Making ravana at home for Dussehra

Namaste friends!! It's festival time!! 

For those who don't know what I am talking about,  today is a Hindu festival called Dusshera. Its a festival to celebrate good over evil !!! (read more here)

This one of those highly procrastinated projects. I have been thinking of doing it since last 2 weeks. Although well..since I had quite some time to do it I kept on putting it off. It happens to everyone isn't it.. Time starved and time rich both don't work ..

So there I was a day before(yesterday) relaxing on the sofa.. Suddenly it dawn upon me that its tomorrow -oh dear I have done nothing yet:( Then I worked in a super fast manner - zipping and zapping to get everything ready!!

At night once sunny boy was sleeping I started with the ravana. 

It only takes 2 hours (or lesser )hours to make it. So if you want to make it for the evening you still have time . 

All that is needed is :

Two paper cups , glittery paper, colored card stock , glue, scissors and masking tape.

1) Keep the cup one over other. Fix them together with a masking tape. 

2) Measure your cup size and cut out the paper. I used a glitter paper but even a gift wrapping paper will also look nice. 

3) I wrapped two cups separately and then covering the joint lines with golden paper.

4) Make two rolls of the same paper used to cover the cups. Pierce two holes for hands in cup on the top with a scissor. Fix the paper rolls inside. If its not staying put fix it with a masking tape from inside.

5) Make the dhall/ shield  and sword. Glue it on the end of hands.

6) For the face, make a roll with card stock just enough for it to go inside the topmost cup. Cut out eyes and mustache from felt or card stock. Make a small cone for nose. Fix them all in place. Make a crown and fix that on the head.

7) Cut a long rectangle strip for the remaining 9 heads. Measure and divide the space for 9 heads, keeping space in the center for the 'center head' which you made earlier. Draw side faces , glue a strip of glitter paper for crown. 

That's it! Its done! Sit back and admire your piece of art! Give yourselves a pat.Optionally you can take pictures and post on Facebook and what's app :))

Wishing you all a Happy Dusshera!!!

Paper Plate fish Aquarium

I had seen paper plate fish aquarium on the net and really loved it. They look so easy to do and pretty as well. So in the afternoon activity Avaneesh made a fish aquarium from a paper plate. 

For this activity I collected things which are leftover in the house - paper plates, paper and  cereal. Avaneesh was excited to see all the items. He was even more excited to see me cutting fish. He said lets make a fish pond. When I cut first one. He said its Mamma fish. So I cut out 3 fishes- big, medium, small - Daddy, Mamma, Baby.

He choose the colors to color the fishes.I made sure he paints the medium (mamma) fish in pink. He painted it with pencils and sketch pens.  We talked about the aquarium in Dubai mall and about plants inside the water. I drew the eyes and mouth on the fishes.

After he was done coloring all three of them. I told him that its time to paint the water for the fish. I gave him blue and white on the plate and asked him to spread it around. He made circles and shapes around the plate.

While the paint was wet I told him to glue the fishes and the grass to it. Then I gave him the honey pop cereal to him. Avaneesh does not like it anymore. I gave him only 6-7 at a time, so that he does not get into throwing-the-ball game mode and lose concentration. He started fixing them one by one. I wish I had some sea shells as well...He fixed them all over also in between the fish. We talked about the bubbles and coral under the sea.  

This is how it turned out!! I put a double sided sticky tape on its back and pressed it to the wall. 

This was done in June. He was 2.5 yrs. I think older kids should be able to do even better job. 

Magnetic play clock

Avaneesh has been interested in wrist watches(especially expensive ones..sigh) and clocks( very big and pretty ones) since he was a little baby. I thought I can start teaching about how to read them as well. All the clocks/watches we own have either roman numbers or none. So I thought I will make a easy to read and play magnetic clock for him.

I used the things I had on hand- magnetic sheet, paper, pens and glue. 

I had a magnet sheet from some useless advert. I decided to put the sheet to better use. I cut a circle from paper and wrote the numbers on it. I glued this page to the magnet sheet. I cut two arrows from the remaining sheet and glued paper on sheet. Made some design on it to make it look attractive for the little guy. The arrows stick to the clock well which keeps it together even if he carries it around. Additionally he finds it fun to remove and fix them again in another position.

Still a long way to go but at least he has started learning the basic things about reading a clock like how many numbers, hands, which number is it pointing to etc 

DIY/ recycled craft : Rocket

I had saved the cardboard tube of the kitchen roll to be used when I will get a idea to do a recycle craft. Today I finally got the idea. 

A rocket- yes the tube perfectly fits the shape of a rocket. My planet loving son is very fond of rockets and UFOs.  I cut a yellow paper according to the size of the tube to cover the tube. Then two sets of blue and green strips, a few stars and circles to decorate the rocket. I also cut 3 legs for the rocket with a free hand design. A cone was made of the same orange card stock which I used for the legs. 

First glue all the decorations on the base paper. By this time my son who was sleeping got up. He wanted to be part of this activity. So I told him to apply glue all over the back of the yellow base paper. I glued it to the cardboard tube. With a sharp knife I made 3 insertions a little above the bottom of the tube for the legs in a way that the legs would touch the ground once inserted. Insert the orange legs inside. The conical top was glued to the top part.