Charlotte Bronte Childhood
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JULY REVIEW GOOD 1. We received bountiful rainfall at the beginning of the month. 2. I received the third dose of the Covid vaccine. 3. I’m working on my teaching blog. 4. My friends, younger sister and her husband, and coaches helped me immensely when a bolt fell from the blue. 5. I bought some new clothes for outside wear after years. 6. I donated Mashi some of my old saris. BAD 1. I received a very rude shock. 2. I had flu, thankfully the result was Covid negative. 3. Our building continues to face a water shortage. #july2022, #july2022review, #covidvaccine, #monsoon2022, #teachingblog, #saridonation, #educationalworksheets, #boltfromtheblue, #gratitude, #t...
Charlotte Bronte Childhood · She was born in the village of Thornton in Yorkshire in England on April 21, 1816. · Reverend Patrick Bronte, her father, worked as a priest in the rural community. · Her mother Maria Bronte was an intellectual woman who could converse freely with her husband on many topics. · Charlotte with her parents and siblings shifted to Haworth surrounded by the sprawling Yorkshire moors when she was four years old. · Soon after, at a tender age, she lost her mother to cancer. · Charlotte, her sisters Emily and Anne, and brother Branw...
Village ride I relocated to Vasai when I was 29 years old, now I’m 45. At that time, I’d hear many people fondly refer to it as Vasai gaon [Vasai village]. It was greener then including the street where I reside now. A chorus of birds would be my natural alarm clock at dawn. There were many green fields in my neighbourhood Evershine City. Buildings started coming up. The street got crowded and more vehicles started plying. My town started being called Vasai-Virar city. My vaccination centre was in the neighbouring town Naigaon. Yesterday [22 July 2022], I took a rickety auto rickshaw ride to Ishaan Hospital which was the allocated hospital for this purpose. The road to this hospital which is still predominantly green and swampy is now being engulfed by the brick-and-mortar world. Mechanical cranes are busy gulping mud which is depleting the number of white feathery cranes scavenging for insects, snails, worms, reptiles, amphibians, crustaceans, fish, fruits, roots, g...
3 rd ! Your teacher received her third Covid vaccine today [22 July 2022]. I have an online forum for teaching. I’ve taught students offline as well. Some of the classes I took weren’t even walled rooms. They were in tents by the gutter. My students were children who were forced to beg by their parents. Outside the rain would pour, tiny fishes would swim in the sewer and bullocks would soak in the mud. I like offline classrooms more than online ones. UNICEF has tirelessly been campaigning to get the students back to school premises. Kids and teachers need to interact in the same room in physical form. Children should study in a classroom together instead of the camera zooming into their houses. Come lunch break, it’s important that they partake in meals and play together. A traditional school setup fosters social skills in kids. The internet cannot penetrate all houses because of the Digital Divide. Some families may not be able to afford to buy mobile phones, computers or ...
Treat disabled students normally · Please don’t perceive and address disabled students as ‘abnormal’ as they are as normal as able students. · Stop using offensive, outdated and politically incorrect disability lingo. · Don’t say that they suffer from a disability as it’s not a disease. · Never ask inquisitive questions about their disability. · Do not tell them that you know a god man or priest who’ll cure them. · They aren’t to be pitied or be promptly described as ‘inspirational’. · These children aren’t inferior to able kids but equal to them. · With the right guidance and inclusive classrooms, they can perform the best to their capabiliti...
Bengali Jolkhabar [breakfast and evening meal] Part 2 I was born and weaned in India. Grandma was shocked to discover that I had started to hate the same Indian food that I had once relished. She said, “You either have a Bengali breakfast or skip the meal.” One’s tummy gets used to a different diet and it’s hard to suddenly change. She didn’t understand that. She could have given me toast which I was used to eating. The only person in the house who in the early 1980s was allowed to have a Western breakfast was her husband and my grandfather. He was a retired engineer from the Indian army during the British Raj. He was obsessed with the bygone British way of life and how the military operated under them. They were very strict about timetables that included having your meals on time. He missed the intrinsic English breakfast which comprised of sausages, bacon, eggs, mushroom, fried potatoes, tomatoes, bread, pudding and tea. Our kitchen could hardly recreate this breakfast except...
Bengali Jolkhabar [breakfast and evening meal] Part 1 I spent my early childhood in Papua New Guinea. The breakfast that my mother regularly made was milk and cornflakes, milk and bread slices with sugar, bread and butter with cheese, fried sausages, ham etc. I liked the red meat the most. We’d spend year-end vacations in Kolkata. I remember rushing upstairs to the kitchen screaming, “I want pork.” Grandmother was scandalized and asked my mummy if we really had pig’s meat for breakfast. I was under the impression that all kitchens around the world cooked ham and sausages in the morning. Grandmother shook her head in dismay, “Your sister ate like a good girl. She loved milk with flattened rice, jaggery and bananas.” I had a hard time eating the same food that she had found delicious. I raised a tantrum, “I want cornflakes.” Though it was available in the 1980s, the branded Kellog’s cornflakes was yet to be launched in my country. My grandmother refused to buy the unbranded...
Ten monsoon activities for children Part 3 9 Social Work Many people cannot enjoy the rain from the warmth and comfort of their homes as they are homeless or live in huts or buildings with leakages. Privileged kids will be aware of the suffering around them if they visit these homes to understand their hardship. They may donate food, clothes, medicine, books, toys etc to those families. 10 Nature study When it’s possible, allow your kids to study the plants, animals, soil and the sky around them. Let them gaze at the clouds of shades of grey and black above them in their funny shapes, merging and separating from one another. A stray dog shaking off water droplets from its body, a snail inching on the wet ground, frogs hopping merrily in the rain etc are sights of joy. Stay clear of turbulent beaches, quicksand, slippery slopes and other hazardous zones. #naturestudy, #monsoonnature, #rainstories, #monsooneducation, #rainclouds, #frog, #toad, #snail, #dogintherain,...
Ten monsoon activities for children Part 2 4 Singing and dancing When it pours you may not be able to go ‘singing and dancing in the rain’, but you may do the same indoors. India and this world have diverse dance forms. If you have a hall or considerable square metres of an uncluttered floor in your house, this gets easier. Various languages of the world have rain songs that your child may hum or sing aloud. This includes essaying songs in different sign languages. 5 Drawing and painting You may make your kids have unbridled fun with their crayons, colour pencils and paints. Some may want to etch the monsoon in greys whereas others may want to portray the plants in various dollops of chlorophyll. Certain children may want to use yellows, reds, pinks and oranges to create a bright scene which is in contrast with the weather in grey pixels outside the window. 6 Watching films Choose feature films and documentaries about the rain that’ll enhance their knowledge...
Ten monsoon activities for children Part 1 As a child, I’d float paper boats in water puddles when it rained along with my cousins. It would relax me to watch the rain from my window. This generation is different. They may be glued to their mobiles playing video games and ignoring nature’s beauty during the monsoon. We may have read a book during that time. Here are ten engagements to do with your children during this beautiful season: 1 Writing a story or composition about a rainy day We have done this down generations as school-going kids. However, we may always do this again with our offspring. The paragraphs will come out somewhat differently as the years go by. 2 Making paper boats These boats come in funky sizes and can be made with paper of different colours. Ensure that the kids pick up the boats from the water after floating them so that there’s no litter. They may love to read the poem Paper Boats by Rabindranath Tagore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v...