New English Vocabulary by kids

I think a new English Vocabulary is being created everyday by kids everywhere. Teens create their own new lingo all the time and as for the little ones just learning to talk. The new words they make up are just classic.

My little boy has just begun to speak in sentences and sometimes he makes up his own words. Its really adorable the way he makes up his own words to complete his own sentences.

Recently we bought him a new Henry train to add to his Thomas train collection and this is what he said.

"Mummy! This train can put on the track because got onner also." (Onner = Switch). He sounded so excited and serious when he said it which made it even the more hilarious.

Sometimes he fights with his sister. They tell each other...

"You are the moredest notty." (moredest = most)

However, usually they unanimously agree....

"Mummy is the moredest notty!"

Hahaha. Its fun to listen to the kids conversations. They do say the funniest things in their own vocabulary that sometimes only mummy knows.

Where to buy a pinch toy?

My boy loves to pinch the pimple on my face. Its a bad habit. Other babies cling on to their bolsters, suck their pacifiers or bite the edge of a pillow or blanket but he........ pinches the pimple on my chin. No other pimple will do. Its got to be that very same pimple on the right side of my chin. No, not even the left side. Only the same pimple on the right side will do.

Sometimes, I grow tired and let him. (The pinching increases in intencity when he is sleepy, tired or stressed. Strangely, the act of pinching my pimple soothes him.) Sometimes I slap his hand away and say "Stop pinching, its painful." Usually he will say "Nice!" and carry on pinching but the other day he suddenly looked at me and asked "Mummy, can you buy me a pinch toy?" Hahaha.

So... does anyone know where I can buy a pinch toy?

Teaching my kids the basics about colors

I was looking for some color activities to do with my kids when I chanced upon this site. Well, its part of a site actually. Its called Carmine's Introduction to Color. Cleverly presented in the format of a rhyme, it teaches kids the very basics about colors as it guides them through primary colors, secondary colors, warm colors and cool colors. It also teaches the kids how to make a tint (by adding white) or a shade (by adding black). Basic, fun and to the point. I love it. I'm going to get my kids to watch it soon especially the little one. The older one knows her colors well by now.

As I mentioned the link I just shared is just part of a site called A Lifetime of Color. I haven't had time to explore it yet but it looks like something I would want to explore because its got lesson plans, activities and games all about colors or incorporating colors. If I find anything else thats interesting, you can be sure I will share it with you my dear readers.

I usually note down these sites for my own use and easy reference and at the same time if I can share it with others too, why not? I love blogging!

Teaching my kid to tell the time

My girl has learned to tell the time a while ago, the hours and half hours that is. I've been trying to teach her to tell the minutes too but only half heartedly. I buy her storybooks about telling the time. I buy her a small watch to encourage her. We make watches for craft time and I draw a clock to teach her half heartedly.

Recently she started learning to count in fives so this means that she would be able to tell not just the hours but minutes as well but I'm still too lazy to teach her properly. I do know that she's eager and ready to learn though. So I'm really excited to have found this site to teach children to tell the time.

Its called Learning About Time. It is an excellent site to teach children to tell the time. Its very comprehensive with step by step description of the clock and telling the time. The best thing I like about it is the interactive clock or the Clock Program. You need to have Java installed to be able to use it. You can choose to have the child learn to set the analog clock to match the digital one or the other way around.

Just wanted to bookmark this site here and share it with other parents too. So pleased to have found a website to teach my girl to tell the time. Now she can learn on her own and I can continue to be lazy. I guide her through the first time and she's ready to practise on her own now.

Kids Activity - Playing with Food

Kids just love to play with food don't they? So why not allow them to do just that........ by getting them to help in the food preparation, under careful supervision if they are very young and making simple foods like egg sandwiches. Besides food always taste nicer when you make it yourself, at least to the kids. Not to me though. Food tastes nicer when someone makes it for me and hopefully wash up afterwards as well. Lol!

And so... one day when there was nothing left in the fridge to cook for lunch..... accept eggs, this was what I did. I boiled the eggs and then I got the kids to....

• smash them


• peel them


• cut them


• mash them


• mix them with mayonnaise

Then they put marjerine on the bread, I added a slice of cheese before spreading the egg paste they prepared and cutting them into little triangles, rectangles and squares. They walloped the egg sandwiches quickly whereas they used to turn their faces away from the bakery bought ones.

We finished lunch with some cut mangoes and homemade float made from chocolate ice-cream and coke. I'm a bad momma. I'm indulgent. The kids thoroughly enjoyed their simple lunch and so did I. ('cos I didn't have to slave at the stove only to have them spit out their food. Lol!) You should try this one day when you've run out of ideas on what to serve the picky kids during a meal.

Action Songs and Finger Plays

Action Songs and Finger Plays really fascinate the little ones. When they were babies, my kids loved finger play rhymes like "Round and round the Garden" or "This little Piggy". They still love them but now that they're a little bit older (a toddler and a preschooler) , they like a little bit more action ie full body action!

Recently we sound such a song which captivated them. They loved it so much. Its called Copy Me! by the Tweenies. I hope the link works. I am sure your little ones will love it as mine did.

You can join them in the actions too, especially if you need a little bit of aerobic exercises. Hahaha. Or you can be creative and come up with your own actions. Enjoy!

Co-Sleeping with Preschoolers

We practise co-sleeping like many Asian parents do. We or rather I still co-sleep with our preschoolers aged 3 and 5 years. (Hubby gets to do it on Sat night while I get beautiful uninterrupted sleep then. Whoopee!) I have no problems whatsoever with this arrangement. With parenting, I always believe that whatever style suits your family than it is fine. As long as everyone is happy, whose to say what is right or wrong. In this case, my husband is happy, I am happy and the kids are happy.

However, the kids will have to move to their own room one fine day (oh how we will miss them!) and we would like the transition to be smooth. We're doing a semi-transition now. If you can call it that.

Usually I sleep in the middle between the two so they won't fight over "who gets to sleep beside mummy". However now that the kids are older its not easy to get a good night's sleep that way. I need a good night's sleep for health reasons. (Who doesn't right?) The kids will toss and turn 360 degrees each night and quite often I would awaken with a punch or a kick on my face. Ouch!

So I decided to move down to the floor. After storytime or after they are asleep, I would creep to my mattress on the floor and get a better night's sleep that way but recently I've been waking up with a little hand dangling over my face and a soft voice asking "Mummy, can you hold my hand please?" Hahaha. (Because I discourage or disallow them from climbing down and sleeping with me on the mattress). I would then raise my arm a little to hold his little hand and both of us would fall back to sleep that way. I still get woken up from my sleep but this way is a lot better than getting a punch or a kick on the nose or eyes. Lol!

Baby Mine

Baby Mine by Bette Midler

Baby mine don't you cry

Baby mine dry your eyes

Rest your head close to my heart

Never to part

Baby of mine

Little one when you play

Pay no heed what they say

Let your eyes sparkle and shine

Never a tear

Baby of mine

If they knew all about you

They'd end up loving you too

All those same people who scold you

What they'd give just for the right to hold you

From your head down to your toes

You're not much goodness knows

But you're so precious to me

Sweet as can be

Baby of Mine

Thats my little boy's favourite lullaby and he is always bugging me to sing it to him. He loves it so much and he would give a delighted happy smile whenever I sing it to him and hold him close to me. I wonder if he will remember it when he grows up. :)

Anyway here's the Baby Mine song by Bette Midler for anyone who is interested to listen. The lyrics to the song are really nice. Have a nice weekend everyone.

Storybook Terms in everyday language

My boy's current favourite terms or words are the following....

"Once upon a time"

"Long long time ago" (even though he is referring to just a minute ago!)

"Mummy, you forgot"

"because"

"so long already"

"yah mummy?"

"you see, I told you already" (I think he picked this up from me!)

Some of these terms are storybook terms but he uses them in ordinary everyday language. I guess I must have been reading too many storybooks to him. Lol!

He also likes to answer everything with "because". Sometimes he uses it at inappropriate times but he likes to join in "discussions" and feel very important. Its really funny to watch him having serious discussions with his sister, his little face is oh so serious.

I just love looking at his face when he is not watching me observing him. He looks really adorable (at this age- he is 3) and my heart is filled with love when I watch him play by himself.

A little girl named Ice-cream

My Girl: Mummy, you and daddy give name to me and baby. So when I'm big, I will give name to my own baby.

MG: Yes, ok. We gave you names that we liked. What name do you like to give your baby next time? What name do you like?

My Girl: Mummy, I scared next time I name my baby Ice-cream or Lollipop or Chocolate.

My Boy: Coney. Coney. Hahaha.

MG: ------------------------- (Hahaha)

And thats how the little girl named Ice-cream came about. Lol!

Having Fun With Playdoh

Kids have lovely imagination. Let their imagination run wild with playdoh. My kids love playing with playdoh. It gives them hours of fun and me .... hours of free time. Heheh.

Recently my girl said she wanted to make a playdoh flower garden. All their old playdoh had turned an ugly grey because they tend to mix all the colours together so I agreed to get some new colours for her.

She made a green patch and said that was the grass. I taught her to make some flowers so we made flowers in several different colours. And then I added a mother hen (thats me. Haha.) grazing among the flowers.

My imagination isn't so great so I bought a book of instruction on how to make playdoh animals. Thats where I got the idea for the mother hen. It didn't turn out as nice as it looked in the book though because I'm low on patience. Lol!

Here is our playdoh flower garden.

So remember, if you run out of ideas on how to keep the kids entertained indoors on a bad weather day, just take out the good old playdoh. Playing with playdoh is a great activity for kids. Some mothers even make their own playdoh. Not me, I'm too lazy......

Nighttime Fears

My five year old girl has a fantastic imagination now. Her overactive imagination has led to nighttime fears and this makes it hard for her to sleep sometimes.

"Mummy, I'm thinking about the monster in the show."
"Mummy, I'm thinking about the pencil poking my eye."
"Mummy, I'm thinking about falling in a hole."

Usually I just tell her to think about something nice instead, like a holiday or a toy she likes or about us doing something she likes but after a minute she'd say....

"Mummy, I'm thinking again."

Last night I decided to play along with her ....

My Girl: Mummy, I'm thinking about the wolf in the book coming to me.
MG: Well, then think about mummy chasing the wolf away.
My Girl: Mummy, I'm afraid the wolf will chase you too.
MG: Well, then think about daddy coming to chase the wolf away. Daddy will rescue us.
My Girl: What is rescue?
MG: Rescue means to help someone in trouble.
My Girl: What is trouble?
MG: Trouble means problem.
My Girl: What is problem.
MG: Uh...uh... problem means when you need help.
My Girl: Ok.

(This is usually how our conversation goes. Question after question after question. Its really very tiring to a 41 year old who needs to catch up with beauty sleep. Haha.)

After a while....

My Girl: Mummy, I'm scared the wolf will come back when we are asleep.
MG: Well, you know our house has an alarm. If the wolf comes back the alarm will wake us up and we will all chase the wolf away.
My Girl: Ok.

I think I'll probably try this method again next time.

How do you calm an overactive imagination and soothe nighttime fears? You must be even more imaginative too! Put yourself in your child's shoes and try to imagine along with them, then tell them your story about how you or they can overcome the monster of their fears or their fear of harming themselves or of bad people harming them. Why don't you try it too and see if it works?

The Terrible Fives

I have no idea why people call the earlier growing stage the terrible twos. It really should be the wonderful twos. Both of my kids have passed this so called terrible twos stage and I still have no inkling why its called the terrible twos.

I love the two year old stage. They're so adorable, so cute, so cuddly, so lovable..... and they do as they are told! No temper tantrums. Ok, maybe a little but certainly not enough to earn the label "terrible".

Its different now that my first has reached five. I would call this stage the challenging five. Its really challenging having to deal with a five year old. My three year old is still cuddly and lovable and cute though rather clingy.

However the five year old..... drives me crazy all day long with her non-stop questions, her constant testing of her limits, her continuous need for reassurances and attention, her quick frustration and anger when she can't do something right, her nighttime fears and wild imaginations. These are so tiring. I really am having trouble dealing with this age compared to the earlier sweet twos.

I must try to be more patient with her as she struggles to understand the world around her, as she grows and tries new things etc. I'm not the most patient person and my patient runs thin easily with her. Where is the sweet little girl I knew? I hope I can guide her through this stage so that she doesn't turn out to be ill tempered and impatient like me. I'm beggining to see more signs of me in her as she is begginning to behave more and more like me ie the way I behave when I get impatient with her and yell at her. Help!

Celebrating festivals with children

This year is the first time the kids get to play with lanterns in their own porch. We used to live in a condo/apartment before so we didn't have our own porch to do such things. They enjoyed it of course. And so did we. We enjoyed seeing them enjoying themselves.

It makes us happy to see them so happy. That is the joy of having children. Their infectious laughter and happiness fills our home with smiles and happiness.

How quickly the kids have grown. Its festive occassions like these that makes us reflect and compare. I still remember their first lantern, second, third and so on and so forth. Just like I remember their first birthday and second and third..... We remember their first Chinese New Year, the second, the third....

We try to make each festival exciting for them while trying to expose and teach them about their own culture and celebrations. We try to make a family tradition out of it so that it will create happy memories for them. Hopefully we can continue with our family traditions and celebrations for many more years to come.