Children's day Special - Reignite...!

Yesterday was celebrated as Children’s day across the country, and for most kids like Abhay, it was a class-free and a uniform-free school day, with many fun activities and events organized to make them feel special, including customized cards from his class teacher. While all this is sweet and admirable on the part of the school, it is also true that the present generation of urban children is a pampered lot and seems to have everything that they want and we parents seem to be more than eager to let them have everything they want! Well, it’s not as if we were a deprived lot, but growing up in the eighties and nineties meant measured expenditure and expectations whereas today’s kids seem to have wish lists that don’t end at all! So much so that they even develop a sense of entitlement over anything and everything they set their eyes on! It is the same sense of entitlement that prompted Abhay to ask for a children’s day gift from his maternal grandma, when just a day ago she got a bagful of gifts and knick-knacks from her recent Himachal Pradesh trip! Of course, a gentle reminder of the same is all it took to make him understand, but it made me wonder if we are overdoing it as parents. In our effort to provide the best for our kids, we may run the risk of having them fail to realize that nothing comes easy.  So, just as we question the need to celebrate Mothers' day and Fathers' day……do we need a Children’s day and with our lives revolving around our children every day ....Children’s day is every other day...isn't it?? J

Every year during Children’s day, Abhay somehow manages to extract a gift out of us (read his father!). This time however, anticipating that his request may not be honoured, our nine year old cleverly hinted at a card or a handmade present. As incorrigible as parents (read father!) that we are and as crazy about scrap-booking that we are ( well..both of us!), we put together a little handcrafted piece of memory file on the lines of a scrapbook ……that is more for us to cherish this gift-greedy phase of Abhay's childhood (which we hope he will soon outgrow!)

Abhay of course was super thrilled to receive it and here’s hoping he realizes the value and sentiment behind it and understands that life is more than just gifts and treats! What better way to spend Children’s day than to begin reading “Reignite - Scientific Pathways to a Brighter Future” by the former President of India, Late Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam, whose life is a true inspiration. It is no secret that the People’s President, as he was popularly known, was extremely fond of interacting with children and the youth and this book can be called as his parting gift to children!  Of course, we have only embarked on this reading adventure as it can be a lot for young reader to take in at one go. 

Co-written with Srijan Pal Singh, Late Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam renders a unique “insider” perspective to various cutting edge fields in science and technology like robotics, aeronautics, neurosciences, pathology and material sciences to children, should they desire to pursue the same as careers. The book not only offers exhaustive information on diverse niche career opportunities opening up in the field of science and technology, but is presented in an interesting format packed with “anecdotes, conversations, experiments, exercises and even helpful tips and inputs from leading scientists in the field and a note to parents in each section. Narrated in a style characteristic to the late former President, including an oath to be taken by aspiring palaeontologist, or neuroscientist, or pathologist, etc, the book goes on  to explain these new and developing areas to children and adults alike, without oversimplifying the same. However, the book does not just stop with enlightening the readers about science, but seeks to inspire young minds into realizing what it takes to become a scientist or pursue a passion or tirelessly work towards a goal. Whether one intends to pursue a career in science or not, this is a great book for kids and young adults to learn and reflect on the choices ahead of them, the ideals and values that will help achieve them and ignite not only their future but the future of our world! 

How and why of things!

First Appeared on  Parentedge blog

The famous children’s author John Birmingham had once said that while he was growing up, he always  wished that there would be a "National Ask your parents day" when children could ask their parents anything! In today’s age that is everyday…isn’t it?? Questions, questions, and more questions …..they never seem to stop right??  Well, why should they? Kids these days are always bursting with questions about science, society, relationships, and inscrutable ways of the adult world……so much so that their questions are amusing enough to give “PK” (a confused alien from the Bollywood movie of the same name) a run for his money! :-)

While parents today are a lot more conscious than before when it comes to encouraging kids to ask questions,  I would be lying if I said that there are times when you wish you could satiate their curious minds with simple replies/answers. But no…like everything else in parenting…there are no simple answers ….as there are no simple questions from our kids! :-)

Well… a benign opening question/statement  always has a tough follow-up question up its sleeve ( “I am firstly good at music and secondly at tennis……appa, what are the two things you do best?”) A complicated question always reeks of bad timing! (“Amma…what is Atma?” Just as we are getting ready for school!)  A persistent question is most often the one that does not lend itself to age appropriate answers…..leaving it open for dangerous or embarrassing conclusions or futuristic questions are questions that seem to make you wonder yourself ( Will India be better than US in 25 years from now?)!  So amidst all these questions shot at us….for fact-based or science based queries, all we parents can say is that “Thank God we have Google!” J

Sometime ago, I had attended a parenting workshop where we had been counseled into not answering questions at all and letting our kids figure the answers on their own so as to empower them into thinking for themselves. While it is a laudable objective, I personally believe that as parents you need to strike the right balance between how much to reveal and how much to be left for discovery. Also, I guess the key endeavour on our part as parents should not only be to help our kids develop an inquisitive mind but also equip them with the right sources to find answers.  

 

 One of the many such sources that may help our kids and in turn may ease the burden on us parents are a set of three books from Red Turtle, a wing of Roopa publications meant for older kids between the age group of eight to fourteen  “What if the earth stopped spinning? And 24 other mysteries of Science? By Roopa Pai and illustrated by Kavita Singh Kale;  “How did the Harappans say hello? And 16 other mysteries of History by Anu Kumar and illustrated by Kavita Singh Kale and finally “Do Tigers drink blood? And 13 other mysteries of nature” by Arefa Tehsin and Raza H Tehsin and illustrated by Kavita Singh Kale.

Each of these books present interesting “what if” situations that the kids often baffle the parents with! Roop Pai’s book provides a blow-by-blow account of  questions like “What if the sun suddenly disappeared?” and such other “10 Nightmarish Scenarios That You Shouldn’t Lose Sleep Over” and busting the myth behind the so called “5 scientific facts That You should stop believing” like ‘A coin falling on your head from the 100^th floor of the Burj Khalifa can kill you’ and unraveling “10 Mind Numbing Mysteries That Aren’t Mysteries At All”   like “How come when I look in a mirror, I’m right side up, buy when I look in  a shiny spoon, I’m upside down?” I must say that the illustrations and the explanations are not only age appropriate but also aim to put to rest the whackiest of queries that you’ve ever heard!

Similarly, Anu Kumar travels through time and attempts to unravel  the mysteries of history also throwing in various historical theories that offer plausible explanations. Needless to say, this is informative even for parents who are skeptical about whether the great war of Mahabharata really did happen!

The book on nature dwells into the mysterious ways of nature by opening doors into the world of its inhabitants and fun facts about them. Facts such as crocodiles swallow stones to help them digest the food, or that the rabbits eat their own poop……….and many such interesting facts narrated in a manner that not only provides the necessary information but in a way that makes it an entertaining read.

While the book on science and nature  can double up as a non-fiction read for younger kids, the book on history pre-supposes a basic knowledge and background of the historical facts. .  

Though similar to the “Tell me Why” series that we grew up reading, these books offer exhaustive explanations that are couched in a language that is both engaging and enlightening……with catchy phrases and humourous titles…. learning is sure made fun. Besides, the books are truly an eye opener to us parents as we don’t have be clueless when our little one asks “Why does the koel sing?”!!! 

Once there was a raindrop!

After a couple of false alarms, the southwest monsoon has finally hit  some parts of India, including Bangalore! Despite being a watered down version of last year's monsoon, wet and rainy evenings  unmistakably mark the beginning of the rainy season, as opposed to some magazines, including a few children's publications would have you believe that we are heading into summer......simply because the West is at the peak of its summer!!  Seriously....aren't we Americanized enough already....must out seasons follow suit too?? Sure.....the international schools in India follow the American Baccalaureate system with their summer holidays coinciding with the summer break in the American schools......but they are still located in India.....right?? It is true that some parts of India are yet to experience  monsoon, but that doesn't mean  the whole nation has moved into a temperate zone and the cover feature  in a June-July supplement of a popular women's magazine should be "Hot new ideas for summer" !  As much as the  editors of the said magazine may want to belong to a different weather zone.....they better be "umbrella ready" when they visit Namma Bengaluru!!!  :-)

 

 

 

I almost did not have any book ready for our monsoon read.....and so chose to reserve this book at the British Library over three weeks ago. But by the time the book arrived.... not only did the monsoon intensify...but also I had a couple more books to read during this year's rainy season! To start with, we read "Once there was a raindrop" by Judith Anderson and Mike Gordon, a part of the Nature's Miracles series. The timing couldn't have been more perfect as Abhay had read "Forms of Water" at school as a part of his EVS (Environmental Science) This is a nice little book simplifying the concept of the water cycle to kids and throwing light on  what happens to a raindrop once its falls on the ground.   Though a work of non-fiction, the author beautifully explains the concept with the aid of cheerful illustrations of children shown jumping into puddles, getting soaked in rain or going up a ropeway mirroring the water vapour rising high into the sky! So the raindrop that falls on your little one has a long way to go.....into the underground drain, then into stream and finally flows into the sea. That's not all, as the sun warms the surface of the sea, the warmer water turns into water vapour, which rises into the air and as it travels higher and higher, water vapour cools down to turn into tiny droplets of water accumulated in a cloud only to fall back on earth as raindrops again! So as you read on.....you realize that every drop of water is recycled, over and over again by Mother Nature. It's time we do too...isn't it?? A nice little book that has rain on every page...just ls we hope to have rain ...every day!!!

 

Me and my Body!

“Wiggle your nose”, “blink your eyes”, “show me your ears” is what we would have our toddlers do in order to help them discover their own bodies. Children are naturally curious about their own bodies and this curiosity will only grow and change with age. My seven year old is at a stage where he is not only curious about his body but is also more curious about the differences between him and others. In fact some of his questions are simple and straight forward, some seem simple but the answers don’t lend themselves to being age appropriate and some though innocent are downright embarrassing! J Nevertheless, we’ve always encouraged him to ask questions ….as curiosity leads to awareness and awareness leads to understanding. Mind you….. as your kids are growing up…..you’d better pull up your socks and get your science right! If not…there always Google! J

So today we read “The Secrets of Our Body” put together by Macaw publications, a book my dad suggested I pick up for Abhay at a book fair in Mangalore. This book contains a series of “Tell-me-why” kind of questions about the human body. The book also features those tricky aspects of our body that are most often joked and not taken seriously. Accompanied by comical illustrations, this book seeks to unravel the science behind some of the routine functions of the human body - from why do we sneeze or to why do we have to pee or why do we get hungry to why do we have have tears ? Ideally meant for kids aged six and above, this book allows your young reader to discover facts of the human body while having a good laugh over its caricature-like characters! But don’t blame me if your little one cant stop giggling at the boy with a bulging tummy or with a sneeze forceful enough to drive away his pets!

 

 

Catch the rain!

It has been pouring cats and dogs the whole of this week! We are well into August and the rains don’t seem to let up! The last weekend at Dharmasthala was drenched in rain and the rain seemed to follow us even when we returned to Bangalore! Well, at the risk of sounding repetitive, this weather is reminiscent of the weather in Portland where we had lived for two years ….almost two years ago! I guess the cloudy days, the damp atmosphere and the  “any-time downpour” has Bangalore switching places with any coastal city! I must say that I quite enjoy the cloudy days as the sun doesn’t seem oppressive when hidden behind the clouds, but it is better to be all rained in than being out in rain! Of course….that’s why we are boring grown-ups!

Abhay enjoyed himself in the coastal rain last weekend at Dharmasthala and for some reason insisted on filling up buckets with rainwater. A noble idea indeed as he was probably doing his own little “rain water harvesting” but I’m not sure if you would feel the same if you have to empty bucket after bucket only to have him fill the next one readied to be emptied again! J Anyway, today I read to him a book that talks about just that “Lets catch the rain” by Vinod Lal Heera Kishwar of “Let’s plant trees” fame. I happen to lay my hands on the Kannada version “Male Hididukollona” translated by S. Divakar which I found just right for Abhay’s reading level in the kannada language. Emphasizing the importance of conserving rainwater, the author calls for everyone to catch the rain wherever and in whatever way they can , from buckets and bottles, pots and pans, balloons and overturned umbrellas to wells and coconut shells, and not to forget in tanks and buildings facilitated by rain water harvesting. A simple message of water conservation and environment friendly practices conveyed through striking pencil sketch like illustrations! A nice little one for the monsoon! :-)

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!:-)

Day and Night!

Every time we call India to talk to my parents, there is one question Abhay never fails to ask and that is whether it is day or night in India. Abhay seems fascinated by how his grandparents can see the sun in India when at the same time, in Portland it is nearing bedtime.  No sooner he hears a ‘hello’ on the other side, than he’s already on to his mandatory query “Is it morning in India?” Sometimes, my mom beats him to it and promptly informs Abhay the time of the day as soon he comes on the phone. But a relentless four year old that he is, he still feels duty bound to check on the day and night status on the other side of the globe! 

So last week when my husband traveled to Houston, he happen to visit the NASA museum and picked up a book that explains the science of day and night. Today I read “What makes Day and Night” by Franklyn M Branley and illustrated by Arthur Dorros. Though a Stage 2 book in the Let’s-Read-And Find-Out Science series, meant for children from age 5 to 9, Abhay seemed interested. The book provides a simple understanding and presents a creative demonstration of the concept of day and night in an age appropriate manner.  Though essentially a work of non-fiction, the illustrations gave a feeling of a story weaved in and Abhay listened with rapt attention. He even noticed that I skipped a few pages in between and wanted me go over them again. In order to make it simple, you are encouraged to do a small science experiment using the flashlight as sun and your little one posing as the earth. Of course, this book is meant more for older kids, but it’s never too early to develop a scientific temper. Isn’t it? At least, the next time he speaks to his grandparents, he can answer his own question on whether it is day or night in India!!