DIY - Lighthouse (Needles Lighthouse)

 

Last Sunday, we had a day trip to Isle of Wight, a beautiful island with lots of nature attractions. One of the most landmark attraction is the Needles Lighthouse. My younger one, was excited to watch Needles lighthouse.

The Needles Lighthouse is an active 19th century lighthouse located on the chalk rocks on the coast of the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom, near sea level. It was designed by James Walker and was completed in 1859 from granite blocks, stands 33.25 metres (109.1 ft) high and is a circular tower with straight sides. It replaced an earlier light tower on top of a cliff overhanging Scratchell's Bay, which was first lit on 29 September 1786.A helipad was built on top of the lighthouse in 1987. The Needles Lighthouse was automated in 1994 and the keepers left the lighthouse for the last time on 8 December. 

He created a model of Needles , for the theme ' Landmark or any attractions that caught your eyes during a beach trip' using Kitchen tissue roll, colours, Red and Green LED lights and few shells.

Family trips or any educational trips has to be planned for children to help them learn more about it. Every trip marks a memorable moment for them. They try to recreate the memories or mark their trip through drawings or journals.

As parents, we need to encourage them for writing journals. Practising journals will improve their memory.

Happy Parenting !!

DIY - MODEL OF MY SCHOOL

'How about creating a model of your school?' I asked my son. 

'Oh yes ! It's easy, I can create it, Amma ' replied my son. 

School was locked down for 5 months. Lets see, how he created the model. 

THINGS REQUIRED :

Empty cereal or any boxes

Plain Cardboard

Trees or plant cutting from the magazines

Few net packs.

STEPS HE FOLLOWED :

1) Remember his school, took a paper and drew a rough draft re-collecting the building structure.

2) Assembled the empty boxes in the same structure, glued them thick and allowed it to try for a day.

3) Painted the building in Red, the colour of his school building. Fences in brown.

4) Glued Trees and Plants cutting to the fences.

5) Fixed the basket ball pole using paper straw and basket using net pack.

6) Fixed the food ball goal pole using net packs.

7) See-saw with children paper cutting and Pizza hold as Chair.

Model of the school is ready for display.

 

I observed various developments in him, 

• Drew the rough draft of the model.
• Chose the box sizes to suite his structure.
• He created the model with his own perceptions.
• Stayed calm and focused on perfections.
• Took two days completely to re-create it.

Great Appreciation for his creation and patience.

DIY - CLAY GANESHA

Eco friendly Ganesha's are always welcomed. Ganesh Chathurthi is celebrated by children with full fervour. Lord Ganesha, the elephant god is strongly believed to bless children with knowledge.

Today, sharing our little Ganesha created by my 9 year old. Greatly appreciate his patience in creating his own idol and for understanding the importance of Eco-friendly idol.

Crafted by little hands, our little Ganesha looks magnificent. 

 

FACT FILE - Importance of Précis Writing in Children

Fact file is an interesting activity for children. It helps to learn the facts about the things chosen. My son had to prepare fact file about any one of extinct animals in Ice Age. 
I personally consider this activity as one of the child's cognitive development activity. They get opportunity to read more resources, collect the information and then precise facts from the gathered information. 

A precis is a summary. Precis writing is an exercise in compression. Explaining the whole information in as few words as possible giving all essential facts. 

By this practice of writing, children learn quickly and able to speak or write only the important piece of information to be shared rather than an elaborated statements.

We can practise our children with précis writing method while learning and it's an easy way to quickly revise the concepts or understand in a better way.

Happy Parenting !!

HOW TO OBSERVE STRESS IN CHILDREN AND WAYS TO HELP THEM OUT -- DIY - TOY ROBOT

No school, complete lockdown for two months, no outdoor games, no cycling, bored of watching cartoons and movies, children will undergo a lots of stress than elders. We have to appreciate their understandings of the present situation and staying back in homes helping us. 

A simple child psychology is that they may not be able to burst out or express their stress, but yes there will be a moment we as parents can observe. 

Some emotions during their stress :

• Sudden outburst of tears with no reasons
• mood swings
• restlessness 
• distracting from their homework
• less appetite
• loneliness ; since they miss their friends in school, they try to talk with their dolls considering them to be their buddies . 

These may be observed that can reveal their stress. 

As parents, we can handle it , if we can follow these : 

• Let's not build their stress by questioning them, " What happened ?" in a firm voice. Instead, hug them tightly, comfort them and tell them, 'Let's play together'.
• Slowly, cheer them up and engage them up by reading stories, play with them or craft with them. They need diversions to get them involved. 

Crafting or any artwork can bring diversions in them. It is one of the best way to get children involved. Let them create art on their own. Creative play activties will be one of the way to overcome a stress. Involving them in an activity of their choice, they easily forget their stress.

Today, I am sharing an interesting DIY - TOY ROBOT created by our son for a play activity.

MATERIALS REQUIRED :

Empty cans/bottles ( We used empty salt and actimel bottles)

Pimpom balls

Glue

Colours

STEPS TO BE FOLLOWED :

1. Collect the empty bottles and clean them well. Remove their label wrappers 

2) Glue the bottles with the glue to form a robot. Small bottles for legs and hands. Salt bottle to form the body. (Please note : He used fast settling super glue. If guided by parents, you can use them or use kids friendly glue)

3 ) Robot is set. Allow it to try completely. We allowed to dry for a day.

5) The next day, paint and decorate the robot using colours, pompon balls and pipe cleaners for antennae.

Allow it to dry. Toy Robot is ready to play with. 

Happy Crafting !! Happy Parenting !!

SOLAR SYSTEM

Greetings for the day !!

Learning about the Solar System? .

Yes, today we are sharing a fun filled activity for learning solar system. Each and every child have unique way of learning styles which makes them different from the other.

- Some children, read the book, understand the concept and learn, write the concepts thoroughly.
- Few loves only to read and learn the concepts but doesn't show interest in writing.
- Few will only love to write down their learnt concepts, doesn't show interest in telling or explaining or reading loudly.

  and there are many more learning approaches or unique styles.

Classroom observation or attending the whole session without distraction plays an important role in child's learning process.

- Some children will observe the teacher teaching in the class. Try to make notes or points to remember, read the learnt concepts back in home. Encourage such children to work more on making journals of their regular classroom activities to support their learning style.

- Few may not able to recollect the learning in the classroom, they don't remember the concepts. It doesn't mean that the child is having a learning difficulty or disability. Some of these children will be able to understand the concepts when taught through visuals of the concepts either by a drawing or videos or pictures.

In general, whatever may be their learning style, hands on experience activities by themselves will definitely make children to remember things better.

My son painted the Solar System, using finger prints and recollected the concepts thought in his class. He was able to rightly label the planets in order, spoke about the planets and galaxy. Here, comes how he created the solar system.

Materials Required :

Waste transparent snack box case
Poster colours

Steps Followed:

Clean the case. Dry it out. Draw concentric circles. Colour mark the planets using finger prints and decorate the system with stars.

Allow it to dry for 20 minutes and then label the planets.

Solar system is ready to study. Recreate your solar system and share your experience, how much you enjoyed the activity.

OZONE DEPLETION PROJECT FOR KIDS

Hi all ,

I am sharing an interesting and simple Science project for primary school Children, explaining Ozone depletion on the occasion of Earth day awareness week

As a part of parenting, scheduling our time with our children is the most important responsibility of us. Creating projects on their own will help children to gain knowledge about the theme taken, they would explore more and it's a practical way of learning. When children are involved in doing their school projects, they remember things in a better way or learn the concepts easily. Generally, projects are hands on experience activities for children.

Here, we designed a simple DIY model explaining the reasons or causes of Ozone depletion.

Learning process :

1) Explain the concept taken for the project. 

Our project is about Ozone depletion. Explain the children about it, by reading out the concept from textbooks or any articles. You can show them some videos as well. Make it like an interactive session.

2) Help them to write or make quick notes on what they have learnt.

3) Ask them, how they want to present their projects. Make their collective ideas.

4) Tell them that they should do on their own with the support from us.

5) Help them to get the required resources or materials for the project.

6) We ended up in doing a simple display self explanatory model. I involved children  to collect the pictures of various sources causing depletion like Refrigerator  (emitting Chlorofluro carbon), Factory(emission of CO2), Pesticides, Fire extinguishers, CO2 from vehicles, Forest fires and Deforestation.

7) We did a paper collage of earth surface. We used 4 kebab sticks, tooth picks and a thick base board.

8) We drew Sun and cut out the template.

9) Glue the pictures of Refrigerator, Aerosols, Air Conditioner, Deforestation to the tooth picks and pin it to the base board.

10) Design the model of the factory using play blocks, use a toy car, we used corn fibres for forest fire remains, small tins as Pesticides can. Glue it to the base board.

11) Glue 4 kebab sticks to the corners of Earth College with Sun paper cut in the centre piercing a ray of UV through Ozone layer because of depletion.



This model conveys and help the kids understands what are the toxic emissions that causes hole in ozone leading path for the direct UV rays from the sun.

3D PUZZLE ACTIVITY - 8 YEAR OLD'S CREATION

Puzzle activities is one of the fine choice of game for the children from 3+ years. Starting with jigsaw puzzle till 3D puzzles, many interesting themes are created for the children to learn about. If your children are having more screen time, get them more such activity to focus on. 

Puzzle solving focuses on child's shape/pattern recognition, hand & eye co-ordination, concentration, fine motor skill development, visual perceptual skill, memory, sense of judgement, creative and problem solving skills, reasoning and sense of pride, boast up the confidence and cognitive skills.

The End product of their creation will give them happiness, satisfaction and whole lot of achievement. 

Solving puzzles will always be an interesting learning programme for children. 

Recently, we got these 3D puzzles for my 8 year old to boast up his confidence level and to observe his problem solving and reasoning skills. 

We are happy to see the outcome of the puzzle activity by him solving it all alone without any support from us, following only the instructions booklet. 

Each creation has nearly 150-200 pieces. He completed all the three creations in a week's time. We truly adore his efforts, his timely act when something goes wrong or any mistakes done. He has proven his skills once again and makes us feel proud parents in teaching and giving them activities which focuses on his development.

Happy Parenting to all the lovely parents ! 

ORGAMI'S ROLE IN CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT

Hi ,

Today, I am sharing the role of Origami in child's development. Children would from the age of 5 years and above would love to tear paper mostly try to make boats,  aeroplane, four cups or paper popper. This is one stage of activity, children would do as a phase of their growth. At times, we get irritated on the seeing the crumbled crushed bits and bits of paper around. But, pushing the mess aside, look the other side of the activity done by children. 

Paper cutting or folding or Origami is a wonderful activity that develops the child's eye and hand coordination development. It's one of the best activity for fine motor skills development, Math Reasoning, arranging in sequence and the foremost is observation, concentration and focus on attention.  

These creations of Sword and Ninja blades as named are made by my 8 year old. I tried to re-collect the moments, how did he developed his interests in this activity. Then we gathered some insights from him to know better. Here it comes from the interest started.

We re-created our childhood play, when it rains heavily, we play with paper boats using newspapers. But, back now , when my children wish to play in rain, we allow them to wear their raincoats, make some paperboats and play in the puddle. 

We designed our own costume for their fancy dress competitions involving them too in cutting templates, design armour, cow, sword, plough etc. We never go for any readily available school projects for their exhibition either science or any subject activity. I have shared few projects in my page as well. ENGLISH ADJECTIVE PROJECT, SCIENCE OZONE PROJECT 

These interesting activities involving children will help them to gain interests to create their own. These Swords with their holder and Ninja blades are created by my younger one. As they are studying about ancient history of different rulers and their kingdom, iron age, created these on his own. 

How these activity comes with Parenting is a big question? . Definitely YES, parenting plays a major role. Kindly allow children to do their projects or activities on their own. As a parent, guide them and help them to get their required accessories or resources. Just allow them to do on their own, make them an independent learner. The Output of their own project or activity will be always special and a unique one gaining them more insights of the concept shared. 

Let them play with paper, don't stop them, just guide them to play safely. Happy Parenting !!!

MODEL OF A BULLET TRAIN FROM A 8 YEAR OLD'S PERCEPTION

Hi ,

Today I am sharing an interesting creation of our 8 year old son. This is his perception of his bullet train.  

Visual perceptual skill is one of the milestone in every child's growth. It is the ability to organize and interpret the information that is seen and give it meaning. Our eyes visualise the object and share the images with our brains to process helping us to have our own thoughts and creations. This skill development has to be encouraged by parents. It does wonders in child's cognitive development.

As child's first teacher, we should know or take time to observe child's skills or area of interest. We were really surprised and felt happy as parents to see a wonderful cute creation from our child. 

My 8 year old is very much fond of watching trains and would prefer to travel more by trains. Railway station was hardly a 5 minute walk from our community. Staying in 11th floor, we would be able to have a railway view from our balcony. I used to feed him in the balcony watching trains.

When he was a 2 year old toddler, I used to take him to a nearby railway station to watch trains in the evening hours. We will be there for at least half an hour, we will see minimum three crossings, a passenger express, MMTS and Freight trains. We had this schedule everyday till the age of 5. He would mostly prefer to get only train toys. Later, he was involved in Basket ball and Cricket coaching. But, still he loves watching trains and speak more about different trains and explains their speed too.

He started watching more train videos in Youtube and discuss about it with us. Recently, we re-located to a new place. Fortunately, my brother's house and our house are very near to the railway station. We have a railway view nearby. Everyday, we spend 10 minutes in the morning and evening to watch trains. He is fond of tube trains. His favourite passtime in my brother's house is sitting on the lounge window and watch all the trains crossings. His interests and passion on trains made him to design this model train.

He used a packing cardboard box. Cut out different shapes and glue all the shapes together. 

Hope to see you all again with another imagination. 

MY DAUGHTER'S NATURE CRAFT

Today, am sharing a simple preprimary Nature project for my daughter's school activity. Involve Children in their school homework activity right from simple colouring to crafting. It's an important learning activity for the children. My daughter enjoys colouring and craft work . Last week , she was taught about nature . So , we planned to do this craft.

Sending this to Shruti's Artsy - Craftsy Challenge - Tissue Paper



We drew a tree , mountain , waterfall , river, hut , sun , birds and a rainbow . She painted the mountain with watercolour . River and Waterfall with crepe paper .

Rainbow with crepepapers .

Tree collage with crepe paper . We glued white crepe paper for Trunk and then watercoloured it .

Sun with waste tin cap and crepe paper .


Hut with crepe paper and stripped tissue paper roof ,water coloured brown .


She enjoyed doing this . Hope your kids also enjoy doing this . Have a great week end .

Happy Parenting !!