Friday Five: January 23rd, 2015

Today”s Friday Five guest writer is my daughter, Aditi Iyer. Aditi is 10 years old and cares deeply about the world around her. She is a fourth grader at Bellevue Children”s Academy and her favorite subject in school is English. Aditi takes a kinesthetic approach to make sense of the world around her, and so doing anything crafty like making jewelry, knitting (a passion these days), cutting, glueing, pasting, drawing, painting, helping me with cooking, repotting plants that don”t need to be repotted :-), pretty much rock her world. When she is not messing around with materials of different textures, she either has her nose buried in a book or is found singing or dancing to her beloved pet fish.

Knitting

I enjoy knitting these days. My school offered a knitting class as a part of their after-school program and I signed up immediately as I have always wanted to learn how to make scarves and sweaters, etc. I”m so glad that I joined the class. Here are four reasons that I like knitting.

• You can make different patterns and things, not just scarves and sweaters, but purses, hats, hair ties, the list is endless!
• It has a certain rhythm, knitting calms me down.
• It feels wonderful to wear something made by you.
• It doesn’t take too long, I have already made a few coasters and a scarf that I wear very often.

Books by Rick Riordan

After reading the Harry Potter series, I was looking for similar books and that is when I discovered books by Rick Riordan. After reading his Percy Jackson and the Olympians fiction series, I am reading The Heroes of Olympus series. I am immersed in reading the fifth book in the series, The Blood of Olympus. The books I have read so far have introduced me to Greek and Roman mythology. I love these books because the characters who are demigods face all kinds of challenges. I find the characters realistic and often I feel like, I am feeling what they are feeling. It is fun to get to know their personalities. I”m looking forward to reading The Kane Chronicles, which is based on Egyptian mythology after I”m done with this series.

Music Class

I enjoy my music class, on Saturday mornings very much! I learn Hindustani classical music from Shahana Akka. She is an excellent teacher, is really nice and explains everything really well! I love singing as it makes me feel free. I feel very good inside after my Saturday class. The melody of the music is beautiful and it makes me happy. I also like to understand the meaning of the lyrics of the songs I am learning.

Dance Class

Tuesday evenings are lovely because of my dance classes. I learn a dance form called Bharatanatyam, which is an Indian classical dance. My teacher Joyce maasi is an awesome teacher and she helps me understand stuff well and makes me feel good. Although dancing sometimes tires my arms and legs, it is fun. I like dancing because it looks so beautiful! It also exercises my body.

My Pet Fish

I love my pet fish! I have four pet fish and their names are Moonlight, Cuddles, Giggles and Chuckles. I”m going to give you four specific reasons why I love them so much!

• I like having something to take care of.
• My fish make me happy, very happy!
• They calm me. I could look at them for hours!
• They are awfully cute!

I hope that you found my Friday Five fun to read. Bye!