1). રાજ: First time J sat with a jigsaw puzzle and spent over half an hour straight without asking me to join him was a miracle in itself. I mean, we are a team, no matter what we are doing, nothing happens alone in this house. To begin with our letter 'ર', I got this puzzle out representing, રાજમહેલ (a palace) and રાજકુમારી (a princess).
2). રંગ: There were lots of ways to explore colors.
J sorted buttons to match with felt pieces, previously used for other projects. Playing with buttons was a sensory play in itself. He has been loving sensory plays lately.
We learned what colors make purple and stamped with an eggplant. We also used white to see how it made the purple lighter every time we added it. Although stamping wasn't his favorite work, playing with colors was something he enjoyed.
He clipped pins on coordinating felt pieces. I personally love to see his finger muscles and hand-eye coordination getting better every time.
For the first time we learned to use a dropper. It was quiet a task to learn when to squeeze the top and when to release and patiently moving it to the destination.
3). રૂમાલ: I think we have half a dozen unused wash clothes lying in the drawer without any purpose. They are so tiny to be used for anything, but for this folding work, they were the perfect size. J enjoyed it so much, we found everything being folded into squares around us.
4). રસોડુ: Who doesn't like flipping through an IKEA catalog? Well, we do and designing our own kitchen was so much fun.
5). રેંટિયો and રૂ: Our miniature spinning wheel is one of J's favorite things to use. He was excited to make his own version. Later, we went on YouTube to see how cotton makes a thread in a spinning wheel and weaving threads together make clothes.
6). રાજ્ય: We checked out the the maps of India and the USA to find out where we are from, where his grand parents live and where we are living. J shows much interest in maps and atlas, he looks everywhere on a map to find out Texas (he can't figure out the USA though), Gujarat and India.
We did a pin poking work with our hand traced maps. It was too lengthy for him to work and lost interest after a while, so I thought he may enjoy stickers, but they were not fun either. We ended up with our cooperative apple maps (as J likes to name them) by switching in between pin poking and stickers together. It was fun, but I kept a note of keeping it to a simpler, smaller and well defined shape in the future.
By the way, the maps are stuck on a foam board and the pin is the largest size push pin from a stationary dept of our grocery store. Before starting the activity, I showed J the sharp end of the pin, invited him if he would like to feel it and asked him to always put it back to a bowl provided when not in use. (We needed some reminders but were safe until it was put away.)
7). Forming letter 'ર' using foam pieces. It was more complicated for J, than letter 'ઘ' we did before, so we worked on it together and finger traced the letter several times to feel the shape.
8). This beginning letter sorting work was something he picked up by himself. I have noticed, this is his favorite work with English letters as well. I thought, I was mimicking a red popsicle stick (as we use for Sunday in our today tray) for રવિવાર, but I realized soon, I wasn't.
10). રાસ: For our gross motor activity, we played રાસ, our favorite folk dance form. To be honest, Letter 'ર' was an excuse to play રાસ, we can play it anywhere, any time on a beat of ઢોલ...
And we concluded our letter 'ર'.
