the complete archive
Resources for Kids
What began as a space for elementary-level learning has grown up alongside its readers. This archive gathers years of posts — and widens the blog's scope from elementary years into education in general.
๐ 25,00,000+ reads and counting
๐️ Dedication
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action —
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
— "Mind Without Fear", a selected poem from Gitanjali, by Rabindranath Tagore
Posted 20th July 2012 by Shyamala KP
Dedicated with love to every busy parent who carves out time for their child amid a full life — may every bud in your care bloom into its finest blossom.
๐ Description
Close to two decades ago, this blog began as a quiet, hand-tended corner of the internet — not a polished production, but one mother's earnest, page-by-page effort to gather everything worth knowing for a child just starting out. What you'll find here was never meant as infotainment; it's real material, typed out post after post over years: academics, project ideas, confidence-building exercises, hobbies, extracurricular pursuits, talent shows, and the wide, wonderful nature all around us. This has always been a bilingual space too — English sits alongside Malayalam throughout, including in the Home Library shelf below. As the children this blog was written for grew up, the blog quietly grew with them — and today it welcomes readers curious about education at every stage, not only the early years.
๐ฑ Purpose
PLEASE BE POSITIVE... Basic education shapes a child more than almost anything else does — those early years are when little minds learn fastest and stay most flexible, and that learning was never meant to happen inside a classroom alone. A child's world begins at home, spills out into the nature around them, and slowly widens into the whole cosmos as they grow — and it's our quiet, daily responsibility to walk alongside them through that unfolding. Finding the right school nearby, one suited to a child's own temperament, is a duty most parents already carry gladly. But in today's fast-globalising world, opportunity moves quickly too — and spotting a child's talents, understanding who they really are, and staying close enough to help them tap their own curiosity is a second, equally vital responsibility. Helping a child bloom into an independent, values-driven person — a good social being and a fine citizen — has always mattered to me just as much as any report card. For working parents, especially in nuclear families who feel this responsibility keenly but are stretched thin trying to meet it, this blog was written as a small offering — a way to lend a hand, ease a little stress, and make better use of the limited time we get together. What began as material for children at the elementary level has, quite naturally, widened alongside our own children's journey into education in general. Everything here stays personal — musings, not reviews, on the CDs we watched, the movies we caught, and the books we picked up along the way. I hope this collection, built one post at a time over many years, becomes a small stepping-stone for someone else's family too. All suggestions, comments and honest criticism are always welcome. Happy reading, and thank you for stopping by.
๐ฏ Objective
A simple, personal record of the experience of raising two curious minds — nothing more polished than that. It's an outlook on the world as we saw it, alongside a few links to articles and podcasts by mentors and authors who've thought deeply about children and learning. Close to two decades of quiet, manual effort — one post typed out at a time, no shortcuts — sit behind these pages. If sharing that effort helps even one more family along the way, it will have been worth every hour of it. Let's all benefit from sharing what we've gathered — for better education, at every stage. Happy reading.
๐ฐ️ A few posts carry dated program, contact, or scholarship-exam details that are now almost certainly outdated — flagged where relevant. If you're a parent, teacher, or volunteer who'd like to help compile a current version, we'd love your help.
๐น This video was originally shared from YouTube/another site — it may now be unavailable, edited, made private, or deleted. If you're interested, you can search online using the details given here.
Finding your way around
This archive is one page — but the blog itself has a few handy tools worth knowing about.
๐ Search ("Look for")
On the blog's sidebar, there's a search box labelled "Look for". Type in any keyword — a topic, a name, a festival — and it'll surface matching posts instantly. The fastest way to find something specific.
๐️ Treasure House
Also in the sidebar, this is the blog's date archive — posts organised by the month and year they went up. Handy for browsing chronologically, or tracing a post back to when it was first shared.
๐ฑ View Web Version
On mobile, scroll to the very bottom of the blog and tap "View web version". It loads the full desktop-style layout — with the search box, Popular Posts gallery, and Treasure House all visible in the sidebar at once.
๐ Pages — Complete Index
Under "Pages" in the sidebar sits a complete tabulated index of every post — handy when you're hunting for something specific and want the full list at a glance, rather than browsing by date or category.
◂ ▸ Forward & Back Arrows
At the footer of each post, near "Home", small forward and backward arrows let you step through the blog post by post — an easy way to browse and land on the right one, especially on mobile.
A few of the older posts, especially ones that originally had slideshows, may show a "plugin not supported" note, and a handful of post links have gone missing over the years — a natural side effect of a blog this old. The tools above are the most reliable way to still track down what you're looking for.
circa 2012
Let's Learn: Healthy & Body-Building Foods
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A healthy diet contains adequate calories to keep us active and growing, with a balance of major and minor nutrients from different foods, plus the right amount of water. Following one keeps us physically fit — something we can track through height, weight, age, gender, and chest or waist measurements. Falling below the standard range means malnutrition; going above it means overweight, which over time can lead to lifestyle diseases and, eventually, obesity.
Healthy foods supply the nutrients, vitamins, minerals and energy our bodies need to function and grow — but no single meal can do that alone, so it has to be spread across the day's meals and snacks. Carbohydrates, proteins and fats give us most of our energy and are called macronutrients (found in cereals, millets, pulses, meat, fish, egg, milk); vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre are needed in smaller amounts and are called micronutrients (found in fruits and vegetables).
Body-Building Foods
Proteins, minerals and water are the components most useful for body-building — helping grow bones and muscles, and repairing tissues and organs like muscles, blood, skin, hormones and enzymes. Minerals are inorganic substances essential for metabolism, drawn from tubers, fruits, vegetables and greens, while water supports digestion, joint health, body cooling and waste disposal. Children generally need 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight — here are a few good sources:
- Egg whites — the purest form of protein, easily absorbed, with a low protein-to-fat ratio (60:1), and a good source of vitamins and minerals too.
- Fish — especially small fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids, with healthy fats overall (vegetarians can look to cod liver capsules for the same benefit).
- Lean meat — chicken breast is a high-quality, low-fat protein; turkey actually beats lean chicken on protein (73% vs 48%) while coming in lower in fat too (22% vs 48%).
July 21, 2014
Let's Learn About Mango
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Mangoes are the national fruit of India, Pakistan and Philippines. This is the national tree of Bangladesh. Mango is also the king of fruits, because of its taste, colour and beauty.
Vedas praise mango as a heavenly fruit — it represents the joy of life. Mango leaves are hung on doorways, believed to ward off evil and symbolise harmony, and are arranged in brass pots with coconut as a symbol of prosperity. Mango fruits and leaves are part of many religious ceremonies and represent potential perfection in Hindu philosophy.
Mango is also called a super fruit — rich in dietary fibre, vitamins, minerals and pigments, with unique phytochemicals like mangiferin, lupeol and euxanthin. Its peel contains urushiol, which can cause skin allergy in susceptible people. It helps in weight reduction and improves heart and brain health.
A mango a day gives us a fair complexion and makes our skin soft and shining...
The word Mango comes from the Malayalam word "Manga". It's a fleshy stone fruit, scientific name Mangifera indica, family Anacardiaceae. India leads the world both in cultivation and production — about a third of the world's mangoes are grown here, at 13.6 million tonnes a year. We export 40,000 tonnes to more than 80 countries for a total revenue of 85 million dollars.
Popular South Indian varieties are Alphonso, Banganapalli and Kesar; Dussheri and Langra lead in North India. Tommy Atkins dominates the world market, R2E2 is Australia's premium variety, and Chaunsa is popular in Pakistan. "Condo mangoes" are dwarf varieties that grow to just 2.5m in height.
Mango trees live for more than 300 years, growing to 40m tall with a 10m canopy — enough shade for an outdoor class in a gurukula! Leaves start orange-pink, turn glossy red, mature to dark green, and finally yellow and brown as they age. Flowers are small, white and sweetly scented; fruits ripen in 3 to 6 months.
Annual mango festivals are held in New Delhi (over 500 varieties on one platform) and in Calicut, at Gandhi Park. Mangoes feature widely in traditional cuisine — sweets, candies, lassis and milkshakes, jam, jelly, burfi, pickles, chutneys and curries, and popular drinks like Frooti, Jumpin, Maaza and Slice.
March 16, 2011
Let's Learn (7): Types of Houses
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search, Popular Posts gallery, or Treasure House · March 2011
February 23, 2011
Let's Learn (4): Animals, Their Homes, Young Ones & Sounds
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search, Popular Posts gallery, or Treasure House · Feb 2011
March 2011
Let's Learn (8): Seasons
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search, Popular Posts gallery, or Treasure House · March 2011
circa Feb 2011
Let's Learn (6): A Visit to the Nearby Police Station
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circa Feb 2011
Let's Learn (5): Food
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Food gives us the energy to do everything we do — that energy is measured in units called calories, and along with it, food gives us nutrients: carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats and fibre.
We get carbohydrates from cereals, millets and tubers — common cereals include rice, wheat, maize (corn) and oats; common millets are ragi and barley; and tubers, the parts of plants that grow underground, include tapioca, potato, yams and amorphophallus (elephant foot yam).
Proteins come mainly from pulses, legumes, milk, fungi like mushroom, and non-vegetarian foods like egg, fish and meat. Common pulses include dhal, green gram, red gram, black gram, cowpea, Bengal gram, groundnut and cashew nut. Fats mostly come from creams and oils, and we also get vitamins, minerals and fibre from our food.
Three Kinds of Food
Foods are broadly of three types — vegetarian, non-vegetarian, and junk food. Vegetarian foods, of plant origin, are the most natural and popular form. Non-vegetarian foods, of animal origin, are supplementary. Junk foods, on the other hand, are processed foods with little real nutrition, packed with additives and preservatives for a longer shelf life — they give us excess energy and, over time, lead to disease. Children are often drawn to junk and fast food anyway, pulled in by its colour and the taste of chemicals they don't really need.
Common junk foods include ice cream, chocolates, noodles, soft drinks, colas, sweets, cakes, pastries, snacks, biscuits, wafers, and fried or baked items. Fried foods worth watching include banana roast, onion bajji, vadas, papads, fryums, chips, puffs, French fries and samosas — and dishes like biriyani made with vanaspati aren't much better.
Spices and condiments are plant-based additions that improve taste and flavour — Indian food tends to be spicy, with chilli, turmeric, ginger, pepper, tamarind, clove, nutmeg and cardamom among the common ones.
Water is essential for proper digestion and for flushing toxins from the body — children should aim for about 8 glasses a day, grown-ups closer to 20. For good health, eat nutritious food in a balanced way across breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner.
circa Feb 2011
Let's Learn (3): Railway Station
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circa Feb 2011
Let's Learn (2): Hospital
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circa Feb 2011
Let's Learn (1): Places of Worship
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February 23, 2011
Biography (3): K.R. Narayanan
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- K.R. Narayanan was the tenth President of India.
- His full name is Kocheril Raman Narayanan.
- He was born on October 27, 1920, the fourth of seven children.
- His father, Kocheril Raman Vaidyar, was a physician in traditional Indian medicine; his mother Paappiyamma was uneducated.
- The family lived in a hut at Uzhavoor, in extreme poverty — sometimes there wasn't enough food for everyone.
- But his mother was keen to see him educated. He studied at Govt. LP School, Kurichithanam, then Lady of Lourdes UP School, walking about 15 km to school every day, often unable to pay fees or buy books.
- He completed high school at St. John's and St. Mary's, and his twelfth at C.M.S. College, Kottayam — winning a merit scholarship along the way.
- He earned an M.A. in English with a first rank, then began earning a living as a lecturer, and later as a journalist — first with The Hindu in Chennai, then The Times of India in Mumbai.
- He interviewed Gandhiji on 10th April 1945.
- He went to England and studied at the London School of Economics, earning a B.Sc in Economics with a specialisation in Political Science.
- He then joined the Indian Foreign Service, serving as Ambassador to Japan, the UK, the USA, China and more — called "the best diplomat of the country" by Jawaharlal Nehru.
- On Indira Gandhi's suggestion he entered politics, winning three Lok Sabha elections as M.P. from Ottapalam, and served as Minister of State under Rajiv Gandhi.
- He was later elected Vice President and then President of India — the first Dalit and first Malayali to reach the nation's highest office.
- He married Ma Tint Tint ("Usha"), a Burmese lady, and had two daughters, Amrita and Chitra. He died on 9th November 2005.
- His life is a powerful example of rising from the humblest beginnings, through hard work, to the highest office in the land.
December 15, 2012
Biography: Swami Vivekananda
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"Arise, awake and stop not, till your goal is reached" — an inspiring quote by Swami Vivekananda that comes to mind while reading about the programs marking his 150th birth anniversary across the country.
He was born on 12th January 1863 in Calcutta, originally named Narendra Nath Datta. His father, Viswanath Datta, was an Attorney General in the Calcutta High Court; his mother, Bhuvaneshwari Devi, was a pious housewife.
Narendranath became an ardent disciple of Sree Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, whom he met during his graduation studies and gradually surrendered to as his guru. A genius as a student, he studied literature, science, philosophy and all religions, coming to believe in one formless, universal God — in his words, service to mankind is the most effective form of worshipping God.
After graduation he travelled all over India as a brahmachari under the name Swami Bibidishananda, living on alms and following celibacy throughout his life. This journey took him to Kanyakumari, where he meditated for three days at what is now the popular Vivekananda Rock, arriving at his famous Vision of One India — realising that preaching religion to empty stomachs is useless, and that the upliftment of the masses must precede spiritual awakening.
The Maharaja of Khetri, Ajit Singh, crowned him with the title Swami Vivekananda in 1892. On 31st May 1893 he made a historic speech at Chicago, introducing Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions — and Indian philosophies of yoga and Vedanta gradually became popular worldwide, making Swamiji India's spiritual ambassador.
Travelling the world, he felt ashamed at the degenerating plight of the nation, calling it a lunatic asylum filled with superstition, caste division and vain talk, and urged Indians to look outward. To uplift the masses and gradually instill spiritual awakening, he established Sree Ramakrishna Mission and Sree Ramakrishna Math. India celebrates his birth anniversary as National Youth Day.
Swamiji attained Mahasamadhi on 4th July, 1902, at the age of 39, at Belur Math in Calcutta.
circa mid 2012
Biography (5): Helen Keller
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Helen Keller was an American girl. At just 19 months old, when she could barely walk, she fell severely ill with stomach pain and brain fever — and afterward, she became both blind and deaf.
To be blind means a person cannot see with their eyes; to be deaf means they cannot hear. Imagine what life would be like without sight or sound — how hard that must have been.
But Helen Keller was a courageous girl with tremendous willpower, and she excelled at her studies too. She found her own way to communicate — first through signs, and later through touch. Her teacher, Anne Sullivan, herself visually impaired, became Helen's governess and, later, her lifelong companion — the two stayed together for 49 years.
Helen went on to speak five different languages, earned a college degree, and wrote 12 books along with many articles. She holds a place in history as the first blind person to graduate from college, and became an excellent author and speaker in her own right.
circa Feb 2011
Biography (4): Kamala Suraiyya
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circa Feb 2011
Biography (2): Gandhiji
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circa Feb 2011
Biography (1): Albert Einstein
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✦ a different pattern — presented newspaper-style ✦
Morning Assembly Edition
News for Students
gathered from global to local, for young readers and their teachers
Long before news apps and push notifications, my kids of Class 3 to 5 took turns presenting the day's news at their school's morning assembly — and this section is a little window into that effort. Each bulletin was gathered by hand, from the wide world all the way down to our own neighbourhood, always keeping our own city and state as the anchor point.
Nothing here was picked at random — every headline was chosen with a young reader in mind, for what would genuinely interest them and what they could actually follow at their age.
This was always guided work: a parent or teacher sitting beside the child, walking them gently through each headline in simple words.
The hope behind all this patient, manual effort was simple — to open a child's eyes to the world early, to grow a lifelong habit of reading the newspaper and following the news, to help them understand the world around them, and to slowly let them start forming opinions of their own, so that one day they'd stand as thoughtful, responsible, independent citizens.
Only a couple of sample days are hosted here — enough, we hope, to serve as a guide for any teacher or student who'd like to bring this same little routine to their own school or college assembly.
Sample: 25th June 2012
Top News
- Kuwait cabinet of ministers resigns.
- 3 new Rajya Sabha M.P.'s elected from Kerala.
- Private borewells become death pits.
- Aswini Nachappa launches Kerala chapter of Clean Sports India (CSI).
- India targets big at London Olympics.
- Kerala awaits permission to present snake boat race in London Olympics.
- World Heritage sites of IUCN under renewal.
- India to become more organic, says actor Aamir Khan.
- Contemporary classics assume Uncle Pai style.
International News
Kuwait's cabinet of ministers submitted their resignation to the Amir. If accepted, a new government can be formed, in line with the court's dissolution of the present parliament.
National News
P.J. Kurian (Indian National Congress), Joy Abraham (Kerala Congress, Mani Group) and C.P. Narayanan (CPI-M) were elected as Rajya Sabha M.P.s by all M.L.A.s of Kerala state.
Regional News
Borewells are deep wells, often ten times the height of a tall man, used to reach water in dry areas. When left uncapped, they become dangerous — children have accidentally fallen in and died, as happened to Praful from Kasargode in 2006 (the basis of the Malayalam movie Malooty), and more recently to Mahi in Haryana and Roshan in Kolkata.
Sports News
Athlete Aswini Nachappa launched the Kerala unit of Clean Sports India in Kozhikode, with athlete Mercy Kuttan and TT champion A. Radhika set to head the unit. She called India's Olympic team strong, with good medal chances in shooting, badminton, wrestling, tennis, boxing and hockey.
State News
Kerala hopes to showcase its snake boat race — with 140 oarsmen — at the London Olympics. India is also working to keep the Western Ghats recognised as a World Heritage Site under IUCN.
News of Interest to Children
Actor Aamir Khan (of Taare Zameen Par fame) spoke in favour of India moving toward organic farming. Separately, Ruskin Bond's The Blue Umbrella is now available as a picture story, following in the tradition of Uncle Pai's Amar Chitra Katha.
Weather Report
South-west monsoon continues. Highest temperature: 31°C. Lowest: 23°C. A few spells of showers expected at some places.
Sample: 8th July 2012
International News
July 8th is celebrated every year as Video Games Day. Also in the news: the "God particle", or Higgs Boson, was confirmed after fifty years of work by around five thousand scientists. Europe's tallest building, the Shard in London, was officially opening. Libya held its first-ever election with a strong voter turnout.
National News
The Naresh Chandra Committee on security reforms recommended a dedicated new agency to gather internet-based intelligence. The Hindu's Sunday feature covered housing discrimination against Muslim tenants in the national capital. Google released a list of "endangered languages", including 53 from India.
Regional News
Jagadish Shettar was set to become the new Chief Minister of Karnataka. Separately, an 18-month-old, Anushka, died after falling from an upstairs balcony in Chennai during a scheduled evening power cut.
State News
A leopard was spotted at Iravam, near Konni in Pathanamthitta — the four-year-old animal turned violent when villagers attempted to cage it, and died after capture.
City & Local News
Experts met in Kozhikode to discuss the city's proposed master plan. Separately, Hotel Golden Bake near Pantheerankavu was attacked by a group of helmeted motorists; seven people, including the owner, were injured, and local merchants called a hartal in protest.
Sports News
P.V. Sindhu became the first Indian to win the girls' singles title at the Asian Youth Under-19 Championship in Korea. Serena Williams won her fifth Wimbledon title.
Movie News
Salim Kumar won Best Actor at the Filmfare Awards South for Adaminte Makan Abu; Kavya Madhavan won Best Actress for Gaddama. Bollywood actress Esha Deol married businessman Bharat Takhtani.
Weather Forecast
Highest temperature recorded: 32°C. Lowest: 24°C. Scattered showers to continue.
circa Feb 2011
Our Universe
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The universe is the outer space around us — all the billions and billions of stars out there, including our own Sun.
Galaxy
The sun, moon, earth, planets, stars, asteroids and comets together form a galaxy — the largest structures in the universe. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a spiral galaxy with more than 500 billion stars, with the Andromeda Galaxy sitting nearby.
Gravity
Gravity is the force of attraction between any two objects — it's what holds gases within a star, keeps the solar system together, and keeps us on the surface of the Earth. The force is stronger when mass is high and distance is low, which is why gravity on the Moon is weaker than on Earth (so astronauts float there), and why the Moon's pull causes ocean tides here.
Astronauts & Life in Space
Life in space has no air, water or gravity the way we know it. Water brought from Earth is fully recycled — even sweat and urine — and astronauts scrub-bathe with soapy towels rather than shower. Food arrives pre-cooked, often in powdered packets, eaten on a fixed schedule set from Earth. Since the sun "rises" every 90 minutes in orbit, astronauts sleep tied to their sleeping bags and to each other, wearing masks to block the light. Sound doesn't travel in the vacuum of space, so astronauts knock on their helmets to communicate, alongside radio waves and space-to-home calls.
Astronauts actually grow slightly taller in space and return to normal height back on Earth — but must exercise over two hours a day to keep their bones and muscles strong without gravity's help. Yuri Gagarin (1961) was the first man in space, Aleksei Leonov (1965) the first to walk in space, and Valentina Tereshkova (1963) the first woman in space. Neil Armstrong led the first of twelve human moon landings.
Stars
A star is a spinning ball of hot, shining gas, born from a swirling clump of clouds and dust that heats up until hydrogen ignites into helium — the light we see. As a star ages it becomes a red giant, then a white dwarf, and eventually a black dwarf; the most massive stars end in a supernova, leaving behind neutron stars or black holes. The patterns we see in the night sky are called constellations — there are 88 of them.
Sun
The Sun is a star — a "yellow dwarf" — 150 million kilometres away, yet it looks large to us simply because it's the closest star. It could hold about a million Earths inside it, and its gravity is strong enough to hold nine planets, more than 60 moons, and countless comets and asteroids in orbit. It's a ball of mostly hydrogen and helium gas, roughly 5 billion years old, with about 5 billion years left to live.
Comets
Comets are balls of snow and dust that live far beyond the planets, in a region called the Oort Cloud, home to an estimated 10 trillion of them. We only see a comet when it swings close enough to the Sun for its ice to melt and release gas and dust, forming its glowing tail. Halley's Comet, the most famous, is visible from Earth only once every 76 years — it was last seen in 1986.
Big Bang Theory
All matter, energy and space began as a single point. A huge explosion formed the universe as a hot, dense mass; roughly 300,000 years later it cooled enough for atoms — hydrogen, helium and more — to form, and gravity gradually pulled these together into millions of galaxies. The universe, by this account, was formed some 15 billion years ago.
Solar System
The Sun sits at the centre of our Solar System, with eight planets (Pluto having been reclassified) orbiting it — four terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Earth), three gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus), and windy Neptune. It was Copernicus who first proposed, in 1543, that the Sun was the centre of the solar system, and Galileo who later studied the Moon's surface in 1610 — the beginning of what we now call space science.
Light travels at 3 lakh km per second. It takes just over a second to reach us from the Moon, about 8 minutes from the Sun — and 4.22 years from the nearest star.
circa Feb 2011
A Peep into the Natural Wonders of the World
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The world's ecosystem is full of natural wonders — glaciers, mountains, rivers, rainforests and steep gorges. Among the most famous: the Sahara Desert, the Nile, the Rainbow Bridge, Mount Fuji, Mount Everest, the Dead Sea, Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China, Victoria Falls, Paricutin Volcano, the Grand Canyon, and the Great Barrier Reef.
Sahara Desert
Sahara is Arabic for "the greatest desert" — the world's largest hot desert, covering most of Northern Africa. It's mostly rock rather than sand dunes, with the Safsaf Oasis on its surface and the Sahel savannah to its south, shaped by wind erosion and occasional rains since 3000 BC.
Nile River
The world's longest river at 6,650 km, flowing through 10 African countries with its ultimate source in the forests of Rwanda. Its White, Yellow and Blue Nile tributaries carried the suspended clay that made it the lifeline of ancient Egyptian civilisation.
Machu Picchu
An Inca estate and archaeological site in Peru, set in a saddle between mountains 8,000ft high — with terraced fields, mortar-free stone walls, over 140 structures, and stone steps often carved from a single block of granite, all connected by an intricate system of water channels.
Rainbow Bridge
A 570m suspension bridge crossing Tokyo Bay, built in 1993, lit red, white and green each night using solar power. (A naturally eroded stone arch in the US shares the same nickname.)
Dead Sea
A salt lake between Israel and Jordan, 400m below sea level, with nine times the salt of ordinary seawater — hence its name, since so little can survive in it. Its salt is used in cosmetics and fertilisers.
Mount Fuji
Japan's highest mountain and one of its three Holy Mountains — a symmetrical strato-volcano ringed by five lakes, snow-capped for much of the year, and still classified as active despite its age, with a low risk of eruption.
Mount Everest
Also called Sagarmatha ("head of the sky"), part of the Himalayas in Nepal, standing about 9,000m above sea level. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first to reach its summit, in 1953.
Victoria Falls
The world's largest waterfall, on the Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe — 1.7km wide and 108m tall, with a naturally formed swimming spot known as the Devil's Pool.
Great Wall of China
Built and rebuilt across centuries, stretching some 6,400km.
Paricutin Volcano
A volcano that began as a crack in a farmer's field in 1943 and grew to 420m before its eruption ended in 1952 — unique for having been observed from its very first moments.
Great Barrier Reef
The world's largest coral reef system, off Queensland, Australia — some 3,000 individual reefs and 300 islands, formed by tiny living polyps over 20,000 years, and home to many endangered species.
Grand Canyon
A rift carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, up to 40 million years old — exposed rock columns more than 6,000ft deep, with caves once inhabited long ago, best seen from points like Lipan, Eagle and Moran.
circa Feb 2011
The Story of Wonderful Necessity — Water
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The water cycle — technically known as the hydrologic cycle — is a comprehensive and essential topic we return to and learn a little more of, every single year. It's really the story of the most essential and basic need for life on Earth.
Water is life's matter and matrix; mother and medium. There is no life without water...
This post links out to a fuller telling of the story, "The Story of Water", hosted externally on Calicutnet.
circa March 2011
Summer Across Kerala
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Two small habits that add up to a lifelong love for nature: looking up and noticing the birds around us, and looking around and caring for the trees that give us shade, fruit and oxygen. One post starts a child's journey into bird-watching with a bird they already know — the cuckoo. The other is a gentle story about why a tree, once grown, deserves to be protected.
circa April 2011
Cuckoo as Our Entry Point to Ornithology
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It was a Friday, starting like any other. My elder daughter went out to fetch the milk sachets and the newspaper, pausing as always to read the kids' supplement in the courtyard. Then we heard a feeble, moaning sound — at first we thought it was her younger sister, sobbing over something. It wasn't. By then a crowd of crows had gathered noisily above our roof.
My kids rushed outside and saw the crows violently mobbing a smaller bird. As they yelled, the crows scattered — and the frightened bird fell from the roof. My elder girl sat beside it at once, and as I brought water, she found a dropper and fed it drop by drop, with such care. The bird crawled, groaned, and vomited — she gave it water again, and again, until it grew calmer.
School time had already passed — another day of absence. I told her it was a koel, likely caught trying to lay its egg in a crow's nest (or remove one of theirs), which explained the crows' fury. She already knew — she said it was a female koel, and that it's only the males who sing so sweetly, a story her grandmother had told her long ago.
While the koel lay quiet, she went in to check our bookshelves — she wanted to properly identify the bird and learn about its nature and feeding habits. What she found: a small Malayalam compilation on birds by Satheesan (H&C Books) described the cuckoo family Cuculidae as brood parasites — sweet singers, but also good pest-control agents. A children's handbook, The Wonderful World of Birds, published by KSSP, explained (citing noted ornithologist Induchoodan, Prof. K.K. Neelakandan) that the Indian koel cannot build its own nest or raise its young without help from crows — which is why it's always found wherever crows are common.
Common Birds, by Salim Ali and Laeeq Futehally (National Book Trust), added more: males are glistening black with a yellow-green bill and red eyes, while only males can sing — the female is brown, spotted and barred with white. They feed on figs, berries, insects and hairy caterpillars, and are called Kokila in Hindi, Kuyil or Pullikuyil in Malayalam. Salim Ali himself, internationally recognised as an authority on Indian birds, is credited with popularising ornithology in India through his classic The Book of Indian Birds.
Our own "Pullikuyil" lay quietly on the ground while we searched for more about these scientists. Just then, some neighbours came by collecting donations for the upcoming temple festival — and one of them asked to take the bird. My kids were reluctant to let it go, and didn't want it caged either. When I asked why, they recited a verse their grandmother had taught them:
เดฌเดจ്เดงൂเดฐ เดാเด്เดเดจ เดൂเด്เดിเดฒ് เดเดฃെเด്เดിเดฒും
เดฌเดจ്เดงเดจം เดฌเดจ്เดงเดจം เดคเดจ്เดจെ เดชാเดฐിเดฒ്...
"Let the bird fully revive and fly off on its own," they said. The visitor tried anyway to catch it — but the bird, after resting more than an hour, managed to struggle up to a nearby branch, then higher still. It stayed there quietly for two days, and then it was gone.
We were thankful for the chance to help save a small life — and for everything it taught us, quite by accident, about nature.
circa Feb 2011
The Magic Mango Tree
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Before a child can make sense of the wider world, it helps to know the ground they're standing on — the country and state they belong to, and how it's actually governed. These three posts do exactly that: a primer on India, a bird's-eye view of Kerala, and a plain-language look at how an election and an MLA actually work.
February 19, 2011
All About India
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A compilation of basic information for primary schoolchildren on our country, pinpointing only the most notable aspects.
India is an Asian country and a subcontinent, earlier called "Bharat" after the ancient King Bharat of the Mahabharata, and later known as Hindustan. Its neighbours are Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. A peninsula bounded by the Himalayas to the north, the Indian Ocean to the south, the Arabian Sea to the west and the Bay of Bengal to the east, it's popularly called the Golden Bird — a nation of "Unity in Diversity". At 33 lakh square kilometres, India ranks 7th in land area and 2nd in population among the world's 194 countries, made up of 28 states and 7 Union Territories. New Delhi is the capital, and the Rupee is the currency. India won independence from England on 15th August 1947 — celebrated every year as Independence Day. It's a secular, socialist country, with Hindus making up over 80% of the population and Muslims 14%, alongside Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Parsees.
Natural Regions
India divides into four broad regions: the Himalayas, stretching from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh through Sikkim and North Bengal, home to hill stations like Nainital, Mussoorie, Shimla, Kullu-Manali and Darjeeling; the Indo-Gangetic Plains, from West Bengal to Punjab through UP and Bihar, fertile and flat, fed by the Ganga, Brahmaputra and Indus; the Deccan Plateau, between the Eastern and Western Ghats, covering about 43% of the land with rivers like the Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, Narmada and Tapti; and the fertile Coastal Plains — the Malabar Coast in the west, the Coromandel Coast in the east.
By rainfall, India splits into a wet zone (Meghalaya, Assam, West Bengal, Malabar), an intermediate zone, a dry zone (Tamil Nadu, parts of Andhra Pradesh), and the deserts of Rajasthan and Haryana — the Thar Desert being the driest spot, and Cherrapunji the wettest. Climate ranges from tropical monsoon in the south to temperate in the north, shaped by both the Northeast and Southwest monsoons, with elevation running from sea level up to Kanchenjunga's 8,598 metres, India's highest point. The country is also home to Mount Everest (the world's highest peak, on its border), the Taj Mahal (one of the Seven Wonders of the World), and the Nilgiri Hills, a global biodiversity hotspot.
Language & Governance
India's states were originally organised by the majority language spoken in each region. Hindi is the national language, English the common link language, alongside 18 other official languages and more than 800 languages spoken across the country. India is the world's largest democracy, governed as a Federal Democratic Republic, with a President as Head of State and a Prime Minister as Head of Government. Parliament — its legislature — has two houses, the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. The judiciary runs in three tiers: the Supreme Court, State High Courts, and District Courts, with the Central Government and Cabinet supported by separate Chief Ministers and Cabinets in every state, backed by the Civil Services.
๐ฐ️The specific President and Prime Minister named in the original 2011 post are no longer in office — search for who currently holds each role if you need up-to-date names.
People & Culture
Indians vary in complexion, culture and dress depending on region. Traditional women's wear includes the sari, ghagra, or salwar kameez, though western styles are common in cities today; men traditionally wear dhotis or pyjamas, though shirts and trousers are now far more common. Classical dance in India is thousands of years old, with religious roots across its many forms, using the whole body — eyes, hands, feet, face — to tell a story. Indian classical music splits into two systems, Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian), both built on melody and rhythm through musical structures called ragas, played on instruments like the sarangi, harmonium, tabla, flute and veena.
Modern India's economy exports textiles, spices, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, chemicals and leather goods, while importing crude oil, petroleum, machinery and fertilisers — supported by natural resources like coal, iron, mica, titanium, diamonds, limestone and natural gas. Major Hindu festivals include Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, Onam, Vishu and Pongal, alongside Christmas, Good Friday and Easter for Christians, and Ramzan and Bakrid for Muslims.
Major environmental concerns include deforestation, soil erosion, overgrazing, desertification, air pollution from industry and vehicles, water pollution from sewage and agricultural runoff, non-potable tap water in much of the country, and a huge, fast-growing population placing real strain on natural resources.
February 14, 2013
Kerala — A Bird's Eye View
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Kerala is the southernmost state of India, with 14 districts. It was formed on 1st November 1956, with its capital at Thiruvananthapuram, and Malayalam as its language. It has the highest literacy rate in India at 99%, and was the first computer-literate state in the country.
It has a long coastal length, with a humid tropical climate, and is a popular tourism destination known for backwaters, houseboats, waterfalls, yoga and ayurveda. Kerala has 3 seasons — summer, winter and rainy (with both North East and South West monsoons) — and 3 geographic regions: the eastern highlands (mountains), central midlands (rolling hills), and western lowlands (coastal plains).
Of its 44 rivers, all originating from the Western Ghats, 41 flow west into the Arabian Sea, and 3 (Bhavani, Kabani and Pampar) flow east into the Bay of Bengal. Vembanad is the largest fresh water lake, and the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve is a hotspot of biodiversity. Rice is the staple food, and coir, handloom and handicrafts are traditional industries.
Symbols
- Tree — Coconut (เดคെเด്เด്)
- Bird — Great Indian Hornbill (เดตേเดดാเดฎ്เดชเดฒ്)
- Flower — Golden Shower / Cassia (เดเดฃിเด്เดൊเดจ്เดจ)
- Animal — Elephant (เดเดจ)
- Fish — Pearl Spot (เดเดฐിเดฎീเดจ്)
- Costume — Mundum Neriyathum for women, Dhoti for men
- Fruit — Jack (เดเด്เด)
- Dance — Mohiniyattam
circa 2011
Kerala — God's Own Country
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The preparatory material for the Orchard India Scholarship Examination, 2010, carried a question for primary students: "Why is Kerala called God's Own Country?" Our own hunt for an answer turned up quite a few — see which one would earn your child the marks.
In Hindu mythology, Kerala is said to have been created by Lord Parasurama, an incarnation of Vishnu — the land from Gokarnam to Kanyakumari raised from the sea by the axe he threw, gifted to his devotees for a peaceful life. A related legend holds that, on Parasurama's guidance, Guru and Vayu installed the holy idol of Vishnu at Rudrathirtha (Boolokha Vaikundam) — today's Guruvayur — making this land sacred as God's own abode.
In every corner of Kerala, Hindu temples, churches and mosques stand side by side — Palayam, in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram, is a striking example of this religious diversity within arm's reach of each other, coexisting with real tolerance and harmony.
Kerala has also travelled a long way from the "lunatic asylum" Swami Vivekananda once described — through reforms in education, health, sanitation, child welfare and literacy, it has become something of a development model in its own right.
And then there's the land itself — a tourist's paradise, from the Arabian Sea to the Western Ghats, with rivers, lakes and backwaters woven through forests and wildlife — nature's own wealth, freely given.
The phrase "God's Own Country" was first used by Dr. Vipin Gopal, who created a webpage on Kerala in 1993; KTDC later adopted it for tourism campaigns, and it was popularised further by Dr. Babu Paul during his tenure as Tourism Director — today it holds near-global brand recognition. Literally, "Kerala" means land of coconuts, and Ayurveda, the traditional medicine system, has its roots right here.
circa April 2011
Election Process in a Democratic Set-Up — Role of an MLA
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circa Feb 2011
Online Friends
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circa Feb 2011
Common Interactive Sites for Kids
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circa Feb 2011
To Kindle the Habit of Reading in Children
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Parents who love reading themselves are often the ones most anxious about how to pass that love on to their kids — how to actually build the habit, not just wish for it. Thinking this over, I came across a helpful article worth sharing.
Guiding piece: papertigers.org — children's book awards
Keep reading yourself, stay the role model, and your kids will follow suit before long. Simply be ready to put the best books in front of them — ones that genuinely suit their own nature and taste.
circa Feb 2011
Kids and Malayala Manorama
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July 22, 2014
On Safe Cyberspace for Children — The Hindu
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also linked from the blog · July 2014
February 19, 2013
Migraine — A Popular "Headache" Among School Children
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Migraine, or severe recurring headache, is now a popular health concern among school children, even at the primary level. Children who fail to stick to a systematic routine, and who are over-anxious, are easily caught by such headaches — there's a hereditary factor too. Children between 5 and 10 experience bilateral pain, abdominal cramps and vomiting, usually sleeping it off in a cool, quiet, dark room. Blurred vision, photophobia, phonophobia and irritability are common, and these kids are often allergic too.
Many factors can trigger migraine — sudden change in climate, loud noises, too much television or video games, long hours on a computer, hot sun, irregular food habits, poor sleep, over-exertion, anxiety over assignments, and poor posture while reading. Most parents fail to comprehend the real reason, assuming it's an excuse to avoid exams — but children often need a patient hearing during their growing years.
A Better Lifestyle to Cope with Migraine
- Enroll children in nearby, walkable-distance schools wherever feasible.
- Ensure a minimum of 8 continuous hours of sleep, going to bed early and waking early.
- Take children who struggle with travel on long trips gradually.
- Evaluate children holistically rather than academically alone.
- Limit junk food, and favour dates, nuts, strawberries, carrots, beetroot and spinach.
- Encourage adequate hydration — carrying filtered or boiled water everywhere.
- Ensure proper lighting in study areas, and limit television.
- Set a daily routine, eat on time, and avoid an empty stomach — an excellent trigger for migraine.
- Play outdoors every day, and exercise regularly — walking, swimming, cycling, yoga.
Lead a life free of stress and migraine.
August 8, 2012
A Short Questionnaire on Balanced Diet
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What is a balanced diet? Adequate calories to keep us active and grow, with a balance of nutrients from different foods, plus adequate water.
What are nutrients? Vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, antioxidants and fibre — food with all of these in proper proportion is a balanced diet.
What are body-building foods? Proteins, minerals and water — they grow bones and muscles, and repair tissues and organs.
Is non-vegetarian food good? Yes — different types of protein, but high in fat, so too much can lead to obesity. Egg whites are the purest, most easily absorbed protein and low in fat; small fish contain omega-3s; lean chicken breast is high in protein.
What do carrots give you? Carotene — a precursor for vitamin A.
Daily energy needs of a ten-year-old? Girls need about 1740 calories, boys about 2000.
Quick facts: vitamin A is good for eyes, vitamin C is abundant in fruits, vitamin E is good for skin, calcium is milk's mineral, and milk protein is called casein.
What is roughage? Fibre from green leafy vegetables that helps digestion.
Good vegetarian protein sources? Mushrooms, spirulina, pulses, legumes and nuts.
Question Time!
- Which is the milk protein? Answer: Casein
- Which is a lean meat — rabbit, quail, or chicken breast?
- Name the pigment in carrots. Answer: Carotene
August 22, 2012
Does the Human Body Contain Water?
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The human body contains 55 to 79% water by body weight. The quantity is high in babies (79%) and starts decreasing with age — an adult woman can have around 55% water relative to her body weight. For example, the total quantity of water in an adult man of 70 kilos is about 40 litres, or 57% of his body weight — of this, 25 litres is intracellular, and 15 litres extracellular.
Cells, the smallest unit of our body's building materials, contain 65 to 90% water. Here's how it breaks down across the body:
- Lymph — 96% water
- Lungs — 90% water
- Blood — 83% water
- Lean muscles — 75% water
- Brain — 70% water
- Bones — 22% water
- Body fat — 10% water
Water is essential to keep our body clean, digest food, absorb nutrients and expel toxins and waste materials.
July 21, 2012
Children's Wellbeing as per CDI and SDI
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A Yahoo slideshow depicts the state of children in different countries — India ranks 112th among 141 countries evaluated for the Child Development Index, which uses indicators like infant mortality, child education, health and nutrition.
A related study on preschool education across 45 countries, termed the Start Well Index, places India at the 45th position.
circa April 2011
Chicken Pox Episode — A Month's Turmoil for Children
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June 20, 2012
Qualities of a Well Mannered Child
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A well mannered person is one who has good manners and knows the correct way to behave in social situations. One who is polite and doesn't cause any trouble to others is usually called a well behaved child. Actually, how can one be so?
Value Education series of Flamingo books, New Delhi, enlists a child to possess the following qualities to be a good mannered fellow.
Let's see how Lexicographers define these terms in the most simple way:
Honest
Always tells the truth, doesn't cheat or steal.
Truthful
Does not usually tell lies.
Polite
Behaves in a way that's correct for the situation, and considers others' feelings.
Punctual
Is on time — present or finished exactly when arranged.
Kind
Tries to help people and make them happy or comfortable.
Helpful
Provides useful help that makes a situation better or easier.
Obedient
Listens to parents and teachers and follows sensible rules.
Respectful
Shows admiration for someone's qualities, knowledge, or skill.
Gentle
Does things carefully, so as not to hurt anyone or anything.
Humble
Simple and effective, without thinking their own ideas matter more.
Is this an easy task? Let's try it out — one quality at a time!
circa Jan 2012
Instilling Life Values in Youth — The Gandhian Way
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circa Aug 2011
Manners Make the Man (and of Course, Woman Too)
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Good manners means acceptable behaviour.
"Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners," said Emily Post. "Consideration for others is the basis of a good life, a good society," said Confucius. "Manners must adorn knowledge and smooth its way through the world," said Lord Chesterfield. And as P.J. O'Rourke put it: "Good manners can replace morals — it's a lifetime asset."
Everybody loves a well-behaved child. Are you one? Check yourself against this list...
- Greet your parents as you wake up and before you go to bed.
- Greet your friends when you meet them, and wish your teachers every day with a smile.
- Take permission before leaving a class in progress.
- Invite your guests to sit down, and listen attentively when someone speaks to you.
- Keep silent in a library, and speak softly in public places.
- Don't make noise when someone is sleeping.
- Knock before entering a room, and ring the bell before entering someone's house.
- Cover your mouth for a sneeze, cough, or nose-blow — and say "excuse me" or "sorry".
- Don't interrupt conversations; if you must, say "excuse me".
- Play gently, and don't fight with your playmates.
- Always ask before borrowing something that belongs to someone else.
- Respect elders, and treat older people with care.
- Be friendly with your neighbours, and kind to animals.
- Share your things with friends, and enjoy the sharing.
- Care for the sick and aged, and help the disabled and elderly.
The Magic Wand
Be polite. Be courteous. Be clean. Be faithful. Be dependable. Be cheerful. Be patient. Obey rules. Do your duties.
Magic Words for Kids
- Say "hello" when you meet someone.
- Say "please" if you want something or need help.
- Say "thank you" when someone helps you, gives you something, or does you a favour.
- When someone thanks you, say "you're welcome".
- Say "sorry" when you're wrong or have hurt someone.
- Say "goodbye" when you take leave of someone.
Learn good manners. Follow a systematic, routine life. Acquire them as a child, and work hard to sustain them — become a person of good character, and success in life will surely follow. So — how did you check out so far? Where do you stand?
Don'ts for a Good Child
- Don't talk to strangers, or play with sharp objects.
- Don't watch TV for too long, or from too close.
- Don't pluck flowers from a garden.
- Don't misbehave with elders or younger ones.
- Don't pollute or litter nature and your surroundings.
- Don't pester parents to buy things while out shopping.
- Don't shout, steal, scream, or use abusive language.
- Don't eat too many snacks or junk food, and don't skip meals.
What's your true score? Are you a good girl or boy — a good student? If yes, cheers to you. Keep it up...
A little reading nook set aside just for the grown-ups guiding these kids — not really meant for young readers to dig into. These two posts step back and look at the bigger picture: how schools and society are shaping children today, and what parents and teachers can do to help each child's personality bloom.
circa April 2011
Role of Parents in Present Education Scenario
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circa April 2011
Children's Personality Development — A Curtain Raiser
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circa Feb 2011
Parents as Watch Dogs
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circa Feb 2009
Parents as Teachers
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It happens to most of us at some point — a child was absent from school, or needs a little extra support with a lesson, or we simply want to check how well they've understood something and feel like helping reinforce it. Whatever the reason, even well-educated parents can sometimes lack the confidence to guide a child properly, especially during those crucial formative years — and by the time we've figured it out, that window has often passed.
A resource that helped: schoolzone.com, along with this page especially, which every parent will likely enjoy browsing — they also catalogue a wide range of educational aids.
Your role as a parent-teacher has always been a great one.
April 17, 2014
Nobility of Teaching as a Profession
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Every teacher has their own way of facilitating their wards. With experience, one gains awareness of the nature of every student — their attributes, abilities and behaviour patterns. Teachers have an equal role in identifying inborn and latent talent, which helps parents nurture it into rewarding professional skills.
Certain teachers empathize with their students and handle situations in a motherly fashion. Some others are great mentors who guide their wards easily to success. For them, teaching is not a job but a true passion. Here are some of the approaches of such positive lighthouses:
- Displays movies for children on Smart Class virtual boards.
- Narrates stories from epics and provides scripts for theatre arts.
- Provides a platform to hone and perform individual talent — building confidence through periodic opportunity.
- Entrusts wards with responsibilities like conducting a GK quiz, anchoring assembly, or presenting daily news.
- Enables students to help weaker peers — with food, studies, projects, and even personal care.
- Conducts literary contests like essays, features, collages, quotations and newsletters.
- Organises monthly celebrations, picnics and frequent educational tours.
- Facilitates charity to orphans and the aged — donating old toys and clothes, and instilling the value of not wasting food.
- Marks festive occasions of togetherness — Christmas cakes, floral carpets for Onam, Diwali crackers — building a spirit of cooperation.
- Organises activity days — colour day, hat day, cookery day, fruit day, dress day, tuck shop and more.
- Accompanies students for sports meets and annual days, cheering successes and consoling losses.
- Facilitates daily homework and promotes self-study and independent work habits.
Most eminent teachers uphold human values, love their wards, and remain in their hearts for a lifetime.
This is a personal observation of some of our dear teachers who created a lasting impression on us — our gratitude to those who succeeded in making us better, one way or another.
April 16, 2014
Ten Inspiring Commandments from Nizar Juma
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Nizar Juma is a winner of the Silver Star award, presented by the President of Kenya, for outstanding service to the nation in 1982. In his words, honesty is spirituality — and his action plan for a better "self" is truly inspiring for aspiring leaders on a path of righteous living.
- Control your thoughts. Be positive, be neutral.
- Stop anger — no multitasking.
- Meditate: focus your mind for good decisions.
- Don't give sorrow.
- Don't take sorrow, either.
- Be responsible. Never blame others.
- Schedule personal meetings with your own self.
- Manage your energy.
- Do something selfless every day.
- Reduce dependence on technology.
Courtesy: speech on the Future of Soft Power, Calicut, 2013.
April 16, 2014
Truth Isn't Bitter, It's the Lies That Are Excessively Sweet
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This post's title refers to the message of the Malayalam movie Philips and the Monkey Pen — a film that echoes Swami Vivekananda's own words: "Awake, arise, and stop not, till your goal is reached." It thrusts righteous living from a child's perspective, a must-watch for parents, teachers and kids alike.
- Wake up with a smile — thank God for this beautiful human life, count your blessings.
- Dream well — dreams transform into thoughts, and thoughts result in actions. (courtesy Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam)
- Maintain a visual notice board — list your difficulties, seek guidance, tackle one at a time.
- Greet your parents and teachers with a sweet smile each morning.
- Share your food — with siblings, classmates, and playmates.
- Keep your surroundings clean — be organised.
- Wash your lunch box — and drink enough water.
- Talk to your mother — a mother's lap is the best refuge for confession, healing and relief.
- Surprise elders — show respect through spontaneous obedience and good conduct.
- Prepare a balance sheet every day — recollect the day's experiences before sleeping.
- Volunteer — always find time to do something good for others.
- Discipline pays — follow rules and laws, even when it's difficult. (courtesy: Philips and the Monkey Pen)
Team work always pays. Smart work is better than hard work. Children are God's gift; love them to tap their creativity and intelligence.
circa Feb 2011
On Creativity — A Talk by Sir Ken Robinson
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circa Feb 2011
Confidence Building Mechanism and Kids
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circa Jan 2012
Young Spirits Win
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March 2011
Harithavidyalayam — A Successful Initiative to Retrace Our Roots
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The final episode of Harithavidyalayam was telecast live as the prize dedication ceremony from Thunjan Paramba. Students of Kootakani UP School, Kasargode, walked off with the first prize of Rs. 15 lakh. Honorary writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair, the chief guest, said the dedicated team effort schools put in to gain recognition was itself commendable.
I recalled the first days when I asked to watch the show — it aired in the same slot as our family's favourite, Idea Star Singer, which helped me win permission at first. But within a few episodes, my kids became just as eager to watch as I was.
The programme reached about 60 lakh students across Kerala. From 12,000 recognised schools, 400 applications were screened down to 127. A team including SCERT resource persons built a questionnaire for evaluation, said Anvar Sadath, Executive Director, IT@School.
During the finale, presenter Premita Prem shared that a young girl watching the Manacaud School episode asked her parents to enrol her in a similar school. My own experience wasn't very different — the playgrounds, smart classrooms, labs, clean campuses and libraries all made my own kids wish for that same open atmosphere.
A few lines from the evening stayed with me: "Parents seldom understand the creativity of their own kids" — it's still a tragic truth that many parents focus only on academic performance. The SSA Director's remark — "Let our education not create mediocre citizens through the learning process" — and Dr. R.V.G. Menon's point, that a school is truly best not when a handful of talented students win accolades but when every student can participate with confidence, both deserve real discussion. As Akbar Kakkattil noted, education should build EQ alongside IQ.
The show closed with its own theme song (lyrics not reproduced here) — my thanks to the show and its team for taking so many of us back to our own school days once again.
April 28, 2014
Valsala Teacher Inaugurates Sargavasantham 2014
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Sargavasantham 2014 refers to the vacation camps proposed by the Kerala State Institute for Children's Literature, with 7 camps in diverse locations across the state during April and May, covering Drama, Story, Poems, Media, Cinema, Fine Arts and Environment.
Story Camp at Calicut
Valsala Teacher's speech, narrated from memory: "In yesteryears, children were merely a simple part of the society, rather extended families... The present generation is very lucky and quite blessed. Every child is now considered a separate entity, and their personality is let to bloom independently as they grow."
She distinguished journalism (a superficial narration of an incident) from literature — better to start with realistic short stories, since one can easily write about matters one has experienced. Real life instances form only the thread for a story; it should be subjected to imagination and interpretation before the writer can weave it. She encouraged children to read classics well before venturing out as independent writers, and warned against keeping dictionaries on the writing table — the right words come naturally with context.
She spoke of how society shifted from spiritual consciousness to materialism, leading to social degradation, and called on writers to have a spiritual inclination — to "look inwards." She recommended the English version of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude to aspiring writers, and described the context of Veenapoovu by Kumaran Asan.
Governing Body member Haridas Mokeri noted Calicut was the appropriate location for the camp — home to veterans like Uroob, Thikkodiyan, S K Pottekkad, Vaikkom Mohammed Basheer and M T Vasudevan Nair. During the concluding session, former MP M K Raghavan appreciated the institute for considering Malabar for the programme, and writer U K Kumaran asked students what the greatest surprise in life is — that nobody knows what will happen the very next moment, yet we live as if eternal.
Participants were so enthusiastic they wished the camp's duration could be extended to a week — a sign of just how successful the event was.
circa Feb 2011
Green Schools in Their Last Lap
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Harithavidyalayam, an education reality show telecast daily on Doordarshan Malayalam, was inaugurated on 19th November 2010 by Education Minister M.A. Baby, as an initiative to identify the best school in God's Own Country. It aimed to pool best practices in primary and higher education onto one common platform, exploring pilot projects worth replicating elsewhere. Learning through the mother tongue, he suggested, genuinely enhances education — and the show quietly pushed back on the popular but mistaken belief that private schools are automatically better than public ones.
The programme was conceived by Anvar Sadath, Executive Director, IT@School, and jointly coordinated by SSA, SIET and C-DIT. It launched on 22nd November 2010 and ran to about 100 episodes, opening each time with a title song written by O.N.V. Kurup, composed by Isaac, and sung by Vijay Yesudas and Shweta Mohan — its visuals of backwaters, rowboats and rural Kerala stirring real nostalgia for viewers.
Applications opened to recognised schools in September–October 2010; three were shortlisted per educational district, evaluated on academic brilliance, creativity and innovation, bringing 127 schools into the first round — 26 LP, 36 UP and 65 HS schools. Each school picked three strength areas from ten possible criteria: academics, infrastructure, IT-based education, social involvement, environment, health and sanitation, resource use, physical fitness, and innovation.
Every 40-minute episode covered two schools, anchored by Premita Prem, in three parts — a school profile, a short filmed segment, and a live interaction between the jury and a 10–20 member school team of principal, teachers, manager and student representatives. The jury, chaired by Dr. R.V.G. Menon, included Dr. Piyush Antony (UNICEF), Dr. Achuth Sankar, Smt. K.R. Meera and Akbar Kakkattil as permanent members, alongside rotating guest experts — all known for making students genuinely comfortable during the process.
Kozhikode district, with 16 educational sub-districts, sent 13 schools into the first round, including B.E.M. Girls L.P. School and St. Joseph's Boys HSS from Calicut Corporation — though none advanced to round two. From over 100 schools in the first lap, 10 were shortlisted for the second round, with jury members personally visiting each school to assess the real atmosphere, talent and facilities on the ground.
Schools in the Second Round
| School | Location | Score |
|---|---|---|
| GUPS, Nemom | Neyyattinkara, Thiruvananthapuram | 98.00 |
| GUPS, Koottakani | Kanjangad, Kasargod | 97.40 |
| GGHSS, Cotton Hills | Thiruvananthapuram | 96.00 |
| GRHSS, Kottakkal | Malappuram | 95.30 |
| NAMHSS, Peringathur | Thalassery, Kannur | 95.20 |
| PPMHSS, Kottukara | Malappuram | 95.00 |
| ALPS, Peringode | Ottapalam, Palakkad | 95.00 |
| SDVGUPS, Neerkunnam | Alappuzha | 94.80 |
| SBHSS, Changanassery | Kottayam | 94.20 |
| GHS, Avanavanchery | Attingal, Thiruvananthapuram | 94.10 |
| GHSS, Karuvarakundu | Wandoor, Malappuram | 94.10 |
| GUPS, Keechery | Ernakulam | 94.10 |
The best school stood to win ₹15 lakh, with ₹10 lakh and ₹5 lakh for the runners-up, ₹2 lakh each for 4th through 10th place, and ₹10,000 to every participating school — with the final ceremony planned for Thunjan Paramba. Parents who'd followed Kerala's shift toward activity-based, participatory learning since DPEP in 1996 and SSA thereafter found real reassurance in what the show revealed: that this kind of teaching was genuinely taking root in government and aided schools across the state.
In an era of private schools mushrooming like STD booths on every corner, and education increasingly reduced to a business, this kind of state-led initiative felt like a welcome intervention — seeds of confidence sown in students, hopefully sprouting into full personalities, with teachers inspired to become "burning lamps" upholding the values of their profession.
circa Nov 2011
Children's Day Celebrations — A Capture of My Experience
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Our day at school started as usual, with the morning assembly — but Children's Day always brings a special guest, and this year it was a big black bear, brought in with his trainer. Reasonably well-behaved on stage, the bear would edge toward the kids whenever the trainer scolded him, and even our normally fearless Principal looked a little nervous! When the trainer finally got the bear to sit on a chair and coaxed our Principal into touching it — surprise — it turned out to be our own beloved teacher, Miss Balu, in costume all along. What a show!
The animated film Kung Fu Panda kept everyone glued for a full 90 minutes, our teachers danced (wonderfully, it must be said), and the tuck shop overflowed with pastries, cakes, ice creams and snacks of every kind. Every child received a handmade card from their teachers — the care behind it was something to treasure. Our Principal even came dressed in our school uniform while we wore colour-dress day clothes, and the teachers running the tuck shop stayed in uniform too.
My Meeting with Chacha Nehru
The literary activity that day was an essay imagining a conversation with Nehru — here's what I wrote:
"Chachaji, I am Ms. XYZ, studying at ABC school. I welcome you, and wish you a very happy birthday." Chachaji thanked us warmly, a rose was pinned to his coat, and the questions began.
He told us he was born in Allahabad — the very day of our celebration — to Motilal Nehru, a lawyer and Congress leader, and Swaroop Rani, Saraswat Brahmins originally from Kashmir. Their home was called Anand Bhavan. He had two younger sisters, Vijayalakshmi Pandit and Krishna Hutheesing, and admitted his childhood felt a little lonely as the only boy among cousins. At sixteen he married Kamala, and their daughter Indira Priyadarshini later married Feroze Gandhi — their sons were Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi, whose own families carried the line forward.
He spoke of being tutored at home in English, Hindi and Urdu before being sent to a convent school, and later to Harrow and Cambridge in England to study law — and confessed that, despite being clever, he was so shy he was once fined in college for not speaking up properly! Even Mahatma Gandhi, he said, had been a shy, sensitive student.
As a boy he loved nature, birds and animals — keeping pandas, a peacock, a parrot, doves, even tiger cubs as pets — and enjoyed skiing, swimming, mountain climbing, tennis, horse riding, and daily Hatha Yoga (headstands included!). During his more than thirteen years in prison across the freedom struggle, he wrote — Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History, and his autobiography Toward Freedom — along with a famous collection of letters written to young Indira from jail, each one meant to teach her something.
Asked what he'd wish for every child, he said simply: health, love, safety, peace and education — that every child might bloom into a good, responsible citizen. "Bharat Mata Ki Jai."
We all lined up to greet him — hugs, handshakes, flowers — and our Principal presented his birthday gift: a copy of Kung Fu Panda, calling him a true visionary who'd merged East and West long before his time. Jana Gana Mana Adhi Nayaka Jaya He...
July 16, 2012
Significance of Arts, Sports and Literary Activities in Elementary Education
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Nowadays parents focus on getting their kids the best education available, but the scope of education seems to have shrunk to a level of academic performance alone — attending classes, rote learning, and high scores treated as the whole aim. Is that enough? Should we let our kids play well, participate in group activities, train in arts or sports, hone their writing skills? The world grows more competitive by the day — so should we set all of that aside entirely?
Time spent on arts, sports and literary activities enhances a child's multiple intelligence, and this reflects in academics and behaviour too — making them integral parts of a genuinely quality education. Every child is unique; what matters is that each one goes through a joyful, meaningful experience that builds self-confidence and self-worth, and points them toward their own path of excellence.
What is art?
"Art is the response of an individual to the call of the real," said Rabindranath Tagore. "Art is the special language of children, who even before they learn to speak, respond intuitively to dance, music and colour," said Dr. Boyer. Art spans performing arts — dance, drama, dance-drama, vocal and instrumental music, puppetry — and visual or fine arts, which today extend into animation and film alongside drawing, painting, clay modelling, sculpture, pottery, jewellery design and weaving. Exposure to the arts in these formative years also builds cultural awareness. According to Prof. Antonio Damasio, art education brings about a better balance between cognitive and emotional development — which, in turn, contributes to a culture of peace. Tagore himself once recalled of his own childhood: "We wrote, we sang, we acted, we poured ourselves out on every side. There was tremendous excitement and cultural richness" — the very spirit that led him to found Shantiniketan.
Sports
Sports cover both indoor and outdoor games, individual and team events alike. Even moderate physical activity stimulates growth, improves a child's arithmetic, memorisation and reading, and enhances motor skills. Children who play well build team spirit, stay fit, stay mentally active, and carry the benefits of regular exercise and stress-free living well into adulthood. Dr. Glyn Roberts notes that sports form an important learning environment for children, shaping their self-esteem and self-worth, while also establishing peer status and peer acceptance.
Literary activities
By literary activities we mean reading, storytelling, creative writing, spell bees, debate, quiz, recitation, essay writing, public speaking, news reading, making presentations, and discussing stories and fiction — activities that also encourage better use of the library, letting kids choose freely from picture books to novels depending on their own level. "Reading makes a complete man," said Francis Bacon — it improves vocabulary, generates better interpersonal skills and communication, sharpens problem-solving, and fosters creativity. Strong reading habits build analytical thinking and literacy, which in turn support a richer community life.
All of this rests on "learning by doing" and "practice makes perfect" — active participation stimulates a child's imagination and instils values, which is why music, dance and drama are treated as foundation subjects in international curricula. In short, education — and arts and literary activity in particular — is how a child grows into a balanced personality, sensitive to beauty in nature, social values, and the aesthetic side of life as a whole.
The primary goal of parents and teachers is to identify the best-suited art or sport for each child — success in any one activity makes a child feel valued and wanted, and every child can succeed at something. "The purpose of education is to bring out the best in you," said Mahatma Gandhi — and per Gandhian philosophy, true basic education integrates arts, crafts, health and academics together, since literary education must always walk alongside the education of the hand.
circa Feb 2012
Ragamaalika
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circa May 2011
Film Song Competition for Students and Veterans
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circa Feb 2012
Kids on Keyboard: "Why This Kolaveri"
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February 19, 2011
Kids and Their Pastimes
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Oxford defines a hobby as an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure — taken up for relaxation or enjoyment, and sometimes a sideline interest for professionals.
Benefits
Hobbies play an important role in our lives. Being busy with a favourite activity gives peace of mind, and relaxing the mind benefits our health. Hobbies work on three levels: as a diversion, as a passion, and as a sense of purpose. The ideal hobby combines all three — and the feeling of accomplishment it brings is one of the greatest confidence-building mechanisms for kids. When fully engaged, we enter a "flow state" — sharp focus, clear thinking, enhanced creativity, and higher self-esteem.
Types
In the past, common hobbies were reading, cooking and listening to music indoors, and swimming, sports and travel outdoors. Today, television, video games and blogging top the list. Many hobbies — tailoring, jewellery design, card-making, travel writing, photography — can grow into small businesses. Origami — folding paper planes, boats, kites and balls — is a favourite creative activity that also builds skill.
Other common hobbies include: literature (writing poems, songs, stories), theatre arts, music, indoor games (ludo, chess, carrom, scrabble, monopoly), dancing, woodwork, ceramics, pottery, bird-watching and nature study, graffiti, and candle-making.
Don't pick a hobby only because it might be profitable — work at it regularly, and the more you connect with others who share the interest, the more a real passion tends to grow.
April 17, 2014
Reading Kids Magazines During Vacation
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There are about 28 children's magazines worth exploring, including Malayalam titles like Balarama, Kalikuduka and Balabhumi. The list isn't exhaustive — there are other popular kids' magazines too, like Thaliru from KSCIL, Thathamma from Deshabhimani, and Children's Digest from Deepika.
There are also plenty of kids' pages in all the dailies to keep children engaged — Vidya in Mathrubhumi, Young World in The Hindu, and Chocolate in Deepika. Malayala Manorama has diverse magazines for youngsters too, including Digest and Tell Me Why, which are GK-oriented, along with stories and colouring magazines for toddlers.
A visit to the local library during vacation would definitely help instill a reading habit — explore and grab the ones that suit your taste.
circa Jan 2012
Thiruvathira — A Festival for Women
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circa Sep 2011
All About Onam
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August 15, 2011
India Celebrates Her 65th Independence Day
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"Unity in Diversity" was the theme my kid presented at school as India marked her 65th year of Independence, on the 15th of August, 2011. The idea, conceived and coordinated by her teacher, Miss Tanuja Karunakaran, brought back memories of my own school days — trained in different languages to sing as part of a choir, in memory of the work M.B. Sreenivasan (late) did for national integration.
Here's a song that was part of that tradition — a Kannada piece, courtesy Shri. L. Sasikant, Kozhikode, and Shri. Srikanth Kamath, Mangalore:
Bharat mathe yu nina saputraru
hechara gondu baruthy harrooo
trivarna ranjitha dwajava neerisatha
matheya jaya jaya ennruvaroooooo...
The school skit brought together the many faces of India — costumes from different states, placards in various languages, songs and dance forms from across the country, and its many religions — all depicting the unique harmony within our motherland's diversity. Jai Hind.
April 2011
Summer Vacation — A Real Time of Rejoice for Kids
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Kerala is a land of diversities, and we have one festive occasion after another. April opens with the start of summer vacation for schoolchildren, which only adds more momentum to everything that follows — from April Fool's Day on the 1st, to World Health Day on the 7th, to World Earth Day on the 22nd.
Many legends' birthdays fall in this month too — Lord Sree Rama (12th), Lord Hanuman (18th), P.S. Warrier (5th), Dr. Ambedkar (14th), Vagbhatananda (25th), Swathi Thirunal (28th), and Raja Ravi Varma and Paliyathachan (both on the 29th). Several temples also hold their annual festivals around this time — from Ananthapadmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram to those at Chettikulangara, Kodungallur, Thirumandhamkunnu, Tirunelli in Wayanad, Sundareshwar Temple in Kannur, and Subramanya Temple in Payyanur, among many more.
Vishu and Children
Amid all this comes Vishu, celebrated with great pomp by Hindus across the state, falling on the first day of the Malayalam month of Medam by the lunar calendar (occasionally shifting to the second day, tied to the solar transit).
The heart of the celebration is "Vishukkani" — waking up to be gently guided by the elders at home toward a beautifully arranged sight of prosperity, first thing in the morning. It's a holistic little tableau of the state itself, arranged in an ottu uruli: paddy, banana, mangoes, jackfruit, kani vellari (a special cucumber grown just for the occasion), konna (golden shower) flowers alongside jasmine, marigold and holy basil, a lit lamp, coconut as neeranjanam, ashtamangalyam, kasavu cloth, a grantham (palm-leaf manuscript or bound Bhagavad Gita or Ramayana), a hand mirror, and a bowl of coins.
เดจเดฐเด เดตൈเดฐിเดฏം เด
เดฐเดตിเดฃ്เดാเด്เดทเดจ്เดฑെ เดെเดฑിเดฏ เดจാเดณเดค്เดคെ เดเดณിเดเดณും
เดคിเดฐുเดฎേ เดถോเดญ เดฏും เดเดฐുเดคി เดൂเดช്เดชുเดจ്เดจേเดจ് เด
เดുเดค്เดค് เดตാ เดൃเดท്เดฃാ เดเดฃിเดാเดฃാเดจ്
เดเดฃിเดാเดฃും เดจേเดฐം เดเดฎเดฒാเดจേเดค്เดฐเดจ്เดฑെ เดจിเดฑเดฎേเดฑും เดฎเด്เด เดคുเดിเดฒ് เดാเดฐ്เดค്เดคി
เดเดจเดเดിเด്เดിเดจി เดตเดณเดเดณ് เดฎോเดคിเดฐം เด
เดฃിเด്เดു เดാเดฃേเดฃം เดญเดเดตാเดจെ...
This keerthanam echoes through households early in the Vishu morning, a reminder of the prosperous sight enjoyed for generations — devotional songs on Lord Krishna carry on through the rest of the day. Kids are set loose with crackers, dressed in new clothes, and showered with "kaineetam" — coins, cash, sometimes even gold — from the elders in the family. A grand lunch follows, served on plantain leaves with kaalan, olan, aviyal, erissery and more, finished off with payasam — the sweet that marks the occasion.
Kids and Easter
In Christian households, children stay busy through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Easter eggs are gaining popularity here too — boiled eggs distributed in churches after the Holy Mass, and sweetened candy eggs picked up from bakeries for the occasion.
[Photos of the Vishukkani arrangement and Easter eggs originally accompanied this post on the blog, but weren't included in what was shared for this archive.]
circa Feb 2011
Happy Mother's Day
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circa Dec 2012
Kids on Keyboard: "Nanma Nerum Amma"
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April 25, 2014
Educational Games for Youngsters
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Summer is at its peak now, and children are enjoying a vacation of two months. How to engage them during the day is a real concern for most parents — getting glued to the television is something parents naturally don't cherish. Indoor games form an alternative.
The variety of puzzles, board games, karaoke systems and more is numerous, and most of these toys are educational too. Scrabble enhances vocabulary; Discovery India (RK Toys, Mumbai) helps children learn latitudes, longitudes and the map of India. Apart from Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Carroms, Chess, Chinese Checkers and Scotland Yard, Play-Doh helps small kids sculpt with their fingers.
Plug 'n' Sing Karaoke System
Helpful for music students with an aptitude for western songs, pop and rock — pairs with a television, DVD player and microphone.
Jigsaw Puzzles
Scholastic's 42-piece Aeroplane puzzle (ages 3+) costs around ₹125.
Cubic Fun — 3D Puzzles
Architectural puzzles of the White House, Tokyo Tower, Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal — no scissors or glue needed, about 2 hours to assemble. Builds patience, creativity and confidence.
Find your choice of toys suitable for your age and enjoy the vacation indoors during peak sun — but play outdoors too!
circa Feb 2011
Sudoku — Learning to Play the Game
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circa Jan 2009
Quest Cards
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circa Feb 2011
The Olympic Games
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April 27, 2014
Scholarship Examinations in Kerala
๐ฐ️This list is from 2014 — details and contacts here are likely outdated, and there may be more exams available today. If you'd like to help compile a current list, we'd love your help.
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In our schools, children can opt to appear for different scholarship exams during October to December every year. The syllabus covers general questions relevant to their age on literature, arts, sports, culture, society and values, apart from current affairs and regular school subjects.
Here is a list of examinations usually offered in our schools:
- National Talent Search Examination by NCERT
- National Talent Search Exam by SCERT
- National Science Talent Search Examination by Unified Council
- Scholarship and Talent Reward Test by Resonance
- Satyadeepam Scholarship Exam
- Deepika Children's League
- PCM Scholarship Exam
- Sarvodaya Award Scholarship Scheme
In our state, students also have scholarship exams from Orchard India, Holy Faith International and Guru Sishya, apart from LSS and USS exams. Smart India, Unified Council, MaRRS and others also conduct Maths and Cyber Olympiads.
February 10, 2013
Smart India Online Education by Bharat Sevak Samaj
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Smart India caters to students from LKG to class 12, covering all syllabi — state boards, CBSE, ICSE and IGCSE. An enrolled student can access multiple-choice practice tests for every lesson in Science, Maths and English, helping them become thorough with what they've learned.
Apart from the significance of each day, remarkable quotations, and links to popular newspapers, it provides a platform for studious students to stay updated on current affairs. The class notes and animations make learning easy, even for toddlers.
An excellent educational support extended by the Government of India, at a reasonable cost.
circa Feb 2009
Creative Aids
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circa July 2011
MaRRS Spell Bee
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๐ฐ️ Every post in this section lists specific camps, centres, dates and contact numbers — almost all of it is now out of date. There are likely many more (and different) programs running today. If you're a parent, teacher, or volunteer who'd like to help compile a fresh, current list, we'd love your help — get in touch!
April 16, 2014
Kids Vacation in Kozhikode 2014
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Summer vacation is in progress for children in Kerala. Vishu, the festival of prosperity, was celebrated with gaiety — firing crackers and gathering mangoes kept children engaged, while blooming cassias enhanced the beauty of nature all over God's own country. As every year, almost all private schools had declared various activities and camps. Here's our personal pick of some interesting programmes from that summer.
- Mad Live (TV fame) — a month-long summer camp for ages 4 to 12.
- Young Chef's Camp by Abida Rasheed — for kids above 13.
- KSCIL — camps on various activities across different locations.
- Adventure Camp — jointly by the State Youth Development Board and Devikulam National Adventure Academy.
- Cricket Coaching by Universal Cricket Academy — for ages 10 to 22.
- Sanmargadarsini Library — dance, music, keyboard, drawing and chess.
- Media Study Centre & Ammas Collective Trust — a short session on film editing.
The following camps were in progress or had just concluded that summer in Calicut:
- Vidya Jyothi Vacation Camp — magic, drama and more, for Class 4 to 12.
- Satyananda Yoga Research Centre — a one-month training.
- Bismi Handicrafts — daily sessions on bouquets, paper ornaments and clay jewellery.
- Rotarian Cherooty Memorial Swimming Pool — the only lady coach in Calicut city.
- Positive Mind — spoken English, memory training, public speaking and character formation.
circa April 2012
Beat the Summer with Child Friendly Camps in Kozhikode
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circa May 2011
New Programmes Announced for Kids in Kozhikode, May 2011
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circa April 2011
Summer Vacation Programmes, Classes & Camps for Kids in Kozhikode
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circa March 2011
Summer Vacation — Additional Programme for Kids
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circa March 2011
Vacation Programme for Kids in Kozhikode (Different Centres)
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circa March 2011
Vacation Programme for Kids in Kozhikode
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✦ another segment — a browsable shelf, not posts to read ✦
๐ Library & Media Shelf
Long before streaming and recommendation algorithms, choosing what a child should read or watch meant hours spent in bookshops and video stores, sifting shelves by hand for what actually suited a growing mind. What follows is that hand-picked shelf — books, movies, audio CDs and VCDs, in both English and Malayalam, organised by language and age, gathered one careful choice at a time over many years — meant to help you find something that fits your own child's taste. Plenty of wonderful new content has arrived since these lists were first made; think of this shelf as a starting point, not the whole story.
๐ Librarians and publishers — if you'd like to contribute current recommendations to keep this shelf up to date, we'd love to hear from you.
circa 2011
Our Home Library (Part I)
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Books are a fascination that draws us in like junkies — once inside a bookstall, we seldom feel like coming out. That's simply the nature of a book lover. Every child who enjoys reading develops their own personal taste too, and my own experience shows the best way to kindle that habit is to let them choose freely, explaining meanings only when they ask for help. Simply let them enter the ocean of books and watch them equip themselves.
There are countless publishers and authors writing beautifully for children — picking the very best is the real task. Around Calicut alone, shops like Paico, TBS, DC Books, Edumart, H&C Books and Chintha Publishers are worth exploring. Our own collection, shared through this shelf, is only a guide — a glimpse of the wide range of material out there for different kinds of readers. Experience shows children enjoy reading at all times, though exposing them to more books during vacations and simply maintaining the habit during school term works well.
Children and the Library
It's well worth enrolling children in a neighbourhood library with a good kids' section — many older classics are only available there, without reprints, and buying every book new isn't always feasible either. The one catch is that a child's reading enthusiasm rises and falls; adjusting our own pace to theirs, and helping them navigate the wide ocean of books, is really the job of the elders around them. Children sometimes overshoot a library's lending period, or grow attached to a book they don't want to return — such moments are best handled gently, by parents and librarians alike, to keep their spirit for reading alive. Calicut city alone has several excellent options — the Central Public Library, District Central Library, Chavara Cultural Centre Library, S.K. Pottekkad Centre's high-tech library, Vagbhatananda Library, Sanmargadarsini Vayanasala, Deshaposhini Vayanasala, and more.
Start Reading in One's Mother Tongue
It's always better to first introduce children to literature in their own mother tongue — especially for kids in English-medium schools, where Malayalam often gets the least classroom emphasis. An experienced Montessori or nursery teacher can help lay this foundation early; once laid well, it's half the work done. Knowing one's own language helps a child explore their roots, culture and tradition, and realise their language is in no way inferior to what's taught at school — which does wonders for self-esteem in a multicultural world. Once children can read simple sentences, magazines like Kalikudukka (Malayala Manorama), Thaliru (Balasahitya Institute), and Minnaminni or Cartoon Plus (Mathrubhumi) make excellent companions at the kindergarten stage.
Elder Facilitators at Home — A Necessity
Subscribing to children's magazines like Tinkle, Magic Pot, Children's Magazine or Little Words helps sustain the habit too — with stories, games, comics, puzzles, mazes, arts and crafts, and more. Time spent reading these together with a parent or grandparent builds a child's confidence, sharpens observation and logical thinking, and often helps elders understand their own children a little better too. No school, however good, can manage a child's entire personality development alone in the little time it has — so it's always worth carving out time, amid busy schedules, for this kind of quiet grooming. Let them keep their curiosity alive, and help them find their own taste.
A Peep into the Range Ahead
What follows on this shelf is only what we picked personally — a starting point, not the whole range available. Books here are loosely grouped by stage: toddler level (up to age 7), simple and short enough that we read them aloud at first, until a child starts reading alone; a transitional read-yourself group, where children may still ask for help with meaning or pronunciation before growing confident; and an elementary group, roughly ages 8 to 11, where most children read independently and can slowly be introduced to using a library on their own.
Malayalam Books
English Books
Movies
Kids and South Indian Movies
Malayalam & Tamil picks, with video clips of songs from 29 films.
Read on the blog →Audio-Visual CDs & VCDs
Our Personal Pick of AV CDs
The family's favourite educational & entertainment CDs.
Read on the blog →Pass it on...
If anything here brought back a memory, taught you something new, or might be useful to a parent, teacher, or young reader you know — please consider sharing this archive's link with them.
This archive brings together years of posts from "Resources for Kids", organised into 17 main sections plus two special segments:
- Let's Learn Series
- Biopics
- ✦ News for Students
- Nature & Science
- Watch the Sky, Save the Tree
- India & Kerala
- Kids Lifestyle
- Health
- Morals, Ethics & Values
- Parents' Corner
- Personal Insights / Inspiring Write-ups
- Popular Event Coverage
- Extra Curricular Activities
- Hobbies & Pastimes
- Festivals & Culture
- Games
- Study Programs
- Camps & Vacation Programs
- ✦ Library & Media Shelf
This is a bilingual blog, and this archive stays true to that — English and Malayalam sit side by side throughout, including across the Home Library shelf.
Voluntary contributions are always welcome too — in Malayalam just as warmly as in English. If you'd like to write in for this space, do reach out.
Happy reading!
