14.1.11: Paper aeroplane craft

S independently looked through the crafts book that we borrowed from the national library and decided that he wanted to make paper planes. I helped him to make the paper plane. As usual, he didn't allow me to fly his plane. Looks like I've gotta make my own.

13.1.11: Stamp exhibition at Muzium Negara

After our visit to the national library, we headed to Muzium Negara to meet up with some friends and check out the stamp exhibition there. The last time I was in Muzium Negara was when I was 12 years old. There was a cat exhibition, and I remember having a photograph of myself standing in front of a cat replica at the entrance of the museum.

We were greeted with a display of vehicles. There were 3 locomotives near the car park, near the entrance of the museum. 

Then we met up with some homeschooling mothers. We bought special tickets for the stamp exhibition: RM3 for Malaysians (adult). 

First day covers on display

Beautiful paintings which were made into stamps

The postman's bicycle. I can't remember the last time I saw this bicycle. 

The children were more interested in playing with one another than looking at the stamps. They were playing hide and seek, making a lot of noise, that I was afraid we'd all get rebuked and asked to leave. 

Pos Malaysia was also selling beautiful stamps of the past, and some of the mothers bought the stamps. I didn't purchase any, as I don't collect stamps and hardly send letters in the mail. My boys were restless, so we checked out the surroundings.  

We went to take a closer look at the driver's cab. The boys can name the parts of the train such as driver's cab, smokestack, whistle, wheel, etc.

A totem pole

We headed towards the main museum, and climbed up the steps to the main museum. However, the sky was overcast and we cut our trip short and hurried back to the car and drove off. Returning later in the rain would mean getting stuck in the traffic jam.

13.1.11: Perpustakaan Negara Kuala Lumpur

I brought the boys to visit the National Library and apply for membership there. I arrived there around 11 am and was lucky to get a parking inside the library compound.

Library hours:

Tuesdays - Saturdays          : 10.00 am - 7.00 pm

Sundays                              : 10.00 am - 6.00 pm

Mondays & Public holidays : Closed 

Website: http://www.pnm.gov.my/

My last time there was in year 2000, when I was doing my MBA, and my membership had since lapsed. When I enquired about renewing my membership, I was asked to bring my old membership card (and can't apply for a new membership). Otherwise, I would be fined RM5. What an irony, since it's now free membership for all new applicants. Application for membership was free of charge and since the boys had the MyKid card, the library would not be issuing a membership card. The boys only needed the MyKid card to borrow. Each person could borrow 3 books for 3 weeks. 

We headed to the children's section which was at the basement and separate from the adults section in which children were not allowed to ender. I was asked to deposit my bag at the bag deposit area where there was a security guard stationed. Another security guard came up to me and asked me to remove all valuables from my bag. I didn't bring a handbag, so I stuffed everything into my pants pockets. Fortunately, I was wearing cargo pants which had many pockets.

There were some sunken sofa in the middle of the library to sit on and many books strewn on the floor in the middle of the library. Since it was a weekday, there was hardly anyone around.

The boys were more attracted to playing with the plastic cushions that were of various shapes and could be made into a puzzle or a circle, etc. Later on, S started to look through the books.

These were the books we borrowed. E wanted to borrow the book on Teddy Time. I intentionally chose thicker books, as we stayed quite far from the library and it wouldn't be viable just to borrow thin books and complete reading them all in a day. Having to travel 60 km to and fro, paying for petrol and RM 4 toll made me reconsider whether I should do this on a long term basis. I think I should go and visit a nearer library.

After that, we went to the cafeteria to have lunch. My appetite was dampened when I found a cooked grub in my vegetable dish.Will think twice about eating there in the future. 

11.1.11 Coin box

S is putting some coins into a coin box which he just received.

I had to go and enquire with the branch about the coin box after waiting in futility for it to be mailed to me for the past 2 months.

28.12.10: Clipping pegs activity

I got a box of different coloured pegs from Tesco for some learning activities that I planned to do with the boys. As I hadn't have time to do it, I got E to practice his fine motor skills by clipping the pegs onto a container. It turned out looking like some sort of basket.

8.1.11: The Secret Garden of 1Utama

After the storytelling event at MPH, we headed back to the 1Utama old wing where we parked our car. On the way, I chanced upon a signboard about The Secret Garden of 1Utama. The sign wasn't clear where it was, it only mentioned rooftop. By chance, I looked up and the clear see-through ceiling and saw something that looked like a garden. "It must be there", I thought, and searched for the lift to bring us there.

As we opened the lift door, we were greeted by hanging plants. We were asked to sign in our details and number of visitors, by a security guard who was dozing when we arrived. There were only a couple of people there.

It was quite a large area and some of the orchids were beautiful. I loved the sunflowers. I also caught a photo of a bee which was gathering nectar from white flowers. It was going from flower to flower.

Large black bee

8.1.11: Storytelling at MPH 1 Utama

We attended a storytelling event at MPH 1 Utama by Usborne. It was held at 2 pm. Surprisingly, not many children attended the event, although a number of children looked from behind the book aisles, but dared not participate. I was pleasantly surprised that my boys wanted to join in the activity. They sat down quietly for the storyteller to start. The storyteller, Ms Soon started with an ice-breaking activity which she got the children to sit in a circle. When she asked them to sit in a circle, they didn't budge from their seats. So in the end she asked them to hold hands to make a circle and then sit down. That did the trick. S taught his younger brother to hold hands with the boy next to him by holding his hand and placing it in the other boy's hand.

She taught them a simple game where one person would put a ball behind another person, and that person has to take the ball and put behind another person, and so on. I don't know if it was played correctly, but the children caught on with the game.

Ice-breaking activity

Then, Ms Soon drew a cat (see picture below). It had no legs. So, S told her, "The cat has no legs. You must draw legs". So, she drew 2 legs at the bottom of the cat. Then S came up to me (I was sitting behind, observing) and asked me "Mummy, a cat has how many legs?" I said, "Four legs". He then went back to her and told her in a self-assured manner, "Cat has 4 legs, not 2 legs". LOL!!! So she drew 2 more legs.  Then, the children were asked to draw something on the whiteboard. S asked for a marker pen and drew a car. 

Drawing a car

After that, the storyteller started to tell the children a story about "The Grasshopper and the Ant". 

The story of the ant and the grasshopper

Before long, E went up to look at the pictures in the book that she was showing.

Then he asked questions after questions about the pictures in the book

And he kept onlookers (parents) entertained he when asked so many questions, that the parents kept laughing and laughing, until he felt embarassed and self-conscious and ran back to me, not wanting to listen to the story anymore. Fortunately, Ms Soon was quite tactful and told him nicely to sit down and then she will tell him the answers. 

This was E's normal character - asking many questions. I'm glad I'm homeschooling him now. If he were in school, he would be considered a disruptive child and a nuisance for asking so many questions. If he were to be put down so many times by people in authority, what would happen to his spirit of enquiry? 

It brings to mind an art therapy workshop I conducted for a Chinese primary school in PJ. I found that the children there were afraid to make mistakes. When I got them to copy something that I had drawn on the blackboard onto paper, many of the students kept erasing and erasing their work in order to get their drawing to perfection. Some dared not draw a box freehand. They used a ruler. Most did not ask questions. They just copied the words I had written on the board, although some did not understand the words. Only then I realised the extent their spirit of enquiry has been dampened. 

The event ended with a "colouring contest" where everyone went home with a small gift. S was very interested when he heard "colouring contest". He gave his best effort there, putting so colourful colours onto the truck that he took quite a long time to complete his work. He has never coloured this meticulously before at home. Finally, I hurried him along and in the end, he finished the picture by colouring the ground blue.  

Colouring activity

8.1.11: Battlebot Challenge 2011

We headed to Bangsar Village to glimpse the Battlebot challenge organised by Children's Technology Workshop that was going on and to just view the place, since it was over 2 years since we last went there. I was curious to find out what the Battlebot challenge was about and to see the students' creations.

I wanted my boys, especially S to see the robotic lego battlebot that was created by the students, since he was interested in making vehicles from lego toys. Most of the students were from international schools and were in the category of 7 - 9 years old. They were in teams comprising of 3 boys each. I guess it's in the boys' nature to like such battle games.

We stood and watch for around 10 minutes, as I wasn't so sure if it was a good thing to let my boys view a 'battle' where there's a winner and there's a loser. I did not want to impart to them a "Win-Lose" mentality. I prefer to strive for "Win-Win". We later headed to Toy's R Us.

5.1.11: Learning astronomy

S is now interested in astronomy and outer space, after having been to Planetarium Negara and Planetarium Melaka. Without me asking him, he can name the various planets' name. Yesterday, he used different types of containers to outline circles to draw planets. He wanted to do planet craft yesterday, but there wasn't time, so I told him that we could do it the next day. I got him to draw a picture of the Sun instead. We looked at some pictures of the sun on the internet, and I was quite surprised to find that the sun's colours are mostly reddish-orange. "This sun is blue" S said pointing to a blue sun.

Today, he told me that he wanted to do planets craft. I went online to look for some crafts but couldn't find any suitable ones. He asked me to do a Mars rover after looking at this website. So, I printed out a picture of the Mars rover and tried to make it from the recyclable materials that we had around the house.

Source: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04413

Here's what I came up with. Haha!

I also came across a picture of planets. They were in the correct size in the solar system. I printed them out, then cut it. S stuck the pictures in order on the wall above his bed. The Sun is not the correct size, but I didn't have a larger paper than that. I'll have to get a larger paper to draw the sun.

The planets according to scale, except for the sun. The sun is much larger than that.

After that, I read to him about the Sun and Mercury. Then he viewed some youtube videos on planets. He prefers to look at the planet size comparison on youtube. When I watched this video, I was shocked to find that the size of earth (12,756 km( in diameter is very small in relation to the sun (1,392,000 km). And our sun pales in comparison to other larger planets such as the following:
Sirius:                 2,335,000 km
Vega:                 4,315,000 km
Pollux:              11,120,000 km
Arcturus:           22,101,000 km
Aldebaran:        59,770,000 km
Rigel:                97,300,000 km
Deneb:            201,550,000 km
Pistol Star:       450,520,000 km
Betelgeuse:      903,500,000 km
Antares:        1,330,000,000 km
VV Cephaei:  2,644,800,000 km

Earth is tiny indeed!

2.1.11: Lembah Kiara Recreational Park, TTDI

We were in Damansara Utama to get some organic milk powder for E. S kept asking to go to the forest, and since were were nearby, we decided to pay a visit to the Lembah Kiara Recreational Park in TTDI. It was just 1.5 km away and our GPS directed us to the area. This is our second time here, the first being in 2007. The entrance of the park is just opposite the school. There were many cars parked both sides of the road, outside the park, nearby to the school. We wanted to park on the road outside, but there weren't any place and was happy to find that there is a car park in the compound of the park itself. It was a large park and many families with young children were there that Sunday, which was the last day of the school holidays.

We saw these monkeys in the distance

Many tortoises in the pond. The water looks dirty. 

We climbed up the stairs and took the path that was next to the forest. I was surprised to find it quite cooling, compared to FRIM which was more humid. The boys collected leaves which had fallen down to the ground, to do art and craft. Then we came to a large suspension bridge and crossed it to get to the other side. After some time, we came to a fork in the path. There were no signs indicating where the paths led to, so we took the one that headed downwards, as we could see the playground and other people down there.  

We came to a drain and I showed the boys a spiderweb. S asked why the spider made the spiderweb at the drain cover. 

We also saw a blue dragonfly. I've never seen a blue one before. It lingered on as though it wanted me to take its picture. 

 Blue dragonfly

Public toilet 

The public toilet looks nice on the outside and inside is relatively clean. However, 2 cubicles out of the 4 cubicles in the ladies couldn't be used. Both doorknobs were tied with wire to the latch to lock it.

After that, we came to a small stream. There was a large shady tree with raised roots. The boys played a little and tried balancing on the roots. 

We didn't bring any towel or change of clothing, so the boys didn't get to wade in the water. We saw tadpoles in the water and some red dragonflies.

Finally, we arrived at the playground and to boys went to play. S is now more confident to climb to the higher tunnel slide on his own and slid down it. We left at around noon, for lunch.

31.12.10: FRIM Waterfall

After visiting Kem Perah, we headed towards Sg. Kroh waterfall in FRIM, our second time there. It was 10.30 am when we reached there. This time we were more prepared. The boys brought their toys, excavator, dump truck, small bucket and spades to dig. I brought their swimming trunks, towel and a change of clothes. I changed the boys into their swimming trunks in the car. Then I went to the public toilet near the picnic area to change.

The public toilet is a nightmare. There's only 3 cubicles and 1 squatting toilet bowl was dirty, stuck and flooded, reminding me of a toilet in some third world country. A horrible sight. In the end, I rushed out, and decided to use a larger toilet by the side of entrance. There was no label there, and I think maybe it is for the disabled as it was larger. The doorknob was nearly coming off, but  luckily the door could latch. There was no hook to hang my bag, so I hung it on the doorknob. Maybe that's what others before me had done, as the doorknob was nearly dislocated. I made a mental note to remember to bring my own large hook, so that next time, I could hook my bag. Since they're collecting entrance fees for cars driving into FRIM, it's only proper that they provide visitors with a decent public toilet.

The boys ate their breakfast snack at the raised shelter nearby.

We walked up the steps. There are less people today, perhaps because the school holidays were nearly over and school would start in 3 days time. The water was extremely cold, but the boys had no problems with that. They immediately got out their toys and got to 'work'. A toddler in his birthday suit went towards them to play. Another family with a 2 year old girl also joined the boys and played with their toys. E looked at the little girl from the corner of his eyes, but then allowed her to play along.

We found a medium sized tadpole and I put it in a bucket for the boys to see. S has been reading a book about frogs and is curious to see how a real frog looks like. I'm still trying to find a real frog for him to see, but this was the opportunity for him to see a real live tadpole. There were less tadpoles today compared to the other time when we were there. S then immediately released back into the water where it swam away. 

Tadpole 

Walking down

We left FRIM at 12.45 pm and the boys fell asleep in the car, tired out. This waterfall is quite a nice place to go to and we plan to visit it more often in the future.