The wonder of curiosity- the real beauty of HSing

Today we experienced the real beauty of HSing..the fact that it can allow the brain to think and seek answers in the moment rather than having to wait till a certain " period" comes or till the syllabus for the particular class is over.
While playing a game of BrainQuest with the girls the much awaited LPG cylinder arrived at our house. Chellu watched what was being done and when the guy left she asked as to why he took away one cylinder. To which I replied that it will be refilled with LPG gas and then given to another house which requires it. She then asked what is LPG ? which then lead to a trail of knowledge seeking from the Children's Encyclopedia about fossil fuels,conservation of energy, diffn forms of energy, dinosaurs, archeologists, earth's crust & its movement,IVC, why are earthquakes & volcanoes formed? , how are mountains formed?, what is space?, what do astronauts do?, gravity & on on...we must have read and talked for almost 2 hours or so...it was simply awesome! The girls were fully absorbed in what they were hearing & seeing!
This I think is true learning..when a Q comes to one's mind from observation or simply living life & the answers are sought then & there. When I think about it we learned about history, geography,science..without segregating it into subjects !!!!
So many people ask me as to how the children will learn from being at home? for me the Q is the other way around? How will kids learn at school ( "real learning") in such an artificial environment when nothing REAL & pertinent to their lives is happening? But at home we "live"& learn so much from it. The simple yet gravely necessary LPG cylinder provoked the mind so much...And this happens very often in our HSing lives. People are very surprised at the GK of the girls especially Chellu. She knows many concepts like hibernation, camouflage, poaching, preservation, etc etc..I can't truly list it..Its as vast as the experiences she undergoes in her life. I remember a time when visiting a friend's village ..she looked at a particular type of grass & immediately identified it as Congress Grass!! much to the shock of all of us..Shankar later told me that he had shown her the same during our trip to Jim Corbettt National Park last year!!! The other day when I was wondering aloud as to why Flamoingoes are pink she immediately replied that its due to them eating pink prawns!! I laughed it off first to which she got her "proof"- A BCL story book on what animals feed their babies!! She had remembered it ....
When visiting Chennai Chellu asked as to how the designs on a kanjeevaram sari appear when she looked at weaving in Dakshinachitra, why Kamadhenu is a special cow ..Why even Kunju has started asking meaningful Qs.." Why is there night & day?" was her latest Q!! This happens all the time..there are Qs asked persistently & answers sought with the same fervor..Ofcourse Im deeply thankful to "google" for making my life easier in this sense!
So many of our mornings go in browsing endlessly through the Children's Encyclopedia when I need some rest from the morning rush! And I cherish this interaction when one Q or picture leads the mind to unravel so many other mysteries that this world has for us to solve.

So how will our children learn at home? Well I guess they do very well by living life & do so all the time...

Games & fun

Yesterday was such an awesome day! It needs to be recorded! My friend's ( Sanjyot) two HSed boys had come over for an entire day play-date. They arrived around mid-day & the kids started off the play-date with their self-chosen quiet activities. Ram picked up a Chota Bheem comic, Chellu & Kabir started playing with playdoh while Kunju chose to watch everyone..it then turned out that kunju joined Ram in reading the book while the other pair then shifted to making origami paper planes. Eventually all the kids ( by this time my niece Dhriti too had joined) ended up making the paper planes..all of this with 0 supervision from me. I was amazed at how co-operative they were with each other, sharing each others' energies with no fights etc..We did lunch & then they played some more with Dhriti & Kabir cycling with Kunju and Chellu & Ram finishing up their paper planes.

And then the real fun started. I had planned some indoor games from a wonderful book called "The Complete Book of Activities , Games, Stories, Props, Recipes & Dances for Young Children". It was such an immediate hit. Games like Back Thing, Back-to back lifts, Bead in a bucket, Cat & Mouse, Hide & Seek , Che Che Koolay, Flying Statues & Gossip..In these back-to back lifts especially generated so much laughter that it was really a gift to be there in that moment with the kids. I've never seen my niece Dhriti laugh the way she did yesterday. It was hilarious..we must have spent @ 2 hours playing the games & no one wanted to stop. Infact when Sanjyot called to pick up the boys they didn't want to go since they were having so much fun !!!

I witnessed so much co-operation & team building during the games that now I feel that this must be a regular part of our HSing routine. While forming pairs the kids were ready to try out each other instead of sticking to one. The whole point was to experience what it takes to do different things with different people. What it takes to try a little more & push yourself beyond the comfort zone. When we started with the Back-to back lifts Ram & Chellu were the first to try it & obviously it was very hard. They had to line up back to back sitting,with their hands intertwined & had to try to get up while pushing each other with their backs. The first pair tried & realized immediately that it's not a " get to the result in an instant" thing. They whined & said its too hard for little kids. But with a little encouragement they tried again...they obviously could'nt get it immediately but watching them trying was so funny that we have laughed like crazy. And then the rest wanted to join in too....The other games were relatively easy but were enjoyed thoroughly...

We rounded up with a short movie and obviously lots of snacks! It was really a blessed day to be with such happy kids who were thoroughly having a blast!