DIY Tick Tick Clock...

Once your preschooler has started to recognize numbers, taking forward its a great idea to introduce the concept of clock and time for them. With no assurance they would learn to tell time after making this DIY clock, lets take a look at the clock which I made for my Little One, with the supplies available handy. Complete this DIY clock in just 5 min... its that easy...

Supplies

• Paper Plate
• Marker Pen
• A push pin
• Any card/plastic card (To make the 'hands' of the clock)

 

How do we make it:
Write numbers on the paper plate with the marker to create a clock face.

Cut the Hour hand and Minute hand from the card.

Fasten both with the push pin and insert the push pin into the paper plate clock. Its ready!

The push pin helped me to pin the clock on the wall. LO had great joy in moving the pins round and round the clock!

In between the fun you can try to teach them how to tell time, to start with, using the hour hand.

Have a great time with your clock...

Happy Parenting!😊

We color on anything and everything..

Bored of coloring the coloring books and white paper, Little One wanted to color on something different.. Thank God until now he hasn't started to scribble on wall! So I give him anything to color that's about to go to trash. 

First on this list is Calendar...😝 Since LO has started to recognize numbers, it happened to be a dual activity.. Learning numbers and coloring! And yeah, he asked me 'Where is 29 and 30?', looking at the February month sheet. You can teach days of the week and months of a year with the calendar!

Next in the list is the "Egg Cartons"..😜 You can do so many crafts with the egg cartons, which I will share sooner. But for LO, I gave them for coloring! First attempt was with paint and brush..

Secondly, we used Oil Pastles, which I thought would be easier to slide on the egg carton's rough surface. The texture of the egg carton is different from the usual, so I hope it would have been a different experience and challenge for LO.

This pic was taken when LO was in his second year.. Invitation card painting!

When LO learned to draw vehicles with markers......

LO's first finger painting experience. After lot of hesitation he finally decided to touch the paint with his fingers!

We almost color on anything.. I think this way kids get to explore different textures and get to use varied coloring supplies available. Please share your kids experience in coloring, in the comment box.

Happy Parenting!

Alphabet Activity with mini Jenga Blocks!

Hurray! We are back with an alphabet activity..😀

Jenga Blocks.. I bought these mini blocks for Little One when he was around 18 months old just to encourage his hand eye co-ordination. And when I started to introduce Alphas for LO, I used different ways to do it, and the Jenga blocks was not an exception. 

This picture was taken when LO was 20 months old. Initially, I wrote only the uppercase Alphas on the blocks. That time LO wasn't familiar with the Alphas, and look how randomly he has arranged the blocks.

                 

After he got familiar with the upper case Alphas, I wrote the lower case letters correspondingly. 

With the remaining blocks I drew shapes, kinda puzzle for LO to sort out.

LO stacked the blocks one above the other, tried to balance some ten blocks.

Then we did simple sight words.

Then we built a tower imitating the Jenga game.

And that's the end! The other face of the block is still open for scribbling...😉

Happy Parenting!

Butterfly Collage - A Simple DIY Paper Collage Project for kids

Are you looking for fun and creative collage ideas for kids? I've been thinking about making a paper collage with my Little One (LO) for ages! This week, the right time finally clicked, and we started working on one of the most enjoyable collage projects: a butterfly art collage✂📃🎀. Let's hop into this exciting collage work and explore the collage process together!😍

Supplies for Making Collages:

To get started with this magazine paper collage, you'll need:

• White paper
• Black Marker Pen
• Color Papers or Construction Paper (This time I have used paper pieces from Magazines)
• Scissors
• Glue Stick

As this is LO's first hands-on experience with collage techniques, I didn't want to prepare anything too serious. So, I decided to cut the paper bits from glossy magazines and newspapers instead of using (or wasting 😆) construction paper or color paper. This approach to magazine collage is perfect for beginners and adds an interesting texture to your mixed media art.

How do we make it:

Draw a picture of your choice on the white paper with the black maker pen. I drew a butterfly, to make the first experience more colorful. Never mind if the picture doesn't look great, our kids will transform it into a wonderful masterpiece!

Then cut out pieces of paper from construction sheets. I was able to collect only few colors like blue and green from magazines I had. Place them in separate cups, so that it will be easy for the kids to use.

Initially LO applied glue on to the butterfly, and started to stick the blue color pieces.

Then LO did the dark blue pieces. In between I guided him, so that the shape of the butterfly wing was retained!

This activity demands lot of patience, nevertheless LO got completely involved in the collage work.

A quick touch up!

Finally we lost all patience, so decided to color the body of butterfly with a yellow marker!😆

Its All Done!!😁

Tips for Making Collages

When starting out with types of collages, try making a collage with simple pictures which demand a single color, like a duck or an apple. This approach is great for beginners learning various collage techniques.

I'll keep you posted with different collage ideas that can be easily done with available supplies at home. These simple collage projects are a great way to introduce kids to the world of mixed media art and help them develop their creativity.

Happy Parenting and enjoy your collage-making adventures!😊

Father's Day gift

Happy Father's Day

Father's Day... What a great chance to celebrate Daddy for all the wonderful and lovable things he does!

This is my husband's third Father's Day and I want to surprise him with something special. So me and Little One did a small coloring work.

I just helped LO by tracing out the picture and he changed the black and white paper into a colorful treat with his little hands. Both my husband and LO are fond of vehicles, especially cars, so I decided to go with this.

I helped him in choosing the colors.

And finally we together wrote "Happy Father's Day" for our lovable Daddy😄

 And at last we are done!

Surprise your Daddy with these kinda simple gifts.

Happy Parenting!

This time... we got moving!

This activity is too simple to justify a post! But it was super fun and LO kept moving "aaaall day long.....". 😉
We did this when LO was in his second year, trying to figure out to move more actively. And now I thought we should do it again just to take snaps for the blog! Oops...😉Anyways LO enjoyed it even though it seemed too simple for him.😄

Ok, Let's get moving...

Assemble all the pillows you have. Then line them up as you wish, just imagine your child is gonna walk on some obstacles.

And that's it....The fun begins! 😀

At first I asked him to walk on the pillow from one end to the another. Obviously it was easy for his age! Later LO wanted his teddy to walk on the pillow and he helped the teddy to get to the other end.

Then I removed few pillows and placed the rest with some gap between them. LO enjoyed crossing this arrangement than the former one.

He tried crawling on them with his fours.

 And hopping on them, like bunnies.

 LO helped the little cheetah and alligator to cross the pillow obstacle.

Ah... super simple and yet you can make your kids move indoors, especially on a rainy day.

Happy parenting!

Yummy Ice Creams!

Well, I know you guys will mock at me, if I tell you "Stop eating ice creams". I'm not gonna say that. But the one food item which has been excellently tasty, very close to heart, treat for the taste buds and a comforter for the stomach linings for ages is no more "safe to eat". Trust me no company is gonna shut down their units and no TV or media is gonna reveal this known fact.

The dirty little secret is that propylene glycol (PEG), a cosmetic form of "antifreeze" is added to commercial ice creams. Have you ever wondered how the ice cream remains soft and easy to scoop when taken out of the freezer? Well, Anti freeze is added to prevent the ice crystals that inevitably form in your ice creams. And the manufactures add it to preserve the texture and softness of the ice cream as it gets shipped long distances and moved between different freezers before it reaches your super markets. And for your information antifreeze is typically used in automobile radiators!

I know it would be hard for you folks to believe because its no were listed in the ingredients! And this dirty fact is true for the organic ice creams too. I'm sure when something is regarded as "slow poison", you folks would have the understanding that there could be no discrimination as organic or non-organic.

PEG is a chemical that is known to cause heart, kidney, liver and central nervous system damage if sufficient quantity is absorbed by body.

When everyone knew about this and still continue to eat, and also the FDA grants GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) to anti freeze (shocking uh!) why do I need to worry about feeding my children with ice cream?

Let me put in simple terms, people eat 5 times the ice cream they did only 50 years ago, and you could guess the long term ill-effects of consuming small amounts of propylene glycol in your ice creams.

Not only in ice creams, the anti freeze is added to soft drinks, iced teas, artificial sweeteners, some medications and in lot more items than you think.

Its time to pause and think on what we eat and the need to buy packed food.

"Prevention is better than cure"