Truth be told

The little one has been given a project for first grade. It is to make a Diorama of one of the "Frog and Toad" stories.

When I got back from Austin Thursday night , the first thing she told me was "Finally, I also have a project!"

What that translated to is "Daddy, you have a project for me!"

After hearing her go on and on about this I asked Jr. "Didn't we do the exact same project three years ago when you were in first grade?! Remember buying silly putty in different colors and making frog and toad and you made a table, bed etc. with it and painted the whole shoe box"

Jr. says "yes and it is probably still in the garage!"

In a fit of laziness blurted out "why can't we just reuse that diorama?" and left it at that.

Friday evening comes and the little one tells me "I asked my teacher today if I can bring the same diorama my sister did three years ago and guess what?"

He said "NO!"

That was embarrassing.. Now I have to go face her teacher who probably is appalled by my "reuse" concept!

Daddy Narayanan is growing too old for Dioramas and is kind of getting bored of going through same projects with a 3 year deja vu cycle.

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Too much love

Jr. got a homework assignment from her school. They gave her two germinated seeds (just germinated!), in a cup with her name on it.

The goal: Learn how plants come from seeds.
How : go home, ask your parents to put some dirt in the cup, put the seeds, water it and watch it grow and as bring it back to school.

I promptly put some mud from the backyard, planted the seeds, while mommy watered it in front of Jr. and grandma pitched in by saying "sunlight is very important. lets keep it on the window sill with the rest of the plants".

Jr. of course was learning another hidden lesson, zen style. The plant does not grow instantly. Every 5 minutes she would go look for a plant. After my repeated answers of "it takes some time to grow", she reduced the frequency to every hour or so..

The next morning, she went first to look for her plant! Still no plant. She was disappointed. I told her "Trust me. In two days there will be a plant!".

Four days later, this is what we have in the cup!

Yes. Looks like the seed has become fungus fodder!

Looks like Jr. is not the only one learning lessons here. Apparently, with the responsibility of not disappointing the poor kid, all the adults in the house, have been showering love on Jr., by indirectly showering the cup with water! Three people watering the seeds everytime they go near the kitchen sink was too much for the seedlings!!

Lessons learned :

Jr.:
Plants maybe grow from seeds?
If they grow, they need the seed, soil, water, sunlight.
It takes a long time for plants to grow, longer if grown by adults.
I hope all the other parents did the same thing with the seeds!

Mommy, grandma :
From now on only daddy does these activity homeworks.

Daddy :
My name is in the mud now, literally!!

I am sure there will be a lot more plants to grow, butterflies to incubate, cakes to bake etc. etc. in the coming years. Hope I get better at supporting those projects!

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