Ladybug craft

As it is a long holiday for my little one, thought of doing few crafts with him. I was looking for fun activities for boys and came across this ladybug craft. It was very simple and I have all the ingredients oops I have almost all the things I needed to make it.

- Few bottle caps
- Red, black, white paint and brush
- News paper or waste paper

We spread the news paper to avoid the messy floor. If you could collect cooldrinks cap that would be perfect too, but we just went to Mumbai to see elephanta caves so we came back with whole bunch of water bottles. I was having around 4 caps. He painted the cap and made this little fellow. He loved it. It is not perfect but not bad too :p. And we spent a good amount of time around an hour as he did most (!! I should say all of it except few tiny ideas of how to do from me) of the things like collecting the caps, paint, coloring, cleaning up the brush after we are done :) so that cutdown the TV time. Next time I should remember not to throw the bottle caps and cooldrink caps it can be useful to make fun little crafts.

Hug

Name  : Hug
Author : Jez Alborough
Right for 0-3yrs age

This book was a big hit with my kid when he was 3yrs old, he got it as a return gift. Then I saw few available in goodwill for a dollar! that too a big board book. Bobo lost his way in the jungle, and he wanted to find his mommy. Beauty of this book is the whole book has only words Hug, mommy, bobo!! And kids can narrate the story in their own words...

When I read the story to his friends in a potluck all the kids were sitting tight in one place which is a rare event :). Bobo meets all kinds of animals in the jungle, chameleon, snake, elephant, giraffe, lion and it was all illustrated well. So its a nice way to introduce animals to the kids. One of the good books and I will never forget, it made my kid to come up with different versions of the story :).

Dont miss it if you have a toddler.

Lorax

Name  : Lorax
Author : Dr seuss

One of my (our) favorite author Dr. Seuss, together we enjoyed a whole lot of books. Of which Lorax is his favorite. We got to know about this book from a friends friend who gifted the book to my friends daughter ;). And she explained what is the book about, and we decided to get our hands on the book. This explains how greed takes over the humanitarian aspect. Always Dr seuss characters were named in a funny way, so kids giggle and laugh on hearing the name.

Onceler, Lorax. truffula trees, thneed are some of the names you could come across and more in the line. Onceler on seeing the trees decided to use the thneed to make shirt, scarf and lot of other things, so he started cutting down the trees with the help of his family and relatives, and in no time the place will become deserted, and the factory leftovers will pollute the place like anything. "Unless" someone took initiative to change the whole scenario by planting more trees there is no chance for the place. Its a beautiful story but how much kids will understand is what i thought. But I was wrong, it does made an impact. 

Book is available in
- Flipkart.com
- Passarobooks which listed as preowned imported bookstore, might be another choice to check.

Little yash is happy!

Name of the book: Little Yash is happy right now
Author: Nishita Chaitanya
website: www.chinmayapublications.org
Lift the flap and pop up book

Not all the books we both enjoy reading together. Some books I wouldnt even understand why he didnt like, and why he like it :). But this is one book I loved and he too enjoyed immensely. We got the book from Chimaya mission pune. How little yash learns to be happy. Little yash will be in the pool and will think, "I will be happy if I know how to swim", frog will jump and say, you can be happy when you are learning and you can be happy when you know" sameway what happens when he is in school, playground and at home and how little yash choose to be happy was illustrated with beautiful popups.

Rikki tikki tavi

Name of the book: Rikki Tikki Tavi moves on
Author:  Originally by Rudyard Kipling
Easy reader classic adapted by: Diane Namm
Illustration: Jim Madsen
No of pages: 32
 
We read Rikki Tikki Tavi. I found this book in Justbooks. But it is a easy reader classics retold for young readers. So I missed the illustration by caldecott award winner Jerry pinkney and original writing by Rudyard Kipling. But Rishi enjoyed the book.

It was about a curious mongoose Rikki Tikki Tavi, and how he turns the house topsy turvy and finally accepted by the family. Though in the real classic cobra is supposed to be scary, in this easy reader there was just a race and the cobra is not at all scary to my little one. When I asked Rishi what did he like about the book he said, he liked that racing and the way they both (mongoose and teddy) peeped out of the hole. So overall it was fun to introduce Rikki Tikki Tavi to him, who is longing to have a pet. I am sure he will ask me to get a pet mongoose soon :)

These two links are interesting, one is the story another is a movie on the same:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mongoose/rtt.html