inspiredkids

21.10.11 - Fixing up a shoe rack

I bought a shoe rack from 1-Utama. The boys helped me fix it. I found that this shoe rack was slightly bittle and fragile and a small joining part broke. Thus, I had to use construction glue to glue it back. It was however quite nice looking once it is set up. S is more motivated to keep his shoes on the shoe rack now.

18.10.11 - Lab activities at PSN

During our group science learning at PSN lab, we did the following activities:

1) Fingerprint fun

1) With a pencil, shade a portion of a piece of paper

2) Rub a finger onto the shaded area

3) Ensure that the whole finger is covered with graphite

4) Stick a piece of cellotape onto the finger.

5) Peel it off and stick it onto the relevant box on the paper.

2) Playdough

Items required:

Oil
Water
Flour
Cream of Tartar
Food colouring

Pour it onto the flour and stir it. Pour in oil and stir it. Pour in cream of tartar and stir it. Add in sufficient amount of water and knead the dough until it is springy. Then drop in some food colouring.

Fill the small container with water until is half full. Pour it onto the flour and stir it.

Pour in oil and cream of tartar and stir it.

Add in sufficient amount of water until the dough is just right.

Knead the dough until it is soft and springy. Then drop in some food colouring and knead the dough.

This playdough recipe by PSN was the best I have ever come across. The playdough was quite springy and nice to hold.

3) Tornado in a bottle

1) Fill in a clear bottle with water.

2) Drop in a drop of food colouring

3) Squirt in some liquid detergent

4) Mix the ingredients together by shaking the bottle.

5) Now, hold and move the bottle in a circular manner. You can see the ‘tornado’ inside it.

17.10.11 - Painting clay shapes

A day earlier, E had made clay shapes using animal cookie cutters. They were left to dry in the sun for a day. Then the boys painted the clay shapes with watercolour paint. They liked to do such painting stuff.

17.10.11 - Playing with beans

The boys played with green beans by transferring it into their toy dumptruck. It was a simple activity but it kept them busy for awhile while I cooked lunch. Of course, towards the end, beans were all over the floor.

17.10.11 - Does a banana float or sink?

A week earlier, S asked me, while we were walking past the lake at PPAS, "Does a banana float or sink?" I thought it would sink, but he thinks that it would float.

We had the opportunity to test that out.

It turns out that a banana floats. He was right.

A banana floats. So does the hotwheels colourshifters car.

15.10.11 - KL Bird Park

At around 9.45 am, we reached the KL Bird Park. We had earlier on bought tickets from Matta Fair at a 50% discount - RM10 per adult and RM5 per child, which was a good deal.

The boys bought fish and bird food for RM2 through a dispenser. They were in pellet form. The pellets were kept in a plastic bag inside an oval plastic capsule.

Feeding the lories was the most interesting. For RM2, we could either buy the sunflower seeds or the milk for the lories. We bought milk instead. The moment hubby held the container of milk, the birds came and hopped onto him, licking the milk from the container. The bird's tongue was black. The boys didn’t want to hold the container. After I took hold of the milk container, the birds hopped onto me. A bird even stood on my shoulder and kept nibbling at my ear. The were making very loud noises which were quite painful to the ears.

The litter bin in a shape of a pelican

Various types of bird eggs

A little chick recently hatched

Since the chicks and ducklings were kept side by side, we could observe the difference between them. After that a group of schoolchildren came in and held the chicks and ducklings. The poor animals looked distressed after that. It got me pondering - should we allow people to touch and hold them at all? We were also guilty of the deed.

Feeding the japanese koi fishes

The pelican (right) looks large and intimidating. I heard from a friend's that her son's face got pecked by a pelican at the KL Bird Park. It would be prudent to beware of the pelican.

We ate our packed lunch at a secluded rest area. A peacock came up to us and displayed its beautiful tail feathers to us. We were privileged to have been able to view the peacock who spent some time displaying its tail feathers to us. Later on, other people noticed it and came over to take pictures.

These waterbirds looked like scarecrows - They were standing in this position for a long time. Weren't their wings tired?

Another peacock displaying its tail feathers

We went for the bird show at 12.30 pm. The sun was scorching hot and we all sat perspiring under the sun to watch the show.

It was amazing to watch the Brahminy kite bird following instructions. I wonder how they trained it and how long the training took.

We left at 1 pm. The boys were tired out and slept in the car on the way home.

14.10.11 - Making garbage enzyme

We made garbage enzyme again with fruit and vegetable dregs. 1 part sugar, 3 parts fruit and vegetable dregs and 10 parts water. Here's a link to a blog for the recipe.

Mixing water with molasses. All on a guesstimation basis.

Filling the rest of the container with water mixed with mollasses.

14.10.11 - Wall E construct and play

I bought this book on Wall-E from the recent Big Bad Wolf sale. I knew the boys would like it. It consists of perforated cardboard robots from the Wall-E movie that we could press out, fold and glue. S couldn't wait to do this and kept pestering me to help him. It was slightly challenging for him to do, so I ended up doing everything. The boys only pressed out the cardboard pieces.