6 Simple fun activities your preschooler will enjoy outdoors.

6 Simple fun activities your preschooler will really enjoy  outdoors. 

Here are six simple outdoor activities my kid really enjoys while we are out in the garden or outdoors playing. Hence wanted to share it with you'll to help benefit your kids too. We take our kids to the garden and a little bit of planning and fun makes it more enjoyable and enhances learning too. 

🌲Run barefoot on grass - Running barefoot on grass has multiple health benefits for preschoolers and it also improves the vision of the child. It improves their balance and direct contact with earth provides natural earthing to the child. 

🌳Climb small trees - He enjoys exploring small trees and climbing trees help kids improve their balance and learn about different textures of the tree trunk and insects that live in them. It's a great exercise for gross motor skills and improves their cognitive development since they are feeling, touching, analysing and trying to climb the branches of the tree. 

🌴catching kook - catching each other . Just plain fun to run around catching each other. Taking turns to catch each other in the garden is great for gross motor skills and a great exercise for parents too. 

🌲Sandplay - Our garden has a sandpit and I always carry my kids spade and bucket. Sand is great for sensory play and has multiple learning benefits. It's the stepping stone to early math. They fill their bucket with sand and learn the concept of more, more sand is required to fill their bucket, hence they learn the concept of more and less in a fun play way method of trial and error. 

🌴Ball play - Always remember to take a ball with you in the garden. Kids enjoy to bounce it, throw it and play around in the open with a ball. I take a different ball everytime since each ball has a different learning experience for your child. It's great to build your childs reflex action and improve their hand and eye coordination. 

🌲Jumping on dry leaves 🍂🍂There were loads of dry leaves stacked up in huge piles. My baby just jumped in and enjoyed the sound of dry leaves, the feel of the dry leaves and the jumping activity. It's fun to try out new things and he looks out for piles of dry leaves to jump in. 

Keep it simple, kids love being outdoors and simple activities are enjoyed the most. 

#letthemexplore #outdooractivities #funoutdoors clothing

8 Things to do with your kids on Valentine's Day

8 Things to do with your kids on Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is a day of love ❤ and what better way to celebrate it with your kids and showering them with love , love and loads of love. 

I've planned so much with my toddler and he really enjoys all the love and attention. There's love in the air and something magical about this month since it's the birthday month of my mother, sister and son. Three special people's birthday along with Valentine's Day. So much love and happiness to celebrate. 

Valentine's Day Dance party - Play your favorite love songs and enjoy a dance party together. This way I get to play my favorite Bryan Adams and enjoy these moments with my toddler. He can't dance but enjoys jumping and clapping. This is developing their gross motor skills. 

Decorate the house with paper hearts and heart shaped balloons - Blow up some balloons and get your kids to make hearts with coloured paper, decorate the house and make your kids feel special. We have made loads of hearts ❤💞 and stuck them on the doors with double sided tapes. 

Make a meal with hearts - Cook something together, make it feel special. I cut toast in heart shapes and he was so happy with his decorated place. Use your imagination and cook a meal for family members too. 

For older children introduce them to a special candlelight dinner with the family. Let them help in arranging the table, bring out your special dishes that you rarely use and enjoy your meal with lit candles at night. 

Post some post it's and surprise your kids with love notes. Kids love little surprises and I posted heart shaped post it's with little hearts saying LOVE YOU ❤ he enjoyed finding these post it's and every post it that he finds he shows it to me and gives me a broad smile . This smile is priceless and sometimes things that are really small makes our kids so happy. 

Watch a love movie together - make it special with a movie that's age appropriate at home. Darken the room, make popcorn🍿 get cozy and watch a movie at home. Make it feel like a cinema hall. 

These are our favourites that we are watching every afternoon. 

Alladin, Frozen,  Dumbo, Ice Age,  Tangled.

Find ways to hide love notes for your child throughout the day by placing notes on your child’s homework, lunch plate, or anything else you know they will see during the day.  Feel free to hide them around the house or you can also send your child on a scavenger hunt to find the hidden hearts. I put these hearts on the couch, under his pillow, near his glass of water and the smile I see when he finds them is absolutely priceless.

Rose bubble bath 

Set up a warm bubble bath with roses- He enjoyed being pampered so much and started plucking the rose petals. This is a good sensory play and plucking the petals also helps improve the pincer grip. 

Make Valentine's Day cards - Creativity at ots best with card making. I cut out some hearts and gave a few blank cards. He used his imagination to stick hearts, color and put stickers. Let them direct their thoughts in the cards the make. I avoid showing him what to do since this breaks the imagination from flowing. I give him the material and let him decide what he needs to do. 

Remember... Only Children believe they are capable of everything.... And this is so true. 

Keep it simple, keep it filled with love ❤ have a fun filled Valentine's week and Valentine's Day. Love lasts forever.

Republic Day 2022 - India themed activities and crafts for kids

Republic Day 2022 -  India themed activities and crafts for kids. 

Tri-color dress code or traditional wear - 

This allows children to  imbibe the different cultures of our country and brings in a feeling of unity. Dress up and learn the colors of the flag in a fun way. 

Draw / Color / Paint our national flag.

No matter what you have planned for this day. Allow your child / children to start the day by making our Indian flag. Give them colors/ paints / pom poms / colored paper and let them use their imagination and recreate the Indian flag. Show a demo of the colors of our flag and teach them the significance of each color.

saffron colour indicates the strength and courage of the country. 

White indicates peace and truth. 

Green represents the fertility, growth, and auspiciousness of our land. 

Sing the national anthem together after making the Indian flag 🇮🇳

Once they complete making their flag, remember to click their picture with them holding their flag.

Watching the Republic Day parade on television and having a pretend play the same way at home with family members. 

Eg - Doing the march past, learning to salute, playing toy drums, etc

Republic Day speech - For older kids let them allow a speech and present it in front of the entire family.

Learning the states and capitals of our country. To start with the basics we can teach that our country is divided into different that's ruled by capitals and teach the state we live in with the capital.

Eg- We live in the state of Maharashtra and the capital is Mumbai. 

Children are quick at grasping and can learn names faster than we think. 

Tricolour Food and Party at Home. kids will be overexcited to prepare  delicious tricoloured foods. Tricolor sandwiches with an orange chutney, green chutney and green cucumber, orange grated carrots. 

Make a tricolor salad,

Tricolor rice with green spinach. 

Children enjoy decorating the plate with food , so prepare the basic and allow them to decorate it in a plate. 

Learning regional dances 

Play some music and learn some basic dance steps of any region of our country, like Bharatnatyam , Kathakali . You can get the basic steps from utube when you search the internet.

Reading the Indian constitution and understanding it.

Being a teacher , I know the children have learnt to say the Constitution very well, however when I ask them what they understand from it, they are blank. Hence it's important to let them understand a few pointers from it. 

We also made a few basic rules for our classroom for better understanding.

You can make your child make a few basic rules to be followed at home. 

Eg- We made a few rules too. Eating our meals on the dining table, no television while eating. 

Making our bed in the morning when we wake up. Keeping our toys in place once we finish playing. 

Three simple rules. Keep it simple and let your child decide the rules this way they will be motivated to follow them. 

As said by Benjamin Franklin – “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” So there is no better way to teach our kids but to involve them.

Have a fun filled day.

Stay home , stay safe

New Year's Resolution - Parenting edition 🐰

New Year's Resolution 2022

Parenting edition

We all make resolutions for ourselves, but it's equally important to make resolutions for our children too. These little resolutions help us to be better parents and learn from the mistakes we made last year. So here is a list of my resolutions which I intend to keep and share with all my mommy friends to help them understand the importance of gentle, effective and understanding parenting. 

It's simple and easy, however patience and time is the key factor here. 

🐤Respecting their decision - Let them decide what they want and what they don't. 

Eg - Taking their opinion what they want to eat and not forcing them to eat what we want them to eat. Keeping in mind the healthy food options. 

🐰No shouting / No hitting

This is most important since our children need love, love and loads of love to be nurtured into good human beings. Refrain from punishments, beating n scolding. It's really not required. 

🍉Very little junk food - All our kids love junk food and it's difficult to keep them away from junk food specially being at home. So I take my bunny shopping and allow him to select his health food options. I avoid bringing home junk so he doesn't get to eat any junk food. It's okay to treat them once in a way. 

🍒Spending quality time together -  You can buy thousands of toys for your child and they will never play with them. Buy them one toy and play together and see the difference. I do that with books and we love reading together. 

🐣Answering their questions / If you don't know the answer,  park them for later. But remember they need an answer. I try to answer his questions, since every answer is a new learning for my child and me too. 

Eg - He asked me why does it rain? So I knew he is ready to understand the concept of the rain cycle and over the next few days I explained the rain cycle to him, we drew it, talked about rain, saw rhe dark clouds in the sky, saw the lightening, heard the thunder, went out in the rain with our rain equipment and learnt about the different foods available in the rain, made pakoras and tea at home and explored so much together about the rain. Till he popped the next question. 

🦄Reasoning instead of saying the harsh word NO - A child doesn't understand the harsh word NO and hates it, since everytime No is said, he has been denied something he wants, needs or wants to explore on his own. without knowing the reason why he is denied an opportunity to explore on his own, if the reason is given to him or an alternative is provided, he can and will understand better. 

Eg- Instead of saying No for an adult pair of scissors, he is given a safe, child friendly pair of scissors. It's a win- win situation for both. Let the learning continue in a healthy and positive way. 

Less screen time, more WE time -Yes, like all parents, I give him screen time everyday but that's restricted to a short span of time. A child learns better with activities and games and puzzles. 

🎀Storytelling before bedtimebedtime - The advantages of this simple activity. 

Builds a healthy relationship

Improves and increases the vocabulary

Gives your child sound and peaceful sleep

I remember my grandfather telling us the same bedtime story every night and we enjoyed listening to him. Remember children enjoy repeatition and it's okay to repeat stories.

🌈Saying I LOVE YOU daily and meaning it. We love our children and its absolutely necessary to show and feel our emotions. Saying these words when they need it the most does wonders. When they accidentally drop something or get hurt, all they need is a warm hug and the golden words, I Love you. 

Happy 2022 mommies, follow my blog 👣 for more parenting blogs.  Together we can make a huge difference for our children. 

What's your new year's resolution? What's your new year's resolution for your children? Mention in the comments below.

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.