Expansion of Idea - There is Nothing Impossible in Life

For those who believe in themselves there is nothing impossible in life. People who are full of optimism always take life in a positive way. They do not allow negativity enter their mind and thus control their way of thinking. For such people there is nothing impossible in life, as they learn to fight problems and face challenges. One sees many obstacles in the path of success. These obstacles are barrier to success and can either let you down or take away the possibilities of life.

But just the fear of facing obstacles should not take your success from you. One must not run away from problems but face it with fortitude and courage. There are solutions to each and every problem, but it is all about your approach towards it that helps or hinders your progress. If we allow ourselves to look at life with fullness and entirety, we can foresee what is coming toward us.

Unbridled determination and perseverance can help us go long way in life. Looking at the brighter side of life can help build a positive approach. Only such attitude towards life can help turning impossible into possible. Optimists are one of the shining examples of this. They have a positive approach towards dealing with challenges and fighting problems. And only for such people everything is possible and nothing is impossible in life.

What is a Sinkhole

Also known to be a swallow hole, shake hole, sink or even a doline, a sinkhole is a depression caused in the Earth's surface. These sinkholes that form on the earth's surface do not usually form due to natural process. They can be natural or even man made. These depressions formed in the earth's surface, are due to the dissolution of carbonate rock. And this process is also known to be the Karst process. Sinkholes either could form gradually or may appear sudden.

When water flows underground and starts dissolving the rocks, slowly and gradually sinkholes form. These rocks that dissolve are mostly limestone, salt beds, gypsum or clay.  When rocks start dissolving, small caverns form within the surface. This process carries on over a period of time and the land later caves in. This sudden collapse happens when pressure hits on the earth's surface. Small cracks may emerge to show the beginning of the sinkhole. These small cracks are not dangerous in the beginning. But as the cracks keep expanding and forming a hole, a weight of certain object would make the land cave in.

Sinkholes can differ in size and at times could be big enough to swallow even a house or a swimming pool. The process is so dramatic that it would not give out a warning at times, and suddenly would break out into a big, enormous hole creating chaos. 

Rock Painting - Most Creative Activity for Kids

Painting on stones or stone painting or also called as rock painting can be one of the most creative activity ever. Stones and rocks come in different size and shapes and we get to explore our minds into how creative we can be with them and come up with unique stone painting designs. Rock Painting allows us the pleasure to be creative and also to decorate our homes in a personalized manner. A painted stone could be used as a corner piece or we can use them for decorating gardens. Painted stones can also be gifted to near and dear ones, thus it could be a perfect personalized gift item for special occasion. Wonder how proud a grand-mom would feel if she receives a rock painting as a gift, painted and decorated by her own grand-child. You could also gift it to dad or moms who may use them as paperweights in their office and always feel proud when they look at them. Thus rock painting is one of the most easy and interesting DIY projects for kids. The actual pleasure for the kids begins right from searching for the perfect stone to painting it with the selected design.

Though you could get these stones  or rocks nowadays at various home-decor stores; the fun is in finding the perfect stone while you visit a river side or a sea shore. Most important thing for stone painting is to find the perfect stone, which can be used to paint. Tip is to look for round, flat and smooth stone which can allow us to be more creative. When certain idea comes to our mind for stone painting art, we need to look out for stones which may help us shape and colour those ideas, for instance if you wish to stone paint a cat, then you need to look out for a stone which can help you shape up that idea or when we wish to make a  Ladybug Rock Painting then we use a flat and circular stone.  I am into habit of collecting stones whenever I visit a river or a beach. You could say it is one of my hobbies other then reading. I am amazed with the different shapes and sizes the stones come in, one of the nature's wonder that they are shaped the way they are. I gather stones whenever I visit outdoors, not just to be creative, but also because  I consider each of those stones as a memoir or a recollection of the journey I thoroughly enjoyed. Then I try and use these stones for getting a bit creative with stone painting. Don't worry if you find stones with little rough patches, as a little scrub with sand-paper may work on some stones for smoothening curves and edges.

How to do Rock Painting 

Once you have the perfect stone ready with you, all you need to do is come up with a design which would work out perfectly on the stone. Every stone that we select tells us what would they be designed or shaped into. Just a little imagination and you know what design and colour would go well with the shape of the stone.

One more tip about stone painting for beginners is to try to draw the design on a card paper. It is important to learn to draw the perfect shape before trying it on the stone. Draw the perfect shape on a paper sheet or a card paper and then colour it. So you know what you are getting into. Once the design is drawn and coloured on a paper, you can just copy the same on the stone. This way stone painting becomes much easier as you get a model ready to refer while finishing your art work.

When it comes to using colours on stones for stone painting, mostly all types of colours go well with them. You can easily use acrylic colours or even water colours for stone painting. If this is your first time to try stone painting, I suggest try using water colours. If the stone painting doesn't come out as you desire, you can simply wash the colours and start out again. This way children get to practice and get creative with stones  and always come up with easy rock painting ideas or designs. The stone painting activity is one of the most creative ideas for kids as they get to engage in a craft which involves colours one of the kid's favourite past time. Making simple stone painting designs can help kids be imaginative. A little help with basics and kids would themselves come with unique ideas of their own about what they should paint on the stone. Once a child gets his hands on a stone painting, he or she can try with acrylic colours. Once the child is happy with his creativity, then sealers can be used to keep his stone painting art last for longer time.

Expansion of Idea - An Idle Mind is a Devil's Workshop

When a man's mind is idle, he is meant to face problems! Once the idle mind of a man starts indulging in the activity of it's own, then the problems seem to arise. One problem thus gives rise to other problem and so on. It could easily be associated with a child too. When a child has nothing to do, he starts engaging himself in things that do not belong or relate to him in the first place. The curiosity of a child makes him do things which he himself does not understand. For example, say a child would want to play with any appliance available at home, say a mixer-grinder. He would be curious enough to know how a machine works and would go on to play with it's buttons. If a parent is around, he would stop the kid from doing so. But when the child is alone, this curiosity of an idle mind may create a mishap.

Thus a child should be kept engaged with activities which are engrossing and entertaining. For example, small children can always enjoy a puzzle or educational game. Adult children can engage themselves in hobby cultivating activities such as reading, coin collecting, drawing, singing, cooking etc. This helps a child to keep his mind at work rather than keeping it idle and inviting problems. Same is the case with grown-ups who should always keep their mind engaged in activities they enjoy rather than constant worrying and bickering. An idle mind is a host of unnecessary thoughts which may lead to dangerous actions from such man. It is said that some dangerous things that happen in the world are a result of an idle mind. Hence one can say that an idle mind is a devil's workshop. The best one can do is engage in fruitful activities and thus keep his brains active for the betterment of his own self and the society at large.

How to Tackle a Comprehension Passage

One of the best tools aimed at assessing a child's reading and communication skills as well as his understanding of the language, a comprehension passage plays an important role in school papers and assessments. A child is judged by the way he tackles the comprehension passage and answers the questions followed. A comprehension passage comprises of either a prose passage or a poem passage which is followed by multiple questions either factual, evaluative or interpretative. While answering those, a child exhibits his command over the language and thus gets assessed. Once you understand how exactly you should handle the comprehension passage, then there is no stopping you. Few outlines to be followed and then just go on dealing with it effortlessly.The English passage question and answers are much more easier to deal with if you learn how to tackle them correctly. Lets learn few tips and tricks about answering comprehension questions strategy.

How to Tackle a Comprehension Passage

Read the Passage

First, most important thing one should do is quickly yet carefully read the passage. Few students start answering right away without even giving a glance to the passage. This can be a big mistake and then the answers may just go wrong. So it is advisable to read the passage carefully. Time constraints call for quick reading but see that you are thorough and understand the passage well. In case of a poem passage you should read it a couple of times just to get the idea.

Read and Understand the Questions

Once you are done reading the passage, have a look at the questions and try to understand them. Read the questions carefully and get a gist of it.

Go Back to the Passage

Before you start answering, get a quick look at the passage and try to connect the questions with it. Try and locate the answers that you are seeking by combing through the passage. This will facilitate your answering process as you would know the exact location of the answers.

Start Answering

Now that you know where the answers are start answering the questions. Be precise and to the point. Try and answer in simple sentences and avoid complex sentences as much as possible. Answering comprehension questions strategy is to try to write short answers and yet be concise.

Give a Proper Title

A comprehension passage always asks for a heading. So before giving a heading or a title to the passage survey the passage once again. Try to focus on the dominant theme of the passage and then develop an ideal heading based on it.

Expansion of Idea - Destiny is Yours to Decide

It is indeed a regular occurrence when we see, many of us making comments on plight of a beggar or a street urchin lying on the corner of a street. We usually end up feeling sorry for them and for their destiny. We in our minds have come to a conclusion that whatever we endeavour is because we are destined to do. It does not come as a surprise indeed! This is a one common misconception that we have against the life of people around us. Why just others; we often talk in the similar manner about ourselves. Imagine many of us saying, "What can we say, lets see what is written in  his destiny?" One always tends to blame destiny for the suffering he goes through. Such comments are so carelessly abandoned that it denotes how we have come to an passive acceptance that we must accept all the ills happened to us, as we are been destined to do so. This indeed is a negative approach towards life which implies that you already accept the defeat without even putting a fight. What happens with such approach is that we do not try to fight against the odds as the feeling within us clearly states why should we, when we have no choice as this is our destiny. If this approach is maintained by parents then the upbringing of a child is much careless and aimless. In such cases children grow up with the same attitude and do not fight to make their own destiny. Though being a great country, still it lacks behind only because of such approach. One has to understand that there is no such thing and we make and create our own destiny. No one else, not even fate can interfere in it anyway. If, tomorrow you fail miserably in life, then look back and see for the mistakes you did, rather than blaming the destiny for it. What we become is not a matter of chance but it is one's own efforts and hard work. What we choose for is what we become. If you work hard then nobody can keep you away from your success. Destiny is yours to decide and nobody else can have a say in it. 

Expansion of Idea - All That Glitters is Not Gold

It usually happens to most of us! We buy a book assuming if the cover is so attractive, how good the story would be. But it turns out that the story inside is not as good as the beautiful cover promised! But on the other hand a book with a dull cover may turn out much interesting than expected. And this is not limited to a book but many other things. A fancy restaurant may serve worse food ever, however a simple cafe or small restaurant would serve you the best food you might have eaten. Judging anything or anybody by it's appearance would be deceptive at times. Thus we must never make decisions based on the way anything appears in front of us, the way it is packaged or advertised. Nowadays we see innumerable advertisements about products which are shown in best light, nonetheless we know the truth only after using it. We often assume that a product is good because it is expensive, which is not  true at all.  Judging a person based of his appearances too can be misleading. A person like Mahatma Gandhi dressed in simple dhoti made his mark in front of well-dressed British. Similarly Abraham Lincoln was never appreciated for his looks yet he is considered to be one of the best Presidents of all time. Hence we can conclude that what appears beautiful may at times be uglier than we could imagine, as all that glitters would not be gold. 

How to Write a Good Essay

Not everybody is born to write a good essay! I must say, some possess born talent to write good, engaging essays. But that does not mean those who do not possess such skills, cannot acquire them to pen down good essay. To write a good essay one must do some preparation, and mind you this preparation has to be done even by those who possess natural talents. Once the basic preparation is done, then as soon as you start writing an essay the flow of thoughts pour down sequentially and thus a good essay materialises.

How to write a Good Essay

Get a Clear Idea about the Subject of Essay

Before writing an essay, it is important to get a clear idea about the subject of the essay you are attempting to write. It is important that there is no misunderstanding about the meaning of the topic that is been selected by you to write the essay. Select topic on the basis of your knowledge about it. If a topic is not understood well, then the essay that you plan to write would go all wrong and you may just end up writing something irrelevant to the topic.

Jot Down Points

Now as soon as you have understood the topic, start writing down all the points that flash through your mind related to the topic. When we think of a subject to write down on an essay, we automatically start thinking about various points pertaining to essay, but if we don't jot down those points immediately, we may just forget few of those when we actually start writing an essay. These points could be anything pertaining to the topic, for example, if you plan to write an essay on Discipline, then points such as success, values of discipline, hard work, achieving goals etc would flash through your mind and you would want to discuss these points in the essay. So it is important that you jot down these points on a side of your paper or a notepad.

Arrange the Points in Order

Now that you have a clear idea about the subject of the essay, and few points are being jotted down by you pertaining to the subject, start adding a proper sequence to these points. Try to arrange these points in proper order, so as to where and when you wish to include these points and discuss about them. Try and make an arrangement in such a manner that it helps you grasp the attention of your reader.

Make a Good Introduction

Once the points are in order, see that you make a good start. The way an essay opens up to the reader is very important for his further engagement. If a essay starts out in a dull fashion, then there are chances that the reader would assume that the essay is just boring and would not even skip out the rest of the content. The introduction of an essay should be attractive yet slightly brief. It is important to make a good introduction if you plan to write a good essay. The introduction should include  brief explanation about the way you treat the subject. Starting with a proverb, a saying, a quotation, an incident or even a small story can work wonders to your introduction part of the essay.

Stick to the Topic

Throughout the essay, while penning down your thoughts and ideas see that you stick to the topic. Don't try to stray away from the subject and confuse the reader. Whenever writing an essay on a particular topic never include ideas or thoughts which are not related to the subject.

Don't be Repetitive

The most boring aspect for a reader while reading an essay is the repetition. While reading an essay reading the same thoughts or sentiments again and again throughout the essay are not welcome. Make sure that while connecting the points or discussions in an essay you do not repeat sentiments or expressions or even use the same key word over and over again.

Avoid Usage of Short Forms

Short forms such as won't. shan't, don't, shouldn't etc should be avoided including in an essay. Try and avoid using numerals too in an essay. They portray an essay in a bad form. A use of abbreviations such as e.g., etc, should be avoided, instead use full forms like for example, so on and on.

Use the Same Tense Sequence

This is one of the key rule one should definitely follow while writing an essay. Suppose if you have started writing an essay in past tense, then you should continue the essay throughout in past tense. The whole essay should be written in a same sequence of tenses.

Be Simple and Precise

Instead of using complex sentences, which if not used carefully may destroy the whole essence of your essay; it is advisable to go simple. Try using simple words and sentences in your essay. Try to be direct and precise. Try not to be tempted in using complex or big words just for the sake of impressing the examiners or readers.

Express Yourself

Writing essay is all about expressing yourself. One important rule about writing a good essay is that you write it on the basis of your knowledge and imagination. When you write an essay try and express yourself. Let the reader know your genuine feelings and experiences. This helps readers to connect with you and enjoy your essay.

Reserve the Best for the Last

As much as an introduction is pivotal for penning down a good essay, the conclusion of an essay also holds a great importance. What has been started by you in a beautiful manner has to conclude in the similar impact. The conclusion of a good essay should be interesting and powerful. A dull and boring conclusion would spoil the whole show. It should sum up the arguments included in the essay and should prove that you made a valid point. It is necessary that all the arguments or discussions made in the essay are concluded with a strong view point. A inclusion of striking paraphrase or a quotation might be interesting.

Once you get through all these points and understand what and how to write, there is no stopping you. Just go ahead and pour out your thoughts and knowledge over an topic you know you could write a good essay about.

Importance of Obedience in Children

One of the most important keystone of our society is obedience. Obedience is essential for a child's individual as well as social life. Without obedience, there would be void and what would exist is turbulence, disorderliness and rebellion. Obedience is essential for the betterment of human society. It is not only necessary for an individual's private as well as social life but comes handy in all dimensions of life.

Obedience in Children

A child must obey his parents. A student must obey his teacher. A disobedient child shows signs of being spoilt. On the contrary child who obeys may actually shine bright in his future. In the similar manner, obeying teachers portray respect for them. A student exhibits good behavior as well as manners.

To Obey or not to Obey

Obedience is fundamental essentials of life. But it can be damaging when it causes physical or mental distress. One needs to understand the perfect balance between obedience and submission. One should obey only if he believes in it, not because he is expected to. An obedient child should also know when, where and whom to obey. For this a child should understand what is right and what is wrong. When a child is unable to make such a difference then he is submissive to bullying. Blind obedience is bad. When disobedience makes you feel oppressive then it's time you question yourself - are you doing the right thing? Blindly following rules which one is forced to follow is not being obedient. Letting autocrats and dictators bully you is not obedience.

Role of Parent and Teacher in Teaching a Child being Obedient

It is the duty of a parent or the teacher to explain the child the importance of obedience and the right way to do so. A child should be taught to understand the difference between what is right and what is wrong, whom to obey and whom to disobey. Obedience in the correct sense may take a child to great heights, help to excel in studies and indeed lead him to a brilliant future ahead!

How to Make Paper Lantern - Easy Steps

School projects in India always include DIY projects for kids about making articles such as diyas, lanterns etc; especially during Diwali. Making paper lantern is a quick and easy craft ideas for kids. Here's an easy method of making paper lantern using materials easily available at your local stationery shop. The steps for making this paper lantern are so easy that kids can do it themselves. Let's learn step by step method to make paper lantern at home.

Materials required for making paper lantern 

Ice-cream sticks - 32
Butter paper - 2 sheets
Ruler
Scissor
Glue
Pencil

Method for making paper lantern

1

Take two butter papers. Apply glue on one vertical end of each butter paper and stick the edges to make one long sheer of paper.

2

With the help of a ruler and pencil, draw four squares on the glued butter paper. I have measured 12 cm X 12 cm. If you want to make big lantern, draw bigger squares.

3

Now With the help of scissor cut this long rectangle that contains 4 squares side by side. My rectangle measured 48 cm in length and 12 cm in breadth.

4

Now try to fold these squares at end. It would look like a cube. Now join the two ends of this rectangular butter paper.

5

In case you make a bigger square, you may require two ice cream sticks or one and half ice cream sticks. With the help of glue, stick ice-cream sticks on edges of each square. Cut few ice-cream sticks in small shapes like drops and paste it in the center of each square paper to make a unique design.

6

Stick two ice-cream sticks on top of the lantern for suspension. If you have made this lantern using bigger squares then you should use a lace or decorative thread on top of the lantern for suspension.

Your decorative paper lantern is ready. 

Safety Tips for Children in the Kitchen

Most kids enjoy experimenting in the kitchen. It could just be anything right from simple nimbu paani to making an omelette. Be it a girl or boy! cooking can be enjoyed by both of them. Cooking can be really fun in kitchen for our young chefs provided they follow certain rules.

Top Ten Kitchen Safety Rules for Children

1. First most important thing is adult supervision. Never attempt cooking in kitchen without your's parent's presence. Let them handle the chores which can be dangerous such as cutting, chopping, steaming, frying etc...at least until you master them.

2. Second important thing is hygiene. Make sure that before cooking or handling food, you wash your hands very, very clean.

3. While prepping in kitchen it is possible that your hands get dirty or sticky, in such case wash hands again before continuing. Keep a kitchen wipe or cotton napkin handy.

4. Before trying to experiment with your recipe, make sure that the utensils you use are clean as well. We don't want germs in our food, do we?

5. Before you begin your cooking quest, try reading and getting well versed with the recipe you plan to make carefully and repeatedly. Make sure you have all the ingredients and utensils ready and handy.

6. Once you have finished using the ingredients, put them back in place. Your mom should get her kitchen clean and tidy, the way she keeps it!

7. If your recipe involves handling hot dishes, it would be a good idea to let your parents help.

8. Use of ovens and microwaves can cook food easily and deliciously. But if you won't be careful, then there chances of getting scalded. So it's necessary that you ask your parents to guide you.

9. If you are really interested in cooking and experimenting in kitchen, start with easy recipes. Learn from your parents the use of various utensils and gadgets. Learn how to handle them.

10. Before becoming a skilled chef, try and help your mom in prepping. Constant practice makes one perfect.