Wish youuuu a merry christmasss!!

Today's session (dec 23rd) was supposed to be jam packed with creative, verbal and self expression - a complete poetry session! instead thanks to the holiday mood, neither were there enough number of children plus all kids were in the total holidaying mood!!
Since the theme was expression, i scrapped the original activity and we decided to make christmas and new year cards to those we love and express it through the cards with a special message. All kids got involved in the activity with great enthusiasm and one even went to the extent of making a surprise card for her lil sister (also in geniekids)...With the exception of one child who did not want to participate. His stand? "i get scolded all the time so i am not making it"! However, with a lot of questioning and facilitation, he did decide he would make the card, but wont write in any messages.

Most of the other kids settled for just one sentence to express what they wanted to say -" i love you mama and papa" - life is that simple isnt it...or is it??? ...

Talk for the day!

Almost every success saturday session, there's always interestings discussion while we wait for the meditation to begin. Topics can range anywhere from punishments in school to the malls in bangalore!! Todays' talk of the day was relationships - most of the kids had something to quip about their lil brother / sister / cousin etc.

I just told one of the kids that i had seen her dad with her baby sister during the recent mela that we had and that she was the cutest lil thing i ever saw and another kid joins in the conversation by saying..

Kid 1: But I never saw your baby sister
Kid 2: Oh you know there was this man, tall, with glasses, who was carrying a baby wearing so and so colored t-shirt...did u see him?
Kid 1: Oh yes!! i did..
Kid 2: Well, that baby that father was carrying was my baby sister
Kid 1: Oh
Kid 2: And do you know WHO that father was who was carrying that baby?
Kid 1 shakes his head, bewildered and obviously not making the connection
Kid 2: He's my OWN father! this is what happens if u dream too much and not look properly. You are a "dreamcock" (whatever that means!!:))

Vidya

Mela Musings

I must say, every moment from the beginning of the
mela planning on success saturday till the end of the
mela was rich in terms of the learnings. My main
takeaways:
1. Never underestimate the abilities of a child. i was
amazed at the team work and coordination even from
children i thought were "not listening" when i
prepared them for the mela.
2. Keep calm under pressure.
3. Enjoy what you do.
4. I learnt NOT to overdo the list of food items.
5. Proper prior planning goes a long way for the
D-Day.
6. Empowering the child makes him/her develop success
skills that may be not be very obvious otherwise
(confidence, public speaking, organising - things that
showed up, but cldnt be overtly observed in class)
Possible learnings for the kids:
1. They never interacted much with older / other age
groups, but yet they were so so comfortable giving and
reciving instructions and working as a team. Good
exposure to all ages
2. Complete independence to handle a lot of things
without being reprimanded.
3. Every single child was given "something" to do and
they did it with grace and confidence and pride in
their work.
4. Learnt about handling money.
Vidya