Paper Plate Lion

This is an earlier photo of E painting a paper plate lion, in October 2010. The paper plate lion craft was done earlier by S and he drew the lion's face, which looked like a rabbit with two front teeth.

Experimenting with glitter glue

I got some glitter glue for the boys to experiment with. They each drew a truck each and tried to outline it with the glue. However, they still lacked the fine motor skills to press the glue smoothly and it came out in splotches.

E loves this activity

Clay crafts

On 6 December 2010, we made some crafts with clay. I had a lot of clay in my house, as I use it for clay therapy workshops and private sessions with my clients. I used to get the kids to make stuff with clay, but it hadn't occurred to me that I could paint it and "preserve" it with lacquer.

I recently read in an art activity book that we could paint the clay with PVA glue mixed with a little bit of water. I bought the PVA glue, and tried painting on a painted clay models, and it did work. It was shiny.

Later on, I looked into my store room and found that I had clear lacquer. That was even better. I sprayed clear lacquer on the clay and it turned shiny and waterproof. It stopped being chalky.

However, for clay models to last, it must be fired in a kiln. I didn't send mine to be fired. I just let it harden and be air-dried under the sun. Because they were not fired, some parts came off and some got broken due to the rough handling of my children. I glued back some of the parts with construction glue. It reminded me of the Tibetan sand art. Spending hours and hourse to make a beautiful artwork with sand and later "destroy" it, thus reflecting the impermanence and transient nature of things - lots of Dharma practice here. Anyway, the kids enjoyed the process of making and especially painting the models.

Drying the clay models in the sun and the painted clay models

Making and painting the clay models

Lotus Bloom Children Camp 2010 - Learning from nature

As the place of the camp by the edge of a forest, we had fresh forest air accompanied by the sounds of the the forest insects. The boys had a practical nature lesson. Previously, they thought all insects were called ants. Now they know what ants are. On different occasions, they saw ants carrying a large dead beetle, a dead grasshopper and a dead worm. My, were they going fast!

They kids also saw many types of ants - large ants, small ants, red ants, black ants and white ants which were carrying their eggs and migrating from one place to another. They saw moths, which they thought were butterflies, and smaller butterflies flitting here and there. They also learnt about the sounds the insects made in the forest. The sounds were louder at night. When we got back after 4 days and 3 nights, I started to miss the forest sounds and fresh air there.

Counting petals on the hibiscus flower

Studying the tiny durian fruit that he picked up 

Tiny, tiny durian

Mesmerised by ants carrying a dead grasshopper.

One of their favourite vehicles - a caterpillar tractor / excavator

Learning meditation

Here is E, at 2 years 7 months, learning to meditate. He knows how to fold his legs and put his hands. He even knows how to take a deep breath.

Lotus Bloom Children Camp 2010 - Drawing

To my kids them occupied, I got them to draw on a large flipchart paper.

Wowing their "fans"

Intense concentration. He holds the marker pens just like an artist.

S drew this fire truck. The other drawings around it were drawn by other children. 

E drew this car with flashing lights and a traffic light

Posing with his monster truck

Lotus Bloom Children Camp 2010

We were involved in facilitating the Lotus Bloom Children Camp in SBS Taiping, and we brought our children along so that they get to interact with other children and see daddy and mummy at "work". The camp was for children aged 10 - 12 years. This was the second time we are conducting it in SBS and the second time that our children attended this camp. They were the youngest "participants" there. The first time was 2 years ago, in 2008, when S was only 2 years and E, 7 months and was still crawling.

Just by tagging along, they learnt about interaction with other people, and also about science and nature. Below are some pictures of the camp.

Ice-breaking and introduction

E together in a group

E helping to distribute marker pens to the groups

Interacting with the children and playing with their torchlights

Bubble blowing session - one of the mindfulness activities conducted for the children

S interacting with the older children

Making themselves busy

Mealtime

Camp participants

Denai Alam Recreation and Riding Club

On Sunday, 5 December 2010, we visited the Denai Alam Recreation and Riding Club in Shah Alam. It was located in quite an isolated area in a residential estate called Denai Alam, near to Bukit Subang, around 21 km from my place. There were a few people taking riding lessons. I saw a little boy about 4+ years old attending riding lessons on a pony. It was quite a large area, and the weather was hot there at 11.00 am as there was not much shade. Perhaps when the kids are bigger we could go there for riding lessons.

Where did S learn to pose like that?

A worker bathing the horse

The stables where the horses are kept

A young girl taking riding lessons mounting a horse.

Making a road

I cut out corrugated cardboard boxes as I wanted to make crafts. However, S had other ideas, he took a masking tape and the cardboard pieces and constructed them all into a road. Sometimes, it is quite difficult to get him to make something that I want him make, as he has other ideas, and is quite fixed in his ideas. I let him be, as I believe in child-led learning. The kids enjoyed themselves constructing the road.

From battery charger to monster truck

I was surprised when S called me to look at the monster truck that he had made. Of all the trucks, he loved monster trucks the most. He had used my battery charger and recycled the wheels that he had dismantled earlier on from his broken excavator. It was very creative.

Cutting taufu

After returning from buying groceries at the nearby supermarket, I asked the kids to cut taufu. It was their first time and managed to give them something to focus on, as they were quite restless. I gave them a plastic butterknife to cut the taufu.

E's cutting was still unrefined) and some taufu got damaged), as he still need practice on his fine motor skills. 

S' cutting was more precise.  

Feeling proud of his effort.  

Measuring

Yesterday, S and I were reading a book about measurements and it showed how to use blocks to measure how long an item is, by counting the number of blocks. Eg: 1 block long, 2 blocks long, etc.
He stopped at that page, and decided to measure how long his toy vehicles were. He was very enthusiastic and kept adding vehicles to measure them.