Halloween Monster Kit

This was a spur of the moment thing since I couldn't think of 

where to chuck this giant sorting container

I saw this pic from No Time For Flashcard which inspired ours.

Can you see Tiger waiting impatiently to dig in?

Haha...

I was telling him, Wait, go away for awhile laaa. I want to take a picture first.

See? I chase my son away to snap a pic for you guys =.="

I reused the tiny stuff I hoard in the 'craft' drawer.

Speaking of the craft drawer, by the way, it is full of junk and not crafty at all.

We have some

googly eyes, golf tees, glass beads, butterflies, straws.

Can you guess what he'd made?

Tadaaaaaaa...

The saddest Snow Monster ever!

I am not going to sugar coat things and say what a great experience this is.

Truth is I bloody hate PlayDoh.

The floor is gross after play.

There will be bits everywhere.

And that is not the worst

The absolute killer?

Mixing different colours.

God, I swear my blood pressure shoots through the roof.

And what did Tiger do?

He rolled white, red and black together.

New ones that were just birthed from the container.

Untainted.

Fresh.

So wangi

So soft.

They were like, like....like virgins......

*cries*

.

.

.

.

Tiger saw the look on my face and ran out of the room, shouting

"I go sleep now. Good night. I love you mama. Bye"

In one breath.

=.="

Nasty little thing.

Baby School: First Play-Doh Experience

Confession: I would rather buy Play-Doh than DIY because

the cooking and stirring and washing...not my type of game.

Okay, I admit I errr..burned the dough and gave my MIL high blood pressure.

She is always worried I will burn the house or poison her grandchildren from

all the crazy activities we do.

Instead, we have A LOT of store bought dough 

since I requested for those during Tiger's second Birthday.

Personally, I prefer just simple tools like cookie cutter, scissors, etc to 

encourage open ended play.

But oh, what the heck, I bought two playsets.

One is the Play-Doh Magic Swirl Ice Cream Shoppe (ignored).

A little too high tech for my babies BUT the kid in me says it's fun.

If you are going to buy just one set for the rest of your life, I recommend 

the Play-Doh Sweet Shoppe Candy Sweet Shoppe Cyclone.

 A Play-Doh expert who bought practically all the Play-Doh playsets recommended it. 

It is crazy addictive to see the little gumballs roll out

It even got hubby's approval. He was saying, "Hey, you can use this to make tang yuan"

*roll eyes*

 Dunno which wife made tang yuan for him. Definitely not me.

 Pffft.....

Back to Baby School....my only student was fascinated to say the least.

She squeezed and tore the dough.

Rolled it in her hands.

Smelled it like a detective.

She didn't try to choke herself and make me look like a bad mother.

 Just played along like good girl should.

 The whole night, she picked up 'gumballs' and re-inserted each one into the set

 

She tried to rotate the handle like kor kor

Fed-up face after multiple tries?

I love how round she has become.

Our kakak is doing an excellent job.

Going to give her Raya bonus ^.^

Oh, my boobies must be credited as well.

 Tiger?

He was busy making chocolate ice cream for Papa

Playing with dough is taken seriously in my house, hence the post.
If you need more convincing, read this by Imagination Tree

 Clearly I do not follow the recommended age suggested because I know my children

BUT

please do not try this at home with your baby if you are uncomfortable

or you cannot resuscitate.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all of our Malay friends and family.

Drive safely and have lots of ketupat!

Hugs!

Messy Play: Ice Cream Dough

I was searching for some messy goodness when I came across this 

recipe for ice cream dough from Play Create Explore

Since he is STILL requesting for his ice cream shop, 

this recipe was perfect!

Since we learn best at play, took this opportunity to show him some fractions

with the measuring cups and puzzles

He was more excited about the fact that I was writing on the floor :)

Measuring cups from Tesco

Fractions puzzle from USL education supplies

Ingredients needed:

Cornflour, conditioner, measuring cups, food coloring.

I added some milk powder scoops for him to do the scooping himself.

The DOVE conditioner was an FOC product.

Always ask for free stuff when you shop at Guardian.

They always give me some travel-sized goodies

Transferring cornflour into measuring cups

We used the Daiso shoe box as a mixing bowl :)

He couldn't wait to add the food coloring.

Called it 'sauce'

Ice cream!

 

He requested for chocolate and porrerri (strawberry)sauce 

I don't enjoy the messiness

BUT

I love watching him enjoy the experience.

I love watching his hands at work.

I love his focus.

 I especially love it when he declared,

"Okay, finish. So nice, huh?

Thank you.

I want to wash and go sleep already"

Then he helps to clean up and wash himself before nap.

Tot School: 27 months

My dear boy is 27 months :)

Gross Motor

Brave enough to go down tunnel slide, thanks to Papa!

Expert on the jungle gym
Kick ball

Fine motor
He can use the mouse!! Surprise surprise...actually, he can even click and drag. Kids nowadays!
Able to eat well with utensils. No more cave man style.
Stacks about 10-15 blocks or more
Copies dotted lines
Draws vertical straight lines
Draws circles
Writes certain alphabets like i,l, t, o, v,etc
Expert on writing alphabets on apps (but that's easy and doesn't really count)
     <<< >>>


Speech/language
He is so much more talkative nowadays.
My fav, "Mama, Tiger love you" & "Mama, Tiger arry(carry) mei mei"   I almost cried....
Most disliked phrase: "No Nice"
He loves to sing! Fav: ABC song, alphablocks, Rain, rain go away

   <<< >>>


Cognition
Understands multiple instructions well
Can recite his alphabets (A-Z) and phonics well
Counts from 0 to 20.
Questions Who buy? Who spoil? ALL THE TIME
Understands behind, on, in, below
Understands concept of tomorrow
Able to match pictures
Name all nine planets
Excellent attention span
   
  <<< >>

Social
Relationships
Ask for milk whenever he sees mei mei feeding
Typical 2 year old tantrums and outbursts when disregarded.
Very loving in nature towards other children. Also a 'chicken' at times. He moves away from confrontational situations faster than you blink!
Better at handling situations with strangers

Care of self
Still refuse potty at all cost


Significant event for this month:
A really ugly haircut. Sheesh, all I requested for was for it to resemble "fei fu" hairstyle...headache.

After walking around in a daze for two months post partum,

I have finally recovered some of my enthusiasm for life in general.

We started Tot School activities sporadically again.

Little Dragon's initiation into Tot School.

She celebrated by pooping midway.

Day 1 of school:

We just played with some flashcards and read some books

Later in the week:

Mommy's latest shopping haul from Mothercare.

 Another floor puzzle is missing

Tiger chose the bottle of playdough equipment

Why all the fancy mancy equipment?

Well, it provides lots of fine motor exercise.

With all the squeezing, pressing, kneading, rolling...

How I missed schooling with Tiger.

He seemed to have matured so much in the past 2 months when we took a break.

When I ask him, " Can you do it?"

He answered with a confident "Yes!"

There was an apple mould in the set.

After we made one, Tiger said, "A is for apple"

Then he ask, "B is for ball where?"

So, I made a ball.

Then he asked for a cat.

We stopped at C is for cat because

my D is for dog would resemble a cat anyways...

@.@

He finally got to play with his colored rice bin after requesting for it for 2 months!

See the mess?

He also requested for his stickers

We ended the night with some reading:

Dr Seuss's ABC

Phonics book by Kohwai & Young

He was so happy to be in his room again that he didn't want his milk or go to bed..hehe!

There's more to come baby, I promise.

Free play: Homemade Playdough Fun

Remember I mentioned that we were going to make playdough two weeks ago? Well, we didn't because I was exhausted after converting the storage room into a playroom.

So, we did it this weekend! Big hugs and kisses to Aunty Sharon and Little J for allowing us to make a mess in their lovely home. It was a resounding success. Little Tiger loved it!!
Actually, I think the mummies enjoyed it more..hehe.

Plain dough with recipe for homemade playdough.

The recipe was part of a handmade birthday card for Little J.

We bought him a cute Playdoh kitchen set.



These are the dough after colouring them.



Little Tiger enjoyed squishing the playdough.

In this shot he was flirting with Aunty Sharon.





This is Little J, posing with the dough roller.





Taking a dip in the small pool after all the 'hard work'.

Tiger's pulling a long face because he's not into sharing yet  :)



And here is my cutie pie:





This is the recipe we used:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of plain flour
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil (Aunty S say don't use palm oil cause it stinks. Use Sunflower oil)
• 1 tablespoon of Cream of tartar
• 1 cup of water

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
2. Add in the wet ingredients and mix well. (we used the blender)
3. Put mixture into pan and cook over low heat. Stir constantly as it burns rather quickly.
4. Remove when the dough rolls into a ball and allow to cool a little on the counter
5. Then knead it till it is nice and smooth
6. Add colour and essence after the dough has cooled. (We did it with rubber gloves as we did not want green hands!!)
7. Can be enjoyed immediately
8. Store in fridge
9. If it doesn't feel right after some time, toss it out and make a new batch!!

 It was a fun way to enjoy a lazy, hot Saturday afternoon. Tiger dozed off on the way home :)



Thank you for having us!!
**Little J with Aunty Sharon**