Pattern Writing & Waldorf Inspired Chalk Drawing For Winter & Christmas Season (VLOG)

Watch this video to know how we did our prewriting & tracing exercises this winter season using the DIY chalkboard wall at home. I also did my first ever Waldorf inspired chalk board drawing, so watch the video to know how we are going to utilize our chalk drawing. This video is a part of the Youtube playlist where I am sharing (on-going basis) winter & Christmas theme activities that I am doing with my 34 months old son. Last year Christmas activities were all Montessori inspired, but lately I am reading & researching more about Waldorf philosophy so you would see more of nature based learning, seasonal activities, celebrations of festivals, handwork etc in our day to day activities in addition to Montessori materials & activities.

Hope you liked these ideas.

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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!

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

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Imagica joins hands with CRY to #ShareTheJoy this Christmas

In an endeavour to #ShareTheJoy and cheer for this holiday season, Imagica has joined hands with CRY and Rotary Club to organise a toy donation drive. At various locations, including schools across Mumbai, collection boxes are placed for everyone to contribute the toys which kids may have outgrown. Imagica, from their end, will contribute one toy from its range of toys for every single toy collected as part of the collection drive. At the end of the collection drive, kids’ favourite character from Imagica - Tubbby will play Santa Claus and distribute the toys by Christmas weekend to the underprivileged kids of CRY.

Mr. Ashutosh Kale, Joint CEO, Imagica said, “Imagica has always been a place of joy for families and friends to spend quality time with each other. This activity is an effort from our end to spread joy and happiness beyond the Park among the lesser privileged and add some festive cheer to their lives.”

Imagica has partnered with some schools across the city as well as Rotary Club centres, to facilitate the collection of these toys and make it easy for everyone to give it at a centre nearest to their place.

To get a full list of centres, visit – www.adlabsimagica.com/giving-back

According to the Census 2011, 1 in 4 children of school-going age is out of school in our country. There are 10.13 million child labourers between 5-14 years in India who are deprived of a childhood. This activity is Imagica’s symbolic gesture to give some joy to the kids and make them feel like a child again.

About Imagica

Located between Mumbai and Pune, Imagica is one of India’s leading holiday destinations, offering a gamut of interesting and unique entertainment experiences under one roof through its international standard Theme Park, a Mykonos themed Water Park and the largest themed Snow Park that India has ever seen. Adjacent to the park is Novotel Imagica, a hotel that offers customized stay packages, acting as a basecamp for guests to relax and unwind. Imagica is the perfect hangout for school picnics, corporate visits and the ideal magical venue for theme weddings, photoshoots and memorable celebrations. With Imagica, Adlabs Entertainment Limited has created an unparalleled ‘all weather entertainment destination’ that provides a compelling experience for every family at every step.


For further information, please contact:

Suruchi Sapru
Adlabs Entertainment Ltd.
9819662640
suruchi.sapru@adlabsentertainment.com

Charlene Daniel
Genesis Burson Marsteller
7045017396
charlene.daniel@bm.com

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Waldorf Inspired Fairy Peg Doll Tutorial (DIY) (VLOG)

I have been loving the peg dolls ever since I browsed through them on the internet. Peg dolls are Waldorf materials as well, open-ended & natural toys. You can make so many different kinds of peg dolls as per the theme. Here in this tutorial, I am sharing how to make a fairy peg doll with felt as her costumes. Peg dolls can easily fit into the storytelling sessions, puppet shows & open-ended play. Watch the video in this post to know how you can make you own DIY Fairy Peg Doll.

After reading, researching & following Montessori philosophy with my son for over 2 years now, I have recently been attracted towards Waldorf philosophy as well. It is again an alternative education philosophy by Steiner. I have a complete blog post HERE where I am curating the resources & relevant links that I find for Waldorf. It is being populated as and when I read & research about Waldorf. So you might want to bookmark it & visit regularly if you also intend to know more about Waldorf.

Waldorf is so much into open-ended play. I have one such very popular open-ended toy - Rainbow Stackers - an awesome Waldorf material that can be used in so many different ways. You can find the details here & I have also listed some of the many ways you can play with it. 

Related Read - Open-ended learning experiences for kids.

Now, on to the tutorial of the fairy peg doll. I used a simple plain wooden peg doll as a base. I bought it from aliexpress. You can read my very popular blog post about the ultimate guide to buy from aliexpress HERE. Then I have used felt as her costumes & sourced felt from Tiara Toys facebook group. I have used a hot glue gun to glue the pieces in place, I got it from Amazon.

Watch this video below to see the step by step process to make your own Fairy peg doll.

If you wish to see the pics, here are few in the making -

This peg doll is going to be used in storytelling as a prop, I am also using it as an angel in the nativity story telling for Christmas this year. My son calls her sleep fairy & sleeps along side her. He also gives her a ride on his toy vehicles. The possibilities are innumerous. And it is a pleasure to see your child playing beautifully with something that you have created on your own, isn't it?

Related links - You might also like this wonderful set of 18 FREE Christmas activities. And if you are short of time, this Christmas story & activity book is there for rescue. It is loaded with awesome activities, watch the video review here. 

So this was my first peg doll with felt. Before this, I had done a set of Halloween peg dolls with acrylic paints. You can check them out below. There is no tutorial required, you can see it is a straightforward painting exercise!

#Art #therapy for me yesterday ... Painting these plain wooden #pegdolls for #Halloween - Pumpkin, ghost, skeleton, mummy, witch It was a meditative session with the colors!!! And my son loved playing with them :) #thekjunction #earlylearning #parenting #Montessori #Montessoriathome #Montessoritoddler #Montessorikids #homeschooling #Waldorf #Waldorfinspired #craft #art #painting #culture #tradition #festival #spooky #handmade #kids #halloweenactivities #mommyblogger #momsofinstagram #pegdolls #momstagram

A post shared by Kuhoo Gupta (The K Junction) (@kuhoogupta) on Nov 1, 2017 at 3:47am PDT

Let me know how you liked this tutorial. And if you happen to make your own peg doll, I would love to see it!

And goes without saying, there is more on Waldorf philosophy & learning coming up on this blog now, so keep a watch, or rather subscribe to this blog via email. Find the subscribe box on the right panel of the blog.

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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-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

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All About Christmas - Story & Activity Book For Kids - Book Review

All About Christmas is a story & activity book for kids based on the Christmas theme. It has the Nativity story, facts & stories about Santa Claus, and an amazing set of engaging & educational activities for toddlers, kindergartners & little older kids too. It has over 400 stickers for the related activities. Check out the inside pages, review & buy link in this post.

As promised, here is a video review of this beautiful Christmas book - All About Christmas - written by Kajal Dharod from Your Learning Capsules. If you are a regular follower of my blog, you must have seen Kajal's Diwali activity book few months back. Me & my 2 year old liked it a lot! You can check out Diwali book HERE.



Publisher - Your Learning Capsules
Age Group - 2.5 Years +
Price - Rs. 349 (FREE shipping anywhere in India)

Click HERE to buy this book.

BUY NOW so that the book reaches you well before Christmas this year! This will certainly give your kids an enriching experience!

Here are few pages from this activity book that my almost 3 year old son has done.

You may like more of our featured products & discounts related to early learning for kids HERE.

Click HERE to buy this book.

Check out YourLearningCapsules.com for more such awesome stuff for your kids and some free printables of activities!

I also have a FREE collection of 18 Montessori Inspired DIY activities for Christmas & New Year from the year 2016 & you can do those activities as well with your kids! Check out the entire collection HERE. 

Disclaimer : I received this book for free in return for a review but the views shared are honest and solely mine. I believe in using the products/service myself before putting up the review or opinion about them here.

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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-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

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Rentoys.in - Subscription Offer Alert - Online Toy Library For Kids - Review & Recommendation

Have you been eyeing upon expensive international brand toys for your kids & not able to justify a purchase because they are so expensive? Are you planning to buy new toys for your kids & thinking how to declutter the old ones? Are you a kind of parent who is constantly on a look out for sustainability, even when it comes to toys? Then this Online Toy Library Rentoys is the answer for you! And if the collection of this library was not awesome enough, I am sharing with you an irresistible deal for your subscriptions that you can order from Rentoys!

I recently discovered this awesome toy library Rentoys that has some really beautiful, engaging, expensive, international brands' toys for kids that they RENT out. I absolutely fell in love with their collection!!! I had wanted to buy so many of those toys but they are so expensive & hence I could not justify buying for personal use.

I have ordered my first toy rental box from Rentoys & eagerly waiting for Jr. Rainbow Blocks, Tegu wooden magnetic blocks & Dado cubes! All of these are open-ended toys and my son loves such building blocks & comes up with so many different interpretations everytime!

A video review of the box will be on my YouTube channel super soon! Stay tuned & subscribe to my channel HERE.

And guess what!?! I have An Irresistible Offer

You can get 15% OFF on your first Rentoys box if you use this coupon code "KJUNCTION" , without quotes & all caps.

Visit rentoys.in today & start adding your favorite toys into your wishlist!

Need More Reasons Why To Go For Rentoys?

• The excitement of a new toy box arriving every month gives me a high as a mom, lol! A child will certainly be thrilled!
• Smart educational toys are very costly and can go for ₹5000+ a piece. Now, parents may not feel the heat if buying toys were a one-time expense. However, this is hardly the case.
• Renting a toy saves money! Rentoys has almost all the toys that are super expensive otherwise from brands mentioned below & not affordable for middle class families like mine. 
  
• Decluttering is done on the go! You do not tend to store the toys that are no more relevant to the child. You save a lot of storage space!
• Sustainability issues are addressed. The toys are reused by so many children. We leave lesser carbon footprint on Mother Earth.
• The collection of toys is just amazing! The variety, quality, brands everything is superb! Spoilt for choice! 
• Customer service is amazing! I had some issue with adding toys to my wishlist & they were super quick to revert! They even called me saying one toy from the three toys that I chose, will be available after two days so they are sending the available two toys right away & will send the third one after two days. I mean why would someone call me up for this, but they did! This shows their commitment & service for the customers!

Check out this video to know why people love Rentoys!

Related Reading - Step by step guide - what are STEM toys?

More About Rentoys

Rentoys is a toy rental service focusing on educational and award-winning toys. We deliver and pickup toys from your doorsteps, anywhere in India.

Rentoys is founded by parents having years of experience of managing kids. Been there, done that. They understand how children's early experiences - the bonds they form with their parents and their first learning experiences - deeply affect their physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development. This is why they are on a mission to help parents optimize their investments in the early years of children's lives to ensure children's future success.

All the toys at Rentoys are selected keeping in mind what they call "open-endedness" which they measure by asking questions such as in how many ways the toy can be played with, is there any rule book, and does the toy force the kids to think/create on his/her own.


Related Read - Tons of ways to play with Waldorf Rainbow Stackers - An open-ended toy


Check out their toys collection HERE. They deliver all over India. Do not forget to use the coupon code I shared above in this post to avail the discount!

Confused about their working? Click HERE to know how it works. And your FAQs are answered HERE.

Subscription Box Pricing

It starts with Rs 599 per month where you get premium educational toys worth at least Rs 5000 in a box! There are other plans as well, you can visit the pricing page HERE for all the details. If you are concerned about damage of toys from the library, THIS link might answer your questions. 

You MUST read this wonderful article that explains why Rentoys is into toy renting business!

Do let me know in comments below what all you have ordered from Rentoys, I would love to know!


Disclaimer : This is a sponsored post but the views shared are honest and solely mine. I believe in using the products/service myself before putting up the review or opinion about them here.

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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-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

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