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Gifts from my kitchen to me
Two burnt fingers Three chopped nails Dozen blackened scars Two aching feet Some gifts from my kitchen to me Baking powder that always runs out Yeast that never fails to expire Brown Sugar that’s always wet Butter who forgot to be soft More gifts from my kitchen to me Failed cakes Burnt cookies Bitterly bitter chocolate Crystallised ice cream Sigh! Gifts from my kitchen to me Hundred giggles Thousand smiles Tons of messy clothes Forty flour lathered fingers Couple batter smeared cheeks Twinkling eyes Drooling Tongues, altogether adding to Four Happy Children Best gifts from my kitchen to me Thank you dear kitchen for letting us be
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Why do we Love to Hate Our Lives?
I wonder at what stage during the human civilization, we completely accepted – 1. Hating Monday’s because we had to go back to work 2. Loving last day of exams because we could stop learning 3. Happily sending our children back to school even when we know that they hate going to school 4. Day in, day out keep doing things that we hate but have convinced ourselves we don’t have an alternative If we can’t do what we love, can we at least try and love what we are doing? If we can’t learn to love what we are doing, can we at least stop hating what we are…
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Homeschooling Topic – Digestive System
Yog explaining importance of digestive system : First I will drink milk. It will go in my stomach and then in my intestines. From there the energy will go in the blood. Then the blood will get the energy into my arms. Only when energy comes into my arms, can I start doing my homework. Mama, you have to learn to wait for energy to travel in the body. P.S. _ Yogs drawing of the Digestive System #homeschoolinglife #digestiveSystem
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When Children will Learn the Same Way
Soon, there will be a day when all Children will learn the same way When Nature kills all oranges, lemons and strawberries to only produce apples When artistes have hanged themselves and writers have been exiled When only bankers are needed to protect our money and doctors, engineers or teachers will die Oh! Don’t despair! There is still tons on hope for this day to come When all children will learn the same way When everyone will follow rules by the book When no one will question the power of a few When man kind doesn’t dream anymore When all children will learn the same way Till such time, keep…
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I am changing the world
I am changing the world, making it a better place I save lives each day, give hope where there’s none I am a doctor I haven’t spoken to my father in the last 5 years I am changing the world, making it a better place I guide CEOs on their investment decisions I am a Banker I don’t know which grade my daughter is in or who she is dating I am changing the world, making it a better place I nurture young minds on how to develop their free thought I am a teacher I don’t have time to heed to the idiosyncrasies of my Mother in law I…
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I am Taught
I was thinking I was normal as normal as I could be Living in my own world Can’t decide who I am supposed to be To hate or to love To disgust or to like To go under or above Reaching for my goals, moving towards the sky To dance or to fight I was born thinking I was normal As normal as I could be Where people would be telling what is important for me Whether to study or to play To fail or to pass To go or to stay And to stay in which class But I was wrong I am not normal I am lucky as…
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I am Not Responsible for My Children
Just the other day, I was talking about our recent shift to Homeschooling with a close friend. Like most people who are not Homeschoolers themselves, she was in awe of the decision to Homeschool. She said, “But Shilpa, that’s a huge responsibility! How do you manage that?” My response, “What makes you think I am capable of taking up this responsibility? I am definitely not the right person for this. I am not taking this responsibility because this is not mine to take. It belongs to my children. They are their own responsibility. I am just transferring their rightful responsibility back on them.” There was a silence for a few…
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I am not this Body but this Cycle is Mine
I am not this body I am not my clothes I am definitely not my shoes But this cycle is mine so I will keep it clean at any cost, even if it means dirtying my body, clothes, or shoes After a heavy rain last night, Yog and his cycle got stuck in the middle of a muddy puddle. I was laughing away to glory when Yog tried desperately to keep his cycle clean but did not care that his shoes, clothes, hands and feet were covered in that muck! Immediately after coming home, he tended to his cycle to clean it. After he was done, I immediately attended…
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Child’s First and Ever Lasting School
What’s common in Embroidery, Carrot and Cheese Salad and Roughly Chopped Carrot and Cucumber Salad? These are all home projects done by our children without any encouragement/planning/teaching from my side. Embroidery and Carrot Cucumber Salad having been done by 5 year old Yog. Carrot Cheese Salad done by 13 year old Toyna. You may wonder what prompted them to pick up random things like Embroidery and Salad Making. The simple answer is that they saw these skills being practiced by someone at our home. Since these were being done for a period of time only by adults, our children figured it must be something interesting to do. After all, adults…
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Criminal Child Labor is closer to home than you think
Children who do not score well in exams, spend on an average 7 hours in school. To help them improve academically, school puts extra classes adding another hour of study time. Parents also want to help so they either teach the child or put tuitions for the child, adding another few hours of study time for the child. On an average, an academically weak child (a child that scores less marks) is studying more than 9 hours in a day. This is more than adult working hours. To top this statistic, here’s another one. These children are not even 10 years old right now. Don’t we as parents, teachers or…