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Showing posts from March, 2014

A wormy love story (a fun book play for kids)

One of Nathan’s favourite activities is playing a book we are currently reading . This is one of our current favourites which I had picked up from our local library a couple of weeks ago… ” Jonathan and Martha ” by Petre Horáček It’s quite a cute story --about two worms named Jonathan and Martha who inadvertently met one day through their love of eating, learnt to share their stuff (i.e. food), and eventually fell in love. A love story between two worms We loved the story so much that one day I decided to vary our story time session that day by preparing a few simple props to play the story together. Preparing a few simple props to play the story I used a couple of craft pipe-cleaners to play Jonathan and Martha and a few pieces of fruit (a mixed of real ones and some pretend ones). We used craft pipe-cleaners to play the worms Nathan had so much fun puppeteering the two pipe-cleaner worms as I narrated the story, making them munch through the different ty
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My blogger toolbox

Every Sunday afternoon is my blogging time. It’s my time of the week where I read, write, comment and catch up on what my fellow bloggers have been up to. After putting the kids (and the hubby) down for their afternoon nap, I revel for a moment in the peace and quiet, and perch myself in front of my laptop with a cup of tea, and open up all my favourite go-to applications and tools on my desktop. Here are my favourite applications and tools I use during my blogging time… First stop, Feedly : my RSS feed reader of choice. I do browse through a few posts throughout the week, but on Sunday afternoons I enjoy taking my time to read through the various posts of bloggers I follow and click through their links to give some comment love. Second stop, Blogger : where I make a stop at my blog to read through and respond to comments, and click through to fellow bloggers’ links to catch up on what they’ve been up to. Next stop, Windows Live Writer : Although blogger is my chosen blogging pl
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Talking about grandparents

A weekly highlight for the kids is our regular Skype session with their grandparents. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, the distance can now be bridged and is not considered the massive chasm it once was. “Hallo po-po and gung-gung!” (grandma and grandpa) Of course nothing beats, face-to-face hugs, cuddles, kisses and play time. But I really grateful for these little things that help to strengthen the special bond between my kids and their grandparents. Talking about grandparents, please stop by Teresa’s blog at NanaHood to check out my guest post on why grandparents have such an innate desire to spoil their grandkids.   Linking up to: Sakura Haruka | Little Drummer Boys | Twinkle in the Eye
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Travelling alone with a toddler and baby

Over the Christmas holiday season, we had decided to spend some family time back in Malaysia . Due to hubby’s work commitments and other engagements, we decided that I would fly ahead first with the children and hubby would join us a week later. I am not entirely sure what I was thinking at that time that made me decide to do this. Travelling alone with two children under three is most people’s idea of the perfect nightmare. A few other factors that made the trip considerably more challenging: We were flying a red-eye flight departing at midnight The flight duration was five-and-a-half hours long I was not able to secure a bassinet or bulkhead seat But on that fateful night, I got on that flight with both children in tow and somehow emerged on the other side safely in one piece (more or less). The question everyone is asking me is: How did I do it? So here are a few jottings on how I managed to survive my adventure of… Flying Alone with a Toddler and a Baby I called
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Our Miniature Dinosaur Series (plus a terrific early childhood education teaching tip)

One of the early childhood education teaching strategies I’ve been learning and applying is a concept called “ scaffolding ”. Basically it’s about guiding a child’s learning by building upon something they already know or are interested in to gradually explore new experiences and skills. One cool series I’ve been scaffolding and building and expanding on is our little series on dinosaurs . A mini dinosaur playground #playinvitations #play #toddleractivity #playground #dinosaurs A post shared by Serenely (@livingserenely) on Feb 25, 2014 at 5:59pm PST It all started spontaneously with a mini dinosaur play invitation I had set up. I had put together a very simple mini dinosaur playground with various items --a few wooden blocks and toys, some rocks and synthetic grass for texture, and miniature dinosaur figurines. I love observing what little players and scenarios Nathan comes up with just by setting the scene. He came up with a dinosaur family play with a daddysaurus, mummysa
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A great tip for encouraging kids to read by themselves

So as I was organising the different little ‘corners’ for my family day care, I came across one fantastic tip … “Collect all the books” I used to have our children’s books stacked neatly on a shelf which I took out as needed to read with Nathan. However it was never really purposely set up as a dedicated reading corner. Although Nathan loved reading books, it was always only together with me. He never really flipped through a whole book by himself without me sitting next to him. As part of the family day care redecorating project, I had set up a dedicated reading corner with all the books collected together, comfy rugs, cushions and chairs for little ones. And I was absolutely amazed at the unexpected results it brought about… One afternoon, I caught sight of Nathan comfortably nestled amidst the books in our new reading corner, quietly poring over a book all by himself. Since then, every so often he’ll head to this little nook by himself to spend some quiet time alone with
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Activity idea for kids: Bread Painting

This is an idea I had pinned some time ago, and recently pulled it out for a morning tea activity. All you need is: Bread Brush Milk Food colouring Simply add a few drops of food colouring to some milk, and you have your paint! Then hand the brush to the little artist and let them have fun creating their little work of art to eat afterwards. The coloured milk shows up surprisingly well against the bread. I was worried at first that the bread would simply absorb the milk and the colours would just end up smudgy and pale. But as you can see from the photo below, even the yellow showed up really brightly. I also took the opportunity to illustrate some colour mixing – blue and yellow make green, red and blue make purple, and so on. Nathan wondered what would happen if we mixed all the colours up together, so I let him experiment for himself to see what would happen. After that, we popped the coloured bread into the toaster and enjoyed it for our afternoon tea. It tasted
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My cup runneth over

These days my days are packed full to the brim. From the moment I wake up to the sound of Grace calling through the baby monitor and Nathan’s cheeky face peering at me over the edge of the bed… to the evening when I finally tuck them into bed and say goodnight. Days filled with cooking, cleaning, feeding, washing, playing, nursing, cuddling, reading, teaching, cajoling, instructing, refereeing, observing, listening, tickling, laughing, hugging, loving. Then rinse and repeat. Three years ago I was lamenting over the end of the era of just us two . And I discovered that two plus one is simply so much more amazing . Then last year I found myself wondering how I could love another little person as completely as I love this sweetest little guy in the world . And now I know how it’s done. Your heart simply grows. Bigger, stronger, wider, deeper. One morning, while I was outside hanging up the washing with the kids, Nathan asked me to make a tent for him. So I draped a sheet over ou
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Today’s entry is not so much a post as it is just a way to showcase the latest addition to our outdoor play area… Our new mega sized outdoor chalkboard!

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A couple of weeks ago, I had posted this snapshot of these set of magnetic shapes I made on my Instagram. I received a few curious questions on how I made them.

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And so Nathan’s very first day of kindergarten is over. It was a mixture of good, bad, sweet and sour. I think that so much happens throughout the day, it can be challenging for a little person to filter through it all.

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DSC05282My cup runneth over

These days my days are packed full to the brim. From the moment I wake up to the sound of Grace calling through the baby monitor and Nathan’s cheeky face peering at me over the edge of the bed… to the evening when I finally tuck them into bed and say goodnight.

READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY »