Since Mommy started back at work, there was little time for much activities to check how the kids are progressing in terms of their milestones development. Little things just surprise Mommy.
Art and Craft is the best means to develop their creativity, understanding of colours and of course, their fine motor skills. Kids love them and it's really learning through play.
Painting
Mommy dug up the rollers that were given to the kids months back by Aunt Dexun and let them played around with them. Keziah could recall what the primary colours were and we played the magic of colour mixing. They sure got their hands real dirty messing around with the rollers. Mommy just realised it wasn't really easy to create pattern prints with them as it need them to control the strength that they exerted. Abel was having fun playing around with the paintbrush.
Doddling and Mazes
Doddling helps to develop pre-writing skills while puzzles/mazes helps in the spatial and logic development.
Abel loves to doodle, especially when Mommy allowed him to get his hands on markers. Abel seemed to be able to control his pen quite well, drawing circles and even relatively straight lines across the page. Just look at him being so serious with his work. Puzzles are still his love. We managed to dig up some old 15-pc disney puzzles handed down by Daddy's cousins and both the kids simply enjoyed putting them together. Sometimes Mommy wished Keziah could give Abel time to explore on his own for she was always ever so eager to tell her brother where the pieces should go.
Keziah surprised Mommy by writing her own name! This was the first time she had done that. Surprised as Mommy had not been very diligent in training her to write her letters of the alphabet. Thanks to Ah Ma for doing that at times with Keziah after her schoolday. We have just embarked on our writing regime and to make things more interesting, Mommy got her this writing book which had a maze for each letter.
Mommy decided to start Abel off with the use of the scissors so she bought him one of those kids safe scissors made of plastic. However, Mommy realised only after that it was quite difficult to use to cut. Abel wasn't quite successful with snipping off bits of paper so we'll try again when there's time. Only upon working on this art piece did Mommy realise that it actually involved honing his pincer grip since he had to pick up the bits from the floor. He also took great heart to place them nicely within the given lines. Somehow he liked his leaves yellow.
Keziah, on the other hand, found it a breeze to snip but now it's more about getting her to cut on the lines and manoveur corners and curves. So we did a collage of a flower using yellow and green paper as well as the paper plates we had used on the previous day for paint play.
More Fine Motor Skills activities
Abel had always been able to transfer objects and pour from one container to another with a wide opening. Mommy decided to up the challenge by asking him to scoop marbles from a container with when opening to one with a narrow opening. He did it! Think the next thing we'll do is to get him transfer small beans or rice in the same manner.
Keziah did the same activity but using chopsticks. She must have been observing us how we use our chopsticks daily that she managed to clear the challenge after a few tries. Can see her frustration at some point but it was job well done. Now it's just about not falling on the easy way of crossing the chopsticks, i.e. hold it the proper way. Sometimes she does it right, sometimes she doesn't.
Eating Orange the Adult's Way
Keziah has been doing this for awhile and Abel has just joined the gang! Must say he's relatively neat even when eating the juicy orange this way, taking small bites and cleaning the pulp, leaving just the skin.
Nature and Nurture should compliment one another. What's more, when you engage activities together with your children, you bond with them - a lifetime without regrets!
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