Review : Anaya's Thumb

Title: Anaya's Thumb
Author: Natasha sharma
Illustrator: Ruchi Shah
Publisher: Pratham Books

Anaya loves her thumb. When she visits the zoo, she finds out what baby animals seem to like.

Ranganna review and a Craft!

Book Title: Ranganna

Author: Arthi Anand Navaneeth

Illustrator: Kavita Singh Kale

Publisher: Tulika Books

Ranganna the little elephant lives near a dhobi ghat. He is captivated by the brightly coloured nails of his friends and wants to paint his toes too! But whoever heard of an elephant wearing nail polish?! The illustrations, which are a riot of colour and energy, make Ranganna one irresistible picture book. 

No, David! Craft (with free printable)

We recently read the amazingly illustrated 'No, David!' by David Shannon, a Caldecott Honor Book. I really liked the book because at times am overwhelmed at the number of unavoidable 'No's I say. The little boy David featured in the book comes to life in this simple color-cut-paste craft.

Frog Craft

This is one of those spur-of-the-moment crafts. My daughter would say let's do a craft and when I ask her what she wants to do, she will say something that comes to her mind at that instant. This time, its a Frog. 

She is about to turn 3 in a couple of months and mostly enjoys gluing and coloring. Though it sounds limited, there is quite a variety in each category. When it comes to gluing, different things give her different experience, like gluing paper, cotton, glitter, sand etc. 

Valentines day cards for Kids

Valentine's day is round the corner, so here is a printable for making your own finger print cards. Just print it on a cardstock, let your kids imprint their fingers and cut them out. 

You can also write fancy stuff like the ones here for older children. And add your kids name on the heart! 

Download Valentines Card here.
Download template without the heart here.

Pongal Craft for the very young

Here is a quick Pongal-themed craft. My 2.5 year old daughter was very enthusiastic about it and especially liked the part involving sand. I gave her the printed pot and rhinestones and she automatically stuck them inside the circles and triangles without any directions from me. I was surprised to see that she had conceived the idea of decorating these patterns. You can download the Pongal Pot template here.

If you do not celebrate Pongal, the 4 day harvest festival in your part of the world, you can read here to get an essence of it (includes an excerpt from a book I enjoyed reading).

And I have explained below how we did it. But you can do the same with whatever supplies you have at home. After all, crafting is all about imagination and creativity :)