as to do during sports. He has made special friends and loves to sit with them and he loves snack time (that is a surprise to me) and loves the little treats that I add like cashews / chocolate in his snack box. And he is extremely uncomfortable when Ojas drops him inside the class!

Ojas- A marked improvement in terms of not talking about Tejas in class and not day dreaming. He has picked up in his reading - which I have also noticed at home. Now he voluntarily picks up the books and reads aloud and is getting better and better in it. His grasp of concepts and intelligence is high. He is still developing his skills in handling scissors which I am not surprised, as he is ambidextrous- part lefty which I explained to the teacher- so that she is a little more alert when he uses left hand to cut with scissors that are meant for right handed people.

Overall, both of them enjoy doing their homework. I don't even have to tell them to do it. Even before I reach home on Thursdays, most of the home work is done except the handwriting pages which they hate doing.

I guess, they are now ready to bring themselves up on their own!

If Only There Were Such Fun ways to Learn

Back in my time- I would have topped in Geography!!

The kids are being taught countries in school. They go over National symbols, monuments currency (aargh) and some more such scary things apart from spotting them in the map.

For the sake of reinforcement and also for exercising their brain with new and different creative challenges, I searched for map based games. Here is what I found- map puzzles which have the option of countries with outline so that it is easy to place the pieces in the right slot. I was surprised how quickly the kids were able to spot the correct slots for even a tiny country like Taiwan and even remember the locations of some of the countries they had slotted. What I liked was that they developed their own mnemonics as they moved along- Russia looks like a dragon or Bangladesh looks like a palm tree.

These maps are downloadable and fun to do!

They had also done an adaptation of a lovely song in school which helped them recall the names of quite a few countries.

Like Me and You
Music by Raffi, D. Pike
© 1985 Homeland Publishing
SOCAN
From the album One light, One Sun
Janet lives in England, Pierre lives in France
Bonnie lives in Canada
Ahmed lives in Egypt, Moshe lives in Israel
Bruce lives in Australia,
Ching lives in China, Olga lives in Russia
Ingrid lives in Germany
Gita lives in India, Pablo lives in Spain
Jose lives in Colombia
Chorus: And each one is much like another
A child of a mother and a father
A very special son or daughter
A lot like me and you.
Koji lives in Japan, Nina lives in Chile
Farida lives in Pakistan
Zosia lives in Poland, Manuel lives in Brazil
Maria livers in Italy.
Kofi lives in Ghana, Rahim lives in Iran
Rosa lives in Paraguay
Meja lives in Kenya, Demetri lives in Greece
Sue lives in America.

I am also making them work sheets for the countries they are covering in school. And I was amazed that they could recall the design of the flags quite well and woulkd describe the colour and number of stars etc very easily later on. I plan to print out a world map and make them stick the flags of the places that they have learnt as they move along.

And may be look at something innovative like eat noodles the day they do China or wear a Hat the day they do South America.

Let us hope they find it fun. I do not want to burden them but just make learning a fun experience and make it as much possible as a game rather than something scary, dreary and tedious- something that should be avoided.

Coming back to my favourite topic- reading- I discovered a site that seems to be very interesting and systematic for teaching kids to read. This method called Bricks and mortar system follows a very step-by-step approach to learn words without trying to guess the pronunciation. I have not tried it yet but plan to print the disks out and try with the kids because I find they do a lot of guess work when they come across an unfamiliar word.

And here's something on time practice

Geographically Speaking

Geography was not my strong point in the school days. I remember placing Allahabad in Maharashtra in one of the Map tests. However, with time and many train journeys and associating with people of different states/ nations, I can say that I have become fairly good in Geography.

The kids are doing countries of the world in school. They learn about the culture, food, dress code and many other stuff incuding pointing them out in the map.

I foind an interesting and interactive site that has some interesting games on geography- I have not really explored the entire site but apart from games, it also has a lot of information on the country/ continent.

The site also has other subjects- we explored the food chain game and it was quite fun.

The school is also doing hindi sight words. I found and this site quite interesting for worksheets and this site good for advanced reading - stories were quite good for practice- incidentally the same that we used in our school days.

I also made them sight word sheets for further practice and am doing hindi writing using a workbook so that they get better in recognizing the letters. This is my own drive to help them start reading hindi because in school it is just elementary sight word / picture recognition whereas we were able to read simple readers in prep class.