It wasn’t until V was close to 18months that she started showing signs of interest towards vehicles. It was more an obsession to try out all the possible vehicles.

From the time she was a colicky baby, car rides have always calmed her. But her first fascination for a vehicle was that for aeroplanes. Her first question was “why do we need vehicles?” Well, one visit to the Vandalur zoo with over 2 hours of walking took care of that question!

Why are there so many different vehicles?

She figured this out herself when we did land, air and water units in geography. That some vehicles can work only in some places. And also that some have specific uses- like the water tankers, garbage collector trucks, public buses, etc. I’ve listed a few play ideas we did, on this topic.

Gross motor skills

This is a real fun activity one can start as soon as the child gains confidence in walking.… Click to read the rest

When we started speaking about habitats, naturally V was drawn to water. I think we don’t get to see underwater creatures everyday, and that makes them look even more gorgeous. We have been visiting aquariums since forever, and she used to stand and stare at fish for hours on end.

“Why can’t fish live outside water?”

When we go swimming, V, naughty as she is would try to go underwater to see what happens. She realised water enters her nostrils. We read up on the parts of fish and learnt that they have special organs called gills to breathe and fins to swim.

When she was around 15-18 months old, sensory play using water and figurines or water beads(constant supervision required) was our favourite activity.When she was a little older, we started doing simple fishing activities at home- either with a sieve or a magnetic rod.… Click to read the rest