Tips to increase gross motor skills in pre-schoolers (Sensory Play)

I am always looking for some cheap but creative ways to promote gross motor skills. Megha and I equally enjoy doing things together. I think as a parent the more we get involved with the child the more she learns. Thats why I always (try) carry a sense of wonder with me when I am with Megha.

Sorting Game: Sensory Play
This game doesnt require much. We gathered some basic material that was already available in the kitchen. The idea is to gather items that are of different sizes, shapes, colors, textures, smells and sounds.

I used several items and some of them were un-cooked pasta, stars, cardamom, cloves, peanuts, raisins, almonds, chick peas etc. I gave her a muffin pan and asked her to sort each identical item in each slot in the muffin pan. Since I sat down with her, she was even more interested.

While "playing" (we learn while we play), we explored the different textures of the food using our hands. She learned that we use out mouth/tongue to taste. She loved eating those raisins. She learned that we use our eyes to see. She learned that we use our nose to smell. She learned that we use our ears to hear. She may have known these things subconsciously already but having gone through this particular sensory play, she now consciously knows that she can use different parts of her body to do different things. She also learned that she may not need all 5 senses to identify an item. For example, she now knows that if she has her eyes closed, she can use her mouth to identify that what she is eating is a raisin :) My smart girl!

We smelled the cardamoms, tasted the chocolate chips (yummm), star-ani (yukkk) etc. We took uncooked chikpeas and rolled between the fingers. We decided that next time we go to Florida to visit Micky and Minnie, we would tell Minnie about the bow-tie pasta and how wonderful Minnie would look when she wears a bow tie pasta in her hair (For those of you who dont know, Minnie loves Bows)....It was totally Megha's idea. See what happens when you ask kids their opinion on something? Nothing less than awesome :)
We decided that our favorite item of all are the raisins as they "taste like honey" according to her.

This exercise not only promotes gross motor skills when her small fingers are sorting shapes/colors, it also promotes thinking and gives us at least an hour of fun packed "play".
If you ask me, kids learn things faster when the environment is supportive, respectful and playful in its setting.

Trip to Santa's Village

Making the best out of summer continues...
We visited Santa's Village (near Muskoka) last month. It was fairly long drive but we did have fun at the place. Entering the village was like entering Christmas week minus the snow! There was even a bake shop that Mrs. Santa Clause owns :)

Here are Megha and Anand at the entrance:

Megha got to feed the reindeer's too. Not once or twice but at least 4 times :) There was a sleigh hidden in the background. I was so sure I got the picture of her feeding the reindeer but I dont seem to find one.

Megha also went on her very first roller coaster ride. She had FUN!

Of course, where ever there is face painting, she must get it done :) She was a unicorn (a favorite creature). I wonder how she is going to react when she actually comes to know that it may or maynot have existed?

Here is a better look of the same.

She also had quite a bit of fun in the water park/ splash pad.

When we met Santa, he asked her what she wanted and she said, "toys". Jeez! can kids ever have enough toys?

We went on a little train ride around the Santa's village...

We also went on Santa's summer sleigh :)

It sure was a fun day! 

Jr Reddiar's Nursery

Baby's room has been ready for over a month now. It has come a very long way from being a guest room first, then as a room where everything gets 'stored' to finally being a baby's room. It has come together quite beautifully. Anand moved quite a bit of furniture around to make it more roomy. I am very happy with the results. All the baby big furniture (crib/ changing station/ glider) is from Megha's time with the exception of a few things like bouncer, art work around etc

Its an animal themed room. The colors seem a bit muted in the pictures as the paint in the room is beige but when you really walk into the room, you can feel the warmth.

Here are the pictures! This is how it looks like towards the entrance. The glider and the ottoman for perfect.

Then comes the crib...I wonder if the baby will sleep OK or he would like Megha who would rather sleep with mommy and daddy. This time I did not buy any crib bumpers etc. As such, we needed to take them away to let the air flow for Megha.

Right beside the crib is the bed where we are planning on sleeping. Baby's bouncer is right beside the bed, for now. Some books to read as well.

Here is the changing station that sits right beside the ottoman. New mattress and cover are bought and I love the Noah's arch sticker that I found. The musical mobile is from Megha's time.

one more:

Here is the entrance towards the room. It looks a bit eerie (bad lighting) in this picture but its actually quite nice in reality :)

The chest...I have put all the baby cloths in these drawers as Anand and I are using the closet for now (we made room for my parents in the master bedroom). I made a diaper cake :)

Here was Megha's room back in those baby days.

http://aboutyouwithyou.blogspot.ca/2011/11/nursery.html

Not just leaves

Its not about what the real gift is...havent we heard that often enough? And it is so true. I love it Megha gifts me with simplest of things with pure love. Sometimes its the rocks she collects at the park, sometimes its random things wrapped in a kitchen towel and sometimes its the leaves collected from the front yard. For many it may not seem like much but for me, they are treasures, for she has chosen to give it to "me" instead of keeping it or give it to someone else. Its all she has at that particular minute and she chose to give it away to me :)

In her dreams....

I love it when Megha dreams out loud. I mean, literally dream. This evening she is dreaming (as I write). She suddenly woke up and asked me, "what's the problem guys?"
I told her, "there is no problem."
She said, "no problem? Oh well." And she turned around and went back to dreaming :)

Trip to Butterfly conservatory

Early last month, we made a trip to the butterfly conservatory near Niagara Falls. Megha loves butterflies (who doesnt) and it was a perfect getaway, considering the conservatory is indoors. She did a lot of pictures!

Here at the entrance, it was a rainy day:

There were so many verities of plants and butterflies. We went around a couple of times around the park, it wasnt really a big park.

Here with Daddy checking out some poisonous frogs.  

Here with momma, checking out some fish and turtles.

She learned how Monarch butterflies migrate

One more picture with momma.

One more with Daddy

Blue winged butterfly..

One more:

Girl time with my little girl

This update is from way back in March when I was still working. Most Saturdays we end up doing something fun together and that weekend was awesome. We first went for shoe shopping...

Followed by cupcakes, chocolate of course :)

Then we got our hair done...she loved the salon!

one more after its all cut and done

And then finally her nails. I was surprised at how well she sat, got her nails done (nail polish) and even patiently sat while it dried :) I hope we share many more times like this together. She had different colored nail polish for each finger. Apparently thats the trend now. (?)