My little one's POVs and Isms...

 https://m.facebook.com/notes/she-isms/my-little-ones-povs-and-isms/622669557872360/

11th December 2019

 in 2013 my elder Import who was 12 years old then …. introduced the word Nerd to highly innocent kids in his small experimental school...obviously the word became a mantra in the school …. 

iohh the Amount I had to Pacify his course co-ordinator and the school counsellor and the Principal … to make a statement my kid started wearing socks of different pairs everyday ….. again I had to make a trip to school …. 

the girls from that school are my kids best friends even now …. those kids were sooo united that they used 'co-operation' to change their uniform by refusing to wear it …. my elder Import got kids to stick to wearing the sports uniform on all 5 days of the week …. 

finally the Founder of the school gave up and made my elder import in-charge of a group of kids who designed a new school uniform ….. she was a Cool Educationist and used to give my elder import extra time on weekends …. it was a big help for me during those years of single parenting 

in fact from July 2013 to May 2016 …. I had countless meetings with teachers thanks to my elder Import from Mars ….

Note written on 11th December 2018

 with my elder child I play tricks and cajole and ego massage him to read …. like after watching Raees … I told him to wait outside Crossword as I would take two minutes to buy a Murakami book for myself …. I used to go read in that bookstore those days....   .when kids were meeting friends in the mall …. he got upset at being asked to sit outside and went and bought the latest book in the Wimpy Kid series and read it in one go when we got home …. I realised my unconsciously said words had Hurt him …. we joke about his non reading ways …. and it used to not affect him one bit …

in fact he got some version of King Lear on YouTube …. and refused to read the book in his 8th grade … I was ecstatic when he passed 8th grade from the IB board …. I was expecting him to fail ….the level of math was tough …. I had to read quite a bit to teach him math …. then I took a tough decision to go the NIOS way when I saw the math syllabus for 9th grade in the IB board …. 

in 2016 and 2017 he read the text books and did not memorise much ….. again I was beyond thrilled when he passed NIOS …. this year I have been ego massaging and tricking him to read …. finally ...he got hooked on to Robert Kiyosaki …. I guess I was giving him books by authors he could not connect to …. we discuss R Kiyosaki's work and words and it went further from there …. 

my little one reads and his flow of language is something his teachers used to praise …. I have never had to focus on him during his school years …. he concentrated in class and his teachers used to praise his class participation and conscientiousness in doing homework…. my entire focus used to be on calling up the elder one's classmates to understand IF there was homework …. the elder kid Refused to write in his school diary …. from 2009 onwards I was getting called to meet his teachers on a regular basis ...thanks to his happy ways in school spl with regards to homework … 

this year has been an eye opener …. the elder one settles down easily with instructions ….. whereas the little one will resort to all kinds of shenanigans and cry if nothing works …. we are still in the initial stages of assignment completion …. around 50days left to submit them …. 

my elder Import made a time lapse video of his assignment completion in Jan 2017 when he got bored of writing …. LOL 

I talk to kids in a gentle playfull way …. and then they sit down and do whatever I tell them …. the old way of parenting--the husband & I grew up with will not work with my kids …. plus forgetting the shifting of place of stay ….be it geographical and mental ...they have been through since 2012 is something my parents and their father keeps forgetting ….. 

I took an FB break quite late yesterday and while I was listening to something …. I could hear all 3 of them talking ….today morning I had a mutiny on my hands …. wrong choice of words with teenagers means I am back to Square one with everything … after quite a bit of talking in the morning ...finally I got them to settle down to writing …. 

the saddest part about homeschooling is the interference …. however ….. in India even when one has a full time job and loads of other responsibilities …. the minute kids grade drop ….the mother gets All kinds of advice, taunts and what have yous …. 

I grew up in a household where my dad taught us initially and from high school onwards we did all our studying on our own …. however the husband grew up in a household where the mother looked after their studies and then they had pvt coaching highschool onwards …. so the husband never helps with studies …. except for a once in blue blue moon interest …. looking after and helping with school work has been my area …. 

sometimes I get tired of pushing the older kid to read …. however I doubt I will give up on making him read …. sometimes I use CR7's name in all kinds of ways to get him to read …. cite his business ventures and Fib Happily about how much CR7 might be reading ….. and blah blah blah :D 

few days back when I was going on about something …. my elder kid said something about living alone and I said you have some hope ...to which my little one told his older brother …. mama will come and find us no matter where we live and make us read or listen to whatever she wants us to do …. and I said you can bet on such a possibility …. lol 

the nuns in school ensured we said …. 'may we' and 'please' and 'thank you' …. and I keep telling my kids to use the magic words and sometimes I refuse to reply IF they do not use those words …..however in public they shock me by always forgetting to use Please …. repeat repeat and repeat some more …. I can not force my kids to go to college ...however if I can Ensure that they read and have an enquiring mindset and are Respectfull in their talk and behaviour …..these two years of homeschooling would not have been in vain ….

I realised they are in a phase when I suggested the little one take a Master class by Monsieur Ramsay …. and he did not want any kind of class … which made me think about the last school he went to ...he cried before and after school most days…. because we have been hearing about Mr Ramsay from him for the past 2 years ….every meal and sweet dish is judged from Mr Ramsay's pov (imagined) so much so that we have to make him seal his lips at dinner time on many occasions ...

2018 has been very tough on kids with the sudden shift back to Pune ...however … it has also been a year with the most relaxed pace of life we have Ever seen ….. 

 

their father grew up without reading literature ...his parents and older sister read books and told him stories …. I tried my best to make him read when he was in Pune and then I would courier books to him from Mumbai …. till I realised he read half of the 3rd book I had sent him …. after marriage I had to tell him stories from books I read and the regional films I watched on DD … after a point I gave up …. 

now to go check on assignments given ….