Winter is coming! Or well, by Indian standards, it's already here in certain parts of the country. In Gurugram, where I stay, you can already see people in light jackets, and the kids can already be seen in sweaters. And you know what that means. It's soup season! 😃. And today we are here to share the Morning Glorie special! Yes, this is our tried and tested vegetable soup recipe, in use since 2011, loved by kids from 6 months to 10 years. Might I add that this was one dish we were not allowed to skip from the daycare (our daycare in South City 1 , Gurgaon) menu in any week. The soup, along with pasta/noodles was the Friday lunch special. It was one of the first meals (and wholesome to the boot) for our creche babies (when they started on solid food), and for the older lot it was just the most anticipated meal of the week. Even if the daycare centre in South City 1 was closed on a Friday for any reason, this meal had to be cooked on Thursday. Of course there could be some exce

 Seven full months into the pandemic, it is time to address the elephant in the room - online preschool as a concept in India. I am talking here about "learning" modules for children in the age group of 2 to 4 years. Why do I call it elephant in the room, you ask? Fundamentally, for such small kids, there has been a lot of discussion about how these children are so small, that even if they miss out on schooling for this one year on account of the pandemic, it is ok. There is also, of course, the major concern on increased screen time. And the fact that children typically go to preschool for peer group interaction, and not heavy-handed learning. These are all, of course, very valid concerns. These and many more crossed our mind as well, before we decided to take the plunge and take Morning Glorie virtual. Our own parent body knows how strongly we have advocated the screen-free environment in the past - not just for toddlers, but for children across ages. Which is why, even our

 We are now into the 8th month since the first lockdown was announced during the Covid crisis. Naturally enough time has gone by that we have all somewhat learnt to adapt to the "new normal", well, more or less. This still isn't normal, and we are all still struggling at some level or the other.  The children are facing their own set of issues, but here, we are talking about your major struggles/points of concern with regards to your children during this period. We asked you all what your major concerns were. We came up with what we thought you could have struggled with the most. This list mostly came from our discussions with our parent body, what our own teachers were facing, and what we were witnessing among our own family and friends. This is what some of you had to say (Note - we are not revealing any personal information/names. We respect your privacy): By and large, increased screen time appeared to be a major point of concern for everyone. This is irrespective of

 I know this sounds big, and it fundamentally is. Just like we expect to be treated with respect, nature would like it too. But again, just like it's the simple actions which denote respect in our interactions with each other - parent and child, teacher and child, friends (irrespective of age), colleagues and acquaintances - it's the simple actions that denote our respect towards nature and Mother Earth as well. For parents and educators alike - children look up to us, and emulate our behaviour. So always, always, always, only "preach" (for the lack of a better term) what you practice yourself! And if there is something you are not doing, which you would like them to do, then learn to do it together - the onus is on you, not them, not yet. For parents, educators as well as the children - how can we respect nature? GREEN EARTH EQUALS CLEAN EARTH Plant more trees Make this an activity to do with your children. Plant seeds with them, nurture those seeds. Speak with the c

A couple of weeks back, we had shared a blog post with focus on reduce, reuse and recycle. There we had shown a picture of a common sight in many cities - a towering landfill, stinking because of mixing different types of waste. One portion of that waste is plastic waste, which creates major problems because of the following: 1. It is non-biodegradable . That means it cannot be broken down by living organisms 2. Put a little differently, it is poison for living things. It cannot get absorbed or digested in their bodies, and by that same logic, if consumed, it does not come out of their bodies These pictures are pretty common sights these days, and not just in India anymore, though the magnitude may be higher here. One finds animals on the streets foraging for food in waste generated by us, the food often left in plastics. These plastics often end up in the stomachs of these animals, who do not know what they are consuming. A lot of our plastic waste ends up in water bodies, and ultimat