A Silver Lining During The Lockdown – Articles By Grade 7 Students

It is always a proud moment for the school management when students turn into wordsmiths. We, at Meru International School, motivate and encourage our students to reach their full potential. We ensure to organize some competitions that will let their creative juices flow.

Since the imposition of the lockdown due to this global health crisis, we spirited up our students by conducting an essay writing contest on our Meru Virtual School platform. We were elated to read the minds of our young intellectuals through their heartwarming words and how the reasonings behind the topics they chose. We provide you with the informative articles written by our students which is a testimony to their writing skills and their potential.

Board Games- How they help families bond?

BY N. THANUSREE PRAJNA  (GRADE VII A)

Families today live in a busy world full of electronic gadgets with decreased verbal communication. Family bonding time is important to maintain close relationships among family members. Good family relationships are an important part of strong families.

Playing board games with family members strengthens family bonds by spending time together. These board games are important for parents, grandparents and other family members to carve out time to spend together as a family.

One such board game which I love playing with my family is Chinese Chequers, a strategy board game which can be played by at least 6 people. Finishing the game without interruptions helps lengthen the declining attention span of people in a world filled with digital distractions. It helps every person to express their thoughts without fear. Such games teach the value of teamwork.

Playing board games can also teach how to deal with one’s luck changing in an instant, whether it is a positive or negative change thus encouraging healthy brain development. Having fun, practising successful communication and listening skills, developing soft skills, and using face to face interaction can all be accomplished using board games to foster and improve relationships.

THANK YOU

Two learning from my experience during lock-down

BY: K ANSHIKA (7B)

For many of us in self-isolation, it can feel like the coronavirus has put the world on hold as we wait for release from our temporary imprisonment. But an increasing number of people are using the time to build their skill set, with an upsurge in enrolments on online learning platforms.

As James Wallman says in his book Time and How to Spend It, personal growth is central to many psychological theories of long-term happiness. So although an hour listening to a lecture may not be as enticing as the instant gratification of reality TV or social media, it will lead to greater life-satisfaction in the long term. “You could say that humans are like bicycles: if you’re not heading towards something you fall over,” Wallman says and when we are socially distancing we should be productive and self equipped.

During the lockdown, I have learnt many things  but the two main ideas are:

BIRD WATCHING:

You might have heard that nature is taking back cities on lockdown. If you want to get a little closer to nature, you can start with your own back garden (or balcony). Resources like eBird can help you get started.

 AMIGURUMI:

New hobbies don’t get much cuter than amigurumi – the Japanese art of crocheting small creatures or characters. It’s a cheap hobby to start with, and if you already have yarn lying around you can find plenty of free patterns online,

Until then, Stay healthy, stay safe and stay home. Enjoy and create new hobbies during this quarantine time and adventure the unknown hobbies and ideas during this lockdown. Follow the measures given by the World Health Organization(WHO) and let’s fight for the end of this virus.

Thank you, Corona Virus

 Bhanu Sontela​, 7 CAIE (G)

VIRUS, VIRUS ON THE WALL, WHO IS THE FIRST ONE TO FALL? The one that doesn’t maintain social distance? The one who doesn’t stay at home?

Yes. We all think staying at home is like staying locked up in jail, but there are many benefits that we don’t realize. I think of quarantine as the golden time to spend time with our family, learn new skills, and for me, I became extremely grateful and realized how lucky I am to have a roof over my head. As my family and I all sit together and see the news about the current status of the pandemic, we see millions of lives suffering, so we can’t really complain, because they are suffering 10 times more than us. We may feel like there is no end to the lockdown, but there will be.

I have learnt many new things over the past 30 days. But my new favourite hobby is gardening. My brother and I were really bored so we decided to grow plants. We got the idea from observing our neighbours. We asked our mom to give us seeds to plant and she gave us fenugreek seeds and we put them in paper cups with soil and I must say, it was really fun. It was fascinating to see how a tiny little seed grows into a plant. Soon our plants started to grow and my seedlings grew taller and more of my seeds grew so my 7-year-old brother got jealous and accused me of putting more seeds into my cup and sabotaging him, so we kept growing more and more plants with seedlings and soon enough our balcony was filled with methi(Fenugreek) leaves. Every day, I would gush over my seedlings and when my mom used them for cooking lentils, usually we would throw a tantrum, but in this case, it was our baby plants she used and we enjoyed it a lot more than usual.

Another skill that I learnt during the “dreadful” lockdown was cooking, by cooking I mean helping my mom and maybe once in a blue moon I would make breakfast for my whole family, but the downside was I had to wake up early and “waking up early” isn’t very intriguing in my books. I helped my mom cook soo much that I memorized the spice terminology. But, the positive side for this was it is very time consuming and it also gives me an excuse not to always keep studying. Also, when I help your parents it makes me feel good about my self and it truly does boost my self-esteem. Another reason, that helping could be an advantage to your parents and yourself is once they find a cure for the virus and we can get our normal lives back, you can remind your parents of all the things you helped them with and maybe convince them to make your favourite dish, keep your favourite TV show, etc. after all we do deserve it, and I definitely will ask my mom to make my favourite dish after the pandemic is over.

The lockdown has taught me to evolve, upgrade and be resilient to change and overcome the challenges. Not everyone is lucky to see another day nor will we get a chance like this to be at home with people we love. Life and its chapters will grow but we need to adapt to positive and lateral thinking to fit into the fonts of the book. The choice of being bold, italics or just normal is left to you. Mother Earth will survive with or without us. Let us learn to unlearn and get reintroduced to our true selves so that we can walk out after the lockdown as a new person into a new healthy world with new experiences and challenges. STAY HOME. STAY SAFE.​

The Lockdown Learning

 An Amazing Adventure – VANDITA (VIIG)

The world is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand the threat posed by the Coronavirus (COVID–19). This virus has bought the world to a standstill with governments enforcing lockdowns to ensure their citizens stay home and not fuel the outbreak. Many schools and offices are shut down worldwide keeping everyone confined at their homes.

In this article, I will share with you the two amazing things I have learned during this tragic lockdown period.

Firstly, I’ve got to know extensively about all my family members – their emotions, views, ideas, strengths, weaknesses etc. The bonding between each of us has massively increased, after the lockdown. Back then, we all were busy with our own lives and spent very less time together. But now, it has all changed, we spend more time together and also have lots of fun helping each other.

Secondly, I’ve learnt everything! As we spend most of our time with our family, we learn interactive activities that are fundamental for a happy life in the future. Tasks like keeping the house clean (sweeping), washing the dishes, drying and folding the clothes are essential as these are the basic necessities that one has to do throughout the life – sometimes more and sometimes less!

I know staying home for a few days or months with no access to the open-air feels burdensome. These lockdowns have also led to fatigue and depression to many of us, but there is nothing more than food, water and a family. You can engage yourself in music, dance, art and also develop your powers. One has to use this time effectively pursuing something useful, as this is the best and the only option available at this time.

To sum it up, I want to say, though these lockdowns are stressful and tiring for many of us, there are still astonishing activities we can do together as a family at our homes.

STAY HOME

STAY SAFE