Setting out with SBOA

Getting kids to read today feels like a battle against screens. But the right book can win that battle in seconds! These 15 children’s books are packed with adventure, magic, and unforgettable characters—perfect for building a reading habit that sticks. 🏴‍☠️ Adventure & Classics Tintin Famous Five Treasure Island Swami and Friends Journey to the Center of the Earth Around the World in 80 Days ✨ Whimsy & Wonder Matilda Ruskin Bond's All time favorites The Wind in the Willows Malory Towers Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Where the Wild Things Are The Secret Garden Peter Pan Let these stories spark curiosity and imagination—one page at a time!

  Screen time that actually makes you feel good about parenting. Because yes, there IS such a thing as guilt-free YouTube binges for your kids. We've all been there: your 8-year-old is glued to their tablet, and you're mentally calculating screen time minutes while wondering if you're damaging their developing brain. But here's what nobody talks about—that screen time might actually be making them smarter. Welcome to free online learning, where your kid can go from random toy videos to mastering fractions, and you can finally stop feeling guilty. The Money Talk (Or Lack Thereof) Remember when good programs meant choosing between rent and enrichment classes? Those days are over. The internet has become incredibly generous—amazing educational content that doesn't cost anything. Sarah, a mom of two from Phoenix, puts it well: "My daughter was obsessed with art, but private lessons w...

With the ongoing COVID crisis, most children are unable to attend school. This has definitely left a gap in their education calendar. Here are some interesting resources that can keep them up to date on important issues sarong the globe and pave the way to deeper understanding of school concepts, be it science, math, english, social studies or a foreign language. Ted-Ed Earth School   The Earth School offers 30 adventures for learners of all ages to discover, celebrate, and connect to nature. This is done in collaboration with organizations including National Geographic , WWF , and the BBC who have offered top caliber videos, articles, and interactive resources that will be shared around the world. The Quests are designed to encourage young people to connect with nature and their environment. Typing Club   One skill that will never go a waste in our digital times is learning how to touch type. TypingClub is the most effective way to learn how to type. It is a gamified typing ...

The new ROBOTIX classes are all set to begin around the end of August. When we started learning computers, remember our parents hardly knew anything about it, now life has come a full circle with our kids getting into robotics. If you are anything like me, then you don't have a clue! As I persisted researching the topic, few things became clearer. The basic requirements for robotics is not just imagination and curiosity, it also needs tons of patience and perseverance. It seems to help the kids explore their creativity, develop some personality (remember patience & preseverence!) and in the process add on to their existing knowledge of Math, Physics and Computer Programming. I believe for the tiny tots, it would be very basic and more advanced for the older kids. The fees for the ROBOTIX class in school is Rs.2000 One class per week is conducted and the days are Monday for 1st & 2nd std Wednesday for 3rd & 4th std Thursday for 5th & 6th std Friday fo...

The Olympiads are conducted every year at SBOA from 1st std. The enrollment is done through the class teacher. You will have to register for each paper separately. The class teacher will inform the students about the dates and fees. It pays to prepare for the Olympiads  as the whole portions for the current standard will be taken into consideration for the paper. The most popular books used for preparing towards the Olympiads are from the below publishers and can be ordered online. The links are below. For Class 1 Amazon.in Widgets For Class 2 Amazon.in Widgets Amazon.in Widgets Photo Courtesy :  Jomphong   @ freedigitalphotos.net

With my kids moving on to classes where Olympiads are becoming increasingly more complicated and competitive. There are four exams that can be taken NCO - National Computer Olympiad NSO - National Science Olympiad IMO - International Math Olympiad IEO - International English Olympiad For the dates on which these exams are conducted and the classes eligible please refer to their website below http://www.sofworld.org / The site provides sample questions, training apps, previous years question papers, links to stores selling practise books, etc. We took the exams for the last two years and was an eye opener. I would call it useful for the below reasons... It trains the kids to get accustomed to the competitive exam papers patterns that most college entrances have. It gives them limited time to finish the paper. Teaches them to get comfortable with answer shading on a computerized answer sheet. The best is the accurate feedback given. The feedback highlights...

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.

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...