BCM Exercise

We all have our annual BCM exercise where the primary location would be shut down and we have to make sure all our applications work from the BCM site. But have you heard BCM exercise conducted by the school? The little girl had one a couple of months back.

The girls were given a notice with all the details on how to work in case of an emergency and the school had to shutdown. All of them were given a login id and site and asked to make sure it was accessible. On the BCM day, they had to study from home. The lessons were on the site, with powerpoint slides and worksheets. They had to go through them and do the worksheets and submit them. The teachers would then mark them. Looking at this, we were thinking of our school days when we would eagerly wait for some emergency to occur so that schools are closed. Especially when there are exams or tests. I remember how we cribbed when MGR passed away during the school holidays. We felt he had robbed us of a holiday!!

Some updates

First and foremost, we won the second place in Shruti's Artsy Crafty for September! Vini @ Pooh's den sponsored the prize and the gifts were wonderful. The little girl was thrilled. Thanks Shruthi and Vini.

This year we are going to India for Diwali. It's been sometime since we visited India during Diwali. I'm sure the kids would be amazed by the firecrackers there. Hope the little boy is not afraid and enjoys it.

The other day we were going through an activity book and there was a page where you guess the next in the sequence. There were a sequence of shapes with the last box having a question mark. The boy was pointing to each box and telling the shape and when he came to the last box, without a pause he told "Mystery Mousekatool!"

Party entertainments

The Little Boy's birthday falls on this month and Shruthi announced an apt competition. Handmade party favours and decorations were this month's competition.

This was prepared by the little girl to entertain the little guests who come. Last year she was the magician and this year she wanted to be a story teller.



The TV was made using a dress box and plastic sheet. We fixed two balloon sticks as the stand. The story pictures were stuck together to form a long length of story spool. The story spools were stuck to the two ballon sticks in such a way that when they were rotated the story moved from right to left.



The little girl told the story as she kept rotating the poles and each new picture appeared.

Treasure from Trash

Here are a couple of entries for Shruti's Arty Crafty July contest.

1. Plastic bag and straw curtain/wall hanger.

 

2. Penguin pen stand from used milk carton and egg shells.

Cup and saucers

Here's another use for them.



and if you have spoons also, you can try this:

Tamil rhymes for Tulika's blogathon

Ever since I saw the ditti for Tulika's blogathon in MIM's blog I've been wanting to add a few dittis/rhymes from my childhood. So here are a few from my childhood. All the songs are in Tamil.

This one was sung by my grandmother during our road trips.
Atho paaru roaddu
Roaddu mela carru
Carukkula yaaru
Namma mama Nehru
Nehru yenna sonnaru
Nalla padikka sonnaru!!

Transalation:
Look at the road
There's a car on the road
Who is inside the car
It's our mama Nehru
What did Nehru tell?
He told us to study well!!


This song she used to sing to us during Independence day and would give us sweets if we repeated it back to her.
Delhikku ponaenae,
Indira Gandhiya paarthaenae,
Salute adichane,
Mittai koduthare,
Sappi sappi sapitane!!

Transalation:
I went to Delhi,
And saw Indira Gandhi,
I saluted her
She gave me sweets
I relished and ate it.

This one was sung by my mom when rocking us on her back or on her knees. She used to add all the nicks we had and sing according to the child that was on her lap.
Saanjadamma saanjadamma
Thanga chilaiyae saanjadu
Saanjadamma saanjadu
Vairamaniyae saanjadu
Sanjadamma saanjadu!!

Transalation:
Rock baby rock
Golden statue rock
Rock baby rock
Diamond pearl rock
Rock baby rock!!

This rhyme, my MIL used to sing for my daughter to make her eat a extra dosai. The last line means you would get a beating if you ask for extra dosai. So my MIL would sing this song when my daughter finishes the dosai on her plate and immediately my daughter would ask for extra dosai and tell her to give her beatings!!

Dosai amma dosai
Amma sutta dosai
arusi maavum
ulunthu maavum
kalanthu sutta dosai
Appavukku naalu
ammavukku moonu
annanukku rendu
pappavukku onnu
Thinna thina aasai
thirupi kaeta poosai!!

Transalation:
Dosai Amma Dosai
Mother made dosai
Rice flour
and Urid flour
Mixed and made dosai
Four for Father
Three for Mother
Two for Sister
One for the baby
Would like to keep eating
If you ask more you would get a beating!!

The next two are sung when all the children sit in a circle with their hands spread out in front. One child goes around touching each hand and when the last line is sung, the person whose hand is touched should remove that hand.

For this song, the hands are placed in a lifted position with only the tips of the fingers touching the ground. When the last line is sung, the hand that is touched has to go flat to indicate that the horse is sleeping.
Kudira kudira, yenga pora?
Kolathukku
Yethukku?
thani kudika
adipaen
rajakitta soluvaen
paduthuko paduthuko

Transalation:
Horsy Horsy, where are you going?
To the lake
For what?
To drink water
I'll hit you
I'll tell the king
ok, sleep sleep.

This one is played with hands when there are many kids and with fingers when there are only two or three kids.
Athakam puthakam
tavalngchooru
yettu yeruma yeruma paalu
un appan peru enna
solamaataen!!
un appan per sollathae
mulan thani kudikathae
un paambu kaiyae padakendru yedu.

Transalation:
Athakam puthakam (no meaning, just rhyming words)
A bit pot of rice (Tavalai is a big brass pot, chooru is rice)
eight baffalo milk
what is your father's name?
I wont tell!!
Dont tell your father's name
Dont drink Mulan (dont know what this means) water
take away your snake hand.

This one is sung when we play hide and seek. The person closing the eyes of the seeker would sing this.
Kannamuchi, kaatu thulasi
unnang kuruvi
yethana mutta vitta?
(a number is told)
(the number)la, (one number less) yeduthukittu
micha onna yenakku yeduthukittu va.

Transalation:
Hide and seek, wild thulasi
Unnang kuruvi (a kind of wild bird),
how many eggs did you lay?
(the seeker tells a number, say four, then the ditti goes like this)
Of the four, you take three
And bring me the remaining one.

This ditti is sung when playing a game similar to "Queen Sheeba wants". All the kids would stand at one side and the catcher on the opposite side and sing this song. When the color is mentioned, the kids have to go find it before the catcher catches them.
Knock knock
yarrathu?
paeiyithu
yennavaenum?
colour vaenum
yenna color?
(any random colour is specified by the catcher)

Transalation:
Knock knock
Who is it?
It's the ghost.
What do you want?
I want color.
What color?

I'll stop here. I think this is one of my longest posts and took me back to my childhood days. Thanks Tulika for this wonderful opportunity.

Singapore Snippets

Visitors to Singapore normally exclaim about the greenary in Singapore. And this is one example why Singapore remains green.



Look at the fencing around the trees to protect them when there's construction work going around it.

A birthday card

We normally send hand made cards to the cousins and grandparents. The little girl's favourite cousin's birthday was coming closer and we hadn't done any cards. I was blog hopping and came across this wonderful collection of hand made cards by TPL's mother. As we are not as artistic as her mother, we took an easy idea from there and prepared this.



This was done entirely by the little girl last September (when she was five and a half) with almost no help from me.

Work Life Balance

I work in a company that gives a lot of importance to work life balance. This is one of the main reasons I have stayed with this job in spite of a number of odds. I got 6 months maternity leave for each of my kids when the norm was 3 months. Family emergencies are given the first priority. The bosses somehow try to adjust during those times.

There are 3 incidents that stood out. All these three were within our team globally.

This guy is a global head and he went through a nasty divorce. He was left with his little daughter. He was alone in a foreign country with no help. The company gave him the most flexible arrangement where by he could go to a nearby office and work from there on the days he was not working from home. The office nearby didn't have anything to do with our line of job, but they made the arrangements for him. This way he could take care of his daughter as well as do his work without a problem.

The next guy had quite a few problems with his extended family. He had felt he couldn't do justice to his work as he had to take a lot of leave to sort his family issues. He gave his resignation papers. He was the sole bread winner for the family. The bosses had a discussion with him and it was decided that he would come to office on alternate days and thus have time to sort his personal issues as well as have a job. He stepped down from his regional lead post. Within a year was able to sort his personal issues and come back to office on a full time basis.

The third guy has a kid with special needs. His working hours are so arranged that he is always able to take his kid to the special classes and doctor visits.

All the three incidents above have made sure the talented guys stay within the company. This has also made us all aware that whatever happens, if you give the best to the job, the company would be behind you in your crises.

Happy Labour Day to all of you!!

Artsy-Crafty April

As usual didn't manage to complete the projects on time for the Artsy Crafty project at Shruti's blog. Anyways here are the entries.

Fruit Basket.



Eli the Elephant hat.


Growing up, we used to make papermache stuff by grinding together fenugreek and paper. But it was a tedious process as you had to grind it by hand. So when Shruti announced the April Artsy Crafty contest, I turned to Google baba for help. That's when I came to know about creating paper mache craft using paper strips and balloons. Below are some of the snaps taken during the process.

Update:
Added a few photos on how this was done.

Do you like....

Last Sunday the little girl took part in a dance competition organised by the Malayali Association. After the dance, the MCs asked her a few questions and one of them was...

"Do you like Malayalees"

To which she vigorously shook her head in the negative!!

A special flower arrangement

Can you guess what is special about this flower arrangement?


Look closely and you might find a vegetable...


Yes, they have used drumsticks for the arrangement and this was not at some exhibition or special arrangement competition. It was at the reception area of our office complex.

A valentine pop up card

Shruti's Artsy-Craftsy Challenge had us excited. We prepared a few finger painting stuff for the January contest, but the lazy mom didn't put up the post on time. And so we started preparing for the February contest. With the Valentine's day round the corner and the girl raving to do a card for her daddy, we decided to prepare a pop-up card. And, this is what we did. Now for the steps to do it. Take a A4 size paper and cut it into two. Then, fold it across the middle. Next, fold the paper across. And cut it to form the petals. When you open, you would have a flower, color the middle portion. Then cut off one of the petals. Stick the two end petals to get a cone shaped flower. Prepare 7 flowers. Fold the flowers. Take one and stick two flowers to the corner petals. Then stick one flower on the top of the first one such that its corner petal is stuck to the 2nd and 3rd flower. Then stick two flowers to the corner petals of the 4th flower. Finally stick the last flower on top of the 4th flower and you would get this.

Prepare your card.

Take the flowers and stick the top two flowers to the two sides of the card and close it.

When you open, you have a bunch of flowers popping up. Happy card making!!!

PS: Somehow I'm not able to upload the rest of the photos. Will try tomorrow.