History, English, R.E., I.C.T. and an Offering

Today is the disappearnce day anniversary of  Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society of Krishna Conscious. 

This is Mr. R's small offering to him.

This project combined History, English, R.E., and I.C.T.  Mr. R studied the life of a famous person in history, Srila Prabhupada.  He learnt about  the biography genre as we read though parts of "Prabhupada Lilamrita", we googled up images,  and visited the Samadhi Museum  where Mr. R took photos.

The process pretty much went from reading about a part of Srila Prabhupada's life to brainstorming what we learnt together on a whiteboard and then writing it down on paper.  When the writing was finished we would would search on the Internet for an image to support what was written. Sometimes we would also watch parts of Abbhay Charan together.

Here are some samples from his workbook:

First we focused on what we already knew about  Prabhuapda

A word cloze taken from Mr.R's brainstorm that was recorded on the whiteboard.

At some point we went to visit the Samadhi  Museum where Mr. R took photos.  I asked him what he would like to do with the photos and he said "make a movie". I felt slightly overwhelmed with his suggestion, but tried my  best to make it happen.  We got Movie Maker installed and together managed to create something small and simple.

Free Time

It's school holidays here, Mr. R's lessons have also mostly stopped, not his learning though!

This is one of his favourite activities at the moment.  He uses blocks and his wooden hand painted dolls to construct different, buildings, alters or fighting grounds.  

This photo was taken a while back.  Now his constructions have developed to include, toy cars, planes, pieces of wood, plants and even furniture!  Mr. R and his friend Mr.T spend hours creating and then playing (mostly battles) with the personalities they have added to their creations.

Two old men... nothing like a bit of Chess.  The three of us learnt to play Chess recently.  

Craft Ideas From Around The Apartment

We're slowly decorating our small apartment, mostly with the children's artwork.  Their work comes out so bright and happy, it seems appropriate to surround ourselves with it.  It also makes them feel valued.

These are some clay pots we recently decorated.  This time we painted them, varnished them and stuck different "pretty things" we found in Navadwip on them.  We've done a similar activity for playgroup.  When the pot was completed we filled it up with fruits and offered them as gifts.  

This was the first time I observed Miss. S  thoughtfully and with good control glue and stick :).

This if fun and easy. Plaster of Paris hand prints!  Google it up for instructions, there are plenty of ideas out there.  Every now and then we place the children's hands on them again to see if they have grown.  This is a great opportunity to talk about the changes that occur with the body and discuss the differences between the body and soul.

This is my favourite!  Mr. R and I made this together when he was two.  It's just an old piece of wood we found then painted and glued some  ribbon to.  Originally it was a backdrop for our altar, but with time and a few hooks it has become a place to hang our keys.

Deeps (lamps) for Kartika

During the month of Kartika we offer a lamp every night to Lord Damordara.   The lamp is made of cotton and usually oil or ghee.  The lamp is then placed in a small clay holder.

Here clay items are easily available and very affordable.  But it would be simple enough to make your own deeps from clay or anything else suitable you might find around the house. 

We've decorated deeps both in playgroup and at home.

It's one of those great activities that is suitable for most ages!

This deep was decorated by Miss. S

Rolling and dipping the cotton and  making them into suitable lamps is also an activity that most children enjoy doing.  Great for their fine-motor development too!

Music - Mrdanga

Mr. R started mrdanga lessons in January last year.  He loves his mrdanga mashai and enjoys learning new beats.    Take a peek at some of today's lesson if you like.

Music - Harmonium

It’s been a shocking week.  We’ve had hospital stays, Papa leaving and spring cleaning all at once.  I lost my camera for a while too!  So I don’t have so much to report this week. 

One of the best things about living in India is being able to find and hire affordable amazingly talented music teachers.  Mr.  R is learning how to play the Mrdanga and Harmonium.  Their teaching styles are different to mine, but Mr. R doesn't seem to have a problem with that, in fact I'm happy he gets to experience other styles of teaching and learning. 

Here it goes... I've basically just scanned all the pages of Mr. R's torn and worn notebooks, hopefully they'll last longer here.

The first page of drills.

Drills page 2

Drills page 3

Drills page 4

Drills page 5

Drills page 6

Maha Mantra 1

Maha Mantra 2 (goes with 1)

Maha Mantra 3

Maha Mantra 4

Parama Karuna, page 1

Parama Karuna, page 2

Parama Karuna, page 3

Parama Karuna, page 4

More Fractions

We had fractions on the menu today.

Mr. R has had a fair bit of exposure to fractions, mainly through cooking together.  So I thought that we might be ready for a bit more.

Halves --  How many pieces?  Two.  How many halves in one whole?  Two!

Quarters- How many pieces?  How many quarters in one whole?  4.  How many quarters in one half? 2

 Miss. S waiting to get her hands on some dough.

As Mr. R was cutting I wrote on the whiteboard.  Showing him what a half looked like in writing.  Lightly discussing how the "2" under the line for half represented how many "pieces", and the "4" for "quarters".

Then the boring stuff!  Workbooks! But then workbooks aren't so boring when you know what you're doing! 

"Finally!" says Miss. S.

Buttery Footprints at Playgroup

The month of Kartik begins this week.  Last Saturday, for playgroup, this was our theme.  I read the book The Butter Thief by  Chris Murray (one of my children's favourites).  We then went back to the page where Krishna leaves buttery footprints on the floor and talked about the activity we had planned for later.

We used chalk blocks and rangoli powder mixed with water (they are easily available here).  The children chose their own colours and mixed their own "paint:.  They had fun making footprints (and hand-prints) like Krishna up and down the path outside (and on each other).

Painted Toenails

This photo is from http://www.zachdotsey.com/wordpress/2011/07/17/16544  

I've been asked a few times to share the "curriculum" that I use.

Firstly, I don't really use a curriculum in the sense of a document that tells me what to teach and when.   There are curriculums available like that, ranging from alternative and creative to more academic and mainstream.   What I don't like about these kinds of curriculums is that they are not and cannot be based on the individual interests, needs and abilities of the child.

I guess they can be useful for giving us activity ideas.  Still, I personally find that observing your child and observing the changes around them (weather, friends birthdays, upcoming festivals, etc) can give you more ideas on how to develop a fun and interesting learning environment and activities than you will ever be able to use!

The documents I prefer are those that simply list a general idea of the progression of development within different domains.

I'm going to start with the Early Years documents I use.

Before I say anything else, I just want to add that for such young children the main focus should always  be on meeting their needs of security, belonging and love.  This age group is often referred to as  "the foundation stage" because this is the time a strong foundation for a future happy, stable and capable person is developed.  Many people suggest that play and love is all children need at this age.  I agree, I also believe that play and love doesn't exclude learning and learning, especially at this age, doesn't have to involve a desk and workbooks.

The early years documents I use are available here.

For getting an idea of what my children can  be learning I first simply watch them and see what they know now and think about what could  follow from what they already know.  Secondly, I take a look at these types of document.  From these stepping stones we can get an idea of what our children could be learning, and according to their interests and abilities we can create an environment and, if suitable, activities to promote such learning.

For example, if Miss S one day asks to paint her toenails I can take a few different colours of nail polish out for us to use and talk about.  This way we can work towards the learning outcome:

"Explore colour and begin to differentiate between colours." From the Creative Development domain,

while she is having fun doing something that she chose and likes.

Some parents may feel pressured to document their child's progress and learning even at this age!  If this is the case, photos, videos and "work" samples are some great ways to document their learning:

•   Photos of the block towers they make or plants they help grow;
•   Videos of them playing with their friends or singing and dancing; and
•   Collecting samples of any of their "work" such as paintings on paper.  

You can add a quick caption explaining the learning outcome your child was working towards or achieved during the activity/project. You can even keep a scrapbook (electronic like a blog or a paper book) of all the "evidence"  you have collected of your child's progress, remembering to date everything you collect. Finally, you can simply write down anything you saw your child do during the day that relates to their growth and development.  Write down your observation and date it, for example: "Miss S counted to 10 today while we walked up the stairs to our apartment." - 12/07/2001 or "Miss S, with some support from her brother, shared her doll with our neighbour, on the condition that our neighbour didn't take it home."  - 01/09/2001

Well, I hope this is helpful.