Funny Conversations to remember

I had some funny conversation with the kids but I can't remember some of them now. If I don't have something to immediately record them I forget in the next instant.

Funny conversation with my girl.

My Girl: Mummy, afterwards can you turn to me?

MG: Yes

My Girl: Mummy, afterwards can you turn to me?

MG: Yes. How many times you want to say that???!!!

My Girl: Two times.

MG: Hahahahahaha.

Funny conversation with my boy.

My Boy: You are not a friend. You are mummy.

MG: Why?

My Boy: Because you scold us already, afterwards you smile.

MG: What about Daddy?

My Boy: Daddy scold us already, very loud and dunwan to be good.

My Girl: But then Daddy still love us. He buy toys for us wut.

Children are so straight forward and simple minded little beings.

Family Routines

We have a rather odd family routine on Sundays. Our mealtimes change. We have breakfast at 10-11pm, lunch at 3-4pm and dinner at 8-9pm. Then we have ice-cream after dinner. Even if its a cold day.

I'm not much of a routine person. I am an airy head, spontaneous, impulsive person. Hubby on the other hand thrives on routine. I've come to enjoy our routines even though I'm not routine-oriented (if there's such a word. haha).

Its really nice to look back and think about the memories gone by. Routine helps the memory process. We've had our routines ever since we met more than 10 years ago and before the kids came along so we do have some moments that we can look back now and say "We used to do this...."

I wonder if the kids will remember our family routines, look back one day and say with fondness "We used to do this/go here/eat this" etc when they drive by a certain place or smell a certain food or hear a certain music.

I certainly hope they will and I hope that our family routines will help to create or make happy memories for them when they grow up.

Experimenting with Crayon Resist Painting

The kids like to do this craft because its like magic. First they have to draw a picture using crayons and then paint the picture with water colors. The picture they drew will then appear like magic when the crayon drawing/writing resists the water colors. We have done this crayon resist painting before but at the time we didn't have white crayons. So, when we got the kids new crayons with white crayons included we decided to do this water resist crayon painting again.

By experimenting a little we found that crayon resist painting works best in the following circumstances:

1. Use same color crayon as the paper. Eg. White crayons on white paper or Black crayons on Black paper. (You can't see what you are drawing but it will appear like magic when you paint over it).
2. The results will be better when the water colors are watery rather than thick.
3. Use dark water colors on light crayons and vice versa.

Thats it! If you follow the above simple rules, you can create very nice results, even with very young kids. Here are some examples:

This snowman was done by my 3 year old. I gave him a black crayon to draw a snowman on black paper. Then I got him to paint over his drawing with white water colors.

This one was done using white crayons on white paper. Then we painted over the drawing with water colors in rainbow colors.

This night scene was done using white crayon's on white paper and yellow crayons for the lights. We painted the scene with black water colors and the lights in the windows turned on like magic.


Crayon resist painting is very easy to do and very exciting for the kids. It is also a very creative craft as you can come up with very nice and different results by experimenting with different colors. You can create snow scenes to make Christmas Cards for the holidays, a night scene as seen above, an underwater scene etc. Its up to you. You can view more examples of our old crayon resist painting here.

Talking about love is much easier than talking about death

Mummy why did he die?


When people die do they fly up in the sky?


When people die, they can't sing/talk/eat/dance anymore?


When people reach 100 years old they reach up to the roof of the house, then they have to fly up in the sky, so they die?


When people die then we can't see them anymore?


Will you and daddy die first because you are old?


Theres no doubt about it. Talking about love is certainly a lot easier than talking about death and dying to a young inquistive child.

More Mirror Image Painting: Mirror Image Twins

We've done mirror image painting before but this time we decided to do it with a little twist. After completing the mirror image painting (by painting and folding the picture into two to get a mirror image print) we continued to paint in or add some details to our picture. We did four paintings today.

Here is the first. Its our mirror image twins painting. First we drew a smiley face on one side then we folded the paper into two to get the same smiley on the other side, then we decorated the faces to make them look a little different.

This is my three year old's version of the mirror image twins painting. He did a nice blue smiley face at first then got carried dabbing brown blots all over his painting. Lol!

My girl wanted to paint a mirror image hearts, so I thought her to put different layers of colors to make a colorful heart. This will make a great Valentine's Day craft. After she painted the mirror image hearts and stars she wanted to write "I love you mummy" at the bottom of the page. Lol! I guess she was happy with me for doing the craft together with her. I always get happy hugs from her when we do crafts together.

Then she wanted to draw mirror image flowers in pink, her favourite color. After folding the paper and creating a mirror image of her flower she painted the sun and said "Mummy, I don't want to fold the paper any more because you can't have two suns!" Hahaha. I agreed with her solemnly. She also drew in the grass without folding the paper to get a mirror image.

More Lessons About Love

My Girl: Mummy, I spill the water, you scold me, but you still love me?

MG: Yes, I still love you.

My Girl: But I spill the water, why you still love me?

MG: Well, you spilt the water because you were not careful, thats why I scolded you.

My Girl: Hehe. Because I play play.

MG: Yes, thats why I scolded you but that does not affect the love I feel for you.

My Girl: What is affect?

MG: Affect means Change. It means that spilling water is one thing but it does not change my love for you.

My Girl: Mummy, what is love?

MG: Love is a feeling. Like when mummy looks at you and baby, mummy feels very happy because mummy loves you both very much.

My Girl: Mummy, you love baby because he's cute? Look at him. He is so cute.

MG: Yes, he's cute but even if he's not, I would still love him.

My Girl: Like daddy?

MG: Hahaha. Yes, like daddy.

My Girl: Hahahaha.

Well, I don't know if these lessons on love and loving helps or not but one thing I do know, my daughter does not think her father is cute. Lol!

Another time she said this...

My Girl: When I fall down mummy and daddy loves me more because I pain.

MG: Oh No, No, We don't love you more when you fall down. Because we love you, we show you our love when you are in pain, understand or not. (My goodness, I certainly hope she did. I wouldn't want her to hurt herself just to get mummy and daddy's love!!!)

What is Love?

My boy's definition of love

My boy: I lurve you.

MG: I love you too!

My boy: What about cheh cheh (sister). You love cheh cheh too?

MG: Yes, I love cheh cheh too.

My boy: And daddy?

MG: Yes, I love daddy too.

My boy: And kong kong?

MG: Yes, I love kong kong too.

It was at the tip of my tongue to add "Because we are family" at the end of my sentence when my boy finished the sentence for me...

My boy: Because you walk slowly with kong kong.

:) The observant little one had noticed that whenever we took kong kong out together with us on an outing I would slow down my pace and walk slowly together with kong kong who walks much slower than us and to him THAT IS LOVE! Love is simple. Love is kind. Love is all around us.

My girl's definition of love

We were doing some lessons together in her workbook. When we reach the assessment part, I told her that she should try to do it on her own without my guide. "This is a test to see how much you have learned, I told her."

My Girl: Ok, Mummy. Mummy, if I do it simply or wrong will you still love me?

MG: Of course I will love you, you know that Mummy loves you no matter what.

Love is so simple to the kids and indeed it is simple. To them it is a matter of how much time I spend with them etc. It is no wonder that they always get so upset whenever I get impatient and don't wait for them to finish brushing their teeth or eating and walk away. They must see that act of impatience or walking away as "You don't love me....."

I'm either busy, tired or sleepy

I'm either busy, tired or sleepy....... according to my 3 year old, that is.

Recently, when I was lying in bed, he came and grabbed my leg with his robot arm toy so I played along with him and raised another arm and leg at the same time. That always makes him laugh. He looked at me with a smile and said...

"Mummy, you not busy, tired and sleepy already? You can play now?"

OOPS!!!!

Looks like I have not been spending enough quality time with him.

Whats a good gift for a little girl or boy?

Little girls are made of sugar and spice and all things nice. Little boys are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Whoever wrote that must have been a girl. So now we know what little girls and boys are made of but whats a good gift for a little girl or boy? Hmm... better go and nose around the coupons site to see whats on offer.

Recently added, a Walmart Deal, is a Dream Town Rose Petal Cottage for $78.88 with make believe windows, doors, chimney and even a stove in sweet little girl colors. Just nice for imaginative little girls who can stir up some imaginative sugar and spice for a make believe cake.

A recent add for boys is the Best Buy Code Sony - PlayStation 3 80GB Limited Edition MotorStorm Pack at a $100 price drop for hours and hours of fun and lots of thrilled. Just be warned that the sweet little girl made of sugar and spice may try to take this from the little boy made of puppy dog tails. So be prepared for some fights as well. Please note that these are current promotions correct at the time of publishing this blog post. Have fun shopping. I just love shopping for toys!

Today's Craft: Paper Plate Duck

The kids had been pestering me to do more crafts with them so we went to the bookshop over the weekend and bought some new coloured construction papers to add to our art supplies collection. We have a cupboard just for our art supplies. We call it the craft cupboard. Whenever we want to do any craft, they will ask me to go and look in the art cupboard.

Today, they wanted to do a paper plate duck craft. This is really easy. All we needed were some paper plates and our colour construction papers. The kids traced their hands and cut them out to make the duck's tails. Then they drew in the eyes. I helped them cut out the feet and faces and stuck them onto the ducks.

Then they wanted to draw in some duck feed. (Thats what those dots on the paper plates are for in case you are wondering. Lol! The paper plate ducks can stand and rock. Cool!

For a more detailed instruction on how to make the paper plate duck, go here.

Learning Magical Chinese Characters

My girl enjoys learning Chinese Characters by watching the Magical Chinese Characters animation at BetterChinese.com, a site that teaches Chinese to kids in a structural step by step spiral up curriculum format. The Magical Chinese Characters animations are beautifully illustrated animations in black and white. They are kind of like stick man figures, very cute. There is a short story line with each animation. The story ends with the formation of the Chinese Character.

She likes to watch them over and over again and in doing so, she learns some new Chinese Characters. I let her choose what she wants to watch by herself. It is easy because the Chinese lessons are structured for kids who are learning Chinese in a non-native environment. She can select what she wants to watch/learn by clicking a list on the left pane of the screen. The list is in English, not in Chinese as most Chinese learning sites would be. This helps us tremendously because we don't know Chinese yet but we are learning.

You can go for a free online trial if you want to know what I am talking about. Oh, I almost forgot, for my blogger friends living in the US, there is a current free shipping promotion for orders above $50 by UPS Ground Shipping that runs till Nov 15, 2007.

What should a 4 year old know?

What should a 4 year old know? Or a 3 year old or a 5 year old? How much should my child know at his age? I am sure most of us have asked this question before.

Sometimes I read about how other 4 year olds are doing on the blogs and I start comparing (I know I shouldn't but...), I start comparing their progress with my 4 year old and start getting worried if he seems far behind in development.

I'm also worried because my 4 year old writes his alphabets in mirror image whenever I ask him to try using a workbook. I'm worried that he is lazy to learn. He usually says "I dunno" or "Dunwan" or "Lazy" etc during lesson times (He is not attending any playschool or kindergarden. I teach him together with his 5 year old sister at home) He also keeps on forgetting things we've told him over and over again. We try to tell him the name of certain sundry shops or bakery we often pass by but the next time we pass by the same shop he will say its a mall or smile sheepishly or giggle or shake his head and say "I dunno".

Sometimes I read too many stuff over the internet, then I get worried because I want to try to catch any developmental delays early etc etc.

Anyway, I was worried.......... until I read this wonderful article. What should a 4 year old know? I would like to recommend that all parents who have ever asked this question "How much should my child know at this age?" read it. Do read the links contain within too. They are useful as well. It basically stresses that Childhood should not be a race and that we, the parents have become overly competitive these days. We should just relax and cool off a bit and allow our little ones to be the children they are supposed to be.

Cheers! Have a nice day and remember to enjoy your little ones. They are only little once and they grow up so fast!