By Saksham Gupta winner of fourth position in Specialsaathi’s Children’s Day Story-writing competition.
Body Parts – Weaknessby B.Gunin Khushi
Heart : Sadness Brain : Headache Lungs : Cold Nose : Nose block and breathing problem Eyes : Mobile phone and lights Ears : Loud noise Skeletal system : dogs Digestive system : unhealthy food Nervous system : Low memory Skin and Muscular system : Carnivorous animals Blood : Female Mosquito Leg : Jumping for long time Fingers : Too many homework
Artwork by Nikhil Thotam
Author B.Gunin Khushi
I am Gunin. Studying 3rd STD in KRM school, Chennai. I love dinosaur, maths, direct action movie, eat pizza😅 I want to become an entrepreneur (innovative company creator).
Creative representation for this blog is done by our supertalented CreativeSaathi associate Nikhil Thotam
A video tutorial by Pinki Kumar on teaching story building to our children. Play and learn by Pinki Kumar.
Author Pinki Kumar
Pinki is a special educator, play therapist and a mother of a neurodivergent kid. She has a YouTube channel Play and learn to teach different methods and strategies. These videos are a great resource for the parents to help their child learn various skills.
Written by Arnav Karnekar winner of second position in Specialsaathi’s Children’s Day Story-writing competition
It was a hot sunny day in a jungle ,all the animals were frustrated with the heat. Bear was sweaty, snake was felling hot and sticky ,elephants feet were scorched and lion was feeling warm and drowsy. All the little animals were hiding in the shade. Everyone was tired and bored. Suddenly the little chipmunk had a brightest idea. ‘’ How about an ice cream party everyone’’? the chipmunk asked. Sure, all the animals replied. All the animals got very excited about the party , all the animal gathered together and start preparing for party , some started to make ice creams, some started to work on decorations and some started to do the invitations. Mr. Monkey went tree to tree to invite all the animals but he forgot to invite Mr. Dragon who lived in a cave on top of mountain. Soon the party started everyone was enjoying their favorite ice cream , dancing ,having a good time. Mr. Dragon was also feeling very hot so he was taking a nap in his cave. Suddenly he heard loud music so he woke up and came out to see what is going on . He saw all the animals were having a party without him. He got very mad. He flew to the party angrily , ‘’You all are having party without me’’ he shouted, and he breath out fire, all the ice cream melted. All the animals were very scared, Mr. Monkey said sorry to dragon for not inviting him, but Mr. Dragon was so furious he locked all animals in cage. All the animals started to cry for help. Captain Dog was riding on the horse near by the jungle , he herd the animals cry .He came to rescue the animals. With his sword he broke the lock and freed all the animals, then he fought with Mr. Dragon . ‘’Naughty dragon, that’s no way to behave with your friends’’, he said .Mr. Dragon apologies to his friends. All the animals forgive him. Then they decided to make the ice cream again and have a bigger party
Author Arnav Karnekar, 9 years, PuneMaharashtra
Story 2-“My first participation in Art Exhibition“ by Sarvagya Lohia
Hello Friends! My name is Sarvagya Lohia. I am 8 years old and I live in Delhi. I love to eat maggi, mad angles chips, ice-cream, dal makhni with rice, panir tikka and potato wedges. I like painting, drawing in MS Paint & Sketchbook software, skating and playing keyboard. Yesterday, I went to art exhibiton with my mamma and didi. It was my first participation in art exhibition. So, I was very excited as my four paintings were displayed there. We went there by auto. Since it was very cold, mamma wrapped me tightly in shawl. But it was fun riding an auto. The exhibition was in a very big room with lots of paintings. I was very happy to see my paintings over there. I stood besides my paintings in different poses and mamma clicked my lots of pictures. I also got a medal and certificate for my paintings. I was very excited to wear the medal and kept wearing it till papa came home in evening. After coming back home, mamma celebrated by treating me with my favourite maggi and bournvita milk. When papa came back in evening, he gave me lots of hugs & kisses. My bhaiya gifted me a new set of water colors. I was very very happy.
Thank you.
Author Sarvagya Lohia
Sarvagya Lohia is the son of bloggersaathi Shivani Lohia. He’s 8 years old and on the Autism Specturm. He loves sketching, coloring, digital drawing in MS Paint & Sketchbook Software, playing keyboard, skating & practising yoga. He is enrolled with NIOS Level A. He is debuting as a kid blogger with SpecialSaathi.
Artwork by Kabir Vernal and Nikhil Thotam
Featured artwork for this blog is done by our extremely talented CreativeSaathi associate Kabir Vernal and Nikhil Thotam
The safe haven we must all consider for our children:
मन – day की बात SpecialSaathi के साथ
The first ten years of my son’s childhood were in Bangalore. We stayed close to his grand-parents (my in-laws). My parents were in another part of the country, but regular visits during holidays ensured he spent some time with them as well.
Since he was a baby, he was quite close with all his grand-parents, and especially with his paternal grand-father. His grand-father spoke to him about everything under the sun. He told him inspiring stories from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. My son used to listen to him for hours together.
As he grew up, he started hearing more about inspiring personalities, people who had succeeded in the world, despite their challenges. These stories stuck somewhere in his head. As he became an adolescent, his grand-father introduced him to the world of cricket. My son became an ardent fan, and that became another area for him to immerse himself in, besides academics.
The other grand-parents had a role to play as well. Cooking the food that he liked, bringing him small gifts that gelled with his interests, and appreciating his strengths with great enthusiasm were some of the things they did regularly.
With wisdom that probably comes with experience, they also accepted his differences in a loving manner. From their side, there was never any pressure on him to change. At that time, he hadn’t yet been diagnosed with ASD, so it would have been extremely easy to criticize the child. We parents did that at times, but the grand-parents, never ever.
When things became very rough for my son, and he had an Autistic burn-out at the age of 18,(that was the time he was diagnosed with ASD.), he was completely de-motivated. He could have just withered away.But I believe now that the roots were strong, and with a little bit of nurturing and attention, he found his motivation again.
For strong roots, children , neuro-typical or neuro-divergent need to connect with their grand-parents. For there’s no safer haven than that to grow. Wisdom, experience, bountiful love, acceptance, it’s all there.
Last but not the least, can we ever under-estimate the intuitiveness of a grand-parent to deal with challenging situations…for where does intuitiveness come from after all? …. It’s wisdom, experience and love that is woven together to form a deep connection..just like a protective shield around your child always!
Author Ashuti Menon
Author is a mother to an 18 year old young boy who was diagnosed with Aspergers not very long ago. She is an HR professional with a flair for creative writing as well.
This year has been a year of storytelling. I started blogging with SpecialSaathi in October 2022. I started learning Bharatanatyam with storytelling from Shri Ujwal Jagadeesh,a senior faculty and artiste at Ramana Maharshi Center for Learning (RMCL) in October 2022. I am also learning drama from Dr. Vaishnavi Poorna, Deputy Director of Ramana Sunritya Aalaya (RASA) India and storytelling from Ms. Usha Sankaran, a senior facilitator for RASA.
In December, I tried several storytelling techniques. I want to share three tips for bloggersaathis based on my experiences.
Thanks to Rajni pal aunty and Dhairya pal for creating the beautiful artwork that captures the message of this blog clearly.
Tip for Junior Bloggersaathis:
Narrate stories and record them. Include videos in your blog.
Interview people who inspire you. Include their thoughts and suggestions in your blog.
Build a photo gallery in Pinterest. Use this gallery to narrate your stories.
Tip1.Narrate stories and record them. Include videos in your blog.
This tip is based on my first project for December 2022. I presented The White Peacock story at a webinar on my birthday on December 2, 2022. I enjoyed sharing the story. I intend to do more storytelling videos in 2023. View the video below:
Thanks to Sathya aunty for stitching the kurta for my birthday and presentation. Sathya aunty is Mr. Manu Sekar’s mother. So we could plan the costume and check it out while learning coding! I am sharing this acknowledgement now because we took a picture with Sathya aunty and Mr. Manu Sekar at the Christmas party.
Thanks to Ms. Shilpi Mayank Awasthi for including my message based on the story in the first SpecialSaathi desk calendar 2023. It will be a great memory for us!
Tip2. Interview people who inspire you. Include their thoughts and suggestions in your blog.
I interviewed Shri Ujwal Jagadeesh, a senior faculty and artiste at the Ramana Maharshi Center for Learning (RMCL). Read my blog here. I will be publishing more interviews in my blog in 2023. I will be summarizing these interviews and linking to the blog in the Gurus who Believe section of my website. See this page of my website here.
Tip 3. Build a photo gallery in Pinterest. Use this gallery to narrate your stories.
I have started compiling pictures and information on Pinterest. I am organizing pictures and descriptions on a board (Ananth’s Adventures). The Board is organized into sections. I am creating one section for each month. Now that I have started compiling and curating information on Pinterest, it will be easy to track and include the write pictures and information in my blog posts!
This is the first post where I have shared tips based on my explorations and discoveries. I plan to publish a post with tips each month. Thank you for reading my blog and let me know your suggestions for future blogs. You can email your suggestions to ananthr2021@gmail.com.
