How To Make Handmade Paper From Recycled Scraps With Kids - DIY Tutorial

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)
• Blender / mixer
• Big large utensils
• Water
• Wide kitchen sieve 
• Rag clothes
• Towel
• Flower petals, food colors, thread cuttings (optional)
• SUN (lol)

PROCESS

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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Learning Beyond Classrooms - Back To Roots - Cowshed Visit - Waldorf Inspired Field Trip - Kids

The world is our classroom and field trips are a core part of homeschooling & daily lives. As a Waldorf inspired family, I try to engage my son with the natural world whenever possible and give him real life experiences of things rather than just reading books or watching videos. At least for the things that are available to us city dwellers. We visit cowshed often, check out what we see & do there. 

We often (at least twice a week) go to the cowshed to feed the cows. Today we also got a chance to meet these little calves, the youngest one is just one month old!!! My son loves feeding the cows. He has also seen how those people milk the cows. This place also has some horses. A rare thing to see when you live in a city, but fortunately this place is near to our house.

With my son's never ending question list, we have discussed how we use milk, it's products, what cows & horses eat, why do they put horse shoe on horses' feet, how cow dung is used, why do we worship cows in India, what do they eat, etc etc. We understood what is waste for we human beings (like stalks of grains like wheat, jowar, sugarcane, corn etc) become food for cows & horses. And how the waste material of cows like urine & cowdung is so beneficial for human beings.

All this helps toddlers to know more about animals, develop love for them, understand life on a farm, about food etc by experiencing it, rather than just learning from the books.

A beautiful way to connect with mother nature on an everyday basis!

We have also made cowdung cakes & dhoop batti (incense sticks) using cow dung & other natural ingredients & these days we are using them at home to purify air. I will share its tutorial soon!

Do share with me the recent field trips you have done with your child! Would love to get more 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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Waldorf Inspired Wet on Wet Water Coloring With Kids - Duck

        

Me & my 3 year old son did wet on wet water coloring together for some art therapy! In Waldorf philosophy of alternative education, wet on wet coloring is very popular. This is a free hand style we did together. It is Spring season right now & we are reading about nature & birds these days, so my son chose to paint a duck.

Here are some bird related books I am reading to my 3 year old these days because it's spring time and my boy has been listening to koyal and other birds these days during our nature walks. We also made a nest using twigs & weaved them into pipe cleaner few days back.

Do you have any favorite kids books related to birds? I would love to know, do share in the comments below.

Since we are reading about birds these days, my son wanted to paint a duck. So we took this page as reference and did our wet on wet painting.

Here is our humble setup.

Products Used -

The brand of water color paper we used isnt showing up online, so I am linking up a similar water color paper of another brand for your reference.

This is how we started our work on the floor.

Our work midway. Left one is my 3 year old son's work & right one is mine. It was done free hand on wet paper. I am actually happy the way my son's artwork turned out to be. It is difficult for a child to do free hand painting. Of course I was guiding him verbally how & what to make.

After the painting was dry, I outlined both the paintings using black gel pen. This is our final outcome & I am very happy about it!

Have you done wet on wet water coloring?

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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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Waldorf Inspired Winter Nature Table & Winter Themed Books For Kids (VLOG)

Nature table holds a very important place in Waldorf inspired classrooms. This is how I set up my Winter themed nature table with some story props, polar animals, Christmas scene & some activities that we did as a part of winter season. You can also set up seasonal nature tables for kids. Briefly, I will also take you through some Winter themed books that we read this season.

Watch this video below to check out my humble Waldorf inspired winter nature table setup for my almost 3 year old son. You can grab some ideas & understand how to setup a seasonal winter table for your child.

You can also check out this YouTube playlist that has all our Winter & Christmas activities, Winter DIY tutorials, stories books.

And here are 18 Christmas & New Year themed Montessori inspired activities for kids that I did in 2016.

Hope you enjoyed watching this nature table. I would love to see your nature tables, so do drop your links below in comments.

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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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This Diwali Gift Learning - Diwali Gift Ideas For Children - Open Ended Learning Experiences

Are you looking for Diwali gift ideas for children this year? Are you bored of buying the same old sweets or crackers or clothes as gifts & looking for better gift options that kids will remember in the years to come? Then do something different this year & gift learning, memories & experiences to kids! Read on to know more.

Diwali, the most important and widely celebrated festival for Hindus, commemorates the victory of good over evil. It is the festive time when families get together, everyone indulges on sweets, lit up diyas, illuminate homes, children burst fire crackers and everyone has a great time.

I just love Diwali! It is my favorite time of the year because of the positivity, cheerfulness & festival fervor in the air! It is customary to gift sweets, crackers, clothes etc to kids in our friends & family members. Why not do something different this year? Let us gift learning to kids. Sounds different? Let me tell you how this can be done in so many ways. I am listing some learning gift ideas for kids because at the end of the day, kids remember experiences & memories and that gives them learning for life. They do not remember that they got chocolates & sweets as gifts!


Excursions

Kids love outdoors, be it a simple visit to a nearby park. This Diwali let us keep them away from screens by gifting them our time & take them out for excursions. Depending upon the age & interest of your child, you can take him/her to a green farm, plant nursery, dam, boating, camping, fort, trek, adventure sports trip, amusement park or even just a long drive in the outskirts of the city. Nature is the best teacher & kids learn the best when they are amidst nature.

Field Trips

Did you know even a simple trip to a post office or a super market can be a learning experience for a child? You can even take your child to a temple over a hill, a fire station, museum or any such place. My toddler loves visiting new places. It gives us a new dimension to our never-ending conversations. And a holistic learning is already going on during such outings.


Books, Books & More Books

Nothing beats the smell & sight of books for me. They are never enough for me, just the space is less to store them at home. I have hundreds of books for myself & my toddler too & I still do not stop buying! Gift your child a bundle of books this Diwali. Let us raise readers! If you are confused which books to buy for your child, I have put up an exhaustive list of Diwali themed books HERE that you can choose from. Apart from this I have a bunch of book reviews & recommendations too on various topics. So go ahead & take a pick yourself!


DIY & Diwali Activities & Crafts

It is holiday time for the kids & what better than bonding with them over DIY fun Diwali activities. There so many more activities that I am going to do with my son this year. Also, pinterest is full of Diwali activity & craft ideas that you can browse through. If you are working or do not have enough ideas or motivation, you can send your child in Diwali camps happening at many places these days. Let your child soak into the festivities and learn a lot of things too.

Open-Ended & Free Play Learning Experiences

I cannot stress much upon the importance of open-ended & free play. It boosts creativity, confidence, self esteem of the child & the learning that follows organically is incomparable. We have a lot of open-ended toys & a brand that we personally love for its quality, designing & precision is Skola Toys. Toys are the best friends & the best teachers, so it is very important to make an informed choice of what kind of toys you buy for a child.

You might want to read this article - 6 things to consider when choosing toys & what is wrong with today's toys.

The team & designers at Skola Toys believe that play leads to exploration, exploration leads to discovery and discovery leads to learning. Skola toys stimulate the child’s senses by opening up a fascinating world of colours, shapes, numbers, alphabets, science, geography and more. Children between 0 and 8 have an extremely high rate of brain development that constantly seeks information through activity. For these young Skolars, activity, work and play are all synonymous.

We love Skola toys because they are made of natural material (wood) which gives a rich sensory input to kids. They are self correcting in most cases, which means that there is no need for an adult intervention to decide whether the child is working with the material correctly or not. They are open-ended, interactive & facilitates imagination, which is very important during early years. Each toy is targeted very beautifully for a particular skill like fine motor or emotional intelligence or math or language or science (more on science in my next blog post) etc. Moreover, the concept of "learning journeys designed as play" by Skola Toys is amazing & it gives us a concrete path which we can follow to decide which toy/material to get for the child depending on where the child is in his learning journey. Read more about "learning journeys" HERE.

What more can I ask for to gift a child this Diwali? A wholesome sensory playing & learning experience, and in addition to this, their products are sustainable too. No plastics! Good for earth, less guilt for parents.

Here are some amazing open-ended Skola toys that you can consider for gifting kids this Diwali.



If you are unsure of what to gift to your family members' kids, then Skola has an option of GIFT CARD as well.

You might also want to check out more articles & reviews of mine on Skola Toys HERE.

So this Diwali, gift learning to kids! Let us change the trend and do something valuable for our kids, our future generation!

I hope this post gave you some unusual Diwali gift ideas for kids this year. If you have any more ideas, I would love to hear them!

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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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9 Benefits Of Gardening With Toddlers/Kids (VLOG)

It was me 2 years back who sowed the seeds and would patiently wait for the greens to grow. Now it's my toddler's turn :)

My then 25-month-old son sowed Fenugreek seeds and we harvested fresh and lovely Fenugreek leaves after few weeks. He said he will eat methi paratha with those tender methi leaves! He loves it! And that is why I chose Fenugreek so that he is able to appreciate the process from start to end - from sowing seeds to watering the plant to seeing micro greens to seeing mature leaves to harvesting to actually consuming it happily. 

He now knows how important trees and plants are for us, specially in hot summers these days, trees provide us shade. And of course, that plants give us food.

This generation kids need to know the importance of going green so much more than our generation for obvious reasons!

My now 26-month-old son sowed Spinach seeds recently, here is a sneak peek of our cute gardening exercise.

Gardening in itself teaches a lot to kids of all ages, starting from toddlerhood! Let us look how does it benefit - 

Multisensory Learning 

Montessori focusses on learning through multiple senses because that is how toddlers learn! While gardening, kids can touch & feel the soil, seeds, water, leaves. They can see beautiful colors of nature. They can smell the earth & the plants & flowers! They can hear the lovely birds chirping on the terrace & the wind blowing. And of course, they can eat what they plant (conditions apply)

Motor Skills
As seen in the video above, a lot of large & small muscle movements are required end to end. A great way to enhance gross & fine motor skills while working in nature, no frills activity, no activity box needed!

Sequencing
A very important skill to master, in addition to using puzzles or printables to teach the lifecycle of a plant, it would be great if we can give toddlers a hands-on experience of the same. They would remember this for ever then.

Science
According to the age, we can talk about basic science concepts like photosynthesis, composting, worms, insects etc. And further, we can supplement it with book readings. This can be a starting point of deep conversations with the toddlers. They are super curious & answering their questions related to gardening would be fun science lessons.

Life Lessons
Caring & Responsibility, patience, cycle of life, confidence, focus - all these deep & profound lessons can be learnt while gardening, taking care of the plat & seeing it grow.

Healthy Eating
If kids grow their own food, and are involved from end to end, they are likely to eat better & of course healthy.

Hands On Maths Lessons

From counting number of seeds to sow to measuring the right depth to sow the seeds to counting petals in a flower or leaves in a green to measuring the height of a plant, maths is everywhere. And gardening in every way is helping the child to sharpen his maths skills.

Bonding
A Sunday morning sowing seeds with mom or dad - the child will always cherish such beautiful memories. Gardening gives us a chance to bond beautifully with our kids & have great conversations.

Relaxation & Mindfulness

Gardening for me is like a meditation. It is therapeutic. It relaxes & helps us to become mindful of our surroundings our nature. And it is the same for kids too. Read my post HERE about 6 ways to develop mindfulness in kids.

I would love to know how & what did you do with your kids in your terrace garden! Hop on to our facebook page or closed facebook group to be a part of this parent-tribe :) And do not forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, I would love to see you guys in my next video!

Happy Parenting :)

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