Change is in progress...

When someone ask me how is homeschooling going on…I always have lot to talk about but a matter which can appeal most people is that we completed 2nd Std.’s maths syllabus within 2 month. Actually syllabus doesn’t matter but just to follow a direction in maths we use Gujarat Board and CBSE’s books.

I compared my this experience with last year’s school experience. She was good at maths since start,got full marks in first test then her performance became weak (her teacher blaimed our goa tour for it!) and it was difficult to tought her addition and subtration.

So…I am happy with homeschooling maths. Have done lots of practice and hands on upto now and idea of preparing a maths lab (don’t imagine hi-fi things…just want to keep some cheap things like marbles,bamboo sticks,straws,stones,thread and different things/ ways for measurement etc.) floating since few days and done some shopping for it today.

Maths is very interesting and easy for both of us. Eagerness to learn and methods are important. This is my experience and what I learned. Here is an article by David Greenberg about how he taught 9 to 12 year old children Maths 6 years worth in 20 weeks.http://www.mountainlaurelsudbury.org/Rithmetic.asp

Upto now we have 1 to 2 or 3 hour depending on interest/convenience study time daily for Ashna ,when Megh enjoy his afternoon nap. Mostly we start with maths as it’s most interesting subject. For Gujarati…reading/writing skill is our aim and touch of English…and this much time is enough.

Now, I’m thinking about cutting off this “study time” from our routine …..because devoting special time for study routine or taking learning subject wise or time which feel like school is not always interesting.Though most of the time we take learning as play, I have noted til it is play everything is fine but as soon as it become subject or matter of study it becomes bit boring.

If a movie is not interesting…

If a movie is not interesting…how long you continue to watch or be concentrated on it? Lastly, we have seen “Drona”. No doubt it was very interesting for Ashna and she enjoyed it thoroughly though she said “it looks like pieces of story connected together”. Apart from story there was something that can interest her. For Megh…only fighting sequences are interesting and he was concentrated and quiet during that time only. For me …sometimes interesting sometimes boring. We were at theatre so seen whole movie but probably could not see if not in theatre.

What about breaking rules? If it is traffic,then rule must be followed but is it always good to follow rule? Osho has given simple definition of creativity…creating something that was never created before. Then without breaking rule or thinking out of box creativity is impossible. To discover something new,to create something never created before one needs curiosity,originality and out-of-box thinking.

If you are interested in any activity you will be concentrated and the moment you find something more interesting,new or which can make you more curious… you will diverted to that other activity…about adult person this might be not true always but what about little children? It is natural for them. It is age when they are driven by their own interest and curiosity. But short attention span and distractibility are symptoms of ADD/ADHD!

Misplace things and could not understand importance of time…are other symptoms. Disorganized behaviour…they says. I believe that if not imposed any kind of force or descipline children are like that naturally. Still their concept of time is under development. Organized personality have to be built after experiences of disorganization. And they learn it with time.

Can't sit still longer…some children are more energetic or more interested in physical acitivity and when they not found something interesting which make them quiet and sit longer they can’t.

Could not follow descipline/rule…it’s great characteristics,isn’t it?

Poor internal supervision…they are just kids!

So, this is ADD/ADHD!!!ADD and ADHD both different but using ADHD for both is confusing. ADD with Hyperactivity and ADD without Hyperactivity. One side there are thousands of websites about what is ADD/ADHD (They says it mental disorder…causes not clear but may be genetic, poor parenting, improper classroom techniques), types of ADHD,diagnosing ADHD (Diagnosing ADHD is highly subjective) ,treatment and medications of ADHD (horrifiying picture of American children taking medications ) , 504 plan and special arrangement if in US and how it effects relations. It is very confusing. Other side http://www.sntp.net/ritalin/myth_2.htm which I felt more closer to truth.

When Ash build different architecture models from blocks sitting for hours,can complete 300 pieces jiggshows,practice cartwheel or hand stand for hours or plays chess or cube…how can I say it is short attention span? She could not follow rule. For example…She likes to do drawing in her way only,no instruction require or accepted. Her drawing not sound techanically,but originality of idea always amaze us. Writing skills requires following some rules,and that’s why it’s boring for her. If she writes herself…without thinking of spelling mistakes,cleanliness,space or uniformality of letters than again ideas and using words are good.

They gives some causes for ADD/ADHD behavior are poor parenting and improper classroom techniques. About classroom technics,I can say it was improper and about poor parenting I’m responsible. I never wanted to nurture my children quiet and obedient like key operated toy. Never suppress their freedom,curiosity and originality in the name of manners or anything else. Someday her insight or vivek will develop and she will differentiate where to follow rule and where not or what is right and what is wrong.

So, as I know my child better than anybody else…diagnosed this myself and it is not ADD…It is just a poor parenting!

Day started playing with Ice!

Day started playing with Ice!

Y’day Ash put a cake mould filled with water and different colour flowers in freezer. This activity is their favourite and they enjoy watching melting of ice while playing.

Then Megh want to make his ice and he filled water in a small vessel and put it in freezer but very impatient about freezing. He want it in few minutes and it is about to take more than hour. Could not wait and asking frequently…when will be ice ready? I know it was useless to say him but I answered “when water will reach at 0 degree”, now Ashna wanted to know it how? And what is degree? Shown her how tempreture measures with thermometer and then measured different temp. of water. Raising and falling of mercury was interesting for her.

Nikhil noticed Ash’s question what is degree left unanswered…explained her use of degree in measurement of temp. and angle. And shown her how angle measures. When she came to know about angle measurement of circle she relate it with watch and then some exercises about angles between two hands at different time.

At noon,during study time we read “Gavri gay no hinchko” a Rusian children story translation …about how Gavri is different from other cows and how she takes help of her friend Kagabhai for hanging swing on tree. All left pages read by me and all right by her. She was not worried by reading whole book herself, modeling myself for reading style,good practice for her and this is our favorite story. It was fun!

Then reminded her how we got 30 degree angle between any two no. on watch by dividing 90 into 3 parts. That was explained by 9 chocolates have to divide in Ash,Megh and Manu. When she came to know it is division,her eyes open wide and said “ohhho I thought it was like subtraction!” She knows multiplication but still does calculation by adding no….like if have to buy 4 pencil each Rs. 3 then instead multiply 4*3 she adds 4 three times. So,in her mind multiplication is like addition…so division might be like subtraction…like instead adding 4 three times..she has to minus or something like that unclear concept was there. Then explain her relation between addition & multiplication and what’s common. Same with subtraction & division.

At last in study time – a shopping sum…her favourite! She has to buy 1 KG Washing Powder,3 Bath soap and a packet of Chapta Chana and She has Rs. 200. At shop washing powder available in 500gm bag and 80 Rs. Each, soap Rs. 14 each and Chana packet Rs.22. Bit difficult for her…but she tried ,took enough time and got total bill of Rs. 224 then? What we have to remove from list? She was confused. Tried removing Chana Packet but no help, removed all soaps…..but soap is urgently needed at home…then at last remove 1 bag of washing powder and one more subtraction.

Study time over!

Honey Bee!

There was a honey bee hive in our garden. Somewhere I read about dance patterns honey bee shows. To experiment and check how one honey bee find source of honey and inform other bees about it…we have taken some sugar mixed water (such idea found from net) and try to see practically how it happens.Was ready with binacular and constantly under observation for more than a hour our patience ended and left water there with hope that bee will find and use it. Flop experiment!

Then after some days found a book “Mathemagic” by Nagendra Vijay and found amazing facts about this great mathematician. I was in confusion how will I start this topic with Ash then found clue from that article only.

First I took paper,pencil,scale and compass and show Ash how mummy needs all these to draw perfact hexagone and then ask her to start drawing hexagone from two different points on paper. Then she amazed knowing fact that Honey bee prepare perfact hexagon cells without any instrument mummy have used and never do mistake even they start building hives from different points.

Then our discussion concerntrated on why hexagone only and not square,circle or triangle or not any other shape? It was became interesting episode for her becouse one by one amazing facts came in front of her about honey bees and their working just from this question why hexagone? !!!!!!!! How it save their costly wax? How it gives facility to save maxium honey in comparison to other shapes? How it gives strength to hive? How it is even useful in health of hive? Etc. How two hexagonal prizam joins back to back is shown in a picture in this book but it might difficult to understand for her but then her menifestation or what , all bees left hive in our garden. One day our gardener took it from outer wall of our house and then Ashna has real hive in her hands!!!!!

Then she came to know about three kinds of honey bee….Queen,Male & worker and find their role and very much impressed by worker’s role. How hard working and devoted they are! Their dance patterns,their working in co-operation,their care for larvah and how they find honey and produce wax. Though it becoming bit complex for her later I was so much mesmerized by this creature that could not left collecting more and more info about them and keeping Ash informed how much she can understand.

Earlier I have thought about taking this topic as a project and will prepare report like that….but Ash the craft lover made front cover page only and as writing is boring for her she left it in mid way. Anyways,knowledge is power ,to feel something is more powerful and keeping proof of everything not possible and not neccessary.

Article on our homeschooling

Courtesy : Balmurti

Sorting by 4 senses!!!

Sorting by observation








Sorting by touch








Sorting by smell








Some leaves are small so need to check by touch,smell and taste too!

Atlast after completing 'sorting'...He washed all leaves except Mhendi and chew them all! No worries...Ajwain and Tulsi both are good herbs!

"Butterfly"

Since Nikhil brought more plants of vibrant coloured flowers and attraction for butterfly,there are increased no. of butterflies in our garden. Butterflies are centre of joy and curiosity for children. Then collected some videos/pictures from net and explained how butterfly's lifecycle progress from egg,caterpillar,pupae to colourful butterfly. It was amazing to see for them that how a tiny caterpillar eats crazily and becomes big! and how butterfly coming out from pupae!

We were searching for butterfly caterpillar. We have observed many pupae found on leaves,walls or different places. But they were not butterfly's. One day Ashna came very excited...."Mummy,I have found butterfly's caterpillars,come fast". There were 7-8 small caterpillars of beautiful dots of orange,black and white colours.




Then we observed them for few days and noticed their journey from small to big caterpillar. Megh has many questions ...Why it eat leaves only? Why they eats only,they do not do anything else? Where they sleep? etc. First day they were 7-8 then day by day no. decreased and they eat out those plants completely. Then we thought may be they are busy preparing pupae somewhere but could not found them or pupae after that.

Walls are dirty now!

Nowadays my 3 year old don't like walls of our home. He wants to break all of them or wants new house!!! One of my friend visited our home after a year and she was shocked by looking at art work of my little one. Every wall honoured by his freedom of expression. I could stop him doing this,could explain to use paper instead of walls, or could shout at him for making walls dirty...but then he might loose the joy he was getting from natural force within him. Now we are happy that he himself realised that "Walls are dirty". Now no problem if we spend money in colouring walls and most important is he himself learnt what is dirty and what is clean!

Gijubhai's writings on this...without knowing dirtyness how can one know what is cleanliness? Without knowing what is unstuctured how can one know what is means of stuctured? Knowing something by own efforts is very much important, no matter how it is difficult or how much time it takes.