30 Books in 30 Days Challenge

With Feb being a super hectic month, I was nearing frustration of not being able to spend as much time I want to with Kuhu. Just then I saw this "30 books in 30 days" challenge by "The Bubble Ink" on FB and I decided to use it as a force to ensure I get down to sit with Kuhu and read and do anything she is up for.

The challenge started Mar 1st and until today Kuhu and I've managed to read every day. Both of us are super happy... she gets Mumma without any distraction and Mumma gets the much needed time with Kuhu !

Although the challenge has a reading prompt every day, we havent been able to read by it... Hopefully we'll be able to do that over the next 26 days ....

Here is what the prompt was and what we read so far -

• Day #1 : For the first prompt "Hugs and Kisses", we couldn't find a better read than Monkey Puzzle. This is a beautiful story of a baby monkey who has lost his Mumma and how butterfly tries to help him. The mystery is will he every find his mum?
• Day #2 : "Dr. Suess" was the reading prompt and we started with "Fox in Socks". But Kuhu couldn't catch the fun and did't let me read beyond the first 3 pages. So we moved over to read "Don't be so nosy Posy". This is a story about a Posy the pig who just has to ask question and his adventures with that. This is very beautifully written and illustrated.
• Day #3 : The reading prompt was 'Jungle / Zoo' but Kuhu picked "Hic !" so it had to be so. A funny story about a piglet .. perfect to prepare for the April Fool's day !
• Day #4 : Fix-it Duck. A story about how a duck on fixing things and oh yes.. breaking. Although the prompt was '123 / Numbers' and we have "the very hungry caterpillar" to go well with it, Kuhu wanted Fix-it Duck to be repeated over and over and over....
• Day #5 : Blue Chameleon. This one is for wordless Wednesday. Though not wordless but with minimal words.
• Day #6 : "Books -Love" was the reading prompt and I realized that we dont have a single book on 'book'. :( So we read 'The runaway wheel'.
• Day #7 : The Great Goat Chase. This went well with the theme / reading prompt - Barnyard.
• Day #8 : Reading prompt was 'Mummy & me' and we had three books on that !! Yay ! We read 'Parnsip' - a story about Mama sheep and her baby and how baby finds her on one snowy night. Next was 'Aai' - a cute little book from the series 'Radha cha ghar' where Radha talks about her mother. And 'Monkey Puzzle' had to be read :-)
• Day #9 : This being a Sunday and the prompt being "Daddy and me", Kuhu wanted to read with daddy dearest. But she wasn't up for any daddy-themed book. All day (yes... all day) daddy-daughter read "Khadaad Raja" - marathi story by Madhuri Purandare about a foodie king who learns good habits.
• Day #10 : Prompt was "Toy" and Kuhu decided to give it a twist.... she didn't read toy themed books but read these to her toy Minnie - "Bhintinvarle taare", The silly little rabit, Zhaad, Bruno - the artist, and Better bath times !
• Day #11 : The prompt was "ABC" and we don't have a single book on it ! We read "Scooby Doo - You everyday Hero" and "Tuby & Speedy" from Drive-along tales.
• Day #12 : Honoring "Girls Scout day", the prompt was 'Acts of Kindness and Sharing'. It was as-if the theme was whispered into Kuhu's ears last night. Here is what happened today -
  Last night :
  Mumma - baccha.. I've a long day at work tomorrow so I'll be home by your bedtime or may be even later. Play well, sleep well, Enjoy.
  This morning :
  Kuhu - Good morning mumma... can we read a book now? (anticipating a no from me...) You'll be late home today na.. and you'll be tired then how will we read?
  I was speechless... and I just had to drop everything and read to her. We read two wonderful stories about kindness and sharing - "Policeman bear gets a day-off" where teddy bear works out a way to give Policeman bear a break from his routine and "Grandpa's Christmas gift" where Grandpa bear opens his holly garden for entire teddy town for Christmas. Both are from "Now I can read 15 2-minute tales".
• Day #13 : "Little blue truck", "the runaway wheel " and "Thomas, Bertie and the bumpy line" were our reads for the prompt "Wonder Wheels - Things that go."
• Day #14 : For the day's theme - "I am I", we read "Sylvester the singing sheep" a beautiful story about being you, "I am special" and "sshh" for world sleeping day.
• Day #15 : Today's prompt was - "Lift the flap, Pull the tab, Play I Spy"."Who's hiding? Ocean animals", "peek-a-boo", and "does a sheep wear mittens?" were our picks for today's theme. We loved reading through these after a long time.
• Day #16 : These were our reads today - "shrinking Sam", "pepper is jealous", "pepper throws a tantrum", "pahuni", "kantala" (both by Madhuri Purandare ), and "the watermelon route" for the theme "I feel".
• Day #17 : It is Holi today... and that's the prompt too... Kuhu is past the color board books now and I was afraid we might not have anything on the theme to read but we did ! yay ! We found "I see colors" from baby Einstein series and "Blue Chameleon" by Emily Gravett. Couldn't have had a better Holi than this... 
• Day #18 : Today's theme is "Tuck Me In" and I thought it was best to read at bedtime. But Kuhu had planned it otherwise. She pulled out "I'm so sleepy" while heading to bath and said, " Can we read this after bath, Mumma?" I didn't have a reason to say 'No' so I added one of my choice to it as we read two - "I'm so sleepy" and "Sleepy Sam".   
• Day #19 : "Monsters and Dragons" is the theme today and we read -'monsters munch lunch','dancing dinos' and 'the great goat chase'.
• Day #20 : "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" is the prompt. Mar 20, 2014 happens to the 45 anniversary of the classic "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". So thats what we read and did a couple of caterpillar themed crafts too.
• Day #21 : What a prompt this is - 'Sing along' !! We love singing poems and we read
  "a magical morning", "old McDonald had a farm", "a kiss good night", "you are my little star" along with actions !
• Day #22 : "What I wear?" is the prompt and we just don't have anything to go with it. So we read "three little pigs", "a friend of Ella", and "How many sleeps till my birthday!"
• Day #23 : The prompt is "My Best Friend" and I was scratching my head if we had any book on this. Just then my sis reminded me of what I have ... it is so easy to forget things when there are many !! Here is what we read - "the watermelon route", "Pahuni", "Mukhavate".
  "Pahuni", "Mukhavate" are wonderful books by Madhuri Purandare about a preschooler Yash and his friends and fun at school.
• Day #24: Today's prompt is "Inside your outside" and we read "Minu and her Hair", "I'm Special" and "Where did it go?". The challenge is getting tough now... we now need to post our reads within 36 hours. We've been on track so far. Lets see how it goes.
• Day #25 : A perfect prompt for us in the month of March - "Food". This is a month to hog on cakes for us and so were our reads today - "What does baby Mickey find?" - a book where baby Mickey goes thru the process of baking a cake, "Food for a party" - All the bears in Teddy town prepare food for a party and have it with fellows bears and share it other animals too, "Monsters munch Lunch" and "The very hungry caterpillar".  
• Day #26 : "Garden" was the theme for today. So we read "Zhaad" - a book abt how one seed grows into a thousand trees and become a garden. Then we read 'Teddy and magic trick' and 'a rainy day adventure'.
• Day #27 : Today's prompt of "Birthday" is bang on day for Uju aaji's birthday and Kuhu was more than happy to read "How many sleeps till my birthday" and "Hic !".
• Day #28 : We did have a couple of books for "Grandparents" prompt but Kuhu didnt want to read any those. She just read and re-read "Minu and her Hair" and ran to hug her "Appupaa" (grandfather) just like Minu.
• Day #29: 'Read in vernacular language' is an interesting prompt. Although we love reading Marathi books, we are seriously short on those.  
• Day #30 : I thought we would miss to read a book today but Kuhu just got 2 books and said, "We didn't read anything today. Can we read 'Hic!' And 'Thomas, Bertie and the bumpy line'?" And so we did. Today's was the toughest prompt - "My favorite book". 

I'll keep updating this post for our list.

Kuhu and I are loving this ....