Let's make Easter Eggs!

Nothing could be more fun than trying to dye an egg for Easter. In fact Le Xin tried 4 eggs with different colours.

 

Take a look at how happy she was when she saw the eggs! 

 

Pouring water into a bottle...

 

My Little Sciencetist!

 

Using a straw as a dropper to drop the food colouring into the water~  I was quite amazed Le Xin was capable of doing this on her own :)

 

 Water become blue already Mummy said Le Xin as she was stirring...

 

Le Xin dropped an egg in and observed carefully!

 

Le Xin exploring another method of dyeing the egg! Firstly, she poured the water in using a bottle instead of a beaker....

 

Le Xin dropped an egg carefully into the water....

 

All ready to dye her second egg!

 

I wanted to show you guys the end products, but strangely, I couldn't find the photo of the eggs I took....We made blue, green, red and purple eggs. We mix the yellow and blue food colouring to create a green solution! It was such a fun exploration!

 

Do you also provide hands on learning experience for your child? Try it today because they really love them!

 

Ending this post with a short video of my zhu zhu na!

 

Hahaha can't wait to dye the next egg!

 

Easter Egg Collage!

Le Xin did a simple egg collage for Easter! Let's check out her learning experience :)

 

Getting ready for the activity!

 

Learning to cut...

 

Mummy I want to tear the paper said Le Xin. As much as I would like her to practise using her training scissor, I respected her choice on which method she would like to use :)

 

Little fingers @ work..... Sweet!

 

Selecting the stripe of paper she would like to use

 

Applying glue....

 

I just love observing the different techniques she used to apply the glue....Le Xin is so cool :)

 

Pasting and pressing hard to secure the paper!

 

Ta Ta Le Xin's first Egg Collage!

 

 Daddy Scott often questions me Why are you always giving Le Xin options? I find it so hard to give him a reasonable answer. Seriously, I never thought I will turn out to be a mum like this! Recalling how things were when I first started out as an early childhood educator, I was actually quite a strict teacher. More often than not, I would picture myself to be a tiger mum when I have my own kids haha. I thank God for all the exposure and experiences gained over the past years which made me realised that these days, screaming, shouting, rough handling, caning and forcing children to do what we want them to do simply DO NOT WORK ANYMORE! The possible emotional harm we might cause to them is irreversible!

 

I have never once belittle my own daughter, words like "shut up" "don't be a kpo" "shame on you" "you will get it from me later" "you are so stupid" "you mean you don't know this" "when will you ever learn" and the infamous "if you do this I will not love you anymore" have never ever come out from my mouth :)  I truly know what kind of impact it will leave on  Le Xin so I stay soooooo far away from these words! It's a constant effort I have to make and let me tell you it's not easy... Sometimes children do drive us parents/teachers up the wall and most of us know that but what some of us do not know is that God also gave us  the best fruit of the spirit to overcome this difficulty......SELF CONTROL yeah!

 

I want to raise a child who knows how to respect others, and so I work hard on leading it by example... I know this is not the best answer I can give my hubby but I found a quote that best describe my feelings.

 

"We don't yet know, above all, what the world might be like if children were to grow up without being subjected to humiliation, if parents would respect them and take them seriously as people"

 

by Alice Miller

 

I treat Le Xin the way I hope others can treat me :) Yeah I wish more people could give me more options in my life and respected the choice I have made so I do the same with Le Xin because though little she might look she is still a person with BIG feelings. Of course I do not give in and agree with everything, the choices she made must be reasonable and safe first!

 

Leaving you guys with a photo of Le Xin choosing which stripes of paper to paste, I did nothing, not even passing her anything. She takes the lead most of the time when crafting but my heart actually feel so tempted to choose for her cause I am still a HUMAN okay? haha

 

Mummy I want  to paste this said Le Xin

Making Chun Lian and Firecrackers for CNY!

As part of Chinese New Year celebration, Le Xin made a simple Chun Lian (春联)  - 吉 which means lucky and some firecrackers too! Let's take a look at how she made them :)

 

Let's paint the background first!

 

As not to waste our limited supply of paint, Mummy decided to use yellow food colouring instead! Putting a ring of scotch tape to prevent the bottle from toppling :)

 

Dipping the brush in!

 

Painting the drawing board....

 

While waiting for the paint to dry, let's work on the firecrackers!

 

Le Xin applied the glue while Mummy helped with the wrapping of the toilet rolls...

 

Let's paint the toilet rolls now!

 

In the afternoon the drawing board had dried up and Mummy helped to write the word 吉on it :)

 

Applying glue....

 

Le Xin pasted the strips of paper( cut out from red packets) on the lines of the word.

 

Le Xin's little hands have grown so much bigger, no longer my baby drumlets!

 

Conciously making the effort not to paste out of the line. I paste on the line said Le Xin!

 

Please tell me you going to help me display this okay?

 

Bribing Mummy with her sweet smile!

 

 

Hooray!

 

Engaging children in craft work is one of the best way to encourage them to express their creativity, at the same time it also helps them to understand the need to keep on trying. Le Xin's concentration span during each art and craft session never fails to amaze me and seriously I really enjoy working with her too! A part of me always feel like I hope my parents did these stuff with me when I was younger but it's not too late for I am thankful that each day of my life I am given the chance to teach and learn from my baby Le Xin :) Hopefully in future, I will also have more opportunities to engage in crafting with my students too!

 

Ending my post with this photo which I like very much because it tells me a story!

 

I left the red firecrackers that we did on the table at our Mini Atelier along side with some Chinese New Year stickers. One afternoon, I spotted Le Xin peeling the stickers to decorate the firecrackers! When she saw me she said Mummy I want to paste my stickers... It's was truly inspiring how Le Xin could use the materials which I set out to construct her own knowledge and work on her ideas!

 

Ciao, hope you like this post!

Making Mandarin Oranges for CYN!

Mandarin Orange is definitely one of the yummy food that most of us love to eat during Chinese New Year..... When we go for house visiting, we would usually bring along two Mandarin oranges to exchange with our relatives or friends. To introduce the concept of celebrating CYN with Mandarin Oranges, I decided to engage Le Xin in this simple crafting activity - Making Mandarin Oranges!

 



These are the materials I need!

 

First up, crushing of newspaper!

 

Looks easy? You must be kidding, I need to use a lot of my strength you know?

 

Wrapping my newspaper ball with a piece of paper

 

Ohh no!!! I have to crush it again :p

 

Hooray, time to paint!

 

Let's paint the top first......

 

Concentration!

 

 

Le Xin in action!

 

Yeah! I am done :)

 

Culture can be expressed through clothing, currency, music, language, food, arts and etc....Sometimes by engaging in a simple crafting activity, it helps to reinforce certain concepts you wish to introduce to your little ones. The Mandarin oranges that we have created will be used as part of our Chinese New Year provocation, they can be used for role-playing too :) Time to end this post with a cute photo of my darling girl.....

 

Do you want to eat these?

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Eh........haha maybe not you can enjoy them Le Xin :p

Christmas Craft #4: Making A Christmas Tree

I was really motivated to make lot's of Christmas Crafts with Le Xin in December but it was a pity I fell very sick in the middle of the month and so I could not craft with her as many things as I've planned. The worst thing was I didn't even manage to celebrate my birthday with her at all. Lying on the bed flat with fever and flu. Sobz sobz.....how sad :( 

 

Initially, I planned to make a 3D Christmas tree made from materials collected from our nature walk on Christmas Day. Sadly, even on Christmas Day, I was down with stomachache. Fortunately, I still managed to do a small 2D Christmas tree with her and I've gotten her to collect some materials from our outdoor visit at the Park where the materials were later kept in our mini Atelier :)

 

Here are some of the photos taken.....please note that certain captions do not represent her actual thoughts or the things she said......as usual if she really did say certain things they will be in red font!

 

I printed out a Christmas Tree template for her to paint...so she applied some gluestick on a drawing board to paste her template

 

Waving her brush, she started painting the tree.....

 

She continued painting till her tree was covered with green paint.....When I asked her What colour should we use for the pot below? She pointed at it and replied I want blue.......How boring Mummy was, I thought she was going to choose brown :p We left the painting aside for it to dry...

 

Time for outdoors! I said. Would you like to collect some materials at the park today? I asked and she nodded her head and replied Yes... Then I asked again Would you like to use something to store your materials? She looked up and kept quiet for a moment, so I suggested What about your Christmas Bag? She immediately went to her dramatic corner and picked up the Christmas Bag that I bought for her at Daiso.Then I took a photo of her holding her bag before we left. Aww~ I know I mad about taking photos of her every now and then but I can't help it. She was just too cute in her outfit that day!

 

For some reasons or so, I felt Le Xin looked very tiny in a big park whahaha :)

 

Hmmm......what should I put inside?

 

Hooray, I spotted some twigs!

 

Let's keep the twig first...

 

Le Xin continued to pick up lots of twigs as she went for her stroll when I asked What about dried brown leaves, do you want to pick them up too? She shook her head and replied I dont want leaves I want this as she showed her bag of twigs to me haha so I need to respect her wish and allowed her to continued exploring the park by picking the twigs which she preferred.

 

When she became bored of collecting the twigs, she passed the bag to me and said Mummy carry this... Wow.... now she knows how to bully her mummy right?

 

The next day, it was time for us to continue our Christmas Tree. Firstly, I helped Le Xin to cut out the outline of the tree and she was fully in charge of the decoration.....

 

She helped herself with the glue stick.....

 

Refining her fine motor skills while she was pasting the materials she chose....

 

I recalled how she used to struggle  pasting her glitter stickers but not anymore....her fingers could handle them now haha:) good job my friend!

 

Wondering why this image looks so blur? Le Xin was actually dancing with her Christmas Tree!

 

Somehow Le Xin just felt that there was a need for her to tilt her head when I said Let's take a photo of you and your Christmas Tree!.....Funny girl :p 

 

Le Xin looking at her Christmas Tree and I asked her,....Can you remember what materials did you use?

 

Alright that's all folks....enough of me posing here and there :p

  

A simple 2D Christmas Tree which all toddlers can do, I only guided her where to paste the star which I cut out from a piece of felt material... :) Crafting Projects done by Le Xin and I often reflect my intention of wanting to be part of her learning.....

 

I value my interaction with Le Xin that is why I focus on the way I conduct each and every activity with her.....Everytime we revisit the various learning experiences by reading the blog entries on Ipad I would say something such as That's what we did the other day, can you remember the Chirstmas Tree created by us? Hopefully such words like "we" and "us" will help Le Xin to understand that Mummy is delighted  to be involved in her learning, definitely not doing things for her......but with her :

 

I would like to end off this post by sharing the importance of displaying children's work. Be it in a school setting or at home, everytime when you put up a child's work, it naturally turns the exhibit as a tool for dialogue. The display pannel with children's work gives a strong visibility to learning and teaching. As children and adults look at the display, they revisit, reflect and explore the different ways of creating something. It's like evaluating what else can be done or how can we do it another way. Processes of thoughts such as analysing, observing, interpretating, problem solving, and questioning might just take place and that's sooooooooo important. It's not just about what you ought to do but it's also about how you can learn to make connections, how you can find answers and best of all how you work with the next project after you have gain prior experience in your previous work.