The best of June

I can’t believe the June holidays has come to an end. Time flies by when you’re having fun huh? Here’s a peek at what we got up to this hols.

We kicked off with a Chinese holiday programme at Ed-Quest Chinese School. Food was the theme for this holiday programme, and Vera had loads of fun exploring food and learning the language at the same time. From the photos, you can see that she had a taste test with blindfolds on, and made ice-cream with the red ball-like gadget (bottom pic). Obviously with such fun and engaging activities, Ms Vera loved attending class, and I didn’t hear a single complaint. She kept telling me she wanted to go back and attend more classes! (Now, I think that alone speaks volumes about the sessions!)

Ed-Quest chinese school

We visited the National Museum masak masak exhibition. The kids had fun “cooking”, making and decorating cardboard houses, admiring miniature toilet roll cut-out artworks, and even exploring the laws of physics with eggs and other interesting materials. And don’t forget the bouncy castles at the front lawn! (PS. Exhibition runs till 3 August.)

Play @ National Museum

We took advantage of I Love Museum’s Children’s Season, and visited the Police Heritage Centre for a quick tour. The tour turned out to be more suitable for older kids (less interactive and engaging for those below 5 or 6 years old), but the highlight was dressing up the kiddos in uniforms at the end of the 1-hour session!

We also went for the Central Fire Station’s Open House and had fun learning more about our civil defence force and exploring fire engines and testing out water hoses.

We also visited KidsStop the week that it opened (Below, top right: playing doctor), and found that it’s one giant indoor playground. The kids had fun pretending to be paleontologists digging for dino bones in a sand pit, playing with giant musical instruments, and acting as construction worker, supermarket cashier, and doctor for a day. (More pictures here.)
play-pretend

During the last week of the hols, I decided to take it easy, and just had some playdates out at MacRitchie Reservoir (we wanted to see the monkeys!) and at nearby playgrounds. Somehow all the playgrounds we went to were really quiet and I guess it could be because most families are still away on holiday.

We made random words with leaves and twigs, collected pine cones for painting, had fun feeding fish, admiring butterflies and building sandcastles. The weather was kind to us, and thank God (while crossing fingers and toes), no haze!

outdoor fun in Singapore!

The holiday programme and the activities were great. But I think the parts I enjoyed best was being able to spend quality time with Vera and JJ, just going about our daily mundane things like grocery shopping, stopping for a cuppa (this one is for me of course), and also getting to explore our own backyard in Singapore.

This quote describes it all…

“The wonderful thing about having kids is that we become tourists in our own country again.”

Review of Snapsack: Ready, snap, go!

Vera’s at a stage where she loves dressing up and experimenting with accessories. A girly and rather vain stage, which I guess is pretty normal for little girls.

So when we were greeted by this snap and decorate bag from Snapsack, she couldn’t wait to get started on the crafting.

snapsack - crafty bags for crafty girls

snapsack happy bags

snapsack party

As you can see, the little girls all had a blast decorating their own little bags. The mummies were very proud too. ;)

Each Snapsack handbag costs $55. If you ask me, I think the price is pretty steep. But if you have a little girl who loves crafting and decorating, it might be a worthwhile gift to get. Especially since you can keep changing and updating the pockets to suit your mood and style!

Snapsack also supports Room to Read, an organisation that seeks to transform the lives of children in the developing world by collaborating with local communities, partners and governments to develop literacy skills among girls and supporting them through their secondary school education.

Disclaimer: We received a Snapsack handbag when we attended their Singapore launch event. All opinions and photos are my own.

Pretend play is great for the imagination

We’ve been busy at home having indoor picnics, fighting crocodiles and dinosaurs, beating away the big bad wolf. Etc etc. (And more recently, or after watch Frozen to be exact, playing princess.)

Yes, the kids love to play pretend. I love to watch their dramatic eye-popping action and guffaw-inducing scripts, and I play along while trying my darnedest to fight back giggles.

Props like this picnic basket (featured below) from IKEA always help to start things going. So do puppets and costume props. Books are also great fodder for dramatisation. I remember one of the earliest times we did this was after we read We Are Going On A Bearhunt. For the longest time, the story captured the kids’ imagination and we always imagined the big bear was chasing after us, and of course they love the part where we all hide under the comforter most.

So here we are, having a picnic on our bed.

Kids are busy slurping ice-cream. Josh wears the look of “What’s going on” on his face.

Let's feed Josh

Ooh, let’s feed Josh some easter eggs. Yummy chocolate, Josh?

Let's shoot the bad guy

Oh no. The big bad wolf (A.K.A. papa) is coming to steal our yummy food! Quick, shoot him!

play_laugh

The poor wolf falls over while dodging JJ’s fireball. Kids fall over laughing.

Whew. Tired.

Whew…Pretend play is tiring. I give up…

pretending to be princess Elsa

I wanna be Elsa. (What’s new?)

What are the benefits of pretend play?

  • Helps children to explore their emotions and gives them a safe way to learn how to express / cope with difficult emotions like anger, jealousy, and aggression.
  • Encourages them to build bridges between different ideas and concepts, which is the foundation of creativity and symbolic/abstract thinking.
  • Helps children rehearse and prepare for upcoming real life events, such as moving house, or a visit to the dentist.
  • Helps them learn and develop social skills.

Pretend play gives you both permission to try on different emotions for size, and in doing so you’ll both gain confidence in experiencing and expressing a fuller range of human emotions. - Building Healthy Minds

How do we encourage pretend play?

  • I remember one of JJ’s first “pretend-playing” was when he was trying to cook me an egg. So real-life activities (cooking, shopping, a trip to the zoo, or an airplane ride) make great fodder for sparking a drama-activity.
  • Read books that inspire pretend play. Try Little Bear, Ladybug Girl Dresses Up, The Very Cranky Bear, or We Are Going On A Bearhunt.
  • Have lots of pretend-play items within their reach. Things like dressing up costumes (even an old handbag or hat), cooking / food items, and all sorts of puppets.

Mary-go-round dress on Vera, Fly Me To The Moon shirt on Javier, and The Bandit onesie on Josh have been sponsored by Baby Att. Inspired by the curiosity and imaginative powers of kids, Baby Att’s pieces have hand-sewn details that have become trigger points for story-telling sessions and quality interaction with our children.

~~~ GIVEAWAY TIME! ~~~

One lucky reader will walk away with a $50 Baby Att shopping voucher. Just enter via the rafflecopter app below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Contest is open to Singapore residents only, and closes on 21 May 2014, 11pm. Winners will be notified by email.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Handmade mother’s day cards and gift tags {Fund-raiser for MINDS}

Some of you know I’m involved in a handmade for charity project.

We are raising funds for MINDS by selling handmade cards and tags.

Here is my latest batch of cards for mother’s day (coming up next month)!

mother's day cardSold

Sold

Sold

These 6×6 cards come with white envelopes. I also have some gift / encouragement tags too. These are made using coasters and pretty paper, windmills and lotsa love. ;)

gift tags All sold, except B1 and B3

 B9 sold

All these are going for $2.50 each (not inclusive of postage), which is a steal if you ask me. LOL.

Just leave me a comment or email me at [email protected] for orders.

Thanks for supporting our cause! :D

Check out the designs made by other mums:

Little Lessons: Valentine’s day craft and learning about extravagant love

This week’s little lessons is inspired by a craft I first saw at education.com.

I adapted it with materials that I found around the house.

valentine craft

love bug DIY craft
1) Cut out a heart shape using red or pink card stock. Tip: the heart should be about the size of your palm or smaller. The paper should ideally be more than 120gsm as this will help the bug to “stand” better. (Ours was a tad flimsy and could barely support the weight of the ping pong!)

2) Write a simple love message on the heart.

3) Decorate the ping pong ball with red or black paper, making a smiley face.

4) Cut pipecleaner into one-inch legs. Fold each leg to make a right angle. Glue one end of the leg to the bottom of the paper heart. Your love-bug can have six or eight legs, depending on you. Tip: It can get messy glueing the legs as you need to hold it in place for a few minutes while it dries to ensure it stays upright.

5) Glue the head onto the tip of the heart. Voila! Get bitten by the love bug! :)

While doing the craft, I spoke to the kids about Valentine’s day and explained that it’s a day where we express our love to those we love.

After saying that I realised how silly that may sound to them since they express their love to us every day, day in day out. (And we to them too.)

Especially like how they rush to the door with peals of excitement whenever daddy comes home. Or how they give us a giant hug out of the blue. And those unexpected “i-love-you’s”

Their acts of child-like love are so full and real and extravagant. Sometimes I think they put us to shame. Perhaps it’s because they have no fear of what people might think. Or that they haven’t learnt to inhibit their behaviour according to social norms.

Perhaps it’s also because they know that we love them, and they feel safe expressing their love to us.

When I see them loving us so richly, I’m inspired to love them more, and to express my love to them in similarly extravagant ways too.

For them, every day must be Valentine’s day.

What are some of your favourite ways of loving and showing love to your children? :)

Little Lessons linky is open. Do link up your everyday lessons and learning activities here!

mamawearpapashirt

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.mamawearpapashirt.com/category/little-lessons-2/" title="mamawearpapashirt" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.mamawearpapashirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Little-Lessons.jpg" alt="mamawearpapashirt" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

How to make paper snowflakes

We made paper snowflakes recently.

I started by folding a square piece of white paper using the instructions here. (Note: the folding in thirds part may look a bit complex, but after the first try, it’s actually quite simple). Then randomly cut out small triangles and other shapes from the folded piece.

Here’s what this snowflake design looks like when still folded.

I unfolded the paper from time to time to see the progress and to understand how each cut made a different pattern on the snowflake.

Then I got the kids to paint the snowflakes, and let them dry. After they were dry, we ran glue tape over the surface and sprinkled red sparkles all over. (I tried to get silver sparkles but alas Popular seemed to have run out.)

After the sparkles have set (gotta shake the snowflakes a little to get ride of excess sparkles), we stuck them on the kids’ bedroom wall for that little Christmassy touch.

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. ;)

Ho ho ho, a special Christmas drama class

Vera attended Christmas Crackers, a 4-day speech and drama programme, at Little Harvard International Preschool last week.

It was conducted by Daniel Jenkins, one of the directors of The Little Company. He has been teaching children in Singapore for the last 13 years as head of the Julia Gabriel Centre of Learning and as Senior Teacher at Centre Stage School of the Arts.

Vera enjoyed the lessons. I guess partially because she’s such a natural drama queen. She acted as one of the four fairies, and here she is in fairy gear. (Can you believe these butterfly wings lasted from her first birthday? I think it’s time to get new wings!)

drama girl in costume

Teacher Dan preparing the kids before the big show.

Fairies dancing round and round, sprinkling their magic on the Christmas work that’s got to be done.

Vera and Dot with teacher Dan. They obviously like him quite a bit. :)

Here are some of the artwork that the kids did during the holiday programme. The kids used hand-painting to make the shape of a Christmas tree, and also a reindeer (not shown here).

And our little girl got to choose her favourite ice-cream as a reward for her hard work!

Little Harvard International Preschool is located at 6 Jalan Gelenggang, Singapore 578189. Thank you, Little Harvard, for planning such a fun holiday programme!

A time to craft, a time to give

I had a lovely time crafting with some other crafty mamas last week.

It. Was. Therapeutic.

We were all so focused on learning new tricks from mama J, and one another, and checking out all her cool crafty toys!

Like a little craft party. Chatting and crafting.

I sometimes wonder why I carve out time to do this, like, don’t I have something else better to do (like run last-minute baby-related errands)?

But seriously, I can’t think of a more meaningful way to spend the days leading up to Christmas (or till the day I pop). And I thought Vera will also have fun chipping in in small ways, and she’s at a good age to be learning about giving and putting other people’s needs ahead of our own. ;)

Plus like I said…It. Is. Very. Therapeutic. And so it must be good for my body, soul and even baby.

Here is the first set of cards I have. They are priced at a set of 4 for $10. If you see something you like and want to place an order, you can leave a comment or email me at mamawearpapashirt @ gmail.com!


We’re also calling out for donation of scrap materials so if you wish to contribute to this project, please get in touch too.

All proceeds will go to a local charitable organisation to help children with special educational needs. (The name is under wraps at the moment, as we are still applying for the relevant permits.)

In the coming days/weeks, I will be uploading more card designs onto the Facebook page, so stay tuned.

Here are the other mamas involved in this project. Do look out for updates on their blogs too in the coming weeks.

A Dollop of Me
Mummy Wee
Tan Family Chronicles
A Juggling Mom

 

Do we need a reason to give? Is it only during Christmas that we start to share our blessings around? Not really…The only reason is love. Love without boundaries.

Thank you for supporting this cause! And please spread the word and love around. :)

UPDATED: Check out new designs for mother’s day here!

PS. Special thanks goes to Claudia from The Loving Mum who contributed the craft materials.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...