Kids learning resources

Here is the consolidated learning resources. Click below URL to find learning materials under each section.

Learn ABC

Learn Counting

Learn Rhymes

Songs for kids

Learn about fruits, animals,vehicles,shapes, colours, festivals, seasons, body parts

Next step is to create and share playlist. The videos will run uninterrupted.

Share the knowledge. If you come across sites having learning material for the kids then please do leave the URL in comments section.

First two years vital for kid's IQ

TOI

WASHINGTON: A new study has found that the quality of care given to a child within the first two years of life directly affects brain development and IQ.

Led by researchers from Tulane University, a team of investigators followed abandoned young children in Romanian orphanages over time.

The researchers found that children placed in foster care at younger ages had significantly higher IQ than those placed in foster care after the age of 2.

"Our findings suggest that there may be a sensitive period in the first two years of life in which experiences are especially important in shaping cognitive development. This work adds to a growing body of scientific evidence about the importance of early relationship experiences,” said principal investigator Charles Zeanah, professor and chief of child psychiatry at Tulane University School of Medicine.

During the study, the researchers tracked 136 kids between the ages of six months to 30 months who had been abandoned at birth or soon thereafter, and placed into institutions in Bucharest, Romania.

They trained social workers and recruited Romanian families to provide foster care for half the children who were randomly selected.

It was found that kids placed in foster care within the first 18 months of life had the greatest gains in cognitive development, as compared to those placed in foster care later.

The researchers found that at the age of 42 months, those placed in foster care before 18 months old had an average IQ of 94 compared with scores of 89 for similarly aged children placed in foster care starting between 18 to 24 months.

The cognitive developments were less impressive for kids placed in foster families between the ages of 24 to 30 months. Such children had an average IQ of 80, while tots placed with foster families after 30 months had an average IQ of 79.7.

A follow-up survey of the same children a year later showed IQs for the two groups placed in foster care after two years of age continued to significantly lag behind the group placed with families earlier in life.

The researchers said that the results of the study might have implications for countries grappling with how best to care for abandoned, orphaned and abused children, and re-enforce policies that favour foster families over institutionalised care for very young kids.

The study has been reported in the journal Science.

Learn animals

If you come across good sites which teaches kids on fruits, animals,vehicles,shapes, colours, festivals, seasons, body parts then please do leave the URL in comments section.

Learn Fruits



Learn animals




Animal bus


Learn vehicles


Learn Shapes


Learn colours


Learn festivals


Learn Seasons


Learn Days and Months


Learn flags



Learn body parts




Learn to say Hello



Peekaboo


How old are you?

Songs for kids

If you come across good sites which nice songs for kids then please do leave the URL in comments section.


Curious Geroge


Rhino song


The Toucan song


The Iguana Song


The Dinosaurs song


The Green Anaconda song

Learn Rhymes

Learn Rhymes

If you come across good sites which teaches kids to learn rhymes then please do leave the URL in comments section.

Humpty Dumpty



Baa Baa Black Sheep


Jack and Jill


Twinkle Twinkle


Alphabet song


1-2 buckle my shoe


Five little monkeys


The wheels on the bus


Old MacDonald had a farm


The Itsy Bitsy Spider


London Bridge is falling down


Ring Ringa roses


Hickory Dickory dock


Pussy cat pussy cat



Ding dong bell pussy in the well

Learn counting

Learn to count.

If you come across good sites which teaches kids to learn counting then please do leave the URL in comments section.

Learn to Count 1-5



Learn to Count 6-10



Learn to count 1-20

Learn ABC

It has videos to learn alphabets.
If you come across good sites which teaches kids to learn ABC then please do leave the URL in comments section.

Learn ABC
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/play.htm?f

Learn A-L



Learn M-Z



Learn A-Z



Learn A-Z - With body parts

Happy Birthday Mummy

6th December - 2007

A very happy birthday mummy.



~Aryan

Vishwa Jeet engaged

My handsome Vishwa Jeet uncle got engaged on 24th Nov at patna. Will add sweet chachi snap after the wedding. Wishing you all the best and welcome to soon to be married club.
~Aryan

Happy Birthday dadee

December - 2
This is my dadee Birthday. A very Happy Birthday to you dadee
~ Aryan

Like dad, Aryan too enjoy eating raw horlicks and bournvita :-)

Dance like nobody's watching

Aryan went for vacation to India and within few days he learned to dance. No one taught him to dance, he just started following the dance sequence he observed in one of those hindi movie songs. Nimisha is happy that he didn't followed my path :-(

I was in school and in one of the parties people insisted that I should sing a song. Inspite of telling them that this is not my skills, I was virtually forced to sing a song. Thereafter, people never requested me to sing a song :-) When I dance people say that I am doing some exercise :(

Nice to see that Aryan took few skills from her mom too. Watch out this video to see Aryan clapping, dancing passionately.

Dance like nobody's watching.

Childrens Day

On this children's day, daddy is not there with you in the celebration. But I hope you will have ball time meeting grand parents, dozens of uncles, aunties and number of little kidos as your friends.

Some interesting dates on children's day around the world

Universal Children's Day - 20 November

Argentina - Second Sunday of august

Brazil - 12th October

Central Africa - 25th December

Chile - 1st sunday of August

Colombia - Last weekend of April

Costa Rica - September 9

Cuba - 2rd Sunday of July

Czech Republic - 1st June

El Salvador - 1st October

Germany - 1st June

Guatemala - 1st October

Honduras - 10th September

Hong Kong - 4th April

India - 14th November

Indonesia - 23rd July

Iran - 8th October

Israel - 9th October

Japan - 5th May

Slovakia - 1st June

South Koria - 5th May

New Zealand - 1st Sunday of March

North Korea - 1st June

Mexico - 30th April

Nigeria - 27th May

Peru - 14th October

Learning to ride tricycle

Click arrow to see video - Phase 1 - Aryan walking along with tricycle

Click arrow to see video - Phase 2 - Aryan sittng on tricycle.

He is dragging tricycle with his feet, yet to learn how to pedal?

Bull fight

Now that NFL star Michael Vick has been charged for dog fighting, it seems I will have to stop my Aryan's favourite sports "bull fighting".
If I bring my head too close to Aryan's head he starts hitting my head with his head and if I pretend that I am getting hurt and he won, one can see excitement on his face and he starts hitting more vigorously.

Ready for bull fight

Aryan won the fight

Car

Who will be most happy seeing this snap? It's Nimisha.

When I bought my car, we wasn't sure whether Aryan will sit on the rear facing car seat. Surprisingly he did happily but his mom told US rules are just too strict and like her favourite statement "Iss se acha to India hai". There they allow children on the front seat and even on driver seat sitting on driver's lap. Well, I didn't argued whether it's freedom or lack of safety awareness.

Here Aryan got an opportunity to sit on the front seat and Nimisha didn't missed an opportunity taking a snap.

Bike on auction

Heard this bike is on auction?

Ja Ja Ja

I grew up watching trains passing by from my house at Sabour. Fortunately, I have a railway track behind my Gill Lane apartment and one can see goods train passing by from the patio.

Aryan gets very excited and runs towards the patio when he hears the sound of train passing by. He looks curiously, watching colourful wagon and says "ja ja ja", waves his hand smilingly, when the last wagon crosses our apartment.

I didn't taught him but he learned himself saying "ja ja ja" whenever a train, car, truck or anything very interesting crosses by. I goes flat whenever he smiles and waves his hand saying "ja ja ja".

Happy Birthday Mama

Happy Birthday Nicky Mama!!
I wish you all the best for your final year exams and forthcoming challenges for the job hunting.

Baba Ramdev teaching yoga

Recently Baba Ramdev was in Washington DC and I thought who can teach better yoga to Aryan?
We were moving around on streets of DC, a bit tired, when Biswajit was stretching his hand and Aryan started copying him.

"Ek-do" Shishyo aap hath upar karenge

"teen-char" Sishyo aap hath niche karenge

Yeh Dosti

Dedicate a song seeing this snap?

Rishav and Aryan

Let me know if youtube removes this song. Will add some other song

Brushing teeth

We started brushing Aryan's teeth with our fingers when he was around twelve months. Now that he has around 18 teeths (5 at the front and 2 on each sides and other 9 on lower jaws) it was high time that he switch to toothbrush. Last month, I bought a colourful toothbrush but the challenge was how to teach him.
Next morning, I washed his face and inserted the toothbrush in his mouth but he turned his head. I holded him strongly but just managed to brush his front teeth. I found that he was very eager to hold the brush himself. so I gave him the brush and I started brushing my gold plated teeth :-( and seeing that Aryan started brushing his silver plated teeth. Well, to start with it was not exactly brushing but it was more of chewing the brush.
Now everyday we brush our teeth together with a difference that Aryan chews his brush and plays with it for atleast 15 minutes. It's just 3 weeks and I can find the soft brush bristles getting hard and poiting to all directions. Will have to get a new one.
The challenge remains as how to flush the water from his mouth.

Dare to count lion's teeth

Enjoying brushing teeth

Recognize his pair of shoes

When we get ready for "ghoomi ghoomi" (Outing - Aryan understands better when you say ghoomi ghoomi), Aryan really gets excited. He runs toward the door, at times bangs the door, even makes his best effort to open the door.Poor kid - he is small to reach the knob. At times he even gets impatient why daddy or mom is taking so much time to dress themselves.

One day I thought of a trick - Let's find out whether Aryan understands which shoes he needs to wear before going out. So while I was dressing myself, I told him to bring his shoes (kept near the entrance) and socks and we can't go out if you don't wear it. He looked for a while then I repeated 2-3 times to bring his shoes and I was delighted when he went to the place where all shoes, sleepers were kept, he searched and came back with his left shoes. I helped him to wear socks and left shoe and then again repeated 2-3 times that you need to wear another shoe before going out.

I was at the seventh cloud when Aryan found out his another pair of shoe, came smilingly as if saying now what's stopping us to go outside? He has started recognizing what's his and what's not his? He did a splendid job and there was no reason why I should had delayed further. I quickly dressed Aryan and went for a nice stroll at Charles river.

Handshake

Often when I stroll with Aryan, I come across people or small kids who says "Hi" and wish to handshake with him. So I wondered, How do I teach and when do I teach Aryan to do a traditional handshake and next gen "hi fi"? He was 15 months old when I showed him how to do a handshake? Initially, he was bit reluctant to come forward but now I can see a big smile on his face and eager to bring his hand forward if someone stretches their hand as well.

I didn't taught him to do "hi fi" as I myself never did in my life but it seems he learned by himself seeing small kids in the park.

In between "handshake" and "hi fi", our more traditional "Namaste" got lost. Though I have been showing him how to do it for quiet some time but unfortunately no one says "Namaste" these days so I believe this will be tough lesson for him to learn.

RIT 94 meet at NJ

Few months back, I met one of my friend who graduated from a top B-school in US and I asked him what's the greatest value add you have got after studying there. Prompt came the reply, it's brand, contacts and strong alumni association and I thought my school has alumni meet every year then why can't our college have an alumni meet. Arranging college meet would have been mammoth task so thought to start small with just our 94 batch meet.

Had a word with few of my friends and shooted a mail for the meet. Thought to see the enthuse of the people and then plan to take it forward. 94 batch in US was distributed across the states but major concentration was in NE corridor and bay area. I knew it may not be practically feasible for everyone to fly but I knew people within driving distance would be more enthused to join the meet. One of the challenge was to find out people located in NE corridor. Network builds network. I invited someone and the other person invited someone else and the chain started. I never thought in my wildest dream that we may have around 10-15 people in this area. Got few names whom I haven't met in last 9 years so there was excitement to see the change in their appearance, meet their spouses and kids, find out what has the person doing all these days?

Do you know why all government projects gets delayed? Because there are too many decision makers. When I asked for the location of the meet, I was getting suggestions right from beach, to night out at resort to some decent park in deleware. It was getting increasingly difficult to reach a common consenus then I thought location is important but having a quality time under tree shadow during the summer is more important. Got nice suggestion from Abhay who is a regular visitor and lives in the neighbourhood and locked "Mercer County park" in Trenton area. This park had all facilities required for a decent picnic and best part was that it was approachable for everyone.


After venue, it was time for menu. Again we had suggestions of potluck to food from Indian restaurant to Pizzas and as people were travelling from far off places so there was concurrence in the group to have pizzas, snacks from home and barbeque at the picnic spot.

As the count down started, mails started flooding and the group got charged. Finally D-day arrived and I got up early in the morning to gear up for the picnic. Called up Abhay to find out whether he had reserved the picnic table and barbeque grill. I really appreciate his effort of going to the park early in the morning, placing the table cloth and keeping few water bottles and leaving a chit "Reserved".

I started slightly late from home but congestion at 95-S further delayed the arrival time. The park was huge, ambience was lively with people in groups playing cricket, softball, rowing boats and gearing up for picnic on warm summer day. When I reached the park at 12, I saw all the items intact which Abhay had left on the table.

While I was having a look of nearby picnickers having fun, I got a call from Amit that he has arrived. I met Amit after seven years and he still looks the same and got introduced to his wife Astha with whom I met for the first time. We went to the past and discussed the time we had spent together while our stay in Lokhandwala (Mumbai). While we were cherishing old golden moments, I saw two guy waving their hand and walking towards us.

After closer look, I found out it's Manas Pradhan - He has grown bulky and if he had crossed my path, I couldn't had recognized him. With him there was Binoy Singh - minus his moustache -The face did changed a lot but his voice and tone remained the same. Got introduced to his wife Babita and we all got together for a nice chit chat.

As we were discussing who is next? There it was Anurag - minus his moustache - The face looked very similar to what it was in the college, a bit more matured. Met his wife Swathi and they were bubbling newly married couple. Behind them was Dharamvir (aka DK), I have seen him couple of times so hard to find out differences but he was grown plump. His wife soni quickly joined the group and ladies got introduced among themselves and there it started ha ha ho ho :-)

After long travel, there was cat and rat race going on in the stomach and we couldn't resist all the snacks that was arranged on the table. There were potato chips to munch, delicious vinegar chicken along with beer and atlast mouth watering Gazar ka halwa. Along with delicious dishes, there were "chutpat" talks about college, right from "daddu hut" to "girls hostel" to "ragging" to "life during the 1st year" to "RIT keera (insect)" and I feel everyone had fond memories of the tough times we sailed during our 1st year. It was a great experience and I remember every moments of the 1st year - the day I landed in the hostel, ragging, sine die, kicked out of hostel by dada elements at midnight just before the first exam, freshers party, sitting on top of college bus and moving around city, deadly down hostel and terrific stories of all bosses in last 5-10 years.

The stories of boss elements may even dwarf fights in Baghdad. "Chak De" movie 1st part is a true reflection as what happens when people from diverse background comes under one roof. Unfortunately, there was no Shahrukh Khan who could have united the team.

We were lost in gossips when Abhay Saxena made the entry along with his wife seema and lovely daughter Anisha. He had big tray of marinated chicken, corn and a bag of charcoal. Abhay made arrangements of much awaited barbeque and fired charcoal. Everyone got enthused and we grilled chicken, corn and baked potato. It was yummy yummy and we gorged till beer got over.

People had enough of cooking, eating and drinking and it was time for entertainment and sports. Manas had cricket bat and ball and everyone tried their hand in batting, bowling and fielding. Irony is that few of us were never seen on the college field :-). Anisha was busy in children playground and Aryan was "Hutch ka network" (followed wherever his dad went). After physical game it was time for mental game and Nimisha briefed everyone how to play "Know your spouse". People were quiet excited and the environment charged when Nimisha started correcting sheets. Fight started between couples "How can you forget my mother-in-law birthday?", "How can you forget where we met for the first time?", " Ghosh - you don't even know what's my favourite food, colour and even actors/actress". With this game atleast we came to know that Bipasha and Mallika was hot favourite for most of the guys.

Few ladies gave ultimatum that I won't navigate and let's see how you are going to reach home and other had more serious ultimatum that no cooking till you remember all important moments and dates. At times we are so busy in watching TV and mundane activities that we tend to forget to talk about ourself and spend time together. This game taught a lesson that keep few minutes everyday where we don't have TV serials to interrupt, no computers to disturb and it's just you and me and talk talk and talk.

After shedding few calories it was time for vocal chords to work. The team divided into two all gents at one side and ladies at other end and then it started tough Antakshri. Ladies did a good job in singing with all "sur" and "antara" but guys were not behind and they did an excellent team effort with one line sung by one person and the other line sung by another person :-)

When you sing 100's of songs in full spirit, you look for something chilled to satisfy your thirst. Fortunately there was icecream on the wheel and we cherished fruit and choclate flavour. People were re-energized and then everyone planned to take a stroll near a lake. There was photo session for all budding models and child artists. There were so many cameras and number of flashes that it would had given celebrity impression to the people passing by.

The sun was setting and we thought to wrap up. Then Abhay who lives in the neighbourhood invited everyone for a cup of tea. Finally, all car turned towards Abhay's doorstep. Binoy and Anurag made mouth watering tea which really helped to refresh ourself. The talks continued and continued but then people had to travel back so we planned to say bid adieu but with a promise that we will meet again on New Year with a larger group.

While I was driving back home, I cherished all college memories. It was day well spent and I look forward to meet everyone again.

Rishav Annaprasan

Rishav

Last to last week my friend Diptam and Soumi invited for Annaprasan of thier son Rishav. Rishav was around 6 months and we didn't got chance to meet him after his birth so couldn't resist the offer.

On 21st June around 5:45 AM we headed for Boston in my Nissan Sentra car. You are lucky if you are not struck in traffic jam at NY. We were not so fortunate, there were road works about 20-30 miles after George Washington Bridge and the car moved at snail pace for 45 min. I saw my watch and I knew there is no way we can reach before 11 AM at Diptam place. I saw Nimisha face and she was bit disappointed as she wanted to wear saree after reaching Diptam's apartment. Frustration can be gauged from the fact that she was insisting to drive fast even when I was driving at 65 miles/hr. Well, I didn't wanted to take lot of risk when Aryan was at the back seat so we decided that we will directly go to Shree Lakshmi Mandir.

We did reached the address at 10:45 AM but it was a factory and business area and there was no sign of mandir. There was an extra 'e' in Waverley street which GPS was not able to recognize. We roamed for around 30 min when we saw an Indian guy on the road who helped us in locating the right direction.

Nimisha hurriedly rushed to change room to get herself ready and I got Aryan dressed up in the car. My kurta pyjama was left as it is and I wore what I have been wearing on the travel. After few minutes of wait Diptam and his family arrived and then Biswajit and Richa also joined the group. I met Rishav inside the mandir and I can see resemblance of Soumi in his face. He has chubby cheeks and a perfect gentleman who plays quietly on his own.

While, I was having chit chat with Biswajit, pundit jee arrived and then started Annaprasan ritual which lasted for around 45 min. After puja we rushed to Diptam apartment for the lunch and I must admit that Soumi can be an excellent interior designer, the house was well decorated and she has put lot of efforts to make the home a sweet home.

Then started sumptous lunch with puri, pulao, chicken, fish cutlet, chutney and soft gulab jamun. I filled myself with neck and buffered myself for next 2-3 days. Now it was time to chit chat through out the night and make fun.

The day was well spent and trip was worth 11 hrs journey back and forth.

Bade Miya Chote Miya

Bronx Zoo

It's said that people go to zoo three times in their life. First time when one is kid, second time when they are parents and third time when they are grand parents. I have entered into 2nd phase of my life and wanted to show Aryan all the real life animals which he used to watch in Baby Einstein "Animal Neighbourhood" CD.

Bronx zoo was in NYC and was around 1 hr from my place so started early in the morning. You can be an excellent driver if you can move around in NY city without missing an exit. Well, I missed one of the exit and we were lost on the way. Finally took help from people in residential suburbs and reached Bronx zoo. This is the only green area I have found in NYC and my lungs got an opportunity to breath fresh air.

We got parking in Gate C and we realized that we have missed Aryan stroller. I knew Aryan is going to give me tough time today and he did. He was not very willing to walk and would catch my feet to lift him up. At the end of the day, my hands got pain and neck got stiff after holding him for 8 hrs. But he enjoyed every seconds, got to see few rare animals, smiled and clapped all the way which made my day.

Zoo entrance was greeted with clowns, few handshake and then snap. One of the clown offered Aryan to ride bicycle but he got scared and started crying. Finally, I lifted him up and moved towards "Sea Lion pool". It was a big pool where sea lion was having sun bath, diving deep into the pool and barking occasionally. Moving few steps there was "World of Birds" and got view of some of the rare and colourful birds.

Nimisha at the entrance

At the entrance

Clown

Clown

Aryan crying and clown holding him on bicycle



Sea Lion

Have you thought why you never find cows, goats, sheep, buffalo and horses in Indian zoos? When you can find them on middle of road why would kids go to zoo to see domestic animal. In US, these animals are rare to see and are found in zoo. Aryan got chance to touch few of them. Though there were people and kids feeding these domestic animals but I was not sure whether Aryan should also feed these animals. What if they bite or chew his tiny fingers?

Goat

Now it was time to rest and have lunch. Aryan is going through teething stage and gave us hard time in eating food. He just ate one small packet of baby yogurt in last 9 hours. We tried hard but since he was crying after every spoon we left after some try.

Aryan having lunch

Now it was time to fly in air with "Skysafari", a cable car ride giving bird's eye view of zoo and gave a wonderful view of NYC. We travelled from zoo center to "Wild Asia" to get flavour of Asian animals. There was queue for camel ride so we left and went for other attraction, monorail ride to get glimpse of deer, rhinos, elephant, lions, tigers, Giraffes and wild horses.

Wild horse


Elephant


View from monorail


Which is the tallest animal?


Skysafari


Peacock


Deer


Camel ride


Monorail ride


Aryan relaxing after hard work


Aryan in desert




Skysafari

Last time I saw monkey was in our honeymoon trip at shimla and "Monkey house" reminded me to one of those old day.It was fun watching them hanging from trees, jumping from one branch to another.

Now it was time to see small bugs and butterflies in Butterfly garden. The garden was well maintained and had number of colourful, rare butterflies.

Peek a booe

Butterfly Garden

Aryan waiting for bug ride


Butterfly Garden


If I had wings, I would have been butterfly

Besides this we also visited Congo Gorilla Forest,Mouse House, World of Darkness, World of Reptiles, Big Bears and it was one of the best zoo I have ever visited.

Gorilla

Moneky doing exercise


Aryan sitting on bird nest
Rabbit
Was a small tunnel, next is Holland tunnel
Swan