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.

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. 

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

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

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.”

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. 

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.

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

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.

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.