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How do we prepare for Tomorrow? – Making our children Future Ready
Image Credits: Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians, Pixabay Fourth Revolution is real and irreversible. As we see advancements in Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) machines will continue to take over more and more labour-intensive jobs. This is good news for mankind as this will free us from drudgery and toil. With machines taking over jobs involving basic cognitive skills and physical/manual skills, humans will have a lot more time to create, collaborate and entertain. What does this essentially mean for our children? What are the jobs that children of today should plan for? What are the core skills that will be needed for…
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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 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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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…
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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
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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…
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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…