Month: September 2015

Firefighters rule

On By Aruna TalapatraIn craftLeave a comment

Thinking about 9/11 today and wondering how to spend some time with Nadia to pay tribute to the fallen. I decided to focus on the inspirational stories of the NYFD who saved so many that day.

Nadia understands the bravery behind a firefighter’s work. So we decided to paint a firefighter putting out a fire. Nadia started with yellow…she first painted the entire canvas.

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She then picked orange as she has seen fire flow orange too.DSCF3334

I drew the silhouette of a firefighter for her and she painted him black.

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Finally, she decided she wanted to mix all her colors – yellow, orange and black to show smoke indicating something was burning.

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When others pushed out, he rushed in…

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Regards,

Aruna

A rainy day project

On By Aruna TalapatraIn craftLeave a comment

What a gorgeous day today was…started with the rains, ended with the most glorious sunset that only rain clouds and sunshine can bring. While driving home from swimming Nadia commented that let’s paint the rain. So after dinner and before bed, she worked on just that…rain.

She drew straight lines for the rain…and I drew the silhouette of a little Nadia with her galoshes and umbrella. Nadia painted the rain, blue water coming down.

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She then painted the little girl blue too.

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Isn’t that a glorious piece of work? This one is going in my office 🙂

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Have a great week.

Cheers,

Aruna

Noughts & Crosses

On By Aruna TalapatraIn craftLeave a comment

We have been teaching Nadia Noughts & Crosses on paper today…when I thought hey let’s just make our own customized game. Nadia painted some circles and crossed on stones we had stashed away.

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I measured and showed her where to draw the lines. She drew them and cut them herself.

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Finally, we sat down to a few fun games. She is getting the hang of it.

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Have a great weekend.

Cheers,

Aruna

Happy Janmashthami

On By Aruna TalapatraIn craft, festivalLeave a comment

The birth of Lord Krishna…what lovely stories of his childhood. Nadia just loved them. She was at the Hindu temple last night to watch the beautiful dances in celebration. Today morning we did a small craft to commemorate the day. I cut out  small throne for Baby Krishna to sit in.

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Nadia painted and decorated the throne.

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We also made a diorama with a cake box (yes I keep everything 🙂 with a lovely tree in the background. A blue sky, green grass was added to the scene.

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Finally we added the seat and a little figurine I had. Happy Janmashthami to everyone.

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Have a great long weekend.

Cheers,

Aruna

A Teepee village

On By Aruna TalapatraIn craftLeave a comment

Talking a little to Nadia about the history of America, we were chatting about Native Americans. She has spent hours at the Milwaukee museum – native american floor so is very familiar with the history. We built a few teepees out of paper. Nadia cut out the template.DSCF3009

We then used sticks to prop up the teepee.DSCF3011

Here’s how it looked.

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We created a few more…it got easier and more fun.DSCF3006

She had a great time…introduced a few dinosaurs eventually.

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Have a great week.

Cheers,
Aruna

Animals

On By Aruna TalapatraIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

We had a ton of fun today creating a set of snakes, a crocodile and a lion. Nadia painted some rolls..green, yellow and blue. Just look at the concentration and focus on that little face!

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Here is our snake climbing a tree. We cut out the painted roll and stuck on some eyes.DSCF2888

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Here is the crocodile…DSCF2892

Here are the snakes resting…DSCF2895

Finally the lion….DSCF2901

Seems to be a very calm one…

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Here’s to hours of pretend play and storytelling! Interesting fact…Nadia used to watch a video every Sunday…either Land before time or Mowgli. It’s been 3 Sundays now that she hasn’t even asked whether she can watch a video. This past Sunday, when I brought it up she said let’s do some painting. It just shows if you can provide options a child will always pick the smart one 🙂

Have a great week.

Cheers,

Aruna

Paris in Black & White

On By Aruna TalapatraIn craftLeave a comment

Today we made a Paris paper city. We printed the template from Made by Joel’s blog. This guy is a real genius…his cedar box doll houses are too good. Maybe one day! Nadia cut out the Eiffel tower, people, lamp posts and other buildings.

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She then folded them so that they could stand on their own.

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Here is our mini-Paris coming along.

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Isn’t it super cute?

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Maybe we will come up with city scenes of our own. And all these pieces fit into a mint box. A great toy to play with at those restaurant dinner tables instead of children watching videos!!

Have a great week.

Cheers,

Aruna