Dear Parents,

A very happy new year to all! Hope you all had a refreshing break. First a few updates:

Ever wondered what a librarian does in the school library. We have always seen them just sitting on a chair and scribbling on some cards. The most easiest job in the world! I was someone who thought like that but not any more. After a few months of continuous and diligent effort we have unpacked, sorted, tagged and shelved all our books. We have nearly 1800 of them. Now you will not see books lying all around in the library. Many many thanks to parent volunteers who have helped in this process.

A detailed list of all the books is put in an excel sheet. Our collection of books is something to be proud of. Partially bought and largely donated by you, some generous patrons, family and friends. We have multiple sets of encyclopaedia, teen fictions (include Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, JK Rowling, Geronimo), early readers, Amar Chitra Katha, few books for adults, curriculum books of IG, ICSE, CBSE, SSC from grades 1 to 12th..:) Now we are waiting for our clients to arrive....:) To entice our possible readers we have also made a display book rack. Please feel free to indulge when you stop by to pick/drop.

Our garden is taking shape and new green shoots are coming up which is a great encouragement for us. Barring a few not everyone is showing interest. But as they say gardening is also a work of patience. We can draw many similarities in gardening and parenting. 

There is going to be an ANKUR workshop soon which is conducted by the faculty at BeMe learning centre at Bangalore. Details of this will soon be provided. It is a workshop on parenting, facilitation, communication and many more. Both of us have learned a lot from them and still do.

Now back to business….

Circle time

The first day kids were excited to meet and greet each other. They shared their stories and we all had a laugh on some of the funny anecdotes. Few went to beaches, far away places, to relatives and some hosted their extended family at their place. Some said they spent their time sleeping, eating good food and drawing. 

Judiciary

There was no judiciary this week. But few kids did take their consequences that were yet to be taken. A lot more complaints are being written now against each other. Sometimes the defendant is also writing a complaint in his or her own defence. Few don’t write complaints against one’s own friend but only against others. In short, our next week’s judiciary is going to be a longer one.

Play ground

We all finally went to the playground closeby. The ground was occupied with adults playing cricket so we tucked ourselves into the playgym area. Kids enjoyed climbing, jumping, chasing, all the stuff they do when they find free space.

Gardening

We worked a lot in developing our garden space. Once in three weeks we turn our compost pile. The side space for planting also needs to be churned upside down for all the leaves to decompose. We have only used the dried leaves that fall in our compound to create the soil base for planting. We haven't bought or put in any external soil. We have planted moong, matki, garlic, aloe, lemon grass, tomato, pumpkin, lal chawli, etc. Small green shoots are arriving on some of them, which is exciting for a few of them. 

Talks

We have had some discussion on freedom and abuse of freedom. Abuse can translate to disrespecting, breaking rules, etc. If we are free, does that make us powerful. We initiated the talk but some were listening with reluctance. It is a difficult discussion to have and not something that will sort out in one sitting.

That's all for this week. But we would like you to ponder on this thought or question. This is taken from our book club meetings we have with BeMe and LAIS school in Mumbai. We are reading the book, Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn. In the introduction part he asks us parents to think about the following question. 

What are your long term objectives for your children?

How do you want them to turn out? 

What word comes to your mind? 

What do you want them to be like?

What he says is that the answers to these questions are going to make us vigilant on how we behave with our kids. How we treat them has a direct effect on the answers we have derived from these questions.

Until next week...