Brotherly Support System

I was putting a dressing for another of Ojas' multiple wounds. Tejas gave a helping hand resulting in Ojas throwing a tantrum-
Only Mamma had to do ........bwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Tejas in a conciliatory tone- dekho, humko bhi choti laga hai. to kaun band aid lagaega? Tum hi na lagayega? (I have also got hurt. So who will put a band aid for me? you only will put )
Ojas proceeds to put a bandage on Tejas' non existent bruise and they sleep happily for that night atleast!
Phew...

Library Books

The school gives library books every weekend.
This week since I was travelling, I couldn't read them to the kids.
This morning scene-
Me- Which library book is yours?
Tejas- Hum read nahin kiyaa hai. read karna thaa..
I was most tempted to say - read them in school.

But, it so happened that we speed read the books before leaving to school.
We really do not let schooling interfere with education!

Being Mother of Boys

Means to be prepared with facing daily cuts, nicks, hurt, falls, burns, wounds and all without wincing or flinching or crying.
From a mother of 9 month old twins who cried buckets when her baby fell off the bed (seriously, and that seems to be like something so minor especially when Tejas had the presence of mind to raise his head as he fell!)...today I have learnt to tackle a nose bleeding without dialling the doctor!
So Ojas, my poor baby has scored so many badges of honour within a short span of 2 months.
The boy who almost always prefers to ride pillion with Tejas on the cycle got his leg inside the spokes of the cycle during our Kodaikanal trip in October and ended up with a wound that is still not gone. Moral of the story- Let Ojas ride cycle with Tejas not his Dad.

Closer home, right before his birthday, he stumbled on a wayward stool and landed bump on his head earning a huge ball shaped swelling that lasted until the birthday.

And as his wound and bump was on the road to healing, he burnt himself. The Steam inhaler threw a jet of hot water straight on his chest and he has a huge eight shaped burn scar. A week of dressing and the wound has healed but the scar remains. He carries it like a badge of honour. But the brave boy that he is, the moment he came back from the hospital, he rushed out to play.
But his take home from the entire incident is - Mamma why did you cry when I got hurt? And he doesn't hesitate to relate this to all and sundry.
Ultimately he ended up stumbling and getting a huge rectangle wound on his legs.

Yesterday he was running- running as usual in the complex play area. A boy's foot came in the way and he fell face flat down. He came home crying and holding his nose. The nose was red and bruised reddish and his nosie came all bloody...

Sigh......I might just start greying now...
And well, while we are on the subject of hurts and wounds, all Mamma of 5 year olds- did you do the DPT, OPV booster shots?
We did last week- Tejas gave a few mighty kicks to the doctor and hit me too, Ojas cried and cried both for Tejas and himself and well, they did get icecreams at the end of it all so all is well even though both of them keep showing everyone the spot where the needle had pricked and use it as an excuse if they do not want to get up and fetch stuff for themselves .

Me? Scary?

Do I look so scary that the traffic cop had to send me away from the scene to enable him to peacefully ask the husband for a bribe?
Btw, we did not break that red light.

Twister

AD gifted the kids the game Twister last year. We tried hard to play but the kids would not show much interest. This time someone else gifted the same game and this perhaps refreshed their memory.

Because, suddenly yesterday, Tejas said- I want to play that hands and legs game.

We got the box out, set the dial... and began playing together
and individually

Doing easy and tough twists that resulted in falling

and rolling all over the place.
Mamma is just happy that they can manage this game on their own- taking turns to call out 4 hands & leg positions.

Folk Tales on TV

I love this cartoon that comes on cartoon network- Krish Trish & Baltiboy (wish they had a name that was easy to remember as everytime I try telling anyone about this cartoon- I just blank out)
This is a series of well known folk tales set in different states of India - like the Monkey & croc story is set in andhra and the monkey & croc talk in very Andhra style hindi. It does tend to stereotype but then, that is the fun of it. I see Ojas & Tejas emulating the way the various characters in various state settings speak. I think it is all about getting comfortable with stereotyping even.
Well, what I like about it is that the stories of each state are set in the backdrop of the art form of that state- Madhubani of Bihar, Rajasthani painting of Rajasthan etc.
The program comes during "lunch time"on holidays or after breakfast on holidays- well which means I do not know but these are the usual times I have caught it on TV.
I wish there was a book or DVD of it. Would surely be a treasure

Phonics Books

A series of phonics books by Shree Publishers focuses on word sounds and sight words. There are about 12 books that focus on various vowel and consonant individual and join sounds like ch, oa, u, e, a, i etc.

By sheer repetition, like most early reader books do, it makes the child start reading fluently in a few sessions.

The words are coloured differently and the index lists out whether they are sight words or phonics focus words.

I normally indicate to the kids what we are focusing on and make them aware of the join sounds before reading the book.

Games We are Trying to Play

We got many board games gifted during this birthday.
My first response was "yay! what fun. Now we all can play happily for ever".

The kids were intrigued, eager and what not and were begging to play games like chess and other non understandable games instead of the simple ludo, snake ladder.
Well I complied and notice how the focus shifts to "I". No one else (read The Husband) is really willing to break head over board games.
I would have backed out too but their is a larger plan here. The faster they learn to play, the faster they learn to occupy themselves with the games keeping each other busy.

So here's the status so far.

Tic - Tac - Toe
A nice large board with noughts and crosses in plastic.
They can honestly beat me in the game provided they are using the cross and provided I am being a little dumb. Tejas can play the game for as long as I can ask him to but Ojas plays only until he has conquered it. I find it is quite a simple and easy game to engage kids and it ends fast so no boredom here.
Click here for a mathematical tic tac toe with an extremely dumb computer who doesn't make a line even when the opportunity is presented. and anothe rone in which you can configure the number of squares in the board

Snake & Ladder
They do have some idea of the game- up the ladder, down the snake they keep reciting but they love getting bitten by the snake and climb down the ladder after climbing them. Naturally, we live on ground floor so that is years of training to come down if they ever go climbing up the staircase.
They love to cheat- place the dice in such a way that they can climb the ladder if they so wish.
and sometimes they play with their individual dice- simultaneously, like a race.

Ludo
If they would stop placing the dice on 6, they could atleast play. They are more focused on getting a 6 and taking all the pieces out rather than actually playing. We will get there I am sure.

Chinese Checkers
A friend used to have this wooden board with perforations for pinning the pieces on the board. I used to love that. It was more satisfying to pin the pieces as we jump across rather than the flimsy plastic ones that are provided now. We have just started playing with not much of success. But then, it is only 16 days since we got the board.
Click here for an addictive chinese checker

Chess
This is the most challenging one more because I am quite basic in my understanding of the game.
I found this neat site that explains most of the theory and have good game examples for a person who is looking at just basic understanding.
What I am doing with the kids is explaining what each piece does and how each piece moves. Which are the 4 most important squares - and why they are in the centre- very much like their playground which is in the centre of the building. I have explained that the objective is to reach the other person's house as quickly as possible and if anyone is coming to their house they have to catch them. We have named the pieces and discussed how each piece moves and where each piece sits.
Yesterday we played a game with only pawns and we gained pieces as the pawns reached the other side.
I do not know how much they are going to understand but I am just fuelling the interest that was shown. If necessary coaches can teach but for now, I am not making it regimental.

Scrabble
I love word games. But scrabble is one game I have never played when I was younger. So anyway, I took this lovely scrabble for kids out for inaugaration and I found it had two sides- one with pre made grid and one has to just make the words as per the grid. The reverse side is a normal scrabble. We started fine but as soon as I got up to do something else, the kids had emptied the rack and filled up all the tiles and completed the grid. We turned the board and did the regular scrabble making words with kids selecting the tiles from the rack as per what words they wished to make. Well, House Rules!

It is really Time to Lose Weight

When the son (Tejas) says
Mamma tum bahut big hai. TV dikh raha nahin hain
This when I amnot even blocking his way but standing to his side

Who is Ganesh's Brother

Background Info
There are two helping hands in my building complex- Ramesh, Murugan

Dadda told the kids the story of Lord Ganesh and his brother Murugan on Ganesh Chaturthi day

Recently the kids were recalling the story.
So they were discussing.
Ganesh God and his brother who is called Ramesh....