Diwali for young mindees

[Rick]

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have any good ideas on what I could do for Diwali for a 14 and 16 month old. It would have to be something fairly simple obviously

[SJ35]

I came on here looking for some ideas too. Mine are 9months, 13 months, 19 months and 30 months.
X

[Rick]

Found this on Activity Village:

Diwali Crafts

[clairer]

I think I had some Diwali masks printed from Activity Village last year. The children can scribble on them or colour them in depending on the age group. You can cut them out for the younger ones and the child can help you glue them onto a stick.

[dawn100]

All the mindees I have and had at my inspection are under 18mths (except for an one adhoc child) and I discussed it with my ofsted inspector as it had just been Chinese New Year and had planned a craft related activity which I felt with them being so young they didn't benefit from the Chinese links, so I said I was considering introducing a monthly taste from around the world and when it's Chinese New Year it would be Chinese food etc. so each month we explore food from different country and several snacks that month will be linked to that country, she thought it was a great idea as then I could include polish food as we have a large polish community near us wher as in her words "some commuities of people seemed to get missed as they can be from a Christian country but their culture and food can still be very different from ours". So that's what I do, I find it so much more enjoyable than trying to think of a craft activity linked to the festival for children so young, so far the food themes have included Chinese, polish, Jamaican, Indian, Italian, French, Mexican, turkish and more.

[clairer]

Lovely idea Dawn.

[sing-low]

I like Dawn's idea. BTW When is Diwali?

[Rick]

I like Dawn's idea. BTW When is Diwali?

3rd November which is next Sunday, so it could be done this week or next.

[Rick]

All the mindees I have and had at my inspection are under 18mths (except for an one adhoc child) and I discussed it with my ofsted inspector as it had just been Chinese New Year and had planned a craft related activity which I felt with them being so young they didn't benefit from the Chinese links, so I said I was considering introducing a monthly taste from around the world and when it's Chinese New Year it would be Chinese food etc. so each month we explore food from different country and several snacks that month will be linked to that country, she thought it was a great idea as then I could include polish food as we have a large polish community near us wher as in her words "some commuities of people seemed to get missed as they can be from a Christian country but their culture and food can still be very different from ours". So that's what I do, I find it so much more enjoyable than trying to think of a craft activity linked to the festival for children so young, so far the food themes have included Chinese, polish, Jamaican, Indian, Italian, French, Mexican, turkish and more.

I like the idea of this. Any idea what sort of foods we could try for Diwali?

[sing-low]

3rd November which is next Sunday, so it could be done this week or next.

I have Mrs O coming that week(!) so good way to demonstrate diversity. Am googling diwali recipes now!

[Rick]

I have Mrs O coming that week(!) so good way to demonstrate diversity. Am googling diwali recipes now!

I have my level 3 diploma observation coming up so would be nice to pop something multicultural in

[sing-low]

How about this:
BBC - Food - Recipes : Strawberry lassi
Strawberry 'lassi'

or this:
BBC - Food - Recipes : Paneer and vegetable skewers

or this (which is the one I'll probably go for):
BBC - Food - Recipes : Easy potato and pea samosas

Also found this:
What's eaten at Diwali? | Life and style | theguardian.com

which confirmed my expectations that it's lots of sweets(!). I spent some time in India and my mouth is now watering at the thought of the scrumptious milk sweets we had then.

[dawn100]

My husband works with someone who celebrates Diwali so I got him to ask what was traditionally served and he said that unlike with Christmas in this country where most people have turkey in Diwali it can vary from family to family each having their own traditions but he said that sweet snacks were very important so with that in mind I went to a local Asian deli and bought a selection of sweet things (can't remember what they are all called) think I got a little carried away and bought a lot more than my mindees can eat oh well guess I'll have to eat what's left!

[k1rstie]

I bought these this morning at Morrison's. They were £2 per pack and there were several different colour combinations. (They also had incense, but it makes me feel sick)

They are very pretty, and I am sure the kids would love to take one home

image-872245462.jpg



Just to be transparent, this IS the store where my husband works, I only shop there every couple of months as not local. I do love the international isle, and stocked up this morning with Israeli biscuits, Korean biscuits, pasta from somewhere else, West Indian cake mix.


Is you are looking for food ideas, have a look down an international isle in a supermarket. My old mans shop even has chilled and frozen international food, plus health and beauty.

[VeggieSausage]

We have gone Diwali crazy in our house as being a childminder my daughter has been exposed to Diwali and she treats it like it is one of our traditional festivals like Christmas. So as a family we celebrated last night as my stepson was back from uni, we had fireworks, curry etc

With kids I have done....
We made diva's using coloured air drying clay from ELC and pressed sequins into them and put a tea light in them
Firework pics - cut a straw at the ends about an inch up then use them to do firework prints on black paper
We have tried Indian sweets - many have nuts
Eaten dahl, curry, poppadoms, chopped and eaten mango
Made mango lassi
Rangoli patterns using rice, lentils etc
Colouring pics

[tas]

Some lovely Diwali ideas on this thread - Thank you!