Orang Jual Belon by Iesha, 4

I couldn't help but color this drawing. It took me years to draw like this! Cantik Iesha lukis.

Baking with Bapak

The girls made cake pops with Bapak yesterday. Thanks to YouTube, even boys can bake now. 

Iesha Goes to School

Iesha's first day schooling: 8 January 2014

My dear Iesha, I pray this to Allah:

O Allah, 

I ask You 

to bestow my beloveds

Iris, Iesha and Iyra

for the understanding 

of the prophets 

and the memory 

of the messengers, 

and those nearest to You.

And O Allah,

Make us all closer to You.

Ameen ya Allah.

We love You, Allah

So much!

Good luck Iesha Aafreen!

xoxo,

Mummy
(I'm sorry, I'm such a mother, I couldn't help treasure the memories. that was two-years old Iesha)

Copy Drawing for Children

Every child is a creative being.  They were born with creative minds. One of the methods to enhance their creativity is by drawing.  Give them a sketchbook, a pencil and bunch of color pencils, and they will ready to let their creative minds working. Last two days, I let Iris copied drawing from a book. She can read simple English instruction so I just let her draw what was instructed. This activity benefits both drawing and reading. She copied the ballerina and elaborated the drawings. She drew two ballet dancers dancing on stage with tree prop, and drapes too. I read an article here stating that it is not recommendable for children to copy a drawing as s/he would feel inferior with their ability to draw. I found it's partly true somehow, quoted the author:

"I never draw on the child's paper. Learning to see is done by studying the thing, animal, or person being drawn - not by getting the teacher to correct the work. The student should own the whole process and product."

I, on another view of point, just let my children draw. It is best if they could copy then elaborate the drawings. This could be necessary for small children. However, if my children asked me to draw, I encouraged them to draw first. The thing I need to improve (and change) is to be with them at the beginning of the drawing process, not at the end. It is important for us parents to sit and see the first line they draw until the end of the drawing. And the most vital part is how would we respond to our children's drawings. Praise them fairly. If they need improvement, point out to them and say it in encouraging phrases. Make drawing time fun time for our children!

Iris felt easy with the this childlike drawing. She said "Dia color macam Iris jugak, ada lagi putih-putih." (Hint: Give your children to copy a drawing which is suitable for their ages).

Iris elaborated the drawing.

Cats

Iris said mummy cat is dreaming someone patted her.

Iesha wasn't in the mood of copy drawing. She drew her two sisters and herself. (Hint: Don't force your children to draw).

Who wants the book? I can help get the copy from the bookstore.

Our First Labcoats

Thank you Nek Sue for the lab coats!!! We love it to the max!

Unpoppable Balloon

What do you need:

1. Balloon

2. Pin/ needle

3. Cellophane tape

4. Scissors

5. Adult supervision (with the sharp pin/ needle)

What you need to do:

1. Inflate the balloon. Avoid over-inflating or under-inflating the balloon. Cut 1 inch of cellophane tape with scissors and tape it on the balloon.

2. Poke the balloon with the pin/ needle where the tape overlaps it. This may require several attempts.

3. If failed, tape the balloon with cellophane tape on different spot. Poke again.

4. Failed lagi, you need a new non-over-inflated balloon. Repeat step 1-3. (We had little scientist who was afraid of repeated failures. Can you find her?)

5. Repeat the steps to master the trick. 

6. Explain to your children.

What really happened?

When you inflate a balloon, its "skin" is under a lot of tension and that is why poking it with a needle leads to it ripping completely.  As you will know, it won't do the same thing when you poke a deflated balloon with a needle. The tape now holds on to a larger part of the balloons surface. So it can take over sustaining the pull from the tension skin around the tape when the skin below it gets punctured. the pull it experiences is not strong enough to rip the tape. But (on a side note) if you had a balloon with very high pressure inside (made from thick rubber), a tape that you put on there and poke through might get ripped as well. Credit source.

Tin Can Phone

What you need:

1. Two tin cans, top removed

2. A nail

3. A hammer

4. String

5. Adult supervision

What you need to do:

1. Turn both cans upside down. Hammer a nail through the center of the bottom of the cans. Remove nails and set aside.

2. Cut a long length of string.

3. Poke one end through the bottom of the cans with the string.

4. Knot the string.

5. Science play time! Make sure that the string is stretched tight. Avoid disturbance in the middle of the string as it would disturb the travel of the sound.

6. One should talk.

7. The other should listen.

What happened?

The sound we make from our voice produces vibration. It vibrates through the tightly stretched string. The vibration travels through the string and vibrate the bottom of the can on the other end, which in turns, vibrates the air and those vibrations travel through the air to the other person's ear. 

The girls wanted to expand the experiment with different ambience.

Which was outside the house.

They love their smartphones!

Later we thanked Allah for the hearing sense. And for the magic of science too.

Try this now!

I found this novel use for the cupcake liner. You may try this at home with your favorite popsicle! (Still it adds extra waste to our beloved Earth!). I can't remember where I found this, but thanks a lot for saving my time (from mopping).

Junior Builders

These are some of the models created by Iris and Iesha. They can follow the building instruction for simple models. They can also create their own things from the bricks. Let see what they have for us.

The food stall

The beach stall

The tumbler by Iris and 'Sayur and cake' by Iesha

The tree and beach chairs by Iesha

Flowers by Mummy

The green tumbler by Iris

We built all these together, excluding Bapak (he was busy building up his new City).

Olivia's house; we built up this together, but most of the part was built up by Iesha.

Lego Lovers

We love the interlocking bumps and holes, and we call it Lego! (Pardon the introduction). We are in serious love with Lego (that means a serious damage to wallet too). And that's the reason why we patiently wait for Lego wholesale and Toysrus redeem points for the buyout. Below are the reasons why we love Lego:

1. Create bilateral coordination - the ability to use both sides of the body at the same time in a controlled and organized manner.
2. Create creativity - especially with Lego Creative Bucket Set. I presume that it is great if we could throw out the instruction booklet and let the children create their own model. 
3. Linguistic benefit - they develop their language skill while having fun. I can let my girls play with Lego for hours and they pretended to be Olivia, Isabella or Mia or even the cat and try to talk in either English or Bahasa Melayu. 
4. Self-worth and achievement - they feel good once they succeeded to build the model according to the instruction booklet. 
5. Spatial awareness - they need to consider the 3-D objects. 
6. Color, size and shape recognition.
7. Brings the family together - seriously who doesn't love Lego?

The only problem I have with Lego is how to sort and organize it. With ever increasing and overflowing bins, I suspect that this can be my future headache. I wish I had a room dedicate to Lego sooner. And for the instruction booklets, I laminated to avoid them being torn.  

For now, Leg Godt or Play Well!

Lego time

Bring out your builder instinct!

Iris created parking lot.

Iesha can follow the manuals and build small house and car.

Building

We are Friends!

I used plastic containers to store different sets of Lego.

Duplo for Iyra

The zookeeper

Bricks everywhere!

Creativity!

I laminated the manuals.