Story of Jadayu and Sambathi

'Jatayu Vadham' This painting is by the great artist Revi Varma. To see more paintings of Revi Varma, the legendary artist from Kerala.

Its a story with lot of brotherly affection. Jadayu and Sambathi were two eagle brothers. Oneday they made a bet and started to flew high in the sky. They neared the sun. Sambathi was the elder. He saw Jadayu nearing to the sun. Fastly he over ride Jadayu and spread his wings over him to save him from the scorching heat of sun. Then his feathers burnt and he lost his wings. He fell on the top of rocky hill in a sea side.
After that jadayu tried to save Sita devi from Ravana. After the encounter with Ravana he dead. Before his death he told Rama about the kidnapping.
During the search time of sita devi the monkeys found Samabathi and told about the death of jadayu. He gave valuable information to monkeys about Sitadevi.

An interesting story of Jatayu rock from Kerala

Amar chitra katha was the source of these stories in my childhood, still remembering that pictures in that stories.

Story of Valmiki

Karkkidakam is the Ramayana month of Kerala. A creative ritual to read an epic in one month, it may be a compulsive reading but we can go through the whole epic. Ramayana is rich with spiritual principles and small stories. My children like these stories...
Story of Valmiki
The story of the great author of Ramayana. Its a story to convince children about the power of 'Rama' sound.
The original name of Valmiki was Ratnakara and he was a thief. He looked after his family through robbery. One day saptharshis came through his way. He tried to attack them. They asked him about his work. He said that through this he have to look after his familly. They asked if the family will share his sins also. He went to home and asked his family members whether they will share his sins also. They rejected . Very sadly he came back to the saints and told them about the happenings. They told him to sit below a tree and tell'mara mara' without any break. It will eradicate his sins. Then he started to do the process and rishis continued their journey. After several years they came back through the same path. Then they saw a 'valmikam' an ant hill in the place where he meditated. They found him under the ant hill still uttering the words 'Ramaramarama'. After that he got the name Valmiki, who emerged from Valmikam. Its the story behind the great saint. With the blessings of Sri Rama he became the first poet in Sanskrith. Thus he got the name Aadi kavi.

Children will like these type of stories and they will become aware of the power of such sounds. Please share your views..

A white board

We had arranged a white board for children to draw and to write. In my school days I was very eager to have a black board. I was very curious to play teacher games and to write whatever I want. Now I fulfilled my wish through my children. But this board is not a black board its a white one.
After its arrival Hari's study time changed into a fun time. He write more words and more spelling games. One of the games he is interested is making words from the letters of the given word.
Sri also trying his best to make this board a platform to paint. Before its arrival it was a common scene in our house, sri with an urge to draw and desparate to find paper and sketch pen. It may be under a cot or under a cupboard after the last days encounter. Now he is happy and he can draw whatever he want. Yes, its a pleasure for me to have their smiling face more than anything else....
I am trying to find more spelling games through internet.

An interesting post about the topic from Preethi Shenoy

Stories to Children

Blogging helps me to know more about parenting. I follow more than 15 blogs and it help me to get different perceptions about different topics. Sometimes I wonder how they manage to do so. I like to read mother's blogs. They have to tell a lot about their little ones. Every child has its own plus and minus. My elder one is having a great craze to cars. From the age of 2 he began to identify the model. Now he wants to know more technical details like mileage and space etc. He is not so interested to stories but like to read Auto magazines. My little one have an innate affection towards dance.
Hari and Sree are eager to hear stories of puranas. Yesterday I had told him about Sree Shankaracharya. I had told him about the story with crocodile and about the raining of gold gooseberries by chanting 'Kanakadhara sthothram'. You can read the story behind this stotram here.
My little one is more curious about these stories. Seeing their response I decided to tell them more about the eminent personalities of the world.
I liked these posts of Preethi shenoy. Have a look at it.
Are you in search for stories to children. Nice rendering of story Gajendra moksha

Vacation project

To make a chart of different types of dry leaves that was Hari's vacation project. We really enjoyed to do the project. It was a nice one. His grand parents also collected leaves from surroundings. We pasted them in a book. I wondered how many variety of leaves. Different colours, different textures and their smells. We have to become more close to the nature to know every aspect of it and to know how it cares us.
He had collected more than 100 leaves which included big trees like Peral, Arayal, Aanjily, Koovalam and Plavu. Creepers like Koval, Padavalam, Paval and Achinga payar. Herbs like Thulasi and panikkoorkka. I am eagerly waiting for his teacher's comment on this work.

Vacation games from Kerala

Some interesting funny games for your children from Mangalam daily
http://mangalam.com/index.php?page=category&lang=malayalam&cid=66&TmpId=15

Chembakam and children

Flowers of Chembakam tree

Friendly tree at Subhash park, Ernakulam.