Ishaan has become a reader !

Kavya has always been a good inspiration for Ishaan. She pushes him to achieve more and he looks up to her. So, Ishaan has been making good progress.

Till last year, he wouldn't sit with me for 5 mins while I read a book to him and I used to worry how will this boy ever learn to read :). However, this year, he started reading with small book and then Level 1 and Level 2 and even Level 3 books from the library.

And then Kavya encouraged him to read Magic Tree House books. She told him they were really interesting chapter books and that he will learn about new places. So, Ishaan gave it a try. His first chapter book was Sunset of the Sabertooth in May and since then he has read lots of other Magic Tree House books as well as other books.

The reading program at the library and Barnes & Noble was a good motivation. He is now at a point where he can finish 60 page books in less than a day. And these are book with AR level 2.x and 3.x when he is not even in KG yet. He probably does not understand everything yet - so comprehension is lacking. He can tell you high level story but not the details. So, he still has some progress to make there, but the good thing is that he likes to read and is able to sit for an hour to read.

We have also introduced reading books on Kindle to both the kids. They both enjoy it !

I am a happy mom. Even more excited about how Kavya is being a great inspiration for Ishaan !

Kavya's 2nd grade projects

2nd Grade has been an interesting school year for Kavya. She has learnt a lot, made some good friends and at the same time realized that public school needs to offer more challenge for some kids !

This year, I volunteered for computer lab instead of grading papers at home like last year (1st grade). I am glad I did that. I feel like its always good to meet her teachers and classmates to get a better understanding of what and how they do things in school. It also helps you relate to some things when kids tell you about school.

Kavya has done some interesting projects this year.
For this first one was a book project where they had to create the front page of their favorite book on a cereal box and answer some questions about the book

The following three are the things they did in class and displayed it for parents for the year end display !

This was a briefcase project where they had to collect and show things about their ancestors and where they came from. 

This one was a picture frame made using two disposable plates to show their choice of celebrity - sports, politics, etc. Kavay chose Wilam Rudolph who was a a great runner and won many medals in Olympics.

Kavya is very creative !!

Kavya loves art and crafts. Every now and then she amazes us with her creativity.

She is good at drawing and coloring. She makes very creative things with legos and K'nex pieces. Alphabets, animals, glasses, fruts, various designs are just some example things that she created using those tiny pieces.

She used playdoh to make various fruit as well as angry birds.

Playdoh fruits

Playdoh angry birds

She used pennies to do a nice writing and make a bunny around Easter last year.

Ishaan has the "faint at blood sight" genes

Today, at Ishaan's school, they were talking about mosquitoes. The kids were sitting on the rug and the teacher was explaining how mosquitoes bite and suck blood. The teacher actually "made" blood using red and black paint color and then used a straw to demonstrate the act of sucking blood. Ishaan was listening and participating in the discussion, but then suddenly, when the teacher demonstrated the sucking of blood, he fainted. He had perspiration on his face and wet his pants. The teachers were shocked. They called out his name and brought him back to senses and asked him to lay down for a while. When they asked him what happened, he said that the talk and look of blood made him feel dizzy. The school office called me to let me know about the incident and that Ishaan was OK.

When I went to pick him up, he was just fine. Then while talking to one other parent, I realized that he has inherited the "faint at blood sight" gene from his dad :)

Gaurav has collapsed/felt dizzy after a blood draw and also he had to sit down in the labor room when I was in too much pain during Ishaan's delivery.

Very interesting and surprising discovery !
Now we will need to remember this when we take him for any future blood draws..
Also, amazing how the dad and son are so much alike (in lots of other ways too !!) :)

Kavya thinks grown ups are boring !

Yesterday, we were around the dining table chatting. I forget what topic we were discussing, but suddenly, Kavya complained "Growing up is not fun. Grown ups are so boring !". Gaurav and I were surprised at her statement. We asked her what made her think that. She went on "All grown ups do is work, work and work. They don't know how to have fun!".

Still surprised and also amazed, we realized there was truth in her statements. As we transition from being carefree kids/youth into mature adults, often times we forget the fun part. Thank God we have kids to remind us of that!

And my dear Kavya (and Ishaan) : As you grow up and learn your responsibilities and try to make a place for yourself in this busy world, I hope you remember this observation of yours from when you were only 8 years old and never lose your fun side !

Ishaan wins his lightsaber !

We have been following a point system to reward good behavior for Kavya and Ishaan for past 3-4 months. Ishaan's goal has been to get 100 points so that he can earn the lightsaber! He has been asking for it since he saw the Star War movies. Kavya does not want anything in particular (I like to think of it as she has everything :) ) So, she is little less enthusiastic about it.

The way it works is that they earn points for doing good things. Some things are already called out. For example, Ishaan can get a point if he reads 3 books. Kavya can get a point if she reads 1 book (since hers are chapter books with 80 to 100 pages). If Ishaan does not come to me in the middle of the night, he can earn a point. Or sometimes, they can earn a point on-the-fly for just being nice or helping out.

Ishaan has been dedicatedly working towards his goal - meticulously keeping track of his points making sure not a single point is forgotten. He even got upset and threw tantrum if we talk about taking a point away for his bad behavior. Finally, he made it to 100 points today and earned his lightsaber. He was so happy and proud to earn his reward.

Keep it up, little Ishaan. Just work on your temper a little :)

Ishaan loves numbers !

Ishaan is very fascinated with and interested in anything to do with numbers. You can practically get him to do anything if you represent it in the form of numbers. Here are the different incidents that shows his love for numbers !

He loves Maths - addition, subtraction, greater than/less than. He was doing 1-2 digit addition/subtraction without regrouping and just yesterday, I showed him how to do 2-digit addition with regrouping and he immediately picked it up. He enjoyed it and asked for more and more. Kavya also helps him practice using Uno cards. She has started teaching him multiplication (tables) too.

Whenever he is home, he keeps on checking the digital clock on our microwave/stove top every few mins and keeps on calculating how many minutes is it till/past his bed time or school time.

He loves the Fitbit dongle that Gaurav uses. Every evening he asks Gaurav if he can see how many steps it shows. Then he requests if he can walk or go up/down the stairs with it. He holds it in his hands and runs with it, periodically checking the numbers.

Few nights ago, he kept on coming up with one or the other request instead of sleeping. After a while, he was still awake and asked me to tickle him. I told him that if he laid down quietly for 5 mins, I will do it. My hope was that in those quiet 5 mins, he will fall asleep. Instead, after few mins, he woke up and told me "Mommy, I counted till 300, now can you tickle me ?" :)

He also loves to count his money. Every few days, he will count how much money he has in his piggy bank and then give it to Gaurav to deposit in his bank account.

So, as you can see, he loves numbers and money - Just like his daddy :)
I tell him that he should plan to be a CPA or Financial planner when he grows up.

Kavya is 8 and Ishaan is 5 years old !

It's hard to believe that Kavya is 8 and Ishaan is 5 years old already !
The days and weeks and years have flown by really fast .. I don't want the kids to grow up so fast !

Many older and experienced parents have told us to enjoy the kids while they are little.. and while it is sometimes hard to do that, it is so true.With each day passing by, they are getting older and smarter; slowly but steadily getting ready to face the world and create their own destiny. In the process, they are also losing their innocence.. I think that is what I will miss the most when they are all grown up. Their innocent questions (although sometimes there's too many of them and that too all at wrong time :) ), innocent thoughts and ideas and innocent mischief (if there is such a thing :) ).

I will miss Kavya asking us if she can live with us forever .. Ishaan wishing that nobody ever dies because he does not want us to die .. the kids fighting like enemies and playing together the very next minute as if nothing ever happened..

I have also enjoyed seeing them learn new things every day. In fact, I have learned lot of things with them. Kavya is already correcting my pronunciations and teaching me about some of the characters and plays (Nutcracker) and books (Ivy and Bean, Magic Tree House, Magic School Bus, Rainbow Magic) and festival traditions (getting Booed on Halloween) which are popular in US, but I never knew before. It is rewarding to learn from a child and not to mention the satisfaction that they get realizing that they know something more than their parents !

Being brought up in an academic focused environment, I cannot help but also worry about their career and future. Like many moms, I am also guilty of pushing them to be the best - especially when I know they can do it. Whether they like it or not at this age, hopefully, when they grow up, they will understand the thoughts and reason for the push.

While it is lot of work to care for and raise kids, it is an experience unlike anything else. Every day has new challenges - some are easy, some are hard. There are definitely days when you want to pull your hair out and think why did we do this to ourselves .. but then their love and the feeling of family makes it all worthwhile.

I may not say it enough, but I love you very dearly, kiddos !

Ishaan is concerned about mommy's schedule.. Can you believe it ?

I volunteer for Computer Lab at Kavya's school every Friday. Ishaan somehow knows this.
Now, tomorrow - Friday, December 6th is Ishaan's Winter program at his school. So, parents are asked to come and see as the kids sing different songs.

This evening Ishaan came up to me and asked "Mumma, is it going to be tricky for you tomorrow?"
I could not understand why he was asking that. So, I asked him "Why do you ask that?". He promptly replied "Because tomorrow my winter program and you have computer lab too". I was  pleasantly surprised that my almost 5 year old was concerned about how I will manage both of these things on the same day. I smilingly replied "No, it should be OK". He immediately asked "Is that because my program is in the morning and the computer lab is in the afternoon?". I smiled and nodded. He had a wide and innocent smile on his face.

I was very happy to see how concerned he was  because it tells me that even at this age, he realizes that parents have these conflicts when both kids have some activity on the same day.

Pressue of homework and tests in US Elementary Education

Kavya is in 2nd grade. For the past 2+ years of her Elementary education (KG, 1st grade, first couple of months of 2nd grade), I have never felt any pressure or stress due to her homework or tests. I have to push her to finish her homework, but that's just because she is interested in doing everything else first. Her homework has always been easy and simple. I always wished that the teacher gave more challenging homework to keep her busy and motivated. To that extent, I was also thinking that may be I could give some extra homework sheets to the teacher that she can give to Kavya as extra homework (without Kavya realizing that it came from me :) )

This changed all of a sudden yesterday. I got an email from Kavya's teacher that they have a Social Studies test on Friday. So, she will be sending some papers and the text book home for the kids to review and she requested parents to go over the material with kids. She also said that the test will be in a different format than what the kids are used to and that she will allow them to refer to their books for this first test. The email got me serious (probably more serious than I should be) So, after dinner, I sat down with Kavya to review the materials. The test was regarding Unit#2 which was about 70-80 pages long. I started reading the pages with Kavya and asking every possible question to test her. We covered about 20 pages when I realized that both of us were tired. So, I told her that we will finish the rest of the pages the next day.

After finishing the social studies review, Kavya said she needs to practice 50-in-a-minute. Since those are getting harder (both due to level of difficulty and due to the time limit), Kavya wants to practice every day to make sure that she clears the level during every Thursday test.

After she finished both sides of 50-in-a-minute practice, I remembered that she had Library on Thursdays and so she would have to return both of her borrowed books. But she had only read one of them and she wanted to read it again. I could see how tired she was. So, I told her to read it later.

After all this, when I went to sign her homework folder, I realized that she hadn't done 10 minutes of Lexia. There was no time for it since it was late and Kavya was very tired. So, I did not mention it.

Then today, I spent almost another hour with her to finish reviewing the book for her Social Studies test - asking her multiple questions along the way. Although I knew Kavya would do well in the test and that the tests here are not as grilling, the Indian mom in me wanted to make sure Kavya knew the entire unit properly :)

After finishing the review, she spent 15-20 minutes doing Lexia on the computer (the homework that wasn't done from yesterday).

She can also take 2 AR (Accelerated Reading) tests during their computer labs on Monday and Friday. That's how they meet their allocated target goal for AR. While Kavya has already reached her target of 8 points, I always ask her to have 2 books that she can take the test on. That way she will read and identify books she want to test on. After all the studies yesterday and today, there was no time to read a book for the AR test. So, without tiring both of us any further, I decided to call it a day.

For the first time, I felt like there was too much going on in school. Reading books for the monthly reading log and AR tests, everyday homework, 50-in-a-minute practice and tests every Thursday, Spelling Word test every Friday, Lexia and Dreambox practice on the computer at home and Accelerated Math (AM) is starting this week and to top it is this Social Studies test for each unit that they finish. Oh.. and not to forget the monthly book project and the monthly poems :)

Studies are starting to get busy. I wonder how will we manage once both kids get in this phase ? Hopefully, Kavya will manage her own things by then :)