Back to School ...Excitement Galore!

So the siblings marched out the door, after having waited all these years, to go to the same school, finally! The younger one's excitement over the past few days had to be seen to be believed. Incidentally, we were also going camping the day after their schools re-opened and were to set up tent and sleep in sleeping bags and were to go with 7 more families, all the kids' friends from the complex that we stay in and with whom they literally spent almost every waking moment with during their summer break. Needless to say, they were way too excited about that as well. So one day Chica, after thinking for a while, asked me "Mom, guess what I am more excited about ... our camping trip or starting school?" To give you an idea of just how excited she was, she told me I was wrong when I answered "our camping trip".

This picture sums up their feelings pretty well on the first day. Niño felt like a very responsible big brother and wanted me to drop them to school on their first day so that I could guide Chica as to where the Kindergartners need to stand to get in the building, which he otherwise considered his responsibility. Chica, on the other hand didn't want to delay getting in the bus by even one more day and told us that I and Niño were welcome to come by car, but she was way too excited to take the bus and was unfazed and sure there would be teachers to tell her exactly where she should enter from! 

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Back to School Fun Photo Labels

A quick picture post to share with you the first craft of the summer this year. Yeah we had a craftily lazy summer vacation this year :) But today the kids were extremely excited with this activity that took up our morning when we had originally intended to finish off all the labeling of school supplies. But I guess in the last few days of the kids home, one could give themselves and myself this much leeway :)

Work in progress ...I took printouts of letters of the kids' names from these Alphabet Printables and  stuck them onto different colored construction paper. The kids then cut them out and decorated those with crayons and stickers.

Then came the posing against different backgrounds! A brown tree trunk, green grass, blue sky!

 

I then put the 4 pictures to together on Picasa, made a collage, copy, pasted 4 of them on a Word Document and took printouts. And lo and behold, we have among us a lovely label and an extremely proud and happy soon to be Kindergartner! 

The older sibling made it quite excitedly but doesn't want to have to do anything with it at all thereafter. "No way am I carrying it to school!" Well he is just a growing boy, I suppose.

The idea came from one of my absolute favorite activity blog here.

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Of Presidents and so much more

Niño has been learning about the 44 US Presidents at school for the last month or so. And I am astonished by the fact that in just over a month's time, he now knows the name of all 44 by heart along with at least one interesting fact about each one of them, an insatiable desire to learn more and an enthusiasm to share with us everything new that he learns each day. Just before writing this, I just wrote to his music teacher who has been working with them in teaching the president song and sharing very interesting tidbits about all of them, thanking her for the brilliant way she is doing it. The children sing the song which goes like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and so on, complete with actions like they hold up one finger for Washington because he was the first President, they make the White House with their hands for John Adams because he was the first one to stay there, they hold their hand on their heart for a President who died while in office, etc. I tried searching on you tube for the song that they have been learning at school. I couldn't find that one but I did find another very interesting one which I have linked to at the top of the post and which is being thoroughly enjoyed by both the siblings ever since!

Which makes me think how effortlessly such important information is being shared with the children. I mean my jaw literally dropped to the floor when Niño told me that Theodore Roosevelt was the President of the United States during World War II and the participating countries were Japan, Korea, France, Germany and the United States. And Japan attacked US and that's why Truman, the next American President asked for two bombs to be dropped in Japan. My mind immediately raced back to my Grade 9 classroom when I learnt about WW II and the Japan nuclear attacks and how I struggled to memorize the notes that were dictated by our History teacher. While Niño's knowledge is far from complete and may be even inaccurate in places, but at 6 years of age, teaching the children how their present day country was shaped and getting in them the voracious desire to know more is extremely commendable in my eyes. 

He shares several anecdotes like how Abe Lincoln was very lean but so strong that he once lifted a 600 lb load all by himself or that it was during Andrew Jackson was the President during whose term the train was invented. I am so glad to be learning something new almost everyday with him. And at times even ashamed that I don't remember anything about some important events like the Civil War when he talks or asks me more about them. Luckily, while at Target last week, I chanced upon a great pack of US President Flashcards in their Dollar aisle and needless to say they are being devoured like crazy by a very excited little boy who goes over the information on the behind of the pictures and remarks that James Madison shares his own birthday and to everyone's amusement, when a friend of mine playfully asked him a couple of weeks back "Whose birthday is coming up soon?" (referring to Niño's upcoming birthday in March), in all earnest he answered Abraham Lincoln's (which was the next day). 

How I wish I could do something similar for making the kids learn about our Indian Presidents and Prime Ministers. While we composed our own similar song for Indian President and we are through to President No. 4 VV Giri, Niño wanted me to also tell him something about each of them and I couldn't find much information that would interest a child, except for the Teacher's Day information about S. Radhakrishnan. When I put Indian President Song on you tube, what came up was a clip of Obama dancing funny to a hip hop song in Mumbai, India. Pretty promising! However as I write this, I realize that it would be more interesting to teach them about our Prime Ministers because Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi seem more interesting than their Presidential counterparts. Whatever little they learn at this stage is anyways good, I feel :) 

Do you know of some ways you or someone you know have shared this kind of information with their kids? Please do share :)

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The Journey to the Achievement Week

Vansh has in his school starting today what they call the achievement week, in which basically they would be tested and graded on whatever they have done throughout the year. As I and Ashwini cajoled him into learning at least 2 more rhymes out of the 20 odd rhymes, other than the ‘Aeroplane, aeroplane’ and ‘Lal peeli motor’ in a last ditch effort last evening, I realized that making him prepare for the said week has been a rather amusing experience.

- As you might have noticed, the rhymes that he did remember well are related to transport. No surprise that. Day before yesterday, I asked him to narrate the 'teddy bear, teddy bear turn around rhyme’ which he narrated as ‘teddy bear, teddy bear up in the sky; where are you going flying do high’. Basically he was just replacing the aeroplane word with the teddy bear in the ‘Aeroplane, aeroplane’ rhyme. On being asked what was he saying, he replied that the teddy bear is riding in the aeroplane. Hmmm, okay – what can one say to that except laughing at the logic!

In another instance last evening, Ashwini asked him to narrate a rhyme titled ‘2 little apples’. I’ll quote the conversation that took place :-

Vansh – 3 little monkeys jumping on the bed

Ashwini – I asked you to narrate 2 little apples

Vansh – No, 4 little monkeys …

Ashwini – 2 little apples

Vansh – No, 6 little monkeys …

Ashwini – 2 little …

Vansh – 10 little monkeys … (reminded me of the times when I tell him he’ll have to repeat a word he doesn’t remember 5 times, if he resists I go on increasing the number to 6,7,8 – its his turn now, hmm!)

Ashwini – Okay, lets just make it 2 little monkeys …

Vansh – 6 little monkeys jumping …

Chachi called the doctor …

Chacha called the doctor …

Dadi/Dada/ Papa/ Mamma called the doctor …

Us : Oh! So that was the logic behind the 6 jumping monkeys. Each one from the family ought to get a chance to call the doctor!

- I made him several worksheets for English, Hindi and Maths to practice matching the picture with the correct letter, circling the correct letter, counting and circling the correct number and the like. Many a times he liked to do his own thing with those.

This is what a typical worksheet on matching looked like. I couldn’t just give it to him and then proceed to check it some time later for that would be a maze exercise for me to see whether the picture is actually connected with the correct letter. I would have to actually look at him start from a particular picture, doodle endlessly and finally reach the corresponding letter. Normal is boring for this little fella!

He once didn’t want to work on any Maths worksheet because he was bored and said that he wanted to make one of his own. So he picked up a template and came up with this.

He made several English worksheets too at the back of the ones I gave to him to work on. I just have one picture though he made much better ones when the idea was novel to him and he drew meticulously.

The zig-zag matches with the Z, thats an umbrella matched with the U and a Race-car with the R. The big curve on the right is lots of smoke from the race car since it moves so fast.

He decided to spruce up a plain looking hurriedly made ‘What comes after’ worksheet by drawing an amusing looking Papa on it. And didn't deem the worksheet important enough to be completed, by the way.

- I am not sure if I have mentioned before that Vansh is extremely conscious of his public image, especially his image at school. I have a mighty hard time explaining that at home, he is the total opposite of the really the sweet docile boy that he pretends to be in front of friends. At PTM’s, when I and his class teacher (whom he is very very fond of and would do anything to be in her good books) exchange notes, I am like “Are you sure, you are talking about the same Vansh that I am talking about?” The difference shows in his work too. While his class work is immaculate and like his teacher claims among the first one to be finished, he likes to do his own thing taking his own time at home. On a regular basis, he does not write the counting in the correct order. He’ll first write say the 20’s line, then spend some time thinking where the 70 would come and then write the line backwards till 61 and so on. While practicing to draw a garden scene for his art test the next day, this is what he came up with at school and then at home. The school one is complete with a shining sun, trees and flowers and a bunny. He wanted to just make a big sun sitting in the garden and kept drawing rays of the sun.Then he wanted to draw a dog in its kennel which is what that square is.

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Yay to a happy beginning at play school

Aah ..so it took Jiya to start play school to shove me out of the self imposed hiatus. Undoubtedly a big milestone! We went through tough winters this year in ways more than one - illnesses took away major chunks of time and energy but anyways that's not what I sat down to write about.

Jiya finally started play school today after us contemplating the thought for almost 5 months now. I expected her to cry and give me a tough time for at least 2-3 weeks, if not more, considering that she is often found 'charging herself on her charging pad' which happens to be my shoulder, several times in a day, refusing to go to anyone else in the house no matter what the bait; she refuses to let go of my lap in a new situation or even in a very familiar situation like going to the park, when there are good number of people around, even if they are reasonably familiar to her. Her reactions about going to school had been varied. More often than not, when asked whether she would go to school, she would say only when she grows up and it kept going on like that. She seemed keen to go but nowhere in the near future. Basically I expected there to be water works and tantrums and the like. But she just went. A little resistance to leave my hand but her teacher just picked her in her lap and took her inside her classroom where the kids were singing the 'ABC' rhyme. I resisted the urge to peep inside because the longer I stayed, the greater the chance of her crying became. We decided to start her with an hour today and at the end of the hour, she was just as fine. Her teacher told me she colored and gelled well with the kids and asked me to bring her for 2 hours tomorrow. Phew!! Goes on to show how well we assume we know our kids and how they just wait for their turn to prove us wrong :)

I waited, just as eagerly for the conversation between the siblings once Vansh returned from his school. They are getting more and more meaningful, retaining the innocence and the charm at the same time. He had been very excited since Saturday about Jiya starting school from Monday. He asked her what she did to which she said "I colored". He asked "What else?" "Nothing else" came the reply :)

I stop here right now ..there's lots to write and share with you who read this and with myself when the kids are all grown and I get back to this blog to read about what my days once used to be like. I often think about those days to come and I smile. To be honest at this point of time I long for those days when there would be no more tantrums, no more screaming and yellings, no more getting every request of mine being met with resistance, no more physical tiredness from tending to two young children. However, I look at some friends who are there already and sense in them a longing to be back in my shoes :) The circle of life ..as elusive as ever.

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The FIRST day of BIG School

Even as several other posts lie unfinished in my drafts from Vansh's birthay celebrations (with pictures for those who are looking forward to those :) ), Jiya's 21st month update (which incidentally started as her 16th month update back in the US), this one certainly takes precedence over all the rest. For undoubtedly its a huge step. To come to think of it as one of the most important journeys a human being undertakes would be perfectly apt; the journey to knowledge, to empowerment, the journey to learn which plays a major role in shaping one's thoughts, the person one is.
I am glad Vansh was looking forward to it with much enthusiasm, one because he would have to get up at 7:00, exactly 10 minutes before dad leaves for office and would thus be able to bid him goodbye, somethig which he missed doing here but needed a school to go to to wake him up at that hour. And two because, smitten as he is by everyone scurrying about in the morning picking up their bags, lunch boxes, THEIR ID CARDS, he was way too excited to do that himself and to be taken to school in a yellow school bus. He had been talking about this day for a long time. And even though he shouted that he wanted to sleep some more when I first woke him up, it took him the shortest unit of time to get up and about as I reminded him that this was indeed the day. HE was quick with finishing his milk, getting ready for his bath, wearing his brand new school uniform (which he would have liked to be in a different color), followed by breakfast. I made 'bhori' for him today, one of his favorite breakfasts, which is basically a chapati crushed and mixed with some melted butter and sugar.

I, Jiya and papa (Vansh's dada) dropped him off in the car today and I would go to pick him up in the afternoon and then board the school bus to let the driver know where his bus stop would be. So another couple of days before his dream of going alone in a school bus comes true :) On our way, my mind raced to exactly 4 years back when Vansh turned 2 weeks on this day. What was I doing at that time - getting him ready for his two week check up or coochie cooing to him as he lay awake at night? Scenes from these past years flashed by - the gurgles, the first wobbly baby steps, the toothless smiles, the tears as we first separated during his summer camp, the giggles that followed after a few days. And now this little baby from not very long back was a bright young boy with a twinkle in his eyes whom I was going to drop to his very first day at school. Yet again, it really has been 4 years?!

He smiled on his way to the classroom obliging me with some good smiley shots. He looked just a tad bit apprehensive as we entered the classroom full of about 25 or so kids but nothing too bothersome.

After meeting his classteacher, I settled him down on a semi circular table with about 5-6 chairs. He was immediately called on to the adjoining chair by another little boy sitting there and in a matter of minutes, as I returned after keeping Vansh's books on the front table, I saw both of them tapping the table with their hands and giggling. I was glad we had had several opportunities which had taken care of the tears earlier.

As we watched for a few minutes from outside the window, we just stood there and took in the scene as it unfolded before us - some kids were crying, a little girl was just sitting with her head on the table, some parents were talking to the teachers present in the room, a teacher was blowing bubbles to distract some children, Vansh sat on his chair watching everyone too. I thanked God for blessing us with such small everyday joys, of being a party to such little yet momentous occasions, of watching the fortunate kids and their families who can afford a good education in their element.

Well I, the fond mother of my sonny little boy, do wish him a wonderful journey ahead. I wish he has many many moments from these early years which he cherishes forever and which help him form a positive outlook towards schooling and more importantly towards learning. I pray to God to take care of him, to bless him and be there for him at every step to guide him in the right direction. And I also request you, my dear readers and well wishers, to just say a little prayer for him as you wish him well :)

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