Friday, July 30, 2010

Creativity Unleashed!

STOOL
ROUND
I had this unexpected occasion to spend some time without a fixed agenda in the class, due to lot of students of the class busy in a football match. Rejecting their requests for playing outside, I asked them to show me some creativity. The task was to "draw" words that could convey the meaning of the words too. A few examples could be as shown here.
SHAPES

Initially, the children seemed to be struggling with the designs. But gradually, they caught on the task, and here are some creations that I could capture. In fact, it was difficult to keep up with their pace. Of course, there were some that bordered on being highly cryptic to be deciphered. There were still others that were not original creations. Nevertheless, quite commendable.

SPECS
SOFTY
WATCH
SHOES
CURVES
HEADPHONE
REVERSE
WOOD
TIMEOUT
Reward: A game of Pen-Fight

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Television for children at home

As a mentor, and a parent, I am always intrigued with the discussions revolving around the TV viewing habits of our children. Parents always lament on the excessive time their children spend in front of the idiot box. Invariably, their complaint is about the quality and quantity of programmes. Pre-teens are usually seen engrossed in cartoon shows that seem to be a nuisance to an adult mind. Teenagers, on the other hand, prefer reality shows and film-based programmes.

As a mentor believing in the code of "free-will", I would want to give the child freedom to choose. The only way to achieve this to give the child viable choices. If the parents give a child an alternative like "Do your homework" or "Read a book" to TV, the child doesn't seem to have a comparable choice to the TV show. How then do we expect the child to happily accept the not-so-good choice? Even if the child goes into her room to study, her ears will always be craving for the sound coming out of your favourite soap on TV. More so, her mind will also be questioning the unfair treatment from an adult human being to a child human being.

Now try this: Just start doing a "real experiment" in the room next to the TV room with your door open. If you are like I am, you would find it difficult to creatively think of a ingenious experiment. No fret! Just browse for some exciting stuff on the net, and you can just start by "copying" something off the net. One of my favourite starters is creating a volcanic eruption by mixing some vinegar, floor and baking soda. You can do the experiment in the lawn to give it a more natural touch. When I did this one the first time, my children didn't even seem to acknowledge the presence of the TV. You could get some really cool ideas from sites like www.instructables.com and www.thereifixedit.com.

The bottomline is: If you want your children off the TV set, do it yourself first. Do something together and you would have given your children a "viable" choice.

PS: Add me (anirudhphadke) to your delicious account to browse through some of the interesting bookmarks that may just come in handy in doing something creative with your children.

SEED


I planted seed when I was ten,


Seed grew as tall as men,


It was a mango seed,


I watered it as a feed.



It gave me tasty mangoes,


Which I used to eat and go.


Everyone eats and says too sweet


the mangoes should not fall on T-shirt it should be neat.


Oh! Now I am 24.....


.... I used to eat more mangoes before.

By :

Neil Kulkarni

Classs 5 Purvai


Friday, July 16, 2010

Inter-House English Recitation






We witnessed enthusiastic participation from almost every class in the event. It was great to see our children from J1 giving an equal challenge to their seniors! The poems ranging from 'The Camel's Hump' to 'Daffodils' to 'When Daddy fell in the Pond' were enjoyed by both the participants and the audience.
Mrs. Avni Nimwal and Mrs. Shilpa Rajawat judged the event.
Shreenivas Mandpe of class VII Prachi beautifully conducted the entire programme!
The results are

J1
1. Kashish Chaturvedi - Class V Purvai - House Vayu
2. Hemang Gupta - Class IV Veena - House Agni
and
Kasvi Swami - Class V Purvai - House Agni
3. Sanya Shrivastav - Class III Bhoomi - House Vayu

J2
1. Tushita Joshi - Class VII Prachi - House Agni
2. Arundhati Singh - Class VIII Vasant - House Vayu
3. Ruchika Bhuwalka - Class VIII Vasant - House Vayu

Congratulations to all the participants and to the winners.