Ten Minutes — Pregnancy Activity Book | 60 Activities, 90 Pages

Ten minutes that are hers

Around the fourth month, the days fill up with other people's questions. How are you feeling? Are you eating properly? When is the next check-up? All of it is kind. None of it is a quiet moment of her own. Ten Minutes is a pregnancy activity book for months 4 to 9. It has 60 small things to do with her own hands, ten minutes at a time. Every page is a title, one short instruction and a drawing. She does one, puts the book down, and those ten minutes are hers. Here is what is inside, kind by kind.

• 15 for both hands together. Each is printed across two facing pages.
• 8 to look at closely. Find the odd one, count the shapes, spot what has changed.
• 5 look-and-recall pages. Look at a grid, cover it, then mark or draw what you saw.
• 5 about shapes and space. Mazes, a half to mirror, a shape to turn around.
• 8 for slow tracing. Spirals, a labyrinth, pattern fills.
• 8 quiet pages. Six mandalas, a pattern blanket, a breathing line.
• 6 of word play. A word search, a crossword, riddles and more.
• 5 to write on. Her own words, with nobody checking.

Her ten minutes, and a letter to the baby

Many families have a name for the way they think about these months: Garbh Sanskar. The Garbh Sanskar tradition holds that what a mother sees, hears and does in these months reaches her child. That is the tradition's belief, and we pass it on as the tradition's, not as a promise of ours. What the book itself asks of her is simple. Ten quiet minutes with a drawing in front of her and a pen in her hand. And near the end, a page to write A Letter to My Baby, to be opened on the first birthday.

Both hands, across the open book

15 of the activities need both hands, so each one is printed across two facing pages. The left page is for the left hand. The right page is for the right hand. Her two hands hold the book open. The first one is the simplest: “Write the same number with both hands at the same time. Start with 5, then 10, then 100.” Further on, two forefingers wind out along a spiral together, the left hand counts in threes while the right counts in fours, and mirror-twin letters are traced at once. It feels odd for the first minute. After that it is just two hands and a page.

The quieter pages

The other 45 activities need one hand and a pen. Use pencils or colour pencils for the mandalas; any pen will do for the rest. “Colour one in a sitting. There is no right way and nothing to finish.” That is the first of six mandalas. The last is the most detailed in the book, and it can take a week. Between them are mazes where slower is better than faster, spirals that wind in to the centre, and a labyrinth with one way in and no wrong turns. One page is a breathing line to trace, wave by wave. The word pages come from the house and the season: pillow, blanket, mango, balcony.

Pages for her own words

• Ten Minutes That Were Mine. A tick grid, twelve weeks to a page. “One tick for every day you took ten minutes for yourself. Twelve weeks, no streak to keep.”
• Today I Could, Today I Couldn't. One line a day, in either column. Either column can stay empty.
• Things Nobody Told Me. “A page for what you actually found out. Nobody will read it.”
• The Question List. Questions for the doctor, written down as they come and ticked off once asked.
• A Letter to My Baby. “Write a letter to your baby, to be opened on the first birthday. Put the opening date at the top.”

Who it is for, and as a gift

• For her. She does not need to be good at puzzles, or to have a free hour. A chair, a pen and ten minutes are enough.
• From her husband. If you are not sure what to give, this is a book she can pick up on a tired evening. Every page says what to do, so there is nothing to explain.
• From her mother, sister or friend. Something other than advice: a thing for her to hold and fill in.
• For the godh bharai. At a godh bharai, much of what arrives is for the baby. This one is for her. A B5 paperback is easy to wrap, and the title page begins “This book belongs to”, so her name can go there. If the ceremony has a date, order in good time; the dispatch note is at the foot of this page.

What it is not

• Not medical advice. The book says so itself: “These are recreational activities. They are not medical advice and do not replace anything your doctor tells you.”
• Not a health claim. “No health benefit is claimed for these activities, for you or for your baby.”
• Not a course. No lessons, no levels, no timetable.
• Not a test. Nothing is scored or timed. The book is undated: start anywhere, skip anything. A missed day is just an empty box. The answers are at the back, and looking is allowed.
• Stop whenever you need to. “If an activity is uncomfortable, stop. Sit in whatever way is comfortable for you.”

Please note — this book is being printed now. Dispatch is approximately 4 to 6 weeks from the date of your order.