Creating Environment for Reading

In the previous post, I wrote about the importance of environment in learning a skill. I want to share now what I did to create an environment suitable and fertile for the development of reading skills of my daughter.

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Sukanya Samriddhi Account in State Bank of India - Process and Documets

When I last visited SBI on 1st June, 2015, I came to know that they are opening the Sukanya Samriddhi Account. I noted down the details and applied for one. Here are the details for the same -

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Creating Environment Instead of Teaching

Children are curious. They want to figure things out by themselves. They want to understand the world they live in. This is a very basic human nature or rather human brain's nature. To get a strong evidence of this fact, we just have to watch babies and pay serious attention to what they do. Their brain is continuously picking up information, matching patterns, sorting and storing it for later use...

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Chatur Chitrkaar - A Painter's Encounter with Lion

An entertaining poem specially for children. Authored by Ramnaresh Tripathi.

चित्रकार सुनसान जगह में, बना रहा था चित्र ।
इतने ही में वहां आ गया, यम राजा का मित्र ।।

उसे देखकर चित्रकार के तुरंत उड़ गये होश ।
नदी, पहाड़, पेड़, पत्तों का, रह न गया कुछ जोश ।।

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English Alphabets Tray

This proved to be a really useful toy (or should I say learning resource) for my daughter. She started playing with it when she was around 2 and learned the letter names and shapes very easily while playing with it. The letters and tray are made of good quality wood which does not get damaged even if she throws them sometimes. The knobs makes it very easy to lift up the pieces. An excellent toy ...

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Reading Letters on the Fridge

One day she was standing on a stool and reaching for the fridge magnets that were stuck near the fridge top. I was just standing there behind her when a thought came. The word "SAMSUNG" embossed on fridge had caught my attention. "Lets try spelling this word to her", I thought. Since she had been playing with [capital letters picture tray](/parenting/toys-gift-toddler-baby-kids/english-alphabets-...

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Renting a House in Bangalore - Standard Practices and Experiences

Renting a house in Bangalore has always been a complicated process because standard practices are quite different here as compared to other cities . Here are some observations based on my experiences -

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EPF Contribution Increased From Rs 780 - Why?

Many of my friends have mentioned about their PF contribution changing from Rs 780 to Rs 1800 from September 2014 onwards (without any salary revision / increase) and have been wondering about the cause for this.

The increased EPF contribution is a result of EPFO decision to raise the PF wage ceiling to Rs 15,000 from Rs 6,500.

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Employer EPS Contribution Increased from Rs 541 to Rs 1250

In Aug 2014, EPFO decided to raise the wage ceiling for becoming a subscriber of EPFO to Rs 15,000 from Rs 6,500. The details can be found in my previous article. This decision took effect from September 1st, 2014 onwards.

One fallout of the decision is that the EPS share which my company was contributing every month got ...

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Online Insurance Renewal Problems: ICICI Lombard and HDFC Ergo

Insurance companies very well know the potential of the online channel for insurance registrations and renewals. Selling policies online helps them to make significant savings as they no longer need to pay commissions to the agents. That is the reason why all insurance products such as cars, 2 wheelers, health, travel, home, personal, life insurance, etc. are available to buy online.

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