THE STICKY NOTE WORD HUNT {Printable game!}

This game was born from my attempts to teach the Hindi alphabet! I taught him a bunch of them and before he got bored with all the coloring, I put sticky notes with letters written on them all over the house. everywhere! 

And handed him a sheet of little drawings. He excitedly looked for the ‘letter’ and posted it over the correct object. For e.g f for fish.

So here’s a little 2 part printable for all your little kindergarteners who have started learning four letter, i.e. the BIG words! 

Click for printable pdf:

 I Spy with my Little eye    |    The Sticky Note Word Hunt 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE STICKY NOTE WORD HUNT:

• Copy the words from page 2 onto sticky notes {Alternatively, you could cut out words directly from the sheet} and paste them all over the house. Over the glass windows, behind the couch if your kid gets frustrated easily and under the bed, on the top shelf if your kid loves to burn off energy! 
• Your enthusiastic kiddo will need to hunt for the words, and re-paste/place it correctly on the respective picture on the sheet! Give him/her the page 1 and say “go!”

Edible Letters

{This a guest post from education.com. Do check it out for their exhaustive worksheets, lesson plans, songs & more!}

Here's a surefire way to get your kids practicing their ABCs. Create an edible alphabet out of marshmallows and toothpicks to reinforce letter recognition. Teach your child individual letters, or show her how to spell her name. And of course, she'll love munching on a few marshmallows along the way, too.

Flash Cards & Clip Cards ~ Why Buy when you can Make {Practical Mondays #54}

Here are some cards I made last month. They were *soooo tedious*, really broke my back. I mean I had to literally write down words on pieces of papers, all so my 5 y.o. could practice blend sounds. Huh. 

And the counting ones took the cake. He needs to practise counting up to 100, and he seldom forgets what comes after say 39. or 79. Hence I made cards card to clip the correct answer. 

Phew. I need a long hot bath, wine and a Walking Dead marathon to feel normal again!

{btw you can print Free clip cards for beginning blends from The Measured Mom, she’s got some fab printables that I’ve used!}

Magic Tree House {Practical Mondays #48}

One day, two kids find a tree house in the woods near their house, they climb in and see it full of books! They open one, point to a picture and say I wish I was here and VOILA! The Magic Tree House takes them there within minutes! 

Jack & Anne, have travelled to hundreds of years back to solve a mystery with the Ninjas in Japan, Mummies in Egypt and even thousands of years back in the land of dinosaurs! 

While we’ve read aloud only 6 of the 12 books we have, the collection seems to be over 50. Lucid, informative, perfect for beginners to chapter books for read aloud and read yourself too (60/70 pages each, B&W pictures).

Here’s a Craft Stick Tree house we made:

Hindi & Hindu Mythology {Practical Mondays #45}

Growing up I was accustomed to the adage “After the whole Ramayana is over, you ask who was Rama?!” which was meant to poke fun at the poor fellow who absentmindedly missed the point of a whole conversation or story. 

This was happening again! For real! I've been narrating magical stories about the flying monkey god who tore open a dragons stomach to fly out, unsinkable stones that formed a bridge from India to Lanka, a father who cut off his own son’s head unknowingly to be replaced by an Elephants head. 

And after every book my confused 5 y.o asks the most glaring and obvious "but, who was Rama?" question. 

*facepalm*

Hindu. mythology. is. confusing... !!

And it is perfectly acceptable for a 5 y.o to be confusing Rama with Ravana {even though they were the embodiment of good and evil respectively *and* Ravana had 10 heads, for God's sake!}. 

But there are many Vishnu Avatars, Animals Gods and even Planet Gods.  And although it’s confusing, the stories are fascinating! Our generation grew up watching Ramayana & Mahabharata on television every Sunday morning. And whether you’re religious or not, it’s totally worth reading it out to children! 

We’ve also begun the journey of the Hindi Alphabet. Rather a tiny step in the long journey of 14 vowels and 33 consonants. But on the bright side, unlike English, the ‘name of the alphabet’ is the same as the sound of the alphabet and a the sound will have no exceptions as it is in the case of a G or C! 

Learning Spanish with KEY WORD CUBES! (Practical Mondays #31)

{Disclaimer! The most annoying thing about learning a foreign language is that the moment you mug up a few words and are about to feel proud of it, a hundred more brand new ones pop out of nowhere. It.is.never.ending!!}

The Cubes:

It all started when I DIY-ed a Spanish/Hindi Color Cube by sticking post-its on my empty green tea box. My almost 5 year old would pull it out, toss it a coupla times, name the colors in Spanish and put it back. It made memorizing Colors in Spanish fun!

So I made Key Word Cubes {or ‘Cuboids’ for all you geometry nazis!} to go with the few books in Spanish that we’ve been reading. {I love cubes, yet I made make shift ones by wrapping green tea & medicine packets since I don’t have any blocks!}. I picked a few words from the book, such as brujas and fantasmas (i.e. witches & ghosts!) and drew them on a cube. It made reading the book AND learning new words fun! 

DIY WORD SEARCH: Practice Sight Words & Word Building (Practical Mondays #26)

Word Search are fun, however the ones we’ve come across are for older kids. So my 4.5 can find the 2-3 small words but disappointing leaves out the rest. So I made a few myself! Realised it takes only minutes to make. The best part is it can be customised according to what your child is currently learning. Fun way to practise sight words, short vowel and long vowel words! 

1. Make a list of words that your kid is currently learning. Add them in the Boxes - vertically and horizontally, and diagonally if your kid is already familiar and comfortable with it
2. Fill the rest of the boxes with random alphabets. Voila! You're ready to play!

(Pssst! If you aren't into making one but are keen on getting customised puzzles, make one online on Puzzle Maker - Enter your words, number of lines etc and print out the result!)

Wondering What to Read Aloud Next? How about Baby Dragons, Granny's Glasses & Horrid Little Boys? (Practical Mondays #22)

{The Practical Mom is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.in}

It’s that milestone. 

That crucial milestone when you eagerly take the big leap from picture books to chapter books!

Yes! i.e. no more reading each book 96 times.

No more cutesy pictures and predictable endings.

No more getting bored to death and wanting to hide some really boring ones in the higher shelves.

No more piling up books on your bedside. 

One small novel neatly next to my iPad. 

& *Real stories* that are fun to read aloud! 

Scrap Paper BookMarks: All the thread work was done by meee! while he did most of the rest...
but why o why must he put a sticker on each!

The key to begin with chapter books is to find a book with at least one picture on the page. *Something* to look at while I read the whole page. I began with a few books last year, slow & steady. After a couple of those, he stopped being bothered by text-only pages. 


So I’d been looking for <150/200 page books online and purchased a whole bunch on the India site ( I *have* to say this, books in India are cheaper than anywhere else I’ve seen in the world!). We brought back a whole suitcase from our yearly vacation last month (wasn’t a big deal, we were travelling light!). 

We made some scrap paper bookmarks too, since one book typically takes three to four nights to read.  Simple stuff that he could spell out himself (more or less). The cutest was when I suggested “Books make me happy” he said, “No mama, let’s write books make me sleepy!”

So here are Book Recommendations for 4+ year olds!

Salt Glue Word Building (Practical Mondays #19)

Salt Glue painting is therapeutic, strengthens fine motor skills, can be modified into what you’re currently learning (Alphabets, Numbers, Words, Drawings, or simply squiggles) and is a lot of fun! 

Don’t bother saving these art pieces however pretty they turn out, as the sheets tend to shed salt long after they've dried! Don't forget to take some pictures though!

I Spy Printables! (Practical Mondays #15)

When you’ve run out of options and have already “spied” of all the furniture, toys, doors & windows in the house, all types of trucks and minivans in the road, and all the posters and doctors equipment while waiting for your turn, here are some I Spy Sheets you could use! 

Not just spy, but count the items and write the number at the bottom too.

Just Click & Print:

 Alphabets  |   Words  |   Shapes  |  Summer |  Christmas |  Halloween (NEW!) 

Quiz: Are you Smarter than your Preschooler? (Practical Mondays #10)

            There’s a whole country named CHAD?

            Huh! lemme google it 

            Oh. it is. Amongst the 25 largest in the world that too.

            Is it new? cuz I don’t remember marking my maps with it in my geography class. 

            No it’s not. It has been there long before even my grandfather was born.

That’s a sample conversation that takes place in my brain every few nights. Every time we pull out a new book or new activity.

Did you know that many fish have a bag of air called a swim bladder which works like an armband. When the fish fill the bladder with air, they float high in the water and when they let the air out, they float lower down. Did you know that sharks don’t have em? So they *have* to keep swimming and if they don’t, they're so heavy that they sink like stones! 

Fascinating ha? I’m somewhere in between fascinated and dumbstruck. Dumbstruck by my own dumbness. These are PRESCHOOLER level books, for God’s sake! Books meant for little 4 and 5 year olds. And I have been walking around for 35 years without knowing this stuff? 

So every evening after my 4 year old brushes his teeth, changes into his PJs and snuggles with me in warm blankets to read, I wonder whether I’m doing it for myself. 

Are you in the same boat as me? Are you smarter than your preschooler?

Take this super quick 5 question quiz to find out! (Teachers…shhh, resist the urge to show off!)

What color are Flamingoes?

They’re grey! They get their pink color from the shrimp & algae they eat. No shrimp? No pink!

When ancient Egyptians prepared mummies, did they remove the heart or the brains?

The brains! Since they were considered useless while the heart was super important! The dead travelled to another part of the world where they needed their bodies- so duh! why would they need their brains?!

Which fish carry their eggs in their mouths till they hatch?

Tilapia! And I wonder how many end up being swallowed when the fish got hungry. Honey, would you please pick up some eggs for breakfast…oh, never mind. 

What is “Prehistoric”?

Prehistoric means the period before men started writing & recording history. Like when the dinosaurs were around. Because they couldn’t be bothered about writing. or recording. or reading books to their preschoolers.

What is the difference between Crocodiles & Alligators?

Crocodiles have more pointed snouts and a large tooth sticking up on each side when they close their mouths. There Sheldon, now I know.

How many did you get right? & what your score means:

5 - Looks like you are a teacher. Couldn’t help showing off, could you?

4 - Looks like you’re an actual preschooler. Darling, this test was for your parents. Go get them.

3 - Sigh, looks like you cheated! Was that really necessary?

2 - Congratulations, you’ve been reading to your child every night!

1 - Congratulations! You’re a lucky guesser! 

0 - Congratulations! We’re in the same boat! Pls email me your contact details, we should be life long friends!

How my 4 year old turned into an Environmentalist! (Practical Mondays #9)

Have you seen any adult excited about taking out the garbage? Little kids can be obsessed! Have a look at my ebullient 4 year old religiously emptying our recycle bin:

And picture this:

He is rushing out for school with a sniffy nose. Our maid hands him a few tissues and he yells “NO! Tissues are a wastage! I’ll go get my hanky instead!”

Or picture this:

We’re having lunch with a nice family and my son points out that we don’t need the light on, since it’s day time and “we’re wasting electricity”

And later our host let the tap run (only to let the warm water out!) he chimes in again “you’re wasting water!!”

Kind of like Jesse Eisenberg in his guest appearance in Modern Family. Remember? The one where he was all high & mighty about the environment and his last words were: “No one wants to be friends with me…I can’t remember the last time I had someone for dinner. Which is probably a good thing since solar power takes 4 days to roast a chicken, If you want it cooked all the way through. You know I had salmonella three times?” !!

I blame the “Let’s Go Green” Series of books that I’ve been reading to him the past 6 months. In the past 6 months, we’ve read their 6 books over and over again, till their lines were drilled into his tiny brain and poured out like a walking talking environmentalist.

Well.. Maybe it’s not really a bad thing. Maybe when he grows up he’ll save paper and use normal cooking gas to cook his meats?

Paint-by-Word (Practical Mondays #7)

Paint by word is a spin on color-by-number. Not that we’re big fans of coloring, but this is a good art project that helps strengthen word building. 

Want to give it a try? Then click here to download my freebie. Just fill in the blanks with colors & the words you’re kids are currently learning. Can be used with crayons, paints, color pencils & markers!

Don’t have a printer? Then just use one of your colouring books!

Don’t have a colouring book? Then simply draw taking inspiration from your children’ favorite books. That’s what I do!

Books, Books & Books: On Practical Mondays (Week # 4)

Let's get real. My son refuses to speak Hindi (& has probably forgotten how to put together a simple sentence) and our grand plan of allocating breakfast time for speaking only in Hindi is.... just.not.working. (umm... something to do with ...us forgetting all about it?)

So I have a new plan. Books. In Hindi. 

The first one got him hooked, irrespective of the language. It is about a handicapped girl who had lived all her life on a wheelchair. She had to live away from her family, in a hospital till she was 18! She didn't get better, yet she loved participating and winning in races! Once she went out of town to participate, but the organisers told her she couldn't since there wasn't any other female participant. She was disappointed, but  she wanted it so bad, that she decided to run in the men's race! When she went to the start line, she saw her competition: big strong men, some who had even been in the army! Her heart beat loudly but she was determined. 

(When he narrated it to his father, his father looked at me with that "why are you reading such a depressing book" look. Go ahead, you can say it, it *is* kinna sad!)  

But wait! What happened next? 

Of course she won! Taught us a very valuable lesson: never give up trying, however difficult things may seem! 

You can teach almost *anything* to a child with the help of a good book. So over to our featured posts from past link ups that may help you pick out your next one!

Word Building Activity: Color-by-Word

 I don't homeschool, So why do I bother with all this?

  Because I like it

  Because there are excellent resources available for free online

  Because just 10 mins a week is enough (Yes, literally)

  Because I know my son’s sensitive periods* the best 

  Because I can use what he has learnt every night during our reading time

  Because I can make busy bags around these concept that serves as games and     toys

*before you think it’s some sorta PMS-y thing, it’s not (!!) it is what Maria Montessori refers to as the period when a child is most receptive to learning a particular concept

Word Building Activity: Peg-by-Picture

I cut up some drawing book pages into squares (or rectangles?). Each square has a word and three pictures underneath (easy ones of course). He had to clip the correct answer. 

DIY Activity Sheets (3-5 years)

We now have a wonderful tutor who comes home to teach my husband and I some beginners Spanish. So often we sit around with our notes all over the place, doing our Spanish homework. What parents do influences kids right? So one day when our 4 year old brought home his Maths bundle from school, he opened that too and started doing "his" homework (yeah, thats what he called it!). i.e filling up pages that weren't completed. 

That's when I remembered the tons & tons of used paper work that I had discarded before moving houses, of *awesome* printables created by *kick-ass* homeschooling mamas. (here's one I'd posted, when he was learning his alphabets) Although I felt guilty about the massive quantity of paper that I threw away, my son had learnt a *lot* and had spent many afternoons after school with them.

I don't have access to a printer now, so figured why not make some easy ones. All you need is a *very basic* level of drawing skills (I mean seriously, look at my drawings!) . The Practical Mom logic is  that creating an activity should take minutes, they  don't need to be high quality or artistic or anything, cuz kids don't care about that stuff anyways.

I use these sheets for "parallel play", i.e. he can do his sheets while I do my own work on the same table.