That was the title of my last workshop at the British Library. We tried translating "It's raining cats and dogs" to Hindi and Marathi to giggles, shouts of laughter. We compared the literal meaning of "He kicked the bucket" with its figurative meaning. We performed the Herculean task of linking mythology with idioms, and then the children spilled the beans about the fact that most of their knowledge of Greek mythology came from Percy Jackson. When it came to Norse mythology and Biblical terms, their knowledge collapsed like a house of cards and they commented, "We have a long way to go and a lot to learn. We're just knee-high to a grasshopper!" A crossword puzzle proved to be their Achilles heel, but we continued to see the glass as half-full, as the children and I got on like a house on fire! … [Read more...]

Here's some media coverage of the free workshop I conducted for parents ... Looking forward to the Reading Challenge: details in the news clip! … [Read more...]

Varsha Seshan's workshops in the Sakaal Times today! With the Reading Challenge just around the corner, I conducted a special curtain-raiser today on getting children to read. "My children don't read at all!" "I keep asking him to tell me about what he's reading; he never tells me anything!" "His friend reads so much, but he doesn't read at all!" "We made him join the library, but still he doesn't read!" After every workshop, I face these responses, so I thought of conducting a session for parents before the actual launch of the reading challenge. It was a free session, open to everyone - and what fun it was! … [Read more...]