Compassion

Posted On September 17, 2017 By Webmaster In Behaviour, Child Development, Parenting /

Putting someone else’s interest before our own is a value which must be taught to children. Being kind, helpful and, generally, a good human being is something children will learn only if people around them practice the same. In a world where popular culture celebrates egocentric thoughts and centres around becoming successful no matter what, we need to make children believe that compassion will take them places.

In a workplace, being sensitive to others’ problems, helping each other in times of crisis, sharing workload etc, are important values in order to encourage teamwork, and create a trusted, secure, happy and satisfying work environment. Success is but natural in such compassionate and affectionate workplaces. Nobody in the world is successful on their own, they will always have someone who has helped them in some way or the other to climb the success ladder.

In fact, compassion is what makes us different from wild animals in the forest, it is what makes us human.

We live in a society and not in isolation, and so, we must remember that we will need people sometime in our lives and those relationships can be built only if you truly love and care for them.

Integrity-Become a Good human Being Before a Successful One

Posted On September 9, 2017 By Webmaster In Behaviour, Child Development, Family, Mount Litera Zee School, Parenting / 1

We live in a world where the destination is more important than the journey. In a bid to achieve success, we often forget honesty and morality. Dishonesty might help you today in a sales pitch but tomorrow if the customer /client isn’t satisfied, you will not only lose the customer but also get a bad name for your organisation. Children must be taught to value honesty and uphold ethical responsibility not only in their jobs but also in their life. Success when achieved fast, using immoral ways, will also leave you equally fast.

Simple things like owning up to one’s own mistakes, making genuine promises and not eluding people with exaggeration, being true to people and valuing their efforts, instead of taking advantage of them just to get your work done, appreciating other people’s work and not hogging the limelight for something you haven’t done. These values are very generic in nature and everyone knows their importance, but somewhere down the line power and success blinds them or they succumb to pressures and choose immoral means to succeed.

Integrity is not part of any book or curriculum, it is something children imbibe from family, school and friends.

The world will remember you not based on your success but the kind of human being you are, and values like integrity make you that human being.

Developing Right Attitudes to Prepare Children for the Corporate World

Posted On September 2, 2017 By Webmaster In Behaviour, Child Development, Family, Mount Litera Zee School, Parenting / 1

Apart from skills and education, what will get children to shine in this competitive world is the attitude. Two people with similar education but with different attitudes will approach work or life differently. And this difference makes one more successful than the other. Today, we shall look certain types of attitudes that will help children reach great heights in the corporate world.

Curiosity: As children, curiosity is abundant in them, but we must make sure to keep sustaining curiosity and stimulating higher levels of curiosity by introducing them to books, documentaries, and other educational media. Today, technology keeps them abreast with the world happenings; adequate exposure to it will keep them aware and also push them to know more!

Value For Time & Money: Time and money are two factors which the world runs on. People who value time and money, value the world and the world will value them. A routine or discipline needs to be instilled in their everyday lives. This will make it easier for them to get accustomed to a fast-paced business world. When they learn to respect money, they will automatically learn to respect hard-work. Also, one must learn to handle personal finances, only then one earns credibility.

Ambition: Employers are looking for ambitious people, hungry to learn and eager to achieve greater heights. Those who are passionate about their work and are willing to continuously hone their skills to fit into the market are priceless to companies. Of course, there must a balance between one’s personal ambitions and the company’s interests. The kind of value an employee attaches to the company can make him an asset or a liability, one must learn to look at the bigger picture, and not just personal success.

Solution-Driven & Open : When children are taught to be solution driven, it heightens their innovating capacity, pushes them to strive for excellence and makes them open to different perspectives and possibilities-all of which are necessary to develop leadership and team-building skills. Children with such skills and attitudes will be more resourceful to organizations, making them almost indispensable and of course successful!

Most of all, children need to be true to their work and their learning processes. They must be able to harness the learning at home and school, to the best of their potential, to face a cutthroat yet exciting corporate life.

Ganapathi Bappa Morya!

Posted On August 25, 2017 By Webmaster In Indian Festivals /

It’s time to feast on laddoos and modaks and welcome Lord Ganesha into our homes. Ganesh Chaturthi, a festival predominantly celebrated in Maharashtra and Karnataka. So, who is Ganesha or Ganapathi? He is the son of Shiva and Parvathi and is often referred to as the elephant headed god. There many stories about how he got the elephant head, one of them is that when Parvati created a young boy and breathed life into him. She asked him to guard the door while she bathes. When Shiva comes home, the boy stops him and in his rage cuts the boy’s head. To appease Parvathi, he brought the boy back to life and replaced his head with an elephant’s head.

Ganesh Chaturthi is a 10-day festival, wherein an idol of Ganesha is brought home and placed. He is surrounded by decorations and lights. Modaks, which look alike to momos, is a sweet made specially for the festival. It is said to be Ganesha’s favorite sweet. Friends and families gather together to perform pujas and sing bhajans. People are dressed in traditional attire.

Apart from Ganesh idols at home, there are public Ganesh idols too, on the streets. Generally seen in Mumbai and Bangalore, these public idols are of mammoth sizes and the entire street is lit. Maharashtrian crowds even perform a dance using an Indian instrument called Lazzim.

The number of days the idol is kept at home or in public varies. Some people keep the idol of one day some 5, some 9; after which the idol is taken to the sea or a nearby river for immersion. This immersion symbolises his journey back to heaven. Until recently, the idols used to be made of plaster of paris (pop) which today has been banned in many parts of India, due to its toxic material. Today people have started buying idols made of clay or mud which easily dissolve in the water, causing no harm to water based organisms.

There is a common saying in Marathi -’Ganapathi Bappa Morya, Pudcha Varshi Laukar ya!’ Which translates to - ‘long live Ganapathi, come again soon next year!’ So kids, let us all welcome an eco-friendly Ganapathi, whole heartedly, as he blesses us for a bright future and a green world!

How do we prepare students to become leaders of the 21st Century!

Posted On August 14, 2017 By Webmaster In Behaviour, Child Development, Creativity, Mount Litera Zee School, Parenting /

Our world is rapidly changing. How can we help our children keep up?

21st century skills are the new building blocks for learning. Our children will need to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive world, and at the same time be able to collaborate with others. Creativity and innovation will be highly prized for solving challenges.

So how do we prepare our children for the jobs of the future?

What new skills will they need?

Our children will have to be equipped with a mixed skill set encompassing traditional academics, life skills such as collaboration, problem solving, creativity, and career skills such as innovation, technology, and global awareness.

While schools are beginning to make the shift toward 21st century standards, there’s a lot that you can do as a parent to foster these skills at home. It is always better to provide a good foundation at an early age.

Try these ideas as starters for supporting your child’s success.

When children play together, offer them a collective set of play materials to encourage sharing, turn-taking, and social skills.
Encourage out-of-the-box thinking by asking your child to come up with one or two new rules to a familiar game. This helps kids learn to evaluate their ideas, and solve problems in a group.
Invite your child to help you solve common household problems by engineering new solutions. How can you get the back door not to stick? What’s a tidier way to bathe your new pooch?
Encourage your child to participate in family decisions and problem solving, and then praise your child’s efforts to reason through different situations. If they seem hesitant, brainstorm together. Once your child understands that all ideas are welcome, they will feel more confident.

Together we shall prepare our kids to be the leaders of 21st Century!

Why should one value his/her own values?

Posted On August 6, 2017 By Webmaster In Behaviour, Child Development, Mount Litera Zee School, Parenting /

Personal values are the essence of who we are. They represent the core aspects of our self.

We all have little nuances that make us who we are. Discovering your personal values involves discovering what you’re passionate about and finding what’s really important to you. The more we understand ourselves, the more self-aware we become, and the easier it is to live a successful life.

In reality, most people coast through life without any consideration for what is truly important to them. If you’ve ever felt really frustrated or angry about something, it’s likely you were experiencing a ‘values conflict’. Sometimes – just understanding why we feel frustrated, can help us move forward.

A values conflict is often common among family members. For example, as a child, you may end up picking your parents values instead of your own. You may be pushed into becoming a lawyer by your father because he may have secretly wanted to be one. Law may have been important to your father, but it doesn’t mean it is to you. And you can never be happy when caught in the middle of a values conflict.

If you take the time to identify your values they will become your own personal framework for a successful life. Because, once you know what’s important to you, you’ll never waste another second on things that don’t matter.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, "Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny."

So here’s an exercise to help you discover your own values. Just grab a notebook. Give yourself quiet space, no distractions, and at least an hour to reflect on what your core values are.

Gray Matters

Posted On July 26, 2017 By Webmaster In Mount Litera Zee School /

Gray Matters in association with the Australian council for Educational Research (ACER) organizes diagnostic
student assessments as a competition to help students develop problem solving skills and to monitor growth in
their learning levels. This program called Assessment of critical thinking (ACT), rewards student for
performance and for demonstrating growth. Gray matters carries out comprehensive school assessments
including assessment of student learning outcome, teaching quality, parent satisfaction, school leadership and
learning infrastructure.

5 Benefits of Yoga for Kids

Posted On June 25, 2017 By Webmaster In Child Development, Indian Festivals, Mount Litera Zee School, Parenting / 1

The world celebrated the 3rd International Yoga Day, and like the previous years it was an unqualified success.

The ancient practice originated in India and the whole world was looking towards India to take the initiative to take make it popular across the world.

In keeping with the sentiment, our country presented a strong case to the United Nations to declare June 21 as International Yoga Day.

5 Things to take care of this Monsoon!

Posted On June 17, 2017 By Webmaster In Mount Litera Zee School /

The suspense is finally over as the Monsoons arrive on time and the country heaves a collective sigh of relief.

Such is our dependence on the annual rainfall that any shortfall has far reaching consequences on agriculture, trade and life in general.

However, the rains also bring with them their own set of challenges, especially to parents who have to get their children ready for school. And then there are other issues to take care of too as rains put normal life out of gear. Today we will take a look at 5 important things to pay attention to during the rains.

5 questions to ask the teacher during the Parents -Teacher Meeting

Posted On June 10, 2017 By Webmaster In Child Development, Mount Litera Zee School /

Do we treat the Parent-Teacher(P-T) meetings with the kind of importance they deserve or do we parents treat them as something we are expected to put in an appearance at least once a year?

Children have impressionable minds, and it is important to handle them with utmost care and the P-T meetings are a great way to assess a child’s progress in a non-intrusive manner.

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