Enjoy now, read up in the classroom

Unlike many kids who would just like to have fun during the holidays, there are a few who dedicate the summer to studying next year’s syllabus. Their argument is that they would like to stay ahead of everybody. Says Vishakha Goda, a class VII student, “I have been doing this since the last three years. We get the book list on the day of the results, and I buy the books in advance. I study for at least two hours everyday. It helps me because I haven’t been performing well in the class. So when the teacher is explaining the lesson I understand it better.”
However, there are a few others who read up just to prove a point and let others know that they are ‘intelligent’. P. Ritvik Kumar for instance insists that he has to know the answers for all the questions being asked during lesson time. “My friends tease me when I give wrong answers. Though I don’t enjoy it much, I have decided to read everything in advance, so that I can prove them wrong and give the answers even before anybody else does,” he says. Some even go to the extent of taking holiday tuitions.
Teachers surprisingly think this practice has more disadvantages than advantages. They feel, reading up the next academic year’s syllabus during the holidays can actually kill a child’s interest when the lesson is being taught in the class. Says Mrs Malini Sudhakar, a mathematics teacher, “Tutors follow different methods of teaching and the only thing they teach the kid is to arrive at the correct answer somehow. The child will not have proper foundation. When we try to tell them the right method, they don’t follow.”
Another disadvantage is that the child develops attitude problems. Healthy competition is good, but some of the average students go out of their way to beat their more intelligent competitors. Child counsellors say that their only aim is to give the answer before the other child does. According to Shahana Ismail, a child counsellor, children who have this habit will develop hollow intelligence.
“They will parrot the answers without understanding them. Ask them a question outside their field of knowledge and they will stay mum. In many cases, parents are to be blamed because they force this competition on to the child. I wouldn’t say it’s bad to read a little before you go to class, but it shouldn’t be because you want to show off.”
Experts go a step further and say that holidays are to be utilised for extra-curricular activities, because the busy school schedule will not allow them to do anything else. “This is the time to enjoy and learn new things and not sit with your book all through the day, forcing yourself to read,” says Mrs Sudhakar.
P. Ritvik Kumar, student
My friends tease me when I give wrong answers. Though I don’t enjoy it much, I have decided to read everything in advance.

Dress up your tresses

Try this
Design your own distinctive hair decorations with a set of wooden chopsticks and a few spare craft supplies. Here’s how: Ask an adult to use a small handsaw or needle-nose pliers to cut the tops off a pair of wooden chopsticks so that they measure about 6 inches. Sharpen the pointed ends in a pencil sharpener and dull the points with a nail file. Paint them if you’d like.

For beaded chopsticks, cut a 10-inch length of wire and centre it about 1½ inches from the top of the chopstick. Wrap it tightly around the stick several times, then twist the two portions of wire together a few times. Thread beads onto the wire, bend the ends over and clip off the excess. For feathered chopsticks, glue feathers to the top of the stick and wrap them tightly with wire. To display your dazzlingly decorated sticks, poke them into a bun or ponytail.

Funny Definitions

Dandelion Daniel,
king of the jungle.
Dandruff
(1) Chips off the old block.
(2) Mrs Druff's husband
Daredevil
Hey, Satan, nya nya nya.
Hackneyed
The opposite of knock-kneed
Halo
What one angel says to another angel
Rag and Bone Man
Skeleton working in a clothes shop
Raisin
A very old and very anxious grape
Generation Gap
The distance you keep from your parents when they do something embarrassing.

Must Read

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane By Kate DiCamillo, Bagram Ibatoulline (Illustrator)
It all starts simply: A china rabbit, a house, and a girl. And then one day, the rabbit, who is named Edward Tulane, disappears from the house, and the girl begins a miraculous journey to recover her beloved companion.
Along the way Edward begins to understand what love and caring for someone means as he sees what life is like with it and without it. Newbery medalist Kate DiCamillo and artist Bagram Ibatoulline have created a piercingly beautiful story about love, loss, and the power to love again.
The novel is set in the storybook land of no specific time or locale. Edward’s fate is to be passed from person to person, sometimes loved, sometimes hated.

Did you know?

On an average people fear spiders more than they do death.

The name for Oz in the Wizard of Oz was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence ‘Oz.’

The flea can jump 350 times its body length, that is like a human jumping the length of a football field.

There are only four words in the English language which end in ‘-dous’: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

Language ladder

tolerate \TAH-luh-rayt\ verb
What does it mean?
To allow something to be or be done without making a move to stop it: put up with
How do you use it?
Desert plants are able to tolerate long periods of drought.

parasol \PAIR-uh-sawl\ noun
What does it mean?
A light umbrella for protection against the sun
How do you use it?
For her town’s bicentennial celebration, Linda wore a dress with a wide hoopskirt and carried a lace-trimmed parasol.

strive \STRYVE\ verb
What does it mean?
To struggle against: contend
How do you use it?
“Money is a needful and precious thing . . . but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for.”

lackadaisical \lak-uh-DAY-zih-kul\ adjective
What does it mean?
Lacking spirit or enthusiasm: languid, listless
How do you use it?
Paulette’s teachers knew she was bright, but she was always so lackadaisical that she rarely finished her assignments on time.

gosling \GOZ-ling\ noun
What does it mean?
A young goose
How do you use it?
“When the first gosling poked its grey-green head through the goose’s feathers and looked around, Charlotte spied it and made the announcement.”

Match them right

Match the twelve definitions below to the vocabulary words on the left.
1. _____ CERTIFICATE
2. _____ ILLEGAL
3. _____ JUROR
4. _____ COLLEGIATE
5. _____ CONCERTO
6. _____ JUSTIFY
7. _____ CONCERN
8. _____ ADJUSTMENT
9. _____ PRIVILEGE
10. _____ SECRECY
11. _____ LEGISLATURE
12. _____ INJURY
a. Musical composition usually in 3 movements.
b. Person who has taken an oath or sworn allegiance; member of a panel.
c. A special right, immunity or benefit enjoyed by a person or restricted group.
d. Adaptation, alteration or minor change to a particular condition, position or purpose.
e. Characteristic of or intended for college students.
f. State of being kept from general knowledge; done privately or secretly.
g. Anxious sense of interest in or responsibility for; something that relates to; worry or fear.
h. Bodily harm; damage done or sustained; wrong or injustice.
i. A document providing evidence of status or qualifications attesting to the truth of something” j. A deliberative body of persons, (usually). elective, empowered to make, change or repeal laws.
k. To show or prove to be right or reasonable; to defend or uphold as warranted.
l. Forbidden by law or statute; contrary to official rules & regulations.

ANSWERS: 1 - i; 2 - L; 3 - b; 4 - e; 5 - a; 6 - k; 7 - g; 8 - d; 9 - c; 10 - f; 11 - j; 12 - h

Improve your vocabulary

Here is a paragraph-story with a few election related words. Read it carefully and grasp the meaning of these words and use them in your conversations.
Sam sees that Herb, a very eloquent speaker, is campaigning without challenge or controversy. Sam decides to declare himself a candidate. After canvassing the electorate he chooses various strategies to win (including a great debate with Herb).
Voters react negatively to Sam’s, “If we don’t go slow, I will veto everything” message. The adverse election results disappoint Sam. However, he is a gracious loser in the face of Herb’s jubilant victory celebration. It’s also clear that Sam is the one with charisma.

Shark trouble

Twenty one swimmers taking part in the 10-km Cole Classic Race in Sydney had to be hurriedly evacuated by boats and jet skis, when a three-metre-long shark decided to join the race. The authorities were not convinced that the shark’s intention was entirely sportive as a woman had been killed a week back.

Book jokes

Teacher: Who is your favourite author?
Pupil: George Washington.
Teacher: But George Washington never wrote any books.
Pupil: You got it.
Librarian: Why don't you take home a Dr. Seuss?
Pupil: I didn’t know he made house calls.
Teacher: How many books did you finish over the summer?
Pupil: None. My brother stole my box of crayons.
Teacher: How many books have you read in your lifetime?
Pupil: I don’t know. I’m not dead yet.
Teacher: What did you learn from your history book about Harriet Beecher Stowe?
Pupil: If you draw a beard and a stovepipe hat on her, she looks exactly like Abraham Lincoln.
Teacher: What does your history book tell you about the Civil War?
Pupil: It doesn’t tell me anything. I have to read the dumb thing. My father gave me a really cheap dictionary for my birthday. I couldn’t find the words to thank him.If you don’t know what the word “dictionary” means, where would you look it up?
Teacher: Why are you holding your textbook up to the window?
Pupil: You told me to open it up to the Middle East.
Teacher: Where is South America?
Pupil: I don’t know.
Teacher: Where is Greenland?
Pupil: I don’t know.
Teacher: Where is Bulgaria?
Pupil: I don’t know.
Teacher: Look them up in your textbook.
Pupil: I don’t know where that is, either.