Shilpa Roy Kota

Parenting Stories (and more) from the desk of an imperfect parent

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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 always do interesting things! No one asked them to try eating the salad leave alone try making it themselves.

    The fact is that when children see something as part of their household they will naturally tend to try it out. Our children have tried meditation, cycling, trekking,  washing utensils/clothes, baking and even running their own business, just because these skills are part and parcel of our daily routine. On the flip side, my children think it is OK to raise their voice in anger because that is also what they have seen me doing in our household.

    This is not a new concept. We are all aware that we have subconsciously adopted most of our own habits, values and rituals directly from our parents. To a large extent, our parenting styles are also pretty much similar to that of our parents. After all, what we have observed or rather experienced for the bulk of our childhood years is going to define the kind of adult we become.

    For years, I have struggled to get our children to try out new things. I took them to classes, got them introduced to experts and traveled with them far and wide just to get them the “exposure”. It is only now that I realized the lesson that was always there in front of me. If I want my children to have exposure, it is “me” who first needs to get that exposure in my life. It doesn’t matter how good or bad I am at that thing. If my children see me happy trying to get it right, they are bound to try and do it out of curiosity and self motivation. Since they tried to do it by their own accord, they are more likely to continue pursuing it without needing any nudge from our side. The opposite of this is also true. If you don’t want your child to practice something, try and not do it yourself. For example – driving rashly, smoking, hitting someone or simple things like wasting food/water.

    A home is the first and most intensive school that a child will ever go to. If you do not practice what you preach chances are your children will never practice it either. In fact, if you practice what you want your children to learn, you will never need to preach it.

    Happy Homeschooling!

     

     

  • 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 the society ever stop to think, why, inspite of so much effort in the same area is the child still weak in that area? Will we ever stop and analyse what are the strengths of the child and how we can help strengthen them further? Will we ever consider that maybe there was something else the child was born to do?

    Just by forcing a child to do the same thing over and over again will not make them better at it. Even if it does make them better, it will never make them love the task. Quite the contrary is more likely to happen.

    As parents, we need to stop and think why our child is not scoring good marks before we pack them off to another extra class. We need to stop and think, what our child was born to do and are academic scores really needed for that?

    To be packed for 9 hours in back to back classes at less than 10 years of age is nothing short of criminal child labour. Anyone who is a party to this process should be tried like a criminal. Stop and think, are you being a party to the crime?

  • Our Death Plan

    8-Jan-2019

    Ever since we lost Yog’s grandmother last year to Death, this D word has been omnipresent in our household. While we might want to avoid talking about Death over and over again, Yog is fascinated with it. It wasn’t long before he connected the dots and understood that Mom, Dad and Grandfather are also getting old and might die any day. It was therefore only proper that we have a solid plan for what does Yog need to do in case he loses his Mom, Dad and Grandfather all in one day. This is how our first conversation, in this regard, went.

    Yog: Mama, what will happen if you, Papa and Thatha die? Who will take care of me?

    Mama: By the time, all of us will die, Yog will be a big boy and he can take care of himself. Plus, you will have Akka with you.

    Yog (thinking): But Mama, I will need new parents to take care of me. How will I find new parents?

    Mama (laughing inside): In that case, Nani will come from Delhi and take you with her. You can stay with Nani. She will take care of you.

    Yog: But how will Nani know that you have died and she needs to come to Hyderabad? Will you tell her before you die?

    Mama (trying so hard not to laugh out loud): Someone will inform Nani to come to Hyderabad. Till Nani comes, you can go and stay with Sharada Aunty (our loving next door neighbor).

    This conversation seemed to satisfy Yog for the time being.

    A few days ago after talking about sun, stars, moon, plants and million other topics in this world, Yog came around to death once again.

    Yog: Mama, when all of you die, I will go to Delhi to stay with Nani. I will take my password (he means his passport), go to the airport and take a flight to Delhi.

    Mama: That’s a good idea.

    Yog (all of a sudden choking on a thought that he can barely breathe): But Mama….. , But Mama…

    Mama thinking that Yog has finally figured that life will be sad without his mother, father and grandfather. I should assure him that he will be fine.

    Yog (continuing): But Mama, I don’t know where you have kept my password.

    Mama (laughing under my breath): It’s ok Yog! I have kept it safely. I will show you where it is when we get home.

    Yog, once again, is satisfied with the answer and happy to move on to the next topic for the day.

    Me laughing internally at his innocence! I pray he always remains so carefree and forward looking in life. As for me, once I have shown Yog where his passport is kept, my job on this planet is done! I can then happily start planning for my next life! (LOL!!!)

    Needless to say, I think both Toyna and Yog are blessed to be a part of  a large, loving and close knit family. It doesn’t worry me, even for a second, on what will happen to them if I am no longer there. Thank you dear family for so much love and support! We are all blessed!

     

    20-October 2019 –

    Yog asks me again, “Mama, who will take care of me when you die?”

    I tell Yog, “Yog is a big boy now. He can take care of himself.”

    Yog asks, “But Mama, I don’t even know your phone password till now. I will not even have a phone when you die.”

    I am amused and surprised by his ingenuity to acquire my phone password (so he watch youtube videos or download games). I have no choice but to promise him, “Yog, don’t worry. I will share my phone password with you before I die.”

    I pray that when death comes knocking it gives me enough time to tell Yog my password and hand his passport to him. Amen!

  • A World without Boundaries – Mixing learning, working and playing

    As the holiday season is getting over, Mothers all over the world heave a sigh of relief because kids are getting back to school. On the other hand, Homeschooling parents like me are always relaxed because our children never go to school. For us, there is simply no difference between a Monday or a Sunday, holidays, exams or school days. We love learning each day. We love to play each day. We never learn to be judged in an exam.  We simply learn because that is what we like to do. In essence, we have only two spaces in life – one in which we are learning and one in which we are not. In fact, the latter rarely exists because everything that we do has some form of learning for all us. Whether it is baking a cake, taking a stroll or causing accidents with cycles, there is something to be learnt in everything. This is our Homeschooling Life.  It is meant for those who cherish learning and growing constantly.

    One of the reasons Homeschooling is not valued is because a lot of parents/caregivers are uncomfortable with having zero boundaries between studying and playing. How can one learn while playing? Is the child assimilating anything if there is no structured sit down learning? If there is no discipline of getting to school at a certain hour and sitting down for classes at length, how will a child cope with office jobs when he grows big? Unless, he is used to following instructions as a child, how will he follow instructions as an adult? How will he ever perform and hold a job?

    These are all good and valid questions. But honestly, these questions are just misplaced in time. These questions applied to our parents and to some extent our generation as well. However, the Millennial generation is already changing the way we work. This generation is also called the Internet generation because they work anywhere, everywhere and are connected to work all the time. They check emails before sleeping and answer office calls even while on the potty seat. Even though they are always connected to work, they value work life balance the most. They work hard and party harder. There is a growing clan of Digital Nomads/Travelers who travel the world and work from remote places, simply using the internet technologies.

    If you do the Math, the Millennial generation is easily 20 -30 years ahead of our children’s generation. If they have already started to erase boundaries between work and fun, our children will definitely not be tied behind desks for doing their jobs. Roughly, 30% of the jobs in the today’s world are held by freelancers. This trend will only increase in the coming years. This means that in all probability, our children will be their own boss, choosing the skills they want to pursue and how many hours (including which hours) they want to work. In this context, does it really matter if they learn to sit down in one place long enough or get ready at a certain hour each day? Does it matter, if they learn all the subjects at the same pace? Does it matter if they don’t like math or science or history? What should matter is whether they know what they love to do; whether they are getting enough time in doing/learning what they love to do; whether they have the passion and energy to complete the work that they have chosen to take up.

    Through homeschooling, I am building an ecosystem in which my child can constantly work on what he loves to do in a way that he never feels that he is actually “working” or “studying”. Homeschooling has also given me the opportunity to “work” on what I like best – children. When I “work” with tens of children coaching, mentoring and teaching them I am learning more than I have ever learnt. At the same time, I am enjoying “working” more than I have ever enjoyed before.

    In the end, I will just say that times are changing rapidly. It is time that we shed age old notions about learning and working and embrace the changes happening around us. Our children will be happier and wealthier if we as parents are open to a larger set of options including alternate forms for education, alternate forms of earning and alternate forms of living.

    References:

    Key skill for millennials is preparedness to move across industries and roles 
    Our world is changing at 10x speed: How to prepare and be the change!

     

  • Bees Don’t Give us Honey

    Yog (eating lunch): Mama, what do bees eat?

    Mama: Bees eat honey

    Yog: No Mama, Bees make honey for us. They don’t eat honey

    Mama: No Yog, Bees make honey for themselves. We take the honey from them

    Yog (thoughtful): So bees sell honey to us. What honey is left, they eat it?

    Mama (laughing internally): No Yog! Bees don’t sell honey to us! We steal honey from the bees

    Yog (shocked and adamant now): No Mama! That is not right! Bees give the honey to us. We don’t steal it from them

    Mama: Where did you learn that Bees give honey to us?

    Yog: My school book said, “Bees give us honey”. That is correct. We don’t steal honey from the bees.

    Me silently connecting the dots. Yog is right. All school books tell us that Cows give us milk, Bees give us honey or Hens give us eggs. No book bothers to state the fact that all the above animals are reared by humans just like objects so that we can then acquire their produce. This is yet another gap I see in the way we are taught. Such education makes us subconsciously believe that these animals exist just to service us. We slowly start to believe that everything on this planet was created to serve the human race.  It is no wonder that human never even stop once, to contemplate why we are misusing the resources on the planet.

    Creating education syllabus is serious responsibility. When children learn such things in school, they create a subliminal network where humans are considered superior to all other forms of life. Even within humans, some forms intuitively start to consider themselves superior to other forms like men vs. women, fair skin vs dark skin, western countries vs. eastern countries.

    Short sighted curriculum influence the complete thought process of multiple generations and how they behave in the society. The impact of such errors will be seen on generations to come. We cannot include sentences like “Cows give us milk” in a science book and then include “We should take care of animals” in a moral science book. It is time we educate our children to understand the larger ecosystem of our planet and not just the human ecosystem. Even if, we as parents, cannot directly influence the school curriculum, we can definitely control the conversations that we have with our child.

  • Homeschooling Topic – Problem Solving

    Yog figured out by himself that sometimes just switching off and then switching on an electronic device (in this case his battery car) resolves the functional issues.
     
    For me, this is one of the most commonly used problem solving technique in the modern world. Works on gadgets, people, homeworks, projects, and even relationships…
     
    Just reset the system and start from scratch again. Works 90% of the time.
     
    #homeschoolinglife #problemsolving

  • Homeschooling Topic – Weather

    Yog: Mama, Winter is coming.When will it snow in Hyderabad ?

    Mama: It only snows in regions which are far from the equator or are very high up from the ground. I am sorry but it doesn’t snow in Hyderabad.

    Yog: Why?

    Mama: Because Hyderabad is near to the equator and it does not have any mountains as well.

    Yog thinking about the facts at hand for some time: Are the mountains growing?

    Mama: Yes, the mountains are growing slowly.

    Yog: Then after the mountains grow, will there be snow in Hyderabad?

    Mama: No Yog! The mountains are growing but not in Hyderabad. I don’t think there will be snow in Hyderabad anytime soon.

    Yog: Why winter is coming?

    Mama: Because the earth is going away from the sun and it’s axis are tilting.

    Yog: If earth’s axis are turning then will there be snow in Hyderabad?

    Mama silent. I really don’t know when will there be snow in Hyderabad. If anyone knows, please tell me the answer.

    Some of you might be wondering what is the point of recording these small conversations with Yog. Yes, these conversations are definitely adorable and I would love to record how beautifully his small mind deciphered the big world around him. But more importantly, I record these conversations to remind myself and others that Learning is not at all constrained to books and school. Yog is learning ever second he is awake and maybe sometimes in his sleep as well. His intrinsic curiosity makes him understand about Carbon Dioxide and Equator even before his mouth can pronounce these words correctly. He calls “Gravity” as “Grabity” and “Carbon Dioxide” as “Carbo Oxide”. But it doesn’t matter. What matters is that he is processing what is around him.

    Every mom thinks her child is a genius, but honestly I don’t think Yog is a genius. I think he just loves science. He just loves it so much that he is willing to read and talk about it night and day. But this does not necessarily mean he loves painting and dancing as much. He has his own interests and when these interests are fueled his learning goes rocket speed.

    Looking at him learning, I sincerely regret not homeschooling my daughter when she was this age. I was an ignorant parent and I pushed her into the same education system that was probably never meant for her. If I had taken more time to answer her questions, fuel her interests, listen more intently to her desires, given her freedom to choose her path, we would be in a different place all together.

    I share my experiences in my blog, sincerely hoping that some of the readers see the sense in not pushing their child through the standard education system. I completely understand that Homeschooling is not an option for everyone. Even if your child goes to a regular school, allow them the freedom to do what they want to do at least after school hours. Focus on their interests even if you think there is no career path in that area. Answer as many questions as you can, and find answers for those that you can’t. Search on Google or speak to other parents or connect to experts to answer your child’s curiosity. Whatever you do, please never ever ask your child to stop asking questions. The day we stop them from asking questions, the day we tell them that it is not right to learn.

    So yes, I hope you now understand how desperate I am to try and find out When it will snow in Hyderabad. 😊

    #HomeschoolingLife #Weather #SnowinHyderabad

  • Homeschooling Topic – Photosynthesis

    Yog collected lots of twigs and used Popsicle sticks in the park today. He brought all of them to the car as well.

    I casually asked – Yog, what will you do with all this?

    Yog: I will burn them.

    Me (shocked): You know we should not burn things. It causes pollution

    Yog: No Mama! When I burn these, Carbon dioxide will come out. All the plants at our home are hungry. They need to eat carbon dioxide as their food. I am going to make food for them by burning these.

    Me silent for a moment. It takes time for my aged mind to process such arguments.

    Me coming up with my argument – There is enough carbon dioxide in the air already. We don’t need to make more of it by burning things.

    Yog: Mama, but see there are so many plants. They are all dying because there are not getting food. We need to make more carbon dioxide for them.

    Me stretching my minds ability – Yog, there are so many humans in this world. We are constantly taking in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide, night and day. Don’t worry we are making enough carbon dioxide for the plants to eat.

    Yog nodded in silence, his plan for burning the twigs disappearing in front of his eyes. I heaved a sigh of relief. I had won this argument, today. But God only knows, how many more I can win in the coming days. Most days I feel my imagination and knowledge stretched to the limit answering his questions or justifying things to him. I have never used Google so much before in my life. Needless to say, I think I am learning more in the process, than I am teaching him. :d

     

  • Our Family Learning Goals

    Choosing the right curriculum is one of the most important decision a parent can make. Most parents wonder which curriculum would best meet the needs of their child. We have CBSE, State Boards,  IGCSE, NIOS and IB curriculum to choose from. I am sure I have missed a few curriculum in this list that even I am not aware of. For a subject like Maths, we have Vedic Maths, Kumon, Singapore Maths, Abacus, Russian Maths methods (and many more) that we can leverage. Given so many options, how do parents decide which method is best suited for their child? How do parents decide which curriculum is best suited for their child?

    As a mother of a 14 year old, I have been through this dilemma for many years. This confusion only gets deeper when you realize that no one curriculum/method of learning is really working well for your child. I have researched most of the above curriculum listed above. I even became a Vedic Math trainer myself so that I could help my child with Math. Yet, I failed. Looking back I realize the reason for my failure. I was trying to sail our ship through rocky seas by adjusting the sails, tuning the rudder and oiling the gears. While this strategy might have helped us survive one storm at a time, it did not bring us any closer to our destination. Simply because, we didn’t know where we wanted to be at the end of the journey.

    Most parents approach education from the same view as our ship ride. We just go from one standard to another, from primary to secondary to college adjusting schools, tuition’s and extra classes. Our children pass college but does this mean that they have acquired skills needed to succeed in life. Isn’t this the purpose of education? Isn’t it meant to help us understand life and succeed in life? That brings us to the following questions. How do we define success in life? What are the skills/knowledge that are needed to really succeed in life? Are children learning these skills as part of the education system?

    All though, the definition of “success” depends on the aspirations of each individual, I will loosely define Success as achieving the goals we had set out to achieve. If I wanted to be a doctor and I managed to become one, I can consider myself successful in that goal of life. Those who wanted to own a million dollar car, can consider that goal accomplished when they own that car. In essence, success can only be measured if we have clearly laid out goals in our life. If we do not have goals, we have no way of measuring success. The question is that have we established these goals for our children? Or more importantly, do our children have some form of goals for themselves? Who defines success for them? Should it be us, the parents, or should it be they, themselves, measuring their progress? Can children measure their own success? Are they equipped with skills/discipline to define their goals and track them to closure?

    A topic, like this, opens a Pandora’s box of questions. To keep the topic in focus, I will simply stick to our journey of identifying our learning goals. I call these “learning goals” and not “life goals” because I believe that we have not really narrowed down on “life goals” as of now. At this stage of life, our predominant focus is on learning keeping in mind a high level direction for life. If we have learnt well, we would, in time, be able to chalk out more specific life goals in the coming years.

    My husband and I discussed what areas to focus on learning  when we were planning to start Homeschooling for our children. We had some high level thoughts which we narrowed down to more specific thoughts. We went though our iterations, first starting with how to learn to be financially independent, adding health, family values as we moved on. I then sat down with our children to get their thoughts and I roughly jotted down the areas that we should be focusing on, as a family. At this stage, we did not finalise how we will address each area. We figured that the “how” part would evolve constantly as we moved through different levels in each area.

    To simplify things we broke up our learning goals into three broad categories in the order of importance- Soul, Body, House. Soul being the largest and most important aspect of living life. The Soul has chosen this body to live this life, hence it is important that we take care of the body. The body needs some basic things to sustain growth, which we broadly include under the term “House”. Let us look at each one of these three areas in detail to understand them. Once again, these are high level terms that we defined to simplify life for our family. They may or may not apply to your family. I am sharing these as a sample of learning goals hoping that it will help you identify and come up with the goals for your own family.

    I . Soul
    Pavan and I come from a school of thought where we believe that we are nothing more than a manifestation of the soul. I (i.e my soul) has chosen to be born in this current body called Shilpa, in order to experience and evolve through this birth of Shilpa. In this context, I am not Shilpa but Shilpa is just a form or simply, a set of clothes that I have chosen to wear in this lifetime. While I need to take care of the clothes that I am wearing, I should not forget to take care of myself (i.e the soul) first. Hence, taking care of the soul is the most important learning goal in our curriculum. Lets look into how do we plan to take care of our soul?
    1. Sadhana- Sadhana is similar to meditation but with one difference. While during meditation, we focus on blanking our mind of thoughts, During Sadhana we try and connect directly to our soul and the larger energy systems. I am not an expert on the subject myself and hence will refrain from elaborating on it. I will just say that we ensure that we try and do Sadhana daily.
    2. Learn about the world- since the whole reason the Soul took birth in this life form was to learn and evolve, we have to ensure that we learn about different aspects of life including maths, science, languages, value systems, religions, et all. We of course don’t learn everything everyday but we find a balance of what is important for us to learn, in which way, at what time. You can say that this is the point which the current education systems mainly focus on. This is important for us, but this is just one of the cogs in the wheel, for us.

    3. Sewa – Helping others unconditionally. We believe that each time we help someone, unconditionally (i.e. not expecting anything back in return of the help), we help our soul evolve. As a family, we should always be happy and eager to leverage oppurtunities to help others. Sharing our toys/books/knowledge/skills /food/house with those who may find them useful is just one way we can help others.

    2. Body

    As mentioned above, we consider the body as the set of clothes that the soul has chosen to wear in this lifetime. It is the medium of the soul to achieve its purpose. A fit body, will give the soul a strong medium to accomplish the goal. Considering that this is the only body the soul will get in this lifetime, it becomes even more important to take care of it. We have a few guidelines that we go by to ensure we take care of the body.

    2.1 Exercise – We exercise daily. Children go to Taekwondo classes 6 days a week. Our daughter also dances each day. My son swims given the right weather. Most days he simply runs all over the neighborhood playing with his friends. I think that is the best form of exercise he can ever get. My husband and I also walk, do yoga on a regular basis.

    2.2 Right Food – We eat everything including Pizza, noodles, icecreams and cakes. We make 99% of the things at home to ensure that are fresh and made using healthy ingredients. We try using wheat flour in place of Maida and jaggery in place of sugar for most of our recipes. Children understand what food provides which nutrient and they make both healthy and unhealthy choices on their own accord. I just follow the simple rule, “Eat your meal before you eat junk”. For e.g. – you can eat a chocolate after you have finished lunch. This just ensures that all the right nutrients have gone in the body. On top of it, if a little extra sugar has went, it is OK.

    2.3 Cleanliness – In addition to the obvious clean body means healthy body, I believe clean body and clean house lends itself to a clean mind. Clean mind helps us in thinking clearly and remain focus on the important things in life. Having said that, I completely appreciate the need for getting dirty to really experience life. Playing in the mud, digging worms/treasure, having paint all over your rooms furniture are important to experience as well. Children always wash hands before eating and have a bath before they sleep at night, which ensures that all the germs of the day have been washed out.

    2.4 Be careful – This was a point that our 6 year old son added to the list. I admit, I would not have thought about it on my own. He insisted that we should be careful while crossing the road or cycling on the road. We should lock doors before sleeping and in general be careful when we are playing so we do not hurt ourselves. I completely agree with him. For our daughter, it translates to being able to defend herself, keep us informed about where she is and if she is going to get late, using the social media responsibly, etc.

     

    3. House – This is the last focus area for us and maybe the least important for someone who has evolved beyond the physical dimensions of life.  We are not there yet and hence we do need to focus on meeting the core necessities of life which include – Roti, Kapda and Makaan (Food, clothes and shelter). Our focus areas in this section include –

    3.1 Help Each other – Since we started Homeschooling, children have more time available at their hands. We encourage children to participate in home chores and generally be sensitive to the needs of the family especially elders and young children.

    3.2 Cleanliness

    3.3 Earn Money

     

     

    This is perhaps one of my longest blogs and I lost the steam to complete it. I am still publishing it as I needed to share with a friend seeking answers about Homeschooling.

  • Homeschooling Topic – Religion

    A few days ago, we passed a graveyard on the road and Yog wanted to know what it is. So I explained that in some religions when a person dies, he/she is buried. As expected Yog’s next question was – What is a Religion? I explained that it a set of things that we believe in. For e.g, we are Hindus so we go to the temple and worship our God. We do not bury our dead but we burn their body.

    Today, while we were eating dinner, Yog asked, “Are we Muslims?” I shook my head and said, “No, we are not Muslims. I told you what religion we belong to. Do you remember?” Yog’s eyes sparkled in recollection and he immediately said, “Yes! I remember. Our religion is to burn.” Usually, I try not to laugh at his comments in front of him, but I just couldn’t help bursting with laughter today. I tried to calm myself and explained again, “We are Hindus.” Yog’s fascination with death, immediately lead him to relate our religion to death, “So when we die, we will take our body and burn it?” I couldn’t help but laugh again. “Once we die, we cannot take our own body and burn it. But rest assured, someone else will do it for us.” Thanks to Yog, death has become such a common theme in our house that I am sure none of us need to think or plan for it.

    Yog continued the conversation saying, “Hindus is the best religion.” Toyna, who was silent till now immediately piped in, “Yog, please understand that when Hindus die, they go to God. When Muslims die, they go to God. When Christians and Sikhs die, they also go to God. So how can any religion be better?” Yog seemed satisfied for the time being with this response. I was amazed at the ease with which Toyna used Yog’s favorite topic of death to explain such a complex topic like Religion to him!

    Later tonight, while I read space exploration to Yog, Toyna drafted this small note.

    Cast Makes No Sense

    If I was God I would have created  week or a month or even a year where everyone was equal.
    None of us would be Hindu, Muslim or Christians.
    None of us would be buried or burnt when we would die because all us would reach heaven or hell.
    No one would be called good or bad or hero or terrorist.
    No one would be defined according to how much money or wealth they had.
    CAST MAKES NO SENSE !
    We all have a heart, we all have a brain, we all were chosen to live.
    We were chosen to make a change whether the change was good or bad.
    No one would be called black or white but instead we would be called fair or tanned.
    We all would stand together on the same land as we all live on earth.
    Everyday would be a festival, a festival of togetherness, a festival of love.
    We all would be dancing on different kinds of songs and no one would misuse their strength .
    IF I WAS GOD I WOULD HAVE CREATED A WORLD WHERE EVERYONE WERE EQUAL AT ALL TIMES.

    You can imagine my awe, when Toyna read it out to me. So powerfully deep coming from my own child. Wow!

    So yes, you can say we had a pretty good homeschooling day today talking about religion. Next plan on the topic is to visit the all places of worship of different religions.

    #homeschoolingLife #letsTalkAboutReligion #Religion