Getting wet in rain, observing ants or blowing bubbles — reads like a list of don’ts for kids? Wrong. All this was part of the holiday homework of schoolkids in the city.

Students of Class I at Delhi Public School-Ruby Park were asked to get wet in the rain, visit a vegetable market, grow a plant and make a bird feeder during their summer vacation, while their counterparts at Apeejay School, Park Street, were asked to enjoy morning walks, watch ants in the garden followed by Walt Disney’s The Grasshopper and the Ants and draw red and black ants with speech bubbles.

Boring homework is passé, it now involves a lot of parent-child bonding and creative me-time for students. “The school handed us a happy list of activities that my son was only too willing to do. Parents were requested to engage in tasks along with the child to make it a fun experience for all. None of these activities was compulsory, parents could choose any five from a long list,” said Nishantini Dasgupta, a media professional and mother of a six-year-old boy. “There were compulsory assignments too. But my son was so happy with the fun tasks that he did not mind flipping through the pages of his notebooks once in a while.”

The fun activities included watching Panchatantra or fairytale CDs with grandparents. “Watching him enjoy Panchatantra with my father brought back happy memories of my childhood when I used to listen to stories from my grandfather,” smiled Nishantini.

Chitrak Mitra Nandi, a Class VI student of Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, tried his hand at watermark painting for the first time this holiday. “We were taught the poem Upon a Snail by John Bunyan in our English class. So, we were asked to make a watermark of a snail and write down some of its qualities that can be assets for human beings too. It was fun to create a watermark illustration of a snail, paint it lightly and jot down its interesting qualities to make a snail poster. A Q&A format would have been rather boring,” said a happy Chitrak. For Greek mythology, Chitrak and his classmates drew Greek and Roman gods and goddesses while they researched on them.

Students of Class III at Mahadevi Birla World Academy were asked to observe how a plant grows. “Back in school, teachers and students together planted seeds so that they can watch them grow. When the first shoot grows, they will record it along with their own feelings,” said Nupur Ghosh, the headmistress.

It is not only the little ones who are having fun with their homework, older children too are assigned innovative projects that help them learn about relevant topics in an interesting manner. The holiday project for students of Class VII and VIII of The Heritage School revolved around the recently conducted Lok Sabha polls. From writing essays on the role of media in elections to making a replica of the Aadhaar card and finding out more about the voting mark, the students were asked to do extensive poll research.

Reeta Chatterjee, the principal of The Apeejay Schools, feels it’s time students were not “saddled with lots of boring lessons”. “We think of activities that would ignite the interest of the child and improve learning ability. If an activity is fun, they would want to do it on their own,” she said.

La Martiniere for Girls teachers also give their students creative projects for the vacation, but make sure that some of the work is done in school too. “The students have to research and collect data but the project has to be completed during the time allotted in school. If we ask them to do the project at home, senior members of the family may do it for them,” cautioned Lorraine Mirza, the principal.

Modern High School for Girls gives students no formal homework but advises parents of the pre-primary and primary sections to read out stories to children and take them to museums. “We tell parents to do anything that would help build the child’s experience bank, which could be visiting a vegetable market or going on a tram ride,” said Aban Confectioner, the head of the primary and junior sections at Modern High.

Students of Classes III to V at Modern High were asked to share any unique experience they had during the holidays, bring a photograph and write a few lines about it. A Class III student came with a photograph of her riding a camel in Ladakh, another shared her visit to Niagara Falls, while a third spoke about a trip to Chandernagore.

Uma Ahmad of Teacher Training Centre at Loreto College is all for such activities. “This kind of education is not just learning from books, it gives children exposure and eventually they learn to observe and express themselves because they communicate and share ideas. Hearing each other talk helps build their confidence and communication skills.”