No fixed plans, no fixed curriculum and yet Tara Learns!

                                        

It's been a while since my last post. Tara's friend Aadya is back and Tara doesn't need much of my time. The two are together almost through out the day. It's been raining too and rains bring in so many things to observe and experience.

Tara and Aadya have engaged themselves in watching plants sprout, observing trees, little creatures - bugs, insects, snails, slugs, earthworms all around them. They have attempted to make 'pets' out of these creatures by putting them into boxes and trying to feed them leaves, grass etc. I have been a silent observer, watching their excitement and fun. They have followed some of these creatures to check out where they go. Our cats too have added to their curiosity about insects and other small creatures and every time a cat brought in a creature, Tara, her brothers and her dad have worked together to rescue and release them in the place where they belong. At present her curiosity is limited to finding out what they eat and where they sleep. The other day, she made a video pretending to be one of the you-tubers she follows.

She has been asking questions too - not many about insects - but mainly about rain and about corona virus. She has displayed curiosity to know more about the solar system and volcanoes. I can see that her world is becoming larger and she is now prepared to let other things beyond her usual vision enter her world.

A few days ago, she came to me and asked, "Where does rain come from?" She had already watched a few videos and expressed that she didn't understand everything. Water goes up in the air because of the Sun and then clouds are formed said she. What she couldn't make sense was about how the water goes up in the sky as she hadn't seen water go up and has only seen it fall down. I watched the videos she had already seen along with her and then decided to do an experiment. We boiled a bowl of water and put a lid on it. After a few minutes, I took the lid off. We saw steam emerging out. I explained that the steam was also water in a different form. We then checked the lid and saw water droplets on it. She immediately said, "oh so the steam settled on the lid and became water again." and then added - "The Sun heats the water from the top, you heated it from below." She was happy with what she learnt. I know that she has a lot to process and make sense of and once she does so - she will have many more questions. 

I couldn't help thinking about my childhood days and asking myself - was I ever so curious? I recollected how I would get confused with the big terms of evaporation, precipitation and condensation. I realized that I had never really let myself experience and make sense of things for myself. All I did was try and memorize everything that was taught and also regarded it as the ultimate truth that can never be challenged. Unschooling has taught me to not 'give too much information' than what a child can process and gently guide the child in their process of learning. Thus for now I have to wait patiently for her to come up with her next set of questions about rain.

Last night, while I was working on a doodle mandala, she declared in a loud and firm voice that she was bored. As I had mentioned in my earlier blogs - she feels bored at times and often expects me to drop whatever I have been doing and spend time with her. Depending on various factors, I decide whether to halt and do be with her or to let her dwell in the feeling for sometime. Most often I let her stay with her boredom and most often she comes out of it all be herself. She did... this time too - she spotted her clay and engaged herself in making a figure and transformed it into a beautiful creature. Post that she went around playing with our cats for sometime and came back saying she wanted me to give her math problems. 

  

Usually when she is this specific about what she wants, I oblige. What emerged was an hour of math. We had been doing skip counting for a while now - we do it when she hula hoops, or is counting her toys or jumping and playing around. This time I asked her to circle the numbers she would say aloud if she was skip counting by twos. Then I asked her to do the same with skip counting by 5s. We did some addition and counting in sets of ten and then I just chanced to give her addition sums where the answer for all sums was 7. She immediately noticed this and found it very amusing. She said, "Oh now I get it. Lets do more. You give me a number and I will form various sums that have this number as the answer. 

We looked at various single digit numbers and she gave me the addition sentences. After one sum, she looked at me with a mischievous twinkle and wrote down a subtraction sentence that gave the same answer making me super intrigued and proud that she had figured this out by herself. There was no teaching - she had observed, made sense of it in her mind and associated it with what she already knew. Watching her do so increased my confidence in self learning. Children do have the ability to self learn. Keeping myself away from my urges to 'teach her' was bringing this beautiful learning in her. 

Here are some pictures of what she self learnt last night. If you look at her work, she writes mirror images for some numbers. We do not correct her when she does so. We do not want any obstacle in her learning journey and at this stage it is important that we focus on conceptual understanding. Also my past experience of children who mirror has been that they lose confidence when corrected and often stop learning. Children grow out of this as they grow up especially when we do not overthink their errors and work on correcting them and fixing them.

                                                   

 

 

That's all for now..I will write more about 'How Tara Learns' as I fill up my potli with a lot more experiences and pictures to go with them. Thank you for reading and hope this post helps you as a parent.

 

The Gulmohar's Message!

I have happy childhood memories of the beautiful Gulmohar tree. The tree that flowers during a month when the heat becomes unbearable. It's flowers remind you that good things can happen even when you feel low and dejected with life. A look at the tree in its full bloom is enough to energize you and restore the spirit of being and experiencing everything that life has to offer you.

I remember how my best friend and I would spend our summer vacations collecting the mesmerizing Gulmohars. Its bright red colour along with a hint of orange and yellow spread its radiance far and wide. We would savour the petals and its sweet yet tangy taste and play a game with the stamen...yellow coloured cumin seed like part of the flower. The flower with four identical bright red petals and one orangish yellow and white petal with red spots was highly fascinating often making me wonder - why was it made like that? Why did the creator just change one petal? 

The tree in full bloom was a signal to the impending rains that would bring a welcome relief from the scorching heat of the summer. I would always imagine the flamboyant red colour to be telling the clouds that they had arrived at their destination and that this was the place they had to shower. 

Thus this evening when I went out for a walk with C and Mishti, I felt so happy to see Gulmohar flowers fallen in many places on our path and I couldn't help myself pick the beautiful flowers. With excitement I brought them home and showed them to my children. Tara immediately put them in one of her toy vases and said that she was going to look after them. Even C couldn't keep himself away from them and got immersed in painting them on his sketch pad. 

The flowers changed my mood. I had completed a dot art in the afternoon and have been listening to Micheal Neil's - Inside Out Revolution and have been in a state of introspection about my values and beliefs. I have also been binge watching a series called 'Parenthood' and while doing so I had this intense feeling of restlessness come over me. It's been a while since I felt this feeling and I thought that 'impatience' was setting in. I so want some change from our lockdown rhythm. I so want my freedom to move freely and make decisions based on my wishes and desires and not based on 'fears'. It felt as though the flowers brought in a message - a message to keep my patience alive as change was just round the corner. 

To note: Gulmohar painting done by C Govande

Our owl story continues...

The owlet that we rescued and then took it back to its habitat was spotted today with another owl. According to a friend - it probably wasn't a baby - maybe a young adult. C saw it perched on the same tree during his usual morning walk with Mishti (our dog) and was pleasantly surprised to see another owl next to it. After his walk his rushed back to the owls habitat - this time armed with his DSLR.

Just yesterday, I had felt a kind of heaviness in my heart when it wasn't to be seen anywhere when we were returning from our morning walk and I hadn't spotted it during our evening walk too. I hoped and prayed for its safety and convinced myself that it was probably somewhere higher up and was camouflaged by the tree.

I was thus super thrilled to see the owl pictures. I felt so touched by the ways of nature. A friend shared on my Facebook post of an Owl doodle, "Amazing. Owls are special. As an animal spirit totem, you are blessed to rescue a baby owl. Xx." It indeed felt special to be part of an owls life.

I so hope to see them both during our evening walk which I am sure to go for...just to see the owl and its partner. I hope they will be there and that they gaze into my eyes...like this one did when it was at home and when I went to meet it the day after we put it back in its habitat...

Lockdown diary 27 : 'Thoughts around rescuing a baby owl and more'

Last morning C brought home an owlet, which was initially mistaken for a baby eagle. Bringing this new being into the house, triggered humongous excitement among everybody as the children woke up one by one to our zest of making it comfortable, keeping our curious cats away and our discovery, 'its a baby eagle - no it looks like an owl'. A huge part of us wanted the children to be involved and present with us in our experience of this beautiful yet vulnerable creation of nature. The little baby, probably scared and tired from the impact of falling down from its nest - simply gave itself to our mercy and probably was just happy to find a place - made all soft and cozy by us to sleep. (Owls are nocturnal you see and need their sleep during day time.)

As we all quietened down...we faced the question that was present all through out our excitement - 'What should we do with it?' especially as we had no clue about how to take care of it. Google came to our rescue with each one of us typing in what should we do with a rescued baby owl? Members of a Whatsapp group that are used to living in the wild were also consulted.

My daughter took on the role of a pet mother and kept pleading to us to keep it. Her innocent mind felt that our home was the safest place for this little thing and we were equipped to look after it. She felt very sad when we told her that we would have to leave it back where we found it...and after many tears and a huge vent out, she cooled down and said she was okay about taking it back and wanted to accompany us when we did so.

Later in the evening, just as advised by google and this Whatsapp group, C took this baby back to the spot he found it. Just as shared on google and much to his relief the little bird started climbing up a tree and was back into its natural habitat.

As I was soaking in this eventful day...many thoughts and questions arose in my mind. Nature has created a circle of life - were we tampering with it - by bringing this owlet home? Should we have just trusted nature to take it's course - maybe the baby would have found it way back to its nest as soon as it recovered from the fall. Or maybe the Owl parents would have found it and taken it to safety. Or it could have become a snake or some predator birds meal, or it could have simply died by the impact of the fall...

As my thoughts wandered around the ways of nature, I saw a message stating that the lockdown has been extended for a few more weeks. The question - should we simply let nature take its course here? Or should we simply abide by the rules laid down by our government and not step out for a extended time period? My thoughts moved on to an article I read about the collapse of our economy and how tough it is going to be for life to get back to normal. I worked my logic around this - would I feel comfortable going out when I knew that I could get infected (my area has many covid positive cases). Would I want to suffer and probably die because of a tiny virus especially when my dreams and aspirations haven't yet been fulfilled? Do I believe that I have a strong immunity to fight the virus in case I got infected? Would I push myself into fire and rely on my fate to take care of me? Or would it be wiser to just be at home...its just a matter of a few more weeks.

It is possible for me to stay at home for a few more weeks. What about the others? The people living with space constraints? People living off charity? People with mental health issues, people with addictions? People feeling insecure about their future? Women and children subject to domestic abuse - both physical and social? Is the government thinking about them? Has our society been brought down to the 'survival of the fittest' kind of situation? Are we in a situation like the character 'Amu' faces in the movie 'Thappad' - are we going to neglect the dignity of many such vulnerable people - and expect them to 'let go' and 'move on' as though no harm was caused to them?

What about the doctors and the policemen - all our frontline workers who are working tirelessly in absolute unbearable circumstances? They are risking their lives everyday in performing their duty. Are they getting a fair deal here?

While I read and listen to stories of our Samaritans working round the clock ensuring that the needy get food and the essential services do not stop - I am yet to read a story of a politician or super rich people leaving the comforts of their home to feed people and make alternate arrangements for them to live. I am yet to see them visit hospitals, take a walk on our streets, visit space crunched areas and witness the dire situation of people who have brought them to power...I am yet to see them turn into Samaritans.

Lockdown Diary 15: Copper Pod Tree

 Yesterday I wrote about the Kapok tree. Today I feel like writing about another tree that has been a constant in my life - it has been everywhere during my childhood and growing days - near my school, my college, my hostel. It has been part of every city I have lived in. It is a huge tree with yellow flowers. Known as copper pod tree or sonmohar in marathi, this tree is an ornamental tree that usually finds a place on footpaths and in gardens. The tree is also called yellow flamboyant, yellow flame, or the flame tree due to its beautiful yellow flowers.

I like the bipinnate leaf structure, with small leaflets on each pinna which look like small homogeneous communities living together. The tree is known for its medicinal value. But for me this tree has always been a solace from the scorching heat of the sun. It has provided me the much needed shade especially when returning home after school. It has shielded the road to my home with its branches forming a canopy high above me. The flowers form a yellow carpet on the ground. We also used the flowers for decorating greeting cards and as bookmarks. The leaflets were used by many of us to play the game of ‘love me, love me not’ during our teenage years. This evergreen tree also houses many different birds and insects which chirp along melodiously during the day and night. Squirrels too enjoy running around it’s branches. If lucky, one gets to see geckos and chameleons too on this tree.

The tree is indeed a wonder of nature. Another gem that we need to protect and ensure that it spreads in abundance everywhere.

Originally posted on Facebook on April 8, 2020

Lockdown diary 14 : The Great Kapok Tree

 I am fascinated by the Kapok tree. In fact it’s not only me, ‘C’ seems to be mesmerized by it too. And we have them in plenty in our colony. It is a very tall tree, tapers high above all its neighbors. The tree trunk looks like a rocket getting ready to launch. The tree looks beautiful throughout the year and is truly nature's wonder. According to the Maya mythology, this is a sacred tree and a symbol of the universe. Interestingly, according to google this tree usually doesn’t bloom for years together. However, every Kapok in our premises seems to have a full bloom this time of the year.

The kapok cotton not able to hold itself inside the pods have burst open and their fall seems like snowflakes dancing around before they hit the ground forming ball-like shapes. The wind carries these balls of cotton to far away places just before the onset of the monsoons. What is exciting is that each ball contains a seed. These seeds germinate once they receive water from the rains, get a firm grip in the soil and voila we have a new kapok plant emerging. This plant soon grows into a tree and the cycle continues.

I refuse to let my mind wander about how urbanization has resulted in an obstacle to the increase in the population of this wonder of nature. But I do wonder about what happens to the seeds - maybe they end up in drains or maybe they are swept away by the cleaners or probably just rot away - for though the existing trees are staying true to their purpose, we don't seem to see many kapok trees around the city.

On further search, I find that this tree is a home to many different living creatures including the eagle, the monkey and many worm and insect species. There is an illustrated book written by Lynn Cherry called ‘The great Kapok tree.’ In this book various creatures big and small come into the dream of a young man and explain the importance of the tree in their lives as well as for the world.

For now, we have collected many of its cotton pods. We plan to use the cotton to make a small cushion and we hope to make seed balls and spread the seeds whenever we travel. It is time to help this symbol of our universe spread its hold and spread its beauty to all parts of the world.

Here is a link to the story - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-j9RRSWS1U