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We had quite a bit of coloured straws and coloured paper at home, and so we made these paper flowers (that are supposed to look something like this if they’re real)

What you need :

>> Coloured paper

>> Coloured straws (for the stems)

>> Crayons, glue, scissors and scotch tape

What you do :

>> Place kid’s palm on paper and using a crayon, make an outline

>> Cut the outline (older kids may help out)

>> Paste a bit of glue on one side of the ‘handprint’ and make a ‘cone’ (on the lower part of the handprint cut-out)

>> Stick a straw in the middle of it

>> To ensure the paper flower stays put, use a scotch tape to stick the paper flower to the straw

It’s that easy!

I do feel this activity is more for older kids though as it is slightly more complex.

Vai - who is turning 2 years old next month - couldn’t really contribute much, other than lending his palm.

And so he did a simple hand-eye coordination exercise (while Anya and I worked on the flowers) : he placed coloured matchsticks into the straw.

And since we keep the ’stretchy’ part of the straw slightly bent at the bottom, the matchsticks remained inside the straw. Only when it’s full that he straightened up the straw, and let the rest of the matchsticks fall out!

[Matchsticks do get 'jammed' in the tunnel]

Anyway, we liked the flowers we made!

And Anya held on to the bunch and pretended to be : a salesgirl at a flowershop, then a flower girl walking down the aisle!

When Anya attended a trial tennis lesson some two months ago, she was required to try and hit inflated balloons with her little tennis racket.

Being light weight, these balloons’ slower move allows little children more time to concentrate, aim and hit them with the rackets.

It’s a great hand-eye coordination exercise!

And these days, Vai likes to do this too at home. He’d go around the house hitting a balloon up in the air with his little ‘badminton’ racket, looking up and following its movement closely and hitting it upwards again with his racket.

And I often join in the fun and help keep the balloon up for as long as we can!

PS: Other than using a racket to reach for the balloon and hit it upwards, he’d sometimes use his palm, my plastic ladle (!), even his sister’s plastic toy plate among other things!

Soon after we made those jellyfish hats, the kids insisted on playing with their coloured matchsticks.

And so we decided to make some prickly creatures. I was open to the idea of making some sort of a sea urchin or a porcupine.  And both kids chose to make porcupines.

What you need :

- Chloroform cups
- Masking tape
- Coloured matchsticks

What you do :

- Tape the two cups together
- Let the kids carefully poke the matchsticks through the cup

This seemingly simple task apparently required so much concentration and effort from these little ones because they had to carefully poke through the cup and avoid tearing / making too a big hole. If they’re not careful enough, the sticks would slide INTO the cup and ‘disappear’.

Other than learning how to focus and concentrate, the kids exercised their fine motor skills too here!

Oh btw, they didn’t finish making their ‘porcupines’. Instead, they had fun ‘tearing’ and ‘plucking’ the sticks out when the ‘bodies’ were half covered with sticks!

Oh well. As they say, sometimes the ‘results’ don’t really matter as much as the ‘process’ of learning itself ?

The other day both kids refused to nap, and since we had quite a bit of time to spend together, we made this jellyfish hat! Very simple and relatively fast to make.

What you need:

- Paper plates (plastic bowls are great too!)
- Cream-coloured crepe Paper for the long wiggly bits
- Glue, scissors

What you do :

- Cut out the crepe paper into some 25mm-wide strips
- ‘Unroll’ each strips and cut shorter strips from each one
- Kids : apply some glue onto the back of paper plate and stick the strips
- Just so that the hat will ’stay put’ on the head, glue a shorter strip on to the plate - from one side of the ear to the other

When they’re done with their hats, Anya put hers on and ran around the house (and with her speed, of course it kept falling off too!)

And Vai, well somehow he refused to have those wiggly bits around his head.

And he preferred to just, lie on the floor.

Kids.

According to an article by News Canada titled ‘Learning Through Senses - The Key To A Child’s Development‘:
‘The first few years of a child’s life are full of new and exciting experiences that are absorbed like a sponge through the five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight and sound.’

…

The kids did this simple ’sensorial’ activity the other day.

For Vai:
I pasted some glue on a piece of paper, and Vai spread some coloured glitters on it using his fingers. This way, he got to feel the sensation of the sticky glitters on the tips of his fingers.

For Anya:
She did a simple ‘painting’ using coloured glitter sand.

Basically she sprinkled the coloured sand onto some specific areas (the paper is already sticky), then she rubbed the sand to even out the coloured surface.

These activities were simple yet nice for the kids that afternoon!

If you’ve never been to Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden (part of the Singapore Botanic Gardens), then you may want to check this place out with your kids.

Though the whole area itself is not that big, every time the kids visit the place, they always enjoy their waterplay there.

[Oh fyi, they've removed the three metal water pumps - for safety reason perhaps? - as well as the 'shower head' that used to be between the sand and waterplay area. And instead, they now provide a few green plastic watering cans for the kids to play with]

Oh anyway. We were there yesterday from 10.30am till 2pm (and yes, I think we all went home with a nice sun tan!)

They have a little cafe near the entrance and so we all had our lunch there (the kids had their packed meals, and I tried out its sausage spaghetti - which was surprisingly quite nice)

And oh, we checked out their treehouse as well.

Other than sandplay (note: not that much of it there though), the kids had fun going up and down the slides!

Yup, it was another nice day out!

* As you can tell, I’m SO enjoying this school holiday! Heh. *

The last time we went to the Zoo it was pouring so bad we ended up spending a few good hours under its many shelters!

BUT last week - wanting to make our visit more worthwhile - we went as prepared as possible!

I got the kids’ lunch meals, drinks and fruits prepared the night before. I got extra sets of clothes for the kids AND I made sure our raincoats as well as Vai’s stroller’s plastic cover were brought along.

Turned out that it did drizzle a bit but only for a very short while *YAY* And for the rest of the day, it was just cloudy. And though everyone got rather sticky throughout our stay there, I reckon it was still SO much better than getting rained on!

We were there from 10am to 4pm! And compared to our previous visits, this time round we got to see so much more exhibits and learn quite a bit about the animals too!

Now. If you’re planning to visit the Zoo, here are some good reminders:

Be prepared for wet weather condition
- Wear wet-weather-friendly footwear (ie. open-toed high heels : not a good idea)
- Bring along your hat / umbrella / rain coat / stroller plastic cover
- Pack some extra sets of clothes for the little ones, just in case

Be prepared to face the attack of the mosquitoes
Apply LOTS of insect repellent on everyone and on all ‘un-covered’ body parts, ESPECIALLY if you plan to have your meals in the outdoors. And oh, having only those mosquito patches on is NOT enough.

…

I’d say the trip went really well EXCEPT for the fact that we all got bitten by some mad mosquitoes at lunch time!

We sat down for our meals just outside of KFC (as the air-conditioned restaurant was full of people at the time) and I guess it was just a bad idea to stay rather still for half an hour in the middle of a forest!

We all went home with red itchy marks on our arms and legs, AND somehow they’re more red and swollen on Vai!

Oh well.

By now, we don’t feel the itch anymore BUT I just know the ‘dark-brown’ marks will stay on the kids for a few more weeks. What a souvenir.

The weather was REALLY good late this afternoon! I love the clouds and the great blue sky!

The kids and a few other little friends had such a fun day out by the sea today at Pasir Ris Park!

If you’ve never been there before, this spot is worth checking out!

We had a great day out today!

We went out for lunch (as there were no high chairs, I stacked 2 chairs together so they can at least reach their bowls), visited the library, spent a good hour or so there, borrowed some books and headed back home by bus.

At the library, as expected Vai picked up some children books, sat and went through them one by one, then went on and explored the library barefooted, pushed the little chairs around, sat down to read some more books with me and Anya, then went and explored the area again.

[Anya as always is very happy whenever we visit the library. She'd sit and flip through her books quietly throughout our stay there]

Overall the kids behaved relatively well, I think!

And Vai dozed off on our way back home *smile*

Now that the school holiday is here, kids stay at home ‘longer’ and moms - like me - tend to search for activity ideas that they can do together with their little ones.

And so I thought, it’d help a lot if I just have a list stuck on my fridge or somewhere, that I can easily refer to whenever I feel the need for activity ideas.

I’ve compiled a few ideas from various resources, and I just thought I’d share it with you all too.

[Click HERE to download the list]

Btw, although I’ve categorised the activities (ie. From 2 years, and so on), I feel these ideas can always be modified (ie. simplified or made more complex) to suit your kids.

Anyway, have fun!

PS:
Btw, if you’ve created something from the listed ideas and taken a photo of what you and your kid have made, I’d love to hear from you too! Just drop me a message in the comments section, or email me! Am thinking of posting the photos on the site *smile*