Monday, May 26, 2014

Report~Projects Fair-Mumbai.

It was a lovely day, where like-minded people came together and formed an event which was learning as well as fun-filled experience.

The day began with people navigating to the venue. This took a lot of time and some of the participants, thanks to traffic woes, entered late.

However, the ones who entered earlier and had succeeded in finding the venue on time began their preparations.

Each one was allocated a table. Rather, each selected a table for themselves. By 11 a.m. everyone was ready with their projects.

Children had begun to display and present what they had created. After that, for the coming one and a half hour there was excitement and lots of enthusiasm in the under construction twelfth floor flat.

Each project was displayed independently by the children. The projects were related to acids and bases, essential oils, rainwater harvesting, circuits, working of fountain, magnets, mathematical tables among others.

Dr.Mathews and Miss Grace Mathew covered all the projects live.

The certificates for participation were handed over to all the participants.

We had Mr.Puneet Bhatnagar singing a song"Creative Keeda" It was a really good thought. His idea about invention and exploration was thought provoking.

Lunch was a varied fare of various homemade foods. Peanut butter sandwiches, rice, rajma, theplas and more delicious homemade food.

Dumb charades was a unique idea. The scene, invention and scientist had to be guessed. Although, there seemed to be lots of excitement and competition in the room, especially among the elders; the little ones chickened out and began playing with each other.

After dumb charades, everyone gathered to play Pictionary. It enhanced the fun element and made each child and parent get involved in the game.

Some of our most feeble artists, tried to make the people guess what they drew. It was hilarious.

After the fun filled game of Pictionary there was a tea and coffee break while Dr.Mathews and Mr.Otta were preparing for their discussion on sound.

The discussion with Dr.Mathews and Mr.Otta gave a lot of information on sound.

Concepts of types of sound, ultra sound and others enhanced the knowledge of all. Dr.Mathew talked more about the ultra sound, its application and Doppler.

.Mr.Otta talked more about the ships and Sound under the sea. However, new concepts like the ballasting and other such concepts were interesting. After this, Mr. Nikhil Trivedi also shared some information in relation with sound and ancient Indian knowledge. The presenters had worked hard and made brilliant presentations.

No doubt we saw a lot of creativity in the science projects; hoping to have more such events on other varied topics as well.

All in all it was a good attempt to bring all the people together.

It was a fun filled day and we look forward to much more days and opportunities to portray confidence, independence, creativity, a field of interest and socialize with like-minded people.

So, Three Cheers to Home Schooling…!!!

by ~ Shahen Pardiwala ~

Monday, April 28, 2014

Matilda :Review

MY WORLD..........

Author: Roald Dahl (1916-1990)

A journey to be out of the past, to live a better future.

Worthy of the children’s book award, Matilda is a story of an innocent girl, Matilda. She has horrible parents, an even more horrible headmistress and an ignorant and pampered brother. However, her life of loneliness and sorrow turns into a life of adventure when she joins school and meets miss rosy. This results in the formation of a page-turning endeavour of funny situations and an intense, involving but kid-friendly story. The author has involved humour, adventure, agony, ambition and an urge to live a better life. And most importantly magic, which is part of most of his books. It has all a children’s book needs- imaginative illustration (by Quentin Blake), adventure, tricks, fun, triumph of the hero, oops! Heroine. Matilda in the course of the book changed the fate of miss rosy and also of her school, which got a better head after the nasty Miss Trunchbull.

The story begins with a note from Roald Dahl. He discusses the relationships between parents and children, describing the worst set of parents as the ones who have brats but pamper them; and the ones who have gems but don’t value. Matilda’s parents are both of the above. More of gender partiality is portrayed. Michael is pampered and Matilda isn’t valued. She is called a liar, cheat, stupid and verbally abused. However, she has a wonderful intellect, a book lover and a clever mind. However, she has smart tricks up her sleeves and she outsmarts them which cause absolutely funny situations.

Miss rosy, her class teacher is surprised by her reading and calculating skills, which were superb for a five year old. Miss Rosy’s conversation with the Wormwoods is enchanting, where an adamant miss rosy tries in vain to convince them to promote Matilda to a higher grade.

Later, a bond develops between miss rosy and Matilda. A very good relationship of love, affection, which heals their wounds of loneliness, is formed. After hearing Miss Rosy’s story Matilda feels an urge to help her. In a bid to help, Matilda discovers magical powers in herself, which she uses in order to avenge the murder of miss rosy. I won’t say anything more, and leave all for you to Read.

The story of immense willpower, strength, love, perseverance forms one of Roald Dahl’s best classics.
by SHAHEN PARDIWALA

Sunday, February 2, 2014