What are the precautions to be taken while cleaning your child’s ears?

Cleaning children’s ears is a normal routine in many households. Though, sometimes it becomes necessary to clean the earwax because of the discomfort it causes due to its excess production or for few other reasons, taking few precautions is extremely important for the health of your ears. For this, we need to understand more about earwax, its functions and care to be taken while cleaning your child’s ears.

What is earwax?

Glands in our ear canal produce earwax which is also called as cerumen in medical terms. It also consists of our sweat, skin, and sebum. Many people think that earwax is gross or bad. On the contrary, earwax is very useful for our ears and plays many important roles.

Functions of earwax

• Earwax provides natural lubrication to our ears.
• It protects the ear canal skin from dust and dirt.
• It safeguards our ear from water, insects, bacteria, and fungi.
• It is a natural mechanism to clean our ears as ultimately, it finds its way out of our ears along with the trapped dust particles.

How to clean the ears?

Doctors advise ignoring the ear wax as much as possible as it will finally come out of your ears by itself. They strongly discourage the use of a cotton swab or hairpin, as by doing so, you are more likely to push the wax further inside the ear and moreover cause injury to the delicate ear canal and eardrum by using pointy things like pins inside the ears that may result into an infection. Also, a strict no-no to hydrogen peroxide cleaners and ear candling as they don’t have any clear benefits and are risky.

However, sometimes, it becomes imperative to clean it when your child’s ears produce excess wax that may cause fuzzy or muffled hearing or sometimes get hardened to cause discomfort and pain. Excess wax accumulation can also block doctor’s view to the eardrum for identifying potential infection.

If it is unavoidable to clean your child’s ears, you can use 2-4 drops of mineral or olive oil to soften the hardened earwax. Following precautions can be taken while cleaning them –

1. Take a small amount of oil in a container and warm it to the skin temperature.
2. Make your child lie down with the affected ear facing upward.
3. Apply 2-4 drops of the oil to the affected ear using a dropper and leave it for a few minutes.
4. When your child gets up, the wax will work its way out.

Repetitive use of the above process for 3-4 days should give relief from the stubborn wax. Remember that you can use a soft washcloth or a cotton swab to clean around the outside of your child’s ears. However, never try to insert anything inside the ears.

However, in case of ear-pain, fever or any discharge, pus or blood from the ears, it is always recommended to visit an ENT specialist in Bangalore for a thorough ear-examination. These can be the symptoms of injury or infection and needs to be treated by the professionals.

Honoring the woman in me

I was always a tomboy. I loved wearing my hair short and had no idea how to dress up. I loved climbing trees, swimming, cycling, driving, dancing and traveling without caring a thing about what others thought. My brother and my male cousins were my best friends. I bonded more with my male classmates and trusted them.

It was when I became a mother that I started realizing the true essence of being a woman. I began acknowledging how much effort a mother puts in to raising her kids and family. A tiny dependent bundle of joy reminded me constantly I was the world to him. I started honoring the woman in me more after I became his mother. His unconditional love and hearing ‘I love you, mother’ every day acted like an elixir.

I had put on almost 20kgs extra weight during pregnancy. My first act of self-love was losing that weight. Running behind him 24/7 and sleepless nights, of course, helped.

My second act of self-love was treating my body with healthy food. I began to give attention to the food I cooked every day, trying to keep it nutritious yet tasty. To one who opted to eat out at any given chance, it was a definite improvement.

My third act of self-love was chasing my passion. I revived old hobbies like crocheting, sketching and painting. I became a more dedicated blogger and writer once he started play school. I became a published author.

These days, once a week the two men in my life treat me like a queen. I sleep in late in the morning while they go out for breakfast on weekends. They bring me breakfast and later on help me cook lunch and clean. It is our bonding day.

I am still struggling in various aspects of grooming. I hate going to a beauty parlor. I hate torturing myself through waxing and threading. I am so confused when I have to buy clothes for myself. I still get scolded by my sister for not giving attention to tiny nuances while getting clothes stitched. I mess up recipes. 

I don’t think I will ever become an ideal woman. But I guess I am enough. I love myself and what I have become.

I have come a long way from being the girl with bushy, unkempt hair and bizarre clothes. Having a big fan at home who considers you as the prettiest woman in the world is my daily ego boost. 

This post is a part of #MondayMommyMoments being hosted by Amrita and Deepa. 

Solving the exam conundrum

Last month at the PTM in my son’s school, I was eager to meet his English teacher before anyone else. Though he had good grades in the sub-sections of the English paper like handwriting, comprehension, recitation, etc, he had a C in reading. Though I didn’t care about the grade, I couldn’t believe that the boy who could read entire story books all by himself was bad at reading. There must have been some mistake. So, I asked her what went wrong during the exam.

“He refused to read. He said the passage was boring,” she said and my son promptly agreed with her with a smile.

What can one say to that? She told me he was a very bright student and one of the best. But how could she give him a good grade in reading if he refused to read?

It is my mistake. I have never put pressure on him to study. We have fun together doing homework and while studying. For him exams mean fun! As far as I understand, his teachers make the classes interesting as well. 

After all, he is just eight. At his age, I didn’t even know why I was being sent to school daily. I would have preferred sitting at home or wandering in the countryside. But, nowadays we tend to bully our kids to bring all the best grades. Kids who don’t are labeled as weaklings.

I didn’t want him to get any label. So, I told him why exams were invented. I told him that they were conducted to find out who has understood what was being taught in the class. The ones who didn’t understand obviously had to study it again. The teachers would ask those students to remain in the same class to make them learn it thoroughly. If he wanted to go into a higher class, he had to prove that he knew his portions.

“Does that mean that I won’t go to class three and all others would?”

“Yes, if you do not do what the others are doing.”

“But I know all my portions.”

“But how will your ma’am know that you know your portions if you don’t do well in the exams?”

“Oh well. I will show her that I do know to read.”

The annual exams start next week. During evenings now, we spend time having fun using his exam portions like always. He recites his poems standing on the bed, holding a marker pen as his mic.Poems are learned with actions accompanying it. He has created power-point presentations for multiplication tables and tells me all about it. He helps me learn Kannada and in the process finish studying his portions. He reads stories from his textbooks during bedtime reading.  He likes tweaking the lines and make me laugh. Learning becomes fun as he enjoys it. He gets to watch his Pokémon cartoons or go hunting Pokémons only if he finishes learning his portions. 

I only hope he won’t become bored during exams this time!

Trump, a lunch and some eeeww romance

The Lunch

Two major events occurred in the last 24 hours. Two crucial twists in the tale.Trump triumphed in America. 500 and 1000 Rupees notes were demonetized in India. Social media just went berserk with people posting for and against both happenings.

I went offline, bored hearing the same news over and over again. As it was a day off for my son, we too had triumphs and laughs.  You can see the results of one of the games here.

The game :)

Then we went out for lunch to a near vegetarian restaurant. The food was yummy (Rice, Aloo paratha, Okra masala and Dum aloo) and we ate to our heart’s content. While we went to wash our hands, we passed a table where a preschooler was gorging on a strawberry ice-cream.

“Mother, we didn’t eat dessert. Don’t you know that dessert should always follow lunch?” A asked.

“I don’t like dessert,” I said. I had just a 500 rupees note, two hundred rupees notes and a few 10 Rs notes in my purse. If due to my bad luck my debit card didn’t connect, I might have to do some ‘chakki peasing’ in the hotel kitchen. But did he need to think about all that?

So, he declared,” I love desserts.”

My pulse quickened as I gave my card to the cashier. I sighed in relief when the machine printed my receipt.

‘Okay. Now you can,” I said. He walked to the ice-cream counter and picked the same strawberry flavor. Greed is contagious, isn’t it?

While I waited for my son to finish his ice-cream, a young college-going couple, caught my attention. Maybe it was because 500 rupees were banned and most of the ATMs were out of service, that they ordered an ice-cream cone and a milkshake. They settled on the chairs next to ours. I watched with amusement as the boy licked the ice-cream greedily. He gave it then to the girl who licked it gratefully. Eeeeww.

Next, the boy drank the milkshake and with a smug smile gave it to the girl. She drank it as though it was ‘sakshath amruth’.

When I looked next, the girl was almost sitting on the boy’s lap and the boy was licking at the ice-cream now. I dragged my son and walked out of the restaurant  before their romance blossomed further.

Yes, I regret walking out now. I am not sure when I will get to see another such ‘eeew’ romance again.

Sigh!

A Momentous Decision

Image Courtesy: Heritage Snapper and Imageafter.com

The decision had been impulsive and momentous. I had plunked my career unceremoniously on the back burner for the sake of a tiny little angel who had entered our life.

The serene waters that meet my eyes now are asking me to relax. So does the smile of my naughty toddler. Hadn’t I worked enough to last a life time? Eighteen hour work days, 6 days a week. Ten long years. Hours poring over spreadsheets with design data of complex construction elements. The love and respect I still get from from former colleagues and clients, and a decent bank balance are the major takeaways from a career that had eaten into the best hours of my life.

Luckily there are no major regrets. As I am penning down these thoughts here, the copy of my debut novel, freshly out of press sits snugly on my table. Like they say, when a door closes, another opens.

I had rekindled my passion for writing soon after quitting my day job. Tapping away at the keyboard while my son slept, while he watched his cartoons, I had managed to complete my first manuscript.

The Civil Engineer in me had stepped aside to let the writer take the rein of my life.

Linking this to #FridayFotoFiction and Indispire

Home Away from Home

This is the view of my husband's house from the approach road. But, this was not the scene that greeted me when I first saw this house more than a decade ago. It had been then hiding behind a decorative shamiana and the plants had been trimmed to perfection. 

I still remember the smells that had greeted a timid bride that day. Fragrances of sandalwood scented incense, jasmines, roses, freshly painted walls, furniture, flavoursome food and petrichor. 

The cool touch of turmeric water to ward off the evil eye, the slight tension that clenched my gut as I took the first step into the house, the heat of the burning wick in the oil lamp, the smiling faces of relatives, the reassuring gestures of my husband, the curious neighbours watching my every step, taking note of my attire and jewellery; this house had witnessed it all. 

In the days that followed, it would nurture a different set of beliefs, customs, cuisine and memories within me. The different seasons would paint it in various hues. Time too would wave its magic wand. Children of kith and kin grew up into adults, some got married and flew away to build their own nests. New members arrived to seek its blessings. The warmest presence in the house, my mother-in-law, left for the place from where no one returns. 

Things changed for us too. For a while, we were non-resident-Indians who longed to return home during those elusive vacations. Then a little guy arrived in our life and made us more responsible adults. Our careers saw dramatic changes. 

Now we rarely visit as we have become settled elsewhere.Yet, whenever we visit, the same warm, secure feeling envelops us.  It makes us pause and take note. It reminds us to step back, enjoy life, nature and ponder about things that we really love.

When we step out of the house to return to our own nest, a strange, yet now familiar, longing grip my heart. I realise that somewhere along the way, it has become home for me. The one symbol for stability and warmth. Home away from home.

If given a chance, would you change your past?

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I have often fantasised stumbling upon a time machine or a gadget like the time turner mentioned in the Harry Potter series that would allow me to visit my past.  I wanted to  rewrite my past. Maybe I could erase that particular incident from my life which gave me unimaginable trauma. Maybe I could avoid meeting that particular person who later on became my biggest foe. Maybe I could change my career. Maybe I could say 'yes' where I had said 'No'. Maybe I could warn someone about how their choice was going to alter all our lives. So many possibilities...

Looking back, however,  I realise I don't want to change anything that has happened in my past. Every single event, person in my past is responsible who I am now. We manifest our realities. Our choices create our experiences. The way we react to the challenges at the various points in our life, carve out our future. 

 More than that, altering a particular event changes the outcome of our life. Imagine we went back and changed a particular event which was traumatic. We might have met our soulmate immediately after that.His/her presence was the reason why you transformed into a strong person. You can't imagine your current life without the presence of him/her. Would you want to change that traumatic incident then? 

I believe, all the changes that happen in our life happen for a reason. If you stop and analyse, you became stronger after every storm that you faced. What didn't kill you, made you stronger.You acquired the courage to face the challenges head on. Nothing can stop you now.

If you have read the latest offering from JK Rowling, you would have read about the effect of choices in one's life. A single event can change our present/future. As we are all connected beings, a change in my life might automatically effect yours. 

All in all,  I feel our past should be left unblemished. It is better off where it belongs, firmly in the past. Let us not allow it to cast shadows in our present or future.

You are the writer of your own story. You can visit your past. Would you change your past?

Seven Companions who Matter

We arrive in this world alone and we leave this world alone. During our short sojourn on earth, we depend on others to make us feel alive. But do we really need companions?

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I believe we do. From the moment we begin our lives, our characters are molded by the people we are surrounded by. Subconsciously we absorb the feedback we get from the ones we spend our time with and also formulate our habits to please them. The voices that echo in our heads are often the voices of these companions. Our self-talk is created by the output we receive from them. We classify ourselves as good, capable or bad based on their comments. They can make us or break us.

We acquire different sorts of companions during different phases in our lives. Let us look at six groups of them.

1)  Parents: The first responsible person in an individual’s life is always a parent. An overly protective parent, a tyrant or a well-balanced individual; each bring out a different personality trait in a child. A traumatic childhood under a parent who gave emotional scars to the child often creates a depressed and timid individual who is scared to face the world. Our childhood memories also define how we will be as parents when we take on the role later on in life.

2)  Grandparents: The best memories of any child are often of the time spent with their grandparents. These are the people who pamper them and who assume the next prominent position in moulding the child. Lack of love or cruelty from this group usually scar the child forever.

3)  Siblings: After the parents, come the siblings of an individual. Except in very rare cases, most of us face sibling rivalry. If they are nearer to our age, the more the chances that we will hate their very existence. They give us our first mental messages. You are a loser/ cheater/liar. We try to please them and try constantly to be in their good books if they are elder and try to rule them if they are younger. We get majorly influenced by these companions. But when there is love between the siblings, the bond plays a major role in the development of the child. The first lessons in love, sharing and caring are often given by siblings.

4)  Friends: Once we start going out to play and later on pre-school, we meet and make new friends. They become our next critics, our idols and a major factor in shaping our character. If a child faces bullying early on in life, they become scared of being among people, they inevitably turn to be timid introverts. But if they get a peer group that is encouraging, they are always ready to go out in the world and conquer. Friends change according to the different phases in life and each group is responsible for planting a new set of ideas.

5)  Teachers: Human beings remain students for the first quarter of their lives. A very skilled teacher can change a student forever by providing the apt encouragement and push in the right direction. A cruel teacher by crushing the self-confidence of the student can adversely affect his/her character development. I believe hence that the role of a teacher is the most important one in society.

6)  Spouse: When one gets married, we often believe every word uttered by our spouse. If they praise us, we believe it. We heart their comments. We are broken by their harsh criticism. Often people change after marriage. Some become a pale shadow of their former selves while some others bloom into better individuals. Everything depends on the environment we create in our married life. It is useless to cling on to a relationship that is killing you from the inside just for keeping up appearances in the society.

7)  Children: We reach the beginning of the companionship cycle here, but now the role is reversed. Some become wonderful parents, while some others should not be allowed miles near a child even if they are the birth parents. Some fail to cope up with the pressures that parenting brings, while some others shine.

In our lifetime, these companions provide the lessons we need to learn. We are souls having a human experience. The companions we acquire are said to be pre-decided according to the lessons the soul wish to learn during this lifetime. If the companionship is based on love, we bloom. If hatred exists between the companions, we shrink and die out.

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with says motivational speaker and Guru Jim Rohn. Do you agree with this statement? Which companion has been the major influence in your life?

A Walk to Remember...

Childhood

Do you remember those blissful days of your childhood?

The innocent blabbering. The little discoveries. Silly fights. Misty mornings and enchanting sunsets. My most most cherished memories till date.

I remember many of those cheerful images fondly. Time has diminished their clarity but their undiminished charm enthralls me.

Visiting my village last summer and travelling through those very lanes and fields which held many of those sweet memories was cathartic and in a sense rejuvenating.

My state is known as God's Own Country and is renown for its geographic and biological diversity. My village is a quaint little coastal one with its vast paddy fields and undulating landscapes. Rivers and streams meander lazily in between them. It is green most of the time and mid-May brings in the summer rains which lasts until August.

When I decided to set out on an evening walk along the narrow bunds in the paddy fields, my niece and nephew along with my son were excited to join me. Though my niece and nephew lived there and quite often took these kinds of walks, my son was thrilled to be walking along the serene paddy fields, after the hustle and bustle of the city he was used to.

The view which greeted us was this.

A walk through the paddy fields

My son enjoyed the trip the most as he had a roller coaster ride, cozily perched on my hip. He would squeal and laugh whenever I slipped in the slush and splashed mud all over my skirt. Twice my slippers got stuck in the mud. We somehow managed to reach the coconut and palm grove which bordered the field and from where a pukka concrete road led towards our house.

Coconut and palm grove

The whole trip was reminiscent of my childhood days. Walking through the muddy fields merely for the pleasure of it, chasing each other, mistaking the depths of the waterlogged fields and almost falling. Ah... How badly I wish those days were back again.

The fields mostly remained the same but the wide bunds which used to serve as walkways through the fields are gone now. With concrete roads going around the fields to every nook and corner of the village, everyone avoided the short cut through the fields. But alas, it lacked the charm of the walk through the green fields crisscrossed with small streams, meant to drain out the excess water.

Technology has deprived the kids of the joys of nature these days. Especially the city kids. My son had preferred to sit on the bridge and play a mobile game much to my disappointment, while his cousins had enjoyed catching fishes and splashing each other in the village stream.

  

I sat amid the greenery and meditated for a few minutes. I removed my slippers and enjoyed the cool  caressing breeze and tranquil atmosphere. I think I need to seek out such pleasures every now and then.

Sunset 

The sun had already begun to set by this time and we began our return journey. The kids triumphant as they had managed to catch a few nano-sized fishes.

We returned after our adventure,  tired and muddy but with a rejuvenated mind and soul. 

Are your children meeting their growth milestones?

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Physiological and psychological development of one’s child is the most ambitious dream of every parent. We want our kids to become happy, healthy and intelligent. An asset to any society.

The present decade gives a lot of importance to parenting as it is a significant aspect in social growth.
Parents either make or break a kid. Careless parenting damages the psyche and overall development of a child. It is crucial to realize that as parents we are in charge of the future of our kids.

I left my high-paying civil engineering job after the birth of my son. It was a choice I made and there was no pressure from any side to influence my decision. I had a carefree childhood. There isn’t any fearful childhood memory or trauma as I always had elders like grandparents, uncles, and aunts who took care of me even though my parents were both working. As we live away from our relatives now, my son is deprived of their presence. I didn’t want to throw him into a daycare and allow him to remain at the mercy of strangers. Career was given a backseat. My child became my priority.

The initial months of being a mother were filled with confusion.  Like any newbie mother, I was scared that a mistake on my part would bring about a permanent damage to my delicate darling. Luckily my sister and brother are both doctors and I would turn to them often for advice. They used to tell me about the importance of right nutrition. I would carefully create the broths, porridges and soups to feed my son so that he got all the necessary vitamins and minerals.

After the first year, he became a fussy eater. Once he joined pre-school, nutritious meals under my care became a thing of the past. The lunch boxes usually would return uneaten from the school and there would be forever complaints that he doesn’t like food.

At home, I made the kind of foods that he liked. He loves warm and less spicy food. By lunch time in school, it would have turned cold and he would refuse to eat it saying it is not tasty. As a result, I feared that his growth will suffer. Then I began to send curd rice or boiled vegetables, pulses, grams which he liked to eat. This kind of began to balance the nutrition requirements.

It is paramount that children should catch up on growth. Thus we introduced him to health drinks. The only health drink he liked was Horlicks. The favorite flavor was chocolate.

His pediatrician informs us that his weight and height is in line with the established standards. Many parents are recommending Horlicks Growth+ to me. I want to try it as Horlicks is a trusted brand since generations. I used to love my glass of Horlicks. I even used to eat it directly from the bottle. To eat it stealthily away from the eyes of my eagle-eyed parents was bliss.

Horlicks Growth+ has been designed and tested by experts and is proven to increase height & weight in 6 months1. In fact, this balanced nutritional supplement has been developed to optimize growth without causing obesity in children.

To find out whether your child is meeting his/her growth milestones, visit the website https://growthplus.horlicks.in/

Mysore Zoo: Fantastico

(My son watching elephants)

 On the last Sunday of 2015, we went on a fantastico trip. A trip to the Mysore Zoo with our seven-year-old son.

He had been demanding that we visit the Zoo where he had heard he could see all the animals that he had only seen in pictures or on the television. He also wanted to observe the birds towards which he had developed an interest.

Black Swan

After travelling for nearly four hours, we reached the Mysore Zoo and even I could feel the excitement, of seeing animals up close that too in their natural habitat, building inside me. The little child that hid inside the veil of a grown up was slowly peeking out. As it was very hot and sunny, we equipped ourselves with hats. I purchased a cowboy hat and my son exclaimed I looked like a cow girl! Fantastico!

Sambar Deer

As it was the Christmas vacation, there were plenty of people waiting to get inside. Long queues of school kids in uniforms were being guided around by harried teachers. Invariably my mind wandered to those days when I had gone on school trips and alongside arrived memories of the pranks, the crushes, the laughter and the punishments!

We were asked to dispose whatever plastic item that we carried at a counter as plastic was banned inside the zoo. The packet of biscuits I had inside my bag was transferred into a paper bag supplied by them. I was impressed. They truly cared for the animals.

Rhinocerus

The Mysore zoo is one of the most popular and was well maintained Zoos in India. It is spread over 157 acres and hosts over 168 different species of animals. It was created in 1892 by the then King Chameraja Wodeyar as the Palace Zoo.

There are battery operated cars inside the Zoo that will take you around if walking is not your forte. We preferred walking. My son who is the laziest when it comes to walking proved us wrong. He surprised us with his enthusiasm by hopping around in search of animals reading aloud their names, habitats, food habits and sometimes even the individual names. 

White Swans

We walked around and rested in between on the benches. The cool, green canopy of trees was a pleasant experience after being huddled inside the car for hours. Unlike other zoos where the stench of animal dung and urine makes you want to puke, the Mysore Zoo was different and gave the experience of being inside a forest. The added benefit was that we could watch the animals at close range.

Giraffe

Our favorites were the swans, the deer, the rhinos, the giraffes and the colorful birds. Fun moment was when my son asked for the Rasam deer after he saw the Sambar deer. My son screamed when he saw the ‘Exit’ board and wanted to go back once again. But, our stomachs were rumbling and our legs refused to walk any further. With promises to return, we made him agree to walk out of the Zoo. All in all, we came out of the Zoo smiling.

The good Kerala restaurant outside the Zoo saw to our food needs and we were more than happy tasting some homely food away from home.

Everyday my son wakes up asking when we are going to Mysore Zoo again. And we say, very soon!

P.S: all photos used are mine.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Six Habits We Can Learn From Kids

My son busy playing

(I was invited to contribute to the website,  www.worldofmoms.com recently. This is my second article for them.)

Children can teach us many things. Usually we learn many of our virtues once we become a parent. We learn to be patient, we learn to be better cooks and we learn to multi task. But there are habits that are unique to kids that will help us become better human beings. Let me list six of them.

1)  To be happy in the moment:

Kids are always happy and find ways to remain so. They can play with their LEGO blocks for hours together without getting bored. They can play ball with their friends, unmindful of time or weather. Once we grow up, we learn to become the worriers, the strategists who will always live either ruing over the past, which is gone or worrying about a future, which has not yet come.

2)  Try, Try, Try again:

Have you ever seen a kid who stops playing a game because he/she is not good at it? They persist until they succeed. They have this unique gift of remaining focussed on their item of interest that they will try to master it repeatedly. We can take a leaf out of their book to learn this.

3)  To look at new things with enthusiasm

Kids like to experiment with new things, and show a unique enthusiasm. Every change is interesting for them. Take them to a new shop, mall or park they look around with enthusiasm. They look forward to meet new friends, play at a new park and adjust to things like ducks to water. We grownups worry over every single change that we have to face. Wouldn’t it be nice to learn this virtue from them?

Read the rest of the article HERE

Some Amazing Websites for Kids

Kids learn fast when the lessons are taught through song and dance.

There are some amazing websites online, which helped me educate my son. A few minutes a day goes a long way in developing their interest in learning.

Some of my son's favorite websites are:

1) Starfall.com

2) KidsTV ( A YouTube Channel)

This channel in youtube has the most melodious Alphabet and Phonic songs. Also there are videos that teaches about colours, shapes, addition, multiplication, etc.

3) Curious George from Pbskids: Learn through Games.

4) Alphablocks from Cbeebies: There is a TV show as well as games online.

It is an amusing show. The Alphablocks come together, tell them what sound they makes and then join together to form words. They also show what the word means..!!

5) Numtums from Cbeebies

6) Nursery Rhymes: Mother Goose Club( YouTube Channel):

There are many more such websites. 

With Google, Knowledge is just a few clicks away.

Hope these links help.