DIY Learning Materials

I felt that by doing my own learning materials were quite fun and engaging for Peter. Recently I did a numbers chart for him to learn. Using green construction paper to make the background comfortable to look at. I drew margins to guide me to write neatly. I used different coloured markers to write the content in order to make it interesting. After writing, I laminated the paper for him to use white board markers to practise on them then we were be able to clean it off for the next practise. Another benefit of laminating was to protect the paper.

The learning material was engaging because Peter was learning about numbers at the moment. As such I am able to design the learning materials according to his needs. By placing it somewhere that he was able to see it frequently, I realised that he was taking initiative to learn independently by taking the makers to practise on it or by just standing in front of it to read and see the words. 

After placing it for a few weeks, I realised that he was able to recognise them better. Even though spelling the numbers was not easy for Peter but I think with suitable learning materials he is encouraged to learn at his own pace until he succeeds. 

The National Steps Challenge Season 2

On 3 December Saturday as I was walking pass my housing block notice board, I noticed a flyer about The National Steps Challenge Season 2. Then I thought to myself whether I should join or not cause I dislike wearing a watch and already had a routine to jog twice weekly which I thought was quite enough. However, under my husband influence, I decided to join. 

The National Steps Challenge Season 2 Flyer

On the next day, my husband and I arrived at Kampong Chai Chee Community Club at about 9am which is about 30 minutes before the official opening hours to participate the roadshow and to get a free steps tracker. To my surprise there were like 50 people queueing in front of us and each person can collect up to 3 steps trackers. As such by the time we collected our stesp tracker was about 3 and a half hours at around 12.30pm. 

Upon registered as a participant at the roadshow for The National Steps Challenge and received my steps tracker. I downloaded the "Healthy 365" application to sync with the steps tracker. This application helps us to record informations such as number of steps performed daily and number of points earn to redeem prizes. 

My Steps Tracker

Since participating, I manage to hit their target of 10,000 steps daily by just doing household chores (6,000 steps) and additional stepping exercises for about 30mins to hit the remaining 4,000 steps. Since participating I felt that I am more motivated to carry out mandate household chores and exercise as I am able to redeem useful prizes such as NTUC vouchers that I can use it to buy groceries. Plus my husband and friend are also participating as such we challenge and encourage one another along the way which makes it fun to join. I really encourage you and your loves one to join this challenge if you have the chance to do it.

Unlimited Fun @ Shopping Malls

School holiday is a great time to bring children to outings and enjoy family time together. I once heard from a Singapore tourist guide that Singapore national sport is shopping. The tourists laughed and I am puzzled but after some thoughts, I felt that it was quite truth especially during school holidays, families like to dwell in shopping malls as their holiday destinations. As such shopping malls make tremendous effort to bring in the school holiday crowd. 

I saw on the newspaper advertisement that The Little Big Club was having a show on this school holiday at One KM Mall as such my husband and I brought Peter to it because he likes Bob the Builder. It was a fun time and we got to see lots of character from the group. Mostly sing along with the characters such as Bob the Builder, Mike the Knight, Thomas the Train and Barney for 30 minutes. We didn't need to pay to watch the show, however, we did spend when we shopped around the mall. You may visit their website at http://www.onekm.com.sg/whats-up/mall-events-incentives/ for more information.

Another mall we visited was City Square Mall. They organised an event on Nick Jr characters. There were 5 individual Nick Jr character activity stations. In order to do the activities, a minimum spending of $40 in a single receipt to exchange the Wonderland Pass from customer service counter. There were Paw Patrol, Blaze and the Monster Machine, Bubble Guppies, Shimmer and Shine and Team Umizoomi activity stations. Peter watches Nick Jr channel almost everyday as such this event was a star struck for him. He enjoyed the event very much. There were more to this event such as meet and greet and stage performances by the Nick Jr characters but we didn't get the chance to join because they haven't started yet. You may visit their website at https://citysquaremall.com.sg/displays/uploaded/cms-promotions/CSM07-29-16%20Christmas%202016%20Nick%20Jr%20A1%20Poster%20R1.jpg for more information.

Just to share my experiences, these events are sometimes free or need a minimum spending to join. However, I believe that children get the chance to join sing along session, dramas, games and most importantly enjoy their school holidays. There are websites that provides information on children activities at shopping malls. One of them is this website: http://www.littledayout.com/2016/11/24/little-day-outs-star-map-shopping-mall-shows-meet-greets/

May you enjoy your hoildays!

  

Internet worksheets

Mid November and December are school holidays for my older son, Peter who is now in nursery two. His teachers give him school holiday homework. The holiday homework is to trace from A to Z. This is to strengthen their alphabets recognition and writing skill. Simple yet important homework for his next step in education because he may need to write words in his kindergarten class.

Peter school holiday homework

Thought of buying some tracing alphabets books for him to practise because teachers only give him a set of alphabets to trace. He finished the worksheet in about 10 minutes as such I feel that he can practise more during the holidays. The school holiday day is quite long and I do not wish him to spend it just by playing toys and watch television programs at home. 

Internet tracing worksheets

Then I search Internet for free tracing worksheets for him. To my pleasure, I found quite a lot of websites offering tracing worksheets that can be downloaded to print for free. This is an area I yet to explore. I believe that next time when I need resources, I can be creative and search the Internet for resources that are suitable for him to engage. As such I encourage you to also explore this channel for free resources for your children to engage too. Hope you like what I share and share with us about your experiences on Internet resources. Thank you 😊

Parenting Wisdom

Recently I had the chance to catch up with one of my friend who is a father of two children. One of his children recently scored her Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) with straight As. Besides having great results in school, his children are well behaved and talented in other areas such as drum and badminton. I am just curious on how to bring up such great children as such I asked him for advice.

His advices are one of the greatest advices I got on parenting. He advised me not to compare between my children and other children even among siblings. Because your parents love you because of who you are and not because of how well you performed. He said it would be very sad if  for parents to love their children because of how well they can performed.

He carried on telling me that his child did not score well at the beginning of the PSLE year. Then his child and him set goal and vision for the PSLE grades. They aimed a grade higher which is mostly Bs. Then they work towards the goal and vision. He said he will celebrate not because of their grades but on the amount of effort they put in to study. He continued saying that of course he can not be happy when they fail but if they already put in their effort and do their best then he said that is enough. He will celebrate with them. He said the child worth is more important then grades and he will show them unlimited love to them as such they will not be afraid to tell him their problems.

His advice did ring a bell in me that I remembered one of my friend told me that her child is a perfectionist and afraid of failure. This friend of mine told me that she will need to change her child mind set not to be afraid of failure otherwise her child will not be able to handle failure well in the future. I do agreed and supported her.

All in all, I felt that children are placed under pressure to perform well in school, however there need to be a realisation that grades are not to be used to measure a person self worth. Parent should not compare their children with others as children are individual uniquely made by God. Which one of the evidence can be easily found at our finger, our fingerprints. As such we need to celebrate our children effort to study and encourage them to work towards achieving their goals and visions that they placed for themselves.

Values Vs Money

Recently, my son, Peter and I participated in a Snow Globe competition organised by Fengshan Community Club. We are so excited about it that we searched on YouTube about how others were doing it, cracked our brains on how to make a unique Snow Globe. Then we decided to go to Daiso and Spotlight to get our materials to make the Snow Globe.

It was a weekend afternoon and was very crowded in Daiso as such Peter accidentally stepped on a hair band which was misplaced on the floor and broke it. He was afraid that he will be scolded by me and the shopkeeper. I did asked him to be more careful and I told him not to be afraid to approach the storekeeper to ask if we need to pay for it the broken piece. The shopkeeper said we need to pay for it as such I handed the money to the shopkeeper and she placed the broken hair band into a plastic bag for us. I was sad because I need to pay for something which is not what I want for. However, I felt responsible to teach my son a lesson to be honest by owning up what he had done wrong and be responsible to pay for what he had done wrong.

One of the broken pieces, I glued back the stand legs

Then we shop a little longer for some more materials and again he accidentally broke a clay Christmas decoration while handling it. Once again I told him that he need to be more careful when handling the items in the store and forbids him to touch any of the items. After that, I took the broken item together with the things that I wanted, to the cashier for payment.

Thought, it was not easy to pay for the things that I do not want but I felt values are more important than money as such teaching him to be responsible for the things that he did was much more important then the money spend. Overall money well spent and hopefully he will remember the values of being honest and responsible for the rest of his life.

Water Play

Peter loves water play as such we will bring him to the swimming pool once awhile to play in. Public swimming pools are great affordable place for children to play with water as I realised that some of the public swimming pools have playground facilities example slides and free fall. You might check out this website
https://www.myactivesg.com/start-out/families/top-5-public-swimming-pool-for-families

Recently, I brought Peter to a water playground located above I12 Katong Shopping Mall. It was a sudden decision as we were just walking pass the mall then I remembered that there was a water playground above it. We always bring an extra set of clothing for outings and for this time we were be using this set of clothing to change after his play. We were then used his current T-shirt as a towel and only let him wore pants to play in the water playground. I do keep his playtime short at about 30mins because he could get cold quite easily. All in all,  he had a great time playing with the water guns, water fountains and slide. You might like to check out other website on shopping malls water playgrounds too. One of the websites on this information is below

http://www.littledayout.com/2014/06/27/splashing-fun-at-shopping-centres-water-playgrounds-around-singapore/

When Peter water plays, he is excerising and having fun at the same time. During those water play time, We enjoyed ourselves and I hope that you will also enjoy yours too.

Places to be remembered

Recently, my family went to Chin Mee Chin Confectionery to taste traditional Hainanese breakfast. We bought egg tart, cupcakes, bun with kaya and butter spreads, soft-boiled eggs, coffee, Milo and Horlick. It was about a dollar fifty per item. In the coffee shop, we also experienced the traditional coffee house  interior which I used this opportunity to educate my son that such coffee houses were common liken nowadays coffeeshop. 

Shop Front

Traditional Style of Displaying Food Items

CMC Confectionery Cleanliness Award

Peter enjoying his breakfast

In the past, my mom used to bring me to another coffee house which was located nearby too. It was the famous “Red House”. I remembered that the people running the place were elders. They would serve food and beverages such as cupcakes, colorful cakes, coffee and tea. We would be seated at one of those marble top table, traditional wooden Kopitiam chair under a KDK ceiling fan. The interior is absolutely unforgettable and classic. As such I felt that it was important to bring my son to places like CMC Confectionery to experience history before it was gone.      

Fengshan Children Club Celebrates

Recently Fengshan Children Club organised an October Children Birthday cum Children Day Celebration. My family were invited to attend this celebration. At the celebration, we got the opportunity to make an open terrarium to bring home. It was fun and educational because as Peter learnt how to carefully plant a plant into the soil and decorated it with lots of colourful stones. I even taught him how to take turns and share with others the materials.

After we did the terrarium, it was time to celebrate the October children birthday. Peter is one of the children born in October as such he is very excited and delighted to see many children celebrating his birthday and the chance to eat his favourite chocolate cake.

Then we are given a big goodies bag fill with snacks and gifts such as chocolate roll, rice crackers and stationery. I believed that the children were truly blessed by this club. 

Fengshan Children's Club

I joined the Fengshan Children's Club at the Fengshan Community Club. They organised lots of meaningful activities for children to participate in. For example, monthly mass birthday celebrations and outings.

Notice of Fengshan Children's Club

Recently I joined one of their outings to Paya Lebar Fire Station and Mainland Tropical Fish Farm. My four years old son Peter enjoyed the visit to the fire station as he got the chances to interact with firemen, equipment, vehicles and the station. 

Seated in a Fire Truck

Posting with a Firemen & Water Hose

He also enjoyed the visit to the fish farm as he was able to view many varieties of fishes, feed fishes and catch Long Kang fishes. To further enhance his experience of the fish farm, we bought fish food from the farm to feed the huge Arapaimas. It was fun and exciting.

Mainland Tropical Fish Farm

Feeding Koi

Feeding Arapaimas

Catching Long Kang Fishes

At the end of the visit, we gather together to celebrate the September children birthday.  It was a joyous occasion. 

Chocolate & Strawberry Cakes, Yummy!

And we enjoyed the birthday cakes and snacks (Chicken pie, Pineapple Almond Tart & Chocolate Roll). We are well fed, in fact, before we head off to any of the places, we were already given a cream roll and a bottle of water. All the food and drink were provided by the club. The cost of the tickets for adult and child were only S$3 and S$2 respectively. As such, it was very affordable and encouraging for all to join. Hope you can also visit your neighbouring Community Club for children activities that I believe will benefit your children greatly. 

Peter's Yijan Kids Hair Clipper T610S

My four years old son, Peter is afraid of going to the hair salon for haircuts. He would cry and struggle while having his hair done. Even thought the hairdressers did not mind him being such, however, I felt the need to do something about it. One day, I realised that my father trimmed his hair that touched his ears and Peter made no fuss about it. As such, I thought that I could try to cut his hair by myself.

Then while I was shopping in a baby fair. I came across Yijan Kids Hair Clipper T610S which I bought around $25.

Yijan Kids Hair Clipper T610S Packaging

Features:

Waterproof & Washable: Allows me to cut his hair in the bathroom and wash away his hair on the clipper easily

1mm to 12mm Clippers: Guides me to cut his hair to a certain length consistently

3 Clippers Range from 1mm to 12mm

Tonsorial Cloth: Prevents much fallen hair from irritating him

No Noisy: Peter is afraid of the loud clipper sound especially when it is near his ears

Dry Battery Operated: Safe without fear of electrocution and easy move around

Bright Yellow Colour and Cartooned: Ensuring him that it is suitable for children as such he didn’t reject the product and its function

Kids Hair Clipper

Durable and affordable: Used for a year for at least 5 times

At the start, I am afraid to use it cause I didn’t cut his hair before. As such, I learnt from youtube, sought advice from parents and practised on my son and it turned out great for all of the hair cuts. I even formulated a haircut for my son which he likes it very much. I would use the 9mm clipper all around his head and then used the 1mm to 9mm slope clipper to create slope around his hair line except his fringe. Quick, easy and simple method liken USA President Obama hair style :) 

Peter Hair Front View

Peter Hair Back View

Peter Hair Side View

 While cutting his hair, I also allowed him to watch his favourite videos on the Youtube in order to keep him still and sound for most of the time then I am able to concentrate on cutting his hair properly. Though he still needs some encouragement and an agreed time to cut his hair but at the end of  the day seeing his hair nice and short... it is all worth it.

Selphy Cp1200 Saving Tips :P

I love to keep photographs of wonderful memories especially of my children. For fun, I started to take notice of photograph printing machines. Then I came across a machine called Selphy Cp1200 by Canon company selling on the Internet. 

Canon Selphy Cp 1200

Canon Selphy Cp 1200 Packaging

I bought it after much consideration because to me it is quite costly. However, I bought it mainly because there is a great function called collage that allows the printer to print more than one photograph together on a page. As such I am going to use this function greatly to reduce the cost of printing my photographs. I decided to use this function to print photographs that are fun and informal. Only formal photographs such as birthdays, anniversary or any other important events then I will print one photograph on a page. 

After using this printer for the collage function, I enjoyed it. It is so fun and interesting as the printer seem to be able to read your mind most of the time on how to collage the photographs and collage them nicely for you. You can print lots of informal photographs in one page that will not cost you much. My children do have a lot of funny informal photographs that if I am going to print them out one photograph on one page, it will cost me a bomb.

Etc of my son collage 

The photographs quality are good enough for me as they are vivid in colours and images are clear. I shared this printer with my family as such we all save our time and effort to head down to a shop for printing services. All in all, I am truly blessed by a peace of mind and heart that I can print our precious memories that generations to come will get to enjoy them. 

A Funtastic Playroom

Recently, I brought my 3 years old son to the North East Community Toy Library located at Pasir Ris Elias Community Club set up by North East Community Development Council (CDC) and Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore (CPAS). It opens daily from 10.30am to 3.30pm then 4.30pm to 8.30pm and closes on Public Holidays. There is no limit as to how long you can play and no admission charges are required.

Toys nicely displayed

Ball Pit

Train Set

Nice Reminder Poster

 We went about 6.30pm and the place was not packed with children. As such my son got the chance to play with lots of toys. He played etc building blocks, trains, puzzle, stepping piano, ball pits, tents, cooking set and fishing. This toy library encourages special need and mainstream children to play together. I think that my child can learn emotional intelligent skills through playing with other children. As such, I find this place a meaningful and affordable place for children to play in. 

Great Experience @ Community Club

Fengshan Indian Cultural Fair flyer at block notice board

On 10 July 2016, I attended an event named “Fengshan Indian Cultural Fair” at Fengshan Community Club with my mother and son. At the event, I got to try out many Indian cultural activities such as Henna, Rangoli, Garland and sampling of Indian snacks such as Thosai, Samosa, Putu Mayam, Idli, Spicy White Chickpeas Gravy and Masala Tea.

Rangoli made by one of the participants

Garland made by exhibitor and me

I am grateful that I attended this event because it was near my home and experienced Indian cultural activities at a very affordable price of $2 per ticket.  Likens an Indian cultural Museum had been brought closer to my home. 

After attending it, I learnt more about our Indian committee as such felt closer to them. I really wish to encourage all to look more into events organised by your home nearby facilities such as Community Clubs and Residents' Committees as they aim to organise activities that are meaningful, affordable and convenient for all to participate.  

Exercise with a tight budget

Baby Paul is now 8 months old. I breastfed him for about 4 months. Now I decided that it is time to start exercising. My Goal is to reduce my weight by 5kg which is my original weight and to flatten my bulging tummy. However, I don't want to spend much by going for expensive classes/treatments/products to slim down. As such, my creative juice kicks in.

I started to use my neighbouring facilities to exercise. I started to go to Bedok stadium facilities for regular jogs, sit ups and push ups. If the stadium is unavailable, I will use my Active.Sg account credits to access Bedok gym for jogging, cycling and sit ups. I will also use my Active.Sg account credits to access Bedok swimming pool for a good swim. Active.Sg is beneficial to all Singaporeans and Singapore Permanent Residents because it credits S$100 into their Active.Sg account to be used for selected sports activities such as entries to swimming pools, gyms and workout classes. Do check out their website for more details @ https://www.myactivesg.com/

My Mum bought a book titled “15 Minute Calorie Burn Workout” by Efua Baker. It comes with a DVD showing the how to do the workouts. Likens a personal instructor doing workouts together with me. My mum encourages me to use this book to do workouts at home. As such when I don’t have the time to go out to do exercises, I will simply play the DVD to burn some calories. 

15 Minute Calorie Burn Workout by Efua Baker

After exercising for a period, my jogging shoes and swimming goggles began to wear off. As such, I decided to visit Decathlon located at Chai Chee to purchase some affordable sports products. I bought  a nice pair of jogging shoes and goggles for less than S$20 and S$4 respectively. 

Decathlon Sport Shoes

Decathlon Swimming Goggles

With all these exercising plus healthy eating (Less oil, salt and sugar), I believe that I am on the right track to my fitness goal.  

Great facilities & services in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital aka KKH

Recently I stopped blogging for a few weeks to take care of my son, Paul. He got breathing difficulties and was admitted to KKH. We choose C ward because the ward administrator advised us that it had better subsidy rates and based on Paul condition, he might stay for more than 3 days.

After 3 days in the high dependency ward, I thank God that Paul was recovering well then he was being transferred to C ward. When Paul was in the C ward, I felt blessed. It is recently being renovated, 4 bedded, lightly air con with personal ceiling fan, personal TV cum radio, personal bunk bed for a parent to stay in. The place had an atmosphere of friendliness that we hardly felt tired or bore by staying in the ward. Parents of other beds share thoughts with me on their children and I shared mine too. I felt comforted as we started to encourage one another. There is even a designated place for visitors to watch TV and wall mounted games for children to play with. When my elder son was visiting his brother, he got the chance to watch TV and play the games with other children at the designated place. You may wish to visit their website to view the wards @ http://www.kkh.com.sg/VirtualTour/Documents/virtual-tour.html

Source: KKH website at http://www.kkh.com.sg/VirtualTour/Documents/virtual-tour.html

We thought of upgrading the ward because we bought a hospitalisation plan for Paul. However, the hospitalisation plan we bought didn’t include the insurance rider as such the better the ward is, the higher the minimum sum expenses we got to pay. For example C ward, we got to pay the first $1500 and any expenses after $1500 the insurance company will pay for us. For A ward, we got to pay about $3000. As such we decided not to strain Paul Medisave by upgrading his ward.

We learned that by buying the insurance rider for our children, we don’t even need to pay a cent from the Medisave. The insurance rider cost about $160 per year. In the end, after government subsidy we need to pay about $1000 for being warded 5 days. If we bought the rider, we could save the $1000. But most importantly, Paul health is not comprised no matter which ward we choose because the doctors and nurses really take the pain to take good care of him in the most effective and efficiency way. Thank you all that makes Paul healthy again :) 

Saving through buying from Shen Kwong Trading Co

My dad sometimes will buy clothing for my son. He mostly buys clothing from Shen Kwong Trading Co which is opposite Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple. He will tell me that they are wholesaler as such their clothing there are inexpensive about 4 shirts for $10 or less. 

One day after a visit to KKH, I decided to check out the store because KKH provides free shutter bus services to Bugis. The store sells many other textiles products for baby and children. I like their clothing which is made from 100% cotton. Cotton is soft and breathable, suitable to wear in hot and humid weather like Singapore. For more benefits of cotton, you may refer to this link. 

I bought quite a number of their products like shirts, pants, singlets, and underwears. One of my favourite products is the perforated shirts because they are perforated, they are able to give the extra coolness to the child body. 

Perforated Singlet

Close up on the perforated material

Knitted Caps

Mittens & Booties

Rompers

Actually also bought about 20 pieces of their baby products etc shirt, pants, body suits and hat to make into cupcakes as baby shower gift. Below picture was my creation. I hope that you will like my creation and consider visiting this shop for good value for money textile products for baby and children. 

Baby Clothing Cupcakes Gift