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While researching for various intelligences, I came across a TEDx video which will change many parent’s viewpoint like mine.
But before that, I must tell you how I discovered what is the best way to teach phonetics to kids whose Spatial (imagination/ picture) Intelligence is very high but Linguistic Intelligence is not so great.
Its a simple technique but works extremely well.
Why some kids have this problem, that they are reading something, but writing something else. They write mirror words, mirror letters until they are corrected. Very simple explanation, without getting into the technical or medical details of it is as follows:
When we see something, both eyes see same picture which is sent to the brain. The brain assess it and after combining them together, a complete picture is made in the memory, associated with the word and written down in your brain at one place. So in other words, what you see is what is written down in your brain at one single point.
With kids having difficulty, there seems to exist a minor anomaly in the way the brain sees or assesses through two different eyes. So there seems to be a confusion in what the alphabet looks to the left and right eyes together. Or there is a confusion as to what is interpreted or understood by the brain about what the two eyes have seen together. So obviously, there will be a confusion in the memory of the child as two different images are stored in two different places associated with the same word!!! So sometimes, the brain picks up the correct image and sometimes the mirror image.
Now can you understand that it not the brain but the eyes which are causing the child this problem, where he/she is unable to write letters, read letters or even associate the phonetics with the right sound if they are taught using the conventional method.
The treatment is very simple.
Since we are talking about the children who have very high Spatial Intelligence, use this intelligence to teach your children alphabets, phonetics, grammer and languages.
Make the child close his eyes. Fold the hands togethers, and clasp all the fingers down. Then make only the index fingers point out together.
Make the child write using the two index fingers joined together on the floor or mirror. And while writing ask him/her to loudly speak the letter, its phonetic. Repeat for 10 days. Same time preferably.
I make it fun time by playing a game with him. I write letters on his back and ask him to imagine and just tell me the sound. Or I voice out the sound of any letter, and he has to write on my back.
The idea behind this exercise is that as a parent if you are aware of that one intelligence where your child is brilliant, you can use this intelligence to improve or teach maths, english, science etc easily.
You will not be the villain or the heroine of horror movies, everytime you take up that subject in front of your innocent child.
As in the video you will see, 1 out of 6 children have learning disability!!!!
I was shocked to hear this. But after listening to Dr Aditi, I am quite convinced that indeed when kids face difficulty in picking phonetics, spellings, writing words, numbers, drawing pictures, coloring neatly or building blocks, there is a physical problem, which can be very easily corrected by alert parents and teachers. All that is needed is a bit of awareness and patience with loads of love for the darlings around.
Dr Aditi
I had to apply for my sons transfer certificates from their previous schools to get their admission done in new school.
At St Mary’s and DPS Pune, I had not much trouble as they have a Transfer Certificate form which is to be filled. This form has only details like where are you moving, why are you moving from the current school etc.
The application letter may be something like this:
From Mrs XXXX
Address
To The Prinicipal,
Name of the school,
Address.
Subject: ( Application for Transfer Certificate for Name of the Child)
Dear Madam/ Sir,
I am applying for the Transfer Certificate for my child, Ram, studying in class UKg, section B at Best Indian School, Aundh.
As my husband has been posted to New Delhi by his company, we will be shifting to New Delhi by the end of this month.
or
As we were unable to get admission for my second child in the same school, we have to move Ram from Best Indian School to Super Indian School.
We appreciate the education that my child has received from the Best Indian School under your enriching guidance. I would also thank Mrs Rosy for being the most cheerful kindergarten teacher.
If there is any thing for which the school management needs to contact me, kindly do so on this mobile number 89888990333.
My new postal address is :
Address
My old postal address will be active until this month. Kindly send all further communications at the new address only.
with best regards,
Mrs XXXX
Date: 12/ Jun/ 2010
Attachments: 1. TC form duly filled
2. Copy of the last fee receipt
Normally it takes 15 to 30 days for the schools to verify any outstanding. If there is any outstanding amount, you will be called to clear it off. Else they return the check for security deposit and hand over the TC.
Written by YEDG / 2 days ago / 0 Comments
Ms.Madhurie Singh is the founder and CEO of SuperIndianKid. She has worked with Aptech, Eicher Consultancy Services, Sol Pharmaceuticals, IIS Infotech and CMG Admiral, Australia.She started blogging in 2001 about solutions to the problems she faced after returning from Sydney. She started her blog www.MadhurieSingh.com, which is a boon to all parents hunting schools in Pune. Information about her entrepreneurship work can be obtained from www.SuperIndianKid.com.
1. What inspired you to be an entrepreneur?
Being an entrepreneur is evolving from being served to serving others.Instead of waiting for others to provide me any service that is non-existent, I have always tried to get a solution. But when there is none available, I have always tried to first find the solution and then make it easily available to other people too.
As a child, I have had the opportunity to play all indoor games and outdoor sports like badminton, table tennis, kabaddi, kho-kho, chess, carrom, dance, singing and dramatics. These were available free of cost everyday to all kids in the huge club of ITI, Allahabad and Bangalore. As TV was just introduced, we were not addicted to it. The club was the place where the entire colony kids would gather from 4:00pm till 11:00pm!
No one trained us any game or any sports, it was all self learnt through observations. The amount of intrapersonal and interpersonal development we went through was immense and invaluable.
As my kids are growing up, I realized what they are missing. Also it is practically unaffordable for parents to provide coaching for so many activities. Even if one can afford it, the lack of time to take their kids to various activities becomes a difficult thing for parents who are working or have a younger kid.
Then during my parenting workshops, I realized, there were many parents who needed something that would allow their kids to experience as many activities before choosing the one or two activities that the kids had passion for.
This is when I realized that someone had to start this facility for the kids, where they can come and play, dance, paint, sing every day before deciding on one thing that they wanted to pick up as their hobby. My aim is to provide stress free life to kids and enjoy childhood like my generation did. Also my own kids have been the main source of this idea.
That’s when I decided to start the SuperIndianKid .
2. Tell us about superindiankid.com. How is it different from its other, more generalized counterparts who claim to provide more-or-less similar services as you?
Frankly, this is a program that still has no real counterparts.There are many coaches, trainers and artists who are providing coaching to several kids either in their own homes or providing home coaching. I think they will continue to serve as there will be kids who will prefer the coaching being conducted at home. But there are others who prefer kids learning in groups and teams. The long term effect and benefit of group training manifests in making these kids street smart players and artists, as they have gone through the grind of daily competitions, daily success or failures.
Being brilliant alone is not enough to be a star. The brightness is assessed and appreciated truly, only in the presence of millions of other stars!
SuperIndianKid is not just a coaching program. Here, we assess the interest, intelligence, attitude, happiness of each kid during every activity.
We video record activities to assess interpersonal, intrapersonal and other psychological traits which are part of one’s personality.
We have tied up with the best coaches in Pune. We also have plans to provide funds to National and International talents to be able to compete without bothering about the financial burden, with the help of corporate.
We also provide pick up and drop service which is a boon to many parents. We expose the kids to around 50 activities in a very nominal fee which is unimaginable by many parents and also coaches.
We are following Gurukul ways of imparting knowledge where kids learn yoga, the importance of respecting elders, adopting Indian ways of greeting, cleaning and cooking.
We provide daily exposure to one of the many activities like storytelling, word building, number games etc. We use role plays where kids learn basic disaster management like handling fire, choking, lifts, malls, bullying etc.
I believe the value based coaching at SuperIndianKid is incomparable to any existing counterparts, if any. We want competition to come up as that will keep the quality intact and also spread this concept to many more areas where we cannot reach yet. Though, we do plan to have many more centers all over the country.
3. Your team includes Linguistics, Sports, Music, Communication Skills and many other experts. How do you understand it to be more beneficial than a natural socialization of the child through other social agencies?
I think any place which offers a natural atmosphere for kids to play, learn and handle their situations themselves is good.If other social agencies are also providing exposure to close to 50 activities to cater to 8 different Intelligence everyday to the kids in a team, they will also prove to be beneficial.
We do not pressurize kids into anything against their will during assessment period. We let them have fun while experiencing any activity planned for the day. A few kids do sit back and watch, but more often they quietly join the team when no one is forcing them. Also we are very candid to write down the observations about any kid who has no interest, no ability or no intelligence for an activity. We would rather have a kid who has the passion for an activity than enroll just to increase the headcount.
We are all learning. It is the intention behind any business or any startup that matters in the long run. My team and I believe that we will one day vent out pressure from the kids and our society through SuperIndianKid program, and I am proud of the intention behind our Startup.
When the end goal is to see a happy society, all activities done at SuperIndianKid are conceived with happiness in mind. We make sure to a large extent that all the gurus and coaches are also happy when coaching the kids. I started this startup with one promise to myself that I will not over stress myself and my team as I believe that if only I am happy and satisfied, only then I can keep everyone around me happy and satisfied.
4. Working with children is a difficult task and requires sensitivity. What kind of challenges do you come across with your clients/children?
Yes, they do keep us on our toes every moment. We have kids who are very quiet but have now started actively talking in their class rooms, thanks to our gurus and other kids! We have kids who have very short attention span. We quickly distract them, talk to them and crack jokes with them and bring them back to the track.
Frankly, even though we have psychologists in our team, we rely more on the motherly and naturalistic ways of handling any problems as most of the Gurus are mothers of similar age group kids. Infact we have mothers volunteering to offer help, as many have realized that they can learn a lot about handling their own kids.
We do have help from our psychologists whenever there is a difficult situation put forth by parents. Like how to handle sibling rivalry, stubbornness, fights over toys etc.
We have a parent counselor who is also an expert Bach therapist. We have many parents who complain about their kids not eating enough or fearing school, exams etc. These situations are handled through Bach therapy.
We have a speech correction specialist who recently managed to correct a 4th degree speech problem in a kid.
Hence we have a set of specialists to assist us in our daily endeavor along with our naturalistic mom factor to handle any challenge. We have a policy of always accepting our goof ups. We believe when we accept our failures we open the door to humility, understanding and correction which always has positive end result.
5. Would you agree that there are differences in the level and kind of challenges that you have to face as a woman entrepreneur in India?
Frankly, I have never faced any challenges as a women entrepreneur. All challenges are what any entrepreneur will and should face.
Also, challenges are the best way to learn business in the early stages of any startup when the stakes are low. We have a team of people who are encouraged to take risks and explore as much now and document their experiences as learnings.
6. What would be your message to fellow young entrepreneurs in India?
Frankly I think I am not in any position to advice any entrepreneur as I still have to prove myself.
But I will share a few learnings which will definitely help anyone starting up.
1. The intention behind any startup must be good, for it to succeed. One should love money but not run after it blindly.
2. Planning is important, over planning is killing.
3. Business Plans are good only when one is investing crores. The best way to start a startup is to invest least and test the market. Get as many feedbacks and surveys.
4. Get good people to work with you and always take advice from the team.
5. Try not to spend money on fancy stuff unless its benefit is justifiable.
6. Think what the customer wants and work backwards.
7. Try to cater to the existing and future needs and not create a need.
8. Be honest and humble to everyone. It really pays and builds trust.
9. Keep documenting everything, even if it’s a small diary for time being.
10. Read books by successful entrepreneurs, failed entrepreneurs and struggling ones for the best advices. I read 2-3 books always.
11. Make use of free resources like open source technology, internet, several groups of entrepreneurs around the world even over the web if time is a constraint.
12. Try to approach the main people handling any corporate, government department instead of getting into the habit of agents or middle men.
13. If you need something, ASK. I have always got positive response.
14. Enjoy every moment of the hard work put in setting up your Start Up. These moments will never come back. Keep taking photos and videos recordings and all writes up from all team mates. Someone might make it their bible for starting up their startup.
15. This last one has kept me going always was told to me by my brother; when someone or something has really pulled your moral down, think of it as the BIG Hammer which makes sure, the harder the hit, the higher the peg goes!
7. Does educational background matter in the success of entrepreneurs?
Mind you there is a difference between being literate and being educated.
Being literate ensures a structured way of learning things. You are fortunate if you have the chance to learn anything imparted through professional colleges. But my personal experience says that hands on experience before joining any of these professional courses makes humongous difference in understanding of any subject. My engineering has helped me logically and break any problem into smaller manageable parts.Being educated need not mean one has to be literate. Experience and common sense is what matters in the long run. All entrepreneurs have to keep reading and learning constantly to keep themselves competent. Today, the accounts, finance and business planning make more sense to me than when I was studying my MBA in International Business.
Most school will open in the coming week of June 2010.
St Mary’s opens 3rd June 2010.
Vibgyor High 10th June
Vikhe Patil for Kgs on 31st May to familiarize the kids. From 7th June all classes.
Bishops schools 7th June.
Dps Pune reopens on 14th June.
Indira National in mid August based on last year pattern.
SuperIndianKid reopens on 1st July 2010.
Vidya Valley
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2nd June
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Std 10th reopens (Full Day)
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8th June
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Std 3 to 9 (8:00 to 12:30)
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9th June
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Std 2 (8:00 to 12:30)
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10th June, Thursday
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Std 1 (8:00 to 12:30). Half day also on Friday, 11th June
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11th June, Friday
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Jr KG and Sr KG start
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A few days back while eating juicy mangoes my sons were discussing mangoes! 
As the mango slices finished one by one the interest in mangoes seemed to go from mere pulp to its genesis. I was trying my best to not get bothered by the slurpy sound and juice trailing their arms !
When my sons finished all but the mango seeds, they were again excited! Eating mango from the mango seed is totally different experience from eating just the slices. Something similar to a chicken leg vs chicken pieces  .
My younger son asked me a question that seemed very easy and simple but got me thinking for the entire evening till I told him the answer in the way he could assimilate.
His question was ” Mamma, how does a mango tree know that it has to grow mangoes not apples?”
All of us had a hearty laugh at his question.
“Because it’s a mango tree!” we all answered.
But when his look did not change, I knew he needed a better answer. But to make him understand the whole funda of genes, I was unsure myself at my ability. So I told him I will tell him the answer at night in the story time.
After I sat to work, a 10 min later there was a loud cry from the kids room! My younger one was holding is crotch and howling. And his brother was sheepishly trying to give the explanation. Only after I whacked the older one, did my younger one stopped crying. It’s like only when we see the culprit suffer that our own sufferings diminish.
So story time had to be an important time as there were going to be two lessons told.One about the mango tree and another one about why not to hit on the crotch.
My stories are always interactive. I do start but never end them. My sons would have taken over the story, the moment they understand the real gist of it.
SO this is how our story went:
“From where does a baby bird come?” , I asked my sons.
“From an egg!”
“And from where does a small baby elephant come?’
“From a mamma elephant!”
“From where did you both come?”
“From your tummy!”
” Do you know from where does a plant grow?”
“Yes, from a seed!”
“Ok so tell me how does a seed grow into a tree?”
“You put the seed in the mud, pour water and with warmth of the sun light, a small plant grows out of the seed after a few days.”
“Ok so how do you know that all animals, birds and humans are also born from seeds?”
Both kids started laughing.
“All animals and birds have seeds in their bodies.” I told them after their laughter subsided.
” Bhaiya and you were also born from from human seeds. DO you know where are the seeds stored in a tree?”
“In the fruit!”, they both exclaimed.
“Yes. Where are the seeds stored in your body?”
There was no answer. I think they were still trying to believe that they came from seeds.
“Ok does your brain store seeds?”
“NO”
“Does your stomach store seeds?”
“No”
“So where do you think they are stored, where it will be safe?”
They went on asking me hands, legs, bum etc etc…
“Its stored there in between your legs in small bags!” , I said.
They both looked shocked.
“But mamma why here? Why not near the face?”
“Well I think god wanted the seeds to be kept in a warm area that is also safe.”
“So now you know where human seeds are stored, so if some one hits you there, what will happen to the seeds?”
“Oh the seeds will be destroyed!!!”
“Yes, and then that man will not be able to have his baby!”
“Mamma we will not hit anyone’s seed bag again!”, said the older son.
“So why only men have seeds? ” This time my younger one asked.
“Mammas also have seeds which are called eggs.”
“You mean you lay eggs like hen?” Both were laughing again, imagining me as a hen I guess! 
“Well there is bag in all moms’ bodies, where seeds or eggs are stored. Then when god helps papa’s seed to join with mamma’s seed, a small baby like you is born.” They were nodding and trying to absorb what was just told to them.
After a few minutes we were discussing how an apple seed joined with lady’s finger seed would look like, and how a giraffe seed joined with a tomato seed would look like. After they had fun genetically combining plant with animals and animals with birds, it was time to move to their next question. “How does a mango tree know that it has to grow a mango and not an apple?”
“Ok tell me, when you pick a story book, does it have same story written on its pages or does it change every day?”, I asked my sons, both lying on my either arms.
“It has the same story every time we read!”
“And when you click your Dooms game, is it always the same game or a new game ?”
“Maa !! it’s the same game, how can a new game load if we click on the Dooms icon?”
“So what is there in a book or a game that makes sure the same story or the same game to be loaded everytime!”
“It written there on the pages of the book, so it is same story, and the program is written for the game, so that also is same always.” Now I was happy that computer games did make sense after all.
“Excellent. Same way all seeds have a story written inside it. Each seed has a different story. A mango seed has everything written about the color, size, shape, taste of a mango fruit. An apple seed has every detail written about apples shape, size, color, taste etc.”
“So when a mango tree grows a fruit, it’s seed already has the program written in side it that it will grow into a mango. That is why a mango tree grows a mango and not an apple!”
SuperIndianKid is growing. Its recruiting. Interested or you know anyone interested, do forward this to others. Part time CA Part time Accountant Part time HR/ Admin Full Time Center Manager Full Time Business Development/ Marketing Managers and Executives Assistant Executive to CEO Part time Coaches in the field of Bharat Natyam, Kathak, Oddissi, BallRoom, Latin dance, Chess, Carrom, all sports, all art forms, personality developers, horse ride and hurdle coach, athletic coach, hockey, football, tennis, badminton, snooker, dart, swimming, gymnastics, music and all musical instruments coaches, vedic maths, spellbee trainers… Fill in the form below: Click here to open the form
Just thinking aloud!
We appreciate all and give away awards to many different types of professionals. They are sometimes categorized into male, female, married, unmarried and so on…
But why has no one, not even the most intellectuals to the most sensitive ever thought of this, that seems to be echoing in my head since last one hour! (I guess empty head echoes most!:))
Now that I am thinking aloud, let the words reach out, convert into sound waves, into your minds through your eyes.
How about giving awards to moms!
Moms who excel in different categories and their Sponsors.
Moms, who are full time homemakers. Home Queen Superindianmom, LG
Moms who are handling home and office. Home Office SuperIndianMom, Maruti
Moms who left their careers for home. Brave SuperIndianMom, Scooty
Moms who have sacrificed the most for their family. Sacrificing SuperIndianMom, Makemytrip
Moms who have decorated their homes best. Designer SuperIndianMom, Lifestyle
Moms who cook the yummiest food. Yummy SuperIndianMom, Central Mall
Moms who have encouraged their kids beyond all hindrances. Hurdle winner SuperIndianMom, Nike
Moms who are role models to other moms. Role model SuperIndianMom, Whirlpool
Moms who are successful entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur SuperIndianMom, Goldmann Sachs
Moms who are into non academic careers. Hobby SuperIndianMom, KalaNiketan
Mom who has the best idea for their family. Idea SuperIndianMom, Idea
Moms who qualify to be a Superindianmom(Has to be winner of min 5 categories). SuperIndianMom, Sangini
I want to add so many more awards here….may be you can try too.
I WILL one day make this Happen.
Sponsors are you reading????
As of now, lets see how many of you lovely moms like this concept and want this to see the light of the day!
Happy Mother’s Day!
Summer Camp – 4 years – 15 years
Chess Camp -
Age 6 – 15 yrs, 1 week, 26th April onwards, by International Chess Player, from Kunte Chess Academy. Fee Rs1000/- Time 9:00am – 10:30 am
Disaster Management Camp -
1 week, 19th April, Fire, Water, Choking, CPR, Basic Life Support, Poison, Cut , Kidnapping, Road Safety, Lift Safety, Mall safety etc. Age 4 – 15yrs Fee Rs 1000/- 11:00am – 12:30 pm
Basic Self Defense Camp –
1 week – by All Asia Karate Federation rep, Fee Rs 1200/- 11:00 am – 12:0pm
The Etiquette Camp –
10 days, Dining Etiquette Telephone Etiquette Social Etiquette Dressing Etiquette Starting date 19th April – 31st May 2010 Age: 7 years – 15 years (can be adjusted) Fee: Rs 2000/- Timing : 1 hour Batch B: 3:00pm – 4:00 pm
“THE THENGA CAMP “ -
3 hours of movies EVERY DAY. 15 DAYS. Popcorn, Fruit Juices or Ice Cream Singing, Dancing, Face Painting, Tattoo, Pillow Fight. Starting from 19th April to 31st May.Batch A 10:00 am – 1:00 noon.
www.SuperIndianKid.com or call Guruma on 9890036569 or email at superindiankid@gmail.com
Near Kalyani Nagar, Koregaon Park, BT Kawade Rd, Ghorpudi, Fatima Nagar, Camp, Mundhwa, Wadagaon Sheri
We also offer a Psychological Assessment of kids. The assessment will indicate what is the area in which the kid has intelligence, interest and aptitude to pursue CAREER with PASSION AND HAPPINESS.
I visited the Orbis school a month back. The school follows CBSE pattern but I forgot to ask if they have got the affiliation or is it in the process.
I found it very small for the kind of school plan i.e.1.5 acre for a full fledged school! .
But I am sure they must be looking to buy plots near by. The farmer wasn’t too happy to sell off as of now.
The school has experience of running Panda Kids, so I am sure they can handle kids.
The school is around 1.5 km from the Mundhwa road. Since it’s inside the fields, it will have to be kachcha road. But that should not be any factor to decide as the road will be done by the school itself, as they told me. Also the distance is very little form the main civilization.
They do have loads of activities which are a necessity now a days. Dance, Music etc.
The fees is quite reasonable too .
School timing:
Play school : 8:30am – 10:30 am and 10:30 am – 12:30 noon
Nursery / JKg / Sr Kg : 8:30am – 12:30pm
1st std – 4th std 8:30am – 2:30pm
They have something interesting called E-Book or E-class where they teach a 15 min of 45 min session using Educomp Smart Class.
They will have clubs for kids for Nature / Social / Life Skills.
I wish they do not work with Abacus as it’s something that is useless for today’s world. Kids do not benefit from it in the long run and waste of time and money. Instead Vedic Maths is best option. I guess I will have to write an article on this subject sometime.
They have transport too and I think Rs 500-600 was for Kalyani Nagar.
The trustees have a member who I was told is owner of the Billboard company and hence so many billboards and posts all over the city .
Overall I got positive feelings about the school though they mislead me when I wanted to visit the school. But I understood that they would rather show the completed picture of the school than half done.
My verdict is that it’s too early to say anything about it just like Wisdom World School as both have not even started. Writing anything about their quality would be unfair and killing the baby before it’s born.
I remember my brother asking this question to my mom years back, and she turned into a red beet root !
He came and asked me later and I realized, I had the knack of simplifying things to make them understandable to kids or even adults  .
So I am always ready to answer my sons questions.
AT SuperIndianKid, we had a fruit salad day. They saw each fruit had different seeds and different sizes. Also most knew that trees grow from seeds. So when we were back while watching Discovery, I quickly called them to watch how babies are made. A program called “Journey of Life” was being aired.
” Do you know from where do plant come?”
” From Seeds!!!”, both shouted.
“Do you know from where did you both came ?”
” Yes, you tummy !”
” Ok but who put you inside ?”
” Bhagwaanji”
“How?”
Now they looked at each other’s face. Till then the censored part of channel program was over and I pointed them to the sea of white star like things on the screen. “They are called sprems, they are seeds in men.”
Both started laughing loudly, till I shouted at them to keep quite.
Then I pointed at the TV screen again, “That is the seed in all women., it’s called egg.” Again, they started laughing.
” Mumma you mean EGG = Anda?”
“Yes same egg, that hen gives.”
“God joins them together and puts by his power into mumma’a tummy. Then mumma gives food, oxygen through her blood to the baby to grow by a pipe joined at you naval.”
“Why not in Papa’a tummy.?
” Because only mumma has a special bag to keep the baby safe, papa do not have it.”
“Also when mumma protects the baby in that special bag, papa protects mumma. ”
“Yes because papa has more strength and muscles”. They shouted.
” Ok” . By then the program in the TV changed to more than their capacity and we changed it to cartoons.
I think the seed worked well and can be elaborated later.
I started to write this as a reply to a comment by a member but later when the words became too many, had to move it to this as an article.
The school discussed is Vidya Valley at Sus Village.
There are a too many parts in a comment that needs to be answered one by one:
Infrastructure:
This is an important feature when one looks for a school for a child. I too was initially in the same opinion that a good school must have a good infrastructure. But I am not ashamed to acknowledge that a good school has nothing to do with a good infrastructure hence I was wrong.
Aman Setu school proved me quite wrong. Its a lovely school which is run by a very experienced and conscious lady. Always look at a school’s head and the driving force than the infrastructure. Though Aman Setu is growing literally like a baby does, with a few classess added structurally each year, the school is a phenomena in itself and in the way they teach.
When I checked Vikhe Patil, there is only construction all around. Only imagination works there. The financial status of a school is definitely reflected by the structures like Sharad Pawar International, VPMS, DPS, BISHOPS, ST MARY”S, ST Arnold’s etc. But, mind you if the management is really stable, they will also not ask for under the table in the name of development cost.
Fee / Non refundable development fee / Donations / Bribe:
The fee is directly proportionate to the infrastructure or the age of the school.
If a school is 100 years old, it would have either been funded initially to be constructed by government or missionaries. As a result the fee is always nominal as there is no burden of loan repayment by the school management. Which means that all the fee charged, is actually used for monthly expenditure only. Hence any such school like St Mary’s is there for making good profits as there is no EMI to be paid.
A school which is newly constructed, say in last 7-10 years will have to pay for the loans taken to construct the school. If they bought the land during the land boom time, then poor school will be shelling a huge amount as loan repayment, even considering all the subsidies.
Now how are they going to recover all this cost? No prize for that answer. We the parents have to pay for it! And hence the huge development cost that any such school demands and has to be paid for during admission time. Also it is non refundable, as its gone as part of the EMI payment to the banks! How will any school pay you back what they do not possess.!
So that again comes back to those old age school that demand development cost or admission fee. Now that’s nothing but pure profits. And why not ? If it’s a missionary school, these will all be accounted for. Every penny will be well spent. But anything that is transacted under the table will be badaa boom badaa bing…;)
Boards:
Why are there so many international school all over the city? Did it ever occur to you?
Lemme tell you why? It’s easy to get International School affiliation as compared to ICSE or CBSE. CBSE is the longest it takes.
So what is the way to work around? Simple, get an IB or IGCSE board. Wait for a few years and then move to ICSE or CBSE board.
So the benefit is that the school can claim to be IB / IGCSE, follow their syllabus, make the most out of the course and later shift over to the Indian board. That also starts another doubt?
Why do IB/ IGCSE boards charge such a huge fee?
Well the schools have no choice as they have to pay for per student fee back to the IB board, that too in dollars or pounds!
So if you want to put your kid in any school that is IB, make sure they throughly follow that board and its teaching methodology, as definitely I guess that is something that is the need of the hour. A board that does not pressurize our kids into useless subjects and rote system of learning.
Why some schools have compulsory bus?
Well it ensures safety as the school takes the responsibility of the transportation. But it’s the other reason that I prefer the bus compulsion, i.e. arrival of all kids on time. The headache of a parent lessened is definitely one more reason. But if the school is not taking kids out to field trips every month then they are making huge profits. DPS is now overloading the bus with 3 kids in one seat. I think I may have to write to their management, before writing a review.
The last point is the most interesting and I have come across the first time.
The school asking kids to change their subject line from Math n Science to Arts and Commerce!
The school in question, Vidya Valley.
The complaint that the parents of a few students were advised to change the line of subjects of their kids to arts and commerce line from Science and Maths.!!!!!!
I really have no idea if a school can or has the ability to do so! I will definitely look into this matter.
But, that has definitely started an interesting discussion in my mind, which is what I have been toying since last few months.
Suppose I were a parent whose kid was asked to change over from Maths, Science to Arts field, what would be my reaction!
I guess, earlier a few years back, I would have raised the hell! But today I am more sensible and mature to the needs of my kids and their happiness than my own needs. It’s not important what makes me happy, it’s more important what makes my kids’ happy. Trust me, it’s most difficult to let yourself believe that what you want is NOT what they want! So when a school advices me that my kid needs to shift over, it just means the kid is not able to handle these subjects intelligently! The best option would be no doubt for me to help my kid by getting rid of these subjects that don’t make any sense to him!
Why make your kid struggle and waste time on that subject which will be a burden on him life long! A burden that will never be enjoyed, hence your kid will never be happy! And who has ever succeeded in life without following his happiness and passion? Passion is nothing but doing what you love the most and will do without anyone coaxing you ever.
Everything that I see or read or write boils down to one thing. Let your kid follow his heart, no one can stop him from succeeding, even if it’s not being a doctor or an engineer!
And thank that school that is giving an option to the kid to become successful not an average rat.
Well like a friend always quotes, even if we are number in a rat race, we will remain a RAT. So why not take a diversion and be something other than a RAT! Trust me, it’s the most courageous act, yet will be the most satisfying one.
“THE THENGA CAMP “
Smiling or laughing already! Well, that’s exactly our aim.
We want our kids to smile and have the fun time of their life in our camp.
After one full year, like all adults take break and go off to vacations. Kids too need a vacation. Not necessarily out of station. All they need is vacation from studies, daily routine, don’t do this and don’t do that. J
At the end of the Thenga Camp, their
• Minds should be Recharged,
• Bodies should be Rejuvenated and
• Souls should be Reloaded with FRESHness and LIFE.
Adults think that spas, beaches, shopping in expensive destinations will do the above for them, but, We think, a full-too, care-Free, Fun-Filled laughter and Unlimited Happiness at The Thenga Camp will do this to our kids. We will stick to everything that kids want:
- A full THREE hours of movies EVERY DAY. (no violence but hilarious, happy, fun movies)
- Popcorn, Fruit Juices and Ice Cream Everyday (one each only)
- Singing along side Aamir Khans songs
- Dancing with the Kungfu Panda toons and playing Hanuman with faces painted,
- Magic Shows (once)
- Puppet Shows(once)
- Power Ranger, Spiderman, Batman and Any other super-power game.
- Tattoo and face painting with child safe colors.
Running through out April and May, starting from 3rd April to 18th April; 12th April to 27th April ; 21st April to 5th May
The Thenga Club Timings : Batch A 9:00 am – 12:00 noon Batch B : 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm
For fee details fill out the contact form www.SuperIndianKid.com or call 9890036569
Kindly be aware that we are filming a documentary movie throughout the session at SuperIndianKid and you give your consent for the same. Incase of power problem, we will resort to non-power activities at the center or out in the gardens.
The Thenga Camp is a venture of SuperIndianKid.
How I yearned to be blessed with an intelligent kid when I had conceived my first son. My preparation for the healthy and intelligent baby was on, months before I finally was told that yes I was gonna be a mother soon. Months of preparation, cuz, I was a case of infertility!
Our medical fraternity has an easy way of not getting into trouble. If there is anything they do not understand, they term it under autoimmune and live happily ever after dropping the bomb on the patient’s life. And if they can not detect the cause of non conception they term it as infertility! 
(Can’t swear worse than this, cuz my own brother belongs to the medical fraternity, and a he is a damn good doctor, your very own Dr Vishal Gupta. )
Oblivious to the fact, that in a country like India, the term infertility is a blotch on femininity. The family and friends get vicarious pleasures in asking about the “Good News” knowing or not knowing the pain they cause to the already shattered couple.
But, I being a different personality, always , made sure, people not only understood what infertility meant but also made sure they never uttered such insensitive words in future for any soul on this earth ever!  What a sukoon, I tell you!
So after going through 3 years of my undue share of nightmarish experience with doctors fleecing our bank account and feeding on our emotional leftovers, I one fine day found I was carrying! The credit goes to a drug called “Letroz” which is given actually to treat cancer cells, but the side effect was fertility! (I wonder how did they find out this!)
Since I was by then in the hands of Dr Prashant Mangeshikar, who had become not just my doctor but also my emotional mentor. He prepared my internal body with all kinds of vitamins and minerals that must be taken a year before one tries to conceive. (No morning sickness)
All was well till the first 1.5 months, when I had some minor cramps. Panicked I called him. He was in the midst of a surgery in Germany. He took the call and promised to revert back after his part of surgery was over. In 10 min he gave me call and my husband using his conference facility. And I was put on Progesterone Injections. While explaining the side effects, he mentioned something that I found very interesting.
Progesterone if injected in the early months of the pregnancy, improves the intelligence of the fetus!
Hmm, that was something worth researching and what better to do than this. So I read as many articles from as many search results. Then my doc mentioned that always check the medical journals for authentic reports than any posts on the internet, as many articles were just there by the companies to promote their products. So I became a member of the American and British Medical Journal. My brother in US allowed me access his hospital library too. A doctor classmate in UK helped by passing anything relevant from his hospital who were also researching on the “Letroz” sideeffects.
And guess what! It’s true. Progesterone taken by mothers preferably daily does make the baby more intelligent. The painful drawback was the hard lumps on the both sides due to 500 needle pricks . But I guess, once a mother, life changes and becomes more of a treasurer’s life.
The second thing that took my attention was the recent launch of edible almond oil which helps the brain cells, as it’s full of vit E and potassium. And since potassium is excellent for keeping the brain oxygenated, it’s called food for brain, like bananas too. Fish oil is another option but during pregnancy fish oil in capsule form should be avoided due to chances of mica in it. Only safe fish to eat during pregnancy is “Mackerel”.
At that same time Amitabh Bachchan’s cassette “Garbh Sanskar” was released.
So as a mom, I did my best to ensure an intelligent baby. Luckily, I could repeat the whole exercise when I was expecting my second son too.
Today with the same pair of genes passes down to both the sons, with similar well at-least to a large extent same environment, I am amazed to find two very intelligent yet very different personalities.
My sons no doubt are proving that the progesterone injections, the almond oil, the mackerels and the soothing mantras do have their effect on the intelligence.
But where do I draw the line of MY aspirations of having intelligent/ genius/ prodigious progeny. Today, I chose, rather with ease, to be content with happy and smart child. Having done that, trust me life can be difficult in this highly competitive world.
I chose to put my kids into a playschool where there was no high pressure. Where, even if they did not learn to write alphabets or numbers, they could still differentiate between less or more and between a cat or a dog. When they fight over bigger chocolate piece, I know their concept of size is fine. When they call each other animal names, I am glad they can differentiate between animals! When they hassle over what t-shirt to wear, I know they know their colors too well. And when they go and tell my friend in her dinner party, that “we are pure non-veg and will not eat anything veg, I know they know their EVS too .
It’s difficult to choose when every parent is pushing their kids to attend several classes to groom them into a smarter, more intelligent and perfect child.
Only when my kids ask me repeatedly, I make them join a course and soon they prefer to be at home with much more fun type activity that I do with them. They have gone to their painting classes for 3 times only out of a month, 15 days of football classes out of a 25 days, a month of chess class and two months of wushu classes in a period of 6.5 years.
Now, my kids have decided on their own. Chess is for the older one and karate for the younger one. I am more than happy.
Trust me I am glad that I am not pushing them to go to a different class every day. There are moms who are daily escorting their kids to swimming classes, voca-boom classes, drama class, football classes, piano classes, tennis classes !!!! The poor kids do not have time to live a normal child’s life!
Agreed they are too young to decide what is best for them, but they are too young to take on too many activities at one time! Not to forget the school and the tuitions some kids have to go to every day!
There can be arguments saying that if a child can learn, then why not?
Yes, if there is no sign of stress then a child can be exposed to various activities, but is there an end to it? Do we know where to draw a line? I have an intelligent kid, so I should load his brain with so much information that, after one point his brain too starts cramming up instead of learning it at a slow stress-free way! Have you seen how we all work when there is a deadline! We just remember one thing and that is the date of the final submission of the product, of the project of the presentation etc. At that point if we are overloaded where is the chance for us and our poor mind to enjoy the work we are doing! Well, the same holds true for these tiny young kids too!
I realized it when my 6 year old son told me one day, “ Mom, when you do two – three fun activities with me, I like it but after that let me watch TV.” I was surprised to hear this as everything that I did was what he loved ! So I told him, “I do what you love to do!”.“ Ya, but when YOU want me to do, not when I want to do it!”
OK point taken. So the fact remains that even if the child is a super intelligent one, the pleasure he gets in doing an activity is when he wants to do and not when forced upon.
There is no right and wrong answer. What I may find as “wrong” and give a winning argument for it, let me assure you, that, I can give an equally winning argument from the other side of the table with sufficient data. So the fact is to think from the heart and not from the brain only.
As young parents’ it’s important to understand what makes a prodigy, a genius or an intelligent kid.
Who is a Prodigy? A kid who has the ability do an activity at one third or one half the age that an average, normal adult is capable of doing.
So a kid who can give a maths exam meant for a 20 year at the age of 5 will be a prodigy. Or someone who can play a piano at the age of 5 years like an adult who has been trained for years is a prodigy. But do you know that prodigies are not in all the fields? There are some special fields only where the brain can excel, like maths, music, computers, instruments, memorizing stuff! Why? Because, these fields have a set pattern and can be repeated, howmuchever complex the repetitions might be. Any of these subjects which has formulas that can be repeated falls under the category of prodigy. So does that mean, that any field which does not have repetitions or formula will not fit under the prodigical category? Well as of now that’s how it seems. But human brain is capable of adapting quickly. Quickly here means over the period of generations! So if there is a trend of becoming a perfect politician in a family, I guess it’s manifestations in the genes can not be ruled out in future. And in that family a concoction of maybe outside genes could allow a prodigy in the field of politics too!
So what is a Genuis? Firstly, unlike prodigies, geniuses are not bound by the age factor. So any one who has the ability to perform any activity better than the average population, is a genius. So your child can be a genius at an age of 5 or at an age of 25 or 55! Of course here too a large part of the credit goes to the combo of genes that the genius is born with, but the chances of finding replicas of geniuses in a family increases largely as the source of the genes remains same, the mom and the dad (same partners to be precise).
Another fact that cannot be discounted is that practice improves the chances of becoming Genius. Have you tried giving MENSA test to check your IQ?
Every time I re take the test, my points go up! Why? Obviously, cuz, my brain was looking at a similar kind of questions and has learnt to answer them. So the time I take to answer questions goes down drastically, which is one of the factors used to measure the final IQ.
Oop! Did I just give away the secret!
Hmm does that not mean, that we all have the ability to become a genius? But then why do we all not become a genius. Why can not all kids become geniuses? Of course they can and will become geniuses, if enough practice is put in to any activity. But do we as parents allow that? How many times did we hear this when we were kids and now hear ourselves saying, “ Go and study all the subjects, if you have to pass and go to the next class! You can’t keep studying what you are good at or what you like!”
Well I don’t think any parent can be blamed for it. Our education system is so useless that it forces them and now us to make our kids learn things that will never be used in this lifetime. Or even never be applied consciously. The other day a few Bishops kids in 8std were at my house. I was teaching the fundamentals of floatation to my kids using their toys in their bathtub. So I casually asked the Bishops students, what is floataton. I must tell you I was sad after I heard their broken English definitions. SO I asked my son the same question. I went off to make popcorns. In the kitchen I could hear the conversation amongst three kids, two in 8th grade and one in 1st grade, discussing buoyancy and which toy would float and which will sink! Needless to say who was sure and right.
But if these same two kids are asked about football, I can guarantee they are an encyclopedia of football!
Inference drawn: If a child loves a subject, he will excel in it, whether any parent chooses or not. And if as a parent, I can identify that one interest in my child, and support him to excel in it, trust me, I will make a genius out of him. But, but but….
How many of us willing to take that risk? We are so bogged down by the salary system, which demands a set way of functioning that we let our kids suffer now, and later too. And strangely, they will repeat the same process with their kids.
So in my opinion, to have a happy child around, I have to make sure they are happy even in their dreams. It’s not feasible to keep children happy always but if we can only indentify what are all the things our kids love and do effortlessly, we may have the key to their happiness and to ours !
I know it’s easier said than done. So I will not preach any more but just let you peak in my thoughts.
I have decided for good, no more forcing my kids into anything the show any disinterest. I will not waste my hard earned moolah on any whimsical classes that my friend’s kids may be going. I have pledged to let my kids live their lives in a lesser stressful environment as compared to the ones around their peers.
But to compensate I will be extra vigilant on their needs, their interest, their growth and emotional development.
As of now my younger one wants to become Spiderman / Batman and the older one wants to become a scientist who makes chemicals!
Well obviously there is some thinking that has to be gone here in to their latent desires and talents. I think my new venture SuperIndianKid should take care of it adequately.
This article has taken three months now. While conducting my workshop in December I had started writing and had reached the last paragraph. That’s when I realized how important it was for SuperIndianKid to take birth at the earliest!
Now after two months I am writing this article again, with more insight.
So what is Intelligence? Well now I have read so much in the past 60 days that I think I can write a book now! But will only summarize for the benefit of all. Intelligence is the ability to learn about anything from anything and be able to understand similar things. LOL.
Each human brain being unique will and must have different capabilities to learn about different things. So if a child is able to understand grammar in English language easily, there is high probability that he will understand any other language grammar as easily, including computer languages (with no guarantee on technical understanding). This intelligence is called Linguistic intelligence.
If a child can solve a puzzle, there is a high chance that he can solve complex logical problems easily in any field. This is part of Logical intelligence. These are only two of the eight other important intelligence, based on which, Indian education system labels our kids in each class!
The other intelligences which are ignored by the schools in India but are found in abundance in our kids are Musical Intelligence, Spatial Intelligence (craft, painting, imagination), Interpersonal Intelligence, Intra Personal Intelligence, Natural Intelligence and Kinesthetic Intelligence.
Why do we parents ignore the other intelligence in our kids? Is it because of the social need or is it because of the fear of the future security.
May be both. I am able to dabble into so many things only because there is a safe and steady source of income in my home.
Can Intelligence be increased? No, the understanding level can be reached to a level in each child but cannot be expected to cross his threshold point. This point is also called as competence level. The simplest example that I face is with my maids. I have found that each maid has a competence level. Beyond which, any amount of extra salary will not matter in the quality or efficiency of their work. So there is no point giving them more salary when their output becomes a stable horizontal line!
So in case of our own kids it becomes our duty to find out what is the competency level of each of the 8 intelligence. Once we are able to assess this as closely as possible, we will stop pressurizing our kids.
So how do we do that? Simple keep increasing the difficulty level of any activity each time your kid crosses a bar. You will know the competency level once he stops progressing repeatedly week after week! Stop yourself from pushing your child hence forth. The key here is to keep a written track of each intelligence, each activity and each week as diligently as possible. Another key worth mentioning is that for each intelligence, there can be several activities. As a parent, you cannot give up by allowing your kid to try one activity per Intelligence. Your kid has to be exposed to a wide variety of activities, to finally get any indication of the competency level.
What is IQ? This is most useless measurement I have come across. What is the use of judging one’s IQ if it will not be used anywhere? Have you come across any foolproof IQ test ever?
Like I have mentioned earlier too, I have taken MENSA test several times now. And every time I retake it, the result is better than the last one, for the simple reason that our brain has learnt to solve a particular type of question and will perform quicker that last test. So obviously the MENSA points improve and is useless.
Another reason I find it silly is that it is the test to assess brains known functions only. How are we humans so sure that each and every function of brain has been discovered by our scientists? Who knows how many and how much is yet to be uncovered under the skull?
It’s something like this. If you know English, all those who speak English will be intelligent as per your assessment. What about the language spoken by animals? Just because we cannot understand their language can we label them as dumb? If that is so, then, we are labeled as dumb by all animals!
So no more wasting time and energy on IQ tests and IQ talks.
We should try and find out how to be HAPPY.
Do we have a Ram Baan that finds happiness? I wish!
After my 40 yrs, I have realized, it’s the most elusive feeling and resides only in our own minds.
Today we are happy because we meet our long lost friend, then, everything seems happy and great.
Tomorrow, we break up and everything is sad and depressing. Physically nothing changed. Yet the whole world starts to look and feel differently.
The mind game makes us Happy one day and Sad the other day.
But the trickiest part is when we start forcing people we love the most, into doing things that we parents imagine will be best for our kids. We think that by making our kids join several activities, our kids will become all rounder. We imagine like the ostriches with their heads in the sand pits, that things will happen or not happen as per our wishes. I feel sad to see parents running from pillars to posts in the hope of making their kids’ Sachin Tendulkar or Dhoni or Sania Mirza. They are in turn turning their kids into robots. Going to schools by clock, going to tuitions by clock, going to activity 1 by clock, going to activity 2 by clock, watching TV by clock and sleeping by clock!
Their childhood is lost by clock. Their adulthood will be anyways by clock! When do they be Happy carefree kids? When they are seventy years old? I think its high time, we chuck the clock !
Can we stop becoming a robot? Can we take a few days and be humans? Can we take a few minutes of our robotic lives and be Happy?
Yesterday, I was approached by an interesting person.
He introduced himself as a ” School Agent”. I could only guess he was a broker helping parents in getting admission for their kids.
I didn’t know these people were so net savvy. So I continued the call. He mentioned that he HELPS parents. And since I was helping parents too, if he can offer his HELP through me . !!!!!!
I knew where this was leading to.
So I asked him, what is the procedure.
To which he replied, for Bishops Rs 1 Lac. Of which he gets 10k, his boss gets 30 k, school office gets 10 k, and the school boss gets 40k.
So what are the schools he serves?
“All big names”. ” Madam ji, you just name the school. Hamare boss (builder) ki pahunch door door tak hai”.
I am left with thoughts which are synonyms of corruption, mafia, rackets and greed.
” Bhaiya, aap humko in sab se door rakhna, aur yeh mera number ho sake to delete kar dena”
” Kyun Madam, hum khud aapke paas aaye hain, parents to dhoodte rahte hain ”
” Bhaiya, meri duniya aur aapki duniya alag hai. Meri duniya ke parents apne bachchon ke bhawishya ka neev aise nahi rakhna pasand karenge.”
“Theek hai Madam ji, agar zarrorat pade to batana”
…..
Please parents lets not encourage corruption. And don’t ever discuss this with me in mails or calls. Nothing disgusts me more.
Dear all,
It’s been a hectic two month for me. Managing my time amidst 2-3 workshops, kids, exams, home, lectures and a new venture.
I want to thank each one of you who has been reading my blogs and reviews. I have learnt immensely from each communication. The workshop in school admission was an eye opener to many, including me.
During my workshops and a small mishap, a new idea took birth in my mind. Then there were meetings with several school heads, psychologists and counselors from Pune on 26th January. And I was assured that I HAVE to give birth to this new conceptual baby ASAP.
It’s my way of doing a tiny bit by starting a move to vent off the pressure from our society.
Having had the opportunity to grow in a colony of a public sector company, the club was my training ground for most of the sports and activities that I have picked. We had free access to table tennis, carom, chess, badminton, swimming, libraries, painting, dance and plays everyday. I realize the importance of those facilities today and yearned to provide similar exposure to my sons. But, to my dismay, all the activites which my kids’ showed any interest were too expensive to afford on a trial basis.
But the last straw that actually pushed me into this new concept was a martial art teacher in my society. On reference from another society member, I took the responsibility of starting his classes in my society club house. But was shocked when he started asking for Rs 1000/- every month for some reason or the other, over and above the monthly fee. Later on I did a check on his credentials and was shocked to learn a few non existing claims! Even though I do not give much importance to the certificates, the fact the in martial art forms, only affiliated institutes can send their students to interstate, inter school and national level competitions, was a disturbing fact. I called up the Indian Olympic Association and finally realized that the association was not affiliated.
That’s when I realized that how ignorant we are and how much we moms need to enquire before hading over our kids to any training or classes.
So while discussing with my fellow professors at the MBA institute, we decided that we need not wait for anyone else to take up this issue. So two moms (one is me :)) got together and planned to start off a center which will solve our problem.
A center which will be based on the Gurukul like system of learning. Why gurukul? Cuz, I personally want my kids to go through our age old system of learning. A system where learning is fun not a pressure. A system, where kids learn to respect elders, respect all jobs, absorb knowledge by interacting with gurus from various fields and experiment with most if not all types of available activities. In the process, the kids start showing interest and talent in one or two specific activities. This one or two activity will be later on honed by the gurus in a more dedicated style. The gurus take the responsibility of training, arranging the competitions, travel etc for each of their disciples.
Are you still with me? :)
Well, the center aims at trying to provide a ground to all your kids, in various activities and in a true sense slowly but steadily provide an alternative career. A career which involves both the heart and the mind 100%. And as we all know, any thing that we are passionate about, only brings happiness, satisfaction and of course success. And have you heard of success is followed by a good bank balance! Well, whether we accept it not, all parents have this fear about their kid’s future and more specifically, if their child will be able to love a good stress free life. We have somehow got stuck to the idea that being financially sound is the only thing in the life. Also that to be financially sound, academics is the only solution! Well, no doubt, the school and all the education that our kids acquire from the academics is important, but becoming an engineer and a doctor are not the only career now!
It’s high time we woke up to face the reality and broaden our minds to other career options available to our kids. There are more than hundred fields other than being an engineer, MBA or doctor. (What an irony, everyone in my family belongs only to these three fields).
Even I want to be assured somehow that my kids will lead a HAPPY life, a stress free life and a financially stable one.
So if I tell you that an average engineer earns 30-40k (post tax) per month, an average doctor earns(post tax) 30-40k whereas an average choreographer earns 50k-1 lac (tax???) per month, an average martial art trainer earns 40-1Lac (tax??) per month after spending only 4-5 hours per day as compared to 9-10 hours spent by an engineer / doctor!
Shocking, isn’t it? But on the contrary, I found this to be a pleasant surprised. I got down and did a survey and was confirmed about the figures.
Then I started interviewing all the top personalities from non-academic areas, who chose to follow their passions, and today are HAPPY people.
(Excerpts from these interviews will be soon available to you all with their pictures.) Remember a HAPPY mind, always is successful.
So my dear parents, who have trusted and have been following my blog, this one is for YOUR KID.
SuperIndianKid ! As nothing less will describe them with the overall exposure that we will be providing to all our kids.
I had to build another site where you can avail all information on any activity that your kid deserves to be encouraged.
Together we will help our society by venting out the pressure from the lives of our Kids.
Are you ready to help your kid live a HAPPY stress free life and achieve what is most passionate to him?
YES I want to be a part of the stress free society or visit www.SuperIndianKid.com
A fortnight back, I went to review an educational product to be launched in India by a Dubai based company. And to my pleasant surprise, I was standing next to a pre-school Indira Kids, Aundh.
Initially I thought it was too congested but when I got inside, it gave me a very homely feeling. With kids who are 2 years and above, this is what is best for them. Something like home where they learn with no alienating feeling.
The office lady was extremely helpful. I never tell schools that I am reviewing their schools. Thankfully my kids are at such an age that it becomes easy to get all the relevant information straight from the management. Earlier I used to tag along my sons, but now before I can say anything they tell the school people that, ” Mamma has come to review your school. I goto St Mary’s / DPS . And I love my school.” So instead of getting myself into such embarrassing moments, I go alone now.
The school follows CBSE board with their own methodologies. Each class has 20 kids.
The school has two floors and both are cutely done up. The important thing to see was their classrooms. They all had tell tale signs that kids were being taught in the best possible way. Sight words were stuck all around, lots of creative out puts were hanging all over the classrooms.
The bathroom was the best. The pink pots were low heighted with cute shaped flaps.
Kids were all dressed in light pink and were looking like angels. I could see many kids from different nationality, which is a sign of high fee charged.
And my fears came true.
The school charges around Rs for pre-nursery! I found it humungus but I guess when the parents are willing to pay for a quality stuff then why not ! There are classes upto UKg in both Baner and Aundh branches.
Fee for Pre Nursery is Rs 38 000/ annum at age 2 years completed by June.
Nursery, LKg and UKg fee is Rs 50 000/ annum at age 2 .5 – 3.5 years for Nursery, 3.5- 4.5 for LKg and 4.5-5.5 years for UKg.
The timing are as follows:
Pre Nursery – 9:15am to 11:15am
Nursery – 9:15am to 11:45am
LKg / UKg - 9:15 am to 12:45 noon and 12:45 to 4:15 pm for afternoon batch.
The best thing parents like along with excellent education, mind you, not literacy, is the lunch served by the school. The food is cooked at Baner branch and served at both the schools. The schools has excellent day care facitlites too with food.
There was a bus too waiting outside.
When I interviewed the parents, they were ok with the fees. For them the knowledge was too good and worth spending that huge amount. Well fair enough. Also since most stay close to the school that’s also a reason to spend.
The site is www.indirakids.ac.in near Parihar chowk.
I am copying all the details from their site regarding admissions.
INDIRA KIDS AUNDH & BANER
Admission procedure for the academic year 2010-2011
Admissions available for Playgroup, Nursery, Jr. KG (Afternoon batch) only. Kindly note admissions to Sr. KG (Afternoon batch) is available only at the Baner campus.
The admission forms will be available on 11th & 12th December, 2009 between 10.00 am & 1.00 pm. Duly filled forms to be submitted on 11th or 12th December, 2009.
A list of confirmed students will be available on our website on 18th December, 2009. Kindly pay the confirmation fees on the 21st,22nd and 23rd December 2009.
Requirements for admission at time of confirmation-
- Photocopy of the birth certificate
- 3 stamp size photo’s of the child
For further details contact
Aundh Branch : 25896266, 25880451, 40058643
Email: infoaundh@indirakids.ac.in
Baner Branch: 65240917 , 20250092
Email: info@indirakids.ac.in
The classes from 1st std to above is held at Wakad, Pune.
There are 6 sections for 1st std with total intake of 160 kids ! Of which a 50% are from their pre school and the rest from other schools. Each class from 1st to 8th std has 40 kids.
The timing for 1st std is 9:15 am to 2:45 pm.
The fee is a whopping Rs 75000/- annum. of which 25 K is the initial admission fee.
The school again serves food at lunch time. The school has excellent facilities for both academics and extracurricular needs. I could not meet the principal but the teachers were excellent. One teacher was so enthusiastic that she sat down and gave me all the details of what activites she was doing in her class . There was a well maintained football, basketball ground and a large swimming pool too. I really do not know how much is used but looking at the neatness, meant they were taking care of these well. The younger kids have a lovely play area too. The lunch rooms was excellent. I was already beyond the lunch time, else I would have had my lunch there, like I did at Vibgyor and Sharad Pawar International School.
The school admission details are copied from their site http://indiranationalschool.ac.in
NEW ADMISSIONS (STD I TO STD VIII)
Admissions for 2009-10 are open for classes I, III, IV, V, VII and VIII.
For details contact the school office
Timings : Monday to Friday – 09:00AM to 02.00PM
2nd and 4th Saturday of every month 09:00AM to12: 00 PM noon
Phone: 020- 667 31 621/ 22/ 24
ST Mary’s school seems to have got it’s reputation reaching far and wide the globe!
Everyday I get atleast one mail about reviewing St Mary’s school, Pune.
When I got my son’s admission, I did not know anything about schools in Pune. I was not ready to leave my son to go from a nearby play school to the conventional schools. So I delayed and let him finish LKg too. I was planning to make him do his UKg too at the playschool as I was very happy with KiderBrook at Kalyani Nagar. But when I called a few school then, I got the shock of my life.
I was facing the harsh reality of no schools willing to hear me out as all schools were packed with kids to their brimming capacity.
Then I went to St Mary’s and was relieved that at least there was one school which was still open for us. I got the online form filled and got the news of my son’s first level selection. Later he wrote his written exam and did extremely well. The, then principal, Mrs Mathews, just said, “Oh your son has done extremely well. You can leave.”
After he got through, and people started congratulating me, did I realize, that it’s difficult to get through St Mary’s school.
No doubt the school is great. The results do prove the academics. We have the Pune topper from last year 2009, in my society, from St Mary’s girls school.
The school is a convent with good discipline. Boys and Girls sections are demarcated by a garden cum play area. The Boys and Girls have two different entrances. Though for me co-ed makes more sense as I am from a co-ed school, I think it does not matter, as long as the school is good.
The school teachers are very experienced and most are there for 15-25 years. The current principal Ms Simoes has given 25 years to this school as Vice Principal and now as Principal. Though I heard that in Dec 2009, she submitted her resignation. Hope the management, is quick to replace the position with an equally dynamic principal. My good wishes to the principal and the management, as the reputation of a school is totally dependent on the principal and the teachers. A good, principal not just brings disciplined environment but also makes a school look like a school. Else it turns out like DAV.
The Girls and Boys have different timings.
Boys starts at 7:15am and finish the day at 12:00 noon.
Girls start at 8:30 and finish the school by 3:30pm.
The timings have changed a number of time in the past one year due to swine flu, kindly check their site for current timing.
The school follows ICSE board and is nearly 140 years old. The age has given it immense maturity and goodwill
The school fee is I think the least I have heard till today amongst all Pune schools. Its around 21ooo/- now after being increased from a mere 14000/- . The books and uniforms are all very nominal too. No wonder parents are going crazy after this school.
The school follows the traditional teaching methodologies and is extremely strict on disciplines. Even the watchmen are very diligent in diverting the traffic during the rush hours.
The pressure in the school will ensure that the kids learn to take the pressures of the life from early age. All kids must study and revise a maximum of one hour every day to keep the good position. I think the school has never professed this amount of pressure. Its the by product of taking brilliant kids.
The kids are screened and scrutinized to such an extent during the entry time, that the whole class has studious and high IQ kids. And when this is the level of the entire class, the difference in the result will be based on the practice put in. So any child who is studying at home regularly, will show better results. And obviously, its the moms who have to take this responsibility.
So its not about your kid being intelligent any more, its more to do with the amount of hardwork a mother is putting behind her kid. I was quite shocked when I was told that most moms actually prepare homework other than the ones given by the school. ! So, it’s the moms who have become paranoid in producing another paranoid individual.
I wish I could shake all of these moms heads and release some of the pressure out, shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
If anyone is looking for an extremely good academic oriented school, St Mary is the Best school in Pune, ICSE board. But mind you ONLY STUDIES, NO Sports can make your kid dull.
There are two huge playgrounds. The girls’ have bigger grounds but the boys have to do with one basketball ground and a small kid play area. There is a swimming pool too, which starts from 1std only up to 4th std. After that the boys cannot swim as girls have more privilege.
The school is great in building confidence and communication skills in a kid. The St Mary’s kids actively participate in concerts every year. My son has taken part in both the concerts and was given the role of bear and lion each time. May be by the time he finished 10th , he will become a one boy zoo. . Since the kids come back home early (boys), there is a good amount of time to engage in any other activity.
But there is no extra curricular activities. The boys just roam around in the school, with a few playing basketball. The school really needs to do something for making the over all development as focus instead of only academics.
I must tell you that, unlike Bishops, these kids from St Mary’s who go for tuitions is rare. The studies are taken care of in the school. And even if there is something that needs special attention, the school teachers on their own take the responsibility, just like DPS, Pune or DAV, Pune.
The school being right near the camp is a boon to me, as I just have drive and reach in 10 min time to his school.
So all you moms who are interested in a good ICSE all boys / all girls schools, try St Mary’s school, Pune.
As of now, the Boy’s UKg online admission form is out. Now the lucky ones will be getting their calls on 20th Jan 2010. There will be slight change in the exam system this time, as written may be scrapped off. So the emphasis is more on the orals.
Girls online forms can be downloaded now till the 20th Jan. The rest you can check on www.stmarysschoolpune.org.
Oh and by the way the school does not have it’s own school bus.
St Arnold’s school had always been a question mark in my mind, whenever I used to visit the vadagaon sheri area in the past. A huge boundary wall always suggested that there is a school or was a school inside somewhere, but could never see any soul inside or outside.
Later when a few site members enquired about it, I realized that the same area I used to wonder about is now St Arnold’s School. So I decided to visit it and review the school.
The school is right in the lane that is opposite to Bishops, Kalyani nagar. The lane is not too wide and has hill station like curves . So when visiting that area, I always find it quite interesting.
31st October 2009, will be one of those dates which I will always cherish.
Well it was an honor that came to me quite unexpectedly a week before 31st October 2009. I was enjoying a very interesting lunch with three friends at Oakwood Premier, Koregaon Park, Pune. Mrs Vanita Dogra, the principal of Kider Brook Child Development Center, Kalyani Nagar, gave a call.
With an amazing red wine doing it magical effect on my neurons, nothing more could have given me a high at a noon ish time. But guys, trust me, the call was like an intravenous shot to the ultimate. After a few formal lines, she told me that the school was planning it’s sports day with Viman Nagar and Kalyani Nagar combined on the 31st October and that they had all (teachers) have decided that I would be their honorable chief guest for the sports day!
It’s one honor to be the chief guest but it’s a more valuable honor to me as my two kids have spent their three years at Kider Brook School. I was overwhelmed and accepted the honor delightedly.
Come 31st October, and my kids were more ready than ever. All four of us dressed our best and landed at the Don Bosco Stadium, where Mrs Dogra was waiting with all the parents of the tini tots.
The kids were adorable as always, dressed in blue shorts and white tops.
There were such amazing participation by the kids for various interesting races like fisher-man and fisher-woman race, match the shape race, vegetable seller race etc.
I could not stop smiling for the next two hours and by the end my lips and the jaw muscles refused to stop smiling ! ( I was reminded of my marriage reception day )
I was thrilled as much as the kids when I gave away the medals and their certificates of excellence! There were times when I helped the kids in coming off the winner’s podium, when Mrs Dogra whispered to me that the teachers will take care of it.
Can’t help, Mrs Dogra, I am mom first, so all that basic instincts are now basically involuntary .
There were races for the parents too. I could see my hubby fumbling with a saree that had to be folded neatly before making a dash. The moms had to walk with a book on their crowns.
I gave a lovely short speech and will always be honored to be part of the school that has groomed my kids and me into a better personality.
Yesterday I came across the third parent whose views I wanted about DAV school Aundh, Pune. And I am forced to write this post.
I have not personally reviewed the school, but this news has to be shared with parents to decide better.
Click to read more
Dear Parents, on popular request, you can once again avail the opportunity to meet me on a ONE-on-ONE workshop on Pune School Admission for Nursery, LKg, UKg.
The workshop will comprise of the following:
- Mock interview of the child
- Mock written test if applicable (Ukg only)
- Mock interview of both parents, hence both must attend
- Tips on filling the admission form (online/paper)
- Tips on answering questions
- Tips on etiquette if needed
- Ask and clarify your doubts. Kindly write and bring your questions. ( My last experience says people forget to ask all questions)
- If you have any specific questions about a specific schools, kindly mail them to me beforehand, to allow me time to find out the right answer to your questions from the right sources.
The time duration for the workshop is 1.5 to 2 hours.
Venue for the workshop:
803 A, Lunkad Sky Lounge, Lane 7, Kalyani Nagar, Opposite Gold Mariplex, Pune 411006
I am proud to share with you that the success rate of last workshop has been 100%. to date.
Starting from 24th December 2009 – 28th February 2010, I will be available on all days on prior appointments. Till 3rd January, I will be available on weekends too.
Feel free to mail back to clarify about your doubts and to fix your timings and mode of payment. Remember earlier the better, as you get time to prepare before the actual interviews/ tests.
My sincere effort is that everyone gets through the schools they wish to see their kids going to.
Prepared Parents means lesser stress leading to deserving success for you child. .
Thank you and God Bless you.
Madhurie Singh
singhmadhuri@gmail.com
My son came running to me asking me for pocket money. He was watching some cartoon channel and was suddenly inspired.
I was busy setting exam paper for my MBA batch. So wanted to handle this situation asap.
This is how our conversation went.
Son: “Maa, I want pocket money”!
Me: “OK”
Me: “ Do you know all the numbers?”
Son: “ Yes”
Me: “ Ok count till the LAST number you know”
Son: “one, two…twenty, hundred, two hundred, million, trillion”.
(My two boys somehow always end up counting or discussing millions and trillions, nothing less will do)
Me: “ Ok but if I give you Rs 500, and the mall guy gives you only Rs100, back, how will you know he gave you the right amount?”
Son: Thinking for a few seconds. “ok then teach me now”
Me: “ Go get your doodle board. “
He ran and got his doodle board. (Earlier I have had to coax him to bring it out!)
Me: “ Write down all the numbers you know.”
My son was never so fast and obeying like now.
Son: “Here, see, I have finished writing all the numbers upto 20.”
“Now give me my pocket money.”
Me: “But you have to learn addition and subtraction before I give you pocket money.”
“ If you learn now, I will give you your pocket money right now”
I could see the excitement in his ever so naughty big eyes.
Son: “ Teach me addition and subtraction now.”
Me: “ Now?”
Son: “ Yes, now”. “ I am now five years old, I can learn anything!”
Wow, that is called confidence and the real urge to learn and what was motivating the whole excitement was that same thing that keeps all of us motivated.
Looks like my boy was getting to know the fundamentals of money matters rather earlier than my generation did. Hmm! Robert Kiyosaki will definitely be proud of my son. Time to read Rich Dad Poor Dad again !
Me: “ Ok, I will teach you addition”
“ How many fingers?” I waved three fingers of my right hand.
“Three, Coins”, he shouted.
I thought I heard it wrong. So I again repeated my question. But again he replied, “ Three Coins”!!!!
He was already sold to the pocket money and was seeing coins instead of my fingers!
“How many fingers?” I waved two fingers of my left hand.
“Two Coins”, he was excited.
I changed from fingers to coin by now.
“Now add all the coins and tell me how many coins you see?”
“FIVE COINS !”, he shouted.
I tried the same exercise with various combinations, till I got bored.
I tried subtraction too, similarly.
I was now equally excited and took out a few one rupee and two rupee coins.
Spread them on the bed and asked him to separate out all one rupee coins and two rupee coins.
He did that quickly.
“Now tell me how many one rupee coin you have?”
“Seven Coins”
“Great, and how many two rupee coins?”
“Three Coins”
“ Do you want to write how many coins you have ?”
And before any answer from him, he was writing down.
“Write down how many one rupee coin you have.”
He wrote the number seven.
“Write plus sign.”
He did that too.
“ Now write how many two rupee coins you have?”
He wrote down three.
“ Good, write equal to sign.”
Again he knew it, surprisingly.
“ So how many coins you have.”
“10 coins”
He wrote down that too.
My five year old’s first mathematical equation was infront of me.
Proudly I hugged him.
I gave him all the coins and told him he can keep them.
After 2 minutes, my two boys came back to me. The younger had given 2 rupee coins to bhaiya. They wanted a wallet now!
So I took out the big plastic money bottle which was so heavy that it can only be rolled out, not carried.
Both of them found the real pleasure of putting the coins in the bottle.
“We are rich.” I heard.
My younger one was very assured that his pocket money was kept safely in a big bottle.
He has seen it three times now just to make sure, the bottle is safe.
Magarpatta City School is fully know as Vidya Pratishthan Magarpatta City School.
That’s one big name for a school.
Well since it was on public demand last week to be reviewed, I checked it out yesterday and was quite impressed by the school, I must say. click to read more
This article is for moms who get overwhelmed at times or most while teaching their kids for examinations.
From tomorrow my son who is in 1st std will be starting his term exams.
Usually, when the school is going on regularly, it’s not very difficult to keep his studies on track.
He would come home and after lunch, revise all classwork done during that day and complete any homework given. I really donot have to bother much as even at this young age he wants to complete his homework before play.
But damn the swine flu and all the chaos it has caused in the routine of my kids’ studies. There are days when the school declares off or there are days when I do not feel comfortable sending them to their schools.
So the result is incomplete class-works and home-works. And when the kids are at home it’s very difficult to make them sit even for an hour for studies. They want the “fun type” learning which I am pretty good at now. Thanks to my cellphone, copying the class / home works is not difficult task.
But you do not know where to start teaching when there is a pile of work right in front of you. When I was put through similar situation, I found a cool method to handle my problem. I am sure we do it always but still I will write down for my own good. ( When I need to teach my younger son , the same subjects).
The first step that I did was took the English text books and class notes from the teacher. Then I wrote down all the difficult words on a long sheet of paper. Which came to around 100 words including the spelling lists, opposites, verbs, homophones, etc.
The second step was to make my son read aloud each word with it’s spelling, and then the whole word too. This way I got to know what words he knew very well, those I scratched off. Next I gave him a dictation of the remaining words.
There is one very important thing to keep in mind when teaching to the kids.
The brain will capture from different senses when exposed to new stuff. Hence all available senses should be used at the same time by the child to learn anything new.
So in case of spellings, reading aloud uses sight and sound, to register spellings in the brain.
The third step was, writing each words on a paper, along with saying aloud each letter and finishing with again saying aloud the complete word. The brain has by now received the same input from four different senses. Sight, Speech, Sound and Motor. And there is very little chance that a child will not remember that particular word or it’s spelling. I have to include speech and sound as different senses used as the tongue plays an important part in producing the correct pronunciation which then is received by the ears and sent to the brain. If my son only heard from me a word and wrote it down without trying to repeat it aloud, the impact will be less on the brain. Also the chances of saying the correct pronunciation will be bleak.
Teaching Tip 1 .
Since handling a sheet of words is easier than carrying around books and notebooks, repetition becomes very easy and exciting even for moms.
I normally stick these sheets on my fridge with a magnet and while in the kitchen especially making chapaties, I quickly revise all the words with him.
Teaching Hindi was a tough cookie for me. There were several words which we do not use in normal conversation and hence it was a task of first making him understand the meaning of each Hindi word in my list. Here I used lots of hand drawn pictures and English words which he had to translate in Hindi. Again he had to first say the full word loud n clear, then write each letter while saying them aloud. Since Hindi has many more letters than English, it can be confusing initially if the letters are not pronounced correctly. And we all know how important it is to make a strong base for any thing right at the beginning.
For all the similar sounding Hindi letters, I made another list which I would ask him in between any activity.
I did the same thing with Science too. After knowing all the words by heart with their meanings, it’s a cake walk to answer any question, match the following or fill in the blanks for a kid, be it yours or mine .
In Math I wrote all the questions like a mock exam paper and made him practice several times. The trick to learning as we all know is repetition.
And the best way to revise is by making them write every thing while speaking each word aloud.
Another Teaching tip 2, I learnt is to use a ball pen while writing the questions. Later, for practice, all that was needed was erasing his pencil written answers.
Teaching tip 3. Another very important point worth mentioning is to keep all distractions at bay. My cellphone is silent and do not allow any distraction during learning time. Kids being kids will divert, digress and distract themselves knowingly or unknowingly. I have learnt to put a stop to any distraction the moment it starts. Why ? Cuz, again we do not want to give the brain too many different unrelated things at one point. There will be the danger of the brain associating those distractions with the learnings.
Teaching Tip 4. I do digress to very short stories, drawings and examples provided they are relevant to the topic.
Teaching Tip 5. Another important point that I have found is that the attention period of each kid varies for sure but there are ways to find out when it’s about to drop. Like in my kids’ their handwriting will deteriorate and spellings go for a toss when they are losing attention / interest. That’s the time, without keeping the books away, I share a short joke or story with them, allow them to share any thing they wish to. And there they are charged like an every-ready long running batteries.
Teaching Tip 6. I teach one child at a time. So my second son is either doing a coloring work or is writing alphabets and numbers silently. My younger one has to write all alphabets, numbers, hindi alphabets and draw any thing he feels like which he can relate to one letter. Now he is so pro at it that the moment I call them for studies, he starts his routine without even asking. Thanks my son! for letting me teach the older one for his exams!
Now what is the genesis of this brilliant idea. My son’s std 1 class teacher Mrs Rege. During the half yearly exams she gave us a sheet of all the spellings that the kids had to learn for their English exam. I found it extremely convenient. So during this study leave days, I tried it with all the subjects and with every topic.
Teaching Tip 7. Trust me it’s the most easy and the most relaxing way to teach, if you yourself are chilled out. And to be so, it should be a method of teaching and learning that is least cumbersome.
Any thing which looks, seems or portrays complication will always put the mind off. And there goes all the efforts to teach or to learn with a mind that is already switched off. So the first task is to help out mind to be receptive.
Teaching Tip 8. Use simple tools, yes, a list of words is a tool too, that looks simple to the brain to grasp.
Teaching Tip 9. Follow up with a regular repetition when you and your child are fresh (I do it the first thing in the morning during off days and after allowing them to watch their favorite TV serial. Try it, it will work always.
Teaching Tip 10. Follow the instincts and be reasonable to the kid.
I installed a new plugin which tells me what people are searching on my blog. Right age popped up too many times for me to advice on.
Indirectly, I am being shouldered more responsibility by young parents in answering this very confusing yet important question.
I am glad I never had this doubt mainly because I was part of the confusion for my parents. When it was my turn to be admitted into school at the age of 4 years, my father was transferred from Khadakpur to Dhanbad. There was some confusion about the academic year being in January in Dhanbad as compared to June in Khadakpur, or vice versa.
So my parents preferred to work hard to get my elder sis admitted to the school. After they went through all the hassle, they decided I could wait for another year. I was happy as I never wanted to goto school for a long time. So to cut the story short, I was always the oldest in my class which I used to proudly declare until we were in Calcutta. Then as I grew older, giving away age became more and more difficult. But thankfully that tale ended in engineering as there, no one was interested in age.
I was always very sensitive. So I shudder to even imagine had I been admitted a year earlier by my parents to a school, I would have turned into a totally different personality. The confidence and learning is directly related to age. Don’t you feel much confident today as compared to 10 years back? This same 10 years is equivalent in my opinion to 10 months when a child is as young as 4 years. What I mean is when kids are young, then every month is equivalent to a year in terms of learning and overall development.
Imagine the intake, the ability to grasp, to comprehend, to execute, to understand, to communicate, to talk, to listen and many other intelligence related terms. Now take a baby of three years age and compare with another who is six months older, so 3.5 years old. The second baby has 6 months of excess exposure in all areas as compared to the first baby who is only 3 years old.
Ok we may say that what if both babies know the same stuff as they have been going to a similar playschool together. Even if the knowledge level may be same, there is no way that the emotional and physical development of the younger baby can match to that of the older baby. We all know of the monthly mile charts handed over by the hospitals or pediatricians. Is it not very obvious that with each month there is a new skill that a baby learns, and it would be foolish on the parents’ part to expect that their baby reaches it earlier that expected by a normal child.
A baby starts crawling at the age of 4-6 months and starts walking after 9-12 months and starts blabbering between 10 months to 3 years.
So all children, if normal, have a time – range in which they WILL pick a skill. Just because your kid starts walking in the 8th month, do you force him/her to start running the next month?
No!
Like good parents we let the child run when he/she is ready.
Then why do we want to push our children into academics from where there is literally no turning back. Why are we parents so keen to see our kids going to higher class than his/her age permits and feel proud of that mistake?
As per Indian laws a girl is not ready to become a mother before she is 18 years old. Why? Simply because she is physically underdeveloped till 18 years to provide proper nutrition to a baby who will be actually using her body to grow for 9 full months!
Why some parents rush through and want their kids to be admitted early than the age allowed by our Supreme Court? Why Supreme Court has to even pass such a ruling? Do we parents lack that basic common sense to even allow our kids to grow normally like a baby deserves! ( I had this similar feeling when police has to force people to wear helmets to protect their heads! How ridiculous?)
I think I know the answer as again I went through it personally. My first son is Jun 2003 born and hence went through the classes as per the required age criteria. But my second son is Nov 2004 born. I was hassled to my wits bringing up two nearly same aged babies. So to take a breather I chose to admit the first one to Head Start (6 months) and then to Kangaroo Kids, playschool when he was only 2 years old. He went about his playschool, nursery, LKg as per the schools.
So when the younger one turned 1.5 yrs, he too started his playschool. But since schools begin new sessions in June, he was 6 months younger for his playgroup. Playgroup age is 2-3yrs. I continued his Nursery in Kider Brook. But he remained 6 months younger, but obvious! So when I had the option I chose to make him go though his LKg = Nursery in DPS again. I am extremely happy with this decision. He is learning at his own pace, no pressure on him from the class teacher, from me or any one else. Not that I give a damn to other people’s opinion when it comes to my kids development and future.
So the time when your child WILL absorb and respond is very much dependent on his/her age. By pushing them early into academics will not turn them into any Einstein/ Leonardo Da Vinci. They were geniuses born with the IQ which had initially labelled them failures and drop-outs! We do not want to see such drastic future for our kids as both were never recognized in their lifetime and had miserable life.
So dear parents, chill, and follow the right age as mentioned by the Supreme Court.
Here is the age of your child in June of new academic year that you can take a cue from and decide if your child is fit or underage for a class.
6 year – 7 year = Should be in Std 1
5 year – 6 year = Should be in Sr Kg = Preparatory
4 years – 5 years = Should be in Jr Kg = Nursery
3 years – 4 years = Should be in Nursery = Playschool II
2 years – 3 years = Should be at home / Playschool I
1 year – 2 years = Should be at home / Playschool Interaction / No ABCs please
And for your child’s sake, do not think he/she will loose a year … that’s absurd… how can anyone loose a year….when the next birthday cake will no doubt get one extra candle! :)
Age is not lost … Age is always gained! Go watch the movie PAA …..
A big hi to all my loyal readers and a hello to my new blog readers.
I have written and continuously writing new reviews of the schools in Pune. Since I basically reside in the eastern part of the city, it’s but natural that you will find many school reviews around this area.
I can see with growing popularity and more importantly the growing need for me to review many more schools in other parts of the city. So I have come up with this brilliant idea. Trust me always for such ideas !
I do not want to just rush through any school I see across the roads or walk into all the remaining schools in Pune. That would be just writing on the superficial images at a glance. So here is the brilliant idea I mentioned above.
There is a poll on the sidebars. Kindly check on left and right side bars for the poll.
It will be for all those people who wish a particular school to be reviewed by me.
By the end of each week, the school which gets maximum polls will be the winner. In case there is a tie, then the school that is farther will win.
What if the school you wish to be reviewed is not in the poll?
No worries, just post a comment on Request School Review Page. And your problem goes into the poll.
Many of you have mailed me as to they are extremely thankful and wish to repay me in someway !!!
So here is the time to repay …
… You all will have to promise me an honest comment / review of any school you visit and write it under the respective schools heads in the forum.
and since I am not very easy to please…
you had better start spreading the word out using any or all of the following
Tweet the article, one click and you are done,
DIGG
Stumbleupon
Del-ic-ious
etc. These are various sites which spread the word on your behalf.
That’s all. What did you think?
I know this is a stale news, 4th December 2009 to be precise.
But looking at the Maharashtra Education Ministry’s past record, that would give out a statement only to backtrack the following day, I chose to wait and watch.
It’s been 4 days since the news and now I feel I should write about it for my readers benefit.
It’s a no brainer but took decades to even reach this decision although I am skeptical till the final process takes any shape.
Why did we first of all allow to have so many different education boards in India? If the ruling country had only one education board ie Cambridge aka IGCSE, why did Indian bureaucrats allow proliferation of other boards?
How and when so many boards creeped into our education system is anyways a thing of the past.
I am glad the new HRD minister is born with the courage and aptitude to think differently. He difinitely has thought about the disadvantages of having many education boards and took the bold decision of making a single syllabus for all boards in Xth std across all states in India. Hat’s off to him. Like always, any new decision has to be ready to be battered by those who take pride in taking up causes where no cause exists. But when something has selfless intentions behind it, it’s difficult for any one to attack it.
Success of the common X std syllabus in science and math may be just the beginning but it’s here to stay and inspire others. ANd boy it did inspire Maharashtra State Education Department rather sooner than expected.
And what comes as a quick and much needed need of today’s education system in Maharashtra was finally unveiled by the State Education Department on the 4th Dec 2009. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Educaton-dept-mulls-common-syllabus-up-to-standard-V/articleshow/5298524.cms Excerpts from TOI link:
PUNE: The state school education department is planning to introduce common syllabus for classes up to standard V across all boards — state, CBSE, ICSE and IB. “Yes, we are thinking on the lines of introducing a common curriculum across all boards up to Std V. We are in the process of working out the modalities,” Sanjay Kumar, secretary, school education, told TOI on Thursday.
Asked when the proposal would be ready, Kumar said the exact timeframe can be decided only after working out the modalities, while refusing to elaborate.
Sources from the state education department told TOI that Pune- based Maharashtra State Council of Education Research and Training (MSCERT) will soon be asked to prepare a draft of the common curriculum for all boards up to standard V.
I hope this decision sees light of at least the year 2011 in the form of a common syllabus across all schools in Maharashtra.
All the dilemma of which board to choose, which is better, CBSE, ISCE, IGCSE or State Board will become a thing of the past. Amen!
This morning, i.e. 2nd December 2009, was a pleasant one with a news which will change the face of Indian education system thoroughly.
“COMMON PLUS-2 SYLLABUS FOR SCIENCE, MATH ACROSS BOARDS?” in Times of India.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Common-plus-two-syllabus-for-science-math-across-boards/articleshow/5289998.cms
I am pleased with the education minister so much that I could hug him right away .
There is no doubt a gap that’s undeserving and uncalled for which has been for years overlooked by various boards. CBSE has always been the choice board for all those who wished to appear for common entrance exams in India at the national level. The course grills the students to not only prepare for the CBSE / AISSCE (All Indian Secondary School Certificate Examination) but also is proudly known to be at par with the national level common entrance exams for engineering, medical, business administration etc. Hence always students from other boards would yearn to join a CBSE school/ college atleast after Xth std, but find it extremely difficult for cope up with the methodologies and structure of the course.
Now with this step, the unnecessary stress on the students of non CBSE boards will be allayed. Though the COBSE (Council of Boards of School Education) in India has decided at this point to not make it mandatory for schools to opt for this changed course.
In my opinion, all boards have their plus points. The new common board must aim at amalgamation of the best of all boards.
The CBSE board is comprehensive and deals with vast knowledge areas, whereas ICSE makes excellent communication skills which has become number one need for any successful individual in this competitive world.
International Boards, if also accounted will be able to provide the practical approach towards fundamentals with hands on experiments as early as in class Nursery.
The love of state language and paced out structure of State Boards will be a dream once the new board is adopted by State Board schools. But that will be with all other boards too, as no more focus on only one part of the brain allowed my dear students. If you are born with a complete brain including left and right sides, you had better be good at polishing both ends to meet your ends in future effectively.
I am excited just with the news of this idea running into our bureaucrats grey cells. May the spark light the country and show the world the true source of the genesis of the intellectual knowledge.
Last week my sons were down with fever and upset tummy. I was scared but was relieved when the symptoms were not of swine flu.
In the last 7 days, I gathered some important information which may be useful to some of you moms in differentiating between swine flu symptoms and normal flu symptoms.
If your child has
Severe cold/ cough or congestion of the Respiratory tract
And
very high fever, which does not come down, even with any anti pyretic / anti fever medicine/ cold sponge
AND / OR
Severe body ache / headache
Rush for swine flu test or best goto any govt hospital, where Fluvir syrup will be given even without test.
OR
You can call Religare wellness . They will come to your house and take the samples for swine flu. They charge Rs 4500/- for swine flu test.
If the fever comes down by any medicine, then it’s a common flu.
In either case, reduce the exposure of your child to public place, lots of washing of the hands, buy new scrubber for dish washing, clean the floor with dettol, wipe the door knobs, handles, switches, phones, remotes with dettol atleast once week, will keep away the germs out of your house.
My world came to a stand still on the 15th Nov morning when my two boys were down with high body temperature.
With swine flu making it’s comeback, we were very scared and kept our fingers crossed. Thankfully there was no soreness in the throats nor any cough. I gave them Ibugesic Plus and the fever came down. But two nights were scary.
Next morning I ran to the Ruby Hall to our paediatrician Dr Neeta Hanumante. She was sure there was no swine flu as the respiratory tract was clear. I had started Normet (Norfloxacin and Metronidazole) for loose motions which was not working. So she changed it to O2. ( Ofloxacin and Ornidazole). Although Norloxacin is also a broad spectrum antibiotic and suppose to work on both gram +ve and gram -ve bacteria, but since it was used continuously for last 5 years, may be the drug was not powerful enough or may be the bacteria were now used to it.
She also prescribed Zinc based multivitamin as Zinc is suppose to help the gut lining recovery.
To replenish the good flora of the gut, I started ViBact which is a sachet of pre & probiotics. These good bacterias are very important for quick upset tummy recovery. You must have seen the adv of Yakult endorsed by the actress Kajol. This small bottle costing Rs10/- has only lactobaccilus casei strain (6.5billion in one drink). But during gastro problems, it’s best to go for pre & probiotic Vibact which has 50 million Lactobacillus spores, 30 million streptococcus faecalis, 2 million clostridium butyricum and 1 million bacillus mesentericus and costs Rs 8/ sachet. The advantage of Vibact is definitely more variety of good bacteria. Also one sachet can be mixed in one glass of water to be given during the whole day.
Kajol may be unknowingly recommending Yakult for daily consumption, but it is not advisable to take any probiotic on a daily basis. The body has it’s own way to culture these flora in our gut and if we provide anything extra, it will only be flushed down the drain.
The viral flu in the air now may be the “rota virus” which causes gastroentritis in kids, leading to loose motions and fever.
The doctor told us that lots of kids with similar symptom were calling sick so no need to panic. Easy to say.
She also assured me that the motion should be ok by the 6th day. And loo! on the 6th day, both were perfectly fine with normal motion. ( Never have I felt so happy peeking into the pot before, than this time.:))
A pathologist friend adviced that now that the virus was gone, I should clear away any remaining microbes and worms with Zentel (Albendazole). One bottle per child and repeat after a month to remove any traces of any worm.
In the last 7 days, I gathered some important information which may be useful to some of you moms.
How to differentiate between Swine Flu and Normal Flu symptoms?
If the fever comes down by any medicine, then it’s a common flu. In either case, reduce the exposure of your child to public place, lots of washing of the hands, buy new scrubber for dish washing, clean the floor with dettol, wipe the door knobs, handles, switches, phones, remotes with dettol atleast once week, will keep away the germs out of your house.
Food during loose motion / stomach upset.
Food that helps kids to recover fast during loose motion, is a BRAT . Banana, Rice (overcooked), Apple, Toast ( no maida).
Add methi seeds into the boiling moong khichdi as methi is excellent to stop loose motion.
Another sure shot home remedy I can swear by is a half nutmeg boiled in 1 cup water till it is reduced to one fourth. Mix this water in normal water and give it to your kids. I used to give this even when they were on powder milk.
I make soup with vegetables having loads of potassium as it help to cure loose motion. I have come across this beautiful site which I have been referring to now over last 12 months and trust me it is a bible of all food items. It called nutritiondata.com.
Soup made of onion, tomato, carrot, potato and most important parsley with ginger, garlic helps a lot to recover fast.
Chicken soup with same ingredients also is excellent.
Food that must be completely avoided during loose motions. Maida, Sugar, oil and spices. These are difficult food to be digested and will just pass out of the body causing more pain than any gain .
And if the child is not eating or drinking anything, then ORS is a must.
Last year same time in the month of November I was frantically visiting as many schools as possible for my younger son’s admission into Nursery/ Lower Kg.
I had become a tourist with food packed and water bottles stacked in the car with my younger son tied up in his car seat on the rear side of my Scorpio.
My hubby would tease me that I looked more like a rani jhansi on an election campaign!:) I tell you men can at times imagine things that will leave you gaping…
Since the whole world around me knew of my school hunting spree, lots of friends provided me with valuable information and advice. A friend’s wife called to tell me about her story. When she mentioned about the school her kids were going to, I was literally drooling . My preference being Co-ed and CBSE, I quickly set off to the school called Gurukul Express, Ashok Nagar.
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Dear All,
Swine flu seems to be making it’s dreaded comeback with the pouring rains as anticipated by the WHO. I am aware of one case of swine flu in DPS, three in Bishops and also in St Annes that has closed down the school due to a case in the school. (The first unfortunate death of a student named Rita was from this school).
St Mary’s school will be closed tomorrow 12th Nov 2009 , due to rains cyclone. Phone 020 26333234
St Mary’s school has also sent a notice with a warning that kids need not attend the painting competition due to probable swine flu exposer.
Today, there were quite a few skeptical moms who went by their gut feelings and decided to keep their kids home. Do that, if you think it’s necessary.
My younger son started a running nose at the bus stop this morning , so we took an about turn to our home. He was so elated he gave me an involuntary hug.
Also Bishops schools have declared holiday tomorrow ie Thursday 12th Nov 2009.
Vibgyor High upto 5th std will be closed tomorrow. Phone 020 30446000
Pawar Public School also closed tomorrow. Phone 020 26722290
There is also a news in the TV channels about a cyclone that would be hitting the shores of Mumbai tomorrow 12th Nov 2009! I could feel the gust today in the morning with such forceful wind that my umbrella wanted to fly away from my clutches .
So I guess it’s time again to use our motherly instincts and decide how long we should send our kids to their schools. Do not be worried about missing the school portions as this year schools will have to be lenient with grades and no school will do any justice if they detain any kid.
Also if you read my article on swine flu, you can be sure there are still literate yet uneducated (?) parents who continue to send their kids to school with cold, flu and cough!
Weigh the pros of sending your kids with all the cons of the above factors and decide whatever is best for your kids. .
I will post about other schools too when I get more information.
Happy Living
Excellent school is all I can keep repeating about this school. From the dynamic principal to the dedicated teachers to the superb management, I am always marketing DPS, pune as my own school .
The Principal, Mrs Neelam Chakraborty is an amazing lady. The way she handles the school premises, kids and teachers and staff id awesome. I alway strongly believe the leader has to dynamic, the rest will follow on it ’s own. She seems to be thinking always for the betterment of the school. It’s the best one can expect out of a great school. When a principal stops thinking, s/he stops applying the brains and then follows a stagnation in all school policies. She thinks when others have given up. She will come up with brilliant ideas to handle any situation that others will have to appreciate with a gaping mouth!
Just this saturday, I was called for a PT meet. Obviously there were hundreds of parents driving down to the school. Normally, parking is left to a parent’s discretion. It may seem inconsequential but if it’s handled as beautifully as DPS, one has to sit up and notice it.
When I tried to park in front of the school, I was told the DPS parking for saturday was diverted elsewhere. I took a u turn and was directed inside a lane near the school, which took us to the parking area of Corinthian Club. Wow, early morning when my eyes got a feast of beautiful landscape with roman structures I was thrilled. I have a soft corner for Corinthian club as we had celebrated both our sons’ first birthday parties there, with the entire office and friends. On the way I had asked a driver who was showing the way in, if we have to walk down all the way to the school ! He had smiled and nodded his head. After parking my car I was again escorted by another driver who took me to the bus which was ready to leave for the school. Once done with my meeting, I was again politely escorted to the waiting bus which took me back to the club! Isn’t that a well thought out and planned handling ? I must credit the colonel also who is very efficiently managing the school administration.
Once in the school, there was this beautiful display of books from Scholastic Books. I selected books worth Rs 4000/- but was disappointed that they did not take credit card. But again, the school came to my rescue. They book store agreed to drop these books to my home the same evening. They were willing to accept a cheque. Once done with my shopping I went to meet the Nursery D class teacher.
The class teacher of Nursery Ms Mehak was looking as fresh and pretty as a morning glory. I love people who are always smiling. I dunno how many are aware of the scientific correlation between a smiling face and a fruitful positive day ahead! The smile makes our brain be relaxed and stress free. And obviously when the brain is happy, the process of thinking and decision making is also flawless. So that ensures a beautiful positive day ahead.
I was 30 min early (for a change), yet she was sweet and met me. We talked about my son’s progress. I am a very cool mom, so I don not bother teachers with useless queries about my son or compare or even ask what is his position in the class. I believe that if there is something that’s not going as per the teacher’s expectation, she will tell me. Teachers in Kider Brook used to tell me, that I am the coolest mom they have met. But they also know that in times of stepping in I will preempt and take the much needed action before any one asked me. She also mentioned how the school was taking extra steps and getting ready for the winter wave of Swine Flu. I had to tell her, that, my son follows her instructions and if not told, he will not be ready to do his homework.
I must tell you that Mehak Mam’ has been quite concerned for my son, when I had decided to not send him for two months due to swine flu situation and a careless mom continued sending her sick child in the same school bus. She would call up every fortnight and enquire as to when he would be joining back and give me all the worksheets. Now that’s what I call a caring and sensitive teacher! I have no idea how many teachers make any effort to call up a child’s parent to enquire about his well being. I must mention that even my older son’s teacher Mrs Rege in ST Mary’s Boys, has been very sweet and caring to enquire about his health when he could not give his last two papers of half yearly. I think such small actions makes us parent feel that our kids our in the safe and loving hands.
A few parents have asked me about DPS school being strict. Well, all schools have to be strict, if the kids have to be disciplined. Teaching two kids is such a tough task at home, and we parents do not think twice if we have to be strict. I do not believe in sparing the rod, I would rather use it as there are times when it’s the only thing that may make sense. So when it comes to a school being strict, I am perfectly fine with a strict teacher in DPS or in any school. There was a rumor that a teacher in DPS had used a stick on a child. Let me take this forum to rubbish it right away!. I know the kid, the parents and the whole incident that was blown out of proportion and it does not deserve any more space than this much. Period.
The latest I know of other details of the DPS admission is as follows:
Online forms – 9th – 18th Nov. Rs 500/- + Rs 700/-
Submission of the form – latest by 2:00 pm 18th Nov 2009.
An attested birth certificate of the child is must while submission of the admission form.
The age criteria is very crucial and last year a friend’s son who was younger by 10 days was not allowed submission of the form.
The form submission takes half the day so be prepared with food. Since the whole process is first come first serve basis, kindly make sure you be there early.
Admission fee Rs 57500/- ( only Rs 5000/- refundable) and Rs 2900/- monthly fee which will be paid through ECS.
Buses ply even till Aundh. For far off places, school bus is must.
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Yippy my son got through ST MARY’S SCHOOL Pune, India !
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Indian are bravehearts !
We go through the worst one can imagine and then forget faster than the disaster could feel important.
We have the habit of forgiving and forgetting whether things happen to others or to our loved once….
Why? May be because in the day to day grind to survive in this 1.15 billion peopled country, taking out time for retrospection could cause loss of income …IS IT SO?
Well , to explain OTHERS yes this is the best answer I can come across but the truth is obnoxious and disgusting !
We are a country of 1.15 billion SELFISH people. We have this attitude that whatever BAD happens to others will not happen to us. We live like ostriches in the deserts of the Aussie lands with out heads in side the sand and pray in our hearts that nothing should happen to us and b*** to other!!!
I have known more people praying to GOD and leaving everything to the poor GOD to handle. I know a lady who in her very pregnant state was roaming in the malls of pune, lured by the 60% discount offers when the swine flu was making headlines that even our superstars fail to achieve. I tried to reason out with her that she is not only endangering her life but her unborn’s too. Her reply left me feeling as if I am not talking to an educated woman but a thick wall! She replied ” My God will take care of everything”!!!!!!!!
Why the poor GOD has to be bothered with doing things that we mortals can very well take care of? Instead, leave him to handle the virus and much more dangerous calamities out there.
No headlines, no Fear, No Precaution !
Well, that’s what we Indians are known to believe and follow. I was doing a casual rounds of a few schools in Pune and found quite a few have forgotten what SWINE FLU is?
Kids going to most of these schools have stopped wearing masks in the classes or in the buses they travel. Parents are no more worried. Most say, ” jo hoga dekha jayega”.
There was a student from my stop who had severe cold and cough with running nose. The selfish parents continued to send the child with the mask on! Now that’s a dangerous situation as the teacher cannot see what going on behind the mask!
After requesting several times when she continued to send her child to the school in that sick state, I decided to not send my child. My son was at home for 2.5 months out of which 20 days was because of one parent’s careless attitude.
Why such parents do not get this simple logic, that by carelessly sending her sick child (not swine flu), she is exposing rest of the kids in the bus and all the kids in the class to flu. Even if it’s a common non life threatening flu, immunity of the sick kids will be lowered. With low immunity, these poor kids have the maximum probability to catch any other disease, including swine flu (H1N1 virus).
My son had to forgo two papers in his half yearly exams, all because of one careless mom. She continued to send her sick child to play with my kids. My older son was so down with congestion that he had to skip his half yearly. Thankfully just after the last two papers, the diwali holidays had begun. How did I come to know of the source of infection? Well, when I requested her son to go back home, lest he too caught the cold, the poor kid replied innocently, ” But Aunty, I have fever and cold since last one week!”
But, like it’s well known fact, we Indians have become very self-centered and thick-heads. We do not give a damn to what might happen to people in our neighborhood. As long as we or our loved once do not get affected, we prefer to keep a non interfering, non caring and non existent attitude. How disgusting?
I have my own friends’ asking me, what do I get by doing social work? I wish such people go out of the country and live in US, Australia or any other country and feel how much social sense prevails there. Even if it seems, people are aloof there, in times of need, they all join their hands to fight together. Why cannot we be little more caring, little more sensitive to other people’s needs?
No one expects you to go out of the way, just the physical presence and a collective support will make a difference in your neighbors’ lives.
How about taking a few minutes out of your busy schedule and thinking what might be the effect of your taking an action or not taking an action in people’s life around you!
A few simple but important do’s to make India a better society :
1. Start making your kids wear mask and use sanitizers again.
2. Coax them to wash their hands every time they come back home.
3. Stop going to the malls unless you really want to buy things.
4. DO NOT send your sick child to the school.
5. In case your kid is not well ( even if it’s not swine flu), keep the kid away from other kids even in the society you live in.
6. Do one tiny deed for somebody in your neighborhood.
7. THINK THINK THINK and STOP being a Zombie.
Read these two very important articles on Swine Flu in Pune.
Swine Flu Precautionary Move
SWINE FLU is VILLANIOUS
Butterflies, frogs, mouse and all kinds of insects and animals made their rounds, jumped and crawled years after I completed my engineering. But trust me when I was waiting to meet the principal of St Mary’s a few years back for my son’s admission, I was tightly holding my son’s hand till he pulled his hand out because there was too much heat !!!
My husband was as cool as a cucumber, busy on his cellphone.
It took 30 minutes before our time came and we were taken to the principal’s room. By this the butterflies and frogs were whizzing madly in my tummy as if they had taken a deep gulp of my adrenaline.
I can still remember the whole event lasted only 5 minutes, including out entry and exit !
A year later again I was experiencing the same zoo like feeling in my tummy during my younger son’s admission into DPS.
Now I cannot promise any one of you, if these questions will in anyways alleviate your stress. My effort here may provide you with more confidence to face any question in the interview. I have always found that when I am well prepared, upto my satisfaction which may reach a perfection level at times, I am extremely confident to face any challenge. How silly, isn’t that we all are aware of and know it too well ?
So without getting into my off late job as a motivational talker, I will get into the Q & A session right away.
Section 1: The approach to filling up admission form.
The online / paper admission form is the first step to your kid’s admission into a school. Kindly fill up neatly in black ink with all true information only.
Kindly fill the form together (both parents) so that you are aware of the content and keep a photocopy of the filled up form. The form is the only thing that the school has with them to judge you and your child. So make sure, you know what you are writing.
The educational qualifications are important and you can write all that you have done professionally, both parents. All schools love to have highly literate parents, though literacy does not ensure of being educated .
There are other basic information like address and other communication details that must be filled in correctly as the database once done will be rarely updated easily. ( My personal experience says so…)
One important question all schools ask is as to why do you want to get admission of your child into their school. Please write it carefully as when all other answers are similar to other parents’, this is the only deciding answer.
My reply to this question, was ” I am not looking at any school which will make my son into an Einstein, but a school which will make him a good human being who knows his responsibility towards the society.”
There will be questions about your marital status which a few schools are very critical of. I have known parent’s get together for the sake of their child’s admission into a good school, when otherwise they were living separately.
Section 2. The Interview round.
After you get the second round call, the following set of questions will be of great help to you and definitely ease your tension to a great extent.
Q1. Can you tell me about your child in brief?
Q2. Tell me something about your family?
Q3. Where do you work?
Q4. What do you expect out of the school?
Q5. What is the role of a school in a child’s life?
Q6. How much importance do you give to the school in building a child’s career?
Q7. Do you believe in live in relationship?
Q8. What religion do you follow?
Q9. What religion would you want your child to follow?
Q10. What do you think of Christianity?
Q11. Why do you want to put your child in our school?
Q12. Which is best education board in your opinion?
Q13. Why do you want your child to commute so far everyday?
Q14. Who will be taking homework of the child?
Q15. Who takes all decisions in your family?
Q16. What time do you come back from your work?
Q17. How much do you travel?
Q18. How do you manage alone?
Q19. In your absence, who takes care of your child?
Q20. Do your parents live with you?
Q21. What is the language spoken at home?
Q22. What is your qualification?
Q23. What is your opinion about CBSE board opting for grade system?
Q24. What is your opinion about Co_ed?
Q25. Do you think it matters if a school is co-ed or not?
Q26. What is your opinion about national holidays?
Q27. Who cooks in your home?
Q28. Who will attend PTA?
Q29. What is your opinion on swine flu and school being closed?
Q30. How do you think schools can cope up with loss in school days?
Q31. Do you have a live in maid?
Q32. What are your child’s interest / hobbies?
Q33. What are your hobbies?
Q34. What are your plans in India?
Q35. What activities do you do with your child?
Q36. What is your child’s favorite cartoon character?
Q37. Do you think a housewife makes a better mother than a working mom?
Q38. Why are you not working?
Q39.How do you plan to balance work and home and school needs?
Q40. During school holidays, how will you manage with work and your child?
Q41. Do you think a maid is capable of brining up your child as efficiently / effectively as you?
Q42. Where is your hometown?
Q43. How many times in a month do you eat dinner out?
Q44. Do you have another child in this school?
Q45. Why are you keen on only this school?
Q46. What would you look for in a good school?
Q47. How much weightage would you give to home and school in bringing up your child?
Q48. Why do you want to move your child from that school?
Q49. How will you contribute to the school?
Q50. Which is your next option after this school?
Initially I was thinking of providing the answers to these questions but I have now decided against it, as I think each parent is capable of answering them best to their ability. In case anyone still needs my help, I am always here for you .
In case you have any specific school related question, kindly write it down in the forum, under appropriate topic head. It will be a great help to other parents in future.
Also may I request all of you to come back and share your experience and the questions asked to you and your child after you are done with the admission of your child. I am sure years down the line, it will be a great pleasure and fun to read what questions and what answers were actually the foundation of your child’s future…:)
If you liked the article, do ReTweet It to make a difference to many more parents like you.
I wish all you parents ALL The Very Best for the journey ahead.
Happy Living
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Dear Parents,
I have compiled here all the different types of questions asked by the school teachers during the admission round.
Please remember these are sample questions only. I have collected these from various schools, parents and teachers in various good schools which will be starting their admissions in November 2009 – March 2010.
I would request you all to in general get a feel of how your kids are answering to these questions. But, let me also make it very clear to you parents that asnwering or not answering these questions do not gaurantee admissions into any school.
School admission involves
Your child’s performance in the observation round.(Very crucial)
Performance in written round ( ST Mary’s Prep ).
Your interview with the school principal. (Most Important)
The distance of the school from your home.
Your educational background.
Mother’s working or non working status.( Deciding factor)
Your social background (even though no school will agree to this point openly ).
Your financial strength (not all schools go by this factor but in my opinion it’s one very crucial factor today).
Please do not panic if there are a few activities your kid does not do or will not do. Each child has different timeline and growth milestones. And any of these abilities may or may not develop. Out of the seven abilities, only two or three are known to develop in normal kids. The rest have to be taught or come to the child later.
The school will be asking several questions and if your child does not perform in even half of them, it does not matter.
Teachers who are taking notes during admission process are very qualified and very experienced.
They know by one or two answers about the major disabilites in a child.
Again these questions and the answers are a means to know if your child has the concept of numbers, colours, shapes, body parts . It does not matter if your kid does not know all body parts or all colours and shapes! No need to panic. They use these observation rounds to make sure if a child needs special attention or will they be able to cater to needs of special cases.
With growing awareness, schools are trying to prepare their staff in training kids with learning disabilities which can be corrected with little attention in the class or which is not possible to be corrected in the class with average kids around.
Such kids are better off, if they are detected early and provided adequate concentrated coaching. Since most schools in Pune are not adept in handling special needs, they prefer to admit average type kids only.
I know of only one school in Pune which does not differentiate and that is Aman Setu.
So if you are not aware of any disability, no harm is reading up about it for your own satisfaction. Common disabilites “reading, writing, math, non verbal, dyspraxia, auditory processing disorders”. You can write to me for more details on how to test your kid for disabilities or read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_disability .
Sample Observation / Interview round questions for Nursery Class of Pune Schools.
1. What is you name?
A. My name is XXX YYY.
….
50. Do you like this school?
A. Yes. I like the ground, it’s big.
A. No, I don’t like your school. Click here to goto the forum for 50 questions asked to the kids during an interview.
You must check your kid’s intelligence here.
Tomorrow I will be publishing an article on the interview questions asked to the parents during school admission in pune schools.
If you liked the article, do retweet it for other parents like you to benefit.
TIPS TO PREPARE FOR SCHOOL ADMISSION
Questions Asked in a Parent Interview Round by Pune Schools
Nursery, PreSchool, JrKg Questions for Admission in Pune Schools Nov 2009 – March 2010
How To Select / Chose A Good Pune School
Which Education Board to choose for my child !!!!!!!!!!
My kids go to different board schools, DPS and St Mary’s !!!!!
ADMISSION DETAILS OF PUNE SCHOOLS
Schools in Pune, India DPS, ST MARY’S, BISHOPS, LEXICON, VIBGYOR…
Admission Time for Pawar Public, Millenium, Hutching, Vikhe Patil School Pune
Admission time for DPS, St Mary’s, Vibgyor, Loyolla, Bishops in Pune!!!
Admission Criteria Delhi Public School
Admission Criteria St Marys Girls and Boys
Admission Criteria Bishops Boys, Co-ed, Undhri
Admission Criteria Vibgyor High
Admission Criteria Pawar Public School
Admission Criteria Vikhe Patil Memorial School
Admission Criteria Hutchings High School
Admission Criteria Millenium National School
SCHOOL REVIEWS
Schools in Pune, India DPS, ST MARY’S, BISHOPS, LEXICON, VIBGYOR…
Playschool and Kindergarten Pre Schools in Pune !!!!!!!!!!
Pawar Public School, Pune
Aman-setu-school-an-attempt-to-preserve-humanity
Vacation and Holiday Breaks for Dps Pune !!!!!!!
DPS MANAGEMENT is Excellent !!!
PUNE St MARY’S BOYS STD 1 D are CONNECTED by YAHOO Groups !!!
DPS PUNE SCHOOL, A Benchmark !!!!!!
Yippy my son got through ST MARY’S SCHOOL Pune, India !
Kangaroo Kids Pune India
READ OTHER REVIEWS Straight from the mom’s heart
School Reviews
Ask Agony Mom any query
Products and Service Reviews for Kids
Teaching-Kids-Fun-Ways
Places4Kids-Pune
Birthdays
Health and Nutrition
Media Coverage
Join the forum discussion on this post - (2) Posts
Ever wondered, which is the best health drink to buy for your kid?
Well, for a long time I trusted the most known brands and my favourite was Horlicks. I personally love it’s taste. Last dec 2008, I took a weight loss challenge organised in my gymnasium “Solaris”.
Of course I went for the whey protein powder, lost 8 kg in 3 months, was in top 10 amongst all the contestants in Pune. But the main challenge came when I had to maintain the protein intake. I did not want to take the expensive protein powders but wanted a lighter version of milk based health drink.
So I thought of checking out if I could drink the same thing that I was giving to my kids. That is “Horlicks”.
A good friend mentioned that the best brand was Bournvita based on the maximum protein content displayed on the pack, which he said was around 40% RDA (recommended daily allowance) .
I went and bought Bournvita, trusting my friend. But my ever so data and research hungry brain had to feed on the claims made by Bournvita. I have this strange eye for figures and facts, where I know that something is not right, even when I have no connection to the subject at all! Some how, the figures did not match the claims made by Bournvita about it’s recommended RDA.
I found it very strange that a company could sell milk protein so cheap when it was costing not less than Rs3000/- 1000gm of whey protein. I got suspicious and got all brands one by one. So we all had a feast on Horlicks, Bournvita, Boost, Complan for months together, where even my hubby and I got in the habit of eating (not drinking) these powders !!!!!
Taste wise I still love Horlicks. Malt is my Halt ! ( Malting always enhances the taste along with the nutrition of any cereal.)
But when I did a detailed comparative analysis of all the brands, I felt like knocking my head on the walls for having blindly drinking and making my babies drink what I assumed was one of the most trusted health drink. The worst brand which is cheating all of us is Bournvita. !!!
The Best and most trusted brand is COMPLAN. I thank my stars that I did this analysis to pick the gem out of the scum.
Second Brand that I trust is Horlicks.
Third Brand no one.
Dabur is not compared here as the ingredients are natural and does not fall under same category as other drinks.
Yesterday, my hubby reminded me about posting my research on the health drinks after reading an article in Times Of India about Supreme Court ruling against companies that were advertising TALL claims which were meant to lure uninformed customers.
So here is my research and my honest review on health drinks for kids in India.
The worst brand in terms of extreme misleading claim award goes BOURNVITA.
The best brand and most authentic brand with all true claims award goes to COMPLAN
If you are still interested, here are the false claims and their post mortem done by my logical and analytical research.
The ridiculous claims of Bournvita : They claim that their drink has 40% RDA (recommended diatery allowance) of Protein for kids.
. The Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for protein, in grams, are:
Infants 0 to 6 months = 13gm;
Infants 6 to 12 months = 14gm;
Children 1 to 3 years = 16gm;
Children 4 to 6 years = 24gm;
Children 7 to 10 years = 28gm;
Source http://www.ehow.com/how_17040_feed-child-enough.html
Check this for more http://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/protein-requirement.php
Claim by Bournvita : Provides 40% RDA of Protein for children 4 to 6 years = 9.6gm So Ideally one drink of Bournvita of approx 10 gm powder should provide 9.6gm protein.
BUT….
Post Mortem Report of Bournvita :
What they are very cheekily mentioning under the grabs of tiny stars and other symbols are these startling facts:
The 40% RDA of protein is possible only when the Bournvita 10 gm powders is added into 240ml whole cow milk. As if they are providing the milk along with the powder! ( Or are they willing to gift a cow to each Bournvita customer!). SO in effect, the protein content of whole milk from cow is actually part of their claim! (By the way this misleading tactics is used by Kellogs cereals too).
Also Bournvita confuses the printed figures on the pack with the fact by providing a tiny reference star next to 40% RDA, that this 40% RDA of protein is possible only with two drinks in one day!
So what our kids get actually in one drink of Bournvita provided we use whole cow milk = 4.8gm protein. But wait. out of this 4.8gm the contribution of Horlicks is only 0.7gm protein !!! The rest 4.1 gm is from our darling cow’s milk .
So we are spending Rs 7.96/- to get 0.7gm protein from a powerful trusted brand called Bournvita ???????
I might as well just give plain milk which has minimum 6gm protein
Why they can not be sued? Because, they are not hiding these facts, but manipulating the visibility of these numbers on the pack.
What they should be doing?
Simply mention how much is the protein content in 2 teaspoons of Bournvita, like other brands (check Complan)?????
The Brand that I trust is COMPLAN.
Why? Cuz, they have not manipulated any fact and figure on the pack. They claim that their product when provides as much protein as one glass of skim milk does is absolutely true. A skim milk contains approx 5-6 gm protein.
The other brands that can be trusted are Horlicks and Junior Horlicks.
Boost is in the category of Bournvita . (And we have Sachin Tendulkar endorsing it !!!! I wish he reads this post for his reputation).
I am providing two tables below for any one interested in more numbers which I am sure will open your eyes if you don’t get bogged down by my colorful charts.
In This Chart I have standardized the quantity of powder to 33gm = 2 heapful of spoon of drink powder. Check the protein and calcium content. Also compare the cost per drink. Check the protein and calcium content.
Bournvita is trying tricks in using the factor which customer might use to buy their product. How long a product will last is an important factor when we buy anything. Bournvita has reduced the per drink quantity to only 10gm. So obviously, at a glance it seems the best brand to provide 50 drinks as compared to other brands like Complan which suggest 33gm per drink, which lasts for 15 drinks only !!!!
Hats off to the Bournvita Product Marketing guys… you know how to strip our kids off their healthy nutrients !!
In this second chart here I have mentioned figures as stated and claimed on each pack. Each brand has a different quantity that they suggest to be mixed in milk. This is one very good way to confuse customers who cannot calculate instantly which brand has best protein or other nutrient while shopping.
Check the protein and calcium content.
Also compare the cost per drink.
Bournvita is trying tricks in using the factor which customer might use to buy their product. How long a product will last is an important factor when we buy anything. Bournvita has reduced the per drink quantity to only 10gm. So obviously, at a glance it seems the best brand to provide 50 drinks as compared to other brands like Complan which suggest 33gm per drink, which lasts for 15 drinks only !!!!
Hats off to the Bournvita Product Marketing guys… you know how to strip our kids off their healthy nutrients !!
Admission time is a big tensionful time for all parents looking to get their kids admitted to the schools of their choice.
I remember the two years I had tried to get information on the internet , from parents in my neighbourhood and from the websites of the schools!
So this is for those parents trying to get dates of the admission for each school. A lot of hardwork has gone into making this information available with surfing the sites to making calls to the school offices. But even after all that hardwork, there is still a chance of the admission dates being changed by the school authorities.
Delhi Public School (CBSE)
DPS is the first school in Pune to start its admission process. The non refundable fee being Rs 55000/-. So if your really wish to take admission in DPS for your child, be ready with the amount. The dates below are only for Nursery, LKg, Ukg and Ist Std. For classes second onwards please check the sites if any vacancy is available. For other school will be updated … bookmark this post for other school admission details.
Admission Criteria Delhi Public School
Admission Criteria St Marys Girls and Boys
Admission Criteria Bishops Boys, Co-ed, Undhri
Admission Criteria Vibgyor High
Admission Criteria Pawar Public School
Admission Criteria Vikhe Patil Memorial School
Admission Criteria Hutchings High School
Admission Criteria Millenium National School
TIPS TO PREPARE FOR SCHOOL ADMISSION
Questions Asked in a Parent Interview Round by Pune Schools
Nursery, PreSchool, JrKg Questions for Admission in Pune Schools Nov 2009 – March 2010
How To Select / Chose A Good Pune School
Which Education Board to choose for my child !!!!!!!!!!
My kids go to different board schools, DPS and St Mary’s !!!!!
ADMISSION DETAILS OF PUNE SCHOOLS
Schools in Pune, India DPS, ST MARY’S, BISHOPS, LEXICON, VIBGYOR…
Admission Time for Pawar Public, Millenium, Hutching, Vikhe Patil School Pune
Admission time for DPS, St Mary’s, Vibgyor, Loyolla, Bishops in Pune!!!
Admission Criteria Delhi Public School
Admission Criteria St Marys Girls and Boys
Admission Criteria Bishops Boys, Co-ed, Undhri
Admission Criteria Vibgyor High
Admission Criteria Pawar Public School
Admission Criteria Vikhe Patil Memorial School
Admission Criteria Hutchings High School
Admission Criteria Millenium National School
SCHOOL REVIEWS
Schools in Pune, India DPS, ST MARY’S, BISHOPS, LEXICON, VIBGYOR…
Playschool and Kindergarten Pre Schools in Pune !!!!!!!!!!
Pawar Public School, Pune
Aman-setu-school-an-attempt-to-preserve-humanity
Vacation and Holiday Breaks for Dps Pune !!!!!!!
DPS MANAGEMENT is Excellent !!!
PUNE St MARY’S BOYS STD 1 D are CONNECTED by YAHOO Groups !!!
DPS PUNE SCHOOL, A Benchmark !!!!!!
Yippy my son got through ST MARY’S SCHOOL Pune, India !
Kangaroo Kids Pune India
READ OTHER REVIEWS Straight from the mom’s heart
School Reviews
Ask Agony Mom any query
Products and Service Reviews for Kids
Teaching-Kids-Fun-Ways
Places4Kids-Pune
Birthdays
Health and Nutrition
Media Coverage
This has been a long over due article.
Having visited it two weeks back, I finally get time to write about this school.
Earlier I have mentioned about this school based on a friend’s views as her daughter has been studying in that school since last two years. She is currently in 1st Std and is in same class as my older son who goes to St Mary’s Boys.
I could gather from her some good and some ok and some not so good views about the school.
So I thought of verifying it myself.
When I reached the school, I was impressed by the structure itself. It’s a huge school as comparable as ST Mary’s or Bishops.
The area where it’s located is also quite central, right opposite Magarpatta city, in another very beautiful township called Amanora Park, Hadapsar. It’s close to both Koregaon Park and Wanowarie.
I must tell you the place is a class and living there will automatically bring class. But no . On the contrary, the place is inhabited by neo rich or rich but not highly literate people. So the kids who I found were thankfully not the types I would prefer to keep my kids away from, that is the super richie rich ones. But then there are kids more from hadapsar area who do not actually belong to the Amanora Park. That’s what my friend was unhappy about. She was wondering how and what her daughter will pick up from the kids from local small business class. But I have a different opinion here.
It’s not the classmates in the younger classes that matter, but the teachers make all the difference in the life at such a young mind.
I wanted to meet any teacher. I first met the lady the reception, who was very new , yet provided as much information. That made my job easier. As per her the Pawar Public School will start it’s admission in the first or second week of Nov 2009. So immediately after DPS forms, I think parents will have to rush and buy a form from PPS too.
The two teacher I heard talking were pretty good and were discussing about swine flu and how to cope with the unexpected holidays. Both were quite engrossed in their conversation and trust me had brilliant ideas. I liked their accent which is one thing that puts me off if it’s bad or fake. Like in Lexicon International.
I asked them if it was possible to get mid term admissions for a friend’s kids in 5th std. They were very genuine and replied that even though there was good number of seats vacant, I needed to speak to the admin.
I met the admin officer who was busy instructing a parent how to make a draft for the fee.
She mentioned that mid term admission was possible, provided the student presented the past school noc and reports.
Then I asked her if there were any donations.
She mentioned that there is no donation in their school ! That is really a relief.
The fee is around 31000/ per annum roughly, and the best part is it’s same for all the classes, up till 10th std.
The board they follow is ICSE, but when I compared the portions covered in 1std as compared to 1 std of St Mary’s (ICSE), PPS was way behind, or should I say ST Mary’s was way ahead. I think it’s better to go slow as the kids are very young and need not be burdened unless they show signs of coping up easily.
The school also had School Buses. I did not get any information about the routes but I did manage to get their site www.ppspune.com and phone number is
PAWAR PUBLIC SCHOOL
Amanora Park Town, Survey No. 194,
Malwadi Road, Hadpsar, Pune – 411028
Tel.: 020 26722290 Telefax: 020 26722292
Email Address: info@ppspune.com
The age criteria and other details
Nursery: 2 ½ years complete
Junior K.G.: 3 ½ years complete
Senior K.G.: 4 ½ years complete
Std 1: 5 ½ years complete
Std 2 & above: Based on the promotion from previous class
Also the Nursery and Senior Kg runs in two batched.
8:00 am – 11:00 am
and
11:10 am – 2:00 pm
The approach road to the school is pretty bumpy but that’s because the school is in the township which will take minimum 5 years more to develop completely.
It’s a good school and I would rank it at par with Bishops as PPS still does not have a good history. But it’s still very nascent school but will definitely grow to a big name looking at the amount of funds gone into its construction.
SO those who wish to enroll mid term, must try this school as its easy on pockets and process both.
Welcome to the workshop on Pune school admission.
Today the focus will be DPS Pune Admission.
You all should be logged into the site, if not please do it now.
Before we begin the workshop kindly go through the new post on how to select a good school.
In case anyone has any query on how to select a school, you can post a comment like usual . I will answer them right now.
After we are done with all commenting on selection factors of good school,
Kindly go to Forum Page and goto DPS Pune under topics.
Here I will be posting one by one all the steps that will prepare you for the DPS admission.
After I am done with the whole step, anyone can write down their query and I will answer to the best of my knowledge on the forum.
This is my the first time that I will be using a forum, hence bear with me for any goof up
In case this mode fails, I will shift to our regular commenting mode under this very page.
Wish this attempt good luck for you and for me
Hunting for good school for your darling? I know it can be not just stressful, it becomes very confusing with hundreds of schools in Pune!
Let me help you out my dear parents.
Follow me each week right here and get to know about each school little better than what you know now.
To begin with how should you select a school for your child? What are the factors which a parent must look for in any school before giving it a green signal?
Each of us has various factors and priorities, which you should sit and analyze with your better half.
You can make a simple table with the following factors and then rank them in the order of the priority that suits you. Since there is no right and wrong in ranking them, I will only suggest how I ranked these factors for my kids. I am also giving my reasons here in the table against each factor which might differ than yours.
Fixed factors are those which will not or should not change in future.
Changeable factors will change.
Once you are done with this list, you will find it’s not as difficult or confusing to select the school in your area or city.
Next week I will assess DPS Delhi Public School for your benefit and provide you with as much details about the admission dates, procedures, criteria for selection based on my personal experience.
These are all suggestions and any parent reading them should remember to make best of these to take any decision.
TIPS TO PREPARE FOR SCHOOL ADMISSION
Questions Asked in a Parent Interview Round by Pune Schools
Nursery, PreSchool, JrKg Questions for Admission in Pune Schools Nov 2009 – March 2010
How To Select / Chose A Good Pune School
Which Education Board to choose for my child !!!!!!!!!!
My kids go to different board schools, DPS and St Mary’s !!!!!
ADMISSION DETAILS OF PUNE SCHOOLS
Schools in Pune, India DPS, ST MARY’S, BISHOPS, LEXICON, VIBGYOR…
Admission Time for Pawar Public, Millenium, Hutching, Vikhe Patil School Pune
Admission time for DPS, St Mary’s, Vibgyor, Loyolla, Bishops in Pune!!!
Admission Criteria Delhi Public School
Admission Criteria St Marys Girls and Boys
Admission Criteria Bishops Boys, Co-ed, Undhri
Admission Criteria Vibgyor High
Admission Criteria Pawar Public School
Admission Criteria Vikhe Patil Memorial School
Admission Criteria Hutchings High School
Admission Criteria Millenium National School
SCHOOL REVIEWS
Schools in Pune, India DPS, ST MARY’S, BISHOPS, LEXICON, VIBGYOR…
Playschool and Kindergarten Pre Schools in Pune !!!!!!!!!!
Pawar Public School, Pune
Aman-setu-school-an-attempt-to-preserve-humanity
Vacation and Holiday Breaks for Dps Pune !!!!!!!
DPS MANAGEMENT is Excellent !!!
PUNE St MARY’S BOYS STD 1 D are CONNECTED by YAHOO Groups !!!
DPS PUNE SCHOOL, A Benchmark !!!!!!
Yippy my son got through ST MARY’S SCHOOL Pune, India !
Kangaroo Kids Pune India
READ OTHER REVIEWS Straight from the mom’s heart
School Reviews
Ask Agony Mom any query
Products and Service Reviews for Kids
Teaching-Kids-Fun-Ways
Places4Kids-Pune
Birthdays
Health and Nutrition
Media Coverage
Dear parents,
Finally I have managed to organize Online Workshop for all those who are keen on Admission Procedures for various good schools in Pune.
The workshop will be on 19th Oct 2009, IST 11:00 PM, online on my site www.madhuriesingh.com forum.
It’s online, cause, there are many who cannot physically attend the workshop.
It’s also my way of minimizing resources, when something can be organized making best use of Internet and Technology, which I love and prefer always. .
There are a few parents in US, UK and East Asia too and not to forget the one’s out of Pune who too wish to attend the workshop, which is feasible only with online workshop.
Also since the workshop is FREE, I would rather spend on purchasing products that need to be compared and make you parents aware of their false claims advertised or on travelling to various schools and collecting information for the benefit of those who cannot come to Pune and do it themselves.
What you need to do. Follow all three steps below. I will appreciate if you all are updated via all three mediums.
1. Register to my site on www.madhuriesingh.com/superindiankid . ( Click here to Register )
2. Subscribe to my site through email so that you do not miss out on new articles on school reviews. (Click Here to Subscribe)
3. Follow me on twitter to be able to receive all tweets on school admission. (My Follow me on Twitter @ madhuriesingh) or (Click on the blue birdy on article page)
4. Please be ready with your questions. Hope to answer all your queries.
Take care and Happy Living
Madhurie Singh
Admission-time-for-DPS-St-Mary’s, Vibgyor, Loyolla, Bishops in Pune
Schools-in-Pune-India-DPS-St-Marys-Bishops-Lexicon-Vibgyor.
Pune School Watch – DNA Interview Madhurie Singh – Date 11th October 2009
Madhurie Singh pens details about the leading schools in the city and passes on whatever information any parent would like to know.
by Kavita Kane
Madhurie Singh teaches you to learn more about schools. She does so through an equally interesting medium – blogging.
“The blog, MadhurieSingh.com, is like a reality blog, updates on a daily basis where I pen details about the leading schools in the city and supply whatever information any parent would like to know.” says Singh. There are 1000 hits a day.
A nasty incident at a swish, upmarket kindergarten school gave her enough reasons to rethink and start a crusade of sorts on the school admissions and procedures which drive most parents up the wall with rising anxiety.
“After my personal bad experience with one of the most prestigious schools in the city, I decided to start collecting details about each and every school, their rules, admissions, pros and cons. Admission time is a nightmare for all parents and most of it arises from ignorance about the schools which would best suit their child,” argues Singh. ” It is ignorance and great expectations from schools that make most parents unhappy and confused about which school to pick and choose for their ward.”
Her first objective was that the blog should not be a website of just facts and clinical data. ” It is not a brochure where you get some ready information about when admissions start and what the fees would be – it is than that,: explains Singh.
“I gave it a certain personal accountability by detailing facts with some illustrations, incidents and by relating issues. It is a personal assurance or warning about each school. The general information about the said school is supplied. Besides, if the parent wants to know more, I reveal more. I reveal details through private communication. For instance, one prominent city school is particular about the mother being highly educated but not a working professional. Most parents are unaware of such idiosyncrasies of individual schools and I hope to enlighten them, smiles the ex-software engineer, who blogs full-time with her research of city schools.
Beside basic information, data and statistics of each school, there are small articles on varied subjects related to school-going kids, parents and teachers. ” Topics which often children are either shy or wary to talk about with their parents or teachers are often dealt with _ say, sex education, which movies for different age groups, what religion means to a child, interesting conversations between child-parent / child-teacher, the materialistic culture of big birthdays and expensive return gifts and similar issues. The idea is to get to know the child better and make him/her a better person.
Having covered 10 leading schools till now, Singh plans to expand the campus horizons – all for the benefit of anxious parents. ” I have covered only English medium schools – mostly Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and International Baccalaureate (IB) schools as I am mostly catering to out-of-town and expatriate parents, says Singh.
“Since they have just settled in a new city, they are totally clueless about the schools and education centers here. Often, the reason they have settled in Pune is because of their child’s education. I think parents have the right to know all about the school they wish their child to be in,” reasons Singh.
“But for that they need to do their homework and a thourough check. I am only assisting them in this endeavor.
Self-defence the best practice – The Maharashtra Herald, Saturday, March 2008
By Aaditi Jathar aditijathar@sakaaltimes.com
KALYANINAGAR: Do you know that you can use your legs, arms, elbows, fingers and head for around 20 moves for self-defence? Madhurie Singh, has made a list of such techniques and conducts free one-hour training programme for women of various age groups.
This training, she says, is meant for a person who does not have a background of various martial arts, but is willing to learn simple self-defence tactics. “The idea is to use these techniques to hurt the attacker and escape from the situation, despite being unharmed. These are not meant to fight back the attacker,” she says.
Some of these moves include butt kicking, correct way of eye poking, hitting hard on Adam’s apple, using knee or feet to kick on the shin bone.
“If these moves are practiced once a week, they turn into reflex actions, during attacks,” Singh said.
For the first time, she conducted the training in Delhi in October 2007. However, it was only after the Wipro BPO employee, Jyotikumari Choudhary’s murder in Pune that Madhurie took it seriously and designed the one hour session.
Madhurie is not happy with the response to the training. “Today, I goto women and tell them I need just one hour to tell them what can be done for self-defence. I would consider it my success when the situation is reversed.”
Dear moms and dads ,
It’s time to say goodbye. Goodbye to the good old wordpress.com.
With hundred’s of people like you who have trusted my reviews, encouraged me to take the next step. Yes! I have finally built my own website all by myself! Phew!
It’s been a mind boggling 45 days and lots of happy and not so happy moments towards this learning process. But, I have done it! I feel on top of the world, to own my own domain and website.
And the best part is now I can offer you lovely parents great deals and my trusted products right on my website. Well, I am still negotiating with a few companies, but it will not be long when in a click, you can also own the products that I adore and products that are best for our kids.
My website has three sites .
The first one is about the Logical Research and Honest Reviews for kids that you all are familiar with, and it will continue to deal with kids, schools, education and product reviews for SuperIndianKids.
The second site deals with How to build my website from a wordpress blog and make money from it !. I love it .
The third site deals with all the other stuff that I have been doing over the past few years of my life! Yes, what makes me a SuperIndianMom.
I have a vast and enriching experience in topics which I believe is very interesting and exciting. I hope as many moms read my reviews on products, on day to day life handling stuff like relationships, love, marriage, infertiltiy, pregnancy, child birth, making money without stepping out of the home, fulfilling their creativity and desires through activities that can be pursued at home without neglecting kids and home :!
I will give a brief on the workshops that I have been conducting for corporates and individuals, for example Self Defense for Ladies ( no martial arts), Beauty and Age Defying therapies, Time Management to make the best use of time for working and non working moms and online Astrology consultation.
All those who subscribe to my website through email, will automatically be updated of any new article I post in your email.
I am working on other good schools too on their admission details, which will be published on my site http://madhuriesingh.com.
I plan to hold a workshop for all parents interested in knowing the admission form details, filling up strategy, criteria for admission, interview strategy, written and oral test samples for kids, attitude and confidence of parents.
There are two steps that you can do right away to keep in touch with me:
Step 1: This is a must.
All those who Subscribe to my website will be avail the details of the workshop.
Step 2: This is important.
Enter your query in the Contact Us Form ( powered by SAPHA). Please mention your query clearly and I will work on it to the best of my ability.
The comments will be disabled on this blog now and all new articles will be published on the new website http://www.MadhurieSingh.Com. You can post comments on the new website which I have tried to replicate in terms on the look and feel of this blog, and make it easy on you to navigate.
Wish me luck and hope to see you all on www.MadhurieSingh.Com.
Get MADHURIE SINGH . COM delivered by email
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St Mary’s Pune – Diwali Vacation, Christmas Holidays, NewYear 2010 School reopen.
St Mary’s School, Pune will be working on all Saturdays upto the Diwali vacation for Girls and Boys sections.
Half Yearly exam will commence on the 10th Oct 2009.
St Mary’s School will close on 14th October 2009 as scheduled, but will re-open on 29th October 2009 instead of 2nd November 2009.
For Christmas the school will close on 22nd December 2009 instead of 18th December 2009, and will re-open on 4th January 2010 as scheduled.
St Mary’s school pune Reopens on 29th september 2009.
St Mary’s school pune classes for Pre Nursery, Nursery and Prep will reopen on 29th Sept 09.
The school had declared these classes to remain closed in view of the risk to the tiny tots against Swine Flu (H1N1 Virus).
The time table of the school will be as follows:
Girls Section:
Classes Timing
Pre-Nursery 9.30 a. m. to 12.15 p.m.
Nursery 8.30 a.m. to 12.20 p.m.
Prep Girls 8.30 a.m. to 12.20 p.m.
Prep Boys’ 8.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.
STD 1 to VI 8.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.
STD VII to X 8.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.
Boys section :
Boys’ Section
STD 1 to VI 7.35 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.
STD VII to X 7.35 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.
School will be working on all Saturdays upto the Diwali vacation for Girls and Boys sections.
Half Yearly exam will commence on the 10th Oct 2009.
St Mary’s School will close on 14th October 2009 as scheduled, but will re-open on 29th October 2009 instead of 2nd November 2009.
For Christmas the school will close on 22nd December 2009 instead of 18th December 2009, and will re-open on 4th January 2010 as scheduled.
St Mary’s School, Pune will be working on all Saturdays upto the Diwali vacation for Girls and Boys sections.
Half Yearly exam will commence on the 10th Oct 2009.
St Mary’s School will close on 14th October 2009 as scheduled, but will re-open on 29th October 2009 instead of 2nd November 2009.
For Christmas the school will close on 22nd December 2009 instead of 18th December 2009, and will re-open on 4th January 2010 as scheduled.
St Mary’s school pune classes for Pre Nursery, Nursery and Prep will reopen on 29th Sept 09.
The school had declared these classes to remain closed in view of the risk to the tiny tots against Swine Flu (H1N1 Virus).
The time table of the school will be as follows:
Girls Section:
Classes Timing
Pre-Nursery 9.30 a. m. to 12.15 p.m.
Nursery 8.30 a.m. to 12.20 p.m.
Prep Girls 8.30 a.m. to 12.20 p.m.
Prep Boys’ 8.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.
STD 1 to VI 8.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.
STD VII to X 8.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.
Boys section :
Boys’ Section
STD 1 to VI 7.35 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.
STD VII to X 7.35 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.
School will be working on all Saturdays upto the Diwali vacation for Girls and Boys sections.
Half Yearly exam will commence on the 10th Oct 2009.
St Mary’s School will close on 14th October 2009 as scheduled, but will re-open on 29th October 2009 instead of 2nd November 2009.
For Christmas the school will close on 22nd December 2009 instead of 18th December 2009, and will re-open on 4th January 2010 as scheduled.
Shocking !
Well I got the opportunity to teach this very sensitive yet not to easy topic to my kids who are 6.5 and 5 now!
Last weekend I was waiting to watch the movie Dostana on Sony channel. I made early dinner and told my hubby to watch with kids. It was funny and we were laughing but my kids were not able to understand why mom and dad were laughing at times when there was nothing so funny!
When Abhishek’s mom Kiran fell unconscious after reading the gay couple application and after watching her son dance with a man, my older one asked me as to why did she faint?
Opps! ’cause I said , “Because she did not know her son was a ‘gay’ “!
Now, I had to explain the word ‘gay’ to him.
SO I asked both my kids, “DO you know a man and a woman gets married, and its called marriage?”
“Yes, like papa and you.”
“I am a girl and papa is a boy.”
“Yes, I know that”, both shouted back.
“But there are a few boys who like to marry a boy not a girl. ” I tried to be relaxed.
“Why ? ”
“Because their brain tells them ”
“So is something wrong with their brain?”
“No! Their brain likes different things.”
“That’s ok, if his brain says so.”
“Mom, but I will marry a girl? replied my younger son.
“Thats perfectly fine with me.” I replied again as cool as I could.
I am very pleased that I have sown the right seed into their inquisitive heads about a topic which I would have found difficulty teaching in their teens when hormonal surge would be inundating their emotional quotient more than logical reasoning.
Now we laugh and tease with no taboo on words like gay or homo. Both my kids treat these words as just another word. I am waiting to see the reaction on my friend’s faces if they are popped up this question by my kids!
Similarly I take other words and topics which parents are embarrassed to even mention of. It’s my believe that the best way to handle inhibitions are by talking about it more openly and casually. And the earlier we talk the better it is.
Things like girlfriend, boyfriend, love, marriage, sexuality, kiss and birth should be taught early with no silly explanation yet no gory details.
Complaints are very odd situation for any mom, especially when it’s about our own kids !
I am not going into the thesis of handling complaints as I believe it’s differently handled with different situations. What works for one school may not apply to another school. So the best way is to be open, be guided by the one’s own set of values and never attempt to please others or reprimand your kid in front of others to satisfy them.
I had a parent who came up with a silly about my son telling her daughter, that he does not like to play with girls!
Now, what do I tell her? So I kept quiet and told her I will handle this later with my son who is only 4.5yr old. I did ask him the reason as to why said so to her daughter. He answered it because she not play what I want to play!
So, what goes in a child’s brain is something we will not know unless we discuss it with them. Hence no point reacting when someone comes with a complaint about my kid.
I am not one of those parents who do not think about the behaviour of the kids in public or private.
A few months back my elder son started crying whenever he had to get ready and go to the school! He is one child who loves to study. So when for a week he did not go happily to his school, I tried to find out his problem. But I guess small kids do not themselves know what their problem is. So I thought I will accompany him in his school for a few days and hopefully will find out the reason of his misery.
The first day he was happy to see me at the door of his class room. I found he was sitting with a different child than his earlier partner. So I asked him, when did he start sitting with this different boy. He reply coincided with the days since when he had started complaining about the school.
So I casually asked him, how was this new partner. My son started crying. He mentioned that the new boy did not share his pencils and colors with him! . I knew I had solved the mystery. Next morning I went to the school and requested the teacher to change his partner back to the earlier one. She was cooperative and did so. Now from next day onwards my son stopped complaining!
Sometimes very insignificant change in the kid’s life can cause trauma, which we moms have to reason out. I like to become a child when handling their problems and instantly know the cause.
My younger one has been crying too and doe not want to go to his school. But his reason was that he has to wait for a long time in the school bus before rest of the older kids sat in and the bus drove off. Now, that’s one problem I will have to make him understand he has to live with. So I tell the bus conductor every morning to bring my kid early, just to make my kid feel relaxed for rest of the day he is in the school. I do plan to talk to the school about this complaint and find out if something can be done about it.
Kids also come back with their complaints about my kid. The best way to handle is to ask both the kids to narrate their story in front of each other to me. That way I know the truth and most of the time, the kid who is wronged knows too and will walk away with a sorry.
Some times, there are other’s kids who have either hit my kid or in someway made my kid upset. I have found the best way to handle it is by asking my kid to goto the aunty (mother of the other kid) and tell her to solve the problem. We moms have to only lend our ears to their complaints and the kids are too happy to be heard. They do not expect any action most of the time! So a simple reply like “I will scold him/her” is all that is needed to make a crying child happy.
But what if your friend comes up with a complaint !!!!
Now that’s a serious stuff to handle. If the friend is really sensible, she would have handled it herself. But in case she is incapable of sorting kid related problem, them I do reason it out with friends. I am very broad minded and like to give space to kids and friends. So most of the time a problem to my friend is not a difficult thing to handle. But then, I do take care to try and answer the problem in the language the friend will understand. For example if a friend is open minded, it’s easy to logic it out. But if a friend is little conservative, then I try my best to make her understand why it’s best for her to be little more open for her kid’s future. Most of the time a good friend will not need any explaination.
Schools and teacher also come to parents with complaints. I have never feared any complaints from any school and handle it very casually in front of the teachers. If you panic and start accepting that your child is at fault, you will never come to know the real cause. Keep cool and after listening to the complaint, try to reason it out with the teacher. I always let the teacher suggest me the solution too. That way the teacher is also satisfied and I get the best suggestion from an experienced person. Afterall they are handling such situation on the daily basis.
There are some schools that will spoil their image because of one teacher or one office person, who was not sensitive enough towards a kid or the parent. These schools representatives will argue, put down the parent, warn the kid and parent and humiliate them. Such schools are digging their own grave. So a parent must immediately get in touch with the principal or the head of the school management and make them aware of the whole scenario before it gets ugly.
I believe every problem comes with several solutions. It’s up to us parents to chose the right solution which will in the long run do good to the kid and the complainant. Oflate I have become an Agony Mom . A lot of my friends and readers have shown confidence in me and I really am honored. I have added a new page to handle it more effectively just for you. It’s called “ASK AGONY MOM“.
WYSWYG !
What you sow is what you get !!!!
Well I changed the acronym to suit my post here.
Have you wondered how kids mimic you and reproduce it when least expected!
But I am pleasantly surprised with the subtle learning that my kids have been absorbing from their parents. And tiny stuff that they say or do makes me a proud mom.
I am a conservationist at heart and do not believe in pomp and show to please others at all. I believe we all must live within our limits however we have defined to suit our budget not others!
And it’s not easy to pass it down to the kids.
Some of the things that I have been constantly doing are what I guess every parent must be doing even without realizing the importance of it with respect to the larger picture called our earth!
The most common instruction that was passed down to me was, to put off the lights and fans when we were kids. I realized the importance of it not in terms of only the monthly bill under control, but also about the way it helps in the reduction of the usage of the national electric energy, hence lesser coal needed to generate the power. Lesser coal used means, longer supply of coal in future.:)
Both my kids, today, have learnt it to such an extent that even when they are being carried at night in their sleep from one room to another, they do not forget to remind us that we need to switch off the lights and the fan.
One of the thing that I hate is anyone wasting water. The sound of water falling uselessly drives me mad and then whosoever is the culprit has to listen a sweet little lecture from an amateur environmentalist .
Now that’s one thing I am trying to teach but is not gone into the system of my kids or maids enough. My kids have learnt to turn off the tap but they somehow keep wasting water when they are taking bath. Bath tub was always something that I never approved of due to hygiene reasons, but also due to the huge amount of water that is wasted.
I tried to cut on the shower too but my kids still are too young to be so mature when it’s difficult to make the adults understand this concept. A lot of people I have talked to, just do not get the concept of conserving water. They ask ignorant questions like , ” if we are paying for it why should anyone bother ? or something like , ” there is free water so why should be bother?”
Such people are best to be left alone, because it’s not their fault, it’s the upbringing that never bothered about the environment. That’s one reason why I am determined to teach my kids early about water conservation.
Thankfully we have followed the dry and wet garbage segregation from the time we were in Sydney. So it was never difficult for me to teach my kids what is wet and what is dry garbage and where should they go. Infact they are now so much involved in keeping the city and home clean that at times we are proudly embarrassed! Ironic?
On my elder son’s birthday he made all the kids take back the gift wrappings of the return gift and prizes to their homes.
And recently my younger son was hunting for a bin to throw a chocolate wrapper in an already littered birthday party hall!
Yes, once a while reminders are needed, because after all they are kids.:)
These are some of the tiny contributions from my babies which I know is just a step but will transform into two responsible citizens who value the earth and all the richness of it in the most natural form !
Believe it or not, about 80% infections are spread only by hands ! So does that mean, if we all wash our hands regularly, we can avoid those 80% of infections? Well, logically yes. But we all know it’s impossible. Reason being the several other modes of transmission of any infection. Since infection by and large is by virus or bacterias and to some extent fungi, they can be washed off by a good soap and water. Kids, if left alone, like mine, they take a drop of liquid soap and even without completely scrubbing the palms, run their hands under the water and scoot off with incomplete washing. I know, it’s not always possible, whenever they are back from outside the house, I make sure I wash their hands myself. Then dry their hands thoroughly with a clean towel.
A hand that is not dried completely, will catch more germs as compared to a dry hand !
Bathing is an obvious process to keep the kids clean. But, when to give bath is something we moms do not think about much. Fortunately for me, I just cannot get up early enough. So I give bath to my kids once they are back from their schools. That way it’s assured that they do not spread dirt and germs collected in the school and in the bus. Then in the evening again they need a bath must after they play in the mud in their football class.
One important thing that we moms need to ensure is a thorough cleaning of the private organs of the kids as they will not clean themselves. For my boys, my hubby takes care of it as often as possible though still not on a daily basis. But for girls, the moms should make it a habit to clean with mild soap regulary. Girls need special care as compared to the boys, mainly because the route to infection is shorter in girls. Also if avoiding public bathrooms is not possible at times, moms need to ensure that they wash up their daughters as soon as possible once back home.
I am not a fan of bath tub at all! Especially after I read a report on the fungal infection that can be caused by the fungi growing in the inside of the pipes of the bath tub. Also the huge amount of water that is wasted is not something I can teach my kids when I am trying hard to make them learn the concept of conservation of water and energy.
Teeth are most vulnerable in kids under 12yrs. A regular two times brushing of teeth ensures lower dental problems. But I personally think the kids have to be taught the right way to brush and not just use the brush any ways. My kids if left alone will just brush the front teeth. So I still have to brush their teeth, in up and down motion to bring out the food lying in between the teeth. Cleaning tongue is also something that ensures fresh breath which kids will forget if left on their own.
Sweet tasting toothpastes and GELs are harmful for kids as they stick on the teeth and can cause cavity! I prefer only colgate but my kids like gels. So it’s a daily arguments we have that they will hopefully understand in a few years.
I wish some company would come up with a toothbrush which has a disposable neem chewable head. Now the neem is bitter so that needs an innovative product handling.
- Use of Tissue Paper / Handkerchief
I am a very very big fan of tissue papers. And I guess my kids have taken after me in this respect. They have to be told not to use so many tissues all the time. I still remember when my elder son was 2.5 year old, he was getting his toilet training. He was not in his diaper. I found him trying to keep back all the tissues that he had taken out of the tissue box. That’s when I saw the tissues were wet and the pile of tissue was used to wipe off the wet floor. Then on being questioned, he explained to me that he was trying to wipe away the susu with the tissues. And went a step ahead by keeping them back into the box.
I think, until kids are teenagers, they should use tissues for wiping their nose, mouth and hands. This prevents spread of infection as compared to the cloth handkerchiefs. Maids and aayaas should be encouraged to use tissue paper when cleaning the kids in schools and at home.
When my kids were in KiderBrook, I had suggested the parents to send a tissue toilet rolls each month, which the maids can use instead of the dirty piece of cloth that they get hold of. Tissue ensures, it is thrown off immediately as compared to the cloth napkins.
This is off the context with respect to the kids, but I think I must mention it.
A few weeks back when swine flu was at its highest TRP, I had gone to Spencers to buy a bag of dosa paste. The old man who grinds and makes packets of the paste was blowing his nose right next to the grinder! I waited to see what will he do next. He then took a very soiled handkerchief and wiped away the traces of mucous off his face and kept the cloth right next to the grinder. All set to serve me. ! I asked him, if he was going to wash his hands or not. He rudely pointed to the cloth and mentioned that he cleaned using his handkerchief! I had to get the manager to make him wash his hands. Now if this is the situation in the times of high profile swine flu, I wonder the cleanliness of the stores , restaurants behind the closed doors.
The tongue of a few kids are very very map like. This only means the kid has a very sensitive tongue. In times of any mild change in the health of the kid, the pattern of the map will change on the tongue . Also such kids will have extra sensitive taste buds. So mild chilli and salt will make the child howl away very loudly.
- Regular Cleaning of Throat, Ears,Nose, Hair and Nails.
Cleaning of throat is not advisable for young kids at all ! It might damage their vocal cords. But one interesting fact I must share with all you readers is the connection between the epiglottis and hunger of your child. Epiglottis is a tiny bell drop shaped organ hanging from the top of the throat. In case your child is not eating or has very small appetite, this epiglottis will be sticking to either side of the throat tonsil area. If its in the normal middle position, then your kid will be eating fine ! I was quite fascinated when I was told about this by a friend’s doctor mom. Now how to rectify the sticking epiglottis and revive your kid’s appetite is also equally unbelievable. But even though I have not found the scientific corroboration to it, the treatment works always! So what is the way to get the epiglottis back to the central position? A sudden loud shout in the ears of the kid. Now make sure you don’t tear away the drum. I think the idea is to surprise the child! I wish I had a scientific article to support this very useful trick for us moms!:)
Also in view of the flu and air borne infections the best way to remain germ free is a regular warm water gargle every night. I make it a habit to check for any redness in the throat while brushing my kids teeth, so that I am sure they do not go to the school in that state.
Ears need to be cleaned every fortnight. Use the ear buds only and that too Johnson & Johnson brand and never go deeper than the cotton tip. See, the length of the tip is researched by the J&J brand managers to ensure we do not harm the ear drum! The local brands just copy but are you sure they know that that length of the cotton tip is just enough for the depth of the ear hole!
Kid’s nose should also be cleaned by us parents every day, so that they are not picked at in public. It’s a very addictive habit so better to avoid giving your kid any reason to pick it. Also nose being the second most important route for the germs and dirt to enter the kid’s body, it’s better to keep the nostrils clean in order to avoid constant touching.
In case of running nose, for very small kids there are suction pumps available which is a must in all family. I do not mind using is even now on my 6 yr old son as it’s the easiest way to remove mucous from the already stuffy and miserable kid’s nose. Just make sure, it’s cleaned after each use with warm water or running water.
Blowing of nose is good idea if the kid can do it, but they should learn not to put too much pressure on the ear drums.
Hair and head come in a single global surface area so, taking care of our kid’s globe with the hair is also amongst hygiene habits that can not be avoided.
Young kid’s do not suffer from dandruff, if that’s any relief, but we moms have to deal with a much more deadly situation. Having lice in your kid’s head is like losing your own head. I lost mine a few months back. I found the culprit too who had passed on the damn pest onto my kid’s head. That was my maid, who would be secretly using my comb!!!!
I must confess, I was scared. When I was in Kolkata, I remember my mom shouting and hitting my head simultaneously when we (my sis too) cried, after she applied kerosene oil on our head to kill the bugs!!! I am now thinking how lucky I am to survive with gorgeous hair still flowing down and not meeting their end even with an inflammable stuff on my head. May be that is the reason of my sudden flammable side . Better not tell my in-laws about it, though I know my mil too did the same with my sils.
Thanks to the Mediker shampoo, all the bugs can be washed of in 10 min only. Then comes the test of the eye sight to get rid of the nits. Another way could be to apply the shampoo every week and the hair is clean 100%.
Shampooing the hair with Johnson and Johnson will ensure clean and healthy smelling hair. Though I must tell you, I have to break my promise every time I use shampoo on my kids head. Then they want to know why I did not tell them the truth that I will shampoo their hair. Hope, when they grow up they will cherish these talks.
Nails are also cleaned and cut every week just after the ears are cleaned. I make it a point to file their nails in only one direction to smoothen the rough edges without damaging the nail surface. That ensures a clean and tidy kid for healthy living.
ST Mary’s School Pune Classes Nursery to Preparatory will remain closed as precautionary measure against swine flu, H1N1 Virus.
Std 1 will reopen on the 14th Sep 2009. Classes will be from 7:35 am to 12:35pm instead of the 1:20pm.
I am all smiles and thankful to my gut feeling when I took the decision to not send my kids a week before their schools decided to close down in view of the Swine Flu spread.
There were some very prominent personalities who proclaimed that shutting down the school will not help in spread of the h1n1 virus. There were a few TV channels and a few Newspaper Editors singing the same tune that the Health Minister was singing. But something told me to stick to my decision and keep the kids away from the school, school bus and all such grouped activites. Later the schools also decided to close down, when one by one kids especially the younger ones started to fall victim of the swine flu.
I am thankful that our kids go to schools where the management uses their own head and thinks through before deciding on any directive for or against the notices from the state government.
Today the school administration should be proud that their decision has not only saved lives of tiny tots, but has taught the mighty WHO (World Health Organization) about the important steps to contain the spread of a virus.
Now the question in Pune again arises with respect to the schools. Exactly after a week, which is the incubation period of the H1N1 virus, there were reported 20 cases of deaths and hundreds of new positive cases. Should the schools thats have reopened again sit to think or should they close down again?
Let me warn any one reading this post at the onset.
This experiment is my own brain child and has not been scientifically tested or proven. But since I value my logic and gut feeling a lot, I find it 100% safe and it’s efficacy too is excellent.
So what is the experiment?
Well, this was three months back when, the swine flu fear groped all of us. I do not much believe in the multivitamins available in the market, especially after a doctor friend explained to me about the negligent tiny quantity that is present in each tablet.
But being a mother, not boosting my kids with supplements was also not easy on me. So I kept thinking of how my kids can get unadulterated multivitamins. And when it’s anything to do with respect to my kids, all my six senses are at their peak alertness!:)
The first sure shot food that improves immunity is chicken soup and spinach or palak soup with other veggies added in the pressure cooker. I add whole cardamom (elaichi), black pepper seeds (kali mirch), jaiphal, whole turmeric, ginger piece and garlic cloves with tiny bit of salt and cloves (laung). This is like a booster for anyone in my family feeling weak, lazy or sick!
Now there are loads of vegetables that my kids refuse to eat. If I make it in the rich gravy they eat in the name of gravy but not when made like a simple veggi.
So it just occurred to me one day when I was explaining the evaporation and condensation process to my kids while cooking in my kitchen to my kids and their friends.
I realized that a lot of condensed water under the lid of the pan in which I was cooking veggies was nothing but water from the veggies with loads of vitamins from that particular vegetable !
So I collected a tablespoon of that liquid and made my younger one drink it. He drank without any fuss !
The only thing that this potent vitamin filled liquid lacks is vitamin c as I know vitamin C is lost very easily in cooking process. For that I think the one glass of lemon juice that I give to my kids is enough.
So now I really believe my kids are getting the most natural form of multivitamins with no preservatives or color added.
But the efficacy of any product and experiment is judged from its results and repetition of the results.
I know for sure that my kids have not fallen sick of the most common flu and cold in the worst season in last three months when I can all their friends having gone through at least one bout of cold, cough or fever. That proves the efficacy of the home made multivitamins. But repetition of the same result is some thing that maybe anyone of you readers will come up with in future, if you try to take to this experiment.
Hale our kids !
I am disgusted !
I feel guilty and wish I had listened to my elder son’s plea that he did not like the taste of the milk. I would coax him with all kinds of stories. But even though he has stopped drinking milk since last one and half years now, my younger son loves to drink only milk !
I wish I had done this simple test easlier which I do now, then all my guilt would have gone.
I wanted to make paneer out of the excess milk I had at home. It was Amul toned milk. This is 4 days back story!
I first added half lemon juice, but there was no change in the milk. Then added one tablespoon of lemoneez. Still nothing happened. Another two table spoon of lemoneez and the milk refused to curdle!
I was very shocked. I called my husband from another room. Discussed with him and that took around 5 more minutes. When we reached back to the kitchen, the milk had changed its consistency only where lemoneez was added. It looked like a rubbery white lump. So I mixed the whole thing in the milk with a spoon and gave a vigourous stir. And guess what, there was no change in the rest of the milk!
Next I tried the same testing with Chitale milk. That too refused to curdle back !
The last brand I tested was Katraj. Thankfully, the milk started to curdle the moment I added just half a lemon.
I now know why the ghee that I made out of all the stored malai looks, smells and tastes like dalda !
Dalda is vanaspati ghee. Thankfully Vanaspati was made of plants, mostly from palm oil which was hydrogenated.
But can milk too be make out of plant ? Or are the chemicals used to make the fake milk made of plant extracts? This seems quite likely. I really have no clue of source of the chemicals but I do know one thing for sure.
I will have to continue my quick home test every day for as little as one cup of milk with lemon, to assure myself if I am giving pure milk to my kids. The tiny amount of paneer I make out of this testing process goes immediately in any daal, gravy or dough for the day. So I know I am safe as long as I do the test.
I wish anyone reading this page, tries it randomly if not everyday, to drink pure milk and not the poisioned, adultrated milk.
St Mary’s school pune has extended it’s decision to close the school upto class 1, till next sunday.
The school has not yet decided if it will open on the 14th sep 2009 yet.
Classes from 2nd std resumed on the 31st august 2009.
Looking at the weaker immunity of younger kids, the school will remain closed for classes nursery to 1std.
But looking at the media underplay, it’s a decision that parent’s should appreciate.
Better safe than sorry.
A few months back my school mate arrived home with her daughter from Bangalore.
It’s fun to see one’s school mate after a few years married, with changed views about the world, with profession that was never ever imagined and so on.
But obviously, the best is always to meet their kids.
My friend came to Pune with her daughter who is older to my sons. So she instantly became their didi.
My sons were enjoying making tea and pakoras with their new didi , which we had to sip, eat and also made sure that we praised their imaginary food. That’s time I realised, how I might be irritating my hubby by asking him, how was the food even before he swallowed the first bite .
With any extra kid in the house, even a normal day becomes very tiring, somehow. So we decided to go out in the evening to some place where the kids can play around freely, eat happily and also just be relaxed.
Whenever we go out, my first intention is to have a gala time. No hassling for food or toilet!
Since we had a good number of hours to spend, I decided upon Sanskruti. It’s my first choice whenever anyone comes to Pune from abroad.
Sanskruti is little away from Hadapsar with very spacious location, ethnically decorated and designed. The theme is Rajesthani folk look and feel. It’s a peaceful place to hang around with kids and friends.
Lovely parking space too so never go by an auto rickshaw as finding one back home will be a nightmare!
The moment you enter, there is a row of snacks and drinks with maharashtrian and rajesthani touch. Golguppas, vada pav, dhokla, bhelpuri, chaat, samosa, chole and rasna !
After we had nearly all the yummy snacks without feeling any guilt, we headed towards the magic show hut. There was a stand up comedy going on in the near by hut. There was a ghazal singer entertaining people with their selections. There was a shed for palmists too where my friend wanted to go, but looking at the crowd, she decided against it.
We went to a puppet show after some time, where the kids were having time of their life. The puppeteer was quite interactively entertaining.
I was keen on trying my hands again on the pottery wheel. More than me, my sons were eager to put their creativity on the wheel! My friend’s daughter Manasvi was too good with the pottery. She made lovely tiny pots of different shapes and painted them back home. (Now they are gone as my sons crushed the pots to remake a dinosaur from the mud, which never even saw the light of the day, leave alone any color! )
Since we were again famished, exploring so many new stuff, we went to the dining hall. Yes! There are two dining halls with buffet of rajesthani food laid out. Well, the food is not as delicious as the activities we did there. But we freaked out on the unlimited icecreams with gulab jamuns.
After eating our dinner, we still were not in the mood to leave the beautiful Sanskruti arena. So we sat down to watch dance performances alternating between katthak and western with bollywood style.
As we were through with the dance, we discovered another enclosed place where people were trying their vocal cords with an orchestra! In front of that were a few girls from Eastern Indian states, performing bamboo dance. My friend jumped right away in between the bamboos and danced away like a pro.
Kids wanted to try it too, but I was little scared of the effect of bamboo clacking against their tiny ankles, so diverted them towards the karaoke. My hubby, who sang a few songs that were more like playing antakshari. So on the way back home, we continued playing antakshari till the three kids fell asleep. Hoping that we were not so boring for them, we continued to our journey singing away.
I really feel like going there again, but will control the urge until the H1N1 virus meets it’s natural end.
SANSKRUTI Address :
Opp. Indian Oil Corporation, Solapur Highway, Loni-Kalbhor, Pune-412201. Tel.:6915156 / 7 / 8. Fax : 6359165
Admin. Office : 16, Gulistan Complex, K.B. Hidayatulla Road, Opp. S.P.C.A. ,
Near Poona College, Pune : 411001.
PHONES : 4030434/5 Tele-Fax -4030436
SITE PHONE : 6915156 / 7 / 8.
SANSKRUTI Timing and Tariff – DETAILS
Timings for SANSKRUTI are 10:30 a.m. to 03:30p.m. and 05:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. for Saturdays & Sundays, and daily it is open from 05:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. The TARIFF is Rs. 225 /-* per adult and Rs. 125 /-* per child (Between 3 ft. & 41/2 Ft. of height).
All Schools in Pune will reopen on the 31st August, Monday. ( Symbiosis International, St Helena’s School, Hutchings High School and Primrose School, St Mary’s, Bishops.)
Nearly 50% of the schools opened last Monday on the 24th August 2009. DPS, Vibgyor were included in the list of the schools that hurried to open on the 24th August. School kids going to these schools are much protected as they have their own school buses. Hence it’s safer and also easier to track kids having any swine flu related symptoms. Also DPS and Vibgyor had made their students wear mask and carry liquid sanitizers compulsory.
Bishops (all three branches) will open on Monday the 31st Aug 2009.
Nursery, LKg , UKg in Bishops will remain closed and will open on the 7th September 2009. All classes above UKg will open on the 31st August 2009.
St Mary’s will re open on the 31st August 2009.
Pre-Nursery, Nursery, Prep, Std 1 (both Boys and Girls ) will remain closed till further notice and will not reopen on 31st August 2009.
The school timings will be as follows:
Girls:
CLASSES TIME
II to VI 8.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. (Half Day)
VII to X 8.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.
Boys:
CLASSES TIME
II to VI 7.35 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.
VII to X 7.35 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.
Mon to Sat
Interesting common factor between these St Mary’s and Bishops schools is that they do not own any school buses. The kids depend on private buses and vans which pick kids going to different schools at the same time. In my opinion, these two schools and all others who postponed their school reopening, was a wise step, as their students have more chances of spreading the H1N1 virus infection.
http://www.madhuriesingh.com/superindiankid/2009/08/05/swine-flu-precautionary-move-st-marys-school-pune-closes/
Birthday Return gifts are on my hate list.
I abhor whoever came up with this idea. It’s more like a bribe to make your kids’ friends come to the party !
We teach kids from the very tender age what is greediness, bribing and teach them how to spend money on what is not important at such an early age!
We teach kids how as parents we can be blackmailed into buying what is expensive and beyond our budget as return gifts.
Parents too get into the useless show off mentality, forcing themselves to keep up with the trends, lest they be labelled stingy.
In my opinion when giving a birthday party, if you do have loads of money to spare, do give something valuable and usable as a thank you gift. I am gonna do away with this word RETURN GIFT and make it Thank You gift. At least that way we teach our kids that they are lucky to have friends who share their happy moments and promise to share the sad moments too.
SO if it’s a Thank You gift, that your child must give, let it be so.
Some really valuable Thank You gifts are ;
- Thank You notes, written and drawn by your kid.
- You can paste your child’s photo too with a poem or painting done by your kid.
- A story book with good value.
- A good movie vcd
- A good interactive game.
- A box of crayons, water paint, oil paint.
- A piggy bank.
- Cartoon Mugs, Water Bottles, Tiffin Boxes.
- Plastic Clays.
- Flowers.
- Key Chains especially with letters.
Things that should be avoided as Thank You gifts :
- Cheap toys from china.
- Cheap cars again made in china.
- Useless books.
- Poor quality pencils and colors.
- Clothings
- Eatables.
- And strictly do not pass off old return gifts or gifts that make you cry.
- VCDs which have no value movies / rhymes.
- Avoid buying return gift packs from cheap stores, as they can never match up your IQ level.
SO the coming birthday party make your kid understand the value of friendship and invite only good friends. No need to teach your child vanity by throwing lavish party that is drilling into your purse and your heart.
I believe, kids are very understanding. It’s upto us parents to believe in them, that if explained well, kids do make good choices. Let us not give them what they do not WANT. Let us give only what they NEED. And who are better than us parents to differentiate between their Wants and Needs.! This is my promise, what ’s your’s ?
Birthday-party-place-for-kids-in-pune
Movie Reviews for Kids
Birthday Parties are very important for all kids.
Now a days kids don’t just want to have the cake and eat it too. They want to call as many friends and send away loads of return gifts too. They want junk food for sure in their birthday party.
I have given my kids’ first birthday party at The Corinthian’s Club. This is an awsome place with mouth watering food. I still remember their ‘Stuffed Button Mushroom” . Located at the NIBM road, Pune, it’s a mini replica of a Roman Palace. There are humungus statues of romans, lovely pool side area. We chose the large banquet hall as the entire office people and friends were invited. That time I had arranged for a magician and a cartoon character with loads of ballons in the hall. Our friends still remember that birthday party.
The second time too we chose The Corianthian Club for my second son’s birthday party. Obviously it was again a big hit. The banquets are normally free if you place food order with them. It comes to Rs 500/- 700/- per head with drinks extra.
Now obviously every year its not possible to spend such huge amounts on a birthday party. Now I have come up with an alternate year celebration of birthday parties.
One year if the elder one’s birthday is celebrated outside, that year the younger one’s will be celebrated at home.
Though of late it’s more convenient to celebrate the birthday parties out side in a place that is equipped for the same.
We have had lovely times at Pizza Corner thrice. They used to have a kiddies room, full of small colourful balls. The kids would go there and spend hours leaving us adults to talk in peace . Pizza Corner closed down at Koregaon Park this year.
The other place where we have gone and celebrated birthday party is the Empress Garden. That was a major hit with kids and parents as the parents were happy to see their kids enjoying themselves on several swings, slides etc.
Some of the other places where we have been invited for the Birthday Party celebrations I am listing along with a short review.
- McDonald : These joints are favourite of all kids if not mothers . Kids are in love with McDonald’s . Though the food is sub standard, still I find a big smile on any kid’s face with just the mention of the name. There’s McD joints now in any area of Pune you can think of. They have Rs99/- and Rs 120/- package with a Happy meal and a return gift (lousy ones at times ) included. Thankfully tha happy meal has a good toy. You must remember that they book only on the weekdays for Birthday Parties.
- Pizza Hut : These are also cool places for celebrating Birthday Parties. But their package is rather unattractive. A 120/-per child package includes only a birthday cake and the venue with a dance. Food is not included in the package. Also the return gift is as bad as the McD’s . The Pizza hut at Kalyani Nagar, does not have the permission to host any Birthday Parties. So the closest Pizza Hut is at the Kakade Mall, Camp. But the space is small and can be suffocating.
- Yo-China : This is a great place to celebrate Birthday Parties, even adult’s. They have a spacious area which they cordon off during birthday party, to avoid kids from getting out of the main door. They organize for their own magician, tatto, hair braiding and decorations. The package is Rs 99-/ head to Rs 120/- head. They have lovely chinese food and yummy starters with cold drinks too. I have always had lovely time there.
- KFC : They suck ! Please avoid it for birthday parties. They have staff that keeps changing every week. They do not have any birthday pacakge. They made me cry when I hosted a birthday party there. They offered me a package of Rs 99/- which included a tiny burger, an icecream, french fries and cold drink. They promised to give ice cream, but the their softy machine broke down! They replaced it with a five star! . They had such a tiny burger that the kids were hungry. So I had to reorder burgers. They forgot to arrange for any decorations or a magician, even though they billed me for that. Well , apparently, I deducted for the icecream but was too bugged with them that didn’t want to see their face any longer. There was no music and the door to the hall was broken. I had tough time trying to keep the kids in the hall and not get wet in the rains. It was a nightmare for me. Thanks to my friends Ayesha and Sarika who along with my hubby jumped in to manage the scene.
- I think the from next time will book my society club house at Lunkad Sky Lounge, which is a lovely place and arrange for a caterer.
- Another good and economical way of celebrating Birthday Parties are by arranging at home terrace or balcony or the living room. I personally avoid this, as I don’t wish to see my living room getting messed up. But I have seen the kids enjoy it at home too. My friends call Pav Bhaaji wala, Dosa wala and Chaat wala who charge per 100 plate. You can order the burgers from the McD or Pizza’as with french fries and cold drinks. The cake also is better managed at home. Disposable plates and glasses are a boon for at home parties. I have a pool table at home, which the kids go crazy playing. But there are loads of other birthday party games that one can organize. You can call the magician and tatto guy at home too. You can have music as per your choice. In all if you have help to handle and manage the crowd of kids at home, this option of Birthday Party at home is the most inetresting celebration.
- Some interesting return gifts for the birthday parties are set of paints, colour crayons, pencils box sets, piggy boxes, key chains, cartoon cups, books, cds, games and masks. I wish we could do away with the return gift idea completely. Sometimes the return gifts are such trash that I wonder what was the need of spending money on them! Big Bazaar, Lifestyle are great places to shop for return gifts if you do not have time. Else Camp area and Laksmi road is great for very economical return gifts.
- Another great way of celebrating kids birthday party is by celebrating with the less fortunate kids in your local area. We have Preet Mandir, an orphanage. I donate there clothes or goodies there. My kids too love to spend time with them, learning to be sensitive and sharing their toys with them.
Birthday Return Gifts for Kids
Thankfully all schools will remain closed till the 30th August 2009.
DPS School has decided to open on Monday 24th August, but has cancelled off the monday test.
The following guidelines to be followed by students risking to go to school on 24th august to DPS .
•
The school will now reopen on Monday, 24th August, 2009.
•
Second set of Practice Sheets for all classes are available on the school website under SCM Section.
•
There will be no Weekly Assessment on 24th August, 2009. New dates will be intimated later.
•
Students to wear masks and carry small bottles of hand sanitizer liquid for maintaining personal hygiene during school hours.
•
Students must carry clean handkerchiefs.
•
Students exhibiting flu like symptoms to avoid attending school.
•
Students to reach their designated bus stops ten minutes early.
Like I had mentioned in my last 2-3 posts, looks like better senses prevails our schools and the governing bodies.
Dear parents, it may seem that everything is cool and things have returned to normal in Pune, but it’s only because the media has been instructed not to continue focusing on the Swine Flu 24 by 7.
So just because you are now not bombarded with continuous updates on the H1N1 flu, do not start to relax. Continue avoiding crowded public places unless very important. Leave your kids in the house or with friend’s if you must visit the malls for grocery etc.
Again a reminder , Swine flu is dangerous to younger kids who have still not strong immunity, and dangerous to people who already have respiratory, pulmonary or any other problems.
You can definitely visit your friends if no one in their house has any kind of flu.
Similarly, your kid’s friends can also visit you.
Make sure the hands and face is washed with soap whenever the kids are back home or before they eat food.
Make them use sanitizers if washing of the hands is not possible. ( Sanitizers should not be overused!)
Those kids who have any kind of flu, must wear a mask and avoid going to their friends place. Call your friend’s before you send your kids to their homes.
Eat healthy nutritious food and drink lots of water.
My kids are freaking out on chicken and chicken soup. Another very healthy complete food is Palak / Spinach soup for vegetarians. Make your kids drink lots of drinks like tang / rasna ( I have not researched them yet ). Make them drink tender coconut if they like it. Do not try to make fruit juice at home or buy juice. Give fresh raw fruits, if you want your kids to get all the nutritions in a fruit.
Be happy and keep your kids happy. I have still not started to send them to any of their extra curricular activities yet. I will start only in the middle of the September month.
Since my intuitions are working in sink with the current situation is Pune with respect to the schools and kids, I will continue to follow it and keep you all updated.
As per my intuition only, I would say 31 August our kids should be ready to go to their schools in a safe and healthy Swine flu free environment. So till then take care and be happy.
http://www.madhuriesingh.com/superindiankid/2009/08/18/schools-in-pune-to-re-open-on-24th-august-2009/
http://www.madhuriesingh.com/superindiankid/2009/08/10/swine-flu-all-schools-close-down-in-pune-till-16th-august-2009/
http://www.madhuriesingh.com/superindiankid/2009/08/05/swine-flu-precautionary-move-st-marys-school-pune-closes/
Beautiful name isn’t it? Aman Setu
In today’s modernization how many of us maintain our culture in whatever way possible, is a question to be pondered over. Last year when I was looking for a good school for my younger son, I was introduced to this name ” Aman Setu” by a friend. Her son used to be studying in a school run by MKF. Her son was dyslexic. Now 14 years back, the word dyslexic would have passed off as another laxative or some kind of digestive brand name by an enthusiastic brand manager .
She was disheartened when St Mary’s told her to take her son out of the school when he was only in 2nd std as he was not able to cope up with the class! She got him under the wings of Bhojwani School, Pune run at that time by Mrs Madhavi Kapur. Today the boy is one of the editors of his college magzine.
In India, schools are very partial and I hate to admit they will not take kids with any kind of learning disability, leave alone other physical disability. The so called normal schools do not like to see their results affected by any special child’s special abilities. I think schools have stopped thinking. They have a set pattern, a preset curriculum and a way to manage the school that does not encourage out of the box thinking. Neither the teachers nor the parents even try to think out of the normalcy. So what we see is a robot like teaching by robot like teachers producing hunderds of robots each year.
I am reminded of an advertisement of NIIT, where everyone is walking, talking and behaving the same way, untill the girl from NIIT arrives.
Aman Setu is a school in Pune that is attempting to be a bit difference amongst the crowd.
I always wanted to write a review on Aman Setu ever since I visited the school last year and spent and entire day in the school. Now, which school will allow a parent to experience a day in their school with the teachers and kids doing their far from traditional teaching and learning! It’s like the 30 day money back garauntee offers that come with online product, which are 100% sure of their quality.
The school is located near the airport, close to the Diamond water park, in a farm area! I must tell you that one day experience with both my sons from 11:00am to 3:00pm was like going to a refreshing farm-trip. I still remember the teachers and the kids of all age sitting on the floor, frying coconut filled modaks. The teacher made the kids touch and feel the coconut, it’s yummy grated coconut, the process of mixing water into wheat flour, explaining evaporation and condensation while cooking, the change in texture and color after the modaks were ready! I think my kids will always remember how to cook a modak. ( And so will ).
There was a pond where kids were taught sedimentation along with a cute little duck that was prancing around along with a tiny frog. My kids loved feeding the rabbits green leaves and wanted to bring them home too. There were chicks and a hen too that kids were allowed to feed briefly.
The school follows a non conventional style of teaching with no barrier or segregation on the intellect or abilities of the kids. I think it’s a brilliant way of teaching true meaning of secularity and equality. They take the best of all boards and give a very sound foundation of fundamentals. I think after the 6th grade they follow ICSE. Amazing ! They have smaller infrasturcture as compared to other schools but I am sure they will grow rapidly to become a sought after name.
Any child going there will turn to be a first rate human being for sure. And I must appreciate all the parents who were were brave enough to choose Aman Setu for their kids. I find very few parents who would not think of the distance or the brand equity but would think out of the box, when selecting a school. It’s not that only differently able kids or super able kids go there. There are all types of kids with no bar on age, sex, physicality or mental abilities.
In my opinion kids should not be judged by the marks they get in the class or how they recite their poems in front of the guests . ‘Cause it’s not their fault but its the parent’s failure to find out the intelligence and strengths of a child.
I am very proud that both my sons are genius as per the so called pyschological tests but that does not mean I can neglect or chide them for their weaknesses. Neither should you.
Ask my sons between mom or dad who is good or bad?
And within a fraction of a second they will tell you it’s their mom who is BAD !
Earlier I used to be hurt. I would get even mad at them and make them sit and understand how I am a good mom. Poor me.
As if they want to know that from ME ! Don’t they have their own judgement?
Now its been a couple of years now since I have given up on making them register that I am a good mom, like their good papa !
But occasionally I itch to find out if any small feeling towards me has changed. So, I asked my sons again the same question but in a different way. ( MBA degree has not gone waste ) And this was while watching the movie “Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic” just after the parents of the four kids pass away in the movie.
First I asked my elder son, making sure the younger one was not around.
I asked him ” What if something like this happened to me, would you like it?”
My elder one is very sensitive and hugged me instantly. Then without looking at me he , ” Thank God papa will be there. But mumma I will not like it without you!” Well I was sad and happy.
Then I called my younger son. I asked him the same question.
He said with a big smile, ” Bad mummas should !”.
I asked him why does he think that I am a bad mom.
“Because you scold me, you make me eat food, you put soap on my head, you make me sleep early, you shout when I shout and you love bhaiya more than me ” … Phew !!!
Well this was asking for more than I was prepared ! Meanwhile my elder son had entered into the room again. He said ” If mumma doesn’t scold us, we will become bad boys. And then other people will scold us and hit us when we are alone. And when we grow up like papa, no one will talk to us.” Now I bless my son for understanding my role so well.
I really do not know how much was my younger one satisfied by this answer, but he just left to play.
As usual I started looking for him after 8:00 pm in my society. All the watchmen I asked, said he was nowhere to be seen for quite some time! My heart sank !
I called up the main security officer and told him to make sure he did not go out of the society. Then I rushed to get my elder one who was alone in the house, waiting at the door. When I reached home, I found my son and his friend with mud all around their clothes and bodies. Both the boys had scratches on their arms and legs. Relieved to see them safe, all my concern transformed into anger. But before I could utter a word, my younger son took out hundreds of flowers and leaves from his pockets, and placed the crushed flowers into my palm. Then he reached into his friend’s pocket too and pulled out few more flowers.
I opened the door and silently sent both into the bathroom.
After washing up his friend, and while washing my son, it seemed as though he was waiting for me to either scold him or shout at him. But I was too emotional to ask him anything.
At night my husband too got the cute surprise when I narrated him this incident. So he asked my younger one, as to why did he go in to the garden and bruise himself.
” Because mumma has to be a bad mom, so that we are good boys.” I saw his face quivering up trying to control his tears.
The price of disciplining is not bad
Utter CONFUSION !!!!
I know, as a parent, its so much confusing. One day the school closes for quanrantine reasons, which is excellent. Then we get sms from the schools, that the school will reopen on the 20th Aug 2009, as the situation seems normal, but the next morning the Collector Mr Chandrakant Dalvi, announces public places to be closed till 23rd August 2009. Phew !!!!
Well I am too glad that all the schools will be closed till the 23rd Aug 2009.
It will eliminate the traces of that Swine Flu from the surface of Pune totally!
It will also force careless citizens who have to be made to understand that staying at home will save THEIR life.
I still hear people going to the malls! Well if its to purchase grocery, it’s ok. But why are people flocking even to the places like Lifestyle, Central and Big Bazaar !!!!!! Just because the malls have extended Sale period, does it make sense to put your life on sale too?
Common, people, use your head. All the malls will anyways keep another big sale the moment all restrictions due to the swine flu are lifted in Pune. Do you think they will not make use of the fact that people are itching to visit the malls, to empty their pockets and to make economists wonder does the word recession make any sense in this part of the world?
Anyways those who wish to gamble with their life go to the malls, but why are you gambling with your kid’s life?
I am not sending my kids till I hear no more swine flu testing case reaching my ears!
I must thank my dear friend Vinita Deshmukh, editor of the Intelligent Pune for updating me with important school related news. I also thank all the school office managers, especially DPS, Bishop, Vibgyor and ST Mary’s for very patiently always answering my questions and doubts. I appreciate Collector Dalvi for making my life easier by answering my query on schools reopening and the consequences of those not obeying his orders.
DPS Pune will open on 20th Aug 2009.
St Mary’s will reopen on the 24th Aug 2009.
This site is dedicated to all moms and dads.
Parents are like Gods to their kids. Kids look up to parents as their superheroes and emulate every move they observe.
They will copy you when you are aware, but they will surprise or shock you when they mimic things that you wish you had never said or done!
They are innocent bunch of love filled souls who will make you cry with their selfless tiny deeds, bring tears in your eyes with their angelic talks, express unbounded love for you when you least expect ! :)
Well, there are also days when they will make you cry with their demonic deeds, brings tears in your eyes with their blunt statements or make you look like a fool in front of others especially !!!
We try so hard to provide the best for our kids all through the year 24X7. I read somewhere that Asians are the best researchers and spend their money very judiciously, but when it comes to their kids, they take decisions through their heart only . I loved it. But, let’s add to that research NOW a new result.
That ‘New Asian’ parents are very wise and research everything they provide to their kids, including food, medicine, schools, education, entertainment, sports, clothing and even pets. The research is not limited to the cost but goes into the ingredients, actions, side-effects, feel, future benefits and bonds offered by any product they buy.
This site is my way of doing so for my two beautiful kids. Since they were 5 yrs and 3.5 yrs old when I started posting here, all my posts will grow with them . I will be providing all the researched data on anything that worries me, along with my honest personal views.
By the good wishes of many parents, this blog has become quite popular and has created it’s own dedicated moms group. I wish the readership grows and provides me with the encouragement to research and write more.
TIPS TO PREPARE FOR SCHOOL ADMISSION
Questions Asked in a Parent Interview Round by Pune Schools
Nursery, PreSchool, JrKg Questions for Admission in Pune Schools Nov 2009 – March 2010
How To Select / Chose A Good Pune School
Which Education Board to choose for my child !!!!!!!!!!
My kids go to different board schools, DPS and St Mary’s !!!!!
ADMISSION DETAILS OF PUNE SCHOOLS
Schools in Pune, India DPS, ST MARY’S, BISHOPS, LEXICON, VIBGYOR…
Admission Time for Pawar Public, Millenium, Hutching, Vikhe Patil School Pune
Admission time for DPS, St Mary’s, Vibgyor, Loyolla, Bishops in Pune!!!
Admission Criteria Delhi Public School
Admission Criteria St Marys Girls and Boys
Admission Criteria Bishops Boys, Co-ed, Undhri
Admission Criteria Vibgyor High
Admission Criteria Pawar Public School
Admission Criteria Vikhe Patil Memorial School
Admission Criteria Hutchings High School
Admission Criteria Millenium National School
SCHOOL REVIEWS
Schools in Pune, India DPS, ST MARY’S, BISHOPS, LEXICON, VIBGYOR…
Playschool and Kindergarten Pre Schools in Pune !!!!!!!!!!
Pawar Public School, Pune
Aman-setu-school-an-attempt-to-preserve-humanity
Vacation and Holiday Breaks for Dps Pune !!!!!!!
DPS MANAGEMENT is Excellent !!!
PUNE St MARY’S BOYS STD 1 D are CONNECTED by YAHOO Groups !!!
DPS PUNE SCHOOL, A Benchmark !!!!!!
Yippy my son got through ST MARY’S SCHOOL Pune, India !
Kangaroo Kids Pune India
READ OTHER REVIEWS Straight from the mom’s heart
School Reviews
Ask Agony Mom any query
Products and Service Reviews for Kids
Teaching-Kids-Fun-Ways
Places4Kids-Pune
Birthdays
Health and Nutrition
Media Coverage
Admission time is a big tensionful time for all parents looking to get their kids admitted to the schools of their choice.
I remember the two years I had tried to get information on the internet , from parents in my neighbourhood and from the websites of the schools!
So this is for those parents trying to get dates of the admission for each school. A lot of hardwork has gone into making this information available with surfing the sites to making calls to the school offices. But even after all that hardwork, there is still a chance of the admission dates being changed by the school authorities.
Delhi Public School (CBSE)
DPS is the first school in Pune to start its admission process. The non refundable fee being Rs 55000/-. So if your really wish to take admission in DPS for your child, be ready with the amount. The dates below are only for Nursery, LKg, Ukg and Ist Std. For classes second onwards please check the sites if any vacancy is available. For other school will be updated … bookmark this post for other school admission details.
TIPS TO PREPARE FOR SCHOOL ADMISSION
Questions Asked in a Parent Interview Round by Pune Schools
Nursery, PreSchool, JrKg Questions for Admission in Pune Schools Nov 2009 – March 2010
How To Select / Chose A Good Pune School
Which Education Board to choose for my child !!!!!!!!!!
My kids go to different board schools, DPS and St Mary’s !!!!!
ADMISSION DETAILS OF PUNE SCHOOLS
Schools in Pune, India DPS, ST MARY’S, BISHOPS, LEXICON, VIBGYOR…
Admission Time for Pawar Public, Millenium, Hutching, Vikhe Patil School Pune
Admission time for DPS, St Mary’s, Vibgyor, Loyolla, Bishops in Pune!!!
Admission Criteria Delhi Public School
Admission Criteria St Marys Girls and Boys
Admission Criteria Bishops Boys, Co-ed, Undhri
Admission Criteria Vibgyor High
Admission Criteria Pawar Public School
Admission Criteria Vikhe Patil Memorial School
Admission Criteria Hutchings High School
Admission Criteria Millenium National School
SCHOOL REVIEWS
Schools in Pune, India DPS, ST MARY’S, BISHOPS, LEXICON, VIBGYOR…
Playschool and Kindergarten Pre Schools in Pune !!!!!!!!!!
Pawar Public School, Pune
Aman-setu-school-an-attempt-to-preserve-humanity
Vacation and Holiday Breaks for Dps Pune !!!!!!!
DPS MANAGEMENT is Excellent !!!
PUNE St MARY’S BOYS STD 1 D are CONNECTED by YAHOO Groups !!!
DPS PUNE SCHOOL, A Benchmark !!!!!!
Yippy my son got through ST MARY’S SCHOOL Pune, India !
Kangaroo Kids Pune India
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All schools are closed till 20th August 2009. Including DPS Pune, Vibgyor, Bishops, Loyolla, Vidya Valley, International Schools, State Board schools, CBSE and ICSE board schools.
St Mary’s school will reopen on 24th August 2009 in view of the current status of Swine Flu in Pune.
How to keep kids busy at home?
Why keep kids at home in this panic infected city?
All About Swine Flu you need to know.
Where to buy medicine Tamiflu online?
All schools in Pune will be closed till 19th August 2009, in view of the current spread of the Swine Flu caused by H1N1 virus.
A lot of schools are fumigating their premises.
Both kids from St Mary’s Boys have recovered from the swine flu infection that they got in the last week of July 2009.
A request to all parents.
Keep your kids at home and do not send them to any coaching class, activity class or sports class.
I am allowing my kids to go to their friend’s place by making sure the family has no cold, cough or fever. Similarly my kids friends are also visiting my home. It’s important that kids are able to interact and play in safe environment. I plan activites for all the kids before they reach my home.
Scrabble, Word Ludo (my innovation), online games, good vcds, carrom, chess and story telling are a few good way I am keeping kids around me engaged. It’s still very difficult.
I draw pictures for them and they have to colour these pictures within a time span as neatly as possible.
Another messy activity that they love is cutting aphabets and pictures from old newspaper. Then they have to make a story out of these cut outs.
Another interesting activity that I am planning is mixing the three primary colours to make secondary and tertiary colour right on the paper!
I found a set of very very informative and interesting books which keeps my kids and their friends glued to me for hours. But the only trade off for that is my time.
I would recommend all parents to get this set of books. Its from Time-Life-Warner . I will be publishing a review on it shortly.
There is another fun and engaging game, where like dumb charade, an object is drawn on the back of a kid with only a finger. The kid has to imagine and say the name of the object drawn on his back.
There are many more such avtivites that we mothers can think of and keep the kids busy at home.
If there is any interesting suggestion, you can send it to me or write as a comment.
Happy bonding !
Thanks to swine flu, I have loads of information that I can share with my kids as they are 24X7 at home !!!!
They are always fighting for the same stuff, be it the TV remote or the laptop, or their transformers or even the same set of crayons !!!
So my younger son suggested that we goto Mc Donald’s. Before I could answer, my older one told the younger one that because of swine flu its closed down. Then I found him showing the McDonald’s empty entrance from our window.
This is how their conversation went.
” There are swine flu’s there so we can not goto the Mc Donald’s today.”
“Bhaiya if we go there , swine flu will kill us?”
“yes”
“What if we wear our jacket and then go and kill the swine flu, then we can go to McD.”
“Yes we can try that. Mumma is superwoman, we will send her there at night. She will kill all the swine flu.”
“ok, come lets ask mom.”
“Mumma will you go tonight and kill the swine flu in the McDonald, you can wear your special dress.”
” Ok, I will have to first get one special injection, which will make me stronger, then I can go and fight all the swine flu virus.”
“Do you know what is a virus?”
“yes, friends of bacteria!”
“why should we be scared of virus?”
“Because they make us sick.”
“Where do they live?”
“They live in dirty places.”
“How do they come to us?”
“They come to us through cold water, nosey, cough, sneeze and dirty hands, mouth and legs.”
“And also if we do not brush our teeth.”
“What do the virus do in your body?”
“They kill our body parts.”
“How do we kill virus.”
“By injection and medicines.”
“Good”
“Do you know how that injection is made?”
“No”
“The doctor uncle takes out little blood from a person who has fever because of the swine flu virus.”
“One bucket?”
“No, one small syringe”
“Then that blood is mixed with lots of water”
“To bathe the virus”
“No, to make it weak”
“Then the doctor takes little virus-water that has some weak swine flu virus and puts it in your body through an injection.”
“Ok”
“When our body police sees one weak virus, they make more police who have to fight this weak swine flu virus. They wear caps too. And all cap has swine flu police written on them !”
“wow”
“Then whenever any strong swine flu virus comes inside your body, all the police with swine flu cap jump and kill the virus !”
“Yippy !!!”
My son today wanted to know what is the meaning of St Mary’s; it’s the name of his school.
Here is how our conversation went, till both of us were satisfied.
“Mumma ! What is the meaning of St Mary’s? “
” Well, it’s the name of the mother of Jesus Christ.
Do you know about him?”
” No”.
“Hmm”.
” Ok what is our surname?”
“Singh”
“You have 48 kids in your class, and each has a different surname, right? “
” No, mom, there are three singhs”
“Ok, so you have 45 other surnames and 3 singhs” ” Now do they all live in one house?”
“No”
” Ok now where do you and all your friends live”
” In houses in Pune.”
“Right. And where do dada dadi, nana nani live”
“Delhi”
“Right. We who live in Pune are called Puneites, those who live in Delhi are called Delhites. But is there any difference in any one living in Pune or in Delhi?”
“No”
” Now when we all, Nana, Nani, Mumma, Papa go to Mama’s house in US, we are all called Indians. But Mamas, Mamies, Kriti, Siya and Sanaa are called Americans, because they live in America.”
” Yes”
“Is there any difference in any one who lives in India or America?”
“No”
“Do you know we are Hindus?”
“No”
“Hmm, tell me whose pooja do we do?”
“My friend Ganesha, bal Hanuman, Ghatotkach, Krishna and Ram.”
” And have you seen whose pooja Janak does?”
“Sardar uncle’s.”
” Ok yes, he is Guru Gobind Singh, and so Janak is a Sikh.”
” Whose pooja Aimaan does?”
” I dunno”
” He does pooja of Allah and is a Muslim.”
” Who is Irene aunty’s God ?”
“I don’t know”
“Her god is Jesus Christ, and she is a Christian.”
“Ok!”
“Is there any difference you see in Aimaan, Janak, Irene aunty, and yourself?”
“No and Yes !”
“Is it? Tell me how?”
” No because they all are living things and look same. Yes because we all do pooja of different God’s”.
“So, does that make anything different in any way?”
“No, then what is the use of different religion and god?”
“Like you ask mumma and papa for everything and do what we tell you mostly, same way different gods and religion tell what to do and how to do. Nothing much.”
“Ok”
” Now do you know what is Jesus Christ’s mumma’s name?”
“No”
” Her name is Mary. And because her son is a God to all Christians, she is called St Mary. And your school is
named after her as St Mary’s School. Got it?”
“Yes got it.” But what is Alien’s god called and what are they, hindu or christian? And mumma are Transformers god?”
Updated at 5:00pm on 10th Aug 2009.
DPS school Pune closed till 17th august 2009.
All malls, schools, multiplexes will remain closed for three days as per the government orders. Phew !!! Finally . Bloodshed has to happen to even save our lives. Still there are a few thick-heads who are advising the schools to remain open. We must find out if their kids are in any of the affected city or have they packed off to their kids to a monsoon break to some hill station or abroad ! Don’t they understand simple logic of quarantine?
A minimum of 7 days of total shutting down of the city is all that is needed to eradicate this H1N1 virus. So is 7 days asking too much as compared to hundreds of lives that they are staking? How much sense is lacking in the people WE have chosen?
Ok now if the govt. authorities are like duh… People , use your common sense. Choose between a week of shopping at malls / movie halls /socializing OR be ready to get infected. Is this a rocket science?
Written on 10th august at 1:05am
All schools in Pune will be closed till 16th August 2009, by the order of the Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, if the school is willing.
Thank you dear authorities for better late than never sense which prevailed to save the kids from getting infected and saving the poor parents from the dilemma of whether to send their kids to the school or not !
I wish a month back this step was taken preemptively, but Pune people learn things the HARD way always!
Anyways since I have not been sending both my kids to the school even before the schools declared to close down, I am extremely pleased for the step I took.
Sadly there are two kids infected in St Mary’s 1D and one child from DPS. The kids who did go to the school last week have been exposed to the H1N1 virus. My advice to parents of these kids whose kids went to the school until last week, kindly check your kid’s throat every morning yourself. If there is even a slightest redness or soreness visible, get him tested. This you must do till the seven days from the day your child stopped going to the school.
Read this for detailed reason. What if you came in contact with swine flu affected person ?
A few steps for all the worried parents:
*First thing first, get your kid tested.
*Avoid sending your kid out anywhere.
*Keep other members in the house away from your kid to prevent any other member getting infected, cause you still do not know if your kid is infected or not.
*Order Tamiflu online, as there is shortage of the capsules. Order Online Tamiflu.
*Make hot chicken soup with lots of whole garam masala and fresh ginger garlic for the kid to drink. This will not cure the swine flu, but will provide good strength and stamina to fight the virus.
*Do not hide the fact from anyone if your kid is infected. Its criminal offence to hide the disease and let other innocent people come in contact with the virus. On the other hand, sharing the information, keeping the kid in isolation will actually hurry up your kid’s recovery.
*If infected or have any doubt that your kid is infected, please make him/her wear Mask N95 only. The other masks are useless and do not prevent the virus from spreading. Other members in the house must also wear the N95 Mask.
*Keep all maids, drivers, workers away from your child till your child recovers.
It’s this category of people who should not get infected, else the real Pandemic will show up ! Thankfully only the upper class is infected due to their globetrotting. And since upper class have the money and resource, the disease can be controlled in Pune to the level of epidemic. If the lower class gets affected, the virus will do the deadly taandav and show its ugliest form. One maid or one driver will infect his whole family and neighbors within one single day as they live in congested rooms and slums. Definitely they will not afford Rs 5000/- worth Tamiflu! And then the result is something we don’t want to see.
SO PLEASE KEEP YOUR DRIVERS? MAIDS away from anyone infected with the Swine flu in your home. DO the cooking/ cleaning / driving for the infected kid yourself. Another option can be to see that these helpers if they are in contact with the infected person stay in the same house premise. This will at least prevent spreading of the virus. Then if any symptom arises, admit the person to the hospital that can handle swine flu.
These are all advice from non medical person, so kindly do not avoid going to the doctor if any symptom arise. You should take a doctor’s advice before taking Tamiflu.
*I pray for the speedy recovery of all the kids. May I request the parents to not send their kids to any day care, playschools, activity classes or even movies and malls.
It’s tough to keep them home, so sending to known friends who do not have any flu or running nose should be wise. Mothers at home can continue with the daily studies for an hour or two. There are several online games that you can allow kids to play to keep them busy.
You parents can use this time to bond with your children and teach all about viral flu etc. Check out good sites that easily explain it. www.X-plain.com. Check out online stories or activities . I like www.starfall.com.
Paint, draw play with your child and make the most of this break. Be thankful that you are lucky to be healthy and fit.
The Empress Garden is my favorite and my kids go gaga with just the mention of it’s name.
Kider Brook, the playschool where my kids were doing their kindergarten, took them to this lovely garden 3 years back. My darling hubby took the responsibility as I had another appointment on that Saturday.
They took a few dry snacks and fruits, though the school was ready with biscuits and cold drinks. ( Three years back I was not aware of the dangers of these aerated soft drinks).
Once back from the garden after 3 hours, my kids kept telling me of the swings and slides they played on, the trees all around, the tiny stream flowing through the garden and the pink candy they ate there !
They took promise from me that I will take them the next weekend again to the Empress Garden.
My hubby was also looking very fresh and happy, after meeting so many teachers obviously as all the teachers later told me how sweetly my hubby helped them in managing all the kids and driving a few teachers and kids back to the school.
This garden sounded too good to be true. So I planned the next weekend with just my family.
From the moment I landed in the garden, I was mesmerized by the greenery all around. Now it being the Botanical garden was all the reason for its spic and span maintained trees and flora in that huge area.
I relived the years that I had spent in UK and Australia, with similar tall trees, bamboos of several sizes, plants and shrubs dressed up in pink, yellow, red and white flowers ! There are huge animal statues made of stones, wood and creepers that kids fall in love with. There is a huge life size elephant which even I was tempted to climb onto, but looking at the crowd, controlled my urge.
There are more than 50 swings, slides, see saws, merry go rounds and climbers that kids go crazy playing each one of them.
One very good thing about this garden is that the main gate is quite far off from the play-area. So even if the kids seem to go out of sight, no kid can be lost by just its wandering away. But that does not mean, parents should be completely relaxed. One has to keep an eye every now and then as the vastness of the garden can be easily used by anyone with bad intentions.
There is a horse too which is pretty healthy and kids take ride on it. Sometimes the same horse is used to pull a coach, for a family to ride around the garden.
There are eatables too around like ice-creams (with no cream ), pink candy, peanuts, pop-corns etc. There is no drinking water or cold drink available in the garden strangely, please take your water along.
The garden is ideal for mini football, volleyball etc for kids. Lots of families go there and have picnic type fun with food they bring from home.
There is a small stream, which is created by the designers. It runs safe municipal water from a pipe at one end of the garden. The stream has constant fresh water flowing down where most kids get down and have fun. It’s just ankle length water and is a fun to watch kids splash around. I always take a towel and a pair of changing clothes for both my kids. They do have to come back and take a bath with soap once at home.
I celebrated my elder son’s birthday party there with kids going crazy over all the play things around. We parents had our blast with biryani from A1 caterers. We played volleyball and frisbiee for sometime. Then we played cards too.
There is a bathroom too which is clean at times and at times dirty depending on the usage frequency.
But overall its a lovely place like a mini oasis in the crowded city of Pune, for a stress free weekend.
Swine-flu-precautionary-move-st-marys-school-pune
Swine-flu-is-villainous
These are a few sites selling online Tamiflu, that were working.
Remember, Tamiflu is dangerous medicine.
It has to be taken only if you are suffering of Swine Flu H1N1 Virus.
You must talk to your doctor before placing the order and discuss about the content of the medicine mentioned online before making any payment.
http://official-drugstore.com
www.mydispensary.com
www.top-rx-pharm.com
http://healthonlineshop.info
http://www.drugdelivery.ca
The following schools have decided to close down in Pune in order to contain the spread of the Swine Flu.
Delhi Public School will be closed till Aug 9 2009.
St Helena’s will be closed till Aug 13 with 1 positive H1N1 cases.
St Anne’s will be closed till Aug 12 2009 with 3 positive cases.
Loyola High School will be closed till Aug 9 , 2009 with 1 positive case.
Vidya Valley will be closed till Aug 9 with 2 positive cases.
Vibgyor High has closed down till sunday the 9th August 2009 with no positive cases of H1N1 virus in Pune.
Bishops Boys and Co-Ed have also closed down from 8th Aug 2009 to 20th Aug 2009, including the holidays that were preplanned.
The first school to take this sensible step was St Mary’s when they decided to close down the school from 6th Aug to 11th Aug 2009 with two positive cases in class 1D boys section.
Today on the 9th Aug 2009, St Mary’s has declared to close down till 16th Aug 2009.
swine-flu-precautionary-move-st-marys-school-pune-closes
The school management have sensibly taken this step as a precautionary measure against the H1N1 Virus on advice of the Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Zagade of Pune.
My kids go to different schools with different education board !
Every time I mention this, I see people reacting only one way , and that is with great astonishment slowly turning to pity my state, suggestions and help never intended to give .
But trust me, it’s not as difficult as it seems !
It has infact given me the opportunity to spend time with each of my child separately for their various needs.
I get to spend time with only the elder one (who goes to 1st std St Mary’s) in the morning as he wakes up at 5:30 am. It’s easy to get him all ready and make him eat his breakfast peacefully. He is off to bus stand at 6:45am. Now handling two of them would have driven me nuts as both are still totally dependent on me for all their chores.
The second one who goes to Nursery class, DPS, wakes up at 7:00am. I get time to do some study or activity with alphabets etc before getting him ready for the school. I spend good quality time with him too while feeding him breakfast and changing him into his school uniform. His bus picks him at 8:40am. So his study is over in the morning.
The St Mary’s bus drops my elder one at 2:15pm. I am again giving him full attention till he completes his 30 min homework or browse through his class works. He eats his lunch with both of us watching tv together. He shares his stories from the class and bus while eating. Then we have a 10 min Talk Time, where he can tell me anything bothering him in his class or bus or in the society.
At 3:20 pm, my younger son is back from DPS. Since he is fussy about food, it takes me an hour to feed him. Meanwhile my elder son is busy with his craft work, drawing or paintings.
At 5:00 pm they both go to football practice. But since it’s raining, they are at home. They play together or with me, fight, run around, call their friends or go to their friend’s place. SO till 7:00 pm I allow them to do whatever they want to do with little supervision.
AT 7:30pm they are back home, without my calling them back! Am I lucky !!!
This is the time when they sit together and eat dinner together. I try to put the elder one off to the bed by 9:00 pm maximum and the younger one by 10:30pm.
I am starting to appreciate the ability to spend quality time with both my kids separately and be able to focus on their individual needs too separately. Food, Play and Study are the most important things that we mothers have to focus. And, I get to justify good undivided attention to both of them for all these important needs.
When they grow older, their study and extra curricular activities will demand more attention. That the time paying quality time and justifying our role would become difficult. But when both will be having exams at different dates/months, I think my life will be better off as compared to having both my kids exams together.
The only problem is their holidays, which never coincides. St Mary’s has lot more holidays as compared to DPS. So it’s difficult to convince the younger one to go to school when his bhaiya is happily sleeping .
I am infact finding how two different boards teach subjects so differently.
Looking at the temperament of both my kids, I think they have got admissions in the right kind of school they deserve. My elder son is inclined to learning academics very easily. He picks up study at one shot. He is a delight to any teacher. The methodologies in St Mary’s being of traditional way of teaching, he enjoys being taught every day new topic. One browsing is enough for me to know and be relaxed. He reads just once and is able to repeat the whole chapter back to me. Concepts, if told to him just once, he picks them fast and builds upon them his own stories. Now you know why I write stories which have facts and concepts from science to english. Also the study has to be done each day, as studying for maths on a science test day is very much possible b y him . There are questions like what is a soul, that I have to answer till he has no more questions. Hence, I have to keep abreast to meet his highly inquisitive mental demands.
The younger child thinks laterally. He will come up with answers that are unconventional. He makes people around him including adults, stop for a while and grasp the meaning and intent behind his answers. There are times when people around us have had to change our thinking from the usual mindset to give way to his thinking! Am I proud of my baby .
And people, I am not exaggerating. Now his mental needs have to tackled differently. He does not agree easily, just because we are his parents or his teachers or older than him. He has to be made understood as to why something needs to be done, is there any other way it can be done, and if he understands the logic behind the task he may or may not do, as he may not be interested in doing that task !!!!!
For him by not wasting food in his plate, in no way makes sure that some poor child will get food to eat. He would rather throw more food, if that ensures that some poor boy will be eating from the garbage ! And trust me, he has done this frequently :O)
St Mary’s school, pune will be closed from 6th to 9th August 2009 as a precautionary measure against Swine Flu.
School will assess the situation on Sunday to decide whether to reopen on Monday 10th August.
Even though no case of H1N1 virus was detected in St Mary’s School Pune, the management took this wonderful step to prevent any spreading of the disease amongst it’s students.
All Schools must close down for a week just to ensure the kids stay at home and do not get in contact with any one who is a carrier of H1N1. A week’s holiday will not make much of a difference in the life, as compared to endangering lives of small kids who are most susceptible to H1N1 virus.
Also parents should take the decision independently, as to what is more precious to them, the stress of sending the children to school now when ideally all schools should be closed down or to wait till the school declares holiday !
Schools in Pune close down from 7th Aug 2009
Read Swine-flu-is-villainous
Swine Flu is known to infect the children more than the adults.
The International Center for Infectious Diseases states the following:
1. What is Swine Flu ?
It is a form of influenza that infects respiratory organs.
2. Why is it dangerous?
a) Virulence – how quickly and spreads easily – H1N1 Virus spreads quickly.
b) How much tissue damage the virus causes resulting in severe illness or death – H1N1 virus seems to be quite damaging to the tissue
3. Why is the Swine Flu from Mexico considered to be a threat?
It’s a strain of influenza that results in the deaths of young healthy individuals.
1 in 1000 individuals who get ill with this flu will die, as per the data available from Mexico.
4. What are the symptoms of H1N1 viral flu?
a) Fever often upto 104 degree Fahrenheit.
b) Chills
c) Severe muscle pain
d) Headache
e) Cough which is often non-productive in normal people. Those with previous respiratory infection, symptoms may worsen.
f) Nasal discharge and stuffiness or a sore throat in few
g) Fatigue, often sever lasting from 7 to 10 days
h) Diarrhea in few
i) Any one already suffering from heart or lung related disease may notice their symptoms worsening.
How does this virus spread and infect?
Through droplets of saliva or running nose , transmitted by coughing, talking and sneezing.
The virus enters through nose when it’s breathed in especially in a crowded place like schools, bus, malls, restaurants or movie halls etc.
Through eyes or mouth when virus is touched by hand. (That is why thorough washing reduces risk).
2) When is someone with influenza most infectious?
After getting in touch with the virus, there is an incubation period of 2 – 5 days which is short. In case you cross 7 days after coming in contact with an infected person safely, it’s rare to get ill with this flu.
The virus is maximum in quantity within 24 hours of getting ill. It’s quantity reduces after 2-3 days, making lesser chance of infecting others.
3) How effective are masks in spreading the virus?
Not much effective .
Wearing a mask N95 mask, which fit tightly on the face can be effective when you are caring an infected person or when you are sick with the flu. N95 reduces the rate of spreading of the virus through nose and mouth by 80-90%, when worn by infected individuals.
A healthy person wearing the mask is not protected.
4) Flu shot in 2008?
No information is available that flu shot taken in 2008 will prevent one from this virus.
5) What and how effective are the current drugs?
No study on how effective the current drugs are on this virus.
But past studies in Canada of these drugs suggest:
Osteltamivir ( Tamiflu) taken orally
Zanamivir by inhalation
can prevent this flu if you are exposed or help in recovery and prevent seriousness.
The effect of these two drugs on H1N1 is still not very sure that they can prevent death.
Where-to-buy-medicine-for-swine-flu
6) Can I get swine flu from eating pork?
No
7) Does Quarantine work as a strategy to prevent spread of the flu?
Following strategies have helped to prevent spread of the flu:
a) Dispersion of crowds
b) Closing down of school/ workplaces/ tamples/ churches/ mosques/ movie halls/ public places.
c) Avoiding travelling / holidaying during this phase to prevent spread or getting infected.
d) Encouraging infected people to stay at home.
e) Air travel does increase chances of getting infected due to re-breathing of air.
For detailed report visit www.icid.com
email info@icid.com
contact Dr Allan Ronald, ICID, Canada
GOVERNMENT AUTHORIZED HOSPITALS FOR TREATMENT OF SWINE FLU
City
Hospital Address Contact
Chennai
King Institute of Preventive Medicine (24/7 Service)
Guindy, Chennai – 32
(044) 22501520, 22501521 & 22501522
Communicable Diseases Hospital
Thondiarpet, Chennai
(044) 25912686/87/88, 9444459543
Government General Hospital
Opp. Central Railway Station, Chennai – 03
(044) 25305000, 25305723, 25305721, 25330300
Pune
Naidu Hospital
Nr Le’Meridian, Raja Bahadur Mill, GPO, Pune – 01
(020) 26058243
National Institute of Virology
20A Ambedkar Road , Pune – 11
(020) 26006290
Difference between common flu and swine flu
Kolkata
ID Hospital
57,Beliaghata, Beliaghata Road , Kolkata – 10
(033) 23701252
Coimbatore
Government General Hospital
Near Railway Station,
Trichy Road, Coimbatore – 18
(0422) 2301393, 2301394, 2301395, 2301396
Hyderabad
Govt. General and Chest Diseases Hospital ,
Erragadda, Hyderabad
(040) 23814939
Mumbai
Kasturba Gandhi Hospital
Arthur Road, N M Joshi Marg, Jacob Circle , Mumbai – 11
(022) 23083901, 23092458, 23004512
Sir J J Hospital
J J Marg, Byculla, Mumbai – 08
(022) 23735555, 23739031, 23760943, 23768400 / 23731144 / 5555 / 23701393 / 1366
Haffkine Institute
Acharya Donde Marg, Parel, Mumbai – 12
(022) 24160947, 24160961, 24160962
Kochi
Government Medical College
Gandhi Nagar P O, Kottayam – 08
(0481) 2597311,2597312
Government Medical College
Vandanam P O, Allapuzha – 05
(0477) 2282015
Taluk Hospital
Railway Station Road , Alwaye, Ernakulam
(0484) 2624040 Sathyajit – 09847840051
Taluk Hospital
Perumbavoor PO , Ernakulam 542
(0484) 2523138 Vipin – 09447305200
Gurgaon &;
Delhi
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)
Ansari Nagar, Aurobindo Marg Ring Road , New Delhi – 29
(011) 26594404, 26861698 Prof. R C Deka – 9868397464
National Institute for Communicable Diseases
22, Sham Nath Marg,
New Delhi – 54
(011) 23971272/060/344/524/449/326
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital
Kharak Singh Marg,
New Delhi – 01
(011) 23741640, 23741649, 23741639
Dr. N K Chaturvedi – 9811101704
Vallabhai Patel Chest Institute
University Enclave, New Delhi- 07
(011) 27667102, 27667441, 27667667, 27666182
Bangalore
Victoria Hospital
K R Market, Kalasipalayam, Bangalore – 02
(080) 26703294 Dr. Gangadhar – 94480-49863
SDS Tuberculosis & Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases
Hosur Road, Hombegowda Nagar, Bangalore – 29
(080) 26631923 Dr. Shivaraj – 99801-48780
also see this site http://www.parentree.in/Parentree-editors/journal-1301/Swine-flu–H1N1—-Pregnancy—Precautions–Symptoms–What-to-do—.html
http://www.parentree.in/Parentree-editors/journal-1302/Swine-flu–H1N1—-Babies-and-Children—Precautions–Symptoms–What-to-do—.html
Summer Break 9th may to 21st june 2009
Dussehra Break 25th sep to 28th sep 2009
Deepawali Break 16th oct to 18th oct 2009
Winter Break 25th dec to 3rd jan 2010
View of our Earth from the Moon Shourya was very much interested in learning about space and people who went to the moon.
He one day asked his mother about what do you do to go to the moon.
His mother said “ To become an astronaut, you need to study science, math and english.
You have to use a rocket to go to the moon in the space.
And you have to be trained for one year to walk, work, eat, float and sleep in a special suit wearing an oxygen mask all the time.”
“But mom why do they need an oxygen mask and a special suit?” Asked Shourya.
“Since the space and the moon do not have air like on our earth, they have to wear an oxygen mask so that they can breathe in the space and on moon.
They have to practice working in zero gravity wearing their special suit.” Explained Shourya’ mom.
“Mom! What is gravity?” again Shourya asked.
“Son, on earth we are able to walk, stand and jump because of the earth’s gravity. It’s like we are all balloons filled with air. We will fly away here and there unless something holds us down. The earth pulls us with an invisible thread. This invisible pulling thread is called gravity of the earth.
If we go to the moon, the thread is not pulled very strongly by the moon. And so people on the moon can float like balloons. And there is also the chance that they may float away from the moon into the space!
So to make sure that people stay on the moon’s ground, the suit they wear is made of special material that makes it heavy.
Have you seen how the balloon filled with air easily floats away. But when it’s filled with water, it becomes heavy and does not float away. Same way heavy suits keep the people on moon, on ground and don’t allow them to float away.” Explained mom.
Shourya was very pleased and began to study science happily.
NEW WORDS
Astronaut
Oxygen
Mask
Space
Space Suit
Gravity
Float
Invisible
Thread
Material
Q1. What was Shourya interested in this story?
Q2. Who is an Astronaut?
Q3. What do you need to learn to become an Astronaut?
Q4. Why does an Astronaut need an Oxygen Mask?
Q5. What is the use of space suit?
Q6. Which is heavier, a balloon filled with air or a balloon filled with water?
Q7. What is Gravity?
Fun with space sites
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/index.html
http://www.kidsastronomy.com
http://www.kidsites.com/sites-edu/space.htm
When it comes to confusing, the worst is when parents have to choose the right board for their children!
We have CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education)
ICSE (Indian Certificate is Secondary Education)
IB (International Baccalaureate )
and the State Boards.
There are other Boards too which will be added once enough information is collected.
I have tried to do an analysis of all the important boards in India.
Since I studied in CBSE I have preference to it.
CBSE Board :
1: Assures an overall growth of a child.
2: Loads of information and general subjects in the curriculum. This is very good when it comes to general knowledge.
3: The books skim through all topics and all the subjects. They make the children aware of everything and then lets them choose the focus after Xth. Allows them to taste as many subjects without going deep into them. Which is a wonderful and an enriching thing.
4: Best board for kids planning to appear for IIT, CAT, IIM and all entrance exams which are held at national level, open to all eligible children.
5: Also CBSE gives one better chances in appearing for Armed Forces Exams, NDA, IAS, IFS, IPS.
6: All major cities have ICSE schools, hence easy to move around in the country.
7: Extracurricular activities are numerous. Kids get a taste of most activities they can imagine. A lot being compulsory. There is even a mock parliament formed which teaches kids the role and responsibilities of the various members of the Parliament!
8. Kids must work extra if planning to go abroad after Xth. But excellent for those attempting GRE, GMAT after XII or graduation.
ICSE is also a good board.
1: They focus a lot in detailed study of any subject.
2: The children master whatever subject they are learning.
3: There is a lot of focus on language and literature as it’s obvious since it’s linked to UK Cambridge in the past.
4: The GK is detailed and unnecessarily in depth.
5: There is loads of portion to study, which may not be necessary to learn at that stage.
6: Very good for kids wanting to make a career which involves writing, reading, talking, debating, arguing, surveying, historians, geologist etc. The other professional options are also catered by the board like IIT, IIM, CAT, All India entrance exams, but needs extra time and coaching. Even Armed forces exams can be appeared after this board.
7: All major cities have ICSE schools, hence easy to move around in the country.
8: Extra Curricular activites are good but limited to school facilities and infrastructure.
9. Excellent board for those who are migrating from abroad as the curriculum is close to international board.
10. Any kid pursuing higher studies after Xth, abroad. The SAT becomes easy to attempt.
IB Board
1: International board is good but definitely lack the grind that the kids in India need to survive. Any Indian does better than other nationality in any part of the world, because of the immense load, subjects, detailing, population and competition subjected to the child during school days.
2: Excellent for kids whose parents are globe trotters.
3: Can get admission into any IB school any part of the world.
4: Have very few students in each batch, hence focus is high per child.
5: Less number of students in a class also leads to lesser interaction with various types of kids.
6: Outdoor games like football, cricket which are team games, are difficult as the team is too small to play.
7: Kids will never be exposed to Indian culture as the teachers though not 100% are from abroad.
8: Kids do learn in the most interesting and interactive way with the best of equipments.
9: The atmosphere in the school is also very calm and international, with kids taking teachers as their equals.
10.Extremely expensive decision as even a junior kg fee is near Rs 1lac per annum! And the fee increases drastically either every year or every couple of years.
11. International class mates, so exposure is definitely international and a class apart.
STATE BOARD
1: State Boards are limited in the content and subjects as compared to other boards.
2: They are focused to cater only to one state.
3: Kids from state board find difficult to cope up with IIT, CAT etc and must be coached for the entrace exams.
4: The concepts are generally lagging.
5: Excellent board for kids planning to stay in the same state for life.
6: Excellent for those planning to appear for state cadre jobs. State police, state administration boards etc.
7: Keeps one in touch with the state reality, hence good for those planning to get into state politics.
8: There is compulsory state mother tongue that the child has to study.
9: Overall development depends on the school focus.
For more technical definition of each school boards visit this site
http://www.academiesinfo.com
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I have decided from today both my kids will stay at home for a week or two.
Reason, firstly , I think that’s the best way to prevent my kids from getting infected even if there is any remotest chance. They travel by school bus and definitely there is a good chance of getting in contact with dormant Swine flu virus. Since there is still no confirmed report on whether a person who has been cured of Swine flu may or may not be a carrier of the virus. What if the cured person IS a carrier of the virus? Then for next 5-10 days he /she will be easily infecting another 100 person who comes in contact. I as a mother do not wish to live in stress wondering what if’s .
In my opinion, if I were the Mayor or District Magistrate or any one in authority of Pune city, would have closed down all the schools, colleges for 15 days. Since as per the statistics the Swine Flu is infecting more kids than adults, it makes sense to keep the KIDS AT HOME. Citizens of Pune should be restricted to public places like Malls, multiplexes and restaurants as these places are the best places to get infected. Even going to the hospitals should be avoided unless emergency situation calls for going to the hospital.
My son’s classmate was down with fever for seven days. The paediatrician asked the mother to get him tested for Swine Flu. She went to the Naidu hospital which is authorised to do the test in Pune. There the hospital returned her back saying that we will not test everyone who comes here for Swine Flu ! Shocked mother came back and was very upset. Had I been there I would have taken the Naidu hospital to press and made their life hell for being negligent.
My request to all parents. Go by your instinct. If you have slightest doubt, stop your child from going to school and public places. And get him/her tested for the virus. Early detection is better than rushing in the last moment, knowing very well that Tamiflu, the only drug is not easily available in Pune, even in black.
One to two weeks of holiday from school will not matter anything. You have all the portions and books, you can very well teach at home. Working parents will have trouble taking this decision, but the trade off is between the short term trouble of taking off from the office or life long crying…
I am very upset with Dr Gosh from National Institute of Virology, Pune. In the process of calming the parents he passed an uninformed message to the parents about the Swine Flu. He may be right in saying that parents should not be panicked, but he should not have said that it’s like any other virus and getting infected is ok !
So parents without creating a havoc around you, listen to your instincts. DO not send the child to the school for a week. Wait and watch. Talk to the school is they can close down the school.
Two years back my son was suffering from fever for 10 days. I got him to Dr Sewani of Kalyani Nagar, Pune. She said, it’s nothing to worry about and sent me away. But my instincts told me some thing was not right, as my son was blabbering nonsense in his feverish sleep. I got his blood tested elsewhere. He was detected as suffering of Dengue !!!! SO my instinct did come true.
The passage below was written when we were called to the school by National Institute Of Virology ’s talk on Swine Flu.
Today, we were called to the St Mary’s school for a presentation on SWINE FLU.
Thanks a ton St Mary’s Management for pre-emptive step taken.
DPS also had last week sent a circular about SWINE FLU and requested parents to not send their kids if any had any kind of fever. These measures are very reassuring for parents, as it proves our kids are going from one safe hand to another . Also, it takes care of the psychology of many over protective/ carefree parents.
It’s just another variant of flu virus. It’s symptoms are all similar to the other viral flu that our kids keep encountering.
Just be careful and take the child to a good paediatrician if the child has SEVERE CHILL , shivering and redness of eyes , followed with high fever.
Else treat this poor flu like any other viral fever. Do not panic, but keep the child at home to prevent him passing on the flu to others. One can wait for 2 days of fever and if the fever does not lower on the third day, then contact the doctor around.
The virus became a villain only because, when it was detected as a new virus in Mexico, the hosts died , but all had other major diseases to blame. Due to globetrotting, this virus reached India too, but it’s variant got diluted after it mixed with Indian viruses. But the virus is infecting kids more than adults. Hence preventing kids from becoming infected will control the disease in Pune.
How to prevent H1N1 Swine flu and any other flu :
1. Wash hands everytime you come home.
2. After kids are back from school or play give them a warm water bath.
3. Use tissue paper to wipe and throw in a dustbin.
4. DO NOT SEND YOUR KID TO SCHOOL FOR NEXT SEVEN DAYS.
That’s all it takes to prevent any virus from spreading !
Do not try to cure any viral flu yourself, especially do not pop in any medicine yourself that is antibiotics ! Anyways no antibiotic can cure any viral flu as antibiotics are for bacterias , not for viruses .
A good site http://www.parentree.in/Parentree-editors/journal-1302/Swine-flu–H1N1—-Babies-and-Children—Precautions–Symptoms–What-to-do—.html
To know or report about SWINE FLU contact :
www.niv.co.in
www.edc.org
Dr. Ms. Chadha
Deputy Dir- Influenza
Ph Nos – 020-26006247 / 26006217
email add – basua@icmt.org. in
Its 12:30 pm, I have a meeting that is unavoidable and time bound hence cannot be postponed!
My kids already back from summer camp! All energetic and want my 100% attention like always!
SO the best I cud manage is keep the meeting at my house…..don’t like it much (Interruption …kids…phone…maids….door …friends….uff !) But beggars can’t be choosers! …So Multiprocessing is already happening… All are set to work that will leave me undisturbed for 2 hours!(…as if…in my dream huh! ) …………Meeting over, only 2 calls, and one interruption from my elder child to change over from MSEB to Generator …..that’s some achievement …!!!!!
Am I glad? No I am mighty pleased with my POA (plan of action) and its success !
Now the secret of keeping kids silent…not into Mahabharata mode….not into want attention…plus getting them creatively informed in my absence …. it had better be something I completely trust with my kids….( maids ….no way….can’t trust them…not even day care…)
I was looking for something on Amazon.com when I happened to discover this amazing stuff that changed my life pleasantly and brought a lot of peace to my maternal questioning , precisely 5 years back in Mumbai !
It’s called BABY EINSTIEN! A set of educational CDs / DVDs / VCRs. These one hours videos can manage to keep my kids singing , repeating after the voice over, dancing, learning..not fighting,….what a boon for any mother …!Baby Einstein was conceived by a mother who could not find appropriate educational videos in the US market !
There are videos for age 0 months upto 18 months….but to tell you the truth my kids 5 yrs and 3.5yrs they still love to watch….(subjects like planets, animals, shapes , words …still very exciting… )
For the infants there are music videos that keeps their attention for 30 min ….Baby Bach is what I bought first …Its full of captivating music a combination of (Mozart, Beethoven…) and capturing colorful toys, puppets, kids, animals, birds, flowers…. Next I bought Baby Van Gough which teaches colors through a blue goat named.. “Van Goat” !…where the crayons are dancing and holding hands , drawing oranges and fishes…! Baby Newton was the next, which teaches shapes through a clown made of shapes that keep tumbling down …..
The duration varies from 30 minutes to one hour and guaranteed to keep the attention of the kids…. The end result after one hour …..still energetic but informed kids…..asking you more questions about shapes, colors, animals etc etc… and feel proud is the bonus …u cannot ignore !
I have now managed to buy Baby Galileo (planets), Baby Einstein World Animals, Baby Neptune Discovering Water World, and Neighborhood Animals. I can swear by god the incremental growth in the vocabulary and queries from my kids with respect to each topic that these videos take up…
I have placed order for Baby Shakespeare World of Poetry and Baby Einstein Language Nursery. You can place order through their web site www.BabyEinstien.com. The website itself is a pleasure to explore….and self explanatory. You can choose videos appropriate for your child based on age category or any other topic that you are interested for your child.
I personally prefer shopping through Amazon .com as it allows me to read the review of the product along with comparative analysis of competitor products. Another not to be ignored reason of Amazon is the used products on sale which are sold at peanuts at times ! Try Friday sale on Amazon for your marked to buy thingy. Ok I better stop …before it evolves into a review of the www.Amazon.com….
Now for the second most important factor to buy these Baby Einstein videos..is the cost.. Mind you moms ! Its not cheap stuff, when you pay peanuts you only invite monkeys…right ? So in my opinion when you are saving 60 mins of your busy schedule , when your child is learning with all the fun that you can imagine and when your kids are right in front of your eyes ……and not to mention the usage of these videos is minimum 5 years….. I think it’s a bargain buy… for even $ 10 /-(avg) new ones and used ones @ $ 5-6 / -
There will be transportation / delivery charges too which need to be considered. Hence best is to buy in bulk….or when offers are running on any sites.
SO in conclusion, if you really don’t have time and yet don’t want to be poked with those guilty bayonets! Go get these videos …..give your kid a world of colorful, cheerful, mind stirring learning…..which has been developed with a lot of mindful research….
I know I would have by now managed to stir all you ever so agile readers who want to jump up and write not on the product and definitely not on the review, but ….on the unsaid ….the dread of all parents….making your child watch TV for hours….its effects on eyes…on concentration …on long term repercussions…on lot more than I can count here….
Well…my only advice to all such questions….everything in moderation is a parent’s duty….We all know how to control our kids….and NOT let them control us…….Similarly we all ought to know how to control the usage of these TV /internet related stuff and be controlled by them… AS parents we should know when to tether whom, be it kids or be it TV…..
SO my dear darling parents of those over energetic kids, try out one of these videos to believe me and trust me you can thank me later how much ever you want…
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A pencil is a pencil is a pencil!!!!!
No! No! No! How many of us have ever paid attention to the type of pencils our kids are using when they started out to write????
Well I am a good mom, as I would always make sure the pencils were all sharpened and placed in the pencil box with an eraser and color pencils/ crayons.
But just a month back (June 2009) I realized that with respect to the pencils I was NOT a good mom !
Cuz, just placing sharpened pencils doesn’t make you a good pencil mom .
Since my son is very bright, I never paid much attention while he breezed through the preparatory class, which is very much a revision of the playschool learning. But when he reached STD 1 in St Mary’s life suddenly changes for both him and me!
No more casually sharpened pencils.
I found he definitely has my genes when it came to writing, which is quite illegible. Now I do know the importance of good handwriting now, so I started making him write every day a passage or cursive alphabets on three lined notebooks.
I found he was pressing the pencil too hard, leaving impressions on 2 sheets below! Also when he erased the marks, he would invariably tear off the sheet!
Now having an analytically gifted mind, I used it to first observe, collect related data and then analyze them.
So here are my observations which are the most important part of any analysis.
1: My son would hold the pencil too tight, which automatically led to applying too much pressure on the paper while writing. (There is a psychology of why some kids hold pencils very tightly) .
2: If the pencil has rounded smooth surface, his grip tightened more to prevent pencil from slipping.
3: With a few pencils he would write little better!
4: The fourth observation was that he was nearly lying on the sheet.
5: With a few erasers, he managed to tear off the sheets better.
6: If the pencil was well sharpened, he managed to tear off the sheet.
Now I did a bit of search on the net. Read up data available on the sites which were related to pencils of those brands that we were using. I bought all different brands and types of pencils and used them myself.
The analysis and its result were as follows:
1: Some kids grip pencils very tightly, some very lightly, some are very fidgety. http://specialchildren.about.com/od/schoolstrategies/bb/pencil.htm
2: The pencils with triangular ridges are the best for kids, as they help maintain their grip.
3: There are different grades when it comes to the lead of the pencil.
A good pencil should allow smooth flow on the paper. It should allow the tip of the pencil to glide on the paper. The writing should be dark and should not smudge if rubbed by fingers or palm.
All pencils have some grading marked on them.
The ‘H’ stands for HARDNESS of the lead. Harder the lead, lighter the writing! And hard lead need more pressure to write. On one extreme is 9H (hardest lead), which is good for tracing and outlining very light marks. If pressed hard the tip does not break but the paper will see the holes: p
B stands for BLACK. Blacker a lead, the darker it will write. The extreme end is 9B which is used for artists for sketching instead of charcoal. The ‘lead’ becomes softer with higher B.
(Check this site http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/materials/pencils.htm)
Obviously, the middle path should be taken as any wise one would do. But, not all brands seem to be following the rule. If you pick up HB pencil of all known brands, you’ll find they all are different. Why??? Maybe cuz the lead and the wood used comes from different sources. But then who follows standards in our country..!
A few kids chew their pencils, or keep losing them! Well the only solution is keep a stack at home of cheaper pencils.
Then a few kids want to play with their pencil. These kids need something on top of the pencil which will keep their attention to the pencil. Such pencils take care of the fine motor skills. http://www.southpawenterprises.com/Finger-Fidget-Pencils-P342.aspx
Some kids hold the pencil very lightly; hence the writing is also very light, at times invisible. These kids might have lesser control / coordination which is very natural at early stages. If the mother is aware, she can use weighted pencils which will easily correct the child’s writing problem. http://www.southpawenterprises.com/Weighted-Pencil-Set-P256.aspx
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There are a few kids who cannot grip the pencil properly. Again this problem will correct if taken care of early, instead of chiding the child. There are pencil grips that can be used to give a good grip. Also triangular pencils are best for grips. http://www.otideas.com/Items/PencilGrips2.htm http://www.southpawenterprises.com/Grotto-Grips-P713.aspx
SO for kids like mine who press their pencils very hard on the paper, use lead that is soft and dark. May be the pencil which is darker than HB. They can be B or 2B grades. http://www.drawyourworld.com/Catalog/HTML/penciltri.html
I found that the best pencil was OLE-Grip Super Dark Pencil from Faber Castell. (Used by DPS)
The second was Apsara Gold for executives HB bonded lead.
The third was Natraj * 621* HB * Bonded Lead
The fourth was Navneet Yellow
The fifth was Camlin Black HB
The sixth was Natraj *378* Bonded Lead HB
The worst was Norica HB. It wrote like a pin scratching the paper.
Always sharpen both ends of the pencil, it will save time and space.
Pencils given as return gifts, souvenirs from conferences, hotels should never be given to the kids without making sure of their quality. I have found you can sharpen them till you have all the patience! A few I have wondered how they manage to have broken lead all through and through the pencil! I actually got so fed up sharpening it that I chopped the pencil tip to bottom and found it contained only broken lead !!!!! And there was no brand name written on it, just Le Meridian …..
4: To take care of the distance between the eyes and the notebook, make a rule of 1 foot distance. Your child can measure this distance by placing his elbow on the desk and fingers near his eyes.
5: ERASERS:
I have used various Erasers to erase hard pressed writings.
a) A good eraser does not fold or bend easily.
b) Also good erasers do not crumble off on the sheet when used.
c) Soft erasers which can be easily bent or twisted, do not erase completely, leaving light pencil marks.
d) The colorful and scented ones are to be thrown away, as they are hard, leave blackish residue when used as compared to white erasers. They have less gliding factor which leads to too much of friction and hence tears the sheet off.
e) Never depend on the tiny erasers on the pencil tips. They will only make a sad ending of your writing.
Best Erasers are of brands Apsara and Natraj . Staedtler Mars Plastic follows. http://www.staedtler.com/Mars_plastic_gb.Staedtler
6. SHARPENERS:
Good sharpener means good tip. Fancy once which are like part of a toy or cartoons should be avoided. I have found good sharpeners in Apsara. I think they are the best so far I have used. I have a silly mechanical one too which has a tiny handle, but it sucks!
TIP of the Day:
Also after sharpening the pencil, I rub the tip off a bit before handling over to my kid. This ensures that the tip does not tear or snap while writing.
Recently I was put in a tight spot by a friend. All thanks to my darling 4.5 year old’s ever so curious and imaginatively exploring mind.
My friend was a little uncomfortable when my son showed interest in her daughter. Like any curious boy he did not want to leave the room when her daughter was changing.
Her hubby scolded my son and asked him to leave the room! My son came home crying with the complaint. But he never mentioned the exact reason but mentioned that he was not allowed to stay in the toy room, ’cause for him it was the toy room that was more important than his daughter! I talked to my son and made him understand that since they were expecting guests, they did not want the toy room to be dirty and so the uncle had scolded him. Which was enough for the innocent little mind. He left happily to play again. I too forgot the incident as it was a no-brainer.
Two weeks later my friend calls and hesitantly repeats the incident also mentioning that her hubby and another friend’s hubby both had scolded my 4.5 yr old!
I tried to brush it off as a normal thing for any one to react in the stressful situation that they were in at that time.
But I lost my cool, when she advised me to make sure that my son does not ask embarrassing questions out of the house to anyone else!
Now, that’s when I asked her to come out clear and asked her what exactly had happened that day. She told me about my son wanting to be in the room where her daughter was being changed into another dress.
I asked her if it were her daughter asking similar question, how would she act? She very coolly said that she would make her daughter understand why she should go out of the room! So I asked her, why did she think my son deserves to be treated differently? They are same age, then why should he be scolded and asked to leave the room instead of being explained.
Also I was not able to understand how was he WRONG? All kids especially between 4-15 have hundreds of queries that are boggling in their minds. They are simply curious as they do not have certain body parts that they obviously see in females. They want to know why girls dress differently. Why they have different hairstyles? Why they play with dolls and why they are in the kitchen etc etc.
I will never ask my kid to stop asking questions! It proves he is definitely much more intelligently curious or curiously intellectual than most other kids. Yes, I will have to pre-empt and provide right information to his so called not so comfortable questions to others. Also he does not go and gets contorted truth about certain questions.
I am thankful to my upbringing that my parents have always answered my queries. Although I would like to mention that in our generation we were not as curious due to lack of exposure! But with TV, movies, cartoons and changing faces of the society, I think we have to accept the changing nature of curiosity in the kids too. Also having lived abroad and all over the country has definitely broadened my mind and reactions.
Body parts, physical changes and sex are some of the tricky subjects that my generation took a long time to understand. But that same thing is not expected of current kids. They are not at all bothered to see a kissing scene as they know it’s a way to show affection. I still remember there was a debate in my house as to should us kids be allowed to watch the movie ” Love Story” as the name itself was scandalising to the parents. But we did go and now I wonder what was there to cause such a hullabaloo then!
Smooching may be a little more trickier but that too can be explained as special kissing form when you want to marry that person. That is all it took for my sons to continue playing.
They do have various questions why females do not have willies and why males do not have boobs.
Which again is very simple for them to digest that because they are girls or because they are not boys! I do add a little more information, so that they are happy with the answer for a longer time, by mentioning the function of boobies to them. It’s been more than a year that they have asked any more question with respect to boobs or willies. Another not so easy to answer question was literally hair raising! Now all it took me was a simple explanation about the nose and the need of hair in the nostrils. The fact that my kids are aware of bacterias and dust too well, it was easy for them to understand how hair prevents them from entering the nose. The same is then applied to any other body part without going into any more detail.
I am preparing myself for next set of questions which is related to sex. I have already read a lot of sites and books and talked to mothers with older kids regarding the topic. Unfortunately, not a person came up with good answer. Until my sil from US came and stayed with us. Her daughter had been asking her what is it that happens in that special HUG, that a baby arrives!
She was obviously trying to evade the question for a long untill, her daughter came back from school and told her that she knows what happens in that special HUG ! My sil was shocked and asked her to explain. Her daughter was very calm and showed with her fingers!!!! Now that was definitely gross for a 10 yr old to do, but when the source was revealed, my sil was very thankful to the school. They had organised a health camp and the counsellor had explained to the kids about the process using a few pictures.
Now the question is how many of us Indian parents are willing to reveal to a 10 yr old.
My dilemma is that I will have to be explaining about the birds and the bees to may be 5 year old!!!!
I will also have to depend on my creative mind and on the spot wits that I am very proud of .
The day I am asked this question by my kid, I will definitely blog it here, for all the parents who find themselves in tight spots by their kids.
Meanwhile, I am sure that I will never scold my 4.5 yr for asking a question.
I will not laugh at his curiosity.
I will not make fun of his imagination.
I will not show that I am uncomfortable by his questions.
I will not entertain anyone asking me to chide my child because they are uncomfortable!
As long as the birds and the bees are around the flowers and the fruits will bloom …
As long as the flowers and the fruits are blooming, the birds and the bees will flutter by….:) Some of the good sites that I recommend are as follows:
1. http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/sex.html
2. www.talkingwithkids.org/sex.html
3. www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/children-parenting-190/primary-school-age-4-11-years-60/205558-advice-5-year-old-boy-interested-girls.html
4. www.parenting.com/article/Pregnancy/Health/answers-to-kids-sex-questions
5. www.health.howstuffworks.com/how-to-answer-difficult-questions-from-children2.htm
6. http://www.aap.org/publiced/BR_TalkSexChild.htm
10 Tips for Talking With Your Kids About Tough Issues
1. Start early.
2. Initiate conversations with your child.
3. …Even about sex and sexuality.
4. Create an open environment.
5. Communicate your own values.
6. Listen to your child.
7. Try to be honest.
8. Be patient.
9. Use everyday opportunities to Talk.
10. Talk about it again. And, again.
[polldaddy poll="1814121"]
My son has started learning verbs in english.
He has very easily picked up the concept of Verbs as Action words !
So I thought of doing a bit of research in helping him learn better and applying the concept than just mugging up.
So I made him read a small story book and asked him to identify all the action words. And wow, he not only did underline them, he came back with a few more!
The next play exercise I did, involved my younger son who is in Nursery.
The younger one had to name any object he saw in the room. And then my older son had to speak out all the action related to that object.
So the first object uttered was “Apple”.
And now both my sons were throwing action words at me, where I was writing them down like a kid taking dictation!
So we had several action words as Verbs that we know . Eg eating, chewing, cutting, peeling and throwing was the last one added by my younger son
Similarly we moved to objects like football, eraser, rubber band, car. The last one was mother !
The notebook has two full pages of action words dedicated to the word “Mother” !
I plan to play today with them with other kids of the society and do a dumb charade of “Verbs”. Let’s see how they enjoy!
Happy teaching and mothering dears
Living in a nuclear family has it’s merits. I have always managed easily using all my management abilities to keep the home and work balanced. But, when my one first baby was born, life became rather handful. I preferred to quit work and stay full time to nurture the life I had given birth to after six years of yearnings and physical trauma.
But what do you do when you are blessed with another one a bit too early than expected/planned.
Well, life became a bit too tricky to handle, without help. So I had to look for any external help I could get and would accept for my darling 1.5 year old! click to read more.
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Founder and CEO of www.SuperIndianKid.com.
Blogging since 2002. Mrs Madhurie Singh has
reviewed several schools and products for kids.
She hold a BE (Computer Sc) and
MBA (International Business).
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