Curvy Wurvy Clutch Giveaway

Haven't hosted a giveaway for a while...now that my sewing machine is back in working order (YIPPIE!~!~)... oh did I tell you that my sewing machine went kaput on me a few weeks ago? I must have overworked it teehehe...

Anyways, hop over to Lilhandmades to participate in my new giveaway contest!~

The Way With Active Little Missy

Little Missy is simply too different from Tim and I can't possibly use the same stuff I did with Tim in his learning process on Little Missy effectively...

Little Missy needs to be "doing something" all the time... (hmmm...sounds like me)... that she's always super restless... I guess she's a Kinesthetic learner? For most times when we involve her in doing something she seems to concentrate/focus better... whereas reading or anything we have to sit down to listen and watch doesn't appeal to her that much...
While preparing for dinner one evening, our helper decided to involve Little Missy in picking the pearl beans out of its pod... Little Missy enjoyed this session of "helping" very much...she could sit throughout the entire session without moving away at all...

More information on Kinesthetic learners -
Kinesthetic Learners
(Family Education)
Most of the school population excels through kinesthetic means: touching, feeling, experiencing the material at hand. "Children enter kindergarten as kinesthetic and tactual learners, moving and touching everything as they learn.... Kinesthetic learners are most successful when totally engaged with the learning activity.

(Singapore Learning)
Kinesthetic Learners learn best in hands-on learning settings in which they can physically manipulate something in order to learn about it. They learn best when moving about and handling things, doing well in classes in which there is a lab component.

Your learning style is your strength. Go with it whenever you can. When you can choose a class, try to choose one that draws heaviest on your learning style. When you can choose a teacher, try to choose one who's teaching method best matches your learning style. When you choose a major and future career, keep your learning style firmly in mind.

A kinesthetic learner may be strong in the following:

• Fine and gross motor balance
• Rhythmic balance
• Identifying and matching objects
• Taking gadgets apart and putting them back again
• Using concrete objects as thing aids
• Creativity, problem solving , and seeing connections between ideas

Some suggested activities:

• Use hands-on learning methods
• Field trips
• Reading – visual phonics
• A large chalkboard

Some Tips for Parents

• Be happy if your child learns the same way as we do and succeeds in the classroom
• Do not be frustrated if he/ she doesn’t understand the way we do
• Allow for differences and vary the activities and ways of presenting information
• Do not interprete the child’s different learning style as misbehaviour, or rebellion
• Know your own learning styles to understand your child better

Messy Fun - 30 Day Challenge (Day 9-12)

There has been a slight hiatus in our daily Messy Fun challenge as both hubby and I have been rather busy zooming around on our venture matters...but I still try on a regular basis (as far as possible, on a daily basis) do at least one activity with them whenever we are home... :)

And so the Messy Fun challenge continues...

Day 9 - Getting a Green Thumb
Though we don't have a garden at home, I thought a good way to start the kids on gardening was through the planting of some green/red beans...

The kids have read books such as "The Tiny Seed" by Eric Carle and "A Seed is Sleepy" by Diana Hutts Aston... great way to reinforce what we have read about by having a hands-on activity to go along.

The kids were each given a plastic cup and I gave them some stickers to decorate it... we placed some cotton wool at the bottom of the cup and sprinkled a few beans into it... the kids were curious what will happen next after they watered the beans...

Roots started to sprout out within a day and the plant grew really quickly in just 2 days... the kids were very thrilled... through this exercise they learned about the names of the different parts of the plant and at the same time watch the process of how a plant grew in real... science and nature at work again.

Day 10 - Sponge Chalk Art
This is a good activity if you have those small pieces of left over chalks to get rid of. I pounded all those leftovers into powder and gave the kids a piece of damp sponge.

The kids just dip the damp sponge into the powdered chalk to make art on a piece of paper... that simple... the two kids were happier mixing the powdered chalk into the small bowl of water I provided them... than to really do art on paper *smile*... they just can't leave the bowl of water alone...

Day 11 - Watercolour Pastels Drawing
Tried something new on this day... water colour pastels... once again water play was more interesting *fainted*....

How these pastels work was to either draw on the piece of paper and brush over the draw with a wet paint brush... or we could brush the wet paint brush over the pastels and paint it onto the paper...

Tim drew a "portrait" of me in the process... hahaha he is "really drawing" more than scribbling now... *wink*

Day 12 - Tissue Paper Stained Glass
For this activity we used a piece of wax paper, some coloured art tissue paper and diluted some white glue.

The idea was to brush some of the glue onto the wax paper and paste the tissue paper on top... and finally paste the finished artwork against a window where there's plenty of sunlight.

The kids were more interested in flinging the tissue paper around... sure was messy with glue and paper all over the place *grin*

More challenges coming up soon... stay tuned!

Messy Fun - 30 Day Challenge (Day 5-8)

Day 5 - Handful Scribble
It's fascinating to see so many colours at the same time as you draw with a single stroke... the kids were given bundles of crayons to scribble on the paper...

They didn't quite know how this art work and had wanted to remove the rubber band when given the bundles... I demonstrated how it worked and they started doodling...

But the colours weren't vibrant enough I felt...could be the quality of the crayons I've used... perhaps I should let them try bundled colour markers next time to make it real messy *LOL*

Day 6 - Eye-dropper Painting
Got a pack of eye-dropper from Daiso and gave them to the kids together with some paint and kitchen towels...

Interesting how the paint start spreading/bleeding as the kids squirt the paint out of the eye-dropper onto the kitchen towels... the painting eventually turned soaking wet after absorbing all that paint *smile*...

Day 7 - Decorating Cracker Biscuits
This time we did a food "art" *smile*... the kids love the cracker biscuits a lot...and it was right after their nap at art time... what great way to have a snack and play at the same time...

I tried melting some chocolate for them to dip into but it turned out awry... so decided to give them the Hershey's Chocolate syrup instead... to add to the fun they were also given some coloured toppings and crushed almond to sprinkle onto the choco dipped cracker...

They played, they decorate and they ate... It sure was messy, however, fun!

Day 8 - Glitter + Glue Paint
Double the mess, double the thrill... this art was done using a few bottles of glue paint from Daiso and some glitter that was bought from the Popular Bookstore.

The idea was to spread the glue paint on the paper and brush the glitter onto the surface... Little Missy thought it was more fun to do finger paint and smearing all the glitter onto the surface *smile*...

Notice the mess on the kid's t-shirt... I was too engrossed in preparing for this art that I've totally forgotten to put the aprons onto them. Both Little Missy and Tim had their t-shirts soiled with the glue paint... *fainted*

The master pieces were very abstract though interesting... *wink*

More Messy Fun challenge coming up... :)

Baby Sitter Again :)

*Backdated Post*

Two weeks ago, I offered to baby sit Natalie again... and we spent another 1 full day and 2 half days with her...the kids had a blast and enjoyed her stay very much... :)
On day 1, we played with magnetic letters and musical instruments, the kids had some time at the playground and also some indoor games... there was a small dispute between Tim and Natalie during the indoor game but not one that was difficult to break up... *wink*
After a long nap the 3 kids had a painting session by our corridor and it felt like I was running a mini playschool with our neighbours' 3 girls joining the kids in this painting session... watching the kids having fun was my greatest satisfaction... *smile*

Day 2 - We had Natalie's little brother Jeremiah with us too... and we all trotted down to the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden together... met a few of the Artful Lil' Hands members to have a play date.
The kids can't have enough of the sand and water play... while Little Jeremiah was snoozing all the way...
After we were back, I quickly whipped up some simple egg & cheese sandwich and chicken nuggets (not those from fastfood chain ok, they were made from scratch - the night before though *smile*)... threw in some baked beans and a few slices of apple. The kids fed themselves and gobbled everything up... must have been very hungry after all that sand and water play! *grin*
While waiting for Natalie's mommy to come pick them up, we played some games with hubby's help to care for the kids... picture 4 kids under the age of 4 in the house... a glimpse of a mini playschool/childcare centre? *LOL*

Day 3 - After Tim was being sent to school, I gave the 2 girls some playdoh to play with... nice and easy start of the day... then it was down at the playground for some outdoor fun again... I like to bring the kids outdoors teehehe... great way to expend all those energy and also to give me a break from thinking up activities to keep them happy and mentally stimulated...
Before I headed out to pick Tim up, I gave the girls some white board markers to play with... it was a rather smooth running day :)
Natalie enjoyed building blocks a lot and she was greatly satisfied with the tall tower that she's built, see how happy she was? *smile*...

All in a day's work... it was great fun having Natalie and Jeremiah with us... Tim often ask me where's Natalie and that he wants to play with Natalie... looks like Tim has found himself a new friend...

Messy Fun - 30 Day Challenge (Day 1-4)

Day 1 - Goop & Funny Putty
We emptied an entire pack of corn flour and added a little water to make into a batter... this mixture was really interesting...as it looked liquid-fied in the tray but when we tried to grab a handful of the mixture it becomes solid...

A little of the mixture landed on the floor as the kids were trying to transfer from one tray to the other...and when we put the 'solidified' blot of goop back into the tray it turned liquid immediately...

The kids found it fascinating that how this mixture of corn starch went liquid to solid to liquid to solid...

Science at work in real time! *smile*

Day 2 - Chalk Dip
There was very little mess with this art. I prepared 2 small dish of white paint and have the kids use coloured chalk to make art...

Interesting how the blend of chalk and paint can make pastel coloured drawings... *smile*... As it turned out the kids were more keen in playing with the paint than to paint with chalk teehehe...

Nevertheless, it was the process that mattered not the end product... I enjoyed the time spent with the kids together in such messy fun...

Day 3 - Tooth Brush & Comb Painting
Dug out two old and unwanted combs and 2 toothbrushes we got from the SQ toiletries packet. It was the kids' first experience on painting with toothbrush and comb...

Little Missy wasn't very good at handling the toothbrush + comb at the same time...needed more practice on the fine motor skills... nevertheless, she had fun painting with the toothbrush...and eventually finger painting... *grin*

Tim was keen on this new method of painting... so he had his fair share of fun...

Day 4 - Handprint Craft
It's Easter tomorrow and today I offered the kids print out of easter eggs for colouring and we made an easter egg basket together...

The kids loved it when I drew their handprint on the coloured paper... I drew a pair of their hands and pile a few pieces of coloured paper behind and cut the shape of their handprints out.

Used a paper plate and pasted the elements to form a basket... I took a short cut *smile* I was suppose to stack another paper plate on top of the eggs but I decided to save myself 2 paper plates *wink*...

The end result wasn't that bad... but I treasured the time I had with the kids more... we coloured, we talked, we laughed and we enjoyed each others company...

Stay tuned for more updates coming up... *big grin*

Growing Up Days...

Little Missy is now 20 months old... and it's been a journey of ups and downs, filled with happy and trying times... ask if I have enjoyed my little girl's company thus far... it certainly has been a wonderful time.
At 18 months, we started toilet training her...well not very much of training needed, to be honest...that's the advantage of having an older child... she observed Tim going to the toilet when he pee and poo... and thereby learned what's the toilet bowl used for... while there was an occasional accident, on the whole she only needed to be on diapers during naps and bedtime in the night... thus saving us $$$ *wink*
She's curious as curious can be... I feel that she's even more inquisitive than her brother was when he was at her age... she wouldn't let go of an opportunity to touch, pull, poke, tear, knock anything she found "interesting"...

Her favourite past-time - climbing, crawling, jumping, running ... I have no doubt she's going to be a thrill seeking and adventurous child. Often making my heart skip a beat with all her acrobatic stunts.

She fights fiercely with her brother... definitely not one to be pushed around... and her tantrum fits need to be tone down badly...often screaming till her face turns purple (yeah it's that extreme, we often joke that she's a drama queen) and lying on the floor with her face on the ground while kicking a huge fuss over something she can't have (note to myself: anger management training for Little Missy)...
Musically inclined, she often sings or hums a tune to herself...singing along with me in the car, clapping, dancing and twirling around to the music playing on the CD player...

She reads albeit to her own whims and fancy... never can sit still for long to let me read her a book... she dictates when to turn the page (usually turning to the very last page 3 seconds after we sat down to read)... but she does enjoy my reading to Tim and would sit on my lap while I do the read-aloud...

She's able to articulate well her thoughts and wants... often caught us by surprise of her 3-4 words sentences... accumulating more vocabulary than we have taught...

She imitates everything her brother does... wish she could pick up only those desirable acts *smile*

She's bubbly and happy when she's in a perfect mood - often making us laugh with her funny antics. But she screams, whines and cries when in a foul mood - often leaving us baffled at what might have triggered the problem.

On the whole, she's different...completely different from her brother. That's the fun part of being a parent I guess...

Messy Fun - Glitter Sticks

This activity was done before the 30-day Messy Fun Challenge... *smile*
Recently bought a box of Glitter Sticks from ELC (Early Learning Centre)... the kids had fun as they get to manipulate the turning of the glitter sticks (like a glue stick)...

The colours are pretty can't really see much of the glitter though... and it seeps through the page of the jotter book that I gave the kids to draw on.

Fun rating? errmm... I'll give it a 5/10 *smile* I guess it isn't messy enough? The kids got tired of it after 10mins...

30-Day Messy Fun Challenge!

Been pretty busy lately... was glued to my computer screen for over 12hours a day... catching up on a TVB drama for the past week... finally completed the entire 30 episode of 法证先锋II (Forensic Heroes Part II)...

Anyways, I have been inspired to do a Messy Fun activity everyday for 30 days... and was thinking through on the 30 activities that I could do with my 2 kids... so here's my list... the activities will be done at random (ie. not in the order of the list below)... as some of the projects would require some prep work and collecting of materials...

This will give me lots of bonding time with the 2 kids at the same time... and hoping that they'll enjoy all the 30 days of fun with me as we go along...

1) Goop & Funny Putty : dilute corn starch in water and see what happens (definitely different from plain flour).
2) Marbled Gift Bags : with food colouring and oil (sounds like good messy fun *lol*)
3) Getting a Green Thumb : creating a mini garden (planting - something I've been wanting to do with the kids)
4) Making Popovers : a snack we'll make together (probably with Tim doing it all by himself but with me giving him instructions on the side)
5) Leaves and Flowers Printing
6) Shaving Cream Painting
7) Sandpaper Art : Colouring with crayons on coarse sandpaper
8) Bake Doughnuts : healthier choice
9) Make a Kite and fly it : out of paper plates and streamers
10)Tissue Paper stained glass : with liquid starch
11)Fruit/Vegetable Printing : using various types of vegetables/fruits
12)Baking Pretzels
13)Dye White Flowers : setting the stem of the flowers in water mixed with food colouring
14)Watercolour Pencils: exploring different art media
15)Eyedropper painting : on kitchen towels, coffee filter paper
16)Glitter + Glue art
17)Body Trace
18)Handprint Craft
19)Handful Scribble : bundling 6-8 crayons together and doodle
20)Sponge Chalk Art : breaking the chalk into powder and dip moist sponge in it and draw
21)Blot Art
22)String Ornaments : using a string/yarn and dip into glue and sprinkling glitter on the string
23)Chalk Dip : dipping coloured chalk into white paint and draw
24)Heart Flutters : hearts collage on wax paper
25)Decorating muffins : using coloured icing
26)Confetti Explosion : art done using confetti
27)Paper Snow Flakes : paper cutting
28)Decorating biscuits : with chocolate dip and sprinkling toppings
29)Toothbrush + comb painting
30)Straw painting

So there you have it... my plan of Messy Fun (some not that messy) with my kids on a daily basis...

We have already started the challenge today with the very item #1 in the above list... it was good fun as the kids get to see and experience science at work... will post the pictures of the Goop & Funny Putty soon...so stay tuned :)

学华语

I have been brought up in the era of the "Speak Mandarin" campaign... and when the first speak mandarin campaign started, my parents were one of those "early adopters" to ditch all speaking of the chinese dialects.

Hence I grew up in a mandarin speaking environment (completely), from watching Channel 8, to listening to the chinese radio stations to reading chinese newspapers and even reading chinese novels during and throughout my school days... using mandarin and reading chinese was just part of me throughout my childhood...

But, I wonder what had happened when I started to have my own kids... I am embarrass to say that my kids know no mandarin nor read chinese at all. Even when I attempt to make them repeat after some words that I say it came out sounding like a foreigner trying to speak mandarin... sigh...

I am then on a desperate quest to make my kids learn the language or at least be soaked in an environment that is filled with the language. They are afterall chinese and I take it personally that it's a disgrace when we as chinese do not know our mother-tongue.

I guess, much of this problem was due to my attitude towards the language as well. It occured to me that I put very little emphasis in making my kids learn the language. Take a look at my bookshelves and it'll speak volumes of what's my attitude towards the language.While I speak mandarin to my parents, I did not make it a point to speak the language to my children. Thus now, even my parents had to be forced to communicate with my kids in English...how sad can that get?

Anyways, that's not my main sharing of this blog post. With that as a basis, I am determined to introduce the language to my children just as I had introduced the English language to them. Through read-aloud and making an effort to describe things around them in chinese. Try to build an interest in the language in them...work on simple hands-on activities and games through literature (just like what I did with Tim using the BFIAR materials).

After reading Angie's sharing on how they learn chinese at home, plus my sharing of my concern with a few good mommy friends (such as Ade & Joyce) and after my friend Evelyn shared some chinese books she's recently purchased, it just drives me harder to want to guide my children into learning the language. Here are some of the chinese books we have at home to start the kids with -

WORD RECOGNITION -
First hundred words by Odonata Publishing was introduced to me by a fellow blogging mom. I recently started Tim and Little Missy with the 拍球 book. I read it as I bounce a ball telling them what the action of bouncing the ball is in mandarin. After repeating a few times, the 2 kids got it. Not a bad start I feel after the first round of reading. Though their pronounciation part takes more practice to sound right.

This series of 9 books + an audio CD + a box of flashcards of the 100 words was quite a low cost investment. This could be easily obtained at the Popular Bookstore.
This is another word recognition series I thought was not too bad. I like the chinese nursery rhymes from these books they are fun and simple and all words come with 汉语拼音. It even comes with a teacher's guide on how the book could be delivered in a fun way.

This series comes in different levels and the levels are colour coded from the easiest level being coded in red, and the advance level coded in blue. It's by the Commercial Press publishing. This too was bought from the Popular Bookstore.

READ ALOUDs -
幸福的种子 comes in a bookcase of 30 read aloud books, with a summary of the story, a guide and activities at the back of each book. This was a recommended series that I was introduced to by a very kind mainland chinese lady who is also the supplier of this series of books (in fact she's also a supplier to most of the chinese children's books that Maha Yuyi carries albeit at a slightly lower cost - she offers free delivery service).

I haven't gone through all the 30 books myself, but I've randomly picked out a few to go through and thought the stories were rather fun and cute. The illustrations were quite good too. I am a sucker for books with guide on how to deliver a fun and proper lesson to the child...

It appears that this is quite a popular series that quite a lot of homeschoolers are using.
小熊宝宝绘本 came in a series of 15 books. Translated from Japanese; is a very cute series with some very basic chinese words that could be introduced to kids of age 1+. Tim and Little Missy seems to enjoy this for the time being. 噼里啪啦 is a step more advance than the former that I've just shared. This series comes with 7 books and are by the same author. I love these books too they are really very fun.

While the 我爸爸 and 我妈妈 are translated from English books. I took a fancy in these 2 books because I fell in love with the illustrations and the story is really very heart warming. These were the very first read aloud books I've introduced to Tim.

I picked up a few translated Dinosaurs books at Maha Yuyi quite a while ago, these came in really useful lately as Tim was in a dino craze :) I've discovered that using books with theme/topics that are of interest to my kids are more acceptable during read aloud.
The other recommended read aloud series is the 我真棒. This series teaches children about values and virtues and each book comes with a teacher's guide and activities at the back too.

Elmer the elephant, might be familiar to some of you. I got a few of the chinese translated Elmer books. A little lengthy therefore a little challenging to keep Tim and Little Missy still while I read these books. Will save it for later perhaps.

Another series I got from Maha Yuyi previously on values and virtues - 宝宝成长学习绘本. These books are written and published in China. It comes with a summary of the story, and guide for parents to discuss the moral of the story with the children.
This is by far my FAVOURITE series of translated chinese books. These four books sparks imagination and the illustrations are beautiful! It's certainly great fun reading them together with my 2 kids. Especially for Tim. He could relate quite well to these books and was able to sit through the entire book with focused attention :)
比尔熊 is a bilingual series of books with very simple words and colourful illustration. Not one that I'd consider as living books but can be read for fun and learn some new nouns.
Here are 2 chinese fairy tales I've bought from the Popular Bookstore. It's packed with short stories (most stories are 1-2 pages only) and seems quite easy to create simple activities that ties in with the story to work with the kids. Stories come with 汉语拼音 and cute illustrations.

RESOURCES -
This is a chinese thematic dictionary. I like it that it has themes and relevant words revolving around the theme. Each theme comes with a poem, question and answer that the teacher/parent could prompt the kids to describe what they have learnt base on the theme. Got this from the Popular bookstore too.
Lastly, this tongue twister poem book that comes with an audio CD. Haven't tried it on the kids yet, but I like the tongue twisting poems they are actually quite fun to read... with the rhyming words and all... *smile*... this is also available in the Popular bookstore.

I don't know how far or how this journey to learning the chinese language will turn out to be. But I suppose done on a more regular basis with added efforts of speaking the language more consistently to the kids, we should be able to head somewhere *cross fingers and toes*...more importantly, my attitude towards the language must be more positive and that's the hard part that I need to work on.