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How to Edutain your child; My Experience

It was a wonderful experience raising and educating my children though I had nothing planned out but the way it shaped out was wonderful. I am a dentist by profession but I think  I was a better teacher. 
It so happened that I used to color maps of India and show to my son ten times a day for many days never realizing the impact. One day while watching weather forecast on DD news he started shouting" mummy India ka map India ka map". I was very impressed and then began our hours of togetherness. 
Two of us would talk and notice all  that went around us . We played all day and I would often run upstairs after my clinic to my overjoyed children.
 Reading stories came very early in our house initially we saw pictures then it progressed to reading words and then sentences.Bed time was story time from Panchatantra to Ramayana to Indian mythology to stories and incidents all over the world. They knew about Pompeii ruins and casts and Paul Revere's Ride and Trojan horse much before they should have known. 
This probably is one reason why both my sons are avid readers. For years even I never read anything but children's  literature but today my sons advice me on reading books. I confess I did not read Harry Potter and chronicles of Narnia on their advice but going through  their movies is enough is what I say.
 India had just done a second  a nuclear test in Pokhran, a city in Rajasthan  and I would often tell them while travelling in car how first one came about, how Buddha had smiled (a code for successful nuclear test), who was the Indian PM then .
To my utter surprise many years later he scored well by answering the toughest question by the quiz master by identifying the place where Buddha had smiled with Mrs. Indira Gandhi  and an army official in visual round .
 I never really had to teach them both by holding a book it was simply all oral with love and fun. As a child I detested history lessons but I encouraged them to know their past to see the present. All the way through I have encouraged them and to hear them encourage me today is fulfilment . Isn't that what we all strive for.
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  1. AnonymousOctober 3, 2022 at 2:06 AM

    You are an awesome teacher. I had forgotten this story. Reading it here refreshed my mind!

    ReplyDelete

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