It was time to giveaway home tool, so aunty read out what it was called- Responsibility Jar, for that one child said it should be Responsibility Crown,  than all of them looked at the tool and one child said it is like bottle, the crown is in different shape. where will we use this? at home you can use it with your parents, sister, brother etc. children came and took their home tool one child came back and asked aunty to read again, aunty said  Responsibility Jar. Should I be responsible even at home?  i did not reply. the child asked again, i said you tell me.
 

The concept of 'sharing' became more clearer in class when children held a discussion, about its elements being, the giver the receiver, one thing to share in common, willingness from both the parties.
While working in a team, one wanted to make carrot halwa while the other two opted to make bhel. This made me realize, now when I write the session report, that yes team members need not have the same task, though they work differently and independently - 'yet contributing to the team'.
Stepping back to question the conditioning of my mind and my beliefs on teamwork...
Anjana

One child came this morning to say that her tooth fell off, in the night before she went to bed, she did not throw the tooth and she prayed to the tooth fairy for a bubblegum, when she opened her eyes,there was no bubblegum so decided to pray again and waited till the morning, when she looked under her pillow there it was the bubblegum!! Another child said even my tooth fell yesterday but fairy did not give me anything for that this child no there is was to ask!!

I was busy doing something when varsha came up to me and stood next to me. There was somethng on her mind..after a minute or two she looked at me and said 'ma when you grow old and die and you will be born again as a baby what will happen to me? Who will cook for me and look after me? ' For a second i was not sure how or what to say..then i told her 'varsha when i grow old you would also have grown' then she tells me' oh ok like u have grown and patti(her grandma) is old'  I said 'yes' then she said but what about food then i told her if you were grown like me ..immediately she smiled and said 'then i can cook' and that was the end of the conversation.
Please share if any of you have had such interesting conversations

In the last week's session when we were making our own snacks a talk about wastage of food came up and one child mentioned that there are poor people who do not have food to eat so we should not waste food. Immediately one boy spoke up and said that 'aunty you know what my father tells me..he says'poor aditya'.'

I had just come back from my observation session and on the way had bought two lemons. When my daughter(varsha) saw the lemons she said she wanted to make juice out of it , she went into the kitchen and got the round squeezer and tried to squeeze the lemon without cutting it. After 5 minutes of trying where i was trying hard not to say anything she exclaimed that no juice was coming and she had to do something else about it, she went into the kitchen again and brought a fork. She poked holes in the lemon and kept squeezing it and by the end of 10 minutes she had managed to remove all the juice from it and she says 'I have worked so hard and have got the juice out'. I had to admit it was creative as I may not have thought of using fork instead of a knife. I did ask her if she could have used anything else to cut the lemon she refused to listen as she was basking in the glory of the hard work she had put in and to top it all she added sugar to the concentrated lemon juice and made all of us have little of it and got offended when i suggested if we could add something else like water to it. :-)
 

These are just my thoughts: we are all talking about equipping our
children with various HOM's etc at the same time if we think about it
when a child is born as Ratnesh says they have all these qualities in
them determination when he is trying to walk and does not really give
up easily, trying to hold objects, exploring by trying to put his
fingers in everything or tasting it..i could go on..but then suddenly
things change and the same child starts talking about 'i can't'  and
then we are trying out ways to make him say' i can' but where did the
'i can't' come from in the first place?

My daughter everyday in the morning wants to tie her shoelaces on her
own, not to hurry her up and in the end tying the lace for her i try
to give her as much time as possible. She tries..tries ..tries.she has
been trying from the month of June when her school started she is able
to get it but it does not come out the perfect way and the lace hangs
on the side and she gets very upset about it. Now there are different
ways in which i can deal with this. First the easiest option is to
tell her that she can tie it when she grows up and tie it for her,
second is to allow her to try for sometime and tell her it is ok she
will learn and tie it for her, the third option is to describe the
effort and the determination she is showing in trying to tie the lace
and express confidence in her that she can do it.
Today we went through the whole process again she got upset started
crying and said that ' i can't do it' and i told her that i was
impressed with the way she had sat for 25 minutes trying to tie it and
did not give up and i also appreciated the determination she showed in
doing it. She asked me 'mummy what is the meaning of that word u just
said' so i just told her that she was not giving up and trying again
and again. Then she said 'mummy i am going to come home and i am going
to try again because i have detemnation'(that is how she pronounced
it)
So have i been able to make her feel confident and have i facilitated
the child and if i had done it the first way what could have been the
result?
your thoughts on this... and if any of u have any such experience pl share

We had a combined session last saturday and aunty was showing the week's tool to the kids. As she was acting out as mama  speaking politely, One Genie interrupted and said   "No! Mama says ,  "GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!!!!" We  had No words to say  but had a Lot to think .

I simply had to mention this when in one of my sessions, i asked the usual question that i normally ask most kids in any program, why do they like geniekids.

Normally i get some repetitive answers, aunties are nice, we get to do so many things, i like the sand area and so on. one kid came up with a reason like never before.

Aunty, in geniekids even if we do sussu in class (child talk for peeing), it is accepted. they dont come and hit us "tadhaaak' (his own words) and yell at us why we did it. Geniekids knows its okay for children to do.

well...that sure is a unique reason to like the place:)