Busy weekends...

Life for typical Singapore parents on weekends = shuttling their kids around for classes. 

We have signed N for classes at a slow pace... It first started with Berries, swimming then ballet... Berries was not something that N chose but something which hubby and I wanted her to pick up. I must say that Berries is really good and I kinda regret not sending her when she was in N2. For now, she is slowly but surely picking up character recognition.

Swimming and ballet are two activities which N loves. It's easy to tell when she comes home practicing whatever she learns in class. For example, she was prancing around the house like a butterfly today because the teacher thought her the moves.  

Here is a photo of her in her favorite attire  (ps: papa actually forgot to bring that little tutu skirt! So she wears the skirt that she had on before the class. 

While N goes for her ballet class, M would go for her "baby spa"... Aka tub swimming. Apparently she enjoys swimming without diapers on. As soon as the lady took it off, she was smiling happily in the water... :p 

"Kracie" Cooking Fun...

This was something which I first saw on a Facebook BP. For some reason, I did not join the BP as I was doubtful about it's origins and the ingredients used to make these. It was also during this time, I actually viewed videos of how to make "ice cream" and even showed it to N.

This started her off and suprisingly she manage to find other videos of people making other things like sushi, bento, cheese burger, etc on Youtube. Being someone who enjoys "cooking" play, she kept asking papa to buy it for her.

I googled and found that these kits were sold by Candyplay and they had rented retail spaces in TOYoutpost to sell them. Each box cost $11.90!!! And 5 sets cost $50. You know what happens... We walked out of the vivo outlet with 5 boxes! One would be given to my niece as a belated birthday present...

Here are photos of the four boxes which little gal would be cooking and the proud little girl with her "ice cream" creations...

Aloha Loyang Chalet (art & craft on Day 1 & 2)

This is the second year 4 families come together for an R&R weekend at the Aloha Loyang chalet during the December school holidays. This time round we stayed at Bungalow 14. The condition of this chalet was worse than the previous and was quite a distance from the swimming pool. The only perk is that the unit was facing the sea (so it was windy) and there is a mango tree outside which was bearing lots of fruits! :)

This time round, two mummies prepared some craft material for the kids to entertain themselves during the chalet. There were 2 toddlers (including little gal) and 2 older children. Doing crafts entertains the kids and doing it at the chalet takes away lots of stress (translate to: no worries about the sand all over the floor or paint on your precious furniture/wall). The best part is seeing all 4 kids enjoying themselves!

There were other things which the kids did like painting the sea creature coaster and "free hand" doodling/drawing which were not captured on photos.

But here are some pictures captured of the children in action!

Day 1: Little gal doing foam art with another little gal (who turns out to be her best friend throughout this entire chalet!)



Day 2: Batik Painting all around! All serious at work... :)

Everyone "flashing" their work of art... and laying them out to dry outside the chalet

 

All posing with their art pieces! All very pretty isn't it? *Well done!*



Two mummies helping their gals with the "Glow-in-the-dark" sand art pieces! (PS: The messy messy SUPER messy but super fun craft! Most fun to do at Chalet cos even if the sand spills, the parents can still chill!)

The little gal with her finished piece!

 

Hubby helped the kids "sun" the glow in the dark sand & all the kids went into the room to see the "glowing" art work. Quite impressed that the glow in the dark sand really "glows". LOL!

Red Rhino in "action"...

Came home from grocery shopping to find the car park fire alarm triggered and ringing away. Shortly after parking the car, a red rhino was despatched to scene. While the fire-fighters checked out if there was a real fire, they parked the Red Rhino at the shelter.

Such a rare opportunity! So took the chance to let the little gal have some "close look" at the vehicle... Technically it is a "fast response" vehicle for small fire incidences. But too complex for me to explain it to her. In the end, she calls it a "mini-fire engine".

The fire fighters were of course amused by our "suaku-ness" since we asked little gal to take a photo with the Red Rhino. They must be wondering if this extreme mother will put the little gal behind the wheels for another photo (worrying since the engine was on and none of the official personnel was in that vehicle...). :p

Little gal's garden!

I've always recalled fond memories of my very young days at grandma's old landed property which consist of a mini garden. During my pre-school days, my younger sister and I would be disturbing the life of spiders (destroying webs), ants and even the goldfish (by over feeding them) in the fish tank. We would also spy my grandma when she was doing her gardening.

When my sis and i were in Primary school, we started growing green beans on wet cotton wool (i bet many of my peers would remember this). We had the opportunity of growing long beans in the backyard and even harvested the long beans when they grew! Cool isnt it?

I wanted to recreate this for the little gal despite the fact that we were staying in HDB. Hopefully the little morning sun will keep the plant alive and good enough for it to flower and fruit some day. ;)

Planning went well and she picked out the seeds from far east flora (okra/lady fingers & long beans). After that, we took a long break as little gal pestered us daily, shaking the seeds in our faces and asking when she could start. (opps)

One fine day, she finally put her foot down and insisted we got down to it. Little gal counted the seeds and pressed them into the moist wet sand. Then a thin layer of sand by papa and she patted the sand down.

Since it was her little garden, she waters the plants everyday and boy did they grow tremendously within the 3 days!

I decided to do a side project with her: a signage. Decided on a design (arrow pointing to the left) and words. I drew the words with her inputs, she drew the tree and grass and did the colouring all by herself. Super colurful isn't it?

Hopefully the plants will grow well and start growing lady fingers and long beans! (fingers super crossed). ;p

Batik Painting

Finally caught the trend of letting my little girl try "batik painting". It's meant to help children gain control and coordination. ;)

Today papa guided lil gal by helping her pour out the colors and telling her which to mix to get other colors... Midway through, she was so happy she held up the painting and exclaimed "wow so beautiful!". And she did not want papa to do any of the painting for her... Lolz...

More scribbles... ;)

Little girl was scribbling on the note pad while I was peeling the pamelo that day.

Didn't really pay attention to the small scribblings other than the fact that she was proudly spelling her name on the paper.

The next day on closer scrutinity, she actually wrote her name again - reversed this time. The surname was also reversed! *sheez* mum always tells me that this is normal for younger kids. Sure hope it's the case.

On the lighter note, she wrote the word "九" on her own! Amazing!!! ;)

Sand Art

Thought this would be a fun activity, so when my parents walked pass a push cart and wanted to buy something for little gal, I suggested buying sand art for her. My parents agreed and bought 3 pcs for $5 (abt A4 size each).

Well little gal and I did one some weeks back at my granny's place. He admired my patience since that pc came "uncut". Yup, I used a pen- knife to cut out the bigger areas so the sand could go in.

Weeks later, little gal pulled out "Mickey" sand art and insisted on doing it up. Brave mummy took up the challenge- she choose the colours & poured them while I help pour the sand into different disposable bowls. This time it looks more "complete" as all the small parts could be removed for the sand... ;)

The conclusion: doing this sand art is a test of the parent's patience. But check out the smile on her face (priceless?). :)

Learning another colour?

After the colour "RED", it is on to "BLUE". For some reason, she prefers big letters (capital) over small letters... When I ask for "small letters", she takes it literally and writes me "small-sized" words in capital letter.

The school will allow the kids to doodle on recycled paper and without aid, little gal actually spelled the word "BLUE" (notice it is is caps...) ;)

Guess the little "Colour" projects are working... ;)

Practice makes perfect?!

After the PTM with lil gal's school teacher, we decided to settle down with alternating weekdays with worksheets/revision & play.

Well at least some part of it paid off when I gave her a revision and she could spell out loud, write the word "RED" (in big and small letters, yah and she really writes it small!) and point out the Colour to me.

Nothing great i guess but I'm happy to see some results... ;) and yeah she can write her name on her own too (thou I feel she writes her "O" very big!).