Snippets from our unschooling life....

25th April 2013

Three kids playing Pictionary and three plates of nachos to go....munching, playing, munching and more......Life couldn't be better so!

 

Suddenly feeling a bit lost but happy too :).....with all the freedom and time that I have had today and over the last couple of days.....when Raghav has been playing all day sometimes, with his friend who is on holiday now (no school!).. it has been a pleasure to watch them spend so much time together and get to know each other.....share special meals and snacks together....with my role being that of a provider (of food mostly) and by-stander...and bowler of course, when they go down every evening to play cricket!

23rd April 2013

Started the day by making a special hand-made card for my parents' anniversary....penned a special poem for them....and now having fun and enjoying cooking a special meal for my parents on their 44th wedding anniversary today....with two kids running and screaming around the house playing their own creation of an Angry Birds game....stopping by now and then to catch up on the IPL game....while I stop by to catch up on FB :)...life is simple and beautiful if we begin to take pleasure in the little things that happen around us everyday!

22nd April 2013

Just back from watching the Lyrids meteor shower!.....our midnight adventure!....Raghav was so excited to be out at midnight....and even more excited to try and spot meteors!.....we drove to my dad's place a little away from the city, went up to the second floor terrace, used a mobile observatory app on Srinath's phone to first locate the star Vega and the constellation Lyra.....and then, after some very careful. patient watching without blinking an eyelid, we saw some faint silver streaks off and on near Vega.... very faint but bewitching! Feel so grateful for being alive and for this wonderful universe!....Raghav's wish: "I wish I could collect a meteor and keep it with me!"

17th April 2013

We are watching the IPL game tonight....
Me: I wonder why Brad Hodge is not hitting...
R: Oh! That's because they are not bowling properly to him, for him to hit!
Ha Ha! Now doesn't that sound quite like Calvin and Hobbes??! I think I have one in the house!

22nd March 2013

I just have to share this.....our doorbell rang at two this afternoon, and none of us had eaten lunch as yet.....it was my son's friend, who had just come back from school and came straight home to play with Raghav! So while my dad and I had lunch, Raghav and he got busy playing their own version of hide and seek at home...but the difference was this: Probably knowing by now that Raghav can take forever to work out the rules, arguing and disagreeing forever about who should go first, this little boy had brought a coin which he used to toss up and decide who would go first! I loved his innovative solution to the challenge posed by my son! (it can get very challenging sometimes with Raghav!) ...and that was it....for the next half hour or so, both of them were running about the house, tossing the coin all over the place for every turn! :) Happy kids and a happy house! :)) 

 19th March 2013

 Today we made pizzas for dinner and Raghav helped me with cutting the veggies, kneading the dough and making his own pizza with his choice of toppings....then he suddenly realised that his friend from next door would love to have one too and rushed to ring their doorbell to call him home! But he was not home....Raghav came back a little disappointed.....but when our doorbell rang a little while later, he dropped everything he was doing and jumped up to open the door....he probably guessed that it was his friend...and it was! He then helped his friend make his pizza, and while they were getting done, the two of them ran all over the house - screaming and jumping while playing catch and hide and seek! It was sheer joy to see his eyes light up while sitting down and sharing an impromptu, special meal with his friend...I am SO grateful for these little treasures that come our way every now and then...when we least expect them!


 19th March 2013

Our bird bath and bird feeder in our little terrace garden......it was Raghav's idea to do this today.....our first little steps perhaps towards our dream of living in the countryside someday!

 

 6th February 2013

A lovely afternoon spent with some homeschoolers and their kids at a community garden initiative...got to see how they were building a little pond, helped pick up stones from around for it, learned how they work with weeds without destroying them (much like parenting!:)), got to listen to a 10 year old explain about how legumes help fix nitrogen in the soil for plants, how to crack open a wild badam fruit....watched them climb trees and hang from tyre swings with elan....and by the end of it, Raghav (who has been holding this fear of dogs) was feeding the dog that was running around there and even made it a point to wave bye to her before we left, calling her his friend!.....so many barriers broken! It was a wow experience for me!

 18th January 2013

This is what Raghav likes to read first thing in the morning and last thing at night these days......a lovely book of funny poems with some awesome illustrations!

 

 

 26th November 2012

We had a visitor at home this afternoon!.......probably to visit Raghav's Lego City! It had a ball walking over all his Lego structures and then went out into the balcony again!

 

 10th October 2012

The most precious birthday gift I have ever got.....an "I Luv U" mosaic done with Lego from Raghav!

 

 

 

 15th May 2011

 Do you need to teach anything at all I wonder?...... when a six year old can sit for just a few minutes with a long string of "thiri" (wicks for lamps) packets that I bought and say to me "do you know that five fours are twenty and six fours are twenty four?"......"I found that out just now while you were on the phone!"

1st April 2011

Making flags to cheer the Indian Cricket Team for the World Cup!

 

 

 4th March 2011

 Lilting, soulful Sufi music....an in-house 5 1/2 year old DJ who mouths the complicated Urdu lyrics without understanding even one word!.......and breaks into a dance every few minutes......what a lovely way to spend a hot summer's afternoon!

 20th February 2011

Raghav with an NSG commando who was at the Mumbai Taj Operations....at the Aero show in Bangalore

 

4th June 2010

 Music breaks language barriers! - Well, you know that has to be true when your 5 year old (who insists he is "English", knows only English and will talk only in English) gets all excited when he hears the songs from Raavanan...and seconds later is mouthing all those complicated Tamil words (that you hope he never understands the meaning of!) and is choreographing his own dance steps on the bed!

29th July 2009

Relativity of size

Off and on Raghav refers to himself as a "big boy".....and being "4 years old!"....so we too call him that when he needs to get some things done and by himself.....a few days ago, he turned around and asked me: "amma, but when will appa become small?"!!!!