Christmas Crafting Time!

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It's almost Christmas!

Crazy, right?

Our tree is already up, as you can see on Instagram.

I just need a new phone for better Instagram pics :)

*wink wink wink* to hubs...hehe.

We have been spending much of our time preparing for his YAMAHA concert, 

so I did not prepare ANY Christmas trays!
So lame, I know...

Luckily for Tiger (and I), we received a My Creative BaoBei Christmas Play Bag.

With pre-packed activities, we can just grab and play :)

It comes in a lovely felt bag that you can reuse as a gift bag during Christmas.

See my son pretending to be malu-malu

"Come on, show me your giant ears"

I took out all the prepacked activities and asked him to choose one.

There were 3 products plus one free activity.

 He was immediately drawn to the glitter glue/snowflake activity.
Nothing spells FUN like messy play, you know :)

 I drew an outline with pencil since perfection is important to him.

For the designs, I referred to the pictures provided on the information leaflet.

Otherwise, they will all be round or square or diamond..hehe.

After the craft, we read The Friendly Snowflake by M. Scott Peck.

Bought this book years ago when I was still in high school! 

Pic from Amazon.com

The next activity took a two days because we had to roll up little balls of tissue paper.

This one is hard because you have to make a gazillion balls.

OK, I exaggerate, It was probably closer to 150.

Tiger was like, "You can do it."

"Don't talk so much. Work faster a bit."

What a pushy boss he'll make!

Purses lips.

In the end we had some 'boulders' left over and he was inspired to make a racecar.

Guess who is the lucky person who gets to fix up the car?
=.="

 

Last but not least, we have a Santa Clause for weaving.

He did this at snail speed over several days.

So, the activities lasted a loooong time :)

 

 

 He thinks his papa is Santa Claus because they have the same sized belly!

HO! HO! HO!

No lar...I take that back...must be nice for a new phone.

Because my kind, darling husband got them early Xmas presents.
*sweet smile*

There is also a felt sticker activity that we are saving for rainy days.

Image from CreativeBaobeiPlayBags

If you are interested in getting a bag for you little one, 

you can check out CreativeBaobeiPlayBags here.
They are only rm 28 each.
But wait!!!

Leave a comment here to win a Buy1Free1 promotion.
I have 3 vouchers for you to win!

This is perfect as Christmas goody bags or gifts for little kids :)

Winners will be selected randomly and announced on 5th DEC 2014

The voucher is valid till 31st December 2014.

You can follow CreativeBaobei on Facebook here

It's so yummilicious looking I feel like eating their page :p

A Week in October 2014

The last week had been one of our low-production weeks.

Mondays are usually no school days since I usually work till late.

Mid week, we were distracted by Dragon's Halloween costume.

Sneak preview of the back only :)

She loved it even though it was a tad tight around the belly.

 Tiger and I went to the toy store after his music class to buy the amulet and crown for her

and he conveniently bought two more Pixar cars, Bob Cutlass and Darrell Cartrip.

He chose Bob for completion of book 7A.

I hid Darell in my underwear drawer since he is refusing book 7B right now.

Everyday, he'll ask, "Mama, do you remember where u keep Darrell?"

Imagine if someone overheard..Is Darrell her stepson? Or goldfish? 

At the toy store, he was also asking for this 

which is a repackaged version of this.

*raise right eyebrow*

Sneaky toy makers, I know watcha trying to do.

 I said no to buying replicas and when we got home, 

I gave him this and it was the first time he moved on from C-V-C words!

I don't know about you but I've never studied phonics or silent Es in school.

I learnt it from Alphablocks...haha.

When he spelt ICE, the very intelligent toy dog named Scout said

I

sssssss

E is silent in ice

I was like, "WHOAAAA"

But I'm not very smart, so, you be the judge la.

Worthy investment, in my humble opinion. And you can skip the two toys above

We painted some plaster with the girl.

She is naturally comfortable with paint

The boy's all grown up.

The first time we painted plaster he was only 19 months old.

*Sniff*

Since they were in the mood for Halloween, I made some "blood" for pouring.

She poured non-stop for 30 minutes.

 

I made it more difficult for Tiger by asking him to pour an approximate amount

like 100 mls or a quarter.

We use this Spot-the-Difference book from popular fair for our right brain practice.

He will memorize the picture on his Left for 10 seconds.

Then I will fold the book ask him to circle the 10 differences on the page to the Right.

If he answers correctly, he gets to stamp "Good Job" on it :)

I also introduced some simple subtraction to him this week using

some free Halloween worksheets from Royal Baloo.

I think he was saying 'four' in this picture :)

We also did a lesson on odd-vs-even.

This time, I told him odd is one-syllable, hence the last cube has no partner

E-ven has two-syllable, therefore the last cubes are in pairs.

 Then, I pointed out the pattern to him on the 100 board.

One is odd, so all numbers ending with one are odd.

And I repeated with all the odd numbers.

Now, when I ask 97 or 67 or 34 is even or odd?, he could answer me very confidently.

Yay for homeschooling!

Just when I thought I was a good teacher..I have this monkey girl who teaches me humility.

"Cat, dog, cow, duck, horse, horse..."

"Ehhh, that's a goat"

"No, horse!"

"goat"

"horse!!"

"goat"

"HORSE!!!"

Okay...horse..

She was pissed with my behaviour and busied herself by spinning this hippo.

She loves these and many a time, goes to bed with one in her chubby palm. 

Sometimes, school is interrupted simply because they had better things to do.

Like riding Kater Katoo, the stuffed caterpillar

School was also cancelled again on Friday when we rotated his toys.

Despite the fact that I had to duct tape the tracks together, he was so happy :)

Princess is in a stack-everything-in-sight mood. 

She stacks literally everything...blocks, paints, shoes, stones. 

Here she was playing with hubby but I cropped him out for indecent dressing.

The blog is rated 13 PG.

A couple of her cute/funny expressions

She has shown some interest in golf.

I hope she chooses to excel in golf instead of say, carom :p

Low contact sports with proper,nice clothes AND big prizes...what's not to love?

If she becomes the next Michelle Wie, could you guys please note that her mother (me)

had nurtured her gift and she shall not place the mother (me) in an old folks home no matter how senile the woman becomes. Thank you.

 

If she chooses to be an artist...can also la...

My wallet was crying after I bought some charcoal and 

a huge bag of  Crayola art supplies from Art Friend in the Gardens.

Anywhere else selling Crayola with discount?

The kids spent Sunday at Ekids where a few hours of running around cost me rm 100 (wtf?)

But that meant dating and shopping time with hubby :)

He kept whining while we were at the Baby Fair, I ended up with nothing to buy.

The boys in the 3D ride before we went home, exhausted.

I am learning to let go and let them learn at their own pace.

So, that's basically our week in pictures.

 Oh, we also spent a lot of time at the park but I never bring my phone anymore.

Must distance myself from Facebook when I am with the kids :)

Halloween Trays 2014

We are all set for Halloween 2014!

Malaysians generally do not celebrate Halloween.

Unless you are a fun, crazy mom like me :p

If I were to celebrate the Hungry Ghost Festival, it would totally freak MIL out.

Since she thinks of Halloween as a costume party...it's A-okay.

FYI, my dear Little Dragon is Princess Sofia this year.

As I am typing this, the package arrived.

It looks small...

*gulp*

Hope it fits....fingers crossed. 

Tiger is going to be a pirate because he had refused it

and ended up wearing a friend's Batman suit last year

 =.="

He still doesn't want to be pirate this year. (God, grant me patience)

So, I bought a set of pirate toy from Daiso (sword, compass, eye patch, earring)

and I made this toy-based learning center with his pirate hat and a glow in the dark sword

FYI after one week, he still hasn't touch the books...

The kids like this Spooky center more.

His fav is The Haunted House by Kazuno Kohara

Dragon loves Witch's Kitchen with it's two-ways flaps

 Science

We learning about the human Skeleton

I printed the 3-parts cards from the Montessori Print Shop bundle

that came with Montessori At Home ebook.

I made a book for him, just for fun.

Fine Motor

 (Pincer grip)

Some bunny clips to match to bunny stickers

Tweezing orange pompoms.

Practical life

Sifting spiders from a tub of rice.

I didn't dye the rice so that they are still edible after washing.

GST coming, must be more money conscious :)

Added a long tong so that they learn to play peacefully.

Finger play

Some creepy crawlies rubber bands to put on the paper tube.

Patterning

Ice cube tray, round tablets from Froebel Gift 7

Math

Stole this idea from a friend.

One-to-one correspondence with the number chips and purple pumpkins

Then insert the correct number of googly eyes into each one.

Scissors skills

DIY some cutting strips with some Halloween stickers.

The pumpkin worksheet is from Kumon

Safety scissors from ELC

Our very popular sensory bin.

Any activity you can make a mess with, she's onzzzzzzz! 

Added some spiders to the spooky corner.

Dragon girl hates spider....

"Eeeeee...spy...spy"
Just like a real princess.

 

Happy Halloween!