Toys set free!

When kids grow up, you'd think that they grow out of all their toys.....well, you'd wish....! To be fair...they do grow out of a few but there's always a toy that is too close to their heart to give away. My seven year old who should have grown out of his indoor toys a long time ago, at times still lays out his train tracks turning his room into a mini-Island of Sodor! You can imagine how annoyed I'd be when I return home from work to find every inch of floor space in his room covered with tracks.....set up by a kid who's way past the age limit meant for such toys! Abhay  still had so many toys meant for toddlers and pre-schoolers that we got him to reluctantly donate a few to a nearby orphanage. But there were still many of his branded toys (which took up most of the shipping space as we were foolish enough to assume that they were not available in India!) that we'd found it difficult to get rid of, partly because of the reluctance on the part of everyone from Abhay to Abhay's grandma to let go of toys that have cost a pretty penny plus the added discomfort in being mistaken when you offer hand-me-downs to known friends and relatives. Anyway, over the weekend, we managed to find a suitable home for some of our prized toys! Surprisingly, Abhay willingly gave away his Vrtech laptop, leap frog word prompter and the antique looking wooden railway tracks to his younger cousins, genuinely pleased that the toys he once so enjoyed would now make someone else happy! But all said and done, he wasn't yet ready to make that call for his Thomas set! :-(

 

Today's prompt for the 30 books in 30 days challenge being "Toys", I could not but agree with Bubbleink that Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny series couldn't have been more appropriate. Since I've already featured Knuffle Bunny earlier on Onestoryaday, I was looking for something else but I couldn't lay my hands on any book appropriate for Abhay. But since books like Knuffle Bunny are the very reason I started blogging on Onestoryaday and the third book in the series particularly being Abhay's favourite (which took minimal shipping space), we decided to revisit the book and repost on Onestoryaday as an exception! My last post on Knuffle Bunny was three years ago, and the very fact that I still read it to Abhay is only proof of its enduring theme and how it works on so many layers! In fact, Abhay is now all the more able to relate to the sentiment behind "Knuffle Bunny free -An unexpected diversion ". As Trixie finally comes to terms with the loss of her Knuffle Bunny on the flight to her grandparents' place, she accidentally finds it on her flight back in the same place as she had left it.  While she rejoices in this reunion, she also realizes that it's time to move on and let someone else more deserving enjoy the company of Knuffle Bunny and places him in the hands of a bawling baby seated behind them, with her proud parents looking on! So Knuffle Bunny who had been an inseparable part of Trixie's life now becomes another's inseparable comfort toy! Today as we read this book, Abhay declared that he doesn't need toys anymore as he is happy to have his parents...... To which my husband retorted "So that we can buy him more toys!" :-)

 

Junior Kumbhakarna!

Over this weekend, we went for a book launch of “Junior Kumbakarna” at one of our favourite book stores, Atta Galatta. It had been a while since we went for a book launch and I was quite looking forward to being there with Abhay….from start to end! But since I had to finish up some work at office, it was agreed that I would go in directly while it was my husband’s job to drive Abhay from home. But as I reached the venue at sharp 5.00 PM on Saturday, both Abhay and his dad were nowhere in sight! As the author began reading aloud from her book, with the help of puppets and props that had the whole group of kids and their parents in splits, all I wished was for Abhay to join them soon. Though he missed the initial round of questions and discussions, Abhay sauntered in just in time to wake up Kumbhakarna!:-) Well, before I could pull up the daddy for his presumed tardiness, he passed the buck over to our little "Junior Kumbhakarna” who’d refused to be woken up from his Saturday afternoon siesta! :-)

Abhay also enjoyed the fun activities post the story while I met up with many like minded moms who enjoy reading, blogging and writing children's books! Of course....one can never leave Atta Galatta without a book and so we bought a few, besides picking up our copy of "Junior Kumbhakarna" signed by the author!  As if to make up for their delayed entry and in keeping with the daddy’s posting day on 30 books in 30 days  challenge promoted by friend and fellow blogger the bubbleink, Abhay’s daddy read “Junior Kumbhakarna” by Arundhati Venkatesh and illustrated by Shreya Sen. I must say that we loved the illustration of Kumbhakarna  which appears both authentic and hilarious at the same time. It’s bedtime for Kuku and like most kids, he wants his favourite story – the story of Kumbhakarna and his appa has no choice (like most appas!) but to regale him with Kumbhakarna’s giant lifestyle, with an appetite equivalent to that of a hundred men, with a burrp loud enough to make your little one giggle, a stretch here and a yawn there to ultimately slip into what Kumbhakarna is most famous (or infamous) for – his deep slumber yielding snores like thunder! As animals from donkeys to elephants, from people blowing trumpets to making laddoos, all  attempts to wake Kumbhakarna fails and Kumbhakarna only goes ZZZZZZ! So what happens? As you read on, your little one will be surprised as to just whom is the book talking about – the mighty Kumbhakarna or junior counterpart! A mythological tale beautifully adapted onto what is an everyday saga in most homes with kids! A great book to reflect on and have a hearty laugh over our daily morning mania!

Breaking gender barriers on Women's day!

Today, being Women’s day, it is a mandatory-post-day on Onestoryaday! I have always tried to key in a post celebrating this day dedicated to the fairer sex. Besides, celebrating our differences from men , thanking the women in our lives or spreading the message of equality and respect for women amongst the men, I guess what we really we look forward to is to be able to break free from gender stereotypes.  For instance, on the domestic front, if the woman of the house has a working Saturday, the man needn't hesitate to play host to visiting relatives, while at the same time, the woman needn't hesitate to drive them up to the airport! J  As mothers, however, it is important that we ensure our children, and especially our sons don’t grow up perpetuating gender stereotypes! A couple of weeks ago, I found Abhay casually referring to all girls as being “stupid” and not matching up to the boys. When I confronted him, he backed out and said that his comment was only meant for the girls in his class. That only made it worse and I wondered where he’d picked it up from. I then took him aside and explained that it is wrong on his part to carry such a gender bias and that girls are just as smart as boys. While I hope that he got the message, I know that constant and consistent reinforcement against bias will go a long way in helping our boys turn the men we women want them to be!

 

While we are on the subject of breaking gender barriers, I picked up “The Worst Princess” by Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie. As the title goes, this is not the run-of-the-mill story of a princess being rescued by the handsome prince. Sue is a princess leading a lonely life in a tower, has been waiting for the last hundred years for the prince to free her from this boredom and show her the world. At last she rejoices as the prince arrives, claiming to have slain all kinds of wicked and vice. While she doesn’t hesitate to make the first move, the prince finds her too quick for his groove! As she marches shoulder to shoulder with him, excited to be freed and ready to explore only to realize that the prince is  a bore! The prince leads her to a castle where she is expected to doll herself up with dresses and tresses. But she protests as she wants to ride a horse and go on adventures with him to which he declines saying that the job of slaying dragons aren’t meant for girls. So from  a lonely princess in the tower, she is back to being the lonely princess in the castle. As she spots a fiery dragon charging towards the castle tower, she befriends him and vents out her frustration against the prince when it turns out that the dragon too has a grouse against the prince. So the dragon and the princess join hands and blow the castle tower, much to prince’s chagrin, who calls her the worst princess ever. Sue in turn snaps back that she doesn’t care and hops on the dragon’s back to take flight on Dragon air! J So from then on, Sue and the dragon explore the world from end to end, making mischief for royal twits and naughty knights……realizing along the way that they make a great team after all…..and thus live happily ever after! A refreshing change to the traditional princess stories and a must read for all our little princesses and princes…especially on women’s day! Why should boys have all the fun....isn't it?? Cheers to womanhood and happy women’s day!

 

Barnyard manners!

Kids, especially the younger kids love farm animals. It was very easy to pick a book for Abhay when he was a toddler as any book on cows or barnyard animals would do….irrespective of whether there was a story or not! J  This is partly due to the fact that his first memories of his maternal grandparents’ place was their farm in Dharmasthala which also comprised of their small scale dairy farm. Abhay was quite fascinated by “Amba”, a child’s reference to cows in the Kannada language. Since most of the houses in rural South Kanara always maintained cattle farm, it was easy to handle my two year old when visiting relatives. All I had to do was to  take him to the cow shed! Even when we had moved to the US, he would enquire about them over telephone!  My mother had even composed a lullaby on Abhay and the cattle in our farm which was a mandatory request at bedtime back in those days when we would sing him to sleep. It was so much a part of our nighttime playlist for Abhay that when we started reading to Abhay, we missed it  more than Abhay! J

 

 

As Abhay grew up (and he still growing!), slowly his fascination for cows began to wane and now he is more interested in the farm dog than the cattle and sadly has no recollection of our own farm song! Anyway, with today’s prompt for the 30 books in 30 days Challenge being Barnyard, I picked out a book on barnyard animals. We’ve all read about animal making raucous noise in a barn…but have heard about a barn where the animals teach good manners to good little children? “Atchoo!” by Mij Kelly and Mary McQuillan is a story of Suzy Sue who goes Atchoo offending her farm friends, including the cow, sheep, horse and the rooster who chide her for not covering her mouth. When they realize that Sue doesn’t have a clue, they wonder if she were born in a zoo! So Mr. Cow pulls out a book titled "Good Manners for Complete Animals” and goes over all the rules only to find a few others too needing a crash course.  For instance, the farm dog with a running nose is given a handkerchief, pigs are guided into observing table manners and not to wallow about in food, cats are asked not to fight as they bring disgrace to the farm. In short, they explain to Sue that she shouldn’t pong like a dog, or eat like a pig or fight like a cat. Not pleased by such references, the dogs, pigs and cats take out a protest march against the manner-preachers. So it’s now Sue’s turn to chide the cow, sheep and the horse to expound the most important rule of all – “Always do what you’d like others to do to you” and counsels them to be polite so that the clumsy ones learn by imitation and not by bullying. So they realize their mistake and soon the good mannered help the ill mannered to make up a well mannered farm! A nice little book that drives home the value of being well mannered and courteous without being too preachy! So if your little one has an issue with minding his p's and q's…….have the barnyard animals train him! J

No excuses on Read-aloud Day!

One of our first family story times at the library was back when Abhay was just a toddler and believe me, the last thing that our two year old wanted to do was sit in one place for the next twenty minutes or so. But we took heart (at least my husband did!) that Abhay was not the only one roaming all around when the librarian was reading a picture book, and there were a couple of other toddlers to keep him company…… (or rather inspired by him!) While we wondered if we should wait for a year or two before Abhay could really focus on the story being read out, the people at the library assured us that more we bring him to such story times….the more he gains exposure to books and stories. So we kept at it and sure enough…..he began to look forward to the weekly family story time at the library. We have come a long way since board books or simple picture books and Abhay has begun to read on his own. But apart from the advanced early readers and emergent chapter books that he reads, we still continue to read to him every night. Of course, I try to find picture books that are slightly complex in their narrative or where the underlying humour is meant more for children aged five or six and above. But there are some books that are universally enjoyed by all kids ….whatever be their age or reading level and it feels unfair to deny Abhay that experience simply because he is supposedly too old for picture books!  So also the parents as reading aloud to your little one or not-so-little one at bedtime can be one of the most relaxing and therapeutic experiences at the end of day! Like all routine parenting tasks, my husband and I take turns to read to Abhay, and we are strict on who’s turn it is on a given day, but not because it’s only fair……but because we hate to miss an opportunity to read to our baby!

 Today being World-Read-aloud day, what a better way to dedicate this day than with a book by one of India’s most famous children’s writer Anushka Ravishankar.  The book titled “Excuses Excuses” is a story of a boy named, Neel, narrated in rhyming verse, like many of other books, one of which I co- incidentally happen to read on World Read aloud day last year! J A good part of the read-aloud experience is also about the book’s illustrations…..so not to forget the illustrator of this book Gabriel Manglou who’s combination of real life-like images of “Neel” side by side with imaginative illustrations make this book a sure treat! At the start of the week, Neel has it all planned out…..to be a good boy every day of the week. Monday, he’d be in time for school, on Tuesday, he’d obey every rule, Wednesday, he’d be a helpful son, on Thursday, he’d get all his homework done, on Friday, to be sociable and good, on Saturday, he’d do everything he should and finally on Sunday he decided to mend his ways, and then ……( in true Anushka’s Ravishankar’s style) he realized that he’d run out of days! J From this introduction….I could sense Abhay’s ears perk up….as it almost sounds like his story too (We even replaced Neel with Abhay while reading!). So is Neel able to achieve all what he plans ?? Is he successful? Read on as you find out how Neel has an amazing ability to come up with some of the most incredible excuses! Well, an excuse a day has Neel get away! J