Blowing Activity for Oral Motor Skills

I had brought couple of thermocol ball which were at my mom's place, guessing I can use those in some craft activities with Medha. But the very next day we reached Bangalore, Medha happened to see those packets and remembered that those were used in my sister's marriage. (Yes, These are used by the bride and bridegroom in South Indian (Telugu) wedding ceremony for merriment and celebration after they are pronounced man and wife. Bride and groom sit facing each other and pour the mixture of yellow rice and candy pearls on each other's heads. Towards the end of this playful act, families and friends of bride and groom create competitive spirit between the couple screaming for their candidate to come out as a winner ! It is real fun to watch this joyous part of the wedding !! Medha also enjoyed this part a lot in my sister's marriage which happened in October.) And she insisted me to open the packet and give to her so that she can play. I gave one packet of them and she was very happy to touch them as they are soft. 

Naughtiness Update

I guess this is the first post in which I am talking about Medha's naughty things. YES, even I wondered why didn't I post her naughty things in the blog till now.

Recently I was able to capture the pictures for one of her naughty act. She has Thomas Train set which she loves a lot. She likes to move the train engine part everywhere except on the tracks by turning on the button. :)

But we didn't guess that she does that on my mother-in-law head too. And do you guess what could have happened then? The train is strucked in her hair and we failed to remove her hair from train. I, Rajesh, and my father-in-law everyone tried and failed.

And my naughty little lady enjoyed watching their trails and behaved like someone else did that :)

And after lot of trails, my mother in law fed up and was ready to get her hair cut for the portion which was stuck in train. But both my father in law and Rajesh succeeded by unscrewing the train engine completely. :) 

Shhh, don't tell Rajesh that I posted these pictures in the blog. They even didn't know that I took pictures :)

Later after few hours, when I asked her why did she so? She replied " Bamma (granny) wants to go to Hyderabad from Bangalore, so I did like that " :P :P

Splendid Sites - Fun With Spot

The Splendid Sites feature is designed to help you find fun and safe websites to visit with your toddler and kids. Some of the sites are educational in nature and some are just plain fun! If this is your first time visiting, be sure to check out some of the toddler websites that we've featured in the past.

If your child loves the Spot book series by Eric Hill, then you will enjoy the website based on the cute little dog! The site provides some great activities for kids and also resources for parents.

Online sites we buy kid's books

If we have to buy books online, I am sure most of us prefer Amazon, Flipkart or Infibeam. Recently I have come across following sites too. Please do check these and avail benifits if you like.

Kutoohala : 

A space with exclusive children's books, toys, parent and child workshops and story telling sessions. Checkout their website to see the subset of their collection of used books and new books. You will definitely love this as you can get international authors used books in a reasonable price. They have added only subset of books in their website, if you are in Bangalore, please visit their store to see full range of their book collection. I haven't been there to see their full collection.

I have bought around 5-6 used books along with few CBT publications books through their online site. Though they're used,  condition is good.

PassaroBooks :

It started recently, in 2013, with the objective of offering low cost, high quality Pre-owned imported (UK/US) books to the Indian public.They also have (new) activity books, children’s books (Geronimo Stilton, Hardy Boys, Diary of a Wimpy kid) etc of Indian editions from various publications. 

I had bought around 30+ costly books at a reasonable price from them. And condition of books is almost like NEW.

Pappadum : 

It is co-founded by Priyanka Raghunath and Harini Lakshminarayan and offers us eco-friendly range of products for children aged 0-5. There is clothing, books and stationery, toys and much more. They do have a unique collection of books like Olivia books etc. But they don't have a catalogue to browse through. You have to check their pinterest board here to see the books and they are very friendly and prompt in responding to your queries on price and availability of books. 

And I keep updating this post whenever I come across such sites. Keep browsing and get your kid reading wide collection of books. 

Science Experiments : Disolving sugar at different heat levels

~Medha is 26 months old~

Learn about solutions as you add more and more sugar cubes to different temperature water. This easy experiment shows that you can only dissolve a certain amount and that this changes as the water gets hotter.

What you'll need:

• Sugar
• Cold water in a clear glass 
• Hot water in a clear glass (be careful with the hot water) 
• Spoon for stirring 

Splendid Sites - Introduction

This post is to introduce you to the new Section in our MMM blog. And I am naming this section as Splendid Sites. 

I do browsing a lot for Medha to search various crafts and activities which are age appropriate for Medha. In that process, I had come across some beautiful websites for kids. Though I don't let Medha to use computer and playing games in mobile/laptop, I found some of them are excellent for learning with fun. And I guess some of them might help you find these to visit with your toddler/kids. Some of the sites are educational in nature and some are just plain fun!  

From today, every Friday I will be featuring a website here under Splendid Sites label. Please use this space to get to know lot of websites which you can visit with your kids instead of screening time. YES, I mean it. You can reduce their screening time by introducing these sites to them. Some of these sites are educational yet fun learning.

The two sites, UpToTen and Pekuboo,  that had been already featured earlier in the blog will be too tagged under this section. 

I hope you will enjoy this new section!! Stay tuned for more featured sites!

Book Review : Postman Bear

~Medha is 33.5 months old~

Received this book as part of Little Reader's Nook December kit. And also Devaki mentioned that all Julia Donaldson's "Acorn Wood" series are beautiful for younger kids.

Title : Postman Bear

Author :  Julia Donaldson

Pages : 14
Publisher : Macmillan Children's Books

Website Review : Peekuboo

Peekuboo is a FREE interactive site for toddlers and parents that has online books that your child can read through. There are a variety of books and games.

Review : My Little Chatter Box - Tale In A Mail

After subscribing to Little Reader's Nook, I had came across My Little Chatter Box (MLCB) "Tale In a Mail" box. This is also just similar to Little Reader's Nook. Their each box will have 3 books, some activity cards, and some information cards about the books. 

I thought of subscribing to this too as I really impressed with the books they are selecting for each theme every month. Some of my close friends asked me to know do I need to subscribe to 2 when both are same? I had thought about this lot of times and finally decided to go ahead for 2 reasons: 

• Medha loves books and lot of books. We read again and again at least 10 books per a month. 
• Both subscription boxes are different in terms of the themes and books they select.

Pattern Match Activity

Pattern Match is an engaging pattern matching exercise for kids. It is designed to enable children to learn and grasp the concepts of patterns and sequencing in a fun way. In this simple exercise, kids study the given pattern and identify the missing shape or symbol, to complete the sequence. This exercise will help to lay the foundation for logical thinking as well as teach kids the names of some basic colors, shapes and symbols. It will help to reinforce the child’s understanding of the basic concepts of maths.

I wanted Medha to do some pattern making activities hence I thought of creating some pattern cards myself instead of buying. I was thinking which would be good to start with pattern make. Then I remembered the wooden shapes pieces puzzle bought recently. 

Book review : Hippo has a hat

~Medha is 33.5 months old~

One of my new friend, Rajeswari, suggested this book for Medha as it's a big hit for her daughter. As this book is also from Julia Donaldson, the author of Room On the Broom book, without second thought I ordered this book for Medha. OMG, how I missed this book all these days. I should have own this book right from when Medha is a toddler.  Better than never, here is our review. 

Title : Hippo Has A Hat

Author :  Julia Donaldson

Publisher : Macmillan Children\'s Books (2010)

Book Review : What Makes a Rainbow?

~Medha is 32.5 months old~

I received this book from Devaki, as part of Little Reader's Nook November kit. This book is also called as MAGIC RIBBON BOOK. I must thank her for this beautiful book as part of kit. Medha loves this book and calls this as Color Ribbon Book. :) 

Title : What Makes a Rainbow?
Author : Betty Ann Schwartz

Publisher : Piggy Toes Press
No. of Pages : 14

Learning Letters Game

~Medha is 33.5 months old~

The people who was reading my blog from beginning already knows that Medha had learned all the alphabets and numbers mostly by playing matching games. Here is another variety of matching letters. 

To play this matching game, you'll need:

• Post-it notes
• An ABC poster or floor mat (We used our foam floor mat, but a poster on the Wall would work as well)

First Books of Medha

Today I am going to mention the very first books of Medha. Sorry dear without mentioning these books your book-list is incomplete. We had these books along with My First Board Books since Medha was 6 months. 

These board book are die cut in the shape of the animals/birds depicted in the story. Look at me series of board books for toddlers and preschool children's depict baby animals and their mothers. The stories complement full color illustration on every page that are handsomely rendered in a naturalistic style.

Each book is only 4-8 pages and beautiful pictures of baby animals with their mothers. Medha loves to explore these books more for the baby animal pictures. 

Jabbing beads in playdough

~Medha is 33.5 months old~

Lacing beads is a fun activity but Medha is bored of that hence I thought of combining beads with play dough which is also a fun activity. I and Medha did something similar when she was 1.5 years old. But later we didn't try this again so I decided to go with this activity day before yesterday.

Jabbing the beads into the play dough is a great sensory activity, and kids can make some pretty interesting creations this way.  In this activity children press the beads into a shallow play dough tray.  You can also try buttons or Straws or mini blocks or any thing small.

I showed jabbing one bead on the flatten play dough then she loved the idea and asked to handover all the beads.

Sun and Moon craft

~Medha is 30 months old~

I happened to see Sun, Moon, Stars peel and stick stickers online. I thought I can teach differences about the things we see in sky in Day time And Night time. So I ordered those stickers.

Book Review : Purple JoJo

~Medha is 33.5 months old~

Medha's love for dogs made me buying "Purple JoJo" book by Tulika which is about a white dog. I am not wrong in choosing this book, this became one of her favorite book now. She keeps talking about this book everyday at least once. 

Title : Purple JoJo

Author :  Sameera Zia Qureshi

Publisher : Tulika Publishers

Recipes : Homemade Play Dough for Medha

~Medha is 33.5 months old~

Medha loves play dough a lot and she likes all the activities that include play dough. So I decided to prepare play dough at home once we are running out of commercial play dough we bought already. It is completely non toxic, so it's especially great for toddlers or children who still might be inclined to put their creations in their mouths. :) It also is super easy and takes hardly any time at all. It didn't take more than 10 minutes for me. This is Super Simple to prepare at home. I am sure you will also like it and try once for your kids.

Butterfly WindChime Craft

~Medha is 30 months old~

I have bought "Do-It-Yourself Color Windchime" for Medha when she was around 2 years 3 months old. This pack contains butterfly shape, paint colors, brush,pipe strings and key chain.

Book Review : Room on the broom

~Medha is 32 months old~

After seeing the recommendation of this book by Falak, I decided to get this book for Medha. And I got this from library first to see whether Medha likes it or not as this book is recommended for 5+ ages. This book is magical journey with a delightful witch who loses lots of her accessories as she flies. I must thank her for recommending this beautiful book to me and Medha.

Title : Room On the Broom

Author :  Julia Donaldson

Publisher : Dial Books (2012)

My ways of helping Medha to love reading

Helping your children enjoy reading is one of the most important things you can do as a parent and it's well worth the investment of your time and energy.

Book Review : Up Down by Tulika

I was impressed with the given description for the book and immediately got this for Medha from library. It’s a simple story about a little boy who wants to play on a see-saw, but all his animal playmates are either too light or heavy for him – until a little girl comes along.

Title : Up Down

Author :  Vinayak Varma

Publisher : Tulika
Pages : 16
Ages:  3-6
Bilingual: English-Bengali, English-Hindi, English-Kannada, English-Tamil, English-Telugu

What is Fine Motor Skills?

Hope all of you know what Fine Motor skills are! Okay if not, it is the ability to use the mussels that control the movement of fingers, thumb and hand, in co-ordination with the eyes.

By preschool age, a child normally will be able to these simple tasks by themselves:

• button up a shirt
• using a pencil or a crayon
• paste objects
• pick blocks and stack them
• use of a scissors
• cut pieces of paper into small pieces
• tie a shoe lace
• pour water from a jug to a cup
• the use of cutlery

The day when you were born!!

Dear daughter,

The best thing about the 9 months of pregnancy was guessing whether you'll be a girl or a boy! Yes, we had never assumed whether you'll be a boy or a girl. But just before few days of delivery I strongly assumed that it's a GIRL. Not sure why!!! 

When the moment finally came, the time you were born..a girl..your father was the happiest, as I guess, he knew you'll always be his little girl who'll favor him over mumma!

Skill O Fun Wooden Learning Toys

I had first picked up their products at Toys n Toys, Bangalore 2 years back, to encourage Medha's fine mortar skills. This was my first purchase from Skill-O-Fun toys range for Medha. 

Print any post or Save as PDF

Introducing another new feature on the Blog... Have you seen the new Download / Print button at the end of each post? 

You can email any post to your dear ones and save as PDF. You can also exclude the specific content while printing or saving. 

Now you can easily save any post (with pictures or without pictures) as a PDF onto your desktop.. And read it offline. Go on try it for a favorite post of yours.. Don't forget to tell me which post you downloaded / would like to download. :) 

Book review : Thumb Thumb Series - Tulika’s Thumbprint Books

Today we are reviewing the Thumb Thumb series – Tulika’s Thumbprint Books. Just about 10 pages each, about the size of a 5x7 photo album, in paperback, packed with wonder. 

There is no discounting the appeal of simplicity and playfulness in reading to kids. Thumbprint makes up the art work, and a few simple sentences makes up the story, such as it is. Each book affirms 'I can read this book' at the end which is empowering for beginner readers.

Our 4th Happy Anniversary!!!!

When I got married to Rajesh 4 years back, both of us were sure we've found our soul mates. That feeling/belief has only become stronger now....  HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! :) 

Color Collage Making Activity

Again for the color recognition confidence activity, I got Medha to do Color Collage Making Activity. For this I thought of starting with 3 basic colors Blue, Green, Yellow.

Materials:

• Chart papers of colors I wanted to teach/practice. I didn't find exact green color chart hence I went ahead with the shade of green and explained Medha that it's LIGHT GREEN color.
• Various pictures in the colors I picked above. This I googled for few pictures with color mentioned. ex: 'green color pictures for kids', 'yellow color pictures for kids' etc.

Happy Anniversary

"We began as strangers. 

We became friends. 

We became one with each other... 

We remain as one forever. 

Happy Wedding Anniversary

To The One I Love!"

You are the greatest gift from GOD. I have no important wish to have you for the rest of my life. 

"Love is like a lump of gold,

Hard to get, hard to hold.

Out of all the people I've met, 

You are the one I can't forget, 

I do believe that God 

created you for me to love, 

He choose you from all the rest,

because He knew you would 

love me best!!!!"

When we first met,  I had no idea you would be so important to me. :) I LOVE BEING MARRIED TO YOU!!!

We have walked 4 years together

on this journey of life....

We have shared joy and trouble, 

tender times as well as strife.

God has surely blessed us ,

He has given us undying love

That has proven not to dim.

Each day is such a blessing

When I spend that day with you

I am more than ever thankful 

for the day we said, "I do."

I Loved you YESTERDAY,

I Love you STILL,

I always HAVE, 

I always WILL.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Book Actvities Brown bear Brown bear what do u see?

To increase the confidence in identifying the colors, I wanted to get Medha to match colors with the color of each animal in Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see? book. But the question is which one to give for matching. First I looked for crayons she had right now, but I didn't find some colors which are in the book. And then I checked her pom-poms, even in that I didn't find few colors.

Later I decided to print/buy some color papers and thought of asking her to match. But suddenly I remembered that I have an unopened play dough  box I bought for Medha. Luckily it has every color I need for matching with those of book.

Book Review : Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see?

This week we focused more on Colors and confidence activity for already known colors. So I picked 'Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you See?' - a picture book by Bill Martin Jr. Pictures by Eric Carle.

Title : Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you See?

Author : Eric Carle 

Publisher : Penguin

Now Follow the blog by your mail

I am happy to announce to all my friends and readers of my blog that now you can follow up all my post using Follow by Email option. You don't have to keep visiting my blog to see if any new thing added here. 

You can find this option on the right hand side of the blog page :) 

Just enter your email id and Submit. The page takes you to enter verification text and you have verified yourself, you will start receiving mails everyday if there is any new content posted to the blog. No matter whether I share it on Google+ or Facebook, you won't miss even single post. So what are you waiting for, subscribe yourself. :)

Peel n Stick Craft : Parrot

As Medha liked No cutting no gluing peel and stick Butterfly craft, I bought one more similar to this but PARROT this time.

As the activity process is same as butterfly, I am not repeating it again except that sharing picture :)  :)

Review : Little Reader's Nook

I spoke to Devaki over phone after I saw the post about Reading Books Kit Subscription Box in facebook. I was very impressed with the idea of picking best books for a theme and send to customers. I thought of giving a try by keeping following things in the mind:

• I don't have to read reviews to find out which book will be good for Medha and 
• No shopping stress
• I can get tips to raise Medha as a good reader 
• Books are as per a new Theme every month 
• Age appropriate books
• Vocabulary tips 

Tissue Art

From the day I saw the Tissue Art for Kids in Pinterest, I was searching for tissue papers to make this at home for Medha. But luckily I found Tissue Art Kit itself for Kids online. Big Time Saver for a working mom like me :)  

If you have time you can do this at home too with different color tissue papers by dipping available normal tissues in color and dry them. Instead of sticky papers, try school labels just to begin with. If you want to try more, you can cut a chart paper into various shapes and apply fevicol or fevistick all over the paper and ask them to stick the color paper pieces you prepared. Easy right?? 

I thought of trying this at home, but I couldn't find time to do. And before I invest time, I found the one in online. Thought of trying it if Medha likes it. Unfortunately she didn't like it much. But I don't give up and will surely try same activity after few days again :) 

Flinto Subscription Boxes - September Theme

As I mentioned in my previous post flinto-subscription-october-boxes I bought their last month box too. It is SPACE ADVENTURE. 

Here is sneak-peak of September month's theme box of FLINTO. 

Book Review : Good Night Gorilla

Now I am not completely sure what it was about this book that held Medha’s interest for months. For a few months this was honestly Medha’s favorite book (probably around 9 months). At 9 months this was her must read bedtime book. :)

Title : Good Night Gorilla

Author :  Peggy Rathmann

Publisher : G.P.Putnam's Sons

Book review : What Shall I Make?

I have got "What Shall I make?" story book for Medha from the library. Here is our review on this book. 

Title : What Shall I make

Author :  Nandini Nayar 

Publisher : Tulika Publisher

Happy Engagement Anniversary

Our love is like

The ocean

So beautiful and 

So vast.

Thanks for being 

A part of my life 

Happy

engagement anniversary my dear

May our anniversary lead to many more glorious years of happiness and joy. Let's celebrate and make this occasion too a memorable one. 

I love you more and more each year that pass. I'm excited to begin another year of our married life. 

 HAPPY ENGAGEMENT ANNIVERSARY

Visit to a park

We visited a park after long time today along with Medha. She enjoyed alot with all the rides and grass and sand. Few pics only I was able to take as this time Medha decided when to take picture :P

By 3 Years We will try to

Thanks to Salma & Falak for the amazing list on their blogs, that’s what inspired me.The rules:

1. Make a checklist of the things you would want your little one to do before their next birthday
2. As and when it is achieved Strike it off preferably mentioning the date
3. You might link it to related posts as well.
4. I keep changing it every year

Before Medha completes 3 years of age, we will have to work on* :

• Help her Dress Up -  Almost she is able to.
• Making her reading a book before bed (Right now in a week only 4 days we are reading book)  We are doing
• Learn to share
• Teach  5 new colors (she already recognizes White,Pink,Yellow,Blue,Purple,Black,Green,Red,Orange) - Gray, Brown, Violet
• Increase her confidence about Numbers and Alphabets
• Teach counting.
• Making her totally Potty Trained- Almost there
• Work on Medha’s English fluency
• Join Kinder Dance or Singing class  No classes found near by as of today

* I have mentioned ‘we’ because with a child it is never ‘she should be able to’ we will have to focus on these things. It is more a target for us, than the toddler if you look at them properly… I for one do not believe in forcing or competing when it comes to parenting. Per me I strongly believe in”to each child their own”

Things I want to do differently (as a mom) in next 3 months

I believe parenting (like every other thing) is an ever learning process, and what works for me, might or might not work for you. Here I’ve listed down few small changes which might affect my parenting in a huge manner positively.

• Minimize NO's to Medha

• Work on my patience and try to keep my cool: Before she was born, I was an extremely cool person, but motherhood changed it. I’m Human, I get irritated and yell at The Toddler, I hate it but I end up doing it. I definitely do it in a controlled manner, I know my limits as a parent. Still I feel pathetic and I want to change this bit.

• Become/Stay Healthier: this means working out, losing weight. 

• Try to spend some quality time with Medha… reading books, crafts, puzzles etc. 

• Take Medha to zoos, botanical gardens, parks, and help her explore open spaces.

• Try to improve my work-life balance. This would ensure when I work I give my 100% there and when I’m with The Toddler I am totally with her.

• Make an effort to look better. I feel better when I look better and it will affect my mood and my behavior. 

• Keep Medha's wardrobe clatter free. If our wardrobe is clean, I would obviously be in a better mood. I would need less time to fetch her cloths and can get more time to dress her and get ready.

• Sleep on time and get up before Medha gets up. Generally she wakes me up. This is because I work till late night as some of my day time would go off with her work. So I want to go early to bed and get up early… this would ensure I’m healthier as well. 

• Read more books, and get more for Medha  . 

Website Review : UpToTen.com

Uptoten is an elementary learning website with a delightful mix of games, activities, songs for children aged up to 10.

The website which is primarily bilingual – English and French – has an interesting history. It was started in 1997 by an Anglo-French couple – Veronique and Jason Barnard. Their initial idea was to create a CD-book for their little daughter, using their respective skills as musician and graphic designer. However, since they had no luck with any publisher seeing potential in this, they resorted to go online.

Each activity on the site is centered around two central characters – Boowa and Kwala. Boowa (the dog) is like the older friend, teacher or older brother and Kwala (the koala) is like the child. While Boowa demonstrates patience and understanding in his demeanor, Kwala is inquisitive, lovable and annoying at times. The relationship between the two is depicted very well throughout with Kwala trying her best in various situations and Boowa supporting and encouraging her. In fact, in its early days the website was called boowakwala.com and here in the Presentations section, you can get acquainted with these fun characters , see their family photo albums, do a puzzle etc.

Tips to help Boost your child`s Memory

Came across the following tips. This post gets updated when I get to know more

• Make up silly rhymes. This helps them learn not only spellings but also develop memory skills.

• Have your child look at a picture for 30 seconds (longer if appropriate)Remove from sight and get child to describe what the picture contained.

• Get child to put elements of a story in sequence. 

• Place picture, letter or number cards face down on the table. Children take turns to turn over two at a time and collect matching pairs.

• Help them to remember by linking words. If you want them to remember `adjective 'is a describing word, remind them it sounds like `detective'. Get them to imagine detective looking for clues to describe somebody.

Jigsaw Puzzles

Yes, Jigsaw Puzzles are great for children especially from very early age. Jigsaw puzzles have a lot of educational value for children of all ages. This is because to do a jigsaw requires a child to use several different aspects of the thinking process.

A baby learns to recognize objects by their shape and not necessarily what position the object is in. A chair is a chair whether it is upright, lying down, or upside down-it doesn’t matter. The simple puzzles produced for younger children develop more refined and defined skills and recognition. One of the first things a young child will learn is that it does matter which way up the pieces to fit in the hole. 

A typical early childhood puzzle is wooden with a picture and has spaces where the pieces fit to complete the picture. With a street scene, for example, there might be a separate car shape, bus shape, and a truck shape that complete a puzzle. These puzzles are typically robust as the first response of a child is to try to force the piece into place taking no notice of its shape. With adult guidance the young child learns to manipulate the piece until it does fit exactly. 

There are several learning experiences that can be drawn from these very basic puzzles. Firstly it’s the hand eye coordination to manipulate the puzzle piece into position. To get the piece in also involves observation of the shape of the hole and the shape of the puzzle piece. At first the child deals with the problem by trial and error. The example and guidance of an adult begins to solidify the thinking process. The child starts to apply spatial awareness and mental manipulation as well as physical. This comes however, after the child has learned to put the piece in correctly through trial and error and memory. 

Pom-pom Drop

For 1-year-Olds, and toddlers, the best ideas are usually the simplest. Here is a great toddler game that I re-created based on an idea that I found on Pinterest. You could try it too!! :) 

Just gather any paper towel tube/cardboard tube or you can use any plastic tube too which has both sides opening and pom-poms and any cup That's it.

On-U-Mind

While browsing for some unique yet fun and learning included toys for Medha , I came across this toy in online. Though the concept is not totally new I thought this would be interesting for Medha to play with as this is with the balls and colorful balls. :) I bought this for INR 350/-

This has following features: 

• Montessori Toy
• Trains the child's graphical cognitive, hands on ability and patience.
• Nurturing the child's imagination, space preceivation ability and logical thinking.

Review : Flinto Subscription Boxes - October Theme

Since I heard "Monthly Subscription Boxes for Kids" from a friend who had subscribed to some in US it's haunting me a lot. And one day in my leisure time, I browsed for this if we have any available in India. 
There I found "Flinto". I was impressed with the idea and snapshots of previous month boxes. 

Every month their early childhood education experts will prepare a box which contains special book and hands on activities based on theme that'll contribute to healthy development and learning in child. And they concentrate on how important kids should be learning these topics.

I’m A Work From Home Mom

Work from home is comparatively new in India. Thank God it’s picking up, but unfortunately not everyone understands what working from home really means.

When I was pregnant, I was looking for other alternatives to take care of Medha instead of quitting job like day care or nanny etc. But I  knew none of these won't give pleasure to me and Rajesh. I don’t want to quit working. Working is something that gives me satisfaction and makes me feel… well…’me’. I know I’m a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister and lots of other things… I’m myself as well… which as per me, is no less than any of the other roles I play. Well, I decided to quit if it's really difficult to manage both.

Playful parenting Tips

When playing with children it’s less about what you do and more about the way you
do it. Here are some handy ‘dos and don’ts’ to get you thinking about the way to play with
your kids:

• Do give them the chance to choose what games they play and how they play them. Forcing them to do something doesn't make play-time much fun!
• Don’t solve every task for kids – encourage them to solve the problem themselves.
• Do remember kids are all different. Think about the kinds of activities your child likes and let them take the lead.
• Don’t be a competitive mum or dad. Learning how to lose is an important social skill for a child, but try to keep games enjoyable and let them win too – sometimes!
• Don’t be afraid to join in with make-believe games. Kids love it when parents play-act and it lets their imagination run wild.
• Do let them enjoy physical challenges like climbing trees. Kids learn through taking risks. Don’t be over-protective if the worst that can happen is a bump or a scrape.
• Do get outdoors and play: it’s healthy, and if they get dirty or wet, well that’s what baths and washing machines are for.
• Do share a game you used to play as a child. Think of the things you most enjoyed, the chances are your kids will enjoy them just as much!
• Do enjoy playing. If your child is having fun but you aren’t, just leave them to it. If they’re not having fun, suggest something else.

Source: Google Searches

Flower Painting

Toddlers love to paint. They love everything-color! Medha also no exception. She loved this activity! The best part is, you really don't need anything else except for a few flowers and the kiddie paints.

Items you need for this:

• Kid friendly washable paints 
• Drawing sheets, ( I have used note book pages as I am running out of Drawing Sheets)
• Flowers ( Any flowers, I plucked flowers from the plants in my balcony garden).

One is good... Thank You

Now that Medha is 2.5 years old, people have started hinting that it’s time to have another baby. I just ignore or just tell them ‘thanks for the suggestion’, but no thanks. This post is not exactly about that… it’s about this discussion “single child vs. two children…” in babycenter. Ohh a topic where everyone had a say and everyone had to voice an opinion. :)

Most of the moms were ready for 2 kids… reason being – your present kid needs a companion. And siblings are a blessing from above. A mom also shared a link of an article in NY Times on the ‘The Gift of Siblings’. The article quotes a line, “Your parents leave you too soon and your kids and spouse come along late, but your siblings know you when you are in your most inchoate form.” I’d like to add to that, when you get married and have children, it’s your spouse and children who live with you and stay with you for a long time. Siblings then just become a part of holidays and occasions.

Now getting back to the topic, majority believed that having another kid is a blessing, for the parents and more so, for the child you already have. Some also said, that it is alright if people decide not to have a baby. Why have one child and feel it a burden to take care of him/her and then drop the idea of having a second child.

There were some of us who said (and I truly believe in it) – It’s to each his own; having one child doesn’t mean being selfish. The couples who take the decision of having a baby after giving much thought are more prepared. In today’s expensive and busy times it is more important to think seriously before you commit to have a second baby.

Besides, we live in nuclear families, not joint, like our parents did. Help is difficult to find and most couples sometimes work in cities away from their home towns. One should plan for a second child only when they yearn for him/her just like the way they did for the first child. And not because the second one is needed to give company to the first. Your child should be your child 1st/2nd/3rd… S/he shouldn’t be seen as a mere companion.

Personally, now when we realise how much effort we need to put in our career and how much time we like to spend with Medha, we decided that we need just one biological child. I love being a Mom and I love Being Medha’s Mom, but for me I think that is good enough as of now. At times, I feel so overwhelmed and hardly get time for myself.

Then there are financial matters too that we need to manage, keeping in mind the growing cost of kid’s education. Also, mentally I’m not in a position to go through another pregnancy. As parents, before deciding to give our older child a companion, we should ponder on the following questions:

Are we, physically and emotionally, ready to have another little one in our lives?
How are we going to cope with our career and the babies? Do we need an extra help… if yes, start searching for one right away.
Why are we going for a second baby? Is it just to give our first one a company?
Will our marriage be affected with a second baby?
Can we wait any longer? If we want to have another baby … when?

So having one baby, two or multiple, should be your decision… not anyone else’s. Just because your friend’s having another doesn’t mean you should also.

Book Review : Snoring Shanmugam

I have bought "Snoring Shanmugam" story book for Medha as she was impressed with pictures inside the book when we went to a bookstore. And she asks me to read this book whenever she think of Lion or snoring. Here is our review on this book. 

Title : Snoring Shanmugam

Author : Radhika Chadha

Publisher : Tulika Publisher