Proud moment ...way to go India !!

Can you believe it...The Government of India has an online Grievance forum at http://www.pgportal.gov.in

I AM SO PROUD TODAY !!!!

Can you imagine this is happening in INDIA ?...our India???

The govt. wants people to use this tool to highlight the problems they
faced while dealing with Government officials or departments like

1) Railways

2) Posts

3) Telecom (incl. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) &
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)

4) Urban Development (Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Land &
Development Office (L&DO), Central Public Works Department (CPWD),
etc)

5) Petroleum & Natural Gas

6) Civil Aviation (Air India, Airports Authority of India, etc)

7) Shipping, Road Transport & Highways

8) Tourism

9) Public Sector Banks

Allahabad Bank Andhra Bank Bank of Baroda Bank of India Bank of
Maharashtra Canara Bank Central Bank of India Corporation Bank Dena
Bank Indian Bank Indian Overseas Bank Industrial Development Bank of
India Ltd National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Oriental
Bank of Commerce Punjab & Sind Bank Punjab National Bank Small
Industries Development Bank of India State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur
State Bank of Hyderabad State Bank of India State Bank of Indore State
Bank of Mysore State Bank of Patiala State Bank of Travancore
Syndicate Bank UCO Bank Union Bank of India United Bank of India
Vijaya Bank

10) Public Sector Insurance Companies

GIC of India Life Insurance Corporation of India National Insurance
Company Ltd. The New India Assurance Company Ltd. The Oriental
Insurance Company Ltd. United India Insurance Company Ltd.

11) National Saving Scheme of Ministry of Finance

12) Employees' Provident Fund Organization

13) Regional Passport Authorities

Regional Passport Office, Ahemadabad Regional Passport Office,
Amritsar Regional Passport Office, Bangalore Regional Passport Office,
Bareilly Regional Passport Office, Bhopal Regional Passport Office,
Bhubaneswar Regional Passport Office, Chandigarh Regional Passport
Office, Chennai Regional Passport Office, Cochin Regional Passport
Office, Coimbatore Regional Passport Office, Dehradun Regional
Passport Office, Delhi Regional Passport Office, Ghaziabad Regional
Passport Office, Goa Regional Passport Office, Guwahati Regional
Passport Office, Hyderabad Regional Passport Office, Jaipur Regional
Passport Office, Jalandhar Regional Passport Office, Jammu Regional
Passport Office, Kolkata Regional Passport Office, Kozhikode Regional
Passport Office, Lucknow Regional Passport Office, Madurai Regional
Passport Office, Malappuram Regional Passport Office, Mumbai Regional
Passport Office, Nagpur Regional Passport Office, Patna Regional
Passport Office, Pune Regional Passport Office, Raipur Regional
Passport Office, Ranchi Regional Passport Office, Shimla Regional
Passport Office, Srinagar Regional Passport Office, Surat Regional
Passport Office, Thane Regional Passport Office, Trichy Regional
Passport Office, Trivandrum Regional Passport Office, Visakhapatnam

14) Central Government Health Scheme

15) Central Board of Secondary Education

16) Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan

17) National Institute of Open Schooling

18) Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti

19) Central Universities

20) ESI Hospitals and Dispensaries directly controlled by ESI
Corporation under Ministry of Labour

Many of us say that these things don't work in India .
Couple of months back, the Faridabad Municipal Corporation laid new
roads in his area and the residents were very happy about it. But 2
weeks later, BSNL dug up the newly laid roads to install new cables
which annoyed all the residents. A resident used the above listed
grievance forum to highlight his concern. To his surprise, BSNL and
Municipal Corporation of Faridabad were served a show cause notice and
the guy received a copy of the notice in one week. Government has
asked the MC and BSNL about the goof up as it's clear that both the
government departments were not in sync at all.

So use this grievance forum and educate others who don't know about
this facility.
This way we can at least raise our concerns instead of just talking
about the 'System' in India .

Invite your friends to contribute for many such happenings.

Stanford Commencement Addresses

The first one is Steve Jobs; the man who gave the world the Mac, the iphone, PIXAR...and much more...
This one was in 2005.
A great one to listen to and pay attention to the minute things that shaped the man !!!!!!!!!



Another Stanford Commencement Address, this time from my favorite Oprah Winfrey, and I just love the way she goes 'O -8' coz it's the 2008 commencement !!! Watch it and enjoy

Amazing kid of mine...

Today after the regular tooth-brush routine, I sent Aadu to wipe his face while I busied myself with my tooth-brush. While I try to get to the tooth right at the back, I hear an impatient 'Mamma...mamma...look at me..' I turn and look at him to convey that it is not the best time to call for me; but then I notice the clothes in his hands, he has brought his pooh-shirt and a coloured shorts, and then tells me 'mamma, I got my day-clothes'. !!!
I ask him to wait but he is really impatient ...so he goes to the room and takes off his night dress shirt and wears his pooh-shirt !!!!!!!! ON HIS OWN !!!!!!!!!! Wow I was grinning with the froth and the tooth-brush still in my mouth !!
Then he wears his shorts (this he has been doing for 1.5 years almost)
I was super impressed with him, and sent up a silent prayer of Thank you to my friend in heaven for sending me Aadu :)

I am hoping to have a little something special for the 14th of this month, as it will mark the 6 months to his surgery; I am thinking of doing a blog-book writing about the entire experience that we had as a family, special focus on me the mother and Aadu for enduring all that. What say? Should I do the blog-book?
Blog-book coz it will have limited entries...or should I make it an on-going blog?
Suggestions please!!!!!!!!!!!

Dhipadi Dhipang....

I just loved this song, and this version sung by Dr. Salil Kulkarni is (according to me) better than the original that was sung by Avadhut Gupte. If anyone has more video links of this particular competition 'Yudha Taryanche, Swapna Swaranche' please please please send me the links.
The final winner was Prasad Oak. That's where my knowledge on the subject ends.
Enjoy this number and I warn you, you'll be wanting to get up and shake a leg or two !!

This cheered me up

The much awaited sequel to the classic Evolution of Dance is finally out!!
I saw it this morning and liked it but honestly I liked the first one better.
Here is the Evolution of Dance 2.




Liked it??? Well i'm sure you did; and for all those that did not watch the first one, here it is. It is the most watched video on youtube and the guy Judson Laipply also featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show to showcase his skills. I'll dig out more info about Judson to share with you all.
Enjoy this one!!

Aaditya's Admission test at GIIS

Today we went to GIIS (Global Indian International School) for Aaditya's admission test.
Once the fees was paid, one teacher escorted us to the KG1 Lily classroom, where she handed over the worksheet to the teacher sitting inside, the teacher (inside) asked us if he will be OK inside alone, we said 'yes he will be OK'
We were outside the classroom, and peeped in from the window to see what Aadu was doing, we saw that he was sitting on a chair next to the teacher and was talking to her !!
Then we did not look further thinking that it may distract him.

After about 10 minutes, teacher and Aadu came out. She said "he has done well, he is good with numbers, but tracing - he finds it difficult; is he left handed?" We said, he prefers his left hand but at times chooses to write with the right hand also. Again she said "But he has done well"

So we then went to the office to ask what is the next procedure, to which they said, they will let us know in a week.

Once we were out of school, I asked Aadu what was in the paper that the teacher had. He said there were shapes - square, rectangle, heart and star.
There were numbers - 2 and 3.
I asked if any alphabets like A,B,C were there - he said no ABC was there.

So all in all he knew what he did inside with the teacher. He liked the school and the teacher also.

So now lets wait for one week so that we know what next to do.

Vicks VapoRub can harm children under 2

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Vicks VapoRub, a common cold remedy, can cause respiratory distress in children under 2 when inappropriately applied directly under the nose, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

They said using the Procter & Gamble Co product in this way can cause a young child's tiny airways to swell and fill with mucus, triggering severe breathing problems.

"The only problem we've seen is in a small child when it has been put under the nose," Dr. Bruce Rubin of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, said in a telephone interview.

Rubin said the ingredients in Vicks can be irritants, causing the body to produce more mucus to protect the airway. And since infants and young children have airways that are much narrower than those of an adult, any increase in mucus or swelling can narrow them severely.

"The company is really clear it should never go under the nose or in the nose for anybody and it shouldn't be used in children under 2," said Rubin, whose study appears in the journal Chest.

While the researchers only tested the Vicks product, Rubin said similar products, including generic versions, could cause the same negative effects in infants and toddlers.

Rubin and his colleagues began looking at use of the medication after treating an 18-month-old girl who developed respiratory distress after the salve was put under her nose.

They studied ferrets, which have an airway anatomy similar to humans. In the animals with a chest infection, the product increased mucus secretion and decreased the animal's ability to clear mucus.

"We were able to document changes that we think explain this," Rubin said.

David Bernens, a spokesman for P&G, said the finding came as a surprise. "Vicks VapoRub has been proven safe and effective through multiple clinical trials. It has been in the market for over 100 years," Bernens said, noting that the label says the product should not be used in children under age 2 without a doctor's advice, and not under the nose.

"We warn people not to do that," he said.

Since the initial episode, emergency doctors at the medical center have begun asking all parents of children in respiratory distress if they used the Vicks product in a similar way and they have seen two more cases, Rubin said.

"I recommend never putting Vicks in, or under, the nose of anybody -- adult or child," Rubin said in a statement, adding that he would never use it in a child under age 2.

Dr. James Mathers, president of the American College of Chest Physicians, said in a statement that parents should consult their doctor before giving any over-the-counter medication to infants and young children, particularly cough and cold medications, which can be harmful.

(Editing by Maggie Fox)

Source http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE50C14Z20090113?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100&bcsi_scan_E3AC49DC1C2F16E3=Dejw839g9WRqbWUgTYS68loAAADsdQch

In one of our post regarding treating colds, I had mentioned about using Vicks on feet, I am glad I shared that with you all and happier still coz I followed it myself. For those who wish to read the past post on treating colds; follow this link: Treating Colds

A long walk to freedom

This is the title of the Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, which I had bought recently. I was pretty excited about my first owned autobiography, you can read about it here in the past post.
It was actually a page-turner, each page filled with engrossing details, and they are put in such a lovely language, that one often stops and wonders where the man got such beautiful words from?
The book is quite detailed, but never gets boring, you want to read every word printed.

I will refrain from going into details of what is written as it might spoil the fun for some who have not read it so far.

For me the book had a few lessons in store, firstly, always to believe and stand by your principles; secondly to stand by your people; thirdly to look for the good in everyone else. Last but not the least is the lesson to always move ahead and look up in life.

I enjoyed this book immensely and recommend it to everyone.

TV or no TV?That is the question

As a mother of a preschooler & toddler, I keep reading books & articles on how to encourage learning in young children.I encourage outdoor play & explorations with sand & water.I read to them almost everyday and take them to the library once a week (I started reading to them rather late,when they were around 2,but they still seem to like books).However, one medium which continues to baffle me is television.

From what I have read about children & television, I really cannot make out whether TV is good or bad for children.From time to time I,like most other parents, have used the TV as the "electronic babysitter" even though I keep reading horror stories about how TV can cause attention deficit disorders and how some children really get addicted to it & watch 6-7 hours of TV! I actually panicked a bit when I read that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that children under 2 not be allowed to watch any TV because I used to keep my younger child in a bouncer in front of the TV when he became mobile whenever I needed to get something done! I used to do it occasionally and not more than thirty minutes....but I still felt a bit sick in my stomach & wished that I had known this before!

I can understand that too much of TV is bad for children because it keeps them from doing more productive activities like playing & jumping around.But what about TV in small doses? (like one hour a day). All the parents out there with different kinds of experiences & ideas ......let's have a discussion on this.

Khari - made

I bought a pack of Puff Pastry sheets, I found the Pampas brand in Village Grocer.

I took two sheets, and layered them one on top of the other, with little ghee in between. I cut them into rectangles, and then into smaller rectangles, I twisted some to make the twisted-version of Khari.I put the cut pastry onto a greased baking tray, put in in a pre-heated oven at 200 C for 25 minutes.
So that is the easy-weasy way to making some yummy, crunchy, crispy Khari.

Do try it and let me know.

Note: Do follow the baking instructions on the pastry pack that yo buy. Each brand has it's own temperature and time settings.
If you want to use multiple layers of pastry like I did, after brushing on some ghee/butter make sure that you roll it out a bit with a rolling pin.

Yippieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee !!! I fount it

I am literally hanging by the roof and swinging from one fan to another in total crazy excitement.....yes....yippieeeeeeeeeee I FOUND IT.....................
I found the easiest recipe to make 'Khari Biscuit'.
Khari Biscuit or just Khari as we call it, is a baked pastry which is eaten with tea...just dip it in ur cup and enjoy !! I love the Hindustan bakery small-ones, the Santosh bakery twisted ones and even the New Poona Bakery ones..
Here is a picture of what Khari. (courtesy superstock.com)I found the recipe on Enjoy Indian Food an amazing blog with loads of recipes for all of us hungry people!!
I sent the link to Amol, who jumped at the prospect of having home made Khari, so he's going to fetch the sole ingredient required i.e. Puff Pastry sheets.
We will be making these tonight or then first thing tomorrow morning. That's when I'll give you my version and my own photos etc.
Wonder where I can find the recipe for those 'cream rolls' !!!

I got (e)mail

This came into my inbox today....do read it

Rahul Welde, Asia Pac media head of Unilever, and a friend to many of us, made it out of his sixth floor room on the Taj through sheer presence of mind and faith in God. Am sharing with you all the email he sent upon returning home.
_______________________

Subject : Lucky to have survived ; Living in good shape

My heartfelt thanks to you for your support and wishes during the horrific experience. I havent yet had a chance to connect with everyone and hence this bulk mail - this is so not my way of doing it. My apologies for that.

I want you to know that this is NOT a mindless forward but a straight message from someone you've known.

I wont go much into details of what happened that night. To cut the long story short - I was holed up in my room at the Taj hotel the fateful night of the terrorist attack. Managed to escape by the skin of my teeth at around 4 am - in sheer denial of allowing fire and smoke to swallow me. By gods grace I managed to make the run down 6 floors and some few metres without the devil in my way. You can imagine how happy I am to be here typing this away. ( For anyone who wants to know the gore - let me know. I have the full story and transcripts of my SMSes recorded for posterity - to keep my anger burning and reminding me of my purpose)

I thought I'd leave a few messages which might be of help to all good people. In the modern day world, risks are a plenty. Terrorists, tsnunamis, earthquakes - the list can go on. None of these check on your profile, company, religion, class or seniority when they hit. They just hit. And we know now it can happen anywhere. Here are a few things we could all do to keep it safer and better.

Firstly, value your family and friends. Two things I strongly recommend you check on

1. Make sure you are covered well by insurance. Even if you are well off - leave them better off if the unfortunate were to happen.

2. Let them know details on things like bank accounts, investments etc. Keep a folio with your spouse and close family.

3. Use every waking moment to cherish what you have - family, friends, nature. Stay smiling, laughing and caring.

Admittedly these arent things I thought about deeply till now. I shudder at the thought of what if.

Lets move from the philosphical to the more practical.

There are a few lessons that I want to share

1. When in a hotel or a new place - please NOTE where the FIRE EXIT is. The fire exit route saved my life. I had no clue of where it was and why I ran where I did. Why I turned left or right. Providential escape for me - nothing more. I've stayed in hotels for years and don't remember ever paying attention to this. Its a few seconds invested that can save you from big trouble.

2. Insist on taking a room in the outer periphery - where the fire brigade can reach you. My room was on the inside and I tell you what - there was no chance the fire brigade would ever reach me. They would have always been a few yards but several hours away. Ever thought of this detail.

3. A key item on your survival kit is your cellphone. I give it to Apple for developing the Iphone - a real smart gadget. Whatever your phone – a critical checkpoint is battery life. Often we wait for battery to go down before charging. Dont ! Keep it full charge all the time. All the SMSes saved my senses and maybe even my life.

4. I learnt for the first time that when running through fire and/or smoke - run bending down and wrap a wet blanket around. I did that thanks to a friend who advised me. Its a different story I chucked the blanket thinking that the cops would gun me down mistaking me for a terrorist. Good tip nevertheless.

5. Dont miss the aspect of staying fit - in running shape. Can help you and maybe even you can help someone.


Last few days I have heard/read a lot about peace marches and candles and politician bashing and police bashing and whatever else. I am sure a lot of energy will go in all that. Having been there I can only say that every soul - the cop, the fireman, the medico and even the common man on the street was doing the best he could. I dont blame anyone. I am sure good will prevail over evil in the long term. The short term blips we cannot avoid.

I have a lot to say and yet not much more. God is the greatest and leads to the ultimate destiny. I am thankful for all that has been and all that there is now.

Happy to be writing to you and wishe you and the family best for times ahead.

Am sure we will be in touch. Till then.

Regards

Rahul

ps : feel free to forward this to anyone you think might find the message useful to know.

The Mom Song - for all moms out there

I'm sure you will like it.
I saw it on Dreaming Reality, and knew that I must put it up for all my mommy readers too.
Njoy !!!!

Reading update

Just a quick one to let you all know that I finished reading 'My Favourite Wife' two days back, and since have started on the autobiography...and it's been great so far.
Will let you know once I am done or may post a passage that I love...

I bought my first autobiography!!

For long I have cherished a dream of collecting autobiographies of people that I consider to be 'inspirational'. Now that does not in any way mean that they have to be famous. But again come to think of it, only famous people have published autobiographies....I would love to read/collect those that are not 'famous'.
Well today was a step ahead in starting my dream. I bought "A long walk to freedom" an autobiography by Mr. Nelson Mandela.
I saw it at Popular, while we were at the IOI Mall today.

I will start reading it tonight. But I think I want to give it it's own time, coz right now I am reading "My favourite Wife" by Tony Parsons. The two books are from very different spaces, and time; hence my apprehension of starting the new book today. But lets see how it goes...

Wish me luck for good reading !!

Cutest tools I ever saw

Browsing my O Magazine's October issue, I came across these tools, they are yummy, they are made with ladies in mind and they are tied up with a great cause of Breast Cancer....the best part is that they are pink !!!!!!!!!!!

















I loved them as soon as I saw them and more so because of the cause they supported.
They are from TomBoy Tools (www.tomboytools.com).
The pink hammer is my personal favourite, it costs $15, and $3 per hammer goes to Susan G. Komen for cure.

I like doing my own minor repairs at home, it is quite nice to see what you can achieve if you know to handle just the basic tools.

I love these pink tools, so if anyone out there wants to send me a gift ...now you know what to send!!

I am back

I am back, well I knew I would get back to writing but I never imagined that I would be pushed into it by something so maddening so insane so..un-thinkable. I am talking about the Mumbai terror attacks...
All of us have seen, read, heard about the ghastly attacks and time and again it makes me want to talk...talk about making a difference, not about who is to be blamed, who is at fault. I feel as citizens of the largest democracy, we need to balance out all that freedom with some commitment and duties as well.
On a personal level I was fighting an emotional battle...now that I am back to KL, and having to fend for myself physically and more so emotionally, I found myself draining off all my energy and the emotions that were sent away to a locker located deep inside my heart are suddenly surfacing and are demanding their right to be heard and to be dealt with.
It was/is this emotional battle with myself that has been keeping me busy and not in the 'mood' to write. I spent a lot of time reading what other people are blogging about, how they have something nice to always share with the audience. I was trying very hard to get back into doing the same myself, but I needed a push...and boy what a push I got....
The 3 days that we all saw bruised us all, the news reports, the reactions that people had...all were just and worth a read. But somewhere I wanted to read something reassuring, something that said to me "we can always make our tomorrow better". Being the eternal optimist that I am.
I chanced upon this article written by Chetan Bhagat. It made me feel OK. I hope you find some solace after reading it.

'So why did you move back to India?'

DNA

Sun Nov 30, 2008 03:41 IST

Sick of screaming anchors, gory visuals, and tired of well-meant calls, Chetan Bhagat took a walk to the Trident

I had to get out. I had to do that walk to Trident. It was Friday evening. I didn't tell anyone at home as I left my apartment at Mantralaya. I took the short walk towards Marine Drive, passing the homes of politicians - the powerful people who run this country.

I had in my house an acquaintance who had been rescued from the Trident. I wanted to talk to her, but she had to rest after two sleepless nights. She had a flight to catch, to get out of this country we call home. I was sick of the screaming TV journalists and the gory visuals. I was tired of the well-meant text messages, calls and emails that came from around the world - "r u nd family ok?" Physically yes, mentally no way. I replied to all of them, thanking them for their concerns.

I wanted to get away from two questions the most. The first kept coming from our friends in Hong Kong, from where we had moved earlier this year: "So why did you move back to India anyway?", I got asked five times a day.

The second came repeatedly from my 4-year old twin boys: "Daddy, why do we have holidays?" I had no good answers.

I reached the barricades at the LIC building, where vehicles had to stop. I walked ahead and reached the Air India building, the closest point that the security forces allowed us near the Trident-Oberoi hotel.

Four sets of people were present. First, the truckloads of army men, ready to go in and face death if required. Their camouflage uniforms and grass-covered helmets were more suitable for jungles in border areas than downtown Mumbai. They were the only hope that this crisis would end; the only hope that a few organisations in India still work.

The second group was the media. I recognised a few cameramen, as I'd seen them at my book launch or at the premiere of Hello. Today, they weren't scrambling to get a byte from Salman.

Their shocked zombie eyes tried to zoom in as much as possible on the stillness of the two white towers. We watched the various rooms, each a tiny fishbowl of humanity. It was the most luxurious and scariest prison in the world at the moment. Unlike TV, there was a tremendous silence as there were no voiceovers.

The third set of people, the most heartbreaking, were the relatives of people stuck inside. They stood helpless, with no reliable information as they called hospital after hospital. They latched on to hope and energy, which dwindled by the hour.

The fourth set was clueless people like me. We didn't know why we were there. It was dangerous, we were not directly involved, and all updates came on TV anyway.

Still, I had to come, maybe to get away, maybe to assuage a bit of guilt at being safe, maybe to show defiance.

The army trucks drove in for the final encounters. I looked again at the two five-star hotels of my poor country. We don't have a lot of these. Still, someone out there has a problem with us having a few world-class symbols of progress. Someone out there doesn't believe we deserve a peaceful country and a city where work actually gets done. Someone out there feels heroic in crushing a billion people's spirit.

I looked at Marine Drive. The queen's necklace looked beautiful on an unusually clear night, except that there were no hand-holding couples sitting on the promenade. Love had taken a backseat as my country dealt with another night of hate. I and the others gathered looked at the fishbowl windows again. I felt my eyes well up. Because of this tragedy, someone had the audacity to question my decision to come back to my own country. I felt terrible. I walked back home, taking a last glance at a set of relatives who had sensed the inevitable but were yet to acknowledge it.

I dropped off our guest at the airport. We stayed silent throughout the drive.

I returned home at night and slipped into bed with my sons. Their child-like stubbornness was making them ask the same questions again and again till they got an answer.

"Daddy, why do we have holidays?" said one.

"Daddy, why do we have to stay inside for so long?" said the other. I had to answer.

"Some bad men are trying to hurt Bombay. They are outside so we stay inside," I said.

"Who's going to save us? Which superhero will come," said one.

I paused as I looked into their little, sleepy eyes.

"You will. And that is why you came back from Hong Kong," I said as they drifted off to sleep.

Potato printing-a fun activity for kids

My daughter Ibnat,like all other preschoolers, loves art & craft activities. So last Saturday I thought of arranging a potato printing activity for her. In the night before when she was asleep I made the potato stamps.I cut some big potatoes in halves and and drew some designs on them (such as triangles,a cross etc.) carved out the designs by a sharp knife.I then stored the carved potatoes in a plastic container.

The next morning I explained to her what she need to do to make the potato prints.I mixed two wide containers of poster colors for her so that it is easy for her to dip the potatoes.She dipped the potatoes in paints and made the stamps on a paper. She was all excited to see the interesting patterns on the paper.She was engrossed in this activity for quite a while & thoroughly enjoyed it.

For potato printing the materials required are simple.They are:

• Large potatoes
• Poster colors (primary colors look good)
• A sharp knife
• Marker
• Large saucers
• Paper or card
• Paper towels or an old rag for wiping off excess paints

Potato printing is a fun activity for kids.You can also involve your kids in the drawing of the patterns on the potato but I didn't do so because since I have another toddler I did not want to do the carving with the sharp knife around the children!

Potato printing can be used to make wrapping papers & greeting cards.Your child can add details to the prints with glitter or colorful pens.Other vegetables such as ladyfingers and carrots can also be used.

Art & craft activities such as these boost children's creativity and encourage them to think "out of the box".It also improves their concentration and gives them the satisfaction of creating something of their own.

Care of contact lenses-something I didn't know!

I have been wearing contact lenses since the past fourteen years but there is something that I didn't know about contact lens wear until recently.

I went to my optometrist the other day for a fresh supply of my monthly lenses and after the eye check-up I was just reading a small poster on the wall regarding contact lens care.There I discovered that it is not advisable to wear contact lenses while swimming or during shower (especially during swimming).The primary reason one should avoid wearing contact lenses in the swimming pool is that the water is generally contaminated and so there exists a risk of bacterial infections.If the contact lens wearer wants to absolutely wear the lenses during swimming then he should wear good quality goggles to protect his eyes or use daily disposable lenses on the days that he is swimming.

Ballet for preschoolers

About one and a half month ago I enrolled my three year old preschooler in a ballet class in Crestar Learning Centre.I thought of enrolling her because a wanted her to engage in some extracurricular activities and since she already enjoys dancing I thought that a dance class is where she can have a lot of fun.

The program that I have enrolled Ibnat in is known as "Bebe Ballet" and the emphasis is not strictly on ballet postures and exercises but on creative self-expression and on emoting "make-believe" situations.For example,the teacher would ask the children to imagine that they are in a forest and they are the elephants,lions and rabbits.Popular nursery rhymes are also used and ballet moves are added here and there.

Parents can watch the children's dance during the class and this is something I really love.Watching little girls in pink leotard and tutus dancing away to great music is really enjoyable and forty five minutes pass away in the blink of an eye!

In the first class Iba was very distracted but by her third or fourth class she was able to pick up the basic moves.

The most important thing is Ibnat is enjoying her ballet class.

Any form of dancing is good for children because it teaches them coordination and balance.Regular dancing also enhances motor skills and increases flexibility of the body.