Setting out with SBOA

The 1st term concluded with almost a month long vacation and the second term started with splash pool sessions! The kids love it. With the class projects going on in full swing, every student and parent has something to do. The themes are varied, from 'homes' to 'helpers'. A lot of activity and energy at school these days. The hand book given to us has all the details of which lesson is done when and is followed meticulously down to the kind of strokes they do, to the art activities for the week. Apart from all this the regular computer classes and PE classes are total fun for the kids. The round of inter house competitions just got over for recitation, singing and story telling. This is the news for now. Bye till I find the time to write another post!

Most transitions are painful, but this one is acute. Especially if the kid is 3 years old! Half a day of school is fun as they come back home to have lunch and sleep, doing the very same things in school is a diffrent ball game. However there is hope.......... If you stick to the routine and tide over the first 2 weeks they actually start loving to go to school again. Here are some pointers to make this transition easier Set a routine for everything regarding the kid and the school days. Make the mornings before school fun. Keep the kids updated on what to expect for the day, including snacks and lunch that you have packed. Wake up early and try not to rush through the morning. Don't hurry the kid through his breakfast or toilet/bath time. Before he leaves, tell him about the fun things he can do when he gets back in the evening. Stick to the schedule and keep sending him to school, he's bound to fuss for the first few days. Keep encouraging them to interact with their "fr

The below is my reply to a comment, however thought that most of you would miss it on the comments page, so here is a part of it regarding the first week of school........... About engaging kids in a creative manner, I think they are doing a good job. Last week which was by the way the first week, they taught the alphabet 'A'. From what my daughter could tell me, they wrote several letters on the board and asked if anyone could identify the letter A and circle it, few of the kids did that. Then they showed them a couple of things that start with the letter A. Finally they handed out newspapers and asked the kids to identify and circle all the A's they could find on it. They did hand printing in art class. Also learnt the first 4 tamil alphabets and an alphabet song in the tamil class. Apart from this the regular rhymes, songs, a few exercise moves and the morning prayer. They have a TV in the classroom and play the rhymes, songs, alphabets and also occasionally Tom & Je

Finally the day had arrived and gone too without much fuss, my kid didn't cry but missed out on her snacks and was famished when I went to pick her up. The day for her seemed to have gone fairly well given the fact that she was without me for the first time. I guess I missed her more than the other way around! As for the activities, they sang a couple of well known rhymes, "Johnny, Johnny yes papa, Jack and Jill & Rolly Poly", they were allowed to play ball and played a sit & stand game. So the first hurdle has been crossed!

School re-opened on the 11th june , the introduction by the Principal was good, except for he fact that the audi was inadequately ventilated. There could have been more fans placed and the windows could have been opened. After a stuffy 45 min session, the kids and the parents were equally exhausted! The classroom visits were better, except again for the crowd. The initial interviews were organized beautifully, just wish the induction was planned as well too..... The whole affair was thankfully over in two hours time.... Hope to have a better experience once the classes start though!

I woke up this morning to the newspaper's headlines "SBOA student tops Chennai region" I was so curious, I dropped everything that needed to be done and read the articles back to back! I'm patting myself on the back for putting my kid into a school that does take the trouble to produce toppers........ There is a lot of bashing going on about how schools 'torture' students for a 100% pass and state ranks, but not many talk about how 1 mark difference can push you down by 1000 ranks in the competitive cut offs for colleges. Can we really blame the School for going that extra mile to produce good results? After all isn't this the only criteria most parents look for when put their ward in one? In my opinion if I'm given the choice to alter my destiny in a few years time, I would give it my best, night and day! So Is burn out a non issue? CBSE has done a good job by offering varied streams to opt for based on one's interest, so a little competitive

If your kiddo eats as little as mine, I'm sure you are really worried about how they are going to handle their lunch at school. From yesterday I've started to put her lunch in her lunch box and make her finish it all by herself. It does take quite a bit of coaxing from my end to get her to finish it. I guess by the end of this month it should be easier for her to handle her lunch. If you are stuck with what to pack for her lunch and snack box, here are some ideas below Snacks Raisins, cashew nuts , walnuts, Peanuts, etc,. Carrot sticks, Cucumber slices, French fries Apple slices, Grapes, Banana. Bread sticks with a dip. Dark Chocolates. Lunch Curd Rice + Egg/Vegetable Fried Rice (Put an egg anda few vegetables into it) Chapatti rolls Poori + Cauliflower/potato Sandwiches (Peanut butter, jam, cheese spread) Try the below link for kid friendly recipies http://chennaigourmand.blogspot.in/ Try and keep the recipes simple and use easy to digest ingre

The books for LKG seem to be quite reasonable, a math workbook for 1 to 10 numbers, an English alphabet book, A picture book (My daughter seems to have taken a particular liking to this one) and a few notebooks. The Tamil reader, a rhyme book and a story book will be handed out when the school begins, along with a crayon box and a packet of moulding clay. They have also given a CD with a few rhymes and songs, the quality of which is OK, if you have listened to baby songs and a few other toddler Cd's that are commercially available, this may not match up. On the whole the portions for LKG looks very reasonable and appropriate.

SBOA is distributing their school books for LKG on the 27th and 28th of April 2009, between 9 am and 1pm. All you need to do is produce the fees receipt. The uniform has been changed for this year, I enquired with the Tailor and he charges Rs.280 per set and takes a month which I feel is too much of time, but with no options but him, will have to go with it. All excited about the School Books and the new uniforms!

Whoever thought Bag shopping would become such a big event! I just discovered that my 3 year old has preferences in the style of bag she wants to take to school ! all this without any peer influence as of yet! God help me when that happens too! Jan sport was my choice of bag, but the cost factor made me look at other options too, as you might have already guessed, nothing matched up! Then Lo and Behold, we did find the perfect first school bag at Reebok, Besant Nagar , at a cool price of Rs.360 ( MRP Rs.599 with a 40% discount) a Red and Black one that fit her like magic! Harry potter isn't the only one who is school supplies shopping with wonder in his eyes! With that put behind us, now it's on to Lunch box, water bottle , lunch bag, pencil box, hair accessories, etc, etc. If any of you had luck with these, let me know...... Photo Courtesy :  Published in Young Nation Magazine

Tamil or Hindi ? The argument continues...... If you are a Tamilian, and have travelled outside Tamilnadu, you would know that, for survival Hindi is essential. However Tamil being the mother tongue, is it justified choosing any other language over it? Already, we have designated the second language status to it, should we throw it out totally, except for may be using it colloquially? Below are a couple of points by Dr. R. Jegnnath on the positive aspects of Tamil, Tamil is a very logical language compared to many others, eg.,we don't need to assign gender to inanimate things. Tamil has perhaps the most extensive, scientific and intricate system of prosody. While the Sanskrit prosody is much more extensive and intricate than that of English, it pales in comparison to that of Tamil. In spite of being spoken by a whole race of people including the illiterate among them, Tamil has maintained such a continuity and uniformity that literature written 2000 years ago can be und

Kids starting to read will love the entertaining activities on Starfall. The interactive animation enhance learning experience and keep the kids glued to the screen! Children can hear the pronounciation while they are doing interactive games like growing a flower in the Garden Shop or holiday activities like making a snowman or sorting waste for Earth Day. Reading concepts are taught in a playful manner. The "ABCs" section features the sounds of the letters of the alphabet and corresponding words that start with each. "Learn to Read" helps the kids put sounds together to form words. There are short and long vowel activities as well as activities featuring sight words. "It's Fun to Read" has stories for the early reader like Magic, Music and All About Me. The Advanced reader is also catered to in the "I'm Reading" section with Myths, Folktales, Comics and Plays. On the whole a great way to start learning en

So having got a seat in a good school for our 3 year old, what would the next step have to be? The practice in Chennai these days is to put the kid in pre -school or play school by the age of 2, so most have acquired skills for kindergarten already. Now what if you have chosen not to put your ward in a pre -school? (we did not send her to a pre -school).....Well you have to just rely on yourself to do the pre -KG tutoring . The basic skills they are going to need would be Adequately toilet trained and need to indicate in advance Can speak clearly for the classmates and the teacher can understand ( at least in the native language) Can listen to and follow instructions Know some basic manners, like please and thank you An enthusiasm to learn new things So I guess most kids would have mastered at least 4 out of the 5 points above. Apart from these other skills that your ward could use are alphabet recognition Number recognition Basic Colours and Shapes Using the c

The School bus facility at SBOA School and Junior College is for students of class LKG to class 5. The fee for the bus ranges from Rs.1800 to Rs.2300 per term depending on the distance travelled. The school bus picks up students from a point on the route closest to the students residence and drops them back at the same point. If the parent is not around to receive the child, the child is taken back to the school and the parents have to arrange to collect their wards from the school. The other option available is to send them via private vans. This is definitely more convenient as the pick up and drop are usually at your doorstep or closer than the school bus drop point and they usually wait for a few extra Min's. The biggest drawback is that all the operators use Mahindra vans(The green boxy ones) and they are not very comfortable. Swaraj Mazda or even a tempo traveller would be nice, but I guess only if a big group of parents go out of their way to find one, the situat

Few days back we paid the fees and finished the admission formalities. We still have to decide on the mode of transport she will use to get to School. The school has recommended a specific suplier for the school uniform material and also has given us handouts on the details of the frock pattern (for girls) to be stiched. A total of 3 diffrent uniforms to be stiched. A white set for mondays, a blue set for tuesday, wednesday and thursday and a house colour waist coat to go with the white outfit on fridays. For the boys it is a white shirt and shorts on monday, blue checked shirt and blue shorts for tuesday to thursday. House colour t-shirt with white shorts on friday. The school shoes are Bata foot fun shoes, navy blue in colour and navy blue socks on all days. The school will supply the house coloured waist coat and t-shirts, badge, school belt and tie.

Today we received an intimation letter from SBOA School and Junior college, asking us to meet the Principal to collect the admit card this week. So I guess I would be putting my daughter in SBOA afterall. It has been a gruelling two weeks waiting for this. Now starts the house hunting, transport hunting, buying school supplies and getting her mentally ready for June( 4 months looks like a lot of time, but I know it's going to fly!). This looks like a huge task in front of us, but as they always say, one day at a time...........

The Interview for LKG at SBOA School and Junior College, (Anna Nagar Western Extension, Chennai; affiliated to CBSE) was over on the 31st of Jan 2009. The wait for the results feels pretty long and it's frankly hard to just sit around and do nothing. I would prefer the results to be announced on the same day, but I also understand the difficulty in screening more than a thousand applications for limited seats. So here I am counting the days before the result is known.............

It is a big relief for us that the LKG interview at SBOA went smoothly. And as I sit back and think what helped and what didn't, a few facts did surprise me. The kids did need to know a few basic things for the interview and I think all the kids who came for this one were prepared. The main distinguishing factor was the stress levels of the parents, the more the parents were stressed about the whole process, the kids clung to them, when the parents treated this as any normal outing, the kids were more adventurous. Once the parents were able to relax the kids were more like their usual self. Believe me when I say, this was not the place or the time to keep pushing the kids to say hello to the other waiting kids or parents as every kid in that place was already intimidated by the crowed. The other striking feature I noticed was that when the Parents pretended to let the kids lead them to either the interview room or to the application counters, the kids automatically took control. A

We had applied for a seat in LKG at SBOA School and Junior College, Anna Nagar Western Extension, Chennai; affiliated to CBSE on the 21st of Jan 2009. The interview was scheduled for the 31st Jan 2009. We just completed the interview yesterday. We were worried that we might have to wait for ever as there were over a thousand candidates to be interviewed (For, I guess around approximately 600 seats). However, the interview process was conducted so smoothly that it must have taken considerable amount of planning from the SBOA school authorities. We were through with the entire process within an hour, including a waiting time of around 40 Min's. The interviewer was friendly and asked my daughter a few simple questions like her name, colour of the dress she was wearing and to name a couple of common animals (by showing her toy animals). On the whole a very friendly and non-intimidating interview. After this, the applications get passed to another school staff, to whom t