It’s a fact and beautiful lesson about a farmer in a village in India, who grew largest watermelons. In the world competitions too his watermelons were the biggest and the best. He used to make the village children eat the largest melons that he won. His son would want him to sell those melons instead.
After a few years, the old man died and his son took over the farming. He started selling the largest melons out of the country and making big profits. People from various countries would bid highest for his melons. He became richest village man in two years. He would gloat around and show off his wealth to everyone.https://madhuriesingh.com/thinking-aloud/dont-let-the-best-watermelons-go-out-of-the-country/
The third year, the size of the melons were not large enough neither was the taste good.
People did not pay him much as other countries were now producing largest watermelons!
He thought may be this season there was less rainfall and may be his farm needed more manure. He imported chemical fertilizers from the winning countries. Yet his produce were again smaller than others! He was very upset. Then he went to his father’s friend and shared his problem. His father’s friend told him something that you must read very carefully and slowly.
He said, “Son, your father was a smart man. He used to never let his best watermelons go out of the village. So he would give it to the village children to eat. The village children did the free labor of taking out hundres of seeds and spitting them in his farm. He would collect those seeds and save them to grow the next crop. That is why his watermelons were always the largest and the best. He never sold them to other countries.
You on the other hand were short sighted. You wanted to become rich in short period. So you have given away the best quality seeds to the other countries! Now they are winning while you have poor quality watermelons.
www.Madhuriesingh.com
Moral of the story. When the good brains and good genes is easily allowed to migrate out of the country, slowly the over all quality of brains will deteriorate while the countries where they migrated to will flourish. We need infrastructure and research facilities for the best quality melons to stay back in the country to produce best quality melons in future too. 😁 Or At least marry them here and make them stay here. Government should actually save the genes from these super performers, super achievers and great human beings. 😊
Teaching in fun ways
Motivational Talks By Madhurie Singh on Education and Parenting
Greeting and a happy morning dear readers. I have started engaging my spare time in motivating parents, teachers and students.
Mostly the topics I love to talk on are Fads of Parenting styles, myths in Education and Parenting, Career selection, Time Management and How to Be Happy.
These are free sessions of one hour to three hours depending on the audience.
Happy if even one life can be touched.
Write to me on Singhmadhuri@gmail.com
Have a Happy Day.
Why and how to teach HCF Highest Common Factor
When do you need to use HCF?
- When you have to divide something into smaller and equal portions or units
- When you are planning a party and want to decide how many people should be invited
- When there are people or things you have arrange in rows or even in groups
Example 1:
I want to donate pencils and erasers to kids. My sons gave me 72 pencils and 24 erasers that they want me to donate. Since I am a fair person, I need to make packets in such a way the each packet has same number of pencils and erasers. So how many packets will be made with equal number of pencils and erasers? How many pencils and eraser each child will get?
Find the HCF of pencils and erasers. HCF of 72 and 24 = 24.
That means, I can make 24 packets and give them to 24 kids.
Each packet will contain 72/24 = 3 pencils and 24/24 = 1 eraser.
So here we were grouping pencils and erasers into packets so that each packet has equal number of pencils and eraser.
Example 2:
As an exam coordinator, I need to arrange 72 boys and 90 girls in a classrooms. I have been told to make all girls rows and all boys rows. Also the number of rows must be equal for boys and girls. What is the highest number of students on one row?
HCF of 72 and 90 = 18
Hence, 18 students can be arranged in one row so that it has only girls or only boys per row.
I can also find out how many rows of girls and boys will be formed.
Girls rows = 90/18 = 5 rows
Boys rows = 72/18 = 4 rows
[tweetthis twitter_handles=”#teaching-in-fun-ways”]Use HCF to arrange people into groups or things into rows[/tweetthis]
[tweetthis twitter_handles=”#teaching-in-fun-ways”]If you wish to teach HCF in real life, make your kids plan food for your guests. [/tweetthis]
This was a very simple example. But, it’s good to start with.
If you want more such simple examples of other math principles, you can ask me in the comment section. I will try to post, whenever, I am explaining them to my sons.
If you liked this post, share it on your FaceBook so that other parents too can learn to teach in the fun way.
How & Why to teach LCM Least Common Multiple
LCM is an amazing calculation if you know where to use them.
Least Common Multiples aka LCM are used to find the smallest common multiples of any two or more numbers.
Why do we need to calculate LCM?
- When there is an event that is repeated over and over
- When we have to find the common time something will happen again for repeated actions
Real life use of LCM should be known to the kids, only then they will understand and appreciate learning LCMs.
Example1: In diwali days, you will decorate your balcony and doors by several color lightings. Blue, Green, Red, White led glowing and twinkling all night. I can watch them for hours.
Each color glows and fades, blue, then green, followed by red and white, and once again they all start to glow in the same sequence. But after a few seconds they will all glow together and then go back to their sequence of glowing one by one.
Have you noticed? Try it.
So after how many seconds do all the color led s glow simultaneously?
Lets say blue glows every 1 sec, red every 2 sec, green every 3 sec and white every 4 secs. When will all four color leds glow together?
This is where LCM is used. After multiplying the least common factors of these 4 numbers.
1 X 2 X 3 X (2 X 2)
1 X 2 X 3 X (2 )
= 12
Therefore at 12th second all these 4 color LED bulbs will glow together.
Try with planets moving in different orbits or train running on intersecting tracks. They will collide at the LCM of their speeds at one point. Planets we can’t really do anything but trains are pretty well managed by our very efficient software programs that use similar computations.
Example 2:
I want to organize a small informal party for my son’s friends. I know they all love to eat home made burgers. 10 boys in total are going to eat. So I need to make at least 10 burgers.
When I goto buy the burgers and patties I see that buns come in packs of 2 per packet, patties come in a pack of 4. So how many packets of burgers and patties, I must buy to feed the 10 boys so that extra patties or extra buns are not left around? Also each boy will eat 2 burgers.
LCM of 2 bun, 4 patties, 10 boys = 20
So I will have to buy 20/2 bun = 10 bun packs,
20/ 4 patties = 5 pattie packs
so that 20/10 boys = 2 burgers per boy.
[tweetthis twitter_handles=”#teaching-in-fun-ways”]Its quite useful to organise parties with a variety of food items on menu by using LCM.[/tweetthis]
Who makes these software, formulae and applications? The engineers, right?
[tweetthis twitter_handles=”#teaching-in-fun-ways]If the kids want to learn, teach them where these Math principles work in real life.[/tweetthis]
If you want more such simple examples of other math principles, you can ask me in the comment section. I will try to post, whenever, I am explaining them to my sons.
If you liked this post, share it on your FaceBook so that other parents too can learn to teach in the fun way.
Book reading and writing in Summer Camp
Every action your children take till they are with you, must have a worthy reason and impact. Let me tell you about books.
The importance of reading books.
Reading books will help them increase their vocabulary and language. They will be able to recall wonderfully apt words and phrases when discussing in groups. Their ability to write rich essays and stories will increase exponentially by reading books.
Start by giving them books that they like. Slowly start coaxing them to pick another book based on your childhood experience. Then allow them to visit libraries and let them sit there. Leave them to read the books alone in the library if feasible. Ask their friends to join the library too. Buy Kindle if the child can handle it.
Your summer vacation plan will be sorted.
Tomorrow I will write about another summer vacation plan.
If you are a provider of books, stories or writing related camps, you are welcome to post your links of reading or writing camps in comments here.
Lets join hands to empower 1000 schools in rural India along with Coca-Cola NDTV
SchoolKhojo joins hands with Coca Cola India and NDTV in spreading awareness about MISSION 1000, SUPPORT MY SCHOOL.
There are 1.45 million schools in India, of these only 50% schools are sought after. Of these most are government run schools where lack of basic amenities prevent parents from sending their children to these schools.
- Basic lack of water, soap and hygienic condition in the school is the most important reason for poor attendance in the government run schools.
- This has led to water borne diseases in the children who visit the school which kills one child every 8 sec!
- Of the 1.54 million children between age group 6 to 18 years, only 0.75 million go to schools. The other half do not.
- After research, it has been a shocking revelation that 50% schools in rural India, do not have separate girls’ toilet!
A few important points that must be ensured to attract more student to such schools are as follows:
- Each school must have separate girls and boys toilets.
- There must be supply of enough soaps in the schools.
- There must be enough water supply for hand wash and flush.
- Implementation of rain water harvesting in the schools will solve at-least the water supply issue.
Reaching out to close to 7.5 Lakh schools is a humongous task.
‘Support My School’ is an initiative by Coca-Cola India and NDTV that was launched in 2011 to help tackle this issue slowly but steadily in January 2011. ‘Support My School’ is a public private partnership to empower underprivileged schools by providing basic infrastructure for clean water and sanitation facilities in 1000 school in rural India.
As of now more than 600 schools have benefitted from the ‘Support My School’ initiative and increased the school enrolment from 6.95% to 14.77% in just one year.
SchoolKhojo is also joining hands with the cause and ‘Support My School’ by creating awareness in the minds of the caring public in urban India.
‘Support My School’ supports the cause “Swach Bharat Abhiyaan” initiated in 2015 by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Many celebrities have joined hands with Coca-Cola and NDTV‘s joint effort to increase the awareness amongst their followers. Sourabh Ganguly, Ranbeer Singh, Venkatesh Kini are a few to name. So what are you waiting for?
Let’s share this wonderful initiative to ensure that 1000 Schools are empowered via ‘Support My School’ program by NDTV and Coca Cola India.
How to inculcate the habit of self study in children!
Many of you want to know how my boys study on their own. So here is a bit though not everything in detail.
1. I had to make up my mind to let go. Since I am a control freak I love to be aware of everything they did. I had to tell myself to let go. Letting go early is v important for their development.
So you need to let go the need to hover over your child's head all the time.
2. My mom was v happy when she saw my sons studying, eating, playing and fighting on their own. She said a v important thing. "When you were all young, I had no time nor did I know what to teach you all. So I would sit with you all. But that worked well with you as you learnt to study on your own. I see parents who sit and teach 2 to 3 hours daily but the kids are not at all serious."
So the message is to let your kids study on their own. They will make mistakes and they will falter. It's ok. Let them do these mistakes when young. The stakes are low. The loss is small. So what they get less marks in class 2 or 5 or 7! Let them realize what is failure early on. They will understand how to do self study. And trust me, in this age of internet, the only reason I am sending my kids to school is because I want them to mingle around with 20 other kids and teachers. Socialize with them . Of course I need peace too. ;).
3. I do not ever ask them what marks they have got. All I ask before assessment is a quick answer to my questions on how will you use this concept in real life. If they know great. Else I give them a bit of Gyan that is enough.
After they come back from tests I don't ask how much will they get. I ask them this " So were the questions easy or tough?" If they say it was easy, I know they have understood everything v clearly. If they say it was tough, I know I need to explain it to them as they still have not understood the usage of what ever they learnt and hence it seemed tough to them. It also tells me that I did not explain to them good enough for their smarty heads. So I have to simplify the explanations.
4. I stopped packing their bags when they were in class 3. Their diary notes from teachers would be some thing like this "Mrs Madhurie Singh, your son did not bring his homework book today. Kindly ensure it is there."
My reply would be this " Dear teacher, I am teaching him to be responsible. So it is his responsibility to pack all books not mine. Kindly scold him for not getting the book from next time."
Most teachers have written back this " Dear Mrs Singh, I appreciate your way of inculcating responsibilities in your son. I will not bother you again for this. Hope more mothers are like you." And this message is universal!
5. Project work and home assignments are all done by my sons on their own. Initially they would argue with me. " All my classmates moms help them in their project s and homework. They are neater and look so good. But mine is dirtiest."
I would tell them the same thing repeatedly till they stopped asking me. "The homework and project work is a way to make you learn and practice what you did in class today. If you do it yourself, you will know how much you understood. If I do it then how will you practice. Do you want to keep on studying the same thing again after today and waste your time? Because if you don't do your home work and project yourself, you will forget it after today. Then one more day you will have to sit to do it again afresh. That will reduce your playtime." And I mean what I say.
5. I allow them to mess, waste materials as that is how they learn to use their brains and be creative. I try to teach them in simple conversation about risks, money value, business and importance of being best in whatever they do in life.
Like ask them questions that has nothing to do with their school. E.g. " I want to hire a Sw Engg, what should I look into that person when I interview him or her?"
Or " We want to buy a new car, what car should we buy." The first thing they ask is " what is your budget?"
My dad wanted to buy toys for them last yr. We all went to Hamleys. My dad asked them " Boys, what do you want to buy?"
Both asked him " What is your budget nanaji?" My dad said " No budget".
He ended up paying close to 20 thousand for cars, bikes and stationary!
I told my dad. They asked you about the budget, you should have told them the upper limit. And they are v fair.
Where in real life do we use LCM?
LCM is Least Common Multiple. I remember when my son asked me about it, I too was not really aware of the real usage of LCM. So I thought let me first find out on internet.
So after I Googled I found the real reason of learning LCM. I am very sure we must have learnt the real reason of where LCM should be used in the school days but I guess either I never paid attention or was never explained the real life usage.
So thank fully my son asked me this question, "Why should we learn LCM mom?"
Have you ever watched how beautifully the Diwali lighting glow one after another, few very fast and others slower.
So what time will it be when all the lights glow at one time!
Hmm, that is easy to watch and observe right with 3 or 5 strings of lighting. But what if I asked you the same question for 2000 strings? How will you observe the 2000 strings?
Well that is when you should use LCM. Least Common Multiple of all 2000 string timings.
Say string A = 1 sec, B = 2 sec, C = 3 sec and so on.
So the LCM of all the timings is that time when all the strings will glow at the same time!
So for all strings with timings between 1 to 3 seconds, LCM = 6.
So at the 6th second all the strings will glow together!
Isn't is wonderful to know that LCM is used in real life!
Similarly, when you want to check when will all the planets moving in different orbits at different revolution will come and collide together !
Or when would all the trains running at different speed come and collide together at a junction?
These are the practical daily applications of LCM.
So hail LCM!
How should teachers talk to kids
This is for all the teachers in India. It never to late to learn how to reply to a child or its parent and convey the message beautifully.
Source : The Times of India, September 5
'And we never write anything negative", says…..a teacher at the school. "Even if there is scope for improvement, it is put across in a positive manner"…
Dear Parent,
We are delighted to inform you that your child displays remarkable initiative. Not for him the simple-minded obedience to teachers. We refer to his admirable refusal to do homework. We have, however, humbly requested him to stoop to our level and condescend to do his homework. Your support is appreciated.
Yours anxiously,
Teacher
Dear Parent,
Your child's distaste for mundane subjects such as mathematics shows an imaginative mind. Why, he wonders, does the square of the hypotenuse have to be equal to the square of the other two sides in a right-angled triangle? It is no wonder that he has scored a splendid zero in his math exam. Unfortunately, even brilliant students have to pass exams. Could you gently break that news to him?
Yours entreatingly,
Teacher
Dear Parent,
We are pleased your child has one of the same qualities that Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, possessed. Like him, your son believes that history is bunk. But it may be best to disabuse him of the notion that the Mughal emperors were Amar, Akbar and Anthony.
Yours beseechingly,
Teacher
Dear Parent,
Your child submitted a blank paper for last week's science test, influenced perhaps by Albert Camus who said 'Whether the earth or the sun revolves around the other is a matter of profound indifference'. Your son shares that profound indifference, undoubtedly for philosophical reasons. But could you inform him that in order to study philosophy, he has to pass class eight first?
Yours plaintively,
Teacher
Dear Parent,
Your son has obviously read Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, which is why he was copying from the boy next to him during yesterday's test. Like Nietzsche, he believes that Supermen like him have little use for conventional notions of morality. The teacher who caught him copying is a conventional type who gave him zero.
Yours desperately,
Teacher
Dear Parent,
We are impressed by your child's knowledge of martial arts. In the past month, he has broken two legs, four arms and three noses. He also shows prudence while fighting, taking care to pick on weaker boys. For some reason, however, the fathers of the boys who were beaten up are planning to go to your home with hockey sticks.
Yours wretchedly,
Teacher
Dear Parent,
Your son has a talent for using colourful language. Why, just the other day he called me a 'silly ass', 'old hag' etc. Please come to school so that I could tell you more such colourful terms, which you can then use on him, which will help his vocabulary.
Yours gleefully,
Teacher
If you think someone really should read this and learn from this article, forward it to them.
Also if you have any comment or suggestion, I would love to read them.
What is the science behind dosa batter and hot tawa
I was getting my dosa tawa ready for dosa. So it had been on high flame since 5 minutes, till it started to smoke. I was about to pour oil, when it occurred to me that both kids were doing States of matter, molecules and heat in their science subject.
So I asked them this simple question. ” Why should I pour oil on the pan before pouring the dosa batter?” My older one who knows more in this subject answered “So that dosa can flow easily!”
The younger one has to compete, so he said “So that the dosa does not stick to the tawa.”
“Yes, you both are right. But its the result of something that is happening to the tawa and oil, not the cause.” I said.
Both were thinking hard, so I thought of dropping a hint. “It has to do with the molecules.”
That’s when both of them yelled at the same instance ” Heating make the space between the molecules of the Tawa wider and allows oil molecules to go in the gaps!”
“Yes, and that is why the surface of the tawa becomes so smooth that the dosa batter flows easily.”
But one bummer was waiting for me.
“But mumma, when tawa is cold, then also dosa flows easily, why ?” my younger one had to ask.
“Buddhu, because to cook dosa you have to heat the tawa, that time, the dosa molecules will go inside the tawa molecules” answered my older one and winked at me, as if he won a medal, by giving this answer.
Well, the point here of this learning is that kids have to be encouraged to think by constant questioning. Once they start in this path, you have won half the battle.
Just to add here. Non stick tawa’s work on this fundamental. When they are heated, there is no gap created in between the tawa molecules as its like a plastic sheet (and harmful). Hence there is no need to pour oil too. Now you know why they are called non stick oil free tawas.
There you just taught your children the science of molecules and heat and how to avoid sticky dosa.
Enjoy your dosa and think, what happens to the nonstick tawa’s teflon meterial when it’s partially scraped off by the darling maid. How much do you ingest and how much is going to pollute the rivers.