From employers constantly struggling to provide it to their employees to the employees constantly striving to achieve it, ‘Work-life balance’ has been a critical concept ever since it’s conception in 1986 and even before. Companies have been working rigorously to reform and re-formulate employee friendly policies while employees religiously promise themselves to leave work on time and spend more time with their families, but in vain.

Ever since I heard the term ‘Work-life balance’, even before I began working, I had decided to have one for myself and here is what I did to achieve it.
1. Carry a straight face to work.
2. Avoid unnecessary interactions (I’m here to work and not to make friends).
3. Focus on assigned tasks and deadlines.
4. Leave work on time without carrying work home.
5. When away from work, passively worry about the challenges that might show up at work the next day or the coming days and make mental strategies to escape them.
By now, you would have already figured out that this epic strategy of mine massively succeeded at failing me! Neither did I have any kind of job satisfaction nor a peaceful life. Work for me was a means to earn money to do things that I loved and the things that I loved stopped bringing me joy as my mind was always pre-occupied with the fears related to work. This lead me to switch multiple jobs unsure of what I was really looking for until I landed at my current job as a Pre-school facilitator.

So what is this “Work-life balance” and how do we achieve it?
A few months into my job as a Pre-school facilitator, I learn’t that there is nothing called “managing work and life”, it’s all about “Managing yourself”. A few perspective changes was all I needed to do to achieve it.
1. There is always time for everything we love or we can always make time if we want to, all we need to do is completely be present while we do it. It’s better to spend half and hour with your family with no distractions than an entire day where you are constantly on calls or fiddling with your phone.
2. Be your authentic self, the energy and will power that you use to carry a facade can be used to be more productive. Your creative self is at it’s best when you don’t fear judgments.
3. Find a larger purpose in everything you do, a lack of strong purpose deprives you of satisfaction.
4. Look at challenges as an opportunity to learn instead of getting overwhelmed by them. Say “Hmmm interesting! How do I figure this out?” instead of “Sh*t!!”.
5. Resolve conflicts and emotions as and when they emerge. The people who love you or work with you, don’t deserve to handle emotions that you dump on them because you chose to not resolve them.

Although this seems very simple, when put into practice needs a lot of effort and it’s a constant process. But it’s also true that, nothing worth having comes easy. If you really want to live a great life, you will put in that effort to make it happen.

In conclusion, I would like to express my immense gratitude to my mentor for his time and patience while I figured things out and my colleagues for their humble support. I feel extremely privileged to have arrived at where I am today and I still have a long way to go.

​Contributed by Yashika CG, Facilitator, Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool

During the snacks break 4 to 5yrs old wanted to sit outside and eat. We all went out and sat. 

While doing so a child pointed out the temperature and how she feels,
D: Ma’am it's hot here.
Facilitator (F): Why don’t you go and sit in the shade?
VR responded immediately to D, “I like to sit in the sun. Whoever wants vitamin D can come and sit in the sun!”
Aa replied to VR, clarifying her intentions: I want vitamin D but now I will sit in the shade and eat my snacks and then play in the sun.
VR, not paying heed to what else was going on: Ma’am, why do we get tears in our eyes when we look at the sun? 
F: Good question VR! Why do we get tears while looking at the sun, do you know?
D, overhearing this conversation, contributed : Because sun is hot!
And Dit added, “It gives light.”

A few others told him the same about sun being too hot. Then V agreed, feeling satisfied with the explanations he received from his friends.

He then reasoned out to himself, “Now I know why tears come from our eyes - it's because the sun is bright and very hot that's why... When we look at it water comes from our eyes.!”
​
Most of the children forgot about their food as their curiosity began to rise towards the sun. They all began looking at the sun with wonder, agreeing to what VR said.
Dit suddenly had an interesting thought to share, “After seeing the sun when we close our eyes why is it colorful?”
Aa jumped in with, “Because the sun is colorful that’s why!”.
C, hearing this, recalled the story from the book ‘The Day The Crayons Quit’ that they had read and came to the rescue, “You remember the Duncan crayon story, when orange and yellow were fighting, Duncan said the sun has all the color that’s why!”
 
They wondered about for a few more minutes what they heard, recalling the story, sun bathing, reminiscing over the conversation that just happened. Children, when left to wonder and experiment with their thoughts and words, can explore places that have never been explored before. 

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#youngachieversacademy
#everychildcanwonder

Contributed by Sheela Peter, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.

Today's interesting challenge for the 3 and 4 year olds at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool was to make anything they want BUT with only two white coloured pipe cleaners!

They took on the challenge with so much enthusiasm and out came a river overflowing with different kinds of play.  They all started the play by sitting on mats on floor, 
S: Ma'am look I have horns!

​And they all pretended to be animals and roared around a little.

When the facilitator saw that they all got up and started running around , pretending the pipe cleaners to be guns and shooting fire, it was clear that they didn't know the pipe cleaners could bend too! 
F: Did you know I could make anything I want to with these by bending it too? 
This caught most of their attention and they each started bending it, trying out different things. 
At: Fire!
K: Look, I made a 'M' (he used both the pipe cleaners and joined them)
An: I made a knot. I curled it. 
And she unknotted it and looked proud of her discovery. 

Suddenly Aa comes and says," I want to connect it", touching the tips of both the pipe cleaners. When asked how could he do that, he walked away as if in deep thought. 
While this happened, Av came around playfully and poked it on the facilitator's face and walked away to join the others who continued to run around pretending to be animals with horns.

Suddenly T screamed at her friends," I don't like this game!" and made a sad face. 
Nobody seemed to have noticed it. She screamed again. No response from the others. 
Finally the facilitator asked her why she seemed angry. 
"They are all screaming. My ears hurt!" replied T. At this point S was watching T and he visibly used soft voice. The amount of consideration, understanding  and compassion he showed towards T was immense for a 3 year old. T was very touched by this and suddenly calmed down and went ahead to play with the others. 

After a few minutes, H was done with her play with the pipe cleaners ,"I don't need it. It's ok", and went and neatly kept it in the cupboard where it belongs. And one by one they all went and kept their pipe cleaners and were done with their play for the day. 

There was a lot of imagination, pretend play, problem solving and movement that were involved here where they were playing with just two pipe cleaners. It's amazing where things can take them when they are not restricted. Each child has a story to tell with everything they do. Once we observe and get to know their world, it will not only create sparks in our imagination but also is another chance for us to embrace play in our lives as us adults forget to play too. 


Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool. 

​#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#youngachieversacademy
#everychildcancreate

Yet another conflict comes up in the 3 and 4 year olds' class today. This is what happened,

T is visibly upset and is stamping on the floor in anger and tears in her eyes. 
F: What happened? 
She gives no response. After a few moments, she says, "A is not my friend!" 
To which A said with a surprised expression, "That's not true. I am."
T seems surprised. But still crying. 
Suddenly, A jumps in to explain, "She hurt me."
T calmed down and said, "But I said sorry."
"No, she didn't!", said A, defending herself. 
"I said it very softly but", T explained, and stomped off to the corner to cry saying, "I am very upset!" 

Now everybody in the class is quiet and watching the entire thing. 

H and A were sitting next to each other at this point. Suddenly H stands up for the situation, feeling responsible, and tells A, "A get up and go talk to her."

A follows suit. She goes to T and gently tells her, "You say sorry to me."
T doesn't budge. After a few seconds of trials, A looks around and calls everybody to them. Without any more intervention from A, everybody gravitates towards them both and hugs T as a way of consoling her post which T flashed everybody the widest smile. She said sorry to A after this and the entire problem was solved.

When children are shown how problems are solved, they naturally start picking up the habit and show problem solving skills even at the youngest age of 4. When trust is established with them that they are capable individuals who can solve their problems, they reach a whole new level of confidence in themselves with the belief that they are capable of solving their own problems.  They, then show us what anger, crying, distrust and fear can't do - a little bit of love can magically solve!

Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#youngachieversacademy
#everychildcansolveproblems

Another typical day for the 3 and 4 year olds at Sparkling Mindz where they were all seated at their usual yellow rectangular table. They were all given worksheets to do where they had to stick thermocol balls on the sheets given. They are usually given choices on how they would like to do the worksheets and what they would like to stick. As we were focusing on fine motor development, on this particular day, they were given thermocol balls to stick. They were each given a glue stick to use for themselves to stick. 
​
The glue sticks were of three colours: black, blue, and blue and yellow. An and H both wanted blue. By the time the glue sticks got to them, it was between blue, and blue and yellow. An and H start arguing on who gets to use the blue one. Both the glue sticks were handed over to both of them. At this point they both stared at me hoping I would take a call and hand over the blue to one of them to which I responded, "Okay. Please solve this problem you guys", and I moved onto the others observing how they were going to resolve this. 
Few seconds later they came up with a solution all by themselves!
An said," After we finish this one line, you give me the blue and I'll give you this. Let's exchange", to which H happily agreed, called me and told me how they had revolved their fight. 

It was such a beautiful sight to see them resolving their problems by themselves. If I had stepped in, I would have stolen that lesson, that they learned about solving problems by themselves and sharing, by giving them the solutions. By trusting their capabilities in solving their problems, I was able to strengthen my belief about children that even at such a young age, they are absolutely capable of anything that they put their minds to, which is a learning not just for them but also for me. As adults, we often step in to figure things out for the children without letting them figure it out for themselves. We often tend to forget that they are capable individuals with brilliant minds that can function independently without us having to interfere a lot of the times. Taking a step back a lot of the times will give them chances to step up for themselves and also enable them to believe that we trust them to solve their issues by themselves. And this, is beautiful.


Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool. 

#inspiringconfidentlearners
#youngachieversacademy
#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#everychildcansolveproblems

​It was around 10:20am and our 4-5 year olds were setting their class up for snacks. Just then, the facilitator spotted Ad and Sh fighting for the red chair. The class had just one red chair and this was not the first time children were fighting over it. The facilitator intervenes and takes away the red chair from both of them.
 
F: Okay! Looks like we have a very serious problem.
Ab: Because of all of us!
F: What do we now? There is just one red chair and so many of us want to sit on that one chair.
Ash: I’m sitting on a yellow chair, Everyday I’m sitting on different, different chair.
F: People sitting on different chairs everyday, that’s great! Now, how can we solve this red chair problem?
Ab: No red chair (He meant, taking away the red chair)
(Ad, visibly very upset, takes a chair and sits away from the circle, making angry gestures.)
F: (To the class) Ad will calm down and tell us how he wants to solve this problem.
 
F (now addressing the whole class): Do you all have any suggestion for Ad?
Sh: I have! Maybe he can say sorry to the red chair and not fight with the red chair.
F: Was he fighting with the red chair or was he fighting for the red chair?
Ab: He was fighting for the red chair.
Ar (Raises his hand): Take away the red chair!
An: He can take the chair some of the days, he cannot take the chair tomorrow.
F: So you are saying, Ad can take the chair on some days and some days he can give it to others?
Ab: I have a solution, we can paint the red chair in different colors.
Ash (Interrupts): If we paint the red chair, all the paints will be over.
Ab: We can stick paper on the red chair and paint the paper.
F: Hmmm… Ad loves the red chair, if we change it to another color, would that solve the problem?
M: We all love the red chair. All of us love all the chairs.
F (To Av): Do you have a solution?
Av: The solution is when Ad is going to take the red chair, somebody else should take the red chair.
F: Do you think Ad will like it?
Av: If Ad wants red chair, we can just cover it with white.
F: How will that solve the problem? He still loves the red chair isn’t it?
Ab: Maybe we can get more red chairs.
Ta: Ma’am, I’ll give my red chair to Ad and take a different one.
F: You could do that, but Ad likes only that Red chair (The bright one).
Sh: Ma’am, all the other chairs are saying we love Ad.
Ad (still angry): (makes roaring noise)
T: Maybe I’ll tell everyone that Ad wants the red chair and please can you let him take the red chair?
F: Do you think it’s fair to let Ad take the Red chair everyday? Sh also likes the Red chair and she also wants to sit on it sometime.
T: Maybe, you can let him take the Red chair today.
F: OK, how about we agree on An’s idea? She said Ad can take it some days and give it to others on some days, Would that work with you Ad?
Ad: Today I’ll take it, tomorrow I’ll give it.
T: Maybe Sh and Ad can keep on exchanging.
An (Raising her hand): I should also get it.
 
Everybody else in class also started raising their hands one by one saying “I also want the Red chair”, and we decided to make a timetable and put it up in class so that everybody gets to sit on the red chair. Ever since then, there has not been a conflict regarding the Red chair.
 
Taking away the red chair would have easily solved the problem but that would have been momentary and would have robed the opportunity form children to discuss and arrive at a solution. Here, they not only displayed their reasoning and problem solving capabilities but also, in the process felt that their voices mattered. Encouraging or involving children in decision making and problem solving will help them build trust in themselves as well as creates a sense of ownership as the child feels understood and listened to. 

Contributed by Yashika CG, Learning Facilitator, Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#youngachieversacademy
#everychildcan

​During a story reading session with 5 year olds, children were feeling hot and wanted to turn on the fan. Ar and Av get up from their chair and run towards the switchboard at the same time. Av reaches first and turns on the fan and as an instant reaction Ar hits him.
 
(Facilitator (F) observing the scene calls out for them)
 
Av: Ma'am Ar hit me, he always hits me.
F(to the class): Do you all think Ar gets angry and hits people for no reason?
Class: No ma'am. 
Ar (angrily): I get angry when people don't let me do what I want to do.
F: I understand you get angry but, is it helpful to hit or hurt someone when you are angry?
Ar: Yes 
F (to the class): Do you all think hitting when angry is a good thing?
Class: No ma'am. 
T: Ar should talk to them.
F: Thank you T, do we all want to help Ar calm down when he is angry? 
Class: Yes ma'am.
F (to Ar): How do you want everyone to help you calm down?
Ar: By not talking.
F (To the class): So, can we all agree to not talk to Ar when he is angry, he'll calm himself down and then join us.
Class: Yes ma'am.
F (to Av): Why do you think Ar hit you?
Av: Because I saw Ar run and I ran before him and turned on the fan.
F: What do you think you could have done instead?
Av: Let him (switch) on the fan, next time I will get a chance.
F (to Ar): What do you think you could have done?
Ar: Ask him.
F: So, do we all agree to use our words next time we don't like something?
Class: Yes ma'am.
 
Be it a child or an adult, helping them become aware of their own emotions and learning to express them in resourceful manner is a very important skill to learn for life. When children start this early, it helps them empathize with themselves and figure out mechanisms to understand, accept and cope with their emotions better, building emotionally resilient adults of the future. 

Contributed by Yashika Ganesh, Learning Facilitator, Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool and edited by Sreeja Iyer, CEO, Sparkling Mindz.
​
#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#youngachieversacademy
#everychildcanempathize

Post a training session on 'How to connect with children and clean questions', I was deeply inspired to implement this with my children in class. So when T, a 6 year old was feeling low during one of the classes and isolated herself, it gave me an opportunity to experiment metaphors with her. Following is the documentation of our conversation.
​
Me: Hey T, what happened? are you okay?
T: I'm tired, I have body pain and it's been there since morning.
Me: Oh, is it? Where are you feeling tired in your body?
T(Points out her head and knee): in my head and here.
Me(trying to match her tone): Oh, how does it feel like?
T: It feels nothing.
Me: hmmm, how big is it?
T (showing the size with her hand): this much in my head, but it's gone. I have this much plus this much in my knee
Me: Oh okay, what color is it?
T: dark blue
Me: which is your favorite color?
T: Orange
Me: do you want to take orange and paint it orange?
T: No?
Me(feeling stuck at this point): why? Do you want to keep the pain?
T: Yes
Me: But, why?
T: because I like it.
Me: so, what do you want to do now?
T: I want to sleep

Post this, I let her sleep and she was fine when she woke up.  Later that day, she was playing with one of her friend and suddenly stopped and calls out to me.
T: Ma'am, do you know why I didn't want to paint it orange in the morning (pointing to her knee).
Me: why?
T(referring to her jeans): because, if I paint it, the color won't go.