Writing

Spirit – stallion of the Cimarron is his most favourite movie since long and his love for horses developed by watching this movie. He see dreams of horse, draws pictures of horses, sometimes enjoys rides, makes stories and sometimes visits stables near our home with Nikhil. We have books about different horses and horse care which are his favourite too. He wanted to write about horse and needs lines on bond paper, so I have given him this page and like it was difficult to control enthusiasm he wrote whole page within few minutes. That’s magic of passion.

I like horse. I like horse since I have seen movie ‘Stallion’. It is so loyal and strong. I love it’s loyalty and for that I see that movie again and again. I’m thinking about having one horse and it will be like stallion. My horse will be white & black. I have seen horse eating grass. I want Kathiyawadi horse and I will have. Horse knows swimming since birth. I will never use bridle with my horse.

Writing is a skill which requires practice but practice with and without will is totally different. When we started homeschooling Ashna was a reluctant writer, how can 3-4 yr old child in close classroom would like repetitive writing? At least not easy for my free spirited daughter. Classroom environment was suffocating for her. It took longer to remove her mental blocks against writing but today I can see ‘I love writing’ in almost all her books.

Megh loves to make books. He often writes his magazine ‘Ravi’ and give us for reading on Sunday but not regularly. Ravi might contains 2-3 pages and some writings, drawings, games or whatever comes to his mind. Sometimes back he had written a recipe book….Khao,Pio, Jalsa Karo! In this 3 recipes book he has shared items he can prepare independently and really tasty!

Creative writing comes from within. Language readiness for writing comes with reading and practice but development of fine motor skill is required for writing skill. Megh is a child who loves activity and you can find him busy with his own carpentry, gardening, machine designing, knowing things ….means one or other way always using his hands so even I know Montessori methods and have many equipments ,I have hardly used them with Megh….but yes, sandpaper letters found effective to know curves of letters by fingers.

Reading

Our Doodhwala asked to Megh “Hey, you are not going to school…do you know reading?” He just smiled and nodded.

Learning language starts with the birth. Child listens so much around and starts picking up words and speaks. Then learn alphabets and start reading…I think that’s common in almost everybody’s learning. But there is difference…in reading. More you absorb life more meaningful will be your reading. And that meaningful reading keeps child interested in reading further. So, according to me this ‘Absorbing Life’ is very important in reading and it requires freely explore the world around. The more a child know things, people, plants, animals, fragrances, feelings etc. with his all senses the more powerful will be his understanding about world and more he connect himself with it. When such real life experiences he reads in books it instantly connects him to reading. So roots of reading are deeper than people guess. Early reading starts from lots of talk, exploring world around, introducing picture books, storytelling and read-aloud routine….and it’s not tough but fun in fact!

So, all this is preparing soil and sowing seed which is most important…now how we did daily watering.

I’m very poor in keeping records, … but my blogpost dated January, 2009 says I have introduced sandpaper letters to Megh at 3 and ½ year of his age…it was wonderful experience as he loves touch experiences and same time developed interests in Gujarati alphabets. I have made sandpaper letters using 0 no. sandpaper and waste card boards collected from a friend and kept reachable to Megh. Whenever he wished he bring that bag to me and we start moving fingers on letters and slowly started identifying them. Then started identifying letters from real life print world and within no time 34 letters were known to him! It was achievement for me after facing reading reluctance with Ashna after 4 years of schooling.

After alphabets I have started making cards of his favourite things and characters. Pooh, Eva, Almond, Carrot etc. and loved connecting picture cards with respective word cards. When need of more difficult words arise I made a Toran of Gujarati vowels and it was more effective with song k,ka,ki,kee,ku,koo….. Now no need of any more cards and he started reading from wherever he can. Once he read a scheme at Amul’s counter which was out of my sight and we took advantage , such experiences show him advantage of reading and encouraged to read more.

Along with all this we have regular routine of storytelling and read aloud. Early reading book from NBT,CBT and Pratham were good at building confidence that ‘I can read book’.

All these knowing alphabets, connecting cards or reading books activity never extended more than 10-15 minutes a day and that too not regular only when he wished. We have early reading books in hindi too and he picked it up himself and without I know how, he learnt reading Hindi!

English is not our day to day language. Megh liked exploring starfall.com and thus developed knowledge of phonics, started reading K&Y’s books and simple words from around. Building confidence reading early reading books in English now.

This is ‘reading’…part of our learning and here is a conversation between me and Megh y'day.....

For what this 'Boring' sticker?
Do you have any book that you don't like?
No, but I can stick 'boring' to all my favourite books!
Why?????!!!!!!!!!!!
I like to read them so much that I wish they never end but they ends and I don't like that!

Yes, it's homeschooling advantage!

On 1st August , early morning we decided to go Dang and hurrey…..we got ready fast as this time after long we were going to Dang, our favorite place and that too in monsoon! That was beautiful rainy day, even though mostly passed inside car it was magic of rain+dang. We enjoyed beauty of nature singing/talking and just feeling high energy level! At Dharampur we visited ARCH, Nagaria…it’s a NGO working in the field of health, education and environment. Campus is at the bank of river Swargvahini and developed on a place which was originally mango farm…a beautiful place children enjoyed morning climbing mango tree, observing/identifying different plants and insects, visiting chekdam on river and then when Rashmibhai took us to Pitara…we all just gone crazy, collection of children books from almost all Indian publishers. As we could not found books from Pratham,Eklavya,Tulika etc at Surat, obviously it was treat for us.


During our Dang/Dharampur trip there was heavy rain, so could not get chance for trekking. All the way Megh was complaining about that and demanding to go for ‘trekking’ where there is no path! On our visit to Junagadh this March, my friend Nimit and Ankit arranged short trek to Upali Chhipar and since that day Megh was introduced to word ‘trekking’. So when told about trekking to barakhadi, he was very excited. He was the youngest participant on that trek and people were asking “will he complete it?”, I was bit worried as he was suffering from cough and cold. Heat and humidity level was high that day and it was tiring for adults too. He has lot to talk, lot to ask all the way and was in his favorite ‘trekking’ …so he completed without any complain. He found something and picked it up, then found it was a born…then many questions who’s that born? how it came to that place? how could you tell it’s of dog or goat and not of tiger? why pirates use born in their skull symbol? endless even after more than week at home. Though he kept himself enjoying bath under waterfall he taken luft of arranging stones and building bridge there. It was 15th August and we celebrated independence day there…it was first time for Ashna and Megh to salute flag and singing jan gan man… they will remember those moments for long.


During third week visited Modhera,Patan and Unza. After green dang and barakhadi, we have also found North Gujarat green which I was used to see dry mostly. We have seen ‘Tropic of cancer’ board at Bahucharaji , we have small geography lesson on the way. Modhera’s sun temple and Patan’s Rani ni vav….both left Ashna thinking how those people had done this? It was simply amazing for her. Work on stone mesmerized her completely. Megh loved climbing up and down steps of surya kund out side sun temple and Ashna enjoyed taking photo. Construction of vav and rain water harvesting took long discussion time. At sahastraling talao, there’s difficult to get clear idea of rudrakund and how sarasvati river’s water used to brought to sahstraling talao. There was no guide but a person told the place where we were standing was talao once ! Children enjoyed Harsidhdh Lake built by Sidhdhraj Jaysinh on the way to Patan. At Unza, we visited APMC market yard where trading of sesame seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, etc. does in bulk. On the way children found ONGC’s machines in and around farms and many crude oil questions clicked.




Historical places and nature attracts us equally and during this trip we enjoyed both…double maza! This monsoon made whole Gujarat real green. Sun temple compound was full of green big neem trees and hundreds of stork nestings on it. Inside temple there are hundreds of bats! At sahastraling talao parrots and myna fight caught children’s attention. During whole trip big number of Parrot, Myna, Collared dove and Jungle bubbler and sometimes Indian roller, White throated kingfisher etc kept Ashna busy observing birds. Found whole area of modhera/patan full of big neem trees and enjoyed climbing whenever got chance.

After reading Kakasaheb Kalelkar’s story of squirrel coming regularly and drinking milk from his bowl , she wish for the same. She tries sincerely for that, keeping dish with fruit and rice on terrace and sitting reading besides and observes them coming closer. Kamatibaug, Vadodara’s squirrels are very friendly and children enjoyed feeding them. At Natural History Museam, Vadodara – 71’ feet long whale’s skelton amazed them most. Museum is very rich and we passed 2 hours there but found it still incomplete. Children enjoyed whole day with zoo,museam, toy train and rain on the road. They have their cousins with them who are of their same age which doubled their maza.


Before two days, when I have given 4th std.’s book of environment study to Ashna to read chapter on ‘our gujarat’…..it sounds very familiar to her.

Jungle Stories

Last month Ruskin Bond was at Mumbai and going to spend an hour with his readers.When I told Ashna about this news ,she was excited to go Mumbai even though she has to miss all her Saturday/Sunday class.

Sometimes ago we took ‘રસ્ટી નાં પરાક્રમો’ gujarati translation of ‘adventures of Rusty’ for read aloud story. Children liked it very much….after reading half for them left to Ashna to complete it. For them Rusty became a friend next door with whom they felt connection and bit envy of what he was getting! Home like Rusty, a town like him and many animals around - Ashna’s dream! Sometimes complain us too why don’t we have home like Rusty and why don’t we keep chemeleon,squirrels, birds etc. coming to our home as pet? Rusty and Daljeet’s escape from boarding school, Ruby aunty and Ken uncle’s funny stories, rusty’s friends, toto, python, Grandfather’s adventures and his love for animals, adorable grandma – they never feel bored with Rusty’s stories. She wish to meet her friend Rusty, no matter he is now of grandpa’s age!

Another book is ‘શેરખાન’ from Vijaygupta Mourya which was also read aloud book but children were so involved that as I call them “ Sherkhan ki sawari aa rahi he……..”, they are there! Heart touching story of sherkhan, from a cub learning hunting skills from mother ,circumstances forcing him to become man-eater and tragic end. Megh still relates Sherkhan, his mother and his sister with himself, me and Ashna! After that I brought many books from library of animal and hunting stories but somehow they couldn’t connect with them like ‘Sherkhan’.

Right now we are reading Jim Corbett’s stories translated by Vijaygupta Mourya and it’s his writing style which keeps them interested. This book is a collection of different stories from Jim Corbett’s books. Eight year old boy getting rifle and his life as hunter and then turn to conservationalist, his attachment to India and people, his jungle experiences, people’s life , their strengths and weaknesses, man eating tiger or leopard making life miserable and Jim corbett’s thrilling adventures to help those poor/weak people…………….all these are amazing and exciting for them. Ashna is reading this book and I have kept a surprise ready for her ‘કપિનાં પરાક્રમો’ (monkey’s adventure! ) again by Vijaygupta Mourya. Now She wish to visit Jim Corbett national park and places where he really lived!

Jungle, animals, nature and animal-human relationship are most attractive subjects for them. Movies like water horse, stallion, mighty joe young etc. are their favourite.

Pottery Fun!

Learning pottery was a long term wish...finally we started with our other homeschooler friend. It's a two hour morning class, twice in a week. It's actually not class ...not have to worry from timing to which days we will attend , everything flexible and no class like environment.....it's just learning with fun.

Since Nagji kaka ( our pottery teacher ) complete his routine and prepare soil, children enjoy warming up with 'chulha' in his backyard, collect broken pot pieces, empty match boxes, used string rolls etc. They bake small pots they prepared in 'chulha' and many more fire experiments!!!. His backyard is very interesting for children as it has kitchen garden, lots of different size and shape pots, pottery kiln, place to prepare soil etc. So, many interesting things generates so many questions.

Then on pottery wheel children try to make many small pots under Nagjikaka's guidance. It is amazing thing for them that so many pots can be build from such a small lump of soil , slight pressure and angle of touch can make change on spinning soil and create different shaped pots. It requires good concerntration and control over hands. Nagjikaka has two students and while one is on pottery wheel other is playing with Megh or Nagjikaka's grandson or with puppies, experiment with 'chulha' or just take some snack bites.

This place is in Surat but locality and environment are different and children enjoys this difference very much. After pottery class sometimes we visits to cattle shed nearby. It's good chance to meet different people along with making friendship with cows and buffalos!

While returning. at river lots of seagulls adding beauty to the scene catches children's attention.

So, this is our typical pottery class morning.

Puppet mania

In past we have made finger and straw puppets, and since long like I forgot puppets. Before Dashera I have visited Shreyas School, Ahmedabad. Puppets in museum suddenly awaken me and I fall in love with puppets. I was sure it will similarly affect Ashna too.

Started with making of Ravan. On Dashera we made Ravan (w/o crackers) and burnt it.

Downloaded and saw children some puppet shows. First experimented with shadow puppet…..as it is simple and surprising for children. Almost more than a week after darkness, shadow puppetry was our daily program. It was amazing for them to see how they can create different animal’s shadow with just their hands and how small things appears bigger on screen.

Then after making puppets is constant demand from Ashna. I promised them making more puppets after Diwali and they started collecting things. Small balls for heads, gloves,wool,googly eyes,lolly sticks,sketch pen etc….and almost everything which is trash now going to collection for puppets.

Once we made simple card paper puppet, found need of story. Ashna has big plan, making beautiful puppet theatre and making all characters of a story like snow white and seven dwarfts. She made some non moveable characters then found problem how to represent it. Slowly we came to face different aspect of puppetry. Whenever she asks me something I have to answer, “Beta, I don’t know more than you ”. With experience she learnt that we are still on the stage of A,B,C…need to learn more for big plan.

Then selected a story of three billy goats and she made three different sized goats from card paper, a troll and a bridge and represented story. But still needed something more…..moving characters!

We have seen movie “Kathputli”…though movie has few scene where can see puppet, Megh liked that kathputli song and picked up himself how they make puppets dance and sound related to it. He enjoys entertaining us by imitating kathputli.

We want puppet with speech and action now. We made glove and string puppets. Megh presents show with glove puppet without story. Ashna happy with her string puppets and in search of making simple story, song or jokes. Dreaming new kind of puppet and puppet theatre everyday…it’s like mania, always in thoughts of puppets. I am trying for arranging puppet workshop. Let’s see but right now we are learning, experimenting and enjoying puppets.

Joy of making

Few days back Megh came to me and said “Mummy, see this is my simple JCB” he has a cloth pin in his hand and show me how it can pick, lift and place thing! After pretending play of animals and shop-owner now he is interested in different kind of vehicles… especially trucks & JCB!!! He tried making JCBs from different things…from shafts and some parts Nikhil use in his machine, sometimes using bamboo sticks & rubber bands etc. Love to play with car he make using Mechanix.

Ash loves to make drawings, making different kind of homes with her Architecture set and ornaments using beads, flowers and sometimes using beads from cutting papaya branch.



Apart from this we make many toys. Sudarshan Khanna’s book Joy of making Indian toys is good source for making simple toys and another very useful source is www.arvindguptatoys.com Many simple toys we make from trash ,some house hold things or sometimes buy cheaper items from hardware store and make toys which children loves most.

Children’s toy psychology is complex…..which toys they like or how longer will it be his/her attraction…difficult to say. When they select a toy from toyshop, we feel that they will use it fully but you found it somewhere roaming next day. Some children like passive toys like soft toys and enjoy imaginative plays and some like active participation with toys. Sometimes box of toy interest them more than toy itself. Cost of toy never matter or important to children obviously. Sometimes they break costly toys driven by their curiosity and sometimes a trash becomes their favorite toy!

Toys are their best friends and teach different skills with fun. But when you make toy yourself creativity involved will sensitized children. Shree Arvind Gupta is doing wonderful work in this field and his website has amazing collection of toys, children can make themselves or with help of adult.




Simple toys like marble train and spiral snake too kept Ash & Megh busy for hours. In fact, for days. It is interesting to see that they tried different tracks from broom sticks & clay and when marbles not rolling smoothly they troubleshoot themselves. With spiral snake too they were always experimenting why straw beads get struck or how can we move them fast or slow by stretching spiral.

Making toys encourage creativity and perfection. If design or measurement not proper it will not work and then they troubleshoot problem. It is amazing to see their cheerful faces while they are enjoying these toys. When they will come to know science behind these toys later, it will be more surprising for them. Today they are always busy thinking of making one thing or other and store trash for it. Y’day morning Megh came with straw and paper and wanted to make watch from it... I helped him by writing no. & attached straw with push-pin and here is his watch model!!!