Little Architects from my home

Hari had made these homes. I always talk to him about other blogs. During navarathri days I had talked him about 'Bomma golu' and other craft activities by children. I was so inspired by the crafts made by Anuradha in her blog. After a week he planned to make some houses. Two of the houses are made by him.

We had used Camel water colour tubes, Fevicol craft glue and cellotape, chart paper and some coloured papers.

Hari and Sree so busy ....

i I loved this one with a muddy look and some greens. The black coloured object is the well!!!!

Children have so many hidden talents so let them do some activities, we must help them through giving ideas and tools for the activities. Nowadays they have no option for wandering and playing without limits. We can have some craft time together to express our joy and love towards them.

About the seasons

Hari has to submit a chart of seasons. We had planned to do a collage of seasons. It took a lot of time so we had completed with two seasons summer and rainy. It was a nice and hardworking evening it reminded me of my college days. We had done with some painted drawings and some cutouts. Sree was also eager to make a mess among all these works.

We had no acryilic colours at home because of that we had decided to end up with a collage. In summer season we decide to focus on the hot sun, Blue clouds, fresh water melon, Cotton cloth , ice cream and fresh flowers.

In rainy season we have to paste dark clouds, rain drops, a frog, a boat made of paper, an umbrella and a tree.

It was a nice experiment with Hari. He was so responsible and also comfortable to take more tasks. We have to make other seasons also and we are searching for new ideas.

Kakka koodu( Nest of crow)

We had seen two 'Kakka koodu' on the top of a tree near to our home. Pappu was so curious to know about the nest. It was made of twigs. We can see it from our terrace. Whenever he see the nest he will sing the famous song
'Kakke kakke koodevide
koottinakathoru kunjundo
kunjinu theetta kodukkanjal
kunju kidannu karayoolle'

Fly like a bird...

Craft time gives a positive solution to every thing. Hari has craft lessons at school. He had made this simple bird learnt at his craft class. He made one for his brother too. Pappu was so happy...

Is it interesting to make some moments of our life colourful and memorable than the usual time.

Craft time

Flowers from pencil shavings.
Three smiling flowers. Children needs our presence to do something. This is done by my son with my help. We have some colour pencils, some smiling stickers, white paper and fevicol craft glue.
If we are planning to do a round flower sharpen the pencils with great care. First glue all the flowers then draw the stem and leaves. I had drawn the stem and leaves with the colour pencil. Then I had pasted a smiling sticker at the centre piece. I love these flowers and we had pasted it in our living room because this image has a lot of love in it.
Its an easy craft. My four year old enjoyed all these works.
I decided to spend some time with my children to do crafts. All inspiration and thanks goes to the blog Mindful meanderer.

Games

Image courtsey:Internet

Hari has to study about games. What are the indoor games and outdoor games? He has to say about the chess, snake and ladder, cricket and football.
After the home works, I thought about the games I had participated in my childhood. I was very fond of 'Akku kali' and 'Chena kali'. Akku kali was with a small stone piece and we had to move that with legs to every box. Chena is elephant yam and we had to draw a chena with our legs. I feel so funny to recollect that days. Another play was 'Kuttiyum kolum' then 'Trunk kali' then comes the 'Thayam kali'. Kuttiyum kolum was the ancient form of Cricket, instead of ball we used two sticks one small and the other large. Thayam kali was like snake and ladder instead of the single dice we used small sticks made from the 'Ola madal' stem of the coconut leaves. According to their position we have to change our 'Karu'. This game was played by elders also. It may be an ethnic game of Kerala.
Valappottukali was another colourful game. There was a colourful collection of Valappottu that means pieces of bangles(kuppivala and plastic ones). It may be a girl's game.
Ittooli- no clues to the heading. Its a game with safety pin. One will throw the pin and others have to find out. Its the dearest game of my children.
There was a game with 'manjadikkuru' also. Its official name is pallankuzhi. It was a cool game and still remember the colourful combination of the red shining manjadikkurus in the back ground of wooden pallankuzhi board.
Pallankuzhi- A game passed through generations
A very nostalgic note on pallankuzhi
Researches on this Indian folk game
Another one was 'Kuzhi panthu'. Then 'Sat kali', 'kanjiyum karivekkal kali', 'pachila thodal kali' and 'Kannu ketti kali'. Any way its very interesting to remember about the nice things about the childhood because there is a child in every one of us.
There may be lot of other games. Please give your note on your favourite traditional plays.

Maram Kothi

Sree and Hari always alert to the creatures around them. I had bought a book which describes lot of small creatures around us. After that they watch every birds and small insects around us. The above picture is of 'Maram Kothi' or wood pecker. They had noticed four of them on a coconut tree in front of our house. But we didn't got the four because they are on the other side.

I became so happy that they are also loving birds and creatures around them. In my childhood we had a story related with maram kothi. Maram kothis wants to build his own home and he checks the wood with his beak. But he is not satisfied with anyone thus the search continues. I had told them that maram kothi is searching for the small creatures inside the wood for their food. Pappu then commented that it is amma, achan and children. He was sure that they are playing and also they are in a park!!!!!

Pappu always connects the real things with imagination. He is always hesitant to bath. Then I told him that there will be lot small creatures in your body with dirt. We can not see them. They will make you sick so we have to clean the body with soap and water then you will be in the pure form and you will smell good. After that he always tell soap is the king and water is his assistant who fight with their enemies: enemies are dirt, sweat and bacterias.

A very nice story in Malayalam about Maram kothi

Pictures of birds from a fellow blogger