The moment we landed @ Bangalore, we had many surprises. More because we were not that conscious when we were in our own place and nothing was much demanding too....More so, when it came to our little Angle. She had to communicate in English, Her Handwriting was not within lines, Her As nd Bs were all dancing to the rythm of her little fingers...and reading Story books is totally out of her daily routine. (Thanks to her mom & dad.... who never bothered of this skill in her tender years.)
Shock of life is all this is very common and part of daily routine in 'Bangalore Parenting' - the term we coined in all positive means !!!
Teachers in the regular schools started viewing this as learning disability of the child or what so ever names and dragged us almost to getting her diagnosed for any disability....Thanks to almighty. We both as parents were confident that child has nothing to do with the labels and she is the way she is because the way we parented and now is the time to start working on her scientifically with extremely no pressure on the child.
That is the time we learnt phonics, engaged an individual coach and joined her in hand writing classes, got books, CDs and yes, we could see that positively impacting her progress the way teachers wanted.
All this being one part, she wanted a real stress buster or a place where she is accepted just the way she is. She is neither labelled nor stopped on her creative & imaginative way. Thanks again to almighty, we found GENIE KIDS.
This is the happy world of our little angel on every Saturday. We enrolled her for the 30 Week Programme. The best part of the programme is she is given exposure to Life's important skills like taking Responsibility, Speaking out emotions, Expressing her self, Being Independent and so on...
None of these are taught. Yes, you read it right. They are not taught. Children are given an environment to experience and they draw out the learnings more meaningfully. There has been hardly any day where she was reluctant to attend this class. Every Saturday she used to return home with some interesting Home Tool and that is part of her room decor for rest of the weeks....
Her room looks so very interesting with Responsibility Jar hanging on the door and we would pick up the yellow slip each time she takes up one responsbility and drops in the jar. Once, she came with Pizza of qualities and she had icecream sticks saying co-operative, understanding, Responsible etc... All these soon became part of her mental vocabulary...
Words become deeds is true... we could see her living to those words in her smallest of actions too...
Even more wonderful feel was when she started telling us, "I am Sad". "I am Happy", "I am angry" etc... the best according to us. Believe me. I happened to attend one leadership prog sponsored by my organisation. We had a case study on how to connect to our emotions and it took almost an hour for my coach to make me express my emotion and in this one hour, he should have asked atleast 10 to 20 times, "So, how do you feel?" It is such a simple task yet forgotten in our so called growing up and earning degrees & grades.. hmmm...
Lo...there came a day of Habba where children organised their stalls and we parents were visitors. It was such an awesome affair...4 Year Old preparing Lemonade, 5 Year Old preparing bhel puri and this age group children organising games and collecting tokens is a feast to parents.
I am sure at home, if a child of 4 has to prepare lemonade; the thought itself gives raise to 100 reasons why she shouldn't....This is a phobia and not the truth is the realisation for us as parents.
Th habba was just not about putting up stalls by children, Children owned the rules of the game, tokens, gifts, appreciation and the lovely labels they gave us at the end of each activity. We moved on loading our cameras with these lovely pix and eating the bhel without hand, making clay models without using fingers, throwing balls from the border lines, learning string painting and lots nd lots of sweet memories...
The fun didnot end here... It continued till recent past when we had to attend the valedictory session. It is not that graduation day or clicking pix with certificates. It was a day where First half of the session was sharing our feedback with the organisers while the children are in their own groups planning something for us. We had snacks along with children and the next 1 and a half hour was awesome. We had to just listen to these little leaders and follow them. This little angel was guiding us on using tooth brush to get the art of spray painting, sponge piece to make lovely impressions and lovely color combinations. We had to just listen to her and do what she says (Almost a reversal of roles).
The confidence in her face and the happiness she is feeling that the dad & mom are being taught by her is an amazing moment of happiness for both of us.
We returned home with bundles and bundles of lovely feelings ringing in our memory lanes as we move on....
Thanks to Genie Kids for making a memorable and meaningful Saturdays for our little angel.
Shall try adding few pictures clicked now and then...
