Summer vacation is coming up and I was racking my brains to keep the kids meaningfully engaged. I wanted them to learn tables, do math, learn reading, play badminton, learn sanskrit, do this, do that..the list goes on( Moms will be moms).
Armed with this vision, I went ahead and bought a new set of colorful activity books for my daughters.
Ameya and I sat down to work on the concept of numbers ‘before’ and ‘after’.
Ameya can think and talk about 3000 things at the same time which can be pretty frustrating for a person with a mega vision like mine.
So, here I was, patiently trying different ways to nail it into her head…
So, here goes..
Me: Ameya, we have this number 12 here. What comes after?
Ameya( totally tuned out)- Amma, Suraj pinched me with his nail…
Me: OK, we’ll talk to your teacher. What comes after 12?
Ameya: Amma, Vasudha gave me this gift.
Me: Fine, we’ll have ‘gift’ time after we finish this. What comes after 12?
Ameya: Amma, I want to colour this snake here..
Me ( impatiently): Ameya, we are not doing anything else till we finish this.
Ameya( Still tuned out): Amma, Can I wear princess dress?.
Now I decided that she is totally , completely tuned out. Battling between giving up now to pick up on this later and persisting to try a few more times, I went on…
Me: OK, what comes before 12?
Ameya(staring intently at the book): You mean ‘behind’ 12 or ‘in front of ‘ 12?
Me(realizing that I just used the wrong words): behind …
Ameya: 13
Me: in front of?
Ameya: 11
No prizes for guessing who was tuned out here….
