RooBaRoo

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Led by the child

It is difficult to explain the meaning of "the" to a Hindi-speaker. Thankfully, in Baanglaa, " টা " is much more frequently used than "ठो ".
The first set of sight words was the most difficult to teach. Vicky kept forgetting the look of each word, as well as the meaning, & I kept losing patience. After 3 weeks, I decided that it was time for the next set. Somehow, perhaps because "it" "is" & "in" are actually phonetic, or of only two letters,she picked them up quite fast, even though she still kept forgetting the words of the first set.
At school, after the small letters in running hand, the class started with 3-letter words. "at" words. I was quite astonished. Why not "a" sound words as a whole? "an", "ag", "at" all those words? But Vicky is quite proud of her school, & the activities at school, so I went with the flow. 
I had a few resources with me. One was a book from my own pre-school days, that I found in a used-book market in my college days.
It has this "lesson" about Mohan, & when I was in  pre-school, we had a steel tub just like that, & a red mug just like that, & my Mom too used to warm the water in the tub in the Sun in our company-quarter varandah ... I "related" with Mohan!!!Well, nostalgia was paying off. I also had a set of "Songs letters sing" from ANOTHER generation before. (Yes, we are children's book-preservers.) These provided a set of "reading material".
Luckily, I found a cluster of sentences, with primarily "at" words. About a cat & a rat, who have a nap on the mat & in a hat, respectively :D I had to interject with the words "on " & "in", as they were not yet on her "syllabus" ... but at the end of the session, she was able to tell herself " बिल्ली ठो बैठा ऊपर एक चटाई ...के " Vicky did 3 sentences that day, & the whole of the same lesson the next day. Thankfully, she found it very amusing that "The cat is fat". She was literally ROFL. Thus, Vicky is now reading for pleasure. For real.

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About Me

Why does anyone write? Mostly, because they cannot help it ... Speaking requires an audience. Writing does not require a readership. When I started this blog, I was new at my job, just about to get married, highly confused about what to do with life, highly dissatisfied with myself, & devoid of any "responsibilites" as they say in Indian Middle Class. Oh yes! Also, I used to imagine the populace to be divided into 3 equal thirds, economically, & the middle third was the middle class. I was a "Young adult". Now I am a middle-aged auntie. & I have found out that the lower 90% is the lower class, the top 1% is the upper class, & I am the 9%.

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