Thursday, August 28, 2014

Tree climbing

Today we had been to Serra Park with the HSers and the girls had a great time climbing the local tress , searching for wild berries. Chellu went up and up with no fear whatsoever , targeting for the berries while Kunju stayed down collecting the falling ones. The latter then made a halwa out of the fruits with a stick as a spatula and then they gulped it down , again with a stick that served as a spoon. My wild girls! Love them to bits!!
Their love for tree climbing stated out in Magarpatta itself. Jasminium with its small trees served as an ideal setting for these girls..I fact along with tree climbing they have also been upto a lot of tree related activities like decoration, tent building etc..
When we arrived in California a month ago, they were thrilled to have found the perfect tree to climb in chitappa-chitti's house. It was not only tall but also had the branches at all the perfect spots for easy climbing. They climbed almost every day during our stay there.

I really feel so positive about the romancing with nature. This is even better than all those formal nature studies.,maybe that will surface as an interest some say but for mow at this young age all they really need is to be in open green spaces, next to tall trees and lotsa vegetation. Love for nature will be born automatically!

Clay mess and all the learning from it.

Two days back the girls decided to get the air dry clay that Pallavi had given them and experiment with it. They set out in the balcony and soon they completely got wild with it. I was on ethe phone with Nirali and before I knew it they had dissolved the whole thing in water and were literally swimming in it. Must have been a whole lot of fun for them but it was certainly a horrible mess by the end of the whole session!

If it were Pune I would have been calm, but here in Santa Clara didn't know how the hell I was gonna clean this , without pissing off the neighbors below! Had a stern talk with the girls and told them clearly that everything needs to be spic and span like before. I had to tempt with a piece of cake as their reward if they got it done properly. I really had no other way out..it was such a horrible mess!

And they got to work instantly. They cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. For almost. An hour and half. They would take breaks but eventually get to work. While chellu worked on the floor , scrubbing and soaking up all liquid into a bucket , kunju worked on the glass doors. It was really hard work. And they worked on it till I gave the good enough signal.

When I observe these things, I feel like life is really the best teacher. The cleaning job was such an interesting lesson in itself. You know, they had to constantly improvise to find smarter ways of cleaning up the mess..would this towel be better, can I brush it this way, can we collaborate with each other , how much water to use? And finally the most valuable lesson" always use a tarp before messing @ "!!!