Can You Do Hindi with Him Today?

It was a question that came up often in our house.

Not because either of us wanted to avoid it, but because helping with Hindi meant being completely present. You couldn't supervise it from across the room. You had to sit beside your child, listen as they comprehended passages, explain unfamiliar words, test vocabulary, synonyms, opposites, answer questions and encourage them to keep going.

The textbooks and mastery books rarely gave us English meanings for sentences, so there was no way for him to work through much of it on his own.

As a working parent, that wasn't always easy.

By the time homework from every subject was done, dinner was over and everyone was getting ready for the next day, there wasn't much energy left. Some evenings we managed a good Hindi session. Other evenings we simply hoped we'd catch up over the weekend.

I realised that Hindi wasn't difficult because children were unwilling to learn. It was difficult because it depended on another person's time.

That became one of the ideas behind The Hindi Lab.

I wanted children to be able to continue learning even on the days Mum or Dad couldn't sit beside them. Not because parents shouldn't be involved, but because when they finally did find the time, I wanted that 1hr to be effective, to feel rewarding instead of rushed.