Book Review : Icky, Yucky, Mucky!

~Medha is 3 years 5 months old~

Few days back, I happened to see this book cover picture in one of the posts by LittleReader'sNook that they are going to read this book in their Story Session happening in Mumbai for "Just for Laughs" theme. I was impressed with this as I never used or taught those words to Medha. So I ordered this book online.

Title : Icky Yucky Mucky

Author : Natasha Sharma
Age : 3+ years
Pages : 32
Publisher : Zubaan

Bubbles,Bubbles, Blow the bubbles Theme - Thematic Learning

~Medha is 3 years 2 months old~

I have been absent from my this little space for a while.... and the reason is Office, dead lines, releases.... I was too tired and occupied last month. But we didn't missed Thematic Learning. We missed to post only. Will post from today one by one theme.

Today I am going to post about the activities we did 2 weeks back on Bubbles. I know some of you might be laughing already that "Is Bubbles a thematic Unit? ", the answer is YES. We did it. I couldn't believe myself that we were able to do such many activities around bubbles. We hope you and your children enjoy learning and playing with the suggestions below!

Road Transportation Theme - Day 2 - Thematic Learning

~Medha is 3 years 1 month old~

We are on Day 2 Road Transportation theme in which we mostly spoke about Car and Bus. And in continuation to the same theme today we did some more activities related to BUS.

Road Transportation Theme - Day 1 - Thematic Learning

~Medha is 3 years 1 month old~

We have completed our first theme SUMMER successfully. I must mention that our second theme FARM is not that hit. Not sure of reasons, though Medha loves animals for some reasons, she didn't like this theme much. Guess, I should think of more interesting crafts and activities for this theme. As she didn't like this, I thought I will pause this theme for a while and proceed with a new one and come back to this after a while. 

This time, I asked her which theme you wanted to pick? My options for her are " In the Kitchen" and "Transportation/Things that go". I guessed she may pick Kitchen but to my surprise, she chose Transportation. 

So, here is our Day #1 of Transportation Theme. Mainly about Road Transportation. 

Farm Animals Theme - Day 2 - Thematic Learning

~Medha is 3 years 1 month old~

We are on Day 2 FARM ANIMALS theme which is our second theme to learn more about Farm Animals. Yesterday we mostly spent time in reading books about Farm Animals and doing some coloring etc.

Farm Animals Theme - Day 1 - Thematic Learning

~Medha is 3 years 1 month old~

We have completed our first theme successfully. And this time as per Medha's love for animals, we chose FARM ANIMALS as our second theme. I mentioned its Farm Animals as all the animals can't be covered in 3-4 days hence we thought we split it up. 

Summer Theme - Day 4 - Thematic Learning

~Medha is 3 years 1 month old~

Yayy!! We completed 3 days of our first theme SUMMER successfully.. Now we are on 4th day to learn about summer in fun way.

Summer Theme - Day 3 - Thematic Learning

~Medha is 3 years 1 month old~

Whooooo!! We are on Day #3 of Thematic Learning on Summer Theme. Check Day 1 and Day 2 posts to see what activities we did.

Summer Theme - Day 2 - Thematic Learning

~Medha is 3 years 1 month old~

Yayy!! We completed Day 1 of our first theme successfully.. Now we are on 2nd day to learn about summer in fun way. But as we went out for Bubble Ink 30 books 30 day challenge end up meeting in the morning and went out to Airport on some work in the afternoon we didn't do much when compared to yesterday. But I don't want to miss the post hence whatever we did blogging here. 

Summer Theme - Day 1 - Thematic Learning

~Medha is 3 years 1 month old~

Yes, most of you guessed it right by reading the example part in my previous post !!!!! SUMMER is our first theme. 

As it's Summer here, I thought this would be best theme to start with Medha. Of course this theme is not chosen as per her interest, but I felt this would be perfect one to start with as she can practically relate the things more.  

Mini-Unit Thematics for Medha

Here are the themes I have decided so far for Medha.  And expect for Summer theme, I really didn't gather any activities or ideas. 

Summer - Day #1, Day #2, Day #3, Day #4

Transportation

In the Kitchen

My Body

My Home

Feelings

Zoo

School

And this list will be updated regularly with the links once we finish theme i.e. every 3 days once. And also we haven't finalized on the order of the theme. 

Hope some of you will recommend some nice themes and good ideas to go strong with the thematic learning. :) 

Thematic Approach for Medha

Thematic approach is a way of teaching and learning, whereby many areas of the curriculum like language, math, sensory and practical life etc., are connected together and integrated within a theme.

A thematic approach to teaching involves integrating all subject areas together under one theme. It crosses over subject lines and helps children relate basic academic skills to real-world ideas. Thematic units are common in preschool classes especially, since preschool children learn through interactive, integrated activities. These themed units incorporate reading, math, science and social studies as well as the arts for a well-balanced curriculum.

Creating a Unit

In creating thematic units, teachers or parents should plan for one topic per week or month depending on the broadness of the theme. Units can be planned around a book, season of the year, or basic skill such as colors or letters. Another resource for theme ideas comes from the students themselves. Ask them to find out where their interests lie and plan a few units around those particular ideas. Once themes have been chosen, find learning center and hands-on activities to support the topic. Gather books about the theme to read. Study teacher resource books and websites for games and lessons that teach math, science and social studies skill as they relate to the theme. Plan art and music activities to include fine arts.

Sample Themes

Choose a season of the year, such as fall, to use as your theme for the month. Spend time with activities that relate to changing leaves, pumpkins and apples. The alphabet provides 26 weeks of thematic units, one week for each letter, or use a color as the theme for the week. If your class is interested in the ocean, plan a unit that focuses on an ocean habitat. Children can read books about the ocean, play number and math games that involve fish and other sea creatures, and learn about how ocean animals live. The letter "O" can be introduced when discussing an octopus, and students can explore the properties of water at a water table learning center. Community helpers, shapes, Ocean, Kitchen, Seasons, Farm and transportation are other common preschool themes.

Why I chose this?

Teaching thematically helps Medha make sense of what she is doing, since content areas are integrated and not made to stand alone. And will be able to retain more information when it is not presented as isolated facts, but rather as part of a whole. Also she will be able to relate to real-world experiences and build on prior knowledge of a topic.

Also, alphabets, numbers, counting, math all these are anyway will be taught in their school curriculum. I want her to know her practical life scenarios and facts about the world around her appropriate to her age.

So I can use her vacation to allow her exploring new things and new crafts and much more fun. Also, as a mother, I will have good idea what she know already and what else she can focus on and what areas she is yet to improve in terms of crafting, creative thinking, problem solving skills. 

Am I Home Schooling?

No, not at all. I don't have any knowledge of home schooling but I wish I would've known how to do and can do with Medha. I am just trying to make her learning new things, new words, vocabulary, and practical experience around theme all in fun way. 

And I am planning to stick around the theme I chose as per Medha's interest for a minimum of hour per day. And each theme we are going to explore for 3 days minimum and if she's more interested will extend up to a week. 

How am I planning to do?

I had listed down few themes as of now around 6 themes which can be used for 3 weeks by considering 2 themes per week. And gather craft ideas around the net for the theme and read the books around the theme and explore the items/things around the theme practically. 

I already gathered few ideas for first 2 themes I noted down and thanks to Google and Pinterest for wide range of ideas. 

For example, if I chose SUMMER theme, my approach would be as follows::

• First, I will ask Medha if she knows anything about the theme i.e. SUMMER SEASON. If she knows, praise her. If she doesn't know, give little info about the theme and ask her what she thinks of it?
• Ask more questions like what do you see more in SUMMER? How do you feel in Summer? What people wear to protect eyes from SUN?
• Do some crafts around the theme like, make a watermelon, make an umbrella etc. You have to gather some materials for this. And at this age, they can't do all the crafts themselves so your time is needed. 
• Think of at least one simple do-at-home science experiment around the theme. For example: Summer Theme - Making Ice or Melting Ice.
• Plan some pretend play around the theme. For Summer, I thought of Pretend Play - Ice cream Shop
• This age kids will learn more with play and books - so gather some books around theme. 
• Print out some worksheets or activity sheets available in the net around theme and let her explore. 
• Focus on one new word around theme on each day. By end of theme, she should learn 3 new words and use those words in her communication when and required. I will be having more scope over here as we use our mother tongue mostly at home. So I can introduce general words in English around the theme. For example: SUMMER theme can introduce Sandals (she knows only shoes and chappals) or TANK TOPS (Clothing in Summer) or water pool etc. 

Can I do?

I don't know. But I have strongly decided to do, "where there is a will there will be a way", right? I hope I can stick to the plan and do. In each theme, if she learns one new word, one fact and can relate these with real time - enough for me. I would be more than happy. 

I need all your blessings and God's blessings to do this without fail. Pray for us. If you also similar age group kids and wish to follow with this, do leave a comment. We will do and raise happy kids. 

My next post will be list of themes I planned so far, as of now only 6, but will keep updating this post with more once we start with it. 

Flinto : March Theme - I Love My Vegetables

~Medha is 3 years old~

Vegetables and Nutrition is one of the tough topic when it comes to convincing the kids eating balanced food. I must say Flinto put all the activities very very well that are required to explain the importance of vegetables and their nutritional values and also importance of having them.

Sneak-peak of the "I Love My Vegetables" Theme Box contents from Flinto is here.

Box at a glance

Book Review : Giraffes can't dance

~Medha is 3 years old~

When I was thinking of books that are about "being YOURSELF" theme as part of The Bubble Ink - 30 Books in 30 Days challenge, I came across this book. When I read first time, I found this as a sweet story with funny and beautiful illustrations.

Title : Giraffes Can't Dance

Author : Giles Andreae
Age : 3-6 years
Pages : 32
Publisher : Cartwheel Books

Book Review : Big Dog Little Dog

~Medha is 3 years old~

I must thank Falak for sending me this book as part of Tale In Mail kit for Friends Theme. We are reading this book on Day #2 of 30 days 30 Books challenge.

Title : Big Dog Little Dog

Author : P.D.Eastman
Age : 3-7 years
Pages : 32
Publisher : RHUS

Our list for 30 Books in 30 Days Challenge

As mentioned in the previous post, here is the list of books I am planning to read with Medha in 30 Days Challenge. This is a tentative list that I am planning to read, I may change or add any new book as per Medha's interest on that particular day and/or as per Bubble Ink recommendation.

No.	Book Name	Author	Publisher	MMM Review Link
1	Room On the Broom	Julia Donaldson	Macmillan Children's Books	Review
2	Big Dog Little Dog	P.D.Eastman	RHUS	Review
3	Bear feels Ill	Karma Wilson	Simon & Schuster Childrens Books	Review
4	One Ted Falls Out of Bed	Julia Donaldson	PAN MACMILLAN INDIA
5	Goodnight Gorilla	Peggy Ramnathan	G.P.Putnam Son's	Review
6	Handa's Surprise	Eileen Browne	Candlewick Press	Review
7	Monkey and Me	Emily Gravett	Mac Uk
8	Where is Gola Home?	Chitra Soundar	Tulika
9	Never Too Little to Love	Jeanne Wills	PAN MACMILLAN INDIA
10	Kat and Kit	Tomie, DePaola	Penguin USA
11	Bestfriends forever	Richa Jha	WISDOM TREE-NEW DELHI
12	Monkey Puzzle	Julia Donaldson	PAN MACMILLAN UK
13	The watermelon route	Quentin Greban	Jyotsna Prakashan
14	The Milkman's cow	Vidya Pradhan	CBT Publications
15	Just Like a baby	Juanita Havill and Christine Davenier	Chronicle Books
16	Born to Read	Judy Sierra	Knopf Books
17	Pranav's Picture	Nandini Nayar	Tulika
18	Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose	Julia Donaldson	PAN MACMILLAN INDIA
19	Penguin	Polly Dunbar	Walker Books
20	Chicken Licken
21	The Bad Tempered LadyBird	Eric Carle	Penguin UK
22	"Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," said the Sloth	Eric Carle	Puffin Books
23	Hippo has a hat	Julia Donaldson	PAN MACMILLAN INDIA
24	No Matter What (Fox Book)	Debi Gliori	Kindle
25	I like it When	Mary Murphy	Red Wagon
26	Say Boo to the Animals	Ian Whybrow	Macmillan Children's Books
27	What makes a rainbow?	Betty Ann Schwartz	Piggy Toes Press
28	Carduroy	Don Freeman	Puffin Books
29	Purple Jojo	Sameera Zia Qureshi	Tulika
30	When a duckling is scared	Shyamala S
31	Toy Horse	Deepa Agarwal	CBT Publications
32	Where's that Cat?	Manjula Padmanabhan	Tulika
33	Feet Problems
34	Guess how much I love you	Sam MacBratney	Walker Books
35	Postman Bear	Julia Donaldson	Acorn wood
36	Mallipoo Where are You?	Radhika Chadha	Tulika
37	Ekki Dokki	Sandhya Rao	Tulika
38	What Shall I make?	Nandini Nayar	Tulika
39	Party Animals	Kathie Lee Gifford	Perseus Books
40	What did you see?	Nandini Nayar	Tulika
41	Up Down	Vinayak Varma	Tulika
42	If you give a pig Pancake?	Laura Numeroff	Harpercollins
43	Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you see?	Eric Carle	Penguin UK
44	Watch Out	Shamim Padamsee	Tulika
45	Mala's Silver Anklets	Annie Besant	Tulika
46	Kangaroo's Cancan Cafe	Julia Jarman	Orchard

Though it's for 30 days, I noted down around 40 books in the list as I can use them if she is interested to read more books on any day. Some of these books are reviewed here in my blog. And also I prepared this list with the books what we have at home only.

And I also decided to take this opportunity to make sure I review each book we read everyday. Please participate in this challenge, get inspired by fellow moms who are reading and start reading to your kids also everyday without fail.

Book Review : Handa's Surprise

~Medha is 3 years old~

I must thank Devaki from Little Reader's Nook for recommending this book in her story sessions. Not only Medha, even I loved this book a lot. This is such cute and sweet story. You must not miss this book for your kids.

Title : Handa's Surprise

Author : Eileen Browne
Age : 2-6 years
Pages : 32
Publisher : Candlewick

30 Books in 30 Days Challenge from Bubble Ink

Despite my best intentions, I never could get myself to blog on a regular basis due to my work commitments and personal as well. I am well aware that blogging is one of the best ways to record all the activities we do and books we read.

This year I resolved to blog more and, luckily, I had a little help. The recently started a blog about book reviews, The Bubble Ink created "30 books in 30 Days" challenge that challenged participants to read a book daily for 30 days. Please read the more details here.

The next post will be the list of books that we are thinking to read during this challenge which is tentative list. We may change the book to read based on Bubble Ink recommendations or Medha's interest. And I am preparing this list as it helps us in identifying what books we have and what we read already and what can we read during challenge.  Keep watching this space and please participate in this challenge to raise readers in your home. :) 

And I am extending this challenge to make sure I review the book I read in the challenge. So "30 Book Reviews in 30 Days challenge", I must say. Looking forward for this challenge to see what others are reading and getting some good recommendations of books for Medha from fellow moms. 

Kick Start of Medha's 4th Year

It's not even a week we celebrated Medha's third birthday last week on 19th, (sorry separate post is on the way on how we celebrated her birthday) - She gave me a big surprise yesterday with a great gift.

She made her own greeting card from the book gifted by her dear neighbor aunt, Meryl, which is about craft tasks that kids can do of Level 3. And when I asked her whom this card is for, she said its for AMMA.

Then just simply I said, write my name on it by mentioning TO. I pronounced it as "T - O, TO" and in the new line my name "LEELA". She knew the spelling of my name except that sometimes she don't mention double E - "LELA".  She took it seriously and got a crayon and started writing it.

And here is the final card she gifted me yesterday night i.e. 24th Feb, 2014.

Card made by Medha with my Name 

Simple Sensory Play with Salt Tray

Why would you need crayons, pencils, paper, white board to draw when you can have more fun with Salt Tray! Draw pictures, write letters, create patterns, and practice writing names with this simple tray.

The greatest thing about this Salt Tray is it is cheap to setup, educational, you will find all the items around the home and trust me it will entertain your little one for hours! This is a great fun activity for kids of all ages.

You just need a tray/plate and salt. You can also use -

• The lid of a plastic tub or container.
• Cardboard box
• Medium Plastic Container that has low sides

Medha Update

The people who follow my blog from beginning they already know that I believe Montessori Curriculum which basically allows kids to learn on their own pace. And in this, kid learns everything with play. 

I can proudly say that whatever Medha learnt till date, it's purely by PLAY. I never asked her to recite /read aloud any letters, numbers or any things. I just planned few activities from the ideas I got from various websites and other internet resources etc. She learnt all her letters, numbers, counting, sorting, and whatever she knew now is purely by PLAY.  That much I love MONTESSORI. 

And to continue same in her early years of education, we decided upon few Montessori Schools and joined her in Roots Montessori, IndiraNagar, Bangalore. But as montessori starts at 2 years 6 months, Medha is little late for Mont 1. (Nursery in usual terms) hence after speaking with management, I joined her in the school from Feb 1st itself. So that she can do the Mont 1 activities for another 6 months until she is 3.5 years and can continue to further levels. 

So far a week, Medha cried on the first day though school is not a new thing for her (she was going to a play school from past 7 months) as she was seeing all new faces. She was in school only for half an hour and then we came back. 

But after coming home, I told her that it's similar to her old school. My Little baby, I don't know how much she understood. But she didn't cry even once from second day. She loved the school as they have various varieties of Montessori toys. Way to Go Medha!! Hope you will love this school much more and enjoy your schooling. :) 

Book Review : Bear Feels Sick

~Medha is 35.5 months old~

I must thank Devaki for sending me this book as part of February theme, Love Makes Our World Go Round, subscription kit from Little Reader's Nook.

Title : Bear Feels Ill

Author : Karma Wilson
Age : 3-7 years
Pages : 40
Publisher : Simon & Schuster Childrens Books

Book Review : Where's that cat?

~Medha is 35.5 months old~

Last week, we are talking about Farm Animals a lot, then I was searching for some simple books that involved animals, then I came across this simple yet beautiful book from Tulika Publishers.

The cover is pretty simple a picture of an innocuous orange cat looking out of the curtain and I am sure every one will like the text with humorous illustrations.

Title : Where's that Cat?

Author : Manjula Padmanabhan
Age : 3+
Pages : 20
Publisher : Tulika Books

Play dough Moldings

To improve her finger muscle strength and her fine motor skills, I have thought of this activity and she spent nice 2 hours of time with this.

I gave her a batch of play dough and the plastic mould trays I received as part of Mould n Paint Kit by ToyKraft and asked her to make the moulds with play dough.

She liked the idea and started doing it immediately.

This has following benefits :

• Working with clay improves dexterity and uses both small and large muscles. Children use their arms, back and shoulders to mold clay. 
• Working with clay also increases a child’s eye-hand coordination.
• Self-pride of creating shapes using the molds. 
• Filling the molds gives enough exercise to the fingers and hands.

This can be tried with younger kids too with the supervision of not putting clay in the mouth. 

Splendid Sites : Littlefingers.com

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.

Little Fingers is a website that develops software for children PreK up to 5th grade. While the company has a lot of software that you can purchase, they also have some fun games that you can play for free online.

** Note: Adobe Shockwave required to run online games. **

Guest Post : Are we buckling to our kids by bribing them to do regular work?

I'm so excited to have my first guest post on Medha'sMumMusings to be "Are we buckling to our kids by bribing them to do regular work?" by Charu Swaroop.

It’s a well acknowledged doctrine of parenting that bribery is not a good idea and is engaged in by desperate parents who are buckling under kiddy pressure. Is this really true? Before we agree or disagree, it is important to differentiate between a bribe and an incentive. A parent can say “Let’s have a chocolate or read a book before lunch!” and wonder if he or she has just used bribery. 

Photo Credits : http://lahaiseslair.com/

Sensory Play, Is this Really Necessary?

If you frequent kids activity blogs, you know that “sensory play” has been a hot topic for quite awhile now. There are even entire websites devoted to sensory play for your tots, and while they are super fun to read and full of creative (and sometimes elaborate) ideas, you may find yourself asking, “Is all this REALLY necessary for my child’s development?”

So this post is written as per the research I did on Sensory play in the internet and from the experience of doing one sensory tub activity with Medha.

Book Review : Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose

~Medha is 35.5 months old~

Having previously read few other titles by Julia Donaldson, I decided to try and locate another one of her books and across this one. I bought this from PassaroBooks for 150/-. 

The cover is pretty simple with the title and an illustration. The illustration; a goose holding a bowl of mousse, perfectly depicts the title. It gives young readers the chance to look at the picture and link them to the words of the title, a good way of young readers creating an understanding that words have meaning. 

Title : Chocolate Mousse For Greedy Goose

Author : Julia Donaldson
Pages : 24
Publisher : Macmillan Children's Books

Flinto : January Theme - Wild Life Safari

Animals, Zoo, Safari Trips - which kid doesn't like these? I am sure they are one of their favorite things for every kid. This month, Flinto Theme is based on Wild Life Safari. Oh My God, I must say they have picked up the activities very beautifully for this month.

Sneak-peak of the Wild Life Safari Theme Flinto Box contents is here.

Book Review : That's Not My Bunny!!

Touch and Feel Books are must try-out books for babies and toddlers. They respond especially well to books which feature different fabrics, textures and surfaces. These can be particularly good for stimulating the various senses. These books can help young children to collect information and explore the things through their fingers. These are perfect for discussing descriptive words like "SOFT", "BUMPY", "SHINY" etc. 

The prime age for touch and feel books is from toddler-preschool. Because these books are aimed specifically at helping children develop knowledge while increasing the use of their senses, appeal is lost to older generations who more than likely already possess the skills being taught. One of the key advantages to teaching senses and vocabulary through the use of touch and feel books is the connection a child can gain by instantly being rewarded with the texture which the word describes.

We read few Touch and Feel books from library earlier, but this is the first one we bought especially from Usborne's "That's not my....." series. 

Title : That's not my bunny

Author :  Fiona Watt, Rachel Wells

Publisher : Usborne Books

Splendid Sites : LiteracyCenter.net

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.

LiteracyCenter.net is a site that is devoted to helping children learn to read. 

“At the LiteracyCenter.Net, we believe that learning to read in a first language should be as natural as learning to speak. All research at the Literacy Center begins with parents and teachers because no one knows better what children need than those who love them and teach them.”