Indoor Activities I do With My 5 Year Old

My 5-year-old enjoys the activities like art and craft, pretend games, coloring, etc. I always want to be a part of her activities so that one day, when I looked back I won't be missing out on the fun parts of parenting with my DD.

So, I choose some simple activities which are easy, cheap and fun to do.

Following are the some activities which I often do with my daughter when she is at home:

1. Reading: I read somewhere that "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them stories. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more stories." - Albert Einstein, We read lots of different books together be it story books, rhyme books, leaflets or dictionary.
   
2. Art and Craft: My 5 year old is the messy crafty kid. The craft supplies are inexpensive, this activity makes her imagination spark to create something new and interesting.
   
3. Drawing: I don't teach her how to draw. She just draws whatever surrounds her. Be it her friends, park drawing, family, etc. Here I just give her inputs whenever she asks for.
   
4. Gardening: She loves to water the plants.
5. Decorating her Room: She suggests me how she wants her room to be decorated. Even she created her own diys to put on the walls of her room. It is really fun, I know those were not upto the mark but it is OK. It is her room and it her will how she wants the room.
   
6.  Pretend Play: Yes, I pretend play with her. We have a big green board on which we play school play.
   
   Some props we used to pretend play are: 


• Happy Birthday Party: Cake made of claydough, Party caps and some more decor items.
• Restaurant Play: Need a small notepad and pen to take the order and some empty utensils to serve the meal.
• Kitchen: We play family pretend play where she pretends to be my mother and prepare meals for me. 
7. Playdough Activities: Playdough is her favorite activity. It develops fine motor skills, It strengthens hand muscles and develop control over the fingers. We pound it, we squash it together and make balls out of it. We make different shapes, animals and figures out of it.
   
8. Activity Books: These books build the IQ level of the kid, these books engage her in solving puzzles. These books are a healthy way to increase the IQ level of the kid, these activity books engage her also she learns good things at the same time. 
   

Some Good Activity Books:

How I store and organize medicines

If someone at your home got sick or injured, what will you do? You just run to get your first aid kit, right?

If you have had just dump all your medicines or first aid supplies in a drawer or box it will take ages to find what are you searching for in case of emergency and sometimes you find medicine but it get expired or the bottle is empty.

Good organization method helps you out to avoid getting in fuss with a sick kid.  I don not have habit to stock lots of medicines as the medical store is near by our place. That is why it doesn't make any sense to stock up lots of medicines. Also now a days we have facility of home delivery and also there are the websites from where you can order the medicines.

Some websites from where you can order medicines by uploading the prescription are:

• http://www.netmeds.com
• https://www.practo.com/order/
• https://www.apollopharmacy.in/

I have this first aid kit box which I bought from D-Mart for Rs.140. The box is quite handy which has quite a deep container and have a partition tray to keep medicines segregated.

If you want something similar, there is one on amazon

This box contains:

• Cotton
• Bandage Roll
• Antiseptic Ointment
• Bandaid
• Medicine for : Cough, Fever, Cold, Stomach Infection, Pain killer
• Thermometer
• Doctor Tape
• Small Scissor

For Syrups, I have used a basket. The basket have my daughter's suspension medicines.

If you want something similar, there is one on amazon

  

These Suspensions are for following medical emergencies:

• Cough Syrup
• Stomach Infection 
• Pain Killer
• Fever
• Throat Infection
• Vomiting

Some ointments which we want handy is in our bed side table or in our dresser, like:

• Vicks Vapour mainly used to cure block nose, running nose
• Nasal drops for daughter
• Amrutanjan for headache
• Moov or Volini Spray for back pain
• Iodex for sprains
• Dettol/ Savlon antiseptic disinfectant

The medicines I have are mostly prescribed by my daughter's pediatric or by our family doctor. Please do ask your doctor before purchasing any medicine.

Where to store the medicines:

I have 5 year old at my place that is why I store the box somewhere where she cant reach easily. Always, keep in mind that humidity and heat can damage the ingredients of the medicines, that is why always try to avoid to keep the medicines in bathroom or kitchen area.

I have dedicated one of my wardrobe's drawer for the medicines and first aid kit.

How I maintain the kit:

I taped a transparent folder inside the door of the wardrobe in which I insert an A4 size paper on which I have pen down the list of the medicines I have in my kit with the details like:

• Medicine Name
• Prescribe For (to whom the medicine belong)
• Prescribe By (Doctor Name)
• Usage of the medicine
• expiry date of the medicine

Something like this:

Medicine Name	Prescribe For	Prescribe By	Usage	Expiry Date

This method help me out to track down the medicine on which we are getting low.

I hope, the above method will help you to organize your first aid kit and medicine kit.

Tell me, how do you organize your first aid supplies and medicines at your place?

How I choose books for my 5 year old?

Selecting a right book is the key to discover the fun of reading. I read somewhere "A book is unlimited investment in human mind and spirit." That is why the selection of books should be done with peaceful and relaxed mind.

My 5 year old is in her language development phase that is why I feel this is good time to add varieties of books in her book shelf.

Some of the benefits of reading aloud with you little one are:

• This is a fun activity which I and my daughter enjoy together.
• It builds listening skills in her.
• It improves concentration,
• She now express herself more.
• She is really curious which generate lots of questions in her mind.
• She started putting logic in various scenarios of day to day life.
• She also starts making her own stories and songs.
• The more you read to your child, more they get exposure to the new words. That is how their vocabulary also get increase.

Lets come back to the topic, how I select a book for her:

Illustrations are the main attractions to her. I always get her book which has bright colors, big pictures which she can easily relate to the ongoing story.

Informative books which take a particular topic like astronomy, weather, animal etc. and teach kids the concept of the topic  by rhymes or stories with fun texts or activities.

Take books which have lots of rhyming and repetitive texts because they are easy to memorize and read.

Read few lines from the book or narrate summary of the story and ask her if she is interested to add the book in her book collection.

Some books which are recommended by her friends mother or teacher.

The last but not the least, the book needs not to be a award winning or bestseller in the shop. Choose a book which you and your child will enjoy together.

Book Review: Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Suess

Dr. Suess Geisel was an American author who usually write books for child under the pen name Dr.Suess.

Story

Ten Apple Up On Top is the story of three animal friends, a lion, a dog, and a tiger who are trying to balance apples on their heads.They can balance on their heads as they skip, walk the tightrope and roller skate their way through the book. They start with a healthy and fun competition and trying to see who can balance most on their head.They get into trouble when some visitors bang into the room and try to end their fun.

At first they compete and show some jealousy, but at the end they become friends and bond together to get out of the trouble.

I love how this book ends with all of the friends are being happy.

What my daughter learn from "Ten Apple Up On Top"

Young children need to learn at an early age that competition is good, but can be bad if your attitude is bad. 

What I like about "Ten Apple Up On Top"

• Easy enough for my 5 year old to read by herself with some help.
• This book makes counting fun, it counts forward and backward
• The book contains easy words, mostly are phonetic and sight words
• With all the rhyming and repetition it gets children engaged and able to interact with the story.
• Great story that shows friendly competition
• The story moves fast so it really keeps the children interested and engaged.

Do you recommend "Ten Apple Up On Top" to others:

Yes

The Princess Drama

When someone asks my 5 year old daughter, "What she want to be when she grow up?" to which she replied that she wants to be a princess.

The reason behind this is, she is so fascinated by princess crown, gowns and the castle as shown in the TV show "Sofia, the princess".

During a reading session with my DD, she gets me a book of fairy tales and ask me to read a story of Cinderella. That time I read the story to her. But something got stuck in my mind.

And that something was:

• What if she starts to believe in Godmother?
• What if she starts to believe in love at first sight?
• What if she starts to believe that after marriage to a prince the life will be happy ever after?
• What if she starts to believe that the girl should be pretty and beautiful enough to woo a boy?

In almost every fairy tale, the princess or a girl at the center of a difficult obstacle, and only prince does come to rescue her. Be it Cinderella, Snow White or Rapunzel.

These above questions make me to stop reading the fairy tales to her. As these stories are too prince charming oriented.

However, there are still some stories in which kids learn the real meaning of love, to be independent, to fight back, and to be brave in difficult times. Some good examples are Frozen, Red Riding Hood, Ursula, the little mermaid and my DD favorite Sofia.

I want her to get a reality check on some facts of fairy tales:

• There will be no Godmother that could transform her into Princess
• She has to fight back by herself only to get out from difficult phases of life
• She has to be independent and bold enough to take the responsibilities of her life.

Also, She doesn't need any prince charming to be happy and live happily ever after.

Menu Planning

After 2 months of fun filled summer vacations, now we are back to our normal routine. Also with this, I am stuck on what to cook for my daughter's school lunch? I really get upset when she brings back her box full of leftovers.

Finding good and interesting menu which also has good nutritional value is really an enormous task. And on the top of it, my daughter is fussy and slow eater. She loves color and varieties in her tiffin box.

I often feel stuck when it comes to my daughter's school lunch. To make this task easier, I plan a whole month menu which is quick to prepare and healthy to eat.

Below is the sample of the menu which I am following this month.

	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 5	Day 6
Week 1	Mixed Veg Cutlet	Aloo Paratha	Veg. Pulao	Rava Halwa	Poha
Week 2	Noodles	Paneer Sandwich	Sweet Corn Pulao	Idli	Methi Thepla
Week 3	Poori Dahi	Pasta	Potato Sandwich	Moong Dal Cheela	Cheese Paratha
Week 4	Tawa Bread Pizza	Gobhi Paratha	Sprouts Chaat	Upma	Uttapam

Hope this will help you too.
Please share more tiffin ideas which I can also include in my next month menu plan.

momandkidsclub: Book Review: The Cat in the Hat By Dr. Seuss

momandkidsclub: Book Review: The Cat in the Hat By Dr. Seuss: Dr. Suess Geisel was an American author who usually write books for child under the pen name Dr. Seuss. "The Cat in the Hat" was...

Book Review: The Cat in the Hat By Dr. Seuss

Dr. Suess Geisel was an American author who usually write books for child under the pen name Dr. Seuss.
"The Cat in the Hat" is one of Dr. Suess's most popular children book ever created.

                

Story
The story starts with the two kids Sally and Sam. The kids are getting bore out of their wits on a rainy day when a stranger troublemaker cat makes a surprise entry in the house, who creates mess in the house.
The book strongly emphasize the consequences of letting a stranger in the house while adults are away. At the end kids realize that what t"he Cat in the Hat" is doing is wrong and they stop him from making more damage to the house.

What my daughter learn from "The Cat in the Hat"

• do not trust the strangers
• teaches good lesson on how to be responsible when the parents are not around.

What I like about "The Cat in the Hat"

• love the style, love Dr. Suess's Rhyming. The rhyming text is as creative as it is funny.
• illustration are adorable which are mainly in red, white, blue and black. Pictures make story very enjoyable and easy to understand.
• the story ends with: 
• Should we tell her about it?
  Now, what SHOULD we do?
  Well...
  What would YOU do
  If your mother asked YOU? 
• my daughter always looks up at me and says: Yes, I would tell you

Do you recommend "The Cat in the Hat" to others:

Yes