Even before we had a child, back in summer of 2008 I met a child who was like most of her peers, but yet different. Confident, expressive, loud and free are the adjectives that come to my mind. It was fascinating for me to watch her and somehow she made me feel very happy. When …
Most of us feel uncomfortable when our children exercise their freedom to be silent, walk around seemingly doing nothing of importance. This is because most of us feel uncomfortable ourselves being silent and doing nothing. Modern culture, which is obsessed with activity and productivity, calls it ‘laziness’ and conjures up proverbs like ‘An idle mind …
We have a log cabin set that our kids play with, building different kinds of log cabins or other structures or sometimes combining it with other construction sets, giving form to their imaginations. There are three kinds in this set – small, medium and long. This morning after breakfast, Aniket as usual put away the …
This article grew out of a stray conversation with a friend who dropped in over the weekend. His daughter apparently hates math. My friend shrugged it off to lack of aptitude. “You either have it or you don’t”, he said. It makes his parenting style relaxed, conscious. He doesn’t want to stress out his teenager. …
After visiting Kanheri Caves and hearing the stories of Angulimala, Megh was introduced to Buddha. While crossing Sardar bridge I showed him the full moon and said, “today is birthday of Bhagavan Buddha, this full moon day (Sharad Purnima) is thus known as “Buddha Purnima.” He replied, “Hmm… so God has come with cake!” What …
In a moment of insight that rippled through our family, my daughter Veda made a discovery with letters and numerals. Veda is almost four years old and has not been to any school. Veda read F-O-X and T-U-B yesterday by herself. She then looked at the pictures that were on the card that has the …
Kanti wakes up and starts telling the story of her dream to her mother, Shanti. The story involves some balls rolling down some hills or steps or slides – she can’t really tell and in the dream they sort of morphed one into another. She closes her eyes again for some time. Then she jumps …
One of the most powerful stories I have heard is the story of Story. One day, the sisters Truth and Story got into an argument about who was more beautiful. They argued mightily and loudly and late into the night and still couldn’t come to a conclusion. So they decided to test it. Each would …
This article was compiled after much deliberation on the Swashikshan online e-group, following individual responses to a questionnaire prepared by the author. It reflects the diverse, unique and vibrant flavours of the Indian Homeschooling Community – a community that celebrates learning and growing without school. Different Flavours of Homeschooling When P. Aravinda, from Mumbai, Maharashtra …
We often ask, what is learning? Now let us ask, what is slow learning? 1. Slow In Space and Time in Classical Mechanics, Einstein asks to imagine that he has dropped a stone while in a moving train. As it happens he asks us to imagine that he has dropped it outside the train, from …