HER WORLD, OUR WORDS

Not What You Expect from a Teacher

2012-05-12T01:25:00.000+09:00

“Papa, why is our ‘Nepali’ teacher always so angry with me?” Aryaa said during dinner some days ago.

“Is that so?” we were surprised by this, we hadn’t heard like this before.

‘Yes, it is. She seems she doesn’t like me. She is irritated whenever I ask anything. When I don’t understand something and ask her ‘teacher what’s this?’ she scolds me and says ‘you are the biggest student of this class and you don’t know even this?’”

Now we were really worried. It’s not what we expect from a teacher. It’s really very bad to treat a child like that.

So I went to the school the next day and had a lengthy discussion with the Principal. He was sorry for the teacher and promised to talk with her, and also with all other teachers. He promised that it won’t happen again. Aryaa hasn’t talked about any similar incident recently, so we hope her teacher is not behaving like that now.

And about this ‘biggest---‘ tag. Aryaa is having some problem because of her height. She is taller than all of her classmates, so everybody thinks she is older. The teacher, at least should have checked her birth date in school records before making any conclusions. This used to happen in Japan too. Aryaa started going to kindergarten when she was one and she was always taller than all the kids in her classes. Her teachers used to carry smaller ones in lap during story times etc. Aryaa too expected this affection but she got very few such chances because of her height. It’s not that her teachers didn’t love her, but they always tended to the smaller ones first.

Taller children are thought of being older in age too. You can’t blame someone in the street thinking like that but a teacher should be careful about the psychology of the child.

Double Rainbow

2012-02-24T23:51:00.001+09:00

"Papa, look at the rainbow, so beautiful!" Aryaa entered the study room one afternoon. I went to the window and looked outside. There was a rainbow over Kaundanda (name of a mountain).

"And there are two---!" She screamed while I was taking the above pic. She spotted the second one earlier than me. The double rainbow spanned mountains in east and north from us. Due to buildings and hillocks in front of our residence, I couldn't photograph the whole of the double rainbow, could only get pics of two ends. I hope someone has captured the whole of this double rainbow.

Preparing for a Happy Childbirth

2012-02-14T19:33:00.003+09:00

Image Source:Click Here

Along with the heightened awareness and excitement of welcoming a new life into the world, the weeks approaching the delivery date shouldn’t be a time of added stress for expecting moms. One of the most important practices during this time will be to utilize stress reduction strategies, such as breathing techniques, open communication, and relaxation through meditation. Another way to relieve stress and to have some fun is to prepare yourself and your home for your coming newborn.

Through the use of to-do lists, time management, and delegating responsibility, you will be prepared to see the end of your term and have your baby come home. The following l areas should provide a starting point for ideas on how to ensure a happy delivery experience and healthy newborn.

Delivery Day Preparation

One tool that is provided to women by clinics and hospitals is childbirth classes. Besides having an opportunity to share experiences with other mothers in the area, classes will add to the familiarity of the facility and its standard procedures. It also allows new moms the chance to learn about optional procedures, like cord blood banking. This increasingly popular practice of collecting the stem cells from the umbilical cord blood has shown promise as a possible treatment for health conditions that could affect the newborn or a sibling.

Classes will also cover specialized exercises to help delivery go smoothly. Either here, or in one of the final check-ups with the obstetrician, it’s a good idea to bring up preferences. Information about water birthing or additional therapies to limit stress, such as aromatherapy and music, should be requested prior to delivery day.

For Baby Safety

There are a number of necessary items that need to be obtained in advance of delivery day. Buying used items, such as a car seat or crib, is acceptable, but these should be inspected to ensure they meet new federal guidelines for safety. New guidelines for cribs, for instance, were issued in 2011 to prevent injuries, and new car seats often require instruction of proper use. Seeking out expert opinions on important items for the nursery can help mothers stay organized.

Make a Birth Plan

During delivery, it is easy to get caught off guard and make decisions that you are not totally familiar or comfortable with concerning your delivery. Taking the time to review options and making as many decisions before the big event will make it easier to focus should the unexpected happen. Share these decisions with loved ones and the health care provider so everyone involved knows what you want for the birth.

This article was written by Alan Cassidy, an active writer within the blogging community covering maternity and childbirth, and always advocating for infant and children’s health. Connect with him on Twitter @ACassidy22

A MS-Paint drawing

2011-12-02T17:01:00.001+09:00

Aryaa loves to type A, B, C, D--- in computer. She has started demanding computer games too, but till now I haven't managed any. Once I taught her to draw some basic shapes in MS-Paint. Here is what she showed me after a few practices.

First Shopping list

2011-11-10T16:36:00.001+09:00

It was in morning, a few days ago. Her parents were talking about the things which were to be bought in the afternoon.

"I will make the shopping list", Aryaa, still in her breakfast, said.

"OK---", I gave her a piece of paper.

"Please by all these---", She handed me back the piece of paper with the list.

Her first shopping list includes fruits only. She has tried to write "Strawberry" in the third one, but in Nepali (Devnagari script). She has tried to write a relatively hard word here and has made mistake. But she tried it, and that's the best thing. The last one is KAGATI (meaning lemon in Nepali).

I hope she will enjoy reading her first ever shopping list in future:)

Her Most Creative Time

2011-08-12T16:08:00.000+09:00

There is no doubt that children are creative. But I will now add "--only if they are saved from TV".

It's not that I am a TV hater or anything like that. I think a balanced TV time, with carefully selected programs will certainly do a lot good to enhance their imagination and vocabulary and help teach them many new activities. TV starts damaging them when it gets more than one hour a day (in average). They will then learn only to sit in front of it and watch whatever is airing. I think even their thought process will be slowed as they don't need to imagine anything. It's better to give them their 'own' TV time (i. e. no switching to other channels time to time by adults) for 30 minutes or even 1 hour and after that switch off the TV. Then make them recall what they just viewed and what do they think of what they viewed etc. They will explain everything so interestingly in their own simple and innocent words. They will add their own imagination and fantasy too. This is my experience with Aryaa. She too sometimes wanted too much of TV but I think our intervention has been successful so far and she can be persuaded to switch off the TV. She is as happy as watching (if not happier), to 'explain' what all those funny characters in her favorite cartoons did, how they jumped, how they laughed and how they distorted their faces....

Let me repeat it again, persuading them is not easy. Any scolding or threatening will not do. It needs total honesty from parents' side that they don't interfere in the kid's 'own' TV time.

I have observed that when she is 'saved' from TV, Aryaa immediately gets engaged in other activities like collecting all her dolls and 'teaching' them with a marker and a small whiteboard in her hands, dancing, drawing or make us read something for her. Her level of concentration in such activities is very high in the evening after dinner. She doesn't like to go to bed early, she has always been like this.

But it's nice as long as she is creatively concentrated. Though tired and sleepy myself, I really love to watch 'her most creative time'.

UKG 1st Term Results

2011-07-29T20:30:00.000+09:00

I was in Aryaa's School today to fetch the 1st term results. It seems she has done good. According to her teachers, she is doing well in class and she will have even better results in the coming terms. She has progressed a lot in her communication with her teachers and friends in last few months. We were afraid that she will find it harder as she skipped the LKG level, but she has well adapted with her new class, teachers and friends.

20 minutes' limit

2011-07-11T12:56:00.000+09:00

Aryaa joined Nursery grade in a school here after coming back from Japan. Her age was a year more than that is considered normal for nursery, but we decided to admit her in nursery as she had language problems. She knew very little Nepali and no English at all. School children start learning English from the Nursery grade these days.

Aryaa did well both in Nepali and English. Her exam results too were good. So after discussing with her teachers, we made her skip the LKG (lower kindergarten) grade and admitted her in the UKG (upper kindergarten) grade.

A lot of homework started to come with UKG. While in Nursery, it used to be a page only, like copying some alphabets or simple words and 'fill' the page. UKG seemed harder! We could see Aryaa's difficulty in adjusting to such new 'environment'.

While helping her with her homework, I noticed that she greatly enjoyed doing it for the first 10 minutes. She didn't much enjoy the next 10 minutes but it was manageable. After 20 minutes however, everything went awry. She didn't enjoy the books and pencils at all after that. She would stare at the ceiling and seemed tired and sleepy.

So we broke her HW time whenever there was more than '20 minutes' of it.

I hate the 'too much homework' culture that is prevailing in Nepal these days. Teachers and guardians don't take care of child psychology at all. They all think that loads of homework only will make a child wise and disciplined.

We need creative ways of teaching small children.

Saniya-1

2011-05-31T19:02:00.000+09:00

It was one of the recent bedtimes.

"Papa, what story will tell you today?"

"I want to repeat one that I told the day before yesterday. OK?"

"No, please tell a new one today."

After 'bargaining' for a moment, I start thinking hard for a story.

"Well, do you want a story about a lovely girl or a lovely boy."

"A lovely girl."

"Well then, lets first decide a beautiful name for this lovely girl. What name do you like?"

We spend a couple of minutes on 'beautiful' names and finally agree on 'Saniya'.

"There was a very big city. It was really very very big.------------. There were a lot of people in that city. And a lot of schools too. -------. Thousand schools. Yes, there were thousand schools."

"Papa, how much is thousand?"

"You know hundred, don't you? When there are 10 hundreds, it's thousand. Hundred, two hundreds, three hundreds, four hundreds, ------------- and thousand.

In these schools, there were a lot of beautiful lovely kids. In fact all the kids were beautiful and lovely. Among them was a little cute girl called Saniya. She was very friendly and had a lot of friends.

Saniya had a dog which was called 'Sirku'. Saniya was good friends with Sirku too. Every morning Sirku used to go to school with Saniya. It came back to home after Saniya entered the gate and it used to wait Saniya in front of the gate in the afternoon.

Sometimes this Sirku used to go out with his friends Mirku and Tirku. Saniya used to go to school alone on these days. Sometimes Sirku used to go to some far places with his friends and come back very late.

On one such day, while coming back from school, Saniya saw a pink rabbit. ---------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------"

"Papa, what happened after that?"

"Hmm---- Saniya saw a pink rabbit. When it walked, its feet shone with green light. Its head too shone, with blue light. Saniya started following it. She was so attracted by the rabbit that she forgot to go home. Saniya followed the rabbit to Jungle.

There was a cave in the middle of the Jungle. Rabbit entered the cave. Now Saniya was alone. It was already dark."

"Poor Saniya----!", Aryaa was almost crying.

"Don't worry Aryaa. Saniya is a brave girl. Nothing will happen to her."

Saniya sat on a big stone there. There was a small river nearby. The stones in this river were colorful and glittering. Saniya collected some stones played with them. Then she started throwing back these stones to the river. When two such colorful stones collided, there was a very bright light and a fairy emerged from that light.

"Dear Saniya, why did you call me?"

"I--- I didn't call you fairy."

"Saniya, those small stones are called the 'fairy stones' and when two of them collide, I will come. OK, tell me what you wish."

"I want to have some dinner."

Then the fairy started rotating the magic stick in her hand and also chanted some MANTRA.

'MMMMMMhumham angebangesangepange simsimjimjim--------- dhattttttt-----!'"

"Hi Hi Hi----" Aryaa was amused by the MANTRA and that loud "--dhatttttt!"

"Saniya also got a beautiful small house and a bed on top of that big stone. The fairy also told her that she will awake in her own bed in her house. To fulfill every wish, the fairy moved her magic stick in the air and chanted some crazy mantra like 'MMMMMMhumham angebangesangepange simsimjimjim--------- dhattttttt-----!' and 'MMMMMMhumham sirikmirikjhirik taktukthakthuk milikmilik-------- dhattttttt!"

When she opened her eyes the next morning, Saniya was in her own bed."

Next day, Aryaa demanded some revision in this story. She didn't like Saniya in the jungle alone. The revised version too will be here soon:)

Toothbrushes' Nightlife

2011-05-14T22:53:00.002+09:00

It was already nine in the evening and we were brushing our teeth before going to bed.

“What if all these brushes go out after we are asleep----?” Aryaa suddenly asked with some smile in her face.

“Hmmm------that would be so interesting.” I replied with a smile. I too had a smile because Aryaa had solved one of my problems for that night. I had got a new ‘theme’ now based upon which to tell her a bedtime story.

Aryaa prefers ‘fresh’ and ‘live’ stories over those read from books these days. It’s hard to weave a new story everyday, especially after a long and tiring day. And moreover, when I am sleepy, my stories become too incoherent and boring.

But that night was ‘fine’:)

There was a very big city. Do you know what ‘city’ is?

No.

Well, a city is a big place where there are a lot of buildings, streets, cars, people---.

OK, I understand. Please tell story now.

I like to start in this way because it helps me lengthen my so called stories:) Aryaa hates short stories.

OK, there was a very big city. It had so many buildings, streets, cars, bikes, and people---. There also were many dogs and cows and buffaloes. This city had many parks where a lot of children played everyday.

In a house in this city, there used to live papa, mama and kids. Everybody used to brush their teeth before going to bed. This day too, they did the same and went to bed. After all the people were asleep, brushes started talking with each other.

“Let’s go out today. It’s so boring to stay here all the time—“

“Yes, Yes! Let’s go out. We need some refreshment.”

“What if people find out---?”

“They will not find out. They are all asleep. And we will come back before they get up in the morning.”

“That’s OK but what if those night guards see us?”

“When we see them coming we can hide behind the flower plants.”

In this way those toothbrushes got down from the brush stand. They then climbed down the stairs. They got out from the ventilation because the door was closed. When they were in the road, they heard a motorcycle coming, so they hid behind a shrub.

They started again after the motorcycle was gone. They headed towards the playground.

“Papa, didn’t they call the toothbrushes of the neighboring houses?”

“Hmm---, they don’t want to call other brushes today. Well---, I’m sorry, actually they started calling other toothbrushes---“.

They called toothbrushes of other houses too. They knocked at doors and shouted liked “Anu’s brush!”, “Anu’s mama’s brush!”, “Anu’s papa’s brush”---- in every house. You know, only a brush can hear another brush talking, or knocking at the door. A lot of brushes came out from many houses. Only some old brushes didn’t come out as they couldn’t walk.

Then they all headed towards the football ground. After reaching the ground, some brushes started playing football. Others were watching and cheering the game. Small brushes started climbing the trees.

“Papa didn’t they play badminton---and cricket?”

Oh yes! Some of them went to another small ground to play badminton. Some went to the cricket ground and started cricket match.

----------------------------------------------

“Papa, what happened after that?”

Hmm---- Hmm---. Then one of the small brushes fell from the tree and started crying. Some bigger uncle/aunt brushes carried him and sang many funny songs for him. That small brush requested one of the uncles to call his pencil and spoon friends so that he could play with them. Then this uncle sat down, closed his eyes and whispered “small pencil!, small spoon!, small chopsticks!---Please come here to the ground soon.”

Pencil, spoon and chopsticks in house heard this and replied “OK, we will be there soon.” After they came, small brush started playing with them. They were playing hide and seek when the small pencil and its tip got broken. It started crying. “I can’t go home without the tip. My papa, mama will scold me.” Then the spoon sat down, closed its eyes and whispered “Pencil cutter, please come here soon.”

Pencil sharpener came and sharpened the pencil, pencil became happy again. Then a small book too came in the ground. They were surprised, nobody had called it. It said it was awakened by the noise and came to join the play.

They were playing happily until suddenly the pencil and the book started fighting, nobody knew why. Pencil dirtied the book and book started crying. Then again spoon sat down, closed its eyes and called eraser. Eraser came after a few minutes and cleaned the book. Pencil said sorry to the book and the everybody started playing and enjoying.

Everybody, bigger ones and smaller ones, were playing, enjoying and laughing when roosters in the nearby village started crowing. "Oh-- it's almost dawn. Let's go back otherwise people will find us." They ran towards their respective houses. Luckily they reached their houses in time, nobody was awake.

All the brushes, pencils, sharpeners, chopsticks and spoons of our little beautiful home made it too. All except the smallest toothbrush arranged themselves in the brush stand too. This smallest toothbrush was talking with the soap when suddenly the light was switched on.

"Oh, my little girl forgot to put the brush in the stand again!" Mama gently caught the brush and put it on the stand.

OK Aryaa, this was the story for today. Now let's sleep. Good Night, SHUVARATRI, OYASUMINASAI!

OK Papa, Good Night, SHUVARATRI, OYASUMINASAI!

Image Source: Hubpages

'BHOLI' and 'ASTINAI'

2011-03-20T12:58:00.002+09:00

Aryaa learned Nepali very fast, but some words are giving her trouble. These Nepali words are very simple, but yet it seems very hard for her to remember them compared to other difficult ones.

One is BHOLI (भोलि, word for "tomorrow"). She still says "SUTESI, UTHESI" (after sleeping and waking up). She says she will do this and that "SUTESI, UTHESI", or "SUTESI, UTHESI" is a holiday. etc. She coined this "SUTESI, UTHESI" herself with the logic that you first sleep and then rise up to find 'tomorrow'. Interesting coinage:)

Another one is ASTINAI (अस्तिनै, which may mean anything from 'several days ago' to 'several years ago'. She uses "ASTI, ASTI, ASTI------" for it. This ASTI means 'the day before yesterday'. Sure, many 'the day before yesterday' make one ASTINAI:)

Happy Birthday Aryaa!

2011-03-13T13:01:00.001+09:00

Happy Birthday Aryaa!

Those were the wonderful 5 years with you. And we are sure that the coming days and years with you will be even more blissful.

Wish you a life full of joy and success.

-PAPA and MAMA

Update

2011-03-01T21:01:00.001+09:00

Well, an update at last! The last time I was here seems ages ago!

It's not that I was short of materials to write. Aryaa's innocent quest and curiosity generate 'millions' of them. I can blame lack of time a little bit, but what is preventing me from coming here is the unreliable internet connection that we have in this place. Not only Internet, the power itself is so rare these days. Nepal has been facing chronic power shortages since last few years. Nepal's electricity system relies on hydro power. Most of our generating stations are run-of-river type and only a few are storage (dam) type. Amount of water gets reduced in winter and it causes less and less generation of hydro power. There is 14 hours of outage these days. It may reach 16 hours (or even 18 hours as two years ago) after some days. Water amount in rivers will gradually increase after snow in the Himalayas starts to melt from mid-spring and only then we will see the reduction in outage.

And as Nepal is going through a frustrating political instability since last many years, development of new hydro power projects seems very distant.

Aryaa is going school regularly and she enjoys it. She had her first ever 'exam' two weeks ago and she did 'good' in it. She has become fluent in Nepali now, but sadly she has forgotten almost all of the Japanese that she knew before coming back.

I will share some latest photos and videos when the internet connection becomes reliable and fast.

Thank you for visiting!

Recently----

2011-02-04T13:28:00.001+09:00

Enjoying Cartoons

2010-12-20T12:51:00.001+09:00

Aryaa enjoying "Tom & Jerry". She gets totally engrossed by it. While she is watching this, we have to shout "Aryaa!" 5-6 times to get response from her.

----Mountains and Jungles for you

2010-12-07T18:21:00.000+09:00

Aryaa's innocent talks continue to surprise me. They are never old and never boring.

This one is from her 'ever changing' "I want to be a ----" or "I will be a ----in future." I now have already forgotten what her first "I want to be a ---" was. I may have mentioned it somewhere in this blog. Nurse, doctor, bookshop owner, ice-cream shop owner, farmer, driver are some of those "--want to be---" that I remember.

She took this to new height yesterday morning.

"I want to be a god." She said while I was helping her change clothes.

"'God'??", I was surprised but I tried to hide my surprise. "Why do you want to be a god?"

"I want to build a lot of mountains and jungles for PAPA to take photos." So it was for me that she wanted to be a god.

I talked with Sobita about this. She said it's already a few days and Aryaa says like that quite frequently. She says it whenever she sees beggars too, that she will become a god, make a lot of money and distribute to them:)

My time with Aryaa recently is much less than that used to be in Japan. So I became late to hear this 'statement'.

Anyway, I promise with you to post photos of mountains and jungles that Aryaa creates:) For the time being, please be content with a pic of a mountain which already exists.

KAHUN DANDA in early morning

Photographer Aryaa:)

2010-11-17T11:40:00.008+09:00

Namaste! This is my first ever post in this blog. I will try to be frequent here from now. I also have one blog in Japanese, you can see it here; MY WORLD.
------------------------------------------------
Aryaa has started playing with our little digital camera. It's nice to see her in 'action'. And she is also the 'official photographer' of her parents:)

Here are some of her shots.

We are living in Pokhara city now. Majestic Himalayan mountains seem so near here. The place we are living, is still not a good location for mountain viewing.

And the photographer:)

New 'friends'

2010-10-10T02:41:00.006+09:00

Aryaa's TV time was controlled while we were in Japan, or I may say 'balanced'. She also didn't much care about it. She loves playing outdoors much more than TV or anything. She used to watch children programs in NHK Education Channel every morning. Many interesting and educative serials including ZENMAI ZAMURAI used to be aired then. But her craze was with PURIKYUA characters after she turned 3. It used to be aired every Sunday morning in another channel. But as Aryaa used to sleep until very late on Sundays, she rarely watched it. She used to watch PURIKYUA in You Tube.

Japanese channels can't be viewed here. NHK World is there, but I don't know whether it has anything for Aryaa's age or not. Aryaa is missing PURIKYUA very much. Watching in You Tube is also not easy due to the frustratingly slow internet here. It takes forever to load one 10 min video!

Luckily, our local cable provider has `Cartoon Network' in its list. Its 'Tom and Jerry' have become Aryaa's new friends now, they are replacing PURIKYUA characters rapidly. There is also an another cartoon (animation) channel, which airs a lot of animations based on Hindu religious stories. Aryaa loves them too, especially the one about Lord Krishna's childhood.

And Nepali folk music. Aryaa starts dancing whenever she hears some Nepali folk music or any other melodious music. She has already become quite a good dancer. She has even learned to wear her mother's shawl so that it looks like a sari:)

Bye Bye Grandpa----

2010-10-06T02:46:00.004+09:00

Want to share a very sad news today.

Aryaa's grandfather (my father) passed away two and half weeks ago. I was unable to write much in this blog as we were observing some complicated traditional Hindu rituals for 13 days after his death. I only could manage to post an old photo of Aryaa in my previous post.

My father was 73 years old. It's an old age, but not old enough to take the death as 'natural'. With his fit and strong physique, we expected him to live many more years. He didn't drink ,but used to smoke. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis in lungs last year. It was completely cured after a few months of treatment. But he started becoming weak, having his vision blurred and having his thought and speech incoherent after some time. Doctors then diagnosed him with brain tumor. It was already in developed stage and due to his old age they refused to make any surgery to remove it. We were told to take care of him well and help him have a peaceful death. We tried our best. He was either unconscious or very little conscious for last two months of his life.

As Aryaa was in Japan with us, she could spent very little time with him. When we came back to Nepal, he was already having problems related to brain tumor.

We all miss him very much.

May his soul rest in peace!

4 Years Ago

2010-09-22T02:27:00.004+09:00

Life has become too hectic again. Let me continue this blog with one of Aryaa's old photo today.

She is only a few months old in this one. We were in Japan. The colorful traditional Nepali cloth was sent by family in Nepal for her rice feeding ceremony.

Early Childhood Education – Acquiring Sign Language

2010-09-07T05:05:00.006+09:00

[Today, I am happy to share with you an informative and useful article that I got from Kathleen Thomas.]

Early Childhood Education - Acquiring Sign Language

One of the keys to surviving in a tilted economic system in which opportunities to achieve a decent standard of living will be limited is versatility – and the ability to communicate articulately in a variety of ways with the widest possible audience. This includes bilingual ability as well as the ability to communicate in non-verbal ways for the benefit of the disabled – primarily the deaf.

At the same time, a growing shortage of qualified interpreters fluent in American Sign Language has led to more career opportunities – and if current trends continue, it's likely that skilled ASL interpreters will have little problem securing lucrative employment in a society where such a commodity is destined to be in short supply.

Signing Before They Can Speak

A great deal of research has clearly demonstrated that the early years – ages 2 to five – are the best time to educate children in different modes of communication and language. This goes beyond the spoken word (though it is an optimal time for children to learn a second language); many young children have an aptitude for signing as well.

This is not as odd as you may think. As you know, many indigenous peoples around the world, including American Indian nations, have used sign language for centuries to facilitate communication with other tribes with whom they do not share a language. Some paleontologists and anthropologists theorize that Neanderthals – who apparently lacked the vocal mechanism to produce many spoken words – depended a great deal upon hand gestures to communicate.

In fact, recent research suggests that sign language is innate. An article published in the Boulder Daily Camera in 2003 presented strong evidence that babies as young as six months old communicate with their hands:

"...by 6 to 7 months, babies can remember a sign. At eight months, children
can begin to imitate gestures and sign single words. By 24 months, children
can sign compound words and full sentences. They say sign language reduces
frustration in young children by giving them a means to express themselves
before they know how to talk." (Glarion, 2003)

The author also cites study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development demonstrating that young children who are taught sign language at an early age actually develop better verbal skills as they get older. The ability to sign has also helped parents in communicating with autistic children; one parent reports that "using sign language allowed her to communicate with her [autistic] son and minimized his frustration...[he now] has an advanced vocabulary and excels in math, spelling and music" (Glarion, 2003).
The Best Time To Start

Not only does early childhood education in signing give pre-verbal youngsters a way to communicate, it can also strengthen the parent-child bond – in addition to giving children a solid foundation for learning a skill that will serve them well in the future. The evidence suggests that the best time to start learning ASL is before a child can even walk – and the implications for facilitating the parent-child relationship are amazing.

Image Source: ivillage.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Co-written by Emily Patterson and Kathleen Thomas

Emily and Kathleen are Communications Coordinators for the Zionsville educational child care facility, a member of the AdvancED® accredited family of Primrose Schools (located in 16 states throughout the U.S.) and part of the network of Indiana educational day care preschools delivering progressive, early childhood, Balanced Learning® curriculum.

Aryaa goes to School

2010-08-31T23:32:00.003+09:00

Aryaa started going to school yesterday, one and half months after returning to Nepal.

She will be in 'Nursery' level for the time being, until she becomes familiar with the system here.

We have started living in the teachers/staff residence of an engineering college, where I have a job. Aryaa's school is not far from here. School bus comes to pick Aryaa and other kids up in morning and also to drop off in afternoon. Aryaa seems to have enjoyed these two days in school. We were worried about her Nepali language skills, but she is learning it very fast. She now knows enough to communicate in simple and short Nepali sentences and express her feelings. With her new friends and teachers, she will be fluent soon.

As all other parents, it was very hard for us too to decide a school for Aryaa. This one is considered one of the best in the locality we are living in now. All the people whom we asked had very good view of this school. I was also very much impressed by the School Principal's concepts and visions for kids' education.

‘KUSAI!’, ‘URUSAI!’, ‘GAI AYO!’, ‘KUKUR AYO!’

2010-08-22T22:02:00.002+09:00

It’s already more than one month that we are back to Nepal. Aryaa has become familiar with all the family members and many of the relatives. Her Nepali has improved a lot, and she has well maintained her Japanese language skills till now. If we two sometimes talk with her in Japanese, it’s probable that she will carry it further for some years.

We are trying to make her life in Nepal as comfortable as possible. We know she misses her kindergarten, her friends, her teachers and well equipped children parks in Japan very much. Her formal schooling in Nepal will start after a few days. We hope that she can make a lot of friends soon. When she has a lot of friends, she will enjoy her days here more than she is doing now.

While going for walk or for shopping, she is irritated with the garbage one can see everywhere. Nepal has been going through a long period of political instability. This has affected every sector of life, and waste management is one among them. Nepal’s waste management system might be one of the worst in world. “KUSAI! KUSAI!” (It stinks! It stinks!), she says, and covers her nose almost all the time we are in the street.

And the streets here are very crowded too. Our villages have very few facilities. They are also hotbeds for many insurgencies. So a lot of people from villages immigrated to cities. So villages are empty these days and cities have dense population, more than what their infrastructures can bear. The number of vehicles and bikes has gone up too, and with it the noise pollution. It’s as if there is a permanent horn blowing competition in our streets. Aryaa was very afraid at the beginning. She is not so much afraid these days but tries to close her ears with index fingers and sys “URUSAI!” (It’s noisy).

Our streets have a lot of stray cows and dogs. “GAI AYO!” (A cow there!), she says in Nepali, with smile in her face whenever she sees a cow. And “KUKUR AYO!” (A dog there!”), whenever see sees a dog. Even in this chaotic ‘world’, there is something that fascinates Aryaa and makes her happy:)

*'KUSAI' and 'URUSAI' are Japanese words, whereas 'GAI AYO' and 'KUKUR AYO' are Nepali.

Adjusting gradually

2010-07-31T06:18:00.002+09:00

Aryaa is adjusting to life here gradually. She is learning Nepali fast and is also trying to make some friends. Her improvement in Nepali language will certainly give her many new friends. Aryaa has one little cute cousin sister, her name is Abha. Abha will be 2 soon. Aryaa and Abha normally get well with each other.

We are afraid that she will forget Japanese soon. So we (Sobita and me) have decided to continue talking with her in Japanese. This will be useful for us too, to maintain our Japanese speaking ability:))

A Long Silence Again

2010-07-21T21:47:00.001+09:00

Sorry for the long silence again!

We left Japan and returned back to Nepal. Before leaving Japan, I was busy in preparation and couldn`t manage any time to write here. We were in Singapore for two days after leaving Japan. We visited some parts of Sentosa island there. Aryaa too enjoyed it but the day was very hot and we were tired to hell.

After arriving in Nepal, Aryaa seems lost in the new environment. She misses here friends in Japan very much. She sometimes says she wants to go back to Japan as she has more friends there than in Nepal. She is trying to learn Nepali and make friends here. It helped that she was in Nepal for 5 weeks last year here, she understands simple Nepali. We can see the difficulty she is having and doing our best to help her adjust here. Besides, My old father is seriously ill and most of the adult members of family are busy attending to him. So Aryaa and other kids sometimes aren`t getting enough attention. I haven`t have any chance to read bedtime stories to Aryaa these days. It just makes me so sad.

I hope everything gets well after a few days.

Thank you for being here! I will try to write continously about Aryaa`s days here, her success with making friends and her education after she joins school.