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! Continue reading
Enakshi's Adventure
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Category Archives: Parent Talk
The Empress’s New Clothes
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.
Math! Math! Math!
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. Continue reading
Good ‘news’ for your kids
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. Continue reading
Indian American Parenting; A rebuttal
Divya Valluri is the quintessential California girl; confident, talented, vivacious and earthy. Her parents have given her a couple of very useful gifts; Indian roots and American wings. WNI’s August 5th parenting article “The confused Indian American Parent” in which PR Ganapathy talks about praise in the American system and Sukanya Mahadevan explores the efficacy of a crazy extra curricular schedule for kids, evoked this response from Divya; I think it’s interesting that parental concerns about the dichotomy of Indian and American cultures never really address the effort children growing up in the United States inevitably have to make to create a balance between the two. We definitely go through a struggle to combine the Asian values of our households with the American values in the outside world, and still have solid relationships in both places. I respect the valid concerns Indian parents have with raising their children with a combination of solid values and limitless opportunities. I don’t think my parents are going to be reading this any time soon, so I can safely say that I sincerely believe they raised me with a perfect combination of the two. So here we go: Continue reading
The confused Indian American parent
by Rohini Mohan
We are the new wave of Indians who streamed into the US. We lived and worked as adults in a liberalized India that had already started to mesh with the West. Unlike our predecessors who moved here before the booming 90’s we were already exposed to many aspects of American life. Cable TV and the Internet had taken care of that. So we did not really have to worry about the ‘Culture shock’ phenomenon that the earlier generation of immigrants faced on arriving here. We went our merry way, working, getting married, enjoying life, integrating into the society (or not). And then, one fine day we had kids. That’s when we started feeling it – the dichotomy between two diametrically opposite cultures – the big face-off between the Indian way and the American way of child rearing. Continue reading
The Importance of Play
Rennu Dhillon runs the award-winning Genius Kids, an intensive preschool program focusing on academics for kids under 5. Her new venture is Toto Station – an indoor entertainment play center and after school hub for children from ages 12 months to 10 years. Toto Station was created to encourage development in children in critical areas including personal confidence, creativity and imagination, all within a safe, clean and fun environment.
Here Rennu talks about the importance of play – Continue reading
MeeraMasi -Bilingual books for Indian kids
By Vidya Pradhan
Sonali Sahni Herrera had a problem common to Indians brought up in the United States. Husband Carlos was able to share his culture and Spanish language with their children with the help of many bilingual books and DVDs but she was at a loss when it came to Hindi, having grown up in the US since the age of 4. Not being very fluent in the Hindi script, she looked around for books, CDs, nursery rhymes that could bridge the gap between her knowledge and her culture but the offerings were limited and few met her quality standards. She turned to sister Sheetal Sahni Singhal, for help. After scouting around in India and here for material, the two decided that the only way to get quality books was to publish it themselves. They started MeeraMasi, a publishing company that focuses on Indian bilingual books for kids under the age of 6. Continue reading
Safari Kid
By Vidya Pradhan
There may be considerable debate about the wisdom of high level academics for children under 5, but for Indian Americans used to the system back home, it is inconceivable that their children will learn their ABC’s only in kindergarten. Like most Indian parents, if you are wondering if you are doing enough to educate your young child, look no further. In a humble strip mall in Newark is Safari Kid, a place that will satisfy the most rigorous desi requirements. Continue reading
Parenting Today – Analysis Paralysis
By Rohini Mohan
Yes, yes, labor is excruciatingly painful, but wait till you’re hit with what follows – raising the bundle of joy! And I don’t mean the next few months of sleep deprivation; I am talking about the next two decades of insomnia. The drooling baby morphs into the monstrous rug rat who metamorphosises into the precocious pre-schooler. As you walk him to his first day of Montessori, do I hear an involuntary sigh of relief escaping your lips? What? Freedom for a few hours, you say? Quick – bite your tongue; you have no idea what you’ve let yourself in for.
Water, No Ice 