Category: Parenting

Which is the best Robot for kids?

Miko 3 Ridiculously smart and seriously fun robot for kids

Are you looking for fun and learning way to engage your kid then here is the solution Miko 3 Smart !

Miko is your new intelligent friend who can help your kids from math tutoring , language lessons to dance moves and jokes. It is AI based robot, who keep learning and understanding being with your kid.

Meet Miko 3 , Adya’s new buddy who is smart and fun friend to be with.

Unboxing video of Miko3

What comes inside the box?

  • Instruction manual
  • charging cable- You need to use 5V, 3A DC input (Type C USB connector). The charging time will depend upon the adapter, if a 5V, 3A (15 W) adapter is used then approximately 4 hours will be required to charge from 0 to 100%.

Features of Miko 3

  • Miko’s powerful AI technology adapts to the kids learning needs and behaviors, providing access to interactive education while consistently reinforcing other human connections within their life.
  • A super-rich app library loaded with games, challenges, and a wide range of interactive learning experiences. Miko brings the top premium kids’ content like Paramount, Lingokids, Kidoodle, Kidloland, Cosmic Kids and more.
  • With Max subscription, you get access to more than 50,000+ hours of new content experiences and 1,000+ experience types — games, puzzles, TV shows, coding lessons, yoga, and a range of STEM topics.
  • Designed with a more expansive touchscreen, it creates a healthy alternative to playtime on phones and tablets.
  • Equipped with a wide-angle HD camera and hi-tech sensors to map distance and edges, Miko moves all around the house.
  • The Miko connect feature allows Miko to keep kids and parents connected through video calls.
  • It can interact, tell stories and play games in 8 languages from around the world
  • Simply secure – It is a closed system with enhanced encryption that make sure that every byte of your personal data is protected.

How does Miko 3 works

1. Connect Miko 3 to Wifi.

2. Once connected, you get access to wonderful games & educational content.

3. Talk by saying ‘Hello Miko’. You can ask any question & Miko 3 is always ready with an answer!

4. You can also have knowledge based conversations with the robot.

5. Moreover, Miko 3 gets updated with new games and content every month for your child to have a wholesome fun & learning experience!

Parental control

  • It is connected with parental application that tracks your child learning through the time spent on Miko.
  • You can do video call to your kids through the application.
  • Your child data is safe -The data is end to end encrypted. They do not store/sell personally identified data on server or cloud. The parent is in full control of their child’s data.

My thoughts

  • Good for limited screen time without worrying what your kid is watching, as all the content is educational and as per child age.
  • Help those curios minds engage as they can ask as many questions as they want.
  • Created emotional connection with kid with its weird face expression.
  • I liked the Tidbits addition- An advanced AI feature for kids to have real educational and age appropriate conversations with topics such as health, environment, nature, history Geography and much more.

You can buy your Miko from Amazon

‘GET 10% OFF ON WEBSITE, USE CODE MOMSMIKO10″

For more reviews click here

‘This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by CindyD’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla.

“It’s my choice”- Impact and importance on life!

“It’s my choice”- Impact and importance on life!

We all have made many choices in our life, that have made us proud and sad at times. Today I would like to talk about my one choice that changed a lot in a better way with a roller-coaster ride. First let me share why I am writing this post today?

“This post is written for IT’S MY CHOICE Blog Train by Gleefulblogger & Wigglingpenin association with Vedix & Kerala Ayurveda “

Before I share my choice let’s understand little more about it.

What is CHOICE ?

Choice is a chance when you have two or many options and you have to decide among all what’s the best for you. Let’s take very simple example from your life, when you were have to choose between different flavours of ice-cream and after waiting for a while you choose one. That’s your very first CHOICE as a kid.

But as you grow older these choices becomes more hard and options becomes less and you have to decide what would be the best for you as that can impact on your life.

CHOICES -Impact & Importance

Your every choice has a big impact on your life either in a good way or bad way. When you have to decide your subjects it sets a bigger goal for you in your life as whatever stream you choose your will join that profession.

So it is really important to make all your decisions with proper understanding of all the pros & cons as the results can be fruitful or bitter.

My Choice and why I am proud of it?

I choose to put myself before all the traditions and emotions that were holding me back trying to make happy all people around me.

Now let’s talk about the decision I am happy and proud . It was when after my delivery , when I decided to stay with my husband to take care of my newborn without any elderly support as they were not able to stay with us ( personal issues).

This was a big decision as being first time parents we know the journey would not be easy for us, but this journey prove to be the best learning experience. I was learning everyday to take care of my baby and everything, this DO IT ON YOUR OWN situation boosted my confidence to handle everything .

What I gained !!

Home Baker & Blogger

I started baking to beat the postpartum depression and it worked as a therapy for me, Meanwhile started writing down the parenting experiences and this started my BLOGGING JOURNEY.

You can check my healthy bakes Check all healthy bakes and recipes here .

Cloth Diapering & Baby wearing ambassador

I researched about cloth diapering and baby wearing that was one of the best choices too. As they made my life easier and they were eco-friendly, as it was not so popular at that time my learning helped me understanding and by this I was able to help many other new parents who have the same doubts.

Today when I think about that decision,I feel that if I have chosen to go to my parents place. I wouldn’t get the chance to know my capabilities to handle such situation. As we get support we will never try to find new ways to get out of the situation.

Finally, all my experience made me realise it’s always good to take a decision for you and work on it. It might be hard at that time but you would be proud that you did what you felt right for you.

How to make Kombucha from Scratch?

How to make Kombucha without scoby

What is Kombucha?

Kombucha is a fermented drink, made with tea and sugar with help of culture of bacteria also known as scoby. It is also known and consumed for its health benefits.

It is full of probiotics, enzymes, and healthy organic acids, it improves your gut health and immunity and can replace your sugary drinks with it. Because it’s fermented, it contains no or very little sugar!

We can create different flavours from the base kombucha, with the help of fruits and herbs. For detailed study visit here

Recipe to make Kombucha without scoby

Ingredients

  • Raw unpasteurised Kombucha ( I am using raw Kombucha from Peepal farm link to buy )
  • Clean glass jar 2lt-3lt (washed properly with soap, vinegar and dried in sunlight)
  • Clean muslin cloth ( link to buy)
  • Sugar 120 grams
  • Tea 15 grams
  • 2lt water

Procedure

How to make a scoby?
  1. Wash glass jar with soap thoroughly first and then wash with vinegar.
  2. Keep it for drying in sunlight to kill unwanted bacteria.
  3. Add 500ml raw unpasteurized Kombucha in the cleaned glass jar.
  4. Cover this jar with clean muslin cloth and tie its mouth with a elastic band or thick thread.
  5. Keep this jar for 3 weeks in dark warm & dry place (temperature 23C-24C)
  6. After three weeks, you will notice a disc floating on the top of liquid.
  7. This disc is your scoby for next step to prepare Kombucha.
How to make scoby
Steps to make Kombucha
  1. Boil 2 litre drinking water in a clean container.
  2. Add tea and sugar when the water starts boiling and put off the flame.
  3. let it cool down to room temperature .
  4. Add this water to the scoby jar and close it again with muslin cloth.
  5. Now keep it again in dark warm place for 2 Weeks.
  6. After two weeks you can take out the jar and your kombucha is ready for next step.
  7. Pour this in clean bottles and close the lid (air tight ).
  8. Keep these bottles again for 7 days in the same place.
  9. After 7 days keep it in fridge and enjoy your healthy cold drink!

Click here for more such healthy recipes!

How fast is the right growth for kids

When you are parents, your life runs around your kids and their growth is your utmost priority. Adya was born with good weight but slowly we noticed she was falling behind and I was really worried that this might affect her activity level. 

Growth is an important indicator to know the status of health and nutrition. First 6 years are critical growth years for every child and we need to monitor their growth.

This will help in understanding if there is any nutrition or health problem. Accordingly, we can take corrective measures to improve their health and overall development.

When children are young there is a lot of worry around if their height and weight is appropriate as per their age and how fast should children grow in India. I too had this worry because did you know, 1 in 3 children don’t grow as per their age?

The most important thing is to take care of their growth and understanding everything behind these parameters of weight gain and height. This will help us in making a perfect nutrition plan for our kids and it will help in their growth.

I found this Grow Right tracker online by PediaSure and I have started measuring my child’s growth because that is the #FirstStepToGrowRight. Why is that?

Once you enter your child’s details you can get a report that is downloadable. It has been super helpful in finding out the nutritional gaps that may have been slowing her growth. That way this growth chart is really helpful in understanding their growth rate.

With the help of this report and doctor’s prescription, I have created a perfect nutrition plan for Adya, that I am sure will nurture her growth. 

Nutrition plan 

  • Including one fruit daily in her diet.
  • Proper home cooked meal two times a day including chapattis, vegetables curry salad.
  • Milk with benefits of PediaSure, two times a day. 
  • Dry fruits for munching
  • Paneer/curd 
  • Home-baked cookies/cake as sweet treat.

This is a simple nutrition diet plan I have been following for her and have seen change in her weight and height. She is not under-weight now and her activity level is really good.

The main takeaway of using the Grow Right Tracker has been the fact that she is now following a proper balanced diet which includes fruits, vegetables and proper meals containing essential vitamins and minerals to support growth. And last but not the least, drinking water as per their age.

Like most of the kids she is also a fussy eater especially when it comes to drinking milk. I am really happy now that with PediaSure she enjoys drinking her milk.

I have taken proper steps to monitor my child’s growth with the help of the Grow Right tracker, and give her proper nutrition for proper growth and development. Share with me what steps you think are essential to ensure that the children grow right.

The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not reflect the views of any brand. Any omissions or errors at the author’s end does not assume any liability or responsibility on any party mentioned in the blog.

Working from Bed/Sofa/Floor to Proper Work From Home set up

No one had thought that people would be working from home for such an extended period. Indian IT does not have Work from home culture. Due to pandemic companies were forced to adopt and it’s great to see how people manage things working remotely.

As we are not used to do work from home for say more then few days, usually there is no proper setup at our homes. In Mumbai you have such a small homes that you can not think of making one room as your study or work room 🙂

At our home we didn’t had any dedicated desk or chair where one can sit for longer duration and work . We use to work from Sofa or bed using a small bamboo laptop table.
bamboo laptop table

Many a time we use to sit on floor due to posture issues as while sitting on bed or sofa you tend to curve down which leads to back pain.

It was kind of Ok for first few months as it was all new and any which ways we can not do much as there was complete lock down. So somehow we managed.

But in the mean time we were looking for some solution to this problem as this Work from Home is there to stay.

As per the space available on our home we were looking for modular table, by modular I mean which can be folded and kept aside when not required. Indian market is not that good for modular furniture as there were way less options.

What ever good options we had are way to costly as all the brands want to make money on this new opportunity.

After lot of search and reviews on different websites and considering the amount we would be paying for that piece of furniture we have decided on the design and size of the table.

For us it was a collapsible wall mounted table of size 80*50 cm. We came to this size based on the space available on the wall beside our sofa.

Also this was sufficient to keep my husbands 2 -22″ monitors, docking station & Laptop. Budget we had was Rs 3500 for this as this is what my husband can claim under work from home policy.

In this budget and table size we had limited options, one was this on Amazon or this & 1 or 2 more. Now we have a lot of options.

Still we were not getting the desired size and material. All of these were made in MDF which is not good for durability of furniture which is going to be folded and will be hanging on 4-6 screws.

So we contacted the sellers via Amazon and few said that they can make it in plywood but the cost will increase as plywood is costly then MDF.

Finally we agreed to pay more and bought the one from India Decor. But it was not that easy. We did placed the order and it was shipped and reached the nearest Amazon hub as well.

Then came another Lock down in Mumbai/Navi Mumbai area and that hub was closed and they could not deliver the product and it was returned to seller 🙁

Now our search started with local furniture vendors/manufacturers. We gave them the details and asked them if they can give us this particular piece and in how many days.

Only one said yes and he agreed to deliver only the top board as for the folding brackets there was no shop open. We asked him to give at least the board.

He took 2 days to give that to us, in the mean time we ordered folding brackets from Flipkart as some how they were delivering and Amazon was not.

We paid extra as it was costly on Flipkart then Amazon but it was a required so we ordered. We had Makita drill @home and this was another reason to order this kind of table.
Makita 16mm Hammer Drill

This won’t require any carpenter service and one can easily fix it. Well it was not that easy as you need do proper measurement’s to make it align and to fix it at proper height.

For alignment our Stanley Level came very handy.

Stanley level

So finally we installed everything and the table was up and we were very happy as now we can work properly.

Setup is incomplete w/o a office chair with good lumber support.

Lumber support is required as one has to sit for long hours and proper lower back supper is must. Again we have to do a lot or search and go through lot or reviews for this.

For this we again contacted few local vendors/manufacturers to costing and quality and most of them were out of budget.

Our budget was Rs 4000 as this can be claimed under the policy, but we thought we can buy little costly as this is quite important for good sitting posture.

For this we looked @ all the furniture websites like Transteel, Pepperfry, Amazon, Flipkart etc. but everyone has more -ve reviews then positive.

Transteel has good chairs but the delivery time was more. Finally we finalized Da Urban and ordered it from Amazon, as usual cheapest as compared to other sites.

Reason to choose this was recent reviews were good and one major reason was it had Metal wheel frame. We didn’t want full plastic one as we have seen accidents in office when one leg breaks and person fell down.

It came in big box, packaging was kind of Ok, we were more concerned about the chair and it was intact. After thorough sanitization we installed it.

Installation was quite easy & in 5 min the chair was ready to sit. we even checked the level of seat to make sure it is not tilted on one side as mentioned in few reviews and it was perfectly fine and balanced.

Stanley level

The chair is comfortable and we can sit on it for long duration.

Along with this we did purchase a cable organizer and a good extension with spike guard. There are multiple cable organizers present on Amazon but we choose this as this will able to hide your cables and has enough space to store 4 socket extension.

Tidy Up! Wire Bin

We bought GM extension with spike guard.

GM Modular 3058 G-Power 4+1 Spike Guard

Choosing Work from home furniture –
* One should choose as per space and requirement
* Place it near to fan if that room does not have AC else you will be sweating all the time 🙂
* It should serve multiple purpose, in our case we will be using it as small dining table
* Size should be adequate to fit multiple things as while working you might realize we could have ordered a bigger one
* Make sure the height is appropriate minimum is 30″ from floor
* Chair min seat height is 17-18″ and it can rise above it as as per your height adjust the table height
* If you can do DIY then look for solutions from local vendors as this will be cheap
* Opt for plywood as it is more durable and long lasting then MDF
* Decorate the wall behind else try to place the table near the open space

How to explain importance of Immunity to kids

Immunity building in our kids is an important aspect we parents work on as children are growing up. The steps we take should begin at an early age. Children also need to understand what it is all about.

It is obvious that their little minds are curious to know, why we need to work on building immunity. My daughter is going to be 4 years old and she has started asking questions and we try to explain her in the simplest way possible of building immunity while indoors.

How to explain kids in simplest way, importance of Immunity.

  • Be Open– Answer their questions in the best possible way you can. Educate them with love and kindness. They will be curious to understand how nutrition and immunity works.
  • Interaction– Talk to them about it and how being healthy is important.
  • Balanced diet– Importance of eating healthy food that makes them strong. Including fruits, milk with a supplement like PediaSure that has 37 essential nutrients for complete and balanced diet and dry fruits.
  • Hand wash– Washing hands is one important habit inside or outside home. We taught our daughter how to wash her hands properly like rubbing individual fingers, b/w fingers and from clean back side as well.
  • Wash hands before and after eating food, after play, etc.
  • Quick learner– Kids are quick learners and they understand easily if you are open with them. Give them age-appropriate information so they have the right information from you.

Just like we want to protect our children from diseases, it is important we also protect them from wrong or incomplete information. We must answer their questions to the best of our ability.

These are some really simple ways you can teach kids the importance of immunity and how we can inculcate clean habits. Staying healthy and taking proper precaution is the only way to stay safe from infections.

The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not reflect the views of any brand. Any omissions or errors at the author’s end does not assume any liability or responsibility on any party mentioned in the blog.

How Nutritional elements help in boosting immunity


Hi guys! Today I am writing this blog post as a mom finding solutions to build my child’s immunity.
With the changing weather, children catch cold & flu easily. This made me think about how I can improve my child’s immunity and make her strong.


Food plays a very important role in improving health as well as recovering from any diseases. There is a strong connection of food with nutritional elements and immunity system. We need to make sure that kids get proper balanced diet with all the nutritional elements needed for good immunity.


What are these elements and how do they affect our immune system?
Nutrients are broadly divided into the following categories:

  1. Protein (1gm protein provides 4 Kcal energy)
    Some of the constituents of protein can’t be made by body so it needs to be taken directly from food.
    Milk, cheese, meat, fish, poultry, pulses contain proteins.
  2. Fat (9 Kcal per 1gm of fat)
    Fats are an important source of energy for the body and kids need this to stay active.
  3. Carbohydrates: ( 4 Kcal per 1 carbohydrate)
    They are mostly starch and sugars of vegetables origin and a major component of cereal.
  4. Vitamin & Minerals
    Vitamins are needed for adequate functioning of body. Vitamins consists of mainly two groups: water soluble vitamin ( B1, B2 & Vitamin C) and fat-soluble vitamin ( A, D,E & K). Minerals such as zinc, selenium are also needed for proper immunity, cell development, etc.

Maintaining a Balance
Balanced diet is defined as one, which contains a variety of food in such quantities and proportion that can provide the needed energy, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates and other important nutrients that are required to maintain good health and proper immunity.


I am happy that I found PediaSure with this balanced nutrition to help boost immunity in children. I make sure to give my little one home cooked food that includes cereals, vegetables, fruits, and milk products. Adding PediaSure in milk also helps in boosting her immunity.


We are vegetarians so we try to maintain the protein balance by adding pulses, chick peas, sprouts, and paneer to our daily meal. Apart from this, we add dry fruits with black pepper, chia seeds and fennel seeds in shakes that we drink early morning as part of our routine. You can also add banana in this shake as it gives a sweet taste to it. (If you need detailed recipe for this shake, please leave a comment, and I will share with pictures)


With proper food it’s equally important to teach kids to maintain proper hygiene such as washing hands properly for a minimum of 20 seconds before eating anything. Most importantly right now, we should take care that our kids don’t go out to play until things get okay.


I hope these small changes can help make them stronger. Do share your valuable views and tips that you follow at home to improve your children’s immunity.

Engaging kids with daily home activity!

Parents nowadays are so busy in their lifestyle that we are not able to spend quality time with kids.

How to engage kids with daily home activities

Whether it’s working parents or stay at home, taking out time to relax and play is a real task. So why not involve kids with you in helping your daily chores!!

She loves to play with water and tissues so teaching her the use of both while cleaning the glass

It’s always better then giving them phone or tablet as this is the easily available option we see nowadays!

How to involve kids in Home chores and how it is helpful?

Kids love to explore and easily bored doing same activity again and again. They love to do new things and enjoy learning it as their curiosity level is really high.

Helping mamma with folding her cloths

Involving kids in daily chores like dusting, putting clothes in washing, folding clothes, arranging utensils etc. will help in there overall growth.

  • They love to do what you do so it’s really easy to involve them
  • Helps in learning new skills
  • Improve concentration
  • Helps in improving hands and eyes co-ordination and strengthen muscles.
  • Helps in improving vocabulary as they learn to express themselves by asking questions
  • Creativity– they show their own way of doing the activity
  • Helps in boosting their confidence as they are doing work on their own
  • Helps in personal bonding as you get to spend quality time with them
  • Helping hand, fours hands are always good then two doing same work!
Cleaning the grill and watering the plants

Explain them what they are doing and why it is important.

Note – always make them do things under your supervision so that there is no damage to things or kids.

How to choose steel cookware?

Steel cookware

From a long time I was planning to replace all my non-stick cookware and aluminum cookware with good quality steel pots and pans. As we all know healthy eating is important and so is healthy cooking. Most of the non-stick pans are coated with polytetrafluoroethylene, also known as Teflon. With the use of any metal spoon and over a time period this layer flake off and at times if you cook in that it mix with your food too.

With regular use the non stick pans loose it’s non stickiness, plus there are a lot of rumors out there that Teflon might be toxic and that these pans may not be safe to use. 

Then the question that came to my mind was how to choose the best steel cookware from the available options. Some are really costly and some cheaper. 

So while I was searching and reading more about it, I sum up with few points for u guys.

Heat Conductivity Materials

This is a really important point to consider as you want a good quality cookware. You need to check the base elements of your pan like only steel can’t conduct heat well so the base of the pan are made to copper or aluminum or both with steel on the top. Copper helps in better temperature control and aluminum helps in retaining the heat for a long time. So you can choose as per your requirement.

Nickel ratio –  there will be some numbers on cookware when you see the description like 18/0 , 18/10 18/8. It represents the ratio or nickel and chromium in the pan. Nickel content give your pan great shine and durability so it’s always better to choose high nickel ratio. Like here 18 is chromium and 0,10,8 is nickel.

Handles and Lid-

Choosing the cookware with good quality handles and lid is equally important. Handles should be sturdy and should not get heated up fast. The lid should be proper with good covering and holding handles, as we need to open lid many times during cooking.

Pan weight

Pan weight is also to be considered as too heavy base pans are not easy to hold and move. And when you are cooking it becomes more heavier, so choose wisely.

Heavy are good though but usually not used in houseold cooking, they are more of a large scale cooking or for more professional cooks.

Pan size

Selecting the cookware size is also important and will affect the price too. You can select as per your family size and quantity that you normally cook. I always prefer small to medium as at times you need to cook for some guests too, so small pans are not useful at that time and you can’t buy a big one together.

Prevailing offers

It’s always better to buy your costly cookware when some offers are running. Like you can buy in festival sale or you can buy them in sets of pots and pans. Buying solo is not a good idea as there might be no good discount on solo cookware. Well there is always some offer running on sets. 

Budget

Now here comes the most important one to consider before buying. Check your budget and requirement and then plan accordingly, you can get a medium range good brand cookware. Buying local is not a good idea as it comes with risk either it will work well or not.

I hope these points would be really helpful for selecting the best steel  cookware for you. Will be sharing my review for the steel cookware I bought after my search. 

Stay tuned for next blog, coming soon.

I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa. You can read my other articles for this #MyFriendAlexa campaign here #forbabynmommyblogs .

Sharing is caring

How to prepare homemade sprouted ragi flour?

I started giving ragi porridge to my daughter after she started solids, she really liked her ragi porridge. Things to make sure before starting ragi porridge when you are making it at home is ragi should be properly sprouted and you can keep changing the consistency of porridge as per age.

Homemade ragi flour is best for babies. 

Ragi powder is really good for babies and is full of nutritional benefits. It is rich in iron and calcium and one of the richest source of protein. It helps in weight gaining for babies and easy digestion. Ragi is quite fulfilling meal for a baby.

So how to prepare sprouted ragi flour at home?

Ingredients 

Ragi/ Finger Millet (1 kg or as you require), if you have Organic one then it’s even better.

Process

  • Take ragi in a big bowl and pour sufficient amount of water to wash it properly.
  • Strain the water to remove impurities that comes up.
  • Repeat the process 3 to 4 times until you get clear water .(remember this step is really important as ragi comes with a lot of impurities)
  • Now add some more clear water and soak it for 6 to 7 hours or overnight.
  • Sprouting ragi- Now strain the water and  keep Ragi in a Muslin cloth or steel bowl with little opening to allow air flow.
  • You have to keep it overnight for Proper sprouting.
  • I use to keep in bowl and keep turning upside down after a few hours to avoid smell.
  • Now you can check your ragi would be fully sprouted.
  • Ragi
  • Impurities floats up
  • After 3_4 Wash
  • Strian and soak again
  • Soaked ragi ready for sprouting
  • Sprouted ragi

Making ragi flour

  • Now you have to keep sprouted ragi in sunlight for 2-3 days to dry it out. This is to prevent it from spoiling due to any kind of moisture
  • Then dry roast the sunlight dried ragi on slow flame in a pan, this will dry it out even more and make it crispy and easy to grind
  • Cool it and grind into fine flour
  • Ragi flour

Your ragi flour is ready and now you can use it in any form like make porridge, or mix it with wheat flour and chapati or cookies. Do try and share with hashtags #forbabnmommyblogs

You can buy these beautiful colorful bowls here.

I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa. You can read my other articles for this #MyFriendAlexa campaign here #forbabynmommyblogs .