Too Quiet Moments - Are They Really Suspicious?

At the age of 3, one day the house was too quiet. Wondering what this little one is doing I peeped out of the kitchen and found him applying shampoo from the newly bought bottle all over his body (Later came to know he thought it was a body lotion lol). 

When he was 6, during a summer vacation, on a random morning while I was preparing the breakfast suddenly I felt the house was too quiet again. And this is what he was upto.

At 10, when the interests drift towards mechatronics and has a research station ready in hand

 

Crispy French Fries

 

 

Ingredients

Large Potatoes – 3

Salt

Oil for deep frying

Method

1.      Wash the potatoes, peel the skin and cut into long thin shape(French fries shape)

2.      After cutting keep them in bowl filled with water, to avoid turning brown. Let it be in the water for 15 minutes

3.      After 15 mins, take some hot water in a wide bowl, add some salt and transfer the cut potato wedges in the hot water bowl. This will help the potatoes cook well while frying.

4.      After 10 mins, take out the potatoes from hot water and dry them well using a paper towel or a clean cloth.

5.      Once dried, the potatoes are ready for frying. For crispy French fries, we need to fry them twice.

 

Let’s do the first stage frying:

 

a.      Take oil for frying in a pan, keep the flame in low to medium heat.

b.      Drop the potatoes carefully and fry them for 3 to 4 mins. During the first fry, 

         there will not be any colour change in the potatoes.

c.      Take them out and drain in a paper towel. Allow to cool down completely, may 

         be for 15 mins.

 

 Now, Let’s do the second stage frying:

 

a.      Keep the oil in medium to high flame. Add the potatoes to the hot oil

b.      Fry until the potatoes look crispy. We can see the colour change.

c.      Take them out of the oil, drain in paper towel.

d.      Sprinkle salt and enjoy the tasty French fries with ketchup.

Some Cube Pattern Fun

On a random Sunday morning.

 

The Lovely Rain - Poem

We have been missing the rains for a long time. Many times the dark clouds would gather around, but the rains would disappoint us. Today there was some surprise shower and he wrote this instant short poem.

He is Reading Aloud his poem here, check it out :)

 

 The Lovely Rain

 

The Lovely Rain is coming to the town

The Lovely Rain is coming to the town

Happy to see it pour

Happy to see it pour

Lovely rain, Lovely rain, Lovely rain

Coming to the town.

Lightning McQueen Short Stories

Once upon a time, there lived a race car named Lightning McQueen. He was number 95. The color of Lightning McQueen is red. He always says "Ka-chow" when he gets out of the trailer. 

One day Lightning McQueen was practicing for the world cup race. Suddenly, his tires burst as he was practicing for 15 hours. When Mac saw Lightning McQueen tires were all burst he brought him to the mechanic. The service center owner said, "he can practice 2 hours and change tires". "Ok" said McQueen. So, he is getting into his trailer. Everyone comes and takes photo of him when he gets out of the trailer. "Welcome to the world cup race" they said. "Thank you" replied McQueen. 

When he saw Mater, he said "Hi Buddy, how are you?". 

"I'm fine, how about you?" - Mater 

"I.m also fine Buddy", said McQueen. "I have a little surprise for you. Your friend Cruz had come here for you" said Mater. "Really??" asked McQueen. "Yeah! She's behind you" said Mater. "Hi Mr. McQueen, how are you?" asked Cruz. "I'm fine Cruz" said McQueen. "But how do you know I am in Route 66?" he asked. 

"I was in the trailer in Wedo's room" said Cruz. "Oh, that is why I heard some noise in his room" said McQueen. "Yes.." said Cruz. "I have one question.. Why have you come to Route 66?" - McQueen

"To see the World Cup race", Cruz said. "Thanks.." said McQueen. "You are welcome", said Cruz.

"Today afternoon is the World Cup race" said McQueen. "Ok" she said. "So, are you coming with me?" asked McQueen. "Yes, of course" replied Cruz. When they reached the World Cup race, Lightning McQueen said "You go and wait in the audience place". "Sure" said Cruz. 

"There are three racers; Chick, Dinoco and Lightning McQueen, the famous racer" announced the announcer. Everyone was cheering McQueen... McQueen.. McQueen. Before the race starts Chick is planning to beat McQueen and Dinoco. So, when McQueen and Dinoco were in front of him he hit them.  

Now, McQueen and Dinoco were planning and they went full speed and distracted Chick. Chick got distracted, there was a nail in front of him and tires burst and he was standing in front of the race.So McQueen and Dinoco won and been cheered.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               END                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

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.