K Spells Bus

K took me by surprise when he spelled out "bus". I didn't expect that at all. I'm always talking and answering myself. I was actually quite shock to hear him spell and to reconfirm that, I asked again and he spelled it out loud and clear.

Painting = Car Painting

My boys are just so crazy over transportation such as cars, and eversince I introduced car painting to them, I can't shake this off. We always ended up with cars for 9 out of 10 painting sessions.

Sensory Art - Painting with Feathers

The boys like to go to our craft box to check out our craft materials and specifically asked for paint. So, I did a painting activity with them using feathers.

What You Need:
Paper/Drawing Block
Paint
Feathers

First, I started choosing the paint colors that goes with the feather colors I have and I did a matching activity with them. They weren't keen as they were anxious to start painting.

They were free to do what they want with the feathers and paint.

K smiled at the camera! :)

K got a little frustrated as the feather is too soft to hold like a brush/pen.

I like to give them the freedom to do what they want with the materials provided. The basic rule is, they should not end up on the floor. I think they react differently when they were told right the begining of what to do and when I left it open. For crafts, I give instructions and will demostrate on what to do but with Art, I like to leave it open. It's interesting to see them exploring with the feathers and thinking what they should do with the feathers and paint. And actually, no explaination is required, they just paint. They tried to hold the feathers like a pen, they tried to brush the feathers over the paper, etc. I just love to see them explore.

Letter J Craft - J is for Jellyfish

We did a Letter J craft.

What You Need:
Paper Plates
Streamers made from Crepe Paper/Tissue Paper/Ribbons, etc
Googly Eyes (optional, the eyes can be drawn)
Stickers (optional too but my sons love them)

I broke down this craft into few parts due to their very grouchy mood and short attention span.

Part 1: Cut the paper plate in half and let them color

Part 2: I gave them dot stickers to paste on the streamers that I have cut out.

Part 3:
- I had double sided tape at the back of the paper plate and they attached the streamers.
- They pasted the googly eyes with my help
- I drew the mouth of the jellyfish
- They asked for more stickers for their jellyfish. They are still crazy over transportation. That's the reason why you are seeing a scooter sticker on the jellyfish.

Writing and Drawing Practice - With Sand

Eversince the small "accident" we had after our first Sand Sensory Play at home, we did not touch the bag of sand I bought. I didn't want to let it go to waste, especially after so much effort of finding it and lugging the 10kg load back home on public transport. I decided to do some writing and drawing practice with them today. Papa is home to join us in this activity, which is great because it's also safer with another adult supervising the activity.

What You Need:
2 trays or any shallow dish or container
Play Sand
Sticks (optional, I used disposable chopsticks)

I had originally wanted them to write/draw with their fingers but they refused to let go of their new motorbikes and were a little finicky about having sand on their fingers. I find it very weird. They don't think twice to touch the sand when we are at a beach but they need lots of encouragements to touch it when we are home. I guess Sand and Home just don't go together. :)

We went through some of the alphabets that had been taught and drew some objects that starts with the letter.

We used sticks to draw and smoothen the sand for new drawing.

Fine Motor Skills Activity - Scooping Beans

Scooping is a Montessori inspired activity. This is a very easy activity to put together to keep your children occupied for at least half an hour. It was 45 mins for mine. You can let your children practice scooping with all many materials available at home, rice and all sorts of beans, etc. But keep a close watch, though my boys have out grown tasting, they still attempt to put the beans in their mouth.

What You Need:
2 Containers
Spoons
Beans (I got those big red beans)

Y, practicing his scooping but he soon got impatient and just poured the beans over the other container.

L is for Ladyfingers - Painting or Stamping with Ladyfingers

Time passes so fast! I have been swamped with my work and have not been able to update the blog with the activities we did. Activities were cut down due to my work but I try to have at least 2 table activities each week.


We did ladyfinger stamping for Letter L crafts and it became painting instead of stamping when Y decided to turn the vegetable to have the sharp end pointing down.

What You Need:
Ladyfingers (cut into halves)
Paint
Paper

Y, doing his stamping

K had fun stamping too.

Y decided to turn the ladyfinger with the pointed side facing down. He used it like a brush to "brush" the stamped prints on his paper.

The aftermath.