Just like that

Nidhi needed some reflections to share in her church youth group session this weekend so I was looking up old blogposts. What a wonderful time I have had reading and remembering what my children were like when younger and how I rue the fact that I have not maintained this blog as much as I should have :(

While I'm here I would just like to make note of few things I still remember about them.

When Ari was younger, he thought that saying the phrase 'ladies first' allows you to go first in a queue. He often cut in front of his sister with the words 'Ah ah ah, ladies first', not understanding why that made us break out in laughter :)

This past week he told his Year 4 teacher that he would do an extra lesson in Maths in place of RSE (Relationship and Sex Education) because in RSE lessons they told them about the genitals of both genders! :)

He still has a heart of gold, he can't stay angry for very long and is always the first to make up after a fight. That does not mean that he stops whatever misdemeanor he was punished for. At 9 years, I still don't know how to discipline my young lad.

He annoys his sister by whistling - she hates the sound - but prefers her to me or Rohan as a playmate.

Nidhi is 14, and is so independent now. She goes out to meet her friends, makes us pasta for lunch and even fixes a sandwich dinner for her brother when I am feeling unwell. She loves art and her talent has grown exponentially this past year. We are so glad she has found something she truly enjoys.

Remembering things he's said

During Reception year in school the children are encouraged to learn through play. They have a lot of playthings out in the classroom and in the playground.
Learning tasks are set out on the tables every day, but the children are not forced to carry these out. Rather they are encouraged by giving sanctions to those who skip the learning tasks.
Throughout the reception year Ari went on the 'sad cloud' several times due to his failure to complete learning tasks (busy jobs as they called them).
When I reminded him again that he needed to do his busy jobs daily, he said
"It is all the teachers fault. They put so many toys out and then I have to play with them!"

Lest I forget

I dont think I'm going to find time to write detailed posts, but I wanted to note down funny things that Ari says from time to time. He does come up with some gems! And I know Ive already forgotten so many of them :-(
------------------------------------------------
Sometime in the past year I was trying to teach Ari the concept of fractions, which, if you refer my earlier entries, Nidhi had a grasp of when she was much younger than Ari.
While Nidhi can mentally visualise mathematical concepts, I know that Ari needs physical examples. So I sat down with him armed with an 'apple' and a 'knife'. I asked him how many apples we had and he promptly answered 1.
Then I told him I was going to cut that apple into 2 halves, which I then proceeded to do. I told him we now have 2 half apples that together make a whole apple. He seemed to understand this quite easily.
Then I asked him if I took away one half how much apple would he be left with?
He said '1'.
I said how was that possible as we had 1 apple to start with.
His answer was that when I cut the apple, it was now 2 apples :-)))
--------------------------------------------------

September 10 2017
For his school homework, Ari has to write a sentence with the word 'we'. His sentence:
"My daddy went down the slide. Wheeee!"

--------------------------------------------------

September 19 2017

Ari has to learn the Bible verse John 3:16 for his church club Awana. We have been practising it all week. Yesterday I was testing him. He was stuck at "For God so loved the world..."
I prompted him "...that..."
He said "...that he sang a song of six pence."

------------------------------------------------------

September 21 2017

I got a call from Ari's school headteacher earlier this week. Apparently he'd told his teacher that I let him walk to Tesco on his own to do the shopping. That I give him my phone so he can call me when he's finished and I can go get him.
The school was worried and wanted to crosscheck with me!

-------------------------------------------------------

September 29 2017

Ari has been invited to 2 birthday parties this weekend. I bought Lego toys for the birthday boys. When he saw the toys after school he was not happy that we were giving them away. He wanted them for himself. He tried a lot of negotiation and arguments as to why we should not be giving them away.
Finally he says "Anyway I dnt think we should be going to so many birthday parties. Because we will get weak eating all this unhealthy party food!"

--------------------------------------------------------

October 9 2017

Ari is not happy with the punishment I have given him (no computer time) for his bad behaviour (hitting Nidhi).
He moans "People say that life is unfair but I already know that!"

-----------------------------------------------------------

October 11 2017

It's my birthday
Ari on his way to school "After I come back from school I'm going to make a card for you so while I'm at school can you make a cake for me?"

Embarrassing moments

We are waiting at the school playground for Nidhi. Ari who has been sitting at the bench next to me decides he wants to go check out the drinking water fountain. He gets up, puts his pretend glasses down on the table, points at the octogenarian sitting opposite us and says loudly
"Make sure this man doesn't take my glasses."
I, trying not to look at the man and hoping he hasn't heard or understood, say "I'm sure he doesn't want them. He's got his own."

Teaching Ari

When Nidhi does homework or learning, Ari likes to do something too. I've given him one of Nidhi's pre-school books to work through. Yesterday we were doing a page on phonics and initial sound recognition. This is how it went;
Me: What is this picture?
Ari: A dog
Me: Yes. What sound does 'dog' begin with?
Ari: Woof

And again, with 'balloon' and 'pop'.

Truly, he gives us so many unexpected moments to laugh out loud.

And he's off..

On Easter Sunday we took the kids to the local Tesco which has a huge carpark. As the store was closed, the carpark was empty. Perfect for practising Ari's cycling skills we thought. Rohan raised the stabilisers so Ari could not support himself on them. Ari thought he would not be able to cycle like that as he could not start off. But when we explained that that was how Nidhi and daddy cycled, he was off in no time. Within minutes he was racing his sister, pedalling away like anything. He also learnt to start off and stop safely in no time. Wanted no help from us. Very proud of this little fellow.

Arispeak and more

Ari pronounces words funny sometimes by inadvertently misplacing letters. For a long time he used to say 'beshoc' instead of 'because'. He still says 'aminals' for 'animals'.
He has learnt to recognise the letters in his name. Whenever he says an ' A' anywhere he yells " Look, that's my name!"
His number skills have improved and he recognises numerals to 10.
He currently loves watching Octonauts and Heroes of the City.
He does not like being told off, especially by his dad. He gets very sad, all teary eyed and trembling lips when his dad raises his voice. He is quick to make up however. A sorry and a hug and he forgets all unpleasantness. He is a happy boy most of the times. He dwells in the present. He is not mindful of how he moves and consequently falls or bumps himself often. But is not particularly bothered by them.
Things get broken around him a lot again because he is not thoughtful if how he handles things.
Mealtimes are messy. Food and especially drink end up on the floor quite a bit.
He is getting quite good at riding his bike and the scooter.

About Christmas and dying

Today we were talking about Christmas being Jesus' birthday. Ari asked if we could go to Jesus' house. Daddy explained that God would take us to his house one day, after we die. Ari thought about this and said "Will you die with me? I don't want to die alone."

Latest on Ari

I can't believe how little I have posted about Ari as compared to Nidhi. How little time and energy I have at the end of the day for even checking emails. I just long to finish work and hit the bed, struggle to keep my eyes open to read a book even. Ah, may be just a phase.
Ari is definitely becoming more communicative now and I can even have little conversations with him. Although, most times it takes a few goes before I can understand what he says.
He has this funny habit of attributing random names to things he doesn't know the name of. Oh dear, can't remember any of them now, but they give me a good laugh.
Today at bedtime, we were saying prayers. Mostly I pray about his day for him. He always agrees to sing a few worship songs and say prayers as he sees it as part of his bedtime routine. (I wish he considered brushing his teeth as part of the routine too!). So I was being thankful for the wonderful weather we had today, and his friend coming over to play, when Ari coughed a couple of times and then said 'pray for my cough'. I had been praying about this the last few days since he was having a cold but it was not on my mind today.
At the park the other day, when he was swung unexpectedly high on the tyre swing he remarked 'Oh, I wasn't expecting that.' He still quotes from programs he watches on youtube, but at apt times.