Walking Sticks

Following up on the earlier post about making walking sticks for sale with Supriya: I went to the Walking Store at the mall today and the prices just blew my mind! The "standard" walking stick - smoothed, polished and with a leather strap - cost between $30 and $40! Now we are going to work on the two sticks we have and see what we can accomplish...

Aseem and Phonics

Today Aseem made a breakthrough in understanding phonics. I asked him, "What letter does tofu start with? Tuh-tuh-tofu..." He repeated, "Tuh-tuh-tofu. T!!!" Then it was D for diaper and B for burgers.

He has been playing with Starfall.com off and on and was evidently absorbing the idea of phonics. Supriya has become an avid reader in the last couple of months, and Aseem really
wants to read as well. We (mainly Manisha) have been reading lots of books to him. He has also been buying books with his allowance. We encourage this practice by matching their money dollar-for-dollar for books to foster their feeling of ownership. It's all beginning to gel now.

Knowing what we know about Aseem, it's all going to simmer in his mind for a long time and one day we will find him reading.

Learning about Money

I was very proud of Supriya today when she walked away from buying trinkets at Walmart. She gets an allowance of $5 per week. She is free to spend on anything she wants. I have my own learning to do in this regard. I am trying hard to actually let her do that without being sarcastic or putting down her choices. After all, the best way to learn about money is by making mistakes.

Anyway, her friend Ethan got an iPod Shuffle for Christmas. He put down half the money and his parents matched that. We have promised Supriya the same deal. So now she is working on saving up her allowance. The iPod costs $80, so she has to save $40, which is 8 whole weeks of saving. And that is proving to be very hard for her. Any time we go to any store, there are temptations galore everywhere, and she has been seduced every single time so far! Today was the first time she did not succumb. Aseem bought two books but Supriya did not give in. Our learning continues...

Taekwondo

Supriya started taekwondo several months ago. Then Aseem joined about a month later. I am the latest one from our family to take it up. I started in January and it has been the highlight of the year for me! We go three times a week and we do the same class, although I do get many breakout opportunities to work out with some of the advanced (adult) students. I am exhausted by the end of the one hour class and usually end up taking ibuprofen to manage the pain. But it has been wonderful so far. I can already feel my muscles responding and growing. My stamina and flexibility are also increasing. It's of course fun to do it with the kids, and I think they like having me there sharing their experience. They are very polite and never laugh at me (at least not in my face!).

A Budding Entrepreneur

We went for a hike today with Karl and Noah after the Fabulously Fun Friday organized by MVHL and lunch at the nearby pizza place. The temperature was in the mid-30s but it felt nice & warm after a week of teens and twentys. Supriya picked up a nice branch as a walking stick for me. I told her I wanted to strip away the bark, sand it down and polish it to use it as a hiking stick. I asked her to remind me to visit the Walking Store at the mall to see what the finished product looked like. She liked that idea, and said, "Why don't we make more of them and sell them in summer?" "Great idea." I replied, "Let's do some market research at the Walking Store to find out how much people are willing to pay for a nice walking stick." "There's a problem," I continued. "As you can see, there aren't that many branches lying around. We won't be able to make too many of them." "That will make them even more valuable," Supriya exclaimed. I did not expect such solid understanding of microeconomics from an eight year-old! So now that's going to be our next project - to do some research and understand the walking-stick market.