Valentine's day work

In the beginning of the month we got to meet Salina Yoon, the author of 'Be a friend", thanks to the 'bookworm festival'. We read this book again and again and again. What a beautiful way to kick off our everything valentine's.

1). Healing hearts: Our first work was a practical life activity of putting 'band-aids' on a wound. We used masking tapes and a cotton ball to place on the wounds on a boy. I chose masking tapes instead of actual band-aids for practice, so we can move on to the real ones without wasting (they are too sticky for J to handle right now), in the future. 

Material used: a paper, color pencils, cotton ball, masking tape, marker, used sticker back to place our healing heart 'band-aids'.

2). Identify Gujarati letters: I simply put together this activity for J to practice his knowledge of Gujarati letters we have already worked on. He could not figure out the Sunday one, but the best part was, he did it all by himself and then put everything back, including closing the lid on the glue stick (my aha! moment of the day). 

Material used: construction paper, markers, printer paper, glue stick.

3). Cutting hearts: I cut up a paper heart chain and showed J to separate the hearts. He did a few as I showed and a few from the fold, where the hearts were cut into half before leaving half of the chain uncut. 

Material used: a pair of scissors and construction paper.

4). Number match and counting: I wrote numbers 0-10, both in English and Gujarati on a card stock, to match with another set of card stock with heart stamps. J is getting very confident about his counting and worked with the cards in multiple ways; Gujarati number recognition (beyond 5), number to heart (counts) match and  hearts to number match.

Material used: card stock, marker, heart stamp.

5). Map + scavenger hunt + number recognition 1-20: J has been loving the maps lately. We don't do any map work other than looking at them in an atlas, but I thought it was a perfect opportunity to introduce the idea. 

Materials used: paper, construction paper, marker, heart cutouts, card stock heart, glue.

• We drew a map of our apartment very casually, identifying what is where. 

• The next day we read it again and I placed some read heart marks on the map, where I had already put some paper hearts, with numbers on the back. 

• Gave him a heart cutout with numbers 1-20 on. 

• his job was, to identify where a heart is on the map and get it back to the table. 

• Once he brought one back, we circled them off the map.

• Then, he had to read the number on the heart and find the same number on the big heart, then glue it on. 

It sounds like a lengthy work, but J had no problem doing it, with help reading the map. We actually enjoyed the multiple layer game. The final result was a beautiful art work, he was very proud of. The green-bluish hearts are from the marble art we did for the republic day.

 6). Art: Our alternate to liquid water colors turned out beautiful. 

 

Valentine's day craft

I absolutely love arts made using liquid water colors. In my mind, they make all (including a newbie) work look so professional. I personally don't own them but wanted to figure out an alternative until I do. The handiest way to achieve this was to mix food coloring with water. I am not sure how close they are in reality, but I absolutely loved the result in our V-day craft.

using our alternate to liquid watercolors

The lacing effect came simply from kitchen towels. I used kitchen towel, food colors, water, water color paper, q-tips, masking tape.

• Cut heart chain out of kitchen towels and place it on the paper anyway you like. Use masking tape to tape the paper to the working surface. We have dedicated large cutting board that replaces an art easel for us. 

• Choose your food color and mix it with water, a tablespoon at a time. Check on the color saturation you like by putting a dot on paper using a q-tip and add color/ water accordingly until you like it. 

• Always always always make sure the colors you choose are complementing, so you don't end up with dark mess of brown or grey. Ask me, how I know this!!

• Provide a q-tip for each color and let your mind flow in beauty. 

J absolutely enjoyed watching the colors spreading out with every time his q-tip touched the hearts. 

  

• Saturate the hearts with colors, but don't dab on them or they will lose the beautiful lacing effect.

The dots and lines on the paper makes it look even prettier.

• Let them dry for an hour or so before peeling off. 

• The hearts might still be damp, gently, press on to another plain paper to get another version of the prints. It's equally beautiful.

This technique can easily be used on wrapping papers or as backgrounds on a canvas; the possibilities are endless. The best part is, it is as toddler friendly as it can be.

Winter

The books made it clear in J's mind, that winter comes with snowfall. Everyday he would tell me, as the trees are almost bare, winter will be here; soon it will snow and we'll go out sledging. I would smile at him and he would smile back. 

1). Mixing baking soda and shaving foam mimics the snow, it is naturally cool and can be form into balls or whatever. It satisfied J for exchange of snow, for at least a week before he went back to his normal winter story. Such a fun sensory play. Mess is not a problem as baking soda is a natural cleanser and bubba loves the job (vacuuming) that mumma  highly dislikes. Hallelujah.

fake snow

helping hand

2). Our winter celebration continued with this winter wreath. I showed him one and left him alone to enjoy.  We used paper, two different sized dishes for circles, clip board, leaves, glue, cloth to wipe.

winter wreath

3). Creating the Winter Scene was very special, as for the first time J enjoyed entire process to the bits. He was patient enough to do it in stages over days and colors were working as a therapy, I noticed. He has open access to the art tray and often chooses something from, to work with and stays super contented through out the day, when he does. We used watercolor paper, brown blue and white tempera paints, paint brush, glue, a piece of cardboard, fuzzy sticks, felt pieces (for snowman), googly eyes. 

working on blue background

using cardboard and fingers to make bare trees

gluing on a snowman

4). The mini punches from Michaels are absolutely adorable. They can simply attract a toddler for unlimited fun, help improve hand-eye co-ordination, concentration, muscle strength and encourage to use in creative ways. We used a snowflake mini punch, regular white paper/ blue card stock/ aluminum foil to punch snowflakes from.

punching snowflakes

After four days, his masterpiece was ready, waiting for papa to see.

 

complete winter scene

67th Republic Day of India

We were reading a book about India and I was showing him, famous architectural monuments, the Himalayas and the Ganga (Ganges) and to my surprise he started singing, the National Anthem 'Jan Gan Man...', we ended up singing it through out the day and beyond.

1). To celebrate this republic day we were going to make the Indian Flag. This year we chose to do marble painting using shaving foam, food coloring, something to swirl around the colors (we used a clothes pin as it was handy) and water color papers, lots and lots of them. When the foam gets messed up, spray another layer and you are good to go. This process is absolutely therapeutic and addictive. I showed J the process by making the national flag and then there was no stopping, possibilities were endless. We tried different types and colors of papers, but plain white watercolor papers worked the best. J quickly learn to be gentle while placing, dabbing and peeling off the paper on the foam but his favorite part was swirling the colors madly, at the end and getting messy for a long uninterrupted time.

    

 

  

2). We talked about the spices of India. It was interesting to see how he explored them and compared each with a picture in the book. 

3). That inspired our sensory tray of spices. Different textures and fragrances were perfect to explore on a cold winter day. Transferring, spilling and cleaning up were added bonus.

 

 4). We read 'Grandfather Gandhi' by Arun Gandhi. The book is about, how young Arun felt about living up to the name 'Mahatma', while living at the 'Sevagram' and what was 'Mahatma's advice to him about experiencing anger. We absolutely love this book.

J loves to use his spinning wheel. We have a model, that gives him a better idea of the real one than a picture. Spinning helps him concentrate and feel calm. (we are planning on creating a peace corner, so it may become a part of our peace basket.)

5). For this art work I cut the ends of three toothpicks and cut them into half to glue on the spokes of the wheel and some cotton pulled in long (still fluffy) stripes, that he rubbed between his palms to thin out. I placed glue and he placed the pieces. I love to see his concentration develop with works like these.

The Magic Wand Output of 2016...

The aims for this new year are giving me more clarity to raise myself this year. Sharing them with others on a public platform is re-affirming commitment to myself. And it will be fun to check back with the progress I make at the end of the year (considering how much I have bragged about the last year's intentions working out!).

• Learn to write in cursive. I have always loved how beautiful cursive looks, but have always struggled to read them  and never considered to learn. Since I have been digging into Montessori methods, I have learned the neurological  benefits of cursive writing. There lied my inspiration, to learn them and to teach them. J already knows his prints, we are going to take a backwards route but it will be a fun thing to learn together for sure.

• Get rid of clutter and get more organized. The Montessori mantra of 'There is place for everything and everything has a place' is my reminder everyday. Living in a small (Texas standards, not New York, hell, that will be our bedroom only!, a real struggle to cope, oops!) apartment feels like a bliss at this time, as there is less to clean or may be it fills up so quickly, I need to find ways to go through what to keep and what to depart from. Good mind exercise as I have to get over my emotions to the things. Byproduct is emotional independence, ahem ahem! 

• Simplify and slow down. The great invention of Internet has it's personalities, good and evil (Am I learning it just now?). It has a lot to inspire and guide through, with abilities to distract and get lost into. Oh dear Pinterest, I love you as much as I am afraid of you. Sometimes those inspirations have made me take trips to Target to check out their Dollar spot, the higher version of Dollar Tree and part of Walmart (Target makes it look a lot better). Anyway, after a year of doing so, I am learning to get creative, using pen, paper, sharpie, pair of scissors, etc to make things simple without spending time, energy and imagination of that purchase in my head, how J would enjoy the activities which sometime stays there forever and he doesn't look beyond opening the package. So the aim is to simply spend time together, enjoy low paced days and learn in creative ways.

• Love without judgement. The trap of judging people without knowing them was not letting me see myself very clearly, I mean I would get mad if someone would judge me (and I come to know about it), though I never thought about it the other way round. Last year I met some beautiful people, who were so very welcoming and open minded, patient and amazingly good listeners (tolerating the talkative me is not easy). They have inspired me to commit to this intention this year deeply.

• Be myself and rock it. The pure Gujarati street food, 'Bhel' I made at a party that was dominant by  Americans, I was super excited for them to taste my home town dish (By the way, I love Texans' love for everything hot and spicy). Oh, I was sinking when people started to come around the serving area, looking at my dish (I knew, I screwed up with presentation + thinking of a street food at a party - which is loved at even weddings in India though) and passing by without picking up the plate, looking at it with strange eyes.  Then came this mom, who probably got my feelings, asked me how to put it together, I showed and boy! everybody was suddenly interested and loving it, I was asked for recipes. I realized, there is no need to change to blend in, people are very accepting of others as they are and of-course their food. 

• Read. Reading for J has changed my way of choosing a book for myself as well. I am forever grateful for the libraries in the US. I mean such a treasure they contain for everyone and about every topic. This year I intend to read at least one book per month for myself. Period. The list must include books by Janet Lansbury and RIE philosophy (I am falling in love with), Maya Angelou and Robin Sharma. I never accepted that one should ever raise a child by reading about it in a book and I was TOTALLY wrong. A book can simply give another perspective, offer another way to solve an issue, another reason to raise beyond self, another idea to implement, another commitment to make, another dream to dream, another hand to hold, another reminder to be and to live fully.  

• Choose kind words. Terry Ryan notes her moms words in her book, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, "There are so many interesting words to use, alone or in combination, that I don't know why anyone would fall back on one-syllable obscenities ('Negative words' - as I read it)." Being an emotional person, I always used to sink down at every occasion of sad words used for me, almost forgetting there are so many kind words people in my life have described me with. So the decision is made to model J of a kind person, who knows how to use right words with gratitude toward life and people called friends, family and strangers.