Srividya's blog

Some raise-the-eyebrow statements

We're just grappling to come to terms with reality, which seems to be starring at us in the form of a soon-to-be-7yr old. Quite hard to net as to who might be going through all these hearings than us, but then, every house has its own share of sudden encounters from their rookies which makes them struggle to find a strong foothold.

Statements like

" It is always an adult choice in everything"

to

" You never would have got scoldings at all in your time. You are happy to be scolding me all the time"

to

" I want to be a grown up soon so that no one can scold me"

to

the latest..just fresh from the crate

" you have hurt me in two ways. One is by hurting me( i guess holding his hand firmly is the physical hurt). Secondly, you have hurt my feelings"

Someone cautioned me by throwing some more fuel saying "wait wait..till the kid is 8+. Asking him to clean up the room and get a glass of water is termed as ' child labour'".

ANother one says " wait till the child is 17..and then you would know"

I just dont know how to react to all these..i just dread everything...bringing up a kid is not a joke when we ourselves are unripe and still bogged down with limitations at every step. 

The influence of reading too much, watching tv too much, playing games too much...which means too much of exposure and too much of everything results in such statements, which, in our days, we never had the audacity to even pronounce. 

I just pray that the right education, coupled with a harmonious family background would surely keep the kids safe and give them the clear mind to differentiate between a right and wrong.

In our shelves

Havent really found anything to munch about this time and so, have to resort to the reading list in our shelves. We found another impressive collection of books in one of our regional libraries and could not decide which ones to carry, given the borrowing restrictions of our card. Well, as always, we caught hold of the Famous Fives and the new additions were Secret Seven and Dr.Seuss..well, here they go:

1. The Famous Five - FIve have a mystery to solve

2. Five on a Secret trail

3. Well Done, Secret Seven.

4. The Secret Seven Adventure

5. Roald Dahl's "The Minpins", " George's Marvellous Medicine".

7. The Berenstain Bears go on vacation.

8. Dr. Seuss' "Your Favourite Seuss". (Oh my goodness, except for the lovely sketches and cartoons, i never seriously liked the stories, but Senior A opines differently. He says " Poor Dr. Seuss, If we say that we don't like his book, how would he feel? So, i would like it.") I guess, if he cares like this in every aspect of life, he would be a good humanitarian and samaritan...way to go, my boy..but, do be watchful of your surroundings..

[I would bring to light what his teacher had told me recently. He was awarded certificates of merit in all his subjects in his previous grade and he felt sorry for his other friends who had not got any. So, he told his teacher that he would like to give some of his certificates to them. The teacher was so shocked that she called me up to say that i teach him to be more careful of the world and never to give up what is rightfully his. I guess, the world would teach him those with time, but, we too felt that he was a little too soft in these aspects and need to equip himself with the lifeskills. Well, time would suffuse him soon.]

Apart from the books that we had borrowed, A had a chance to finish two more books

* "Horrid Henry and his football fiend" by Francesca Simon ( they had horrid henry as part of their english fiction curriculum last year and the books are quite nice. When we recently had a chance to peruse the series in the net, they have a great website here)

* "Top of the League" - David Bedford (This is a football series and A has been reading them whenever possible) 

This year, A has been given a reading log list where he has to record the books read everyday. So, that kindles his enthusiasm to read more and everyday, he makes it a point to pick up a book and give it a good eye.

Hope your list grows as ours. Happy reading!

 

Our reading list

As suggested by one of the fellow bloggers Lakshmi, i wanted to introduce Senior A to Enid Blyton. But, all we could find on the shelves of our local library were none. So, i went hunting for them and found almost 5 of the famous five series in one of the northern most libraries of this country, not on loan. FOund them and they were really worth all the effort taken to go up there.

1. Five go down the sea

2. Five on a hike together

3. Five are together again

4. The Adventures of George and Timmy

5. The New Adventures of the Wishing Chair.

A has completed 4 of the books within a week and the fifth one is still on his shelves. We're reading one chapter a day and has to be returned next week.

Apart from those, we borrowed Roald Dahl's "The Enormous Crocodile". Anand was very happy to get this, since he has heard his friends talk about this author so much that when he saw the name, he just grabbed it. Acc to him, the book was "Great". the illustrations are quite nice and he has written it well.

Berenstain Bears' "On the Moon" and "We like Kites". This bear series has caught up with us that we want to pick up atleast one on every visit.

 

"Es..Etch..O.."

As she stopped spelling, looking at the next letter which was "e", she did not quite realise how to pronounce the word. It was "shoe" and did not read the word, but, out came "s..h..o..p... shop" which shook me completely.

She now reads almost all the words phonetically and has got the hang of it. Combines well the blends to read " b..l..u..e...blue, s..t..o..p stop etc."

Quite a relief for me. She has done all the hardwork and has to be appreciated above all for her efforts to continue reading inspite of the spellings daunting her. It is a challenge for her to read when she sees her brother browsing through the books effortlessly. I'm happy that this has infected her so widely, a very good infection indeed.

Exercises

I decided to have a log for myself regarding Junior A's exercises on reading. Some of the supposedly initial exercises consisted of teaching her the sounds of each alphabet and then reinforcing them regularly through the beginning sounds of the words.

Another of those is this one where she follows the blue scheme and tries to match the pictures to the words, by reading the cards herself. This should be termed as an intermediate exercise. It looks like this:

 

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We dont use a mat, but wherever we are, we sit on the floor and try to make the most use of the moment. Some of the other exercises would be posted in detail later. It would be of immense benefit to many who are seeking resources.

This is the website which gives you free printables of a few of the montessori materials. It has been very useful to my girl, who has picked up reading like a spurt. All you have to do is to print them out in a plain white sheet and glue them to an empty cerealbox/cardboard so that the cards would be sturdy through all the handlings. Once glued, it can be cut to cards and there you go, you have a montessori material right on your hands.  

The little reader

Oh, i better term this as a little reader, since the reader in my little one is surely awakened and her senses are capitulating on what has been  heard, seen and remembered great many time. It is always a wonder to see how small kids start to read and write. The moment is transitory, but can be relived thereafter through our memory.

 

Montessori says

"If writing serves to correct, or better, to direct and perfect the mechanism of the articulate language of the child, reading serves to help the development of ideas, and relates them to the development of the language. Indeed writing aids the physiological language and reading aids the social language".

I just love her ideas and vision.

The spirit in the child could be measured. When a word is unconsciously read phonetically, the sounds string them making them a conscious one and when the word hits them finally in their brain, it brings about so much of satisfaction and inner joy in the child indirectly referring " I can read, i can read".

Well, this is the moment which every teacher would be waiting for, to be ready to catch on any indirect signals from the child.

As the reader emerged out of this little one, she went on hitting you with more and more of surprises before you can actually bury on one, exactly.  She has been introduced to the pink scheme which concentrates on the simple words and their families. The blends come in during the blue and green scheme when she would actually learn words starting from "br", "gr", "bl" and so on.

The first word that she read from the book after giving up hope of me reading to her was "point". Well, this was not a separate word in its entirety. It was disappointed and she found the  "point" in that and screamed at me for looking at the word. I could'nt believe and asked her if she knew this word before and for any instance where she read it previously. She could'nt tell me. Still having been locked in the "how-did-she-ever-decipher-this-word", there was another one waiting  in " Bear", "can", "to", "so", "no" and then came a big one "rock" going on to make "rocket". I was not ready for more and i prayed for her enthusiasm to ebb down.

It takes a little more time than usual to come back to the world. Wow..this kid can read and it is surely a relief for your efforts. Hats off to her observation and absorption levels!

Fruity Platter

Weekends always tend to see fruits in our platter, esp, the kids and me. I have made it a point to eat fruits with them after breakfast to get them used to the different tastes and varieties of fruits availabe here. So, the choices are strawberry, watermelon, oranges, apples, bananas, pears, papaya in that order for the boy and banana, apples, oranges, pear, strawberry for  the girl. She does not relish biting papaya and watermelon at all, more because of its squishy bites, i suppose.

 

 

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This week, we had oranges, apples and pears to help us with our fruit servings covering the whole of the week. Did i say that? Yes, i did. If not for the forced-weekend-fruity bites, they somehow do not enter our palate at all. And we have read (yes only read and not act many a time) how important they are to our body. Well, some things have to be forced to be cultivated. And this seems to be one of those!

A few things

Reading is stressed upon so much as compared to writing, in the highly developed countries. And it takes a lot for the child to be learning the sounds of the letters, which we call Phonics or phonetics, and then string them together to make a wonderful word. Montessori has a systematic approach to reading, starting with the sand paper letters. I was, in the recent years, been introduced to the montessori way of reading and writing and i find that fascinating more than a child, as opposed to the rote method.

My son's reading steps were very different from the normal. Before he was introduced to the montessori system of reading, he had been reading complex spellings like refrigerator, dictionary, spellings, which was unusual for a kid of 3 yrs to be acquainted with. He had a photographic memory and things were a breeze. He would be called a walking dicitonary too, for spellings, by his peers. Those were bygone days and even this day, he is good in spellings, having been given a solid foundation by montessori as well. 

As every child is different, it becomes a worry for a mother to see that one of her chicks is still far behind in reading. Oh, this is my second kiddo i'm referring to. She has a good memory, but still hasnt had the will to read anything on her own. But, one fine day, when she read " A Bug in the Jug ....(wants) a Hug", the amount of enthusiasm in me and in her could just not be measured. She went on repeating the line a few times as if she were disbelieving and the excitement mounted just as the tide ebbs and flows.

And after that initial excitement, she has stood still for what appeared to be a long duration of 2 months. With us reading a story at the time of meals and also during bedtime, she has caught up with books and she was naming things around her saying " can i say something which begins with the letter " c, b, v, "" and so on. When the surge is in them, they are quite unstoppable. MOntessori says that when they have that interest, they are in a growth spurt and it would be work, work and work, which would satisfy their innate needs.

Yesterday saw her rhyme things like moon, spoon, fill with will, pill, bill etc. The interest has been contagious and i'm sincerely happy for her, not to be left behind in the race with her brother.

If this is towards reading, she demonstrated another act for numbers. There were numerous attempts of me teaching numbers beyond 20 having gone in vain. She would see the number and would say a different answer, which made me stop at a point, thinking that she was not ready yet for those. One fine day, she took the cards that i had made for her and started reading them " eight one eightyone, eighty zero eighty" and so on till 99 all by herself. I was caught unawares by her action. Believe me, i did not expect her to say the numbers all by herself. It was just unbelievable.

Well, i guess, given the time and patience, they would eventually do things that are expected of their age. She can recognise words like the high frequency words, though she phonetically tries to read 3 and four letter words all by herself. She is sure in right track. Way to go, my darling! 

Our mid-summer journey

The gleaming rays of light evidenced the crack o' dawn. Covers pulled to steal a minute or two before the bell of the alarm went on, it had'nt dawned on the ageing ol' head of mine. Just as the alarm went, the body started to program itself to the days schedule.

Sending the bedewed little one to school, the day became still sober as we started off our journey to the north. This is the first time we were undertaking a long distance journey all by ourselves and that too on a bus. Was'nt that enough to scare our souls? Mental workings were made whether a bus would be suitable or an MRT. Since our place did not have direct access to MRTs, i decided to gamble on a bus. Going from the south east to the north is an arduous journey, but with the transportation system as in Singapore, it shouldnt make a big deal. Our previous visits on a cab and MRT took nearly 40 minutes  and so, a bus was expected to be atleast 20 more minutes slower than them given the traffic lights that it is expected to clear every now and then. Well, that worked out and we were on the way to the bus stop.

Hopping on to 966 i was a little excited as A was about the journey and was at the same time a little nervous, since i had to come back within 3 hrs. This SMRT was a little new to us, since we had used only SBS transit right from our first entry here. Seats a little older needing some mending, layout- a little incongruent, the floors not like the Singapore way with rubbish lying here and there. Still, we managed to feel nice within the comforts of a well airconditioned electronic box looking at the landscape filling the breath of Singapore.

Luckily, as unexpected, we were totally cut off from the city traffic and could move on the highway looking at the lush green landscape with asymmetrical trees lining the borders of the road; bougainvillas and hydrangeas filling the medians, adding a dash of colour to the surrounding and to the mind; occasionally glimpsing skyscrapers and not stopping for boarding or alighting. As observed by A, we were just 6 of us for the most part of our journey and that made us feel like the owners of the bus and the place, for a long time. Can you ask for more to make this a great adventure? No, not anymore. 

As we neared the interchange, there were boards and lanes leading to the checkpoint of the country. Woodlands is one of the entry points of Singapore and we were so close to getting out of it too, given the passports. But, the bus slithered to the interchange and it was time to end our journey, which took almost an hour. We made a mental note of the time and thought of getting back within 40 minutes to take the bus back home.

Causeway point was the mall which was adjoining the interchange and the Regional library was just a building away. Wow, what a place to have the library, to be marooned out of the city life.  The city is miles away from this northern point and it is a city by itself with malls and eateries housed within and people laidback.

We had already planned for the books to be borrowed and wasted no time in i-am-totally lost-please-help-me looks. We got almost all of the books in the series that they had and a few others like the Malory Towers series which was mainly for the girls did not fascinate our boy. So, we collected the famous five series and searched for some preschooler books. It was 12.45 and we had to rush to the interchange to get into the next available bus to be back before our little one was in. 

A munched his snacks, and gulped a drink and i too quenched my thirst and we strutted past John Little, Pizza Hut, McCafe, in great hurry. We finally landed only to see that the line was so short and expecting the bus any minute. The bus came exactly at 1.00pm and we heaved a sigh of relief on getting into the bus at the correctly estimated time.

We came back home relieved well before the little A's arrival and both of us patted ourselves for an adventurous journey in search of an extremely adventure series namely the Enid Blyton's Famous Five Series.

What a way to enjoy the mid-summer's blazing burnout!

 

Updates

Tremendous concentration saw A hoop 1400 without the hoop falling off to the ground, yesterday. You know how excited he was to be telling his scores to everyone he saw. It is just mindblowing to see the persistence.

April 15th 2010:

A record of 2100 nonstop. In his class, he beat the fellow students to become the champion by hooping 198 in one minute. The previous record was only 167/min. So, A has become the hooping champion among the students of Master N.