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

Play Sand vs Kinetic Sand

I wasn't going pay a king's ransom for sand, I swear.

It's peer pressure.

Sigh...I bought 5kg for rm 200 

When hubs asked about the price, I pretended I was taking a very important call.

Smart diversion is the key to marital bliss, trust me.

Otherwise slash the price of everything by at least 50%.

When they find out..."Oh..tsk tsk tsk...luckily I bought before the price went up"

If that fails, offer some bed yoga.

Tiger is a huge fan of sand play.

 So, I know my purchases will not go to waste.

I was hoping that the Kinetic sand will add another dimension of exploration and 

creativity to his play.

The important question here is...

.Is it worth the money?

Tiger's demo on cutting sand.

Halfway, he asked, "Are you sure this is sand?"

Haha...yup, it's that cool.

It's has the consistency of soft gooey dough without the wetness and stickiness of wet sand.

Like any other messy play, it stimulates the senses and I always feel very relaxed

when I am manipulating it in my hands.

Just don't think about the clean-up process while you are at it.

My little nerd boy used it for spelling words.

Here's a list of ideas for playing with Kinetic Sand

There are tons of ideas on pinterest as well

I would love to have a sand pit but they neighbours' cats will think I was being charitable

by providing free toilets.

So, our play sand is kept in a little container and they can take it out whenever they fancy some play.

I can watch them play all day long but Dragon girl doesn't like sand on her feet :)

Just like how Tiger was at her age but she's a slightly less OCD version.

After 10 minutes, she like, "Okay, all done"

Tiger on the other hand can do this for hours.

The boy who used to hate getting sand or dirt on his feet and clothes can 

now grin happily as he gets messy.

Making mama a pot of soup!

 

So, the 3 major differences are

1. Pricing (obviously)

rm200 for 5 kg of Kinetic Sand  vs rm30 for 10 kg of ELC play sand

(I was told to scoop from nature on our next beach holiday :p)

2. Mess level

On a scale of 1 to 10, Kinetic Sand is probably a 3

Play sand is a 9

Which is why sand is never allowed indoors

3. Creativity 

For us, they are both a valuable part of our messy play.

Kinetic Sand has an edge here because you can just create anytime

without having to add water and they are less likely to crumble.

Is it worth it?

In my honest opinion, yes.

I cannot wait for our next beach getaway :)

WIN A MONTESSORI WORLD MAP!!

 

As an early Christmas gift, we are giving away a gorgeous Montessori World Map. 

It is made from high quality wood with beautiful finishing.

 I actually wanted it for myself but Winnie said NO!

Could you be the lucky one? 

To win, enter with any of the following methods:

Facebook:
1. Share the picture on your Facebook page with 'Public' setting (first entry)
2. Leave a comment and tag 3 of your friends. (second entry)

Instagram:
Follow us on Instagram and leave a comment in the contest picture. (3rd entry)
Link here

Blog:
Just leave a comment at the end of this post. (4th entry)

*Saying you love me is considered bribery and strictly forbidden.
*Winner will be announced at 12 noon@12th December 2014.
*You MUST be residing in Malaysia or Singapore.