The Busy Spider

Le Xin is a big fan of Eric Carle and she simply loves reading his books. I went to the library to borrow "The Busy Spider" for Le Xin to read.

Le Xin was thrilled to see that story book!

Big sun like The Hungry Caterpillar story said Le Xin. I was glad she could recall seeing a similar picture in another Eric Carle's book.

Using her finger, Le Xin tried to feel the web...

I like the web said Le Xin. Suddenly I had a idea, since she was so fascinated with the story so I asked her if we should try crafting something related to the story. Mummy can we make a web? Le Xin requested.

So I took a black drawing sheet and drew this.

Le Xin was excited when I told her we were going to make a spider web indeed!

Using a bottle of white glue, Le Xin carefully traced on the lines I drew.

She appeared to be happy when she did this, a little joy she displayed meant so much to me :)

Wait for me Mummy, almost finishing said Le Xin

This was how the web looked like in the end, well done my darling girl! 

As you know when the white glue dries up, it will become invisible so I sprinkle a little glitter and dust off the excess glitter powder so that the glitter will be stuck onto the glue.

Next, we also crafted a spider....

We decided to use some left over clay from our play. Le Xin began molding the clay into a ball to make the head of the spider.

She is good at doing this isn't she? Thanks to her play dough....

I am done,  a ball said Le Xin

Next, she went on to roll a bigger ball for the body of the spider.

I like how she looked so focused...

Le Xin tried to lift her ball and drop it onto her mat to observe what happened. I was assuming she probably thought it was going to bounce or something but obviously it didn't haha :p

Mummy the ball is soft said Le Xin. It will soon harden replied MummyT2X

Next, I got Le Xin to flatten the two balls she created, I helped her to joined the two flatten pieces together and molded it into a shape of a spider. Lastly Le Xin and I attached the white yarn together.

After a few days later, when her spider was dried, I got her to paint it....

She chose the colours she wanted to use and how she wanted to paint it. I was only an observer by her side.In fact, I didn't even guide her, I was afraid that I will end up directing her so I kept quiet haha :)

It's looking good....

Ta da.....her spider. I helped her to add on the googly eyes...

This is one of my favourite follow up activity I did with Le Xin after reading a book. It felt like a mini project from reading, to refining her motor skill as she traced the web, to the molding of the clay and lastly the painting of the spider. Le Xin was very much involved in each of the step and I like how she was showing so much of excitement when crafting her busy spider, this has helped to motivate me to do more projects with her in future. I hope you enjoy reading this post to find out how I have integrated the component of Arts after exposing my child to a book. 

Try this with your child/students too! I am pretty sure they will love it and remember always allow them to take the lead as much as you can :) 

Ending this post with our masterpiece....loving it to bits!

Our spider web with our busy spider on it....

Air

We have been discussing a lot about air. We can't see air, but air takes up space. We breath in air, and we breath out air too but somehow the air  we breath in and out is different. Sometimes these concepts are just a little too difficult for Little Le Xin to understand afterall she can't see air, is that true? Hmmm.....

So I decided that maybe we should conduct a short experiment together to find out. To my surprise, she really enjoyed the experiment and it was a big joy observing her respond......

This was what I did with her!

I told her we are going to do a short experiment using a glass of water and a straw.... her replied was

Experiment again yeah yeah yeah I like....

She started to open the container that was used to store the water....

Peeping into the hole, she said Mummy there is water inside!

Hahaha Le Xin just can't wait to start....

She poured the water into the glass and used a straw to stir the water....

Next, she observed how the water started swirling.....

Next, I told her she can start to blow through the straw, but she took a sip of the water instead...

She kept drinking the water when I asked her to blow through the straw. I guess she was kind of confused, so I took another straw and demonstrated to her on what to do....and she understood  immediately and began trying it out on her own.....

Looking at the bubbles forming in the glass and the sound produced, she started laughing and appeared to think it's very funny :)

Well, I am not going to write a long conclusion, to sum it up in short.....Children take delight in small things, short little experiment like this makes them very happy. I am motivated to think of more experiments that I can conduct with her so as to encourage her to engage in active exploration, investigation and discovery.

Hopefully when she turns older, she can start to make more prediction, hypothesis and even recording her own learning experiences! 

Ending this post with a short video of her :)

Super cute isn't she? haha

Sewing...

One of the random things we did to refine our fine motor skills was to engage in simple sewing using a plastic needle. I was trying to look for a plastic needle for the longest time...and sometimes in life if you believe in the law of attraction hahaha all you need to do is just to ASKand you shall RECEIVED! Woohoo~

So somehow when I opened a MI (Multiple Intelligence) gift bag which I have gotten from Child First Preschool's open house, there was a goodie pack with a sewing kit in it....which comes with two plastic needles!!! How exciting......I was thrilled and.......

So was Le Xin.....

Look at that smile of hers, the photo above is not very clear but I am sure you can feel her happiness!

Red string Mummy said Le Xin ohh you mean red thread? replied Mummy

What's this? asked Le Xin... It's a sewing frame replied Mummy 

Wow I like this, my favourite blue! said Le Xin

See I can see you through the holes said Le Xin

Look like spectacles right? asked Le Xin

Le Xin began her sewing....

She carefully placed the plastic needle through the holes of the frame and started pulling the thread......Well done my darling girl!

Then she went on to try a different frame, in and out she continued sewing. When she was working on the third frame.........

She insisted that she would like to put the red woolen thread through the needle hole by herself. Even though it was extremely tricky for her, she persevered by putting in her best effort and finally she did it (with a lot of Mummy's help of course) 

These were the coloured frames she ended up sewing. Did you notice that she couldn't finish each frame?  That was because her attention span is relatively short . After sewing through a few holes for each frame, she gave up and told me she wanted to try a new frame instead and when she was working on the yellow one, she began to LOSE her interest to sew completely hahaha....  I don't want to do this anymore said Le Xin. Of course I asked her why... the funny thing was...before I could get an answer from her, she was already climbing off the bed trying to find the next learning material that she could play with. That's what happens when you "work" with young children.......

If there is one thing you can take away from this post I hope you will agree with me that it's pointless to force any child to engage in something that no longer interests him or her.....I think I ever mentioned this once in one of my blog posts......before your child wants to stop doing something you have introduced...... it's always cool that you are the first person to say STOP instead. This kind of creates the anticipation of wanting to do the same activity with you again...... so try it the next time :)

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post....take care!

Printing Using Textile Balls

I bought these balls from Tampines N2 Shopping aka Tampines 201...

Not only are they good for throwing and catching, I can use them with Le Xin for art too.

Here's one learning experience we had!

Firstly, it was the painting of the ball. Le Xin chose to start off with pink.

She carefully printed the ball on a drawing board once she was done with the painting.

Observing what happened to the ball after she has printed it on the paper....

Next she chose another colour....

The last colour she chose was green....

Tada......beautiful ball printing created by my darling girl.......So proud of you!

It's cool using the simplest materials we can find at home to engage in an art activity. If we can do it, you can do it too! I hope you enjoy reading this short post! 

Ending this post with Le Xin's cute photo :)

Do you like my work? asked Le Xin