Maths with marbles that Jaya Chithi had on show at home

Today we decided to set up games for each other using the flat marbles. Lakshmi was leading the play. She took ten of one colour and asked me to take ten of another.

Then we were giving each other problems.

Sudarshan came with three flowers and now there are this many she said showing me a certain number within ten. How many were there before he came?

(She can create her own problems!)

I said: Soham brought Arav and Ruhan. They brought Neel. I have ten Murukkus and I don't want to give each of them just one.  How many can I give each of them?

I then put sixteen green marbles. Four diamonds of four each with a central brown one. I told her that it was a restaurant. Each brown stone was a table and there were four chairs around. There were four tables. There were three extra chairs for people who were waiting. I asked her how many people could sit in the restaurant.
Then I told her that Lakshmi and Rishika were playing on the table and spilt food all over. So that  table cannot be used and so how many people could sit now? Then We got four plastic chairs and put them outside. They were marbles of a different color. So many people could sit now?

When it was her turn, she made an F1 track. With three cars big to small. The player had to make a car on either side as the next in the series. Only there were three different series in the car which was on its side view. The length of the car was a single row of marbles and it was increasing/decreasing by one. The cabin shape varied based on the number of marbles which was also increasing/decreasing by one. The wheels were always two but placed symmetrically based on the length. It was beautiful!

A week later Alpana and Neeraj came home. We did maths corners with them. Lakshmi made two three by three squares. They were dew drops and each had a dew drop fairy in them. How many wands would we need to give each fairy a wand?

That is when I realised that the texture and shape of the objects that we use changes the story...

John James Audubon

I order books from Amazon based on Lakshmi's interests. Usually the used books from various libraries are in a very good condition. They are hardback and you find books on almost anything imaginable. I bought "the boy who drew birds" a year ago. It is the biography of American naturalist and painter John James Audobon. His paintings of birds are realistic and beautiful. They are of birds in their natural surroundings.

Lakshmi loves this book. We have read it many times. This week late one night she pulled out an alphabet book where each letter has a object painted by a famous painter. "W" was for Woodpeckers painted by Audubon.

She went staright to the bookshelf and brought the book along to read. I got a brainwave and looked for more Audubon paintings on the Net. We found many documentaries. One of them was particularly beautiful. It had great music and flashed his paintings on to the screen. Lakshmi watched it two or three times and said she wanted to draw.

She took the book and tried to draw all the bird sketches or paintings in it. She sat till 11:15 in the night drawing three pages of birds...

The Parijat flowers

Everyday on her way to school Lakshmi picks up flowers that have fallen down. There are three Parijat trees on the way from home to school. She picks up a handful and one or two champa flowers.

Yesterday we read a story about how the Parijat tree came down to earth. There are many stories attached to these flowers and I looked for them.  Krishna then planted it in Satyabhama's house with all the flowers falling in Rukmini's house.

There is also a story about how Princess Parijataka who was in love Surya became the tree.

I found a page with  stories attached to many Indian flowers. I will read more about those stories.

Diwali

In the school they have been drawing Diyas. There was a big poster in her group with a man reaching out to light with "Prakash ki Or"  written. So in the music class this week, we decided to learn -- Prakash Mera Mera Prakash -- Hindi translation of a Tagore song. 

She has also drawn Narsingha in school  and has learnt to write "Shubh Diwali" in Hindi. 


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She has gone to Suhani's house this Friday. We gave Suhani a paper rangoli making kit made by an NGO as a birthday present. They have invited her to make it together.

Stay at the Ashram

Lakshmi is going to stay at the Ashram tonight with her group.

We have been telling her to get independent. Manju aunty taught her how to slip her T-shirt out without expanding the base. She has to cross her hands over and hold the opposite ends of the T-shirt. It just slips out out so easily. We have been getting her to get more conscious of time. We taught to wash herself after potty by pouring water out of  a mug instead of using a jet. She is so excited that she can do all this herself.

I bought a back pack that can be wheeled. Over the weekend, we painted on it with Fabric paint. She has painted herself and Soham and a bookshelf. She is handing him a book.

In school they made out a list of things that they thought they needed. they have drawn pictures of each object, written the name next to in Hindi. She has written it so neatly. Her list also includes a Doorveen -- a pair of Binoculars. Yesterday we packed her backpack and wrote her name on everything. This is the first time she is going to manage her own luggage and toilet kit. 

This morning she jumped out of bed on her own. She did not have to be woken up.

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Came back this afternoon. All her things have come back they were packed. All toiletries in the toilet case. All clothes including socks have come back.

"I was late for Sunrise" she said. They went out in the night with a torch looking for lions. She slept with her socks on. They slept on the floor with a quilt on it. I guess the rest of the details will come over the week. She is going to Heritage school and will stay there for three days next month. She is all prepared for it.

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At school on the notice board today didi had put up a drawing and descriptions of what each child liked about the night stay. She had drawn so many pictures on the page. Going up to ashram terrace to see the sunrise, making decorations with flowers, sitting in prayer, walking through the forest with a torch, sleeping...

Koel ka Sitar -- Ashok Chakradhar

Alpana mentioned to me that Lakshmi uses very common Hindi words which often sound jarring. I realised then that I had to improve my Hindi. When I was in the Jodo Gyan store, I saw this story book -- Koel ka Sitar -- by Ashok Chakdradhar. I knew Chakradhar was a contemporary poet and the book caught my eye. The whole book was in verse but it was a story with beautiful illustrations. The first page was in pastel shades and 3/4 of the double spread was covered with a tree's branches. A Koel and a Hoopoe were sitting on it.

I decided to buy the book even though it looked like complicated poetry for Lakshmi. I was trying to read it one day when Jasmeet dropped in. We read it together and she explained the words in the book that I could not understand. We loved reading it together. I decided that I must read it for Lakshmi. We actually managed to read the whole book one night at bed-time. She has got the whole story but has not begun to appreciate the words and the poetry yet. She however has looked at all the illustrations carefully. She told me "She did not like it when the Sitar was open-mouthed".

The book ends with all the stringed instruments in India. So this gives us an opportunity to look at all of them and hear them as well. I too will know the sound of these instruments and the maestros who play them.

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Mom and I actually looked up the instruments we listened to Sarin Marna -- a Pakistani Ektara player who was a wandering mendicant. What amazing music he created with just one string.

We listened to Annapurna Devi on Surbahar -- that was divine

Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt on the Indian Slide Guitar

Pandit Ravishankar on the Sitar

Maths -- Jodo Gyan Toys

We have started playing with the sticks. Make bundles of ten and place them in a circle. Place a few free sticks in the middle. Throw a dice which goes from 0 to 5. Take as many sticks as the number in the dice. If you get ten sticks put them back in the center and take a bundle. This is the second time we played today. She can clearly add two numbers till ten. She can take out ten from numbers till 14. She still has to learn to do the tens.

At one place though she surprised me saying how much is three times four. However instead of counting the sticks, she took four fingers in two hands and four toes. But she did arrive at 12.

This Navaratri

This Navaratri has been a full experience for Lakshmi. In school (Mirambika), she made a statue of Lakshman with Clay. That was displayed along with all her classmates' statues in the lobby.

She joined up with Rishika, Esha, Tara, Amaira and Tanisha and practised dance every day for 20 days. When we had to pick a song for the dance I asked Kausalya for a list of Tamil songs. So we learnt Subramanyam Bharati's "Om Shakti, Om Shakti...". I asked Shaumen Masterji for a song and he suggested "Durge, Durge...".  But Vidya decided on "Thumak Chalat Ramachandra..." by Tulsi Das. So Lakshmi by now had exposure to many songs and learnt Thumak Chalat fully...She also really enjoyed the dancing. At first she would jump around. Then I told her to imagine that she was little Ram's mother and that she should be graceful and watch her child playing and suddenly, it was a different dancer. She was more controlled and beaming.

After her practice everyday, the mothers would practice dandiya and garba and she got to see that and do it too.

We went to Sudarshan's house to see Golu. Lakshmi went wearing a saree. She heard Kausalya and Rukmini sing. They did not know the words of Thumak Chalat -- she lead and both Kausalya and Rukmini followed her. That was a tremondous boost to her confidence. The same evening we went to see Ramayan at the Akshara Theatre. It was in English...a minimal cast...tasteful costumes and great delivery.

We also asked Shaumen to teach her "Jaago Tumi Jaago...". She watched a video with the song too on Youtube many times. She would feel that way many times and stand like Durga. She sang the song with Nandita the day she visited. One evening we went to the Charmwood Durga Puja. They had recreated a Purulia Village for the mandap. We bumped into Mridu and Sharu. They took her up in a giant wheel.

We also went to see a dance at the Ananya festival. It was a mix of many Indian styles where each dancer presented a river and a story about that river was enacted.

On Vijayadashami we went to Mala Murli's house. She danced there with a group of her students. Mala is very gracias and the Pooja was a great experience for her. I am grateful to have Mala as her guru. After that we went to see Ravan burning at IIT which is still not a very pleasant experience for her.

Drawing -- greeting cards

Starting with Rishika's birthday we have started drawing for cards again. Now she has started to want to make the pictures look as real as possible. She wanted to draw her and Rishika playing football on the river bank. There were coconut trees on both sides. She wanted to draw something that would keep score! I was impressed but wondered where that came from. They have never played football together. Vish then re-collected that Anna and Akka play football in "Mallipoo...Where are you?" and the monkey keeps score. The illustrations and stories that she reads clearly play a great role.

On Parth's birthday she drew, Shiva and Parvati on Mount Kailash with Ganesh.Kartikeya was flying on a peacock. We wrote for him in Hindi. For Suhani's birthday she has drawn herself and Suhani in a garden. There are under a tree which is laden with mangoes. Her drawings are getting colourful and more real.

A couple of days ago the school had asked to draw what they wanted to take forward in themselves. She clearly is making an effort to draw well and realises that her drawings have gotten better.  She had written that  she wanted to get very good at drawing, learn to run very fast and remove all difficulties that she faced. She had drawn herself in our front yard sitting on a table and drawing. She was under a tree. Mom and Dad were standing holding hands and watching and trying to help out. Her cycle was parked, the front light had been drawn and so was the fan. It was a two-storey house with a balcony.

On Parth's birthday we were impressed with how well she designed her own T-shirt. The bottom of her T-shirt was a road with a white dividing line. Grass was growing along the road. There was a tree along the left seam. A butterfly.

We have been scribbling with side walk chalk in our front yard for a long time. I used to draw big pictures of what happened that day like a rangoli. Last week she drew a large Ganesh.

12th November...

For Anand's birthday she drew herself and Anand building large machines.