As We Step Out- Parenting, Unschooling, and more

When we travel, travel especially with kids, our effort is always towards offering them experiences which are outside their daily life. We try to bring fun into their lives through these experiences. Now these usually are a mix of ‘trending’ places, new finds, and tourist attractions. But if you are traveling to a place where you spent your childhood, there’s an interesting twist! You also try to incorporate experiences that you have lived as a child! Here I am going to share the 5 experiences, which are a yummy mix of all the above :P some trending, some new, some from the good old days! So let me transport you to the city that's so close to my heart - Pune (and read it as पुणे not पुने ;) ) We were in Pune with kids for a few days and out of all the places we went, listing the top 5 based on kids' rating. And food? While it deserves a separate write-up altogether, it will sure find its way here and there in this write-up :P  Let the virtual tour begin! 1. The Railway Mu...

 I had just finished my exam and already was facing severe withdrawal symptoms! Tejas luckily had not so tight work schedule (he was still working on the go). Kids unschooling had the flexibility to plan their days. We thought this would be just the right time for a roadtrip!  At this point, we all reflected- what does each one of us seek from this adventure? It varied from fun to seeing new places, change, being together, etc.  And like always we worked as a team rather than child vs. parents, to help meet everyone's needs. Where to?  Rajasthan, a state none of us had explored earlier. We had already heard a lot of good things about the state from friends and family. And decided- "We will explore Rajasthan".  How: Yes, we did explore other modes of travel like train and flight, but then choosing these meant losing the flexibility we would get in our own vehicle. At the same time, car travel that far would translate to a longer duration as well. For us the pros ...

Two families, two set of twins, two cars, set out to explore - Tamil Nadu this time. Why? Dhanushkodi was on our wishlist for long. With the solo bike ride to Leh Ladakh, Tejas had ticked off one of the long pending item from his wishlist. Why not tick off the other too! Get - set - go..  Family 1: Dr. Shruti Jayasurya  , Abhinav Raj; Kids: Srishti and Smriti (5 yrs) Family 2: Prachi, Tejas ; Kids: Vibha and Viaan (7 yrs) What was our travel agenda? To explore things that give an identity to the location which includes food, people, culture, landscapes, flora, fauna, weather and so on. Tamil Nadu being the Temple State of India, we did visit a few of them. Most of these temples have interesting history, geography, architecture, sociology  elements which one can study irrespective of whether one s a believer or not. Journaling my thoughts here about the travel, the happy, the not so happy experiences. The Rotue:  While the destination calling us was Dhanuskodi, w...

“Oh you will fall down” was my reflux exclamation as he started experimenting with his new in line skates, I watched and watched and there he was- skating and gliding and shouting with joy “I did it”. I reflected, oh I shouldn’t have expressed my fear instantaneously and smiled- Self Learning! We need to believe kids self learn, when given opportunities, when exposed to the right kind of environment. It is only small small incidents like these, right from infancy that made us think- “Do we really want to ‘mould’ them in a factory setting without giving them an opportunity to explore and self learn?” And we both nodded no! And that's how our discoveries  about learnings, getting the best out of a child, the importance of play began. Let me share some of the things which we strongly believe make our learning experience enriching! I say ‘ours’ because while we grown ups try to mould the kids and help them in their learning journey, we as parents learn and grow as individual...

Hello fellas! Summers can be a mixed bag for parents - on one hand you look forward to taking a break from the usual school routine, going on a vacation, getting together with family, etc. On the other, the very thought of kids being at home all day for so long can get stressful! Plus, in my case, the hubby being away for work for a good 3 weeks during this exact time was not going to help things at all. As a family we travel a lot and we love it! So travel, by default, was going to be on the cards in summer. Also, it's easy to go overboard with watching TV when at home and I was clear on not letting that happen. As a result, we went completely TV free in our house this summer which I really appreciated (well, kids did have their share occasionally at their friends place but I guess that's okay :) ) I always believe that the better you channelise the kids' energies, the happier ALL are. After a lot of planning, research and what not, here is how we spent our summer! ...