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!

10 activities to celebrate Independence Day with your kids

Independence Day by Micky**

Plan ahead for the Independence Day weekend. Too busy to think up activities? Not enough time to plan some fun time with the kids? Worried the kids might end up playing regular online games on a special day? Hakuna Matata, which, if you have forgotten, roughly means 
'Don't worry, Be happy'!

So here are 10 great activities for celebrating Independence Day, with your kids:

1. Begin your day with star spangled slime (how cool is that!).

2. Make a T-shirt and wear them around with pride.

3. Decorate your home with an Independence Day Wreath.

4. Eco-friendly stars on your lawn.

5. Simple and fun games for the kids.

6. Spread the holiday happiness - spread some confetti!

7. Watching a parade? Get the kids to make their own independence day visors.

8. Make a Geodesic dome by changing the yellow straw to red!

9. Make some patriotic dessert (what's that?)!

10. Know more about the celebration, play a trivia game.

You have any other great ideas, let me know. 

A Memorable Summer

As kids grow many of their earliest memories fade, as childhood amnesia kicks in. Once they reach the years from when memories can be retained, it’s important to give them special memories, so that they can remember things via incidents, as in ‘…that summer when we went to Niagara Falls..’ or ‘…that winter when we built a snowman and have him wear grandpa’s red jacket…’ and so on. 

Here are 4 activities which are guaranteed to help build great memories:

tents by Marina Kuperman Villataro

Go camping
Kids love this one, inside or outside. Yes, I said 'inside'. Sometimes, as parents, we don't have the time or resources to take the kids camping. Well, we can always simulate it. Pitch a tent inside the house or in your backyard. have some interesting 'camp' food, sing songs, sleep early and make great memories!

Go on a trip 
Short, long, with extended family or just the immediate family, children love trips, the games played and the sights seen. Make sure there are lots of activities for younger kids. My kids remember a fireman’s pole they first saw on a holiday. It was ‘that’ holiday, when they saw it. Don't be hesitant. Soak in local stuff, go to farmer's markets, local parks, eat local, go fruit picking and do something totally silly. 

Visit relatives
Seriously - visit relatives. It can be pleasant, if everyone makes the effort to be well behaved. Kids need to know they belong. To grandparents, immediate family, cousins and close family friends. There are people they will fall back on in case of an emergency. More than anything else, large warm families meetings help build good behavior in kids. Kids insulated from families, need to learn about where they come from. 

This summer go do something off beat, which will build some great memories. 

Father’s Day – finding the right gift!

Father’s Day is around the corner and kids are buying, making, cooking, ordering their fathers a gift. Psychologists categorize fathers as providers, enforcers etc., but this categorizing of fathers is more fun!

"Father on father's day" by Dean Michaud - [1]. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Father_on_father%27s_day.jpg#/media/File:Father_on_father%27s_day.jpg

With modern life evolving all the time, men have changed as have women. Duties of fathers and mothers are no longer demarcated. With stay at home dads, the mothers have become primary providers, which was the most traditional role. As dads and their roles have morphed, our gifts too should change. Here are a few gift suggestions:

1. Bake him a cake or a cookie tie.
2. Get him a useful app or forget usefulness – get him a fun app.
3. Make him a toy from his childhood.
4. Make him a puzzle or a piece of art.
5. Buy him a funny book. 
6. Plan a surprise picnic for him.
7. Get all his favorite people to come over for a party.
8. Put all his old pictures together and make him a collage.
9. Design a scavenger hunt for him.
10. Buy him a fun father’s day card 

Let me know how your gift was liked! 

When is a Pet Game not Good for Kids

As parents are increasingly aware of the dangers of letting kids loose on the internet, more of them are taking an effort to understand what their kids are doing online. However, for many parents, this understanding is still limited. Parents have some idea of what to look out for, but often miss out on other areas. This article focuses on some of the overlooked concerns regarding online games for kids.
 

Take the popular genre of pet games for kids. These games are generally understood to be for young kids, and the theme is often kid-friendly. The games revolve around adopting pets, caring for them and looking after their needs. Kids can often play fun games with these pets and go on virtual adventures with them. At the surface of it, these games seem pretty harmless. However, that doesn’t mean your child is not at risk when playing pet games. Here are some of the other things you need to look out for.

1.       Disproportionate costs

Teaching kids about the value of money is a very real and increasingly difficult task. And if your child is playing an online pet game where they are asked to buy an expensive membership to enjoy most of the features or if they are frequently presented with innumerable in-game purchasing options, it makes your task even tougher. That’s not to say that your kids should only play the games that are absolutely free. For good quality pet games, you may have to shell out some money. But it’s better for you to make that decision beforehand and then allow your child to play the game rather than allow the game to market their products to your child and then find yourself either giving in to their requests or trying to appease disappointed kids. You don’t want young minds to be exposed to the idea that anything enjoyable must be paid for. Read up about the game to understand the costs involved, including the hidden costs. You may not find all the information you’re looking for on their website. Online reviews and forums are a good place to glean additional information.

2.       Exposure to strangers

Yes, even pet games for kids sometimes allow players to interact with strangers. However, many of them have controls in place that prevent players from sharing sensitive information or using inappropriate language. That said, you must be aware of what options are available to your child, what controls are in place and whether your child is ready for those kinds of interactions. If you choose to let your child interact with strangers, make sure to discuss the dangers involved, what type of behaviour is not acceptable and when to talk to an adult. (Remember that there is no way of guaranteeing that every person playing a kids’ game is actually a kid.)

photo_1752_20060703 by reynermedia is licensed under CC BY 2.0

3.       Exposure to bullying

Even if the pet game that your child is playing does not allow players to interact with strangers, your child can still be exposed to bullying. Yes, bullying can happen online and yes, it can be as harmful as bullying in the real world. Very often, the bully is known to the victim and can include classmates and even people in the victim’s friend circle. If the pet game allows chatting and sharing of information between acquaintances, make sure to talk to your child about cyberbullying and how to prevent it. Also discuss what should be done if it does occur.

4.       Unsupervised forums

Many pet games have official forums where players can interact with each other and discuss topics that are of interest to them. These forums are usually supervised to prevent users from sharing sensitive information or using inappropriate language. However, the really popular pet games may have fan sites and other unofficial forums where users are free to post what they like. Make sure you know if your child is visiting any of these places, and be aware of the kind of conversations that happen in those places.

This list is not meant to discourage you from allowing your kids to play multiplayer online games. To the contrary, kids can learn many useful skills from playing the right games and socializing online. However, it is important to speak to them about the dangers that come with the internet, and to teach them how to behave online as well as how to respond to unacceptable behaviour. Most importantly, take time to play the games your kids are playing and understand from first-hand experience what the games are about. Make friends on the game, join the forum discussions, do it all and then you can share really meaningful conversations with your child about the online games they play.