Library of Books, Links & More

Recent Happenings

2012-02-19T09:32:00.002+05:30

I just can't believe that it is almost end of Feb. There is loads to write about, but I am just going to rely on a few pictures to do the job :-).

A few weeks ago, DS attended a lovely talk by one of his favorite writers, Robert Kanigal, the author of The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan. He also enjoyed chatting with the author for a few minutes and was quite thrilled to hear his advice to think of MIT for Science Writing, which is one of the things DS is interested in pursuing.

DS with Robert Kanigal

He also auditioned for the national youth orchestra a couple of weeks ago (thanks to his sis for a much needed push to get him interested in auditioning) and got selected to be part of the orchestra. He was reluctant initially to add on the new orchestra in addition to the city orchestra that he was already part of, but the time management, juggling and balancing multiple interests is something he needs to learn with time.

He has been composing like *crazy*. Some of the tunes he has come up with in the recent weeks are quite impressive. His dad listens to a couple of DS' compositions quite frequently. THAT is a hard thing to accomplish with his dad who is so hard to impress :-)

DD attended the math olympiad camp for fun. She had a great 4 days at the camp in ISI, solving some cool problems ingeniously with her team and demoing them to the other students. The math olympiad team is not as strong as the teams in the US, although there were a few bright kids in the group here. She could not attend the entire camp as her university schedule clashed with that of the camp. While DD was having fun with other math geeks, DS and I kept ourselves busy doing a ton of birding and brainstorming ideas for his next research projects.

Birding photos by DS, Archenia!

Some lovely shots of Green Bee Eater

Funnel Web Spider

Greater Coucal

We had a grand time visiting Bannerghatta National Park! DS was in heaven with respect to his camera moments. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience of spotting some wonderful animals and watching them in the wild.....

Photos by DS, Archenia!

White Tiger

Black Bear

Tiger

Wild Cow

Leopard

His fav, Elephant! He has 'tons' of pictures of these guys :-)

Python

The Greatest Books of All Time....

2012-02-05T21:45:00.002+05:30

I enjoy reading articles on varied topics in art, design, science, technology, philosophy, history, politics, psychology, sociology, ecology, anthropology etc, in Brainpickings. I found this article, The Greatest Books of All Time, As Voted by 125 Famous Authors quite interesting.

.....

“Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work,” Jennifer Egan once said. This intersection of reading and writing is both a necessary bi-directional life skill for us mere mortals and a secret of iconic writers’ success, as bespoken by their p.ersonal libraries. The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books asks 125 of modernity’s greatest British and American writers — including Norman Mailer, Ann Pratchett,Jonathan Franzen, Claire Messud, andJoyce Carol Oates — “to provide a list, ranked, in order, of what [they] consider the ten greatest works of fiction of all time– novels, story collections, plays, or poems.”....read more here

I have not read the book The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books by J. Peder Zane as of yet...It sure sounds like an interesting read....

Now onto the list of books: (recorded here for my own reference...)

Please preview!

Many of these titles are mentioned already in some of my previous posts on book lists here.

Top Ten Works of the 20th Century:

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Ulysses* by James Joyce
Dubliners* by James Joyce
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
The complete stories of Flannery O’Connor
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

Top Ten Works of the 19th century...

Anna Karenina* by Leo Tolstoy
Madame Bovary* by Gustave Flaubert
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The stories of Anton Chekhov

Middlemarch* by George Eliot
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Great Expectations* by Charles Dickens
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Emma* by Jane Austen

You can look up more information on the points earned by top 10 authors and more here.

Musical Week in GOA!

2012-01-28T09:35:00.003+05:30

It has been a week since DD and I returned from our Goa trip. We have slowly geared back to the normal routine of university, online, violin, piano, vocal classes and so on. It has been a week of triumph, disappointment, learning, growth and tons of music :-).

DD participated in a national violin competition in Goa; and she was competing with some of the pros who were much older in age and had more years of experience in playing the violin. She came to know of the competition about 2 months back and worked hard on it with a lot of excitement. She knew that her chances of winning were very slim considering all the older, more experienced violinists who were taking part in the competition. Nevertheless, she was determined to participate in it for an experience of being with talented musicians and learning from the pros. Since this was not her first violin competition or solo, there was not much of preparation needed to help her feel comfortable about playing for an audience or a jury.

The new rules of the competition were a bit uncommon. There were two rounds in the competition. In the first round, 10 violinists were selected, out of which 5 of them were from the previous competition winners. This many felt was an unfair selection of 5 members. Because we saw that many who won the competition two years back did not keep up with practice due to many personal reasons and were not stellar musicians. Yet they got to be on the second round automatically without having to compete in the first round. If they had competed in the first round, a few would not have been even selected for the second round. Their playing was not up to the level of expectations. But the rule of this competition is that the 5 winners from the previous year competition get an automatic entry into the second round the following year of the competition. Then out of the 10 selected for the first round, 5 winners were selected to the second round. And finally a public concert of the 5 violinists lead the judges to choose 1st through 5th prizes. The jury was made of some of the accomplished musicians from the music departments University of Nuremberg, Germany.

DD topped the first round and moved onto the second round. DD was thrilled to hear the positive comments about her musicality, her intonation, confidence, her presentation, playing ability of the pieces by memory etc etc from the three judges. They were highly impressed with her playing and preparation. During the second round, she tied with another older player and did not make it. During the feedback, she came to learn from the jury that she extremely close to winning but they had had to choose the older player when it came to a tie-up between an older player and an younger one. She was told during the feedback session that she was regrettably too young to be chosen. And the Jury felt though it was an unfair judgement, they felt they had to work with the stipulations of the committee that organizes the competition. But the feedback she got was particularly powerful. She was told to apply to some of their music conservatories for some serious study and also got invited to their summer music programs and masterclass sessions in Germany, which opened up more opportunities for her that she will be pursuing end of this Spring.

Though DD was disappointed at first, she geared back to her bubbly self soon after. And I loved seeing that attitude of positivity in her. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience of playing at the competition and meeting some of the well known musicians/faculty. She got to play for some of the senior faculty in Goa who were very impressed by her violin playing abilities and musical potential. They want her to come back to Goa to give solo concerts, which she is now thinking seriously about. She also came to know of yet another opportunity that would enable her to play with Kazakh musicians, if she chooses to pursue that route. All in all, it was a fantastic experience for her.

In addition, she infused herself with music all week. She had a fabulous night of a music jamming session in a cafe with and for total strangers and other music lovers, which went on until 2am. People just gathered around sipping wine or coffee or lemon soda, doing sing alongs or playing the guitar or just being a great audience. DD first started off playing solos with just a few people in the room watching her play. But then hearing her play the violin, two other violinists joined her, and then came along two guitarists and couple of singers, all from the crowd that had gathered to hear the music :-). She played Goan, Portugese and Danish songs for the people from those countries in the room. She sang ABBA and Wizard of Oz songs with another Danish singer while playing the violin. THAT was a surprise to me as I had no idea she could guess the lyrics to sing along with them. She made-up accompaniments in her violin on the spot for the Goan and Portugese songs and won everyone's heart in the audience. She was in her element and it was wonderful to see her happy. AND, she found a few wonderful friends who are now on FB, which enables her to keep in touch with all of them :-). It became the most unforgettable experience of Goa for both DD and I.

Considering Goa is very touristy, it was not very surprising to see people from varied parts of the world in the cafe. Goa seems to be a place for musicians both classical and folk. We walked a lot in and around Panjim and took their cute little Goa Rickshaws with 'doors' called 'tuk tuk' :-). We wondered why they had not implemented such doors in the rickshaws of the south. And I missed having my wonderful young photographer son to capture all the beauty and serenity of Goa. And I regrettably forgot to take some of the wonderful photos of DD in her finest dresses that she wore for the competition. Duh! I would have liked to do some sight-seeing and also to get out of Panjim, where we were put up for the entire week. But maybe another time...:-).

Two wonderful people with Business and Psychology
background DD met from US and UK

This is what DD has to say about this competition:

"The competition was a fascinating experience that induced me to develop very much musically. Though I held no expectations with regard to my position in the rounds, I was of course thrilled when I passed-and topped-the first round. I believe that that the best part was the in-depth feedback from the judges that gave me a lot of information concerning my musicality, technique, etc.

Since this competition occurs every two or three years, I am unsure whether I would be able to participate again. But all in all, this was definitely a unique, wonderful experience that I would do again if I could! :)"

And I realized one more very important thing!!

Both my kids write MUCH MUCH better than I...

Oh well, I try!

Check out some cool pictures.

Music all night...

One of the Danish gal singing ABBA with DD

Gals from Denmark on a 6 week India tour.

Immersed in music....

Best Science Books of 2011

2012-01-14T08:56:00.000+05:30

Here is the list of some of the Best Science Books of 2011.

From New Scientist:

(Listed below for my own reference).

The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life, Robert Trivers

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True, Richard Dawkins

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined , Steven Pinker

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, David Eagleman

Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman

Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World, Lisa Randall

The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos, Brian Greene

Survivors, Richard Fortey

The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World , David Deutsch

Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man, Mark Changizi

Here is another list of 11 Best Science Books 2011 from Brainpickings

(Listed below for my own reference)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot

Highly enjoyed by both my children.

The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World , David Deutsch

Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, Lauren Redniss

The Physics Book: From the Big Bang to Quantum Resurrection, 250 Milestones in the History of Physics , Clifford Pickover

I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in Natural History, Stephen Gould

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True, Richard Dawkins

Field Notes on Science & Nature, Michael R. Canfield

Feynman, Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick

Culture: Leading Scientists Explore Societies, Art, Power, Technology, John Brockman

The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution, Keith Devlin

Future Science: Essays from the Cutting Edge, Max Brockman

Update and New Year Wishes!

2011-12-28T09:59:00.001+05:30

My apologies for not having posted much for the past few months. I took a much needed break of handling extended family affairs, meeting new and old relatives, traveling and nurturing my dad back to health from his two subsequent attacks of pneumonia. Thanksgiving and Christmas went by so quickly for us and we spent our time meeting loved ones. We had our house-warming ceremony and DS' poonal function in the beginning of this month, which brought in a lot of relatives under one roof. It was a memorable occasion by all.

Kids finished their university exams a couple of weeks ago and are on a much needed break from routine. But they have been busy with their violin, piano and vocal classes and concert preparation. Their recent Christmas concert at the Church received a wonderful welcome by the Germans. It was surprising to see so many German families under one roof, with some dressed in pretty sarees and salwars communicating in good Hindi :-).

DD is preparing for a very important event in Violin, which will take our family to Goa in Jan. I am excited about making it as a family vacation :-). She has more violin workshops coming her way which will continue to keep her extremely busy next semester. DS' orchestra begins this week and he is very much looking forward to the new experience. He was excited about the lovely response he received for part of his music composition that he had composed for a Ballet performance of Nutcracker last month. He has penned down more poems and compositions since then. Both kids are still busy with their online courses in Latin, German and Lit.

We have some 7-8 months of time left in India before we head back to the US and we are very much looking forward to new and wonderful enriching experiences of life here. Both my kids have decided to take up full time CC courses after they return to the US and I am not sure if we can be called 'homeschoolers' after that. I hope to share our plans for university admissions and such as we progress through each of those steps to help benefit others who are in similar paths. For now, all I can say is that both kids are branching out in different directions experimenting with new areas of interests and experiences and also trying to individualize on their passionate areas of what they want to see themselves doing in the future. But it is an evolving process of finding happiness, peace and balance.

Our recent Chennai visit was a wonderful one as we got to do a couple of unplanned trips to Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary and Mahabalipuram, enroute stopped by a couple of villages. We also enjoyed our recent visit to Devanarayanadurga near Tumkur this past weekend.

And oh we loved watching MI 4 movie in the theater recently with all our cousins and their families :-)

We wish you all a very Happy 2012 !!!

Few pictures (by DS) of our recent weeks below.

Poonal Pics

Gifts to DS from my bro and sis-in-law in Toronto!

Lunch after the function

DS with the priests

Mahabalipuram Pics

Five Rathas

Arjuna's Penance

Krishna's Butterball:-)

Devanarayadurga Pics

700yrs old Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary Pics

Drongo

To Let Them Fly......

2011-11-15T00:15:00.001+05:30

For the past week DH and I have been getting to taste the life when DD would be away from home for full time college. DD is traveling for the past week playing for a 3hr Italian Orchestra performance and is expected to return sometime this week. She has been independent in the past and have managed her stays in hotel rooms by herself, but had couple of adult chaperones in the background to sort of keep an eye on things as with any situation with minors. But this trip was planned differently by the orchestra which had some specific policies about young musicians to be totally independent with minimal or no supervision. I have felt uncomfortable about it since they day it got finalized, although DD was confident and very determined to play for the orchestra.

She had to meet with the group of musicians at the airport and fly by herself with no parent volunteers to care for the group. This group was also made of adult musicians primarily and with a very few teenage kids, and DD was one of the youngest. She was scheduled to share a room with someone she got to know only in the past couple of weeks (a 20 plus yr old Indian violinist), but has managed to make friends with her in that short time. This Orchestra is made of some 70 musicians, with 40 some musicians are drawn from different parts of India (and some were from Nagaland and Sri Lanka) and the rest are Italians.

She has had some mixed experiences of good and bad so far. She has had a couple of ugly situations with one 15yr old gal/friend, who seems to be equally strong-willed and stubborn like DD. I suspected some incompatibility between them, especially with the differences in culture (American vs Indian), personalities and principles between both kids. But I was hoping that the fact that they both played different instruments in the orchestra and not sharing a room would suffice in keeping things a lot more peaceful between them. Well, I was wrong. There have been many moments of crying, anger, frustrations (along with tons of laughter too) in the past few days for DD. But in just a couple of occasions she figured out ways to keep things under control and also to avoid arguments / clashes with the other gal.

DD being so far away from home, just holding onto the cellphone as a patient listener and to speak out my thoughts carefully, that too only when I was asked for advice or suggestions by DD has been the hardest for me. I was angered by the unfair situation DD had to face at times as she described them to me, but had to remind myself repeatedly that it was her call and not mine. She confidently thought of ways to handle them differently than I had thought of. I had to admit to her several times that I was unable to gauge the situation and guide her from being so far away, and that she had to do her best in making the right decisions on her own and to trust herself. I also had to gulp my ego down my throat when my suggestions (of being just a protective mom) to completely avoid interacting with people but to stay in the room when not playing in the orchestra and to focus on just doing music was vetoed strongly by her. I realized that she was not afraid of experiences or hurt, but was interested in learning to navigating them skillfully and smartly.

I had many occasions to feel proud about how much she has grown into an intelligent and confident young lady. She is growing with a strong independent mind as to how to lead her life and handle her experiences(and some may not be of my taste and style). She is a strong kid, and being so intelligent has faced many ugly sides of life since young but has learned to brush off many of those experiences as insignificant. She is getting to experience making mistakes and learning to correct them for herself being far away from home. And though there were couple of occasions I felt a strong urge to just fly out there to give her a tight hug and get her out of those experiences of hurt, I silently held onto the phone and listened to her cry a bit or spill all her anger regarding a particular situation that was bothersome to her until she felt better. Then she was back with renewed energy to face yet another exciting and challenging day of music playing with her colleagues.

She is loving the 5 star accommodation and great Italian food and dessert choices :-). She has become extremely communicative of her thoughts while becoming a lot more independent at the same time. I received many one word text messages many times instead of phone calls :-), as she had a busy packed day and self-imposed schedules of practice and hang-out times with friends. And DH and I noticed that she has become a lot more open to new friends, hanging out with them, dancing and enjoying some parties too, but that maybe just the teenage thing.....

This orchestra has been a great experience for her so far. She is learning a lot more than music and I realize these are not something she could learn from a book or univ curriculum. And I am glad she is learning them while still living at home, but in small doses of independent life away from home. She has made new friends is having a great experience of making music together with both Indian and Italian musicians. She is extremely inspired by the Italian musicians she has met so far and is bursting with new energy to learn lot more music and also wants to travel widely. She also commented that the Italians have a hard time understanding both American and Indian English :-). She has formed small groups to practice music even during the breaks without resting and on some days, goes for 8-9hrs of intense practice. Her goal was/is to meet new passionate musicians and learn from the Masters and colleagues and she is getting to do that to her satisfaction in this orchestra. She will be faced with Univ and Music exams when she returns home and will get extremely busy. And her other all-adult-orchestra practices would begin the end of this month. She also wants to apply to some international workshops for music and math for extended periods of time next year and hopes that DH and I would let her go for the same.

DS has been busy playing cricket with dad, doing a ton of math proofs, physics, watching Teaching Company videos, playing piano and violin, birding, and now making plans to take up his internship with a wildlife biologist. In addition both DD and DS have to prepare for both violin and piano Christmas concerts / solos and are quite excited about the same. DS is missing his sister very much and so is his sister. But I know they will be back on their path of arguing for every single thing and driving me nuts all day after her return. But I guess that's what happens with siblings who are very close. And yes, I am getting my earmuffs ready.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

A Quick Update!

2011-10-28T14:51:00.001+05:30

Since I have been getting emails from a few of my readers regarding my absence here, I guess it is time for a quick update :-).

I have been extremely busy caring for my family and dad for the past month. My dad has been ill for the past few weeks, first with Pneumonia and then followed by severe neurological pain episode that is yet to get under control. My dad suffers from a neuro condition(Glossopharyngeal Neuralgia) for the past 8yrs or so, and this is one of the biggest reasons for our sabbatical in India----to care for him. His new medicines are slowly taking effect and we are very hopeful that his pain would be under control with time. My Dad is doing a lot better now.

DD will be writing her first part of her music exam this week and followed by her second part of the exam sometime in Nov. She is also continuing to be busy with her college and online classes. She is looking forward to her Delhi concert in Nov. And DS is wrapping up his semester work and is looking forward to his internship opportunity in the forest in Dec.

We celebrated Deepavali with extended family and had a great time. This year kids boxed and distributed sweets and savories to many friends and families.

Busy packaging sweets and savories for distribution...

Savories..

Sweets...

Sample box...

Diwali celebrations in cousin's apartment complex...

Party time.

2011-09-28T20:53:00.004+05:30

My posts have been dwindling here of late. We have been busy unpacking and settling in our new residence. The move has been faster than our previous move, so I suppose it's progress! Kids are extremely busy with their live and online classes, violin / piano / vocal / orchestras and many other extracurricular activities. Our new neighborhood is lovely. We have a new maid and a gardener. Sorry, no pictures of our new home yet.

We also have new additions in our family. Kids brought home four Budgies last week and we are enjoying their company immensely :-). They are VERY lively, noisy and playful, offering us hours of entertainment, lol. Thanks to a fellow homeschooling mom/blogger and my FB friend Annie, we know a bit more about raising them than when compared to when we brought them home from the pet store.

Recently kids got an opportunity to work with a potter in Pottery Town and made a quick pottery project on the pottery wheel. We have arranged for the potter to offer a series of projects for the kids to make. We plan to involve other kids for a fun interactive creative sessions.

Potter Murali getting ready to show a demo...

Potter Murali

DD making her piece

DS is completing his piece

End result

DD is trying out a new Latin online program as opposed to continuing with Lukeion this semester. She loved Lukeion classes and the teacher, but the timing and pace was a bit too much to handle for DD with her already full plate. She is enjoying the new program so far and she may have something to share as a comparison of both programs which I will post here. DS is also trying Latin through Lone Pine and so far has been enjoying the course.

Kids completed their Aeromodelling course last week. They had to learn some woodworking to be able to create their models (as opposed to creating them from pre-made kits). The young mom and engineering mentor who taught them the course was wonderful with both kids and the kids loved both their practical and theory time with her. She had some very interesting things to report about both children at the end of the course. Kids want to go back to doing some advanced courses with her in the future weeks.

One of the models the kids made....

DS is in the polishing the mirror stage of his telescope this month and it has been a very slow process. He also attended a wonderful Advanced Astrophotography talk by an astrophotographer from Germany. Since the star party season begins here this month, DS is very much looking forward to those gatherings. DD is preparing for yet another concert in Delhi, this time an Italian Opera. She is pretty thrilled about playing in the Opera as this will be her first Opera concert. And, DS is looking forward to his Christmas concert this yr for both Piano and Violin.

What else is new? My DS has taken a strong liking to drinking coffee!! Apparently he was consuming coffee regularly during his rainforest trip along with his colleagues(adults). What started off as something to taste from my cup has now turned him begging for a small cup of coffee in the cafes:). Bad parent, you say! It is not a big deal in India where many young kids are exposed to coffee. I began drinking coffee in my elementary years. BUT I had not exposed my kids to caffeine at an younger age with the hope that I could delay their exposure until college years! Well, as my DS says often...he IS in college:). Hopefully he will learn to consume it in moderation.

Enjoying a cup of cappuccino...

We are getting ready to celebrate Golu / Navrathri this week. It will be a simpler affair then the previous year due to extreme busy schedules the kids are carrying this semester. Will post pictures soon....

Happy Navrathri !!

Pottery Town

2011-09-23T09:59:00.003+05:30

We found the time at last to visit Pottery Town during Ganesh Chathurthi, a small town made of just a few streets, where for generations of potters have been-and still are-busy at work creating some fabulous pieces of clay art. Depending on the festive seasons they create--Ganesha idols during Ganesh Chathurthi, Krishna idols during Krishna Jayanthi, Diyas(clay lamps) during Festival of Lights and Diwali season. They create mud pots, flower pots, varied idols, vases, cups etc during the non-festival times. These potters are usually comprised of family members and some are educated in English medium schools and speak decent English. Their homes are filled with clay and art pieces at various stages of creation. Some are left as clay form while others are painted and cured.

Marching of the Ganeshas :)

Ganesha everywhere!!

Ganesha clay form

One of the family members painting the Ganesha idols

Ganesha idols painted and ready to be sent to the market to be sold

One of the artisans spray painting an idol

In Bangalore, they celebrate Gowri pooja along with Ganesh Chathurthi, which is not in practice as much in Chennai(my home-town)

Lovely colors and beautiful dolls

Colorful idols...

We were very surprised at their hospitality, patience in answering our innumerable questions, even taking the time to demo a few items during their busiest season of business...Ganesh Chathurthi. Their homes were swarming with people of all walks of life, even some foreigners taking pictures, conversing with the potters and some buying Ganesh Idols too :-)

My children were saddened to learn that despite the beauty of these Ganesha clay idols, the tradition is to dissolve them in destined water bodies around the city after Ganesh Chathurthi. We, of course do not follow this tradition-the pained Ganesha idols are much too pretty to bear dissolving.

Pottery Town is a haven for photography enthusiasts, which is one of the reasons my son was interested in this visit despite the crowds that he tries to avoid usually...We are sure to be visiting the town again.

Random snapshots.....

2011-08-30T16:43:00.000+05:30

DS is polishing his telescope mirror with his colleagues.....

Physics discussion

Part of the beautiful lawn/garden in the new home and crazy-happy DS :-)

Windtunnel, IISC

One of the many visits to relatives' home with the cousins....

DD riding the scooter with her aunt....

One of DS' study subjects....the garden frog in our foyer....

I think this guy was really conversing with my DS....

DD and DS attending one of the concerts....

This one was by a Swiss Violinist and Pianist couple....

DS shopping for texts in the Univ book store.

DD and DS shopping for fountain ink pens with their grandpa

with a bunch of book purchases.....

DS riding the scooter with his uncle....

We are still here.........

2011-08-30T00:38:00.003+05:30

Wow! It has been 3 weeks since I posted here. There is lots to share from our end, but too little time and motivation to do the posts. It has been a year since our sabbatical to India and a lot of exciting changes have happened in our lives this past year. For one, we are in the process of shifting to a new residence after deciding on extending our sabbatical for one more yr :-). Much of this month was spent on house-hunting and at last we found a home to our liking. Movers will be here next week and we will begin settling down in our new home (with a huge lawn/garden space that my family just loves, if I may add :-)).

Although I still limp a bit, my leg is doing much better. I am back to organizing classes and doing quite a few fun things together with my family and few of the homeschool community friends. Kids have grown up a lot more physically, emotionally and mentally. My daughter has grown way taller than me and is now past her dad's shoulder who is a 6 footer himself. My son has lost much of his baby face and is now beginning to look like his dad's mini-version. Both are double-digits and one is a teen and another getting very close. For the past year, kids have moved past and away from just academic goals and took the time to concentrate on more long term, meaningful life goals, growth and principles, in addition to their passions. There were difficult patches to navigate as a family and wonderful parenting moments of guidance, understanding, support and strength too.

DS came back from his fabulous rainforest expedition trip with 1000s of pictures, great memorable experiences, new friendships/mentors and more appreciation for nature, conservation and wildlife. I AM SO glad to have made the decision to send him on this expedition. I realize that this is something that would stay with him forever. According to DS' wildlife photography mentor, some of his wildlife and nature shots are much more mature and sophisticated that some of the adult photographers. I am sure his mentor is being extremely nice and supportive of DS' interests. Of course, now DS is looking forward to upgrading his lenses and camera, which would require us to shell out more money. But his passion and camera sense is very convincing to me and DH to finance some of his needs. And he has begun broaching the subject of wanting to charge us a fee for his portrait shots of his family and relatives as a way of saving some funds for his purchases(yikes!). I will post the links to his pictures once he gets them all uploaded in his blog. He has become extremely busy with the online and live classes ever since the his return from the trip. He still manages to work on his telescope and he is in the polishing his mirror currently with his dad's help.

DD begun with once a week university classes but now attends 4 times a week. She is trying out a new Latin program at the 300/400 level through Lone Pine this Fall, as she wanted a less intense course that would give her more time to spend on her college courses, art and research pursuits. Also, she wanted a program that would touch upon some history, culture along with translations. We will have to wait to see how this one works out for her. DS has been bit by the Latin bug too. He began his Latin 100 through Lone Pine along with his German through OSU and Japanese through Rosette Stone. DD has also joined her brother in doing a Linguistics course through Online G3 for fun. Both kids have begun their 9 month art course that gives them a wider exposure to various performing, visual and fine art components/ fields. We will have to wait and see how the program pans out and keeps up to its promise. Both were quite thrilled and excited by their Radio Jockeying, Charcoal drawing, and Theater programs so far. Both have begun their Aeromodelling course this month and are thoroughly enjoying the sessions. Origami sessions have ended and it is time to move on to newer interests. We have found a few clay-modeling and Stained Glass studio classes that we would like to try those for the next few months. We are quite excited about spending time with the small potters community in Pottery Town that have been involved with pottery for generations. Kids will get to make their own Ganesha out of clay this week with the help of an experienced potter. Music classes are going way awesome for both kids. And both are having a lot of fun quality time with their grandpa and other relatives :-).

I was of two minds when I thought of extending our stay. Kids and DH really do miss their US home and life and would prefer very much to return to their life back there sooner. And DH's sabbatical extension beyond Dec' 11 isn't something very clear at this point, and kids very much wanted to be back in the US if their dad was unable to extend it for another yr. But then DD realized it would be best for her to finish up her UK music board diploma exams while here, along with some more in-depth Indian and western music learning and exploration. She is also interested in trying out couple of research projects in the math/CS field. DS wants to work with couple of mentors on his research projects and out-of the box interests, which he would not probably have a chance to explore back in the US. He is also interested in going back to the rainforest for an internship with the wildlife biologist, which seems to be one of his current interests. We are just in the process of finding something meaningful to our entire family to spend our time on helping and volunteering which is quite exciting to us all. I felt some more time with our immediate family here was imperative and just one year spent on handling the chaos of settling in was just not satisfying enough :-).

We are having a wonderful time in India with all the good and bad experiences life brings us here, and we hope to spend another few months here before we head back to the US. And isn't that all life is about? --- Taking it all in the stride and enjoying every bit of life that comes our way, while growing, learning and evolving together to be better living beings? I think we are getting to understand the meaning of life and goals better as days roll by.....and quite excited about what the future has in store for us......

More of Mysore....

2011-08-08T09:15:00.000+05:30

Bandipur National Park is known for its important Project Tiger reserve, and was one of the destinations in our mini-trip. We decided to take a Safari, which turned out to be a fun one, even though it was very disappointing to see the terrible condition of the buses that were run by the Karnataka Forest Dept...The seats were extremely disappointing (see pic below). The safari tickets have pre-allotted /reserved seat numbers, and the bus is big enough to hold up to 20 members.....

The next time if we were to do a safari such as this, we would probably go through a private safari through Jungle Lodges, which takes at the most 6 people in their jeep. I wish we had planned to cover the Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala while in Bandipur, as the Bandipur National park connects both these parks.

We did not spot a Tiger of course, but plenty of other wildlife such as Wild boar, elephants, spotted deers, macaque monkeys, Gray Hanuman Langur --black face monkeys, Sambar deers, ....even spotted a few birds .... Nilgiri flycatcher, peacock, hornbill, storks, vultures.....

The condition of the seats in the safari bus run by the Karnataka Govt....

No one was issued a ticket to sit here...nevertheless, it is pathetic that the buses are not maintained as much for the price we pay per person....

Mysore Palace....all lit up :-)

Lovely Photo by my son, Archenia.

I have no idea how he managed this one...impressed with this.

Inside Mysore Palace...

We had a lovely, knowledgeable, experienced tour guide...

St. Philomena Cathedral

My son was overflowing with ideas for creative photography and was quite addicted to take pics of this fabulous architecture...

Random Snapshots...

2011-08-07T05:23:00.001+05:30

Pics from our recent Mysore road trip.

Mausoleum of Tippu Sultan...

We had a fabulous, extended boat ride in Ranganathittu, with a very knowledgeable guide. It is a bird paradise as my son calls it....We have way too many pictures of this beautiful bird sanctuary, but I am posting only a couple of pictures here. It was an unforgettable experience.

At Ranganathittu....

We were really close to the crocs....

Painted Storks....

Swallow nests underneath the rocks...

Our memorable trip to Channapatna Toy factory and showroom...Read about the eco-friendly, wooden, non-toxic Channapatna toys. Here is an interesting tidbit info on Michelle Obama's purchase of Channapatna Toys to adorn the White House :-).

Colorful array of toys...Colors by usage of vegetable dyes...

More Toys and display items..

Even more...

We came home with tons of colorful hand-made, wooden bangles:))

And of course, not without couple of old fashioned spinning TOPS:-)

Our visit to the Channapatna Toy factory took us by surprise...There are just a few artisans at work in a small one-room 'factory', with very old-fashioned tools and equipments, busy creating these fabulous pieces at ease. Way too cool, eh?

The factory...

Milk wood used in creating these toys..

Drive towards 700yr old Himavad Gopalaswamy Temple...

Picturesque mountain ranges...

The temple is situated at the ht of 1454 mts above sea level and is always covered with fog most of the time of the yr...

Temple covered with fog :-) It was extremely windy too...Oh, see the dung on the steps...? That is Elephant dung! ...It indicates that a wild elephant was around here sometime ago:-)

The temple and the area surrounding the temple is frequented by wild elephants...

Mother and baby elephant near the temple...

Art, Music, Movie and Some News!

2011-07-29T09:41:00.016+05:30

I'm not being very creative with my post-titles....:(

....... Kids are having a grand time with their cousins who are visiting us from the US. My immediate family members are getting together with us in India after 8 long years! Kids took their cousins for a taste of art classes here and of course, my sis got lured into making her own glass painting project :-). We even managed a mini-3-day-road trip to Mysore and had a fabulous time. I will post pics of our trip soon.

Cousins having fun with Lego Mindstorms....

Programming...

At Sangam in Srirangapatna...

ART: The new art work came back from the frame shop last week. We have done so much of art this past year that we don't know what to do with all the framed pieces. The thought of giving them away as gifts to loved ones did occur, but each of us feel special about some of the art pieces that it never works out to give them away, lol. Kids hope to allot a space to create an art museum sorts to display all the pieces. Since we intend to create more art, it is becoming an issue of storage too. For now, all of our art pieces are neatly placed in the Puja room....

My Glass...

My first Tanjore...I am pretty pleased with the outcome although I can point

out some imperfections in my work below.

My glass...(with other framed art behind ..:))

DD's Tanjore...

This apparently was her first Tanjore, albeit a simple one.

Music: DS has been composing music like crazy of late. When one of my friends asked him if he would compose something for her Ballet Opera performance, he was so excited that he has been on a roll with it. It is going to be an interesting experience for him as he is learning to compose to a situation by learning the background, the story, the emotions and such situation of the play / dance for which he needs to compose appropriately. I am so glad my friend offered this chance to him as he is SO psyched about creating music for a purpose :-). He began piano classes to help with his compositions and the classes are way awesome. His music teachers are his first admirers of his compositions and invariably feel very moved and teary eyed when his compositions are played. He found a way to compile all his compositions digitally.

Movie: Kids were waiting impatiently for their cousins to get here to watch Harry Potter with them in the Inox Theater. It was a wonderful dinner and a movie experience for all. My kids were quite emotional about the last HP movie. They want to do a HP movie marathon again in the next couple of weeks.

News: A lot of exciting changes are happening in our family of late. Our family has decided to extend the stay in India for one more year !!! And, we are house-hunting.....looking for a new home to move into this month.

DD will begin her university classes at the Tata Institute while DS will begin his internship in the Biological Research center this August. DS is taking off to a Rainforest Expedition with his National Geographic photographer-mentor this August as well. Both kids are also beginning their ...ahem.....dance lessons this month!!! Yep, my kids at last found the perfect dance classes, so we are all quite excited about their new lessons :-). I will post an update as the classes evolve with time.

DD has yet another violin concert coming up in November. She will be playing for a 3hr Italian Opera performance and she is super excited about the new pieces she will be learning for the same. And DS is preparing for his own solo performance scheduled to happen in October.

AND....I am getting so much better with my mobility and leg movements. I am able to walk a bit without the walker too :-). I am hopeful about walking 100percent without the walker in a few weeks. Can't wait for that to happen :-)....

We restart our birding activities this week and it has been a long time since I joined my birding friends. That will be my first test of walking outdoors in a nature trail after surgery....

....Hope you are all having a fabulous time as well!

SAT TEST RESOURCES

2011-07-22T12:31:00.001+05:30

SAT(SAT Reasoning Test formerly known as Scholastic Aptitude Test or Scholastic Assessment Test) is a standardized test for college admissions, administered by College Board at specific dates and times in a year. The entire test takes 3hours and 45 mins to complete, with three sections, Critical Reading, Mathematics and Writing. The possible scores can range from 600-2400, with 800 being the max score for each section.

Check the SAT Collegeboard for the information on the upcoming test dates, deadlines, testing information and much more.

In addition to the SAT Reasoning test, there are SAT Subject tests available that test on the specific subject content. Here is information on SAT Reasoning test and SAT Subject tests. SAT Reasoning tests are also offered through CTY(Center for Talented Youth) as part of Talent Search.

There is also PSAT/NMSQT(Preliminary SAT/ National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test) is a program offered by College Board sponsored by NMSC (National Merit Scholarship Corporation). PSAT is a baby-SAT, which helps in practicing for real SAT and also a chance to enter into competition for NMSC scholarship programs(test is taken in Grade 11).

Just a bit about our SAT experience:

SAT Reasoning scores are useful in advocacy of gifted/talented children towards programs meant for higher grades which would be otherwise not possible to access. DD took her SAT Reasoning test for the first time as a 9yr old. We registered her through College Board, by mail-in application that was picked up from our local high school in our city (as opposed to 'online' as the online application does not take the registration for kids younger than 13). Though we could have registered her through CTY Talent Search, we went through Collegeboard for some reason I don't seem to recall at the moment. I am guessing that the test dates we were looking for was not available through CTY at that time. The reason for her to take the SAT was curiosity more than anything else. She loved tests but resisted preparation. She took 6 sample tests through the College Board Official SAT book and throughly blew us away with her scores each time. Those sample tests helped her to familiarize with the test itself along with time sense and planning for each section. Although we never had to use her exceptional SAT scores for any of the college programs and classes she was taking at that time, it gave us an indication on her strengths and weaknesses. Also, extraordinary SAT scores in Math or Critical Reading qualifies one to be part of SET (The Study of Exceptional Talent). Here is more information on what SET offers to the qualified participants.

There are advantages(the way one sees it ie) if a young child is registered through CTY instead of Collegeboard. For one, the Talent search kids through CTY would be seated at the test center along with their age peers, which is sometimes important to some kids and families. When DD was registered through collegeboard, she was the only student at age 9 taking the test at that time while the rest of the students taking the test were high school aged kids. It did not affect DD to be the sole young student(but cannot say the same for us parents), but would have mattered if it were my son who was scheduled to be taking the test at that time.

We called the test center ahead of time to inform them about the young student taking the test. We also had to inquire and make sure that they were OK with the snacks and water bottle that DD was planning to take along with her. This purely depends on the test centers and proctors, as some proctors do not allow the snacks to be brought by the kids into the testing room. The SAT tests begin very early in the morning. If I remember, DD was expected to report at 7am in the morning on the day of the test. They gave her choice to of separate room for her to take the test alone which of course, our DD firmly refused. She was then given the choice of entering the room early where the test was conducted. They also let her pick the seating of her choice. Someone offered to accompany her to the restroom if needed, as the restrooms were outside of the building where the test was conducted. This particular test center turned out to be an excellent one with wonderful and considerate proctors.

It is not uncommon for the tests to run late due to some reason or the other. In my opinion, SAT is more about mental stamina to cope with the entire duration of the test than the ability to do just the math and critical reading well. Some kids manage this well despite being very young in age. And if the SAT student is very young and is just sampling the SAT test for experience or for Talent Search, he or she also have the choice of skipping the writing portion entirely when taking the test through CTY. Now that my dd turned 13, she thinks SAT to be one of the boring test there is :-).

There are many sites and resources for SAT tests and preparation. Here are a few I have researched on.

Number2.com This is absolutely free SAT prep site and all you need is to create an account to access the site.

I need a pencil.com Free SAT preparation.

Official SAT Question of the DAY. Subscribe to this collegeboard service via email to get one question each day on math or critical reading for a casual practice and learning for SAT.

100 FREE and Excellent SAT preparation tools wonderful site with many links and resources on various sections of SAT preparation.

Khan Academy There are SAT practice tests and test help in the video library. And the price is just right-FREE :-)

ACT/SAT Prep software reviews. The top ten is reviewed and compared.

SAT full practice test from collegeboard.

SAT Study Stack a list of resources and flash cards for critical reading and vocab.

Some useful links:

About.com article on SAT scores.

Comparison of ACT vs SAT tests for CTY Talent Search comparison of both tests.

Ultimate Guide to SAT: 100 Useful Sites and Resources long list of resources.

SAT Self-Study Resources by a IVY grad turned SAT prep tutor. Some useful links and resources.

SAT online Kaplan test prep program is often offered at a discounted price for homeschoolers through HSBC(Homeschool Buyers Coop).

BOOKS

There are many prep books for SAT preparation. My kids used only the Official SAT Study Guide for the New SAT to learn and familiarize about the SAT test, about managing the time and also for practice tests.

College Confidential site has a lot of discussion on SAT test and prep guides by parents and students who have used them.

Top 10 SAT prep books a list of books from the site IVY bound.

More questions on SAT tests, check the Homeschool2 college yahoo list and College Confidential for btdt advice and recommendations.

INTERESTING TV SHOWS

2011-07-19T01:26:00.002+05:30

As I wait to receive house-guests, I thought I should do a quick post on some of the TV shows we have been enjoying so far. Please preview these shows for your own family's suitability.

Dr. Who We enjoyed this show back in the US. After a long break, kids picked a few videos from the British Council Library to catch up on the shows they missed. This is one of their favorite shows to watch.

Big Bang Theory A science-y, Physics-y geeky show :-). Please be warned that there are mature language and dialogues that may not be appropriate for younger audience. Here is a review on the show from commonsense media that may give you an idea.

Heroes Science fiction based. DH and I used to be crazy about this show back in the US. We had let kids catch a few episodes at that time. It is still a very favorite show to watch :-)

Bones Crime mystery drama based on forensic Anthropology and forensic archeology. A very geeky show.

Numb3rs An interesting American drama involving a mathematical genius who helps his brother in FBI to solve crimes. The show concluded on March 2010. We used to follow this show regularly up until couple of years ago. It is time to catch up on the episodes we missed.

The Simpsons An animated satirical parody of a working class American family:-). Here is a review from commonsense media.

Monk I have enjoyed Tony Shalhoub's role in Wings, which was one of our dh and my favorite shows for many years. Monk is the comedy-mystery-drama-detective series and it makes a great show to enjoy as a family.

We find shows of Science Fiction, supernatural, paranormal phenomenon to be very intriguing. We have enjoyed watching some the episodes in Medium, X-Files, Star Trek and Ghost Whisperer so far. Of late my son has been enjoying Friends, which is still one of my favorite shows to watch along with Seinfeld and Frasier :)).

For additional TV show recommendations, check here and here.

PICTURES WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS...

2011-07-08T11:33:00.000+05:30

It has been a while since I posted here. We have been busy! We are looking forward to friends and families' visit for the next couple of months. But here are a few pictures of our recent days.

Art: The art studio is two flights up, which makes it impossible for me to climb up(no elevators in this building) to join my art-friends. My kids have been attending the art sessions without me for the past few weeks. I was pleasantly surprised when my daughter brought her Tanjore Painting home (picture below) from the art studio. She has done a great job so far considering this is her first project in Tanjore painting :-). She is still working on her stonework but I am very pleased with the outcome. I tell her that she IS an artist and hopefully someday she will believe that she is one.

DD's Tanjore painting

My Tanjore painting

a bit more work need to be done before it is complete.

DS' glass painting

His new mixed media project

(He IS crazy about Ganesha:-))

I have begun a new art project too(see below). This is my first project on Tanjore-mixed media art. I have just begun with the gold work and a lot more painting is left to complete this one. The art teacher is kind enough to send me supplies to work from home and sends me feedback through the children or over phone. Art is helping me stay sane, lol. I am enjoying it very much.

Birthday celebration: My baby girl turned 13 few days ago!!!! My sweet, intelligent little girl is turning out to be a beautiful young lady, loving friend and sometimes even takes up a role of a parent to dh and I :-).

DS at his sis' birthday celebration luncheon...

New research projects: DS has completed one math research project and now beginning another one sometime in August. He is still continuing his science project and is thinking of beginning two more. One of them is a medical project, which is requiring a lot of work on my part to figure out legalities before he could begin.

DS studying a firefly up close...

Mexican mint (Karpooravalli) -

one of the medicinal plants DS is interested in studying further...

Monsoons: We are thoroughly loving the rainy days here. It has not stopped us from taking road trips, visiting friends and families and generally enjoying the cool season.

Yes, these guys are sitting at the back of a moving truck :-)

Origami: More Origami sessions with our Origamist are being enjoyed by all :-)

More Origami creations showcased...

Ayurveda: We have been struggling to follow a regimen of Ayurvedic food preparation and healthy lifestyle all these weeks and now we have found one that the entire family has come to love. Getting to balance healthy home-based cooking/ eating and an active lifestyle has been of utmost importance to our family. We are experimenting with our own recipes based on Ayurveda. It is surprising to see both kids showing interest in cooking as well as in collecting some of our tried and true recipes. I am hopeful that they would enjoy preparing some of these recipes in their adult years :-). Yes, I have come to enjoy the cooking too:-). I have begun to make recipe books for both kids and adding some of my own recipes along with all our families/relatives' classic recipes and pictures of some memorable moments. I am hoping it would be a great present for them when they are ready to leave home for college.

Kids help in the kitchen and house chores a lot more, in addition to managing their music, academic, enrichment and PE schedules. The days are getting more productive, efficient, lovely and enjoyable. Though we have those testing/tough moments with two intense kids(is there ever a time this does not exist?), I am glad that things are looking better already with some communication, tolerance and understanding towards the teen-ness and brilliance showing the ugly head sometimes :-). Yoga/exercise, healthy eating/living/discussions, tons of family-cuddle/play time/outings, spirituality and community all is helping a ton.

Latest: Oats, soy, ragi, whole wheat flour rotis with

mung-toor dhaal, ginger/garlic and vegetables medley

and red leaves curry

Family Time: Kids are loving their time with DAD discussing either Combinatorics, Physics, Calculus, Philosophy or playing board games. Dad has been accompanying DS to his telescope-making workshops. My recent visit to the workshop to see old friends was wonderful and I realized how much I really miss being there with DS and his colleagues. The grinding is getting closer to completion and I cannot wait to see how they put things together to make it a functional telescope.

Despite so much space in the home,

they always congregate in 'my' space (my bedroom), where I am still recuperating :-)

AP MUSIC THEORY

2011-06-27T10:36:00.009+05:30

These are some of the materials we collected for the AP Music Theory test. As independent homeschoolers we found it difficult to get hold a school to offer AP Music Theory test to our child. We found out that very few schools offered this exam in our neighborhood in the bay area. It helps to act early (around late Fall to early Winter) on finding the schools that are willing to proctor this test to your homeschooled kids.

Ap Music theory course description from College Board.

Loads of resources on the College Board site.

Quizzes, notes, outlines etc. From Coursenotes.org

AP Music Theory sample questions.

Books and Materials:

Tonal Harmony by Stefan Kostka. This the text book used commonly for AP Music Theory.

Here is a list of textbooks on the College Board site.

Additional books we have come to know of...

The Music Theory Handbook by Marjorie Merryman

Music for Sightsinging, Sixth Edition by Robert Ottman

Analytical Anthology of Music by Ralph Turek

Anthology for Musical Analysis by Charles Burkhart

Practice of Harmony, The (5th Edition) by Peter Spencer

The Enjoyment of Music, Tenth Edition by Kristine Forney

Essentials of Music Theory: Ear Training for Books 1 & 2 by Andrew Surmani

The Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis by Jane Piper

The Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis: Workbook by Jane Piper

The Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis: Anthology

Barron's AP Music Theory with Audio Compact Discs by Nancy Scoggin

HarperCollins College Outline Music Theory (Harpercollins College Outline Series) by George Jones.

Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory: A Complete Self-Study Course for All Musicians (Book & 2 CDs) by Andrew Surmani.

Julie Johnson's Guide to AP Music Theory by Julie Johnson.

Teacher sites:

We really liked some of the teacher sites below. Since my daughter self-studied for AP Music Theory, some of the sites below was helpful to get an outline of how the course had to be organized over an academic year.

Wonderful course objectives and outlines here.

AP Music course at Mid-Carolina High School.

AP Music Theory lessons here.

AP Music Theory from Pingry school.

AP Music Theory Prep course through Practica Musica.

AP Music Theory curriculum and wikispaces. Wonderful resource.

AP Music Theory online classes through Pennsylvania Homeschoolers.

Additional resources:

Online music theory course.

Solomon's Music Theory resources. Wonderful resources and links.

Musician's guide to Theory and Analysis online textbook pages.

e Music Theory Online practice and drill.

Music cards. net easy music online flash cards.

Free Music Theory worksheets.

Lesson tutor many music lessons and music history pages.

Teoria Music Theory web Tutorials, exercises, references, articles etc.

Conceptual Listening Learn to identify musical elements like harmonic progressions, meters, cadences and scale degrees when you hear real music played by professional musicians. These web pages isolate various musical concepts in short excerpts to help you practice. Check out the contextual listening lesson plans here.

Music Theory. net exercises, lessons, tools and much more.

Earplane Intervals, triads, rhythms, modes, melodies, 4 note chords. They also have the "earlympics", which requires a free username and password.

Learn to sight sing for both beginner and advanced student. There are exercises for Rhythm, syncopation, triplets, intervals, accidentals, different keys, key changes and

modulations, as well as songs to practice singing.

Bigear The original online ear trainer.

Good ear. com Online ear training. Intervals, Chords, scales, perfect pitch, note location, etc.

Music Paper Many categories. General, solo, ensemble, band, orchestra, choral...

Music Dictionary Online Dictionary of music terms.

Dolmetsch Online An extensive online music dictionary.

One minute Music Theory help from Dr. Jack.

Metronome online an online metronome for practice and more.

College Confidential AP Music Theory discussions.

Also, check Music Composition and Music History pages for additional music resources.

A FEW HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR FUN DAYS....

2011-06-20T01:21:00.000+05:30

It has been 2 months since my surgery. Although I still depend on a walker to be mobile, I have been enjoying some outings with my family and friends in the past month. It is helpful that the shopping centers here offer wheel-chairs to their customers who need them (very common in the US of course :), but growing here only in the recent years). I even went on a couple of outings with a wheelchair that lacked a footrest! But that did not stop me from shopping and having fun, mind you!

The most wonderful recent experience for me has been the INOX movie theater recliner seats . Since I am unable to sit in the regular movie seats because of my injured-operated foot, my hubby has been getting us the expensive, (but not-so-expensive version, because we watch the movies few weeks 'after' the release) recliner seats, which the entire family has come to love now. We recently had a dinner and a movie(X-men) outing with a friend and thoroughly enjoyed it. BTW, X-men movie is plain awesome! I understand the story better now, LOL. Kids and I are looking forward to watching the rest of the X-men movies again sometime this week.

Inox recliner seat..:)

Say 'hello' to my feet, hehe...

The slightly swollen right foot is the injured-operated foot.

It swells up when I have my foot hanging down for long.

A very interesting thing that happened recently was that the kids split from us to have lunch on their own in UB city. Parents and kids could not agree on one restaurant. So we decided to let the kids split up to eat on their own. DH and I ate at Rajdhani(had a pretty fun date by ourselves 'without kids'...gosh after so many years!!), while the kids went to a French place by themselves. They handled the meal choices-order, payment and tips. I felt very strange to not have the kids with us, but I know this is very much needed for their growth. They need their own time of fun and experience without us. And this is going to be more frequent from now on.

Kids on their own..

(I told my dh to sneak out to get a pic of them without their knowledge:))

We have been to the Rajdhani restaurant before. The interesting thing about this restaurant is that they 'serve' food to your heart's content as per your needs ( a common practice in India in many restaurants, of course), so wastage is minimal. And the restaurant offers dishes from Gujarat and Rajasthan, which are so different from the regular North Indian (nothing but Punjabi restaurants) we are used to in the US. We love this restaurant! This is definitely a place to experience for the folks from abroad.

Dh and I on our lunch date at Rajdhani, UB City!

It has been raining everyday here!! BUT I love the rains. Except, it becomes a problem to dry clothes on the terrace. But DD has figured out by trial and error that the rains come down pouring only in the afternoons / evenings. She gets the laundry-drying done in the morning hours. And loves her time on the terrace, which she once complained so much about doing the same...:)

Enjoying the monsoon season..:)

Driver on the wheel...Thankfully!

We are enjoying our British Council Library visits. It is true that ANY book that both kids want to borrow is NOT there in the library. In fact, the librarian gets very defensive when he is unable to find the books that my kids want in the database. But my kids are less frustrated these days(what a change!). Life in India puts you in a Zen mode, LOL, with time ie! I think we are there now!!

OTOH, there are tons of UK text books on various subjects in the library. My son likes the IGCSE -- Cambridge texts on Physics, Chem and Bio. He has picked the O, A and AS level books and comparing them this week. They are very colorfully done, but unsure how they compare with the AP books from the US. This is a popular curriculum (along with IB programs) in many of the B&M schools here. My son finds a way to keep himself amused with science/math subject books -- either comparing the content/explanations or admiring /critiquing the font chices, while my daughter finds fiction and general math books to read and relax.

Few picks by DS...

Visit to dad's office cafeterias to hang out is much liked by all here! Kids love hot samosas, veg puffs and pastries from these cafes!

DH in the far out end getting some goodies for me:)

Our repeated attempts to meet with an Origamist locally here was successful only this month. My kids have done Origami before on their own and along with their friend S, who is an origami-specialist:). But after a long time, my kids get to indulge in some fun Origami creations, hear some interesting stories and participate in discussions with the Origamist on weekends. It is going to be raining Origami here for the next couple of months :-).

A few pics....

Working on a puzzle....

that becomes a dog...:)

A cool surfer with the wave from a single sheet...

Knight on a horse... made of single sheet

Turtle

INTRODUCING.....

2011-06-19T01:32:00.002+05:30

....... Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus). (Sorry to disappoint you if you expected something else, lol).

It is Jackfruit season here. Though my kids have eaten these fruits back in the US from the cans as well as just fruits from the Asian markets, they enjoyed the fun of having to cut open a huge whole fruit here:). See pics below.

Here is more info on Jackfruits.

Though this fruit looks like Durian seen in the Asian markets, the Jackfruits are usually larger.

Here is some interesting facts on Jackfruit.

Some interesting recipe sites:

Recipes from Tropical botanic garden

Some Indian recipes here.

An awesome curry recipe that uses the Jackfruit seeds. But I love my dad's recipe (from Kerala). He adds Drumstick to the Jackfruit seeds to make the spicy curry. YUM!

The prickly monster looking guy has sweet fleshy pods inside..:)

Cross-Section

A messy-sticky job of pulling the 'bulbs' or 'pods' and seeds/pits out...

A few drops of oil in a bowl, smeared often on the knife and hands helps a bit:).

Next time, I plan to wait for my maids to do the job:).

A few Seeds/Pits shown here..extremely tasty when cooked in curries or roasted.

Pods pulled out.

Can be eaten as is. But I drizzled some honey and ghee...

One child liked it so rich and the other liked it plain:)

FUN MOMENTS

2011-06-10T15:58:00.000+05:30

A few pictures taken in the past few weeks...

Enjoying a meal at one of the restaurants in Delhi

DD's orchestra practice pictures

One of DD's off-days during the workshop that she met with her brother for some violin and music composition...

On his way to do his research project clutching onto his research bag

that he has owned since age 7 :-)

DS' traffic study zones

Study under a bridge that is being constructed...

Tasty Mangoes of the season...

Red Whiskered Bulbul that keeps pecking on our window glass every morning:)

HAPPENINGS....

2011-06-05T12:12:00.001+05:30

Forgive me if my posts dwindle in the next few weeks as I anticipate our summer travel fun beginning for 'real'. When I say summer fun, it isn't really a 'summer break' per se. We do not have real long breaks in our homeschool life. We learn all through the year and take breaks when in need for travels and other pursuits, but we consider all of it as part of our homeschool/life learning. Both kids' attitude towards not wanting any break from learning suits our family very well. They have online classes, music, ad research commitments to keep up with during this 'break' from university schedules. Many brick and mortar schools here have just begun their academic year, but the university schedule begins only in Aug, so that gives my kids a couple of months to indulge in other interests in addition to travel.

DD wants to make the best use of the time available in exploring nature, art, travel and music. She had a fantastic time playing with the German Orchestra the past two weeks and the final concerts were a grand success. She has come back home refreshed with more ideas and plans for her music learning next year. She is going to be tackling some music exams through UK music board of education (will post more about this soon) and also learning a few complicated, challenging pieces in addition. She also has a concert coming up end of this month and is quite excited about soloing some parts.

DS and I had a fabulous and rejuvenating time being away from home as well. He received a wonderful email regarding his next project from the biological research center. He has got an invite for an internship in one of their labs!! He is elated with that news. He also received an encouraging email full of ideas from a scientist in Air force, who has been working on a similar ornithology project as that of DS' idea. He has a bit more research data to collect before he can write up his paper for his present traffic research study.

We have a couple of short trips to make in the next few weeks that are keeping us busy at the moment with some preparations for the same. For the starters, I have mountainous laundry from our recent trip staring at me to be dealt with, while the wet uncooperative weather with the Sun missing in action is making it impossible to air-dry the clothes on the terrace. I am missing our trusty electrical dryer back in the US. We had a wonderful appreciation brunch planned for the hard working music teacher this weekend, which was enjoyed by all. Of course, I am still hopping around with my walker but healing nicely.

We have also experienced a bumpy ride this past few weeks--some emotional and health issues to deal with as a family. It was nothing too serious, but enough to drive our family crazy for some time....We are coming out of it well and have learned more valuable life lessons through those experiences. Both my children got a taste of politics, gossip, inconsistencies, authoritarian hypocrisy etc etc which brought in some tough questions to answer as a parent for me personally. It has sparked some interesting conversations, comparisons of life in US and India and experiences as a talented gifted child in the US and India, quality of life, college and work in both countries and so on. It has also brought in some interesting learning in my oldest as to how much she wants to spread her wings and fly to new horizons, travel to various countries, taste new cultures, experience education and life in different places.

As a child-led learning family, we never hide or shield our kids from truth/ realities, no matter how harsh or ugly they are, especially when the kids demand that they know of the same. I realized after the recent experiences my kids had to go through, that my kids are more resilient than what I thought of them to be so far. Though as a parent, I hurt seeing my child hurt, I could not do much to help shield my child from those experiences apart from just listening to the child share how he or she was feeling miserable. A lot of maturing happened in these past few weeks. It has also taught my children to weigh in some of their choices for the coming year...It has hopefully taught them to choose wisely too.

On the lighter side of things, kids are looking forward to a movie day outing to watch Pirates of the Caribbean (POTC) next week. Let me tell you something: I am not a big fan of POTC movies, but usually just chaperon the kids to the movies. This time I am thinking of doing something different. DH and I are going to let the kids watch the movie by themselves while we spend some reading time in the bookstore / cafe nearby :-). There are a bunch of kids going to be watching the movie together and we think it is pretty safe to let them be. More importantly, we have seen our kids handle hotel stay, food, managing their everyday issues well by themselves this past couple of weeks. In fact, ever since my injury, both kids have been on their own shopping for groceries, medicines and such. It is true my driver drives them to places, but they handle the money and the list by themselves. They usually have a difficult time communicating things in 'Indian' English and so resort to few Kannada, Tamil, Hindi and sign language communication with the store-keeper :).

When I think about it, these kids have done pretty good managing it well all these days. During my stay in the hotel, my son had to find food for himself during the times I had to rest. He chose to go to the restaurant alone and pay for the same more than one occasion instead of opting for roomservice. I had not realized how odd a thing that is to do for a 11yr old, that too alone, until another mom mentioned that to me in admiration of DS. DS survived those occasions. Not only that, he enjoyed himself with a nice piece of pastry at the end of the meals and made friends with the restaurant crew so that they all knew him by first name basis and could name his favorite dishes :-). I was greeted as the mom to so and so whenever I happened to drop by for a snack or cup of coffee. And, DD had to manage her everyday issues by herself without any help or involvement from me for those two weeks of workshop and she did amazingly well. I am seeing my kids grow up in the real sense now..so differently than the growth one sees in the sense of just maturity and intelligence. It is bitter-sweet to be at this stage.

It is hard to believe that my daughter will be 13 in a month and is looking into colleges to join in the next few years. She is not going to joining a college full time as early as we thought she would. Instead she has found other interests / passions to keep her busy and happily occupied for a couple of years, and we could not be any happier with her choices. But she is starting her homework on college searches early and wants to have all the options in place. She is even thinking of semester abroad programs before she joins an university full time. She is growing taller day by day and also as a more polished, caring, intelligent young woman who is a wonderful friend too.

Movies that we are looking forward to watching in the next few weeks.

POTC is my kids fav. My DD finds POTC movies to be quite hilarious...

I may watch the Kungfu Panda 2 with the kids, as I like animations better :-).

Of course, we are all looking forward to the new X-men movie.

AP PSYCHOLOGY

2011-05-26T11:28:00.004+05:30

Both my kids are looking into AP Psychology for the coming year. These are some of the resources we would be looking into over next several months.

AP Psychology course page from college board. Resources for teachers and exam info.

FAQ about AP Psychology test. from about.com.

Introductory Psychology Resources Wonderful resource page for introductory psychology teachers.

American Psychological Society extensive teaching resources on various aspects of psychology.

Teaching High School Psychology a blog with helpful and useful resources for teaching AP or high school Psychology.

All about Psychology.com an extensive list of resources on book lists, course materials, texts, lectures and more.

AP Psychology text book site

Examples of text books for AP Psychology. From College Board.

Teachers' AP Psychology sites: All of these resources below have wonderful links and resources to be prepared for AP Psychology test along with course materials, reading links, PP and also projects for the course. We are not using every one of them; instead picking the ones that we need more information on in addition to the text book. Teacher websites help us to formulate a better plan for our self study.

Mr. Carroll's AP Psychology class Teacher's resource.

Mr. Shannahan's class great resource for AP psychology prep.

Mr. Wilson's AP Psychology wonderful links and materials.

Ms. Hannah's pages. Loads of psychology links.

Many AP Psychology links from an Episcopal School.

AP Psychology powerpoint pages. Variety of topics discussed here.

Psychology web resources. An excellent site with tremendous amounts of resources.

Mrs. Koch's AP Psychology page has wonderful resources on psychology projects in addition to general psychology topics.

A review of AP Psychology exam topics along with practice test.

AP Psychology reading list a list of books pertaining to AP Psychology course.

A GLIMPSE INTO MATHEMATICAL MINDS

2011-05-24T12:28:00.000+05:30

A wonderful post from the Eide's on Mathematical Minds.(pasted below). There is a lot of discussions on mathy and non-mathy minds in many e-lists I belong to. Since I have two kids who are mathy (not really talking about arithmetic abilities here) yet so different with respect to their areas of interests, this research below is quite interesting to me read. But my kids seem to fall under both Tinkering and Numbers kids, and that adds to the complexity even more, LOL. Oh we highly recommend the Fermat's Last Theorem videos which I have talked about here in this blog earlier. And to my daughter it was a momentous day when she got to meet her rockstar, Andrew Wiles.

Mathematical Minds

"Most mathematicians did not just take up math as a "job"...(most) get more pleasure out of mathematics than almost any other activity. And they often discovered this pleasure when they were young..."

While most people would agree that "math people" are not like "non-math people", it's not always easy for non-mathematical minds to recognize (and appropriately nurture) mathematical ones. The reasons for this are several - mathematical kids are often independent and internally-driven problem solvers who may or may not excel in the standard math tasks of the elementary school classroom (if he's such a math kid, how come he's getting C's on his timed drills?...) Many students with extreme talents in math may also be relatively verbal-poor, so are less obviously the "smart" children in class. Also they may be reluctant to show what they know or what they are interested in to relative strangers, and may have difficulty explaining how they arrived at answers. Many mathematical minds are dyslexic or twice exceptional in another areas, too, complicating their identification with standardized tests or screening tools.

Numbers Kids The numbers kids are perhaps the easiest to recognize - and they often come from families where one or both parents have a special affinity to mathematics (engineers, computer science, academics). It may start out with children interested in patterns and facts within mathematics (divisibility rules, cube roots, etc.), card and other games, recreational math topics (Fibonacci sequence, fractals, probability, solving problems for 'fun') or mathematics in the world of adults (e.g. Philip Davis' cousin who let him be bookkeeper at the age of 7, keeping track of a race horse's handicap and winnings).

Tinkering Kids Tinkering kids tend to enjoy conceptual science books, building and unbuilding (gears, taking apart ball point pens and toys, clocks, cameras, origami etc.), computer-related activities, projects (completed and incomplete), and beautiful and unbeautiful design.

By temperament, strong math minds will tend to be introverted and have high focus and task persistence for activities of intrinsic interest. This may mean they are difficult to direct in the traditional or even non-traditional classroom (prefer studying lines of own interest), and they may be benefited particularly by mentors (often relatives or math teachers at higher levels of education) willing to discuss topics, ideas, and problems far in advance of their years.

Silverman and Feldman have distinguished engineering / math-gifted individuals into sensor (likes facts, data, experimentation) and intuitor (prefers principles and theories) groups. Both were capable of becoming "fine engineers", but sensors with less direct success in traditional academics.

Recently, some investigators have begun to look at brain-related differences in mathematically-gifted students (to our knowledge this has not been done in professional mathematicians, engineers, physicists); in his study of mathematically-gifted adolescents, Michael O'Boyle has found that superior mathematics performance was correlated with increased bihemispheric activation (vs. unilateral activation) for mathematics tasks, enhanced involvement of the right hemisphere for information (including linguistic) processing, and strong prefrontal cortex activation. As seen in the figure above, math-gifted adolescents performing mental rotation tasks activate much more brain bilaterally than average math-performing peers.

The optimal educational pathways for young math thinkers may also vary widely. Some thrive with subject acceleration, while others plenty of free time to explore topics of personal interest - whether conceptual or technical.

Perhaps the most common feature seen in young mathematical minds is their interest is solving problems. If you have a young mathematical mind in your house and he or she hasn't seen the PBS special on Fermat's Last Theorem, check it out.It's great - sort of what Race for the Double Helix is to budding scientists. The PBS video on Fermat's Last Theorem (Youtube.com)

From Andrew Wiles:

" I loved doing problems in school. I'd take them home and make up new ones of my own. But the best problem I ever found, I found in my local public library. I was just browsing through the section of math books and I found this one book, which was all about one particular problem—Fermat's Last Theorem. This problem had been unsolved by mathematicians for 300 years. It looked so simple, and yet all the great mathematicians in history couldn't solve it. Here was a problem, that I, a ten year old, could understand and I knew from that moment that I would never let it go. I had to solve it."

DAYDREAM WITH A PURPOSE

2011-05-23T18:12:00.009+05:30

Often times I see my son stare at the ceiling or something out in the space, deeply engrossed in some thoughts with his eyes wide open. When asked he would say he had to take a break from what he was otherwise doing to 'think and dream'. I would argue with him that dream is something that comes up involuntarily and not something one creates actively by thinking about it, LOL, but never stop him from doing so. There is a reason....

I was a big time daydreamer when young, and still do a lot of it even today, hehe...but no, I am no way a visionary kind, LOL. But it was/is rejuvenating for me to indulge and daydream imagining scenarios of some major problem solving important events in which I played an important part of..hehe. This was a cool thing to do when young of course! I am taking some solace after reading this blogpost(pasted below) from Eides that maybe my son needs time to 'just think' or 'blank out' after all, and need his time to just 'do nothing and dream away'...He also keeps all that he observes as records and creates many many projects which I ...ahem...think of as useless stuff he does to kill time, but let him continue doing it anyway.

My son may also not be the visionary kind as mentioned here, but I realize that his time of doing nothing obviously productive, but just 'imagining' and 'thinking' is a good thing...especially 'if' it does not affect his other things that he needs to get done in his life. I consider this as a time to think and exercise creativity, as many philosophical, creative thoughts occur to me during those moments of my solitude, daydreaming and thinking excursions I take. And with respect to many records he keeps and many more projects he creates (most of them never get finished but always at the level of 'work in progress')....sigh...they may become more meaningful with time. For now, I just categorize all of them under a new subject in our unique homeschool/unschool/child led curriculum---as 'creative attempts and experiments'.

Off I go to attempt a rejuvenating mental excursion with my son:-)

You can read this entire blogpost here. I have pasted it below for my own reference and interest.

Why Daydreamers May Become Visionaries

Need a whole brain workout? Try daydreaming and imagining solving in the future.

In this nifty research fromHarvard, researchers found that college volunteers imagining future scenarios and solving problems there activated both the default network (also know as the "daydreaming network") and executive function brain regions. So it's daydreaming with a purpose.

The default or daydreaming network includes multiple bilateral brain areas that are turned down when external attention switches on.

May that's why many visionary personalities are often recalled as daydreamers in their childhood (and adulthood too if the truth be known) ...Maybe they were building better visionary brains in their youths while other more externally attentive childrenweren't. Wouldn't it be a pity if we don't give children time to boost their default networks?

One famous daydreamer in history was Isaac Newton: "Growing up Isaac barely maintained average grades and often lacked attention in school. Villagers looked upon his daydreaming, habits of reading for hours at a time, and keeping records of his interests as mere eccentricity.."

Isaac Newton also had the dubious honor of losing a horse that he was leading because he had been reading a book at the same time...

Find more articles like the above here.