How productive is a toddler

It is amusing and interesting to note how much of analysis or rather over-analysis goes behind parenting a child, especially when it comes to education. While, my own mind goes into a tizzy by unnecessary running over of certain things that concern R, I'm surprisingly a little laid-back about his education. It is probably because I am myself an underdog, so I know that the brightness quotient is quite over-rated, especially when the child is as young as R or also, because I feel that kids these days are quite smart in many ways, and will be able to somehow survive the tide and do eventually well in life.

Whatever the case, I am not so paranoid as some other parents seem to be. At least for now. Hence, I was amused to hear the observations and views of a fellow parent of a kid that is younger to R by 6 months and goes to the same Montessori. Now, we had an observation day for R at his school. It is a day where the parents are invited to observe their child working in his/her environment, to let the parents get a feel of what a Montessori environment entails, what and how the child performs each activity on a given day. So, this particular parent was very eager and keen to know all about this day (as she was not privy to be a part of the event since her child had only recently graduated to M1 level, hence not yet attained the level needed for such an activity). 

Well, it's one thing to be curious and another thing to be anxious. This parent seemed to be anxious in knowing what the children do at school. She went on to say that she did not find the year productive for her child! I was at a loss for words. Here, I was, least bothered by such a day such as this. I have no big expectations of R achieving a specific learning level at the end of his Kindergarten. I am happy if he is happy going to school and at the same time not really having any major lags in his milestone development. Least of all is my worry of if he is learning his letters or numbers at school. And, here was a parent who was assessing the school and her child's growth within a year's time in terms of productivity. What productivity was she talking about, I was afraid to ask.

Assessing the productivity for a toddler can be quite a challenging and IMO, a needless activity. Kids at this age learn a lot even by simple observation, so it's futile to assume that they learn only by doing (meaningful) activities. Actually, the definition of meaningful is quite limited in the adult understanding since we have very defined and limited way of looking at things. But a child's mind is a clean slate that is imbibing such a humungous amount of knowledge each day that nothing seems unnecessary for that child.

To be fair to the parent, I also believe that Montessori methods can be complex and difficult for many parents to understand since they do not involve books and the results are almost never immediate. They target the child at the root level, gradually, and groom them in finer nuances, so tangible results may take much longer to be visible. Also, since they go as per the child's interest and capability, the results cannot be compared too. 

While, I am also new to these methods, I am trying to gain my foot hold on their methods. My insights were also proved to some extent at the observation day where I noticed many finer details to how a child behaves and learns in the classroom- something that can only be experienced and cannot be produced as a tangible result. 

Read More

Birthday at R's Montessori

A week before R's birthday, I called up his Montessori and spoke to the principal there to know how many students are there in his class so that we could be well-prepared. In turn the principal told me that I'd receive a formal invite in R's diary about the celebrations and the details would be mentioned therein.

Sure enough I received the note written by R's teacher inviting us parents to the school on the D-day. Equipped with sweets to be distributed, the husband and I arrived at the school at the time mentioned. The welcome notice board at the school carries the names of the children who celebrate their birthdays in the current month and in addition, children who celebrate their birthdays on the particular day also have their recent snap pinned up. This, I had noticed on the earlier visits too. As expected, the board had R's name and snap:

Since there was another child sharing R's birthday that day, the parents of that child were present too. I had not really spoken to any other parent about what kind of celebrations are done at school, so I was quite clueless on what to expect. Even as we sat wondering, two cute (older to R in age) girls from R's environment (the classes in R's school are called environments and they have a mixed-age group in each environment- a Montessori peculiarity) came out to invite each set of parents. How cute!

We were ushered into R's class, where there was a huge cut out of the Sun was kept on a table.

 R was called out and given a globe to hold. He then took the globe and circumambulated the Sun thrice as the rest of the class sang the following song:

Here we go round the sun

Here we go round the sun

Here we go round the sun

until the year is done..

The idea is to go around the sun as many times as the age of the child. Each completed round marks the completion of the year- just as the earth takes a year to complete a revolution- with the globe symbolizing the Earth. What an innovative way to teach the kid about Geography! Of course, R may not understand the logic and analogy yet, but the idea is definitely interesting. After the completion of each year/ round, the child was made to pause while the teacher with the help of the parents recounted the important milestone that the child may have crossed at that age. Then the mandatory birthday song was sung, at the end of which the class clapped for the child- the number of claps corresponded to the age of the child with one additional clap for good luck- again an unusual practice that I came across.

R was given a hand-made birthday card and a collection of photo-memories from his previous birthdays (they had requested for his year-wise photographs well in advance) along with an appropriate one-line caption for each of the photo.

The birthday card

The golden moments card

I was touched by the effort put in by the teachers to make a child's birthday special. There were no balloons or cake but the time spent to render a warm and personal touch by making such wonderful cards and capture the memories in a beautiful manner was far more precious- something that could be cherished by the kids and their parents for years to come.

Read More

School admissions and such related stuff

Image: google, Deccan Herald

Dealing with school admissions these days definitely amounts to research work akin to the ones done before getting a Ph.d. Starting with what board to choose from, to checking out schools in the vicinity, to evaluating their curriculum and not the least, their (astronomical) fee structure. Adding to the confusion is the varied parental reviews about each school. 

As you'd have guessed by now, we have been dealing with R's school admission process in the past few months. Unlike many other parents, we did not do a tour of schools in our locality. The fact that baring a couple of schools, most schools are situated at a distance of minimum of 13-14 kms from our place, made our job easier. Yes, most reputed schools are quite far and yet, surprisingly a humungous crowd goes to these schools from our complex. Therefore, 
we fall in the minority category of parents who attach more importance to distance among other factors. 

We checked out only two schools in the end, and went ahead with one of those, although I still keep revisiting our preference for the chosen one since the school we rejected is situated right at our backyard! However, it has been drawing a lot of flak lately for it's lopsided management policies, high teacher attrition and in general a seemingly lack of control over things. The other school, although a little far off in comparison, appealed to us in terms of the management response, infrastructure and positive reviews of its parent branch in a different location.  Yet, there is constant humdrum in my mind of whether I've taken the right decision, if it'd be better to continue R in the present set-up and look for high schools later or whether I should go for the nearest school and not worry too much about other factors ? Gosh! it tougher being a parent today, methinks.

Just in case you were wondering didn't I just go through the playschool rigmarole just a year ago and happily settled for the Montessori R is going to currently? Yes, you're quite right. I too wondered about the same. Especially, because, not only did the teaching methodology  appeal to me, it also meant I'd have to look out for big schools only after another 3 years. But, then you know, I had many people telling me that getting admissions in higher classes become progressively difficult. I might get admissions alright but it may not be the school I want, I was told. So, that's the reason behind the renewed hunt.

Coming to the brighter part: before I sound like a broken record grating horribly on the nerve, the shortlisted school follows the Montessori method for the pre-schoolers- hence gets an extra thumbs up from my side.  Ok, before you folks pick that broom and hit me out for this long-winded saga story, let me finish on a lighter note. After we submitted the applications, we were called for a personal interaction. It was a casual and informal session where about 3-4 kids were engaged in some activities by the teachers to glean some information from them orally and to gauge their skill level. One parent was allowed to be with the kid, if the kid so wished. I am not going into the discussion of what could be gauged from tiny-tots and if this is necessary at all. My solace is at least this school had it in an absolute casual manner. One of the reputed schools, I heard, had a formal interview with the child, asking everything that could be asked from names of fruits, vegetables to colours to alphabets to names of the parents, phew!

Now, we are parents who do not believe in coaching the kids for an interaction that is in all likelihood just a formality (at least for nursery). So, we thought it is best to let R be himself. It was useless to even give him an idea of what was in store is what we believed.  So, we marched in our best attire that morning with a happy R in tow. Once at the reception, they asked us to wait for a few minutes until our turn. Now, this school is situated close to a railway track which meant that there are train sightings- an eye-treat for little children. So, R was mighty excited and wished to remain at the entrance foyer and didn't want to enter the classroom. So, in a sense we hit a roadblock at the onset itself. Next, he demanded that I come along, something that seemed quite contrary to his usual independent nature. The teachers appeared warm and friendly and asked him if he wanted to colour. R's reply? No. Do you want to play with the blocks, then? No.  Would you like to sit here? No. I want to see the train! The teacher was kind enough and steered the conversation to other things to make him comfortable. R finally agreed to sit. Then, they showed him a picture of balloons and asked him what it is. R said, "flower". He even translated it for good measure with great confidence in tamil and said,"poo" (flower in tamil). I didn't know where to look. Actually, I wanted to laugh but was scared it would encourage R to provide funnier answers. The teacher also looked like she had come across such an innovate answer for the first time. She composed herself to say,"umm..maybe they look like cherries?" But our boy was adamant. Then, to my relief, he rattled off the right colour names, reviving my confidence. Then he was encouraged to play with some blocks. He put the smallest black below the largest one and insisted that that's how it should be and that it is an aeroplane. After some scintillating conversation about aeroplanes and such, the teacher asked if he liked aeroplanes. R's reply, "No"! Later, at the principal's office too he was talking his head off about some random stuff giving us very less chance to talk! Well, at least he kept them (and us) in splits.

And the best part? In spite of all the circus above, we got through the interview! So, all's well that end's well :-)

Read More

Learning and educating the Zen way

Image: google: OkyDay.com

Sometimes we have to unlearn what we have learnt so far to create openness and space within us to accept fresh ideas, to look at life in a different way. Our traditional forms of education have sadly bridled our minds with preconceived ideas and notions and we have formed a nasty habit of rejecting all that does not fit into the accepted mould of beliefs. This article here: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/286039/unlearn-learn.html is a lovely exercise that we need to practice on a daily basis to perhaps get rid of the cobwebs accumulated in our thoughts. Interestingly, these are the very practices that are taught in yoga camps and forms of meditation.

This other one here: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/286038/is-resource-room-redundant.html
again reinforces my belief in the Montessori way of teaching. Keeping the child as the focus, rather than the syllabus is the way to go ahead. A subject can be presented in various forms-audio, visual, through stories, art, craft- to enable the child grasp the concept in the manner the child is naturally inclined to learn rather than forcing the child to learn the method in which the concept is presented. Creative learning needs to find place in our education system. Challenging the traditional way of looking at and presenting ideas need to be done away with.

Yes, as the article says, all this comes with the challenge of having trained teachers at all levels and until this happens, atleast a resource room needs to be encouraged in all schools.

There is a serious need for change in our education system. Hope that, these methods will be a part of teaching methods soon and there is never a time in our children's lives where they need to unlearn what has been learnt and that learning becomes a seamless and continuous process that does not pose a challenge in finding solutions in practical life.

Read More

A task accomplished

It's been a busy busy schedule for me since a few days. Although I've been reading my favourite blogs on and off, I haven't been leaving comments. I have been making mental posts but am unable to translate them on the blog. Lack of time or enough interest and energy is something I haven't yet figured out. Thought I should break the jinx by just writing an update about what's going on.

I am on a strike-out spree. I have crossed out yet another major item off my 2012 list. Isn't that great? We have finally finalised a pre-school for R , which he would be joining this June onwards. It is a Montessori, something that I had always preferred over the more popular or regular playschools. Parents of children who attend a Montessori would empathise with why anyone would scour their neighbourhood for a lesser-known school (Montessori-es in my observation are not very popular. At least around where I stay) when there are so many regular and well-known names staring and screaming their presence in your face. In a complex where there are easily 500 odd children, I did not hear any word-of-mouth reference for a good Montessori. At least the ones I spoke to had never sent their (older) kids to a Montessori nor were in the process of looking out for one (in case of R's peers). Anyone I spoke to only gave out big names as their preferred choice. So, I had resigned myself to sending R to one of the regular KG (Kindergarten) pre-schools. However, fate had some other plans. A friend of mine had a chance encounter with an acquaintance who was seemingly happy about a Montessori school in our vicinity and recommended it. My friend knowing my preference for Montessori-es, promptly alerted me of the same. As luck would have it, by the time we approached the school, the admissions were already closed. The director with whom I corresponded over email was firm but kind. Upon my request, she suggested two other schools in my neighbourhood, out of which we chose one.

I had read up a bit on the Montessori way of teaching and was convinced of the many benefits that a Montessori provides over the regular KG approach.  Aparna (Life as a mom) would be able to empathise and explain much better, IMO. Do read her post which talks a bit about this wonderful method.  As for me, while I mostly had nothing major against any of the pre-schools that catered to the mainstream KG environment, the one thing that worried me was the practice of initiating writing Alphabets at an age as early as three or even 2.8 at some schools. Why does a child as young as that need to learn to write first? Also, most KG pattern does not follow the phonetics as a method to teach alphabets. The stress is to first start off writing Capital letters, spell words and then write cursive, in that order. The Montessori method in contrast teaches phonetics first and then the Alphabets. This encourages children to use the language correctly and develop a love for reading. Montessori way, I've read, also tackles the child as an individual also provides an all-round development by instilling life-skills like independence, discipline and respect for work in the children.

Of course, one needs to find a good Montessori and not just pick any school that claims to deploy these methods because then it carries the proverbial clever enemy being better than a foolish friend risk. The school we chose, apart from having the usual Montessori tools and Montessori trained teachers, is aesthetically very appealing. The rooms are spacious and naturally-lit. They also have an in-house library where the child (if the child is very young, then the parent) is allowed to pick a book to be read and returned to on the next day. I fell in love with this feature for it means that the children are encouraged to read books and not just repeat some rhymes as is the norm in the regular pre-schools. I just hope that we have chosen a genuine one and it proves to be a right one for R.

Read More