This awesome book Gajapati Kulapati is a hit among children undoubtedly! My 20 months old son loves it too!
I conducted a quick storytelling session at Little Wings International Preschool, Pune, as a part of their Diwali celebration. I interacted with playgroup & nursery kids. All of them loved the story & its sounds - Aaaaaachoooooo! Pachaaaak! Umbhaaaaaaa!
Some pictures of the storytelling session below :)
My 20 months old son loves books! And I make sure to introduce him to books related to the ongoing theme or festival so that he absorbs the essence of it. Book reading is a ritual in our house. There is no day that goes without reading books. We have bookshelves in each of our rooms!
Here are some Diwali theme books specially meant for toddlers, have a look inside the books in this video!
Diwali vacation is approaching, lots of travel planned & fearing how to keep your toddler engaged during the travel?
Here are some Montessori inspired busy bag ideas that I compiled for my then 17 months old son. We took this busy bag to our vacation & we never had a difficult moment during air & road travel & in the hotel room!
Watch the video to get some ideas for your busy bag!
Choosing a mosquito repellant is not easy for a mother of a baby or a toddler! There are thousands of questions in our minds. Will be safe for the baby? Is it too harsh for the baby’s tender skin? Will the vapours cause discomfort? Which form of mosquito repellants (cream, spray, vapouriser etc.) should I use? So on & so forth. I found this newly launched product “Good Knight Fabric Roll-On“ mosquito repellant. I quickly started using it for outdoor protection. I have been using the product for last two weeks and have been very happy with the results. My review for this product has been featured on Indian Moms Connect. Click HERE to read.
I exclusively cloth diaper my son, no disposables! I have been using cloth diapers since he was a newborn. He is 20 months now & I have not used more than may be 30 disposables till now, which includes travel times, and we have traveled a lot with him, believe me. I have happily cloth diapered him during my vacations as well.
Recently, I used this awesome cloth diaper called MARVY from the Cloth Diaper Shop (CDS) for my son's night time diapering needs. And I must say my quest for an AWESOME NIGHT TIME DIAPERING SYSTEM ends here!
Before MARVY, I was using bamboo squares & bada hemp inserts from CDS again for night time diapering. Check them out, they are very good too! CDS has a huge collection of various other kind of cloth diapers that you can use during day times. And the person behind CDS, Poornima is super helpful to guide & help you select a cloth diaper according to your needs & budget.
CDS Social Connects -
To browse through their cloth diaper collection, visit CDS website HERE.
They also have a closed group on facebook where moms share their cloth diapering journey & people help each other in any kind of troubleshooting. CDS also posts about new offers & updates in this group. Click HERE to visit the group.
Here is my review of MARVY. Hope this is useful for you in deciding the right cloth diaper for your child.
Festivals are a great time to bond with kids as a family. It is equally important to teach our kids the real essence of the festivals. If you are looking some fun & educational activities to do with your child this Diwali, here are a bunch of Montessori inspired ideas!
Diwali, the festival of lights, the biggest festival of Hindus in India, it does not need any more explanation. We all enjoy the lights, diyas, food, sweets, new clothes, crackers, rangolis, Laxmi pooja and everything about Diwali.
This is my son’s second Diwali & he is 20 months old right now. Last year, he was too small for any kind of themed activities as such. So this year, I was so excited to set up the Montessori shelf for him. He keeps coming back to the shelf & asks for “ativity’, his version of saying activities!
The activities that I have designed, weave the cultures & traditions of the five days of Diwali festival, along with the Montessori principles & key areas of skill development.
And yayyy, I have finally set up Diwali theme shelf for my toddler. Have a look & do share what all activities you did with your child!
Check out the video, I am sure you can pick up some activity ideas for your child as well. Let the kids soak in the Diwali spirit!
My activities were featured on BabyChakra as well. Click HERE if you prefer to read & see pictures instead of the video.
A very Happy Diwali & a prosperous new year to all of you :)
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The Ganesh festival is an elaborate 10 day affair and celebrated very fondly in Maharashtra. Families bring home Ganesha's idol, decorate their house and perform the rituals before finally immersing the lovable God. Since the whole festival is filled with fun and celebrations, it’s no surprise that kids somehow have a special affinity towards Ganesha! They even instantly fall in love with Him, maybe because they find his appearance friendly & inviting?
Likewise, my 18 months old son is very fond of elephants, so much so that he even calls it 'ant'! Around Independence Day last month, I introduced him to some Gods that are worshipped in India, and Ganesha was one of them. He instantly fell in love with Him. So this Ganesh Chaturthi, I thought it would be a great idea to set up some Ganesha themed Montessori Inspired activities for kids his age.
Want to know more?
My activities were featured on BabyChakra. Click HERE to have a look!
It is never too early to introduce children to science. Toddlers with their curious minds are like little sponges, waiting to absorb everything they experience. And since science is all around us, why not introduce them to it early on? Watch this animal excavation activity that your child would love!
Science experiments need not be complex. Even something as simple as observing how salt helps to melt ice faster is an amazing experience for kids. So here is a fun way to learn this concept and have a gala time!
My son kept himself busy for so long in this activity that it gave me a much-needed breather. I even happily managed to capture his antics on the camera. He played, explored, observed, experimented and learnt a lot with this simple exercise.
Below is the video of the activity & in action :)
Click HERE to read the full account of this activity. It has been featured on BabyChakra!
Do not forget to follow "The K Junction" on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori & Waldorf inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!
Wondering which books to read to your toddler? Here are some recommendations!
Me & my toddler read a lot of books & I'm often asked which ones. So continuing in the series of toy/book/product recommendations, here is a new video.
I have curated a list of some Tulika Publishers books for toddlers from my personal collection of books. There are some must haves in this list! So go ahead & fill up your shopping carts ;)
We had played with this world map foam puzzle (got it from Creative Express) when he was may be 17 or 18 months old. This was after a lot of simple matching activities that he showed interest in & did beautifully starting from 13 months. He would ask what every piece is & I used to tell him names of the continents. That was it. He had not even started speaking words back then.
Never did I show him a globe. Or any kind of spherical manifestation of the world map.
He turns 20 months today.
Today he was playing with this inflatable ball, he threw it on the floor, Australia faced him, he bent over the ball & with a eureka expression, he said 'Australia Australia'!
And I was shocked, literally!
It's not about teaching continents at this age. I know it will be rote learning. Neither am I interested in memorizing him names of the continents.
I am amazed, how a hands-on learning approach is so powerful. How a child learns & absorbs if more than one sense is involved. How a child can map a flat surface shape to the same shape on a sphere. How they make so awesome connections in their brains.
This is the reason why I love miniatures & figurines too.
My love for miniatures and figurines is immense. It has become more so after I’ve seen how effectively they’ve worked in improving my child’s ability to learn as compared to learning from a 2D point of view in books or flashcards.
So, I keep my eyes wide open and whenever I find interesting little miniature toys, I grab them. Now, I proudly own a huge collection and they range from vehicles to animals and birds; fruits to vegetables and equipment to even utensils.
Here are 5 reasons why I feel 3D miniatures and figurines are an awesome addition to your child's toy collection.
My article has been featured on BabyChakra. Click HERE to read.
With Navaratri & Dussehra around the corner, you must be wondering how to tell your kids about Navaratri. Well, the Montessori approach has an answer. In a Montessori setup, children are exposed to different cultures and countries in a very hands-on way. If you are looking for activities & crafts you can do with your toddlers & preschoolers this Navratri & Dussehra season, you are at the right place!
When I wanted to let my 19 months old toddler experience the beautiful festive spirit of Navaratri and Dassera, I refreshed the Montessori learning principles in my head and planned out activities for my son, according to his age, skill set and interest. Now, I simply can’t wait to share them with you all! All these activities have been chosen such that they represent the culture and traditions of this 10 day festival. You can easily tweak them according to your child’s interest and age or even a bit as per your own culture!
Here is the video that explains the set of activities!
If you are an image person, here are some quick images of the activities that I did with my son -
CULTURE - A DIY bow & arrow made from hula hoop connectors & a twig. I used this as a prop while telling the story of Lord Ram & Raavan that how Lord Ram was so good at using bow & arrow.
ART - Some sticks that we collected from garden, we painted them with tempera paints & used them to play dandiya :)
FINE MOTOR - Hand drawn Durga Mata faces kept inside plastic sheet. The activity is to peel off bindi & put it on the right place on Durga Mata.
MATH - One to one correspondence of keeping one flower in one cavity using a clothespin. A pre-math activity & a fine motor skill to use the clothespin.
PRETEND PLAY - People observe fast during Navatri season & hence I came up with this pretend play setup with his toy fruits & a balance. He became a fruit seller.
SENSORY - Pulling out the flower petals & making water rangoli
MATH - Hand drawn Raavan face with numbers written on his 10 heads. Wooden number cutouts to match the numbers.
SORTING - sorting marigold flowers according to the color
PRACTICAL LIFE - Punching holes in mango leaves & threading them to make a toran for Dussehra.
I am going to make a separate blog post on some books that you can read this Navratri & Dussehra festival to your kids.
My activities have also been featured on BabyChakra. Click HERE to check them.
Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!
