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. 

I can't believe we have arrived here!

For the past few days omething I've been waiting for ages is finally happening in our HSing lives. Chellu reading to Kunju! And that  too for  r hours!, oh gosh..how much would I have waited for this all this time? It all started with Kunju complaining that Chellu gets to read a book all by herself and all the yummy books that she picks by herself sat the library. Off late Shruthkirti has been reading a LOT by herself..sometimes spending half a day jn her room with a book and that obviously makes Shreedhari all by herself, something she is not used to.

When I heard the comment the first thing I did was go into HSing mode..wow this was my cnance really! So I went " you can do it too if you learned to read" but I i guess it was not reading bu the connection with her sister that Kunju was really looking for. Chellu sense it immediately and jumped in saying " I can read for you!" And that's it..it's been two days now since the sisters have been spending huge chunks of time in their room with one reading to the other.

Which then leads me to spend time blogging and doing things that have been on my to do list for a long time. I guess I will enjoy this while it lasts! You never know what's @ the corner!! 😉

But yes , jokes apart it gives me immense pleasure to see my elder reading the way she is. She literally gobbles up books in no time. She can never get up without finishing a book in one go. Something I did or rather " did not "certainly was right!

Sanskrit Bharathi classes

Today is a very special day in our family with the girls starting their first, formal, teacher ( that's not their mom or dad) led Sanskrit classes at the Samskrita Bharathi - a non profit organization that aims to create a community of Sanskrit speaking families. Sanskrit known as the mother of all languages , the language  of our scriptures and our rich Vedic culture and knowledge is known to enhance cognitive development and improve math and science skills.
The girls were super happy to be in their classes in the company of kids like themselves and with uncles and aunties from India. It made me realize how much they missed home. Samskrita Bharathi teachers were a cheerful andf encouraging lot. Apart from regular classes they also organize 3 days camps of Sanskrit speaking families, potlucks, picnics and what not with everyone speaking Sanskrit. It was such an unique , happy experience to be hearing so much of the language in a common man world sort of a way and not just as chants.
I also realized that the girls knew so much of the language whether as conversational Sanskrit or shlokas with my novice attempts at teaching them the language over the past few years. I have done pretty well I must say and very proud of myself ! :)) hoping that this tryst with Sanskrit wil take us a long way in understanding ourselves and our origins.

Ballet comes true at last

Another of those " Connecting the dots experience".  The girls , particularly Shruthkirti got hooked on to ballet a couple of months back. It all started back in Pune with the BCL ( British Council Library ) where she chanced upon a few books on ballet and eventually got highly attracted to it. I don't know what it is about ballet. It used to baffle me back in Pune as to how smnght like ballet can attract their attention where there is no environment for it?

 But years of HSing has taught me to never Q learning. Why, how, when, which form it will take place in cannot be questioned or really understood. I've started looking at it as an indulgence of the soul at that moment . If left to complete freedom then true learning according to me is the soul's undertaking to immerse itself in all the experiences that it deems fit to progress for this lifetime.

This is what happened with ballet . It started with Shruthkirti and spread to Shreeddhari too like a virus. They got hooked on to it starting with a few books, then it went on to researching on YouTube..they checked out all sorts of performances and know the story of the Nutcracker very well. They even know various versions of the Nutcracker that's commonly performed by various ballet groups. They have been begging me for ballet classes for a while now.

Andd then the US shift happens and here we are attending ballet classes every Thursday. And so to finally see them actually wear the ballet dress and the tutu and do the dance is such a heartwarming moment for me. My eyes welled up once again to be able to experience yet another profound learning journey! And in last class the ballet teacher came up to me and told me that Shruthkirti has a body that's perfect for ballet! No wonder she has been so attracted to it all this while!!

It's all about connecting the dots

It's all about connecting the dots! While I've always experienced learning as this start to finish line in the form of exams, HSing has let me experience learning as an indulgence ..in what the spirit seeks to learn at that moment. It could be the most weirdest thing you would never be able to plan or come up in a curriculum and result in the most unimaginable outcome.

That's what is happening most recently with Shruthkirti. Last year after attending the IHC Khandala HSers conference she got fixated with learning a few songs from the song book that was prepared for the bonfire nights. She got especially attracted to " Raindrops on roses."from Sound of Music. It became an obsession. She spent days on it- knew it by heart, wrote it down line by line , went on YouTube to learn it perfectly , learnt the spellings and then ended up seeing the movie like a zillion times. And then we moved here and came across auditions for the Roberta Jones Junior  Theater's fall production. Shruthkirti who has been into theater for the past 3 yrs obviously jumped in glee and we found ourselves in the auditions. They required her to sing a song in addition to dancing and acting and obviously the only English song that she knew from start to finish is guess what? " Raindrops on roses.." She went up on the stage and sang it so confidently ! Watching her at that moment brought me tears. The Director of the theater then commented that it was so incredible that someone who moved in to a totally new country can go on stage and sing so confidently ! Little did he know the amount of time that has been spent on this one song!
Her rehearsals her in full swing for 3 roles she got selected in. Like a professional she has got her conflict calender sorted out and now the costumes are soon to be stitched! I always find these learning journeys incredible.