Messy Fun - Different Method

We tried puffy paint once again... but this is something new to Little Missy... the messy part was fun... really fun...even I joined in teehehe...

This media is interesting as it dries up very quickly...and when it dries up on our hands, it can be easily peeled off our hands...
See, there we have Tim, peeling out the bits of paint off his hands... thus creating the huge mess on the table... while Little Missy watch on and tried to clean the paint off her hands with a rag.
We tried chalk drawing again... albeit with a twist. I added water onto the floor and the kids drew with the chalk on the wet surface. Love the vibrant colours that jumped out on the wet surface. It was like powdered paint with water blend together...

This is fun... I can't help but kept drawing on the floor while Tim was busy cleaning off everything that I drew with his slipper *faint*
Then of course, the kids can't just leave the dirty floor without "cleaning up"... it was more of water play than cleaning up after their own mess... teehehe...

On the whole, I like this activity as it was a breeze when it comes to cleaning up...

Home Learning Activities...

Finally, gotten my homeschool blog updated. Can't believe I've procrastinated for over 2 months to get it updated... gosh... 

Anyways, hop over to Homeschooling Fun to see details :)

Something I've Learned...

Received a new custom made order and also picked up a new lesson in between... details at Lilhandmades... *smile*

The Gate is Open - Finally!

After 7 months of search... we are FINALLY seeing light...the gates are finally opening to us... :)

Looking in retrospect, I can only say, God has been working actively in our lives...we were at the verge of giving up... but we saw how His mighty hands are moving... *smile*

This place that we found is just 5mins drive away from where we live... it has a BEAUTIFUL and luscious garden where the kids could have nature's study, water play, messy art everyday... it's at a nice quiet neighbourhood... most importantly, we have gotten the funds we needed to get started...

Praise the Lord indeed!

Once the approval is given by the authorities...we are ready to ROCK & ROLL... yaay!!!

Today is the day...

that I turned 36! Ought to be a happy one you reckon?

FAR FROM IT!!! I think no other day can be more frustrating, upsetting, heart breaking than it is today...

Don't ask why too much for me to describe!

*heartbroken and SAD mamabliss*

T-Rex At Our Neighbourhood

Discovered this playground quite by accident. Was walking around the neighbourhood one day and I saw a huge dinosaur sticking out amongst the HDB flats... was curious how a T-Rex could be seen in a heartland neighbourhood, walked further to discover that it was a playground.

To be honest, I thought it was quite scary to have a statue of T-Rex in a playground... *smile*

Made a mental note to bring the kids to this playground as Tim was in a frenzy learning about Dinosaurs. More updates on our dinosaurs learning in my homeschool blog.
When Tim and Little Missy was brought to the playground, they were both apprehensive. The sheer size of that T-Rex had already made them stand 3 feet away from the playground. After much cajoling and encouragement, Tim made the first approach...
He climbed and sat on the baby T-Rex on his own, and he had the most questions about the eggs laid on the floor... he even tried to push the eggs *LOL*
Before returning home, Little Missy, finally was willing to touch the baby dinosaur... :) though I wouldn't want to have a dinosaur playground next to my block, I thought the kids had fun and Tim had the opportunity to see the likelihood of how a real dinosaur might be and could also associate better with the dinosaur theme we've been working on. I guess the best part of all, it didn't cost me a cent... *wink*

Playtime by Focus On the Family

Since both hubby and I have been trained to facilitate the Parenting With Confidence workshop last year, we haven't had an opportunity to use what we've been trained in thus far.

I was privileged to be invited by Focus on The Family, to co-facilitate the Playtime workshop recently at Compass Point.

Playtime aims to empower parents with tools and tips on how to bond with their children and help their children learn through play. Many values such as manners could be inculcated to our kids at a very young age... creating a fun learning environment helps the children learn better.

It was a great experience to be facilitating Playtime; to be able to share with other parents what we've been trained in as well as exchange our personal experiences as a parent.

I'll be facilitating 3 sessions of Playtime over 3 Saturdays, on my own end this month onwards... and I am both excited and anxious how the outcome might be... but all for a good course... it's indeed a joy to be able to put what I'm passionate about (ie. parenting & early childhood education) into practice.

Messy Fun - Art Time!

We tried a few art material, some new and some old... some messy, some not too messy :) but all in the name of FUN!!!
I finally took out the bottle of glitter that Mommy Joyce passed me last year... hesitated allowing my kids to play with it for the fear of them putting the glitter into their mouths... I heard that these glitter contains metal in them... so was trying to play safe.

Little Missy, seldom puts things in her mouth lately, and I felt assured to let her play with the glitter.
Gave the kids a few paint pots and they were ready to rock & roll... :)
We had our neighbour's twin daughters joining Tim & Little Missy in the fun... *smile*
On this occasion, I was too lazy to clear up messy paints, so when the kids asked for paints to play with, I dragged out the box of Chubby dot paints. I love this invention to bits!!! No drip, no mess, no spillage, no un-washable colours...and the kids don't have to sit on the floor along the corridor *LOL*
The kids played with blending different colours and discovering new colours through the blending process...
Lifted this idea from the The Siblings' Busy Book, and tried it with the kids. Drawing on the paper with crayons and paint over it. The brilliant colours of the crayons just jumped out after the layer of paint was painted over it.
Tim had a try on it himself...
Drawing with Cinnamon sticks... gave the kids a few cinnamon sticks and asked them to take a whiff of it... interesting how art could be made from a cinnamon stick. Gave them each a piece of sandpaper and they worked through the art themselves... this piece of art left a nice aroma from the cinnamon... *smile*

New Project Completed!

Made something new today... hop over to Lilhandmades to check it out!

My 3 Days As A Baby Sitter...

Last week, I was a baby-sitter for 3 days, well 3 half-days to be exact... providing care to our new friends' (who are from the USA) daughter, Natalie.

I offered to help as Natalie's mom had to attend a workshop for 3 half-days... since I am a SAHM and I'd love to have Natalie at my place so that my kids could have some company...
On the first day, I stayed home with the two girls, while Tim's in school... offered the two girls some drawing materials and stickers... they started scribbling and having their own fun with the markers... while I just facilitate their play...
Before heading off to pick Tim up from school, I brought the girls down to the playground for a run... alas it rained the night before, all the slides and rides were wet... we just walked around the neighbourhood and enjoy the morning breeze...

Natalie was very drawn by the cat on the pavement that she immediately sat right next to it... while Little Missy was no where to be seen in the picture as she's squatting quite a distance away from the cat... this made me really think how our behaviour have influenced our kids... that explained why Little Missy wasn't anywhere near the cat.

I am glad that my two kids had the opportunity to play and learn from Natalie... given the different upbringing and the culture, I feel that such influence is good.
On our second day with Natalie, I pulled out the "bean-box" and let the 2 girls work on those fine motor skills... they were having a great time throwing the beans all over the floor *smile*...

This kept them busy for 15-20mins... while I just quietly watch them play... I really do enjoy my role as a facilitator... show them a few ways of playing and they would work on it themselves... *wink*
They were then given a spray bottle each, and I asked them to water our neighbour's plants along the corridor... *smile*... see how focus Natalie was? Fun way for the kids to learn & play at the same time...
When Tim was back, the kids asked for drawing materials again... so I whipped out some hand-me-down note books and crayons for the kids to scribble...
I started our third day with Natalie by letting the two girls blow & play with bubbles... kids simply have this natural love in bubbles... not sure why... watching them enjoy the activity was of essence to me.
Later that morning, we made pizzas together... don't try this unless you have a helper... I was flustered throughout the entire event cos I under estimated the amount of time I needed to prep this activity from scratch... and because there were 3 young kids in the house, someone's gotta watch over them lest they fight with each other or attempt some dangerous acrobatic stunts...

But at the end of the day, I was glad that the kids had fun even though they didn't finish eating their own tiny little pizza.
Before Natalie headed home, Tim played some games and ran around the house with her happily...

On the whole, the 3 days, was tiring albeit FUN... love it that the kids got along fine except for an occasional fights... *smile* It's really not bad being a baby sitter *wink*

Messy Fun - Pen & Ink

We played with whiteboard markers recently. Nothing new, it's just that they have more colours to choose from now... :)
Tim drew a picture on the whiteboard and rattled off to me that it was a moon... I thought his drawing is making sense to me now... well at least it's not doodling anymore... *smile*
And here's a tree he tried to draw...
While Little Missy, she's still at the doodling stage... enjoying herself with the cause & effect of using the pens...still not very good with controlling the pens and drawing within the white board...therefore the pen marks on the wall...fortunately it could wash away quite easily with Cif.
Result of two kids vying for space in that small little white board? Fight of course...
It's been a while since we last played with ink pads. Little Missy saw it and insisted on having her hands on the ink pads...so I dragged it out... well, rather reluctantly, as I can already anticipate the mess I'll get at the end of the session...

Nevertheless, I relented...since it's been sitting there for a long while and I wanted to rotate some of the art materials for them to explore from time-to-time...
Tim didn't like the stamps and preferred to play with the ink pad using his fingers... so it started quite nicely/neatly with only finger printing on paper...
It didn't take Tim too long to decide using his hands to make art... he was having so much fun with hand stamping... that he left his hand print everywhere... *fainted*... hubby's face scringe when he saw the mess *LOL*

Tim's hands took 2 days before they became totally clean of the ink teehehe... all in the name of fun!!! *wink*

Sew Much Fun!

FINALLY!!! Gotten these two aprons sewn. Tim's original apron was kind of worn out due to the multiple washing. And this project of sewing the kids an apron each has been looming in my head for the longest time.

I traced the pattern out of Tim's original apron and finish up the apron with bias-tape around the edges... completed the 2 aprons in an hour and a half... not bad huh? *smile*

Now there's more reason for messy fun! teehehe...

Nature By Our Doorstep!

Even though we are surrounded by a concrete jungle, we are fortunate to have a mini garden by our apartment block. So we need not venture too far if we fancy a "nature's walk"... albeit a mini nature's walk *wink*
We headed downstairs for a walk one evening, and I asked if the kids would like to have our helper make them some kampong-style toys... they didn't wait for my cue and off they went to pick the baby coconuts that were strewn all over the ground.
The kids helping out in preparing the baby coconuts... they had to peel away the excess skin from the baby coconut in order to have a smooth surface...great way to train up those fine motor skills and ability to take & execute instructions given...
Then, two baby coconuts were strung together with the spine of a coconut leaf, and the more complex of the entire process were completed by my helper.
Now the kampong-style mini trolley is done! Ready to run in action...here's where the large motor skills are exercised! *smile*
And here's a little ball my helper made out of the coconut leaves...

I'm glad that in this short time spent at the garden, the kids learned that there are things that could be made out of nature... *smile* as always, nature is the best playground!