Setting out with SBOA

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.