Boys..cars and counting

My boys are crazy about cars and bikes. Especially the younger one. I enjoyed doing a variety of activities (painting, crafts etc) with him until he stepped foot in preschool. Since then somehow he lost interest in doing activities with me. Wait, did I say that excludes anything to do with cars? So I have to develop interest in cars and bikes and the likes. That's the catch.

Well, I planned to introduce multiplication to my son using beans as I had done for my elder one. But my younger one was not letting me get a grip on him. Today I was determined to do something, at least for my satisfaction.

I grabbed a bunch of beans and asked him to put them two by two. He started but then took off with his Lincoln. I got hold of him again and asked how many are there in a group? How many beans in two groups? With this I could cover until 4 groups of 2 makes 8. He didn't complete the next group before taking off in his Chevy Camarro.

Now, I got hold of his Lincoln and arranged the beans over its length and counted. I said the Lincoln was 38 beans long. This attracted him near me. He measured a car and a bike with beans. Then he took of with the Lincoln. I succeeded in making him measure his feet, 10 beans long.


Anyways, this counting with beans activity would be fun for some toddlers/preschoolers who are learning to count.

Bye until my next post.

O Mankind!!

Yesterday
World Sparrow Day
Today
World Forest Day
Tomorrow
World Water Day

World Earth Day (April 22)
World Environment Day (June 5)
World Tigers Day (July 29)
How many more will you need?
To understand, O Mankind!

Wake up, get Eco friendly
Act or you won't survive
To celebrate
World Human Day!!
O Mankind!!

Sky

Sky,  my best friend
A friend so everlasting;
Right there above
Any time I look up;
Sends showers of love
And beams of joy;

Remaining  blue and serene at times
White lilies dancing all over for me;
Lights up a thousand candles in the night
Makes my spirit joyously bright;
Such an everlasting friend
Never eluding where ever I go;

Here comes Christmas time

Here comes Christmas time
We hear the bells chime
The musical sounds vibrate
Calling us to celebrate
Filling the air with joy and love
Telling the blessings from heaven above

Fragrance of the cake baking
Elegance of the Christmas lighting
Singing of the carols
Sharing of the peace
Here comes Christmas time
We hear the bells chime

Handprint Santa

Mix equal quantity of all purpose flour (maida) and salt. Add water progressively and knead into a dough. The dough should not be sticky and should be roll-able into a ball.

Take a big lemon sized ball and roll it out, as you do for chapathi or pizza. Let your kid make a impression with hand, For smaller kids, help them by pressing each finger and the palm. Cut around the hand print leaving a small margin. Poke a hole at the top to insert string for hanging.
Bake the handprints in the oven at 100C for 3hrs. I used a OTG microwave, so I chose the convection mode and baked as mentioned ablove. Once cooled the hands are ready to be painted.

I was inspired by a pin I saw in pinterest, so I made these cute little Santa ornaments. We used acrylic paints to paint as shown and also added some red and white glitter glue for the cap and the beard once the paint was dry. One side is done and I couldn't wait to post this. Will write the name of kids and the year on the other side of these ornaments!

We also made some ornaments with cookie cutters. they are in the process of getting painted. Will post those soon.

Merry Xmas!

Let it snow...Let it snow...Let it snow

Christmas time and snow are so much fun for kids. All the decorations, gifts, cookies and playing with snow never fail to fascinate a child. This having been said, kids who don't get to play in real snow need not miss the fun. Sounds great, isn't it? These paper snowflakes add to the fun and excitement right from folding the paper, cutting, to the point of opening to see the nice snowflakes. I used the instructions from Martha Stewart.

I used different size of squares to obtain snowflakes in different sizes. Just tape the snowflakes on one side to a thread and hang it from the ceiling. You can make it into a garland, a wreath or anything your imagination leads to.
Am not sure if the picture does justice, but am sure my son is cool and excited!!! :)

I plan to do more and enjoy the 'snow'.

Happy Snowing!!

Enjoy this song from you tube.

Egg Carton Xmas Trees

Christmas season is fast approaching and what is Xmas without xmas trees. These cute little xmas trees are sure to make the kids excited and get going.

Cut out the tree shapes from the egg carton, as you can see in the picture. Paint and let it dry before adding glitter. Stick a sequin at the top. You can paint the carton cover as shown in the other pic and use that as a base. Or you can arrange your little xmas trees individually. These can be glued one over the other to give a tall and real xmas tree effect.

Hope you like it.