Confused..

The teacher says that the child has to learn the multiplication tables from 1 to 10. She has to be thorough, before she goes to the third standard or she will find it tough. Varsha knows how to multiply, she knows the tables.. she is able to work through the multiplication by using various options. I am confused :-( why does the child have to know it by rote. Will not the child learn in time as she keeps visiting the same concept in various ways.

What scares me is the hurry we are in for children to learn. Problems arise when we are not giving them the space, time and enough opportunities to learn.

Chidambara Ashram, Tumkur Gubbi

We visited the Chidambara Ashram in Gubbi, just situated near the railway station. A home for more than sixty children learning vedas and also getting the normal education free of cost.

Why 'Hindi' ?

Varsha was having her tests and when the turn to study hindi came ... she did not want to study. Our conversation went something like this:
V : Why should I study hindi?
Me: I don't know ..you tell me
V: I am going to be a dancer, what use is hindi to me.
Me: hmm..
V : Oh! When I am teaching children if they know only hindi then what will I do?
Me: Silence.
V : I will study hindi so I can talk to the children easily.

She pulled her books and we went about our work. Once again a learning for me: her goal.. her way !

One thought: if she had decided that hindi was not useful what would I have done? Would I have left it at that or would I have found a way to get to my objective. Well! there is always a next time :-)

Letting go

Varun has his tests going on. Yesterday after coming back from school he tells me that he has an English test today. Till 7pm I did not see him with any of his books. He followed his routine of eating, watching tv, going down to play.
Even after all this he was reading other things but not English. I just had to understand this. I reminded him that he had a test and his reply was,' I know, I finished studying at school in the free period'. Well! now what?

I checked my thoughts and it struck to me that I think it is better to revise if you get time(my belief).I decided to let go of this belief and keep quiet.

In the morning he gets up and says,' I will freshen up fast and then revise for the test'. He got ready, had time to revise all on his own. (his motivation.. his ways)

My beliefs letting go.....

Acceptance

What I understand is :
Acceptance without any condition attached. Acceptance is not a tool to be used for some other unsaid objective of ours.

Something which happened in the morning today:

Varsha was not in a great frame of mind and was crying. She had a tiff with her brother and wanted me to scold him. She kept telling me that 'no one loves me, you only love bhaiya'.. 'you don't scold him..but you scold me' etc.. I reflected what she was telling me,' you think I don't love you.. you think i don't scold bhaiya etc' and kept asking her how she felt about it.
After sometime, she calmed down.. hugged me and ran off to get ready.

I did not stop her from feeling what she was feeling
I did not even try to identify her feeling
I did not stop her thoughts ..just made her aware about it
I did not think about her getting ready for school

Would this qualify as pure acceptance??
Would it help if children are able to distinguish their thoughts from their feelings?
Have to keep working on it..

It is fun to learn this way (part 2)

Varsha and her friend wanted to study together. They started by answering questions.. jumping from one place to the other, running behind one another and suddenly Varsha came up with an idea that they could make a project on 'people who help us'.
They both wanted to take the project to school and show their teacher, though there was no such project to be made.
They were on the job for more than an hour ... laughing, talking, drawing, writing. We talk about children not being able to concentrate but here I could see them totally focused on what they were doing (motivation theirs! goal theirs!)

They were learning the fun way !




Inspired by her brother's project

Its fun to study this way..

Varsha and her friend decided to do their homework together the other day. They had to guess the length of figures in the textbook and then measure and write it. They were laughing, pulling each others legs, joking and at the same time doing the work.
The child who was also there was enjoying what was happening. He said,'it is fun to study this way.' So, varsha and her friend replied saying that studying was fun for them.
He immediately got up and said that he was going home. After five minutes he came back with his maths book and said that he also wanted to join in and study this way.

Where there is a fun element in what we do.. then what we are doing is not work at all.
After that homework we even managed to work on hindi the same way. But, the question which comes up is : Is this possible all the time? or If I accept varsha's this way of working, she will also be accepting to work in other ways? hmm..