When can a child start LKG?

I have had many queries about the age group for Kindergarten children here in Bangalore. Typically, each school has its own cut-off for when a child can start Kindergarten classes. On a broad scale, what I can say is that a child must be 4 to go to Lower Kindergarten, 5 to go to Upper Kindergarten, and 6 to go to First Standard.

The only thing is there are some schools that are extremely particular about their cut-off dates. For example, at Viday Sagar, the child MUST have completed 4 yrs as of May 31st, to start LKG on Jun 1st of any given year. But, there are lot of schools where they are not very particular and take in even 3 and 10 month olds into LKG. So, if you have a Jun born child, you do have to figure out how to go about the admission process; some of the schools may take in your child for LKG even if your child is completing 4 only in Jun and other schools may not.

In our case, our older one was born on Jun 1st '03. One of the reasons we moved in Oct '06 was to start her schooling here from Jun '07. The process in Bangalore is fairly long, what with schools giving out applications as early as Oct/Nov. Most of the schools are done with the admission process in Dec/Jan. And the important thing to know is, it is easier to get seats at LKG level than at any other. All of the seats are available, unlike for other standards when only a few seats are available for 'outsiders'. A lot of the good schools also restrict the number of students per class, so unless some kids choose to leave school, typically there aren't any seats available at higher classes. First Standard would be next bet, since some schools open up another section to accommodate more students. But from First Standard onwards, the kids have to go through aptitude tests etc to "qualify". So, R2Iing for LKG seemed like a sane choice. Please do share your experiences if you have gone through something similar.


PS: I have been so flickred, it is unbelievable! I have avoided flickr for a long time, because I knew how addictive it could be for the likes of me. But, now with the DSLR, flickr is such a default hang out. Sheesh!
I have not been active here, but I will. I promise I will.

Summer of '07

(Alright, so I have Bryan Adams and his 'Summer of 69' in my head as I type the title of the post. Let it stay that way.)

Since the time I went off to the US, I planned all my trips to India during Decembers or Julys, just to skip being here in the summers, not a huge fan of the heat or the humidity. Also, since we had to make a few trips to other places within India during our short India trips, I was keen to avoid the Indian summers. In fact, when we decided to R2I for good, the Indian summer was a concern for me! I hate humidity that much. Anyway, now that we have been through a summer here in Bangalore, I am glad to say that it wasn't too bad. Bangalore was hot and we did complain about the temperatures during the peak; in fact for about a month or so, it was pretty hot. But we were lucky to get some rains and the temps cooled off tremendously, especially since the rest of the country was struggling through heat waves. We were blessed to have some tolerable temps, sometimes making it quite pleasant too. We realised this more so when we traveled to other much hotter places.

Some near-perfect days

Flora: Only when I was actually here, did I realise the familiar summer floral sights that I was missing being away. Not that I missed them particularly when I was actually away, because California has beautiful flora too. Spring would be awash with various hues and some lovely colors. This summer, here in Bangalore, the Gulmohar, Queen's Flower, Copper Pod, etc were everywhere. The splash of colors was beautiful and the Gulmohar seemed redder than in the past; almost like organic coral sprinkled against the clear blue summer skies.

The resplendent Gulmohar lining the streets, making for some very pretty sights

Fruits: The summer fruits in India are a delight - mango, jackfruit, guava, musk melon, papaya, pineapple, chickoo, palmyra (kAti nongu) etc. Though mango is the king of fruits, and summer is the peak season for all its varieties, I have this weakness for jackfruits. And I hadn't eaten any in all the years that I was out of India. So, I made up for the loss this summer! The nice thing was both my kids took to jackfruits as well. So, I had some nice, crazy company to enjoy this (strange) fruit. Jackfruits always remind me of all my summer vacation spent in my ancestral native, Kerala! Just the thought of Kerala conjures up a splash of beautiful images that mean nothing but home - my beautiful exotic home! Though I am a Bangalorean at heart, Kerala will always be home for my soul. The absolute rustic scenes, the down-to-earth temples surrounded by mystique, and of course the food! Thankfully, the jackfruits were aplenty this season in Bangalore and I had a ball, to say the least!

Yummy Yum Yum!!

We enjoyed some kAti nongu too. Some of the vendors take the fruits out right in front of you like the vendor in this picture.

Summer Camp: Our (then) almost 4 year old daughter went to a summer camp for 3 weeks and within walking distance! I wanted something close by and there was one at the nearest Ramana Maharshi Center. What is unbelievable is the kind of positive influence just the 3 weeks there had on her. She used to take at least about 3 hours to relax and start interacting with non-family members. After the 3 weeks at their summer camp, she was quite comfortable talking to everybody and in a 'nice' way. I am thrilled with this development. At the end of the summer camp, all the children put up a nice show for the parents and family members at their auditorium. Splendid! Our daughter learnt a few of their shlokas, some small dance sequences, and some good social skills. I am thrilled! The summer camp was for 3 hours, 6 days a week for 3 weeks. I paid a whopping amount of Rs. 100/-!!! Unbelievable! (A lot of the commercial places and private schools hold summer camps for 2 weeks or so and charge more than Rs. 2000/-) Overall, she had a lot of fun and loved her summer camp!

Not being sure of how the summer would go, at the end of it, I am happy to say that it went off very well. Isn't that nice .... when you are not sure of how something is going to turn out and later realise that things actually went off well? Applies to all things in life, doesn't it? :)

Schools for autistic kids in Bangalore

Recently, I have had a couple of requests from readers of this blog for info regarding schools for autistic kids in Bangalore. This is such a co-incidence mostly because for the past few months, I have had an opportunity to meet and interact with a few autistic kids, and the experience has been quite touching, to say the least!

So, when I got the request for special schools, I set out on this task of finding the most recommended school for special kids, here in Bangalore. I discovered that Academy for Severe Handicap and Autism or ASHA for short, comes with very good recommendation. One of the special education teachers that I know speaks very highly of this school and its founder, Ms. Jayashree Ramesh. And when I spoke with KPAMRC*, they too recommended ASHA highly.

1) Academy for Severe Handicap and Autism (ASHA)
L-76/A, (Opposite to L-50) Kirloskar colony,
HBCS 3rd Stage, 4th Block, Basaveswarnagar,
Bangalore - 560079

Phone: +91 80 23225279 / 23230357
Fax: +91 80 22258103
Email: info@ashaforautism.com


On talking to the nice people at ASHA, I have 2 more special schools for autistic kids, recommended by the people at ASHA.

2) Sunshine Autism Trust
280, 6th Cross, Domlur Layout,
Bangalore - 560071

Phone: +91 80 65360892
Email: rao_vanitha@yahoo.com, Sunshineautism@vsnl.net


3) Apoorva Centre for Autism
c/o Lions Club of Sarakki,
21st main, 1st cross, Marenahalli,
J P Nagar Phase-2,
Bangalore - 560078

Phone: +91 80 65710445 / 9243195154 / 9845076140
Email: apoorva@SAIautismcenter.org

If any of you know of other good special schools, please email me or leave info in the comments section and I will add it to this post. I do not want to add schools that I get off of the Internet to this list. If you have a personal recommendation, that will be wonderful. Thanks!

* KPAMRC (Karnataka Parents’ Association for Mentally Retarded Citizens)
Phone: + 91 80 26564608
Email: jpkpamrc@vsnl.net

Life, death, and everything in between

Being a fairly young Indian couple in the US, hub and I were friends with people in similar age groups. In fact, I think the oldest person we were friends with in the US was in his late 30s! I doubt if we socialised with anybody in their 40s or older! This was not by design, but just the way things ended up being. Now, obviously death is not a very 'in the face' thing for people in that age group. All we spoke about was the opportunities in the tech world, start-ups, stock market, kids, schools, day-cares, weekend getaways, and the like. Not really vain, but definitely not covering the gamut of life. The only older people we got to mingle with were the older parents of our friends and relatives who were there on a vacation. And even then the topics spoken with them were fairly limited. It would typically be about their tickets, airlines, air travel experiences, immigration, comparisons between India and the US, their failing health, etc.

When it was just the two of us, all this was quite perfect for us. And, because we spoke often to our own parents back home, we would hear of other happenings in our extended families, and neighborhoods. But, after my daughter was about 2 years old, and when she started grasping things around her, I was quite sure that the limited social exposure was just not going to be enough in the long run. Yes, she was going to grow up and meet her own friends and get involved in their lives, but still I really wanted the kids to get involved in the myriad of life's experiences that a place like India offers, more so because we have our family in India. One of the very important events that made this a certainty for me was when one of my uncles in India died. Typically, there are multitudes of ceremonies and rituals that happen after somebody passes away. And if you are in the immediate family circle, you take part in most of these rituals. Now, why are these ceremonies important? I am not sure I am aware of the significance of the exercises themselves; however I know that these events make strong impressions in our minds, and such impressions are very important to our own growing self. When I was a young child, I lost my grandfathers, both in a period of 2 years. I was at an impressionable phase, and I was part and parcel of the happenings around me. When my paternal grandfather died, we had to rush to our native place, because my dad was the eldest son, and hence he had a lot of responsibilities back home. This happened in March, just before my 6th standard exams were to start. Now, I was one of those school toppers, and academics was the most important thing in my life or that is the way it had been laid out for me. But, when my grandfather passed away, we dropped everything, took permission from school and just went. Somehow, that helped put certain things into perspective then, and continues to even now. The entire family had gotten together under one roof and we all went through the motions for those 13 days. I was just a child, but a very observant one. Death is anything but scary even to this day because of those few days in my life. And personally for me, I did not want my kids to miss out on such of life's experiences. There is more to life than what meets the eye! Death is definitely one of the vital aspects of life. I definitely didn't want 'death' to be just a concept; something that happened to distant relatives in a faraway land called India, or what happened to innocent victims of random crazy acts in the US.

Another big factor is, in India, not everybody we know is in the tech industry. We know different kinds of people having different kinds of successes and struggles in life. Again, in the US, within our own immediate tech circle, it was going to be very difficult to bring in a variety for our kids. There were probably 2 kinds of people we knew amongst our bay area Indian friends - the fairly well off and the very well off. But here, I am glad that we know people in all strata/classes of society. My kids get to see my maid and her family at close quarters, and then some relatives who continue to live in our native places and leading very different lives than ours, and yet some that are right here in the city and still leading a very different (read non-tech) life. I cannot be anything but thankful for this exposure that they are able to get without any added effort. I really wanted the kids to grow up with empathy. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to provide the required environment there.

In the bay area, almost all of us threw wonderful birthday parties for the kids. The kids, like butterflies, could flutter from one party to another. Each one giving and receiving tons of wonderful gifts. Every kid’s parents being able to afford it all. That was limiting, very limiting. Also, one of the reasons to return back when the kids were really young; before they start missing out on the "good" things after we returned to India.

The uniformity of every Indian family we knew in the US was very good in its own way. We didn't have to think twice about what was appropriate and what was not. We could talk the same kinds of things with everybody, and have "intellectual" conversations with everybody we knew. That had its own charm. But when it comes to raising the kids, we do have the responsibility of exposing them to varieties of things. Also, the reason why I am not ticked off at the lack of infrastructure here. I really think it is alright to grow up with some short-comings in our immediate surroundings. Nothing wrong with that! We grew up with many, many more, and turned out fairly balanced, IMHO! To not have a little electricity from time to time, to use water wisely, and to not have everything great around you in general, can only add value to their little lives.

All that said, there's really no easy formula to raise kids. Here or there, as parents, we have to go through our own battles to raise our kids, and to raise them well. Hopefully, this decision of moving back will be one of those factors that helps us. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Pre-schools in Bangalore

This topic is primarily for folks who are interested in pre-schools in Bangalore and who have emailed me for information.

There are lots and lots of pre-schools in all areas of Bangalore. And, there are also lots of pre-schools that are new and have modern, read western, methods of teaching young kids the basics. Typically these newer pre-schools have lots of learning equipments in the classrooms. And the ratio of the teacher to the students is very good. The modern/western, friendlier pre-schools are also the more expensive ones.

Some of the pre-school chains that I am familiar with and those that have branches in Bangalore are listed below:
Please Note: The numbering has nothing to do with their ranking. I am just listing the ones that I have heard of.

1. Eurokids - See my earlier review. Eurokids has about 23 branches in Bangalore.
   
2. Kidzee - One of my friends sent her daughter here for nursery and was pretty happy with the school. Kidzee has about 16 branches all over Bangalore.
   
3. Neev - I first heard of Neev from Silkboard, when he mentioned it in the comments here. Since then, I have also met parents who send their kids to Neev, and they have only good things to say about the school. In my review of Eurokids, the couple of things I said I was not really happy about were the very few hours at school everyday and the number of closed days in a year. Neev is good on both of these counts. They have longer hours and are open on most holidays. This school, however, only has 2 branches. One in Whitefield and the other in Indiranagar.
4. Kara - I personally do not know kids that go to a Kara school. But, from the little I have heard, it sounds good. They have 2 branches. One in HSR layout and another in RMV 2nd stage.
   

Apart from these chains, there are some good preschools that I have heard of. Each of the following seems/sounds very good.

1. Gaia - Comes with very high recommendation from parents who send their kids here. So, I am guessing it is really good. I have known some U.S-returned parents who cannot stop talking about this school. I have not visited the school, and so wouldn't know much personally. The school is in RT Nagar.
   
2. Buddhi - I have been to the campus and it looked pretty good. The school is not restricted to pre-school. The campus is in RMV 2nd Stage. You can learn more about the school and it's programs on the website.
   
3. Prayag Montessori - I know nothing about this school. However, when I searched online for pre-schools in Bangalore, I came across this school's website, and it seems to be a true Montessori. It is in Padmanabhanagar.

Most of the schools that I have already listed here also have pre-schools. If you know of some other good pre-schools, please let me know and I will include them here.

Street-dog menace

It has been very worrying to read one news item after another for the last 1.5 months about the street-dog menace on the streets of Chandra Layout in Bangalore attacking children and adults alike. The worst was this news where a pack of street dogs mauled to death an 8 year old girl! Chilling! What is appalling is, there have been several such news items appearing in the newspapers for the last 1.5 months and it doesn't look like the situation has improved much. Please look at the links below.

Dog bites 20 people
Dogs maul an 8 yr old girl to death
Dogs attack a 7 yr old girl
Dogs continue to attack

Dogs have always been on the Indian roads. However, I have mostly known the street dogs as being fairly docile. So, reading news about dog attacks has come as a total shock. Apparently, there are lots of illegal meat shops in Chandra layout that dump old meat on street corners, empty sites etc! The stray dogs there having got used to the meat, are becoming vicious is what the Bengalooru Mahanagara Palike is telling. Coming up with a solution to this problem is going to be tricky. What with the animal rights activists and the local residents not seeing eye-to-eye on this subject matter.

The typical problems faced because of the street dogs:

• The dogs are fairly territorial and kind of have their boundaries. When a newer dog steps into a street that other dogs have their "claim" on, there ensues a very noisy barking altercation. Lots of such noisy incidents happen at nights too and disturb the residents.
• Driving on 2-wheelers in the darker hours is also very difficult, cause the dogs chase the fast moving bike, and the riders an lose balance and meet with accidents. The dogs can also easily reach out for the riders' legs for a bite!

March 13th - Update: On March 1st, we had the misfortune of losing another child to dog attacks. It was very unfortunate. I was extremely upset by all the incidents. However, in this case, it was apparent that the boy was playing in a place that had knee-deep of garbage! Where were his parents? How can anyone allow a child so young to be outside with no one apparently there? If not for dogs, mustn't we at least keep an eye on the traffic for the child if he is out on his own?! He was 4! I was shocked that anybody could have let kids play by themselves in such a filthy place. In this day and age, we have traffic, pedophiles, kidnappers, etc on the roads. How can we possibly assume an innocent child's safety? It is such a pity!

It is also reported that there are lots of illegal meat shops that were dumping old/waste meat in the neighborhood vacant lots. This had encouraged the unsterilized dogs to develop a pack and become aggressive, way more than a regular docile stray dog. And with all these news reports, there is mass hysteria and a lot of people want all the stray dogs taken away, away from anywhere near their sight. The government reacting to the mass-anger, has started catching any and every dog that comes their way. And since it is so much easier to catch the docile ones that don't have human fear to begin with, we have been losing the friendly dogs from all neighborhoods in Bangalore. More info here. All this is SUCH a knee jerk reaction! Apparently, many of these dogs have been stoned, clubbed, crushed to death!! I am devastated. People, if you are reading this, and want to help, pl go here.

Yes, I was very upset with all the news reports and wanted the government to take action - meaning to sit down with experts in the field and decide on a course of action that was long term. Instead, when they chose a route that was short-sighted and diplorable like killing the stray dogs, I was speechless. I can never support indiscriminate culling. I have no objections to people taking away the aggresive ones, as long as they are not culled! If the diseased ones are put to sleep humanely, that is not too bad.

Eurokids - A review

I had mentioned earlier about the pre-school, Eurokids, that our older one is going to in Bangalore. She started almost immediately on coming here. She just completed 3 months there. Overall, we find the school pretty good, especially since their philosophy is, Learning by doing - a child needs to 'touch', 'explore', 'learn' and 'enjoy' to understand the world around him. Our daughter seems to like her school and she has some friends as well. Typically, a class has about 12 students. Each class has a teacher and an assistant. Each class also has a bathroom+toilet. The flooring is laminated and is maintained clean. Kids leave their footwear outside in the shoe rack and are bare feet inside the classrooms. The facility includes a decent amount of play area that has some Little Tikes play structures, a few of Little Tikes cars and the like. Lots of assistants are sprinkled around, and I know that kids are watched over when they are playing outside.

Right now, each Eurokids pre-school has the following class groups:

• Playgroup for kids between 1.8 and 2.5 yrs of age
• Nursery for kids between 2.5 and 3.5
• EuroJunior for kids between 3.5 and 4.5
• EuroSenior for kids between 4.5 and 5.5

At the nursey level, she is being taught a lot of things in a fun and interesting way. She gets to do a lot of things with her hands. And best of all, they maintain a folder for all of her activites through the week and send it home on Friday. All her work sheets are for us to keep, and we need to only send the empty folder back on Monday. The teacher teaches almost everything using props. The kids get to see, touch, and eat the fruits that they are being taught about. They get to use their sense of logic in different activities. For example, there was this work sheet where they had to choose the right kind of transportation for air, water, railway tracks, roads etc. Every child gets individual attention from the teacher while doing the job in class. The sense of satisfaction and pride is evident in my daughter when she explains her work sheets to her parents or to her grand parents/relatives.

In these 3 months, they have already had a few parties like the Diwali party, the Christmas party, a children's day, a sports day, and a few field trips. Overall, I am very happy with all these extra activities, especially the field trips. My daughetr comes home and tells me about the fruit shop they visited and the differnet fruits that they got to see. She also got an opportunity to go see an ambulance van, and visited another Eurokids facility on another field trip. I have met her teacher and she seems really nice. All of their teachers are trained by Eurokids and are given a Eurokids certification before being offered a job.

Some gripes:

1. Our daughter goes to the nursery class and typically has classes for about 3 hours, that includes a half hour play time and some snack break. My daughter can easily stay at school for another hour. She definitely can use some more mental stimulation and challenges.
2. As parents, we are not invited to involve ourselves in school activites within the school premise. We are not invited to their Diwali/X'mas celebrations. So, we don't get to take pics of our children at such events. :( I was used to being very involved at her Montessori in SF bay area and loved seeing my child being on her own outside of her home. The only Eurokids invites we got was for the sports day, which I must say, was nicely organised.
3. Quite a few closed days. They have about 50 closed days for various occasions and are again closed for 2 months in summer.

Typical fee structure for '06-'07:

• Admission fees - Rs. 5,500
• Tuition fees - Rs. 1,350 per month. You have to pay for a minimum of 6 months or 9 months or 12 months. Which means, even if your child is going to go only for 7 months, you have to pay for 9 months. (You pay for the 2 closed months of summer by default.)
• Registration kit - Rs. 1,100
• Books - Rs. 200

Please Note: There has been no additional fees for their Diwali/X'mas parties, sports day celebrations or field trips. Everything has been covered in the fees that we have paid towards tuition.

* I am not sure if the fee structure varies based on the place. I would expect all Eurokids pre-schools in Bangalore to have the same fee structure.

Big reason for this review: Eurokids is a big chain of pre-schools in India and has over 200 pre-schools all over India. The sheer number called for a review.

R2I - I spoke too soon

... here. We arrived in Oct '06 and were doing well for about 5 weeks, and have been continuously sick ever since. Amongst the 4 of us, we have fallen sick 13 times in 7 weeks!!! Unbelievable! I am tired, being sick myself or having to care for sick kids everyday for the last few weeks. My older one has hardly fallen sick in the US, and is now compenating for all that. We have been passing the virus around and the cycle seems to be endless. Since the start of winter in November, the weather has been varying a lot in a course of 24 hours. Cold at night and pretty warm during the day.

Having my parents close by has been the biggest boon. I have no clue how I could have possibly managed without them.

PS: If you are planning on relocating, please allot a few months just to get your bodies adjusted to the local climate. I am not sure when we are all going to actually be absolutely fine, but I am really hoping it is going to be soon.

A list of good schools in Bangalore

Since the start of the blog, the biggest query so far has been about schools in Bangalore, especially by NRIs with kids. I have compiled a list and will be updating this list over a period of time. I welcome all inputs from Bangalore parents.

Please Note: This is not how I want to present this info. I want to include some contact information for every school. But, I have been having tons of issues accessing 'Blogger' and having even more issues with the Internet in general. But, I will make it better over the next few days.

NPS and DPS

• National Public School Indiranagar Phone: 25280611, 25275665
• National Public School Rajajinagar
• National Public School Koramangala - National Games Village, Opp RBI Block, Koramangala Phone: 25705171, 25705172
  
• National Academy For Learning, Basaveshwarnagar
  
• Delhi Public School, South Bangalore
  
• Delhi Public School, Yelahanka, North Bangalore
• Delhi Public School, East Bangalore

Other good schools

• Sri Kumaran Public School, Basavangudi
  
• Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan (of the Chennai fame), 75/A, Hulimavu, Bannerghatta main road, Bangalore Phone: 2648 2901/02, 2550 1050
  
• Sishu Griha English School, 3, HAL 3rd Stage New Thippasandra, Bangalore - 560075
• Vidya Niketan School, 30, Kempapura Village, Hebbal, Bangalore - 560024
  
• The Valley School, Kanakapura Road

New schools off of Sarjapur road

• Gear Innovative International School Phone: 2844 0919/17
• Inventure Academy, Whitefield - Sarjapur Road, Near Dommasandra Circle, Bangalore - 562125. Mobile numbers: 94489 36678, 94489 36681
• Green Wood High School
  
• Prakriya, The green wisdom school - 70, Chikkanayakanahalli Road, Off Doddakannelli, Sarjapur Road, Bangalore-560035 Phone: 28440925 / 57636391

Old Convent schools

• Baldwin Boys High School
• Baldwin Girls High School
• Bishop Cotton Boys School, Residency road
  
• Bishop Cotton Girls High School, Residency road
  
• St. Joseph's Boys' High School P.B. 25003, No.27, Museum Road, Bangalore 560 025
  

Other Convent schools

• St Germain High School
• Stella Mary’s Girls School, Vyalikaval
  
• Bethany High School, Koramangala CA-12, 20th Main, 6th Block K.M. Layout Bangalore 560034 Phone: 25532189, 25531519
  
• Cluny Convent High School, 11th Main, Malleswaram, Bangalore - 560003
• Frank Anthony Public School, 13, Cambridge Road, Ulsoor
  
• Sophia High School, Palace road
  
• Sacred Heart Girls High School
  
• St. Joseph's Indian High School

International Schools

• The International School Bangalore, NAFL Valley, Whitefield - Sarjapur Road, Near Dommasandra Circle, Bangalore - 562125 Phone: 7822550
• Mallya Aditi International School, Yelahanka

International Residential Schools

• American Friendship Residential School, Gudibanda, 84 kms. North of Bangalore
• Jain International Residential School, Jakkasandra Post, Kanakapura Taluk, Bangalore (Rural) District, Karnataka - 562 112. Phone: 7577013 to 44
  

R2I - No ocean to keep families apart

The proximity of our near and dear ones is a big plus on returning home. Typically parents are getting old and their dependencies, increasing. It is very easy on the nerves to not have the oceans and mountains keeping you apart, especially when there is a health crisis.

Both hub and I are only kids to our respective parents and we wanted to be here for emergencies that might arise. I would have hated to receive a really tragic news in the middle of the night and not be able to come home right away. What with 2 young'uns and all. Though both sets of parents have visited us before, I didn't see it happening again cause of different health complications. And that wasn't comforting at all.

It is an absolute joy to watch the children interact and play with their grandparents. And it seems to be doing a whole lot of good to the grandparents as well. Something to keep them young and spirited .... company of the very young. The nearness and proximity is easy on their nerves as well. For them, the huge geographical divide and the tiring and long international air travels are things of the past. :)

What am I missing out on right now being here?

The price war for toys currently happening between Walmart and Toys"R"Us. I would have loved to buy toys for the next year if I were there. I am told about the toy shops here, but I am yet to visit a store. I do know that the regular American toys sell for about 4 times the retail price in the US!

PS: Hub and I also missed watching FOX news when the Republicans lost! We did get to watch CNN International here, but nothing like watching FOX when the Reps lose!! :)

School, the first order of business

Our oldest one was going to a montessori school in the bay area for almost a year when we moved. And since we moved in the middle of an academic year, Oct, school was pretty much our first priority on coming back to Bangalore. Since my parents live in Bangalore and since we were going to be staying with them for a start, I had asked them to look around for schools in their neighborhood even before we left Cali.

I made note of a few schools, but had pretty much made up my mind about the pre-school. She would go to one of the many Eurokids schools. Eurokids is a chain that provides Pre-School education in India. Eurokids website

Our daughter had already done phonics, writing and reading some 3 letter words. In comparison, she was doing slightly easier things at Eurokids. For her age (3+), she was eligible only for the nursery level. So, we went with it. Yep, she was going to forget a bit of her writing and reading, but that's all she was going to get for her age in any school here.

The reason for our move in Oct was also to be here for the application process to Kindergarten for next year into some of the good schools in Bangalore. The process starts now for Jun, next year. She turns 4 on Jun 1 and will be eligible for LKG. Since, we also plan to settle in the Outer ring road/Sarjapur road area, we will be applying for schools in that neighborhood. (Another post :) )

She started school here a couple of days after we landed! So far, she seems to like it at Eurokids. That's all we care right now. :)