14 Jan 2021,

Dear Parents,

The great thing about this week is that we were able to meet once again. There were a few who were still sick and could not join. But we hope we will have a full house starting next week.

Few highlights of this week were…

Sessions

We did some interesting sessions this week. The advantage of doing things online is that everyone attends even though they are not compulsory. We did a special day’s session, where we talked about Guru Gobind Singh and his story on faith and religion. It was also World Braille Day (4 Jan) and NRI Day (9 Jan).

Nature systems, Liberation War of 1971 (Geopolitics), Geography, English grammar, logic and problem solving were some of the other sessions.

Circle Time

Everyone shared what they did during the LC lockdown time. There was a common thread, almost all spent a lot of time watching TV and on the screen. Many of them seek these things because of lack of alternatives. Everything within limits is OK, good and permissible. What are the limits of AV screen time is yet to be understood. Our kids are perhaps lucky in this current time.

Friday Food

Bunizza, it was a sumptuous treat for us all. The name tells me it is perhaps a mashed up version of Bun and Pizza. This was evident from when it got made. It's a large bun with a hole filled up with lots of veggies, usually found on the pizza. Our volunteer steadfastly hand crafted each and every bunizza. It needed to be carefully cut in the centre, filled with veggies, garnished with cheese and served with ketchup.

Also we had loads of til-peanut ladoos. If you were lucky, I am sure you will agree that they were great. Kids rolled them into spheres, cubes and prisms.

Harry Potter Fan Club

It's the new wave. Let’s ride till it lasts. Many of them are picking up HP books in order to participate in the HP fan club. The adolescents started the club and were quizzing each other about the story. I am a fan myself and thought of joining. Soon I understood what was going on. The questions asked were: who has a crush on whom and who kissed Harry, etc.? I nudged all of them, which is nearly 80% of them, to read the book. If you haven’t read the books then, no entry to the club (at least a few). Well, what’s the use of being a facilitator, if I can’t pull some shots..:)

Guests

Sapna and Dr. Nishta came to visit us yesterday. Dr. Nishta has a 6 yr old daughter who is a homeschooler and is keen to understand how our set up works.

Movie Club

Howl’s Moving Castle was the movie we saw, yet another Miyazaki movie. The story has the setting of wars between two magical countries. It has witches, scare crow, machines and magic. Like any other Miyazaki movie, there is an element of flying which is so popular in all his movies. During the discussion everyone spoke about what they liked and disliked about the movie and shared some of the key moments which they found interesting.

That’s all for now. Mask up and stay healthy!