Watching leaves of different colours, dancing in the wind, was V’s favourite activity as an infant. I still remember when, as a toddler, during one of our walks, she just picked a leaf from the ground, marveled at it and “gifted it to me.” To date, leaf-picking is one of her favourite outdoor activities. I have outlined how simple questions from her led us to detailed study in this unit.

Shapes, sizes and margins

During our earliest outdoors, after she could walk independently, I remember her running from one tree to another, exclaiming to me, “Amma, this is also a leaf!” Despite them being of different shapes and sizes, she still figured out they were leaves. We did a simple leaf match activity to draw our attention to the diversity in leaves. Once she is older and asks, we will try to match them all with trees / plant names too.… Click to read the rest

The Usborne Animal atlas is one of the most read and analysed books at home. Once we had finished Antarctica, V moved on the kangaroos in Australia. I think, because they were mostly unfamiliar, they attracted her even more. And the fact that the island of Australia, looks like a “whale” in her own words.

ANIMAL STUDY

The more we read beautiful books on koalas and kangaroos, the more we took in about the wildlife of the country. The yellows and greens that were predominant in the illustrations spoke about the topography as well. While researching animals we found that Australia is home to both, marsupials ( pouched animals) as well as monotremes ( egg laying mammals).

V wanted to know why there are such a variety of animals here. And guess what! there is a reason for that too. It is an island, and isolated in a sense, from the rest of the world.… Click to read the rest

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