Saturday, November 19, 2011

Off the record?

Behind every reporting, the cub reporters have interesting stories to share.
They are not official, but go to say how much they love being reporters and see things at close quarters.
Recently Prerna Submanian was at the Chetan Bhagat's book launch. She enjoyed the Press privileges at the event, It was a just a Press seat though!
Back at home and after filing her report for YOCee, she sat down to pen the hilarious side of the event on her blog.
These writings are not just what the reporters think of sharing off the stage, but they do tell you many things. Give her a thumbs up if you liked her blog post.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Hunting around Chennai

When it was Puja Holidays -a long one week holiday - we thought the kids could be actively engaged online.
Who are the 'we'?
YOCee and Bambaram. Two independent outfits that cater to the city and its kids in completely different forms and ways.
Why online?
We knew the kids would anyway be online playing, chatting, 'facebook'ing and 'hangout'ing on Google Plus. So why not some Googling and learning?

That worked well. We launched ACID9 - Around Chennai in (9) Days, a Treasure Hunt completely online.
The experience was wonderful at our side when 76 teams (of two kids each) signed up for the Hunt. And what about the participants' version? To find this out, we had the finale face-to-face.
We had invited all the teams that signed up, participated, cracked or tried the daily clues and treasures. We got to know from them how much they enjoyed hunting online every day.
Many parents revealed that they had joined the hunt with their kids.
Yeah, we wanted and expected that!
The top 5 Hunters felt proud holding up their cups and sure they would remain in their showcases for ever!
Do you know what the question the kids, moms and dads asked alike was, when we signed off?
"When and what will be the next online fun?"
Who said the Internet is generally banned for kids in a south Indian city like Chennai?

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Quizzing becomes a new weekend activity!

Of late. we see a lot of quiz for school kids.

Chennai is, of course, the quizzing capital as many would observe. But these quizzes are All India level quizzes and winning at Chennai region means another round of quizzing for these kids.

It was TCS IT WIZ last month. The team from SBOA won the regional finals and Bala Vidya Mandir team was the runner up.

It was then time for the Madras Quiz. Murugappa Madras Quotient was launched in a big way this year. Though it was for school students, an adult - a teacher or a parent- was also included in the finals. The team from PSBB Nungambakkam lifted the trophy. Vidya Mandir was the runners up.

Then came the Limca Book of Records quiz. The same team from Bala Vidya Mandir which was runners up in the TCS IT WIZ quiz was the winners of this quiz. And Bhavan's Rajaji Vidyashram team was the runners up.

Now there will be the Young World Quiz in October / November. The India Quizzing League's Republic Day quiz in January.

So how do these teams prepare for the quizzes? Or they just keep track of what is happening around them?

If you were part of any quizzing team, would you like to share a few tips for those starters?
Mail them to editor@yocee.in. Will be a nice gesture and we will publish them on YOCee.


Sunday, August 21, 2011

Experience of walking with kids and with camera

For the second year YOCee hosted a photowalk for children.
It coincided with the Madras Week as in the past year.
Madras is a large city, so bifurcation of north and south Madras has been not only geographical but cultural too. So we chose to walk on both the places.

The first walk was on Royapuram. Yes, we started to walk from the famed old railway station. We ended at another important landmark - the math wizard Ramanajun museum on Somu Chetty Lane.
The Parsi fire temple, the Kal Mandapam, St. Peter's Church, Jamia Masjid all were found on the way we walked and shot.

The second walk was on the southern part of the city, Greenways Road.
A visit and walk inside Vasanta Vihar, the Theosophical society was a great experience for kids. The music college which was once Brodie's castle was another place many kids hadn't seen before.

Find loads of pictures here.

Tell us how did you like them?
Suggest us now ways to walk.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Madras - Chennai - children

Madras is Chennai to the younger generation.
Especially to those who are born after 1996.
Yes, that is when the official name of the city was changed to Chennai.

It has been on the records as Madras in English and Chennai in Tamil even before the official change of name. But now Madras is Chennai, though many in the city and many who are abroad still refer to it as Madras.

But then a celebration for the city reminds us of the old and new, history and geography of this city that has multiple faces.
One face of it is too conservative to accept the Western culture.
But the other face is very open to changes and modernisation.
Yet another face is exploring anything new within the parameters of tradition, culture and a little beyond them.

Yes, it is a fascinating city like many other cities in India.
And when it is August, it is time to celebrate every aspect of this city.

What is there for children? Hey, many things. Many firsts and many grand events, contests.
Just look at the array of events for the young people!
Happy Madras Day! Want to call is Chennai Day? Be it, but celebrate your own city!

Friday, May 27, 2011

Reporters ready for the year!

It is again time for the young student reporters of YOCee to get ready for one full year of reporting.

It is fun, but serious. Nothing frivolous gets into their writing and reporting.
After all they are trained to be official reporters of YOCee.

This year, we grew bigger as the city grows bigger. There are kids from the greater Chennai, that is as far as from the Mahindra World City close to Chenglepet who are enthu about writing.
The bright eyed young people listened to what is reporting and how to go about picking up story ideas. But it is always the Reporter ID card that gets the maximum vote in the whole process.

After listening to the stories of the writers of the past years, the new crowd of cub reporters are ready for finding their story ideas.

Keep logged on to your YOCee, you will find stories and stories and ...

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Kids Directory for the second year

It was that time of the year and Chennai Kids' Directory saw its second revised edition.
It was a colourful event with children spinning stories with origami. Oranges and blues, it was riot of colours with kids making Mr. Smiley with Latha Subramaniam, a storyteller and paper craft expert.

For YOCee, it is the band of student reporters that comes first to anybody's mind when they think of the website. And so, two 'senior' reporters Sanita Surana and Ishan Padmanabhan got the privilege of releasing this year's edition of the directory.

For the couple of main stream media reporters, it was a surprise to see the young reporters writing for YOCee for five years!

A report on The Hindu is here.

To know the place where you can buy the directory, go to www.yocee.in