12.6.11: Visit to Ivan's Eco Farm

At the invitation from one of the committee members from the Aloka Rainbow Kids group, we made a visit to Ivan Ho's Eco Farm in Gombak. A group of children and parents came along.

Our arrival was greeted by the geese who approached us curiously. 

We observed fungus growing on the side of a rotten log.

Eating their breakfast

Lizard

Ripened bittergourd 

The boys loved to play with the 'shy' 'semalu' plant and get it to close by touching it with a stick

This bee flitted from flower to flower. I wonder what the name of this pink flower is. 

Can you spot the bee?

We managed to attract the gaggle of geese from afar and they came waddling through the mud to honk at us. After awhile they got tired of honking at us, and became quiet. When another person passed by the place, the started honking again. 

S and E drawing vehicles.

After being in the sun for some time, the boys got tired and went to rest under the shade. They took out their sketch books and drew vehicles. A 5-year old girl saw my 4+ year old son's drawing a vehicle and said,"It is nice, but ...not so nice". A 9-year old boy said, "It is ugly". I thought to myself, "They are so young, and have already started to judge. Why do young children learn to judge? Who teaches them to judge? Who are we to judge anyway? My guess is that it starts from the parents. Whenever the children show their parent's their drawings, their parent(s) would say, "It's nice. It's ugly, it's not good enough, etc, etc." I think parent's shouldn't judge their children's drawings. What is ugly to a person may be nice in someone else's eyes. After all, art is relative and there are so many styles to draw something. Judging also makes the child feel inadequate and the child may not want to attempt, if their attempt to draw is met with negative comments.

The 5-year old girl looked at the drawing and said, "This is not correct. There is no such thing as round windows." (on vehicles). My boy said: "There is. The other day, I sat in an aeroplane. An aeroplane has round windows". 

I remember many years ago, when my hubby and I facilitated a camp for students and we asked them to draw a card of appreciation for their parents. A 9-year old boy drew a card for his mother and when he gave it to her, his mother took one look at it, and all she said was, "You spelt this word wrongly" and gave the card back to him. The poor boy was so disappointed, I'm sure his heart was crushed that day.

11.6.11: Lego creations

Since buying the boys the XXL lego bricks, almost every day they would be working on their lego designs. Their favourite activity was building lego vehicles. They mixed and matched with their compatible bricks which had wheels and vehicle windows. I am amazed what they can create. Every time the boys built a lego vehicle or transformer, they would give it a name and sell me the the strengths and specifications of each. Below are some of their creations (I keep forgetting their names). 

Rocket

The sun roof is closed. 

The sun roof is open.

"Giraffe" 

11.6.11: World Environment Day Jungle Trekking

We went jungle trekking in conjunction with the World Environment Day in FRIM. There was a guided nature walk and we signed up for the 1 pm session. We walked through the Keruing Trail. We saw a number of animals and insects there.



There was a dragonfly with red wings.

This tree has very unique roots

We took the Keruing Trail

This leaf has a smell like garlic. I kept this leaf and put it in the car and afterwards the car stank of pungent garlic.

This tree is called "Simpuh Gajah" because it looks like an elephant trunk.  

A giant termite's nest that is built on a tree branch.  

To find out if it's going to rain, listen to the cicadas. If they are quiet, it's going to rain.

Jigsaw puzzle tree

Walking through the forest

Giant milipede. It's longer than a pen.

Giant tree root

This tree was chopped down several weeks earlier as it was struck by lightning. 

After the walk, we went to the museum nearby and the boys remembered the paper mill they saw there the last time there were there. It was now in a glass case and had buttons for lights. 

After the museum, we went to the Sg. Kroh waterfall. This was our third time there. This time, there was less water and the landscaped seems to change each time we went there. 

10.6.11 - Don't be greedy

E said in his broken English: "Is it Buddha said "Don't be greedy?"

Me: "Yes"

E: "Is E greedy?"

Me: "No."

E: "Is S greedy?"

Me: "Sometimes, he can be greedy" (like when he wants more than his share of cookies that he likes)

E: "He take and take and take"

    "Is it telling lies?" (I'm not sure what he meant by this question)

Me: No.

I'm not sure what he meant by the last question, but he did remember the values from the children book Buddhism - Key Stage 1" that I read to them.

9.6.11: Learning about toilet cistern flush

S flushed the toilet and asked me, "Mummy, where does the water come from?"

Taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity for him to learn about cistern flushing, I removed the cistern cover and showed him the water that was filling up the tank via a pipe attached to the wall.

I showed him the ball float of the cistern, and explained that the water will stop once it reaches a certain level.

He observed and said, "Oh, I didn't know that".

9.6.11: Playdate at my house

I hosted a playdate at my house on a Thursday afternoon. We also had an informal sharing session for a new friend who's interested in homeschooling her children and had many questions to ask. I remember myself being on the same path 7 months ago. I was also nervous about embarking on the path but the moment I accepted and embraced it, everything fell into place.

The house was filled with 10 adults and 12 children  that day. The kids had fun and my boys wanted me to host another playdate at another time.

6.6.11: Transformers creations

The boys made some transformers out of their toys.

All the 'transformers' standing 

E made these transformers

This is a creative one. It has eyes, head, hands, legs and feet. It looks like it's walking. 

Looks like an alien / frog?

 .

7.6.11: Bubble art & volcano eruption activity

For our learning playdate, which is held fortnightly, we did a bubble art and volcano eruption activity.

Bubble Art
Items required:

• shampoo / liquid detergent 
• food colouring
• straw
• container (small to medium size. The big ones won't work). 
• blank paper
  
  

Procedure

1. Pour a little shampoo / liquid detergent, water and food colouring into a container.
2. Mix them up and blow bubbles in the solution. 
3. Make sure that the bubbles are over the top of the container.
4. Press a piece of blank paper over the top of the bubbles.  

Stirring the solution

Blowing bubbles

Bubble art

Volcano eruption

Items required: 

• Liquid detergent
• Vinegar
• Baking soda
• Volcano (made from clay, with a container / hole inside)
• Food colouring (optional)

Procedure:

1. Pour some liquid detergent, vinegar and baking soda into the hole. (The amount is all on a guesstimate basis)
2. Watch it bubble and erupt from the volcano. 
3. To give the lava some colour, you can add some food colouring. 

Pouring liquid detergent

Pouring vinegar

Adding baking soda

Volcano erupting 

7.6.11: Funny fish names

We came across these fishes with funny names in the National Science Centre's aquarium.

Foxface rabbitfish

The picture on the far right.

Porcupine pufferfish. The boys like this fish. 

The third picture. 

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.