Physical activity burst for Shreedhari

Shreedhari is into some kind of physical activity milestone over achievement. Today she has spent almost the entire day skipping, jogging, swimming and biking. When I asked her why she was exercising so much she told me excitedly that she has taken upon herself a 20 day fitness challenge! Imagine that - Kunju and a fitness challenge! The other day she excitedly told me in the pool that when she grows up she would like to be a swimming coach for little children!
She is definitely loving the physical phase of hers. So glad and so surprised to see her of all the people in this phase. As always I trust that this too has a reason and a huge learning for her. Making her mentally and physically strong , making her more determined, more challenged and most importantly embarking on a path of learning that comes from within.
As always the joys of witnessing it as a parent from a space of non- interference is unlimited!!

Lovely summer day - Shreedhari's swimming eagerness, Shruthkirti's diving and both babysitting.

Wow what a lovely day we had today. It was in the 90s and suddenly it's like summer has hit us with full force. The girls worked on their thank you notes to the Marine Science Institute for their field trip in the morning. And then after lunch, we left for Shoup park date with the PLL group. It was really hot and the girls played a bit with water play with the rest of the children. They seemed to enjoy it but we're rest less to get into the pool.
We came back home and immediately hit the pool. Shreedhari has been in a swimming frenzy since the past one week or so ever since the temp has raised. She is also in some huge swimming milestone conquering phase and has been so keen on swimming.
We had such a lovely time at the pool. Shreedhari swam from 4 feet right up till 8 feet with intermittent breaks along the wall. She was also diving in the lower depth to touch the floor. She seems so ready to go the entire length! Wow such a treat to watch learning when the readiness is there. To watch learning when it comes from within. During the same time Shruthkirti also urged me to come play diving with her and it was like as though life had come full circle today. It just felt like yesterday when I stood next to her in the pool encouraging her to swim a little more and today she teaches me how to dive. Watching her dive in the 8 feet depth to pick her goggles from the pool floor was really such a pleasure to the eyes. She was just like a fish- nothing other than that. So smooth, so effortless ! I on the other hand was gasping for breath and couldn't do more that 7 feet!
Wow...to have witnessed Shruthkirti diving is in itself a blessing. Swimming has really taught me the benefits and beauty of unschooling. To trust , to let go, to just be . And then learning be it swimming or anything else happens at its own space!
We came home from swimming and next door two yr old Aamir joined us to play with the girls when his mom left to pick up his elder brother. Again my heart filled with such love watching the girls play with Aamir. So natural, so kind..like they were born to be elder sisters. Just watching the three of them evoked in me feelings of wanting another one again. They played with him puzzles and ball , fed him, talked to him...so beautiful to see this nurturing.
Such an amazing day. Simple yet profound learning. The joy of watching from a space of non interference , from a space of letting be , from a space of letting learning happen is just so beautiful. I'm so thankful for a day like this. These are the days that let me know for sure that I'm on the right path.

Swimming playdate with friends from Spain

Today we spent the afternoon with Hsing friends Maria and her sons Lucas and baby Ikel. They are a part of our AWL park date and we have started to really enjoy each others' company off late . Myself and Maria and the children too. Chellu and Kunju love playing with seven yr old Lucas and also seem to really enjoy the baby! They played a lot pushing each other in an old play wagon, collecting huge amounts of what looked like some kind of seed in their dresses , checking out insects and finally hitting the pool even though it wasn't planned and they didn't have their swimsuits!

It was a miracle of sorts watching  Shreedhari swim today. She was not only swimming extremely confidently with prolonged amounts of time under the water but also diving and even touching the swimming pool floor! A bunch of other kids were playing diving to fish out plastic rockets and Shreedhari got really inspired and joined them too. It felt like she had dude lay caught up on years of swimming training in a day. Maybe I've been missing out on her swimming milestones or something but suddenly she seems so ready. She has been asking to go to the pool for the past few days whenever the temp is right ..the eagerness is suddenly there. Like she really wants to do it and her swimming also shows it off. How amazing it is to witness learning when it comes from within , when it comes from being totally ready for it!!

What a lovely day! The lunch, the conversations, the playing with the baby, the friendly , loving atmosphere of interested adults ....my kids thrive in such environments. In that sense it's not at all surprising that Shreedhari's swimming progressed by leaps and bounds. It was bound to happen.

As an individual I'm always so delighted to have friends from different parts of the world but with such similar ideologies and outlook towards life.  This is certainly one of the blessings of being in the Hsing community! 😀

06/03/2015 : Sports Co- op party

Today we celebrated the end of our sport co- op with a party. Our family was requested to get sweets and the girls totally voted in to bake. They chose to bake banana banana bread and vanilla mini muffins with icing.
The girls worked hard on it starting last night and continuing into today morning. Chellu was the chief chef which Kunju pitching in enthusiastically. They also piped in Tariq for a little bit of time coaching him on how to use the Vitamix etc..
The end product was awesome and a everyone seemed to really like it at the party. Needless to say Chellu was glowing like a queen and Kunju seemed very happy too. Always such a pleasure to watch the initiative, motivation, the happiness, the enthusiasm , the interest, the focus, the commitement and just the pure joy of doing something that comes from the heart. No amount of work is hard when it comes to cooking for Chellu. Her commitement to precision and perfection is really something. Glad this happened today and glad it turned out great!
Another amazing HS day!! Yay! Proud mama..😀

Graveyard Lessons

Graveyard lessons:

Last to last week we ended up at the Museum of the San Ramon Valley first in the morning at ten but a week earlier for a field trip . I had messed up with the dates. At first I was very disappointed, having driven all the way ! Wasn't sure what to do? We had lots of time till soccer later that day.

But the docent at the museum was very kind enough to spend time with me and show me all the activities we could engage in. So she handed us a passport book that we could use to enhance our learning. She pointed to many places in the neighborhood that we could visit and we took off. We had a good 3-4 hours in our hands before we had to head south for soccer. 

We went looking for the plaque that commemorates the first visit of the Spanish to what is present day Danville. Instead we ended up at the local historical cemetery! And guess what? We decided it give it a look. Being a HSEr mom for all these years I have started looking upon everything as a learning opportunity. I can only see what is there to learn? Nothing is a waste of time, nothing is out of topic. 

Shruthkirti was especially excited to do the passport book. It had a section where the exercise was to locate certain graves of pioneers and note down their birth and death dates. Seriously I would never imagined doing something like this EVER! Visiting andd studying a graveyard. As soon as we started the visit , questions started to pour.  I love those moments of extreme curiosity . It's like a volcano , pouring out all sorts of questions. Like a hot Tava, just ready to make dosas. Anything you say or do at that moment is absorbed like a sponge. 

We had discussions covering questions like what is death, is death a bad thing? How does our Vedic culture view death?, how is it different from the western viewpoint, incarnation,  the purpose of life, cremation vs burial etc...so many topics that I would have otherwise never thought of talking about for that day were touched upon..that's the beauty of being open to learning all day through, of learning through living.

When children surprise you out of the blue !

Days like today will always be special. Not because we learned something exciting or did something great or went somewhere exciting but because first thing in the morning the children surprise you.

Today in the morning , first thing when the girls they got up, they went straight into the bathroom and had a bath! First thing in the morning! No repeated requests from me, no yellings , no ultimatums , no lectures ..nothing. Just their own initiative. I love such days. And we have had many like that . Where they would get up before me and clean up their room. Last Saturday too, Shridhari got up, bathed, brushed and had combed her hair by herself even before I had opened my eyes. One other morning, the sisters had got up earlier than everybody else and had decided to clean up their room. When I  Igot up I was pleasantly surprised with a spic and span room.

I have read in several places. That contrary to popular belief , young children do want to cooperate, they do want to please their parents. It's a natural drive for them. It does seem hard to believe, but once a while on a day like this I am again reminded that my children want to genuinely want to be on my side. They genuinely do want to cooperate . It just takes time and lots of faith that we need to do what we as parents believe in , give the children lotsa of time to digest it, to understand it and then they will certainly get it someday. Love and connection are the main things.

Tonight just before putting them to sleep I made it a point to mention the fact that I was indeed very happy and pleasantly surprised to have seen them bather by themselves so promptly first thing in the morning. Shridhari immediately replied, " Today after entering the bathroom it struck me that not by not bathing we seem to trouble amma a lot . She has to constantly keep reminding us. And so I thought I should save her those troubles and quickly had a bath when I'm in the mood for it now. Later during the day I may lose the mood!"

Look how far Shreedhari has come!

From a kid who often has trouble walking or rather doesn't likes to walk, Kunju has always come across as this kid who would never want to physically exert herself.  But she has been progressing slowly and steadily. The way she has overcome her illness in itself a miracle. But bigger than that is her taking the efforts, sometimes self willing and sometimes not to become more physically active. She has been taking baby steps and slowly, steadily getting there. I will never forget that one time when she left me spellbound with her hike up the Shivaji Maharaj fort . It was a good one hour and quite a steep one but she was doing it all like a professional.

Time and again I've been reminded through the HSing journey that it's so wrong to label anyone. We are so conditioned to do it. This is like this, that one is like that. And we so often do that with our own kids. But from my observations, I've learnt that every individual takes the time to get wherever they want. For Shreedhari it could be the connection , to be with those she really cares for and do the things that they like to do.

But most recently her great enthusiasm in participating in the HS PE class playing soccer has really surprise me. She loves to play games really and kick ball. And last week I was totally throw back watching her participate in the Presidential Fitness Campaign . I thought she would whine and cry and not like it all but the way she participated was something else. She enthusiastically did the sprint, the running, the stretches and everything else. And seemed to really enjoy it too! She loves to play sports it looks like. But I think it has also got to do with the kind of teachers or adults who hang out in such places. She always seems comfy in a HSing setting and always seems to need me to hover around somewhere in the background. As long as I am there watching her ,  she seems ready to go for it.