Our first Play @ the Esplanade

In conjunction with the Esplanade's 10th Anniversary theme: "Celebrating Life - The best of the Human Spirit through the Arts", they are presenting a series of theatre for children called Playtime! This series is for children 2-4 years old. This is the first time our family has gone for a play together, and we are totally intrigued; and marveled at how the theatre group managed to capture the attention of the young audience in this 40-min presentation!

First of all, it was a sit-on-the-floor setting that made it very casual for both children and adults alike. Upon entering the studio, we saw some nicely-wrapped "rubbish" that the children could play with, before the start of the play. The play is very interactive with the actors asking questions; and getting the children to sing familiar nursery rhymes. The theme of the play is about protecting our environment and caring for the animals. The theme is driven in by getting the children to "throw the rubbish" into recycling bags. Through interactivity such as these, the young children could understand it better; and thus able to bring home the message the playwright is trying to impart.

Overall, it's a wonderful experience for our entire family. I guess, "One is never too young to enjoy the Arts!"

Homeschool syllabus - Our Body

School holidays can sometimes be a nightmare to many SAHMs with preschool children. The most common problem is, "How to keep them occupied, without using electronic devices?" Usually I would try to enrol them in various workshops. However, this year, due to financial constraints (times are bad!!) and lack of planning (my bad!), I decided to give homeschooling a try.

Prior to the start of the holidays, I asked Ariel to choose a topic she would like to learn during this holidays, from a book of Questions and Answers. She chose to learn about Our Body.

I then proceed to plan my own syllabus, thinking about activities that I can do to make certain concepts easy for her. I also thought about her interests (art & craft) and her weaknesses (certain skills I would want to work on, eg. to NOT be picky about food).

I would say that, overall, it's rather successful. And below are some of the topics and activities she really enjoyed!

Topic: Overview

Question: How do we stay alive? What food is good for me?
Answer: We need air, water and food to stay alive. Then I went on to explain the different kinds of food that will keep us strong.
Activity: We made our own restaurant menu, which comprises of healthy foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I got Ariel to draw her favourite foods for the 3 meals, and explained how the respective main ingredients can help her to grow. After a nap, we played restaurant whereby we took turns to be waitresses and customers, using the menu we made in the morning. Ainsley joined us too.
*She enjoyed playing restaurant so much that we played this for the next few days.

Topic: Our Head and Face

Question 1: What do our face consists of?
Activity 1: We made masks out of paper plates. As Art & Craft is one of Ariel's favourite activity, she enjoyed making the masks. We also did a puppet show using the masks we made.

Question 2: How do our eyes work?
Answer: Our eyes is like a camera.
Activity 2: We lowered the blinds and started playing with a torchlight. We made shadows and I explained how the object has to be between the light source and screen, in order to cast a shadow on the screen.
*Somehow, all kids love playing with torches. Ainsley enjoyed it too.

Topic: Inside Our Body

Question 1: Why and how does my heart beat?
Activity 1: We cut out heart shapes from 3 different materials: cotton squares, plastic bag and a sponge. Then I got a small tub of water and we threw in the hearts made from the different materials. Cotton squares turned soggy and went out of shape when we tried to squeeze them. Plastic bags floats on water but could not contain water. The only 'heart' we could 'pump' is the one made from sponge.
*Through this activity, we explored how different materials will turn out when in contact with water. Ariel thoroughly enjoyed squeezing water out of the sponge and playing with water. Though it sounds messy, the activity is actually very 'contained' because not a lot of water is needed and the children each have their pail of water.

Question 2: What happens when I swallow? Learning about the stomach and intestine
Activity: I got a small ziplog bag and labeled it stomach. I got some broken pieces of old crackers and put them inside the bag. I told the girls to break the crackers into even smaller pieces. This is like the food they ate. The stomach produces special juices that will digest the food and turn it into mush. Then I proceed to pour a little water into the ziplog bag and sure enough, all the crumbs clump up and became a mash.
*The girls were squealing, because it did look a little disgusting, but it definitely drive the point home. Ariel through this, also understood that she needs enough fluid, so that the waste food will be soft and easy to pass out of the intestive later :P

Topic: Bones, Muscles and Skin

Questiion 1: What are bones & joints?
Activity: For this part, we made a puppet out of cardboard, using paper fasterner.
*Somehow, all kids love puppets.

Question 2: What does my skin do?
Answer: It helps us to feel.
Activity: We took a walk downstairs and did crayon-rubbing on different surfaces. It was in this activity that I realise Ariel is not too sure what is the difference between smooth and soft; versus rough and hard. She thought smooth and soft are about the same. After the activity she knew the difference.
*I also took this opportunity to teach her that people who are visually disabled can read too, by feeling the alphabets. We drew letters on each other's hands and got the other person to guess what letter it is, while having our eyes closed.

Topic: Hair and Nails

Question: What do our nails help us in?
Answer: They protect our fingers and help us to pick up small objects.
Activity 1: We played a game whereby Ariel is suppose to pick up some paper clips from a small container using a pair tweezers. We also proceed to pick up other small objects like small dice.
*This acitivity trains up their fine motor skills in using a pair of tweezers. Through 'pinching' the tweezers, they learn to use the strength of the fingers. Haha, I thought this exercise is quite apt as she is now learning keyboard. I did not expect her to enjoy using the tweezers!

Activity 2: We also round up the syllabus with a novelty activity and that is: I painted her toenails.
*All little girls like to try on things used by adults. Pedicure is definitely an exciting thing for her ;)

The above are just some activites she really enjoyed and I thought they are quite useful in teaching different concepts. I always believe that it possible to teach young children everything as long as we bring it to their level.

Lessons I learnt from this:
a. Discipline is the key. Half way through, she said she is tired of playing school. I switched the topics around and got her to do something which I think she would enjoy, instead of letting her 'skip school' that day.
b. Make it short. Their attention span is still very short. Explanation should take only 4-5 mins max. Using a whiteboard helps. Explain concept through activity is most effective.
c. Use her interests to motivate her.
d. Be flexible, never be afraid to switch topics around.

Being a Christian family, we hope to include biblical values in our syllabus too. Biblical values learnt in this topic will include:
1. God is the One who created us.
2. Our God is an amzing God as our body is wonderfully made by Him.

Bible Verse: [Ps 139: 13-14] "For you created my inmost being, you knit me in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

Moving Ariel to her own room

After co-sleeping with us for 4 years, Ariel was suddenly interested to have her own room and to sleep with her younger sister in a separate room. On seeing that Ainsley is able to sleep through the night, we decided it's time to move the kids to their own room.

We did all that were suggested in magazines and books: she chose her own comforter and bedsheet, we put pictures of her favourite princess on the walls. However, after the novelty of a new room wore off, she would either want to sleep with us in the middle of the night, or would insist hubby to lie down with her until she falls asleep.

Then we heard from another mommy how she used a reward system to get her 4 year-old boy to sleep on his own. I'm someone who is never for reward system unless absolutely necessary. I just feel that giving rewards is almost like bribing a child. However, hubby came up with such a brilliant idea of a reward chart that I absolutely have to share this.

1. First, we noticed that Ariel has reached an age where she is really into games and winning races.
2. Hubby did up a chart (see pic above) which each member of the family is represented by a character from her favourite cartoon at that time.
3. Each one of us have a goal that we set for ourselves. For Ariel, it's of course, to sleep on her own in her room. For Ainsley, as she is not able to set goals for herself yet, we set it for her: keeping her toys after playing with them.
4. For one week, whoever meets his/her goal will get a sticker. And at the end of it, the one with the most stickers will get a pressie.

Voila! Guess who win at the end of one week? It's of course, Ariel!

Through this game, values that are learnt include:
1. Goal-setting and Perserverance.
2. Helping one another out by: (a) holding each one of us accountable for the goal we set; (b) it's really touching too, to see how Ariel helped Ainsley to keep her toys when Ainsley was on the losing end.
3. Instead of a top-down goal set by parents, the goal is something the child sets for herself.

Kudos to hubby for this wonderful idea!

Recipe: Fried Udon with Chicken

Udon is one of our favourite noodles. The kids love it. Even Ainsley, 2 years old, prefer it to other other kinds of noodles. It is easy to eat, filling and most importantly, not messy. Personally I find that fried udon is easier, because I have not mastered the right texture of udon in soup yet. Here's the recipe of a simple one-dish meal for the entire family.

Ingredient:
Udon (we used 3 packets for family of 4)
200g Chicken Breast/Chicken fillet
3 Baby corn
3 small red bellpeppers or half bellpepper
Beansprouts (according to one's preference)
Garlic powder/chopped garlic
1 egg beaten

Seasoning/sauce:
1 tbsp of Dark Soya Sauce
2 tbsp of Kikoman Tempura & Noodle Sauce (see below for picture)
1/2 bowl of water. (For a more sauce, can add up to 3/4 bowl of water)


Marinade for Chicken breast/fillet:
Garlic Powder (sparingly)
2 tbsp Kikoman Less Salt Soya Sauce
1 tsp corn starch

Cooking Instructions:
1. In a saucepan, pre-cook the udon according to instructions. Then set aside.
2. Heat 2 tbsp of oilive oil and garlic in a wok. Add the baby corn and bellpeppers and fry till fragrant.
3. Add in the chicken.
4. When chicken is almost cooked, add in the beaten egg. Stir-fry till all the ingredients are almost coated with egg. However, do not overcook the egg.
5. Add in the beansprouts and fry for few minutes.
6. Add in the seasoning of dark soya sauce and tempura sauce. Wait for the mixture to boil.
7. Stir in the udon and stir-fry till the noodle is coated with sauce.

One-Dish Meals

With two kids 4 and 2 years old respectively and no domestic helper, cooking can be a challenge. Most of the time, I need to cook at lightning speed. That's why I love one-dish meals. For these recipes below, preparation and cooking time is about maximum 60 mins. So far, the one-dish meals enjoyed the entire family includes:

1. Tuna and Egg Rice Bowl
2. Fried Rice & Miso Soup
3. Pasta
4. Pumpkin Rice
5. Fried Udon with Chicken
6. Chicken Stew and Rice
7. Chicken Pasta Soup