It started as a midnight mommy musing:  how can I get my children to appreciate the richness of my Indian heritage?  My husband and I were both so busy – working late during the weekdays and running errands on the weekends.  In the meantime, our children, like super-sponges, were absorbing everything around them. 

Unfortunately, we didn’t have many obje[c]ts d’culture around our house that they could relate to.  A flimsy Rama cartoon book? No, 3-year-olds just don’t get the dharma-thing.  A Hanuman cartoon?  Way too violent for his age.  Maybe a visit to a temple?  Yeah, telling a toddler he can’t keep ringing the temple ghanta (bell) gets really old after the 30^th time.

Enter gnaana – a fresh new way of connecting kids with culture. 

Inspired by Montessori teachings, our products are designed to help busy families incorporate elements of South Asian languages, traditions and histories into their everyday lives.  And these are not your nani’s “toys” –  our products are made of eco-friendly recyclable materials like wood and tin and meet international ASTM and European safety standards.

This blog will be an extension of our mission – a place to share and reflect upon the joys and challenges of raising multi-cultural children.  Whatever your background, we hope you will join the conversation and laugh with us.  And pipe up if you’d like to be a writer  –  we’d love to have you share your stories with the Gnaana community.  Just email us at blog@gnaana.com. Happy reading!

Sincerely,

Aruna Hatti

Tags: Montessori, safety

6 Responses to “Drum roll please”

1. melissa Says:
   August 13th, 2009 at 6:09 pm

   this is such a great idea!
   we try to expose our kids to indian culture, but it is difficult to find things on a preschool level. they love india, love looking at pictures of our trips there and other travel books, but beyond that i don’t know how else to encourage them!
   (my husbands parents bring them loads of books and stuff, but after they go home… i can’t read them!
   best of luck with your new site!

2. admin Says:
   August 14th, 2009 at 3:51 pm

   I know what you mean. I started this as a way to encourage my kids to incorporate the concept of culture into their lives. And more importantly, I want to have fun in the process, so they’ll have great memories…

   Thanks for the feeback!

3. Addison Says:
   October 17th, 2009 at 8:47 pm

   Usually I don’t leave a comment but I wanted to let you know that I really like your site.

4. Rohi Says:
   May 19th, 2010 at 1:49 pm

   Hi Aruna – I just wanted you to know that I just looked thru your whole blog as I found it so interesting and compelling — I put a bunch of the books into my Amazon cart (esp. the yoga ones I also loved the poem on children by kahlil gibran. I had signed up on your newsletter late last nite and came back to the site today to continue reading You have some great entries and products on your site. keep up the good work! Rohi

5. Aruna Says:
   May 19th, 2010 at 2:50 pm

   Thanks, Rohi!
   Lots more to come…

6. Schedule Says:
   October 29th, 2010 at 5:51 pm

   Maybe you should make changes to the webpage subject title India Toy to more suited for your blog post you make. I liked the post withal.

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