“Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.”GÉRARD DE NERVAL, FRENCH WRITER AND POET FAMILY TIME02

Overexercise weakens yourimmunity Immunity is the body's first and last line of defence and also your ticket back

to normalcy in the present world. But do you know what it takes to build one?

Make a family treetogether

Help children realise the importance of a family andmake them learn to appreciate how special yourfamily is, big or small, near or far, by creating a

family tree together. Draw, paint, paste pictures andstick leaves. Get as creative as you can!

MEENAL ARORA, executive director, Shemrock Preschools &

founder director, Shemford Group of Futuristic Schools

Learn a language,exercise together

My most favourite activities are: EExxeerrcciissee ttooggeetthheerr– not only does it help you bond, stay strong andhealthy, but also encourages you to compete

against each other and push yourself to do more. LLeeaarrnnaa llaanngguuaaggee ttooggeetthheerr – a parent and child can not onlyhave fun learning a language together, but they canalso push one another to continue with the class everyday, in case one of them is not up to it. Me and my sonhave started learning Spanish!

ANUPAMA RAMACHANDRA, principal, DPS eCity, Bengaluru

Liigghhtteenn tthhee lloocckkddoowwnn wwiitthh tthhiiss ffaammiillyy aaccttiivviittyy tthhaatt iissmmeennttaallllyy ssttiimmuullaattiinngg...... One person secretly arranges15-20 small-sized objects on a tray. The articles

could include a key, coin, stamp, button, etc. Cover thetray with a cloth and ask participants to gather around it. Remove the cloth for one minute,telling everyone to make a note of the things on displayand ask them to write down items they remember.

SURYAKUMARI DENNISON, Teacher,

Aavishkar Academy, Bengaluru

ACTIVITY

Memory Matters

One simple activity I can suggest to all children is togrow herbs and fruits. YYoouu ccaann ssttaarrtt wwiitthh tthhee hhuumm-bbllee sspprriinngg oonniioonnss,, wwhhiicchh aarree eeaassyy ttoo ggrrooww aanndd ccaann

eevveennttuuaallllyy bbee kkeepptt iinn tthhee kkiittcchheenn iittsseellff –– rreeaaddyy ttoo bbeeuusseedd iinn ccooookkiinngg..

Ask your mom to set aside tiny onions from amongwhat you get at home for cooking. You can plant the tinyonions in little pots, sometimes even take-away contain-ers. Keep these pots outside in sunny areas for the first10 to 15 days. My pots are kept in the kitchen windowsill,where they get the morning sun. When the spring onionsare big enough to be used for cooking, give the pots andleaves a good wash and let them sit in the kitchen.

SHYLINI SOANS, principal,

New Age World School, Yelahanka, Bengaluru

Grow a herb garden with your parents M

y mom and me haveindulged in a uniqueactivity, which gives

us pleasure every singleday. It is ‘Bird watching’that keeps us happy. I getto see lot of birds likepigeons, mynas, crows andlot of colourful butterflies.

She also shows me newlyblossomed flowers in thegarden and we togetherwater the plants every day.Why don’t you do it too toutilise your free time?

M AKSHATH, UKG, National

Model Senior Secondary,

School, Coimbatore

Bird watching could be fun...

1 Which country was Herodotusreferring to when he said:

“There is no country that pos-sesses so many wonders, nor any,that such a number of works thatdefy description”?A) China B) Germany C) Egypt

2 Which leader was accused atthe Rivonia Trial?

A) Martin Luther King B) SubhasChandra Bose C) Nelson Mandela

3 What was the pen name ofWilliam Sydney Porter?

A) Mark Twain B) Oscar Wilde C) O’ Henry

4 Who wrote the ‘SrimadBhagavad Gita Rahasya’ while

he was jailed in Myanmar?A) Bal Gangadhar Tilak B) MotilalNehru C) Gopal Krishna Gokhale

5 The largest internal organ inthe human body is?

A) Liver B) Heart C) Lung

6 After whom is the chemicalelement with atomic number

102 named?A) Albert EinsteinB) Alfred Bernhard NobelC) Isaac Newton

Quiz for MOM and DAD

ANSWER:1-Egypt, 2-Nelson Mandela, 3-O’ Henry, 4-Bal Gangadhar Tilak, 5- Liver, 6-Alfred Bernhard Nobel

VIDUSHI PANDEY, VII-D,

The Bishop's Co-Ed School, Kalyani

Nagar, Pune

Kite flying

MOM & DAD PLEASE READ THIS!

supriya.sharma2@timesgroup.com

With the worldcooped up intheir homes forover a monthnow, there is a

pressure building to stagger so-cial distancing rules and even-tually issue ‘immunity pass-ports’. Amid so much specula-tion and hypothesis, the only oneword that gives hope is Immu-nity. Although doctors aroundover the world admit to stillgrappling with explaining theconcept to most people. “Thereis no rocket science attached toa strong immunity. When wealign the way we eat, sleep, thinkand move with nature, anythingthat is labelled as a disease or acondition tends to go away,” saysLuke Coutinho, Holistic Nutri-tion and Exercise Physiologist.

WHY IMMUNITY?We are all endowed with threetypes of immunities. One is in-nate (or natural) – that we areborn with. Yet we let our bodiesweaken and fall prey to outsidethreats. Just as we plant moretrees and clean our homes to dis-infect our surroundings, weneed timely vacuuming and re-

plenishing of our inner systemtoo. Immunity is everythingwhen it comes to prevention andhealing, it is the body’s first andlast line of defence.

THINK DEEP,SLEEP DEEP,BREATHE DEEPHow did the world fallprey to one virus? Be-cause we led a seden-tary, sun-deprived,stress-driven life takeover our body’sdefence mecha-nism. Our im-mune system can

become disrupted if it doesn’thave regular interactions withthe natural world. This is whywe should be focusing on boost-ing our immunity right now. It

is your lifestyle that’s eitherbuilding a strong immune

system or slowly or rapid-ly destroying it.

WORK OUT ANDRECOVER

People are using fitnessas a way to cope with

the crisis. Great!But watch howmuch you exer-

cise. Every step

you take on the walking pathor the treadmill actually boostsyour white blood cells whichmake you internally stronger.So, exercise is perfect forstrengthening immunity. Yetdon’t go overboard. “Over-ex-ercising reduces and weakensimmunity. Training withoutthe right nutrition and vitamin

levels in the body is dangerousfor immunity. Less is morewhen it comes to exercise,”adds Coutinho.

Keep your workoutsshort and powerful. Jump-ing exercises, walking, yoga,Pilates are fantastic immu-nity-boosting exercises, soare short runs and weightlifting. What’s more? “Ex-ercise is the best antioxidantsupplement you’ll get!” saysDr Anjali Hooda, clinicalnutritionist.

FOOD AS MEDICINE Protein is a must. Researchshows that deficiency of high-quality protein can result in de-pletion of immune cells, not let-ting the body make enough an-tibodies. “A person weighing 60 kg needs at least 40 gm protein per day from nuts, puls-

es and veggies. Home-made dahi is thebest bacteria andprotein source anda great immunityfood,” says Dr Hooda.Get enough vitamin C(from citrus fruits)since it works as agreat scavenger in thebody, cleaning up allthe mess. Vitamin D,

found in eggs, mushroom andsalmon and above all in sun-shine, is essential too.

Why shouldmom, dad and medo things together

William Shakespeareonce said, “There’snothing either goodor bad but thinkingmakes it so . . .”

As the world is under lockdown,parents are home quarantined withtheir young ones. Some parents takethis situation as a burden, whereasothers enjoy this leisure time. Theproblem, however, nests in the abun-dance of energy the children have.There are a few activities to chan-nelise their extra energy and vigour.These activities can be divided intothree categories;

(i) Blithesome(ii) Creative and Inventive(iii) Rehabilitative

The blithesome activities include Snake and Ladder, Jigsawpuzzle, Ludo, Carrom, Lego, Build-ing Bricks, etc. which are the bestpastime for every age group.

The artistic and creative activi-ties engage children in “Learningwhile Playing”. Spell-check, Letterwriting to relatives, Calligraphy,Origami, etc. are some of the activ-ities included in this category. Thelast category involves physical activities such as Yoga and exer-cises, rope skipping and helping themother in household chores.

MAM CHAND, school principal, Kendriya

Vidyalaya, Indian Military Academy,

Dehradun

FAMILY CIRCUS

WUZZLES

The best bond-ing experience Ihad during the

lockdown was figuringout how to fly a kite!Interesting thing is bothAmma and me didn’t knowhow to do it earlier. Theprocess involved both of us crav-ing some fresh air and I made afutile attempt at making a kite. Itdidn’t fly, obviously. Several blogsand YouTube tutorials later, wefinally figured out the aerody-

namicproperty. Andit soared high,amidst all the kites in theneighbourhood. Kite flying is agreat experience, try it.

MITHUN MEENAKSHI S, Class XII,SBOA Matriculation Higher

Secondary School, Coimbatore