Storytelling is an art & Indian mythological stories are a treasure. Instead of just telling the story verbally, this time try telling it with the help of props to your kids. Here is the birth story of Lord Ganesha, how he got elephant head. Check out my DIY storytelling setup with props in this article.
Watch this video below.
This is how I narrated the birth story of Lord Ganpati this Ganesh Chaturthi to my 2 year old son using his toys and playset items.
Let me know in the comments, how you found this storytelling setup!
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With monsoon comes the mosquito menaces and so are the diseases like Dengue, Malaria and chikungunya. Real fight for a parent is to protect children from these diseases and we all know the side effects of various mosquito repellents present in the market. In this post, let us look at natural alternatives to keep off the mosquitoes.
Here are some popular natural mosquito repellents DIY recipes that should drive the mosquitoes away.
Neem Oil
Neem oil is considered as one of very effective mosquito repellent. Neem oil is easily available at nearest chemist shops.
You can dilute this oil with coconut oil and apply on body.
Citronella
This is a popular essential, it is derived from a species of lemon grass and the smell of it is researched to be quite offensive for the mosquitoes, especially the dengue-causing variety. Many top brands repellent cream has this citronella content.
Clove oil
Clove is again a very common ingredient in Indian kitchen and also another very popular and easily-available oil, this too have insect repelling feature.
If using on a small child, mix this oil with coconut oil and apply.
Lemon Eucalyptus Oil (OLE)
A very well-documented mosquito repellent, OLE is known to have an effect as powerful as a chemical repellent. If you read the labels, you will find it listed as an ingredient in most natural insect repellents. If you wish to use it, try and procure the insect-repellent version of it and not the essential oil as the efficacy of the latter is not yet confirmed.
These oils do not work for longer hours, most have an efficacy of maximum 2-3 hours.
However, you can reapply these oils.
Remember
While taking your child to park, ensure they wear full sleeves
Use mosquito nets or apply mosquito repellents on the hands & legs that are not covered
Here are few plants you can have in your garden to keep mosquito away -
If you do not have the time & patience to try out the above recipes. Here is a ready-made solution for everyone. I have been using these two all natural mosquito repellents and they work great for me & my family. You might want to check them out!
Do share in comments if you have any tips or tricks to keep mosquito away naturally.
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Here is an easy tutorial on how to make handmade paper at home with your kids using recycled paper scraps. I did this Waldorf inspired activity with my 3 year old son after we visited handmade paper factory as a part of our homeschool co-op field trip last week. Making paper is magical, therapeutic & its super simple too!
We had visited hand made paper factory recently and since summers are here in India, I thought it is a great time to make hand made paper at home with my 3 year old son. I had been meaning to do this for a long time & for this project, I had also collected old paper bills, scrap papers, left over paper cutouts while making Montessori inspired printable activities etc. They all came in handy while making this handmade paper. And not to mention, my boy was super excited to replicate at home what we had seen in the handmade paper factory recently.
WHAT YOU NEED
Recycled wastepaper (I used old paper bills, scrap papers, paper cut outs from craft sessions, my son's old scribbled papers)
Me & my son tore the scrap papers into small pieces & put them into warm water & left them to soak for 30 minutes while we had our lunch. You see these big utensils that contain soaked papers.
Then I blended the soaked papers and formed a nice pulp out of it.
His friends also joined in & then the kids took the pulp & placed it into the circular kitchen sieve that I had. I use that sieve for flour to make chapatis. They put one layer of pulp on to the sieve & pressed it to make it uniform - neither too thick nor too thin. Putting a container beneath the sieve works well to contain all the draining water.
Now the task is to keep squeezing out water from this sieve. Before that we put in some flower petals on the the pulp to make it beautiful. See those orange petals in the pic? This step is optional. And you can also put in seeds in the paper at this step so that when this paper is discarded & thrown in the soil, something grows out of it. We also put in some thread cuttings into the paper to give it another look.
We used a rag cloth to press the sieve so that more & more water squeezes out of the pulp & the grains/fibres of the paper inside the pulp start to attach to each other & take a form of paper all set together.
My son again pressed the pulp in the sieve kept on old newspaper so that it absorbs water from both the sides.
Finally when we felt that the water is squeezed out pretty nicely from the pulp & the paper which is in the making is binding nicely (basically the fibres), I inverted the sieve & the wet paper landed up on the towel like this. It was an awesome moment to put down our first paper on the towel with no cracks at all.
And slowly we had a bunch of papers ready to be sun dried! We ended up putting food colors in some papers, that is the reason you see greenish paper in the picture below.
And the next day, our handmade papers were all ready!!! They looked gorgeous to us!!! Don't they?
Handmade papers also make beautiful gifts & keepsakes!
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Are you looking for a super simple recipe on how to make natural ecofriendly holi colors at home this year? Check out this tutorial where I tell you how to do that with kids from your kitchen ingredients. This year, let us play Holi with natural colors & refuse synthetic toxic colors!
Holi is a festival of colors & being a North Indian, I have enjoyed this festival immensely all these years. But in the recent past, I have become more aware towards nature & I really hate to see artificial synthetic toxic colors being used to smear each other. The water & soil are being polluted in the name of the festival & our skin and bodies are prone to so many issues if we use these colors.
Last year, my son was 2 & I gave him plain simple water with a pichkari to play Holi with his friends. I also made a simple mixture of flour & turmeric to make yellow natural Holi color. This year I decided to make some more natural colors with my son.
So here are few eco friendly, natural homemade Holi Powder recipes that can be safely used for kids too.
Using Rice Flour & Food Grade Colors
Watch this video below to see my 3 year old son making his own natural Holi colors (dry Gulaal). All you need is rice flour, water & food grade colors. Instead of food grade colors, you can also use turmeric for yellow, beetroot for red & spinach for green.
You might like other fun activities me & my son are doing this Spring season here in this YouTube Playlist.
Using Real Flowers
You can sun dry rose or hibiscus for dry red color, tesu for dry saffron color, grind them & mix some flour to make the consistency nicer.
You can boil marigold flower in water for wet yellow color.
Do you have any more ideas, suggestions or recipes to make natural Holi colors? I would love to know! Please share with me in comments below.
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Mazes are great for working on various skills for kids. Read on to know the benefits of mazes for children & also featured is a FREE maze printable / worksheet (Spring theme) for kids, which is powered by education.com.
Mazes are loved by most of the kids & they provide a challenge for children that they enjoy! How the child solves a maze also provides a window to a therapist into the skill set of the child if therapy session is in progress. Mazes can also be taped to a wall at your child’s eye-level. Working on a vertical surface helps to promote wrist extension in kids.
Here are some benefits & reasons to do mazes with your child -
Fine Motor
Mazes require the child to control the pen/pencil through the maze without hitting the black lines. Fine motor skills are mastered by this very exercise that helps in writing later.
Visual Tracking
Mazes require the child to use his eyes to scan the maze in order to find possible solutions. Scanning is a great skill used for reading and writing, as it is important to scan from the left side of the paper to the right side.
Problem Solving
Mazes help the child to work on planning and problem solving skills to reach to the end of the maze.
Confidence
Mazes boost your child’s confidence like anything. Starting from easy to difficult mazes, a child can glide into the mazes gradually.
There are many websites that offer free printable maze worksheets for a variety of age levels and themes.
Spring is in the air! This flowery maze is great pre-school practice for those fine motor skills.
Education.com provides learning resources in over 20 countries and six continents. Their digital resources, tools, and learning materials are developed by educational experts to incorporate leading pedagogical practices. They are useful in any type of teaching moment and many can be used to support national education standards. Their mission is to empower parents and teachers to help their children build essential skills and excel.
If you also have any activities ideas for kids, then we would love to feature them on this blog! Shoot us an email using the contact form HERE along with a brief about you & your idea & we will get in touch with you soon!
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!
With the recent rare phenomenon of Super Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse, kids have been pretty amazed with the eclipse phenomenon. This is a perfect opportunity to make a hands-on model & activity showing how exactly the solar & lunar eclipse occur. This DIY solar system model is super simple & you can make use of things at home to make it. This is a perfect Astronomy starter for kids.
Solar system models are a great way to demonstrate how an eclipse works, and can be constructed with varying complexity for all ages. By setting up the sun, moon and Earth, parents and teachers can demonstrate the phases of the moon as well as an eclipse.
Things Required
Sphere 1 - Sponge ball or yellow smiley ball or an orange
Sphere 2 ( smaller than sphere 1) - Ping pong ball or lemon or small thermacol ball
Wire that can be bent easily but is stable enough. I used pipe cleaner
Aluminium foil
Red gelatine paper
Stack of books or an elevated platform
Something to put the sponge ball on, I used a diya lying around at home
Torch
How to Setup
Sphere 1 represents the earth & sphere 2 represents the moon. I used a sponge globe for sphere 1 and a small thermacol ball for sphere 2.
Wrap aluminium foil over sphere 2 so that it reflects light falling on it in a better way. Moon reflects the light falling on it. This step is optional though.
Pierce a little hole & insert the wire (I used pipe cleaner) into the earth, bend it at right angle, then again bend it at right angle & then insert it into the moon. Align the wire such that earth & moon are in front of each other with their equators aligned horizontally. Refer the picture for clarity.
Place the earth on a stand, I used a diya
Take a stack of books or an elevated platform (I used a small stool) & put a torch on it. Torch represents the sun. Adjust the height of the book stack such that the torch light falls at the equator of the earth.
Switch off the lights of the room & switch on the torch.
With this setup, you can explain first how the earth goes round the sun by moving the earth manually.
You can also explain rotation of earth & tell how days & nights happen when sunlight falls on a specific part of the earth.
Now by taking the moon round the earth, you can how how differently the moon shines at different alignments because of the angle at which sunlight is falling on it. You can explain moon phases with this setup.
Now to explain lunar eclipse, you can align sun, earth & moon in a line respectively. Of course you have to revise your own concepts first before you start explaining verbally about this setup, kids have deep strange questions!
In a similar way, you can explain the solar eclipse as well.
To show the blood moon in some sense, you can take red gelatine paper and put it in front of the torch. However this is not the real explanation of blood moon. It occurs because earth’s atmosphere absorbs all the colours in the spectrum instead of red & hence very little percentage of sun’s rays (in red spectrum) reach the moon during eclipse & it appears to be red.
Hope you liked this simple to set up activity to explain earth’s rotation & revolution, moon’s revolution, moon’s phases, lunar & solar eclipses.
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Make your own quick & cheap DIY fake snow at home using just two ingredients & gift your child hours of free play & pretend play fun. Watch the video below to see how to make your own DIY fake snow for kids.
We did this activity as a part of our winter theme unit. My almost 3 year old son enjoyed it to the core playing with the fake snow & building snowman out of it. I also included polar animals figurines to his free play / pretend play. You can find more of our Winter Themed activities HERE in this YouTube playlist.
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I love setting up DIY Montessori inspired activities at home for my toddler. Here is one of my Homeschool Supplies Haul For Educational & Montessori Inspired Activities for kids.
Watch my supplies haul for kids educational activities! I used these supplies in one of my workshops where toddlers, preschoolers & kindergarterners enjoyed doing these activities. I have also used these supplies in my homeschool activities for my son.
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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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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.
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!
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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Pre-Writing skills are needed before any letter formation or other handwriting skills are mastered. The little muscles of toddlers & preschoolers are first prepared by involving them in lot of fine motor activities before any formal writing work. Tracing is one of the popular prewriting activity & I am sharing one of the many methods of tracing here - tracing on the blackboard using a wet paint brush. Read on & watch the video to know the why & how of this technique. This was completely child-led in my case.
This is my 33 month old son doing tracing work on the DIY chalkboard wall using a wet paint brush. Listen to the audio in this video below where I talk more about the how & why of this tracing technique. This was in response to his repeated comments - mumma I dont know how to read & write, please teach me! And this is because we read a LOT of bookseveryday. I never planned to introduce tracing activity to him this early but since this was completely lead by him, I went with the flow.
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Kids learn the most by experiences & experiments. And it is best to answer their day to day questions by relevant activities whenever possible. Read to know how I answered my toddler's bunch of questions about rain during the rainy season. In this simple DIY science experiment (STEM), he understood why does it rain. Let us honor & fuel the curiosity of these little ones!
Watch the video below to see my 27 month old son doing a simple science experiment to understand why does it rain. This was in response to his tons of questions about rain during the rainy season! This is a super sensory fun exercise & a hands-on science experiment - STEM for kids.
You can find the entire playlist of our STEM activities HERE & I will keep populating the playlist when I add a new STEM video! And do not forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you never miss a new video.
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Montessori Colour Tablets are sensorial materials found in the Montessori 3-6 years classroom. They assist with visual discrimination and perception of colours. They come in three boxes - 1, 2 & 3. Today I have a guest blogger with me - Devi Sekaran, a mom who is passionate about Montessori & does a lot of Montessori inspired works with her kids. Read on to see her kids' experience & extension works with Montessori color box 3, a standard Montessori material used for color gradation. At the end, I will also share an alternative educational material for color gradation & how you can make your own DIY Montessori color tablets using free printables.
Dr. Maria Montessori believed that every child’s sensorial experiences begin when the child is born. And over the years, she created many sensorial materials that covers the five senses: tactile, visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory senses. She believed that children should be given as much sensorial experiences as possible. All the materials in a Montessori classroom are carefully designed to incorporate ‘Control of Error’ and to ‘Isolate the Quality’ in order to develop a child’s sense to understand the environment around him or her.
One of my favourite sensorial materials is the Colour Box 3 which is used to develop a child’s visual sense. In a 3-6 Montessori Classroom, a child is introduced to Colour Box 1, then Colour Box 2 and finally Colour Box 3. In our home, we do not have Colour Box 1 and 2 but we do have Colour Box 3 and it has been an amazing addition to our shelf. This material is great for visual discrimination and other extensions involving language and mathematics.
Both my daughters have been introduced to Colour Box 3 in their schools while we use the Colour Box 3 at home to do other extension works. Check out the pictures below on how we use it in our home.
Here my daughter (4 year old) is using the Colour Box 3 and the DIY continent images. She matched the continent images to the colour tablets and continued with grading.
Here, my daughter (5+ years) used the Colour Box 3 and Colour Resemblance Pegs to do colour sorting and as an extension we did skip counting and x7.
Using the Colour Box 3 and Colour Resemblance Pegs, my daughter (5+ years) created this beautiful spiral pattern.
You can read more about Montessori Colour Box 3 HERE.
You can also DIY these color tablets if this sounds expensive to you to buy. HERE is a great DIY tutorial for color box 3. You can download the free printable of color box 3 from HERE.
Happy Montessori-ing!!!
~ DEVI SEKARAN
(The above images belong to Devi Sekaran and should not use for commercial purposes) Thanks a lot Devi for sharing your wonderful experience & extension exercises with the color box 3. Lots of love to your kids!
Devi Sekaran is a stay at home mom of 3 kids trying to make each day fun with playing, baking & learning with Montessori! You can follow her on Instagram, her handle is @minehisandours. She shares some amazing Montessori inspired activities, DIYs & her food adventures regularly!
If you have something to share with the world in the domain of early learning or parenting & wish to contribute to this blog, please do get in touch with me HERE.
I love Montessori color box 3 as well & I have a variation of this material from Skola Toys which is called Skola Color Wheels.
You can check out my review of Skola Color Wheels in this video below. It is a great hands on way to practice color gradation. And do not forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more such reviews, Montessori & Waldorf inspired hands-on activities, and much more!
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!
Young kids are in a sensitive period of language & this worksheet can give you an idea how you can help in language, reading & comprehension skills of your kindergartner. If your child knows the letters by their phonetic sounds, then this activity is for you. Today, we are featuring a FREE image-word matching worksheet / printable for kindergartners, which is powered by education.com.
ACTIVITY - Match the image to word & make CVC words
Download this FREE matching worksheet from HERE. There is a sample worksheet with answers marked for your reference, you can download it from HERE.
In the worksheet, there are simple CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words on the left. They all follow the rules of phonics. On the right, there are corresponding images jumbled up. The activity is to match them - this can be done using a pencil or crayon. If you want to reuse the same worksheet again, you can laminate it or put it inside a plastic leaflet and use dry erase marker to match it with lines.
You can also use this worksheet to help your child make CVC words using moveable alphabets (Montessori material) or simple magnetic or wooden letter cutouts by copying the words written on the worksheet. It is a wonderful way to practice spellings.
AGE GROUP
Kindergartners (4 Years +)
SKILLS ADDRESSED
Reading, Comprehension, Phonics, Language
WHAT YOU NEED
Card stock or paper to print the worksheet
Laminator or plastic leaflet (optional)
Pencil / crayons / dry erase marker
WHAT TO DO
Take printout of the worksheet. You can laminate it for multiple use and/or durability.
If your kindergartner is able to recognize letters by their sounds, you can start teaching him simple CVC blends using the words in this worksheet.
If your child is able to make simple blends for CVC words, ask him to match the image to the corresponding word. He can use a pencil, crayon or dry erase marker for laminated sheets.
Once he is thorough with this exercise, you can give him moveable alphabets or letter cutouts or magnetic letters to form spellings that are mentioned in the worksheet. This is a great way to practice spellings in a hands-on Montessori inspired way.
MORE ABOUT EDUCATION.COM
Education.com provides learning resources in over 20 countries and six continents. Their digital resources, tools, and learning materials are developed by educational experts to incorporate leading pedagogical practices. They are useful in any type of teaching moment and many can be used to support national education standards. Their mission is to empower parents and teachers to help their children build essential skills and excel.
If you also have any activities ideas for toddlers / preschoolers / kindergarteners, then we would love to feature them on this blog! Shoot us an email using the contact form HERE along with a brief about you & your idea & we will get in touch with you soon!
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!
Math isn’t always fun and games...but it can be! This DIY Math game is sure to catch your preschooler's fancy & attention. Today, we are featuring a simple yet fun Math activity for preschoolers, which is powered by this wonderful educational resources website education.com. Counting is one of the most essential skills for preschoolers to acquire in preparation for kindergarten, so let us dive into a hands-on counting activity using DIY flash cards.
ACTIVITY - Count the Suns: Number Flash Cards
Want to make number skills second nature to your child? Try these cheerful, "sunny" number flash cards! As she enjoys the wonders of math, she'll also get a positive boost from these bright-looking, sun-shaped cards!
AGE GROUP
Preschoolers (2.5 Years +)
SKILLS ADDRESSED
Counting, Reading, Writing
WHAT YOU NEED
Card stock or other thick paper
Scissors
Circle-shaped template (try a large coffee can or the top of a cup)
Markers
WHAT TO DO
Ask your child to describe the shape of the sun to you. Explain that you'll be making the flash cards in the shape of a circle to look like the sun. If she can, help her trace ten separate circles onto the card stock.
Next, cut the circles out with scissors. (Most young kids need adult assistance for this step.) Allow her to try cutting on her own first. If she doesn't get the hang of it right away, simply trace extra circles.
Now, have her draw a sun shape onto the first circle card. Encourage her to be creative and make rays in different colors, or add in clouds.
Turn the card over, and help her write the number one.
Finally, repeat for each number up to ten, making the corresponding number of suns on one side, and then writing the number on the other.
After all ten cards are complete, use these sun-shaped cards to reinforce basic number concepts. Have her count the number of suns on the front of the card, and say the answer aloud. For added fun, make two sets of the cards and play a memory or matching game!
MORE ABOUT EDUCATION.COM
Education.com provides learning resources in over 20 countries and six continents. Their digital resources, tools, and learning materials are developed by educational experts to incorporate leading pedagogical practices. They are useful in any type of teaching moment and many can be used to support national education standards. Their mission is to empower parents and teachers to help their children build essential skills and excel.
Their FREE Math games are interactive drills that work on the same skills as pencil-and-paper practice: counting, numbers, shapes, and basic addition and subtraction. Filled with kooky characters that kids will love, these online math games are a kid’s math practice dream. You can find more such Math games HERE.
If you also have any activities ideas for toddlers / preschoolers / kindergarteners, then we would love to feature them on this blog! Shoot us an email using the contact form HERE along with a brief about you & your idea & we will get in touch with you soon!
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!
