Blue Boat Home

  Bird's Nest by Ginny Lowe Connors Round as the seasons which turn and return, the wheel of life made visible in its form   Sturdy woven of thin sticks that wrap around each other over and under and through, carefully worked with mud dried to a thick adobe   Soft cushioned in its center with the finest pine needles bits of down, a tracing of moss and one blue thread that appears and disappears   Home once, to delicate eggs and then hungry hatchlings it sheltered them till they were strong enough to fly on their own   Fallen to the ground after a fierce storm abandoned in the grass still it holds its perfect shape   Sometimes the lives we leave behind are no less beautiful for that—they cradled their moments, and then let them go #bird, #ornithology, #nest, #home, #nature, #fledglings, #cradle, #eggs, #hatching https://pixabay.com/photos/storks-pair-solicitous-2206638/ : Picture courtes...

  Sipping on juices isn’t healthy for your baby You must have heard this before, “Eat whole fruits instead of juices. Avoid packaged fruit juices.” Yet, we sip on artificially sweetened juices. Even if we are having diluted fresh fruit juices, we are missing out on the fibre of the fruit. If a baby or a child is made to have mainly juices, it is even more harmful to her/ him. Nutritionist Niti Desai says, “Till six months of age, a baby just has breast milk. Sipping endlessly on fruit juices will make her/ him obese. Also, fruit juices cause dental cavities. They should have vegetable broth instead.” Paediatrician and author Dr.Spock points out that of all weaning foods, the fluid which is most at fault is apple juice as it provides hardly any nutrition for the calories. He further warns that though juice is simple to make it can cause a whole range of ailments. Not only can it cause obesity from empty calories but also malnutrition as the child is being debarred from nutriti...

  The Oven Bird BY ROBERT FROST   There is a singer everyone has heard, Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird, Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again. He says that leaves are old and that for flowers Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten. He says the early petal-fall is past When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers On sunny days a moment overcast; And comes that other fall we name the fall. He says the highway dust is over all. The bird would cease and be as other birds But that he knows in singing not to sing. The question that he frames in all but words Is what to make of a diminished thing. #bird, #ornithology, #singing, #song, #twittering, #chirping, #nature, #tree, #leaves, #flowers, #spring, #summer, #cherry, #poetry, #literature, #RobertFrost https://pixabay.com/photos/bird-starling-crested-song-6403261/ : Picture Courtesy: Image by  Yadvendra Kumar  from  Pixabay  

  Packing yummy and nutritious lunch for your child (Parents and children’s caregivers did so in the pre-pandemic era. This may guide them to prepare meals for kids at home. I wonder how they are missing break time/ lunch hour/ canteens in school.) The favourite time of a child’s school hours is usually tiffin time. Once the bell for recess rings, kids know that it is the time for fun, games and grabbing their favourite bite. Don’t buy a dabba for your child. Kids don’t need such a big container and would be more eager to have their lunch if a cute lunch box with cartoon characters is bought for them instead. Regarding the contents of the lunch box, there should be variety. Nutritionist Niti Desai advises, “Avoid giving dal and roti every day as your child may find it monotonous. For lunch, you have several options for a child- a frankie, chicken sandwich, egg sandwich, vegetable sandwich, paneer paratha, dal paratha, chicken patties, coleslaw sandwich, etc. Avoid packing s...

  Butterfly in the Wind A child is…….. A butterfly in the wind, Some can fly higher than others; but each one flies the best it can. Why compare one against the other? Each one is different! Each one is special! Each one is beautiful! Author Unknown   #butterfly, #insect, #wind, #poem, #beautiful, #child, #acceptance, #parenting, #nature   https://pixabay.com/photos/butterfly-flying-insect-108616/ : Image by  JamesDeMers  from  Pixabay  

  Privilege and denial There is currently much talk on how it is a capitalistic trend to demarcate how important and praiseworthy a person is in society by her/ his productivity. When the pandemic started, there seemed to be a conscious and subconscious competition online on how spiritual and happy people are and how productive they are being at home. Those who were having a tough time were often shamed as ungrateful, unenlightened and ordered to count their blessings. I did a lot of work during this time but that’s because Mashi was there to do all household chores for me. Some people were having a bad time with job losses, deaths, domestic violence, etc. They couldn’t be as productive and like many other super successful people on social media learn a new skill, make their business boom, start an entrepreneurship etc. Some posts supported them psychologically emphasizing that this is a pandemic, many people are trying to survive it, this is no productivity contest. I know t...

  Patriarchy while teaching When men like my grandfather and a relative would become teachers it would be a nightmare for girls. Both had been raised to believe that girls are pea-brained, especially when it came to comprehending math and science. Assuming that those of the female gender were idiots beyond redemption, they would scream at them while teaching. This would demoralize the students. My grandfather would throw away my mother’s math exercise books while teaching her. He would set up apparatus to conduct science experiments for my uncle. When mother would want a peek, he’d shoo her away like an animal snapping, “As if a stupid person like you can understand. Stop eavesdropping. Study Sanskrit instead.” Mother wasn’t sent to school till high school. Though I understood math and science better than my mother as I after all was sent to school, grandpa would scold me nevertheless while teaching me, though less sternly. I was quite good at understanding science. One day, ...