Anuradha Sridharan

I just returned after enquiring about a summer camp for my 2.5 year old daughter. The summer camp is in the morning hours. A teacher in the school mentioned that she offers a different summer camp in the afternoon from her home too and I can enroll my daughter if interested. I decided that a couple of hours in the morning is more than enough to keep her engaged at this age. While pondering about these various summer camps, memories of my childhood summers started to appear before my eyes. There wasn't any concept of "summer camps" back then. The 2 months were filled with soaking in the sunshine, sweating and running around with neighbors, cousins and friends. Sneaking out of the house to get a stick of flavored ice bar ("kuchi" ice) in a nearby ice factory in the afternoon when the elders were taking their afternoon nap. Climbing the terrace to pluck juicy guavas from the trees Sipping cool and refreshing lemon juice made from water stored in a mud pot Learni...

Over the past few months, I have become fascinated with the concept of gamification and the underlying principles linked to motivation theories. When I came across the course on gamification in Coursera , I immediately signed up for it and added to the watch list. The course started around end of Jan and it's just been an amazing learning experience so far - well structured with lots of good insights and examples. Prof.Kevin Werbach is clear with his explanations and there were many "aha" moments and key take-aways so far. There were 4 important take-aways worth documenting for future reference: 1) A gamified solution in a non-game context should have a definite beginning, middle and an end. The player should know where the game starts, how it progresses and how it ends. The “end” state acts as a “ psychological draw ” and pushes user further towards it. 2) In any game, players should feel that they are making progress. Progression is not measured only through points o...

The most common complaint from any mother is that their children don't eat vegetables, especially those who have kids in the age range of 3 - 4 years. My 2.5 year old daughter D is an exception in this case. She would rather eat vegetables than a few spoons of rice. I hope she continues to love eating vegetables the way she is now (touchwood!!). Let me share with you the 10 ways that have worked for me to incorporate vegetables in my toddler's diet. 1) Start early, be consistent When D was ready for solid foods (around 6 months), I introduced her to the taste of carrots - boiled carrots pureed and strained. Her first reaction was to spit it out. I tried the same for 3 days and then she slowly accepted a couple of teaspoons. Then I introduced sweet potatoes (boiled, pureed). After few days, she liked the taste of it. When she was 8 months old, I gave her a piece of sautéed ladiesfinger. Her first reaction was again, to spit it out. Even after many trials, she just didn't...