One of the things I mentioned in my new year post was to try and share more of the play and learning activities we do at our family day care . So to kick things off in this department, here is a little roundup post of some of the activity highlights we got up to this past month… Chinese New Year Over Chinese New Year, I put together a Chinese New Year sensory bin based the colour theme of red, yellow and gold. I filled the box with various sensory items like pom-poms, bean bags, golden beads, red packets and tangerines. I also used the red packets for a simple puzzle craft activity. I cut the red packets into sections for the children to assemble into a Chinese New Year theme paper collage. *Chinese New Year sensory play inspiration from Things to Share & Remember ***** Where is the Green Sheep Extending on a couple of the children’s interests in the story book ‘Where is the Green Sheep’ by Mem Fox , I made this coloured sheep felt play set for our felt board. We used th...

Just giving a bit of airtime to my favourite little boy in the world. He happens to dressed up here as a pirate for a friend’s Tinkerbell theme birthday party he was attending. What do you think? Actually the truth is, this is also meant to be a bit of airtime for the pirate costume I put together on my own—haha! It’s a big step up from the previous pirate set I made two years ago. Nathan was very patient and obliging while I directed him in various poses for this mini photoshoot. But after the sixth or seventh one, he finally told me, “ Okay, that’s enough, mummy ”. “ Wait, just one more, last one! ” I protest. “ Sigh. Ooookaaay, just this LAST one, mummy ”. LOL. Oh dear. What a boy. What a mother! Dear Nathan growing to be such a terrific little chap. He has such an incredibly kind heart and an inquisitive mind. Lego is still his number one top favourite interest. Almost every day he comes up with the most original and clever creations of his own. He always looks forward to ...

“Gracie had a teddy bear, Her fur was chocolate brown, And everywhere that Gracie went, The bear was sure to go.” What is the magic that turns the floppiest little bear into a very real, loyal and trusted companion? "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you,then you become Real." ― Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit ***** Meet Teddy. She belongs to this little girl. Some facts we know about Teddy so far… Teddy is a girl. So says her owner and best pal, Gracie. She likes to drink tea. Pretend tea. She enjoys reading books. She likes to watch ‘Playschool’. And ‘Frozen’. And ‘Tinkerbell’. Well, pretty much whatever her pal Gracie likes, she likes too. She likes to go to sleep. Only at the same time as her pal, Gracie. And she likes waking up. Next to Gracie. Of course. She misses her Gracie very much whenever...

I make it no secret that I love boys . I love having a little superhero, prince charming, knight in shining armour, pirate, policeman and fireman around. Plus it’s good to have someone you can call on whenever we’re hit with a big dragon or monster infestation at our place. But make no mistake. I’m a big advocate for girls as well. Especially one-of-a-kind girls like this one. When Grace was born , I resolved not to fall into the usual girly-girl practices. I avoided surrounding Grace with pink and frills. I encouraged her to play with trucks and trains and Lego. I let her dress up in superhero capes . I consciously avoided always letting her have the pink bowl or pink cup. Despite all my efforts, I cannot deny that I am still a mummy to a little girl. And little girls are meant to be dressed in floral, frilly things. { A floral reversible skirt custom-made especially for my little girl } ***** A couple of weeks ago, Nathan was enjoying his afternoon tea in his usual leisurel...

What do you do when you have an overabundant harvest of grapes in your garden? Despite my very apparent and sad neglect of our grapevine, year after year , it remains faithful. Even after eating our abundant fair share, giving them away and letting many, many of them shrivel up or fall to the ground, there were still heaps and heaps of heavy bunches of these dark purple grapes left on our vine. Earlier this week while I was working , one of my little girls noticed a generously sized bunch of grapes, hanging very low close to the ground, peeking out from under the leaves. She enquired about it and asked if she could try them. I generally do not offer these grapes to the kids on a regular basis as these grapes happen to have pips in them. So I warned her about the pips, but she was still keen to try them. So I said okay, as long as she was careful about the pips. Without missing a beat, she plucked one off, popped them into her mouth, spat out the pip and ate it up. Then she turned ...

So today marks the first day of the new school year for us folks in Western Australia. Nathan seemed to ease back into the whole school routine pretty easily without any drama or fuss. I think the person who is stressing out the most about the whole thing is me. Apart from the usual emotional hoo-haa over his first day… (side question: Is it really true that every single kindy child gets completely reshuffled into a new pre-primary class? Why does it seem like Nathan is the only child from his previous kindy class that’s been reshuffled into this particular pre-primary class?)… there’s also a new daily drill of lunch and recess food prep. Oh my goodness. What on earth do you pack in a kid’s lunchbox every day for five days straight? I also prepare morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea everyday for all my family day care kids. It’s not easy juggling four individual food preferences and quirks, whilst maintaining a good balance of health, nutrition and variety. By dinnertime, I’m ba...