Medium of education

Lot has been written on Gujarati medium v/s English medium. On 21^st Feb. this year we came to know about “world mother tongue day”. As usual column writers have written articles according to their different beliefs, at some places some programs and rallies. What will be the result?. Sometimes I doubt any usefulness behind celebrating such days.

Very controversial issue, though majority on the side of English medium! It’s surprising! Question is if majority on the side of English medium, why it is still a controversial issue?

Why people choose Gujarati medium?..... they don’t want to give more burden of education and mostly because Gujarati medium students can score better than English medium students! I appreciate concern of no more load parents but “score” is just ridiculous reason.

Now why English? They have thousands reason for it. English is an international lang., English learning students are more intelligent, better scope of admission for higher education, better for higher studies, we can teach Gujarati at home too etc. etc.

I accept that text books of our Gujarat board are just boring and Gujarati schools are not up to the level of today’s shiny English school and backward in adopting new methods and research.Digitization is not enough. Instead improving standard of education, schools and textbooks we are running behind English without thinking much.

People selecting English medium argues where is good Gujarati school? Let me ask them if you are polluting this earth at this rate where will you find better place to live?

Anyways I’m writing this post just for people who think we can teach Gujarati at home and let children study in English medium. Kanti Bhatt has suggested this solution to me years ago. And Bhaven Kachchi has written article which sounds same.

I was a person always complaining my mother for not selecting English medium but when I had to take decision as mother I studied deep and finally choose Gujarati, thankfully Nikhil who studied in English and thoroughly believed it must be English convinced and still firm on this decision and supported fully.

What made me change my view towards English medium? I know importance of English and have complete respect as a lang. same as I love my mother tounge. But when you are living in Gujarat in whole Gujarati environment and not possible to make English a family lang. then it must be Gujarati medium.

What is the difference between study in guj. & learning english at home and study in eng. & learning gujarati at home? It makes difference in early education. Medium of early education effects lot many aspects. Apart from emotional and cultural issues more important is scientific aspect. It’s minor but very very important difference.

Here is a link which helped us lot when we were in this dilemma.

http://www.und.ac.za/und/ling/archive/bell-01.html

If you are really interested to know difference pl. go th. this paper. How it adversely effect “conginitive skills” which are more important in academic than just learning a language.

Sandpaper letters

We prepare some learning aids at home like Cuisenaire rods for multiplication/division, flash cards for english, fishing game made from magnets,paper & small nails for Megh to count 1 to 10....but Sandpaper Letters are different thing!

It is Madam Montessori's discovery. Gijubhai has written in detail about it in his book "Montessori Padhdhati". Knowing letters by vision, sound (phonic) and touch! Making sand paper letters is simple and cheap. Mirror printing of alphabets and stick it to zero no. sand paper sheet, cut and stick on hard paper covered with smooth paper. Letter and background should be in contrast.



Megh always enjoy touch of water,soil,mud,clay,flour or anything he is curious about. So I was damn sure that he will like sand paper letters. He likes to feel letters by fingers. But his interest to know different character is amazingly enthusiastic and energetic. Sometimes he comes with letters or whenever he see them in my hands or by accident found this snap above while watching butterfly pictures on pc or on the road/in newspaper wherever he find characters he know, smile comes to his face, eyes shine and with full of energy he initiate identification.
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Later I found wonderful book of Madam Maria Montessori "The Discovery of the Child", probably Gijubhai has written "Montessori Padhdhati" from this book. Methods for sense development,reading,writing,maths explained in details and feels simple th amazing.

First month of 2009

Butterfly garden is a new passion we developed at the end of 2008. Since last month we all spent morning in garden...planning,digging,plantation,capturing butterfly pictures etc. Megh is more interested in digging, enjoys soil with all senses and very much surprised by growth of bamboo. He takes everyone to show how tall is bamboo today!Since last two days he dig and then by putting wooden stick across pit makes bridge, fill pit with water and surprisingly notice how speedily water absorb and then enjoy playing with mud. Ashna learned surface water and underground water previous day,so she got exact idea how soil absorb rain water and it becomes underground water. She is more interested in different flowers ,plantation and making mud puddle. We learnt from butterfly park that ripen fruits are butterfly delight and we already managing garbage dump (for compost) which almost always have peels and ripen fruits. So our butterfly garden is about to complete and many butterflies visits our garden during sunlight and found fluttering around us. New interest developed is identifying butterflies and capture their images. Butterfly garden is our team work and we all are enjoying it. Along with enjoyment children acquire many useful skills and knowledge.



Since this month Ash joined drawing class , so her saturday,sunday schedule became bit tight but as she enjoys all three activities kathak,drawing and gymnastics she don't mind it and waits for weekend. Drawing and gymnastics are her natural interests and interest for kathak cultivated by efforts. She was never interested in classical dance or any form of dance...before joining kathak shown her famous hindi film kathak dances. Earlier she formed idea that because mummy could not learn it so she wish that I go for dance,then one morning we have long discussion on our culture and heritage,what we need to change and what we should preserve,and advantages of learning classical dance and most important that because it is good for her she is learning kathak not only for mumma's wish. Our discussion started from use of vibrant colours in our dressing which is different from European countries. Touch of truly devoted Gurus (Smruti & Paresh Vora) to this art is helping lot to cultivate it. This month we attended our first classical dance program and she enjoyed Odissie.

Celebrating Uttrayan is special in Surat and Ash is very passionate about colourful different kites. Though could not succeed to fly kite she tried hard for 3-4 days and confident that upto next year she will learn it.

Ash's gymnastics coach Bharat Patel is gujarati-hindi teacher in his school and he has given some tips for teaching language. It is working and her reading-writing Gujarati is improved. In maths,learned division and introduced fraction. She developed interest in phonics and reading simple english so brought some good books.

Megh is enjoying Gijubhai's stories and "Undar bhai ne aankho aavi" from Dr. I.K.Vijaliwala nowadays. Some story books from National book trust are his fav. He is introduced to Gujarati alphabets this month using Navneet's hard cover book and sand paper letters. Now wherever finds them, point them enthusiastically and love catching letters in newspapers. He loves to sing english alphabet song and identify some of them too. Sometimes writing urges high,comes with pencil and paper and try to write or draw something,get excited if found some shape and enjoy Dora's magic pad and paint with water book.

Killing fears and exploring beauty of life......

Words from Jay Vasavada , Kavishri Rajendra Shukla has provided seeds of inspiration for home schooling years ago. Being impress from an idea and putting it into real life are two different things, but I was firm about - study must be fun first. Not fully willing to send Ashna school at age of 2 1/2 ,but applied at one school nearby and got admission without donation. Frankly, school decision totally taken by watching other's example.Not happy with school environment,uniform etc. Playgroup passed without much problem. Jr. KG teacher started complaining about writing reluctance. Same complain in Sr. KG and in 1st too. Teacher's biased attitudes, no child-centered vision of school, age old teaching methods, more pressure on academic development and always blaiming parents responsible for child's poor performance....all these has vanished our hope that there may be some change in today's schools. Everyday feeling guilty for sending our child at school and killing her originality,curiosity,happiness and disturbing peace at home....still we could not think about leaving school.Why?


This school is counted as one of the best schools in Surat and that too near to our home.
No exams upto 1st standard unlike other schools.
Ashna never said she doesn't want to go school.
She was getting touch of her age children.


What if we leave school? Home schooling always attracted us but as I said to believe in something and to act upon it are different. Thousands of questions...and fears attached with them. Applied in same school for Megh and same as Ashna got admission without donation but before that decided to follow will and home school at least Megh. Then don't want to be in condition like hemlat,before school opening in June asked Ashna if she is ready for homeschooling, she agreed and big relief!


But following will is not so simple - have to be clear & firm in each and every aspects attached with homeschooling decision. What a child learn at school? Is it possible to teach everything being at home? We are never in teaching field, will we prove good teacher? What about methods of teaching? Will she miss school ever? What about socialization? Apart from courage to take such decision, dedication and responsibility are major criteria. Then what about my career? because with service oriented work it is not possible to home school children. Need to learn how to be effective teacher. How to control our own temperament? Provide them all facility to nurture their interests and keep away all our conventional parenting and teaching conditioning. When anybody ask about it we must be firm and confident to answer any question, so children too feel confident about it. Read lot (many home schooling websites, people’s experiences,Russell,Vasily,Osho.Krishnamurti etc.), thought lot....and was sure about this process will not end , but have to create our own unique way.One of my customer who is chairperson of a school trust asked "Don't you feel you are detaching your daughter from her school life?" A friend asked "Suppose in future you ever feel your children are lagging behind than other children then?" My uncle's first reaction "Are you crazy? I know a girl who was home schooled and can never mix with people" One of our friend's mummy who was teacher still try to convince us rethink about it. My parents who completely trust me and never resisted my decision were too bit worried but now happy. Thousands of questions (fears) - social, financial, psycological, educational, pedagogical etc. So,killing fear of future,fear of uncertanity in life,fear of any obstacle coming into way of following our will.


Killing fears has given us strength,courage and opportunity to explore beauty of life.We learn things at our convenience and pace,according to our interest. No duck and horse comparison,no compititon,no exam and minus points of school removed away.Have enough time for developing our interests. Children completely enjoyed last monsoon season-bathing in rain,playing with sand,taking rain-walk,learning about rain and water cycle etc.Megh leaisurely enjoys his gardening passion instead worry for school timing. Ashna is not tired during her gymnastics class like other school going children and enjoys it very much and in morning can take enough sleep!.Can apply our own innovative ideas to academic education too,no restriction of syllabus can go for any book or website which can satisfy our curiosity or thrust to learn.Can enjoy camp fire in winter.Can take equal part in matter of home from shopping,renovation,planning garden to cleaning and feel responsible. We are not worried about her performance at school and no hurry to start academic education for Megh.Most important is we have time ...children can come to us,ask and we too have enough time to answer & explain them,play with them...less chance to miss beautiful moments of life which we were missing because of hurriness and lack of time....advantage - more attachment between family members.Freedom of time,selecting syllabus,thinking,working,learning & enjoying!!! Open and aware to learn from everything -nature,book,website,life around or people around.So,this is beauty of life for us.

Butterfly Garden

After we planted caterpiller host plants like milkweed and a kind of lily (we call it baby lily) we have noticed many caterpillers and their life on those plants. We decided to do something more in this direction and planned for butterfly garden. For butterfly garden one needs two kind of plants 1. nectar plants which can attracts adult butterflies and 2. host plant which can provide food to caterpiller. We already have barmasi (perwinkle) ,jasood (hibicus), plumbago and many other flower plants which atrracts butterflies. But when we came to know about and brought pentas,lantana,verbena,jetropha we have seen difference. Some butterflies sticks to these flowers such that we can do photography. Still we are learning together more about butterfly garden and different species of butterfly. Butterfly likes sunlight,wet places,flat stone to enjoy sun light on.


Nikhil a crazy plants buyer brings new plants for butterfly garden everyday. Ashna is learning about different plants ,their name and their speciality from our talks. Sometimes Megh too babbling some names but he is the most hard working person on this program! He enjoys digging for plantation. My work is research about different plants and butterflies.


Ash too joined digging and plantation work but while digging she found a small statue Megh has hide few days back in soil. And she reminded video she seen on net digging and finding dainasour's fossils and she has imitated those girls on video. Clean statue with paintbrush and collected broken parts of it.

Tides

For Gymnastics class daily we have to cross bridge on river Tapi. Children are use to observe river and keen to notice water level goes up and down. Day after full moon day while passing from bridge Ash noticed water level was low. She asked why? I told her there are two tides everyday but on full moon day and new moon day you can see difference clearly in water level. Now, Why on full moon day and new moon day?

She was having knowledge about how day and night and how moon rotates around earth but not knowing how full moon and new moon occurs. Started experiment with globe and source of light. First experiment how day and night occurs by projecting her as Earth first and then using globe. Then using mirror as moon explains how full moon and new moon day occurs and how different phases of moon. Still her question was unanswered. And because it is difficult to explain her gravitational forces of sun and moon (though tried to explain with magnets), centrifugal force of earth and other reasons behind tides on full moon and new moon days. Answer in short ,because positions of sun and moon on these two particular days are so which causes tides. Though her curiosity half satisfied she was happy knowing something new about full moon and new moon day and enjoyed long discussion about how earth born and how life came into existence. Now we are going to take record of water level each day.

Mirror Magic!