Fun sentence game

 I had bought this wonderful book titled 'Learning Fundamentals' by Colin Rose and Gorden Dryden (ages 3-6) when my elder son was three years old. I remember browsing through it, but I had to leave it behind during my travel abroad. So when I discovered this book in my small home library, a feeling of sadness passed through my mind, as I hadn't used the book.
Anyways, my younger one will be 6 this year. So I thought of checking if I'll get any new tip from the book.

To my joy, the book had few sets of flash cards which could be taken apart and used. It has three sets of keywords, two sets of phonic fun, and sentence game.

Ice and Salt - What a chemistry!

Its summer - its hot and also its vacation time. Kids are around the whole day and would like to be engaged too. What else can be more fun than playing with the ice? And how about adding some color to it...Voila!

All you need for this fun activity is water, salt and food coloring. Sounds easy, isnt't it? Just pour water in a container and freeze it. When it is frozen to ice, its activity time!!

Poem Ainkurunooru 25 from the Eight Anthologies

'Ettuththokai' meaning the Eight anthologies is a collection of poems from ancient Tami literature or the Sangam Literature. The lifestyle of the people was dependent on the nature of the landforms. Hence the poems are also categorized into five landforms typically called as five 'thinai's. Those are kurinji, mullai, marutham, neithal and paalai. Kurinji refers to the mountains and adjoining lands. Mullai refers to the forests and adjoining lands. Marutham refers to the plains and adjoining lands. Neithal refers to the sea and adjoining lands. Palai doesn't have a separate landform, thereby the Kurinji and Mullai lands dried by drought were referred to as Paalai. This is just a small intruduction to get you all started. I will discuss more about these thinais in different posts from now on. Of the five, Marutham poems speak of the hero's infidelity and the heroine's sorrow.

Among the eight anthologies, Ainkurunooru is a collection of 500 short poems. Each thinai has 100 poems based on it. So a 100 poems numbered 1 to 100 are based on Marutham thinai which speak of the hero's infidelity. These poems were sung by a poet named Orampogiyaar.

Let us see one such poem, which is the 25th poem in the Ainkurunooru collection.

This poem is set as one which is spoken by the heroine's friend to the heroine.

Original Poem:

"puyal purandh thantha punitru valar painkaai
vayalaich senkodi kalvan arukkum
kazhani ooran maarbu palarkku
izhai negizh sellal aagum annaai"

 

Word meanings: puyal - storm, purandh thantha - let it sprout/grow, valar painkaai - growing green vegetables, vayalai senkodi - red purslane creeper, kalvan - crab, arukkum - severes, kazhani - field,  ooran - belonging to the place, maarbu - chest, izhai - jewels, negizh - loosen, sellal - making sorrowful, aagum - will be, annaai - mother (refers to the friend here)

Red purslane Pic:thanks google

Poem meaning: The hero's town has fields where crabs severe the red purslane creeper with fresh green vegetables, which had sprouted after the storm. The chest of the hero from such a town has made the jewels of many women loosen, my friend

Description: The crabs stop the creeper from flourishing more. Likewise the hero from such a town stops the heroine from being happy. He had been with many women and left them, thereby making them all sorrowful, such that their jewels get loosened. The heroine's friend says to the heroine that she is not the only one to be affected by the hero's infidelity. The poem is so rich in nature that it speaks of something happening in nature relating it to the life event.

My English version:

"Red purslane growing after the storm

Its fresh green sprouts severed by the crabs;

Man from such a town, my friend!

Makes jewels of many women loosen"

You can refer to the Tamil version of this poem with explanation in my Tamil blog. 

Please let me know your valuable comments which would help me take this translating work in the right path, to the glory of Tamil literature. Thanks!

Check for more such poems in my other blog Sangam Literature in English

Car parking DIY activity for boys

 We constructed a two level parking with cereal box and empty tissue rolls.  Cut out one side of the cereal box and use it as the base. Glue four tissue rolls cut in halves for the pillars, on four sides. Glue  the other part of the cereal box over the tissue rolls, as shown in the pictures. Then we marked the parking spaces with yellow masking tape.

Melting Crayon painting

What beautiful paintings does these crayons create, even while melting!! We attached a paper in the inside of a cardboard box with tape. Then we taped few crayons at the top. My son wanted to line up many crayons. I left to his choice, after all the activity was for him.

Empty paint bottles can make flowers too

My acrylic paint was getting over and I thought those bottles were cute. When I was turning a bottle around in my hand I noticed the beautiful texture at the bottom. I thought why don't I do some prints with it. And eventually it turned into beautiful flowers.