Why Exams are Important Pt 2

So I get a message from Jordan's teacher yesterday.

She's been doodling a lot in class. Even when the teacher is teaching.

She's always been a doodler. She draws everywhere. Any time she gets her hands on scraps of paper, she'll doodle.

Sometimes, the doodling is effective because it helps her understand concepts better. Sometimes, it's just doodling for doodling sake.

Just a quick glance at her things all over the house, I found a variety of different sorts of doodles on everything from scrap paper to school test papers.

Hence, an annoyed school teacher.

To be fair, if I were the teacher, I'd be annoyed too since it's easy to assume that the child isn't paying attention when there is doodling. My own students do it as well.

Admirably, she admitted openly to the teacher that she doodles when she is bored (they've been going through exam paper after exam paper) and when she finds things hard to understand (that's how she unpacks things).

I also try and suggest to the teacher that instead of fully banning her from doing it and understanding that this is something that she does to process and to decompress, why not let her doodle as a form of note taking. To channel it into something the teacher can accept.

She seems to be open to that idea and I'm grateful.

Then, in the evening, I read about Nike's Chief of Design and how he doodles. All. The. Time. Part of me wants to send that article on to the teacher but the other part of me knows that's just being snarky. But it would be cool if her doodling allowed her to become chief of design, somewhere.

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The Anti-List for the holidays

The exams are finally, finally over for the twins. Jordan finished much earlier but Evan's drudgery only ended yesterday. Coincidentally, I was asked to write a piece about holidays activities. I thought about it and Packrat and I are pretty much of the opinion that JED, having relatively busy school days should be allowed to do nothing during the holidays. There is a great amount of value in giving them time to be bored.

So our default is to let them come up with their own games , read, go to the library, hang out and go downstairs to muck about or to explore new parks. And oh! Evan has asked for us to go back to Willing Hearts to do some work there. That, we'll definitely do at some point this June.

There. Done.

But I don't think that was what I was asked to write about though.

And honestly, there have been times where we've needed to park the kids somewhere so as to not drive their care-givers crazy while we were away or because they really wanted to learn something new.

So, the list that I'm sharing is of places that JED have tried before and have had quite a bit of fun with.

a. Art camps
A big hit even at this point with the twins being 10. There's always joy in mucking about with paint and creating something from it. We have excellent pieces on our walls courtesy of these art camps and it brings JED so much joy from being able to see their work on the walls.

We've done a few and some are better than others. We did one where I was told the kids weren't listening to instructions and painting it as they were told. We never went back there again even though it was close by us. We have however gone to heART Studio many times over even though it's further away. Their holiday programmes are by the day so it's great if you want them occupied for a couple of hours; though I'm tempted to sign Muffin up for the 2 day Dinosaur one.

b. Science camps.
I've heard that the BASF Science Labs for June are all filled up already and science camps are a whole lot of experimenty fun. The one that we really liked and we sent them to while we were away was a Discovery Vacation Camp which was a 5 day full day camp where they did experiments, went on field trips and actually learnt stuff they remember till today. The only thing about that was that Jordan said she felt homesick. Because it was longer than the typical school day. But that said, she remembers it fondly and they went as a big group of friends so it was a lot of fun.

c. Writing camps
Though only the twins have gone for writing camps, Muffin remembers fondly the time he sat in one with the twins. This was Monsters Under the Bed's Monsters HuntINK camp a few years back. I think at that point, they were still too young for it but they talk about the hydra and the medusa that they learnt about during that workshop. And then, there was the workshop they did last year, where they wrote and published their own book.

They would be happy if I sent them back to any of the ones above but what they really really want to go for is a building workshop where they learn coding and creating games because that's often what is on their minds these days. Evan got his hands on a flyer for the Tink Tank one and has cancelled off the ones that he's learnt in school like Scratch and decided that he wanted to do the MBot and Sphero one. Muffin is keen because he knows that Sphero built the BB-8 we have rolling around the house, though I cautioned him that it wasn't what he was going to build in 2 hours there. Jordan was torn between that and another workshop called Little Bits where you learnt to work with circuitry but Packrat said if they were going, they were ALL going to the same workshop.

There. A list. Of what I would do, what they could do if I gave them the chance to and what they really really want to do. 

All I can say is, I don't really care what we're going to do. I'm just ecstatic that the exams are over and we can do everything we want to or choose to do absolutely nothing.

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What mornings are like...

Picture essay of the first hour after the morning alarm goes off.

Pictures by Jordan.

The alarm goes off at 6 am. 

Is it a school day? 

Disgruntedly washing up.

Asleep but he remembers to lift the toilet seat.

Breakfast Reading

A hot breakfast with the sun streaming in.

Time to leave for school. Bye to Min the cat. 

Finally, feeling jaunty enough to head off to school.

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Multi-sensorial reading for the reluctant reader

Before the biological clock kicked in making me want kids, on one of those occasions when a hapless elder asked why I wasn't having kids yet, I flippantly retorted " not until someone can guarantee they won't hate books". I don't think the hapless elder understood that there was some genuine fear in that statement. She probably thought I was just being rude. I really wasn't. Not entirely anyway.

I spend a lot of time and money ordering books for JED. People tell me to go to the library but they like re-reading their books so much that we end up always borrowing the same books and they are reluctant to grow their repertoire at all. We discovered last year that audio books were a great way to introduce new books to them. And we haven't looked back since especially now that we've discovered this brilliant app called Overdrive that allows you to borrow electronic and audio versions of the book from your local library. I download the audio version and blue tooth it to the car radio and the kids are spell bound.

The one who loves the audio books the most is Evan. He's an auditory learner, he sponges up what he hears (not so good for us when us adults talk and use non-kosher language) and thoroughly immerses himself in it. After the Roald Dahl that we started with, we moved to the How to Train a Dragon series which he loved and got him started on the novels after. His How to Train a Dragon series is a very well-worn, well loved set. Jordan and Muffin however, only just tolerated the 11 book series and jointly put their foot down when he wanted to re-listen to the entire set again once he was complete. They and myself included were Dragon-ed out by then.

The thing with audio books is that how riveting it is depends very much on the reader. We tried to distract them with Kipling's Just-So stories which I had read to them before but they wouldn't bite because the reader was a yawn. We tried many others but we kept falling back on the Roald Dahls and Dragon ones. We had the Harry Potter books in store but we had initially wanted to wait till next year when they were a bit older but with all that bickering in the car, we caved and started them on it.

Can I just say that the Potter series is great? Stephen Fry reads the books and he does different voices and he makes his voice echo-ey or ghoul like depending on what was needed. The twins love it. Muffin isn't as keen on it but we suspect it's because the story is so dense, he finds it difficult to keep up.

Evan started to ask for random car rides just so that he could hear more of the story until I told him he could open the book to where he stopped in the car and read on. This was a holiday morning and at 11am that morning, he was still in pyjamas because he hadn't stopped reading. It was then that I recalled how big a phenomenon the Potter books were when they released, to the point that television viewership numbers always dropped after a Potter book got released.

Based on what he had heard and read in the first book, Evan came up with his version of Hogwarts. It was truly comprehensive with the towers, the dungeons, the 3-headed dog and even the Philosopher's Stone, only missing out the Quidditch pitch which he said he would work on next.

To round it all off, we sat with them and watched the movie. Now, that was a bit too intense for them, especially the ending though Packrat and I realised that watching it with JED was a different experience from when we saw it for the very first time all those years ago. All the special effects were readily appreciated. The highlight of the movie was obviously any part that had flying brooms for Evan and Jordan wanted to go to a school where the staircases moved. Muffin wanted a hat like the Sorting Hat which could talk.

Unfortunately, not all book experiences can be multi-sensorial. But it really isn't a bad place to start.

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Grandpa's 70th: The Gift

Grandpa turned 70 on Boxing Day and it was going to be a big do. The celebrations began at the beginning of December when we all went off on the cruise. It was Grandpa's way of celebrating his birthday with the family; all of us on the ship with him.

In between coming back from that and Christmas, we decided that we needed to get a present done for Grandpa. Something large enough to be presented to him at dinner. When Sher-maine blogged about the gift she gave to her kids' pre-school, we decided that would be perfect for a 70 year old who pretty much has everything.

We spent the entire Saturday morning at the Mosaic Workshop and some of the afternoon doing it. The first thing was to decide what we wanted on the mosaic.  That wasn't difficult. It would be the cruise we were just on and we would have the word "US" emblazoned onto the hull and stones representing Grandpa, Grandma and JED (though if you count carefully, there are more stones than there are people!). Jordan, our resident artist sketched out the ship on the ocean from a photograph we had. Packrat transferred it onto a 2 ft x 1 ft plank and the rest of us descended on it.

It took a lot of patience and it was very repetitive, placing one tile after another. It was pretty much, slather the glue and place the tiles, rinse and repeat a couple of thousand times. Thankfully, it moved quite quickly and even Muffin did a significant bit of it. They all lay claim to different parts of the mosaic. Muffin did all the cabins. Evan did all the sun, some of the cloud and sky. Jordan did the ocean and the different shades of it. Packrat and I just filled it where ever we needed to. 

 The owner, Nanette and her assistant Nerissa chipped in to help as well. Nanette made some suggestions, like leaving a blank space on the hull of the ship so that we could actually stick a photograph of us onto it. About 5 hours, with lunch in between, later, it was pretty much done though there was grouting and wiping to be done.

Nanette very helpfully tiled the edges and touched it up for us while we dragged 3 very exhausted and cranky children home. It wasn't the physical exhaustion but the mental exhaustion that came from focusing and tiling that killed them. Packrat and I actually found it very therapeutic though after hours of staring at it, when we closed our eyes, we were still seeing in mosaic. 

We loved the gradated ocean floor, the rainbow coloured "US" and the sun. I think if I did it again, the only thing I would change is to grout it in a darker colour but even as is, it was pretty awesome. 

Unfortunately, we don't actually have any pictures of JED presenting it to Grandpa. Everyone was focussed on making sure the hefty piece didn't drop on anyone's toes. 

But it did look plenty gorgeous and Grandpa's already figured out where to hang it in the house.

We were totally in love with the place and what I would give to actually have a work table totally tiled in mosaic. Now I'm itching to go back and do one in hydrangeas or irises for my mom but to be able to find a pocket of time to do that is another story.

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Holiday things to do- heART for art (A Giveaway)

The holidays have arrived and I have been asked, with deep seated panic, by other parents 'WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THE KIDS DURING THE HOLIDAYS?'  and then followed by the question, what sort of holiday classes the twins will attend. For most part, I try not to send them for classes, for a variety of reasons.
a. They are generally expensive when I have to multiply them by two or three.
b. Holidays are meant to be just that, holidays- away from structured classes and time.
c. This article together with others about free play vs summer camps echo quite loudly in my head.

I have, occasionally, signed up for classes for JED. It happens when the children are genuinely interested, ask to attend them and we can find space in our budget for them. The other situation is usually when we have to travel and JED are parked with the grand-maters. In that situation, the grand-maters and carers often need some time away from what can be very demanding children so we build in time-outs and breathers for them (the carers not JED) by sending them off for a few hours every day.

When I have to pick holiday programmes for them, my general rule of thumb is that they have to be non-academic, fun and either invokes creativity or are creative and they have to have to pass muster by said child.

Jordan's request for holiday programmes usually run along the lines of arty or dancey classes and over the years, we've figured out how to pick the good ones for her. We've also figured out a way of weeding out the duds.

Arty classes cannot
a. Be large- Art work, especially on canvas requires some supervision. If a class is too big, the pieces come back looking like they fell off a production line or in a total mess. 

b. Have right and wrong- I once had an art teacher who complained about how the twins had done things wrong. All they had done was to add their own personal flourishes into the art piece. That got them labelled as 'disobedient'.

c. Be uniformed- Usually there is a theme for art classes but when a child decides to use his fingers to do dots rather than a paintbrush, it should not result in a scolding. Art at this point is about allowing a child to explore the various mediums of the form.

d. Expect you to pay for the ridiculous- We're done with dance camps where we have to end up paying for tickets and costumes for End of Camp show pieces. 


The classes that worked were always the ones that
a. Had teachers or facilitators that made the children feel comfortable and spoke to the children at their level. They were also the ones that how to relate to children.

b.Had structure. It wasn't that creative and fun meant free for all. Little ones thrive on structure because they have an idea of what to expect and where they were headed to next.

c. Had activities pitched at the child's levels. That showed that they weren't just out to fleece the parents but had some sort of understanding as to what a 3 or 4 or 5 year old was capable of and how long the attention span was for that demographic.


So, Jordan and my choice of an art studio is heART studio. It's small but the ambience is cheery and the teachers engage. In my book, any place that can convince 'does not like new experiences' Evan to do try something different (we sent both of them at the same time) is a win in my book. No tears, excitement at being able to muck about with chalk and get dirty meant Mommy was quickly forgotten.

Jordan loved playing the the chalk on canvas and loved how she was shown to get her pinks just right.

All this and the interesting one- day camps they had made it on top of my list for art holiday programmes.

Even 3 year old Muffin who at that point hadn't gone for anything of this sort allowed Packrat to leave him for 3 hours where he splattered and painted on a canvas and surprised us with a space ship, Mars (in his words) and Earth. My favourite part of his painting was actually the stars.

Jordan and Evan haven't been back to heART in a while though they had a lot of fun there and remember it fondly.  Muffin has since gone back again for another of their vacation programmes where he got to paint Obi-wan Kenobi. He would have gone back for every repeat session if I had let him because he wanted to do a collection of Star Wars paintings.  

So, because it's the holidays coming up and to celebrate the beginning of it, Diaperbag is giving away two holiday camp classes from the many available;

•  A Canvas Painting session of Mr or Miss Fox from Mr Fox's Adventures-  for 3 to 4 year olds 
• A Canvas and Clay session of  Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer one for 7 year olds and above. 

Both classes are on 12 December at 1.30 pm to 4 pm.

Here's how to win one.  
1. What's the one favourite thing that you or your kid likes to draw? (I love drawing snails. I don't know why. All my notes from JC and uni days are filled with snails) Do this by 24 November 2014. 
2. Leave us your name and email address so that we can contact you. 
3. Check out heART Studio's FB page and like it so that you get updates on their courses. 

Some thing to note:

• The child has to be within the age range for the specific workshop. 
• No repeat winners are allowed. 
• Winners will be notified by email, through the email address provided. (So don't forget to leave one!) 
• Winners must confirm by reply email or phone call, within three days. Otherwise, we'll take it as you aren't interested and give it to someone else
• The workshops have been specifically picked by heART Studio so they can't be swoped for another  day or another workshop. 
• No existing students allowed, we want to let the uninitiated have an opportunity. 
• This giveaway is open to Singapore residents only.

Schedule for Dec 8 to 12

Schedule for Dec 15 to 19 

heART Studio very kindly gave JED an art session for each of them in exchange for this post. But the two cents worth of opinions here are ours. 

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An unexpected visitor

The twins have been in primary school for about a month. And it's become very clear to us that of the two, Evan is enjoying it much more than Jordan is. There is very little that appeals to Jordan in school. It isn't a good fit for her. Her teachers, too busy with 34 other children barely know who she is. Time outside in the play areas are less than 30 minutes on non-PE days and slightly less than 60 minutes on PE days. Her kinesthetic strengths are quashed by the need to sit for hours on end and the effort that she has to make to do so has exhausted her to the point that she doesn't really have any interest in doing much else.

The Singaporean parent in us wants to tell her that she's got to just suck it up and get used to it. It is after all the Singapore education system that she is going to find herself entrenched in for the next goodness knows how many years.

The educator in us is saddened. We see before our eyes what Ken Robinson was talking about when he spoke about schools killing creativity. Jordan, the one who drew at every chance she got, wasn't drawing anymore. And when she did draw, it didn't amount to very much. Her drawings seemed to reflect her mood; blah and uninterested. Then yesterday, we kept her home because she had a ear infection. She was the happiest child in pain I had ever seen. She had an entire day at home with nothing to do and no school to go to. And what she did was draw. Draw and draw and draw. She drew a mildly disturbing narrative of a pirate killing a bear for food but it was coming of her in oodles. She seemed free of the artistic constipation that seemed to have defined her for the last month. I spent most of last night picking up scraps of paper all over the house that she had drawn on.

The month has been us tip-toeing around her, trying to figure out what would work to bring back that spark in her eyes. It brought us joy to see her drawing with such fervour.  But at the same time, it saddened us. Being in school seems to have dulled her desire to create and we worry about the long term implications of that. Will her desire to draw and create really be beaten out of her by the rigor and demands of our one-size-fits-all school system? Will she end up being mediocre because much of what makes her Jordan doesn't fit into what is expected of a Singaporean student?

We try our best to give her time outside of school that she can just be Jordan. We have freed up their weekends and some of their weekday afternoons but it wasn't till the unexpected breather yesterday that we saw the Jordan of old surface. I want to hope that it really is just a period of adjustment for her and that she will be able to find that balance between boring school and fun everything else.

This morning, that chirpy and enthusiastic Jordan had retreated back into her shell once again; to be replaced by the surly, grumpy one who wasn't keen on going to school and slouching into the school gates with a storm cloud over her head.

Hopefully it blows over.

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Spoil Market

I get very stressed with Teachers' Day because JED aren't old enough to fully take charge of Teachers' Day gifts. But Jordan and Evan can do some of the bits with minimal supervision. They can make cards.

Except, Jordan doesn't just make a card. She insists on writing a book for her teacher; fully illustrated and coloured. She even tells us very specifically where the 'conflict' is in her story.

Evan looks up at his effort, looks over at hers and while he doesn't say anything, it's written all over his face "Spoil market!" and possibly the formings of expletives that he doesn't yet know. I work with him and we come up with something passable but he doesn't allow me to photograph it. To his credit, he ties bows on their gifts to their teachers much more deftly than she does (his shoes have laces). And Jordan's reaction to his being able to do that was pretty much the same as his was earlier.

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Giveaway Closed: Painting Castles in the Rain

There have been  quite a few mums talking blogging about being Full Time Working Moms and how they juggle their jobs, their kids and their lives. I'm not sure I qualify as a Full Time Working Mom because I don't clock regular 9-5 hours but my days are packed full and I have to actively carve out portions of time for the children.

Those portions of time are known as 'protected time' by my bosses and they know that should they hazard to call during those times, they are likely to get an Ondine who is frazzled, stand off-ish and makes no qualms about sounding like she needs to get off the phone. The nature of my job can end up with me working round the clock even if I don't head into the office; that is why the 'protected time' is necessary.

Unfortunately, there are times that this isn't enough. Accountants have tax seasons, businesses have the ends of the financial year and teachers have exam seasons. During the exam seasons, I teach two or three times more than I usually do. That means much less time with JED.  When they were much younger and my sense of obligation was much greater than my sense of affection for them, I felt more guilt than anything when the peak season hit. These days, it's different. In the last 5 1/2 years I have developed a serious love affair with JED and I am resentful when anything takes me away from them for an extended period of time.

At an outing to the beach with my aunt once, I lamented that these were the things I would miss when I went back to work. Her response was that I did these things because I did go to work and had I not been going to work, it would be unlikely that I would put in so much effort into taking them out.True that.

So, when it is crunch time like this, I feel more of a need to do something special with them; perhaps to compensate for the little time I have to spend with them. Last week, I took two hours out and went hunting for organic sausages to make our "Sausage Monsters". This week, I decided I was going to organise a play date. It wasn't going to be a play date where the kids just came together to play, although that would be fun too, but a painting play date. JED love mucking about with paint. We have a big stairway area that serves as their 'mucking about' place. I had also found online a craft store called CraftPlay; they sold castles made out of recycled box materials and I thought it would be fun for JED and their friends to paint them all. There would be enough to go around. On top of that, when I wrote to Craft Play telling them that I needed the castles for a play date, they sent me two additional towers. Evan took possession of those towers and declared them the guard posts (he doesn't know the word sentry yet).

Jordan, Chloe (our neighbour), Faith (Jordan's friend), Evan and Muffin were vibrating on the spot rearing to go as I got things ready. Excited little children make great helpers as we lay brown paper on the ground and got them to tape the pieces together. That way, they could sit on relatively clean floor, we protect the floor and they had additional surfaces to paint on.

There was little bickering as each busied themselves painting the various towers. Occasional bits of conversation involved discussing which part of the castle it was that they were busy with; the Queen's bedroom (Jordan), the dining room (Faith), the dungeon (Evan).

 

At the end of it, I asked each little one what they had most fun with.
Jordan: Painting with my friends and making every wall of my tower a different colour.
Evan: Painting under the umbrellas and mixing the water till it got yucky! (The rain was coming in and rather than move the entire exercise somewhere else, I put out big golf umbrellas so that they could hide under it.
Faith: The big bowls of paint and the cheese bunnies (Cheese bunnies were the snack of choice)
Chloe: Painting under the umbrella and painting big towers. Easy to paint.
Muffin: Paint on my feet!

By the end of it, there was paint on all the surfaces, faces, legs, arms, hands and feet. But the final product was bright and in happy colours. Each was proud of what they had done and told anyone who would listen what they had done.

The other mommies were all happy because the kids had been occupied for the previous two hours and they were hungry and cooperative when they went home. As for the JED kids, they were clamouring for another play date like that, with friends and with big pieces of stuff that they could pain.

For me, I had to go; had to take a shower, had no time for dinner and had to catch the train to work. But as I left the house, JED happily waved at me across their dinner bowls and I felt at peace, that I had had my fun with them and I could go to work in happy albeit exhausted peace.

So, what do I think of the Full Time Work Mom schtick? I don't love it but it is my lot in life now. I am thankful that my current job, while requiring me to work ridiculous hours, also gives me little time outs to plan and do things with JED. It is a lot about assuaging my own guilt and resentment. Packrat assures me that they don't mind that I am not around (in fact, they enjoy the fact that the Nazi task master disguised as their mom is occasionally absent and they get to run amok!). But when I know that they are happy and they know that Mommy loves them, I am okay to leave them and go to work.

Linking up with

Updated:
When we sent pictures of our craft date to Craft Play, they were most thrilled. As a thank you, they're sending us another set of castles.

Since we've had our fun with our castle painting, we're passing this on to a reader who promises to make some kid's / kids day by letting them muck about and throw some paint onto a castle.

We're going to pick a winner for this somewhat randomly, as long as;

1. You leave a comment below, answering the following question, that will most likely feed into our latent fantasies.

- If you could live in a castle and design a room or a suite or rooms, how would you do so?-

When I asked Jordan this, she said she wanted it rainbow coloured.

2. "Like" the CraftPlay page on Facebook here

3. Share the FB link you saw this post on!

We're going to let you channel the Duchess of Cambridge and Martha Stewart for a week and choose a reader to give the castle away to next Monday, the 25th of March 2013.

---
And we have a winner!
We've decided it to give it to the reader who thought about indulging herself instead of her kids. It's always good to dream for ourselves once in a while!

Anyway, Adora Tan, consider your dream heard. Now, if only we knew Santa!

So CraftPlay will have to do. They will be in touch with you soon!


Technorati Tags: JED, FTWM, play date, Craft Play

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Lost in Translation

The twins have cousins from New Zealand.

The last time they met, they were all pretty much pre-verbal.

This time, they got along like a house on fire.

But they had to get over some initial obstacles first.

E, has a heavy strong Kiwi accent and that led to many occasions of miscommunication.

Jordan was drawing a rainbow.
E: Oh! I do like your rainbow.
Jordan: Oh! Don't say that! That's very rude.
Packrat: Jordan, E was saying that she liked your rainbow. I DO like your rainbow.
Jordan: Oh! Ok. (To E) Thank you, you speak beautifully but I don't understand you!

I would very much like it if JED could be close to all their cousins, even the ones that lived a far distance away.

JED spent the afternoon with their cousins from New Zealand yesterday and haven't stopped talking about them. Especially Jordan who wants to speak like E! She'e gotta go spend some time there to speak like that but unfortunately Packrat would be bored out of his mind there.

 Technorati Tags: twins, cousins

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A for Art book

The visual arts are where I have the least amount of personal exposure in. Possibly because I failed art in Sec 1 and was shamed by my art teacher. But I married the president of the Art Club and my children seem to enjoy and have a flair for art more than I do.

When I saw this book, I Spy, An Alphabet in Art, on Amazon, I immediately bought it. Partially because then I would know 26 great art pieces and not be as ignorant as before but also because it was a really fun and slightly more adult way of learning the ABC.

Each page starts of with "I spy with my little eye something (either beginning or ending) with ..." And there is a painting with something sometimes as common as a Cat for C or uncommon as L for Lily.

Jordan loves looking at the pictures and occasionally trying to draw something from it. Evan can't really be bothered with it although I've seen him take cursory glances at it. But Muffin loved it. He looked at every page, read out every letter and tried his darndest to find the object in the picture that was associated with the letter. Some of them were so way out that even I didn't get it and the ones where it the object ended with the letter, he needed help. 

But he went through the entire book and then flipped back to look at the pictures he liked best. E for elephant was an Indian painting with ceremonial elephants and he was tickled with A for Apple because I asked him where the man's eyes were and he couldn't tell me since the apple blocked his face. (See cover). 

I loved that I wasn't needing to use conventional methods to teach him the alphabets. I hate flash cards and I am desperately trying to wean him off the iPad. I also liked that Muffin wasn't limited to the cartoony run-of-the-mill basic alphabet object references. But most importantly, this was fun and didn't feel like work to either of us although there were occasionally furrowed brows. This was F and poor Muffin couldn't understand why Picasso had painted the fish as a plate on the lady's head.  Neither could I for that matter and I am a grown woman who already knows her alphabets!

 Technorati Tags: pre-schoolers, art

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Easter art

In the spirit of Easter, I decided that the twins should, as an after nap activity, paint Easter eggs. They are quite well-versed as to what to do with paint and how it goes on objects but not in the mouth. Of course, there were moments of confusion where Jordan tried to eat her painted Easter egg but I suspect that had more to do with the adults reminding her NOT to eat the egg. And in typical toddler style, only heard the command "EAT".

As with all planned activities, they do what they are supposed to do for about ten minutes and then re-invent the activity. So, after they were done painting the eggs, they got to painting their hands and the hands of all of us around. I needed one hand paint free for fear that Packrat would not be amused that there were paint marks over his precious camera.

Then there was the great science/ art experiment where all the colours in the palette became a tie-dye mish-mash of colours. They figured out that they could change the colour in the palette segment by adding another colour into it so it was squishy fun for them. Of course, it also meant a larger mess and that hands needed to be washed.

Evan, however was not pleased that his very colourful hands got washed out and the water got taken away. I think more importantly was that the water got taken away because the basin of water was also turning a strange grey green blue shade that seemed to fascinate him.

His pout here is priceless. Obviously, Packrat says it's my pout but whatever it is, he displays his displeasure so clearly and for all to see.


























The eventual eggs seemed strangely to imply a bright and a dour disposition in our twins. Baby J's all bright pink and red and Evan's dark army green and solemn. It may be a manifestation of what colours they are more inclined to or it may just have been that these were colours closest to them. We had to throw out the eggs after though because Jordan dropped them and the shell cracked, colouring the hard egg white into a myriad of inedible colours.

















How to make Easter eggs?

What you need:
- Hard boiled eggs. VERY hard boiled preferably. If kids are older, the egg can be drained out of the egg shell but with my little Godzillas who don't know their stregnth, that would have shattered within seconds. Another suggestion was to use ping-pong balls so that they could play with it later and we didn't have to waste good food.

- An egg carton cut up. This way, there is somewhere to place the egg while painting and for it to dry.

- Paint ( I only have 3 primary colours but I mixed a palette of 6 colours for them to muck about with. Red, yellow, blue, orange, green and pink)

- Paint brushes- bigger ones are better especially for the younger kids whose motor control are not so refined yet.

- Newspaper for the floor and water to wash the hands, brushes and palette.

It can be as simple or as complicated as you want. I opted for what I thought the 21 month olds could handle. And this, they just about could.



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