Aug 26
Akshara has been going to the Treehouse play school for almost 2 months now. She enjoys going to school now, but the first few weeks were anything but that. Vidhya had to stay along with Akshara at the school for the first week, where Akshara wouldn’t even go an inch away from Vidhya. Slowly, things changed. Akshara realised that there was more scope for her shenanigans at school than at home and started enjoying it. Some photos from her schooling trips!
The below two photos are from her first day at school. When we left home, she thought that it was just another “tata trip” (outing) and she was happier to have a bag of her own too. Of course, it was a different story at school. Back from school, she was back to her self and started enjoying the school books. That is her school “uniform” next to her in the second photo.
The next two photos are with the school uniform. The uniform actually is just the t-shirt. The good part about treehouse is that they say that the kids can wear this on fridays. It is only “can” and not must. The other school, Bachpan, that we had enquired required that the kids come in uniform on 4 days of the week and i wasn’t in favour of this “rule”.
With the monsoons active during July and August, we had to get Akshara ready for all weather conditions, as she usually walks back from school. The umbrella was already her favourite accessory on trips, but it was more for photos rather than for actual use. So, we got her a raincoat. Even though her school had taught her the purpose of a raincoat and when to use it, Akshara wasn’t convinced by it and insisted that she would wear the raincoat as and when she wanted it. So, it is not strange to see to Akshara walking out of the house on a bright and sunny day with the umrealla and the raincoat!
written by Rajaram S
Aug 10
If you had missed the elaborate introduction-to-swimming sessions which Akshara was put through, check this post. After the brief unsuccessful attempt in Chennai, we continued trying when we were in Malaysia. Slowly, but surely the situation was improving. The swimming pool was visible from our hotel room and Akshara spent a lot of time gazing at the pool with us explaining about the possible fun that could be had by being inside it!
Then, we went back to the usual ploy of a photography session. The constant exposure to the pool seemed to have worked with this photo session happenning much closer to the water (and in contact too!) than the previous ones.
We were back in Chennai by then and back to the same old swimming pool. We noticed that Akshara was more forthcoming to the water this time and the only difference from before were the arm-balloons (or whatever you call them!) she was wearing. Maybe it was the security concern that was keeping her away all the time… But, the reason didn’t matter, the final result did and we were happy.
Next Step: Get her into the water. This happened almost instantaneously without any resistance. In fact, Akshara started to enjoy splashing and jumping around.
She wasn’t happy with my company and wanted the duck also to come in. She sat on the duck and started paddling around. This was a big improvement over the situation that i had to be next to her always.
Then came the part which had all us surprised. Since the pool was around 2 feet deep (just until her chin), she was actually moving around the pool by pushing her toes on the pool floor. She was actually moving from one end to another on her own. This was way too cool to watch!
I later became very ambitious and held her up so that she was in a horizontal position. She started pedalling her legs. Maybe, this comes to kids automatically. But the lessons had to stop here, as proceeding beyong this required the instructor to be knowledgeable, which i definitely wasn’t. So, the hunt is on now for a pool in Pune which takes in 2 yr olds.
written by Rajaram S
Aug 02
This was our second time at Golfway Mini-golf course, here in Pune. The last time, Akshara was too small to stand on her own and attempt the game. This time around, she was too old for us to expect her to just watch while we played! She wanted a club and a ball for herself. She actually looked quite comfortable with it with the only problem that she thought she was playing cricket with a bat and a ball.
So, i took the effort to “teach” her the basics of golf and even got her to hit the ball with the club. After having given her suficient practice, i took her to one of the straight-forward holes, placed the ball a foot away from the hole and gave the following instruction (translated) : “Akshara, hit the ball into this hole”. You can see in the pictures below as to how she accomplished this task with ease! She even clapped (and expected me to clap) after she completed the said activity.
written by Rajaram S
