Coloring with Crayons on the wall

We recently did a markers and crayons coloring activity. This time we did it on a larger scale and so decided to put it on the wall. I mention it as 'We', because it was an activity for me too. Lol!😁

What we used:

• Paper (I've kept some Kraft paper Amazon puts in their boxes and used few sheets for this activity)
• Markers
• Crayons
• Sticky Tape

I helped LO to stick the paper to the wall using the sticky tape and my activity actually began!

Part 1:

I drew biggy biggy ABCs on the paper... Of course, none of our activities are without Alphas! LO couldn't restrain from disturbing me, and some how I kept him diverted before I completed the Z.

Then I thought I would draw a picture relating each Alpha, and so I drew the very easy "A for Apple"! But LO stopped me and said "Amma, Vehicles", and continued "B for Bus". I said ok and drew the bus. It was bit easy till I finished the car and dump truck. He said "E for Excavator" and I wasn't comfortable with it, so from then on sought the help of internet and somehow completed till "P for Pumpkin". I took a break wherein he started to do his coloring. For many I skipped the vehicles and I'm sure he wasn't disappointed. 

Then I gave him the Crayons and he started to color the Alphas and completed in a jiffy!

He couldn't reach to the top so he tried changing hands! he he...😊

He became so excited as that was his first coloring activity on wall!

Again, after a break, from 'Q', I drew pictures till 'Z' and most pictures were LO's choice.
LO's Crayons coloring!

Apple, Bus, Car, Dump truck, Excavator, Fork-lift, Garbage Truck, Helicopter, Igloo, Jeep, Kite, Lamp, Motor Bike, Net, Owl, Pumpkin, Question Mark, Rocket, Sun, Turtle, Umbrella, Van, Wagon, X-mas tree, Yacht, Zeppelin.

                     

We reserved the rest of the space for another day.

Part 2:

After a week LO wanted to color on the 'wall paper', so my sketching started again!

I drew random pictures with simple words, so that LO would get some in-sight into sight words.

Check out the pictures for the words.

This is a great activity for kids. Mess free and I would say cheap activity with limited supplies available at home.

You can draw some of your kids favorite pictures or give them the paint and brush, let them do a free style art work!

Happy Parenting!😊

Hands on with Play Dough : Part 1

There are so many ways to play with Play Dough and the possibilities are endless!

When LO was in his second year he didn't show much interest in handling the play dough. Rather he would remove the dough from the containers and play with the colorful lids or stack up the containers. When LO was close to three, I gave him the play dough again and then he got hold of it. 

Let me share with you what we did as a beginner. As this is the first activity with the play dough, we started from basics like making impressions with different textures, different shapes and of course impressions with Alphabets!

LO enjoyed it lot more than I expected. LO is bit obsessed with being clean! Initially he was bit hesitant to touch the dough but after sometime he started enjoying it!

I used plastic plates for each color for no-mess play and for easy clean up. We first started with doing Impressions of shapes. I helped LO in spreading the dough on the plates. Then I gave him the shapes and he started to explore!

Then I gave him a pen and LO made holes in dough which I didn't expect. The final look was awesome like the craters on the moon!

Then we used the Bristle Blocks. This is a good way to explore the textures of the Bristle Blocks and the impressions made by them in play dough.

We also tried etching the dough with the spoon.

And here comes the Alphas!!

Of all these I know LO's favorite is making holes on the play dough with the pen!!

There are infinite activities you can do with play dough which I will keep sharing as we experiment it.

Happy Parenting!😊

A - Z....

As I have already mentioned LO is truly enamored of alphabets. So whatever new word I introduce him I say it like 'F is for Fog' and 'W is for Worm' kinda. Now playing alphabets is his/our favorite bedtime game.    

We play alphabet animals, alphabet fruits, alphabet vegetables, alphabet vehicles, alphabet body parts and alphabet country. So just wanted to share you all with our favorite entries in each category. Hope your kids will also enjoy playing this game.

This activity introduces lot of new words for kids, hence enhancing their vocabulary. For many alphas I have listed more than one word, so that you can pick your kids favorite.

Alphabet Body parts

A - arms, ankles
B- bones, brain, bellybutton
C - chin, cheek chest
D- duodenum, 
E - eye, ear, eyebrow, elbow
F - forehead, face, finger, foot
G - gums, 
H - hands, hip, head, hair, heart
I - index finger
J - jaws, 
K - knees, 
L - legs, lips
M - mouth, middle finger
N - nose, neck, nails, 
O- ovary
P - palm
Q - quadriceps
R - ring finger, ribs
S - stomach, shoulders,skin
T - toes, tongue, tummy, teeth, trunck, throat, thigs
U - umbilical cord
V - veins
W - wrist, waist
X - xanthom
Y - yoke
Z- zygote

Please excuse me if your kids ask what is Ovary, Xanthom, Yoke and Zygote!!!! If you could replace with a better word please update in the comments.

Alphabet Fruits

A - Apple, avocado, apricot
B - Banana, blueberries, blackberry
C - Cherry, custard apple, carambola/star fruit, cranberry
D - Dates, Dragon fruit
E - Egg fruit, elderberry
F - Fig
G - Grapes, guavas, gooseberry
H - Honey dew fruit, honey berry,
I - NA
J - Jack, 
K - Kiwi,
L - Lemon, litchi, lime
M - Mango,Melon, mulberry
N - Nectarine,
O - Orange, olive
P - Papaya, pineapple, plum, passion fruit, peach, pear, pomegranate
Q- Quince, 
R - Raspberry
S - Strawberry, sapota, starfruit
T - Tamarind, Tomato,Thimble berry
U - Ugli fruit, 
V - Victoria Plum
W - Watermelon
X - Xigua (Melon)
Y - Yellow squash
Z - Zucchini

For "NA"s we simply replace with "Don't know" ;) Please update/replace with better fruit names, if any.

Alphabet Vehicles

A - Airplane, AutoRikshaw, Ambulance, ATV (All Terrain Vehicle)
B - Bus, bicycle, Boat, Bulldozer, Bullock cart,
C - Car, Crane, 
D - Dump truck, Delivery Truck
E - Excavator, Engine
F - Fire Engine, 
G - Garbage Truck,
H - Helicopter,
I - Ice-cream truck,
J - Jeep, Jet plane, Jam truck,
K - Kayak
L - Lorry, Limousine
M - MotorBike, Monster Car
N - Navy ship
O - Ocean Ship, Oil Tanker
P - Police car, 
Q - Quadbike
R - Rocket, Rikshaw
S - Ship, SUV, Scooter, School bus, Steam Engine
T - Train, Tow Truck, Taxi, 
U - Unicycle
V - Van,
W - Wagon
X - Xebec
Y - Yatch
Z - Zeppelin

LO is crazy about vehicles, and this is his most favorite set of Alphas!

Alphabet Country

This set, my sister thought LO, so he learnt in a jiffy :)

A - America
B - Bhutan
C - Canada
D - Denmark
E - England
F - France
G - Germany
H - Hong Kong
I - India
J - Japan
K - Kenya
L - Libya
M - Malaysia
N - Nepal
O - Oman
P - Pakistan
Q - Qatar
R - Russia
S - Singapore
T - Turkey
U - Uganda
V - Vietnam
W - West Indies
X - NA
Y - Yugoslavia 
Z - Zimbabwe 

Alphabet Animals

A - Ant, Ant Eater, Alligator, 
B - Bumble bee, Bison, Buffalo, Butterfly
C - Cat, Cow, Crickets, Chimpanzee, Camel, Caterpillar
D - Dog, Duck, Dinosaur, Dolphin, Donkey, Dragonfly
E - Elephant, Earwig, Earthworm
F - Fish, Frog, Fox, Firefly, Falcon
G - Goat, Gorilla, Grasshopper, Giraffe,
H - Horse, Hippopotamus, Horsefly, Hummingbird, Hamster, Hyena
I - Iguana, Ice Bear, Io Moth
J - Jackal, Jaguar, Japanese Beetle
K - Kangaroo, Kite, Kingfisher, 
L - Lion, Lamb, Leopard
M - Monkey, Mouse, Monarch Butterfly,
N - Newt, Nightingale
O - Owl, Octopus
P - Peacock, Penguin, Pig, Pony, Pigeon
Q - Quail,
R - Rat, Rhino, Rabbit,
S - Squirrel, Snake, Sparrow, Sea lion,
T - Tiger, Turtle, 
U - Unicorn Beetle,
V - Vulture,
W - Whale, Walrus, 
X - X ray fish,
Y - Yak,
Z - Zebra

OmG!... Animals are innumerable... You can make your own customized list, like one animal name for a letter, with your kids favorite animals... Let kids pick their favorite one when making the list. I have just given more than one for each letter, so that you have handful of options to choose from.

Alphabet Vegetables

A - Ash gaurd, Asparagus
B - Broccoli, Beans, Beetroot
C - Capsicum, Carrot, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Cucumber
D - Drumstick
E - Eggplant
F - Fenugreek Leaves, Fennel
G - Garlic
H - Horseraddish, Horsegram
I - Iceberg Lettuce
J - Jalapeno
K - Kale
L - Lettuce, Ladysfinger
M - Mushroom
N - Neep (a turnip),
O - Onions. Okra
P - Potato, Peas, Pumpkin
Q - Quinoa seed
R - Radish
S - Spinach
T - Tomato
U - Urad bean
V - Velvet bean
W - White gourd, Water chestnut
X - Xerophyte
Y - Yams
Z - Zucchini

I will update the post with downloadable format of these lists so that you can print it and have it on your kids wall.

Happy Parenting!

Learning Alphabet with Mega Blocks

Here is one more super activity with Mega Blocks to teach toddlers alphabets and learn sight words for preschoolers.

I have never met a child who wouldn't love to play with Blocks. So why not teach the alphabets by leveraging this interest?

This wonderful quote says it all "What we learn with pleasure we never forget".

We bought these Blocks for LO when he was 18 months old and nowadays he doesn't turn up to them. He hadn't played with these for ages! So I thought to give these Blocks a new look so that he would fell in love with them again. Obviously Alphas can give the best look I thought.

What you will need for this activity,

• Permanent Marker
• Mega Blocks

How do we start?

First, write the alphas on Blocks using your permanent marker. You can also use dry-erase maker if you are really concerned using the permanent one. I wrote uppercase letters on 26 blocks and did the same for lowercase. We had 55 count of the square block type, so I did in this way. You can alter the pattern of writing according to the number of blocks you have.

The Activity Begins!

Now the real fun starts. I handed over the blocks to LO and he got really thrilled at the first sight!

He started to look for the A,B,Cs to put them in order. 

And I suggested LO to pair the Uppercase and Lowercase letters and he did a marvelous job.

I also combined the Blocks to form his favorite sight words like Mat, Cat, Dog, etc. This is a great way to learn sight words for the beginners.

On Lowercase Blocks I wrote the alphas on one more side in a different pattern so LO can build the other way too!

We also did uppercase and lowercase matching.

LO strived hard to build big tower of Uppercase and Lowercase Alphas and I loved the effort he took to complete it. 

You can teach your kid to build his name and they are gonna love it. Once you are done with the Alphas written on Blocks there are ample activities you can do in. I will share you with more activities with these Alpha-Blocks as we do it. You can also teach numbers, shapes, etc with these Blocks. 

Please share your suggestions and comments, it means a lot to me!

Happy Parenting!😊

Brushless Nature Painting for Kids 🌿 | Sensory Art with Leaves & Twigs

There’s something magical about combining art and nature. My little one (LO) loves being outdoors — collecting twigs, leaves, stones, and petals. One sunny afternoon, I thought: why not turn that nature haul into a brushless nature painting adventure?

What followed was a sensory art session that was fun, messy, imaginative, and full of learning. It unfolded in two joyful parts — a nature walk and a painting experiment without brushes!

🌱 Part 1: Nature Walk & Mini Treasure Hunt

We packed a paper bag and stepped out for a walk. I encouraged LO to pick anything that caught his eye — interesting leaves, little sticks, colorful petals, even pebbles. He happily turned it into a nature scavenger hunt.

💡 Tip: Ask your child to collect items by color, texture, or shape — “find a smooth stone,” “a big leaf,” or “a tiny twig.” It makes the hunt more exciting and mindful!

🎨 Part 2: Brushless Painting Time

Once home, we spread our nature treasures across the table. At first, LO wasn’t sure about painting without brushes. But soon curiosity took over — and what fun it was!

He dipped leaves into paint, dragged twigs, and gently stamped petals to see the different patterns they made. Each texture left a new surprise on paper — like nature’s fingerprints.

This was a new experience for him and it was absolutely fun.

He had a great experience in experimenting the colors with nature items.

🔤 Adding Learning — Letters & Numbers

Since LO loves alphabets, we decided to try something extra. He used his “nature tools” to stamp letters and numbers — turning it into a playful early learning moment.

The excitement on his face was priceless!

💚 Why Kids Love This Nature Painting

• Sensory delight – touch, color, smell, and sound all blend beautifully.

• Fine motor skills – handling leaves and twigs builds control.

• Creative freedom – no rules, just exploration.

• Learning through play – alphabets, numbers, and patterns sneak in naturally.

🌼 Handy Tips for Parents

✅ Cover your space with newspapers or a mat — nature art can get messy!
✅ Use washable, non-toxic paints for easy cleanup.
✅ Let kids explore freely — there’s no “right” way.
✅ Ask open-ended questions like “What happens if you press harder?”
✅ Celebrate the result — display their art or click photos to remember the moment.

Process art (like this one) helps kids express themselves freely, improves focus, and builds confidence — it’s more about the experience than the outcome.

📸 Share Your Nature Creations!

I’d love to see your version of this brushless nature painting for kids!
Share your photos or stories in the comments — or tag me if you post on Pinterest or Instagram.

Happy Parenting!😊

DIY Cardboard Activity Box

Here comes an activity which got added recently to LO's favorites list. All you need for this is a package box, preferably in square shape and some markers. A super activity to teach toddlers alphabets, shape recognition and sorting.

Our activity is not complete without Alphabets, so obviously I started with writing uppercase alphas on one side. This is to go with the magnetic uppercase alphas we have. LO had immense fun in finding the alphas and matching over it.

The second face was a kinda shape sorting. We have a wooden block set which I thought to tie up with this activity box. So I etched out shapes on the box that will fit the wooden blocks in. LO loved this game of dropping the blocks in the right holes and picking them back from inside. You need to leave the box open on one side, of course to collect the blocks.

On the third face I traced out a structure with the wooden blocks, so that LO can build on it. He tried his level best to complete the castle!

The fourth face was again a shape sorting but for different set of shapes blocks.

This activity box is so simple to make and will hold the kids busy for quiet long time. This also enhances kids' hand-eye coordination. Customize the activity box that would fit to your kids interest and available toys.

This video was taken when LO was 19 months old.

Happy Parenting!😊

Alphabet Train Activity for Toddlers

Keeping my LO busy for hours without the gadgets was a big challenge for me when he was in his second year. Later I started to browse for activities and then ended up with these activities which I customized for LO with the available materials and according to his interests.

As everyone knows LO is deeply in love with alphabets! So let me first list out an alphabet activity which we did during last winter.

Supplies:

All you need is alphabets, a train track and a train of course!

LO's idea is to carry the alphabets one by one on the train and put them in order on the train track.

This activity held him at one place for long time. He loved carrying the alphabets on the train, moving it slowly to the track....

  

          

I loved the way he arranged the alphabets on the track, looks cool right!!

  

     

LO's day is not complete without an alphabet activity. We will keep you posted with more alphabet  activities. 

Happy Parenting!!!

Time to wake up...

The alarming inflation of cancer incidents is another conspicuous basis for this post. While many illness still remain as paradox, this mighty broad group of diseases kills billions of people world-wide every year.

Statistics shows appalling figures about the cancer related deaths that might occur in the current and future generation. While causes for few cancers are known straightforward, for many type of cancers the causes aren't still trapped. Doctors yield the causes to many factors, but I want to stress on our food habit and the life style.

We are becoming addicted to modern life style and fast foods, that we don't want to lay down them neither accept our fault. Many people are ready to argue with me regarding this point and they are not ready to understand the fact. 

We are so self-fish that we are not worried about ourself and also about our future generations. We are mutating the genes noiselessly and passing them to the next generation. The Pediatric cancer, to me is the worst type of cancer, is also attributed to genetics and heredity. 

Image courtesy: ICPCN

The genes are getting mutated fast in an undesirable way passing from one generation to another, may be in a dormant way. Every person has his own responsibility to protect his gene copy from getting altered to BAD gene.

What we can do :
Let us battle against this deadly disease by all means we can. Once we change our Attitude and decide to adopt a healthy life style, nothing is impossible.

Give up all processed foods, eat nature's gift- fruits and vegetables which is loaded with high amount of anti-oxidants. Beware of GMO foods. Don't believe on any food product that advertises on Television. Sure it will has its own bad face. Before buying any processed food packet, google on how it is processed, check for preservatives and chemicals in it, think twice is it necessary to buy.

Know the importance of drinking ample amount of water. Try going for a walk or doing exercise or yoga continuously for one month. Then you will never give up the habit if you are "determined"!

Respect your body. Every machine needs fuel but lubrication makes it to work smoothly. 

"Prevention is better than cure"

 Introducing Alphabet for Toddlers

We introduced Alphabet for our Little One when he was around 18 months. We bought a foam sheet ABC puzzle and he started to show interest in playing with that. I never thought he would start learning the letters at an early age. 

We want to make his learning more fun. So what I did was, I stuck alphabet with a related picture/toy all around our living room. I stuck the letters one at a time so that he would get familiarized with that before I move on to the next one.

We bought another kinda foam alphabet and I used letters from that to stick on the wall. Like for 'A' Apple, and for 'B' Butterfly....

We did the pictures for few alphabet together, so it was also a kinda craft time for me and LO:) We used pipe cleaners, colored ice cream sticks and foam sheets to do some of them. We completely enjoyed doing it. For 'K','C' and 'J' it was my husband's idea.

LO loved this idea lot and had immense pleasure looking around for the letters with the pictures.

We still have these letters on the wall and its been more than a year and a half, even now LO loves looking around for them.

 The World of Kids

The World of most kids is now occupied by Gadgets. The Gadgets are the "Guru" now-a-days. Daily we read many articles in social media about the bad effects of Gadget exposure on children. But we are not able to quit the habit cold-turkey, methinks.

Nevertheless my kid is not an exception. I exposed him to gadgets before he turned one to make him eat, during long travel and to calm him down in public places when he threw tantrums. Hussssshhhh...The moment I hand-over the gadget to him he calms down immediately. He is 3 now. And very lately I realized the mistake I'm doing and the fact it's not shame to see my child throwing tantrums in common place.

Check out this link: Steve Jobs was a Low Tech Parent
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/11/fashion/steve-jobs-apple-was-a-low-tech-parent.html?_r=0

Once we make up our mind to make our child "Gadget-free",ways to keep them engaged pops-up immensely.
I'll keep you posted with the activities for babies, toddlers and preschoolers which would keep them engaged for hours. Let's bring our children "Gadget-free".

Food Security

People talk about eating right food, eye on calorie intake, food at right time, paleo diet,etc. But why to talk about these when there is no food security? Food Security here, I mean is not the about the access to sufficient, balanced and nutritious diet, but about the safe diet.

The artificial egg, rice, meat, vegetables, etc are getting circulated in the Indian market, noiselessly.What could be the promise on food safety in the next ten years? Our children are going to eat a food that is not safe! Adulteration at its pinnacle - Plastics in food! You would have watched the videos of making these artificial food - rice, cabbage, egg, meat.... brilliant to watch! But what if we are asked to eat those?

By 2050 we'll need to feed two billion more people. Are we finding these "brilliant" artificial ways to meet the demands? Advancement in Technology, Education, rise in buying power, GDP... nothing is gonna feed us, until we start to realize the threat imposed on us.

Let us be solution finders rather than being criticizers. So what could be the solution. Meeting our own demands ourselves. Self-sustained way of life. Yep, I mean lets go back to our olden days. Our ancestors tamed their own pets and cattle, cultivated and all their needs were met. And now in this growing population and out-bursting demand we might get into a situation to meet our needs. 

So let us not wait for the bad days to come. "Be the change you want to see". To start with we can grow vegetables for our daily use in our balcony. And people who are "rich enough" to own a shed can bring-up cage free chickens for eggs and cattle for dairy needs! Sounds weird?!! Who knows this might be the future of our nation. As years pass by we get saturated with Educational needs and money, but the plight of farming and farmers, the environment and the need for water, remain deprived.

Let's take the current water crisis, drought condition and hyping food adulteration as a wake-up call and act cleverly to save our future generation. Always believe in "Many a drop make an Ocean". And don't forget to plant a tree where ever u can:)

Save Water.... Save Tamilnadu....

First step would be 'realization'. We remain eye folded to many inconsiderate actions by the government (both state and central). Truly speaking we can't rise flag against them. It's senseless too. Instead let us start to act, show our protest via actions. The TamilNadu Karnataka issue would be a never ending crisis. So the constructive approach from our side would be to store, preserve and use effectively each and every drop of water we have. Anytime we are not prepared to meet the flood or the drought conditions. The recent (2015) Chennai flood was one such type. Some how people recuperated from the disaster, with no doubt that the disaster is man-made. For most of us the flood or drought at any part of our state would be just a news. But now its high time to act and spread awareness. The social medias are already doing a fair part in creating awareness. To act is our duty or I would say, to act and to see the change would be the real asset we could leave behind for our children. 

I believe in "Many a drop make an ocean". Let's start to act with what we are capable of and lets not worry about the final result. To stress the seriousness of the problem let us look closer what is actually happening around us. Hold your breath the following list goes endless.

Methane extraction
India was an agricultural country once and the backbone was said to be the agriculture-long back. But now every aspect in our nation is against agriculture. Starting from drought, demonetization issue till government's silence on the plight of farmers, every facet of agriculture and farmers remains in a predicament. The biggest agitation among farmers started when the government went keen on methane project ignoring all the existing problems of farmers. How much water would be sucked for the execution of this project is out of our imagination.

High way extension
The law says that any agency that cuts down tress as part of developmental works must plant thrice its number to compensate the loss. But not even a sing tree has been planted in all these years after "mindless" cutting of tress by NHAI for various road widening projects. Thousands of trees has been cut down but there is no space for new one.

Chennai Flood

As we all know Chennai experienced its worst storm during 2015. The government or the people weren't prepared to face the unexpected heavy flow of rain. Indiscriminate development and shoddy urban planning contributed to the worst floods in the fourth most populous city in the country. If proper urban planning would have been done think how much water we could have saved and also saved the people from the worst hit. The Government should consider this as a wake-up call and act to avoid any disaster in future.

CoCo-Cola, Pepsi drawing water from Thamirabarani river
The recent verdict from high court during March 2017 had lifted the ban on supplying water from Thamirabarani river to the bottling plants of Pepsi and Coco-cola which is located at Tirunelveli district. What an irony, farmers die because of drought but the foreign companies are getting tonnes of water for cheap rate.

Sand Mining
Sand Mining is a big industry. Regulating it and finding trade-off between the industrial growth and environment is the need of the hour.

Water Resources
Illegal construction on lakes and ponds, undredged lakes and ponds, effluents from dyeing units, plastic wastes, sand mining and so forth will shatter our water resources completely one day.

And the list goes....
Lets not wait for the Government to take any action. It will end up in bizarre ways like floating thermocol sheets over water. In future blogs lets discuss what as an individual we can do to preserve "the Elixir of life - Water" for our children.