Week 30

It is Diwali today. And time to have fun! And to sell some cookies. His friends and he sold cookies in the local apartment block a couple of days back. Two things they did well - 1) sold "seconds" (slightly burnt cookies) with add-on (cinnamon sugar coated) at a discount (one-third off) managing to get rid of the kitchen disaster that they had initially created, and 2) they announced a "good cause" for holding this "bake sale" to each of their prospective clients - the proceeds were going to an orphanage to help them celebrate Diwali. Both these things came naturally to these kids and allowed them to make a decent collection. It was a good learning experience for them and allowed me to explain these two concepts of marketing to him in a way he is likely to remember longer than just reading them from books.

Festive season greetings of joy, health and prosperity to all of you!

Week 29

Week-after-week I wonder what to write. And sometimes, I wonder if I need to write at all. Life has settled into a rhythm of relaxed living (read, sleeping hours depending on each one's personalities with little external pressures), less education (he does what he wants to do, with an occasional yell from me or my wife to do something leading to some output) and freedom (mom-in-law is worried he will become lazy, wife has accepted it as inevitable and holding me responsible for the whole mess, I am ambivalent).
I started homeschooling him because I wanted to slow him down. I also thought I would not compare him to others. But both these things take an emotional toll more on me than either him or my wife. I sometimes feel I fail him more than anyone else. But I am hopeful that I will learn better and come around to being comfortable with what I wanted for him.

Week 28

The festive season is on in full swing and a mix of holidays and cultural programmes is the flavor of the season. One birthday party my son attended was really fun. He was part of a team that was competing in the marshmallows-and-pasta-tower-making competition. In that half an hour, he had to use Collaborative Creativity as far as he could - a great lesson overall. Thanks Kiran!

It will be useful to get into more such exercises at different occasions to help build out this important critical aspect of his education as I had written here. If this can be done in a birthday party, why not in a period at school once every week at least? We really need to rethink the way we teach our kids!

Week 27

A festive weekend as we enjoy Durga Puja celebrations. A good time to bond with friends and family with the tangible learning being how to play different video games.
We continue to focus on the ability to write by himself, though progress is relative slow. Creativity is a fountain that needs to be nourished continually, and this becomes more evident as you try to increase your output. But the sources need to be diverse else it becomes a rehash only.