Monthly Archives: January 2012
Show and Tell 2012
Here are a few pics that BIL clicked at the ‘Show n Tell’ last week.
Adi's - Traffic signal and road safety
A park
Swimming pool
Close up of the pools 
Domestic animals and Wild animals
Another one .. of the roads n traffic signal
The Solar System
Ammu's - The Moon
Ammu was down with fever that night. She did not go to school at the usual time. We took her along with us when we went. In the little time that she was there, she talked about the Moon and its phases to a few parents who looked interested and to her thata, who was beaming!!
Dad went around listening to all that each of the kids had to tell and left them with a dose of encouragement!! He’s been like this with our friends too.. always encouraging.. with a smile!! A contrast to most fathers, who were usually the ‘strict’ type..
Adi was a bit cranky… may be after he saw his dad… he was insisting that his dad to be with him. He posed for a couple of pics though
We toured just a few classes this time. And clicked fewer pics 
We were more anxious to get to the doctor and that kind of curbed our enthusiasm at the school.
For pics of the event from previous years..
Hope you enjoyed looking at the pics
Friday Flowers!
Hope the year has started off on a promising note!! It has, for me
Some new beginnings taking shape… looking forward to see where the path takes me… both inwardly and outwardly… Hoping the journey will be a good one!!
Wish you all a fabulous 2012!!
The weekend’s here. Its ‘Show n Tell’ time at the school tomorrow. The school atmosphere will be vibrant, with enthusiastic teachers, kids showcasing their projects and excited parents milling around!! Hope to have a good time and get some good clicks
Have a great weekend folks !!
Of lil joys and inspirations..
Ammu *gushing and without preamble*: Mamma, i’ll have to say my name and then say a thought for the day in Hindi. I dont know why US* said my name to the teacher! But it will be easy mamma. Its just Thought for the day. Not news item. I can read. *Leaving the room* Thank you mamma for making me practice reading Hindi!!
Left me speechless and grinning… 
When I had chosen Hindi as the second language for Ammu, I did not know what it entailed. As in, I was not aware that the course content would be nothing like what we had, that so much more would be packed for learning within an year and the teacher would be rushing through it.. simply because she has to complete the syllabus. For me, learning Hindi had been a breeze and I assumed it would be the same for her! Duh? I know!!
In fact, I was blissfully unaware of all this, until almost the end of the first year. I hadnt been checking with Ammu’s lessons on a daily basis. I knew that she was finding it difficult to cope with the Hindi barakhadi. I reasoned that since we dont communicate with her in Hindi, its a bit tough.. but that she’ll catch up in a while. It was one of Ammu’s classmate’s mom who, while waiting for our turn to talk to the teacher during one PTM, voiced her concern to me regarding the syllabus and the manner in which things are being rushed. Only then it dawned on me that there really was an issue and that I needed to do something about it.
I don’t remember my parents ever helping with homework and stuff. And had thought that it would be the same with Ammu n Adi… She did well in her Kindergarten without my help or intervention. And I had believed that it will continue in the same way!!
I began helping Ammu with her Hindi. She resented it.. did not like the fact that she needed to practice. Nothing I said could convince her that she could learn Hindi! She even started saying that it would have been better if I had chosen Kannada for her instead of Hindi. Somehow, she felt convinced that Kannada is easier. I realized that it would be quite an uphill task for me to reverse this!
Whenever possible, I helped her with understanding and practicing of the barakhadis and matras. This year, I started reading the lessons with her.. sometimes at bedtime. She would look to me for prompts for words that she could’nt say immediately… but I would ask her to think through… to add the consonant and the matra to form the word.. which she would do after a few wrong attempts. She would be thrilled whenever she read a whole sentence or paragraph on her own. I asked dad to help her with lessons sometimes. BIL and sisters too chipped in whenever they were with us and Ammu needed to do her Hindi lesson All through, I had been telling her that it would be difficult as long as she didnt practice. But with practice, it would definitely be easy!
For the test, in the previous quarter, she was determined to score full marks in Hindi. And she practiced writing to some extent. The result has been good, much better than the previous ones..though she didnt score the full marks. And she’s much more confident now. And I felt glad that I had egged her on when she had all but given up on learning Hindi.
The above conversation happened last night when I came back from work. I was especially thrilled to hear the last sentence. It was an affirmation to me that what I/we convey to her does get ingrained and am delighted that she’s conciously aware of it!!
Muahs to you baby! I feel so inspired
P.S: US is her close friend since LKG
Crafty on Christmas!
We made a Christmas tree during the Christmas weekend Had wanted to try this one since a long time! This too done by jugaad
Made the tree based on the one found here . I had seen this one many years ago but had’nt made a tree till now. It immediately came to mind when I saw Shruti’s Dec theme for Artsy Craftsy Glad that I could find the link to share with you all!
I used the already used up handmade paper for making the tree. I’ve made some modifications to the shape… just drew it free hand… also i did not have exact rectangular ones as I cut it out from an earlier school project. Cut out the 2 pieces and put them together to get the 3 D tree.
Then, I and Ammu, made the ornaments using play dough and painted them with glitter glue. And stuck them up randomly. Ammu was excited and generous enough to lend her play dough for this project! While Adi looked on patiently 
he was waiting for a chance to lay his hands on the tree
Tied some golden balls that had fallen off from a Santa cap, onto a golden thread.. this one from an old wedding card and stuck that to the tree as well.
Eventually, sis2 who had been watching all this, was inspired. She joined in to make the gifts and the snowman that are kept under the tree!! These too made using play dough and glitter glue for the decoration.
Everyone was super excited on seeing the final outcome, done fittingly on Christmas day!! All in all, it was an exciting and enjoyable time with the kids who loved the Christmas tree!!
P.S: This is a post from the drafts. Missed linking it due to delay in uploading the pic …
P.P.S: Its been 3 awesome years of blogging!! YAY!!!
