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What do you do if you  lurve the feel, smell and flow of glue and if you happen to have a gallon size glue container at home? Glue batik…. and it was a HUGE hit, not just with the kids, I fell head over heels in love with it.

1)A piece of white cotton fabric. I happened to have about a yard of left over fabric that I trimmed to size for the girls.

2)Glue. Preferably in some easy squeeze bottles. I cleaned out the nozzle and mixed some water with the glue to make the squeezing process easy on the girls.

3)Squeeze the glue. Let it drip. Let it flow. Watch it fall. Have fun. When done, let fabric dry over night.

4)Acrylic paint, thinned down with lots of water. Paint over the fabric. Let fabric dry over night.

5)The next day soak the fabric in warm-hot water and scrub out the glue. Ta-da!!! Patterned cloth designed by your child. How amazing is that?

I cut the fabric to size, glued it to tetra-paks and made containers. These are hand made gifts boxes for the girls’ teachers.

I was so taken with the concept that I made some greeting cards with couple of styles of Ganesh.

This one is only half done, but I couldn’t wait to share this Ganesha in my favorite blue color. (Original inspiration here, isn’t it lovely?!)

PS: The activity started with Sruthi’s Aug glue challenge, but we quite didn’t make it before Aug 20.

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Apologizing in advance for poor picture quality. Our digital cam is shot and I have to make do with pics from phone.

Just before summer break started, Mieja had started movable alphabets and numbers. For a long time, much to the amusement of people at home, this child was counting “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 17, 53. I am done amma”. She started counting in order just before summer break and to me it was indicative of her grasp of symbolic representation of objects. Also her KE+O+T+R+U+C+K spelling started getting closer to the norm. During summer break we read a lot of books at home, but looks like she needed the stimulation of writing and sounding out alphabets. Some afternoons, Mieja would ask me to work with her on her writing.

I would doodle something like this

on one side of the paper and ask her to try spelling it on the other side. For the most part she did pretty well.

She was so taken with the concept of picture clues and she started playing quiz master. I have to admit that I struggled quite a bit with a few picture clues. I couldn’t decipher eraser and spoon.

Mieja’s condition is that she would sound out the word and I write. She would say F-R-A-M for frame and by my conditioning I would write FRAME. Same with words like easel(E-S-E-L). Reminded me of ‘Ek gauv mein ek kissan raguthatha‘ movie clip. She waved her hands, sighed and complained that I am not listening to her sounds 🙂

In accordance to Murphy’s law, Chula ploinked herself next to us and demanded that she NEEDS me pronto. So I had  to convience her that she needs challenging work and had her occupied with crosswords such as these. She did pretty well with some help from me and I did pretty well with help from Boo, YaadaYaada and PV 🙂

Another toy that helped us with Chula’s addition/substraction phase and Mieja’s counting/addition phase  – the IKEA abacus. May the person who designed this toy live long and prosper.

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Fuse bead work….

…..sock puppets…

….and the construction of a puppet theater…

…..lead to many, many, many, m.a.n.y stories 🙂

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This is a popular activity at home. I first saw this in FamilyFun Magazine at the pediatrician’s waiting room. This activity has sustained us through last year’s winter vacation.

1. Two weeks supply of newspaper, tape and  a pencil. Stack five sheets of newspaper. With the pencil at one corner start rolling the newspaper. When done, tape the end so that the tube does not open. Make several tubes.

2. These tubes are sturdy and can be used to construct pretty much anything. We took our design to the drawing board. I suggested something and the girls suggested the same thing and claimed that it was different from my thing. We agreed to disagree and started construction.

3. Just staple the ends of the paper tubes to construct.

4. It started as a tent. Of course during the process of construction, the architects changed the design and ended up looking like this.

Then it became a beauty salon. Thanks to Fancy Nancy. Introducing SHIVER ME TIMBERS HOUSE OF BEAUTY. I swear I had no part to play w.r.t the naming. Apparently the things in the beauty house are free. ‘If you like it, you can take it amma’ is what I was told. Mr.President one more business outfit for your stimulus package.

5. I reassured child 2 multiple times that the tent is strong. And what does she do? She climbs on it 🙁

So I cut the tips off and the tubes are ready for the next round of construction.

Try it and I bet you will love it.

More summer fun 2010 posts.

Kolams with my amma. This particular day, they were experimenting on writing letters with the cylinder shaped kolam maker. They were writing the first letter from our names, that explains the ASS you see a the bottom right 🙂

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This continues to be a popular activity since last summer.

	One caddy from Lakeshore @ $4.99
	Two squeegees from IKEA@ $0.99 each
	Two empty spray bottles filled with water
	Two rags
	Hours of fun washing windows = priceless

Given their love for water, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are as excited about window washing the next year also 🙂

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Do you want to know?

Okay, I will give you a picture, can any one guess how we did this?

Thanks for your comments. It is spin art. I also showed them how to splash paint to add colors to the finished spin art. Kids were super excited and Chula kept saying, “Amma you are doing just like Jackson Pollack”. I have a feeling that this splashing will come back to bite me.

What is the deal with Google? They acquired Slide? Now I have this ugly super poke pets ad in the slide show. Click on the X to close the ad. Move mouse over the pictures for captions.

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So what does one do with two little girls for 10 weeks?

That is 70 days. Time up and awake comes to 840 hours.

TV/PBS kids games/Wii, not that big at home. It is mainly to give myself a break. We have only one reader and one that pretends to be a reader 🙂

We did the usual playdates, block building, drawing, coloring, free play, gardening, bubble blowing, side walk chalk, easel painting, rangoli, trampoline, bubble bath, wading pool, parks, hikes, bicycle ride around the neighborhood, libraries, museums, exploratarium, cross words, puzzles, I spy, planetarium, doctor office trips(Yep, double bronchitis for the whole family including the adults in the middle of summer! Who would’ve thunked?!) botanical garden, camping trips.  Still did not add up to 840 hours! No siree Bob, it did not.

And that is when I read about the ‘Simon Says’ game and thought that it would be interesting to do at home. I wanted to do shapes – one shape a day. My main goal is to talk to the girls about the different shapes and for them to look around them and see what shapes they can identify in our environment.

The first day we did circles. Red circle, blue circle, multicolored circle, red circle inside a blue circle, how many circles can you fit inside the biggest circle, draw three circles all three touching, color the smallest blue circle, color outside the green circle….the girls just went with the flow and had a ball.

The next day we did hearts. The girls quickly took over. Heart = love. I love my family. ‘Mieja look I drew you in my heart, that means I love you’, ‘I am making a flower for you’, ‘I am drawing a family in love’….. I stepped back, picked up a book and answered only when I was specifically called for.

What did we do on the third day? Duh! Triangles, of course. Mieja had difficulty making the third line straight so that it intersected the first two, while Chula was already doing the triangle things she knows – pizza, triangle maze, ice cream cone, ice cream sundae, flower with triangle petals (okay that was a far one, but whatever) etc. So I had to branch off, giving different instructions for them. Chula wanted to warli. She did one warli image, then our family in warli holding hands and dancing. When she said that she wanted to do spiral warli, I made o-o-o-o-o-o- in a spiral and she figured out how to do the triangles and how to make them hold hands. She walked around the paper, rolled around the paper, looked at angles that would put a cinematographer to shame, but she did it. Mieja wanted to do warli family and was getting upset that she couldn’t do it like her sister. After much talking that it has to be ‘her’ work and must be something ‘she’ enjoys doing, she did do a family with square and rectangle bodies. But she was happy that she made her own family.

Fourth day we must have done squares. But we took a break 🙂

….it is about time to read books on slavery.

Approximately four months back, my amma went to Boston for a week. She came back late wednesday night and the next day, just as I was leaving for school, I gave her a quick update of what is in the fridge, chores that were half done etc. Basic handing over the domestic chores routine. I finished my update with, “Amma, can you make sure that the kids gets their school clothes and shoes on in the next five minutes?” Chula who was standing next to me the whole time immediately said, “Amma, you are treating patti like a slave.”

Apparently at school, during passover time, they had had a discussion about slavery in Egypt, slavery in America and Dr.King. So the child did know what she was talking about and was ready for books about slavery. I picked up some books from the library, of course after launching a full scale lecture that my mom is here on her own accord and can walk away at any time but wouldn’t because she is here for love and not against her will.

Back Of The Bus by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Floyd Cooper

This is the story of Rosa Parks through the eyes of a six year old boy. The little boy is sitting at the back of the bus, like he is “supposed” to, with his mama and playing with a marble. His mama keeps giving him stern non-verbal messages to keep the marble inside his shirt pocket. The boy notices Mrs.Parks sitting at the front of the bus. He is confused.

She don’t belong up front like that,
and them folks all know it.
But she’s sitting right there,
her eyes all fierce like a lightnin’ storm,
like maybe she does belong up there.
And I start thinkin’ maybe she does too.

He is scared when the police is called when Mrs.Parks refuses to give up her seat. He asks his mama,

“We in trouble Mama?” I say all soft.
“No we ain’t,” she says. “Don’t you worry none.
Tomorrow all this’ll be forgot.”

But I got somethin’ in me,
all pale and punchy,
sayin’ it won’t be.

Don’t know why.
But instead of feelin’ all shaky,
I feel a little strong.
Like Mama’s chin.

I take out my marble
and start to hide it in my squeezy-tight fist.
But instead, I hold it up to the light,
right out in the open.
That thing shines all brown and golden in the sunlight,
like it’s smilin’, I think.
‘Cuz it ain’t gotta hide no more.

I was extremely touched. I love the way the author uses the marble as an allegory.

Every time Chula reads the book on her own she gets the same expression on her face and when asked she said that she felt very sad for the boy because he had to sit at the back just because he had dark skin.

More books about slavery
The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E.B.Lewis
Henry’s Freedom Box By Ellen Levine, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People To Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

Asked Mieja every 10 seconds for the past week. What was so special about Saturday(July 31, 2010)? It was ‘The Wiggles’ show at San Jose HP Pavillion. The children knew that we got tickets for the show and were thrilled beyond words. After showing her the calendar for the 1000th time, I got a bit tired of the routine. So I fake-gasped and told her, “Yesterday was Saturday. Remember we went to see The Wiggles??!! You were so tired because of the excitement that you slept through the show.” The expression on her face was priceless ;-P

Anyways, Saturday arrived and we went with bells on to the see The Wiggles. The auditorium was 80% full, the crowd was excited but not the kind of excitement that leaves you drained and tired. The Wiggles were friendly, all four walked through the aisles and waved to the kids. Even though we had the cheapest $10 tickets, we still were blessed with a darshan. Murray walked through the row directly in front of us and actually made eye contact. Some seasoned parents bought roses for Dorothy and bones for Ruff. Among the songs they sang, I could identify the iconic Fruit Salad Yummy Yummy and Hot Potato. Forgive me my Wiggles acuity is not as good as the girls. A good, relaxing show.

Mieja after having hyperventilated about The Wiggles for a whole week, was unusually quite. She asked me, “Can go home and have TV?”. When I glared at her she repeated the question, “Can we go home and watch TV please?” So I quit glaring and politely said no.

If any one interested, Ringling Bothers Circus is in San Jose(HP Pavillion) from Aug 18 – Aug 22. A quick tip, get tickets directly from HP Pavillion. The ticket office is open 10.00AM – 3.00PM. There is two hour parking right opposite to the ticket office on S.Autum Street. They charge only facility fee of $1/ticket. Where as Ticketmaster is a whole different story. I was dumbfounded by their day light robbery. They charge approximately 45% convenience fee/ticket and a service fee/ticket on top of that. Seriously???!!!