National Science Centre

We went to the National Science Centre again on 21 August. They were having an "Energy Month" and had some talks / demos for the public. We attended the "Energy Show" at the Auditorium on the second floor at 10 am. In the beginning, there were very few people, just my family and another lady with 2 children - altogether 8 of us.

 This pleasant facilitator started the Energy Show on time.

Half an hour into the show, a busload of tamil school primary students entered the auditorium which served to liven up the atmosphere. It was a 45 minutes demo and I was surprised that my kids could sit still for that amount of time.  

Left: This boy is sitting on a bed of nails.       Right: Touching the nails. 

"Holding" the fire

"Hot air balloon"

E feeding Pleo, the dinosaur

Visiting the newly opened gallery

Car park designs

S surprised me one day by designing a car park. He came across 2 packets of glue sticks for my hot glue gun, took them out and promptly started arranging them into parking lots.

I noticed that he usually will design what he has seen. He would also arrange all his toy vehicles together to make a traffic jam. I guess it's the difference between the children of this generation, as during my time, traffic jams were uncommon. If there were any, I certainly didn't notice them.

Designed with glue sticks

Designed with disposable bamboo chopsticks

This is designed with disposable chopsticks, that I bought for them to play with. After I bought it, I remembered that I read an email mentioning about the dangers of using disposable chopsticks, as it was touted to have chemicals in it. At first, I was concerned whether I should let them play with the disposable chopsticks. I went to do more research on it. I also did my own experiment and soaked the bamboo chopsticks in hot water first, to see if it had any chemical residue floating on top of the water. I did not find any after half and hour, so I concluded that it was perhaps safe for them to play with.  

House painting

We repainted the outside part of the house at the end of last year. S insisted on helping out and didn't want to be left behind. It took us a longer time to paint the wall as I had to supervise him painting.

Creative designs by E

Just a few days ago, when I went downstairs, E showed me his "creation".

Guess, what's this?

"What's this?" I asked him.

"A monster truck!" he said.

It did look like a monster truck with large wheels.

Drawing time

The boys sat down before lunch just now to do some drawings with some thick coloured pens. They loved to draw.

S can draw fast and confidently. He prefers to draw trucks rather than people. 

Drew faces

This was the first time that E drew faces. His faces turned out cute, and I was pretty surprised as his drawings.  

Drawings by S (3 years 11 months)

Drawings by S (3 years 10 months)

Drawings by S (3 years 4 months)

Trucks

Creative designs with plastic stirrers

S also designed this truck from plastic stirrers. Those are supposed to be wheels at the bottom. 

A truck

Creative designs with food picks

Car

S loves to create designs with stuff like toothpicks, chopsticks, crayons, etc. I came across some food picks selling cheaply at Giant Hypermarket (RM0.99 for a dozen) and got a packet for him to do some designing. All these works are his own creation done spontaneously, in one stretch.

 

Toy jacks (that he recalled from a storybook)

 

 

    

Rice Sensory Tub

At first I thought of making a sensory table. Then I recalled that I had an unused dressing table stool with wheels at the bottom. The cushion seat could be removed. The children used to remove the seat and stand inside the stool and imagine that it was a vehicle. It fitted the red rectangular container nicely.

This link explains the benefits of a sensory table/tub.

S who's turning 4 said, "Mummy -- Cannot play with rice, rice is for eating, not playing". Hmmm, I wonder where he learnt that. He sounded really like a grandmother! I guess, it's not in the Asian culture to play with rice. 

Washing rice activity

E is a very kinesthetic child, and loves to touch and feel things with his hands. I got him to feel rice and to wash the rice. He didn't like it when the wet rice stuck to his fingers.

Washing bottles

One day, the kids got bored and wanted to help wash bottles. They got up onto a stool and started to wash their milk bottles with the bottle brush. They enjoyed playing with the soapsuds.

Cutting banana activity

I made a banana cake the other day, and here is E cutting the banana. He loves using the butter knife and cutting things such as bread, grapes, bananas, etc. He's quite skillful at cutting at 2 years 3 months. His elder brother doesn't like to use the knife to cut. I think it's because he doesn't like to dirty his hands.

Montessori inspired transferring activities

I call all these activities Montessori inspired activities as I do not have any formal training in the Montessori curriculum. All my knowledge of Montessori are gleaned from the internet. Below are some transferring beans activity that the boys did. It is to help them practice their fine motor skills and helps with concentration.

Spooning activity

Dry pouring activity

Pegging activity

I thought of this idea when I went shopping at Tesco. I bought a small circular hanger with clothes peg and got S to practice his fine motor skills by pegging his socks. This is a simple and inexpensive activity. He did very well, with full concentration.

Tunnel activity

Yesterday, I spontaneously came up with the idea to make a tunnel out of our dining table chair by covering it with a cloth. It's such a simple idea, and to think I hadn't thought of it earlier. We had 2 types of tunnel. A small crawl-through tunnel and a walk/drive through tunnel. E did the commando crawl underneath the chair. I think crawling is a good activity. It helps with gross motor development and helps synchronize both parts of the brain, i.e. the left and the right brain. Looking at them reminded me of my girl guiding camping days, when we had to do commando crawling in the mud, under chairs, benches, and through many obstacles. My boys really liked the tunnel activity.

Water Play

Here they are having a blast with their water play. Such joy on their faces.

My Birth Story - Chinese magazine

A Chinese Magazine on Holistic Therapies featured my birth story in Chinese. 


Featured in Sharing and Caring Magazine, Vol. 4, December 2006, Malaysia 
Please click on the pictures to read the words.