A's favourite books(top 25) at 20 months

A loves reading. I have been thinking of documenting her favourite books for a long time now. When she will grow old and look at this list, I don't know what her reaction will be. But from now on I want to keep a list of her favourites every 6 months. These books are not really in order of preference.  She likes them all so much that I cant decide which one to place where.

1.     Kipper's A To Z: An Alphabet Adventure by Mick Inkpen
    A very creative alphabet book. Its fun to see how Kipper and Arnold take you from A is to Ant till Z is for Zebra. How they keep collecting each of them in a box and in the end they have a mini zoo. Ideal for age > 2 year but my lil one has been enjoying this one since she was 17 months.

2.  From Head to Toe by Eric Carle

 This is one of the first few book I bought for A. Since 12 months, this has been one of her favourites. She remembers what each of these animals does and remembers every single word in the book. This is our favourite amon all the Eric Carles book. The moment she hears the word "gorilla", she thumps her chest, Penguin turns his heads. It is great book to get her moving in different ways. Note that its not a bed time book as it makes my lil one super duper active :)

3. A to Z from Sandra Boynton

  One day A was looking at herself in the mirror and smiling. I said "You are admiring yourself in the mirror just like Aadvark" and showed her this book. Since then it has been her favourite. It has been a very good book for building vocabulary. A learnt words like grinning, frowning etc from it. She also enacts all the actions being done by the animals. I do not like the fact that U is "uglybirds being ugly" and I kind of always try to skip that one. But other than that I just love this book.


4.  Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
  This is one of the very famous books by Margaret Wise Brown. I ordered it and When it came I didn't like it. I actually regretted buying it as I really didn't see any story line. Any ways, I read it to A. and She loved it. Not really a goodnight book for us, as she jumps when the cow jumps over the moon. She sits with her hand folded on an imaginary chair. Always tries to find something new in that dark green room. And just loves the old lady whispering hush.  Now I love it because A simply loves it.


5.
 duckling llama llama wakey wake elmo says i ll teach my dog a lot of words my body (baby einstein) dogs by emily gravett : Mention doggies by Sandra boynton pigeon wants a puppy
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom





DoI mention brown bear & hungry caterpillar here

A's books collection and recommendations for toddlers

This list is actually A's books recommendations for toddlers. (best books)
A has a lot of books and time n again, people ask her mumma what all books She has. So, she inspired momma to document them here. Make a list and then share which one is her favourite.

These days different types of books are available for toddlers.
cloth books, bath books, touch n feel, squeaky book, sound book, activity books, puppet books, googly eyes/funny characters books, lift the flap books, popup books, slide n learn, pull n learn etc
Even after this big list I am sure that I haven't covered all kinds. So I am going to make a list here. Will try to categorize them. Some I feel were worth it and some I feel are just for show.

Then, these books can again be categorized based on the concept they teach like alphabets, colors etc. So I will add all the categories. Just that some books can be present in multiple categories. Also this is the list we own. So it has both the books we like and the ones we don't.
Also A few of them are the ones which we read in library.

Colors:

Colours (Usborne First Words Board Books)
Step By Step ABC.123.Colours 

Alphabets:
ABC Zoo
Dr. Seuss's ABC (Big Bright & Early Board Book)
Dora the Explorer Alphabet Adventure (Nickelodeon Learning)
My Charming Board Books: ABC
Step By Step ABC.123.Colours

Dora the Explorer Alphabet Adventure (Nickelodeon Learning)
Nick Jr. ABC Block Books: 26 Books in a Box!
Animal Alphabet
Sesame street: Elmos learning adventure: Animal alphabet


Counting book:
Thomas the Tank Engine Counts to Ten
Step By Step ABC.123.Colours 
Barbie: Learn Your Numbers 1 to 20 
Numbers,Colours,Shapes (Soft to Touch Board Books) 
4 He's a Jolly Good Fellow (Numberjacks Story Book)
Sesame Street Counting All Around (Sesame Street: Zip & Carry) : We have paperback version

Touch and Feel books:
Baby Touch and Feel Puppy Love
This Little Kitten (Ladybird Touch and Feel)
Touchy-feely Fairies (Usborne Touchy Feely Books)

Lift the flap books:
ABC Zoo
Where Is Baby's Belly Button? (Karen Katz Lift-the-Flap Books)Dear Zoo Noisy Book
I Love Sounds Book
Who's Hiding in the Garden
why is the sky blue?

Cloth books:


Bath book:

Squeaky book:
Squeaky Farmyard Animals Board Books: Deborah the Dozy Duckling; Prudence the Pretty Piglet; Laurence the Lost Lamb; Clarence the Curious Calf :I only have Deborah the Dozy duckling from this set.

Sound books:
Dear Zoo Noisy Book
Dora the Explorer Sound Book: Dora's Countdown to Bedtime

Activity books:
Play with Sticker - Colour and Shapes
1000 Animal Stickers (1000 Books)

Finger puppet books:
Smelly Nelly (Finger Puppet Books)
Little Crab: Finger Puppet Book
Very Hungry Caterpillar Finger Puppet Book

Hand puppet books:

Google eyes/funny characters book:
Who's Hiding in the Garden
Moo goes the cow

Popup books:
Peter Pan (Pop-Up Fairy Tale Books)

Slide n learn books:


Pull n learn books:

Classic board/hardcover/paperback books:

Barney's Treasure Hunt   Barney goes on a treasure hunt with his friends in this book. What I like is the colorful illustrations. And on the left of each page it has pictures of items to be searched on that page. For eg: a hat etc. I ask A to find that object and she searches and becomes very happy when she finds it. So, she learns new words in  very fun playful way.
Cookie's Guessing Game About Food (Sesame Street)
Dogs by Emily Gravett
Guess How Much I Love You
From Head to Toe Board Book - Eric Carle
Room on the Broom: Activity Book
The Gruffalo
The Shape of Me and Other Stuff : A very nice book to introduce shadow play
Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises (Bright & Early Board Books(TM) 
Sleep Tight! (Sesame Street)
Remember the Magic Word  : A nice book to get your kid to say please
Remember your Manners
Let's Read!: What the Ladybird Heard
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Little Blue Truck Board book
I'm Not Cute!
He Bear, She Bear (Bright & Early Board Books(TM))
Little Mermaid (Fancy Story Board-Books)
Richard Scarry's Bedtime Stories (Pictureback(R))
This Little Potty: Ladybird Touch and Feel (Ladybird Touch & Feel)
Where Is Baby's Belly Button? (Karen Katz Lift-the-Flap Books)
Disney WTP the Movie (Disney Winnie the Pooh Movie)
Shark in the Park (Easy Words to Read)
Usborne The Great Undersea Search (Great Searches)
Down the Dragons Tongue
Little By Little
Monkey Do!
Fergus's Scary Night
Usborne farmyard tales: six
ladybird: why is the sky blue? 
My Animal farm: horses
Good night, sleep tight
Disney winnie the pooh: Food


Animals books:
Dogs by Emily Gravett
ABC Zoo
Smelly Nelly (Finger Puppet Books)
Double Magic Animals
Dear Zoo Noisy Book
Bloomer
Moo goes the cow

Books for teaching body parts:
From Head to Toe Board Book - Eric Carle
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes... (Baby Board Books)
Is This My Nose?

Rhymes books:
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes... (Baby Board Books)
The Nursery Rhymes of Winnie the Pooh: A Classic Disney Treasury
Humpty Dumpty
Mary had a little lamb

First words books & other concepts like shapes, fruits,opposites etc:
My Charming Board Books: Fruits
Phonics (My First Board Book)
100 Shapes and Colours (First Picture Word Book)
Big Board First 100 Words
I Love Sounds Book
Snake Makes Shapes (Early Learning Activity)
Environment Jigsaw Puzzle


Other big books: 
365 Pancharantra Stories
365 Animal Stories and Rhymes (365 Stories) 



=======================

Winnie the Pooh: Weather
Duck got stuck
Spot the difference book

Eggs Eggs Eggs

For some reason, A is fascinated by eggs. When she hadn't started crawling, I got boiled/unpeeled egss in a bowl and she actually dragged herself from one side of the bed to other to touch them and play with them. After seeing this, I started giving her eggs for playing a lot more. With her age and based on what I am going to make out of eggs, the activities keep changing a little bit. Few ideas are documented here:

1. Initially I used to give her boiled, unpeeled eggs for playing

2. Later if I had to make omellete etc, I would break the egg and used to ask her to put the shell in the dustbin. She learnt that shells go to dustbin and on the way she was very happy crushing the shell. Note that all this was always nuder adult supervision

3. With time that this sticky liquid comes out of the eggs if you break them. So now, I started giving her spoon to break them for omellete and she gently taps the eggs with the spoons to break them.  I help in taking  the liquid out in a bowl.

4. The bowl goes to her for mixing/beating with the spoon

5. If I boil egg, I give her for breaking the shell and peeling.

It is a great sensory activity starting from like 8 months till.. Well I don't know. My little one is 16 month old and she still enjoys it.

How to learn shape recognition?

Rather than how to learn or teach shape recognition, this post is more about how A learnt shapes. A learnt basic shapes at 15 months. and now at 16 months she knows many more shapes. We were initially using this shape board from little genius (at around 14.5 month)

Little Genius Inset Shape Board (Small) with Knob

She learnt these in a day or two but later I realized that its not shapes that she identifies but either color or position.
For eg: If I would say circle, she will pick circle. But if I drew circle and square on a notebook, she couldn't figure out which was circle. 

So here we were. I had no clue what association she had formed in her developing mind because of which she would identify shapes correctly on the shape board but not else where. I just left doing it for some days and was thinking how do I get her to have the correct association between shape and shape name. What was troubling me more is that she has made some wrong association in my mind. I feel unlearning stuff is tougher than learning it. That is why I didn't want her to learn it wrong.

Long back I had bought

Fisher-Price Tappy The Turtle Rattle  (amazon link)

Fisher-Price Toddlerz Tappy the Turtle  (flipkart link)

for her. But she wasn't interested as  the shapes were to hard for her to press and she somehow never found it interesting earlier. Now when I gave this to her, every time she would pres all the shapes, turtles neck would come out and it would make a funny sound. She used to burst into laughter. Now when she was pressing the shapes, I started telling her the shape names and slowly she correlated it with the shapes learnt from
Little Genius Inset Shape Board (Small) with Knob  .

Now when I drew the shapes on the notebook... Voila! she could tell them correctly.

I also kept them side by side and asked to press circle on turtle and pick circle from shape board. Just in a few days she learnt shapes and this time shapes are actually shapes and not some position or color :-D . Please do share how did your kids learn shapes.
 

Lets cut some shapes

Activity for learning shapes:

Good for age: 15 months +, We did it at 16 months.

Skills developed: hand and eye coordination, motor skills, One can learn shapes

What you'll need:
1. Shape cutters or you can use different shape utensils from kitchen
2. playdough or you can make a dough at home

Detail:
Roll the dough. Use the shape cutters to cut. I ask A to pick shapes. For eg: Lets cut a circle and she picks the circle from the shapes. And then she puts the circle on the playdough and presses to cut it. Ofcourse I showed her once. This way, she revised her shapes and it was a fun learning exercise. Very good for hand eye coordination.

Note:
Be careful that the kid doesn't eat the dough.

Here I have attached the pic of what A had cut. Ofcourse its not perfect, but who cares :)

The shape cutters we used were from something like the one mentioned in the link below:

Basic shape sorter

We got them for a very good price.

Where Is Baby's Belly Button? (Karen Katz Lift-the-flap Book)

Belly button!! Somehow it is A's favourite body part :). I asked for this book in our library when A was 9 month old. But somehow I could never get my hands on this one till today. Today in the library time, we saw this book. My face gleamed and teeth started shining as soon as I saw the book. Finally :)

This is how it goes:
Where are baby's eyes?
Under her hat!
Where is baby's mouth?
behind the cup!
....

And for all these there is a flap. The baby lifts the flap and sees eyes and other parts. I felt it is quite a good book to use from 8months onwards. But at 15 months A already knows most of the body parts mentioned in the book. Also she already knows almost all the objects. So there wasn't much learning for her but It was fun for her. She made me read her this book around 3-4 times, before we picked another one to read.

One more observation was flaps in the book are not very strong and can come out very easily if not handled properly.


I would say its a fun interactive book for babies age 6months+ till 1.5 years(depends on the kid).

Here is the link on amazon:

Where Is Baby's Belly Button? (Karen Katz Lift-the-Flap Books)

Big Board First 100 Words - Roger Priddy

Its been quite some time since I wrote a post on my blog. A wasn't keeping well. So I was busy taking care of her. I also haven't bought A any new toy or book also for sometime.Decided to take a step back, and use the existing stuff a little more. Her toys and books budget allocated for this month will be used next month or may be the month after that. Interestingly we did play a lot and read a lot of new books too. There were some in which she wasn't interested earlier but now loves reading them.

One of the books which she didn't like earlier is

Big Board First 100 Words

I must say this book can't be the first book. It has way too many pictures on one page. Too big size for very small babies.

For a long time,  A only liked books with just one pic per page. But now, she likes books with multiple pics on each page too.

Now about the book:

1. It can't be a babies/kids first book. Babies first book should be one with one pic per page. Its definitely for 12 month + kids.
2. Excellent quality board book
3. Sturdy pages. Very big in size. Size of each page is 11 inch * 11 inch.
4. Bold and bright colors. Will definitely catch a toddlers eye.
5. Has lot of day to day objects. It talks about colors, animals, vehicles, fruits, toys, bath time, bed time stuff etc
6. Has a lot of words with good pictures. So, really good to build their vocabulary

At 15 months, A can identify around 60 images out of this book.

Amazon has a look inside feature available for this book. So in case you want to order, you can see almost the complete book even before ordering.

I am considering buying this book:

 

My Very First 100 Animals

If you have any feedback on this one, please do let me know either by commenting on the post or by mailing me at learningfrommykid@gmail.com

List of toys to be reviewed soon

Toys for toddlers:


Here is a list of toys which I will be reviewing soon. This is the list of toys which we already own, so all the reviews will be based on our first hands experience. If you want any toy to be reviewed which is not in this list, add it in the comments section, i will try to procure that and post review.  I will keep adding more entries in this page as and when we buy more toys.  As and when I am done reviewing a toy, i will remove it from this list. So this is just a list of to be reviewed soon items and doesn't include the ones i have reviewed.
Also, i will always try to post a link to where you can get these online
Once i update the list below with all the toys i have, i will update the recommended age, and also a buy or don't buy from my side

If anyone wishes some item to be reviewed earlier, please post your request in the comments section. or else i pick any random product from this list to be reviewed.

Toys(non-battery):

Skillofun capital alphabet tray with pictures
Skillofun Picture on Alphabet Tray with Knobs, Multi Color
Skillofun Alphabet Picture Puzzle
Skillofun Multi Activity Box, Multi Color
Skillofun Beads Pattern Box, Multi Color
Little Genius Beads - Shape and Pattern
Little Genius Tiger Seriation Big with Knob, Multi Color
Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Baby's First Blocks
Mattel Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Stack and Roll Cups
Funskool Kiddy Star Links
Fisher-Price Rock-a-Stack : This is a flipkart link as product was not available on amazon
Fisher Price Stack & Roll Cups
Fisher-Price Toddlerz Tappy the Turtle 
Ambi Toys Max Pull Along -5 dog
Funskool Wibbly Wobbly Train
Funskool play faces
Kinetic sand waba  or any equivalent: We got this as Christmas gift for A. :) Lets see how she reacts and plays with it.
Mee Mee Knowledge Box
Quercetti Georello Farm Activity Toy
Lego duplo
Sassy Dunk n' Clunk Shape Sorter

Bead shuttle/maze
wooden blocks cart
picture match puzzle (all 4 sides) 
Count from 1 - 100 wooden toy
Melissa and doug picture match puzzle
Little genius ABC
Little genius 123
Little genius abc
Little Genius Birds with Sun
Mother care ELC my first bowling set
Hape shape sorter
Hand puppets & soft toys
Color maze
Fisherprice doodle, scribbler, slate
Barbie - Disney
Toykraft finger painting kit
Piggy bank
Esoft dog
tricycle

Toys(battery):
Fisher-Price Kick and Play Piano Gym, Discover 'N Grow
Vtech apple (town one)
Vtech learning bus
Vtech globe
leapfrog musical activity table
leapfrog discovery ball
leapfrog leappad
little tikes trumpet
vtech baby mobile
vtech toto laptop
vtech phone
Mitashi Sky Kidz SK 42 Fun Tunes
Moshi monster
hexbug

List of books to be reviewed soon

Here is a list of books which I will be reviewing soon. This is the list of books which we already own, so all the reviews will be based on our first hands experience. If you want any book to be reviewed which is not in this list, add it in the comments section, i will try to procure that and post review.  I will keep adding more entries in this page as and when we buy more books. As and when I am done reviewing a book, i will remove it from this list. So this is just a list of to be reviewed soon items and doesn't include the ones i have reviewed.
Also, i will always try to post a link to where you can get these online
Once i update the list below with all the books i have, i will update the recommended age, and also a buy or don't buy from my side

If anyone wishes some item to be reviewed earlier, please post your request in the comments section. or else i pick any random product from this list to be reviewed.

Barney's Treasure Hunt
Thomas the Tank Engine Counts to Ten
ABC Zoo
Dogs by Emily Gravett
Smelly Nelly (Finger Puppet Books)
Guess How Much I Love You
The Gruffalo
My Charming Board Books: ABC
My Charming Board Books: Fruits 

From Head to Toe Board Book - Eric Carle
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes... (Baby Board Books)
Phonics (My First Board Book)
Room on the Broom: Activity Book
100 Shapes and Colours (First Picture Word Book)
Little Mermaid (Fancy Story Board-Books)
Step By Step ABC.123.Colours
Peter Pan (Pop-Up Fairy Tale Books)
Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises (Bright & Early Board Books(TM) 

365 Animal Stories and Rhymes (365 Stories)
Barbie: Learn Your Numbers 1 to 20
Baby Touch and Feel Puppy Love

Dr. Seuss's ABC (Big Bright & Early Board Book)
The Shape of Me and Other Stuff : A very nice book to introduce shadow play

Remember the Magic Word  : A nice book to get your kid to say please
Remember your Manners
Mary had a little lambWinnie the Pooh: Weather
Duck got stuck
Peter pan pop up book
Spot the difference book
Let's Read!: What the Ladybird Heard
Dora the Explorer Alphabet Adventure (Nickelodeon Learning)

Sleep Tight! (Sesame Street)
Double Magic Animals

Aim the bucket

Good for age: 14 months +

Skills developed: hand and eye coordination, motor skills,

What you'll need: Bucket and balls

Detail:
Keep the bucket at some distance from you. Sit with your kid. Take one ball at a time and aim the bucket. When the ball enters the bucket, show that you are happy.. Clap.. Then give the next ball to the kid. She may just throw it.  Don't lose patience it will take some time for her to get the idea that ball has to be put in the bucket. Take few more balls one at a time and aim the bucket. If the kid is not able to put the ball in the bucket, reduce the distance to the bucket and try. She will eventually get the idea and will learn.

Note:
Ensure the balls are soft and easy to handle.

If you already have the balls, use them. Else you can consider buying thses:

Intex Fun Balls, Multi Color
12 Pcs SET OF SMILEY FACE SQUEEZE BALL

Hand actions

Good for age: 14 months (but older and younger kids might enjoy it, too!)

Skills developed: hand and eye coordination,  imagination, vocabulary increases

What you'll need: just yourselves.

Detail: Make your kid sit facing you. Show her your tongue and say "aaa" . See is she copies. If she does, cheer her up.

Then try clapping and say clap. If she also does the same, give her a kiss.

Then try more complex actions like
"flap your wings like pigeon"
"turn your head"
"bend your neck"
"Raise your shoulder"
"Wave your arms like a monkey"
 "Clap like a seal"
"thump your chest like gorilla"
"wiggle your toes"
"Feeling shy? Cover your face"

If she is not copying you, don't get disappointed. Try it some other time. She may just laugh. That is actually a good sign as this shows she is interested. Keep repeating. Eventually she will copy. By this activity you can teach action, birds name, animals names, body parts and most importantly relation between each of those.

After sometime you copy her.

We used this book too while doing this activity.

From Head to Toe Board Book - Eric Carle

It has picture of animals doing various actions. You can do it with or without the book. 
The book does add extra fun to the activity. We have the paperback version of the book.
Adding few pics for your reference:

LeapFrog Learn & Groove Musical Table

We got this when A was around 8 months old. Activity table was recommended by a friend and the idea was that it gives a lot more options to a baby to explore in a fun way. A actually enjoyed it too.  She would spin, tap the shapes, slide the guitar, the one thing she did most was turning the page of the book and the mode would change. The one thing i noticed is that on spinning ABC song would play. Even before it reaches D, A would press something else and it would say red or yellow or something. Its basically becomes a cacophony of abc, 123, red, blue, circle or some music.  A noticed that by turning pages modes are changing and by pressing buttons music etc is coming.

But because of the cacophony its difficult for a baby to associate correct music to correct instrument. For eg: You cant expect baby to learn shapes or colors with it. Educational value of the toy is very less.

At the same time, it is fun for babies but for a limited period. At 14 months, once in a week or two she plays with it. So it was basically used for 2-3 months only. This was the toy using which A stood for the first time because she wanted to turn the page of the book. And she used to stand for long just to play with the stuff on the table. Plastic quality is good.

LeapFrog Learn and Groove Musical Table on flipkart
LeapFrog Learn & Groove Musical Table on amazon.com

Verdict: Buy it if you want a fun toy and your baby has not started standing. Don't expect much education and after standing, babies will very quickly grow out of it. Till the time they learn standing etc, this toy offers good amount of fun and has various options to explore.

How do we buy toys or books?

A question which is asked very frequently to me:
We understand the importance of toys and books but toddlers toys and books are so costly, how do we buy them? Its an extra expense.

My answer: Well yes, 'some' toys and books are not costly. And rather than seeing it as an expense, see it as an investment. An investment to your child's future and a way to unleash their creativity. I agree buying toys is important but they should be chosen very carefully. Toys can do a lot of good if chosen correctly. Moreover its your hard earned money, so it makes sense to spend it on the right kind of toys and books. Few tips I have:

1. If you have time and energy, you can consider making toys at home.
If not, please do buy those for your kid.

2. Make a budget: Every month allocate a fixed amount to toys and books and stick to it. (For eg: you can choose Rs 1000 as the monthly allowance for toys and books).

3. Buy only branded or high quality toys/books. Cheap, local and low quality toys break much faster. High quality items last forever and are safe for kids. Once your kid is grown, you can even sell them.

 

4. If your budget doesn't allow buying the toys you need, consider buying second hand branded toys on olx or quikr rather than buying low quality toys.

 

5.  Avoid buying anything which offers limited play. (Eg: Anything which will play a drum if you press a button or will walk on touch etc). Such electronic toys hardly offer any educational/creative value, are quite costly. And the worst is kids grow out of them pretty fast.

6. Always check the reviews before buying.

7. Consider buying toys and books online as you can get good discounts and deals.

8. Invest in toys and books which can be used for a longer period of time. For eg: pretend play toys, blocks, tents etc. These are toys which can be used for years together and are played in different ways as the kid is growing. One little expensive toy which can be used for 2 years is better than 3 or 4 toys which will be used for few months.

9. For every stage there are few must buys, which are usually not expensive. Consider buying those before moving to the more expensive ones.

10. If you are a reader of this page, you can always message us on FB or email us on learningfrommykid@gmail.com, with your query and we can help you decide or pick.

Dear Zoo

Classic!! Must buy!! A great story. Again goes to A++ category for animal lovers. 'A' loves this book. Its a classic lift the flap book. The story begins with a child's letter to the zoo to send him a pet. And then comes a series of animals sent by the zoo. All under flaps. The child keeps returning them all until a perfect puppy is sent by the zoo. In the series of animals, some was too heavy or too fierce or too naughty. A great story for kids and they learn to associate words like heavy with elephant, naughty with monkey etc.
 
Dear Zoo Noisy Book

I bought the noisy book. And the noisy part of it adds a lot of fun to reading.  When I received it, I was a little concerned as the book has hardcover but papers are not hard. That means by little one can tear them. Thankfully 'A' handles it carefully and hasn't torn any page yet. She loves to press the animal sounds as we read the story. The illustrations are big but simple and nice. Kids get interested in animals after reading such books which has animal sounds too. You can talk a lot while reading this book which will in turn help their speech skills.

If you already own some noisy book or are concerned that little one will tear the pages you can instead buy board book from the following link:

Dear Zoo: A Lift-the-Flap Book

Coin bank

I came across this product while browsing.

Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Learning Piggy Bank

I liked the product. This product offers multiple benefits. A child can learn counting, putting the coin in the bank improves the hand eye coordination drastically. A lot of other things can be taught using it. If your budget permits, you can consider buying it, mine didn't. I had already exhausted by monthly quota for A's books and toys.

I know lot of ways to teach A counting etc and she has other toys to learn animals, colours etc. I realise may be I want this toy just so that she can put the coins in the piggy bank. Every time she will put the coin, the toy will make some sounds.

So, I decided to give her my piggy bank for playing(Yes, I still have one!). After practising putting the coins inside the coin bank for sometime, A could do it all alone. Then I turned it upside down, so that the hole for putting the coin is not visible and gave her a coin. She adjusted the bank herself and then inserted the coin. Then I kept fiddling with the bank. She still sometimes find it difficult to put the coin if I put the bank in certain positions.

Overall, it was a very engaging and fun activity. And I didn't have to shell a single penny to buy anything.

What you need:
A coin bank and lot of large size coins

Method:
Show your baby how to insert the coin in the bank and shake it to make some noise to keep the baby interested. Then give a coin to the baby to insert. If the baby is struggling too much to insert it, help him/her. If he/she inserts it correctly, encourage them by praising them or by clapping for them. If the baby is still not able to do it even after you helping, leave it for a weeks and try later.

Advantage:
Improves hand eye coordination

Entertainment and learning for free(you might get all these materials at home) :)

Beaware:
Pick only large size coins which the baby can't swallow. Small coins can be a choking hazard.

If you don't have a piggy bank/coin bank you can consider getting one. It can be useful later to encourage saving habits in your kid.

Some links:
Superman Tin Coin Bank
Ollington Street Coin Box - Ice Cream Van

Note that I already had a bank. So the products in the above links have not been tried by me. You can check the reviews on amazon. I have just given the links as examples.

Little Genius Inset Shape Board (Small) with Knob

If you have been reading my blog, by now you would know that A loves animals. That's why we got animal shape sorters from little genius(Little Genius wild animals) and from skillofun (Skillofun animal alphabet tray).

But as I had mentioned in the reviews, putting the animal shapes back in the correct slots is tough for a 12 month to 18 month old. Hence I wanted to buy something using which A can learn shapes and can learn inserting the shapes in the right slot by trial and error.

That's the reason I bought this Little Genius Inset Shape Board (Small) with Knob

Link on amazon:

Little Genius Inset Shape Board (Small) with Knob

Link on flipkart:

Little genius Inset shape board

A is now 14 month old. She is not as interested in this tray as in animals tray but with a little help she can place all the shapes perfectly in their slots. I am pretty sure that in like a week, she will master this :) I am now using the same shapes to teach her colours. Well that's being too ambitious but a little extra words for the kid never harm. I just keep repeating the stuff to her. The best part is these kind of puzzles are fun cum learning, especially the animals puzzles. A spends like 30 minutes to 1 hour with these kind of puzzles. And I don't need to put in much effort. She is interested on her own :)

There are other similar puzzles available both from skillofun and little genius. You can go through the above links and see similar products. The reason I bought this one is because I didn't want anything too complicated. I just wanted a simple tray with not too many shapes.

Verdict: Buy it but you should consider checking similar products based on your requirement.

Little Genius Wild Animals with Big Knob

This was A's first animal shape sorter. It has 11 wild animals. Quite big in size.

Link to amazon:
Little Genius Wild Animals with Big Knob, Multi Color (Large)

A's dad used to show her these animals and used to make corresponding sounds.
For eg: For lion he used to roar. For monkey, he would say ku ku ki ki ka ka( sound copied from this toy Monkey chase). Similarly, different sounds or actions for different animals. A picked it up quite fast and soon she was trying to put the animals at the right places in the tray. She still can't really insert these animals properly. Well its tough for a 14 month old. But has learnt so many new words talking about these animals. I later got Skillofun animal alphabet tray too for A(you can check the review here Skillofun animal alphabet tray).

Seeing how much A has learnt from these toys, I have become a big fan of these kind of toys. Later i got many more shape sorter puzle trays for A. Will be posting reviews of all soon.

I like this product, but you can actually buy only one of these, either Little Genius Wild Animals with Big Knob, Multi Color (Large) or Skillofun animal alphabet tray

GOSF, 2014.. what did you buy?

How was your experience in GOSF? what all did you buy?

I was looking only for toys and books. Didn't find a lot of great offers. Some hourly offers on snapdeal were great though.

Here is a list of what all I bought:

1. Funskool play faces: Got this for 255.
2. Mee Mee Knowledge Box
3. Quercetti Georello Farm Activity Toy


Thats it. Show us what you bought. Please post the link below and do share your experience and whether you liked the product or not

GOSF 2014

GOSF is starting from 10th till 12th Dec, 2014. A lot of online offers will be announced.

Stay tuned to this page to see more and more toys & books amazing deals.

toys and books wishlist

I have been posting toys and books reviews of the stuff we have from last few days. There are some toys I really wish to get for my little one. Not able to buy those because of budget constraints. Either they are too costly and i have already exhausted my monthly quota of toys and books for A.
And sometimes I just wait for good deals to show up.

Documenting them all here so that you guys can also benefit from it.
And tracking the deals will become easier for me, if they are documented at one place.
This list might keep growing or reducing with time.

For a lot of them, i know what kind of toy but haven't decided which brand or item to pick.

Toys:

Lego, Lego Lego :) : I am yet to see which particular set from Lego do I want.
Doctor set
Kitchen set
Sand and water tables
Tool set
train track set
Car garage
Marble run set: Only after A stops taking toys to her mouth
Loom set(preferably rainbow loom): After A turns 5
Magna tiles
Magnet circus set or farm set



Books:

We're Going on a Bear Hunt (Classic Board Books) : I think A is going to love this one.
Owl babies
Hugless Douglas
Little Tiger: Are You My Mummy?
ABC Animal Rhymes for You and Me
Apple pie ABC
A to Z of Silly Animals - The Best Selling Illustrated Children's Book for All Ages by Sprogling (The Silly Animals Series 1) --> This is a free book. I haven't searched enough about this one. I plan to check it on my kindle soon.
Babars ABC
Corduroy: Giant Board Book
My Very First Mother Goose
Close Your Eyes (New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books (Awards))
Goodnight Moon
Is your mama a llama
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Busy Penguins (A Busy Book)
"More More More," Said the Baby Board Book (Caldecott Collection)
Gossie (Gossie and Friends Board Books)
In the Tall, Tall Grass
Good Night, Gorilla board book
Are You My Mother? (Bright & Early Board Books(TM))
Kitten's First Full Moon (New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books (Awards))
Love You Forever
Baby Faces: Peek-a-Boo
The Snowy Day Board Book
The Day the Crayons Quit
Time to Get Dressed!
Mommy, Daddy, I Had a Bad Dream!