Frozen Hand

That hit my wit's end, yes, that Frozen song. I bet every mother in the world could simply sing "Let it go, let it go! I am one with the wind and sky!" effortlessly (complete with hand waving in the air and foot stomping on the floor). I feel you. 

Inspired by this Disney movie, we made our frozen hand. Of course we want to be cool like Elsa. So let's see how we made it.

We used: latex gloves, blue food coloring, Lego mini-figures and water.

1. Put a few drops of blue food coloring into a jug of water.

2. Put in Lego mini-figures into the gloves.

3. Pour some water into the gloves. 

4. Tie them.

5. Write down the names on each hand.

6. Place them in the freezer overnight.

7. Once froze, it's time to play!

8. Remove the gloves from the hands. 

Most of our frozen hands lost their fingers. Tips: Run the gloved hand under a streaming water, and slide the glove off very gently. But not too much water as it may melt the whole finger. 

9. Pour some salt onto the frozen hands. See them melting!

Iesha was so excited once she saw her Lego head. 

She seems happy. 

The cold never bothered me anyway!

The Egg People

We've been doing two major indoor growing recently. We planted beansprouts in the egg shells. We painted the shells and glued some funny eyes. It took only three days to get the fascinating results! Through this simple beansprout planting, we learnt about stems, leaves and tendrils. But we can't see the roots. To get a visual way on what plant consists of, we did another planting activity. We'll update about it soon. 

Presenting you our Egg People! 

Day 1

Day 3

Day 4

Day 4

Day 5

Day 7

A Lego man sipped coffee under falling leaves. 

What a beautiful Spring!

Day 8- They can't handle the long hair anymore.

Day 20- Found this after we went back home from a vacation. Our egg people have died, so we took their eyes for our next activities. Recycle!

Say, Build, Write!

Hi guys! It's been awhile since my last post. The girls and I did a lot of activities and experiments, but I was just so malas to switch on my laptop and updating. But anyway, for the goodness of sharing (the feeling of it), I need to be rajin. You know guys, the major reason of having this blog is to share the ideas and activities with all moms out there (if there were any who actually reading up my blog, ). And of course for another reason that could be obvious and highly perceived whenever my girls turned 20s and saying "Oh Mummy! How lovely of you to have write about us since we were 1 month!"

Ok. That's it. 

So here is the writing activity for Iesha and Iyra. Iris apparently didn't like this, but it turned out she was the one who checked her sisters' work for this activity. Iyra is still struggling with her ABCs, so I worked easy on her. I asked her to write the alphabets while saying it correctly. Iesha can now read and write, so I challenged her with her new learnt words. We started with simple home stuff and also with her new learnt ordinal numbers (first, second, third to tenth).

For this activity, you may need a laminated worksheet which I provided at the end of the post. You can download, print and laminate it. You may also need foam alphabets (I bought these cheap stuff at Mr DIY that cost me RM3.50/ piece). You also need erasable marker pens. 

I would recommend this activity for 3-5 years old kids. Older kids would simply abandon this. Another thing is, don't force your children to write the words/ alphabets correctly or perfectly. Let them experience the wrong stroke, the missing dots, the wrong curves and such. Let them. Don't criticize. Criticizing will make them totally go "Take this and do it yourself!" to us. So, the keywords: Don't criticize. 

Till then.

What you need.

Say B!

Write B.

Build it!

For bigger kids, you may use photos and let the kids guess the words.

You did it, Iesha!

The template

Creativity is intelligent having fun!

...you nailed it Sir Einstein!

Fingerprint Art by Iesha, 5.

Dice Counting Games

These are perfect maths games for preschoolers. Get all these and many more free fun dice games here.  Make sure your preschoolers win the games too! Here are some notes on why winning is important in preschoolers.

A Word About Winning 

Children take game playing seriously, so it's important that we help guide them through the contest. When a playing piece falls to a lower level, our kids really feel sad; when it rises up high, they are remarkably proud and happy, even if we adults know that it happened only by chance. Therefore, you need to help balance your child's pleasure in playing the game with his very limited ability to manage frustration and deal with the idea of losing.  

For 3, 4, and even 5 year olds, winning is critical to a feeling of mastery. So generally, I think it's okay to "help" them win. By about 6, kids should begin to internalize the rules of fair play, tenuous as they may seem to a child who is losing a game. So I am also fine with a 6 year old "amending" the rules to win if he feels she has to. I encourage you to acknowledge your child's need for special rules. At the start of the game, you might want to ask, "Are we playing by regular or cheating rules today?"

(Source: here)

Gold in the Pot 

Seashells on the Shore

Sprinkles, Sprinkles Everywhere!

Monsterous Fun!

Children and cute monsters? They are best of friends. My girls are so scared of monsters they would simply frightened their wits out. We should not be so afraid of them, just because they are different from us. In fact, they will in turn afraid of us too, because we do not have fangs and scary shrill shriek. 

I know each child would go through this terrifying phase and no matter how much I told them they are not real, it just make them more upset. Maybe my method is not right. I may do it in reverse. I think I may just say that monsters/ ghosts are real. Maybe by just saying that, it may dismiss her fear. I should have try this.

Perhaps this cute monsters will do no harm to them. I make this cute monster activity for Iyra. She loved it. I also invited few of her friends (our neighbors) to have a try. Sofia, a 5 year old whimsical girl got so excited she honestly praised me "I never played this kind of game. Where did you get the idea Auntie?" It is funny when simple thing means so much to a little girl. 

These cute monsters were drawn by a bunch of talented Indonesian artists, but I am so upset I did not save the link. Anyway enjoy this bunch of cute monsters!

Cute Monsters

Make me, make me!

The monster maker

You got my horn wrong babe!

I'm a gween monshter.

My horn, my horn!

I wanna look angry, not this.

I'm watching you!

I need a dentist.

Ga-ga!

I Wish I Can Download Food from My Smartphone

Pizza and sisters go hand in hand. 

Pizza, anyone? Just accessorize plain white bread with pasta sauce, sausages, cheese and mixed vegetables. Then baked for 2-3 minutes. 

The girls also made this easy choc sticks.

Fun Mummy Activity

Last Saturday, we learnt about 'Zombies from Egypt'. The mummies are among the subjects they reluctant to learn about. They feared the zombies will eat them up and turn them into kid zombies. They wondered how the zombies still have those dry flesh intact instead of bony skeletons (well, skeletons are the other subjects they unwilling to learn as well).

So I did this simple activity and explain later on this Egyptian zombies they terrified of. We then read two books on mummies and its process. I tried my best to explain as simple as it could be as my audiences are between 4 to 7 years of age. They simply love the activity and the explanation. It is so true that knowledge beats fear. Lol!

To make craft mummy, you need: recycled cardboard, bandage and goggle eyes.

Cut the cardboard into your desired size. Make multiple sizes.

Wrap the cardboard with bandage together with the eyes and hot glue it. 

Tadaa! Clearly we have Cleopatra in between Tutankhamen and Ramesses.

Here are some 'Mummy Notes' I discussed with my girls. (Sources are from here and few books).

• What are mummies? - A mummy is the body of a person (or an animal) that has been preserved after they died.

• Who were the mummies? - They were any Egyptian who are rich and could afford to pay for the expensive process of preserving their bodies for the afterlife. 

• Why did the Egyptian makes the mummy? - They believed in life after death. They believed that they had to preserve their bodies so they could use them in the afterlife. 

• What is the afterlife? - The ancient Egyptian believed that they after they died, they would make another journey and have a new life.

• How was the mummy made? - It used a chemical substance. The process took a long time, roughly around 70 days. They would take out the brains through the nostrils. The body was washed out and the organs were removed from the body. Only the heart was not removed. Then they fill with lots of chemical substance (I did not go too details on the scientific/ chemical information). Then the body was put into the coffin).

• Why did the leave the heart in the body? - The ancient Egyptians believed that heart is the center of intelligent and emotion.

• What are canopic jars? - The jar to put all the remains of the mummy.

• Where were the poor Egyptians buried? - The poor were buried in the sand. Only the rich Egyptians were buried in the tombs.

• Where were the pharaohs buried? - In the tombs called pyramids. (Iris and Iesha went 'Oohh' with this info. Now they knew what pyramids were for).

• Why did the ancient Egyptians build pyramids? - The Egyptians believed that if the pharaoh's body could be mummified after death the pharaoh would live forever. The tombs were designed to protect the buried Pharaoh's body and his belongings. 

Remove brain through the nostrils?

I am planning to have further discussion with the girls about the pharaohs who have been mummified. Specifically on pharaoh who slandered Musa (AS). I fascinate the idea of relating the subjects with verses from Al-Quran. I feel so right whenever my girls jumped in awe "Ooh, Allah knows everything eh? That means, memang betul-lah Allah yang tulis Al-Quran!" I feel so right. :)

Maybe tonight I will discuss this verse about mummified pharaohs with the girls:

"What, now! When previously you rebelled and were one of the corrupters? Today we will preserve your body so you can be a Sign for people who come after you. Surely many people are heedless of Our Signs." - (Quran, Surah Yunus, verse 91-92) (Please Allah, make us easy to understand and ponder on your words! Thanks in advance!)