How a 4.5 year old's MIND works!!

Last year same time, I had written about 'How a 3.5yo's mind works'. Today, as I was having my breakfast, I saw Aanya building something from her Magnetic construction blocks. Off late, she's been playing with it a lot. Suddenly I heard her shouting with excitement, " Mumma look, what I made!". It was a little castle. And she was ecstatic.

I asked her if she can build a story from it. And here's how she went for it...'Challenge a budding mind and see what happens' :)

She made another castle, with windows and door this time and had a man sleep inside the castle, while his pets ( horse and goat) stand outside to watch out for any danger.

And we have his friend now, sleeping with him.

There is train track and both of them were awakened by the sound of the train passing by and they watch from the window.
 

There is this rocket behind the castle( made from Lego blocks), soon to be launched.

The men in the Castle own 2 cars. One is the flying car and the other is just a roller car (made from Lego blocks)

Interesting right? Growth of a child always amazes me. Not just physical growth, the intellectual, psychological and social growth as well. What makes me happier is, watching Aanya enjoying her creation.

First Blogversary!

Exactly one year back, on this day, I had opened this blog. It was sudden. I had not planned doing that. While going through few interesting blogs one morning, I just decided to start my own. And there I was with my first blog post. I was excited and scared. Excited because, I had been writing on my journal all this while and now I posted my thoughts on the internet. And scared because, after my first post, I had no idea what I would write next? What if I ran out of topics? What if there is nothing to write? But I set aside my worries and took the plunge. After 97 blogposts today, I think I did right. I am glad I listened to my heart.

It has been an eventful year and I have learnt so many new things. More so because, we had just moved in this house and had so many things to create and ponder what else I could do. In this one year I have read, written and learnt more than I have ever done. And today I can hardly believe, my blog is 1 year old already.

Here's a big THANK YOU to everyone who took time to read and comment on my posts. You people have helped me grow. Looking forward to more learning this year.....

Smiles!

Playroom benches: DIY

So! from a long time I had wanted to give some personality to the playroom. But was just not sure how. Googled playrooms, read blogs, articles, projects but was always left confused. Coloring the playroom with the child's favorite color, was the first thing most of the parents did, but that's not something we wanted to do. Not yet.
And then one day we decided to make a window bench ourselves. Why ourselves? Ah! There is so much satisfaction in doing things yourself. 

Window benches in the playroom

The window side of the Playroom

I love these window benches for so many reasons

1. It provides a comfortable place to sit and read books, write, draw, play or even rest.
2. The storage below can hold so many things. They are easily visible and easy to clean.
3. We made it ourselves! There is so much excitement and satisfaction in doing projects like these.

And now, The Tutorial:

1. The first thing we did was, bought 2 Kallax shelving unit from Ikea. They come in three colors, but we preferred white. My husband put the units together in just a few minutes, it was that easy.

Kallax units placed in a L shape.

2. We bought an OSB from Home Depot, cut to the dimension of the shelving unit. The board cost us about $8 and was enough for both the benches with some board left over.

3. Then I bought high density 1" foam from Joann's for $30 and cut it to fit the bench using a shapie marker and a regular scissors.

4. I had some quilt batting from my previous projects, so I did not buy, but it's easily available at craft stores for about $5.

5. My daughter wanted the cushions to be in yellow, blue and pink color, she wouldn't settle for one, so I also bought this multi color sturdy fabric from Walmart, about 4 yd at $3/yd.

And now The Construction part:

1. Placed all the materials one over the other like this. Fabric-batting-foam-OSB

2. Then, stretched the quilt batting over the edges of the foam and OSB and stapled it with the staple gun. It was fun actually. I had never used a staple gun before and needed some practise before I worked on this project.

3. Then, I repeated the same stapling step, using fabric this time.

 I placed the cushion onto the bench. And yay!! the bench was complete. Now, that wasn't too hard, really. Hoping to enjoy many years of fun !!

Got inspired for the bench after reading this tutorial from Mommy Vignettes: No- Sew Window Bench. :)