Thought process and learning typically has two aspects - 1. The concrete - for an early learner, these would include concepts like alphabet, number, colour and shape 2. The abstract - this involves developing a thought process. Linking the concrete with our environment, creative thought process, and the like The concrete, like the name suggests, is pretty much set in stone. A will always be A, 1 will always be one (as will the quantity associated with it), red will be red, and square will be square.  As is the case with learning at any age, the children could well falter in the initial stages. They may make a mistake in identification, call out the wrong animal in the pictures, count 7 while calling 5, and so on. We have been conducting online preschool sessions pan India since May 2020, and have observed two things  1. It is natural for kids to make mistakes in the beginning 2. As adults and parents particularly, we have a tendency to immediately check those mistakes a...

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 ...