March, evenetful March

As March marches towards its conclusion, I have to admit, it has been a happy-happy month!
In the first week of March, we heard the unexpected news. Anya got admission into NPS-K.

Now all parents who have gone through finding the right school for their kids, would know the importance of getting admission into a school of their choice. If you are in Bangalore, getting into NPS is considered a big deal. There are parents who want nothing but NPS for their kids and try several tactics to get into one. Then there are others who don't bother about NPS as it is said to be highly academically oriented. We had taken the middle path. We just filled the admission form but took no pains to find out how we could get her admitted or try visiting the authorities. There are discussion boards dedicated to decrypting selection criteria of NPS. Nobody knows their criteria for sure but there are many guesses. I had heard that professionally qualified but SAHM is a positive. A financially well paying job for Dad also works in one's favour.

I can't comment on the selection criteria but here is what we are:
1. Me and my husband are both MBAs.
2. We are a single income family. My husband works in IT for an MNC.
3. I used to work earlier, but gave up my job after Anya.
4. We live 11 kms away from the school
5. Anya will be 3.9 years old when she joins LKG in June.
6. She went to a Montessori in neighbourhood and has finished her Mont 1- just today!

When I got the news, I just couldn't believe it! I was so happy. In fact, it felt like a huge achievement- as huge as when Dinesh got into IIM-A.

The weekend after this news, Anya performed in her first ever annual function. Now that deserves another blog post altogether. 

Bath time fun

Anya has always enjoyed playing with water and being in a bath. Though we don't have a fixed bathtub, she has a small plastic tub of her own. I make her tub ready with warm water, give her toys, empty bottles or natural material like leaves, pods etc. to play with and she can easily spend an hour splashing in water or filling bottles. But as she is growing up, things need to be jazzed up a little bit.  Here are a few ideas that I have tried: 

• Water polo: I made her sit in her bathtub, filled another small tub with water and kept it at a distance. Then I gave her a big rubber ball which had to be thrown into the smaller tub. She had fun aiming the ball. Sometimes she made it, sometimes she didn't but at all times, she had fun.This activity would be more fun with a sibling around as they could take turns to aim and field. With Anya being alone, I had to be around all the time to hand over the ball back to her. I like activities where she is self-dependent and I am free to do my stuff but anyway, it was good for a change.
• Sink or float: I gave Anya a few things like pebbles, leaves, twigs, ball, blocks etc. Then I showed her the concept of float or sink. She wasn't much impressed. I repeated the activity after a few days and she wasn't interested still but I am not giving up. After a couple of years of parenthood, you learn that nothing goes waste. It might seem that things are going unregistered but they always register. If you are consistent, kids surprise you one fine day by just uttering that word or demonstrating that concept.
• Water gun: Which kid doesn't like spraying water! Hand over a sprayer or a water gun and ensure endless hours of fun.With Holi just gone, water gun is already in bathroom. I will leave it around for some more time.
• Empty bottles: Give empty bottles of different shapes and sizes. It's better if they are transparent. Anya simply enjoys pouring water from one to another.
• Paper boats: I had forgotten how to make a paper boat. I learnt it from a friend and made one for Anya to float in her tub. Alas, the boat didn't last long! Anya sank it and the next I saw, she had turned it  into a soggy ball. At another time, I gave her a boat shaped pod and she had a lot of fun floating it around. She even put a few passengers in it and watched it float, topple, balance. 

While searching for more fun activities, I found these:

• Coloured ice: This activity is great for teaching colors. Anya knows her colors now, but she loves to play with ice cubes. So I am going to try this activity in summers. Planning to freeze ice using natural colors - beet root for red and mint leaves for green. You can use food colours too.Can't wait to see how she reacts to this special treat.
• Making rain: Give a strainer to kids. When they dip it in water and lift it up, there will be some rain....for dolls!
• Painting: What better place to create a mess than a bathroom where you can wash your kid plus the walls immediately afterwards. Give some colors for finger painting, stick a few sheets on bathroom walls and let them have fun. 

I will keep on a lookout for more ideas and keep adding here. Have a fun-filled summer!

Fun way to learn - Vegetable Sorting

Kids just need attention and interaction. With a little imagination, any activity can be turned into play. Here is something I would like to share that worked so wonderfully one evening.

After shopping for vegetables and fruits, I requested Anya to help me put them away in fridge. She totally took charge of the chore and asked for bags for storing. She wanted an audience and I was more than willing to put up my feet. She patiently sorted brinjals, potatoes, shallots, carrots, coccinea, capsicum, cheeku, pomegranates and bottlegourd and placed them in bags or baskets. With this exercise, she not only revised her veggies and fruits but could also touch and feel them. She commented on the size of potatoes and shallots, observed if they were clean or dirty and felt if they were light or heavy. To sneak in some more learning, I asked her to count carrots. She counted them as she put them in a bag. After she had sorted and bagged everything, with a little help from me, she put them away in fridge. All the while she was doing this task, her only request to both me and my husband was to come and watch her. We all need attention and appreciation!

As a reward, she was given a carrot to eat which she relished. I was on cloud nine! She not only finished my chore, she also ate a carrot without any coaxing. This set me thinking, that apart from learning names of vegetables and fruits, this simple chore could be used to build many other concepts:

• Colors and shapes - Ask kids to separate everything on the basis of color.
• Ascending and descending order - Kids can be asked to arrange carrots according to their length.
• Comparisons - Ask them to select three potatoes and tell which is big, bigger and biggest. Let them lift a coccinea, a tomato and a bottlegourd. Ask about heavy, heavier and heaviest. 
• Basic arithmetic- Counting, more and less, addition, subtraction etc. can be practiced as appropriate for age. 
• Guessing- This can be played in multiple ways. Depending on your kid's age, you can blindfold her and let her feel the vegetable. If she is able to guess, give a high five. If she isn't able to guess, give hints. (Anya calls a hint as a 'reason'. When she is stuck at answering, she cutely says 'Papa, give me a reason') For e.g. for a tomato you can say, it's round or oblong, it's red when ripe, it is juicy, it is sour, you love it, it has many seeds.....
• Stories - I recently read a story called 'The Stone Soup'. This story can be perfectly enacted using all varieties of vegetables. Click here to read the story. Arm your little one with a pan and you all can take turns to be villagers contributing vegetables!
• Role Play - Ask your kid to be a green grocer and you can be a customer. Go shop for 5 tomatoes, 7 onions and so on. For little older kids, you can include prices too. 
• Painting - If you are game for some mess, you can indulge in veggie painting. Ladyfingers are my favorite stencil and beetroot water, my favorite color. You can try painting with capsicum, cauliflower, beans, mushrooms, corn, peppers.....

The bottomline is, the kid should be having fun. Let her lead and just play along. If you find an opportunity, introduce any of the above concepts. Books and charts are fine but this is a more interesting way to learn about vegetables and fruits.

Do you also have fun with veggies and fruits? It would be lovely to hear more ideas. 

Anya's Animal Themed Birthday Party - Return Gifts

That eternal question.....to give or not to give return gifts? If yes, what to gift?

I battled the first question and reached the conclusion that till the time I don't say 'No' to accepting gifts, I can't say 'No' to return gifts either. So the only question was what to give. I had decided last year that gifts had to be meaningful and environment friendly. Since this was a jungle-animal theme, a plant would have fitted the bill perfectly. But it was red flagged by hubby and my sis-in-law. They felt that such young kids wouldn't be thrilled with a plant. So I went ahead with my next idea: books on animal themes.

As for return gift bags, I couldn't find any paper bags which were economical. Last year, hubby dear had done an excellent job of making paper bags. I wanted him to put to use his knowledge again. He tried his best to wriggle out but as the D-day neared, he resigned to his fate and armed with a pile of newspapers, gluestick and a pair of scissors, he made these 18 return gift bags. Attaboy!

Then he took animal face print-outs which Anya helped him color.

There was no need to put handles as the bags didn't need to hold anything heavy.