Activities for the little one Archives - Page 2 of 3

Silly Triangle

May 15, 2013 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

It’s the once a term teacher-parent session. I don’t think my parents had ever stepped foot into my schools in the entirety of my studying career. Because during my time, only parents of naughty children were summoned to school. I certainly weren’t an angel but didn’t justify for parent summoning.

Now, parents want to see the teachers, to keep track of their children’s progress. Even pre schools are doing it now! Once every term. Parenting has indeed evolved. From the hands off parents of the past to over zealous ones of the present.

For 宝贝, it’s the usual stuff. No red flag. Good enough for me. No news is good news! No more weird feedback like her lining up for 3-4 helpings of food when she was in nursery 1. (Her n1 teacher must think that I starve her at home…)

Something caught my eye as I was leaving.

I almost burst out laughing. It’s so “her”. I call her Silly Sally whenever she does silly things at home. The rest of her friends were using the normal textbook adjectives. Maybe I should tone down on the “Silly Sally” usage… Hmmm…

This is her BFF’s. It really looks like the child, right down to her cute bangs.

Children’s art – a reflection of reality.

Card Play – UNO

April 2, 2013 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

This post should have preceded the chess play post.

We taught her how to play UNO just before our Gold Coast Trip in Aug last year, before her 3rd birthday. The game box stated that it’s suitable for ages 7 and above. But since this game has been around for decades (I remember playing it when I was a wee kid and I’m not young), they probably should have revised the age recommendation as children are becoming smarter these days!!

We taught her that because we ran out of games to play with her. Haha! Ok ok, it’s actually to train her matching skills for colours and numbers. We were not expecting her to know how to use the special cards like reverse, draw 2, skip, wild, draw 4. But she picked it up easily like a fish in water and actually understood when to deal them out.

She started off holding the cards in one hand and she had to pick them up one by one to see them. Now she’s able to fan them out nicely – see! Improve fine motor skills!! She’s also able to deal the cards out to everyone, 7 for each player by counting out loud.

The only thing she needs to be trained is to develop a poker face when she plays. It’s so obviously written on her face when she receives special cards. It’s pretty amusing to see her giggle to herself when she gets good cards. No hurry for her to lose her childish innocence. There are enough years for her to ease into the masked society, hopefully, not too disillusioned along the way.

*Contemplating which card to throw out. Hmmm….

*The evil laugh just before dealing a draw 4 card.

*Watching Godma Eds closely to make sure that she’s dealing the cards properly.

*A snapshot during the game.

*A snapshot of the 4 players @ sakae sushi at Changi Airport. You simply must have self taken photos at an all girls’ outing. No girly outing is complete without this!!!

Chess Play

March 27, 2013 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

Ever since we introduced Uno to 宝贝 during the Gold Coast Trip, she’s been playing it regularly. We started playing it with her so that she could learn colour and number matching. However, she’s far exceeded our expectations by trouncing us regularly with her draw 2, reverse, skip, draw 4 cards. Believe me, when she dealt the special cards, she actually did it with a relish and evil laugh.

I decided to introduce her to the world of chess. I wanted to start off with checkers, but I wasn’t unable to dig it out of our disorganized boxes (many were unpacked since we moved in…. 1.5 years back…).

While browsing in a bookshop, I came across a set of animal chess, which cost a very affordable $3.90. Huh?! Now still have such cheap games arh! Mai tu Liao! Buy lor!!

She was on her best behavior that day. So I rewarded her with a present – the animal chess set.

It was easy enough to match the pieces to the pictures on the mat. What wasn’t so simple was to explain the rules to a 3 year old!

1. The ranking of the animals by size. The bigger one can “eat” the ones that are smaller than it. The only exception is the mouse – it can kill the mighty elephant (by climbing into its truck n tickle it to death :p).

2. The pieces can only move one step at a time, to the adjacent square.

3. The Mouse is the only piece that has the ability to move into the water areas.

4. The Lion and Tiger pieces can leap across the banks of the river, unless the Mouse is in the river, in the line of the leap.

5. If a piece ends up in the opponent’s trap, no matter how large it is, even the smallest piece can gobble it up.

6. The game ends when you move your piece into the opponent’s den.

6 simple rules. But oh so difficult to get it across to her. I decided to just play and teach along the way. I ate up so many of her pieces that she started looking like this.

So I sacrificed some pieces to retain her interest in the game. She won in the end. Although she wasn’t able to remember all the rules, but at least she’s remembered the ranking of the animals and she was very tickled that the mouse could eat up the huge elephant. She liked having her mouse swim in the river too.

Not too bad for the 1st time. There’s still a chance that she may turn out to become an expert animal chess player. We fell off our seats when she defeated us in UNO, even when we didn’t intentionally lose to her.

But for now, she remains as an animal chess noob. I must eat up her pieces while I still can. :p

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears

March 23, 2013 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) has been a personal favourite theatrical group of mine. I’ve watched quite a few of the plays put up or brought in by them. Their children’s plays are particularly enjoyable and of pretty high standard. Although I like the ones brought in by Act 3 and Alliance Français but the inaccessibility of the car parks deters me from attending their plays.

During this term, 宝贝’s school did fairy tales with them. Goldilocks and the 3 bears was one of them. How timely! I bought the tickets way before I knew the theme for this semester. The price of the tickets was reasonable. I’m a pretty cheapskate mom. I wouldn’t pay too much for children’s plays. There were some that I was interested in, during the ACE festival. Alas… The pricey tickets. So, no go lor.

The set was beautifully done with movable wooden tree frames and pull out beds and all. In the cozy, colourful country style that I like! And of course, the actors and actresses were first rate.

Throughout the whole show, 宝贝 was upset that the bears were going for a walk and Goldilocks would come and eat up baby bear’s porridge. Not to have breakfast is like the end of the world for her. And when Goldilocks’ father couldn’t find her in the woods, her lower lip was quivering when she said in a shaky voice, “Why hasn’t her papa found her?” I was quite amused by her. Bad mama! Laughing at her daughter’s misery. She was genuinely distressed though. Maybe she was putting herself in the shoes of Baby Bear (to have to go without breakfast) and Goldilocks (getting lost in the woods).

The only grouse I had was that SRT blocked out the entire middle section of the stall seats for school groups. Only the first 3 rows and last 3 rows were opened to the public for booking. And yet, there were plenty of empty seats. Best seats! What a horrid waste!!

Anyway, I would highly recommend Goldilocks and the 3 Bears if you have children. Even as an adult, I found it pretty enjoyable.

宝贝’s Family Portrait

March 12, 2013 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

宝贝 brought her Chinese workbook back from school today as this is the last week of the school term. I’ve met up with her Chinese teacher last week so I already had a preview of her work.

The session didn’t yield any surprise since I pretty much know what she can do. Wang Laoshi said she’s very into Chinese (she likes what she’s good at. Considering the amount of time my mom spends on her, honing her language. She’s already able to read sentences. Sadly that’s not the case for English. I’m the English oic and I’ve been derelict in my job. Oops!)

I deviate.

Back to her workbook. There’s a missing piece. 全家福. Family Portrait. She didn’t do that piece of work as she was absent from school that week. It must have been the gastric flu week right after Chinese New Year.

So after her English practice (an ad hoc effort of mine, trying to make up for lost time), I handed her her sketchbook (a book we bought in Australia, to keep her occupied.), which was filled with abstract colourful market doodles, sat her down to complete her family portrait.

The little artist and her art piece.

The close up. From left to right – herself, 小小宝贝, mama, papa. We look like a family of “No Face”, straight out of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. :p

Notice the little squiggles at the bottom of the stick legs. Those are shoes… The first one she drew with more care because it’s herself mah. Poor papa had the worst end of the stick. He’s the last to be drawn and she’s already lost her patience for it. She didn’t even give him legs.

宝贝 Loves to Bead

December 12, 2012 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

宝贝 has been wearing the bracelet, which she beaded herself at the Chiltern Charity Carnival.

Since she liked beading so much, it seemed to be a good idea to start her off on it. I combed the shelves of spotlight for beading material. Just for the threading material alone, there were thin wires, thick wires, leather, plastic thread etc. That’s not even taking into consideration the various kinds of beads, pendants, crystals and even pearls!! Then the cutters, wire twisters and all!! Oh my… Making my head swim. I’m not exactly a very handicraft person and all those material were too sophisticated and small for a toddler to handle. I left, empty handed.

Hmmm.. Maybe I should try qoo10 (gmarket) since it has almost everything. Lo and behold, I found an online store that sells all kinds of beads and even big ones, suitable for children. Similarly, the variety was mind boggling. I read the profile of the owner, and discovered that she has 2 very young children. So I emailed her for advice.

She was really prompt in replying and mentioned that her 3 year old had problems sitting still for beading sessions. But I thought I’d try it on 宝贝 anyway. She recommended the elastic cotton thread that’s easier to handle for little hands and allowed room for alterations. For the beads, her advice was to go for the ones with at least 2mm big holes. The great thing about her website was that the sizes of the beads and the holes were all clearly listed.

The name of her shop on qoo is Creating Footprints Together. Here’s the link to her website.

After placing an order on qoo, the package came really fast!!

She started by creating a necklace for one of her teachers. We wanted to buy gifts for N1 teachers to thank them for all the love and attention they have showered upon her in the whole year. She decided that she should make the gifts for them herself.

She picked out the letters of their names. This is good training for alphabet recognition. Then she decided upon the colours of the beads for one side of the necklace. For the other side I gave her 2 choices, whether to haphazardly thread them without any colour order or to thread them in a symmetrical fashion. She chose the latter. This trained her to recognize patterns and symmetry.

Then she sat there and threaded the beads painstakingly, one by one. It really took her a super long time.

She made the last one for herself because she needed a little reward at the end of the session. Since she was already able to spell her own name, she picked out the letters without any prompting.

All in all, she took 1.5 hours to complete 2 necklaces and 1 bracelet. Quite an astounding feat for a 3 year old to remain seated and in full concentration for that long. Their span of concentration usually lasts about 30 mins. She must really love beading. Hehe.

The completed works.

Her celebratory portrait!!

She’s put on the one she’s made for herself and held the 2 she’s made for her teachers.

The final gift product.

Beading trains : patience, concentration, fine motor skills, letter recognition, sorting, pattern recognition, symmetry.

宝贝 the Chinese Flasher

November 9, 2012 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

We have plenty of flashcards – Chinese, English and even the maths dotted ones. We used to flash them at 宝贝 when she was just a few months old.

Now that she’s quite old we have stopped the flashing. (quite a while back actually, more due to the lack of time.) Instead, we try to devise games that make use of them. Why waste them since we have them anyway??

She recognizes quite an impressive number of words for her age, more Chinese characters than English words. All through the sheer diligence of my Mom who has been spending 1 hour of “classroom” time with her every day. I have been slacker in that aspect with her English vocabulary.

She likes playing these word games. This is one of the simpler ones. I jumbled up the Chinese characters and made her arrange them in ascending order.

宝贝 hard at work. Hehe

Progressing well…

Sitting back, admiring her own work, feeling very pleased with herself.

I made her arrange them in descending order. From 10 to 1. Then we did some simple maths sums. Like what’s 3+3? Sums that add up to 10. I asked in English and she picked the relevant Chinese characters up.

That’s how we spent a leisurely afternoon.

Tango – Puppets @ Play

November 8, 2012 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

I’ve wanted to blog about this for quite a while. Edited the photos and kept them in the photo stream. My iPhone just ran out of space (yes yes. I know people probably find this unbelievable that a 32gb iPhone can actually run out of space. But I’m a photo cum video hoarder), so I thought I should just blog about it and clear a little space for more photos. The immediate solution is to just buy myself an iPhone5!! :p

This was the first puppet show that I’ve ever brought 宝贝to. We have been catching plays and kiddy shows on and off. And I figured that this would be a refreshing change. I googled it and found pretty good reviews on it. It’s a one man show by an Argentinian puppeteer, brought in by Act 3 Theatre.

We had to set out pretty early as this was the first time we were going to the Act 3 theatre. I’ve heard horror stories from friends on how tough it was to find parking. Sure enough, the car park was only just large enough to house 6 cars and the nearest car park was along Anthony Road which was quite a distance away. It would have been quite disastrous if it rained. Mental note: no more shows at this venue unless hub comes along.

We were dropped off and since we were early we joined the rest of the families on the wooden benches outside a small little wooden structure.

宝贝 munching on her biscuit while waiting for the show to start. *nom nom nom*

I was wondering what the interior of the theatre looked like when its exterior resembled a pre war storehouse. My curiosity was finalized satisfied and yes it was a storehouse on the inside!!

The little stage was filled with the props, there was sitting space right in front of it and everyone rushed to grab the the best seat nearest to the stage. I preferred to sit on the first row of chairs so that I had an elevated, unblocked view and I wasn’t too keen to jostle for space.

The show started with the puppeteer recounting how he became interested in the art and his journey. With a heavily accented English, he spoke in a very animated way and soon infected the whole crowd with his enthusiasm and positivity. His props were simple yet imaginative, very colorful and brought to life by his acrobatic movements and well trained actions.

Every single part of his body could be used, to animate one, two or even three puppets at the same time. He made use of lights, simple every day items to produce various visual effects to wow the crowds. His shadow play was amazing. With a twitch of his fingers and parts of his body, he produced creative shadowy images that thrilled the minds with his innovation.

We were not allowed to take photos of the performance so I had to take photos of the brochure… Better than nothing lar!

We are being exposed to all kinds of media every day. They tend to be very blatant and very “in your face”. You don’t need much imagination or creativity to absorb the imagery that is conveyed. You can’t help but wow at the innovative ways that the puppeteer has used to bring his puppets to life.

But what struck me as the best part of the performance was the last bit, his ending speech.

Children are the best things that can happen in your lives. Now they love you unconditionally and treat you as their whole world, worship you like gods. There will come a time when they will outgrow this and move on with their own lives. You, as parents should cherish this phase of their lives because it’s very short and once it’s gone you will never get it back. This is the time when you should spend the most time with them and it will be the best part of your lives. Cherish this moment and give them all the love you have. Hug Them, Kiss Them, Shower Them with all your Love.

I can’t help but wholeheartedly agree with him. Images of 宝贝 in her baby phase and now her toddler phase, the hilarious things she did or said. Yes. I can’t turn back the clock and she’s growing up in leaps and bounds every day. She won’t be making the same cute mistakes and she’s now talking more logically. She’s still adorable in her own more mature way now. But I couldn’t help remembering how she was like just months back or even 1-2 years ago.

I felt like quitting my job on the spot and spending all my time with her!! (hee hee.. realistically, I don’t think I can last more than 2 weeks as a Stay At Home Mum though…) It’s never too late to manage my work life balance and make the most of these precious years when she still adores me unconditionally. (everyone tells me that she will soon start talking back and make me mad. :p)

Anyway, back to Tango – puppets @ play. If you have missed it this year, remember to go for it next year. Enjoy it with your children. These are one of the simple things in life that can make you smile. :)

Miss Unconventional

October 12, 2012 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

宝贝 finally completed one of her art pieces yesterday. She has 2 more uncompleted work – pictures of a fish and a ship. I must be guilty of passing these faulty genes to her. I’ve 101 projects that I’ve started but are still pending completion. *guilty look*

Ta Da!! Her Children’s Day (which was last Friday) t-shirt. She can wear it next year as it’s really big on her. I’ve seen all the children carrying their T-shirts out of the room yesterday. She was holding hers gingerly at the top as the fabric paint hadn’t quite dried.

宝贝：I did it all on my own!! (she announced proudly) I’ll carry it home myself.

Me : Great. Just don’t dirty the car or I’ll make you clean it up. By the way, why’s your Dolly’s hair red?? All your friends’ dollies have black hair.

宝贝：I like red hair! (I can just picture her dying her hair red as soon as she comes of age. >.< )

Me : Errr ok. But aren't the buttons too big for the face? (the eyes I've seen on other tshirts were made of smaller buttons or sequins). And she looks like someone punched her in the eye.

宝贝：Big eyes can see better!!! That's the makeup. And she's wearing a dress.

Me : =.=" (I can just imagine her with red hair and gothic style make up in future. Maybe I can help her with that for the upcoming Halloween party…)

Having said that I could notice that she had painstakingly stuck the red wool strands in two directions. The dolly even had a centre parting. And the cloth bits were arranged in the same direction to resemble a skirt, complete with a sequined belt. Her zombie looking doll kind of grew on me after a while. :p

After all, she's right. Why conform to the norm? Why does the sky have to be always coloured in blue? Why does the grass have to be green? Why does the dolly have to look like a regular girl? She can be a zombie for all I care!

Adults like us have too many rules and conventions that we live by and we have forgotten how it's like to think out of the box and to be different from others.

I hope creativity continues to thrive in my quirky little one. Maybe she will paint the grass pink next time!!

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

My One Cent Worth of Thoughts

An Extremely Valid Reason for Skiving

Browsed by
Category: Activities for the little one