August 3rd, 2010
My elder son is three and a half years old. Recently, he took Infant Swimming Resource classes. They teach how to swim-float-swim to the nearest ladder, steps or the edge of the pool. This is the first time that my son has taken swimming survival classes. Also, we didn’t use any floaters and stuff like that when we used to play in the pool for the last three years. Hence, the instructor didn’t have to undo the wrong tactics learnt.
After five weeks of classes, my son is able to swim-float-swim without any hiccup. He opens his eyes under water. This is a big deal for me because I have a hard time opening my eyes under water. Above all, it has given me peace of mind so that I can relax and enjoy the pool with him. The other day, my son missed the step of the pool but he saved himself by swim-float-swim. I highly recommend it. In fact, I think this is the first step until the kids are old enough to learn proper swimming. I’ll definitely make my younger son take these classes when I feel he is ready for them.
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June 9th, 2010
I love classics and non-fictions. Sometimes it gets too much and I need a light fiction to break the cycle. My two favorite authors are Danielle Steele and John Grisham. I have read almost all books written by John Grisham. In fact, my husband and I love hearing audio books by John Grisham on long drives. His audio books are one of the common things that we love to hear together. One of the main reasons that we love John Grisham audio books is that the language is good enough to hear it with kids in the car. Danielle Steele is something that I enjoy as it’s a little womanly.
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June 1st, 2010
The first half of The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai was hard to read. I just could not understand the point of the story. My mother-in-law recommended it to me and so, I kept on reading. After finishing the book, I felt that the last half or may be just the last quarter of the book was interesting. I’m glad that I read it but I think that I’ll forget about this book very easily over the years.
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May 29th, 2010
I went to school in India and so, I am alien to the school system in America. Among Schoolchildren by Tracy Kidder gave me a glimpse into the public school system. I have a toddler who will join the public school in two years. Hence, this is a book that I’ll always remember. I think I would have enjoyed being a teacher to students like Judith but I’m not sure I could handle rowdy children as well as Christine Zazac in this story. I don’t think I have that much patience and cool. I am enjoying being teacher to my children and I hope I can continue in that role as long as possible. Also, I have lived in Holyoke, MA for a year and hence it was interesting for me as I could relate to different areas of Holyoke as mentioned in this book.
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May 11th, 2010
Here are few activities that are favorites of my 3 year old. Here’s the list of children activities he did when he was younger. I hope this is helpful. Please feel free to recommend more types of activities that I can do with my son.
- Reading Books
This is one of the favorite activities. There is a glitter in my son’s eyes as soon as I suggest that I will read to him. We still get lot of books from the library.
- Household Chores
I let my son help me with following household chores:
putting clothes in washing machine,
taking out clothes from dryer,
transferring cutlery from dishwasher to the cutlery drawer,
arranging table mats and cutlery for everyone on the table before meals,
cooking where fire is not involved such as salads, cake batter and so on,
raking leaves in the fall and helping his father in yard work.
- Activity Books
I have him working on 5-6 types of activity books at a time. I let my son do a page from each in a day. I like Kumon and BrainQuest Activity books. I have following types of activity books that he has been working on: dot-to-dot, mazes, tracing, cutting, coloring, tracing uppercase, thinking skills, sticker books, big fat comprehensive activity books and so on.
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