Picture Courtesy: Flickr - PPDigital 

Some ways to have fun with ice cubes:

1. Place ice cubes in two separate Ziploc bags, and place one near the window sill, and the other on a table.  Which cubes begin melting faster?
2. Place ice cubes in a Ziploc bag, and let her use a small hammer (carefully) to crush the cubes.  Let her open the cubes and see the results of her handiwork. Explain about force.
3. Color some ice cubes using juice of strawberries, blueberries, oranges etc. and let her sort by color.  Then, let her suck on the cubes.
4. Place some ice cubes in a Ziploc bag, and let her place the bag on various objects around the house – a book, a steel bowl, a glass.  Let her place the bag on each object for 10 seconds each – which ones get colder faster?
5. Experiment with the quickest ways of melting an ice cube – keep it on the table, keep it in a bowl with a tight lid, keep it near the stove, keep in a ladle and hold over fire…
6. Freeze little plastic bugs in cups, and have fun with it. Or freeze a trinket in a cup of water. Let her figure out how to thaw the ice really quick to get to the trinket.  To make it a game, time hwo fast she can get her hands on the trinket.

Enjoy!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you!  Hug your kiddies a little longer today, and enjoy your special 24 hours!

Photo Courtesy: Flickr- Adwriter

Some cheery news to end the week with.

A Harvard researcher has conducted a study on married couples and happiness,  and he’s come up with the conclusion that married couples are happy - only as long as long as they don’t have kids!  Once kids enter the picture, all happiness, according to his distinguished brain, flies out the window to return home only when the brats have left home.   Here’s the article.

He says, and I quote…

…parents’ desire to get a return on the time and money they have invested in their children is part of the reason they persuade themselves that their offspring are enhancing their lives.

There’s more enlightening wisdom.

Money was part of the reason couples believed their children brought them happiness.    Psychological studies have shown that people appreciate products more if they pay more for them.

And, yet more words from the Buddha…

“We pay for (children) in time, attention, blood, sweat and tears - what kind of idiots would we be to devote all of that to the rearing of our young if they’d didn’t bring us some happiness?”

Gee, I didn’t know I was that miserable.  And here I was thinking my child enriched my life in ways money couldn’t measure.  I think I should go shoot myself.

Am I over reacting?  Do any of you feel this way?  Of course, being a parent isn’t always  a bed of roses, and as adolescence looms on the horizon, there are doubtless many more tear-your-hair-out moments ahead,  but to say that having kids decreases your happiness…?!!

Keep a Game and Art Box on hand for your preschooler to entertain himself. Fill a shoe box, or other cardboard box with art materials, puzzles and other games, and keep it away for a rainy day - literally! When the weather is too bad to play outside, simply drag the box out, and let your child explore. These boxes are also great to send with your kids when they go to visit their grandparents.

Here are some of the things you can include:

• Picture puzzles
• Humpty Dumpty puzzles. Cut out an egg shape from cardboard, and paint on a pair of eyes, and a big brown belt in the middle. Cut into pieces - the younger the child, the fewer the number of pieces. Drop the pieces in a small ziploc bag, and into the box.
• Wash and cut out pairs of juice box fronts - pair up different flavors, and mix all these up in a ziploc bag. Drop this into the box too.
• Cover bottle lids with stars and hearts stickers on each, and put these into another bag. She can match these in pairs.

To take care of art supplies, throw in(in separate ziploc bags)

• wrapping paper pieces
• craft foam pieces
• pieces of felt
• paints and crayons
• glue,
• glitter gel
• stickers
• satin ribbons
• craft shells

You probably can’t have messy crafts supplies to occupy your child on a long drive, but you can have crayons, marker pens etc.. Stick a piece of clear plastic on the inside of a blank paged book, to form a pocket. Throw in a few crayons and markers in there, and keep the book in the dashboard. Pull out when you need a break from that non stop chatter.

Enjoy!

“There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.”
- Walt Streightiff

When it comes to preparing your preschooler for the big bad classroom, there’s really no need for a fixed curriculum per se. The world is his classroom, and everywhere you turn, there are opportunities to learn through play. Here are some ways to convert everyday routines into learning experiences.

English

1 - Look for alphabets everywhere – let her search for her initials on cans and packs in the supermarket, on license plates, on store signs and billboards, traffic signs etc.

2 - Play I Spy Games that require her to look for objects that begin with a letter inside the house or garden.

3 - Practice language abilities all the time, every single day. What is the color of that girl’s dress? What are the letters on that traffic sign ?

4 - Enrich her vocabulary by constantly pointing out objects and things. Start with the things they love -animals, birds, fruits and vegetables – and follow up with household items, shapes, water bodies, vehicles.

5 - Write names of objects around the house on index cards, and stick them on these –doors, windows, bed. Point these out often.

Math

6 - Look for numbers everywhere – on cans in the super market, ion book, the telephone directory, newspapers, license plates etc.

7 - Count and often – how many people are standing in the bus stop? How many yellow flowers are there on that tree? How many coins does it take top buy a candy bar? How many steps does it take to get to the car?

8 - Do plenty of sorting activities at home – sorting is great practice for counting. Forks and spoons, a mixed bowl of peas, dried beans and pebbles, laundry sorting – all these can be used for great sorting activities.

9 - Sing counting rhymes together, and often.

Social Studies

10-Watch movies with an international theme. Mulan is a great start.

11- Experiment with various cuisines – Chinese, Spanish - and talk about those countries.

12- Do flag crafts. Paint one on paper or make one out of fabric.

13- Make model towns out of empty milk cartons and shoe boxes, and label them – fire station, hospital, library etc.

14- Include toy cars and trucks in play, include boats in the bath tub, and talk about how they help in transportation.

15- Play shop – set up a store, have fake money and let her sell you stuff.

Science

16- Blow bubbles. Use little jars of bubble solution with blowing rings. Add food coloring to make colored bubbles.

17- Make a weather chart. With your help, a preschooler can learn to read temperatures with an outdoor thermometer with large numerals, and record them in a record book.

18- Change activities according to the season. During rainy days, puddle jump, look at the difference in the sky and cloud formations, and monitor the movement of rain drops on your window pane. During summer, measure his shadow at different times in the day at the exact same spot. In winter, make a snowman together, or make snow angels.

19- Visit a zoo or a farm close by.

20- Make a day trip to the museum.

21- Experiment in the garden. What happens to plants that are not watered or are faced away from the sunlight?

22- Experiment with magnets. What objects do they stick to? Can she lift small objects with them?

23- Experiment with mirrors.

24- Have fun in the kitchen – measure rice, sugar

25- Teach her about personal hygiene and nutritious food.

26- Make snacks or schedule making dinner together.

Second Languages

27- Sing foreign language songs. Spanish ones are always great fun.

28- Teach single words in a foreign language – words that can be used regularly like adios, or emotional ones like J’taime.

If you need ideas, check out

Preschooler’s Busy Book: 365 Creative Games & Activities To Occupy 3-6 Year Olds

There are plenty of activities in there. They are not particularly ingenious, but they are non fussy, easy to do and easy to set up, and inexpensive.

Enjoy!

So Melitsa asked me this question:

We sit around the table for our meals. I have a 5 yr old, a 2 year and soon to be born little one. Can you give any tips for starting points of what to talk to the kids about?

Here are some ideas:

1. I can’t resist the opportunity to enrich vocabulary at the table – point out new foods that she’s unfamiliar with.
2. Talk about her day – what she did, where she went, what did she play there?
3. Introduce a new word to describe foods – delicious, scrumptious, tasty, yummy, delectable.
4. Ask her what was the absolute worst thing that happened to her that day and the absolute worst.
5. Ask questions about foods, cutlery. Is that a blue pudding? Is this a round plate?
6. Introduce her to taste words – spicy, sweet, bitter.
7. Ask questions that encourage creativity – if you were an apple, what color would you be?
8. Fantasize about her dream dish, with all her favorite ingredients – sugar, her favorite fruits, her favorite choice of meat etc. The end result won’t be palatable, but it will make her smile.
9. Ask her to bring a favorite object to the dinner table – it could be a favorite toy or picture, something from her nature table, a book, anything. Now ask her what’s so important about the object and why it means so much to her.
10. If you can, choose a theme for dinner. Maybe an upcoming family event or reunion, or a vacation. It’s easy to get kids talking when they feel like they are participating in adult events.
11. Select a day as Dress Up for Dinner Day and ask your kids to dress to the hilt – tiaras, feather boa, clutch. Help them get ready in all their finery, and include the costume as the central theme at dinner time. Why did she choose that dress? Who is she tonight? What kind of jewelry is she wearing?

So, what do you talk about with your kids at meal times?

When you’re stuck somewhere with an impatient preschooler to entertain, play these games to save your sanity:

1 - Play a game of What If?

• What is our pet was an elephant?
• What if horses could fly?
• What if you were Mommy?

2 - Play a game of This or That. Give her a choice of things to choose from

• Cats or dogs
• Vanilla or chocolate
• Walking in the rain or playing in the sun
• Swing set or see saw

3 - Ask your child to stand a distance away and throw a soft plastic ball at him. Shout the name of a body part just before you throw the ball. For instance, leg, head, etc.  She has to use that body part to hit the ball.

4 - Play a body part game. Start with her eyes. Let her tell you a few thing she can do with her eyes – see, blink, squint. Continue with other body parts.

• With his hands – clap, shake,
• With his legs – walk, dance, run, kick etc.

5 - OK, So I ran out of boredom busters. Any ideas?

Picture Courtesy Flickr - Andrea Marutti

1. Place an empty tub or bucket, and sit with your preschooler a few feet away. Roll up colored socks and see who can aim socks into the bucket.
2. Fill each sock with shredded paper, leaves, sand, pebbles etc., and see which ones are heavier. Then, let her measure the exact weight on your weighing scale and note down the measurement.
3. Fill a sock halfway with sand, cut a hole in the end, and let her use the falling sand to draw on the ground – alphabets, numbers, patterns, shapes etc.
4. Lay out some sand in the yard, and fill a sock with some. Roll up the top into a knot and let her use her new “sock dozer” to make roads in the sand.
5. Sort into coloreds and whites.  Sort by family members.
6. Count a number of socks individually. Then, let her match them up into pairs, and count the pairs.
7. Place small objects inside a large sock – pebbles, leaves - let her put her hand inside, feel around and guess what the object is.
8. Paint a pair of eyes, and use as a sock puppet.

Enjoy!

Three days of computer problems, and I am finally getting back on track.

Make your kids’ birthdays even more memorable by adding birthday traditions to them. A tradition is something that you will repeat every year on her birthday, making for a lifetime of memories. Here are a few ideas:

1. Begin the day with a special breakfast for your birthday boy or girl, with all their favorite foods. Yes, ice-cream and pizza in the morning. Why not?
2. Write a letter to your child on each birthday. These will become wonderful keepsakes to give when she leaves home. Write down all the things that you’re so proud of. You’ll find the list grows as she gets older.
3. Save a copy of the newspaper on her birthday – this collection will make an interesting gift to give when she turns an adult knowing what was happening on her birthday each year. My Birthday in History.
4. Have guests at her party write their names or scribble them into a white tablecloth. Preserve it.
5. Make a donation to a children’s’ charity in her name. It can be as small as you can afford. Let her know about it, that some one less privileged somewhere will be a little better off on her birthday. We do this every year for my son – our way of showing how grateful we are for him.
6. Plant a sapling on each birthday.
7. Each year, take a picture of her at the party standing by the cake holding a balloon with her age on it.
8. After the party, make a special photo album to send to grandparents. Stick the pictures, let her decorate and write messages to them. On one page, make a hand print. They’ll love seeing how she’s growing.

Do you do anything extra special that you follow every year?

This weekend, sing the song “Skip to my Lou” with your preschooler, and substitute the words, with the the names of animals and the sounds they make.

For instance,

Dogs in the kennel go bow wow wow…

Cows in the farm go moo moo moo…

Pigs in the sty go oink oink oink…

Use only animals and sounds she’s familiar with.

Enjoy!