Science in a Bag - (remove the egg shell without touching it )

Paper Lilies That Smell Nice Too

Today M and I had fun time making paper lilies and the fun thing is that you don't need a lot of supplies for it, at least not something that's not already available and they smell nice too. We started by tracing her hand, Coloring it with 2 different colors was M's IdeaThen I cut it around the out line. then M helped me roll them ( the palm) around the stems turning fingers into petals and taped them in place. We used colored pencils for stems as well Last but not least we rolled the petals out using pencils again.
And of course our secret!!! we sprayed the centers with our fav. perfume to make them smell nice :)
*There is another tip to make the smell last longer u can add some cotton on the top of the stem and then spray it ;)

Recycle Spring Hat !!!

Here is our Recycled Spring Hat ... though it has no direct connection with Pakistan Day yet I have a very strong feeling that introducing recyling at this age will eventually help make her a better Pakistani; that this is one GREEN activity ... what do u say??? This is what u need to make this cutie ( Oh no I am not telling you about my cutie...hehe)

1. Old news paper

2. Masking tape

3. Paints ( we used acrylics)

4. Crape paper to make flowers,or you can get sresh flowers, laces , bows and any other old or new stuff u fancy and a very funny kid who cant stand hiding behind paper :)

How To:

Pile up 2 full sheets on top of your kiddo's head in different direction, squeeze it down to form a crown,put masking tape around it. Repeat it for a few times to get a more stable hat. or you can pile up 3-4 sheets all at a time....but for that you need a more patient child that is rare to find these days :)

It would be a lot easier if u get adult help for this stage.

Yup its dark under it so quickly move to next step and put masking tape around the crown a few more times so that its secure enough then start rolling up the sides to make the brim. This is the stage where you can creat a lot of different styles. Then enjoy painting with the lil one. M enjoyed this part best.We chose bright yellow for the base . We need to paint it on both sides esp the brim.

Finally use bows , flowers stickers anything ur kid and u fancy to decorate :)
I made some crape paper flower that M love love loved so she told me where to put them and I just glued them in place. Then she told me to put up some sticker and glitter and Ribbons.... She is going to look so damn cute on her nature walk this evening :)

Do give me a shout if u like it and try with ur lil ones :)

Spring Hat!!!

This morning I got a massage on facebook from my good friend Anie. She needed some suggestions on her kids spring project, she has to make a spring hat and..... yup u guessed it right!!! that's what I needed :) She GAVE me the idea !!! M and I gonna make a cute spring hat on the 23rd as its a holiday here, though we should be doing a more patriotic craft as its "Pakistan Day" any way do come back to check :)

Story Blocks

This post is for those who are making or thinking of making cute ,easy, and quick gifts for their Lil ones. I made these as part of M's Eid Gift This will help kids with their creative thinking as well as develop turn taking and sharing ability. The original idea came from a very cute blog I visited quite a while ago (don't remember the name but they were hand painted and far cuter) But after much dragging the project I finally decided to do it my way :)
For these I got

• wooden blocks from a thrift store
• a cute book ( in some foreign language... that sure made it easy to cut )

Then sand the blocks smooth,cut images to fit the side and glue and you are good to play or gift wrap them

To play !!

You need two or more participants. The first one rolls the block and starts a story with the picture that comes on top, then the next one rolls it again and adds a sentence or two using the picture that comes on top. and so on.

Baba, and I had to play the game in front of M for the first few times to give her the Idea. Next she started rolled the dice for me and baba. And eventually after a few games she was totally into it. Now she makes stories better than ours :) I feel writing them down sometimes

Why I love this game !!!
Because each time you come up with a different story and the creativity of the simple block never ends
Variation
Try rolling two blocks together and try to come up with a sentence that has both the things in it.

Dance Show and Spiders

two of her latest masterpieces

the first one is babies "Dancing in a dance show"

and this one is "a spider stuck in the spider web"

This lead to some serious thinking....I think I need to narrate the storeies with these drawings as in writing them on the same page or on back side her thoughts are as intriguing as the drawings themselves.

what do you say???

Family Portrait... A Tutorial

made by M at 2.8 years of age :) want one too??? here is a simple how to....

Step one

Grab your Materials ...

1. paper (hundreds of them, new, used, recycled)
2. pencil/crayons or markers or anything to draw with

3. Child yours or anyone Else's (that's the prime ingredient)

4. love (note the more the better)

5. praise (at least a ton)

6. Attention 2Tbsp ( don't overdo it)

Step two.

put all the ingredients together and just let them simmer in your love.

Its done when your prime Material says its done

Please Avoid.

1. Criticism

2.Taking over and telling them what to do

3.Telling them what not to do

4.Pushing and demanding for results (color "IN" the lines)

5.Labeling the end product ( if the child says its you it IS you, not a dinosaur not an elephant but only you)

Do link to me when you post your results !!! happy drawing

Marble Painting

M and I did our first marble painting today , yes it was my first ever as well !!! Its simple and fun and now I wonder why did I wait so long to do it ...May be because I was afraid that I wont be able to stop her using/messing up her hands and fingers without being strict to her and that sure is one thing I want to avoid as much as i can. But I also wanted to show her that there ARE DIFFERENT ways to do and enjoy. and I think we pretty much succeeded.
To do it I measure and cut a piece of paper that fits in our cookie sheet, place the paper in then M put the ball on it.(yes we didn't have the marble so I used a small ball and it worked ) then I poured some paint on the ball and gave the cookie sheet to M to shake and move around. kept pouring more color as required and the results .....ammm really nice.

Toys She Likes Best

are pencils, markers, paints, brushes and a surface to paint and draw on of course, blocks, empty boxes, letters from old scrabbles (that my mom gave her),books ,babushka dolls infact all kinds of dolls, puzzles and ya her most favorite of all "a jambulon rectangle frame".
Irfan saw it in college junk yard and brought home thinking I might be able to use it for model making, little he knew it would become his daughters all time fav. It is her beach , it is her gate its her home and its her window a road for her cars and what not.
You need to see it hehehe its a funny pink frame with an 11 X 8 inches cut out from the center Ya our design major teacher Sir Ghanni was more than right when he said that kids prefer the boxes over expensive toys. Ever wonder why?
yup because their simplicity makes them versatile... just let a child look at it and it could be anything!!!

Nesting Blocks

Now that M is up early today and its our potty training day two I didnt want to sleep while she was up, so reintroduced the nesting cups and this time as with potty issue she seems to understand the concept so easily. Though a lot of practice both for her eyes as well as hands is still requiered its very very nice to see that she wants to use the cups in a fashion that they are actually designed for, does it mean that she has started understanding spatial concepts in the teeniest lil way along with many other benifits this activity offers including

1.Visual and small muscular perception of dimensions.

2. This awareness of dimensions leads to observation of the child’s environment.

3. Helps to make smoother and more coordinated movement.

4. Math readiness by introducing concepts of smaller, larger, prepares for the decimal and number system.

wow am I expecting too much from a simple toddler play ?

Can You Count on Your Fingers???

Sorry not our original pic but close enough to whats i am going to talk about (don't remember where i got this pic from or sure would have given the ref.)

Yup that's what we are practicing these days never thought it would be that a great challenge for little toddler fingers. And Its adorable to see her putting so much effort and concentrate so much to hold her little finger with thumb to raise the rest of three fingers to point number three :)

we have started practicing in the sequence from index finger to thumb like index finger is 1 , index and the next one is 2 , index and next two make 3 all fingers raised together 4 and the whole hand with all fingers spread makes five But now i am also thinking to start from the little finger as well

I am sure its a nice exercise for her hand muscles that will help in her small motor skills But its lots and lots of fun as well , as for every number we do the high five style clap and it gives her a special pleasure :)

Try it with your lil ones and do tell us about it !!

Hand Prints

Painting with hands ....and feet is our absolute fav. Here are some fun pics of my shrek :)

Sayyyyyyy Click

M is taking pics all the time these days so thought to share some here


ya its me and thats her very first one will update more soon

Milk Pack Tower

M loves making towers so every thing and any thing can work as blocks for us these days....

Green Day Collage

Presenting the first page of our color book

This is our second attempt on collage so far and not really bad if we compare the above collage to this... But it was not easy at all to get M to make one even after eight months.We really had to put in" efforts" to make this work attractive to her. I am glad though that at least she was interested in putting on glue to the paper (it was a bit difficult to take that away actually) and then she just pasted the leaf and she was done to finish the thing I had to place the pieces one by one asking my self "Were will it look good ?" "where should I put it?" REAL LOUD and then M would suggest a place and that's how we get here.
I didn't suggest the overlapping of pictures at any point and I am totally exited that it was purely her Idea

we'll try the recycled/junk collage in the morning... so do come back and check it out :)

Matching Sounds Bottles

Yesterday unexpectedly I found "the empty bottles" they are just the right size (that I was searching and searching for ages to make the Matching Fragrances Game) There were thousands of them bundled in this shop near the one we go every day for grocery and Yup never new they were there...... got them for 3Rs. each. But once they were nicely sitting on my kitchen counter that I realized, I don't have enough essences! So Instead I made a Matching Sound Activity.Traditionally these are called matching cylinders here you can check out how to introduce them. I made mine my way :)

To make these I used 8 bottles to make 4 pairs, simply wrapped the bottles, I used a wrapping sheet that had a striped pattern, to wrap up the bottles and screw top lids. For half of the bottles I used 3 toned patches and for the other half plain blue to complement them, then I used the regular punch to punch some matching circles to be glued on top to further dress them up. Finally poured 4 different types of grains ( make sure that they all vary in size and quantity) to make one pair of each. Now for every 3 toned we have a matching sound in the plain one. You can put in different things , like rice, small bells, wooden beads etc to make more distinct sounds!

Although I have seen a few similar activities with colored markings on bottom as a control of error I didn't put them under mine as the sound bottles have a fantastic built-in control of error

I love this super di duper game and so Does M, as she listened to them so enthusiastically, shaking them alternatively, making music. She is not interested in making matches yet.To me that is perfectly fine she is never interested in it (never puts things in pairs right or wrong) and I hope that will come eventually.
the best thing is that she is still working with them and making lots of music :)

I Love My Lil Helper

M and I made french toast today and yum yum yum they were Deeeelicious !!!
obviously I did the frying but M poured all the wet and dry stuff and mixy mixy mixy... She didn't like the idea of soaking the bread though coz it obviously hinders her mixing delight
and that reminds me of making an Apron and chefs hat for her ....... oops I am pretty LAZY

pics later!!

Paintingsssss

Yesterday M and I enjoyed painting on canvas.It was the first time that i introduced acrylics and canvas to her.She handled the medium pretty well it was very sweet that she arranged all the color tubes on mat while I was getting the other stuff ready. We started off with two 1x1 feet canvases I gave one to M and painted a green background on the other one. M just loves mixing things up so its was the same brush that went in each color and the same spot that was painted over and over in circles.I think she was fascinated by the mixing and the way it turned into a new color. Funny thing is that she can't resist water actually she tried to paint only with water so I had to remove it. Then came painting with her hands. What I initially intended were canvases with her hand prints one with her painted background as she has just turned 2 and another one with coconut tree for chicka chicka boom boom theme challenge and ended up with these which no doubt are even cuter. She is now obsessed with the idea of painting her hands and printing them

Color Sorting

Now that I just started getting worried about her color senses M finally displayed very good sense of color. Actually she never seemed interested in colors, while drawing she just picks up one color pencil or whatever medium and keeps on drawing with that and when I name any color she seemed oblivious or started reciting all the names that come to her mind. She never seemed interested in color sorting activities and today when I presented her with 4 plates with Red, Blue Yellow and green papers pasted in them and a tray full of colored balls (to my relief) she quickly sorted them out and she even named the colors :)
I think all the information was getting into that Little brain all that time but the "Balls" -her ultimate favorites- triggered it off. I read it on some Blog a while ago that the best way to introduce an activity is to incorporate the kids favorite theme/object with it now i am fully convinced :)

Matching Cards !!!

Wow!! finally i manage to create the matching card activity for M. It was on my agenda for quite some time now. They were supper easy to make I just got two identical wall charts and cut them up into cards and that gave me 15 pairs
You can pick up any theme, I choose "safety measures" firstly because it gave the best opportunity to introduce safety measures (we all die to inject into our lil ones :)) in a very friendly manner. Secondly all the other themes like; shapes, animals, Alphabets etc we already incorporate and stress on in almost all toddler activities that the the theme seemed quite novel to me. then it had cute illustrations that will definitely add her vocabularyThe only problem that I have is that some of the illustrations don't show what they are saying like the one that says "do not play with detergents and medicine" shows the kid that seems very happy playing with the stuff he is not supposed to. Or the one with caption "do not climb trees"First I loved climbing trees as a kid and would never want to stop M from doing so ( of course i would want her to be careful) Secondly it shows a very nasty kid poking a nest which is a different issue all together. so I might skip these.I am planning to introduce these in batches of 4 to 5 sets at a time and our first session will hopefully start this sunday. lets see what happens when we do so. fingers crossed ;)