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, balance, topple!

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.                            

Anya's Animal Themed Birthday Party - Food & Fun

To make the menu sound more fun, I tried to give wild names to the dishes. Here's a peek at the menu :

1. Jungle juice - juice and soft drink
2. Beetle wings - potato chips
3. Animal crackers - mathri
4. Bhaloo cutlet - veg cutlet
5. Corn whale - corn bhel
6. Paw bhaji - pav bhaji
7. Wormy doodles - noodles
8. Dragon dhokla - khaman dhokla
9. Golden eggs - mini gulabjamuns
10. Forest fruitsticks - assorted fruits on a toothpick
and of course....a cake!

Jungle menu card

 I had these zebra and leopard stoles which came in handy. I just thew a transparent plasic table cover over these and a perfect backdrop for animal theme was ready.

I made these mathris in mini animal shapes. Kids loved it. 

In keeping with the theme, I planned following games:

Feeding the monkey: I covered a wire-planter with a paper cut-out of  monkey and hung it on a wall. A tennis ball, which was supposed to act as a banana was given to kids .They had to throw this 'banana' inside the 'monkey's mouth'.

Guess the animal: Anya's Papa prepared a slide show with different paw prints. Kids had to guess the respective animal. The one who gave the maximum correct answers won a prize. Even parents participated whole-heartedly and we had a lot of laughs with the guesses. 

Tip: A variation could be guessing animal sounds.

'Jungle me mangal' dance: This is a classic newspaper dance where each kid had to pair with her Mom and dance on a newspaper sheet without stepping out. As the music stopped, the sheet had to be folded into half and the dancing would resume. This brought out all animal instincts in participants and drew a lot of laughter. Both parents and kids had a gala time. I am a child at heart and always like to participate in games etc. So I was keen for games for parents too.

You are caged: This game was done twice - once for Moms and then for kids. It is a version of musical chairs. Moms formed a circle and had to pass a hoola-hoop through themselves before passing it on to the next Mom. Music played all along. When music stopped, whoever was left holding the hoola hoop had to do a small act and go out. The one who was left last, was the winner and got a prize. 

After repeating this game with kids, we headed to burst the pinata. Kids loved collecting candies, erasers, pencils and nuts.

We then had cake cutting followed by dinner.

Anya's Animal Themed Birthday Party - Lion Cut Out

I wanted to do an animal, preferably a lion cut out. The idea was to paint whiskers on kids and then take a picture at the cut out. I gave some thought to this matter and came up with a brilliant idea. I say it's brilliant because I could do one of my favourite things in the world - reuse:) Let me elaborate. I had these surf boards from last year's Hawaiian themed party. Yes, I'm a hoarder and nothing gives me more pleasure than to reinvent stuff.

I took away the hibiscus flowers (those of you who know me well, would have guessed it...I have saved them too!!), and started contemplating. It struck me that these surfboard colors were perfect for a lion - I wouldn't even have to repaint! 

I drew  the lion's face on the rust board and the torso on orange one. Then I cut them out with a pair of sharp scissors. The face was joined to the body with allpins and toothpicks. To support the lion, I placed a bamboo pole behind it.

I retrieved the grass from my friend's work. As the color had faded, a green coat was done and it looked as fresh as new. I placed the grass at the lion's feet, which also saved me the need to draw the lion's paws! Yeah, smart me:) I also gave a fresh coat to the lion's body and face.

I had a wish to use this IKEA leaf as a prop somewhere in the decor because it was so apt for the jungle-animal theme. I placed the lion under the leaf. The way it all came together was fantastic. 

I fell in love with the lion and so did my guests. It's another matter that, ironically, I had a tough time keeping the lion safe from kids:) 

It was very satisfying to make this cut out and to know that kids enjoyed it so much!

Anya's Animal Themed Birthday Party - The Decor

I chose this theme partially because there were some drawings from Anya's first birthday which fitted the theme. My sister-in-law is quite an artist. She, along with my niece, had made these lovely animal sketches which came in handy.

Snails on a trail

Merry mushrooms

Friendly frog

Buzzing bees

Their labor of love shines through.Though I like all drawings, my favorites are frogs and mushrooms. They are so bright and cheerful, my spirits soar every time I look at them.

A friend of mine was kind enough to lend a set of animals from her daughter's birthday party. She is another excellent artist. Ain't I lucky to have such family and friends!Check out these brilliant animals:

She used colored sheets for making these animals. There was no painting involved though there was a lot of cutting and pasting. She used a double sided tape to stick spots, stripes, ears and eyes. How lovely the animals look!

I made an arch with all these animals and put the birthday banner in middle. I wanted fresh palm leaves in my decor to give a jungle look. Luckily, I found freshly cut palm leaves with the gardener and got them home. The good thing about palm is that it doesn't wilt fast. So I prepared the arch of palm leaves a day in advance. They held well with simple cello tape.

Animals gathered at Anya's den to celebrate

What was my contribution to the wall? I made the banner and enjoyed doing it.

Anya's Animal Themed Birthday Party - Birthday Banner

For the last two birthdays, I had used a store bought banner. This time around, I wanted to make one.(As other decor was taken care of, I had time to go into other details). Google gave enough ideas and my heart was set on making a pennant style birthday banner with animal spots and stripes. I finally made it and was quite happy with the way it turned out.

I chose white and rust colored sheets.White was an obvious choice for zebra stripes. Rust was apt for giraffe and leopard spots. The steps to create this spotty, stripy banner are simple:

• Take any thick sheet. Draw a triangular pennant measuring 8.5 inches at the top and 10.5 inches on each side. Cut out one pennant and using this as a stencil, cut out the rest. I made 6 white and 7 rust pennants: 6 for zebra stripes, 4 for giraffe spots and 3 for leopard ones. I did not include Anya's name in the banner. If you want to paint your kid's name, get ready to make more pennants.

• Using a circular shape, trace a circle in the middle of each pennant. This is for writing the birthday alphabet.

• Draw spots and stripes. Paint them using acrylic colors. If you are comfortable, you can paint directly without drawing first. I wasn't so confident, so I drew them first and then colored.

Leopard spots

Zebra stripes

Giraffe spots

The coming together of banner

My hard work paying off

There it is!!

4. Let them dry. Glue a string at the back of pennants and voila! Your customised animal themed banner is ready.

The final look

It was a lot of fun doing the banner. There is something about DIY which gives satisfaction like little else. While making the pennants, I could picture lithe zebras grazing in savannah, languid giraffes munching from trees and agile leopards stalking their prey. So much so, it has left me longing for an African safari! I hope my wish gets fulfilled soon:)