What can we do with two toilet rolls and cellophane paper?

Le Xin was at her Mini Atelier exploring some of the materials that I have set out, she noticed that I placed two toilet rolls and a packet of red cellophane paper and she began exploring.....

When Le Xin saw the toilet rolls, she started picking them up and placed one of it near her mouth, then she tried to make some sounds through it. What do you think we can use these toilet rolls for? asked Mummy.

Le Xin tried puting the toilet roll through her little hand. Then she noticed a packet of cellophane paper and attempted to open it but she couldn't so she looked at Mummy and said Help me! Mummy helped Le Xin to cut a small piece of cellophane paper and she started using her hands to crush it.

Le Xin placed the cellophane paper over the the toilet roll but it was too big for her to handle. So Mummy helped Le Xin to cut the paper to a smaller size.

Le Xin  used the cellophane paper as a wrapping tool but wait something was missing....

Mummy suggested to use scotch tape to stick it to the roll so Le Xin helped by holding on to the cellophane paper tightly while Mummy attached the scotch tape to it.

Hooray, all done! Le Xin appeared to be using the toilet rolls as shakers. She waved the rolls side by side and shook them up and down.

Next, Le Xin tried to connect both the toilet rolls together.

Wow now it looks longer Mummy exclaimed!

Would you like to stick it? asked Mummy but Le Xin shook her head.

Oh let's wait! Le Xin seemed to figure out another way of using the toilet rolls, as a binoculars it seems....now everything is red and she couldn't stop laughing :)

Haha why are you red in colour Mummy?

Le Xin you look like you are putting on sunglasses....I could see your cute little eyes......so what could you see?

This is just one of the activities I did with Le Xin where I see myself as her partner; collaborating with her to complete a simple craft. My ultimate aim was to scaffold her learning......I was there to observe, facilitate, suggest but I also need to ensure that I take careful steps not to dictate what to do. Sometimes, it's tough I admit......but at least I always try my best to refrain myself so that I do not end up coming up with ideas which kill her creativity instead! Daddy Scott is always there to remind me about this... Sometimes it keeps me wondering why others thought that I am there to help her learn......actually I am the one who is learning with and FROM her! It's always a two way thing and I love being a co-learner:)

Cousins!

This is a post about Le Xin spending time with her cousins. My sister's three precious darlings; Tricia, Travis and Little Tevin whom Le Xin adores a lot.

Before I go on about how Le Xin has been interacting with her cousins. I would like to share a special photo of mine.

These two photos were taken when I was two and three. Obviously I can't remember much about my birthday celebrations at that young age but I certainly could recall the fond memories which I had with my cousins.

1) Playing catching! 2) Playing playdough 3) Engaging in lots of role-playing at Yishun with my cousins Dorothy, Jann, Yao Yao and Xiong Xiong 4) Having sleep over at their place 5) Celebrating Christmas and other festivals together..... 6) Quarreling and patching up almost instantly and lots more....

My mother used to be very close with one of my aunties whom we called "Yao Yao Mummy" because my Auntie's first son has the word "Yao" in it. So we often visit Yao Yao Mummy aka Ah Tin Ah Yi! She used to live in Yishun. I believe it was through frequent play dates with my cousins that helped both my sister and I to learn Hokkien. I used to remember eating porridge with my cousins at their place and thinking of that makes me very hungry now. Even though, I seldom contact my cousins ever since my mother passed away, the fond memories of spending time with them still remains.......

So back to Le Xin......I wish she can have such wonderful experiences too. These days the children are busily engaged with all the new gadgets like iPhone, iPad and now Le Xin is apparently very addicted to Youtube. I guess soon it will be Facebook, Twitter, blogging and more. There was once she was sitting at the bus stop watching Dream English using the Youtube app from my Samsung phone, a lady in her fifties saw her and told her friend  Wow nowadays the children in Singapore very hou mia(good life) so young know how to use handphone! Haha but actually I wish Le Xin can step out of her little world in Tampines/MFS and meet more people.  I guess exposing her to her cousins where she could have a big play is a big step for her in terms of building her social skills in a social cultural context, this should be very different from the social skills developed in school!

The first time Le Xin met Tevin was when she was only 2 months old. Back then, I was desperately trying to seek advice/help from my sister on how to take care of an infant! Tevin kept trying to touch Le Xin's face and body, how cute!

My dearest Tri Tri looking like an "Auntie" in this photo. This was the nanny of the day and she was only five years old but take a look at how competent she was when she was caring for a 2-month old Le Xin! How smart!

Le Xin celebrating her first Christmas Party with Bin Bin Ah Yi and her cousins! Mad love Travis's expression so adorable!

A helpful Tricia helping her mum to bath her cousin. Le Xin was crying her head off because my sister tried to wash her hair with shampoo whahahahha!

Tevin initiating a play with Le Xin in a tent!

Tevin brought in some toys in the the tent and started playing with Le Xin!  Look at how chubby Le Xin was at 10 months old! Super cute I want to bite her cheeks to no end!

A curious Tricia and Travis joining in the play. It appeared that they were role-playing some camping game where Tricia carefully explained the rules to the little ones (Yes she is often the DA JIE DA) haha

Le Xin followed Tricia's instruction and lay in the tent and I think Travis was about to do the same action but Tevin was quite adamant about sitting upright or perhaps he was too busy looking at us  taking their photos as if they were little stars!

Le Xin and Tricia playing with a balloon together at Takashimaya! Le Xin often get very excited when she sees a balloonm so when Tricia played the balloon with her, she was giggling merrily.

This group photo was taken after an outdoor play at the playground near my father's place. Look how reluctant Tevin was when he was asked to sit on his mummy's lap. However, Le Xin looked like she doesn't care about anything under the sun :)

It was Travis's birthday so we went to my sister's place for the celebration. Everytime when I look at this photo I feel like laughing. It looked like Le Xin is a boy and Tevin is a girl.

My sisten often asked me each time we discuss the topic about "Only Child". Can you imagine your life without a sibling? I know how she likes to persuade me to give birth to another child so that Le Xin will not feel lonely. Trust me I do feel very tempted to do so but the committment is really something I need to consider carefully.... Nonetheless I am super close with my sister and I thank God for her in my life. I don't have to imagine, just by looking at this photo I can tell my life is going to be very different without you Bin Bin!

My favourite photo! Le Xin giving a big cuddle to her Tevin kor kor! This is a big step for her because she usually does not like to hug or hold hand with peers which is of the same age as her.

Le Xin and Tevin began fighting for toys. Such situtation is very common among toddlers, which reminds me of a poem called The Toddler's Creed by Dr Burton. Fortunately, we have Wai Gong to come in to intervene. He explained to both his grandchildren the need to "SHARE" which is a big concept to them (of course) I think they seemed to understand the concept "MINE" better haha!

It was Tricia's birthday and Le Xin was playing dough with her cousins and my Auntie. She observed for a while before trying it.

Look at Tevin's face whahahahha!

Tevin: Le Xin is my new found girlfriend, if anyone dares to take her away from me, I will not be amused!

Tevin: Yes! Don't laugh nobody nobody nobody but you!!!

Le Xin: Wow! I don't know you so macho! (laughing like mad)

Travis: Ahem Ahem! Excuse me...both of you are treating me as if I am transparent Haiz :(

Tevin: What are you waiting for?爱的抱抱!

Le Xin: A big cudde for you my favourite Tevin Kor Kor!

Tevin: Okay okay Le Xin can you stop hugging me? I can't breathe

Le Xin: I thought you are the one who ask me to hug you?

Tevin: Hey 我只有看的份! 

Le Xin: So if you want me to be your girlfriend, you need to meet my daddy first!

Tevin: Wow so this young uncle is your daddy? Hmmm quite handsome!

Daddy Scott: I want to play with my iPhone, what's the matter my darling?

**Alright enough of Mummy's nonsense**

 The above conversations obviously were all made up by me haha but just by looking at the photos they appeared to be quite true isn't it? Whahahahha

Tricia took Le Xin to her room and taught her how to use her dress up tools at her dramatic corner. At last, Tricia had the chance to teach mei mei how to dress up since she is a sister to two younger brothers. Le Xin appeared to be very interested in using the comb to comb her hair.

Tricia, Tevin, Le Xin and Travis celebrating Wai Gong 63rd birthday at Long Feng Restaurent! Just by looking at their heights you know who is the oldest and who is the youngest haha :)

It was Tevin's birthday, Tevin was really excited to show Le Xin his toys. They just have this special bonding, even though they don't really meet up frequently. Each time I ask Le Xin if she loves Tevin kor kor, she would smile and nod her head. For Tevin's birthday, Le Xin made a special card for him all by herself.... how sweet! Before Le Xin's left my sister's place that night, she and Tevin bid each other goodbye like old friends and give each other a cuddle. This time I didn't manage to capture any photo of them because this sort of love for the cousin was just too spontenous and we can't possibly asked them to hug each other again so that I can take photos of them....That would be too fake right? Anyway my sister, my brother-in-law, Daddy Scott and I had a good laugh when we saw that they were so sweet to each other :)

My sister often nag at me and remind me that sibling's love is very different from other kind of love.......Alright alright I've got your message but since Le Xin is the only child in our family, I am thankful that at least Le Xin has three wonderful cousins to play with and I hope they will become best of friends :) Not thinking too much as of now!

Can't wait for Le Xin's birthday party in September where they can have a big play again :p

Thumbs up for all the wonderful cousins in the world!

Parental Involvement! - Making A Caterpillar

I have been reading with Le Xin about the story "The Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. So over the weekends, Le Xin and I made a butterfly together using a toilet roll. Today, when I went to fetch Le Xin from school, Teacher Lin told me she has a "homework" for me and Le Xin to do! Wow, it must be something interesting and I was really looking forward to do it with Le Xin.

It's actually a Parental Involvement activity where I need to cut out some circles and use them to make a picture together with my darling girl. I hope the parental involvement letter could explain to the parents the purpose of the activity instead of just stating the instructions so that I can have a better idea on what the activity is about and why is there a need to do this but since it is not stated, I just took my own initiative and used this opportunity as a follow up activity for the hungry caterpillar story.

Firstly, I get Le Xin to read the story "The Hungry Caterpillar" with me. She tried to said certain words like moon, sun, caterpillar, butterfly  and egg. She also pretended to eat the fruits in the story, haha so cute!

Then I asked Le Xin if she would like to make a caterpillar and she nodded her head. I helped Le Xin to cut out the circles from the template given to me as part of the parental involvement letter. She waited for me patiently, playing with her cotton balls as I cut out the circles. I showed her the shapes and she actually said circle to me, not very clear but Mummy was pretty impressed!

Le Xin was able to identify the caterpillar when I asked her Le Xin where is the caterpillar in this book? She flipped to the front cover and used her index finger to point to the caterpillar then she tried to say a word that sounded like caterpillar but she was not ready to articulate the word yet.

Even though Le Xin was not ready to cut the circles, she was very eager to help Mummy with the pasting. Holding her glue stick firmly on her hand, she moved her hands up and down and rubbed the glue stick onto the circle.

Then I told her that she needs to flip the circle upside down to paste it and demonstrated to her how to do it. The minute I took one of her circles, she started to scream like mad, it appeared that she was protesting to me that she really knew what to do and I shouldn't be showing her :( Wow these days some of the toddlers really know their rights :p

Le Xin took one of her glittering stickers and started to stick the legs for the caterpillar that we were making but she just stuck one or two stickers and began to lose interest  so her poor Mummy had to help her to stick a few more....just kidding :)

 Then Le Xin went over to the art shelf and picked up a piece of white paper. She used her scissor and started cutting a small piece of paper.When I asked her What are you doing?  I want cut! replied Le Xin so I asked again Le Xin do you want to use this paper for the caterpillar's eyes?  and she nodded her head.

Next, she found a new trick to paste; she used her finger to dig out a small piece of glue and started to rub her finger on the circles, mummy suggested that she could put the glue on top of the caterpillar's head. We went to look for pipe cleaner to use it as the caterpillar's tentacles (I thought they are called antennae/feelers but strangly it's not according to Enchanted Learning) When I asked Le Xin what colour would you like to use for the feelers? She took the red pipe cleaners and I said Ohh so you want to use the red pipe cleaner? and she repeated after me Red!

Then after rubbing all the circles with plenty of glue, we grabbed lots of glitters of different shapes and colours and started sprinkling all over the caterpillar. Le Xin was very disturbed by the glitters that were stucked onto her hands but Mummy was not bothered and continued to play with the glitters so now who was the one doing the caterpillar in the end? Alright, Le Xin did help to sprinkle but I need to reassure her a few times Don't worry about the glitters on your hands, we can wash your hands later, alright?

Here's the final masterpiece done by Mummy T2X and Baby Le Xin! Our first combine project for MFS "HOMEWORK" :p

Home-school partnership is not just about getting parents involved in an activity but above all it's about building a special bonding. A triangular bonding of the teacher, the child, and the parent(s). Thank you very much MFS, I enjoyed this activity and I hope the rest of the parents in Le Xin's class will enjoy this process too!

Exploring Food Colouring!

Le Xin is beginning to explore colours now, solely based on the things she sees daily in her environment as well as the books that she read.

So I decided maybe I could introduce a simple activity about colours. This activity has nothing to do with the ability to identify. I am not at all trying to test her or anything, just purely enjoying the fun of exploring food colouring.

Firstly, I started off with laying the floor with newspaper so as not to dirty it. Next, I went on to introduce the food colouring to Le Xin. She was quite excited and started shaking the bottles.

Le Xin was actually quite curious to find out what Mummy was going to do with these bottles. Haha

I poured a little of blue, yellow and red food colouring into three plastic containers respectively and I was feeling quite puzzled why the yellow food colouring looks like orange when it was not diluted.

When I added a bit of water, Le Xin was amazed to see the changes. However, I was sad because the yellow food colouring still looks orange so I couldn't show her yellow.

She dipped a cotton bud into the food colouring and started observing the colour on the cotton bud.

I like how she dipped the cotton bud and started forming different strokes and dots.

After forming each stroke, she paused for a moment to look at her work, reviewing and planning what she should do next. As for me, it's always good to stay put as an owl - Observe Watch and Listen.

Time to apply the Pedagogy of Listening....

 Le Xin went on to use another medium, brush and drawing board, forming bigger and thicker strokes and she also tried to form circular marks with her brush.

Le Xin suggested to use a different brush. She lifted up her brush and gave it to me. Nah she said and then she took another brush to use.

After the end of this simple activity, both Le Xin and I had a big think and I suggested to make some food colouring bottles for exploration!

We went to the kitchen to look for bottles which we could recycle and found three empty plastic bottles which were used to store apple juice. Then I helped to put the food colouring into the bottles.

Is this what we will be working on?

Le Xin helped to pour in the water into each bottle and cap the cover!

I displayed the food colouring bottles that we made on her small red table as a provocation for learning and exploration.

And guess what?

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She really went over to interact with them. Shaking the bottles and throwing them on the floor to hear the sound and looking through the bottles. Then I suddenly discovered something which I thought was quite interesting. I told her that if she looked at the wall from a certain angle, she could actually see the colours appearing on the wall. So she walked to the side and observed then I explain to her that's because the light is shining through thus forming the colours on the wall just like shadows. These bottles looks really nice at night when the light shines through just like lava lamps!

Do you like this simple activity? Now you know that a typical commercial colour chart is not necessarily the best thing to use to teach children about colours. Yes I agree it can help to provide a print rich environment but I personally feel that parents and educators should avoid testing their children/students deliberately just to find out if they can identify the colours. They will learn to do so naturally through fun and active exploration.