DOLLY IS" MY BEST FRIEND"

If you ask a little girl , "What is your favorite toy? ", most of the girls will say "I love dolls!". I think the parents of girls will  agree with me  that girls always prefer a doll over other toys. As a woman and  as a mother of two daughters , I know that a small girl is so  attached with her doll . I  want to tell you an incident of my childhood days, my brother and I had a small fight and he hid my dearest doll which was a birthday  gift from my grand father . Though my naughty bro felt sorry for what he did and gave back my doll with a big "I am sorry smile" but I still remember that how badly I cried for my doll and how happy I was after getting it back.  
                                                              

A small girl spends most of the time with her doll, she cleans her, changes her clothes makes her hair and cares for her. She likes to talk with the doll and share her feelings with her . Playing with a doll helps the little girl to grow as a person . It  improves her communicating skills and helps her to express her feelings easily. 
Doll-play makes a girl a caring and helping person she learns to take a good care of small babies, and that could be very helpful for the little girl her in future  when she will have her own family and kids to take care of . 
                                       

Now I am sharing the pictures of dolls of some countries .I hope you will enjoy watching the images. 
                                                   Indian doll , beautiful!                      

     

           
  American Doll , lovely!








                                      
    African doll , so cute! 




                                                





                                   
Arabic doll , very nice! 

  Chinese doll,  pretty!  









                                              


                                                                      Russian doll , good looking!
                                                                                                          

Japan's traditional doll, graceful!











  English Doll, wonderful !                    











   -Aunt Mary

"How does a baby bird become a bird''

Dear children, in this post I am sharing some interesting facts about the life of birds. So read that how a bird's life begins, and how a baby bird grows into an adult bird.              

                              

The mother bird lays eggs in the nest which she makes during the spring days with the help of father bird . She lays one egg every day for four to five days.In order to keep the eggs warm , mother and father bird take turns sitting on the eggs .
 After ten to fourteen days the eggs hatch and the baby birds come out .These baby birds are called  ''Hatchlings".

Both the mother bird and father bird try to keep  their babies warm and they have to feed them in every 15 minutes .The baby bird is too delicate and almost blind at this time.        

                   
The baby birds ask their parents for food by opening their beak and peeping. Different type of birds eat different kind of food.Some birds eat grains, some eat worms and some birds eat berries.
Day by day the babies start growing,now they can open their eyes and their feathers start to grow, At this stage we can call them "Nestlings". 
After two weeks their feathers become long and they have a tail too.They want to go out of the nest but unable to fly .These young birds are called "Fledglings".At this time papa and mommy bird teach them to search the right food.The young birds try to hop on the ground.  

 After four weeks The fledglings become adult bird.They have fully grown feathers and a long tail.Now they can fly in the sky and are no more dependent on their parents, though they are not mature enough  .They are called "Juvenile".This is the story of a bird's life.

Hope you liked the article.                  

                                -Aunt Mary

                            

MY MOM'S PRESSURE COOKER

My dear children, did you enjoy the food that your mom cooked for you today ? Mommy makes food by using different ways of cooking, right ? Some times she cooks the food in a frying pan by frying the food items, some times she roasts or bakes the food  by using microwave or oven and  sometimes she cooks the meal using pressure cooking method in a " PRESSURE COOKER . "

Today I am going to tell you something about pressure cooker . I hope you will like the article and it will help you to understand how it works. The pressure cooker was invented by a french physicist Denis Pepin in the year of 1679.He named it the "digester ". He invented it to reduce the time, used for cooking food . He presented his invention in front of Royal Society and King Charles II . He demonstrated that how the digester cooked the food like meat and fish in lesser time than any other cooking method .It was how the pressure cooker was invented.


A pressure cooker cooks the food quickly because it is a hermetically sealed pot which produces steam heat . The  pressure cooker is air tight that's why the steam present in the pot cannot go out . It heats the water to produce very high steam which forces the temperature  inside the cooker as high as 266° F (130° C) so high temperature  that it cooks the food faster and quicker.

The food is cooked faster so it does not loose minerals and vitamins
vitamins . It needs a less quantity of water for cooking and it can cook every kind of food . It is also good for saving energy because it takes much lesser time than any other cooking device . Isn't  that a wonderful
invention.    


Safety rules - 1.Always check your equipment before using it.                                      
                      2. Use enough amount of water and oil.
                     
                     3. Release the steam when the pot is cooled down .
                     
                     4. Always clean the pot properly . 
                     
                     5. Do not fill any pressure cooker more than 2/3 full. 
                     
                     6. Moms should not  let the children get too close to the  pressure cooker. 

  I hope that you and your mom will find the article informative and helpful .

                                                                                                         
                                                                       -Aunt Mary

WONDER OF THE WORLD "THE TAJ MAHAL " ( Article )

My dear children, most of you must have heard of "Taj Mahal", one of the seven wonders of the world and many of you must have visited Taj. Taj Mahal is an extremely beautiful building built of pure white marble , it is located at the city of Agra in the state of U.P, India .Taj Mahal was built in the 17th century by Mughal emperor Shahjahan in the memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal ."TAJ MAHAL" means crown of palaces , it is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site .

The construction of Taj Mahal was started in 1632 and was completed in 1653 .It took 22 years to complete the building .The main architect was Ustad Ahmad Lahouri. The design of this building is a fusion of Islamic, Hindu and Persian architecture.The height of the building is 71 meters. Twenty thousand of craftsmen, artisans and workers worked day and night to transform the emperor's dream into reality. It is situated on the banks of river Yamuna. The emperor spent 32 million rupees at that time (17th century) for the construction of this building. 

When you enter Taj's compound, you can't believe on your eyes that it is real. It's beauty is so divine, that you can't express it in words. You just are able to say "WOW"! One's eyes get stuck on the Taj. 

You can't take your eyes off the Marble Glory! If you see Taj in the moonlight you will find it shining like a jewel. When the moonlight falls on the white marble structure it's beauty is beyond belief. 

Tourists from all over the world come to see the Taj Mahal. Among them are Presidents of many countries, leaders, big celebrities and artistes. 
The emperor Shahjahan loved his wife Mumtaz Mahal very much. She was an extremely beautiful lady that is why the emperor named her Mumtaz Mahal. The word 'Mumtaz' means 'Unique'. The queen died after giving birth to one of her children. Shahjahan was in deep shock after losing his beloved wife. It is said that due to sadness the emperor's hair turned white in one night. 

After Queen's death  Shahjahan decided to build this tomb at the place where Mumtaz Mahal was buried. After the death of emperor he was buried besides the grave of his queen in Taj Mahal. 

The immortal love of an emperor gave this world a marvelous piece of architectural beauty and a splendid monument of love. 

 Love - Aunt Mary

TOUCH ME NOT- Plant

                                                                     
                                             
 My dear children, most of you have seen' Touch me not plant' and enjoyed playing with it . Do you know? It's scientific name is' Mimosa Pudica L.'
It is also called shameful plant, humble plant and sensitive plant .
Basically this plant is an ornamental plant and used for making some medicines too .It's stem is armed with 
sharp prickles. It has highly touch sensetive  leaves .
An' English sciencetist ' was first to discover the movement of it's leaves. When the plant is touched by some one, it moves and fold the leaves inwards and droops .This is simply for defense and causes the plant no harm .The plant reopens after a few minutes .                                      

                                                   
                                  
 The plant has pale pink or purple flowers , which blossom in mid summer .These flowers are the favorite flowers of'' Humming birds''. Touch me not plant is native to' South America' and' Central America ' .It is also found in India, Nigeria, Hawaii  and the Philippines .  Isn't that an amazing plant ?                    

                                               

I hope you will like this article :)
                                                 -Aunt Mary                                          

                                                     


                                                                                                   

THE LARGEST TREE IN THE WORLD!

My dear children, you all have seen so many trees and plants.Some of them are small and some are very big  , but do you know which is the largest tree in the world ? The largest tree in the world is called 'GENERAL SHERMAN'. This tree is found in SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK in California. The tree is 52000 cubic feet (1,487 cubic meters ) in volume . 
This tree was named after the American civil war general  William Tecumeseh Sherman. 
 General Sherman is 2000 years old tree.
                                                                               - Aunt Mary
                        

Flowers That Are Deadly

My dear children, few days back I told you about some beautiful flowers which are very poisonous and deadly .They are so harmful for  human beings that they even cause the death of a person if he consumes any of these flowers .
Today I am going to tell you about some more flowers of that kind .
                                   
                                          Fox Glove

This is a large flowering shrub. These flowers are used for making honey which is called mad honey. This honey has hallucinogenic effects. This plant's granotoxin can paralyze a person and can even cause death.
                                     Autumn Crocus 

This is a beautiful plant which contains colchicines. Just in case if a person consumes it, the effect of the flower is deadly and like arsenic poisoning which has no cure. 

                                    Angels Trumpet

This beautiful flower is a native to America and is exceptionally dangerous. It has a toxin which can be fatal to human beings as well as a number of animals. 

Oleander

Look how beautiful these flowers are! But actually they are one of the most poisonous plants on earth. This plant contains a number of toxic compounds which affect the nervous , digestive and cardiovascular systems, all at the same time! 

So my dear children always be careful and be safe! 

 Love -Aunt Mary

THE SUN SHAPED FLOWER : SUNFLOWER

My dear children, today I am going to tell you about a very beautiful flower which depicts the sun, the sunflower.

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is a plant which is a native to Americas. It has a large flowering head(about 30cm wide) which has small flowers called florets and looks very beautiful. It is called Sunflower because it has a shape which depicts the sun. It's stem can grow up to a height of 3 meters.

Sunflower is the state flower of Kansas

and that's why Kansas is often called the Flower state. This flower needs a full sun for growth. They grow very well in wet and fertile soil. These flowers can be red, orange, yellow. The California Royal Sunflower is burgundy colored which is a mixture of red and purple.These flowers have great use in food industry also. These are roasted in ovens and are served as snacks. Sunflowers can be processed into peanut butter (also called Sunbutter)

It is even used in cooking and salads directly. They are used in medical ointments, dyes and body paints. It is also used as food for birds. Sunflower oil is extracted from it's seeds and used in cooking. 

I hope you liked this article. 

- Aunt Mary