Lil Dragon: She wants to be a Malay chick

At 15 months, she doesn't speak much to be a genius but when she opens her mouth, I just die from laughing.

I foresee that she will be speaking broken Chinese (like Tiger), a smattering of English and super cun Malay.

Mak, Mak! she yells.

MAK. Instead of good old mama, like the brother. I thought my hearing was failing me but nope, clear as a bell....MAK! MAK!

=.="

In 10 years, she will be saying, Jom la Mak. Kita 'rang lepak le. Rilak bro....

In 30 years, "Oh pocot, mak kau, tahi kucing." Also known as melatah.
I used to startle the NICU ward sister, Kak Pah just to hear her melatah...haha!

My brother used to speak Malay exclusively for the first few years but now, he curses really well in different dialects. No worries about picking up other languages la. A myriad of languages boost IQ too, did you know that? No need to attend French classes..Malaysia has so many to choose from. If you want, you can also learn from the Bangladeshi, Vietnamese, Nepalese, etc. More useful than French too.

The other night, I wrapped a towel around her head and pretended it was a headscarf. Not bad.
She is so pretty. *swoon*  Me, very proud of me self. I marvel at my creation every single freaking day.

Somebody posted in a mother's group on Facebook, "Do you ever feel like a bad mother?'

Surprisingly, the answers were:

yes, everyday. 

I am a careless mom 

Sometimes.

My first thoughts were, Walao eh...serious bor??? Post partum depression can last so long one?

Don't get me wrong, I know depression because I had it post partum, but to be so hard on yourselves....sigh. I prefer my cup half full.

Being a mother is such a daunting task. No manual, no mothering tuition, no obvious right vs wrong method. Of course we beat ourselves up. On top of that, those stupid celebrities shed weight like removing panties. Arrgh...

Giving birth sans painkillers does not make you greater, just dumber. Breastfeeding doesn't make you superior. Blending buckets of baby food doesn't mean you are a kitchen goddess. Motherhood is not a pissing contest.

So, I say...chill out. Love yourself first, then everyone around you will feel loved too. Don't be overly self indulgent la. That is just plain vain and dumb. Children learn from watching you, so the little things in life mean a lot in the end. Drink your coffee, do your nails, stay hot (for yourself, not your man). Have a healthy, sexy marriage. *wink wink*

To my 15 month old daughter, I am trying my best, okay? Give chance a bit if mama screw up once in while. I wish you will grow up to

Be open minded.
Be kind
Be adventurous
Be courageous
Be hungry to learn
Be a voracious reader
Be a food and life lover
Be a good person
Be a good Malay Chick??? (We just keep in view la, this one)

If you want to be a Malay chick and embrace Islam, I will be gutted because you will not be able to sembahyang me on Ching Mings but oh what the heck! I 'll get over it. Islam is a fine religion when not used as a political weapon.I seriously HATE it when politicians use religion to provoke racial disharmony.

You can be anything! (even a carpet...hihi)

Just dumping my thoughts on you guys >.< No offense to our Malay readers, ya?

Homeschool Setup: October 2013

Lil Dragon: 15 months

Lil Tiger:  3 year 4 months

Lil Dragon is still exploring with her mouth when it's something new

and exciting to her.

The itty bitty things in 'class' are pretty meh to her by now

 but I still watch her very, very carefully.

Verrrry sneaky, this one. Almost like Smeagol.

Tiger is currently,

• an emergent reader
• doing simple additions and subtractions
• very much into painting and coloring

His latest creation: The Solar System.

So abstract, kan?

I really love this painting of his but you can have it for RM 50.

Any takers?

Come on, may be worth millions one day. 

<<< >>>

I have no idea what to call this instead of circle time.

This is where we start our class and decides what Tiger would like to do.

We have his schedule, calender and some theme books.

This week, we are still reading Halloween books.

On the wall is his new Solar System poster.

(He can do Solar System for the whole year)

Math

Tiger is into counting now, so we will be focusing on that.

This is the math center as per his request

1. Balancing scale with counting bears {more or less}

2. Blue and red rods; 0-10 cards, number clips {zero to ten}

 3. Colored beads and blocks for free play/sums/patterning

Sorting 

Bought this box from Fun & Cheer for RM 6.80

Fine motor and Lil Dragon's corner

   Some stickers for Dragon's old can

 

Threading buttons for Tiger & an extra for Dragon (to minimize fighting)

 Reading station

Mother Goose and finger puppets for finger play

 Chinese (Shi Wu Kuai Du)

Reading pen

P&J

Kohwai and Young Word Family 

Brillkids

I wish I can say we do all the above but we don't.

Only when the kids feel like it.

Or we just read stories before bed.

Studies show that early reading don't make a difference in later academic achievement.

 

  

Music

Both the kids love playing with musical bells .

 I taped three A4 sheets together and drew a musical staff for him 

to place some felt notes on.

We use them for solfege.

 

Sensory bins

Dragon plays with the water beads EVERY night.

Sometimes, I am very lucky and I get this.

When I invite Tiger to join Lil Dragon, he replied.

No need. So smelly and wet. I crayon la..
=.="
Action betul

My Lil OCD requested for balloons and came up with this human burger.

He was carrying four but by the time I snap, he was left with these.
He is so nerdy, it hurts...hihi

My very cool lab creation?

Collecting dust...

Sigh..not easy to please these kids, you know.

Colored Rice Ocean Sensory Bin

Yup, we have another bin. We are a little crazy about our ocean theme right now. I took the plunge and made a colored rice bin for Little Tiger. He didn't try to eat the rice but I was in hypervigilant mode nonetheless. This was super easy and fun to make.

Ingredients:

1. I couldn't find rubbing alcohol, so I bought methylated spirit from Watson's. RM 7

2. Some food coloring. I have blue, red, yellow and green for RM 1.70 each from any mini/super market.

3. I bought the cheapest rice from Giant. About RM 12 for half kg. It says beras hancur aka cheapo rice

4. A free Nestle Bliss tumbler to mix the ingredients. Like making cocktail :)



I tried to make turquiose but they turned out forest green *grumble grumble*
Sorry about the bad lighting. It was 1 AM and I was sleepy

Steps:
1. Put one cup of rice into tumbler. (Some people use jars/resealable bags. I thought the tumbler was easier)
2. Add one tsp of alcohol
3. Add one drop of food coloring (if you add more, you will get deeper colours)
4. Shake it!
5. The rice was practically dry when I set them out on the table. I didn't have wax paper, so I used the clear plastic book wrapper. Worked well enough.
6. I left them overnight cause they smelled a little weird. Odourless by morning :)
7. Decorate


My 'wavy' sea of blue rice

Before Tiger

Scooping

He loved this scoop. I bought it from Daiso but you can get in mini market for RM1-2.

Tiger enjoyed covering himself in blue rice :)

He made blue starfish rice cakes

Poured the ricecakes over himself

When that wasn't enough, he poured the entire bin :)

 How I love my funny boy...



Don't think he didn't try to toss it everywhere. Of course he did :)

That's why we have a waterless pool

We manage to recycle most of it for play time at the water table

I also gave him the pacifier to prevent any drooling/rice eating.

Otherwise, I will have a blue Tiger :)

This must be one of his favourite activity thus far.

He threw a massive tantrum and kept signing 'angry' and 'more'

when it was time to stop.

Tot School: Ocean Week

‘Un’schooling Tiger Week 11 (11th Oct 2011) @ 15.5 months

Theme: Ocean

We are still enjoying our Ocean Week very much :)

Despite a super busy weekend, I managed to sneak a few activities into Tot School time.

Tiger finally did every tray that I set out for him. Woohoo!

This week, he happily completed the M&D ship puzzle without Mommy cajoling him :)
The triangle pieces were a little troublesome but he had no problem with the squares and rectangle

Playing with the fishing rods.

He couldn't fish with the dangling ends but he tried really hard.

That was the whole point, to try...

Later, I taped the rod together so that he can actually play with the magnetic fish.

Super focused!!

He also enjoyed rolling the fish around like pins.

I pretended to be scared of the rubber jellyfish just to see if he would copy my actions.

True enough, Mr Copycat kept signing 'scared'.

Hehe, so cute...I had to put it at the door stopper that he loves

and it took some demonstrations and lots of reassurance for him to finally touch it

Enjoying his wedgits

He kept using them as 'squares' and danced with them

Of course he requested for his Shapes song ;)

Playing with the Cloud B Turtle

He has also learned to switch Alphie On or Off by himself.

Headache!!

He ripped of the foam seaweed and played with it.

He gave me the idea of making crowns!!

Here they are, cellotaped to some hairbands of mine

That's Tiger's Prince Seaweed crown in the middle

Queen Anemone crown for Mommy

And the rather lame King of Waves crown for Daddy (He refused to wear it!! Party pooper)

Here's us being silly..

It's party time everyday in our Tot School :)

We did our version of the Rainbow Fish.

(I heart the book so much!!)

I printed the template from Google images and colored the fins, head and tail.

Then, I helped Tiger paste the scales that I cut from some Origami paper

Then we signed the work with the funky twistables Crayola.

(His name is covered with the fish magnets)

One of Tiger's cutest art pieces to date :)

We also re-did the Ocean Wall with some new crafts.

Must have Jellyfish!

 Due to the fact that I am a little crazy and didn't know how to stop,

we indulged ourselves with another sensory bin.

A HIT!!

Will share more photos soon

Kissing the puffer fish

Lastly, I want to share our calender. I LOVE (x1000) the printables that Carisa made.

I bought my clear pocket chart from Daiso

(I heart Daiso too. My life is full of love. Sorry if it bugs you)

I just print, cut and decorate.

I think it ROCKS!!

That's all from us for now.

Will be sharing our Tot Trays for this week and some crafts in more detail soon :)

Linking to Tot School at 1+1+1=1

*New* Ocean Sensory Bin

I know I am raising a nerdy kid when I reached home at 10.20 pm last night and the first thing the kiddo said to me was "Up".

During class, I could see that he was tired and he said bye-bye several times but he came back into the room again and again!!

He is delaying his bed time nowadays and napping longer.

He played with his ocean sensory tub for a while and I got the feeling that he didn't like it because he made it pretty obvious:

Ok, ok, I admit it's boring... 

On Day 1, he pretended to be bitten by the shark

Then, he quickly lost interest and started to 'read' the mat. ??

Last night was worse, he'd rather eat stickers he removed from the world map

Then, he added the stickers, the silicone letters, the wedgits and finally HIMSELF into the bin

OK...I get the message! The bin is a flop :p

I added some seaweeds and a ship but still hmmmm......it still didn't feel right.

So, I moved his Tot Trays Shelf...

..and I made an entire Ocean Wall for him!

Some cheap ocean creature stickers that didn't stick well. It's ok cause I got a 3D effect

Some glow in the dark sea animals. Can't really see in the picture

Some foam seaweed and anemone

I was going to make bubbles and sparkly seaweed but I was exhausted. It was 2 am already.

Work in progress!

His mini easel with the magnetic sea creatures

A book on sharks from Grolier. (More about this later)

Mr Turtle that Daddy bought long time ago

Cloud B Constellation Sea Turtle

Some sea animals flashcards

A pointer made from a pencil and IKEA sea turtle finger puppet

Tadaa!
The *new* Ocean Sensory Bin :) or should I call it Version 3.0?
I whipped it up before leaving for work.
It was supposed to be a surprise for him tonight but he caught a glimpse of it..



Ingredients:

1. Daddy's model ship :p

2. Some K kids bath water squisher (a whale, a tortoise and a fish)

3. Mini boats from his water table

4. Small plastic fish from Daiso

5. Three 'monster' fish from his Fisher Price mobile

6. Seaweed made from pipe cleaners

7. Blue porcupine balls for sea urchins

8. Assortment of blue pom-poms

9. A small white bucket (wedding gift) with a scoop and a net

10. The base material is blue paper and the same shiny blue stuff

It's a HIT!!

He added the foam seaweed. Nice touch , baby :)

Thus, destroy and conquer has begun...

I know he loves it cause he rejected an invitation to breakfast from Grandma which usually trumps all.

All hail the New Ocean Sensory Bin..woohoo!!

~~~@@@~~~

I am terrified of choking. So, I use larger objects.

If you have older children, you can create something like this with water & plants from:

Play Create Explore

or this bin with coloured rice from:

http://www.simplyalicia.com/2011/07/ocean-sensory-bin.html

This is the recipe for coloured rice:

I cup of white rice

1 tsp of rubbing alcohol/vinegar

1-2 drops of coloring

Put ingredients in a ziplock or mason jar and mix

Let it dry on wax paper for a few hours

play!

Can't wait to do this  :)

I know the sensory bin is not strictly Montessori but it's so much fun

and teaches so much :)

Linking Up to to Montessori Monday