Week 2. And more of the same.

Week 2 began and ended the same way, without a fanfare.

We ran around the building and worked out in front of a TV. We did court runs on a pretend squash court (which is actually a badminton court painted on the driveway) and we made up stories with pretend friends. We played more chess and practised more piano. We learnt the numbers in Mandarin (also, some nursery rhymes) and we made faces in the mirror while practising our ISL. Baba and Mamma bears went about their work, spending slightly less time with us. We shifted our clothes to our room (now that we have one) and started to sleep alone on our bed.

Once in a while, we refused to eat something or do something (though we haven’t yet thrown a tantrum in our just above 6 years of life; perhaps we don’t know how) and either convinced Baba and Mamma with a good reason why we won’t, or they convinced us with a good reason. Did we tell you that the only way we can get someone to do what we want, or do ourselves what someone else wants is if we have a good reason? A good reason means something that is not just, ‘because I say or want so’, but more detailed and elaborate in explaining why something needs to be done, or in some cases, not done. Baba says that one should always have a good reason for everything.

We have been without some tutors (ISL, Maths, and Science) for a week now, but we have utilised most of the time reading (we finished the Wimpy Kid) and practising the hula hoop. Unfortunately, Baba can’t teach us because both Baba and Mamma are big fat bears and cannot really move their hips the way this thing needs. Maybe we’ll learn it all by ourselves.

By the way, one day when Baba was away at some work and there was no car and no Vikas Kaka, we walked to our piano class with Mamma. Did you know that Gypsy, our piano teacher’s cocker spaniel, was shivering and we were so worried that night about her (it turned out she had just had a bath and was not really ill; what a relief).

We also enjoyed the cooking and storytelling classes by Mamma. We made up songs, and we danced to Alexa playing Allen Walker and Katy Perry, though we also like Ode to Joy and Turkish March. We made cards for Masi’s and Mamma’s birthday and we snuggled with Baba in the afternoon. We made paper planes and boats and threw them from our balcony and floated them in the ponds that form in the garden. We played in the rain and plucked flowers to put in our hair. We wrote postcards to our friends (who are now staying in far-off places) and we decorated our room (with Mamma bear, who has such a sense of beauty and style that we wish we could be like her). Did you know that you could make hearts wherever you made a mistake in your letter? That way, even your mistakes look pretty and whoever is reading the letter gets to smile. After all, who doesn’t love hearts?

We cut guavas from the only guava plant in our terrace garden and shooed away parrots from pecking our not-yet-ripe custard apples. We learnt how to use the knife and how to ‘centre’ ourselves through guided meditation with Mamma. We sent Aji voice messages (she gets scared when she is alone in the new house at night, but we told her that ‘fear is her friend’ and she can be scared but still be OK) and we made surprises for Raavi, our American cousin, who is in India, and we are going to meet on Saturday.

All-in-all, it was a regular week. We learnt, we played, we practised, and we had fun. Nanaji was not keeping well, and that kept Mamma and Masi busy. Aji was shifting and that kept Baba busy. The new office for Tasha & Girl was coming up, and Mamma, Baba, and Vikas Kaka were working hard on that. And then, there was all the searching and interviewing for new teachers that was going on too. Mamma was doing a lot of research on online scheduling and record-keeping and she tried Outfluence, HomeSchoolPanda, SchoolElement, CoolG, EduFlex, Entrar, PupilPod, and some more, to finally settle on HomeSchoolPlanet. Maybe if you wish, you could try them too.