Fun Fair At Home

Haze haze go away, come again another day, little children want to play, haze haze go away. Yes, the haze issue here in our country has affected our daily activities. Not only outdoor activities are being discouraged, the Ministry of Education also announced (on certain days due to high PSI readings) the closure of schools. 

To keep JS away from too much screen time, I suggested that we play fun fair at home. JS had not been to a fun fair so he was curious about this idea. I told him that it has game booths like those found at Legoland and indoor theme parks and also lots of stalls selling food, especially junk foods. He was thrilled. 

We list down several types of games and foods that we would like to have at our fun fair. Our game list include fishing, bowling and shooting at targets while our food stalls include french fries, marshmallow, hotdogs, chicken wings, pasta, popcorn, chocolates and chips. 

We started off by setting up the game booths. We decided to have three booths, fishing, bowling and shooting a ball into a hole. 

JS cutting a hole in a box for one of the games. 

JS making the signages.

The reward card and reward stickers. 

By the time we finished setting up the game booths, it was almost lunch time so we quickly prepared the food and started the play by buying food at the stalls. We only had pasta, chicken wings and hotdogs. 

JS preparing the food. 

JE: Can we eat now? I am so hungry!

To make this fun fair game more real, JS had to pay for the food and games. 

JS paying for his food.

JS paying for his food.

Next of course, was game time! 

JS started with the bowling. He had to pay one buck for five throws.

Next, the played the 'Shoot and Win'. This time, he had to pay two bucks for five throws. 

We ended with the fishing game which both of them enjoyed the most. JS had to pay one buck to play for one minute. He gets a sticker for every five Lego bricks he fished. 

JS counting the number of Lego bricks he was able to fish. 

JS counting the reward stickers to claim his prizes. 

It was a day full of play (and learning too!)

Sticker Play

Sticker is an essential item when it comes to doing projects with my children. They come in all kinds of sizes, texture, colours and design, easy to handle and most importantly, they are almost mess free. The kids love them and as for me, it is the perfect solution for a quick-an-easy project for them to work on when I do not have much time to prepare for more complicated activities. It is also one of the activities that I can do with both of them at the same time without having to worry about a messy workstation to clean up. 

While JS worked on his sticker picture, JE started by exploring  the collection of stickers we have. 

   

Then she joined her brother at the table and worked on her own little project. 

JE working on her little project.

JS started with a fruit tree and added fruits and animals to it. Then, he added numbers one to ten in a particular sequence among the animals and tree. 

The next day, we did another round of sticker play. This time, instead of sticking them on paper, they had to stick the labels on their bodies. I wrote the names of a few body parts based on a body chart. JS used the body chart as a reference to learn new words and then stick the labels on the correct body parts. 

JE also joined in the fun as JS and I stuck the stickers on her.

All Things Yellow

When it comes to teaching JE, I have been using a similar "syllabus" as what I did with JS. However, the activities may vary as they are different individuals with their own personalities and preferences. I would try what I did with JS but if she doesn't show much interest, I would change the method or work on a different activity based on my observations of her - the things she likes to play with, the activities she does on her own, etc...

Here is one such activity that focused on colour recognition which I did with JS several years ago. To make things obvious for JE, I would give her toys of the same colour to play with. The towel which I used as the base, was meant to let her concentrate only in that area. As we play, I would say (in this case) "yellow pin", "yellow star", "yellow banana", etc...

Below are some pictures of how the activity went.

JE playing with all the yellow toys.

JS joined in an pretended that he was a yellow duck.

JE feeding the "duck".

More Cravings For Ice

JS is still very much obsessed with ice and a couple of weeks ago, I bought a popsicle mold with the plan of making some fruit popsicles for him. However, before I managed to find some time to make it for him, he already made some for himself. Not for eating, but for play. 

Well, here's what happened. There was this evening when he got hold of the mold which I had taken out earlier that day for JE to play with. He asked me if I could make some ice pops for him but I told him that it was too late and since Daddy and I were engaged in a conversation, he went away and started making it on his own, using drinking water. Soon after, he came to me to ask for more water because he did not have enough to fill up the mold. Since he could not eat the popsicle anyway (the mold has not been washed), I told him to use tap water instead. He happily filled up the mold and popped it into the freezer. 

When he woke up the following day, he immediately went to check whether it was ready and of course, it was. So he and his sister had an early morning ice play, even before breakfast.

Upon seeing how he craved for a popsicle that could actually be eaten, we made some soon after breakfast. 

First, I made him try squeezing some grapefruit juice but it was too  difficult for him so we decided to use the blender. 

He had to peel off the skin and pop the fruit into the blender. Next, we cut some kiwi and put them into the mold. 

Then JS poured the juice into the mold and placed the sticks in place before popping it into the freezer. 

Shortly after lunch, he was able to enjoy some self-made fruity popsicle. The only thing he does not know is that Mommy purposely made him add the kiwis because that would most probably be the only form that he would eat! (Mission accomplished!)

Siblings Bonding

In my previous post, I mentioned about my challenge to help JS overcome sibling rival. Instead of using comparison, which will definitely promote sibling rivalry, I prefer to get them to do things together, or let JS take charge. As JE is growing and is able to roll over now, there are more activities that they can do together. 

They can, of course, play together....

read a storybook together...

do flash cards together. 

This will not only help prevent sibling rivalry, I do hope that it can help them to build a strong bonding.

Sensory Play For My Baby Sister

As JS has been the only child in the family for three years before the arrival of his sister JE, I knew that "sibling rivalry" would be one of the greatest challenges that I would have to help him overcome. Besides giving him more attention than usual (that was when I started one to two sessions of play/art and craft with him on a daily basis), I include him in almost every aspect that relates to taking care of his sister such as feeding and bathing. I would get him to fill up JE's water bottle when I need to feed her or get him to choose the clothes for his sister before her bathing time. I found that although he still feels jealous and sometimes, reluctant to share things with JE, he is quiet a good brother after all. 

Since JS did not have any sensory play when he was younger, I decided to let him make them for his sister. In that way, he would get to experience them for himself as well as learn to share his make with her. 

I bought a shape cutter and decided to make a colourful sensory play for JE. It was a killing-two-birds-with-a-stone project as we would be making two sensory plays in this activity. 

First, JS had to wash a small container to make sure it is clean and safe for his sister to play with. 

JS could not use the shape cutter because it was too tight and he did not have the strength to press it so I did the shape cutting. 

We thought it would be nice make something else from the portion of paper where I cut out the leaves so JS cut them out into interesting stripes of papers.

Next, he helped to put all the colourful leaves into the container as a sensory play for his sister. 

The small container is JE's second sensory play which contrasted with her first. The first one was in a bigger container with bottle caps that produced loud sounds while the second one was in a small container and it produced soft sounds. 

JS showing the Big and Loud versus the Small and Soft sensory plays. 

Here is the other sensory play that we made using the stripes of papers which JS cut out. 

So far, this is the sensory play that JE loved the most out of the three.