So, my daughter has had a hectic schedule in past few days at school (Kangaroo Kinds, Jabalpur). This was compounded by the fact that she had a bit of sneezing also during this period – and due to which she did not attend school for few days.
Not withstanding that – there were many things that the Kangaroo Kids school celebrated. There was Rakhi festival. On that day, apart from other events, the girls were given ‘Rakhi’ to take home.
Then one day there was Janmashtami festival that was organised at school among the children.
Thereafter it was 15th August – the independence day. Whatever, was celebrated for independence day – she was given balloons in India’s tricolour and chocolate! And I can say from her looks, when I went to fetch her from school that School had really made her very happy.
In between there was the swine-flu advisory that was sent from school to parents regarding the raging flu in India and precautions to be taken. And all these things were so scary with all news / television channels focusing on this, that we did not send her to school for three days. However, during this time, due to change in weather she was also a bit feverish – though really willing to go to school even then. We thought that discretion was better part of judgment and kept her at home for three days.
Thereafter it was the time for grandparents day. The invitation for grandparents day was given sometime back. This is quite a thoughtful concept that has been developed. In our times and in the schools we studied there was no such thing – to such an extent that even parents did not think it necessary to come to school least of all invited for any special occasion – perhaps only on the annual day.
The invitation was only for the Grandparents. And here I can write only on the basis of feedback that I received from them. There was various kinds of ‘competitions’ organised among the Grandparents. There was different art work on music kind of games. There was housie – in which the grandparent’s represented their grandchildren. Grandparents also sung songs of their younger times. It was a fun-filled experience – and also memorable. There was also tea / coffee and variety of snacks.
Apart from the various trinkets, the most memorable thing perhaps was the memorabilia that the school gave to the grandparent’s. This was photograph of the grandparent (the photograph was asked for two -three weeks back) that was pasted on a paper card having beautiful poem written on it. However the best part was that it also contained the imprint of the hand of their grand-child. We could understand this thing two three days later – when we re-read the poem and added the pieces together that our daughter had come with her hands in colour a few days back! This piece was really memorable and extremely thoughtful on part of the school!
All these were really nice. Perhaps the school has come up better than we expected. Apart from these there are other things that are part of the routine of the school – and these includes making children participate through paintings, various activities, pool time (thankfully in times of swine flu the school authorities have refrained from pool activities), sand time etc. Apart from these as I get the feedback from my daughter, they are also engaged in poetry, music, game activities among others.
Another thing is snack time. In this the snacks are sent from the homes of the children. The snacks are predetermined according to days, and also who would be contributing on which day. This time, we got to send Idli and sambhar. All these was quite interesting experience. A positive result of this has been that my daughter no more fusses about the food – which she used to do prior to joining the school. Also she has become open to experiment new tastes!
Overall, I find that the school has made my daughter more confident and understanding.
