21 Easter Activities For Kids

I came across this free e-book 21 Easter Activities for Kids when I was browsing through my free e-books list from Free e-Books.net and want to recommend this timely book to you.

First, let me tell you a little about Free e-Books.net. Free e-Books.net is   a place where I get free e-Books by rising authors and independant writers. Both fiction and non-fiction books are available, from self-help and parenting to business and technology. I am subscribed to their newsletter so I get free e-Books reviews and links delivered to my e-mail. I also have the Free e-Books.net app on my mobile phone so I can read my free e-Books on the go.

When I have time, I will browse around to find books that appeal to me. Usually I can preview the books before I download. Books can be downloaded in html, pdf, ePub and Mobipocket. The last two formats are only available to VIP members. All members can download books in pdf for free anytime for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Free members can access all books, same as VIP members. The only difference is VIP members can download in ePub and Mobipocket formats. These formats are not available to free members.

Get unlimited access to Free e-Books

Free members can download up to 5 free books a month whereas VIP members have Unlimited Downloads of Free e-Books, on all mobile formats so you can read on your  Amazon Kindle, BN Nook, SONY Ebook Reader, Apple iPad or Android devices, have first access to new books, priority customer support and the ability to save favourite titles online.

I love Free e-Books.net because I love to read. I also believe that e-Books is the new way of reading. It is instant and can be read on the go, saves paper as well as storage space. I've really run out of space on my bookshelf but my digital bookshelf never runs out of space. I've been thinking of writing an e-Book myself because I'd like to offer the readers to my many blogs a different way of reading my materials. Sadly, I don't have time to do it now but hopefully I will have more time to work on this one day.

E-Books - The Way Forward

Sometimes I find gems among the free eBooks. Today, I'd like to introduce you to this timely free eBook called 21 Easter Activities for Kids. It is available for free download. This book has suggestions for 21 fun Easter Activities you can do with your kids at home including Easter Bowling, Easter Bingo, Easter Egg Toss, Easter Relays, Easter Throwing Competition and more. These are fun ideas. My only grouse is you can't actually download some of the printables. You'd have to go to the author's website to get the printables which are available by purchase only. Still, you can find some nice Easter Game Ideas for kids in the book. Why not check it out? It's free for download.

How to download 21 Free Easter Activities for Kids for free. 

To claim your free e-Book, go to 21 Free Activities for Kids. To search for more books go to Free e-Books.net, you will notice a search box right  under the Free e-Books.net logo. Once you find the book you want, download it to your computer or get the android or apple iOS app to download on your mobile. You can browse the categories or do a direct search for any other genre or title you like. Enjoy!

Ideas For Easter 2012

Easter is just around the corner. Looking for some ideas for Easter for 2012? Here are some places where you will find good ideas for Easter. Whether you're looking for ideas to make your own Easter Basket or finding Easter Collectibles, here are some great places to look.

1. For Easter Crafts check out these pages

Build Your Own Easter Basket

If you are thinking of making your own Easter Basket this year, check this Squidoo lens out. You'll get plenty of ideas on what you will need to build your Easter Basket.

There are plenty of images to give you more Easter Basket Decoration ideas as well as lots of ideas on what to put in you Easter Basket. Check out the Easter Basket Filler Ideas for different age groups.



Easter Bunny Craft Kits

If you are looking for Easter Bunny Craft Kits to make and do at home, check this page out. There are plenty of Craft Kits featuring the Easter Bunny featured here.

You can make Easter Bunny Magnets, Easter Bunny Puppets, Bunny Ears Headband, as well as lots of other medium like foam, clothespin, wooden etc with some of the featured Easter Bunny Craft Kits here.

Crochet Easter Bunny Ear Hat

For those who love to crochet, here is a Crochet Easter Bunny Ear Hat free pattern just in time for Easter.

This crochet patter of Easter Bunny Ear comes with floppy ears and a gorgeous crochet flower,

Visit the link to get your free crochet pattern.

2. To get more Easter Egg Ideas, go to these pages

Easter Egg Toys

This site features lots of Easter Egg Toys. As a bonus, it has some suggestions on How To Plan An Easter Egg Hunt.

You can also find links to many online Easter Games for kids with special emphasis on Online Easter Egg Games. While you're there, you can check out the many Easter Egg toys available plus Plastic Easter Egg Toys for you to fill up with Easter Goodies.


Easter Egg Collectibles by Jim Shore

If you are looking for Easter Collectibles to give away or to decorate your home, you might want to consider Easter Collectibles by Jim Shore.

Drop by here for a lovely collection of Easter Bunnies, Easter Eggs, Easter Baskets and Easter Angels, all from Jim Shore to decorate your homes with this Easter. They also make great Easter Gifts.

Easter Egg Decorating

If you are looking for ideas on how to transform your boring white eggs into exciting easter decorations, then check out this page for some Easter Egg Decorating ideas.

Some interesting ideas like Bling Bling Eggs, Confetti Eggs and Crayon eggs can be found here.You will also find instructions on how to make an Easter Egg Wreath here.
     

Porcelain Easter Eggs

Looking for something different to decorate your homes with this Easter 2012? Then check out these Porcelain Easter Eggs.

Read about the different types of Porcelain Easter Eggs. These Porcelain Eggs are highly collectible. They make excellent gifts and are lovely to look out as a decoration for the house. This site gives you some information about porcelain eggs and its history.

Easter Egg Hunt at Les Trois Chenes

Easter Egg Hunts are a fun tradition. Read about how this tradition is carried out at Les Trois Chenes, a cozy Bed and Breakfast or holiday cottage in the sleepy hamlet of Videix, Limousin, S W France.

If you have the chance to go there, that's great since the holiday cottage organizes Easter Egg Hunts for its guests but even if you don't, you may get some ideas on how to do your own Easter Egg Hunt.

Smash Confetti Filled Eggs (Cascarones) For Good Luck!

This Easter, why not make some Cascarones? Cascarones are colorful hollow eggs filled with confetti. This is a wonderful Easter Activity idea and especially fun for Easter Gatherings and Parties.

Check out this page for more details about Cascorones, what they are, the history of Cascarones and  how to make your own Cascarones this Easter. It'll be a nice ice-breaker activity for everyone or just right at the end of the party.

Oviparous Animals - Who Laid THAT Egg?

What better time to teach kids all about eggs and oviparous Animals than during Easter? If you are an Educator, Parent or Caregiver you'll want to step into this beautiful page with loads of resources for you to teach children about eggs.

How to Dissect and Egg, Poems, Lessons, Puzzles, Homework, Activities, Arts and Crafts all on Eggs for children to play and learn. There are too many too mention. You'll have to visit the site to see for yourself.

Decorating with Birds Nest

Easter heralds the start of spring. You'll want to start decorating your homes with everything spring if you haven't by now.

You can decorate your home for spring and Easter by using Birds Nest as a theme. Check out the Spring Decoration Ideas for your home here.
The Birds Nest Decorating theme is also great for your Easter Egg Hunt party.

3. Check out these for Easter Gifts

Easter Gift Basket For Boys


When shopping for Easter Basket for Boys, it is a good idea to select those from their favorite cartoon characters.

Some favorites this year include Spiderman, Disney Pixar's Cars as well as Gift Baskets with Toys Story characters in them.

Check this page out for the details on the gift baskets boys would love.

4. Get some Easter Recipes for your Easter Party or Dinner ideas from these sites

Easter Cupcake Recipes

Easter Egg morning and Easter Egg Hunts are not complete without some Easter Goodies. Easter Cupcakes are easy to make, lovely to look at and delicious.

Check out this page to get a fun and easy to make recipe on how to make a Chick and Egg Easter cupcake. This recipe makes 24 serves, just nice for an Easter Gathering.

Delightful Sugar-Free Easter Treats

Have a healthy Easter this year 2012 by opting for Sugar-Free Easter Treats.

This page leads you to guilt free yet delightful Sugar-Free Chocolate Easter Eggs and Bunnies. You can fill your Easter Baskets with these Sugar-Free Easter treats for kids if you think they've had enough sugar. They are also great for anyone who needs to have a low sugar diet.

Gluten Free Easter Recipes

Maybe you or your loved one cannot consume gluten because of celiac or sensitivity, you can still enjoy Easter by serving Gluten Free Easter Treats.

You'll get some ideas for a Gluten Free Easter here plus recipe on how to make a delicious lemon cross drop biscuit for Easter.

A lemon cross drop biscuit is a dropped biscuit with lemon on top. Its delicious, just sweet enough to be delicious or less if you prefer and its gluten free. A lovely dessert or end to your gluten free Easter dinner.

Best Sugar-Free Chocolate Treats

If you're tired of stuffing yourself and your kids with chocolate filled eggs, chocolate bunnies, why not try some sugar-free chocolate treats instead.

This will be great for filling in Easter Baskets or nice to serve during an Easter gathering so you and your guests can enjoy guilt free and sugar-free chocolate snacks this Easter. Go here to get some ideas for some Chocolate-Free Treats.



Peanut Butter and Chocolate Treats

Peanut Butter is delicious. Chocolate is even more so. Put them together and you have an irresistible combination.

If you are looking for some peanut butter and chocolate treats this Easter, check this page for ideas. You will drool all over the page just looking at the delicious treat ideas.

Easter Cupcake Decorations

Easter is just round the corner. If you're planning to bake some Easter treats like Easter Cupcakes, you can go here for some ideas on what to put on your Easter Cupcakes.

You can try Fruit, Candy or nuts. Go to this page for the details of how to put fruit, candy or nuts on your Easter Cupcakes.

4. Check out how Easter is celebrated elsewhere

Easter in Cyprus

Easter is a popular tourist destination for the Europeans. It has long hot summers and many attractions.

Did you know that Easter can fall on different dates in Cyprus? Find out what are the different types of Easter Breads you can find in Cyprus.

This is a nice page you can visit to get information on Cyprus and especially on how Easter is celebrated there.

I hope you enjoyed this Easter Ideas for 2012. Happy Easter!

Can I Play Draw Something Online?

Draw Something based on the popular Pictionary Game is gaining in popularity because of its simplicity, fun and social interaction. The Draw Something App is available on the iTunes Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users. It is also available on the Google Play Store or previously known as the Android Market for Android SmartPhone and other Android devices like the tablet computer running on Android.

What if you don't have an iPhone or an Android device? Can you still play Draw Something Online? The Good News is, Yes! You can play it on Facebook if you have a Facebook account but even if you don't, you can play in online at OMGPOP. It's called Draw My Thing Online. If you don't know what the game is all about, go check it out online. You can immediately play as Guest even without signing up just to test it out.

Here are all the links you need to play Draw Something

1. For iphone and iPad users Download Draw Something Free from iTunes the Apple App Store
2. For Android Users Download Draw Something Free from Google Play
3. For those on Facebook Play the Draw Something Game on Facebook or join other users to talk about the game on the Draw Something Facebook Fan Page
4. To Play Online Play Draw Something Online on OMGPOP (the developers of the game)

The game is called Draw My Thing Online and was first available online. It is now available for mobile and called Draw Something on Mobile Devices.

So to anyone asking "Can I Play Draw Something Online?" Yes, you can!

Draw Something Vs Angry Birds Space. Which do you prefer? Take the poll now or see how others voted.

Draw Something Vs Angry Birds Space. Which do you prefer?

• Draw Something
• Angry Birds Space

Acepolls

More polls: låna pengar polls & Surveys smslanmaklare

Lastest News On Draw Something - I just read that Draw Something has been sold to Zynga for $180 million, plus another $30 million earnout. Wow! Synga is the developer for Words With Friends, a popular game based on Scrabble. It looks like old board games like Scrabble and Pictionary still comes up tops when it comes to fun factor. The good thing is they're now available digitally and can be played on the go!

Go here - Angry Birds Collectibles for download links to play Angry Birds Space on various devices : Android, iPhone, PC, Nook, Windows, Mac etc.

Here is another fun app, but you will need the Furby 2012 to go with it.


Read More News About Draw Something:

Outdoor Reading Corner

I like to read a lot. During the weekends, especially on Sunday mornings, you'd find my nose buried in the newspapers and sometimes magazines or books if time permits. I've also started reading a lot on my little smart phone. I wish I had a tablet computer, otherwise in no time at all, I would have developed a squint reading on such a small device like the phone.

I would really like to have a reading corner, an outdoor reading corner. I would choose a wooden lounge chair from a patio set collection for my reading corner. How lovely it would be to curl up with a book and a cool lemonade for warm days or a hot chocolate for cool evenings. I would have the radio nearby, playing my favorite music.

The breeze would be blowing gently as I read. I feel so relaxed and comfortable, I may even doze off until....."Honey, you haven't bathed the kids and they are waiting for you to help them with their homework! Hurry or we'll be late going out for our errands."  Wake up call! That's my reality. Life is such a rush for me. Still it's nice to dream. I guess it is not so much an outdoor reading corner or a comfortable lounge chair that I crave but rather a nice quiet moment of solitude for myself.

Lost and Found

I found my boy's sweater in school at last. He lost it about 1 1/2 weeks before the school holidays. His school has a lost and found shelf or cupboard where all the children can go to claim their lost stuff. We went to look there before the school holidays but I guess it was not found yet.

So, yesterday we went to look again. This time, we found it. This is not the first time we have been to the lost and found cupboard. Previously we went to claim my girl's sweater from there before as well. We also claimed their lost tumblers from the lost and found cupboard several times.

When we were going through the cupboard, I saw at least 30 tumblers, a dozen sweaters, a dozen pairs of spectacles, school uniforms, gym t-shirts and shorts and many bags, some containing art supplies, notebooks and other stuff. The cupboard was full. It's amazing what kids can lose.

Sheepskin Seat Covers for Car

I like the feel of sheepskin. It feels so soft and luxurious. So comfortable. I remember having one on the floor at home in my old apartment. I was so sad when it became worn out from my constant rubbing my feet over it that I bought another one in the same design.

I saw a picture of sheepskin seat covers for cars recently. That would be so comfy for a long car journey. However, I think I would have to wait a while before I get a sheepskin seat cover for my car. The reason is because my kids like to eat in the car! I can just imagine the crumbs that will be stuck within it.

Fortunately, there are some other sheepskin auto accessories I can consider. A sheepskin seat belt cover would be nice for the kids. They are old enough to have their car seats removed but the seat belt is still a bit high and uncomfortable for them. A cover would make it more comfy.

As for me, I can always consider a sheepskin steering wheel cover. That would be nice for my hands. All this talk about sheepskin really makes me feel like touching one right now.

First Term School Holidays March 2012

The holidays are over in the blink of an eye before we know it. For the record, we managed to:

1. Watch John Carter at the cinema
2. Watch The Chronicles of Narnia at home and Star Trek with daddy
3. Do up and print out new school time tables. The kids did it all on their own too. Hopefully they will feel so proud of it, they will keep it well this time.
4. Went to the park to play football (our style)
5. Played computer games, phone games, board games
6. Practised piano, did some piano theory plus mandatory and boring school homework 

That's all. One week school holidays is really much too short. 

Origami Space Craft

I gave my son a few sheets of Origami Paper and he came up with this. He said it was an Origami Space Craft with shooting laser guns and other special weapons of destruction from the front and back of the aircraft. All he did was folded some basic origami shapes and glued them together. I think it was quite creative of him.

To me, his Origami Space Craft can double up as an evil faced transformer with big ugly orange lips. Haha. Kids are naturally creative. Even a few small pieces of square colored paper can fire up their imaginations.

Learning Chinese App for Android and iPhone

I am constantly on the lookout for ways to help my kids and myself learn Chinese Mandarin. I was searching the Android Market which is now called Google Play incidentally and was very pleased to find this Learning Chinese App. It helps me and my kids learn and practise our Mandarin through the use of a dictionary and flashcards.

How I find it useful:

My son and daughter have weekly "ting xie" (Chinese Writing/Spelling) in school. They also learn new words and terms frequently. Sometimes they have to learn to make sentences using the new Chinese Words and Phrases that they learned. I get very frustrated whenever my son comes to me and asks me to help him construct a sentence using a two worded Chinese Phrase because I don't know how. This TrainChinese app (that's the name for the app by the way) includes a dictionary that gives a couple of useful sentence examples. We  can use those to help us think of sentences to write. The Chinese dictionary can be used offline as well which is great because I don't always have wifi.

What I like best is the flashcards. I can have a 20 word list (either taken randomly or by choice) from the trainchinese site or I can make my own list. I can make my own list using the words that the kids learn in their Chinese Writing lessons. Then we can train in 4 ways.

1. Reading - Look at Chinese Characters, Phrase or Simple Sentence, then read it. Turn the flashcard around by tapping and the pinyin and meaning in English will be revealed or tap the speaker to check your pronunciation
2. Writing - Listen to the audio and look at the pinyin of given words. Then use your fingers to write out the Chinese Character. Turn the flashcard around and you can check your writing against the actual, then play the animation to see how the word should be written step by step. What my kids love about this step is the animation of the Chinese Character Stroke is played beside their own Chinese writing  which has been animated too so they can check their own stroke order against the actual Chinese Stroke Order. It's really cool to learn Chinese this way.
3. Translation - Translate a given English word, phrase or Sentence to Chinese. Turn the flashcard around by tapping and see the pinyin and English translation
4. Listening - Listen to an audio of a Chinese word or phrase, then give its meaning. The flashcard will be blank as you listen. Turn the flashcard around and the Chinese Characters, pinyin and meaning will be revealed.

You have to mark your own answers and set your own passing conditions.

You can test out this application as its free to download. At the moment I am using it to make lists from my the new words my son learns at school. Then he can practise it anytime in this cool manner. At the moment we can make 25 free flashcards a week, which will go down to 15 then 10 per week for free users. However you can buy subscription time (3 months to lifetime) and/or flashcard lists (from 1000 cards to unlimited number). Prices range start from $15.99 onwards.

This application can be used on any desktop with Windows, Mac or Linus, on iPhone, iPod or iPad and on Android. It includes audio and stroke animation.

I think this Chinese Flashcards app is a wonderful application for anyone learning Chinese as well as for parents like me who do not know Chinese but needs to give assistance to their child who is learning Chinese.

His and Hers - Favourite Words

Previously I had written a post called "Describe Your Child In One Word". Funnily, I get a lot of visits to this blog from people searching for that term. Strange indeed.

Anyway, today's post is about His and Hers. His and Her.... favorite words that is.

At the moment my girl's favorite word is "Wait ah.." while my boy's favorite word is "Oops!" 


I guess that about sums up how they are at this moment in time.

My girl....

Come on. Everyone is waiting for you. Wait ah.....
Come on downstairs, its time to eat. Wait ah....
Come up now, its time to do your homework. Wait ah.....
What are you doing so long in the toilet. Wait ah....


My boy...

What happened to your pen? Oops!
Where is your tumbler? Oops!
How come you missed out this question? Oops!
Why did you lose your timetable again? Oops!


One is enough to drive any mum insane. I have two.

School Duty

My kids have school duty once in a week according to a school duty roster. On that day, they will have to go to school extra early to do their duties. Both of them enjoy their classroom duties. My girl has had to arrange the chairs and tables earlier on. This year her duty is to sweep the floor.

As for my son, last year his duty was to wipe the windows. Last year his class was awarded the cleanest class in the whole school for the year and he was very proud of that. Incidentally, his sisters class was the second cleanest class. They had extra presents on Children's Day for that.

When teacher was distributing duty this year, he immediately volunteered for the first duty. Something to do with rubbish, he said. The kids told me something in Chinese which I didn't understand. They both explained to me that he is supposed to be a "Rubbish Group Leader".

So what does a "Rubbish Group Leader" do? Well, the boy didn't know. He just raised his hand and volunteered and he didn't know what he was supposed to do! Eventually, we found out that he was supposed to go round making sure everyone throws their own rubbish. The kids have a plastic container where they throw their pencil shavings etc. So he needs to make sure those are cleared.

So what does he need to do if they don't throw their rubbish? Well, he has to throw it for them! However, he did not know where to throw it /where the main Rubbish Bin in the school is.

I really had a good time laughing about that. He does take his duty seriously though going round making sure everyone throws their rubbish. Perhaps he just likes to order the others around, however most of the time when  I ask him he says he throws it for them. lol.

Free Printable School Timetable For Kids

My son lost his school timetable again for the second time this week. As for my girl, her school timetable looks like an old crumpled rotten leaf. So I told the kids "Children, for this school holiday project, we will be making new timetables using the computer." "Yay!" they said. My kids are so deprived of play from their daily homework load that even making timetables sound good to them.

So, I hunted around for some free printable school timetables for kids. Here's what I found.

1. A printable timetable from How To Fix Anything which is also a downloadable excel school timetable.
2. A printable weekly class schedule from Microsoft Office Templates, also in excel format. (small timetable)
3. A very simple class schedule template from Vertex42.com in excel and pdf too. (15 minute schedules)
4. A blank timetable from Monash.edu.au in .doc format (Nice big, clear and white)
5. Another blank weekly timetable template from BlankCalander.org in .jpg, .pdf or .doc formats (Half hour schedules)
6. Free Weekly Timetable Schedule Template in Excel from MyExcelTemplates (Nice soothing blue)

We love these organizers for managing school stuff and keeping us sane!




So many free printable templates in various formats, .doc, .jpg, .pdf or .excel. Just take your pick.

However my most favorite one of all is this ABC Timetable Download. Unfortunately it does not support Chinese. It is freeware. You have to download the zip file and extract it before use. Then you can create and print school timetables or timetables for other activities in various design, colors and fonts. Just select the number of days, enter your times and subjects then save for later reuse and printout as many copies as you like. I am certainly going to do that before more school timetables get lost in my house and I lose my voice from shouting at the kids for losing their timetables. Here is a screenshot of the ABC Timetable.

I like this Daily Schedule Pocket Chart by Scholastics for young kids too. Unfortunately this one is not free but I am including it here because I love it. It comes with full color photo cards including 10 subject cards, 5 blank cards and 1 title cards plus a 2-page activity guide.

Updated November 2014: Here is another free printable calendar for school going kids in particularly grade school children. The above are from what I found online. Below is what I created based on my children's own template for their school timetable. I did one for boys and one for girls. Here is the download link for the free printable blank timetable for school children.

Free Printable Timetable For School Children

Turning a hobby into a job

Have you ever considered blogging as a side job or becoming a freelance graphic artist or website designer or freelance photographer or teaching part time? If that dream seemed impossible at one time, it is now much easier with the internet and the way the job hiring scene has changed.

With the internet, now you can turn your hobby into a career easily. However, in order to do that, you must first be found. You can market yourself on many social networking sites these days but in addition to that you should also promote and market your skills on a social employment and networking site. You can post your resume in these sites where potential employers can find  you. These tools are around and available to you so make use of them. Payment is very much easier now too. Everything can be done online.

I never thought it possible before but now I have turned blogging into a part-time job for me. Through blogging, I also get to market my freelance writing skills and by using online tools that are available to me, I have  managed to market and promote my writing skills and turned my favorite hobby which is writing, into a job.

What about you? What is your hobby? Have you ever considered turning it into a career or making it earn some side income for you or are you still stuck in a job that you don't love.

Homework - Corrections for mistakes

It's 9.00pm which is past the children's bedtime. We are in the final lap of our homework run. (As you know if you have been reading my earlier post The Mad Homework Dash) sometimes homework extends after dinner despite working on it all day with hardly a stop in between.

The girl (who had returned from school at 4pm, had to eat her tea in the car and have a quick bath before starting  her homework dash) says...

"Mummy, what shall I do? I have these 4 mistakes in Maths. The answers were correct but I didn't write the working down. The other day teacher asked me to see her and when I did she said "Why didn't you...." then she stopped and sighed "Haih. Later!" and waved me away. She said "you better do your correction!" I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to do the corrections 10 times for each sum or 20 times. I'm not sure how teacher wants the workings or formula done. If I do it wrongly, then she'll ask me to erase them and do them all over again. If I go and ask her how she wants it done, she'll scold me for not knowing. If I don't do it, she'll scold me for not doing it. If I do it wrongly, she'll scold me. I'm scared! How?! I can't ask my friends. I'm so tired of asking my friends. None of them seem to know what to do all the time."

"Ok, I think, I'll write each sum down 10 times in this manner (which I'm not sure whether is correct) and then I won't give it to her unless she asks me because I'm scared that its wrong and she'll get mad and if she asks me at least I have done something ....."


Then she proceeded to write down the sums, 10 times for each sum. 4 sums = 40 sums while the clocked ticked on past her bedtime.....