Reading is a powerful medium of early literacy for children and especially important for children from challenging backgrounds. As part of a volunteering effort for Vidyamritam, Schoolkutti.com team conducted an interactive story reading session at Govt. LP School Kuryathi, Manacaud on November 25, Saturday.

The story we chose was ‘The Magic Umbrellas’ by Theertha Raj and Nancy Raj. Kids really enjoyed the suspense in the story and were quite interactive. It is a lovely book from Ms Moochie with a nice message that the children could actually relate to.

Vidyamritam group is doing a great job in encouraging under-privileged children to enter the enchanting world of books through a wide range of workshops including reading and storytelling. To feed into students’ eagerness and curiosity, Vidyamritam has also set up a nice little library for the children. Thanks to Vidyamritam for the wonderful experience. Looking forward to many more such fulfilling sessions!

Blog by George Mathew
Founder & CEO, The Wonder Years Primary Schools

The Home School Collective of Trivandrum group held a meeting at the Wonder Years Preschool on Nov 19, 2017. In the meeting it was decided to start meeting every week or once in 2 weeks at a common location with our children. During the meetings children can play and interact with each other through free or directed activities. To start with, it can be free play and then once all of us are comfortable with the concept and the kids get to know their friends, we can move to directed activities.

Directed activities are fun open activities that teach children, through fun games, stories, drama and other aids, about certain concepts. The directed activities should be taken in such a way that it keeps the inquisitiveness of children alive while not forcing a response from them. They should come for the activity on their own because they feel it is interesting.

A person who knows the subject and can articulate it in a way so as to keep children engaged should take the directed activities. If needed, we can bring in professionals in the field, the cost of which can be shared by the participating parents on a pro rata basis

Apart from the weekly meetings, other activities can be planed:
1) Field Trips
2) Charity Work
3) Farming
4) Heritage Walk
5) Creative Arts (Choir, Theater, Art & Crafts etc)
6) Workshops (Science, Robotics, Art, life skills, magic etc)

For these efforts to succeed, we need individuals who are dedicated to the cause and are willing to spend time and effort on this.

We would want to form a core group of people who will drive this forward and who can be responsible for coordinating the activities.

The ‘Toddler Story Time’ program conducted by Bina Maria Mathews at the schoolkutti.com Childen’s Library was a huge hit with both parents and the young listeners who attended the session on November 17. The book we chose this time is the all-time-favorite – ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle. This unique picture book with its cute illustrations and plenty of intrigue discusses the evolution of a butterfly. The plight of the adorable caterpillar was presented with lovely props, movements and interesting expressions. Kids and parents also enjoyed singing a bunch of nursery rhymes after reading the book together.

This weekend, our young readers at Schoolkutti.com Children’s Library had a lovely time taking turns to read from the book ‘Aditi Zoo’, authored by Amrut and beautifully illustrated by Kruttika as part of the Book Lover’s Program for Schools. The children could relate to the delightful story of the little girl who desperately wants a younger sibling and the interesting animals she brings home to handle the challenges her father sets for her. Then we had fun playing word games based on circus jobs and listening to the adventures of Minny the elephant who escapes from the circus. As always, we simply loved all the excitement and the happy buzz among the kids.