Dec 2011: Smiles

Looking back 2011, I supposed to digi-scrapbook once a month, at least.

To capture the wonderful moments of the girls.

But my last layout was in July. 

Pretty embarrassing. 

That I over estimate my capability in juggling so many things at one time. 

Time to re-position and re-strategy. Re-learn too.

Credits: Che Yang Designs and Yoshiko Designs

Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip (and walnuts) Cookies

Sounds healthier, right? 

Pretty easy too, CS! [yes, the recipes is for you=)] 

Just need to mix the ingredients together and drop the dough on the cookies sheet (tray) for baking.

Ingredients

1 ½    cups packed brown sugar 1        cup butter or margarine, softened 1        teaspoon vanilla 1        egg 2        cups quick-cooking oats (I used Quaker brand) 1 ½    cups Gold Medal® all-purpose or unbleached flour 1        teaspoon baking soda ¼       teaspoon salt 1        cup semisweet chocolate chips (6 oz) 1        cup chopped nuts, if desired (I used walnuts, crushed) Method

·                Heat oven to 350°F ·                In a large bowl, stir brown sugar and butter until blened. ·                Stir in vanilla and egg until light and fluffy. ·                Stir in oats, flour, baking soda and salt; stir in chocolate chips and nuts. ·                Onto ungreased cookies sheet, drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart. ·                Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

I got the recipes from here. [the page includes nutrition information]

Full strength to stir the ingredients.

A rainy Saturday afternoon. I was alone at home with two, SC was called to work urgently. 

On a typical stay-home weekend, she refused to take afternoon nap like little Bomber. So to keep her busy and stop asking about watching Winx Club from iPad, I got her involved. She wanted to make cookies instead of cake. 

While cookies were baked one batch after another, we read 1 chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Coincidentally, Bomber's nap was a short one. I then multi-tasked to bring out raisin, water, grapes, anything I can find from the fridge as afternoon snack while reading the chapter. 

As a result of running in and out of the kitchen, I wasted some dough and got some over-burnt cookies...

Burnt cookies tucked at the back... keeping it for my self to consume.

Though it doesn't look pretty, it was irresistibly yummy. (I could not resist from munching it while it was just out from oven even though I was having sore throat). Intend to give some to Yvonne who handed-me-down some P1 books and one of Jiejie's teacher. 

Children Book Picks: Maurice Sendak

We had a playdate the other day.

Layla took out Where the Wild Things are and read-aloud to Jiejie right before our leaving. I was impressed with her able to read the book independently.

The plot of the book is based on the fantasy (and real) consequences of a little boy's mischief. One night Max dresses up in his wolf suit and does all kinds of things he shouldn't, like chasing the dog with a fork. His mother scolds him and calls him a "WILD THING!" Max is so mad he shouts back, "I'LL EAT YOU UP!" As a result, his mother sends him to his bedroom without any supper.

I observed timid Jiejie seemed didn't get frighten by the Wild Things in the book.

So I tried to search for the book in library after that, but could only found the other two of Mr Sendak's classic: In the Night Kitchen and Very Far Away.

Jiejie didn't agree to borrow those 2 books at first looked at the covers.

It looks oldies and oddly bland, especially Very Far Away. She then changed her mind after I finished reading about the little cowboy.

Both feature boys differently; one in his dream adventure in a surreal baker's kitchen, and the other is a boy dressing in cowboy hat and boots running away because of not being listened to. 

It was interesting to read how each and every story brilliantly captures the child's feeling and fantasies. Some of the illustrations are dark, some are being criticised, like The Hungry Readers said about In the Night Kitchen.

But I like how brave Mickey is to tell the bakers that "I'm not the milk and the milk's not me! I'm Mickey!"

I also like the end of the other 2 books when both boys realised they ain't angry anymore and justified them selves to return to their mothers."And then Mama will tell me what refined means and why horses dream and why cats ever sing when they don't know how." Martin ran all the way home. 

It was very much later I found the translated version of Where the Wild Things Are：野兽出没的地方 =).

We are immersed into Maurice Sendak's world, a fantasy world that shows true feelings of a child. At the same time, I learn about dark emotions and fantasies of a child.

Thanks to Mama Evelyn. She seems to have very good pick in classic children books and books based on real people as well as having fun with books.

Food = Life

Recently, there have been an article published that reported that we have reach world population of 7 billion people. What really sobering from this article is that 1 billion people are in hunger everyday. This year, 6 million children might die from hunger related causes, if no help is given to them. 

While I was listening to the news about the 7 billion population in SC's car, on my way to office, it reminded me that, humanity used the equivalent of 1.5 planets to support its activities currently. I felt uneasy about sad reality world.


Not all children are equally fed with sufficient amount of food and aided with right resources. We should simplify our living in this part of the world. We should not pamper our children with too much toys, wearing and food. I should start to re-organise & de-cluttering my way of living. I should continue the effort to go green.


Knowing a child dies from hunger every 2.3 seconds, I was weeping, sadly, from this video to that video. 


Lately, fussy little eater Jiejie's frequently used phrase is "not fair", as she sees unfairness treatment on her self. So much as she used it as an excuse to skip her hot serving food: how not fair it was that she got so much more amount of food in her plate. Frankly she eats like a cat, but I spent too much energy in the kitchen to make effort to attract her appetite. Sometime, I bribed her with ice cream after meal, or waited till she willingly to eat. I am not a sweet nice mummy all the time, I got angry sometime too and would put her in thinking corner to cry out loud (as if it helps to consume her energy and make her eat more). Last week we all were sick one after another, my patience seemed shorter limit than usual, and together with the hungry children news that was kept in my mind, I told her that I should have chuck her in Africa if she mumble again on "not fair" to be asked to eat.


She is so fortune to be here and served with variety of meals!


But I reckon she had little clue about what I said until I showed her Children's Hunger Fund. She asked many whys and hows: why children have no food to eat; how disaster destroys a home shelter; how precious is clean water to a community; why food is scarcely to some family... She may not grasp the entire picture of what happen beyond her comfort zone, but she wasn't hesitate to contribute some money for helping to buy food for the poor children.


I just hope she cherish with what she has and will not abuse using the phrase "not fair" from now on. 


We all have be reminded for not taking things for granted, continuously!

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

A group of mommy bloggers are coming together to create awareness for this dire situation and raise funds to help hungry kids around the world. Through Children’s Hunger Fund. With US 5 cents, it’s enough to provide a meal to a hungry child.

So I am appealing to you for your participation in this little fund raising activity. All you need to do is this:

1. Crop and paste any of this above information or pictures on your blog site, together with this logo (just right click and save image in your hard drive or copy the html for this to add as a widget to your site)

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/catchfortywinks/6308510246/" title="CHF by catch40winks, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6045/6308510246_604f399a76.jpg" width="250" height="87" alt="CHF"></a>

2. Appeal for friends and readers on your site to go directly to this page to make direct contributions. All it takes is US $5.00 for 100 meals for the children. Of course, it will be great if you can contribute more. You can also go to this page to make a direct contribution to areas that are most needed; like disaster relief. 

3. Organise your own fund raising activity. 

There are plenty of ideas that you can adopt to raise the funds;
- Bake sale
- Make and Sell a product
- Give up a birthday gift
- Lose weight by missing a meal and contributing what you might have spent on the meal to the Children's Hunger Fund

4. If you have a preschooler or a child who has learnt to save some money, talk to him/her to see if he can give a little of his money to help to feed hungry children.

Children's Hunger Fund is a Christian nonprofit organization that works to alleviate the suffering of children in impoverished regions across America and around the world. Since CHF began in 1991, many with their donations have helped them distribute more than $927 million in food and other resources to serve the needs of more than 10 million children in thirty-five U.S. states and seventy-two countries worldwide. Charity should transcend religion and race, help us and Children's Hunger Fund to show a child in some remote corner of our world that he/she is loved. THANK YOU. 

Do drop me a note if you are interested to participate and will be putting this fund raiser activity up on your blog or FB page. My deepest appreciation and thanks in advance for your kind and giving contribution to Children's Hunger Fund!

When the child is unwell, we learn Q for Quilt

Jiejie has not been unwell for the longest time.

It was probably the rain on Saturday triggered her sensitive lungs and caught a cold. Hence started coughing again yesterday morning, feverish in the middle of last night. She burst into tears since then, telling us she was in great pain. I had no choice but to absent at work again, for different reason though.

Anyway, after visited doctor early in the morning and slept through till lunch time. She seems so much better and started to request if she could go back to her class again in the afternoon. How can? Childcare leave counted as 1 full day, no half day, my dear. I then realised that she has no interest to sleep again. Her eyes were wide opened starring at the ceiling. I tried to avoid the television show for her. So I dug out Jann's Phonics' material and flipped. Decided to do the activity for 'Q for Quilt'. 

First, craft work: Paste cloth (alternate pattern) on soft cloth as quilt. 3 X 4 pieces of fabric, contributed by Jann and my limited fabric stash. But I improvised and let Jiejie had a little fun to sew it like a patchwork with the sewing machine. She was very enthusiasm at the beginning but died off half way of sewing. Can't really blame her, she ain't her usual self. I completed the work in the end.  

Second, story time on The Magic Quilt. She was happy and into this: Get ready duck headband, queen's crown and the craft quilt. I read the storyline that was prepared by Jann. Jiejie insisted to be the Queen and so, Little Bomber is the ducky... the one without the noisy quacking. 

• Once upon a time, there was a farmer with a group of duckies (put duck headband on child). 
• But there is one little duck that quack very loud and will lead the other duckies to quack all day long. (Child to quack... and quack...). They were never quiet. 
• One day, the farmer was tired and he needed a Quiet peaceful rest. He yelled, "QUIET! QUIET! STOP QUACKING!" But the duckies continue to quack. (Child to quack... and quack...). 
• While the duckies were noisily quacking away, a Queen (Mummy put on the crown) passed by. She heard the quacking and wanted to help the farmer. 
• The queen took out a Magic Quilt (the craft quilt) and told the farmer that if he raise up the quilt, the duckies would keep quiet. So the queen raised the quilt up and the duckies stopped quacking and were QUIET! (Prompt child by putting fingers on lips) But when she took the quilt down, they started to quack noisily again (Child to quack... and quack...). The queen again raised the quilt up and the duckies kept quiet.
• Finally, the farmer hung the quilt in the farm and the duckies stopped quacking. At last, the farm was quiet again and the farmer can have a good quiet rest so everyone is very happy.

Thirdly, pretend-play: used the craft quilt to cover Jiejie, pat her and sing "Are you sleeping". At the same time, I pat Little Bomber too. I usually don't pat them to sleep, but I reckon this time 1 was just taken the medicine & the other kid was tired, both dozed off at 4 plus in the afternoon.

Her condition was rather like riding on a roller coaster. She became teary after dinner and cranky. "No" was the only word I don't wish to hear more but she kept repeating it. Somehow, when she is ill, it also means both of us on EQ test. It was a busy day on remote desktop connection and 2 kids, thank God that MIL is here to help around. As she's got sensitive lungs, I began her Ventolin and Flixotide puffers to ease her breathing.

Let's hope that she will be better tomorrow.

Side note... I am now game into making a proper quilt like expert Yvette:o)...

Learning Compassion Early through Volunteerism by Emily Patterson

This is a guest post. Thanks Emily for sharing with us about teaching children to volunteer.

Submitted on behalf of Primrose Schools: preschool working to be the best in education and child by Emily Patterson (@epatt1062)

In a world where television highlights spoiled teens or the extravagant lifestyles afforded to rich children, many parents are seeking ways to counteract such images and ideas by raising more compassionate and caring children.

Many parents seek to do this by teaching volunteerism to their children while they are young and giving them an earlier start on helping others.

Volunteering can play an important part in building a child's character and establish a positive habit, rather than a bad one. Working together at volunteer work with their child can allow parents precious bonding time, while making an impact in their communities that a child will certainly notice and be proud to have done.

One of the first steps to getting a child involved through volunteering is not about the child at all. Instead, the parents should address their own goals for getting their children to volunteer. What sorts of organizations do the parents want the children to be involved with? What kinds of lessons do they hope their children will learn? Choosing a cause that is meaningful to the family is a good start in this direction.

With a broader group of organizations in mind, parents can begin narrowing that list down to those that are appropriate for a given child's age. Some activities might be very meaningful, but they may be difficult for a child to understand or even find ways to participate. When they can see the results of their work, they are more likely to grasp the idea. Also keep in mind that young children do well in group activities and are capable of following instructions.

The third step narrows the list down further. While some activities may be wonderful learning experiences for children, the atmosphere or organization itself may not necessarily be child-friendly. Parents should research a group's staff and history to understand if their children would be welcome.

Having planned these parts out will make the final step much easier on parents: Explaining to the children about volunteerism and the contribution that can be made to the community as well as the type of work the child may do at a specific organization. Once a parent has established an answer to these questions for himself or herself, it is much easier to answer that most-popular question in a child's vocabulary: "Why?"

Teaching a child to volunteer benefits both the hear-and-now and the near future. A compassionate, giving child is much more likely to one day become a compassionate, giving adult.  

Goodbye

My maternal Grandma.
1921-2011.

May she rest in peace.

Credits: Designer Digitals Chat Freebie, Katie Pertiet, RuthMelody Designs. 

I didn't get to say goodbye in the end.

Cover for sofa... my way.

Three years ago,

we moved into this house without a sofa.

No time for furniture shopping.

Minimalist for easy floor mopping. 

Good 'common' space for Jiejie to have lots of play and mess.

The hall is small, so to speak.

Anyway, a living hall without a sofa isn't friendly to my guests. 

A year later we saw this in The Green.

Clean cut.

Naturally elegant. IMO.

2-seater, 

Simply fit into our humble space.

However, I have to be extra careful when the girls are around.

It's fabric!

It's extremely troublesome to unzip and separate the cover sheet for washing purpose. 

Well, Jiejie is old enough to know where not to doodle.

But not Little Bomber who is naively curious to explore anything and everything.

It was just another attempt to sew. 

It's fun to dress up the sofa bit. Isn't it?

I mean, it is really a fabric being stitched at the 2 corners and top over the sofa seat.

See what I mean...

See how fun this could be for her? 

Peek-a-boo!

It took me a while to find another fabric to "close the loop" seamlessly.

Thought this is tight to be hold at both ends at all time; 

easy for me to remove the cover for washing if necessary.

When it is in place, the leafy cover sheet will be tug in and hid under the cushions. 

See the tightness of the cover?

I was beaming from ear to ear.

The work revealing.

Trust me, it is tightly tug in and hid under the cushions.

For most of us when we sit down. 

The sheet may fold a bit,

coming out a bit.

Different story for my dear fatty SC, the neatly leafy cover will behave like a runaway son after he sits on it.  

Crumple, and half of the cover is out from the seat. 

Sobbing for tug-in nicely again. 

He is warned!

Now, peek-a-boo no more:).

I wanted to continue the sewing on the sofa cushion covers.

But the problem I have now is, 

I didn't buy enough fabric!

I went back to Spotlight the other day.

They sold out this colour, particularly!

Very bad luck. 

Sigh... need more shopping to find the right match for the leafy sheet...

walnut brownie

Need a break from stress of dealine.

Hence, featuring this...

I have been making this walnut brownie for 3 times in less than 2 weeks.

1st was testing.

Overwhelmed with the rich chocolate and the successful attempt.

2nd was for the girl's 6th birthday party last Saturday.

Double the ingredients.

A little dry. 

3rd was yesterday dawn. 

For little Bomber's nanny and family's great help in the party.

Appreciation from the bottom of my heart.

I do wish that the spirit of (baking) enthusiasm will spill over to... now in office.

Back to digging history of work and do my self-appraisal!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

200g dark cooking chocolate
125g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup self raising flour
1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 180C.
Chop the chocolate into pieces of about 2-3 centimeters.
Chop the butter and add it to the chocolate.

On low heat on the stove, melt the mixture without bubbling.
Remove the mixture from the heat and carefully fold in the brown sugar.
Add eggs, stirring carefully.
Slowly sift in the flour and fold it into the mixture.
Add milk, mixing it in completely.
Add chopped walnuts.

Pour the mixture into a greased medium-sized baking tray lined with baking paper.
Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for five minutes,
then turn onto a wire rack until cool and slice into squares.
Dust with icing sugar.

I Went for Phonics Class

I understand that, there is more than one way to help young children to read, probably Phonics is one of them. Before I was a mum, I personally see how well phonics helped my young cousins to decode the sounds for each letter, learn and assimilate word. They were able to read out loud on Peter and Jane series at preschool stage. I know nuts about phonics. I struggled in learning English by memorizing hard on each and every new vocabulary. [That explains the standard of language here;)]

On the other hand, the childcare center of Jiejie doesn't offer a structured phonics lesson to kids. I realised that their curriculum is science based and provide a literacy programme to build children's vocabulary in English Language. In a way, Jiejie is kind of taking her own sweet time to learn listening, speaking, reading, spelling and writing, prior to her Primary 1 next year.

So she joined into "I Can Read" programme in the beginning of the year. I have to guide her in doing those weekly homework. It is usually just 2 or 3 pages of identifying and colouring exercise and I just need to do a little help to prompt her on the sound of letter. Often, I fail to differentiate the sound of "A" and "E". I started to pay very serious attention to hear Jolly phonic in youtube, repeatedly, till I wonder, am I too old for phonics?... It was somewhat embarrassing. 

Coincidentally, SL, Jiejie's classmate's mum, shared with me about Phonics by Jann, a course for parents. At the same time, I thought it would be good to learn about fun learning session at home effectively. Not only will it benefit Jiejie, but also to Little Bomber in future.

When I first called Jann, she listened to my background and my daughter's learning pace pretty carefully. She sounded like a doctor and diagnosed "my case" immediately over the phone. I then followed-up with an email on the detail of the course. She managed to slot me in the earlier class she could find for me, knowing that my girl is pretty much behind in term of able to read and write. Anyway, to cut the story short, I signed up and became Jann's student.[reasonable price and distance]

Jann is a SAHM and was a pre-school teacher previously. I reckoned that's why she is able to outline her course in a structured manner, creatively and comprehensively cover the phonics from A to Z. She provides craft material for every letter, and each letter consist of 2 sets of lesson plans. Frankly, I can't imagine how she produced all the material by duplicating, cutting, sorting and packing. On top of that, she emailed us the videos on songs as part of the lesson plan every week, prior to our class with her. There are at least 6 of us for every class I attended. She must be a very well organised person!

In the lesson plan, by combining flashcard, craftwork, story-telling, singing song and a magic bag with objects that starts with the letter, it makes the home-learning truly fun and meaningful. In addition to that, she also shared tips on effective strategies in prompting using phonics, spelling, stages of reading, writing ideas and how to encourage creativity and meaningful ways that lead to children self-learning. To her, age 3 is the appropriate time to start phonics and slowly guide the child at home. Once the child is familiar with the sounds for all letters, mummy should apply phonics sound to prompt child for spelling. If the child is unable to spell out the word after prompting, we are to write down what the child spell so that they can see what they are combining the letters and form the word. What she believes is that, if the child is being taught effectively and knows how to spell many words by 4 or 5 (depending on the child's progress), together with regular reading, it can lead to early writing. Once a child can spell, read and write by 6 years old, the likelihood is that tuition is not needed during P1 and P2. The child will be able to self-learn, perhaps with some help from parents.

Sounds pretty attractive to me! Jann's lesson plan is a great resource to re-start our home-learning. Jiejie likes it! She often ask if there is any craftwork for her to do. However, I can't afford to spend longer than 15 mins with her on one full lesson plan as I tend to run into kitchen, or Little Bomber, or some other chores at home. Fortunately, she is mature enough to do the craftwork independently while I'm 5 or 10 mins away from her.

You can see more on the fun home-learning through Winny's sharing:).

Letter N - Craftwork on colouring macoroni and make necklace.

Seeing that she is enjoying her learning journey, so I have to be consistent with her on the lesson plan provided by Jann. As I always have pockets of time, I alter Jann's lesson plan by doing more on craftwork (skipping the part on letter tracing, flashcard and magic bag) and cultivate the prompting habit on her to assimilate words.  Sometimes she would frown and request me to stop prompting her; other times she guided me through instead. I admit that I need to brush up my skill on phonics prompting. 

At night, we continue our routine on reading too (10-15 mins). Jann advised us to read books with interesting storyline. Interesting storybooks with repeated words or sentences are very helpful for memory reading. The stages of reading from 'Read-To' to 'Read-With' progress will be able to guide the child to learn the pronunciation and visually absorb the words and capture the word as we read to or with them. Eventually, the child will be interested to read on his/her own. 

Scholastic book: This is the Way We Take a Bath.

These days, we try to distract her from iPad to do other activities at home. I reckon several exposures in learning (through childcare, enrichment and home-learning) has build her word bank as well as confidence. She's now attempting to self-read as well as write her own story. Recently, she re-read book 4A and into 5A of Peter and Jane Series. It is heartening to see her progress well.

***************************

The course will be featured in Straits Times soon and I got the chance to be interviewed about the course. But when the journalist asked me (over the phone) why did I take up the course at the very first place. I didn't answer her fully.

If you ask me... I would say, I'm greedy and try to learn as much as I can to inspire my child in learning, similar to my new attempts in sewing and cooking/baking. Life seems more interesting with all sort of learning. I try not to sub-contract the responsibility to all kind of so-called professional tuition and other services in future, which leads to her possibility to rely on others to learn and to explore her curiosity. Also, through the phonics materials given by Jann, I dirty my hands in the mud to deal with her attitude and temper on doing the writing, cutting, pasting and drawing. Sometime, a session of the home-learning does harsh her mellow. Or mine. 

I'll deal with that part slowly. 

If possible, I want to send the message to her that, if I can do it, so can she, in anything that we want to. Of course, you may say that, go do something harder and inspire her!