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.

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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. More »

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 are capitalised when used as proper names.

I sent a thank-you note to Aunt Sarah, but not to my other aunts.

Here is a present I bought for Mother

.Did you buy a present for your mother?

If the kids are capitalizing “mom”, they can do it in two situations.

1] When they are addressing “mom”. For example:

Mom, are you there?

[2] When they use it as a proper name.

You know who is in that room? It is Mom. Here the kid thinks her mother’s name is Mom. That’s how the kid has always known her.

You will notice there is no ‘whose’ marker (my, your, his, her, their) before the word “Mom”. If the sentence establishes the relationship with that marker, “mom” starts with a lower case letter. Once the relationship is established, she is just my/your/her/his/its “mom”.

Example: “Is that your mom?” 
So if a kid writes:
“Mom makes me do all the work” or “I buy a gift for Mom” we have to accept it as right.
It becomes wrong only when the sentence goes, “My Mom drives me to school.”

Children learn through drill work. Some of the work we have for beginners:
[1] Write your name on the corner of every page of your workbook.
[2] Your city, district
[3] Names of parents, friends
[4] Then move on to sentences. The sentences are simple first and then have proper names.
Example: River Nile flows through Africa.
Exercises could be
[a] Fill in the blanks
[b] Correct the sentences.
[c] This simple letter has mistakes in capitalization. Can you fix it? Kids get familiar with letters as well.
[d] Game of tic-tac-toe for capitalization
[e] Kids pick a capital letter from a box of cards. Then write a word using it as the first letter.
[f] Make it clear there are no capital letters in the middle of a word. Give a list (fish, fiSh). Which one is right?
[g] Building sentences. Break sentences into three parts. Put them in three columns. Ask kids to form sentences using capital letters as clues.

Hope this helps. 

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.

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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. More »

This summer, give your kids a chance to connect with their Indian heritage. Several camps in the area deal with different aspects of the culture, including immersion camps and language camps.

The India Community Center in Milpitas offers many camps tailored to the needs of parents wanting their children to get a taste of India without having to shell out the big bucks for the trip back home.

Gandhi Camp: Located at the Vedanta Society Retreat near Point Reyes National park, this camp is based on the Gandhian principles  of truthfulness, tolerance and self-help. Daily activities include community service projects, sports, cultural activities, discussions and friendship-building group games. Camp runs August 2-9, 2008.

Cultural Immersion Camps: Campers learn about various aspects of Indian history, geography and pop culture, whether it is Bollywood Dance or Yoga. Cricket games and field trips will ensure the child spends summer the way ti is meant to be spent, busy learning and having fun. Camps are offered in Milpitas, Ardenwood, tri-valley, Evergreen, Foster City, Saratoga and Sunnyvale on various dates throughout summer. Krishna Reddy, an ICC camp parent said "We found the program absolutely fantastic. Our mother tongue is Telugu and that is the language my wife and I converse in at home. Both my wife and I speak fluent Hindi, but, our 5 old son does not speak or understand even one word of it. But, he liked the program so much that he has been able to sing an entire verse of a Hindi song which goes like "Jeevan mein kuch karna hai to …". This made us really happy. I find this program to be an excellent way to introduce kids of Indian descent born in the US to Indian culture."

Hindi Immersion Program: Designed to give children the opportunity to learn and improve their language skills through music, games, stories and performing arts. Camp offered at various locations in San Jose, Fremont and Palo Alto.

Dances of India Camp: This unique camp will take your children through a tour of India's dances. Campers will be exposed to many folk dances and the stories behind their origins. 

ICC also has a range of other summer camp offerings that can be found at http://indiacc.org. 

Chinmaya Mission offers a Discover India summer camp at San Ramon, Palo Alto and San Jose. Campers are exposed to the richness and diversity of Indian culture and taught its history and geography through a series of fun activities.

USHA( US Hindi Association) offers a Conversational Hindi Camp with a creative, fun and interactive environment filled with dramatics, art and other activities to teach conversational Hindi. Camps are offered at Foster City, Palo Alto, Fremont and San Jose.

Samskrita Bharati offers an all day youth camp to learn Samskritam. Camp is for Grade 8 and above at Point Bonita, 10 miles from San Francisco. Camp is residential and conducted in a gurukul style.

Readers knowing of other India-themed camps can send us info via our feedback form and we will keep updating our post. 

 By Vidya Pradhan

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! More »

 By Aarti Johri

It was over a year ago. A friend and I were involved in a project with some young children that used a tie- dye kit. Our preteen girls were also participating. “Here”, my friend said, “your daughter can also tie-dye something for herself; this would look great in that blue”. I looked at what she was tossing me, a Hanes sleeveless T-shirt. I realized my otherwise brilliant friend had some idiosyncrasies, this probably being an example of them. I politely smiled and scrambled out of the situation, puzzled nonetheless why she would give my daughter an undershirt, obviously purchased for her son.

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By Vidya Pradhan

“Look at it this way,” said a friend recently. “Text messaging has made written English irrelevant and learning historical and geographical facts has become unnecessary in a Wiki-world. That just leaves….math!”

While the Indian community has always been ahead of the curve in its obsession with math, public school education in the US has not always kept up with our interest in this department. A study by the Program for International Student Assessment showed that the 15 year olds in the US ranked 24th in the world in math literacy. By contrast, a story in Business Week titled “Math will rock your world” suggests careers in math are exploding.

No matter where in the US they find themselves, no matter what the quality of the neighborhood school is, Indian parents take the initiative to ensure that their children build a strong foundation in math. Here we take a look at some of the tuition options available to make sure your child is not left behind in the race to compete in math. More »

By Vidya Pradhan

Our Indian community is known for its obsession with the education of its children and sometimes we make enormous personal and professional sacrifices to make sure our kids are in the right environment and the right school. While there are many public schools around the bay which meet the rigorous standards of Asian parents, when it comes to keeping the kids abreast on current events, even the best schools fall short. More »