Understanding the five senses

Our senses are what we use to see what is out there in the world around us, where it is, to know if it is changing etc. This is one of the most important part of being alive, this feeling of being alive to everything around us, to react and interact with thing around us.

“Five Senses” by Nicki Dugan Pogue, licensed under CC BY SA 2.0

Like everything else in nature, our kids use their senses without our intervention. By our introducing them to sensory activities, we enhance their engagement with their senses. We must enthuse our kids about the world around us. They must understand that they share this planet with creatures of all hues, shapes and kinds. Just by dominating the planet, it does not mean that we are independent of others. Kids must be encouraged to get their hands dirty, to look around, to smell things, to hear things and taste a variety of things.

Here is a roundup of activities that get our kids to use their senses to wonder at the world around us–

1. Help kids listen to bird calls. Some wake up real early and others are rulers of the evening. Can they distinguish sounds without seeing the bird? A simpler exercise is to get the kids blindfolded and then talk from a short distance away. Can they recognize who is talking?
2. Lay out a variety of food – cooked rice, beans, diced tomatoes, cereal etc. With their eyes blindfolded, can they touch and tell what’s on the plate?
3. Can a kid smell food and recognize what’s getting prepared? Try frying garlic/onion, baking a cake, skinning an orange and cutting fresh vegetables – distinguishing smells can be a fun activity. Try smelling and identifying odd smells too.
4. Mute some program and see if the kids can recognize what the person is saying. This might be better for a slightly older child as lip reading might not be very easy.
5. Try closing one eye to see how depth perception changes
6. Let vibrating phones on surfaces teach a child how we can actually feel a sound!
7. Try this experiment to see how different parts of the body differ in feeling things.

So, go on and try these activities!

Cool Virtual Pet Games

If your child has been spending a lot of time in the virtual world and hankering for a pet at home, then in most probability it’s a virtual pet she’s adopted online! Virtual pet games have taken the world by storm and boast of a wide age range of players – 6 to 60! Here are a few of the most popular virtual pet games that you should be playing.

Magsafe by Travis Isaacs

Neopets

A sensation in the online world was born in 1999 – it was called Neopets. With millions of members clambering for the latest and the most exclusive pets, Neopets soon became a way of life. Besides offering virtual pets, the world of Neopets offered users a number of mini flash games too that made sure ‘once a Neopian, always a Neopian’. As Neopets continues to enjoy the same amount of popularity if not twofold, game developers have taken a cue and released a plethora of similar virtual pet games that are almost as much fun! Look out for lores in Neopets which make quite a cheerful read on a dull day and otherwise too!

Dragon Cave

Dragon Cave is an online game that allows users to adopt virtual pets – collect eggs, raise them to adulthood, and then breed them to cre­ate interesting lineages. Founded back in 2006, the game runs on the concept of stealing dragon eggs from a nest and keeping them as one’s own and later hatching them for a baby dragon. Players will have to click a certain number of times on the eggs to hatch them else they’ll expire leaving behind quite morbid message about how they died from lack of care! More the number of clicks, the sooner will the eggs hatch and dragons grow up. The interactive and very supportive community of Dragon Cave makes it easy for newbies to understand the game promptly and play it with expertise.

Flight Rising

Flight Rising is another online dragon game that is based on lore, just like Neopets. Every player has to choose a Flight at the beginning of the registration process. Picking a particular Flight determines the sort of Lair the player will eventually have and the eye color of the dragon. Once players get a dragon, the site automatically assigns another dragon to the player of the opposite gender to be its mate. Other than breeding dragons, there are a number of things to do with them – feed them, dress them up, gather items which can be sold, play mini games, fight in the coliseum, look for tiny pets for your dragons, or just interact with the community.

From the plethora of virtual pet games that are available online, it looks like they are here to stay for quite some time more. Either get your kids to adopt a virtual pet or you sneak into the virtual world to breed a pet – after all, it’s worth feeling like a kid again! 

Rainy Day Activities for Preschool Kids

I know how difficult it is to keep kids indoors when the skies open up and pour their hearts out! The kids are more than ever eager to step out and get soaked in the monsoon showers only to go down with a flu attack soon after. After much research and brainstorming, I've arrived at a few awesome preschool games and activity ideas that will make the little bundles of energy willfully stay indoors. Here are some of them.

Rainbow by Steve Snodgrass

Messy Fun

How the kids love getting messy and playing with colors, paints, squishy foods, chalk dust – just about anything under the sun that serves their objective of messy play! So what if they can’t step out in the rains – bring the fun indoor right in the bathtub! Hand them anything and everything that can get messy like shaving cream, bathtub paints, and bath crayons, pudding cups, acrylic tubes, etc. and let the fun begin. Allow the preschool toddlers to paint with their fingers, toes, heads, fists, anything for more fun.

Sticker Album

Get a few old magazines, pamphlets, and newspapers and sit your child down with them. Let kids find pictures of animals, food, babies, or cars from the piles of paper. Give them safety scissors and help them cut out the pictures. Stick the pictures on the large construction paper and your rainy day sticker album is ready for display!

Indoor Tents

A great way to promote role play among preschool children is to set them up a tent and invite a few of their friends. Since the weather outside is not too conducive for children to go out and play, it’s time you set them up an indoor tent.  Spread a bed sheet over a dining table and your indoor tent is ready to be camped in! Serve your little guests a few monsoon snacks like fritters, nachos, pancakes and the kids will be set to have a gala time camping!

Marshmallow Sticky Figures

Hand over a few thin pretzel sticks and a bag full of marshmallows to your preschooler. Have her build 3D houses, tepees, stick figures, etc. with the tools in hand. You’ll be surprised at some of the creations! Later lay out the creations on a plate at dinner as desserts.    

Storytelling

Don’t limit storytelling during monsoons to just bedtime. Sneak in under warm comforters whenever the sky wishes to turn into a gloomy shade of grey and read out from your child’s favorite books with cups of microwave-made steaming hot chocolate waiting for you both on the bed side table. Isn’t that a wonderful way of spending monsoon indoors?

However, don’t restrict yourself to just these ideas. Explore!