Mythology for children- how to introduce cultural stories?

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Let’s face it- the opportunities to introduce stories of mythology and folk tales to our children are not as many as what we had when we were growing up. We do not visit native spaces as often. I do not follow religious occasions as much as my parents. I certainly was uncomfortable explaining stories of politics and war to my toddler. But the disconnect makes it even more important to introduce cultural stories to our children. Here is a simple list on how we go about it in our family and a round up of my favourite resources. I hope this helps you.

For the sake of simplicity, I have included ithihaasas like Ramayana and Mahabharata in this discussion along with mythological stories.

Involved celebrations

I myself am not very religious or ritualistic. We spend time finding out the meaning of rituals and making it accessible to our children.
For example, the focus is more on related mythology stories and food for us, every festival.… Click to read the rest

Montessori from birth: 2-4 months baby play

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2-4 months is a beautiful stage. The baby discovers her limbs and you will notice a more conscious movement of hands and legs. She is also getting better at visual tracking. As a continuation to our montessori from birth series, I have listed my top 5 materials or activities for 2-4 months old babies here.

montessori play2-4

1. Montessori mobiles

Continuing with the visual mobiles, we moved to the gobbi mobile at about 2 months. The Gobbi is made of balls of varying shades of the same colour that help the baby refine her senses by visually differentiating between shades of the same colour. We used it well into our batting stage.
By around 3 months, V2 was all about fluid movement. She was exploring moving her limbs. This was when we introduced the dancers . The 4 dancers gently moving their limbs in the wind develop binocularity and dept perception along with visual tracking.… Click to read the rest

Teethers 101 – All about our favourite teething toys

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Somewhere in her third month, V2 was extremely fussy three evenings in a row. Now, as a second time mum, I’m much more relaxed and accepting of scenarios like this. But something seemed uneasily familiar about this and I checked her gums. Sure enough, those whitish shadows greeted me. V2 was teething! 

teething101

Teething signs

Here were some simple signs that I looked out for.
1. She was fussier than usual and it was not because of temperature, hunger, sleep, etc
2. V2 kept sticking her fist into her mouth all the time.
3. Drool all over the place, it looked like there was a tap open somewhere.
4. Difficulty sleeping- she would take longer to sleep, and keep waking more often than usual.

Obviously, giving V2 food sticks to calm her was out of question. I started scouting for teethers. 
We prefer natural materials to avoid the risk of BPA and other chemicals.… Click to read the rest

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