REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR ALL THESE PROGRAMMES.The next reading programmes begin in the first week of June, and the next writing programmes will be held in October. I will also organise three short guest sessions as part of my writing programme. These will be free for those who are part of the programme, but will also be open to non-participants on payment of a fee. More details coming soon!If you would like to receive email notifications about my workshops, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media - Facebook, Instagram and Twitter - for regular updates. Online Reading Programme Many parents with children in the age-group 7-8 expressed interest in my writing programmes, which made me think about what I could do with such young children. For a writing programme to be meaningful, I feel that children need to be a little older. At the same time, … [Read more...]
Online Reading Programme – Looking Back
Magic potions.Superpowers. Word games.Adjectives, homophones, homonyms, mazes.Codes, recitation, performance.What fun my first reading programme was! The first book we read together was Trouble with Magic by Asha Nehemiah. A reading programme involves more than simply reading the book, though, so we used our imaginations. What would we get if we put different ingredients together? A medicine? A magic potion? An explosion?Each of the children came up with something different, and it was such fun! Take a look at just one of them. Our second book was Shrinking Vanita by Manjula Padmanabhan. Apart from word games, where we attempted to unscramble words from the book, we created our own superheroes. What if everyone suddenly shrinks to half their size? … [Read more...]
Amelia Bedelia Means Business
Amelia Bedelia. The name just asks you to read it aloud. And what a character Amelia is! As with the very best fictional characters (I'm thinking of Anne Shirley, Pippi Longstocking and the like), Amelia's personality leaps out of the pages. She makes you chuckle at her sheer optimism, at her zest and her drive. Obstacles? What are those? Amelia sees Suzanne's new bike and knows she has to get one for herself. But her parents are unwilling to give her an advance Christmas-cum-birthday present. What they are willing to do, however, is meet her halfway. If she can find a way to pay half the price, they'll pay the other half. Amelia and her father shake hands, and they have a deal. The problem, though, is Amelia's tendency to take things literally. Idioms are puzzling. Ways of speaking make no sense. So, when she's working at a restaurant and a customer asks her for 'a pie - and step … [Read more...]
Hungry to Read
If there was one thing that could push you to read, what would that be? How would you get someone who doesn't like reading to read? When Arjun's teacher announces a competition in school, Arjun is thrilled - until he learns that it is a reading competition. He is no reader; he likes logic, facts and all things mathematical. The problem is that the prize is so attractive that Arjun is tempted. The question, though, is how far he is willing to go to help his class to win. The reasons I chose Hungry to Read for my reading programme are very different from the reasons I chose every other book. More than having enjoyed the book, I love the possibilities it has when it comes to activities and conversations. Here is some of what I will do with the book. Scavenger hunt I love book scavenger hunts! We'll do a quick one with this book, simply to start a conversation on the different … [Read more...]
Lucky Girl
Lucky Girl is a hilarious book. It's imaginative, wacky and full of surprises. Sumi is a lucky girl. With her pink bed, a window that overlooks the sea, soft toys and a chef for a mother, she must be a lucky girl, right? Wrong. As I chuckled my way through this hOle book written by Shabnam Minwalla and illustrated by Tanvi Bhat, I knew I had to work with it at my reading programme! Here are a few things I plan to do with the book. Funny recipes Pammi Gupta makes pumpkin peel muffins and furry leaf parathas for Sumi. Yuck! What kinds of things would you put together to make an imaginative meal? Would you eat the things you can see on the cover of the book? Once you know what the ingredients are, would you still eat them? Poetry Sumi takes part in a poetry writing competition organised by Fab Foods. Her friend Priya wants to write one kind of poem while she wants to … [Read more...]
Online Reading Programme – Second Edition!
Registrations are now closed for this reading programme. I was just about halfway through my first reading programme when parents started reaching out to me to check if there will be other batches. Even when I launched the first one, I knew I would continue the programme if enough people expressed interest. And so, here it is - the second edition of my online reading programme! What does a reading programme involve? Essentially, reading. As there are four books spread across 12 sessions, we take roughly three sessions per book. Naturally, this means that we do not read the entire book together. We read excerpts from the books together during each session, and then the children read in their own time before the following class. During each online interaction, we do not just read; we also imagine, create, play and talk. We do activities around the books and try … [Read more...]
My Year in Workshops – 2020
2020 was a tough year, such a tough year that it's become rather redundant to say it. Many of us had to step out of our comfort zones and do things differently.For me, of course, it was no different. For several years now, workshops have been my prime source of income. I've had my writers' club at St. Mary's School, teacher training sessions for Ratna Sagar, and the odd workshop here and there with libraries. When my fifth year at the Writers' Club came to an end in February last year (was it really not even a year ago?), I was all set for a short vacation, before getting to work again. April and June are often busy months at Ratna Sagar. I conduct teacher training sessions all over the country, and so, I usually find myself travelling and working right through these months with few breaks in the middle. In fact, I already had workshops scheduled for May and June, so I was making plans … [Read more...]
Creating Memorable Characters with Sophie
And just like that, the third and last guest session for the current batches of my online writing programme is over. It doesn't feel like very long ago that I announced the programme, wondering whether there would be enough participants. I did not promise guest sessions because I knew it would depend on the response I received. It needed to be feasible to invite guest speakers, both in terms of the number of participants and in terms of my ability to pay the speakers. But here we go, two batches for two age groups are nearly over! Sophie's writing workshop was my third guest session, and it was lovely. Sessions where I learn something about methodology are always extra special. For instance, Sophie worked with excerpts from the classics, something I've never imagined doing. She chose tiny sections from Persuasion, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The Lord of the Rings and Boy, amongst … [Read more...]
Workshop Anecdotes
So many little things happen during workshops! That's what makes them so much fun. For instance, my reading programme began on Tuesday and I started with Asha Nehemiah's Trouble with Magic. We spoke about all the wonderful things we'd invent because, in some ways, science and magic are pretty much the same thing. One child would invent a door. You step through the door and get to whatever place you want to go. You just have to tell the door where you'd like to be."And what trouble could you have with magic of this sort?" I asked.The boy thought for a bit. "If you don't speak clearly," he said, very clearly. "You could end up in the wrong place." Another child invented this - a vacation machine! Do notice how machine is spelt. Also, I love that the key words are there. No more and no less! At my writing programme yesterday, I had more fun. The children here are older and I … [Read more...]
Creating Memorable Characters
Both batches of my online creative writing programme began in October. Two months out of three have flown by, and I can't quite believe that I've had eight sessions with each batch. We've had two wonderful guest sessions too - one with author Nalini Sorensen and one with Dr. Sreeja Nag. It's time to announce my third and last guest session for this batch, with a multicultural writer-friend, Sophie Gaden. About the Facilitator Sophie is a French-Brazilian writer, teacher, and translator. She spent her childhood in Brazil, but at the age of 12, she moved to India where she lived for eight years. As if three countries with three different cultures weren't enough, she took another step across the world and graduated in English Literature and Creative Writing from Lancaster University. She is now based in London, writing poetry, translating, and teaching English at a secondary school. … [Read more...]
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