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.