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Christmas Gifts

Dec 25
Posted by pankti in Activities, Hobbies

The first and the foremost tip that most gift givers should realize is that it is not about the money. Gifts are all about thoughts and feelings. Christmas is the time to share the joy and be merry.

Apart from the X-mas tree, Christmas bells and other Christmas Décor which is usually gifted and bought during Christmas, you can give a variety of gifts to your near and dear ones. Children love to be gifted during Christmas. As children are decorating the X-mas tree, Santa Claus comes on its way and distributed gifts to children.

On Christmas and New Year, put small notes, quotes, cards, letters or some words along with your gift. You can either write a poem or make some memories alive again by writing about some cherished moments.

You can also give personalized gifts. For example, if you want to gift a watch, you can get a Xmas tree printed on the dial of the watch or you can also get his/her name emboss on the dial. This will truly delight the person you are gifting. There are lots of other gifts that include Christmas Cannonball Train, kids toys, Christmas gift container, diaries, mugs, card holders etc.

Christmas décor shaped chocolates and sweets are available in the market. They are surely a safe bet when it comes to gifting friends and relatives. You can also give homemade sweets and gifts. There is nothing more special for person than to receive a gift that is made by the giver himself! Homemade gifts always make the person receiving the gift feel warm and nice. This is because the person appreciates the effort that one has put in to make that gift! It is indeed a good and creative idea to make homemade gifts. So go ahead and gift as many as you can this Christmas!

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360 degree Learning

Nov 28
Posted by pankti in Hobbies

360 degree learning is an overall learning that nurtures kids. It does not make them robots that memorize, write exams and forget what they were taught. Here, learning is more to do with the overall development of the child.  360 degree learning is based on the theory that an organism functions properly only when he uses all parts of the body. Effectively using smell, sound, sight and touch, your child can learn through all the incidents and the activities that take place in his life. Your child can experience holistic learning right from the time he enters playschool or nursery provided you take the right steps to inculcate this process of learning in his life.

 This technique is based on the concept that an organism functions properly only when all parts coordinate and co-operate with each other in their individual functioning. Holistic learning involves through activities like story-telling, playing games, making the kid feel happy about what he learns and aiming at understanding of subjects such that it stays with kids for a long time.

 Overall learning and liberal education go hand in hand. Liberal education believes that a child should be allowed to learn what he enjoys the most and he is thus offered subjects that range from a variety of disciplines. He is not restricted to learning math, sciences and social sciences. He learns subjects like guitar, singing, painting, volleyball, poetry and many others. Overall learning facilitates to make kids use all their senses and use a ‘whole body’ approach towards learning.

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Children and Art

Nov 27
Posted by pankti in Hobbies

Most kids love watercolors but are not good with the medium. In any painting, the planning stage is most important. Start your subject of drawing by using thumbnails- just a rough pencil outline. Once the rough thumbnail is in place, draw the required details. Many artist use tracing paper to give a detailed careful outline to the picture- remember that a good beginning is half the picture done!

 As beginners you could use tracing paper and draw and the light impression that is formed on the water colour paper can be used for further painting. Remember to keep your drawings light so that pencil marks are not seen. Now, it is important that on a rough paper you decide on the colour scheme that you want to use. It is here that you can try out all the different colour schemes. Once you have finalized on the colour scheme that you are going to choose, start preparing for the border of the page and if possible you can use a clip board. It is now that you can start painting your final product. Do not be in a hurry. Be patient. Start with a light wash of yellow so that in case you go wrong you can easily cover it up. Do all the basic coloring that is required and then proceed to do the detailing that needs to be done with fine brushes. Be careful with this! Now using the above techniques, you can easily do your water colour painting!

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How to use watercolors

Nov 22
Posted by pankti in Family, Hobbies

Most of the kids fear this medium simply because it is difficult to make changes or correction once you have put your brush stroke on the canvas. However, practice is what will make you perfect here. Do not get discouraged if you do not get things correct in first few instances. Learn your mistakes and proceed. With the help of following tips, you can start with your water painting right away:

Just mix up a lot of water with water colour paint and with a thick brush, wash your canvas. Another technique is using the tip of your paint brush to dip it slightly in the water and then dipping it in the colour you want to paint in and using strokes to paint on the canvas. This is especially used to paint branches of a tree. Erasing the paint is yet another technique used commonly in water colour painting and this is achieved by using a thick hard brush, dipping it only in water and then slowing applying it to the canvas. Tinting is also another technique that is very easy to do but difficult to control. For example you want your painting to have more yellow in it, to be brighter. What you do is take some very thin yellow paint by using a lot of water, and carefully going over the dried portion of the painting that you wish to tint. However, there is no stopping from inventing your own technique of water colour painting.

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Unleash the artist in your kids with pastel crayons

Nov 20
Posted by pankti in Family, Hobbies

Who will not agree that pastel is yet another great medium of art and is one of the best for kids and beginners? Here are some of the steps which will guide you in your artistic pastel journey:

The first step is to sketch an initial outline onto your paper. Professional artists do this with mechanical graphite pencils. Some artists especially students use a light pastel color for the outline. These outlines are generally done freehand however they depend on the subject that you choose to paint. Now the next step is to start applying some pastel crayons onto the paper. Use soft pastels for easy blending. Now what and how you will colour will depend on your subject but for e.g. if you are coloring sky, then you will start towards dark shades and slowly come down to the light blue shades. Remember to blend the colors at every instance. Blending can be done through your fingers as well.

Detailing needs to be taken care of. Take care while coloring and see to it that they do not smudge in areas where they are not supposed to smudge. Now continue coloring all the objects that are included in your drawing. For example if you are painting a tree care should be taken that while coloring the branch, the colour does not reach the leaves! While drawing objects that require too much detailing, care should be taken that the edges are clean and that the detailing is prominent. Use tip of the colour for detailing.

Remember to be patient and tactful. Do not overuse the colour or blend it too much. Take it step by step and use reference or guidance at points where you are not sure of the next step. Detailing is what is difficult in pastels and hence if you are a patient artist who is very careful with the detailing, things become much easier. Express yourself in pastels and frame your pictures in your room for that little streak of creative satisfaction.

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Activity classes

Oct 29
Posted by kamakshi in Activities, Hobbies

Kinder garten kids are a bundle of energy. Often parents feel that the child is unable to sit in a place or is constantly upbeat about something. This is the excess energy that is stored in their body which is waiting to be channelsied. Tapping the potential or honing a skill requires to be done by parents. Ideally the right time should be from the age of four onwards.

 School going kids are generally independent about their toilet habits and are also able to communicate their apprehensions. Introduce them to a skill like drawing or coloring class. The intention is not to make an artist of the child but to allow him or her to access information and understand learning by a process. The expert guidance of the teacher helps them to focus and improve their skill.

 For over active kids there are many sports associations and social clubs that coach young children in sports. Understand your child’s physical attributes and coping skills. Initially this seems a chore in initiating the child to go on to do a sport. Children often show lack of interest or a ‘tummy ache’ if they are reluctant. Compulsively nothing can be done but show them pictures of the sport like skating or football and then will slowly start taking interest in the same.

 The biggest part about activity class and other things is that the parent must be able to strike a balance about the same. Wandering freely in a park or going for a birthday party is equally important for a child’s growth. Urban areas also have the restriction of city life demands which gets mundane. I often invite my child’s friends over for a clay molding activity which also helps us moms bond together.

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