SKOLA TOYS- An honest review

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In my previous post, I spoke about how and why learning is a journey. Lets talk concrete example now, shall we?
Let us take language.
  • So in the first stage, the baby is only hearing and assimilating, and can respond with basic sounds – grunts, cries and coos. Slowly, the baby can differentiate sounds. That is when we introduce the phonetic alphabet.
  • Then the baby learns to join these sounds to create complex sounds and associate it to a meaning(words).
  • Then, the child learns to string words together to form meaningful sentences.
  • And finally, the child learns to also put the language learnt in written form.
When I received the package from Skola I was beyond excited because I wanted to see first hand what the hoopla was all about. And boy, was I impressed!

Packaging

The toy itself comes safely packed in multiple layers of bubble wrap and luxuriously packaged in a beautiful doodle box, with a crayon set.… Click to read the rest

Motherhood and the Jekyll-Hyde paradigm

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There is this saying in Tamil, that a delivery is equivalent to rebirth for a woman. Someone told me it is because, a woman goes through excruciating circumstances and puts her life at risk during birthing. I now realize, that it is because, motherhood changes you into a different person.

Birthing changes you

When Pooja told me that she was attempting the herculean task of bringing together 41 moms from around the world to share how motherhood had changed them, of course I jumped at the opportunity, because I can write about this with my eyes closed, right? How wrong I was. This post is a result of many nights of soul searching and digging deep.

So apart from the very obvious ways in which motherhood has changed me – jeans size, changed priorities, lack of time, exhaustion and the works, I’ve realized that I have become a bundle of paradoxes. Read on.… Click to read the rest

Montessori for the homeschooling beginner

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For all the parents who have asked me a quick sum up of the montessori principles, especially, principles you can follow at home, with examples, this one is for you. Im a newbie myself, but these are some principles that have helped us and now we realize, we follow them unconsciously. They have become a way of life at home.

1. A for Action

Maria Montessori believed that movement is directly related to cognition. Children need to move their hands and legs focussed on an activity, guided by their intellect.

So instead of reciting 1 -10 ask your child to count the onions in your basket, or run their fingers on sandpaper numbers. This also doubles up as a sensory activity.

2. B for beauty

You go to a store and see a gorgeous yellow pashmina with detailed embroidery, and a plain crumpled piece of dull grey cloth. Which one are you tempted to touch, run your fingers through?… Click to read the rest

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