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)