AWESOME is an understatement!!!

Awesome Street Drummer

Came across this video and was thoroughly entertained!!! You'd understand why after you've watched it for yourself... 

Such great talent this guy has!!! So don't try to stop your child from playing with your pots and pans you'd never know what kind of hidden talent they might have... *wink*

Homeschooling Fun

Check out on what have we been up to recently at Homeschooling Fun... we simply have TOO MUCH FUN and too little time!!! *wink*

I am into gardening...

I am definitely not one with green fingers... but I know my mother is teehehe...anyways, what got me interested in gardening was a recent newspaper report about how some people turned their balcony into a mini vegetable/fruit garden... how cool!

The visit to Oh's Hydroponic Farm, got me really psyched up in planting some nice herbs for my cooking...
When I saw the little seedlings sprouting out, I leaped with joy that I've "successfully" planted something that's useful... *smile*
But some didn't grow well, just like this pot of Dill... I am wondering if it'd ever survive another week...anyways, that didn't kill the flame of my interest in gardening...
I got myself another two pots of herbs (Rosemary and Thyme) during my second visit to the Oh's Farm... and I've even baked a chicken with the two herbs I've bought.
Recently bought some more seeds from a DIY shop and decided to plant some more fruit and vegetables... made some plant labels and was all ready to work on planting! *grin*
I guess I am a practical person... I like to plant things that I could finally consume or have some good use of instead of admiring... so all that I've planted are all edible... *smile*... and there's my little herb, vegetable and fruit garden...

Ok am crossing fingers and toes tight now that they will all survive under my brown fingers... *wink*

Little Missy's New Toy - Paper Doll

I remember when I was little, I used to be crazy about paper dolls... and those days the paper dolls were a great way for imaginative and dramatic play for us...

The other day, while blog hopping, I discovered a mother making paper dolls with her little girl's face on it and thought Little Missy might be interested to have a set of her own paper dolls with her face on them *smile*

I googled and found loads of wonderful sites with free paper doll downloads. I just replaced the face of the paper doll with Little Missy's and printed them out. I had them laminated to keep it durable and added some velcro tape on all the elements... and voila!!!

Little Missy had so much fun with her own paper doll set... even Tim wanted a set of his own... *LOL*

Simply Homecooked - Secret Recipe

I am a lover of chicken winglets... cook it in any style it will always remain my favourite :)

Just a couple of weeks ago, I discovered a wonderful recipe that my dad handed to me... the chicken wings were simply delicious and the best part was it's soooooooo CRISPY and it's not even deep fried... cool!~

The secret to frying crispy chicken wings was actually so simple... hehehe...I used to think corn flour worked pretty well for me... but rice flour was even better! It didn't cause the fried chicken wings to turn soggy even after leaving it out for a while...

Here's the ingredients -
1 packet chicken mid-wing (approximately 600gms)
Rice Flour *(secret ingredient)
Bread Crumps (Japanese)
1 Egg beaten

Marinate for the chicken wings -
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
A few dashes of pepper

Method of Preparation -
Step 1) Marinate the chicken for over 2 hours
Step 2) Dip chicken wings into rice flour
Step 3) Dip chicken wings into beaten egg
Step 4) Dip chicken wings into bread crumps
Step 5) Leave the chicken wings to set for an hour
Step 6) Heat oil on high heat
Step 7) Lower the fire to medium and start pan-frying the chicken wings
Step 8) After the chicken wings have turned golden brown remove from pan and drain off oil
Step 9 ) Serve with dijonnaise or mayonnaise

Bon Appetit!

Messy Fun - 30 Day Challenge (Day 28-30)

We are into the Ocean Theme for our Messy Fun art activities... and since our hermit crab activity we continued with the following art activities -

Day 28 - Mr Seahorse
Base on Eric Carle's Mr Seahorse, we worked on this piece of art using a seahorse template and glitter glue... the kids rubbed the entire seahorse with glitter glue and pasted a googly eyes to add interest to the entire piece of art work... *FUN*

Day 29 - Jellyfish
The daddy was back after work when we were about to start this messy art activity... and he joined the kids to have some family bonding time together... *contented*

Simple art using cupcake paper liners and some raffia strings... instead of using googly eyes, I printed some "craft eyes" using hard card stock for the kids' use...
And here's the final pieces of art... not bad huh? *smile*

Day 30 - Puffy Fish
Finger printing for the scales of the fishes - back and front... the kids were more interested in mixing the colours of the ink pad... *grin*
Stapling the two sides of the fish together and stuffing some tissues in between to "puff up" the fish... extremely messy due to the ink being smeared all over the table...fortunately the ink were water soluble... it was a breeze to clean, really...

While the 30 day challenge has ended, we will continue with our messy fun daily... this time, I've ensured that I keep to a timetable of activities within the day... no more excuses for me to skive on a daily activity with my kids from now on... *smile*

Invigorate Your Senses

We've found a new place of outdoor fun where the kids have vast amount of space to run and expend those boundless energy at...
The Toa Payoh Sensory Park... it's a brand new park that has been in constructions for an extremely looooooooooong time (no exaggeration!)... I am so glad that it's finally opened...though the park isn't quite completed yet...
The kids never did gotten anywhere else in the park except for this playground on that day that we visited... was really quite delighted that there's finally a playground that's designed for kids age 2 to 12!!!
Part of the sensory element in the playground came from such manipulatives that the kids could engaged themselves in... let the pictures tell the story...


I walked through this gallery of snippets of Toa Payoh...and I got to know more about the history about Toa Payoh... not a bad idea... stimulation of the visual senses and perhaps the emotional senses too?
The plants and flowers are so BEAUTIFUL... very manicured and well trimmed... signs of a brand new park! *smile* Definitely not complaining... at least we have another place to go to if we are sick of the Toa Payoh Town Park... nature that's within our estate is really not a bad idea of nature fun at all...

Nice little space for morning exercises or even those evening strolls after dinner... suitable for a lovers' park too *wink*... no wonder this park is named a 3 generation park! A place for everybody!

Worth a visit... *smile*

Homeschool Official Opening :)

We have finally started... hop over to Homeschooling Fun to check out on the details! :)

Birthday Party!

How time flies... watching the kids grow day-by-day, it's beginning to don on me that I am truly getting old...

We celebrated Caitlin's birthday last Friday... she just turned 3 year-old... can't help but to reminisce the time when I first knew Adeline and her little girl... it's been a good one year now...

It's great that we've come this far together with our children... *smile*... cheers to many more years to come in our walk as play date mates as well as SAHMs...

Messy Fun - 30 Day Challenge (Day 25-27)

Day 25 - Planting
Have always like my kids to learn more about plants and how they grow... however, I have "brown fingers"... all the plants that come under my hands never quite make it for very long... so I've quite given up hope that I could grow any plants well at all...

Then there was a glimpse of hope for people like me, to grow a little garden of our own... *smile*... try the hydroponic method of planting! The guy who sold me this kit from Oh's Farm, assured me that anybody with no green fingers can grow plants using the hydroponic method - the best part of it all... no watering of the plants is required!!! That was the catalyst to my purchasing this hydroponic herb kit (costed SGD10). It came with four different types of herb seeds (Lemon Balm, Dill, Sweet Basil and Italian Parsley), two bottles of nutrients (in solution form), a pack of vermiculite (looks like soil but not), 4 pots and a styrofoam box to store water... voila!!! I have my little herb garden!
The eager beavers... my kids were extremely curious about planting...
We have the vermiculite all over the place when the two of them tried to fill the little pots up...


Day 5 of planting the seeds, we saw the Sweet Basil sprouting tiny little seedlings... can you imagine the sense of "achievement" I experienced? *LOL*...And here's the little garden, on day 7... while the Sweet Basil grew very quickly and healthily, the rest of the seeds were slow in germinating... we saw skinny Dill seedlings sprouting out, and discovered some roots pushing out of the Lemon Balm...while the Italian Parsley is still "hibernating"...

The kids were excited about these plants...everyday, they'd hover around the garden and see how much the plants have grown... *smile*... isn't nature wonderful? *wink*

Day 26 - Hermit Crabs
Have decided to take a different approach in these messy fun art... by supplementing the activity with a story reading...
on this day, we read the book "A House for Hermit Crab"...
The kids get to work on this eye-hand coordinating + building of fine motorskills activity... The mosaic activity page... the kids were to fill the empty circles with the label stickers.
Next they worked on a hermit crab craft using paper plate, googly eyes and some colouring materials.
Tim enthusiastically squeezed out lots of craft glue just for those googly eyes...
The end product... *smile*
How can I deny a boy of a photo with his bestest friend, Chicky... *smile*

Day 27 - If You Give A Mouse A Cookie
We read the story, we worked on a simple cut and paste craft... and then we...

played a rhyme game together... simple, easy and fun! Noticed how Tim tried to make me reveal where the mouse was hidden only at the very end... *smile*

Puppet Fun

Yeah... I've been "poisoned" by the procrastinating bug again... and the repercussions of it? Loads and loads of photos and stuff to update... *fainted*

Anyways, lets begin with this activity that was done like a couple of weeks ago (yeah that long, I know)...

Puppetry... Tim was recently keen on puppeteer-ing... he started using his stuffed toys as his puppets and not long after, my dear friend, Jenny, loaned us this set of Itty Bitty Puppet Show game set.
This activity encourages a child to make mini-puppets that are just the right size for little fingers. Included in this small little game set is a fold out stage for role playing with the puppets, a great opportunity for socialization and definitely with added imaginative play value.
I love it that this game set comes along with a story book with many stories in it for the kids to manipulate the puppets as the story is being read.

That night, we acted the story on "The Mighty mighty dragon and the Teeny Tiny Toad"... though Tim wasn't quite following along the story-line, we had a lot of fun as a family anyways... *smile*
We put up a small little stage of our own, using two kiddy chairs and a blanket over the back of the chairs... Tim really had a blast that night!
The father and son puppeteers behind the scenes teehehe... great family bonding game I honestly feel!

Top 10 Reasons Why I Homeschool

#1 - To instill my values and beliefs in my children

#2 - To meet my children's unique individual needs

#3 - To instill in my children a lifelong love for learning - learning is fun!

#4 - To build intimate and meaningful relationships with my children

#5 - Share with my children the common, everyday joys of life

#6 - Help my children wrestle with the hard questions they face

#7 - Show my children daily how much I love them

#8 - Be there when my children need me most

#9 - Be my children's mentor, spiritual leader, role model, friend and teacher

#10- Protect my children from the negative influences they may encounter outside the home

*These top 10 reasons convicted me when I read it from Sonlight's website.

The Butterfly Lodge

Recently discovered this wonderful place at Oh's Farm and have been wanting to bring the kids to have a first hand experience amidst fluttering butterflies (not just one or two butterflies... but hundreds of butterflies fluttering around)...it's a great place of learning for the little ones...
I have never been to a place where there are hundreds of butterflies surrounding me... but today, I've seen how beautiful these little creatures are... it's definitely different from those one or two fleeting butterflies we see in the parks/gardens where we could hardly take a good look at any of them before they take off...
My friend, Adeline, brought along a booklet describing the different species of butterflies, and we could identify a few of them... something the kids could learn too *smile*
I witnessed a butterfly "sipping" nectar from this flower... isn't it cool? A pity that the resolution of this picture has been reduced, otherwise you could also see the butterfly in action.
Each of us brought a few caterpillars home and to our surprise some of them have already turned upside down ready to become a chrysalis... Tim was so eager, kept asking why isn't the butterflies out yet... *LOL*

Isn't nature great? Isn't there lots to learn from nature? Isn't it fun that you don't have to think or create any lesson plans and the kids could still learn and experience what's before their eyes? *grin* Nature studies, way to go! I am loving it!

Sew-and-Sew

Little girls' jumper dress... it's so easy to sew... I've completed two in one day... *smile*
Little Missy can't resist putting them on when she saw it hung on the side *smile*
I've attached little pom-pom trimming at the bottom of the dress... it look absolutely cute
and the polka dot lining...oooh simply girly... this is by far one of my most satisfied work... *wink*
Here's the second jumper dress I've sewn... love the lime green fabric... got it from one of my fabric swap partners... it's just a fat quarter so just the ideal size for the bodice of this dress...

Instead of regular buttons on the shoulder strap I attached snaps and embellished it with fabric yo-yo in front... *grin*
Love love love the lace at the bottom of the lining... completed the dress with so much femininity *smile*

Smells Fishy...

Remember sometime ago I shared about my purchase of the Nordic Children's DHA? Well, recently, a friend asked me if the Nordic Children's DHA did work on my kids... to be honest, I can't really tell if it has worked or not on my kids... as I couldn't see the significance difference in my children...

I'd like to however, remember the benefits of fish oil that both hubby and I have taken time to check out on. I guess, as parents, we'd do anything for our children... that is for the benefit of them...not just the short term but the long term as well *smile*

1) Better Brain Function and Higher Intelligence. Pregnant and nursing mothers can have a great impact on the intelligence and happiness of their babies by supplementing with fish oil. For adults, omega 3 improves memory, recall, reasoning and focus. You'll swear you're getting younger and smarter.

2) Lower Incidence of Childhood Disorders. Just to show how fish oil fatty acids leave nobody out, studies show that children (and adults) with ADD and ADHD experience a greatly improved quality of life. And those with dyslexia, dyspraxia and compulsive disorders have gotten a new lease on life thanks to omega 3 oils.

(excerpt from Ezine Articles)

Here's an article in the NY Times "Feeling Good About Fish Oil" you might like to check out on *smile*

The long and short of it, fish oil definitely has its merits but we'd have to ensure that what our kids consume is of the purest and least contaminated fish oil. As these days fishes are prone to toxic contaminants due to the pollution in the sea.

I've just placed my new order of Nordic Children's DHA over at iHerb. And am once again sharing the advantage of ordering your bottle of Nordic fish oil from iHerb. It's definitely going to save you at least 30-40% off the retail price that's sold in Singapore. Even with the shipping cost included there's still going to be a huge savings. The delivery through USPS takes only about a week to arrive. Easy and safe!

For first time customers of iHerb, you could place your order and enjoy a US$5 off your purchase by entering this code MAM357 before your check out.

Good things are always worth sharing!!! *smile*

Nursery University?

Is it crazy or is it necessary? *smile* check out the trailer of a documentary... who would have imagined in their wildest dreams that getting into nursery schools would have been more difficult than getting into Harvard...

I've chosen the route less travelled... homeschool... *smile* to be away from the rat race is my choice!

Sew Much To Sew

Sew Red
Little Red Riding Hood cape completed! Love that the cape is reversible and the red polka dotted lining makes the cape sweet and cute! *smile*

Sew Casual
Visited the Jshoppers shopping site recently and was inspired to sew something cute and simple for Little Missy. She's growing so quickly that I need to sew more new clothes for her...

Really need to squeeze more time to sew for the kids... Tim has requested for a blanket to be sewn for him... another item in my to-do list now... *smile*

Homeschool Prep Work

I've been busy, extremely busy! That's partly the reason of my silence in the blog recently...
I am in the heat of prep work for our homeschool journey and I must confess it isn't easy at all...discussing, planning, researching, preparing of materials... gosh! so much to do so little time *smile* it's however, enjoyable... doing something that's so fun it isn't a chore at all.
In the week of our prep work, the kids were given a simple art & craft to work on. A "prelude" to what is to come? The piece of art was based on the story "The Mixed Up Chameleon".
And here's something that I am very proud of!!! A Days of the Week chart that I made. This is in preparation for our very first lesson that is based on the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"... going to teach the kids the days of the week as well as the weather... *sigh of contentment*... I am getting all excited about our new journey!!!

Messy Fun - 30 Day Challenge (Day 23-24)

Amidst my very busy schedule, I try to make time for messy fun challenge activities with the kids... the kids hardly ever reject such art time with me :)

Day 23 - Mosaic Art
Here's a mosaic art that we did using coloured paper...
Glue and mess is just what the children enjoyed most *smile*

Day 24 - Bubble Paint
What's more interesting than bubbles? Mix some detergent, food colouring (or you may use tempera paint) and water you're ready to have fun!

The two kids played with this art for over an hour... not a bad activity I feel...

I Found a Gem!!!

Was in the midst of researching for some materials for our homeschool base on the book "The Carrot Seed" and quite by accident I found myself a wonderful gem of all gems!!!
Just when hubby and I were discussing about playing audio books in the car during our travelling time on the road, I found this wonderful resource.

I heard "The Carrot Seed" on audio and it's so cute that I believe the kids would benefit from listening to it. Spare me from having to be the only one reading all the time, the kids could listen to other story tellers for a change... *smile*

I am a sucker for classic children's stories and the Kiddie Records Weekly is just the right place where I could uncover loads of stories that I like. Perfect way for making audio books cds for the kids to listen to as well...
We will be using the literature base approach in our homeschool journey and these audio books come in just right on time! In this site I've also found the audio version of the story "Madeline"... *sigh of contentment*

Hope you'd be able to find something suitable too through this website... the MP3 are completely free for download! ENJOY!!!

We Saw Dinosaurs!!!

Was at Plaza Singapura shopping earlier this week, and discovered that there's a fair on X-ploring Dino Trails going on. I knew Tim would be thrilled if he could have a "close encounter" with some live size dinos...

Brought the two kids to Plaza Singapura today, Tim was able to appreciate it better than Little Missy... great to take a look if you need some ideas of where to bring your kids to. The fair will end this weekend.

There are lots of activities for children age 5-12 to explore and learn from. One of them being this stall that sells "dino fossils" in clay where the kids could play pretend as a Paleontologist... I didn't get a set as I thought Tim was too young for this... he can't even handle the chisel and hammer well to get the fossil out teehehe...so playing with the demo set was good enough for the kid.
And here's a glimpse of how the dinos look like... very "realistic" complete with sound effects... Little Missy was scared to tears and have to be brought out of sight...

A New Journey has Begun...

We've started our homeschool curriculum planning this week. Here's a glimpse of the process and a little peek into what we might be doing... :)

The past two weeks, I've been rather busy preparing all the materials for our new journey... more updates about it later...

Homeschooling really keeps the parent/person delivering the curriculum very busy... but all for a good reason! *smile*

Little Red Riding Hood - in the making

Received an urgent order for a red cape... sounds like fun to me...

Hope to have it made within this week... *fingers crossed tight* stay tuned for the end product!

Simply Homecooked - Chicken Biriyani

Chicken Biriyani, one of my favourite Indian cuisine... something that I've been dying to learn how to make... *grin*...

Was at the wet market one morning and discovered a new Indian stall at the market selling the Garam Masala... that's when I jumped right at it to try making my very own Chicken Biriyani.

I had initially thought that the Garam Masala was a premix like Prima Taste... much to my dismay it wasn't... I still had to prepare the biriyani from scratch *fainted*

Googled for the Chicken Biriyani's recipe... and I used a combination of these two recipes - recipe 1 and recipe 2 (with modification made). I didn't put chicken meat into the rice while cooking, instead I prepared a separate curry chicken dish.

Do you think it turned out well? Not quite to be honest. The rice was too soggy, the curry chicken was too bland... eventhough the aroma of the spices filled the entire kitchen... it didn't taste as good.

I shall try it again in a few weeks' time... I'll make sure I add sufficient salt, and I shall use the rice cooker to cook the rice instead... *smile*

Messy Fun - 30 Day Challenge (Day 20-22)

I've been procrastinating... not sure why... perhaps there were just too many photos... it was also a vicious cycle... as I procrastinate I've more updates to do... well anyways... here were some of the stuff we did the past week...

Day 20 - Happy Cookie Baking
Since it was Tim's last term in school, I've been wanting to bake some stuff for his teachers in appreciation of the time and patience they've put into taking care of Tim the past two terms...
Got the cookie dough prepared and let the kids have some hands-on fun in making cookies...
Though the cookies weren't perfectly cut, but I like it that every piece of cookie had a character of its own... *smile* as usual... it's the process that mattered!
An eager beaver who couldn't sit still to wait for the cookies to be baked... I am sure he felt a sense of accomplishment as he knew these cookies were for his teachers and he was rather involved in the entire process. *grin*

Day 21 - Fabric Drawing and Blot Butterflies
Something new to both the kids and myself... fabric drawing... I'd imagine this to be something rather fun...
Little Missy was curious how such crayons could be made permanent on a piece of fabric...
Tim wasn't too enthusiastic about drawing on fabric as the fabric moved along with every stroke that he made on it... (read: frustrating)

5 minutes into this art, the kids decided to abandon it totally... they weren't enticed when I told them that I was going to sew their drawings into pillow cases... -_-

Decided to whip out some paints to do blot painting...something that was in the list that I've wanted to do for a while... I like it that there was a surprise element involved in this form of art...
These recycle paint pots were perfect for this art. I put one colour into each paint pot and placed an eye-dropper into each one...
This certainly caught the kids attention more than fabric drawing... *smile*
Little Missy's satisfied look would have given you a clue as to how happy she was while working on this piece of art...
A surprise awaiting Tim as he peeled open the blot paint work...
VOILA!!! Beautiful butterfly revealed!

Day 22 - Lazy Mom's Art
Was too lazy to whip up all the prep work for this day's Messy Fun Challenge... decided to just let the kids have some fun with simple painting... well, fun prevailed nevertheless... *grin*