Ganesha Birth Story - How Ganpati Got Elephant Head - Storytelling For Kids - DIY

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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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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Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

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Winter Solstice Story - Yule Faeries - Puppet Show Storytelling For Kids - Waldorf At Home (VLOG)

If you are thinking to tell a story about winter season or winter solstice to your kids, then you are at the right place. Head on to watch this puppet show style storytelling of the very old Pagan fairy tale called "The Yule Faeries". 

This is a beautiful story about a group of little faeries who discover the secret of the winter Solstice. I have retold the story according to how my almost 3 year old son will understand it. You can read the original story here.

We did couple of more winter stories this winter but not been able to share them here on the blog or my Youtube channel as yet.

I would love to know if you have any winter story for kids in your collection. Do share 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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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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Storytelling - Pratham Books - Kottavi Raja & His Sleepy Kingdom - #Pbchamp

Pratham Books has this wonderful initiative One Day One Story where all over the country, one book is read to children. The K Junction registered for this wonderful opportunity and became a #pbchamp to tell the story of "Kottavi Raja & His Sleepy Kingdom".

Kuhoo Gupta had a wonderful time telling the story of "Kottavi Raja & his sleepy kingdom" by Pratham publishers as a part of their one day one story initiative to 30+ kids. The kids really enjoyed the session and she was so happy to listen to their lovely words while they were going back - "mam bye bye", "mam mazaa aaya", "mam acchi story thi", "mam aur games khelein?"

 

She conducted two activities after the story telling session -

• She pretended to be Kottavi Raja who could finally sleep well after so many days. Divided the kids into 3 teams and every team was supposed to arrange themselves into a height-wise line without making a sound or else Kottavi Raja will wake up. It was hard for the kids to keep quiet and do the needful. There were giggles and whispers.

• Now all the children were supposed to pretend as sleeping and they were made to sit in a circle. She gave each team a paper and a crayon. Every child had to draw something on the paper with eyes closed and pass on the paper to the next child in the team. At the end we saw papers of all three teams and they had some wonderful artwork drawn randomly by every kid eyes closed. Then they told her, "I made this sun, I made this mountain, etc etc".

All in all, a fun and satisfying experience with these little curious enthusiastic bunch of kids .

Event powered by Pratham Books
Location and logistics partner - Little Wings International, Pune

Thank you partners for making it happen.

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DIY Easter Resurrection Garden & Storytelling For Kids (VLOG)

Easter is here & since I want to raise a multi-cultural child, we not being Christians does not stop me from telling my 26 months old son about Easter, its story & its significance.

Easter or Resurrection Sunday, is a festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial after his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary. It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. Source - Wikipedia 

I thought & looked around for activities for my son based on Easter theme but most of them were egg based. I do have his Montessori shelf setup with some egg-themed activities (Will cover the shelf in a separate video) but I wanted to make something more meaningful to make him learn the real meaning of Easter. So I came up with this DIY Easter garden. I have shared the setup & details in this video below. Hope you like it :) I would love to read your comments!

If you are here, you might be interested to look at my Christmas Nativity Storytelling setup as well, that I had set up last Christmas for my toddler - HERE & HERE as well.

And now some pictures of my son with the Easter Garden setup!

Listening to crucification story

Putting Jesus inside the tomb

Putting the stone to close the tomb

Bonus, now a super fun activity with Easter egg & kinetic sand! Just put some kinetic sand into the Easter egg & shake shake shake! Open it & see an ellipsoid :) Watch the video below for details.

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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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The Story Of Holi - Song (VLOG)

It is HOLI season here! And every festival has a legend behind it. We as parents should teach our kids the story behind every festival to make them culturally rich individuals. 

The story of Holi was weaved into a Hindi verse form by my father, he is a tremendous writer! He wrote this poem in just 5 minutes in the lunch break at work yesterday. I wanted to create a song out of these lovely lines, especially for kids because kids love music & they tend to remember facts via music in a much better way. So the singer/musician in me tweaked the lyrics slightly here & there while composing a simple tune for it & sang it. So here is the song/poem, whatever you want to call it. 

Do make your kids listen to it this Holi season :) I would love to have your feedback!

Here are the lyrics of the song in Devnagri script - 

असुरों का राजा हिरण्यकश्यप

वरदान मिला बना अजय

अत्याचार करता प्रजा पर

सब पर फैला उसका भय

बेटा प्रह्लाद भक्त था

इश्वर का वो भक्त था 

राजा को नही भाता था

अपने घमंड में पिता पुत्र को

मार डालना चाहता था

बहन होलिका को वर था

कोई जला नहीं सकता था 

कैसी भी हो आग मगर

कोई जला नहीं सकता था

हिरण्यकश्चप के मन में वो 

विचार गंदा आया था 

होलिका के गोद  में जलती 

आग में बेटा बिठाया था 

लेकर प्रह्लाद को गोद में

जलती आग में गयी होलिका

हुआ नही प्रह्लाद को कुछ भी

राख हो गयी स्वयम होलिका

ईश्वर भक्ति की जीत हुई

यूँ सबने होली मनाई थी 

 त्याग और भक्ति की जीत पे

पिचकारियां चलाई थी 

आपस की दुश्मनी भूल कर

 गले सभी मिल जाते हैं

हर साल फाल्गुन पूर्णिमा को

मिल के होली मनाते हैं।।

आओ करें हम सब ये फैसला 

प्यार से धरती सीचेंगे 

सभी जात  और सभी धर्म को 

एक सामान ही देखेंगे 

आओ करें हम सब ये फैसला 

प्यार से धरती सीचेंगे 

Wish you a very Happy Holi & Happy Parenting :)

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Christmas Nativity Setup For My Toddler And The Experience That Followed

This is my small & humble Christmas Nativity Scene setup :) My first ever in life, for my 22 months old son! I took a big tray, covered with red cloth, spread some shredded cardboard & put figurines of Baby Jesus, Angel, Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, Wisemen, Animals to create the scene of a stable where Baby Jesus was born. I got these figurines from Kerala for 150 INR when we visited there for vacation.

Nativity Scene Setup

I put all his Christmas gifts around this setup at night so that when my son wakes up on 25 December 2016, he is greeted with everything here :)

Here are the details of the setup - 

• Christmas tree with some decoration - I got the tree & ornaments from a local shop
• Gifts for my 22 months old son - My son is a vehicle & book lover & these days crazy about planets! Gifts include fighter plane set, swing with Jesus Christ ( I got this from a facebook group Ionica Toys, DIY planetarium (Again this is from Ionica Toys), shoes, car, tanker, books (from Amazon) & snowflake threading toy from Skola Toys! You can see the snowflake activity post HERE. By the way, you can get an exclusive discount of 15% on ALL Skola Toys till if you use the discount code I shared on my group. Just visit my group HERE & view the pinned post to get the discount code & use it during checkout when you shop Skola Toys from their website www.skola.toys. 

#UPDATE

My #22months old has been playing with these #NativityStory figurines for the last 2 days now & loving it! Look at how he is holding, admiring & kissing baby Jesus :)

I had also read to him nativity story from a book few days back when we were traveling.

I was surprised, he named the characters  correctly on his own during free play & even narrated the story in his own keyword style.

Here is his version :)

Mamma!

Bethlehem, Mary Joseph, Hotel

Andhera, raat ho gayi (dark, night time)

I asked where was Jesus born?

He says mamma stable. Animals.

Shepherds, dekhbhaal (take care), sheep

Wisemen, gifts, baby Jesus

Pretty accurate a narration! My Christmas is made! :)

The #freeplay with #Christmas #Nativity figurines continues.

Some brand new story being weaved here ;)

My son 'A' talking to himself...

A : Ye kaun hai? Wisemen. Ye kaun hai? Camel. A camel pe baitha. Shepherd. Dekhbhaal. Shepherd leto. Camel leto. So jaao. (Who is this? Wisemen. Who is this? Camel. I sit on the camel. Shepherd. Take care. Shepherd lie down. Camel lie down. Go to sleep. )

Mum : ab? (Now?)

A : Subah utho. (Wake up in the morning)

Mum : Ab? (Now?)

A : Khelenge. (Will play)

Mum : Kya? (What?)

A : Chess

I always wonder how creativity fosters during free play!

I also hosted an 18 days FREE kids' activity series on Christmas & New Year theme. If you missed it, check out HERE. My son enjoyed the activities thoroughly & my articles on the same on BabyChakra were received very well too :)

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Gajapati Kulapati - Storytelling Event - Diwali Party

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 :)

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