FunFelt Book

To satisfy my latest obsession with felt board, yesterday I finally found (surprise surprise coz we usually don't have such stuff here in Pakistan) and right away bought this extremely cute Felt story book "Monkey's Tall Story" by Keith Faulkner. It is illustrated by Jonathan Lambert and has more than 35 felt jungle figures.. initially I was not planning to show this book to M yet because i thought she is too young to understand the concept of creating a story as it is being told.Pluss it had animals that are small and in silhouettes So i was afraid she either wont recognise them or the large number wont let her concentrateBut I was surprised to see that she can actually recognize many animals and had a lot of fun creating her own jungle on the small felt board provided in the book while i read the story to her.
hmmm this just reinforced my interest to create a felt board for her!!
she even put the pieces back after wards isn't that neat !!!

Open and Close

This morning i introduced "open and close activity" to M . She already knows how to open and close simple stuff; that just needs pulling and pushing back, so i also included a few screw tops as well...though I fear this will make it difficult to deceive M in future ... (when she wants to open something and we want otherwise we pretend that we are pulling real hard and still its not opening) but that has to end eventually. and those screw tops were the ones she was more interested in.
Another thing that i introduced with this is the concept of proper "activity mat" I should have introduced it a long time back but to tell you the truth I was not sure how does it work or why was it so important.
First of all it helped giving a structure to the activity, it was much more focused and there was a definitely neat ending giving both of us opportunity to put things back so i guess it will reinforce the concept of tidying up once done * fingers crossed*And then there was this opportunity to pretend :) Here she is putting roll on deo and in the next one the essence bottle is her nail polish

Book Rack and Toy Corner

Well I am not much of an organiser my self and doesn't want to pass my bad habits to her M so I guess its high time we get organised and also start her early on it. So the first thing first have to put all my stuff back to there original places after use and the comes M's turn ...but where is the proper place to put her stuff !!!! the answer is "M's corner"we already had this great toy box that holds most of her toys and also serves as a vehicle and a home and God knows what in her pretend play
but her books and other stuffed toys still needed a place of their own. So here comes our nice and simple book/toy rack. It is a simple chip board box which still needs finishing, it is screwed on the wall right beside our computer table in lunge at a height convenient for m so she can pick books and puzzles whenever she wants to and has a proper place to put them back herself .... ( she still needs a lot of practice on the second one)now our toy box has an additional purpose its also a stool now
i am planing to rotate the books and other activities as our collection grows

Birdie by M (drawn on 1st Dec.)

Life really is like a joy ride ever since we got her in our lives.No day has passed since her birth that she didn't surprise us by something utterly cute and undeniably intriguing, we were still fascinated by her portrait and here she is with her BIRDIE .... don't know what to say about this one but sure it is as cut as M herself !!! cant take my eyes off this cute thing with her small beak ( which reminds me of my sweetie's pout) and the open wing ! The best part is that she knew what she was drawing (the flag on the right is drawn by irfan i guess)

Cool Finds

Finally i got this very very cute ticker from the ticker factory for our blog and i got another cute one for my facebook account too (i have been trying to get one for a long long time )
And there is more, i found two very nice sites brightly beaming resourse and Hubbard's cupboardwith all the curriculam planned, activities organised and guidlines set even i feel confident to home school....naaaa just kidding :) i dont really want to "home school" M, I am just trying to give her an enviornment that i hope and pray will inculcate the love for learning and knowlege in her ( blieve me its not as dull and boring as it sounds, its a lot of fun for the two of us ) and i guess thats what Maria montessorie's philosophy is all about.

First Portrait

This morning M surprised us with this drawing of this absolutely cute face, what was more interesting was that she named each part as she drew.... I..eys ( eyes) "mouth" and "Ed" head and finally "FACE"Well yes Irfan drew a lot of simple objects that she recognises most of them immediately like the other day he drew two wheels and a triangle and M cried "CikhaAl" (bicycle). A child's profile is also visible in the upper half of the page with M's rendering ofcourse :) Yet non of us has ever asked her to draw anything specifically exept for the eyes coz she always draw these small spirals and cal them eyes.... so i didnt really pay attention first when she said Ieyes... but was totally awestruck when i saw what she was doing
And when the drawing was finished she had to color it ...right!!! so these strokes are actually an attempt to "colol" (color)ruined my immediate plans of getting it framed :(

One New Addition

to M's Toy chest is this3 colorful wires threaded with multicolored wooden beads I guess its best for fine and gross motor skills and also an unexpected trigger for her imagination.... i was surprised when i heard wruummmm WRrrRummm... wRUUUm..... coming from M... Oh my!! she was pretending these beads as cars on road or at least it appears so :) but what ever it was , it really was a shock!
she has also started recognising and naming some colors pPhink is always accompanied by Ello (yellow)
She even loved its bigger model in the shop but i am obviously content with this lil one :) Serving its purpose right I guess.

M's Basket Ball

Irfan introduced this "basket ball" game to M a few days ago and she is so much into it that this laundry basket is now M's favorite toy :)

well we didn't actually "made" anything its just giving a new meaning to the same old stuff at hand..... the game is multi layered, we take turns , or else M plays alone we can set a spot to through the ball from a distance or she can just pop the ball in at the count of 3.... its what i call creative hehe... its Fun and its Free!!

Round Up of a crazy month

So here we are after a whole month... whole month of craziness....
college... trips to market and tailor and adda walas and again college..... assignments.. and get together and to top it all the craziness of being a mom
Never the less it was a month full of fun, will put up pictures about that from time to time (ya I am planning to update this post from time to time) so keep popping in for wedding pics and a whole lot of activities from this month!!

Toddler Theme Thursday

Although i know we are late for this post but here is the account of our very first toddler theme Thursday with "black and white animals" never the less.
We overlooked the animal part for most of the time. Despite the fact that she is a great painter M doesn't know the names of the colors except for ED * red* and i think this week's theme is a great way to introduce the names of the two colors, " white" and "black" .
To start with I kept pointing out at things that are in either black or white from time to time and this eventually turned into an i spy kind of a game with asking which color is which"

Then came the part that M liked best "Drawing " yes with black and white or rather white ON black. For this I used a black textured chart paper and white chalk the only thing that M didn't like was the chalk being broken again and again our "black an white" master piece

The third activity was more of my satisfaction than hers :) we did lacing for that .... YES Finally we made a lacing penguin!!! I was waiting for an opportunity to introduce lacing/sewing to her and it was fun. The procedure is simple I drew a penguin,round pot bellied work for me (you can get thousand templates on line if you want!!!) according to that drawing I marked and cut one large and one small black circle, one medium size white circle, two wings in black and two white circles for eyes one triangle for beak and two feet in yellow.Then came gluing n pasting and for the first time M was introduced to glue (mommy's pride she didn't try to eat IT!!!) i glued them all on a mount board the outline of penguin is then cut into mount board and finally the wholes were punched all around the outer edge. The white shoe lace completed it off... simple ! As we were doing lacing/sewing for the first time M couldn't follow the sequence and it was taking her ages to pass the lace from single whole :) so a lot of praising goes with it and she didn't bother to complete the circle either..... but that's Fine I guess!!

Transferring Lentils 10-17-08

It is a saved draft from last month that i am putting up now

Introduced this work to M today and i was quiet sure that she'll like it as she likes to transfer her food form one dish to other and to her glass during lunch times.

she did prety good job for 10-15 min. but after that the lentils were all over the place as was expected :)
though she is pretty well at coordination we'll sure do it again its a lot of fun for her and she still needs to practice her learned skills

An Amazing Blog

hi guys I have found yet another exiting blog on kids activities .... mind you its not toddler stuff but our younger siblings or older kids will definitely love this one there are so many mind stimulating activities ,in fact i think even I can give it a try, looks like a lot of fun. Its called "Think " and yes it will make u THINK . Just check it out
http://kidswhothink.blogspot.com/

First Patterns

I think this one doesnt need any explanation!! like drawing blocks are part of our daily routine (Infact they are almost always out)


These pictures were taken on sept,18th 2008

The Messy Messy Vege Printing or is it Painting ???

well i need to consult the so called gatekeepers of ART for that ............. na don't have time for that crap so be it art or craft it works for me either way :)

master piece

It was our last fun Activity on Eid Day before M went to bed it started off pretty neat with simple blocks made out of veges. I wont go into the details coz everyone knows how to do it. the new thing was the color pads I didn't want regular stamp pad as they come in the most boring color of all so I created two stamp pads of my own. for this we just needed two poster colors and some spare cotton fabric and of course two plates. Initially I used tissue paper to make the pads they are important to control the runny paint but it didn't work out properly then I tried out some waste fabric folded into small pad and WOW it was amazing. it soaked the color so well and didn't tear and didn't dry out as fast as the tissue. Then I showed M how to put the veges block first into the stamp pad and then onto the paper; One... Two... Three... (dip dip dip)... on paper! but for M it was more fun with One... Two... Three... (dip dip dip) ... and on paper paper paper paper..... till all the color came out It went on for quiet some time till M decided to paint with the pads as well and then with her hands :) it was messy but FUNwell the artist is signing her work .... hehe she cant help drawing with the pen

but i sure need to get her an apron soon :/

First Day Of Eid

This post is exclusive for the Eid Day Activities and the one and only goal was to have fun! and a lot of dressing up too ;)

sorry I didn't take the photos kind of step by step but it sure was fun watching M today. Her getting Dressed so early and so enthusiastically. For First Day Of Eid she had a gharara set complete with bead work,matching bangles,earrings, a cute dupatta, and matching silver sandals..... what more could a Lil girl ask for ( well she didn't even ask for this :p It was All Mommy's fancy come on ITS HER SECOND EID )

and the missing items were filled in by her cute friends Ummiya and Rayha who gave her a cute lil bag and this very pretty necklace with some stick on hair accessories ( which sadly didn't stick to her short and unruly hair). What amazed us most was that throughout the day she didn't once ask to remove any of the accessories so i assume that like all silly girls she likes to dress up :)

she even took her morning nap all dressed up !!!

and here is a fun picture to complete it all, M is obsessed with mirrors and tooth brush these days so after dressing up she thought it might be a good idea to brush her teeth...... (well in front of the mirror it didn't seem that a bad Idea ...kyoon Miral) lol then in afternoon we went to visit nana, nano and hassan mamoon here are some shots in their

At Nana's place we did a lot of bird watching, building blocks loads, loads of baby TV the best of all was counting and building towers with Apples !!!

we wound up our day with a very interesting block / vege printing that we tried for the first time but that deserves a separate post so

Happy Eid To All !!!

Temperamental Differences

Today I want to share few very interesting articles regarding behavioral development and its effects. I believe that Parents feel more effective as they more fully understand and appreciate their child's unique personality because it appears that "When parents understand how their child responds to certain situations, they an learn to anticipate issues that might present difficulties for their child. They can prepare the child for the situation or in other cases they may avoid a potentially difficult situation all together".I accidentally came across this article "Different Strokes for Different Folks" while searching for toddler development (though this article is originally posted in tween and teens label and as a mom of a 19 months old I hardly go to areas labeled with age groups above preschoolers.)

And this was so fascinating that i actually ended up searching for the "9 temperamental traits"

and then their are other titles like coping with your child's personality in the same page that are really helpful!

happy parenting!!

Fancy Pens

well this is not perticularlly a montessori inspiered activity yet as i believe in what maria montesori believed "seeing becoms reading and touching becomes writing" so i labeled it montessori, in fact its not even a planed activity. yet it is somthing that M loves to do at any given time of the day (or even night) and this cute addition to M's beloved stationery is all around the place now!!!

these cute "burrrds" and "haarts" ballpoint pens were gifted by Asma Mos this weekend and since then M asks for them every 5 minutes or so, and now they are out with her sketchbook or any spare paper all the time..... eating , playing with blocks, laying on floor, relaxing ,sitting, watching Baby TV......any time

what interests me most is the fact that she is not apparently fascinated by the soft fathers or the birds or hearts, though she mentioned "burrrds"once or twice in the beginning but after that she didn't touch it didn't play with it, even doesnt seem to notice them while drawing.... strange!

and with a ban on crayons;.... (ya you heard it right! she is not gonna use crayons for some time now all thanks to her taste buds..... she cant resist the tasty yummy (yukky) crayons) this fascination seems to last a bit longer.