Writes Enakshi Choudhari - Change may be here at last and it is not the “change” that the different presidential candidates have been expounding upon everyday for the past few weeks and months. The change I am talking about is taking place in the corridors of the U.S. Department of ...

By Piya Mitra Piya Mitra is an event planner. Under the banner of her company “Elegant Eventz” she has organized theme and birthday parties for both kids and adults. If I ask you about your plans for this weekend most of you are going to say you have a birthday party to attend. Most of those parties will either be held at restaurants/banquet halls or crowded children’s birthday party places. Birthday parties in the South Asian community are used as opportunities for socializing and networking for adults. The parties fall into two broad categories - Restaurant/Banquet hall/Home - Food is the big factor here. A magic show thrown in for entertainment or a bouncy house. The rest of the time the children just run around the tables & chairs while the parents are busy chatting about work or catching up with each other. At the end of the party the kids get a favor bag full of candy and little toys that are thrown away or lost in a day.

By Geeta Padmanabhan Call it the Matilda syndrome. A bright child, far ahead in reading, writing and in thinking compared to kids of her age. Not a prodigy, just very bright. Hold that “wow” for a second. It’s hard to believe, but she/he can be a “problem” kid in the classroom. Ask any teacher. This is why in the B Ed. syllabus in India there is a complete unit on “How to handle the exceptionally bright in the classroom”. On July 25, 2008, S Chandrasekar, 17 became the youngest postgraduate from IIT-Madras when he received his degree at the convocation. The teenager topped his class. Born on September 25, 1990, Chandrasekar was dubbed a “precocious” child.  "His teachers used to complain that he would finish his work quickly and disturb other children, so we asked them to give him some books to read," said his father.

By Rennu Dhillon Craft/Experiment 1 Goal: To learn about primary and secondary colors. Materials: food coloring (red, yellow, blue), corn syrup, 2 paper plates (not the plastic plates but paper plates) Procedure: 1. Mix each food color with the corn syrup so you ...

By Vidya Pradhan For Hindus, the single syllable “OM”, repeated the right way, represents the creation of the universe and the sum of all existence. Om is a mantra, a hymn( shloka) or phrase that is supposed to raise consciousness when recited over and over. Mantras have power and meaning independent of the understanding of the person chanting them if chanted the right way, so say the scriptures. Nina Patel has experienced this for herself.

By Rennu Dhillon  Speaking confidently and having the confidence to speak in public is a critical life skill to survive in today’s competitive society. To be able to verbally communicate clearly and effectively to other individuals and groups is essential in schools, business and your own personal life. As a successful recruiter for many years, one of the things I ran into as I sent my clients out for interviews was that many people lacked clear communication and the confidence to interview. Just having a great resume or a collection of degrees from ivy colleges is not suffice to advance in your career or improve your business. It is now as important for people to be able to make effective presentations and the knowledge and skills to speak to others.

Reader Seema asks: My students mess up in their writing using capital M for Mom and D for dad in all places. How can I teach them (first graders) when to capitalize mom and when not to. How can I make it easy for them? Geeta Padmanabhan answers:  Family relationships ...

By Barry Shatzman Something wasn't right. The woman filled out the forms to start receiving Social Security benefits, and the money began to flow into her bank account. Yet she still was borrowing from friends for her day-to-day expenses.     Not understanding English well, she didn't realize that she could withdraw the money.   By the time Pragna Dadbhawala, a member of the city's Community Ambassador Program for Seniors (CAPS), stepped in to help, things had gotten even worse for the woman. The Social Security Administration noticed she wasn't using the money, so they cut off her payments altogether.     "She was depressed. A volunteer had helped her fill out form to get the Social Security, and then this happened. I helped her with her appeal. I spoke in her native language," Dadbhawala said.

By Enakshi Choudhuri Do you find yourself staring at your third graders math homework wondering what it is all about, even though you have an advanced degree in mathematics? Does your child jump from topic to topic in math without ever being able to master anything?  Do the words spiraling, lattice multiplication, everyday math or conceptual math seem familiar? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions your child may be part of one of the most lamentable education experiments ever conducted in the past 25 years. An experiment, that has parents, students and teachers up in arms in multiple states across the nation. Yet, for many years, no one thought to conduct a randomized controlled study to understand whether this new ‘fuzzy’ math actually helps children learn mathematics. That is, no one until Dr. Kaminski and her colleagues at Ohio State University decided to challenge the common practice in many classrooms across the country of teaching mathematical concepts and facts by using “real-world” concrete examples.

What do you do when you have a great idea for a book but no idea how to find the right person in the publishing world and how to market the idea? Why, publish it yourself!