It hasn’t been an easy journey for our children who have been homebound since March 2020 due to the spread of pandemic. They have been unable to attend regular school during this period. But Al Noor Centre, which Anoushka attends ,very successfully launched “Distance Rehabilitation Programme “ that is E-learning to engage the children. After initial hitches and roadblocks, children got accustomed to a set time table and also became tech savvy and were able to smoothly sail through various sessions. Apart from academics, various extra curricular activities were also incorporated for holistic development. Anoushka enjoyed all her sessions, be it literary , Art&Craft, bakery, PT, ICT and everything else.
One of the sessions that was very fascinating was “The Book Scavenger Hunt”. It came as a breath of fresh air and I was happy to see Anoushka so involved. It was a one – to -one session between Anoushka and her class teacher Gloria. I laud the way the teacher is able to hold her attention through most of the lessons. I was taken by surprise with this particular session. It was completely in contrast to her other sessions but the enthusiasm from both sides was commendable.
I was asked to allow Anoushka to have access to her story books. We were in for a surprise activity. The teacher had a set of questions which she showed Anoushka via Screen sharing on zoom. Each question had a specific purpose and it had her ruffling through various books, flipping pages, looking for cues and trying to comprehend the requirement. There were questions regarding the specific titles wherein she had to find a book with an animal character, a title with a colour/ number , a book with more than 150 pages, books written by same author/ publishing house and many more. The activity was very interesting and it held her attention for the entire session . She managed to find most of them, some on her own and some with my help. I found it very innovative and this also gives an opportunity to the children to save books they found interesting for future read.
Since our children’s attention span is very limited, it’s very important to find newer ways of keeping them engaged. It’s a must for every parent to try this activity and this may help to develop interest for reading in them. Once can use their own set of questions. This enables them to :
- Read and understand the question.
- Look for the appropriate requirement.
- Develop an interest in reading
