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Montessori Home Schooling for Toddlers (1 to 3 years)
Give your child the benefit of Montessori education while at home. Get her ready for school the Montessori way. Introducing the Montessori Home Schooling Programme for toddlers aged 1 to 3 years.
Blue Blocks drone patents
Learning with a difference at BlueBlocks – NFT Art and other Innovations
NFT (Non-fungible tokens), nature-inspired art, blockchain, primary school students, cryptocurrency…what’s the connection? Most would say, none. But ask the students of Blue Blocks – a Hyderabad-based K12 school – and 6 –12-year-olds would explain about NFTs like pros; because that’s exactly what they are doing – creating NFT art.
Why NFT, why is it included as part of the schooling curriculum? According to Pavan Goyal, the founder and head of Blue Blocks, ‘It’s about being and staying relevant with today’s times. We are always looking for ways to ensure that our education doesn’t stay just within the books. We try to get our children to understand and align with the world around them. And today’s world is rapidly transforming to one that is entirely run by technology.’
This NFT-based art project provides cross-curricular learning by linking technology, business, economics, and art. The primary students of the school were given a project to create nature-inspired superhero figures with unique powers to make a difference in the world. These art pieces have then been digitized and uploaded to a site called Rarible, an online site that allows artists to create and sell digitized or crypto-assets of their artwork online.
What is NFT art?
An NFT art is a digital asset that exists completely in the digital universe—you can’t touch it, but you can own it. And it’s not just art; an NFT can be any type of digital file – drawing, painting, an article, music, or even a meme – that can be sold and bought just like a physical asset, but with cryptocurrency, like Bitcoins or other such types of digital currency. People can bid for these art pieces, like in an auction, and are sold to the highest bidder. The art remains in the digital realm and can be resold digitally.
But the main difference between physical and NFT art is that this provides unique copyright or legal ownership to the creator, which is recorded on a Blockchain ledger. So, how many ever times this art is sold, it can always be traced back to the original creator, and each time the art is sold, the artist will receive a royalty or share of the sale price, which doesn’t always happen in the real world. And since the transaction is done with cryptocurrency, the valuations can sometimes be astronomical. Just to give an example, FEWOCiOUS (not real name), an 18-year-old schoolboy sold his artwork, The EverLasting Beautiful, for $550,000. That just shows the potential of this medium.
Innovating a new future
For the children of Blue Blocks, this is not their first venture or exposure to integrating and creating something with technology. The school has a full-fledged lab for innovation that allows children to learn, understand and work with technology on practical applications. Guided and mentored by industry experts, the children had a couple of years ago, created fully functional drones that have been applied for patents. And this is just one among the numerous other ventures that the children get to explore beyond the prescribed curriculum.
Pavan and his team at Blue Blocks are firm believers of the fact that good education is when you can tap into and get children to realize their true potential – whatever be the medium.
Such education not only opens the minds of the children to huge possibilities but gets them to think, discover and create things. Such modes of learning inculcate curiosity, creativity, enterprise, and problem-solving capabilities – all of which are absolute essential life skills – much beyond what is prescribed within the textbooks. And it’s never too early to start this education – as is obvious with children below 12 experimenting with NFT art – Ankur at just 8 created an Xray-visioned wood monster, Revant’s (9) Ailhero is a multi-eyed superhero who can see the future, Saachi at 10 is a superwoman herself while creating one, while Radhika and Shreshta, both 11, have created Galaxy and Hypno girls who can hypnotize and defy gravity. Every primary child at the school has an NFT to his/her name.
The purpose of this NFT art project is not to make money but to provide the children the exposure and avenue to a unique blend of art, technology, and economics; art otherwise usually remains an extra-curricular activity in schools. It has opened their minds to possibilities such that some children are looking at extending their art concepts of nature-inspired superheroes into comic strips that can be published.
For the children this is the beginning to an exciting journey of discovery, for Blue Blocks, this is just another way of creating future-ready students for a world that is rapidly changing.
You can find their NFT on https://rarible.com/blueblocks/sale
For further details please contact:
Name: Pavan Goyal
Contact Number: 9000955050
Why 2020 was not a Zero Year for Montessori children?
Everywhere around the world parents, children, schools, teachers have been talking about a lost year that is the 2020-21 academic year. Virtual learning- while has its perks- surely cannot beat in-class learning is the universal opinion.
But in so far as Montessori goes, surprisingly enough, virtual learning has caused children to dig deep and understand better. Montessori, by virtue of being hands-on, was not expected to adapt well to the online format. We provide scientifically designed material in smooth wood and hard metal for the children to easily manipulate and learn in a vibrant environment that is the classroom. We provide a community of learners who interact and teach others. The challenge was to translate this to a home learning environment.
The extended Montessori community worldwide rose the challenge and how? We managed to make the most crucial of materials with cardboard and paper. We made PPTs, we used ice cream sticks, we used beads, we used buttons; we used every craft available on hand to make materials as accurately as possible.
The advantage of this being, children got to make their own material- chequered board, large bead frame, fractions, grammar boxes, grammar symbols, polygons, and solids to name just a few. These on-trend DIY projects of material making, helped the children understand how the material works, and hence the concept was that much easier for them to grasp using the material.
We hope the children can come back to the environment with a more working knowledge of each material and concept than they did earlier. If not they at least did not lose touch with the work they started in the Montessori environment. Either way, it was definitely not a zero year for Montessori children.
Zoom Classes: Expectation VS Reality
By Mridula Chunduri
Schools across the world went into lockdown rather suddenly. Some had literally an evening to move on to the online platform, and some of the luckier ones, a few months to prepare. The second category of schools had time to gear up for the eventuality of starting the new academic on the virtual platform. They did not waste a minute of this precious reprieve they got and researched all over for the best online teaching practices. Not a blog went unread, not a resource went untapped. Everyone connected with everyone to give themselves some insider information on how to pull it off. They created documents upon documents, held practice sessions after practice sessions, ensured laptops were sent to teachers, coached parents on what to expect, and were as ready as they could ever be.
And then the children came online.
Zoom Classes as planned by schools were EXPECTED to go like this.
Teacher- Good morning children. Hope you all are safe and taking care of yourselves. All of you will stay muted and will raise hand when you need to ask a doubt. Let us begin. Today we will be working on Compound words.
Zoom classes in REALITY go more like this:
Teacher- Good……
Pinky – I can’t see you Ma’am.
Teacher- Morning…
Bunty- I can’t hear you Ma’am
Teacher- Hope…
Tinku – Hey look Rinku has a virtual background. Ma’am he is not supposed to have it.
Teacher- you….
Rinku: See, I can even make your picture into a virtual background.
Teacher- all
Pinky- Hey look look I got a new pet. Let me turn my camera around.
Teacher- are
Tinku – Who is scribbling on the screen?
Teacher- safe
Bunty- Tinku check your chat, I sent you a message.
Teacher- and
Rinku – Ma’am mute everyone. We cannot hear anything.
Teacher- ……….
Pinky- Hey why is Bunty the host?
Tinku- Ma’am got disconnected! Bunty make me host.
Rinku- I want to share screen.
Bunty- Who is this TransformerT-Rex2020?
Tinku- Hey that is me! How do you like my new screen name?
Pinky- I can also change my name…See I am UnicornQueen!
Teacher- Sorry children got disconnected. I should disable the waiting room. You guys took forever to let me in. Shall we start?
All children- Yes Ma’am. Spotlight me first, I want to show you something.
We are now online. Our academic year is now virtual!
How to be a creative parent
Parenting is a lot of things- it is an ongoing process; it is a thankless job; it is a chore at times; a pleasure at most; it is also a rigorous daily exercise that we cannot avoid or escape. The past few weeks, when the world is in the grip of a global pandemic and children are all home, parenting has a new dimension added to it- of being creative as well.
Creative parenting is the need of the hour, where you cannot depend on friends, grandparents, and school to engage your child.
So what is the main difference between a normal parent and a creative parent?
A normal parent is dependent on specific purpose materials like toys, games and craft kits to engage the child.
A creative parent can use any and all objects at home to contribute to child’s development. A simple example of this is involving the child with cooking, cleaning, gardening which can be exciting for a child who is suddenly given the jobs he has only seen an adult do so far.
A normal parent would give regular books and toys.
A creative parent will look for sensorial experience in everything. An example of this is water. Water is a very sensorial rich material; children should be allowed to have water play.
A normal parent would end up saying “this is the game. Go play or this is the art. Can you do it?” a creative parent would instead say “let’s do it.” you have to be the role model for your child where you work with the child. The idea that a parent is willing to come down to their level and work inspires new impetus for the children to think creatively.
A normal parent is always expecting the child to understand their point of view.
“You have to wait for mom to finish this call.”
A creative parent is always observing the child, understands the child’s perspective and addresses all situations accordingly.
“I know you are waiting for me. I will come to you as soon as I am done with my call. Would you mind setting things up until I can join you?”
A normal parent corrects a child when they commit a mistake.
A creative parent will look within for what may have gone wrong in your communication and analyse if the mistake is not a mistake and more of a learning experience.
Creative parenting is all about looking at who you are as a parent, understanding the limitations around you and always placing the needs of the child first. But more importantly, it is your willingness to spend a little more time and tweak some routines to engage your child.
In the words of dr. Maria montessori “imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create.”
5 ways to build discipline in children
arenting and discipline are words often used in tandem with each other where parents are expected to ensure discipline in their children. But the reality is not so black and white. The easiest way to achieve discipline is by helping children understand the need for discipline and guiding them to inculcate it within themselves.
So what are the five ways in which you build discipline in children?
1. Know that your child is predisposed to be disciplined. It is intrinsic and inherent. The external deviations to this discipline come from the people who surround the child. The first step for parents to take is to model the discipline we wish to see in our child. We want her to wake up early, we wake up early. We want her to eat fruit, we eat fruit. A child below six years will absorb any and all behavior that surrounds her, and hence the onus lies on parents to model the best behavior.
2. Know that discipline begins at a very young age. Humans all are born with a sense of order that is strong even in a toddler. When the activities or engagements of the child satisfy this sense of order, the child cannot help but be disciplined. Hence it is very important that we understand the needs of our child at each age and cater to them.
A toddler needs to touch and feel everything because he is getting to know his new world; he wants to crawl and explore. But instead, we pick him up and keep things out of his reach. He becomes irritable and rakes up a fuss- beginnings of indiscipline.
A six-year-old is developing an intellectual and reasoning mind for which he needs to ask questions and find answers, but we cannot find the patience to answer everything and we ask him not to bother us. The child becomes mute in front of guests, doesn’t do what he is asked to because he has understood that not all interactions have to be mutually productive.
A teenager will want you to give her space and not pester about academics when she is struggling to cope up as an emotionally fragile young adult who is caught in the middle of two worlds- her secure childhood and unseen adulthood. But this is the time we put the most pressure on the children to study. And we call the indiscipline arising out of this as troubled teens.
3. No should always mean a no. Always, always think before saying no to a child. If we think back on the latest instances when we have said no to our child one of these scenarios would have played out- we said no said just out of instinct; or because we know it is yet another hair-brained scheme that will not work or because we don’t have time to hear the child out fully- or was it genuinely because we felt the child was not ready for something.
Either way, once we have said no, it is best to stick to it and try not to overcompensate immediately. A no has to be the last word and so it has to be used and received with the respect it deserves.
4. Raising voice/hand only leads to indiscipline. If raising our voice would help children listen better or follow the rules better, we would have had opera singers for school teachers everywhere. But it doesn’t quite work that way. The only thing any of us prove by raising a voice on a child is that we have little self-control and a disproportionately loud voice. Every child understands logic. We need to trust our children to understand and empathize with what is being said to them. Give them the benefit of the doubt that when we get down to their level, hug and explain, children are more likely to co-operate.
5. Encourage self-discipline. Every child is capable of self-discipline and this needs to be encouraged. Appreciate when they show restraint; when they exhibit appropriate behavior. Trust them to emulate ideal behavior modeled by the adults. Set up routines at a very young age so these actions become second nature to children- like cleaning up after themselves, winding up after playing a game; speaking softly. These form the basis for the discipline they will inculcate as they grow.
One of the stepping stones for building discipline in a child is giving the child freedom. When a child is given the freedom to choose her work, the discipline to complete it and with utmost care and finesse comes naturally.
A prime example of it is this Timetable of work prepared by a six-year-old from our school Blue Blocks. The timetable covers a gamut of activities from academics to art for her to accomplish during vacation. Being organized like this has given her a sense of order and purpose that is paramount to building discipline in children.
5 ways to avoid common parenting mistakes
First things first, there is no right way or wrong way to bring up your child. There is only the best-you-can-do way. The birth of a child also is the day parents are born. Both explore and grow with each other. While it is not just expected but acceptable for children to fall and dust themselves off before moving on, one misstep by parents can alter the course of the child’s development. But there is hope. More often than not, most of these mistakes are not irrevocable and parents can catch themselves in time and turn the tide around.
Here are five ways to avoid making some common parenting mistakes
1. Involve your child in household work. Children should not be allowed to become too dependent on parents for their physical and psychological needs. It is very essential that they start building their independent thought and acting by themselves at a very young age so the culture of self-reliance sets in. A great way to facilitate this is involving the children in the household work like sweeping the floor, setting the dining table, watering plants, filling water bottles, pumping up cushions, making the bed, etc. It also helps the younger children build their gross motor skills while they are learning some essential life skills that will become second nature to them as they grow.
2. Discipline should be necessary and sufficient. Too much discipline or too little discipline is a strict no-no. The mantra every parent should live by is necessary and sufficient. Inculcate discipline by modeling the best behavior. Don’t be overprotective about exposing the child to the harsh realities of life like failure and disappointment. Only when children face these will they be able to build the discipline needed to tackle them.
3. Listen to your child. It may sound mundane but it is the most important thing a parent can do in a day. Don’t just hear what your child is saying while you check your mail or stir a curry. Take time out, sit down, and have an eye to eye conversation where the child is doing most of the talking. The child should never feel that there is no one who understands him. He should be able to freely talk to a parent and express herself.
4. Give freedom for exploration. Avoid restricting your child’s freedom by setting up physical barriers that won’t allow the child to crawl and explore the floor; or my picking her up when she wants to run around. Let her move freely and explore the world around her by touch and feel. Remember every experience the child has teaches her something. If it is chasing an ant, she will likely learn how to avoid a stinging bite. If it is mixing chapati dough she will learn that she can be covered in white! Allowing exploration is the best learning tool a parent can give a child.
5. Believe in your child. Children are more capable than we give them credit. Give your child the chance to know his own limits when he volunteers for a task. Any realization arising out of this work would have achieved two things- the child knows that you will always believe in him and he knows that he can back himself to do a good job.
Criticism has to be only of the constructive variety. There is no space for outright rejection of any work done by a child. The minute this happens, the child will never wholeheartedly attempt to do anything in the future.
Remember parenting is a two-way street. You always work in tandem with the child. The more you give the more you get whether it is love, freedom, responsibility, discipline, or trust.