Close Shave Gifts from Bangkok

Amidst international media attention on Thailand's political unrest caused by protesters to pressure the resignation of Samak Sundaravej, Grandma went ahead with her Bangkok trip. She got back yesterday midnight with repeated assurance that life in Bangkok is functioning as per normal. Riots in Bangkok are apparently kept in control and only in designated fenced-up ground; not as tense as what the media has portrayed. See how our perceptions and thoughts are shaped by powerful mass media? Anyway, she brought back some clothes for Rynae and some chewies for Mummy! I like the Billabong top and skirt but it is a little oversized. Maybe next Summer Rynae will be able to fit in.

Raising Transport Height Limit

I read with interest, a Monday article in The Straits Times about an article titled 'Fare or not? Height of contention'. In gist, it's contention from some parents about the free travel height limit of 0.9m that transport operators have set. Currently, toddlers or children above 0.9m but who are still below the age of seven have to pay child concessionary rate, which ranges from 40 to 50 cts. Some parents are trying to agitate for the height limit of 0.9m to be raised, citing reasons that the height limit is unrealistic because children are growing taller these days.

I started charting Rynae's height only recently but I remembered that when she was 30 months, she was already past 90cm! She is now pushing 99cm but I have not paid a single cent for her transportation. I too, felt that the height limit should be raised just like Beijing, which raised its height limit for free travel from 1.1m to 1.2m.

Our gah men is encouraging people to take public transport and urging families to have more babies right? Besides giving a bigger baby bonus, 1 more month of paid maternity leave and more childcare leave, it would be absolutely fabulous if children free transport be looked into too.

To what I understand, some children are already 90cm by their 2nd birthday. Why should transport operators be profiteering from defenseless toddlers? I am looking forward to the day where more hypes will be stirred on this issue and make rules change, just like the successful petition to bring forward the effective date of the baby benefit schemes.

Preparation for Lantern Festival

Homemade is always best in my book as it is always more gratifying and without a doubt, more memorable. We've resorted to commercially-made lanterns in the past 3 years and this year, Mum has decided to make one out of recycled materials. I'm trying to reduce my carbon footprint remember? So I've to talk the talk and walk the walk!

Materials for my lantern are simple:

• 1 plastic folder (preferably with prints)
• Scissors
• Super Glue
• String
• 1 empty drink carton
• 2 ice cream sticks
• 1 circular plate
• Marker/pen

Here are the steps IF you're interested to make one for yourself or your kid too!

• Place the plate over the plastic folder and trace circular shapes on both sides and cut out both circles.
• Hold the 2 circles together and punch holes on the top of them.
• Cut out the bottom of the empty drink carton and glue it the lower end of a circle. The other circle follows thereafter.
• Measure the ice cream sticks against the width of the cut-out empty carton, make a marking and bend along the markings on 2 ends. It will look like a bench if properly bended.
• Glue the ice cream sticks onto the 2 circles. This is to make the lantern more steady.
• Thread the string through the punched holes and tie a dead knot.

Tadah! All done. Simple isn't it? That's not all. I also made some paper lanterns, a craft that I remembered from my primary school days, to be used as decorations in the house! Now.. gota also educate Rynae on the meaning behind all these..

Green Day

It doesn't need to be Earth Day to do gardening. On a fine afternoon, I decided to kick start an agricultural course for Rynae to let her understand how to do planting and how plants grow. Mum's not a person with green fingers but growing onions and chillis shouldn't be too difficult I guess? Rynae wanted to drop the whole chilli fruits as seeds after seeing me bury the 2 onions. Of course she soon learned that we have to cut the chillis and sow their seeds into the soil instead. I had choosen small chilli padi because of its cute miniature size but both of us suffered from finger chilli burns thereafter. Ouch!

I was stunned when Rynae poured an enormous amount of water into the soil when she tried to water the plants. I explained to her that too much water will drown them and she replied, 'because I want my plants to grow bigger'. Oh.. children...

If these 2 plants are a success, I might consider growing more! Like tomatoes and lady's fingers. Wish us luck and I'll keep you posted on their growth!

Night Safari

Finally the day had arrived - 31 August. Mummy had waited the whole of August for the Hungry Ghost Festival to end so that we could visit the Night Safari at a 50% discount off entrance fee! Not that I'm superstitious but I'm just trying to avoid the avoidable. Night Safari is known for its extortion ticket price so having a 50% discount means a savings of $27.50 for 2 adults and 1 child. Quite significant isn't it?

We had our dinner at Bongo Burgers and spent a little while watching the Tribal Dance Performance at the entrance but alas that was a mistake! We should have gone in at the strike of 7pm and headed for the Creatures of the Night Show. Visitorship was so overwhelmed that 7.30pm show was full. We had to go for a 45min tram ride instead. There weren't a lot of variety of animals and we couldn't even locate some of them in the darkness! By the time we finished our ride, it was around 8.10pm and we were so filled with anguish that the 8.30pm show was full house too! To kill time, we went to trek the fishing cat trail, 1 of the 3 trails that visitors can explore on foot. Nothing much to see too. Most of the animals were getting ready for bed and the crocodiles have turned in already! Well, sweet dream ya?

Thereafter, we went to queue for the 9.30pm show at 8.30pm. The show had better be worth the wait. We complained then. It turned out to be very similar to the other shows at Jurong Bird Park and Zoo. They're afterall under the same management. Humour and suspense were the main perks of the show; not so much the tricks performed by animals. We headed home after the show because there really weren't much attractions left.

This is an outing that I took the least photos because no flash photography is allowed on all the animals, including during the show! Hence, I only posted a picture of Rynae against a Night Safari logo as backdrop (Ignore the 3 calefares in the background. It wasn't easy to get a clear coast).

After all is said, Daddy and Mummy prefered the day zoo where we could go on foot around the whole park, have clearer visibility and let Rynae play at the children's world playland. I guess unless we get pro bono entry, we wouldn't be stepping into Night Safari for quite a while...

RSAF Open House

On Friday night, Dad casually suggested going to watch aeroplane on Saturday and I thought he meant going to Changi Airport. This morning, he clarified and I realised that it was actually RSAF's Open House that he had proposed. What a miscomm. I commended him outright and applaud his idea without hesitation. This would be such a good opportunity for Rynae to get up close with majestic fighter planes and helicopters! Brilliant. We took free shuttle bus provided by RSAF at Hougang bus interchange. There were clear directional signs to lead us to berth 6 and waiting time was almost zero! There were also many friendly RSAF cadets to usher us. We felt so appreciated.

When we reached RSAF Museum, we had to queue up to have our bags checked for security reasons. We didn't and shouldn't complain as this is understandable. Luckily, the queue moved fast and we got through smoothly. I started clicking away with my camera. The sky was already looming with dark clouds when we got in. It was worrying but we prefered the cool weather to scorching afternoon sun. We managed to explore the outdoor planes on exhibition and admiration before it started to rain.

We took shelter in a hugh, enclosed marquee eatery and came out smelling like dead rats! RSAF seriously needs to improve on its ventilation. Food was edible but rather expensive. After the passing shower, we went to Kids Zone. There were 3 gigantic floats and the happiest person is non other than Rynae. She climbed, somersaulted and rolled in all 3. Expectedly, when it was time to go, she was so stinky and sticky that any flying insect that came into contact with her will get stuck onto her skin.

We didn't stay throughout the postponed Aeriel Display but we did catch some parachuters and watch some perfomances by deafening jets on our way out. RSAF's hospitality had given us a pleasant Saturday. Well done and keep it up! I leave you with some event shots we took today....

More Animal Crafts

Adding to the brood, Rynae brought home another snake and elephant today. With all her toys and crafts, my house is looking more and more like a child care centre. Tommorrow marks the start of a 1-week holiday and that means unrest at home too. Luckily it's just 1 week. I think I can bite it through. Hopefully.

Happy Teachers' Day

It never crossed my mind that I have to repeat what I did 20 years ago - giving presents to teachers on Teachers' Day. True enough, what goes around comes around. Rynae was nonchalant when I told her that Teachers' Day was round the corner. At this age, toddlers simply don't understand the meaning of each festival hence I'll have to inculcate the values behind each. Mum never take it easy when it comes to gifts because it shows a presenter's personality, how much he/she knows the recipient and the importance of the recipient. Mum wants to give something useful and practical. After days of brainstorming, I decided on hair accessories as both teachers have long hair!

To show her bit of sincerity, I asked her to doodle on 2 pcs of paper, which I made into wrapping papers. I also printed 2 greeting cards for her to colour but she brushed it off with messy strokes. Her teacher should believe without a doubt that this is solely her effort.

Jungle Animal Crafts

Our friend came home today with a lot of animals! She brought home a tiger, giraffe, elephant and many more jungle animals! So teacher has been reading Walking Through the Jungle with the children and these are crafts to elaborate about the story! Isn't it fun to attend pre nursery?

Soupilicious!

I don't usually buy recipe book but I took a fancy to The World of Nourishing & Fine Soups by Kenny Chen because it is bilingual (most important purchasing factor actually), has simple layout and uses common ingredients. Rynae loves drinking soups thus mum decided to dish out lotus root soup with peanut and mushroom stem to whet her appetite as well as to boost our health.

Ingredients are:
lotus root 40g
red dates (seeded) 3
candy dates 2
peanuts 15g
chinese mushroom stems 15g
stock 100ml

I try to follow as close as possible to the recipe but I have no idea how much of each ingredient I added as I had no weighing scale! So.. everything was agar-ration. I also didn't know what the hell is chinese mushroom stem! Guess what? I added dried mushrooms! Stock too, was modified to plain water.

This remedy is supposed to tonify the heart, regulates blood circulation and improve appetite. My modified soup tastes saltish sweet and the smell of mushroom stands out quite a bit. Still drinkable lah...

Gone Fishing

Some salesman's been to Rynae's school recently to promote Sounds Write! "The Phonics Series" (USP $79.90) at $35.50 but Mum didn't buy it 'cos I felt it's too advance for beginners. Hence, Mum has to do the teaching herself. Rynae has learnt letter blending with 'at' like cat, mat, sat so it is time to move on with 'ap' and 'an' and then digraphs like 'sh' and 'th'.

She's getting bored with picture and word matching (oh kids!) so I've gota plan another teaching method. What a headache. I tweak our usual game by attaching paper clips to each word card (no pictures this time) and got Rynae to fish out the correct word. I've gota provide excitement enough to learn but not over excited until she is over-awed, in order to keep the learning process going.

Rynae's excited about anything new so she's taking the fishing game quite well. Hopefully this method will tide me by for a while...

Pasta Necklace

Rynae started her first pasta necklace business recently and business is expected to be picking up. Never mind that mum only has 4 poster colours. This little entrepreneur is able to expand the range of colours by simply messing and mixing up the paints! She now knows that when you mix blue and yellow you get green. Workmanship of the necklace is excellent, with thick and uneven coats of paints! But that's what we call art. The shortfall is you've got to be careful to keep it dry while you're wearing it 'cos it'll leave paint stains on your shirt if it's wet! Then again, this will teach one to wipe their hands properly after washing their hands! Haha. Now.. if you wish to own one limited edition Rynae's pasta necklace, place your orders now... C'mon! Show some support....

1st Italian Homecook Pasta

It's always a headache when it comes to lunch. So what shall I cook for the little gourmet today? On days when I am lazy, I'll just cook all-in-1 porridge. Other days, it'll be soup-based vermicelli or noodle. I decided to be a risk taker today - prepare Rynae's 1st homecook Italian pasta! Which 'D' does it look like? Disgusting or delicious? Haha.. Consume with gusto!

First Customer of the Day

It's time for a visit to the hairdresser again! Bye my locks...

Perfecting Parenthood Seminar

The moment I knew of Perfecting Parenthood : Tips Tricks and Truths to Raising a Well-Developed Child seminar organised by CNA, I went online to check out the speakers, speech topics, and the ticket price. There has been a lot of such parenting talks but I had attended none as I believe most of these seminars with shallow insights are organised as a sales opportunities for merchants to hard sell their products and courses to unfailing parents. I was surprised when I saw the ticket price: $11 for early birds! That's relatively cheap! Attractive pricing aside, the topics covered were interesting and having CNA as an Organiser gives some credibility. I wasted no time in grabbing hold of an early bird ticket. Luckily I did that because the seats were all sold out in the end!

Steven Chia, the suave prime time morning presenter was the host and he was a humourous dude who cracks intelligent jokes! I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon with them and I brought home not only a bagful of goodies but a more inspirational and positive mindset towards parenting. This is what I gathered from the seminar:

Every child has core needs and it cuts across culture. Attend to a child's core needs because when core needs such as basic safety, protection and love are not met, it results in lifetraps like emotional deprevation, entitlement and unrelenting standards. Constantly give affirmation to your child and recognise and praise the efforts as much as results. Parents have to be assertive too. Say what you mean and mean what you say. There is no such thing as perfect parents. The most we can achive is "good enough" parents. "Good enough" parents are about striking a balance.

There are 3 simple "secrets" to having an intelligent child.

First, parents need to have a correct mindset. We need to know how to excite, enroll and enjoy with them. Children look up to us and if we enjoy the symphony of life, the little ones too will..

Second, parents need to develop a thinking child. Teach them to ask questions, give them freedom to explore and help them ask the right questions. A child that is able to make the right decision is more important than having a high IQ.

Lastly, parents need to light up because when you light up, your child will shine.

Doesn't the concept of intelligence clash with what we as parents thought it is? Is it all about schools, jobs, universities and careers? Guess we all need to define what we call intelligence....

Phonics!

Now that Rynae has perfected her phonics stage 1 - learning the 26 letter sounds, I thought I should subsequently introduce digraphs and word blending to her. Well, I've tried simple methods like using alphabet-shaped toys but she is uninterested with this one-way teaching. Usually a chatterbox, she'll turn reticent and unresponsive. To tackle this, I DIY-ed several sets of pictures and words cards to play with her. There was a 360 degree change in her behaviour! Expectedly, everytime we play this 'matching game', she'll always request to hold the pictures while I, forever having to hold the words, will have to match hers. Of course I'll try to act dumb and illiterate so that she could correct me lah...

Hopefully by giving her a headstart on phonics, she can cultivate an interest to read at a young age. To become a competent reader, a child must be able to recognise letters as well as the overall shapes of words too. Rynae might know how to read a few words now but most probably might not be able to spell without aid but that is fine because the easiest way to know how to spell a word is to listen for the sounds in that word!

Thta's all fokls! Sitll cna raed waht I tpye evne thuohg I spel wornlgy? OMG! Soemone tel me waht phoincs is for! kekeke...

Kitchen Lab

Crazy mummy wanted to teach Rynae some simple Science knowlege about solubility so I set up a 'lab' for her in the kitchen. We tried solutes such as salt, sugar, pepper, corn flour, soya sauce, coffee powder, milo, ice, chocolate and even ikan billis! Some of the solutions turn out pretty yucky and I purposely ask Rynae if she wanted to drink it!

HFMD Preventive Soup Recipe

Grandma passed me a newspaper cut out about a preventive recipe for HFMD. This article couldn't have come at a better timing, now that Rynae is schooling and needs to be ward off this epidemic! In this article, it mentioned that according to TMC, HFMD is caused by a deficiency of qi (most simply translated as energy) coupled with heatiness driven off by humid weather especially in a tropical country like Singapore. This saying, is contrary to western medicine that believes that HFMD infects children with weak immunity. Continuing from there, it also said that if a child were to be down with HFMD, having regular bowel movement and ample sleep speeds up recovery. Enough said, here's the recipe (no dosage mentioned):

• Barley (I used china barley as it's 'cooler')
• Winter melon strips
• Bei Qi (helps retard aging and enhance immune system)
• Codnopsis Pilosulae Radix (simply known as Dang Shen)
• Wolfberry (simply known as Gou Qi Zi)

This 'soup' taste exactly like barley water with a slight wolfberry sweetness. Not as pungent as I expected it to be. It's a drink for everyone in the family! Last but not least, it sounds cliche but I'm still gonna say it.... Prevention is better than cure!

MAZE..zz.zz..z

Rynae has a fetish for mazes after attempting some easy ones I printed from websites. As I mentioned before, mazes are good in training children forward-thinking, hand and eye coordination and memory (I made her use her fingers first then memorise the route, thereafter use a pen) hence I've no qualms about her playing with it. Most of the maze activity books in book stores aren't suitable for 3 yr olds but I managed to grab 2 from Twinkle Thinkers at $5.90 each. No doubt price is a little steep but Kumon is selling mazes with similar difficulty at $8+! Downright daylight robbery!

Sunday Children Church Programme

There is a new church, just diagonally opposite our house and today, the second week into its opening, Mum brought Rynae to its Sunday children's programme for some fun. There was inevitably some preaching worked into the activities but Rynae got to play with musical instruments and toys, colour, sing and dance too! Mummy stayed throughout as onlooker to monitor how Rynae and other children behave socially. Each child has a character and temper of its own. Some took it quite well to the temporary separation with their parents while others wail their heads off. Some were meticulous when they were asked to colour while others simply want to get it over and done with. Rynae was the latter - impatient and doesn't pay much to details. It was a pleasant start to a Sunday morning. My imp had whale of a time there!

Let's Party~! 08-08-08!

I jumped out of bed before the alarm clock rang this morning. Rynae, on the contrary, had to be lugged out of bed. Aren't she the one who was supposed to be excited? The school is having a National Day party today! As requested by the school, I dressed her up in red top and white bottom. She brought along a pack of crackers to school too, because the teachers want to educate their children the virtue of sharing and to strengthen their bonds as Singaporeans. Indeed. Instilling a sense of belonging and patriotism should start when our offsprings are still young (and gullible). Our miss Singaporean came back with a zipped folder as national day gift and stuffed inside, loads of goodies!

Optical Illusion

An optical illusion is a visually perceived image that does not correspond to physical reality. After an image hit the retina, the brain will have to work hard to process the stimulus source, so as to make sense of the world. It is proven that left-brain vs right-brain and children vs adult, see optical illusion differently. Which means, what I see or could see might not be what Rynae could. Mummy has never shown any optical illusion images to Rynae so to kick-start the programme, as well as to test water, I DIY-ed a handy booklet with 18 optical illusions.

These illusions can be used as stimuli for her to create her own illusions! Definitely a good brain exercise. To testify what she actually saw, I had to continuously query, challenge and prompt her like a broken-record. Some curvy lines I perceived were reported to appear straight for her. I have completely no idea how to certify if she was speaking the truth though. However, I was sure she could see different dimensions of cubes as I made her count them - sometimes it was 6, sometimes it was 7 cubes. Rynae said the picture has magic!

Monkey See Monkey Do

For the past 3 weeks, Rynae was introduced to Zoo animals such as giraffe, elephant, monkey and so on in school. The children also learn about each animal's characteristic and the proper place to keep these animals. As you've guessed, the monkey in this picture is no other than Rynae. Green is her favourite colour so that explains why her monkey mask is green.

Book Review

Wherever Mummy goes, she's always on the look out for good bargains. Out one day, I passed by a second-hand book sale and grabbed 2 books for Rynae, which I would highly recommend to novice readers. Dr Seuss series of books are known to drill children in word rhymes and phonics but not all collections are suitable for Rynae. Old Hat New Hat is targetted at beginners thus repetitive and simple words are used. It uses mostly adjectives and Rynae seems to be able to read the whole book by herself now!

I would say Ready, Get Set Go! complements Old Hat New Hat as it emphasizes on comparison of adjectives. Characters are simple: just dad, sister and brother. It enabled Rynae to relate to the story better. She loves the book so much that she insisted on bringing it to school and teacher read it to the whole class!

Spill the Beans!

In Glamour Mum and the Dude, Pan Ling Ling provided a fever remedy tip - green bean with salt. For the benefit of those who have missed it, the recipe is to add 2 teaspoon of raw green beans and some salt into a cup. Thereafter, pour in boiling water and simmer for about 10 minutes. Consume after that. The weather is eccentric these days and Rynae showed some signs of heatiness so I decided to make this hassle-free drink for her. I tried some too myself and it taste akin to diluted green bean soup, err.. well, the salted type.

Memory Game

Today is the 1st day of the Hungry Ghost Festival but freak not. These aren't offerings. They're fruit artifacts that Mummy bought for Rynae when she was a baby. In an attempt to keep her occupied and at the same time engage in some meaningful games, I decided to play 'recall the items'. It's a simple game. Just collate a few items and choose some to be placed on a tray. Let your child have a look and then cover it up with a piece of cloth. Next, ask her to list out the items one at a time. Rynae is pretty good at it but occassionally, she'll forget 1 or 2 items and she'd try to peek! I'll then wrap the cloth over the fruit so that she can guess what fruit it is from its shape. Good brain game for me cus I got tested too! Very importantly, remember to pile on the praise when your child gets it right...

Collector's Art Piece

I couldn't help guffawing at what Rynae had drawn. Can you see features like the eyes, the spikes on the back, the tail and the legs? Wanna make a guess what it is? *drum roll* It's a dinosaur! Well, it does look a little like polar bear but that's pretty awesome for a 3.5 years old. Good effort there!

Today I turn 3 1/2 years old!

It's another milestone! My little girl turns exactly 3.5 years old today! Once the size of a pinhead in my womb, this tyke has grown into somebody who is able to correct, rebuke and bicker at me! Rynae has grown much over the 3.5 years that portability is an issue now. It seems that clothes that fitted her one day could hardly cover her belly the next. Formerly a tiny thing that can hardly fill her cot, she now has outgrown it and snuggles on a big-sized mattress every night. Looking back, I couldn't help missing the times when she was a baby. Rynae will be turning 4 in half a year's time and in no time to come, I'll be loosing her to another man. Like all parents, all I wish for is for her to grow up healthily, happily, showered with lots of luck and always in favour of people.

A Mother's Prayer
Help me dear Lord, as a mother, I pray
And bless these hands folded in prayer today;
May they be ever strong as they guide, as they teach,
Beings never too far for a child to reach.
May they never, with selfishness, try to dissuade,
Nor too quickly punish, nor too slowly aid.
May they point out the pleasures in laughter and song,
And may they show, wisely, the right from the wrong,
So that one day I'll know that I've helped all I can
To make her a woman, to make him a man.
- Mary A. Loberg

Bird Park Trippin'

A philanthropic neighhour passed Mummy a NDP discount coupon booklet and was I grateful to her for that because I found some practical discounts and offers in it. Amongst them, I was attracted to a 30% discount off admission rate for Jurong Bird Park. Daddy has ever casually mentioned about visiting JBP as he has not been there ever before. This discount spurs us. We decided to jio San Yi too as the discount coupon allows purchase of a max of 5 tickets.

After a heartily scrumptious meal at bongo burgers, we proceeded to the pools amphitheatre, which was just a stone's throw away from the entrance, for the must-watch Birds 'n Buddies Show. The weather took a turn and started to drizzle at noon, but that did not dampen our mood. We carried out with our excursion under protection of caps and umbrellas. Rynae exhibited small pinch of valiance when she courageously fed free-flying hungry lorys in the lory loft and came up close with the emus. We made a last stop at Fuji Hawk Walk to catch the Birds of Prey Show before bidding farewell to the park. All of us, especially Rynae were dog-tired at the end of the trip. Our little tourist had missed her nap and she went into slumberland soon after reaching home. Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!

Funny Jelly

Does it look like some yucky specimen? Any idea what it is? It's Rynae's jelly! Her teacher had a home economics lesson with the students today and they were taught how to make jellies. Our dear friend was so proud of her jelly that she insisted carrying it all the way home herself. The best thing is, she did not walk. She ran. There goes her jelly. By the time we reached home, it has changed into foamy water and mummy has to sorrowfully wash it away. Truely an effort down the drain...

Racial Harmony Day

Today is Racial Harmony Day and Rynae has to dress up in an ethnic costume for school. She was in disbelieve when I tried changing her into a dress, instead of her uniform this morning. She refused to cooperate and I had to coax and hoax her into getting into it by explaining to her the meaning of racial harmony day. Not at all easy trying to simplify it for a 3 year old. Puff.

Polliwalks

OMG! Not again! Another crocs inspired clogs! I scrunch up with disgust when I saw polliwalks on sales in Kiddy Palace. They look as if they can bite! Project Runway's fashion mentor, Tim Gunn had ever commented that crocs is appalling and is a fashion disaster. Now, I wonder what he's gonna say about polliwalks. Given a choice, I'd rather top up the slight monetary difference to get Rynae a pair of perennial crocs than these weird animal-looking footwear.

New Bikini

It has been a while since Rynae went for a dip in a swimming pool. After a passing shower in the early afternoon, we brought our little tyke to Woodlands swimming complex today. Rynae tried on her new bikini and it fitted her perfectly! Auntie Vivian from Hong Kong bought it long ago when my girl was just a month old! Gosh! Aren't she a sexy kitten?

NLB Book Sale

Books galore! NLB is organising its yearly books sale at Expo and I went down today in hope of picking up some good books at unbelievable discounted price of $2 each. I expected a queue outside hall 4A but surprisingly there wasn't. Crowd size was comfortable enough to allow each visitor to dig for desired books in the wagons.

You have to really count on your lucky stars because it is by pure luck that you manage to scoop up a good book as they were only segregated according to languages for adult and young; not categories like travelling, cookery, business etc. Not used to buying second hand books, I was gobsmacked by the state of the books. Most were smeared with scribblings, dog-eared and have torn and even missing pages! Shame on the vandalisers. I managed to grab 10 relatively good books in acceptable conditions for Rynae. Well, after they go under the knife for some nip and tucks, they'll look as good as new! Ok, almost lah!

DIY Tambourine

I was particularly interested in a tambourine craft in Nick Jr's website and decided to give it a try in making one. The materials aren't complicated and I do have them readily. Though Rynae's contribution wasn't much, I do have to give her credit mention, for she did help to put the pasta onto the paper plate, thread the bells and cut (weird) shapes as decoration! Done! She's ready to create a ruckus and bring the house down!

Perceptive Play Review

I had been wanting to take a peek at Perceptive Play! since its launch last year but patiently, I waited for almost a year before bringing a borrowed copy home. Kudos to NLB for requisiting for it.

Perceptive Play!, a light-hearted book that provides 52 activities of fun for children and parents, is penned by Wong Li Lin, an all-rounder but first time author.

Reading the book was a breeze as description of each activity is short and paragraphs are generously laid out. Each activity is accompanied by a photo illustration thus by looking at the image alone, one can already know what ideas she has up her sleeves. Most of the activities needed no elaborated materials and can be done anytime, anywhere. It's not necessary to go the whole nine yards in coming up with one. In fact, the environment is and can be the classroom!

After reading her book, I thought both Li Lin and I share similar views on parenting: to let children learn through play. Her tenet is to let children be children, let them play, have fun and let them have an unhurried childhood instead of hothousing and drilling them for academic exellence. Since children loves playing, having fun will make them more interested hence they will be more driven to learn and become more thirsty learners. Parents should help them by playing perceptively, with discernment and insight.

I read that she'll be coming up with a second book but it all very much depends on the sale of her maiden product! For all I know, NLB alone has bought close to 50 books from her! Of course this is not much of a boost but it is also sold at USD$16.50 over in Amazon and SGD$26.75 in Kinokuniya, which means her books cross national boundaries! I couldn't help being curious how the sales figure went so far. Ya lor.. I'm plain KPO!

Pick Me Up

Rynae has been emulating our chopsticks holding skills whenever we dine out hence in a bid to help her brush up her motor skills, Mummy came up with a gratifying home-made kit. Materials are simple. Remember the soft clays that I bought from Daiso? Knead them into several small marsh mallow like cylinders and dump these cylinders into a clean container. After these cylinders harden, I passed tools like tongs, chopsticks and spoons, one at a time to Rynae and encouraged her to try picking up the cylinders and transfering them out. Adroitly, I worked in mathematical concepts by asking her to group the yellow and white cylinders accordingly, count how many white and yellow cylinders there are respectively and how many in total. It's a recycling project we're talking about here too!

Snip Snip

Rynae was passed a real scissors for the first time to practise her cutting skills. Well, she does have a kiddy scissors but that's so blunt that whenever she used it, she was so frustrated. It simply cannot cut anything decently. Under my close supervision, I handed her a pair of scissors and a few pieces of used trace and colour worksheets that I had printed online, for her to snip away. She did a pretty good job but with lots of jagged lines lah! Since then, she's been pestering me to let her 'play cutting'....

Dora the Explorer Dominoes

Alrite. So mum's at it again. However, this time there's no brain juice required. Just some manual work. I surfed Nick Jr's website and found it rather useful, with not only games but lots of craft ideas. There were even food recipes! I shortlisted Dora the Explorer Dominoes eventually as it looks fun and easy to produce. Furthermore, Daddy has played Dominoes with Rynae before hence she knows the rules of the game. Save my breath of explaining too! Haha. She took on my challenge and beat me twice on it! The best I did was a tie! Gosh! What a loose of face for me...

Observation Skills Drilling

Mummy always has something up her sleeves and this time, I invented some card games to drill Rynae on her observation skills. Not having prior similar exercises with her, I have no idea of her comfort level hence I started her off at elementary level. These games require sharp observation skills and focus on helping children develop the skills they need to recognize and understand patterns and shapes. This is how I conceptualised the game (copyright by me one hor):

• Make 2 sets of cards - one set for 'student' and one set for 'teacher'. Make sure you have indication on the back of the cards which is for who.
• Make each card in each set slightly different from one another by having different colours, words, numbers etc.
• Give 1 set to your child and keep the other.
• Take turns and play 'match the card' with your child. The 'winner' may keep the correctly-matched cards.

I tested the elementary cards on Rynae one fine day and was quite surprised that they were child's play to her! She could match the cards almost instantaneously and I had actually underestimated her! I sat down on my computer, cracked my brains hard and came up with 4 new sets of cards the very next day. I printed, cut and laminated 3 of the sets (the last set is in colour and my printer is almost out of ink).

Generally, she doesn't have much problem with this set too, but she has got to stimulate her brains more now, especially the set with the numbers.

Elementary level cards.

Secondary level cards. I try to keep colours minimal.

Indo Wedding Bells

We went back Indo recently again to attend Rynae's cousin's wedding on a Sunday. Because of this happy occasion, Rynae had to pontang school for 2 days. Oops! It was my first 'experience' attending their kampong wedding ceremony and I was full of awe and anticipation for it. Though we're all ethnically Chinese, some traditions are practiced differently between our 2 nations. For example, brides were fetch in the wee hour of 2am instead of early morning and there were no cake cutting ceremony before yam seng, during the wedding banquet. It was a 2-ish p.m. lunch wedding conducted under a marquee, in a non-airconditioned milieu. Thank god we were seated in front of a fan! Unlike formal and solemn Singapore wedding dinner, their wedding feast was kept much livelier and abuzz by queues of friends and relatives making their way one after the other onto the stage - not as stand-up comedians or to present a tearing speech, but as amateur singers in a karaoke! As for the dishes, I got to admit that presentation wasn't fantastic but the food does taste decently home-cooked. Rynae loved the sharks fin soup most. Too bad there wasn't any left, if not she would have asked for a second helping!



Traditional sedans have been modernised to cars and herein.... simplified into motorbikes!


Can't you tell she is enjoying her food?