5.6.11: Hot wheels colour shifters

E loves to play with his hot wheels colour shifters. A pretty creative innovation, I must say. 

Put the car into cold water and it turns to red. 

Put it into warm water and it turns back to silver. 

5.6.11: Drawing a Transformer Robot

S kept insisting that I draw a transformer robot for him. Hence, what I decided to do was to let him draw by himself by tracing the picture on the laptop. He got this idea to trace this way not too long ago. It hadn't even occurred to me to trace like that.

5.6.11: Swimming

We went swimming in the evening. The boys now enjoy being in the pool. 

E laughing and turning in the pool 

5.6.11: Sharing

We went for lunch and I managed to snap a nice picture of the boys sharing a drink together. 

5.6.11: Transformers Roadshow

We headed to The Curve where there was a Transformer roadshow. It was very commercialised and aimed at getting parents to purchase Transformers merchandise and toys for their children. I wonder why boys are so interested in Transformers. I found them quite ugly and scary looking, yet children like them. Is it the ability to manipulate them and change them into something else?

 

 

There was a long queue waiting to take pictures with the Transformers thus we didn't bother taking pictures. My boys asked me why they wouldn't transform. They had seen youtube videos where people wearing Transformers costumes could transform into vehicles. 

5.6.11: Visit to Nalanda Buddhist Society

We made a trip to Nalanda Buddhist Society in Serdang as hubby was invited to give a Dhamma Talk on "Remedy for Keeping Healthy Relationships - Compassion". It was the school holiday seasons and many devotees were away on vacation. 

The boys busied themselves in the library while waiting for their daddy to complete his talk. 

4.6.11: MNS Open Day

We went for the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Open Day at Kiara Park, TTDI. There were various booths with various activities. I bought a voucher for RM10 and we could use it for the activities offered. We joined the Stream Ecology activity. The activity costs RM1 per person. Our family was handed a container and 2 small nets to catch the fishes in the water. 


Most of the urban kids joining in were rather squeamish about removing their footwear and walking barefooted on the ground and stream. Being a vegetarian and an animal lover, I don't encourage fish catching but just allowed this activity for the sake of the children's learning. 


My maid was most excited about catching fish. She caught the most fishes and a large shrimp. An MNS volunteer commented, "She puts all of us to shame" (referring to us urban folks finding it challenging to catch fish). They were later released back into the water. 

The MNS facilitator also taught us how to detect the temperature of the river water, by looking at the numbers on the black strip at the bottom of the container. 

To detect the turbidity of the water. Turbidity is cloudiness of the water caused by individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye. 

The turbidity is 40 JTU. 

Finding out the pH level of the water. Put some river water into test tube and tighten the cap. Then shake it. 

Then put in a paper test strip, watch the colour change on the paper and compare it to a chart. 

Learning about stream ecology and the creatures and plants that live in it.  We also saw a water strider. 

River weed

Looking a a bird in a nest. This was a powerful scope and we could see the bird clearly. 

With the remaining RM5 from the voucher, we did this clay magnet painting activity. S chose this heart shaped clay magnet and chose to paint it pink. How sweet!

29.5.11: Lego XXL

I bought this Lego XXL from Singapore. It costs SGD79.90 (Normal price: SGD109.90). It's just normal bricks, but a whole lot of 1600 pieces. They didn't have any wheels included. The boys were very excited with their first "real" (original) Lego toys. It's strange why these lego models aren't sold in Malaysia.

I'm still looking for Lego Wheels 6118 (see below). The store that I wen't to in Singapore didn't sell it. I have to look for it in Singapore the next time I'm there. Why aren't they sold in Malaysia?

2.6.11: Stone man craft activity

At 2.30 pm, there was a craft activity at the TTDI Community Library, as it was the school holiday week. The children made a stone man from stone, glue, googly eyes and colourful "hair". It was a simple activity and the boys loved it. As they completed the craft in less than 10 minutes, and there were more stones, all the children were allowed to do another stone man. Hence, they had 2 each.

Pasting the eyes and hair

S drew a zigzag mouth for the stone man

2.6.11: Visit to Agathians Shelter

Together with some friends, we brought our kids to visit the Agathians Shelter in PJ. Before that, we obtained a list of groceries that the shelter needed and brought our own contribution in-kind along. Some mothers even brought along books and games to play with the boys at the home. 

Our children played with the kids there. 

I brought and prepared colouring pages for the children, as I had heard in advance that the boys there loved colouring. It was true! The boys at the shelter loved colouring, especially the monster truck and the hot wheels car pictures. Even the older boys liked colouring.

Left: Colouring by S. Right: Colouring by E.

Playing games

Agathians Shelter is located at: 

No. 22, Jalan Kelah 8/6,  

Seksyen 8, Petaling Jaya, 

46050, Selangor.

Website: http://www.agathians.org/

29.5.2011: Waterplay @ Singapore Science Centre

After lunch, we went to the waterpark area. The directions weren't clear and it was a quite tough to find the entrance to the waterpark area and we had to ask a few people.

The place was interesting and the boys found the following waterplay equipment most fascinating. The jet of water could carry the ball up into to another part where it would move again..

Top right: The ball falls into the "tornado-like" water and comes out at the bottom.

Top: The balls can balance on each of these jets of water. 

Left and right: Put the ball into this hole and it will shoot off and fall into a large container of water.

The boys played there for 1.5 hours and found this the most enjoyable part of the SSC. The strategy is to get them to see the other exhibits first and when they are tired, then come to this water park area to refresh themselves. We were there at the SSC from 10 am until 4.45 pm.