A Handmade, Non-Hazardous Game Console

 A Game console, that has zero negative effects. One that helps with your creativity (as you can imagine and play any sort of game), improves hand-eye coordination and doesn't affect eye sight. Now, who is going to tell him not to play with this ;)

 

On A Boring Afternoon!!

We always have a limited screen time. Learning to engage self is an art. That induces creativity, helps to think for himself and everyone around, creates interest in a variety of activities.

On a boring afternoon, when his dad and I were busy with our work, he was silently engaged in cleaning and arranging the cutlery in the kitchen rack. Output was a perfectly clean-o-clean, neatly arranged cutlery and storage boxes.

 

 

 

And prepared some neem extract for next day's bathing. This can help with the Seasonal Transition (change of season)

 

Cycling - No Handed Is Fun!!

"Look, Mom/Dad! No hands!" - kids get amazed, they faces light up when they have achieved something difficult, isn't it?

 Riding a bicycle no handed is a kind of fun drill.  And that involves a lot of learning as well like balance and controlling speed. 

First Short Story Ever

When he moved to Grade 1, one evening he showed me his notebook saying he wrote a story at school that day, when he had a free period. Few days ago we read a story on crow and owls where both are enemies, so he created this version deriving from that :D

Books - The LockDown Rescuers

Rescuers of these lock down days, at times he would come saying that he finished 3 chapter books in a day 🤗 includes Ramayana (narrator was his dad, this time) 😍. Arranged these back in their places only on sunday and the next set of books have started occupying this space now 😀.

 
   

P.S

 
Stories do wonders, they really do. We had a very very tough time until he was 6 (thookathula ezhupi ketaalum me and hubby will kadharify, I can write a seperate chapter book on those 🤪). Things started falling in place only after that. Stories, discipline and strict routine (we are still following this without exception, close to 2 months of lockdown and his TV time has never increased)

He had delays in his language. He suddenly stopped/reduced talking while he was 2. He wouldn't respond when called upon. After few months of wait, the doctors started saying if he doesn't talk in couple of months, we may have to put him in speech therapy. That was the first time we heard that term. Being in a foreign land, we were scared as hell. Until then I had learnt (I learnt anything and everything from this little guy 😀) only to babble with him in his toddler language. I had known to play well, I had known to engage him well, but I didn't know to talk to him. I didn't know what and how to talk. Really!!!

But the fear of speech therapy made me took some earnest efforts with books and stories (even though we had a reading routine from his one and a half year). He slowly developed his language, but still the doctors said he might have Echolalia (keeps repeating what we say). He struggled to express himself, that made him throw a lot of tantrums, which in turn was miserable for us. Whatever it was, I strictly clinged on to books, stories, discipline and routine. Wasn't so easy to get these done 🙃.

After years of effort, we started feeling the "breeze"; we started to breathe a little easy. I started realising how these stories have transformed our lives. That's when I wanted to extend it to other kids, so that they too can enjoy the fruits of life and that's how my journey of story telling started. I wanted to take stories to the extent possible. I get a sense of satisfaction when I see those smiles, when I hear those stories retold by the little ones, when they start understanding the morals and values ❤️. #TryingToSpreadPositiveParenting

Helping with Washing Dishes

Wiki says - Teaching your child to wash dishes has numerous benefits and even helps with the development of life skills. For younger children it promotes the use of fine motor skills, and it encourages learning through play with water and bubbles. For older children it encourages cleanliness, discipline and helps them feel as though they are contributing to the household.
And yeah he does that too :)

The Rescue Plan

Once upon a time there was a ship named Mickel and Peter is the owner of Mickel. One day Peter and Mickel went on a trip, suddenly Mickel was stuck. A witch had trapped him. “Why do you do these things?” asked Peter. “I don’t want anybody to go with Mickel”, said the Witch. So, they started fighting. 

“Stop this fighting”, screamed Mickel. “Yeah, please free Mickel” asked Peter. “No way, why should I do?” said the witch. “Everyone is waiting for me in the harbour, please let me go” Mickel said.

“I will not let you go” said the witch. “If you don’t let him go, then he will put fireballs on you” shouted Peter. “I too have Mega fireballs”, said the witch. “Oh witch, please let me go” shouted Mickel again. When Mickel and the witch were arguing, Peter called Mickel’s best friend Bluewave, who is also a ship. When Bluewave came, he said “I will free Mickel”. “You came too?” said the witch surprisingly.

“Yes, I am here to rescue my friend Mickel”, Bluewave said. “If you help Mickel, then you will be struck too. Better go away from here” said the witch. “I can put Ultra-Mega fireballs on you, so better you free my friend” said Bluewave furiously. “No way” cunningly said the witch.

“Let’s go home Peter” Bluewave said to Peter sadly. “Yeah…” said Peter in a gloomy tone.

When they reached home, they decided to do something to rescue Mickel. “We have to save Mickel” Peter said to Bluewave. “But, how can we do?” said Bluewave. “I have an idea.. I know a scientist who has magical powers. He can help us” Peter happily said. 

They went to meet the scientist and told him what has happened to Mickel. “I can give powers to Bluewave, but not to you Peter” the scientist said. “Oh, that will be very helpful, please give to him. But can you explain the plan?” asked Peter. “Yeah sure..” said the scientist. And the scientist started planning. “I can give you invisible powers, but the power will not last for a long time. The witch doesn’t know that Bluewave has powers. So, Bluewave, you should go behind Peter using your invisible power and while attacking you can go visible. Also I will give you more powerful fireballs to attack the witch.” “Ok Mr. Scientist” said Bluewave.  “And Peter, you have to go in a motor boat, as it can go fast”, the scientist said. “And I can’t come”, said the scientist. “Oh, why?” Peter asked.

“Because, if I come, the witch will guess that Bluewave has got some powers from me”, he said. “Can’t you come invisible?” asked Peter. “As I said, this power will only work for ships, not for humans” scientist explained. “Okay, I understood now”, said Peter. When the scientist gave powers to Bluewave, he became very very powerful. “Thank you very much for your timely help Mr. Scientist” said Peter and Bluewave happily. “You are welcome” said the Scientist. 

Now, Peter took a motor boat and Bluewave went with him in invisible. “Hey you, what are you doing here?” asked the witch to Peter. “I am here to help Mickel” said Peter. “Didn’t I say that you cannot do it?” said the witch. “Attack him Bluewave” said Peter and Bluewave came visible.

They were fighting for 3 hours. The witch was not able to withstand the powers.“Free Mickel now” said Bluewave. “I still won’t do it” said the witch firmly. “Then I can do it all by myself”, saying so, Bluewave threw the ultra-double-mega fireball on the stone, in which the witch had trapped Mickel. Finally, Mickel was set free.

“Thank you Bluewave. But, how did you get all these powers?” asked Mickel. “Mr Scientist gave me the powers” said Bluewave. “Wow.. can you give it to me as well? I can protect myself from dangers” said Mickel. “We can ask the scientist” said Bluewave and they went to the scientist. Mickel too got the powers and became very powerful.

Cooking is Fun Too

This 7.5 yr old wants me to help in the kitchen. And these crispy dosas are the outcome :)

The Monster - First attempt penning a poem

I saw a Monster
A cute little Monster
A very friendly Monster
Looking at a Mat
A cat was sitting on the Mat
He was a fluffy fat cat
Wearing a white hat;
Woo-hoo the lovely Monster,
Gave the cat a pat
And the cat gave him his hat!

The Stormy Night

Once upon a time, there lived Bingo and Roley. One day, Roley was playing with sticks. It started raining, Bingo said let’s call Hissy. They went and called Hissy. Prajwal said to Bingo and Roley, “there will be a storm today at 10 PM”.  Just then Bob called Prajwal and asked him to come fast and pick him from office before the storm. Prajwal, along with Bingo, Roley and Hissy took his car and raced to Bob’s office. Time was 9.45PM and Bob came running towards Prajwal’s car. “We just have 15 minutes, put on your seat belts. We need to reach home before the storm” said Prajwal and raced the car to Bob’s house. They reached just before the storm and started watching Captain Dog, their favourite TV show.  

Learning the Importance of Savings

Our afternoon went like this when he wanted to count the coins on his Savings Jar 😍
He said he will get us ice creams and watches (for him as well 😀) with this. He is 7.5 yr old now :D

Reading Is A Pleasure

Reading is a pleasure, when you get to find your favourite genre. And I am glad this 7.5 yr old has found his own. Suppandi and Horrid Henry have become his favourites for the past one year.
His usual after school routine used to be like come home, freshen-up, watch TV for 30-40 mins, then do the homework and play for rest of the evening. (What else can be more exciting for a child rather than playing with friends? So, his play times are usually longer)
But today when he returned from school, he scanned the book, quickly refreshed and pulled his study table comfortably near the sofa and started relishing the comic. What surprised me a lot was, he didn't bother much about missing his TV time, nor did he ask for a snack. When his favorite book was lying around, the reading happened naturally.