Literacy

That was the topic in the parents class at ECFE. And I had been waiting quite eagerly for it. Which Indian mother wouldn't ?! As much as I hate it, but the competition out there beginning right from getting a 4 year old into a 'reputed' school and a never ending process from then on, gets to me at times. The almost inhuman pressures of 'studies' when a kid should actually be chasing cats or hiding behind bushes call for an entire independent post on them, so let me not digress and share some useful pointers from the discussion we had today. I do strive for making it lots of fun and that being the focus rather than the learning at this point of time.

- Nothing new in this one, the beginning of getting children to read is to talk, talk, talk to them. A child who is interacted with for about an hour every day enters Kindergarten with a vocabulary of 8000-10,000 words, which is the approximate vocab a child has to have before he can start reading. We, very fortunately have a former reading specialist among us (someone who helps children who have difficulty reading due to a disorder or other reasons, get over their difficulties and start reading) and she pitched in with very meaningful comments from time to time. Its always better to talk to the kids in context, which means even though its good to show flash cards and books with pictures of animals but real learning takes place when we are out there on the road or the grocery store or any lace for that matter and talking about things that we are looking at or may be recalling them from those flash cards.

- Books - There were several aspects of this one.

• Get them interested from a young age. Make visits to the library or book store frequent.
• Let them choose their own books and have them own some books.
  
• Its okay and common for children to have favorites and wanting to read them over and over again and it actually builds and strengthens brain connections. (There was a time when I felt that Vansh only wanted to read books with cars or trucks in them and I wanted him to read about other things as well. So for a few days, I removed all cars and trucks books and only had books about animals or other things. And Vansh showed zero interest in those and didn't want to read at all. So for us, I had to let him have his own likes and dislikes and read about whatever he chose to because right now its more important to get him interest in reading.)
  
• While reading, encourage them to think and talk about what they think is going on in the picture. Connect stories to what's happening in the real world.
• Have exaggerated expressions; add sound effects for getting them more interested. (Cars vrrroooming and things falling with a boom bam tadaan and a heavy looking man talking in a heavy tone of voice are some of Vansh's favorites)
  
• Read yourself and let your child watch and pay attention to the value your family places on reading.

- Just as exaggerated expressions and sounds get them interested in books, exaggerated movements of hands and feet are precursors of writing skills. So making big imaginary circles, jumping ropes with those big hand movements, drawing large O's on an easel or the ground are actually things which help develop that part of the brain which ultimately helps a child write. This was pretty insightful. In fact do drop in more suggestions, if you happen to read this, on getting a child more interested to write.

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Meeting other parents

Every time I meet parents of children, like aged or older than our own, I think about how important it is to keep meeting them. Each parent has so much to offer in terms of experience in dealing with particular situations, a different perspective to look at things, putting anxieties at rest which I might have, providing creative ideas for little problems we face everyday which make such a huge impact on the temperament of the child and ultimately are the difference between a good smooth day or a tough bumpy one.
A few days ago, we went for a MOMS club activity at a friend's house and another boy whom Vansh doesn't meet very often was playing with a big car. Naturally Vansh wanted to play with the car immediately. He does that many a times and what I tell him is that he has to either wait for his turn or play with another toy depending upon the toy and the situation at that time. What that other boy's mom told both of them was that they had a choice of playing together with the car, demonstrating how they could roll it forwards and backwards to each other OR take turns if they wanted to play alone with it. Showing them what to do together appealed to both of them and they played away happily rolling it to each other. A simple solution, yet so insightful. At times, our own reactions become so mechanical that such incidents help us to get new ideas of tackling everyday situations.
Another platform where I meet parents on a regular basis is ECFE. I am lucky to be in a particularly smart group this year and also to have a great parent educator who facilitates very fruitful discussions. A couple of moms with grown up children (10, 8, and 6 years old) is an added bonus! (Did I tell you I am in awe of moms who have older kids - I believe raising children through the years brings you more wisdom like nothing else can) So yesterday I voiced my concern about how I limit TV time for Vansh as also the content that he watches. And yet many a times when I tell him no more TV, he just sits there and does absolutely nothing, making me wonder won't it make sense if I let him watch that phonics Leap Frog video by way of which, even though not the most appropriate way of learning, he'll learn something and won't really be 'wasting time'. I was glad to get a new dimension, to learn that in those quiet times he was actually figuring out how the world around him works. It was then that I realised that it was indeed true. Every now and then in these quiet moments that he spends, he comes and talk s to me about random things, his friends, how he shared with someone and shouted at someone else, his visit to the doctor for the flu shot, things like "Papa शाम को आते हैं।", "Candy Satday (Saturday) खाते हें।" and the likes. In fact other parents told me I was lucky that he didn't demand to be played with at all times and spent some time quietly thinking. Ahem!! (collar up :) Sure did some good to my spirits.
Hmm ..Indian friends here are going through 'seasonal depression' in the -15 degrees and 2 feet of snow outside. It has been a while since we got together for a playdate and enlightened talks about kids' tantrums and activities and eating battles et al. Am looking forward to that again.

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Festivities in the air!!

Oh I absolutely love this time of the year ..Diwali is going to be here soon. Apart from other things, to me it means eating 'kaju-kishmish' and the yummy mitahis till my tummy hurts; going to the market on the slightest opportunity to see all the crowds (Oh! I miss India so much!); new clothes of course; leaving on all the lights in the house which looks so bright and sparkly; the small little things which all add up to make the day BIG!! I am so excited even while I write this. Even though things here are so different from what they are back home, still I am enjoying hustling about to put the house in order for a change (I now shamelessly proclaim that I clean the house only when we are expecting company); finishing up the piles of laundry to make it look spic and span (again for a change); making gujiyas and matthis and singer ki mithai; squeezing in an extra 10 minutes to buy some maida and khoya before taking Vansh to school; writing "Give Vansh a haircut" in Ashwini's to do list before Diwali and then going ahead and doing it myself (we have totally lost hope of getting him a haircut from a professional, with all his howling and screaming, till the haircut we give him actually embarasses him.); planning the potluck and games for Diwali night. Oh! Another interesting thing that happened this year - till last year Vansh was too small to enjoy sparklers and firecrackers - so we didn't really care either. This year, however, he had a great time on 4th of July and on Dussehra with those. And we had no idea that they are not available year round here. As a result we blew all of ours on Dussehra because everyone was having such a nice time. Very luckily and interestingly, I thought of asking our MOMS club group via our yahoo group whether anyone had any left over firecrackers and fortunately got a bunch of those to have fun with on Diwali night :) Now I am just praying for the weather gods to be kind enough to let the kids enjoy those

A few more pics from Halloween last week. Surprisingly, Vansh was not scared of the larger than life size dressed up dogs and strange characters and actually went ahead and shook their hand and even posed for a picture. May be Miss Nadi, their ECFE teacher, dressing up like a clown in front of them and going back and forth putting on and taking off her colorful wig and red nose helped him see that its actually just normal people who dress up like some one else. Big crowds still frazzle him though leading to a troubled look on his face evident in most pictures. He also befriended a lady fire fighter to ask her all about her big flashy red car :)

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The wonder named ECFE!

I cannot stop raving about the marvels of ECFE this year and its not without reason. It was incredible to observe the kids in their classroom from the parent room today at. Stephanie, the parent educator has told us that we shall be having such observation sessions every 2-3 weeks where in we switch off the lights in our room so the view in the adjoining well lit children's room is absolutely clear. So about 15 minutes prior to the class ending, Miss Nadi, the kids' superstar teacher tapped the window to signal that we could begin observing. I almost let out a squeak on seeing each and every child sitting on a chair assigned to him/her and looking at Miss Nadi with rapt attention. As she later told us (we could see them but not hear whats going on), she was hiding a felt worm cut out behind one of the apples out of three while asking the kids to shut their eyes (which only about 3 were doing) and then asking them to guess where it was - asking them questions like "Is it behind this one?" and encouraging them to answer "No", "No" and eventually "Yes!" and clapping and squealing with delight! We also saw little felt apples in each child's hand which they had to hand back to Miss Nadi at the end of the group activity when there name was called. As soon as she asked them to do that, 2-3 kids started walking all at once to her but they were asked to get back and wait for their name to be called. Finally they were asked to return their little chairs to their original place.

I was amazed at how well thought of and power packed little activites are here teaching such a variety of skills - listening, observing closely, following instructiions, using their imaginations, waiting for their turn, adding new words to their vocab - to name just a few. And it was impossible for most of us moms to believe that our child was capable of doing that.

I now wait so eagerly for the sound monitoring where a nursery monitor would be placed in the kids' room with the receiver in our room so that we can hear what all is going on.

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Life's been busy...

...the past week with both the kids, leaving me with no time to write about our daily hustle bustle. We have been getting out more now, considering the last few weeks of being able to go outdoors before winter strikes BIG time. Last evening when we went for a walk with the outside temperature being 10 degrees, it took us half an hour to get everybody dressed making me nervous as to what's going to happen when we have to put on one layer after another to beat the -15 outside. The few minutes from the car to the mall/store demand an elaborate dressing up and undressing amounting to more time doing that than the time spent outside.

Anyways, ECFE re-started yesterday for Vansh. He sure had fun in the two year olds class. This year the separation is total. The moms are with the kids for the initial half an hour and while the kids eat their snack at the end of the half hour, we move to another room to be with the parent educator for an hour. (Last year, we used to be in a sort of a compartment attached to the children's room where they were free to come and go.) We were able to observe them from the window (the flashy kinds that were all over on cars in Delhi where one can see from inside out but not vice versa) and with the exception of a couple of kids facing some difficulty separating, it was heartening to see the rest do so well. Vansh did look a little confused initially and I could read his lips calling for me after he finished his snack but after a teacher helped him throw the napkin, glass, etc after his snack, he was fine and played happily. I have a feeling this year this class is going to do him much good in terms of playing peacefully(!!) with other children, sharing, taking turns ..all those golden words we hope they'll get someday! I heard him shouting once and many kids after that and I was so sure he had started the whole fracas but later the teacher told us that the bubbles had invited all the squeals! I'll take some pictures soon and post them here. As for Jiya, well everytime I go out alone with both the kids, I learn something new, the calculation as to when to feed Jiya so she stays calm in class (I am allowed to take her till she turns 6 months after which she'll be in the sibling care classroom a few rooms away); the juggling of time to get one kid ready when the other sleeps and such other things in order to avoid what I had to do yesterday after comimg back - feed Vansh with one hand and Jiya with the other.

I do have a few nice pictures to share from my b'day though. We went out for dinner to a Vietnamese restaurant and managed to dine successfully with 2 kids in tow ..quite an achievement!!

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