Christmas activities for kids

Christmas is coming and what better way to celebrate it with our kids. 

Let's bring in the Christmas cheer with some simple and fun activities with our kids. 

🎅Decorate the Christmas tree - Get kids involved in decorating the Christmas tree, buy the decorations together, make few decorations together. Put the lights on and let the fun begin from decorating the Christmas tree and bringing in the Christmas cheer. 

🎅Chocolate and sweet treasure hunt - All kids enjoy chocolates and sweets and what a better way to begin the Christmas season with a treasure hunt of their favorite chocolates and sweets. Hide them around the house in simple places. Let them know the places they should look around and what things they should not touch. The rules of the game need to be explained as well. Give them baskets to collect their sweet treasure. Play some music to start the treasure hunt and after few minutes switch off the music to inform the time limit of the treasure hunt is completed. Let them enjoy their sweet treats. 

🎅Build a snowman ☃️

Christmas is incomplete without a snowman. Where there is snow it's fun to build a snowman in the snow, however we all are not blesses with snowfall so lets make a sensory play with look alike snow or use cotton balls to build our very own snowman. Put on your creativity caps and build a snowman. 

🎅Cut paper snowflakes ❄

Paper cutting is fun and a great activity tk enhance the fine motor skills. Use white and silver paper to make pretty snowflakes and decorate the windows with these pretty handmade snowflakes. 

🎅Bake some Christmas cookies 🍪 

Kids love cookies and get them involved in baking cookies. Use child safe healthy products to bake them. Let them mix, add and pour in the ingredients. It gets a bit messy but the fun involved while baking is what is really important. Let them decorate them with chocolate chips , gems or dry fruit and cut them in shapes of their choice. 

🎅Let's make our stocking - Make a stocking with felt cloth or socks, out your childs name on it and hang it up. Put a stocking up for everyone in the family. This gives a sense of family bonding and the importance of knowing, loving and caring for all family members. 

🎅Make their wish list - Get them thinking and noting down on a post it what they would like to get for Christmas🌲 Specify, 5 gifts 🎁or 7 gifts depending on your budget. 

🎅Watch a Christmas movie and enjoy family time with tubs of popcorn 🍿🍿🍿

Few of my Christmas favorite movies. 

Home alone

Frozen ❄⛄👸

Polar express 🚂🚋🚃🚋🚃🚋🚃

Make the living room dark with dark curtains. Make tickets and let the children distribute tickets and show everyone their seat with the help of a torch, let them serve tubs of pop corn in the interval. Unwind and enjoy these moments together.

🎅Listen to Christmas🌲 carols. 

Start the day with music and there is no better music than Christmas carols. 

Utube, gaana, spotify, Amazon music ate some apps where you can stream some good music. 

🎅Make Christmas cards for your friends and family members. 

Being out their creativity,  give them loads of colors, paints, paper, glue and let them make Christmas cards for all those they love.

Gifts of time and love ❤ are surely the best ingredients of a truly Merry Christmas🌲🎅

Fun Diwali activities for kids

Fun Diwali Activities For Kids

Let your child learn the importance and values of festivals through engaging activities at home. 

Here are some fun activities I engage my toddler with at home to learn, enjoy and celebrate the festival in a joyous and happy way. 

Storytelling 

The story of Diwali -  Tell your children the story of Diwali and enact rhe  return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya with a puppet show and props like diyas, lanterns and rangoli. It's important to understand the story behind the festival before celebrating it. 

Rangoli drawing and painting.

Rangoli plays a very pivotal role in Diwali hence allow your children to use their imagination and draw Rangoli sketches in a book and later paint them using bright colors of their choice. 

Making eco friendly rangolis with flowers and leaves and organic rangoli powder can be a fun activity to teach colors and enhance the child's cognitive skills too. 

Diwali cards. 

Let your child use their imagination to make cards for family and friends. It's fun and teaches the child caring for others. Emotional skills are developed. 

Cleaning the house - We all need a helping hand and with our kids helping us clean the house we can't ask for anything better. So allow them to mop the floor, clean the windows, dust the furniture. Always motivate them and appreciate them doe their hand work. This build their early life skills. 

Diya making - Buy readymade diyas from the market, soak them in water overnight. Let them dry and first paint them with white paint. Let the paint dry. Once done allow your child to paint the diyas and decorate them using their imagination. It's a special feeling to light your children's hand made diyas on Diwali. 

Lantern making - Use coloured paper to make colorful lanterns and hang them outside the window or door with lights in them. 

Toran making- Cut out paper leaves and flowers and stick them on a string. Make a beautiful toran and hang it on your door. We made small colorful lanterns and hung them on our door. 

Fireless cooking - Involve your children in making ladoos and Diwali sweets and snacks which don't involve using the gas stove. We made some chocolate chip cookies and enjoyed making them into round shapes.Cooking helps children develop their cognitive skills and build early life skills which will come of use later. 

Jewellery-making - Colour some pasta and lt your children enjoy making pasta jewelry. Bracelets and necklaces of different colors. Using their imagination and enjoying simple activities at home makes them enjoy the celebration of festivals. 

Keep it simple, recycling paper and materials is a great way to teach them young and to help save our planet.

What did you make your toddler do this Diwali. Mention in the comments below. 

Fun activities to celebrate Dusherra with kids

Dussehra festival is the celebration of the triumph of good over bad or evil. It is celebrated on the 10th day of the month of Ashvinas as the record of the Hindu calendar.

This auspicious festival is celebrated to honour the victory of Lord Rama over the demon Ravana, people burn a cut out or effigy of Ravana with ten heads on this day to celebrate the victory of Lord Rama. 

The Ramleela is enacted to show the story which is followed by the burning of Ravana. 

Dussehra is considered to be an auspicious day for new beginnings, people make new purchases for their homes and people also worship their cars, bikes and wealth at home. 

Here are some fun ways to celebrate Dussehra with preschoolers and get them  involved in engaging activities to help benefit their intellectual and learning skills. 

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Puppet Show enacting Dussehra

You can make simple hand puppets, stick puppets or finger puppets of Lord Rama, Goddess Sita and demon Ravana and enact a puppet show for the children. It’s always fun and exciting to tell a story with  puppets, acting and narrating a story makes learning fun and exciting for kids. 

Enacting the Ram Leela 

Pre schoolers really enjoy dressing up as different characters and applying make up to enact the character. Allow them to dress up as Ram, Sita and Ravana and apply make up and wear jewelry as required. Let them say a few dialogues. Decorate a back drop with plants and trees and make it enjoyable for the kids. 

Flower Rangoli

Dussehra is a festival that is celebrated in different parts of the country differently. However there is one thing common and that is the practise of decorating our entrance door with a beautiful rangoli.

Getting children to make a Rangoli with fresh flowers of different colours or paper balls, helps them use their imagination and enhance their cognitive skills. 

Simply draw lines or make a rangoli design with a chalk . Let them fill the design with coloured flowers 🌸🌺🌻🌹🌷🌼💐 or crumpled paper. Spread glitter on the rangoli at the end. Kids love glitter. 

This also helps them in recognising colours and improve their gross and fine motor skills. It improves their puncer grip too. 

Make a Garland

Make coloured paper flowers and make them into a beautiful flower garlands at home. Let them enjoy creating their own paper Garland which you can use to hang out on the door. 

Flower decorations

During the festival of Dussehra, temples and homes are well decorated with lots of flowers and lit lamps or diyas. 

The yellow and orange marigold flower is known as an auspicious flower and used for decoration during this festival with green leaves. 

Kids can make paper flowers or make a yellow and orange flower Garland to decorate  their homes with or they can take them to the temple during the festival. 

Dussehra is the festival of happy times and new beginnings and friend's and family exchange gifts to bring in good times. 

Teaching kids to make gift wrapping paper and packing gifts is loads of fun, this also teaches them to share and give gifts to their friends and family members as well. 

 

Get creative and let them use   ribbons, paintings and stickers to decorate the gifts they pack and make the gift look really colorful and attractive.

Get loads of fun ideas and good quality crafts from 

https://www.hobbyideas.in/

Making delicious halwa

No festival is complete without giving, receiving and relishing delicious halwa and sweets.

Halwa is  a favourite amongst children and fun to make as well. So get the ingredients ready and have the children help making this halwa in the kitchen. 

Watch the utube video for the making of a delicious pineapple halwa. 

https://youtu.be/b6EapNq2X7o

The pineapple halwa is really easy to make and requires  minimum preparation. Cooking in the kitchen with children need adult supervision. 

Children simply enjoy all the simple things in life and there is nothing better than having them celebrate the happiness and joy of a festival and making beautiful  memories. It's fun learning the tradition and culture of our country through festivals.

It's important to teach through play and let them learn the importance of our Indian festivals. 

TEACHING BASIC SHAPES TO KIDS IN AN INTERESTING WAY

LET'S LEARN ABOUT SHAPES

Learning shapes helps children learn skills such as reading, math, and science. For example, an early step in understanding numbers and letters is to recognize their shape.

Hence before teaching alphabets and numbers a child should be able to recognize shapes.

What are the Basic shapes a preschooler learns first. 

 The basic shapes contains the most common shapes that your child will encounter daily in reading and writing, they are square, rectangle, circle, triangle, diamond and oval. These shapes are also simple to draw and a child picks up drawing these shapes at a very young age.

How to introduce a shape to a toddler ? 

It's never too early to introduce shapes to toddlers, you can start with different things and objects around you. Point out shapes around you and discuss what the shape looks like. Start with the simplest and most common shapes that your child sees daily, namely a square, rectangle, circle, oval, diamond and triangle. Keep repeating this with different objects.

Few activities you can do to teach shapes 

🔲 Sing the shapes song 🎵

🔺 Identify shapes around you 

🔲 Match shapes 

🔺 Make different shapes with clay 

🔺Cut out different shapes with a child safe pair of scissors✂

🔲 Make shape figures from paper

Easy ways to teach Primary colors to preschool

There are three basic Primary colors. 

🔴Red 

🌻Yellow and 

🔵 Blue 

Primary colors are those colors which cannot be created by mixing other colors in a given color space.

Children are able to point at a colour long before they can say its name. Hence during playtime, you can ask your child to pick up all the pieces of a particular colour and put them together. Hence it's important to stick to the primary colours – red, yellow and blue. You can add secondary colours later on.

Preschool is where colors are formally introduced to children, one color at a time.

Dedicating time to each colour separately is the best way to teach the concept of a color. Having a “red week” or a “yellow week” this helps children in understanding colours over time. Wearing coloured clothes, coloring or painting the same colour or recognizing and identifying toys with the same colour every week helps in color recognition and identification.

Here are some activities we are following for learning the primary colors.

LEARNING PRIMARY COLORS

LET'S LEARN THE COLOR RED ❤️ 

Some Simple activities

🌈 Draw an outline of an apple , cherries , balloons and make your child color them.

❤️ Dress them up in RED , remember to click pics and send us.

🌹Ask your child to identify objects with the color RED in the house.

🐞Put few toys with different colors and ask your child to separate RED color.

LET'S LEARN THE COLOR BLUE 💦💙🐟

🌈Dress your child in blue clothes.

🌈 Color , paint or stick blue paper in an outline of a boat or fish ( get creative ) 

🌈 Observe the blue sky and look around for blue objects in your house.

🌈Have fun 🐟

LET'S LEARN THE COLOR YELLOW 

☀️ Draw objects that are yellow color and ask your child to color or paint 🎨

☀️Make your child create the SUN and hang it around the room to remind us that we should always be kind. 

☀️Allow your child to identify yellow fruit 🍍🍌 and yellow vegetables 🍋🌽

☀️Yellow Day is a day of kindness and happiness. Wear yellow, be yellow, spread happiness.

Important tips 

🍅 Teach one color a day.

🐠🐟 Keep it simple. 

🐞Get creative and have fun.

Remember to have fun and let's teach our angels in the best possible way.

WORLD COCONUT DAY

Keep calm and drink coconut water coconut🥥🥥

World Coconut Day is celebrated every year on 2 September. The day is celebrated to highlight and raise awareness about the importance and benefits of coconut. Coconuts have multiple benefits and it's used in various ways in our day to day life. It is edible, and its oil is edible and can also be applied on our skin and as a hairoil. 

The day aims to celebrate the importance and usage of coconuts in our daily lives.

Some Benefits of coconut🥥

Coconut is a high fat fruit that has a wide range of health benefits. These include providing us with disease-fighting antioxidants, promoting blood sugar regulation, and also reducing the risk for heart diseases. 

🥥Highly nutritious

Unlike many other fruits that are high in carbs, coconuts provide mostly fat, protein,  important minerals, and  vitamins B. 

The minerals in coconut are involved in many functions in our body to keep fit and improve our immunity which is the need of the hour. 

Coconuts are high in manganese, which is important for bone health and the metabolism of carbohydrates, cholesterol and proteins. 

🥥 is rich in copper and iron, that help form red blood cells and selenium which are an important antioxidant that protects our body cells.

Coconut helps promote blood sugar control

Coconut is low in carbs and high in fiber and fat, hence it helps stabilize our blood sugar.

An interesting experiment on rats I came across while browsing the internet. 

When rats with diabetes were fed protein made from coconut meat, their blood sugar, insulin levels, and also glucose metabolism were much better than those that didn’t eat coconut protein. 

Also beta cells in their pancreas started making more insulin. 

The polyphenols found in a coconut prevents there oxidation of (bad) cholesterol, thus increases the risk of any heart disease. 

Coconut water is low in carbs and really rich in amino acids and fiber, thus making it a great for blood sugar control.

Some studies have also shown that antioxidants found in coconut oil help protect cells from damage and death caused by oxidative stress and chemotherapy as well. 

Coconuts contain a substance called polyphenol antioxidants that protects your cells from any kind of damage, this can reduce any kind of disease risk. Hence building up your immunity level which is the need of the hour right now, so whenever you can grab and sop on a coconut water,  it's not only a refreshing drink but a step towards building up your immunity. 

Coconut is a high fat fruit that has numerous health benefits. So let's see what they are. 

This provides you with disease-fighting antioxidants, promoting blood sugar regulation, and also reducing the risk of a heart disease.

Remember that 🥥 is very high in fat and calories, so it's really important to watch your portion sizes if you are trying to lose some weight or you need to follow a low-fat diet.

🥥 You can eat it raw or dried,  the coconut meat is delicious and easy to add into both sweet and savory dishes like curries, gravies and vegetables as well. 

Coconut is a healthy food that satisfies our hunger and thirst as well in the most healthy way. Coconut water is extremely beneficial for our health, It keeps our stomach strong and healthy and our body cool in the extreme heat of the sun. Going for a walk along the seashore, sitting in the hot sand, and not drinking a fresh coconut water, is what completes a holiday. So when we go for a walk in the sea and lie or sit on the beach, we should make it a point to drink coconut water. And take some awesome pictures with coconuts, sipping on coconut water. 

Cost of a coconut

It costs around ₹50 to ₹70 per coconut, depending on the size. It's peeled and served with a straw and after drinking the water the coconut is removed and served in the coconut shell. 

To avoid major illnesses it's safe and healthy to keep coconut water in your diet. 

Sun, sand and coconut water is my definition of a holiday, what's yours... Mention in the comments below.

Interesting facts about Janmashtami - Lord Krishna's Birthday

Lord Krishna was born approximately 5,200 years ago in Mathura. The main objective of Lord Krishna's birth was to free the Earth from the evilness of demons. His own uncle was a demon and he was going to kill him and end the evil world that prevailed😈 He played an important role in Mahabharata and propagated the important theory of bhakti and good karma.

There is a popular ritual of dahi handi, which is the imitation of the butter-stealing episodes of Lord Krishna.

 Boys gather together in a compound and form a human pyramid in order to break the earthen pot fixed at a height way above the ground. The boy who climbs at the top is called Govinda and the groups are either called handis or mandals. Many attempts like throwing water on the mandals is done in order to spoil their attempts to break the dahi handi.

As a young child Lord Krishna was an extremely mischievous boy. He opened fences to let the cows roam free. He stole food to feed to the ducks and monkeys. He sneaked into peoples homes and piled up their pillows, hid the jewelry of girls while they bathed in the river and lots more. He was kind at heart and never caused any harm. Just wanted to spread cheer and happiness.

Janmashtami or Gokulashtami, is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna.

It symbolizes the joyful innocence of children, that love and life's play is the manifestation of God. 

Lord Krisha was very find of butter and curd and would steal it from hidden pots which were hidden high up. Hence even today a pot 🍯 of Dahi is kept in a handi with a cash reward and a human pyramid is made to break the, dahi handi, just like Lord Krishna, what he would do to get to his dahi. 

A lot of countries outside India see a large number of devotees of Lord Krishna and this festival is also celebrated in New Zealand, Singapore, Malasia, Canada and a few more countries.

What we did to celebrate this festival. 

Made a Janmashtami card

Made a peacock feather 🦚

Prepared dahi handi 

Janmashtami related Treasure hunt. 

You can try simple activities at home with your toddler and let them enjoy and learn the importance of festivals.

Tell me what you like and enjoy about this festival in the comments below.

WORLD ELEPHANT DAY

WORLD ELEPHANT DAY 

On August 12, 2012, the inaugural World Elephant Day was launched to bring attention to the urgent plight of Asian and African elephants. ... We admire elephants in part because they demonstrate what we consider the finest human traits: empathy, self-awareness, and social intelligence.

 Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are  recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. 

 Some interesting facts about elephants

🐘 are the world's largest land animal. 

You can tell them apart by the size of their ears. 

Their trunks have multi useful skills. 

🐘 tusks are their teeth and they have an extremely thick skin 

🐘 communicate through vibrations and are always eating

🐘 live in herds and, they recognize every member of their family. 

🐘🐘 are, extremely intelligent animals, and have proved their skills time and again. 

 Was glad to visit Phuket Elephant sanctuary which has rescued elephants 🐘🐘 

Phuket's First Ethical Sanctuary in which Elephants Roam & Bathe Freely

Bordering the Khao Phra Thaeo National Park, the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary offers a new home for overtired elephants who have suffered from working long hours in the logging and tourism industry. As the first ethical elephant tourism experience in Phuket, they rescue sick, injured and old elephants, take good care of them and welcome them back in their habitat. 

https://www.phuketelephantsanctuary.org/en/

Safety measures at Phuket Elephant Sanctuary

 Although “physical distancing” comes natural at our 30-acre sanctuary, they have implemented several initiatives to ensure a safe and inspiring experience whilst visiting the Sanctuary. They have been SHA+ certified by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, with 100% of their staff being fully vaccinated. To learn more about the health & safety initiatives and flexible cancellation policy, feel free to visit the website.

As a visitor you can feed them fruits,  pineapples and bananas what they love and observe them bathe freely in the fresh water lagoon. However interaction is allowed only while feeding them fruit. It feels good to watch them enjoy their freedom and happy to be free. I enjoyed my experience here and was thrilled to interact with the extremely playful and active baby elephant. 

Some commonly asked Q and A about elephants 🐘🐘

How much does it cost to ride an elephant in Thailand?

Throughout Thailand, elephant rides may cost  approximately 600 THB for a 20-minute “trek” to 6,000 THB for an entire day. Tips and feeding the elephant are excluded.

Do elephants like to be touched. 

Fear, domination, and pain cause the elephants to follow the trainers' commands to let people ride, feed, touch, or bathe them. It isn't safe for humans to make direct contact with elephants. Always remember getting too close can be dangerous.

How can you tell that an elephant us happy? 

A socially excited elephant rapidly flaps its ears and widens its eyes.just like a dog, when an elephant's tail is swishing from side to side it is happy. As soon as the tail goes stiff, normally held out to one side, it means that the elephant is anxious and worked up. 

Have you interacted with elephants? How was your experience? Let me know in the comments. 

#elephantday  #savetheelephants #worldelephantday #wildlifephotography #wildlife

Onam significance and celebration

Onam significance and celebration 

Onam is the most celebrated festival of Kerala. It is symbolic of King Mahabali’s annual home coming and it also celebrates the Vaman avatar of Lord Vishnu. It is a ten day long festival that brings in the best of festive spirit among all the people of Kerala and is celebrated with lots of pomp and splendor.

Onam is known as the rice harvest festival of Kerala. Rice is the staple food of all living in Kerala. All the ten days of celebration of Onam has its own significance.

The colorful floral designs known as ‘pookkalam’ are symbolic of this festival. Usually women members of the house make different types of rangoli patterns on the ground , outside their houses with flowers ( like a rangoli) and lit oil lamps in order to invite King Mahabali to their house forva scrumptious meal. People gift each other new clothes and wear new clothes as well, this traditional is known as 'Onakkodi'.

Grand feasts are prepared on this occasion. This is known as 'onam sadya’. There are approximately 13 dishes that are prepared for this. The food is served on banana leaves and consists of rice along with different daal, sambhar, rasam, pickles and papads. A sweet dish called ‘payasam’ is a must during Onam. It is made of rice, milk, sugar and coconut. Sometimes jaggery is also used along with dry fruits. 

Serving Traditional dishes on a banana leaf called Sadhya and offering it to God first, later enjoying this scrumptious meal. 

 The enormous meal calls for preparations  much in advance, which brings the community together. The meal consists of traditional dishes from across the state, including fried snacks, variety of curries, pickles, sweets served with boiled rice.

 include Avial, Ulli Theeyal, Erissery, Sambar, rasam and Parippu curry, accompanied with Steamed Rice, Curd, Banana Chips and Upperi. End your meal on a sweet note with Payasam, like kheer 

Enjoy the flavour while you eat with your hands and lick your fingers.

This is special since it's Bunny's first onam where he tried to eat from a banana leaf, hence few favourites are added on his banana leaf. 

Let the festivities and good food take over as the country celebrates Onam #happyonam

We may be away this Onam but wishing a #HappyOnam and the best of health to all. 

#onamcelebration  #festivevibes #onam

TODDLERS AND READING

Books can be our toddlers best friends, hence the importance to raise a reader. Reading from the early years has so many benefits. 

Start early and encourage reading in toddlers as early as possible. Few simple do's to help your toddler fall in love with books. 

📕 Read stories before naptime, afternoon and night. This gives them sound sleep at night. 

📕 Use songs and nursery rhymes to build phonetic awareness. Keep singing and talking to them, this improves their vocabulary and makes them talk sentences faster. 

📕 Display books everywhere, with their toys, on their bed,  so they are atracted to pick them up and read them. 

📕 Encourage toddlers to turn the pages and give them time reading and explaining the pictures thus building their vocabulary

📕 Read together and give a variety of 📚 books, like stories, nursery rhymes, picture talk, stickers .... 

📚 Be patient and make reading fun. Listen to your toddler, answer his questions and talk to them, allowing a two way conversation. 

📕 Ask questions while reading and make mistakes to check if your toddler is paying attention. If they are not paying attention we need to sharpen our story telling skills and make reading and story telling more interesting for them. 

Make books their best friend. Give a variety of story books and make reading exciting and fun. I remember reading a story book every night before bedtime and would love my bunny to grow up reading too. It's the most satisfying time of te day. A book in your hand and your head on the pillow. The best way to unwind before bedtime. 

Check out a parents guide to a reader for valuable tips Scholastic guide to readers