Wednesday, April 14, 2010

I am reading!!

Yesterday, when i returned from the office, Anjali and patti were in the middle of a full blown fight. Anjali was crying at the top of her voice and patti was alternating between explaining to her and trying to make her stop crying. The objective of the fight was a stick. It came from a white board - which was broken, and Anjali had taken apart the frame and used the sticks for various rather imaginative purposes, including hitting people.

Patti got annoyed when she hit her one too many times and threw away the stick, whereupon Anjali began to cry. she continued crying for 15 minutes, and after i came home, patti left to go to patti's house. On her way out, she took the stick from where it was outside the rubbish chute and flung it back inside the house. Anjali took the stick and continued crying. There were two reasons for this, i think.

One was that she was still feeling bad over the whole thing, and the other was that the stick was not quite right.

"it is teared!!", she explained to me tearfully.

I sized up the opportunity immediately, and encouraged her to throw away the "teared" stick. We were also supposed to make a new stick.

So, to sort of begin the activity, Anjali and I sat together and made a list. I wrote down all the activities and to make sure that Anjali can also understand them, drew cartoons next to them. For instance, Make a stick had a drawing of a stick next to it, and paint some chickens had a very crude cartoon of a chicken. included were wash our hands, and plant some seeds etc. So Anjali had to pick an activity after dinner from the list and we would do it.

Anjali, after dinner, picked the painting chicken activity. I took the paints from the craft cupboard, and her eyes fell upon the bubble kit that thattha had got her in yercaud. The solution was long over, so i filled up some soap and water and she began to blow. Sophia and I were watching when suddenly i had a great idea, inspired from one of the books in Aravind gupta's book gallery - making big bubbles. So I got out a slightly broader tray and put some soap and water in it. Following that, I got out a long roll - the kitchen paper roll was very sufficient. We used the kitchen paper roll as a big straw and used it to take and blow bubbles. It works marvellously. The bubbles that come out are big as balloons and if we blow slow, the bubbles dislodge and then fall on the floor. Anjali was interested in the big bubbles but stuck to her wand, while Sophia was completely blown over by the large bubbles, which she burst periodically.

At one point, the bathroom floor became too slippery for her, whereupon, we put a towel on the floor and continued the blowing process.

Husband got back from work around that time, and after a bit took Sophia out. Sophia keeps going "Ada Ada"  nonstop otherwise. Sophia saw the paintbox which I had left on the counter for the chicken painting. She kept pointing to it and saying "pit, pait", so we took the paints. Anjali, by this time, had finished playing with the bubbles and was ready for painting.

By the time they finished painting and washing up, it was around 9.30. I dug out the pumpking pudding in the fridge for husband (who is partial to my puddings). Unfortunately, Anjali and Sophia ate it all up. I need to make another pudding next

Husband, during that time was trying to book tickets for the gruffalo show. Unfortunately, the tickets were all sold out. That was a bummer, as we really wanted to go to the show. I am telling husband to book tickets for the doggy poo show, but husband is queasy.

Then we asked Anjali to pick an activity. She took the list down from the wall and indicated the stick on top.

"Mummy, lets do this"

"Ok", i said.

then she pointed at the words

"Make a stick".

"Thats right", i exclaimed

"I can read!!"

The stick consists of two kitchen paper rolls stuck inside each other for making a frame. I am covering the rolls with felt and sewing it up, after which the cardboard rolls will come out old cloth will go in as stuffing. It can double up as a wand if i put sequins and beads in it.


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