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A sporty weekend [1]: Sports Day at Shikshantar
Just as I was getting a little cribby about Udai’s new penchant for hanging out gossiping with his friends rather than playing in the park, we spent a weekend full of outdoors fun! Winter in Delhi is perfect for sporty activities and we took full advantage of superb weather and great friends.
Saturday morning was spent attending Aadyaa’s sports day, quite a spectacle a Shikshantar where kids demonstrate complex obstacles, relays and patterns using props like balls and hoopla rings. The focus is complete immersion in the task at hand, with no regard to the idea of ‘winning a race’, quite unique to this school and absolutely age appropriate for pre-schoolers I think. I have to point out that the idea of sports for pre-schoolers is as much about the development of physical strength and skills as it is about honing social skills like sharing, encouraging peers and pushing yourself to do better. As parents, we all feel good that these little ones are protected at this point from the disappointments of losing and do whatever they can with great confidence. There will be a time and place for comparisons, but for now the happiness and enthusiasm is catching!
Here are a few snapshots from that energized morning, though I must confess I was sunburnt into a stupor afterwards!
Sports is internalized into every aspect of what the kids do at this time of the year!
Good to see them focus on a task and chellenge themselves to do better. Notice the highly informal setup with parents and grandparents, siblings and even house help (who are so integral to the family from a child’s perspective) standing or sitting around the activity area
Teamwork was introduced this year. A significant step forward for the little ones!
Cheering for her friends!
Big brother Udai watches. Later, parents and siblings also have similar activities. Wish I had pics of how much he enjoyed those, on the same team as mommy. Of course, our (more grown up) bunch was competitive as hell, yelling and behaving like the brats that I am sure we all were (or still are!)
Work-life balance=Work on weekdays and balance on weekends! Jan 22, 2012
Have just looked at the site stats on my blog and realize that the least views over the past month (since I’ve been writing regularly) have been on weekends! Kind of kills my motivation to write, but that thought has me doing the double take as well! What am I writing for? Myself? For the appreciation of those who read? And since the latter undeniably plays a role, will I end up pandering to the public and not really writing what I want to, what comes from the heart?
The stats also tell me that most people don’t spend much time before their computer screens on weekends and that’s great news. Urban life is firmly entrenched in the weekday-weekend mode, and while this has been so in the West for a long time, life in urban India has become like that too.
Weekends are now filled with chores, family outings, social visits, lunched, dinners, coffees, mall outings–all the hectic stuff you have to squeeze in because you’ve spent all week working, sending children to school, meeting deadlines of various sorts. Sunday evening blues, I suspect strongly, are not so much about not wanting to get to work on Monday morning, but about the sheer exhaustion of the weekend past!
The work-life balance is all about working the week and balancing on the weekend and unfortunately, that doesn’t always work! How does the body understand that sleep deprivation over weeknights is to be compensated on weekends, for instance?
So what is one to do? Here’s what works for me. I try to schedule one day in the weekend as a blank day, meaning no preset appointments and social calls at all. Errand running has been moved to an extra hour on the way back from work. I long for US-style 24 hour supermarkets sometimes, so that stocking up can be done after the children sleep. Movie watching is also on weeknights; we have the luxury of extended family to perform babysitting duties. I also try and take up a couple of hours of hobby classes on weekends. Right now its music, it used to be dance. This is to force me to take my mind off work, home and all the other commitments and stresses of life and…. it works just great!
What works for you? Do write in!
ramblinginthecity 