School Holiday Craft - Paper Flowers

During the recent school holiday we made paper flowers. It is really easy to make but I was lazy. We used precut paper. Hehehe.

Anyway, if you want to make them yourself, all you need to do is cut coloured paper of various textures and design into petal shapes. Include all the petals at one go. Make a small hole in the middle. Then push through all the petals using a pipe cleaner, finally twist the pipe cleaner into a loop at the top to hold the petals together.. That is all there is to it.

Describing is hard. Here is a picture of our craft. Let the picture do the talking. :)

We did not do a lot of crafts this holidays because the school holiday homework - a whole book of it was quite a lot.

All we did were these flowers plus some painting. The kids love painting. We used two kinds of paint. The dry kind where you just dip your brush into water and dip it into the dry paint and the other which the kids prefer, where you squeeze out paint onto a pallete. The love that. The younger one ends up just squeezing paint and mixing them around to create different colours. "Mummy, this looks like Milo", "Mummy, this looks like Ribena" etc. makes him happy.

Report Card Day 2010

We had to wait more than an hour to collect the girl's report card. We spent most of that time touring the school with her because she is so happy to show us around. :) The teacher had a lot to say to the parents before us, spending as much as 30 minutes for some parents which is a good thing, I guess. Better to have a teacher who takes notice of the children in the class and has something to say about them than a teacher who couldn't care less and just want to give out the report card and get it out of the way.

The teacher didn't have much to say about my girl. I don't have very much to comment she said... which is a good thing too. Nothing to comment means good. :) She said, "Your girl is a very good girl. She likes to help me do my work, she is very conscientious about her own work. She has managed to maintain her good grades. She has no weak areas in her studies. She is a bit shy to volunteer for story telling, singing etc but that may just be her character and I have nothing much further to comment."

She also mentioned that my girl looks less focussed after the recent school holidays. We noted that it could be due to the medication that she has to take and reminded the teacher to inform us if she notices any more differences in her behaviour like this. That is it.

I reminded my girl that although she did very well in her grades, what is more important is teacher said she has been behaving very well and we are very pleased with her for her good behaviour. We gave her a treat and will be getting  her something to motivate and encourage her to keep up her good behaviour and good work.

Play Toy Story Games Online

Toy Story 1. Toy Story 2. Toy Story 3. Yes, that is the current craze. During the school holidays, we watched Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2 at  home on dvds. Then we proceeded to the cinema to watch Toy Story 3. We've been hit by Toy Story Mania.

In fact, there is even an online game called Toy Story Mania where you can create your own Toy Story Game. My kids have not tried that yet. They are currently into the Toy Story Online Game called Daycare Dash, Woody's Wild Adventure and Woody's Big Escape.

There's more too but the kids have not gone through all the games yet. Playing the games allows them to relive the story they saw on screen all over again. They can't get enough of it.

I wonder why there is so many Woody games. I personally prefer Buzz Lightyear. Buzz has this really gung-ho but innocent personality that is totally adorable.

Anyway, these games are all available on the Disney Toy Story site. If you need some me time, go to the link and let your kid explore the online Toy Story Games but don't tell anyone I said this. lol. It doesn't work for me though. I still get "Mummy, play with me" "Mummy, come and watch me play". "Mummy, come and see this." Me time? Only in my dreams......

Day Trip to Melaka

During the school holidays we went to Melaka. The kids wanted to go to Genting but we said No, we go to Melaka because you have not been there before. In the end, they gave a thumbs up for Melaka. :) Why? Because we went on the Melaka River Cruise, rode in a colourful Melaka Trishaw, explored a portugese ship in the Melaka Maritime Museum and sat in the Menara Taming Sari, the first revolving Gyro Tower in Malaysia (I didn't know that, not till I wrote this post. Haha.). All new experiences for them which they enjoyed. We left KL at 8am and arrived at 10am.

Traffic was heavy in Melaka.....

But we managed to find our way to the A Famosa Fort in Melaka......

Then, we climbed up to the St Paul Hill Church from 400 years ago...

There, we had a bird's eye view of the Eye on Malaysia..... and the Menara Taming Sari....

Later on we stopped by the Proclamation of Independance Memorial.....

This was followed by a Melaka River Cruise.......

We sat on one of these boats for our boat tour of Melaka.....

By then, it was almost lunchtime and the queue for lunch spread to the road side!

What's everyone queing up for? Chicken Rice Balls of course.

We had some too. I was so hungry I forgot to take a photo till halfway through the meal.......

We did not join that queue but had our Chicken Rice Balls at Hoe Kee at Jonker Walk instead.....

After lunch we went to Menara Taming Sari for a ride. There was a long queue. We had to wait for 3 rounds before our turn. From the revolving tower, we took a photo of the portugese ship that was part of the Melaka Maritime Museum which we visited right after our tower ride.

 

We finally left Melaka at 4pm, arriving home at 6pm, just in time for dinner. A great day trip! Just nice for a family with young kids. (preschoolers and above). These Melaka attractions are nice and enjoyable for the kids. The colourful Melaka trishaw ride was fun for the kids too. Some of the trishaw riders even double up as tourist guides, taking you to various attractions, talking about them and taking photos for you and your family.

Raising Active Kids

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com

The doctor we were seeing for my girl suggested that we increase her physical activity. I had not realised how physically inactive the kids had been. Their only activity is the once a week school gym classes which often gets cancelled to make way for more academic lessons as well as some running around at the mall. *Guilty*

The doctor suggested at least 30 minutes of physical exercises each day. So I incorporated "gym time" into our daily routine. How the kids love it! They love it to the max! We try to give them an afternoon nap that is no longer than an hour as suggested by the doctor. It is no problem getting them up as before because they look forward to their "exercise time".

So far, we have done skipping, long jump, high jump, cycling all within the confines of our little porch. We played mother hen protecting her chicks from the eagle which makes them laugh real hard. I give them coloured chalks and we draw a hopscotch or rivers to jump over. We challenge each other for long jump and use chalks to mark our jump. The kids love it. They cheat like mad and love it to the max. We sweep the porch together before playing and wash the chalk off afterwards. That is part of play too. One of them will pour water from a watering can while the other sweeps.

We have flown paper aeroplanes, played ball games and blown up ballons on a rainy day and played all sort of games with the balloons like how to keep the balloons in the air, or shooting balloons into hula hoops like a basketball game. We danced to music, played ping pong at my sister's house which was bigger and had a ping pong table. They tried badminton too at sister's but I am afraid that if they play at the porch in our home, the shuttlecock may end up in our neighbour's like the paper aeroplane and annoy them. :P

I realise one thing. Kids love physical activity and it is so easy to set one up. So simple. However, to do it on a daily basis like the doctor suggested, is a bit tiring for mummy who has to organise it. lol. I am trying to crack my head for more ideas and wish we had more space. Going to the park is not that practical for us for safety reasons and sometimes due to the weather but we will try to head there too as all kids love the park.

Anyone has any more ideas for physical activities for kids?

Men should learn from boys

The other day when I wore something other than my jeans and t-shirt and put on some make-up, the boy took a step back, then said "Wuah, so pretty mummy!" then he comes and gives me a big hug. It was so natural, so spontaneous. It came from his heart and he wasn't afraid to say it or show his love.

At night, he tries to snuggle close to me and when I tell him to go and sleep on his pillow he tells me "I like to sleep near you mah, so cozy...." and then he wraps himself around me like I am a big bolster.

However, one day, this little boy will grow up to become a man, and then gone will be his natural, spontaneous responses.

He will then be full of inhibitions and become shy like most men. Why is it so hard for men to show their emotions freely? They were not like that as boys.