Clothes Pegs

Straight to the activity, this is what we needed. Some wooden clothes pegs, you can get it from the night market, RM2 per pack (20 pegs).

Then, you need some picture cut-outs. You can use wedding cards, birthday card or any old cards you can find. I used the wedding cards as it has better hold.

That's it! Now, it is time for the children to train their fine motor skill and hand-and-eye coordination :) This is the result. We had an apple, a christmas tree, a tree and an aeroplane (Syuen said it's a dragonfly).

You can peg whatever you can think of. For example, we peg the swirl cut-out into a lollipop and a snail. Just be creative! :)

My little creative SyuenSyuen placed the tree upright and now, we have a 2-dimension standing tree. She placed the lollipop up too because she said that some trees also looks like the 'lollipop'!

She asked for a hedgehog. So, we did this at the very last minute. Pardon me for my very ugly drawing.

She is very happy with the hedgehog. I guess that it is her favourite so far.

Play Dough (Day 2 n Day 3)

This is the second day SyuenSyuen and NingNing requested to play the playdough. Without hesitation, we laid out the paper and started to divide the dough. SyuenSyuen wanted to make the McD Value Meal again. After the making of the McD Value Meal, SyuenSyuen wanted to make the salad. She did alot of cutting this time round. I think she enjoys cutting the dough using the ruler. To a more detailed procedure, SyuenSyuen made the sesame on the hamburger, using the satay stick. Hmm..I totally forgot the existing of the sesame on the burger.

On the second and the third day, NingNing copied her sister, she started to cut the dough too. She explained to me that she was cutting some vege to cook. At least, this is the only thing that I understand what she is trying to express.

我们家的宝贝

看着你们一天天地成长，内心有一种说不出的感觉。妈咪就是想天天和你们在一起，紧紧地抱着你们再说一声“我爱你”。

你们俩姐妹感情越来越好，现在还会串通起来做“坏”事情。奇怪的是妈咪和爸爸并没有生气。你们那调皮的模样让我们哈哈大笑。真的不懂得如何生气。我想这就是叫“真爱”吧！


不只如此，你们也懂得照顾对方。在百货公司，姐姐会拉着妹妹的小手并吩咐妹妹不可乱跑。看着姐姐拉着妹妹小手的情景是多么地温馨。妹妹也会很合作地跟随着姐姐到处走或奔跑。你们的笑声是多么动听的旋律，再加上妈咪和爸爸的笑声是一首美妙的歌曲。那些笑声是我们家的长客，天天围绕着我们。


下雨天时，妹妹还会帮姐姐把鞋子收进屋内。如果妹妹忘了，别怕还有姐姐。姐姐也会帮妹妹把鞋子收进屋内。你们还会互相叫对方起床；一起洗澡时还会为对方洗头。拿食物吃时，绝对不会忘了对方那份。这种互相照顾的举动真叫人感动。


有时，你们还会拥抱在一起睡觉。玩得太高兴的时候还会抱在一起转圆圈。妈咪也不逊色，也和你们抱成一团。这种感觉真好！


希望我们一家大小能那么甜蜜幸福和健康直到永远。

Play Dough (Day 1)

Since it is always raining these days, I decided to let the girls to play the play dough. Their hands and the place will be dirty but it is a very good activity for their fine motor skill, pincher grip and creativity. This is what we need: a piece of paper, some colourful dough, a satay stick, a ruler and whatever tools you can think of, be creative (Note: tools for play dough should be cleaned and kept as for play-dough-activity used only)

A very excited look by SyuenSyuen.

A not-so-round egg by Syuen.

Dots created using the satay stick. This is the burger meat.

Lines created using satay stick again. This is the lettuce of the hamburger.

Putting some tomato sauce..

Now, it's time to make the French Fries.

Syuen's own creation of McD Value Meal.

Then, NingNing joined in the fun.

This is what NingNing had done. Well, I don't get what she is trying to do but one thing that I know that is she is having lots of fun too.

The girls spent hours on this activity and they requested to play it again tomorrow. We ended the day with a bowl of salad.

Of course, there is dough inside their fingernails..all you need to do is; take a toothpick and dig out the dough. Then, wash their hands with soap. Do not be afraid to get dirty.

Chop & Sign Activity

While SyuenSyuen is busy doing her ladybug activity, NingNing is busy doing her own activity too. I gave her a piece of paper and a pencil. She started to scribble, as usual with her dots and lines. Then, I gave her a few chops and a stamp pad. She started to chop on the paper. To her advance level, she did both action at the same time, writing with her right hand while stamping with her left hand. What a mischievous girl she is!

This is her final product.

SyuenSyuen also took this opportunity to write something on her own, with a little rose there.

Daddy joined in the fun too. He folded a paper aeroplane for them.

At the end of the day, we just want them to be HAPPY! ^_^

Ladybug Math

I found this interesting activity from a website. So, we decided to do it and share it here. We need 11 pieces of ladybug's structure as we gonna to do number 0 to 10. Normally, parents will teach their children from number 1 to 10 and often missed out the number 0. It is important to let children understand the concept of number 0. Then, we will need to cut out 55 black dots(0+1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10=55). I helped SyuenSyuen to cut the dots as she still couldn't cut the curve part. Or you can ask your children to use the punch to create the dots, it will be easier and faster and your children can practise his/her gross motor skill.

After that, label the ladybug from 0 to 10.

Then, I left SyuenSyuen alone to glue the dots according to the numbers. From there, she learns to recognize the number and counting too. And yup, she can practise her fine motor skill too.

At first, she will paste one and count, paste another and count. Sometimes, she get frustrated as she had to recount it, again and again. Then, she used another method. She counted while pasting one by one. She got frustrated too. She is kinda impatient. When she is familiar with the activity, I saw her counting the dots first and put it aside, then only pasted it on the ladybug. She tried to overcome her problem herself without seeking for help.This is what I really feel proud of her.

This is what she had done.

Then, I tried to improvise it by pasting all the ladybugs on a cardboard to make it hard.

Ohh...suddenly, my creativity is finally back in my brain. In this project, I can teach Syuen and Ning

• Number Recognization
• Sequencing (Ascending and Descending Order)
• Big and Small Number
• Fill in the missing number
• Even and Odd Number (for advance level, I left this out for Syuen at this moment)

Hope you enjoy this with your children. Have fun!

Clothes Folding Demonstration by SyuenSyuen

SyuenSyuen loves to help me with the household chores. Many Asian parents do not allow their children to help them in household chores because they think that this will slow down their work and waste their time. I found that they are impatient or perhaps they are over-protected their children.

Since SyuenSyuen knew how to walk until now (4 years old), I let her help me with the household chores. Of course, it did slow down my work and lots of patience is needed but I think it's all worthwhile. Now, she can demonstrated how to fold her clothes. She started by telling me..

First, take a shirt and put it up in front of you.

Then, put nicely it on the floor.

 

 After that, fold it into half nicely.

Then, fold it 1/3.

This is her final product. :)

Isn't it better if I video it down. Hahaha...what a blur mummy!
To all parents, all you need is a little bit of patience and a little bit of encouragement. :)

Leafy Activity

As usual, SyuenSyuen went out with his uncle for her outdoor activity. This time round, she brought some leaves back. If I'm not wrong I think it is canna's leaf.

She tore the leaf into stripes.

Then, she tried to tie a knot between stripes, with a little help from me.

We tied it so long...that SyuenSyuen began to tie it on the leg of a chair and tied the other end on her dog (soft toy).

Although it is a short activity but she enjoyed tearing and knotting. I tried to teach her weaving but she still confused with the weaving pattern. I guess she needs more practise on weaving.

Violent vs Violent?

When NingNing was born, SyuenSyuen has been behaving badly and I knew that she did so to attract our attention as we are kinda busy with the other little one (NingNing). My hubby and I went through endless of effort to make things better. We did research, asking around for advice and went through all sort of method. We felt blessed as she turns out fine now. Or perhaps, I should say that she is being well-behaved, a very kind hearted girl and always thinking for others. Her nanny, her teachers and even her headmistress praised her. As her parents, we are proud of her.

As for now, we are a little worried about NingNing. Before she turned one year old, we knew that she was different. She is clever or perhaps, we should say that she is mischievous! She always managed to did some action which made us laugh. We are happy to have a little monkey girl at home which really brights up our day.

But, these past few weeks, she has been acting 'violent'. She cried a lot too. She will beat her sister, sometimes without reason! Things get worse when I saw her pulling SyuenSyuen's hair until SyuenSyuen fell down from the chair. SyuenSyuen never fight back! She loves NingNing a lot. What make thing even worst now is that she got into fight. This time she was hurt, with a scar on her nose bridge. She is only 2 years old!! Haizzz.....

I felt so sad on her behavior. We never cane our children because to us, it is violent. We believe that if we cane our children, one day they will become violent. It is because they learn from adults. I really need to work out the way. To us, punishment and caning is just not our style. What I know is that we will still keep to our principle in educating our children.

Here, I would like to share a very good article by Penelope Leach, child pyschologist.

Children have the right to use their bodies to express their feelings, but they don't have the right to hurt someone. Even if you generally let other kinds of misbehavior slide, you need to draw the line at letting your child hit someone in anger.

Of course, this doesn't mean that when your 2-year-old hurts someone, it's okay to hurt him back. If your child hits someone and you spank him or discipline him by force, you'll only teach him that aggression is an acceptable way to express his feelings or to get what he wants. Instead, take your child's hands and say, "No hitting. I know you're angry, but we don't hit people.Hitting hurts."

Some experts suggest that parents offer an angry child a harmless way to "vent" his pent-up fury, such as pummeling a special pillow. This, in my opinion, is a mistake. Anger is a feeling, and feelings don't get "used up." In fact, it's clear from recent research that "harmless violence" is a contradiction in terms. A child who's encouraged to wallop his pillow in anger is more — not less — likely to see walloping a person as an acceptable alternative.

When your child behaves aggressively, be clear with him that it's not his anger you disapprove of, but his violent expression of it. Don't tell him not to get angry or not to show that he's angry. Simply acknowledge his feeling — and perhaps even sympathize with it — but then remind him that it's much more constructive to use his words to tell you why he's upset. This way, the two of you can try to come up with a solution to whatever's vexing him.

The Not-So-Scary Bubbles

I love to play around with my girls. I come up with games and activity every weekend, just to spend some quality time with them and yup, not forgetting my hubby. Sometimes, he joined in the fun though most of the Sunday, he will join his friends for the basketball games.

Well, I bought bubbles for my girls to play, thinking that they will really enjoy the play, seeing all the bubbles, floating in the air and then, disappearing into the thin air. For SyuenSyuen, she used to the game already but still, she enjoys playing the bubbles.

Some parents think that it is dangerous for children to play bubbles including my nanny. She won't allow my children to play with bubbles. She told me that they will accidentally drink it! Haizzz...I was speechless. So, I didn't let my children bring the bubbles to her nanny's house instead we played it at home and sometimes at the field near our house.

Well, I wouldn't say that her nanny is wrong, she has her own intention. She might be right too but not 100% right. I guess it's all about point of view and acceptance. I played bubbles with my girls a few times already. As for NingNing, it is still a very new game to her. At first, I blew the bubbles for them to chase around and then, NingNing wanted to try on her own. I guess due to the bottle-feeding, she knows how to suck but she doesn't know how to blow. And ya, she sucked the bubble-stick! I'm shocked too but I'm well-prepared. I washed her mouth with a bottle of water, holding in my hand (standby).

Children learn well through mistake. After that very one time, she knew that she couldn't put it into her mouth. Then, I taught her how to blow. She learned it in no time at all. Sometimes, she blew it until her mouth looked like a cute little 'piglet' mouth.

Sometimes, she blew it so hard that no bubbles came out.

Sometimes, she blew it so hard that her salive was out too.

Sometimes, she was so focused on her blowing technique, her bubble-stick was out of blowing range.

But, after a few days of playing, she is skillful now.

She even followed SyuenSyuen to blow the bubbles out and caught it back using their bubble-stick. This is the picture taken last year.

Is it wonderful to see them playing happily and creatively at the field and at the porch.

Ya, it is definitely dangerous if there is no adult "overseeing" the children. But, isn't it better that we, adult play with them together rather than "oversee" them? After the play, I will keep the bubbles on top of a closed shelf. I think that it is our responsibility to keep dangerous things (knife, scissors, medicine etc.) at a safe place. Of course, I told them what will happen if we drink the bubble solution. And this time, they learned a safety tip through this game. The bubbles are not-so-scary afterall.