The Earth Story.

 

Staying on the subject of creatively stimulating outings for kids, I am quite surprised at what Bangalore has to offer. When we left the US, we were quite skeptical about whether we would be able to find as many child-friendly/enriching activities for kids in India as in the US. But hey!….I’d say “not bad!” and in fact they’re even better as our kids form a part of the mainstream society here as opposed to being on the fringes abroad and so what is offered is even culturally relevant!:-) So whether you catch at a children’s play at the Aha! Children’s theatre at Ranga Shankara, or attend the umpteen number of weekend activities at one of the many children’s libraries such as Hippocampus or Just Books or Easy Lib, etc; or enroll your little one into a sports club or a cricket club or drive to an Amusement Park or the Bannerghatta National park, there are plenty of things to do with your kids in Bangalore. Of course, if all you want to do on a weekend is to shop, and are looking for shopping malls that have a little something for everyone in the family, trust me, even on that front, you will be spoilt for choices in Namma Bengaluru!

A couple of weeks back we took Abhay to the Nehru Planetarium which recently underwent renovation. In fact, the last time I’d been to the Nehru Planetarium was as a part of a school field trip. Like on most Saturdays, this time too we had the usual starting trouble and couldn’t make it on time for the 12.00 PM show (and you can always blame it on Bangalore’s weekend traffic!) but managed to catch the 1.00 PM show on “The dawn of Space”. Though we’ve seen much better shows in the OMSI planetarium in Portland, USA, Abhay seemed to have been intrigued by what he saw as he was bursting with questions! There is also a nice little park with science based playground equipments adjoining the planetarium. Anyway, ever since our visit to the planetarium, Abhay has been fascinated by concepts of space and galaxy and so we picked up “The Earth Story” by Eric Maddern and illustrated by Leo Duff from the British Library. Touted as an ideal book on science for 4 to 5 year olds, this book explains the origins of the Universe, the sun, and the birth of what we call our Mother Earth, with the help of visually stunning images. The author vibrantly illustrates the enormous explosion from which everything began, cooling off into hot clouds of gas that went spinning and swirling into becoming great galaxies out of which the milky-way was born, comprising of a giant yellow star called the sun around which planets revolved. Some planets were small and rocky and too close to the sun, others were too gassy and faraway from the sun. The third planet was just right and it was our planet earth. The author then goes on to explain the earth story from being a lava spouting hot cauldron to a state conducive to life, the origins of which is another story altogether!:-) The Earth Story is a fascinating account of how it all began, not only for Abhay, but also for his parents …….at least it was a quick brush-up on science for his mom!:-)