INDOOR ACTIVITIES FOR 2-5 YEARS AGE GROUP KIDS

I would like to gather all indoor activities that can be useful for kids in 2-5 years of age.Some are my own ideas, some are taken from internet, and some are my daughters school activities. I thought it is useful for mothers during this lockdown. 

1. Coloring: The easiest way to attract the toddlers
2. Memory game: Place 3-4 items/toys in a tray. Make your toddler remember what they are, place a cloth on the items and carefully remove one of the item, without their knowledge. Let them guess which item was removed.
3. Frozen dance: Play some energitic music, let your kid dance to that music, you also dance if required,and freeze your movements, when the music stops suddenly. 
4. Mis match: Take 4 pairs of items,/toys, place it in two rows with mismatch sequence.  Ask this toddler to match them accordingly. 
   
5. Round alphabets: Arite alphabets on small pieces of paper,and arrange them in a circular shape. Let the music start and your kid run around. When the music stops, kid should stop, then the kid need to identify the letter and ask them to say the related word to that alphabet.
6. Find the color: Make sure you placed the colours visible to your kid. Ask them to bring specific colored item to you. Kids will run around to search that.
7. Hopscotch: This activity is simply favorite thing for many kids.  You just need to draw lines for jumping. You can make them more interesting with your creativity.
8. Treasure hunt: For this you don't need garden or open places. Draw the outline of your house/room, hide some of their toys or daily things in the room and ask them to find out. You can even list out the things you were hidden. For reference see the picture below. 
   
9. Puppet show: All you need for a puppet show is plastic/wooden spoons, wool and all fix gum. You can create whatever charecters you want.
   
10. Hide and seek: My favourite game for gaining some time for moms.
11. Word/alphabet search: Write random alphabets and ask kids to find purticular alphabet or word. Yes you can create your own word search for your kids.
    
12. Follow the lines: Make your kids take a round all over your home. Draw arrow lines directing to their favourite toy, with some obstacles like chairs or tables. They surely enjoy the process.
13. Basket and ball: Take any available basket or vessel so that your kid can throw some paper balls or small toys. Score them and encourage.
14. Crafting: You team up with little scientists, they can make you do miracles!!!
    
15. Play imaginary roles: Kids are more influenced by cartoon charecters, play with them. Our favourite game is Dora and explorer, myself Boots in that play, Dora role played by my daughter.
16. Make play doughs: Use wheat flour or all purpose flour to make the doughs, and if food color is available, you use it too.
17. Try music: Try what kind of sound comes from an empty glass and glass full of water. Try to create music from that. Who knows, you may become an expert in Jaltarang, after this lock down!!!
18. Bubble bath: Stay at home is not alone safe, you need to disinfect the home. Take help of your kids and wash their toys in bubble bath. Sure they enjoy the bubbles.
19. Board games: Board games are ever green games. Do you think they cannot understand board rules. Let go of rules for some time and play with them. You get a heatful of laughter!!!
20. My Kitchen rules: When is the last time you truly enjoyed cooking?? Dont worry about the rotis/dosas shape, enjoy cooking with your kid's help. 

These are only suggestions, you can design more games with your creativity!!

10 APARICHIT MOMENTS WITH MOTHERS

Children and Mothers love for each other cannot be measurable. Mother love leads them to talk them in two types. 

They want us to do certain things for limited period of time. After certain age,  their multiple personality will come out and parents doesnot want us to do the same thing. I am not criticizing them,  but their unconditional love for us, force them to do so. These are some situations,  where mother's duality come out.

1. When you are a kid, your mother hated when you eat your meals slowly.. "You need to have your meals quickly. No one would wait you for hours". This is a common point where moms lose their temper. When you are in teens or after 20's, you will have your meals in a hurry(really quick). Then also you cannot satisfy your mother. "Have your breakfast in peace." Is this not Aparichitudu moments??

2. "Dont roam around all the time. You are may bump into someone or trip over" Did you hear this dialouge many times especially during summer holidays. When you grow up and have some stability in your body(Parents often misunderstand this as laziness) "Can you move your ass dear? You are sitting in that couch from past 5 hours..I said UP!!"

3. "Let me help you in brushing/while taking a bath" mothers say this all the time to kids, when kids are eager to explore how to brush/ how to take a bath. After some years same mother would shout "WEEKENDS DOESN'T MEAN IT IS HOLIDAY FOR TAKING BATH OR BRUSH, GO RIGHT NOW!! " This time your are not interested in brushing our bathing. But your mother will be completely opposite to our feelings.

4. "When are going to help your mother while you are a kid,she used to say "No need dear, go and play/study" she will say it affectionatly. After 20 years " Dont know how to prepare even tea, what will you do after your marriage?? Come help me in the kitchen".

5. Mothers will be upset when you are going 1st time to school, but she herself wanted you to go there. Two completely opposite thoughts filled in their mind.

6. When kids are not interested to eat the meals, mother say "I am not going to feed to at any cost..Eat by yourself". While you are leaving to office in hurry she comes to you and says " I can see you are in hurry, let me feed you some breakfast". Complete opposite talks!!!

7. When you are in school, homework is the worst thing happens every evening. Your mothers may bribe you for doing it. "We can go to circus/cinema this weekend if you complete this homework". The same weekend senario changes while you are going to office. " Lets go to a theatre atleast this weekend, not netflix again." 

8. "You are making mess everytime." Every mother complains this. After when you leave for work or study, she will again say "No one to make mess dear, clothes are in wardrobe, everything is organized.I am missing your mess". See, she misses our mess too. 

9. "You can do whatever you can after you get a job/after marriage". You know the next phase also, "You are not listening to me"

10. Iconic one: Mothers will be like "Don't talk to stranger". Also mothers "Marry this stranger". 

What are the aparichit moments with your mother?? List them in comments section.

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20 IDEAS HELP YOU SURVIVE WHEN YOU ARE AT HOME

Corona out broke!! The minimum precaution is to stay at home and wash your hands. Children and working people are at home. It is different phase of life when everyone are at home in this busy life, that too for a long period. 

Here are some ideas that will help you to overcome this time. 

1. Make the meals simple ones:

Every weekend's meals would be special, but now try not to visit restaurants or crowdy places. Also do not get worried about preparing the meals. Keep it simple. Simple is new different. 

2. Take naps

No hurry for office or schools or colleges. Take more 30 min to get up. Or take an afternoon nap.

3. Play the fictional games

Are you bored of working from home?? Play fictional games like catching zombies or if you have kids you can play "Dora the explorer" or "Peppa pig" fictional plays. Or you can play many board games. These things are not childish,  these ladies makes you really work one another without mobiles or television. 

4. Get rid of cobwebs:

It is your home, so take care of your home a little. Get rid of cobwebs. We also can do that.

5. Declutter:

This period will be right chance to declutter your room, wardrobe or mobile.

6. Try to generate new ideas for your interior decoration

You have plenty of time, you can think many possible ways to think about how interior decoration. 

7. Organize your room/wardrobe/total home

Stop the idea of postponing the organizing of your home. This time will not come again.

8. There are so many movies or shows you wanted to watch..watch now

9. Workout at home/do simple yoga:

There are so many YouTube tutorials on how to do workout/yoga at home. Try one of these. Else you can walk around your house/cellar.

10. Print:

We take lots of pics now a days. Move some printable into one folder. Likewise you can declutter your hard drives and print your memories too. Looking at our loved ones in photo frame is different from seeing them as our mobile wallpaper. 

11. Grow a garden

Take a plastic bottle and make some holes under it. Fill it with soil and some methi/dhaniya(fenugreek/coriander) seeds. Even this is enough for one meal. Eating what you grow, can give you pleasure

12. Try different hair styles 

There is no one who will judge you for doing this.  Neither colleagues no friends will know what you are doing. Take this as a chance to change your hairstyle. 

13. Read

You can read peacefully, with no tension for tomorrow.  

14. Clean your vehicle

Skip car wash/bike wash for this month. Clean your vehicle with your hands. If necessary involve your family too.

15. Write an email to your future self through futureme.org

I once used this for my birthday. After that I forgot, suddenly one day a mail has popped up from me which I was written years ago. So write an email to your future self today itself.

16. Call your friends

When did the last time you called your friends and spoke about your happy memories? Is it on their last birthday??It is time to ditch the whats app messages and speak to them.

17. Meditate

Get time for meditation too. 

18. Plenty of time.so you can take self care.

Why to go to parlor when you can do the saloon services at home. We have time, so it can save money also. Try manicure or pedicure at home.

19. Try not to get attached to digital devices more. It can build you stress at home. Everyone looking at mobiles even when they are near, cannot help you in this holidays. If some one is watching TV go straight in front of TV and block that, so that they might talk to you in person.

20. Spend more time with kids. You can teach them songs, decluttering, life lessons, creative ways to talk,and you learn more from them, what not!!  So use this time efficiently!! 

Stay away from corona, stay close to loved ones.

Here are some more ideas to do with kids!! 

Here is my another blog for ideas without internet!!

Stay safe...

Take care...

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x

GRANNY'S TALES- WATER (PART-2)

 [For Granny's tales part-1 here ]

Grandmothers loses their coolness when it comes to WATER.
In traditional Indian families water is treated almost equal to God. From the moment they wake up they were closely associated with the five elements of nature, mostly with water. Granny considered water as most wonderful, powerful, sterilizing element of one life.
1. Bath: 
She used to say that always have a bath before sunrise. My granny hated when I roam here and there with out having bath in the morning. She used to nag behind me saying that "Go and bathe".  Whenever she heard a bad news or when she is having a bad day she goes straight to the bathroom and does her bathing. She used to say bathing makes her body and mood, clean.
2. Drinking water:
She used to treat water as her elixir of life. She used to wash her copper water utensil, with little extra care every time. She never drank water hurriedly. She used to say "After drinking water, you should sit relaxed for few minutes, then only the water will sink in. More than half of your body is water, respect it"
3.Cooking:
She always used water only she brought. None of the family or maids brought water, is not preferred for her cooking. She used to clean the water vessel after bathing, with her own hands and after that she used to bring water in that, and we are not allowed to touch it at any cost. she called it "Madi neellu",which means "water that should not be touched". The complete process seemed to be illogical and meaningless during my childhood. After I got to know their water has memory, and it reacts to our touch and voice, I got to know 'the' water will effect your health. 

My granny never used the water from taps. She always stored the water in a vessel and after a night she used it for cooking or drinking.

4. News:

Whether it is a birth news or a death news she immediately took a bath.  She used to say some philosophy, both birth and death are part of life, try to treat like same.

5. Others:

My granny always used to say"wash your legs from behind..don't ignore after visiting rest room". May be it was concern about every corner of the body. 

Granny used to use a word after drinking water "this is amrutham", which means elixir. 

In most of the traditional houses, before meals they will do kriya called "parisham" with water as an indication of holy food "prasadam" for the fire(God) inside us. 

Also after completing the food, they again use water for completing the kriya. So she never ignored the water. 

All this will be done by men in the house. This topic is really a vast subject, here I'm not going to discuss. I shall make it as other topic.  

So,  finally my granny's relation with water is a strong one. She even predicted the financial status by usage of water!!!  

Awesome women!! 

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It is going on!!

She opened the curtains of her room. Thank God Anupama aunty was not there. Else she would observe everything and every sound wave through the window. She misses her parents and brother. She misses her native place. It is a small town. Now she is living in a metro city.
When she met her relatives who was living in a metro city they used to say "It is going on" when they were asked, "How is the city?".
She was surprised by that answer. 

Everything has changed in her life by coming to this city. No Anupama aunty spying on her activities. No power cuts no internet problem. Customer care people of water purifier, air conditioner, washing machine are reacting quickly.
No worries about hospitals or groceries. They are at the doorstep. She remembered how her grandmother felt while she had a massive heart stroke. No doctor/Nurse was available at that time. 

No greenery is seen around her house. Her flat faces the busiest road so that she never felt alone. Busy traffic reminded her home. Her brother used to play loud music even she is sleeping. No calm environment at home. That music even created a new topic for Anupama aunty. "You should concentrate more on studies than music. Unlike you, Vamsi(Anupama's son) always uses the computer for studying".

"Unlike my mom, you should know your son's browsing history", snapped her brother.

They had a heartful laugh after she left.

When she got a job in metro City, all her neighbours were very anxious about how she can survive in the new City, rather she should say they were jealous.

Jealousy in the name of love.

Interrogation in the name of caring.
Backbiting is the name of admiring.

A few months later:
She is all fine in the new city. But she misses her family especially Anupama aunty when she is sick. She misses Anupama aunty's peeking from time to time. Here she is all by herself. Nobody is ready to look into her life. Nobody is concerned about her being. In this city, she can see arrogant, negative minded people, selfish people. At least in her village, they were concerned about their image when they say NO. Here the people are self-centred and work for their own being.
The cost of living is far more than she expected. If the salary is a 6-Digit number, then she can save only a 4-Digit number that too with a great effort.
Anupama aunty's husband works in a small firm with hardly a 4-digit salary, but they were already owners of a duplex house in that town.
And the traffic is terribly bad, she can't even travel 2kms in 1hour. She missed her town really bad.

After a few more months:
A distant relative met her in a wedding and asked, "Hey how is the new city, new life?"
She smiled and said, "It is going on!!!"

Finally, she understood every place has its pros and cons and she needs to go on with that!!