The under age kid

History has a tendency to repeat itself, over and over and over again. I guess that is one reason why it is still taught to people, so they would learn from the past and move towards a better future.

This is also counteracted by the ability of human beings to forget things quickly and get on with life.. the same life that people got on with a few decades ago and by extrapolation a few centuries ago..

It is true that todays Cyclotrons are a lot more complicated that the proverbial "wheel" invented a long time ago, but have we really come that far in learning from history?

People still kill each other, go take things forcefully from others if they lack a certain resource (it used to be gum arabic, silk, spices, gold, diamonds, now it is oil!) and continue to ignore the past.

All that, was the cynic in me talking. This post is more about something happening in our life right now. Jr. who is a November child, just like her daddy, is having attention issues in school. She is an extremely smart and intelligent kid and is easily distracted, just like her daddy and she does tend to walk into the occasional wall, just like her grandma!

We had a meeting with her teacher who gave us a detailed report card for the Kindergardener and said "she has trouble following my instruction. She keeps looking at what the other kids are doing and cannot focus". She went on to explain how she is the youngest in her class and how it is going to pose problems for her because some of her classmates are 14 months older.

San promptly cut in and said "hubby here was in 2nd grade at Jr.'s age". Being the sincere daddy, I went on to explain to the teacher that I had the same problems. I never went to kindergarten and was directly thrown into first grade at age 4 and finished school at 16 and college at 20 and was in gradschool before I could legally drink in the US. I also told her that my social life wasnt exactly stellar because "having no moustache when graduating high school" was an issue, but I never had any problems with academics.

At this point, the teacher must have seen very clearly why Jr. is distracted (talking to her daddy for 5 minutes would explain that) and asked me "so do you have any suggestions to improve Jr.'s focus?".

Daddy said "Eureka! I know exactly what they did when I was in first and second grade". They moved me to the first row so all I saw was the teacher and the blackboard. Nothing to distract me.

The teacher said, well.. in the US, we used to do that only to kids who were troublemakers. In any case we do not have rows in the classroom till 3rd or 4th grade. We have them sit around circular desks in groups of 4 or 5 so they can learn the value of teamwork!

Where do you sit then, and where is the blackboard ? I asked.

Apparently there is no thing like a blackboard and the teacher moves around the classroom as she gives instructions to kids.

Hmm.. let's see here. You are trying to focus on a certain voice trying to give you an instruction and you have to execute on it. This might also involve looking at a piece of paper or an object that is in the teachers hand and you have to do something on your desk based on that. What would be easier. A fixed location for the teacher directly in front of the student or a moving teacher who could sometimes be talking from your right, left, or even behind you..

Bah!!!! I said and walked out.

Really love the teachers, their enthusiasm and their passion.. but I know myself and based on history and some genetic extrapolation, my kid, and there are no surprises on why she cannot focus. First we need to learn focus on stationary targets before we can focus on the moving targets!

Bah!!! Bah!!! Bah!!!

Now I am going to train Jr. Jason Bourne style on how to follow instructions from a moving daddy..

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Christmas Party for Children

After the "Santa" interest was piqued at the Disney parade, the little one has been waiting for an "up close and personal" with Mr. Claus the last few weeks.

That picture is from the Disney Thanksgiving day parade.

Today, her wish came true, thanks to a Christmas party organized by IBM for the employees Children.. They did a fantastic job, staring with the photo with Santa, followed by Caricatures, face painting, balloons for kids, decorate a cookie and what not, all in the IBM Cafeteria!

Spent a few hours there and the kids had sooo much fun!

Here are the pictures..

This is a picture of a picture. Also, this is a cropped version without the older women..

The Caricature dude (Big Al) was amazing.. the kids posed for him really well.

Overall, a fun filled day!

ps. they called it the "Childrens Christmas party" and I thought it should be called Chistmas party for Children.. Hence the title change and repost..

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Toying with daddy

The little ones were troubling me, over drinking milk and going to bed.

Gave me a chance to take some photographs. They were posing funny as well.

Got some nice shots though..

I got some funny ones, but they are all out of focus. The hunt for the nice digital rebel lens continues. For some strange reason, the prices are going up!! Have to wait for the Christmas sale I guess.

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Kaarthigai Deepam - FAQ and JUFAQ

Let's jump right into the definitions here! First the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Kaarthigai Deepam :

The Tamizh version of the festival of lights to celebrate Lord Muruga's (aka Kaarthikeya, Son of Shiva) incarnation in the form of six children. Sometimes coincides with Thiru-Annamalai-Deepam, a large oil light lit on top of the Annamalai Hill for Lord Shiva.

When :

Tamizh month of Kaarthigai, full moon day

How long :

3 days.

What is done :

Light earthern lamps, burst crackers, eat rice crispy treats also known as "pori urundais" (Pori - puffed rice, urundai - ball).

On the second day, there is a general house clean up. When I was four five years old, I remember my grandma calling the second day "kuppai Karthigai" (Kuppai literally means Garbage). She would clean up the house and put lights in the corners.

The third day was "pee kaarthigai" (pee literally means feces in Tamizh!). This was a day for cleaning the bathrooms, drains, and there were lights pretty much everywhere in the house. We also used to light the lamps with neem oil on the last day. The neem oil has significant medicinal value (I read an article where Americans are trying to create Neem tree farms in Texas so they can harvest neem oil for medicines!). Maybe it was our ancestors way of disinfecting the house by burning lamps with neem oil.

Here are some pictures from yesterday..

Now for the JUFAQ ( Jr.'s Unanswerable Frequently Asked Questions).

We were at the Livermore temple yesterday. Lord Muruga's idol was dressed up with a golden crown, golden Vel(spear)and lots of flowers. I wanted to meditate for a few minutes.

Jr. came sat next to me and says :

Jr. : Why is he all dressed up? Is it his birthday today?
Me : Yes.
Jr. : How old is he today?
Me : He is one more year older today...
Jr. : Is he a kid?
Me : Yeah (the idol here does make the god look like a kid)
Jr. : which school does he go to?
Me : (at this point, losing all hopes of any meditation). He goes to a special school for god babies.

there were more questions, no answers and we started back from the temple.

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LEGOLAND - Photoblog

Yes. There is a theme park dedicated to the little plastic blocks kids play with.

If you have not seen it, do not miss it. I have been in California for almost a decade now and have always missed this park when we go to San Diego. Have crossed the exit several times and wondered what it was all about! Add to that, the fact that many of my friends and colleagues give this place a two thumbs up, this time we decided to take Jr. and the little one on a short trip to LEGOLAND.

The photos say it all! Everything here is just plain amazing. We had a daunting task to get food into Jr. and we accomplished it only because the place relaxed her. Most of the rides are not scary.

We went on this animal safari ride with Lego animals. The little one waited patiently in line for 45 minutes zipping and unzipping her jacket, only to be kicked out at the end for being vertically challenged.

Jr., who refused to go on any ride was forced in as a last minute substitution and she actually had a change of heart. She got out saying "that was fun. can we do that again"!

This also meant that grandma had to adopt some Chinese kid as her "binami" grandson for the ride. Apparently the kid really liked her!

Here are some of the legonimals..

The next thing was a boat ride that covered all the books! Truly amazing..Jr. guessed all the stories!

Then there was the place which really got Jr. smiling.. Fun Town, aptly named.

She even drove a car by herself and they gave her a fake drivers license! She loved it.

A word of caution though. Most rides, however trivial they are require 34 inch height minimum which the little one missed by an inch or inch and a half. It is really not her fault that her parents dont have viking genes in them. Kids younger then her were getting on all the rides and she had to sit out for almost everything.

Then there was this out of place pirate thing, with rides for adults. The kids enjoyed talking to the pirate...

Finally some teasers for the adults. They have this place called Mini World which has miniature models of everything from the Taj Mahal to the Eiffel tower to Golden gate bridge.. not to mention an entire las vegas strip and Washington DC.

You have to see it to believe it..

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