Day Night Tinkering Mom

Patriotism is a feeling, which overwhelms us, Indians, especially on two dedicated days- 15th August and 26th January. In normal days, our explanation is that these two are National Holidays, one to celebrate our "Independence" and other to recognize the "Republic" nature of our nation.  We receive messages to attend the flag hoisting ceremony at 9 am in society parks, colonies or clubs. And often the first impression is- Its a holiday, aaram se uthenge or will see the next morning, to go or not to go or will see it on TV(live telecast from Rajpath ). But the next morning, the tricoloured newspaper pages and sounds of patriotic hymns (like- Dil diya hai, jaan bhi denge, ae watan tere liye.... )send a signal of proud in each and every nerve we possess. Suddenly, we can't resist ourselves from attending the prestigious flag hoisting. Lucky are the ones, who reside in those complexes,  where these two festivals are celebrated. The gaze on our humbly furled flag on

Mamma- The Writer  "Dear residents, there will be a necessary power shutdown on Sunday, Jan XX, 20XX from 9 am to 7 pm for ***********************************and  minor and major repairs in electrical wirings. " The population residing in high-rise condominiums of upscale metro cities, must be aware of these kind of notifications.  And one fine day, a week before the scheduled power shutdown, we received the above message through society wats app group and e-mail. Living with 24*7 electricity in metro cities is a huge blessing. But, for a change, I really got excited with this day-long power cut. I am a millenial, Generation Y 😃, born between early 1980's-mid 1990's, and these metro cities are dominated by us, millenials (thats why, may be -the millenial cities). We know power cuts, we have seen the days without electricity and we have enjoyed them too. Everyone screaming and searching for match-box and candles, if it was an after-dusk power cut. Reaching the match b

Mamma-The First Teacher (2) Activity-2 Fun with One First time our child holds the colour/pen/pencil, we get so desperate to teach him Number- 1.  Irrespective of how many number of children we may have, the excitement of making each child write number 1, is always afresh. It is shared with everyone, especially the fellow mothers with same age group children. Mommies are so proud, as if the child has successfully climbed the Mount Maths Everest  ✌. And , of course, I was no different.  One fine day, I gave my naughty munchkin, a paper and a colour and told her to draw 1. Simultaneously, I started setting my grocery. My little one left the paper and colour and wanted to play with grains and pulses. And, I came up with another simple activity. I told her to chose, any 3 grains/ pulses and hence, we got busy in another activity which is as follows. So, this activity interested my cutie a lot. You all can customise the activity as per your child's taste. Such small activities give you

Mamma- The Artist (1)    Doodle Art I am not an artist 😉, so this form of art was new to me, until 2 years ago.....  How many of you have drawn some silly sketches on the corners and margins of your notebook when the teacher was busy explaining some "high-level" concept?  The pen was pressed with a force, to draw lines up, down, right and left. Next, either the triangular mountains or the strings of semicircles. And then, sometimes, some great faces with eyes, lips, ears and hairs.  These mindless scribblings were and are a great way to relieve stress. Knowingly or unknowingly, we all have resorted to this art form since childhood. This is called as doodling, and we all are, unknowingly, "Doodlers." I got to know about all these terms two years ago, when my elder daughter had an inter-school art competition and her category was - "Doodle Art- Life during Covid lockdown." Corona pandemic had shut the schools. Online teaching became the new normal and  moth

Mamma- The First Teacher (1)    ACTIVITY- 1  "Little Chick's Home" Things required : A plain white paper, 5 ice-cream sticks/tooth picks/wooden barbeque sticks, fevicol/ fevistik, any coloured marker/ pen, a small  picture of chick (you can chose any animal), few oil pastels/ wax crayons  Learning Objective :  Knowledge about sleeping line ( _ ), standing line ( | ) and slanting line ( / ) through the shape of hut. Learning about pasting and hence improvement in hand-eye coordination and alignment. Creative achievement by a child enhances the confidence. Steps :  1. Draw a simple hut using a coloured marker/ pen.  2. Allow the child to outline the hut with fevistik or fevicol. 3. Let the child paste the ice-cream sticks on the outline. Help and clap for your child on each stick- pasting. 4. The home is ready and its time to paste the chick in its home. 5. Allow the child to decorate the little chick's home with the splash of colours. Let the creativity flow.  6. Fina

Mamma- The Storywriter (1)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   "HOME SWEET HOME"      Krishna, a 7-year old boy,  lived with his parents in a beautiful home near pond. Two fishes, Neel and Neeli, lived in the pond and became his best friends. One day, Neel and Neeli got sick. Krishna brought them home in a glass bowl. He took great care of his fish friends. They got healthy in few days but looked sad. They told Krishna, "You all keep your homes neat and clean. Why do you make our home dirty? People come for picnic and throw plastic bottles, waste and wrappers in the pond. Many of our friends are sick and many have died." Krishna and his parents were sad to hear this. With the help of neighbours, they formed a small team. Pond water was cleaned. New trees were planted. Dustbins we