More letter d and water cycle

Today we listened to the song "Raindrops keep falling on my head". Wasn't quite an appropriate song for little ones coz there were just too much words. Nonetheless we enjoyed the song. We tried to create drops using a syringe. It was definitely fun for the kids however we couldn't quite see the ripple effect. Next time would have to try out using milk in the bowl and probably some coloured water in a bigger syringe and see if we could observe the ripple effect with the bigger droplets.

We dripped a few droplets on a paper and asked the kids to predict what will happen. Following, we tried to mimic the life of a water droplet as it evaporates, condenses and falls back to ground in a water cycle. The kids had so much fun with the drama and giggled so much.

Next is craft time to create our own water cycle. Mommy cut out a cloud and Abel did some hole punching followed by threading. 

 Keziah was busy filling up her raindrops with words beginning with letter 'd' and cutting them out. Ok, she needs to improve on her handwriting but getting better with sounding words out. We learnt some new blends: -ing, -ong, -oo, dr-.

Keziah and Abel also created a sun out of crepe paper which were pinched into small balls to exercise their finger skills. Last but not least, was to piece them all up. Keziah decided to add in some sand and waves drawing with a little help from Mommy in blending. Finally, Mommy filled in the terms.

Alice in Wonderland @ Forum

We never fail to go for shows at Forum in the holidays coz they are always very satisfying. Mini musicals of a good 30 mins, short enough to catch the kids attention with the essence of what a musical or play is.

This time round it's Alice in Wonderland. We went along with K's classmate for the show this time round and the girls had great fun, not missing Abel out!

All the characters were in full suit and came out entertaining the kids with a tea party filled with Christmas songs. The characters were to solve a riddle before Santa would appear! What to get in place?

Alice and Rabbit...

Then came Mad Hatter

Rabbit and the Red Queen of Hearts

The kids were all so engrossed! 

They've got everything in place -  the characters and the tea party all set and waited. But no Santa! 

What's missing? Just the need to hang up your stockings and go to sleep. And there he is!

Letter D and homecraft

Mommy started a series of phonetic sounds activities with the kids, targeted especially at Abel to revise his letter sounds as well as to get Keziah to blend/spell simple words beginning with them. Now, we are at letter D. We did a treasure hunt round the house for things starting with 'd' sound. Then a look at the word chart to see how many we have found. 

Using these objects, Mommy tried to play some linking memory games with the kids. Keziah caught on quite quickly but Abel can only do a few when he's interested.

 This time we talked about different breeds of dogs. Which are those that we have seen and which was their favourite.

 Sang some simple songs

We had been doing memory verse for some time with the kids and now taking the opportunity to fit our letter hunt as well as word recognition, we did a jigsaw to assemble the verse. Mommy introduced the "ing" sound to Keziah.

Nothing beats reading! Mommy also borrowed several books from the library:
1) Usborne beginners - Dogs (non-fiction book which the kids found it rather dry)
2) It's a quacking time: Tells of how a family of ducks waited for a duck egg to hatch. We learned about their lifecycle from egg to duckling to adult duck.
3) A dog called Rod: A girl who desires to have a pet dog imagines how her dog which she named Rod would be like, unlike all other dogs.
4) Baby Dragon by Amy Ehrlich: Keziah loved this book. It tells of how a baby dragon waited for her mother who left in the afternoon to visited his grandma to return the next morning. How children should never wander when asked to wait eventhough it may seemed ever so long.

A dog puppet: Simple to do. Mommy cut out all the parts and got the kids to assemble and glue them on a paper bag with some guidance and a picture of the completed work. Not too bad but certainly needs perception of space which Abel was better at. (Top: Abel's and Bottom: Keziah's). We wrote the word "dog" at the back and used it for some simple puppet play and singing the "Doggy with a Bone" song.

Keziah pulled this craft which we bought last year. It was a 3D puzzle of the Red Riding Hood scene. All they had to do was to punch out the styroform pieces and fit them by matching the number on the corresponding pieces. We tried to tell the story with it to see how much the kids remembered of it from when we last read it.

Abel's last day at School

Next year, Abel will join Keziah at Kindi. We bought a cake for farewell with his classmates at school. Abel chose the design and the filling (Mango) all himself. A definitely decision boy.

 How the little ones enjoyed the cake!

Abel and his teachers…they did a great job teaching him. Thank you!

The goodbye hugs and last gathering….

Lasagne

Time to mess at home. Mommy was given some lasagne sheet some months back and today she tried to prepare the ingredients for the kids to get their hands on cooking. It was simple. Just make some mince beef sauce by frying 250g mince beef with onions, mixed vegetables and diced tomatoes (1 400g can) and cheese sauce by cooking a tablespoon of plain flour over melted butter followed by whisking in a cup of fresh milk till a thick sauce is obtained before adding in 70g cheddar cheese.

Then the kids got busy layering the lasagne, one to do the mince beef sauce, the other the cheese sauce. So the alternate between lasagne sheet, mince beef and cheese sauce.

Finally top with mozoralle cheese and pop into the oven. 30 - 35 minutes at 180 deg C and it's done! Well the cheese was a little too brown but otherwise fine :)

Bark Cafe

Interesting little hideout that Ta Ta took us to for some western food. Nice setting just next to the chapel of Changi Prison. However, definitely not a child friendly place as they don't have high chairs. Frankly, food was only average and we much pefer the food at Seletar Airbase.

Art and Barney show

Today Keziah had to draw an insect kingdom and it sure looked like she did it all on her own.

Coincidentally, there's Barney show at United Square. We popped in to join the crowd. Can you imagine, the queue started an hour before the show! What a craze! We weren't that early but we thanked God that we managed to squeezed in. It's amazing how these 2 kids can really sit and wait with the rhetoric question of when it was going to start, even for our little Abel.

Julia Gabriel's Mandarin Early readers

As Mommy still has a week more of school though Keziah's has broken for break, we went for this Chinese programme to keep her occupied. Yes, Julia Gabriel's is well known for their English Speech and Drama and Keziah has always enjoyed the previous holiday classes. Nonetheless, we decided to just immerse her in Chinese now that she's in a constant English environment in school. She definitely enjoyed the programme and learned some simple word recognition through songs and games.

JG Chinese Mandarin Reader - Word recognition 1 from Joan on Vimeo.

JG Early Mandarin Reader - Word Recognition 2 from Joan on Vimeo.

Climbing Trees

Sounds like one of those things we do in Kampong Days. Yes, Keziah decided to try it out while at Botanic Gardens with church mates today. Seeing the older ones do it, she also wanted to try. With much effort, she did reach the top but fear gripped her, knowing that she's quite far from the ground. She just couldn't let go to reach out to those trying to help her to get down. Good try though for the courage!

Biking out @ ECP

Our first attempt at taking the kids out on pillion. Well, it's definitely a new and refreshing experience. The kids simply enjoyed the ride though Keziah was a little afraid as Mommy isn't a steady driver after all.

Nothing more refreshing than a cold coconut drink after being under the hot sun for awhile.

Keziah was going to have an end-of-term party on Friday. It's going to be a jungle theme and our dear girl wants to be a giraffe. So after her nap, Daddy and her worked on this little creation.

Mommy was busy cooking up in the kitchen. It's Mexican for the night. Instant mix but nonetheless healthy wraps.

Elephant ride

After PTM, we took a trip off to the zoo. Yes again! However, we caught sight things new again. White-faced monkeys snatching carrots from the macaw, new born baby hippo just a few days old...

The kids had their first elephant ride which they were all so excited about. Can't imagine having to queue for this ride.

Wet and wild makes little ones as happy as ever!

End of N2

So quickly a year has passed. Today is PTM again. We see some of her works on display and met her best friend in school.

Guess what, our gal is on the coverpage of the magazine!

 

All the sweeties in the class….

Slumber Party

Daddy chanced upon Mc's Pyjamas Party and we trodded down with the little ones for some fun. It's our first time and we really didn't know what to expect. We met Daddy's friend and their daughter, Eunice and the kids had so much fun that we felt our kids were a little wild.

After Happy Meal time, it was time for some quizzes. The kids were so excited and Daddy got involved with being the answer provided. Proven for once, Daddy was a McDonald kid, knowing the characters, where the drive-thru were, opening of this new branch so well in his hands.

Next was some craft time….

Then a story time which all kids were waiting for. We had the story about "The Angry Old Woman". Definitely all captivated by the story, even our dear little Abel, the youngest, was all ears.

What was Mommy doing? Taking pictures and chilling out with a sip of Mocha!

There was a lucky draw at the end. We didn't get the lucky pick but still we went home all happy with a goodie bag.

Manatee Feeding

Today Keziah tagged along Mommy who was bringing her students out to the Zoo for learning journey. We've been to the zoo umpteen times but we just didn't take notice of manatee feeding. It wasn't too crowded and so we took the opportunity. We discovered that they were vegetarians and like their common name says "sea cows", they literally feed on sea grass. However for feeding today, we fed them with boiled potatoes and carrots. Their skin was so rough and thick and their snout was so hairy.