Sunday, November 30, 2008

What a spread!


My boys adore nut butter. They started with peanut butter which I spread on toasts for their breakfast and snacks when they were 18 months old. Whether smooth or crunchy, but always the organic version, the boys would request for it on their toasts day after day. So we have gone through many brands and way too many jars. 

Recently, they got real hooked on Almond Butter. E lugged back a jar on my instruction when he went to London last month and the boys finished the jar in a month. It is really delicious, so it shall be a staple in my pantry from now on. 

Next I hope they will love the organic white tahini just as much. 

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Craft: Making Cat Masks...Meowww...

The boys were very excited when I suggested last week that we make our own cat masks.

Once I pulled out the materials that I had prepared, they could not be dissuaded from embarking immediately on the craft though it was way past bedtime.




The masks were painted another day. Chipsy chose yellow paint while M wanted orange with black stripes.





I showed them several pictures of cats from our large book collection, and let them get on with it. For the 2yo, there was some minor guidance, like where the whiskers should be, but he did the glueing, which was why the whiskers were in funny places. It is totally fine though since it is the process that is more important, and not the end result.

It is so much fun and heartwarming to see the boys working side by side to create their crafts. It is also at times like this, that I am reminded yet again of how wonderful it is to have more than one child.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Running high

I have been sleeping late. Very, very late. Almost every night for the past 2 to 3 weeks. A few girlfriends will know as I stayed up late to chat with them on Messenger. Mostly about the kids and stuff that we are doing or I want to find out about. 

I have been neglecting my dear hubby as he gets into bed hours before me. Hmm.. Bad. I have been depending on too much coffee to give me that extra boost in the day. I need a really strong cup in the morning. Actually, it's more like 2 big cups. And the craving comes again in the afternoon. Er...another 2 big cups. Oops. So it is a vicious cycle. I drink too much caffeine in the daytime as I am convinced that I need it badly. And it keeps me going till the wee hours when my boys are in dreamland and I wonder why I still can't sleep. Bad. 

But I am fueled by a new passion. Yes, I am crazy about the serious business of homeschooling. A few months ago, it was all about bento-ing and now this. I am still crazy about bento making and all the fun stuff about it, but I find myself not clicking on bento blogs as often as I used to. Mostly because I got bored by the poor standards of most bento blogs. I think a lot of people depend on the cute bento accessories instead of being truly creative. There are only so many times I can look at a cute bento box or food pick and go ga-ga over it. So now, my attention is captured somewhere else as I explore the blogging world in search of bloggers who are passionate of arts, crafts and homeschooling.  

The thought of homeschooling my kids was explored before but I decided against it for a few reasons. Though recently, the idea resurfaced, I doubt I will change our plans in the near term.
For now, I am enjoying the process very much. I do like that I am bursting with ideas and the adrenalin I feel is addictive. It is very typical for me as I get passionate on something. The workaholic in me is slaving away night after night, as I plan a very fluid weekly routine for my kids. The boys are loving it and the results are incredible, which then feeds my hunger for more. I can't deny the intrinsic rewards are immeasurable in the first place and being the kind of parent I am, it is easy to be real hooked to this current craze. Already I am mentally making some new year resolutions related to this. 

Another week to go and Marcus will start his school holiday. His art and piano lessons will end this week too which will leave us lots of free time to pursue other interests. I am looking forward to it though we will need a tweak to our routine. I can't wait to complete the few very interesting projects that I have started with Marcus and to begin work on the others that I have planned for him. 

For now, I am appreciative of the amazing improvement Marcus has made in the areas of art, general knowledge and Chinese. He can probably recognise close to 200 Chinese words now. And I can't be more pleased with little Nicholas who is really enthusiastic these days. My last count recently shows he can read close to 100 English words, in addition to all the other stuff that he is picking up fast in this short span of time.

This is especially encouraging for me and is also a key reason in my decision to reject the job offer I received recently. Instead of returning to work, I decide to stay home for another year at least.

But first thing first. I need to catch up on my sleep and spend more quality time with my hubby who is ever so supportive and encouraging. 

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Giant Squid



This was done in the 4yo's art class over 2 lessons. Instead of painting a boat, the teacher got them to do origami. The kids painted the giant squid attacking the boat in the second lesson.

Frankly I am not sure of the value of that approach if they can't remember how to fold the origami boat again. My boy couldn't.


Well, at least he drew a baby squid at home. :) He kept saying his arms were tired and refused to colour the whole squid. So he drew lines on the squid's tentacles instead and told me later that the baby squid is in pajamas and is ready for bed. Hahaha!

I love his imagination and how he is so full of excuses!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Bento #27


School lunch for Marcus this week.

Top: quail eggs, cheese cubes, apples and mini chocolate wafers.
Bottom: Fried rice garnished with nori seaweed strips, pan fried cod on a bed of stir-fried long beans and carrot strips.

I love the new animal food picks which I bought last weekend that I used on the quail eggs. Marcus calls them 'baby eggs'. Heehe!

Just looking at these cute little sticks makes me smile. ^.^

Videos of 3.5yo Reading

Here are 2 videos of M reading his books at bedtime. Both were taken at least 3-5 months ago but only uploaded onto Youtube yesterday.

M reading 
Subways

This was one of the books he borrowed from the library. I can't recall why the video was so short, think we ran out of tape.


He read part of the book before deciding he wanted to 'sing' the words, so I gave up recording. 

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Vehicles with dotted lines

Many of M's recent drawings of vehicles have dotted lines on them. It seems he tries to replicate those drawings in books he sees which has dotted lines for little kids to join.

And one of the very recent additions I notice is stars. Lots of stars of all sizes on many of his drawings.



This one above is funny to me. It looks like the truck is carrying a load of stars. See the dotted lines on the wheels.

Here is a triple decker bus that can float on water. Hee hee.. The sailboat on the left was drawn with a stencil. He told me the sun is angry but I can't remember why.


Hmm.. I like this taxi. He drew it in under 3 minutes!



The long weird name he gave to his truck. Many of them have very long and impossible to pronounce names which he made me pronounce a few times a day. And when I give up, he always say 'try mama... it is like this..'te-te-te-ve-ve-....' I can't help sometimes but throw him a big patronizing grin after a while and just roll my eyes.




Craft: Making Turtle Tambourines

This is a really interesting craft to make and the boys had so much fun.

Chipsy glued the parts of the turtle together before adding in the beans. I sealed it later with glue and stapled it to ensure no escape for the beans.

Marcus did a similar craft 2 yrs ago but it didn't stop him from wanting to make it again.




Then they got on with painting it.


When the painted turtles were dried, the boys sang, hopped and boogied to their own tunes as they shook the turtle tambourines with real vigour. After much amusement from me, they finally paused to catch a breath and laugh heartily at their own silliness.

Monday, November 24, 2008

First Play: Hungry Caterpillar by Act 3.

E took M to watch the Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar play last year. So this year, I went alone with Chipsy.

As it was the first time he went to watch any play/performance of any sort, I was mentally prepared for some fussing and/or uncooperative behaviour on his part.

To my utmost surprise, he sat through the whole play without wanting to leave nor did he fuss at all. Except for the beginning when the little cloud first appeared on the black sky, he whispered nervously 'scared.. scared of cloud.. mama cuddle'. Other than that, he just sat like a cute little bundle on my lap, all the time allowing me to hug him tight, smell his hair and give him little kisses and nibbles on his ear as he watched the puppets being manipulated on stage with full concentration. He remembered the storyline and would occasionally asked 'where is hat? where is clown? where is butterfly?' etc..

It was a really enjoyable hour to spend in the dark with my baby. What a pleasure! This shall be the first of many such performances to come.

Before we went to the play, we made a little craft related to the theme.




I guided him on the first green circle for the caterpillar and he did the rest, including the leaf printing.

Freakish Incident!

At about 230am this morning, I was awaken in shock, though I still can't be sure if I was awaken by E's screaming in horror or if I heard the loud smashing.

All I remembered was I sat up in bed and E squeezed my arm and I think I asked 'what happened'. He pointed at the mess on the floor and said 'the light smashed'. The big glass ball that used to be dangling from the ceiling, right above my bed was gone! All I could see was the 3 lightbulbs and a bloody mess of broken glass everywhere on the floor.

It took E an hour to clean up all the big and minute pieces of broken glass all over the room. Some tiny fragments could be found on my duvet, bed sheet and a few in Chipsy' cot.



We were really shocked and traumatised by what had happened. It is totally freakish that it could just drop and smash into pieces, when it has been hanging there for 3 years. It was always very difficult to take the light fitting off whenever E needed to change lightbulb, so we just couldn't explain how it could happen in the middle of the night when the windows were shut and there was no possibility of anyone touching it. Besides it was hung so high that we could not have reached it without a ladder!

What really freaked us out is the possibility that it could have smashed onto Chipsy's head and kill or seriously maim him if his cot was placed at the end of my bed, like it is sometimes when he wanted to be patted in the middle of the night. That damned glass light fitting would have smashed right onto his head. From that height and weighed about 2kg, it would have been a real tragedy.

I can't help but think there was a guardian angel watching us last night.

Papa Giraffe



After the art adventure to the zoo (see here for that post) last weekend where he learnt to paint a giraffe, he sketched and coloured another one a few days ago. It took him 15 min in total to sketch and colour with crayons. He got bored with his colouring towards the end and absentmindedly coloured in an extra leg for the animal. Heehee..

He called it the 'Papa Giraffe' which is why it is so fat. Haha!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

A Proud Mummy

Anyone reading this blog or know me personally will quickly conclude that amongst other things, I am a proud mummy. Just as one of my hubby's colleagues put it. It makes me laugh when he said my blog is so detailed about my kids that one will know "Marcus turns left today" if they follow the blog. Haha! It is true.

I'm not secretive of my pride and love for my little boys and all their achievements and conquests, which is why I am not shy to blog about even their simplest drawings and crafts and little sweet nothings they whisper.

When my hair is grey and the kids are grown, I want to be able to read about all the cute and funny mundane details of my kids' childhood and how they shared my days when I was a stay-home mum.

I am a proud mum. A very proud one indeed, of my little sweethearts who are the most wonderful little bundles I've always wanted.

More often than not, whenever I blog, I reflect on the day that just passed and the time spent with the kids which usually fills me with sheer love and joy. It makes me look forward to start the next day afresh with abundance of energy and inspiration, so I could fill their hours with more and more fun.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Two Styles. One Masterpiece.

They were each given half a tobelrone box, a milk bottle cap, half a squarish box (essence of chicken box) and a plastic toy fork and some paint. 

M did mostly stamping with his materials which he manipulated into different shapes while N made lots of broad strokes and swished his materials around to create swirls. 




Towards the end, they decided to use their palms and fingers and made a large blob of red which according to M is smoke coming out of his building. 


The masterpiece by my aspiring artists of two different styles. :) 



Hmm.. I know I didn't have to make sense of kids' artwork but this one looks like the building is on fire. And of course, I love it! 

Colourful Chameleons


This is one of my favourite books in my boys' collection. I picked it up for $10 over 2 years ago for M. To me, Leo Lionni is like Eric Carle, but just less well-known and hence cheaper. But I love his style as evidently presented in this book. I do intend to buy his other books but often forget when I pop into bookshops.

Today we read the book together again and had a little discussion about chameleons, before I handed them a sketch that I did of a chameleon's body. I deliberately omitted the legs so they could add them in.

M was asked to colour the chameleon and add the legs, which he did beautifully with crayons.



N did his enthusiastically too with Crayola Twistables and all the time mumbling 'Chameleon lizard!', but I didn't take any photos of his as by the time he finished, it just looked like a giant blob with lots of colours and the chameleon outline is no longer visible. :D

Next I asked M to draw and colour his own chameleon and again he did with crayons... It made me laugh when I saw it. He even added hair for the chameleon and a leaf!



After the artwork was done, he read the book to me which he did really well. I shall upload the clip of him reading once I figure out how.

Friday, November 21, 2008

LOST!!!

A couple of weeks ago, M was lost for the FIRST time.

He lost me for a brief minute when we were rushing to his piano lesson. Due to the crowds and narrow alleys in the mall, I couldn't hold his hand without walking awkwardly so I instructed him to walk close behind me. I made a turn round the corner near his piano school, thinking he was still tailing me when I looked back and was horrified that he was nowhere in sight.

I panicked for a second before spotting him quickly. He was running to and fro another corridor, looking frantically for me. I heard him shout a not-very-loud 'mama! mama!'. I went to him and saw a mixture of relief and sadness on his face. His little lips curled like a crescent as he ran to me for cuddles and sobbed for a second. "I couldn't see you Mama, I thought I lost you and I was sad."

Yesterday it happened again but this time at our condo. My heart sank, albeit for only a brief few minutes. Despite my reminders and orders and instructions (depending on how harsh I sound), the boys just won't stand next to me while I lock my main door. I usually keep Chipsy in the stroller so I only need to watch out for M, which that alone can cause my blood pressure to rise to a new high sometimes.

Anyway, by the time I locked the door which took virtually seconds and turned the corner to face the lifts, M was nowhere to be seen. For a moment, I thought maybe he was playing hide and seek with me, so I shouted a few times for him before realising quickly that he must have gone into the lift and the door closed before he could stop it. I only prayed that he was alone in the lift and that he would remember what I always taught him to do should this happen. Thank God he remembered!

I waited and a lift descended to our floor while concurrently another arrived from lower floors. My plan was to hold both lifts, hoping he will emerge from one before deciding what to do next. Luckily he did. The moment he saw me when he walked out of the lift, he cried softly 'Mama! Mama!' and I gave him a gentle but tight hug and told him it's alright. I couldn't resist the "see, I told you....' bit though and took the chance to reiterate the importance of waiting for me before entering the lift. In a way, I am glad it happened in our condo (of course I can say this only because he isn't hurt or lost) as it means he will now truly appreciate the lesson and unlikely to repeat the behaviour.

Some days, both kids are out without stroller and it can be a nightmare screaming after them, warning them not to enter the lift before me. So I resort to painting many 'what-if's scenarios to M, hoping that he will remember some of these if he encounters them.

It doesn't make me less vigilant, but I sure hope that some education and instructions will stick in his mind somehow and help him navigate his way back into my arms. I am fully aware I can't be less attentive and I am usually on high alert whenever I am out with the kids, and it can get stressful. Once or twice, some strangers even suggested I get a kid-leash (can't remember the name for it but to me, it IS a leash!) which I brushed off as totally absurd. I don't want to tie them at home, nor bound them to a stroller forever, so before they turn dependable (which will only happen with age), I can only hope that he understands the dangers and remembers the instructions I give should he find himself lost in a sea of people.

When I told him that he should look for another mummy with children should he be lost and ask that woman to help him find me, it made him teared and he grabbed me so tightly and sobbed 'but I don't want another mummy. I only want you.'.... That made me smile.

Craft: Wild Woolly Sheep




As mentioned in a previous post (see here for earlier post) on our 2D craft on sheep, we did another version a few days ago and M was very eager to join in.

The cotton wool was a real mess with sticky fingers and halfway through, Chipsy kept screaming 'Eee! Wash hands! Wash hands now!' as he stared at his palms covered with soft cotton. He refused to finish the craft so M helped to stick the last patch on the sheep's butt.

The sheep without eyes belongs to Chipsy. I promise them we will make another one soon with cotton balls. 

Thursday, November 20, 2008

20 months later


Above was a photo taken when Chipsy was between 3 and 5 months old. The boys happened to be all dressed in green, so I had to snap a quick one of them. 



I took this one last week when they were all snuggling up to watch daddy play SuperMario Galaxy. 

I love comparisons like this, as I examine the photos for differences and how my boys have grown. 

Pappardelle with Meatballs and Tomato Sauce

Now that my boys are more game for tomato sauce and Marcus is even enjoying dipping his meat into a little ketchup, I made the beef meatballs again last Monday for dinner, but this time with grated apple. 

The meatballs were served with homemade tomato sauce and pappardelle. It was awesome!



I even sprinkled dried basil generously (forgot to buy fresh basil!) and the dish turned out to be such a hit!



Even little Chipsy, who normally rejects anything with a hint of tomato or herbs, finished everything in his bowl. 

Marcus who is nursing an ulcer on his lip (caused by a classmate who punched his mouth while they were rough playing in class) suffered a little from the tomato sauce but he endured it because he wanted to eat his delicious dinner. Definitely a thumbs up from my young critics. 

E was away on business trip, so I ate his share. Hah!

Ingredients for meatballs: 
220g minced beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 organic red apple, grated 
sea salt and pepper (optional)
plain flour for dusting and coating 
oil for frying

Preparation: 
1. Mix first 4 ingredients together and form into small balls with hands. I like to make smaller meatballs since they cook quickly and easier for small kids to handle. I didn't add salt and pepper in this case as I served the meatballs with my tomato sauce which was already salted. 
2. Roll meatballs onto plain flour to coat thinly 
3. Drop them into oil for shallow frying for a few minutes and drain onto kitchen paper if serving on its own. 

As I made these meatballs to be served with pappardelle and tomato sauce, I cooked the tomato sauce first and while it was simmering, I started preparing the meatballs. 

When the meatballs were cooked and drained, I dropped them into my pan of simmering tomato sauce which was also ready and let them sit in the sauce for another few minutes while I get the pasta done. 

Then it was a quick assembling job of meatballs and sauce onto piping hot pasta, topped with a sprinkle of dried (or fresh) basil and generous helping of grated cheddar. 

Viola! :)


Wednesday, November 19, 2008

First Art Adventure: 'The Giraffe and His Tree'

I accompanied M to his first art adventure organised by his art school last weekend and we went to the zoo. 

It was a large turnout with over 45 kids between 5 and 8 and M is one of the youngest. Most kids were with parents and families but a handful went without, like 2 gals from his class who are only 5yo. 

I am surprised the parents would have so much faith in a few coordinators who were quite disorganised themselves, to trust that their girls will be safely looked after. Not that they will jump into a tiger's enclosure, but still there is always the risk of the kids getting lost. Past 11am, there were huge crowds from all directions and it was hard even for adults to follow the group as we meandered our way around the zoo, so not to mention little girls who were walking at a snail's pace. Anyway, I got anxious and kept looking out for them and hovering around them in case they got lost. Maybe these parents were just counting on parents like me. I'm totally unlike them. I just can't do it. I held my boy's hand all the time and never once let him out of my sight. 

The group didn't see much of the exhibits or animals at all. Walked past some and went to check out the long-necked, long lashes beauties where the kids did a little sketching.


Here was my boy sitting on the pavement doing his little sketch of a giraffe. 

Then the group proceeded to a venue called 'Garden with a view" for painting. I thought they were going to paint the garden or some landscape. But no. They were asked to paint giraffes from memory. The kids were grouped into 4, each with a teacher who demonstrated on her canvas and the kids were given quite a bit of freedom to decide on the final product in terms of colours, background and size and number of giraffes. As long as the main theme of the painting is a giraffe, they were free to decide the rest. I love that! 

So some painted one giraffe, others preferred a family. A few girls chose pink skies, others like light or dark blue, with or without clouds. Some wanted skinny necks, others like theirs fat and shortnecked, and hiding behind the bushes. Even the spots on most giraffes were of different colours. Basically, it was a real zoo! 

But most canvases were eventually worked on by parents and kids together as lots of kids struggled to complete in that short 40min. I should mention that only one out of the four groups used pencils to sketch on the canvas, the rest just painted directly with brushes. We did the latter. 

My boy quickly decided he wanted to paint only one gorgeous animal and... a tree! Haha! And went straight to work single-mindedly with his brushes. I let him make all decisions regarding his art so it was his work almost entirely except for a small part whereby I held his hand to paint the tricky area between the bushes and the sky.



So here is his masterpiece which I named 'The Giraffe and his Tree'. :) 



He decided his giraffe had finished eating the leaves and was moving away from the tree. He painstakingly painted the leaves and branches of the trees, all the time assuring me that it will look like a really tall tree! So maybe that was why the tree has no crown and only the trunk and some branches and leaves are seen on the canvas. He deliberately included a branch and leaf that was dropping (see the branch on the leftmost). 

After the painting, the kids were ushered to watch the Elephant Show before proceeding to lunch outside KFC.

It was really satisfying to watch him paint earnestly and I admit enrolling him to art school is one of the best decisions I made this year. Thank you Kole for your urging and encouragement over MSN that one night (if you are reading this). 

After a tiring adventure, the boy settled down to enjoy his Chickee Meal arranged by the art school. I just couldn't stop admiring him as he savoured each piece of his popcorn chicken. He was rather oblivious of the smile hanging on my face though he quizzed me over my silly expression and why I kept cuddling him when he was trying to eat. He probably felt compelled to offer me some of his meal which he did and I greedily tried.



Tuesday, November 18, 2008

On amusement and disappointment

When I walked Marcus to school this morning, he whispered something as we crossed the road. I asked him to repeat since I couldn't hear him with the noisy traffic. He did. And I was a little embarrassed, very amused and rather surprised when I heard it speak loudly.

"Mama, I said that woman is a big idiot because she crossed the road when the red man is still there".

He was referring to the traffic light. I realised later that he learnt it from papa. I checked his understanding of the word "idiot" and his reply was "She shouldn't cross the road. She should wait till the green man is out." Hmm.. He is right, but I just didn't feel comfortable that my 4yo is labeling people as "idiot", "fat", "ugly", "stupid" etc etc..

I remember two occasions when I referred to a neighbour as "big sized" and another stranger as a "big woman". To both instances, he promptly corrected me "Mama, you mean that fat man?" and "Oh that fat woman! She has such a big tummy!". Another time, he asked a colleague of E straight in his face "Uncle, why are you so fat?". His question was ignored.

Of course, these are innocent remarks from a young child who could mean no malice. E often retorts whenever I grumble to him about his choice of words in front of the kids, especially Marcus, that we should not hide the truth and facts that someone is fat or stupid. I agree to a certain extent but I still think it is rather disturbing to teach a child such labeling words. I need to think about this more...

On a lighter note... Chipsy told a boy who refused to leave a Thomas train ride "Come on! Come on! Move! My turn now." All the adults around were stunned for a moment before breaking into loud laughter. I was amused.

Now onto a different matter altogether which I have been pondering over for a while. I have never been secretive of my preference for a handful of quality friendships over a huge collection of insignificant acquaintances. Which explains why I prefer to stick only a few names on my Facebook and I rarely spend time entertaining acquaintances. Recently though, I felt let down by some people close to me and I realise the disappointment was the part that hurts the most.

Like this friend whom I became close to and depended heavily on during the period of my worst personal crisis. She was the first person whom I cried to and my pillar of strength for that brief but critical period. I just can't understand why she never contacted me once, after learning that I was going through a tough time. After these months of waiting, I decided to write this friendship off. She obviously didn't care enough to find out if I am well, so I shan't bother anymore.

Another supposedly rather new but close friend whom I intuitively warmed up and opened up to, has also recently disappointed and baffled me in many ways. I expect good friends to genuinely rejoice for me if I am singing about my happiness; when I talk about things that make me happy; be positive and supportive. So when I hear distasteful comments like "why are you so happy? Your problems are so big, shouldn't you be upset for a long time? Why are you talking happily about your kids, your cooking, making bentos?" etc etc.. I can't help but question the true motive of this person. When I was genuinely excited over bento-making, homeschooling my kids and happy about being able to handle my household and kids without a maid and my exercise plans to keep fit and healthy, the last I expect from a close friend are remarks like "So boring to be a supermum and super-wife with a perfect figure, always looking perfectly dressed and who can handle everything without help...I don't see the value of making kids' meals pretty...why waste time to do crafts or send them to enrichment classes? where are the imperfections? ... Oh, thank you for making me feel like a lousy mother who can't make bentos and didn't send my kids to any classes when they were small...and...I am just waiting for the day to come when you can't do everything yourself and announce you need a maid or at least a PT help". 

My jaw dropped. Honestly.

After nights of pondering, I concluded it all stems from jealousy and insecurity. I must have made her feel bad about herself. Perhaps it makes her look/feel less capable in comparison. It was never my intention when I shared happily about what I am doing with my life, my boys and what makes me happy. Like why I bother to bento and not just pack a jam sandwich for my son. Because it makes me happy! Like why I choose to handle all without a maid. Because it makes me happy! Damned. So if she doesn't like it that I am happy, it is time I stop wasting my time with her.

A close friend once said, a decade ago, that I am clairvoyant and intuitive. My experience over the years confirmed that judgement is accurate and I believe I am. It is a real shame that I have to be disappointed by these friends. But then again, c'est la vie....

Monday, November 17, 2008

Simple Collage: Squares of 2 colours


He knows lots of the colours by now (black, white, green, blue, purple, yellow, orange, pink, red), and all the basic shapes.

He loves collage of all sorts. Generally, anything involving glueing is welcomed.

So this is one of those simple activities to entertain him with whenever I need a little me-time. I am not fond of using the TV as the substitute nanny and would much prefer to engage him with activities or toys, as much as I can.

I keep a steady supply in my "bag of tricks", which incidentally is synonymous to my "folder of ideas" that sits on my dining table which I use as my "workstation".

Once he got started on the collage, I knew I have a good 15 min to leisurely enjoy my midday cuppa and a slice of cake.

Craft: Decorative Crockery

This is an excellent activity for toddlers.

No instructions required! Just some paper crockery and paint and plenty of space and freedom for them to unleash their creativity!




Chipsy simply loves the fact that his hands are covered with paint as he massaged the cups over and over. He watched with amazement as he mixed the paints over the plates and see how the colours merged into other shades and hues.




A while later when they were dried and I brought them out of the 'hiding place', he was so excited and kept pointing at them while informing me "Baby painted cups! My cups! Two cups!"

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