Blog of Parag » Kids

Mehendi

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:30:26 +0000

Ashwini loves getting Mehendi on her palms when she gets a chance and the wedding we attended two weeks ago was no exception. She enthusiastically sat with the Mehendi crew to get her hands decorated. A couple of pictures of her Mehendi or “Mindy” as Adit likes to call it.

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Summer fun

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:58:00 +0000

We get a periodic newsletter from our childcare provider. A recent newsletter was about fun outdoor activities for kids. We love to go out for walks in woods and observe & collect all kinds of stuff. There are some wonderful ideas in this article to add more activities to walks. I am looking forward to trying out some of these on our next walk. Click below to read the full article.

More Walks
It’s sad that nearly every three- or four-year-old can identify the McDonald’s golden arches and a Taco Bell, and exotic animals like a tiger or whale, but cannot identify the plants and wildlife that live around them: snails and caterpillars, fir trees or maple trees, common weeds, flowers, and shrubbery. (Note, we may not be able to either, but noticing is the first step to all of us becoming more attuned to the world.)

Here are some more walk ideas:

Color walks
Look for all the colors you can see and make a color journal. Or, look for a particular color. Or make up something you have to do when you see a color — hop three times when you see purple, walk backwards when you see orange, etc.

Penny walks
At every intersection, flip a coin. Go right on heads, left on tails. If you get heads or tails twice in a row, go straight. With children 5 and up, talk about chance or keep track of the flips. Try and guess what it will be. Make a map of your trip.

Microclimate walks
On a hot day, go for a walk in sunny and shady areas, waterside areas, or breezy areas, and notice how the temperature is lower in the shade and even lower in shady areas with trees, or with a breeze off the water.

Animal and plant walks
Go on a “wanted dead and alive” walk and search for living things (insects, animals, plants) and once-living things — keep a journal or collect specimens. Distinguish between live and dead plant material and inanimate things, like stones or sand.

Wet walks
Walk in the rain, walk through puddles, and above all, get wet.

Architecture walks
Notice how houses are alike or different — size, shape, roofs, windows, doors, porches, landscape.

Car/truck walks
Notice how cars are alike or different, or look for convertibles, VW Bugs, or other distinctive cars or trucks.

Sharing Nature with Children
In his wonderful series of books on experiencing nature with children, Joseph Cornell writes that above all else, exploring nature is becoming receptive — feeling with every sense. In Sharing Nature with Children he offers these guidelines:

Teach less and share more: Besides telling children the bare facts of nature (“This is a mountain hemlock tree.”), I like to tell them my inner feelings in the presence of the hemlock tree.

Be receptive: Being receptive means listening and being aware.
Focus on the child’s attention without delay: Some children are not used to watching nature closely, so find things that interest them and lead them bit by bit into the spirit of keen observation.

Look and experience first, talk later: Smell the lilac, rub the bark, or listen to the rumble of the garbage truck, then have the conversation.

A sense of joy should permeate the experience: whether in the form of gaiety or calm attentiveness.

The world is an interesting place with lots of things to learn about. Children need to connect to the world and come to love the world. Parents are the best guides and mentors as they lead explorations into the child’s habitat. Without turning it into a rote learning classroom, we can venture out armed with fun games to attend to the world around us.

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Condition for playing

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:25:30 +0000

As we walked into Adit’s classroom this morning, Katie called out to him.

Katie: Adit, come here. Play with me. Sue put boats in the sensory table. You can have this blue one.
Adit: Are you going to kiss me?
Katie: No.
Adit: OK. I’ll play with you.

Oh, this boy has such rough life!

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Kite flying

admin — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 23:12:41 +0000

Adit flying his pirate kite.

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Veggie patch

admin — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:21:59 +0000

After taking a break for 3 Summers, we are back to growing vegetables this season. Kids were very enthusiastic about planting veggies and are talking about eating what grows in the garden. Lets see how it works out. We planted tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers and peppers.

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Protected: Picture day

admin — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:54:08 +0000

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Munchkins with Dad

admin — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:53:54 +0000

Sometime in April, Ashwini’s school hosted a breakfast for Dads called “Donuts with Dads”. It was followed this month by a breakfast for Moms called “Muffins with Moms”. Adit was miffed that his preschool didn’t have such breakfast with parent event. So, I decided to take him to “Dunkin’ Donuts” on the way to school when V went with Ashwini to her school breakfast.

Ashwini: Adit, I am going to have Muffins with Mom and you get to have Donuts with Dad.
Adit: No, I am going to have Munchkins with Dad. I don’t want donuts.
Ashwini: No, you must have donuts with Dad.
Adit: But, I don’t like donuts. I want munchkins with Dad.
Ashwini: But, that doesn’t rhyme. It has to donuts with Dad. D and D… get it? You can have munchkins with Mom.
Adit: No. I am going to have munchkins with Dad.

This went on for a few rounds and ended in both of them crying before we got into our respective cars and drove away.

At Dunkin’ Donuts, Adit made sure that he got 5 munchkins and chocolate milk. It was good fun chatting with him over breakfast as I got to hear some interesting things. Here are a couple of them…

- Drew has a pink comb. I think it is Emily’s but, he uses it too.
- Madi doesn’t come to school anymore and I don’t get to play with her. So, now I just stick to the other girls.
- Drinking all the milk is making me grow fast. Can you believe how fast I am growing? My hand gets bigger every 5 seconds and my whole body gets bigger every 10 seconds.

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know more

admin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:12:50 +0000

While driving to school:

Adit: You can use an elephant as a sprinkler.
Me: Really? How?
Adit: If you have a pet elephant but, don’t have a sprinkler, you can ask the elephant to spray water. That is just like a sprinkler. Did you know that, Ashwini?
Ashwini: Yeah. I knew that. Most of the time, I always know more than you do.

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Bathrooms

admin — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:42:48 +0000

Don’t know if all the kids do this… Every restaurant that we have ever been to, our kids –especially Adit– has gone to use the bathroom. It is almost as if he needs to go and check to make sure that the restaurant has a working bathroom. Along with him, I get to visit them too. Can’t wait for him to grow up a little so that he can do these visits on his own like his sister.

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What meal?

admin — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:50:18 +0000

We were at McDonalds drive-through picking up dinner for kids.

Adit: Did you get three bags?
Me: No. There are only two bags. Two Happy meals for you both.
Adit: Why didn’t you get three? One for each of us.
Me: I don’t like Happy meals. I’ll eat something at home.
Adit: What will you eat at home? Will it be mad or angry?

Took me a few seconds to figure out what he was saying.

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