Seeds of creativity

Watching plants grow is a fun and educational experience for children. Their enormous curiosity and excitement over anything new, makes them naturals for gardening. Growing plants with kids teach them how nature works, responsibility in caring for something, an interest in environmental sustainability and pride in them for the results.

Therefore students of Grade V A were taken to the school garden where they were explained about the Vegetative Propagation. After this activity the students understood that plants do grow without seeds.

Glee

Glee: Some know it as a synonym of happiness, but most recognize it as the new TV show that has taken the world by surprise with its outspoken views, musical-like setting, and lessons about teamwork and harmony. Although the second season was not greeted with much fan-fare, Glee has slowly worked its way back to the top.

Glee is about a group of high school students who have formed a ‘Glee’ club, more widely known as a show choir. While the show does focus on issues teenagers deal with on a day-to-day basis, it also puts across important messages such as teamwork, working towards a goal, and accepting different people as individuals. As a new group in the school, the Glee club has to work hard to prove themselves to the other students and staff members.

What is most noticeable about this show is its integration of song and dance: each episode contains around four or five songs, quite reminiscent of Broadway productions.  Some of their covers are truly spectacular and magnanimous, including Teenage Dream (Katy Perry), The Time (Black Eyed Peas), and Marry You (Bruno Mars).

Cat up a tree...

Ever have a cat-up-a-tree? Ever seen a catapult? The following was received from a missionary in Romania. God's care, creativity and timing is awesome!

Suddenly a bright idea struck the pastor! By tying the wispy branches of the tree to the bumper of his car and slowly driving forward, he could bend the top branches enough to reach his terrified, precious kitten. Carefully, the brave rescuer executed the brilliant plan.

However, just as the pastor reached for his furry friend, the rope snapped and the wide-eyed, frozen kitty flew through the air as though catapulted into space.

What to do? After a fruitless search the dejected pastor gave the care of his former companion into the hands of his Creator.

While shopping not many days later, the pastor bumped into the grocery cart of a woman from his church. Knowing her reputation for disliking cats, he commented on the fact that she had cat food in her basket.
"You'll never believe what happened!" replied the woman. "My little girl has been begging me for a kitten for months and I continually responded that we have no need for a cat. She has such love for animals, and one day when she again asked for her very own cat, I told her that I would not get a cat for her, but if God gave her one, she could keep it."

Satisfied with the answer, my daughter ran into the backyard, got down on her knees, closed her eyes tightly and prayed, "Dear God, please send me a kitty of my very own to love and care for. Amen."

"She opened her eyes and what do you think she saw? A little kitten with paws outstretched flying through the air. It landed right in front of my daughter and has been part of our family ever since!"

Now, rewind back to our own life, how many of us keep worrying from the pastor's perceptive and miss out seeing the miracles from the little girl's perspective?

Generation Gap- A whiff of rugged individualism

The only thing that changes is the change itself. All aspects of the world – way of living, living enablers like Technology has been witnessing the light of change every second. The result is a gap on the levels of acceptance and readiness to accept the change is very much evident among the various generations of people.

For e.g.: To get a contact number when parents flip on the yellow pages, while their children quick dial to tele help.

It is increasingly tougher for the youth to get away from the digital screen more often whether it is academics or socializing all is done in front of it. But this is neither appreciated nor entertained by the older generation as they believe in face-to-face interaction and practical experience is more important for survival in the society.
This results in various conflicts of interests and ideologies between Gen-Now and Gen-Next.

 Apart from technology there are several other reasons that lead to this kind of conflicting problems. The people in different generations are brought up in entirely different ways, due to this upbringing every generation’s mental framework differs from other. The physiological and behavioral patterns are formed on the basis of circumstances and surrounding one undergoes. So when the people of different generations meet each other they are induced to differ in opinion, communication gap and conflict.

Further this difference lead to likes and dislikes that differ from each other and people cannot live in peace with each other and they are unable to respect the likes and opinion of each other.

Generation gap is something that has been taking place in the society for a long time, but recently it has become more acute. It is caused due to conflict in ideas and thoughts taking place between the parents and the children. When there is difference of opinion among the parties then feelings cannot be expressed even though it exists between them as there would be no proper channel to fill in the gap. To be frank there are is no quick solution to bridge the gap, other than the two generations realizing the situation and becoming the bridge themselves.  Self-Realization is the key.

Steps that can be taken to reduce the friction:

•    Realization and a high level of understanding.

•    Sharing of childhood memories opens the door to understanding.

•    Understanding the theory of limitation as both the generations cannot be satisfied as per their wants.

•    Spend qualitative time with each other as it creates an emotional bondage.

•    Develop the attribute of respecting each other.

 

CARE AND CONCERN IN ACTION

Once a teacher asked her pupils to write an essay on the topic - “If I had to be a house appliance, which appliance would I like to be, and why?” One of the smartest kids in the class wrote the following which can be an eye – opener to many parents:

“Above all I would like to be a TV SET, because, were I a TV SET, my parents would look at me often, they would take more care of me. They would listen to me much more attentively. They would tell others to ‘shut-up’ when I am speaking. They would not tell me to go out of the room or to go bed in the middle of a game or when I do something I like, as they never go to bed until the TV program is over.” (“TOUCH”, Newsletter of Family Service Centre, God).

The less attention parents give to their children, the more they grow experiencing the absence of love. Love received from parents is basic to the formation of one’s values. The child retains attention to love. So if they are not getting the attention they got to believe that they are not loved. Love is the most important characteristic that wishes the happiness of others. It is only when the child feels the love of his/her parents that this conviction is created within the child’s heart and mind. And, this keeps growing and assists the development of his/her own values and behavioral patterns as an adult.

Attitude is a decision…

What makes a winner or a loser? Is it the right attitude, perception or the right way of thinking? This was the thought shared by the principal in the Assembly. He spoke about the traits of a winner in contrast to a loser some of which are


The Winner always has a program.


The Loser always has an excuse.


The Winner says: "Let me do it for you";


The Loser says: "That is not my job."


The Winner sees an answer for every problem.


The Loser sees a problem for every answer.


The Winner says: "It may be difficult, but it is possible.”


The Loser says: "It may be possible, but it is too difficult."


When a Winner makes a mistake, he says: "I was wrong.”


When a Loser makes a mistake, he says: "It wasn't my fault."


If one does ponder over this, the obvious answer would be that people are successful because they choose to think differently. How do we develop this thinking? Children today are more exposed to challenges and so it becomes all the more imperative that they develop the right attitude to be resilient to stress created by outside influences and be focused on their goals. It goes without saying that this is not something that can be taught, but one needs to change their mind-set which will definitely set the stage for them to be achievers in the long run.

A Healthy Mind leads to Healthy life

We "burn with anger,” or "tremble" with fear or feel "choked up" with sadness. Everyone experiences such horrible feelings but such emotions make us feel physically and emotionally disturbed and weak. Feelings are driven by emotions and thus we experience varied feelings through different emotions.

This is because our body and mind are closely interconnected to each other and emotions play a big part in shaping one's health. And hence, any negative effect on mind causes major challenge to good health.

At times you may have experience stomach ache or headache before an important exam. This is nothing but a sign of stress and fear of failure. You might also feel fatigue and puckish but that is all because of the feeling. If before the same exam, you replace feeling of fear with confidence and start thinking positively, chances of success will increase.

In Hindu mythology, Ravana was a very learned and intelligent man. However, he was filled with negative thoughts of jealousy, anger and hatred which led to his defeat by Lord Rama who was symbol of love and care.

Finally you should know that your mental state is what you think and as a result you feel what you want. So make up your mind with positive thoughts for - A healthy mind is what leads to a healthy body and a much happier life.