Eyes see what the heart wants to...

New class, new friends, new teachers and new activities. We have entered a new year of schooling!

Adding to the toughest task of getting up and ready for school, we are packing lunch too! It is exciting and quite challenging. It is like a toddler’s puzzle and a corporate’s ‘thinking out of the box’ strategy put together J But we are loving it! Sometimes, the lunch comes back almost the same as packed. And her excuse, “I was eating, but the teacher told me that the lunch time was over”. I know that even 3 to 4 times the lunch time wouldn’t be enough for her. I’m blog hopping to look for interesting lunch box ideas J Any suggestions?

My first lesson in the new year: The whole class had worked on red paint the previous week. The other day when I picked her up, I found her painting in her cubby to take home. As, we parents were waiting, I could see a lot of stick figures of the family, a few friendly monsters(no one can draw a cute monster than a 4 year old boy!) and some nature(child made J) paintings. The teacher had captioned them with the child's help. And there were a few like Adhya’s that were not captioned. My immediate thoughts, maybe she was not interested in painting and did something hastily to get back to play with the toys. Maybe she was tired. Maybe I should encourage her to draw even more. I know she loves drawing but couldn't figure out the reason behind the big splash of red paint.

We came home and were discussing school. I slowly asked her, 

What is in this drawing Adhya? 

She gave me a shocked look - ‘You don’t know ma?’.

I tried again. No ;(.

Amma, see properly, it is a red bird.

???

Yes, Red bird, like in the Brown bear, Brown bear book we read. 

I spent the next few minutes studying it and then I saw it! I wanted to make out a bird this time and I figured it out. How did I miss it the first time?

So, next time, you are not sure as to what your child has painted/doodled/splashed on, just ask :) 

No, I don’t have to teach her how to draw. I should just tell her to not be shy and explain her drawing to the teacher. Or on second thought, maybe I should just leave it at that. She will learn that on her own too. I will enjoy her caption-less pictures for now. Maybe we should just read more books and explore more J

Teaching Adhya has been a trial and error process. The toughest things have been the easiest and vice versa. And of course, we now know why parenting and patience go hand in hand. With her, positive reinforcements work most of the time. When I want her to correct a thing, it takes a lot of effort on my part to not say, ‘that’s not correct’ and to actually say, ‘let’s see if we can color the next one within the box’. Kids are bound to receive a lot of hard, on the face corrections as they grow, be it from their peers or their grades from school. But for now, when they are trying to come out of their shell, I believe, all they need are soft corrections and redirection. And they are more likely to correct it when you tune it down a little, especially the little ones who are little rebels J