Teachers' Day Gifts Tutorial

I am really thankful to Pei Pei and Hao Hao's teachers for taking good care of them, and hope that Pei Pei and Hao Hao would learn to be appreciative of their teachers. 

Since Teachers' Day (in Singapore, this is the last working day of Term 3) is approaching, we prepared some tokens of appreciation for their teachers.

My initial idea was to make lollipop flowers, and made one prototype.

However, 5-year-old Pei Pei offered an insightful comment about this gift.

"How to eat this?" She asked.

She was right. The flower will be destroyed once the lollipop is eaten. So we dropped this idea, and thought of another one.

Here is the step-by-step tutorial on how to make the paper flower!

Step 1: Prepare 4 pieces of rectangular coloured paper. For each piece, place the coloured side downwards, fold half to make a centre line, and fold four corners.

Step 2: Fold backwards, so that the coloured sides are facing inward.

Step 3: Repeat Step 1 & 2 for the other 3 pieces of paper. Stack 4 pieces together, tie the centre with a chenille stem (pipe cleaner).

Step 4: Open up the coloured side one by one.

Pei Pei was able to fold the paper without difficulty, but step 4 is too challenging for her, so I helped her in this step.

To make the flower look cute, I twisted the stem to make the leaf. Pei Pei wrote the cards, and we pasted the flowers on to the cards using Washi tape with flower patterns.

Hao Hao also contributed by making a simpler gift - "washi-fied" Teachers' Day cards!

In addition, we used a flower shape puncher (bought from Daiso) to punch flower shapes from coloured paper, and pasted them on the cards.

Hope their teachers will like the Teachers' Day gifts!

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Octoburst! ParenTalk - Take a Walk with Me

[Media Invite]

In conjunction with Children's Day, Esplanade is organising Octoburst! from 4th to 6th October 2013. We were privileged to be invited by Sarah of The Playful Parents for a preview of "Take a Walk with Me", which will be conducted on 5th October 2013.

With a creative walking stick, a small luggage and lots of passion, Sarah brought us on an interactive tour around Esplanade. At various spots, Sarah engaged us with fun-filled activities on history, art and life.

What would you do when you see an interesting sculpture with your children? Make them pose nicely in front of the sculpture and take photo? (My confession: That's what I used to do!) Do you know how you can engage your little ones in a conversation on how sculptures can communicate ideas, thoughts and feelings?

What would you tell your children when you see these? Or do you say anything to them about these?

Why were Pei Pei and Hao Hao so attentive?

It was because they were captivated by the stories of old Singapore through storigami! Do you know what storigami is?

What can you do with spices?

Do you know how to make wonders with a piece of coloured paper?

Do take a walk with Sarah to find out more!

This was an enjoyable experience for us! I like this programme because it is very interactive, the children were asked questions and were allowed to share their thoughts openly. Most importantly, this provides quality bonding time for me and my children through meaningful and educational activities.

That was not the end of the bonding time, see what we brought home! An activity kit full of interesting ideas so that we can continue the art experience!

In Sarah's words, "As long as we are willing to slow down and observe our surroundings, there is always something interesting to discover and to discuss with our children." I totally agree! How about you?


Octoburst! 2013 ParenTalk - Take a Walk with Me
Recommended for children aged 6-9
Date: 5 October 2013 (Saturday)
Time: 10.30 am & 4.30 pm (1 hour 30 minutes, no intermission)
Venue: Various locations around Esplanade
Ticket price (excluding booking fee): $25 for 1 adult + 1 child, $30 for 2 adults + 1 child or 1 adult + 2 children
Book your tickets here on SISTIC!

Disclaimer: We were invited to the complimentary preview for review purpose. No monetary compensation was received. All opinions are mine. 

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Label Your Belongings with Stickerkid

"Where is your bedsheet bag?"

Once in a while, Pei Pei and Hao Hao mixed up their belongings with their classmates in school. So far, we have been fortunate enough that their teachers found their belongings and returned to us. 

I had put labels on their belongings, but those labels did not last very long and were peeled off easily. As I was having a headache looking for good quality labels, the nice folks from Stickerkid offered to send some personalised stickers for Pei Pei and Hao Hao!

Manufactured in Switzerland, Stickerkid uses high quality material to produce the best possible stickers. Stickerkid carries a range of products - stickers for belongings (small, medium, large, extra large, stickers for books and notebooks), stickers for clothes and shoes, as well as identification bracelets.

The best thing of all, is that we have a say in the design! Together with MaMi, Pei Pei and Hao Hao chose their favourite colour for the stickers, font type, font colour, and  logo for bigger stickers! 

They were thrilled to receive the colourful and glossy stickers!

Iron-on clothing labels for bedsheet bags and school uniforms, small stickers for water bottles and stationery, medium stickers for snack boxes, shoe stickers for... of course shoes!

In particular, I like the iron-on clothing labels, they are very soft to touch! This is important because children have delicate skin, the labels on the clothing must be gentle to their skin!

Worldwide Giveaway and Discount Code

photo from Stickerkid

Do you want to have a set of high quality stickers for yourself or your children?

[Giveaway] (Closed)

Good news! We are giving away one set of My First Pack (Pack of 156 stickers) worth S$49! This set consists of 32 large stickers, 60 small stickers, 14 shoe stickers and 50 iron-on cloth stickers, and shipping fee is included. The giveaway is open to worldwide readers of PeiPei.HaoHao! 

Three simple steps to win!

1. Like Stickerkid's Facebook page
2. Like PeiPei.HaoHao's Facebook page (Thanks if you have already liked us!)
3. Leave a blog comment with your email (so that we can provide you the winner's special code to place your order)

The giveaway will be closed on 3 September 2013 2359hrs. The winner will be announced and notified on 4 September 2013.

That's not all! From now until 31 September 2013, all PeiPei.HaoHao readers get to enjoy a 10% discount off all Stickerkid products (excluding S$6 shipping from Switzerland to Singapore) - just enter discount code PeiPei2013 when you check out!

Check out their website for more details on their products: http://www.stickerkid.sg/sg_en/

[Announcement of Winner of the Giveaway]

Congratulations Mamamie! 

Disclaimer: We received complimentary stickers for review purpose. No monetary compensation. All opinions are mine. The personal items belong to Pei Pei and Hao Hao.

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Colourful Suncatcher

As I was packing my tons of craft materials, I found a pack of OHP (Overhead Projector) transparencies.

If you are asking what an OHP is, then you must be very young (I am also young, but you are younger than me)!

Children nowadays may not have the opportunity to use OHP. With the advancement of technology, visualisers have replaced the OHP.

Back to the OHP transparencies... nowadays, they are used as the cover for book binding. I feel that they are also interesting craft materials!

A simple project using OHP transparencies - making a suncatcher!

We cut the cellophane paper into different shapes.

Before we pasted the shapes, we did a simple scientific experiment to demonstrate static electricity - the cellophane shapes were dancing when we put the OHP transparency above them.

This activity is suitable for young children to learn about shapes and colours. By overlapping cellophane paper of different colours, they also learn about the concept of mixing colours.

Reaching for the sun!

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Project Toilet Paper Roll - Fishy Lantern

One more month to Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節), and we have already prepared our lanterns!

Materials:

Toilet paper roll

Tissue paper (for crafting, not the tissue paper that you clear your nose with)

Coloured paper

Wire / String

Step 1:

Cut the tissue paper into fish scale shape.

Step 2:
Wrap one end of the toilet paper roll with coloured paper (the fish head). Wrap the other end with tissue paper, twist it (the fish tail).

Step 3:
Use glue to paste the fish scale on the toilet paper roll.

Step 4:

Cut two circles from white paper, use black marker to draw a dot on each circle (the fish eyes), and paste on two sides of the fish head.

Step 5:
Tie one end of the wire / string to the fish tail by wrapping it around a few times. Attach the other end of the wire / string to the fish head using tape.

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DIY Tambourine

Pei Pei and Hao Hao like singing, so it may be a good idea to have a tambourine around for them to learn about rhythm as they sing.

We made our own tambourine! Here is our simple 3-step-tutorial on how to make tambourine!

Materials:

Paper plates x2

Bells x5

Ribbon

Washi tape

Step 1: Pinch 10 holes on each paper plate.

Step 2: Decorate the paper plate with Washi tapes.

Step 3: Thread the ribbon through the holes, put the bells for alternating holes. Burn the end of the ribbon using lighter to prevent fraying.

Done! Let's sing and play tambourine!

p.s. When Pei Pei and Hao Hao were playing tambourine in day time, I clapped and sang with them. When they played it at night, I asked them to keep quiet! Inconsistency...

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Children Little Museum

Are you ready to take the time travel machine with us back to the past?

Ready.... Get Set.... Go!

Here we are, at Children Little Museum!

Located right in front of Sultan Mosque, Children Little Museum is a privately owed museum in a two-storey shophouse. Although the place is very small, it is filled with collections of antique treasures and old-school toys, and we spent a good one hour there! It was indeed an eye-opener for us!

Next moment, they turned into customers in barber shop, doing the make-over on their own.

Not to forget to do some shopping at the Mamak shop before you leave this place. Want to have some surprise? There is a tikam-tikam game, S$2 for a brown paper bag of small toys!

Children Little Museum

Address: 42 Bussorah Street Singapore 199460

Opening hours: 10.30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily

Admission fee: S$2 per person

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Washi Tape Fever

I fall in love with Washi tapes recently. That is Washi tape, not Wasabi tape...

What are Washi tapes? In a nutshell, they are masking tapes with patterns.

Just visited MT Expo at Ion Orchard, I was amazed by what can be done with Washi tapes! From decorating note books and stationery, to decorating the furniture and walls, just be creative and Washi tapes can do a lot of wonders!

These Washi tapes are from Cotton On Kids and a stationery exhibition.

Pei Pei and Hao Hao also fall in love with Washi tapes. Because they can use the Washi tapes to make train, castle and roll them around!

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Happy 48th Birthday Singapore

Today is Singapore's 48th birthday!

We celebrated this day at Singapore Changi Airport. This is not just a place for us to take a flight, send people off or fetching people. This is the place where DaDi and I embarked our memorable trips to various parts of the world. This is the place where Pei Pei and Hao Hao enjoy playing.

Not forgetting our favourite airline - Singapore Airline. 

While Pei Pei and Hao Hao were looking at the planes, they found something more interesting to them - a playground in the transit lounge.

They wanted to go there, but I explained to them that we could play there only if we were taking a flight.

Pei Pei said to Hao Hao, "When I'm in Primary one, I will bring you there."

Pei Pei and Hao Hao sang the National Anthem with pride!

We love Singapore because this is where we call "Home". Happy 48th birthday Singapore!

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Celebrating Singapore's 48th Birthday - Making Merlion

Pei Pei and Hao Hao pointed at the national flags outside the HDB flats, and exclaimed "Singapore flags!"

Oh yes, National Day is around the corner!

We did not manage to get the tickets to watch the National Day Parade (again), so on that day, we will be watching the parade from TV.

Nevertheless, we have our own special way to celebrate Singapore's 48th birthday - making one of the icons of Singapore, the Merlion!

Pei Pei insisted to use pink colour paper, and stamped pattern on it. Guess which part of Merlion is she making? That was Merlion's body!

p.s. No one "merlion-ed" (Singlish: vomited) during the process of making Merlion.

linking up with

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Causeway Point (Woodlands) Playgrounds

We had dinner at Causeway Point after visiting Woodlands Regional Library. 

There are two FREE sheltered outdoor playgrounds at Causeway Point level 2. One of the playgrounds has a train-like structure, but as it was packed with children, we did not go in.

The other one is located next to a restaurant Empire State, it is easy to be missed! But it may be also a good thing for us, as not many children were playing there!

It was our first time visiting this playground, and may be the last time. Because there is a height limit of 110 cm to enter this playground, and Pei Pei is reaching this height!

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Reading Under the Tree @ Woodlands Regional Library

Looking for a good collection of children's books? I think other than The Tree House @ Central Public Library, Woodlands Regional Library would be another great place.

Hao Hao was excited to spot an owl in the giant tree.

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Casting Call for TV Commercial

We received an invitation to a casting call for a TV commercial, and I said yes to it.

Don't be mistaken, I am not pinning hope to become 星媽. 

The commercial was to promote a meaningful cause. In addition, the production assistant came to our house to conduct audition, we did not have to travel!

Heard that many families had participated in this casting call, so don't think we would be shortlisted. Anyway, it was an interesting experience!

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Partners in Crime

Evidence of their "crime":

Claiming that they were just washing up the bowls, which took 10 minutes or so.

Digging the drawers in search of treasure - chocolate milk, and shared their treasure while MaMi was about to prepare dinner.

Their reason for being partners in "crime": They are loving siblings!

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Read, Count, Create!

Pei Pei and Hao Hao like to read Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We found the Chinese version in the library.

Title: Little 好饿的毛毛虫 

Author: Eric Carle

Location: Junior Lending Picture Book

Call number: Chinese CAR

The key concepts the children can learn from this book include counting, naming food, and days of a week. The children would also learn that a caterpillar will turn into a butterfly. 

Recently, I  found an education iPhone application Counting with the Very Hungry Caterpillar.

photo credit: iTunes

There are five levels of games, involving counting the food. It would be nice if there is no need to hit the "done" button, as younger children like Hao Hao would not know that there is a need to hit this button to proceed to the next game.

On top of using education app, we also had hands-on activities related to the book. Last time, we made butterfly, so this time, we made the caterpillar.

Pei Pei cut the coloured paper into stripes, and wrote the numbers.

Then she made the chain using the stripes. And here it is, the caterpillar is created within a few minutes!

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Quick-Fix Carrot and Sweet Corn Soup and Bento

Lesson learnt from last episode of preparing ABC soup - no tomato please! 

This time, we have sweet corn, which is rich in Vitamin B and C.

The preparation of this carrot and sweet corn soup is actually super easy. However, I could still make a mess as I chopped the sweet corns so hard that the kernels flew all over the place! (-.-")

Ingredients:

2 carrrots

2 sweet corns

1.5 litres of water

Instruction:

1. Boil water
2. Peel carrots, cut into chunks
3. Chop sweet corns into chunks
4. Put carrot and sweet corns into the boiling water, simmer over low fire for 30 minutes

Today's menu:
Carrot and sweet corn soup
Simple yet nutritious bento consisting of sweet corn, carrots, fish meat, fish ball, egg and rice

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Household Chores - Start from Young!

"Oh dear, it is ok, let me do it." Some parents would rather take over the household chores from their children. It may be because the parents do not want their children to mess up everything so the household chores upgrade into real "chores" for them!

We get Pei Pei and Hao Hao to be involved in tasks that we think they are capable of, so that they learn about responsibility as a family member, and to make them feel a sense of achievement as they contribute to the family.

Examples of household chores that they do at 4 to 5 years old:

• Putting toys and books back to the shelves
• Putting laundry into the laundry basket
• Helping to secure the clothes on the poles using clothing pegs
• Carrying the dried clothes from kitchen to bedroom
• Folding simple clothing items
• Carrying small bags of groceries
• Helping to make coffee for us under our supervision

Though sometimes not perfectly done, and we have to pick up the mess (收拾殘局), we are happy that they volunteer to offer help!

What types of household chores your children are involved in?


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Potty Mouth - Pee Poo Pi

Is it part of the developmental stage of a child that many parenting books do not mention?

Recently, these words come out of their mouth on a regular basis - pee, poo, poot (sound of farting), 屁 (fart), 大便 (poo in Chinese).

Babbles. Single words. Two words. Multiple words sentences. P-ful phrases / P language. These are stages of a child's language development, based on my observation.

Our first reaction was to tell them that it is not nice to use these words. However, our request to stop this reinforce the behaviour! They simply laugh it off and continue P-ing!

Some other strategies that we have attempted:

• We put on poker face when they are using those words. Sometimes, they sound really funny, but we do not let our corner of our lips to tilt upward.

• We share with them our feeling about this - we don't like listening to potty-mouth.

• If they can't stop, we just stop listening. Hopefully they get bored of this soon.

How would you deal with children with potty mouths?

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Quick Fix Lunch in 20 Minutes

This was prepared within 20 minutes!

Started timing at 11.15 am.

11.15 am: Put a pot with water on stove #1, a metal mug with water on stove #2. Boil water in both.

11.16 am: Put rice into pot, put 2 eggs into metal mug.
11.17 am: Peel, wash and cut carrots.

11.21 am: Cover the pot of rice, remove from stove #1. Put a saucepan with water and steamer plate on stove #1.
11.22 am: Put the carrots, fish balls and fish slices into a plate and put into the saucepan. Cover.
11.26 am: Remove the eggs from the metal mug, put them in water to cool.
11.27 am: Remove the shell of the eggs, put them into the moulds, put into the fridge for 5 minutes.
11.32 am: Remove the eggs from the moulds, cut into halves.
11.34 am: Put the rice, carrots, fish balls, fish slices, eggs onto the plates.
11.35 am: Serve the lunch!


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Project Toilet Roll - Minions from Despicable Me

"I want to get the Minions plush. So cute!"

Guess who said that.

Not me, not Pei Pei, not Hao Hao. It was DaDi!!!

There is no way for us to join the long long queue on Thursday morning at that fast food restaurant to get the plush, so we decided to make one for DaDi!

Step 1: Paste the yellow paper on the toilet roll.

Step 2: Cut the parts of Minions - eyes, mouth, jumper.

Step 3: Paste the parts on the toilet roll.

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