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

Toddler Visit: Fun Part

Its summer vacation time, being alone all time at home its really boring. So found a good idea, ask little one to invite her friends at home, so that they can have gala time together.

Thought, it would be fun to see little one playing together and having fun.

The day came, mothers left there kids to my place and went to their respective destination to have their own gala fun time. (yes, not having kids around is mother's fun time).

Here are my observations, type or kind of kids who visit my place all alone that day:

1) Play my game kid:
This is totally my little one type. If things doesn't happens her way, she starts throwing tantrums. What other kids are playing, it doesn't matter for her, her only motto, my home- my toys- my ways.

2) Hungry Kid:

Once they observe, his mother has gone, he came to me asking something to eat. I gave him some biscuits, when it got finish, he wants more. I thought, might be he is so hungry so I made sandwich for all kids. But again after finishing it up, he came to me again he want something to eat... so the list goes on from biscuits to sandwich to chocolates to french fries to popcorn ... etc etc.. woooshhh. I am tired now.

3) Gossip Queen:

She is favorite of gossip aunties. If you have the habit of peeping into the house of your neighbors and  due to their reluctant nature you could not able to get the news, here she come to rescue you from the frustration of not getting much information of the neighbour. She start the stories from her own house to her relatives to her neighbors and these stories are go on and on. Totally chatter box.

4) Potty and  Pee Pee Kid:

Once the mother gone and the kid observe that, I don't know how there bowel waterfall starts falling. In every 5 minutes, the need to go and on the top of it some are not potty trained, so think of it what would be situation of me at that moment. Some of them are so reluctant that they want to do in their own potty seat. 

5) Scatter Kid:

These kids do not want to play with one toy, or might be they are in search of better one. And the search never ends. These kids put or scatter each and every toy, games on floor, I do not know why, either they want to swim in the waves of toys or they want to play treasure hunt game. The after effects of the same is really painful for the host mother.

6) The Hitter Kid:

 Kids hits (pushes or kicks) another to get a toys result in tantrums and crying of other kids. You need to keep an eye on them very often. Additional work and after effects are too bad.

7) The leader kid:

I do not know from where this kid get the skill to make other kids follow him . Sometimes I do think to ask her if he can teach me this skill. if he say wind up the things, clean the room or finish uo your food, kids will do willingly. But, same thing a mother say.. then I see only "WHO ARE YOU? WHAT YOU SAY" type of expressions on my little one face.

phewww... here I get to go now, to clean up the mess which these kids done in the toy room.