Mummy Knows Best

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Fri, November 13

8:05PM

Happy Birthday Chacha!

Children’s Day Activities

Whether Children’s Day has become commercialised or not, you still wonder what you can do with or for your child on the 14^th of November to make the day exciting and different.

Ideas we are toying with are a visit to an amusement park, to the beach, trip to the zoo or a fun day at home – reading, playing cricket, skating, swimming, baking, painting – together activities that our almost 3 year old loves.

With under 5s, any plan can be turned into a fun adventure just by your involvement and presentation of the idea. With the older kids sometimes this could get tricky.

I was at the always buzzing and exciting Odyssey store in Chembur which stocks well displayed products for everyone from books and music to toys, gift options and stationery and could not miss the call to a Funovember.

Starting with Magic of Motherhood tomorrow at 5:30 pm, in association with Mother & Baby magazine and Fisher Price, this is a panel discussion with child specialists for young parents and expectant mothers. Especially for kids aged 5- 12 years are a Disney Jigsaw Contest on the 15^th and Picture Housie on the 21^st. All age groups can participate in the Balloon Sculpting and Party Decoration demo on the 22^nd. With ample, well designed space, this store is an ideal venue for fun events.

Here’s to happy children and involved, happy parents too.

Other child sensitising options:

Donate books or toys to an orphanage, sponsor a meal at a school for under privileged children, visit a store with handicraft by special children, join organisations like CRY.

Funovember @ Odyssey, 2^nd floor, K-star Mall, Diamond Garden, Chembur – 71.

022 65295051 / 9930945654.

Also at Odyssey in Chennai (Adyar), Bangalore (Indira Nagar), Hyderabad (Jubilee Hills).

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Priya |

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Thu, October 1

6:00PM

Icing on the Cake

Cooking with Kids

I love cooking with kids. They get very involved, ask a lot of questions and generally have a good time. All you have to do is make sure they are a safe distance from the stove/oven/micro and they can actually be of help.

Baking is a good way to start. My daughter and I make cupcakes all the time, thanks to Strawberry Shortcake, where each character is named after a dessert. With time, I have developed a dependence on cake mixes since it is actually really hard to mess up! I love the Betty Crocker packs (part of General Mills/Pillsbury family) because they make a cake large enough for a family to enjoy after dinner and the next day. If you make cupcakes, you get over a dozen little ones. For icing, I found Pillsbury’s chocolate icing at my local grocery store. A 250 gms jar actually covered a dozen cupcakes. All you have to do is zap it for few seconds and it gets all yummy and gooey, perfect to smear on a sinful cake.

We made cupcakes yesterday, and Ally had a blast making a mess with the icing. The result - wonderfully sloppy and very delicious iced cupcakes!

Betty Crocker cake mixes are available across the country, they come in a variety of flavours, each 250 gms pack is priced at Rs. 140. The icing comes in a handy 250 gm jar priced at Rs. 65. A chocolate cake with icing, weighing around 800 gms is a steal for Rs. 205.

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Delhi + NCR

Foodstuff

Parul |

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Tue, September 29

6:00AM

Crafting Delights

Crafts to keep the little brats busy.

Hooray! Summer is officially over. There is a hint of rain in the air and the schools have opened once more. Yet, the search to keep those little hands busy never ends. To tell you the truth, I quite enjoy the hunt and over the years I have collected a plethora of activities and crafts that give us endless joy and learning.

Just last week I found another set of craft cases designed specifically for 3-5 year olds. They do have kits for older kids too. Designed and manufactured by UK based ‘Chad Valley’, each case has a craft idea with all the material you need. We chose a ‘Felt Fairy’ case and one that makes window stickers (they come off easily and don’t damage your walls). The ‘felt fairy’ is a placard with a pastel outline of a fairy, and all the kids have to do is separate the cut-out accessories for the fairy and paste them on the outline to complete the image with stars, flowers, wands and even her dress and shoes. There is lots of room for expanding on the set and adding your own creative touches.

The window stickers case includes cute animal outlines, transparency sheets and acrylic paints.

The best part about these products is that the supplies can be topped up from local stationers and you can simply load up on acrylic paints and transparency sheets. Enjoy!

Chad Valley products are available across the country in leading books and toy stores. The activity cases are priced at Rs.199 per piece.

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Parul |

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Thu, September 24

10:00AM

DIY Fun with Kids

Do-It-Yourself kids activities for home

I don’t think I will ever stop ranting about the whole summer + kids + no school combo that’s been driving me mildly insane. I am also slowly getting used to having a variety of messes to clean up.

I have already done the in-house sandbox (oh my God!), the endless spots of playdough that our slippers pick up and take everywhere, the paint blotches, the spilt glue and who can forget dripping whisks of cake batter. So when Ally got a gift that involved Plaster of Paris(POP), I was sure the evil craft gods were rolling on the floor and laughing at me. What followed, though, was a wonderful surprise, mainly because I loved the activity as much as her.

The ‘Mould & Paint’ kit comes with pouches of POP, moulds (we got dolphins), pins, magnets and paints with a brush. The finished product can be made into a brooch or fridge magnet. We made the POP mix, filled our moulds and left them to set. Once they were smooth and done, we got our arsenal of paints and we were on a roll. Ally produced a polka dot dolphin and one with an explosion of million colours. The daddy and I each got one for our desks, one went to school for ‘maam’ and the last one lives proudly on Ally’s fridge.

‘Mould & Paint’ sets are available at stationary shops, book stores, shops retailing toys and return gifts. Since it is an imported product, the price can vary from Rs.150-200.

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Wed, July 22

10:00AM

Monsoon Fun Indoors

Activities to do when it’s raining

My friends in Mumbai are whining about the rains while we in Delhi are complaining about the lack of them. Yet, we have been getting a random day of rain here and there and when it’s erratic like this, it’s best to keep the kids indoors. Rats, more indoors constructive activities to think of! Seriously, I am running out. While on the verge, I was out shopping for plants when it hit me. Its monsoon season, Ally is home at 5 pm instead of being in the pool, let’s have some nature fun. So I decided to make a ‘terrarium’ with her.

A terrarium is a miniature natural environment created with soil, plants and accents, usually inside closed glass containers like jars, bottles, fish tanks etc. Open terrariums are easier to make and are a beautiful addition to a kid’s room. A well-made terrarium can actually self sustain by creating moisture on its own, so it doesn’t need watering, just a source of natural heat from a window or door. Children love the novelty of playing with soil, creating something new and unique and becoming proud owners of a self made ‘pet plant’. We made an open terrarium in a fish bowl, so we need to add few drops of water every 2 days, that’s it!

What you need –
1 small cookie jar or fish tank/bowl (if you don’t get one with a lid, fashion one with plastic cling film)
½ bucket of soil and manure mix
1 cup marble chips
2-3 small river stones/seashells/Barbie accessories/any kiddie ornament
2 Typical terrarium plants – small leafed philodendrons, most succulents, cacti, black grass, aloe vera, lucky bamboo, small ferns. Try a combination of aloe vera and a small fern.

Tools –
Butter knife (preferably plastic)
Tweezers
Small paintbrush
Paper napkins

Clean and dry the fish bowl, make a layer of marble chips, add soil (2 inches or so), make another layer of marble chips, top with another 2” of soil. Make two indents in the soil with the butter knife, gently hold the plants at root level with tweezers and settle into the gaps in the soil. Pat the surrounding soil shut with the knife. Decorate around the plants with accessories of your choice. Use tissue and paintbrush to wipe off the excess soil or stains on the clear part of the bowl. Don’t forget to label your fish bowl terrarium with your name and the name of the plants you have used. Enjoy!

(Note: avoid cacti with kids but they make great terrarium additions, so if you do one on your own; try a variety of succulents combined with cacti)

Fish bowls are available at any pet shop and are priced anywhere between Rs. 99-299 for small ones. Plants, marble chips and river stones can be found at local plant nurseries. Rummage through the kid’s drawers to find miniature stuff to put in the terrarium.

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Ecostuff

Parul |

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Sun, July 19

11:00AM

Stencils & Silliness

Learning stencils for kids

I like the idea of birthday and baby shower registries. Some say it’s too impersonal, I say it’s practical. How personal are gifts these days anyway, everything is off the shelf. I have a cupboard full of make-a-necklace sets and DIY wall stickers that my daughter is not going to bother with. If only I had been asked! So when my cousin called to ask if Ally was into crafts, I said yes in a second. She had found a set of Animal Stencil Books by Armadillo Books.

What a treat it was to receive them. All the books were animal themed, yet each of the four were different. The pack included pet animals, wild animals, farm animals and exotic animals. Being spiral bound, it was easy to use each sheet flat on paper. We made squirrels sitting on a bed of hearts and we filled stars in the outline of a cat. The latest thing we have started doing is making stencil cut outs to add as labels or cards on gifts. Some of the stencil masterpieces are going in our crafts scrapbook and some Ally would like to give away to her school teachers and grandparents as bookmarks and stickers.

Stencilling helps kids learn dexterity and it encourages concentration. You can see them biting their little lips to make sure the pencil doesn’t slip. And of course the sense of accomplishment is tripled with the dog they intended to draw turned out to look exactly like a dog!

Manufactured by Armadillo Books and priced at Rs.199 for a pack of 6. Stencil sets are available at high end stationary stores across the city. In Delhi you can find them at Rio Grande, M Block market, Greater Kailash I, Delhi and in Gurgaon at Landmark, DLF Grand Mall.

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Books, Movies, Music

Delhi + NCR

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