I’ve heard stories of my dad being given a couple of cups to entertain himself for hours, when he was a kid. I found it very funny, until V turned 15 months. All she wanted to was transferring or pouring.

I get a lot of queries from new mums on “activities” they can do with their child. Well, first priority is always to speak with, read to, and involve the child in our daily, useful chores. One of the earliest activities I invariably suggest is transferring.

Why transferring?

This is one of the easiest to set up-activities but the engagement and focus level is super high. Also, for child-led learning in activities, there needs to be a control of error ( the child should be able to figure out what they are doing wrong on their own). In this case, it is visual and pretty evident.… Click to read the rest

We have been fortunate to stay in places with enough greenery. This has always ensured that we have plenty of live specimens to study, mostly ants and spiders. The latter was one of the first interests V had, primarily because of their multiple limbs.

Soon, I stopped dusting off spiders immediately, and we got to see a small web in our balcony. The fact that the web practically came out of nowhere was nothing less than magic to us. As always, we researched ( I highly recommend the I wonder why book) and learnt that it is mainly to catch its’s food. Below are some play ideas to take our learning further.

SENSORY PLAY

We love using transparent slime, rainbow rice, black urad and cooked spaghetti as play-bases. Sensory play is a wonderful way for the child to explore or learn to play on her own.… Click to read the rest

When V had just started talking, she obviously had a lot of screaming episodes because she couldn’t express her emotions. We weren’t sure when to start helping her label her feelings, but we did, when the meltdowns became more frequent.

Modelling emotions

We started with ourselves. We would smile, and tell her what we feel. “Wow, a gift. I’m feeling delighted!” or “Why isn’t the gas working? I’m feeling frustrated.” Or when she would jump on me, “V that hurts. I feel upset when you don’t listen to me.” The upside to this approach was, that along with the words and situations, she was learning that it is perfectly healthy to express one’s emotions.

Facial expressions

The first step is of course, that the child understands her own feelings. But when her emotional intelligence starts developing, she would start picking up cues from others’ facial expressions as well. At this point, drawing attention to the expression along with the word for it helps.… Click to read the rest