Drawings

We started the morning with some random drawings on Sophie's whiteboard. I took the opportunity to encourage her to talk about her drawings. After we have almost worn out the dry erase markers, Sophie took out her normal markers to work on paper. I sort of guided her verbally in her drawing, but she did it entirely on her own.

Sophie : (scribbled something pink) Monster!
Mama : Oh… and where are his eyes?
Sophie : (added 3 dots) Here!
Mama : Wow, scary monster!
Sophie : (scribbled something blue) Bird!
Mama : Okay, where is your bird? (handed her a brown marker) Is it in a tree?
Sophie : Yes… (scribbled a brown line)
Mama : (handed her a green marker) And what about leaves?
Sophie : (added some shorter green lines) ...
Mama: (offered a yellow marker) You want to draw a sun?
Sophie : (drew a circle) Sun!

Sophie : (scribbled some brown lines) Owl!
Mama : Oh, that’s an owl and it’s in a tree trunk… (pointing at the vertical brown line) Owls come out at night, would you like to draw a moon?
Sophie : (grabbed the grey marker from my hand and drew a huge moon) Moon!

Mama : So what are you drawing now?
Sophie : (continued scribbling) …

Sophie ignored me and stopped drawing. She insisted that her works must be displayed so we put it up.

Sophie's Imagination

I bought Sophie this Peg Board Set some time ago when she showed interest in marker caps. She enjoyed taking the cap on and off so I thought she might like putting pegs into holes and taking them out. However, she could only do it properly now. Sophie never failed to amaze me with her imagination though.

Sophie's Speech

Sophie loves to play pretend but today was the first time I heard an actual conversation between her and her imaginary friend.

Sophie's Friend : Oh no... sticker (is) gone!
Sophie : Don't worry (stroking her own left hand), we'll find sticker!
Sophie's Friend : You will? Great!

During lunch, I got pretty angry with Sophie, as usual, when she refused to chew and swallow her food. She would hold it all in her mouth like a chipmunk until she could not do it anymore then gag and spit the food out. It did not help when Ah Gong and Ah Mah kept challenging my authority. In the end, she got so upset that she actually spoke in a sentence!

Sophie : Please, Mummy... don't make me mum-mum (eat)!

Open-ended Art : Glitter

I have seen "contact paper" mentioned many art books but I could never find it anywhere in local stationery store. Yesterday, I chanced upon "self-adhesive plastic sheet" (Popular at Bukit Timah Plaza) for wrapping books and I thought it is probably close enough to "contact paper" so I bought 2 rolls. Today, I tried it out with Sophie (fingers crossed). I think it is quite useful for young children doing collage work since no glue is needed. However, I feel that it is better to have a frame to hold the plastic sheet in place.





I cut a frame from an ordinary brown cardboard and let Sophie scribble about. I tried to bundle a few crayons with a rubber band so that she could experience a new way of drawing. However, she was not very keen so I left it as that.






After I fix the plastic sheet onto the frame, I gave Sophie some of the leftover glitter dust from our previous open-ended art to "sprinkle" over the sticky side. She was very eager to work with glitter dust although I must admit I was pretty worried about the cleaning up. Then, I gave her black glitter dust and she would probably empty the whole bottle if I had let her.





Lastly, Sophie placed a golden ribbon in the picture and I quickly sealed the picture with another piece of self-adhesive plastic sheet. It turned out quite nice actually.





I like the fact that the end-product looks different when it is placed against a different background.

End Product

For more creative ideas, visit Mommies Little Artist and check out what other mummies do with their little ones.

123...

I am hoping to teach Sophie to count "123" and to follow simple instructions. It was great to see her enjoy herself even though it was a simple game.

Goodnight Baby!

Every night, just before I give Sophie her milk, I would say, "Goodnight Sophie!" and she would say, "Goodnight Mummy!". Now she would also pat my tummy and say, "Goodnight Baby!".

Random Painting

Unfortunately, I have not been feeling well the whole week so I just let Sophie do random painting for art. Hopefully, my condition improves because there are so many things I want to do with her.

Lacing Beads

We took out Sophie's big threading beads today for her to try threading. She has not been very enthusiastic but I wanted to see if her motor skills has improved. Of course she started off with playing with them like stacking blocks. Not too bad because it meant that she can stack pretty well now.



Although not proficient, Sophie can thread a lot better now, compared to a couple of months back.

Clipo

Sophie is beginning to enjoy putting together Lego and Clipo... FINALLY! I actually like Clipo because she has to align the pieces properly before she can fit them together.

Merry X'mas, Papa!

After our sand and gravel art, I thought it would be great to make a picture for Papa. I painted the shape of a Christmas sock using white glue and let Sophie sprinkle coloured sand over it. Then she pasted some cotton wool on top and added glitter glueon the sock. At first I thought it would look nice to just squeeze the glitter glue around to form random designs, but Sophie was so used to "rubbing over" the glitter glue that she smeared it all over before I could stop her.

Later in the afternoon, I let Sophie create some letter prints with her alphabet stamps. Then I picked those that we needed for the words and cut them out.

Open-ended Art: Green & Red

I think we are starting to be lazy. Both Sophie and I could not seem to get our engine started again after our little break. Nevertheless, I still made a point to do some shopping at Art Friend over the weekends. I bought some red and green sand and gravel for Open-ended Art this week. I thought it should not be too tough, considering that Sophie could handle glitter dust well enough last week.

I gave Sophie some dinosaur stencils to work with, thinking that it would be easier than painting freehand. However, sand and gravel were a lot harder to manage than glitter dust. Sophie also found the containers too heavy to lift. And of course, she wanted to paint the glue all over the entire stencil instead of just one dinnosaur.

It took a lot coaching and practice before Sophie understood what to do. Even then, she could not really handle the sand and gravel on her own. And she had to constantly fight the urge to dip her fingers into the excess sand and just play with it.

Still, I think she did a decent job with the given conditions. I could tell that she would probably have enjoyed it better if I could allow her to have her way with the sand and gravel. Unfortunately, I think she could only do it if we had a yard or somewhere outdoors.

Cleaning up was a nightmare. The sand and gravel, unlike glitter dust, could not be picked up by a damp cloth. And since Sophie ran off once our activity ended, she brought some of it with her to other parts of the house. The excess glue made washing a lot tougher too. I guess it was inevitable. Good thing Sophie liked the activity - my only consolation.

Do visit Mommies Little Artist to check out what other mummies have done with their little ones this week.

The Not So Hungry Caterpillars

We visited Oh Chin Huat Hydroponics Farm about 2 weeks ago and came home with a butterfly kit. They have a small butterfly lodge. The kit consisted of a plastic container with a netted cover, two caterpillars, some leaves and a piece of instructions stuck onto the container.



Although it was meant for Sophie to witness the metamorphosis, I think We were all a lot more excited than she was. Of course we read about it and saw pictures of the butterfly at each stage. But, we have NEVER actually seen caterpillars change into butterflies.



The caterpillars, John and Paul, stopped eating on the second day. I was so worried. I knew they stopped eating to pupate but I did not actually expect them to stay motionless for a couple of days before they started pupating. Imagine my relief when I saw them upside down. Yet, it took a while more before they started pupating.



John and Paul was in their pupa stage until this morning. I checked on them as usual and to my pleasant surprise, Paul had turned into a butterfly! Unfortunately, John's pupa turned black and dropped off. Paul was resting the whole morning, pumping blood into his wings. Again, I got the shock of my life when I saw his blood splatter everywhere. I thought it was dying! Apparently, it was normal because hours later, it was able to fly off when we set it free at Upper Peirce Reservoir.

I am not sure if Sophie understood any of this. She was very eager to check on the caterpillars but the chrysalis did not interest her at all. This morning, she was very excited to see the butterfly and she seemed a little sad when we set it free. I am glad she has never shown any fear when we held the caterpillar and touch the butterfly. I took the opportunity to make her a lapbook based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and let her sleep with her caterpillar plush toy at night. I was quite ambitious to have drawn almost all the pictures myself... I guess next time, I would be using clipart because it was too time-consuming.

3D Puzzles

Sophie could fix all her 3D puzzles finally! Initially, she could not understand magnetism and she could not visualise how the 3 puzzle pieces fit together to form the animal. Now, she could get it right easily. How amazing! Time to move on to more challenging puzzles...

Random Scribble

Sophie is allowed to scribble anytime she likes. However, it took me months before she becomes "well-trained" in the "protocol".

Step1: Take out the markers or crayons from the drawers (or the whole drawer)
Step2: Take some paper from the drawers
Step 3: Sit at the table to start scribbling

She can only use the markers on paper and not anywhere else. Occasionally, she would forget and start scribbling on the table and she was then made to wipe off the ink. Ah Mah thought I was too "liberal" with her sometimes. She would freak out whenever Sophie took out a marker or drew on herself. Yet she was perfectly fine with her leaving ink marks on the table or the wall!

Let's Play

Open-Ended Art: Blue & Silver

We almost forgot about Open-ended Art due to all the hustle and bustle of Sophie's Birthday throughout the week. In fact, we did this in the morning before we headed to Naenae's house for her birthday party. The theme this week for Open-ended Art is "Blue And Silver" at Mommies Little Artist. Do drop by to check out what other mummies do with their little ones.

I intend to let Sophie do her art and craft work at her work table from now on. It is a rather intimidating move as she can now mess up the whole room with her new found freedom. However, it is inevitable I feel. So, today we did the craft with glitter dust and glue. I mixed some blue fingerpaint to the white glue and she painted it onto a piece of A4 paper. I had to use an A4 paper so that it could fit into the tray. I was hoping to contain the glitter dust that way. I find it great to witness how Sophie learn to use the glitter dust. She could even tell me I had missed a spot!

And she was so eager to do it on her own that she got frustrated when I tried to guide her hand. She would deliberately move the glitter dust container away from my hand and when that failed, she passed it over from her left hand to her right. So cute!

After two practice attempts, Sophie was given the green light to do it on her own (almost). She painted the glue onto the paper and sprinkled on the glitter dust like there was no tomorrow!

Cleaning up was not too bad. I am glad Sophie could follow through without losing interest. Papa was around today and he got a glimpse of how his little girl do art and craft - unedited.

End Product 1 : Silver

End Product 2 : Blue

End Product 3 : Blue & Silver

Alphabet Art

After 26 weeks (1/2 year), we have finally completed the Alphabet (both capital and small letters). I remember when we first started, I was not sure if Sophie could finish all the letters before her second birthday. During the process, I kept counting the number of weeks we had before 11 Dec 09 and the letters we had left to do. Today, I am proud that we had completed what we started out to do. YEAH!

Sophie's Two

Sophie turns two today. It feels great to know that I have done a pretty decent job raising her so far. She was only 2.67 kg when she was born 2 years ago, but today she is 90 cm tall and around 12 kg. Sometimes when I look at her, I cannot believe she is actually my daughter. I must have done something really good in my life to have deserved a little girl like her.

Sophie has a wonderful sense of humor, a really vivid imagination and a relentless approach to problem-solving. She is also very affectionate and compassionate towards others, especially her grandparents. Everything else seems less important. The fact that she still does not self-feed or fall asleep on her own without her milk bottle and my little pinky.

We kept her birthday celebrations simple this year. Today, Ah Gong and Ah Mah came over with her birthday cake and two helium balloons after her nap. She went absolutely crazy with the balloons, especially since they were of her favourite Disney characters (Minnie Mouse and Tinkerbell). She almost could not let go of them! She was also very excited about the birthday cake and candles. She really enjoyed blowing off the flames on the candles. Together with the new bicycle that Ah Gong has bought for her, she looked all grown-up and ready to hit the road.



After that, we headed to Auntie KK's place for a Christmas gathering. Although we did not intend to throw Sophie a birthday party, we thought it would be nice for us to bring a cake. In the end, everyone still got her birthday presents. Many thanks to Auntie KK, Auntie Jessy, Auntie Pei Ee, Uncle Andy, Auntie Jean, Auntie Annie for the wonderful gifts. I was so tickled that most of the gifts are Crayola art materials. I think they are meant for me, not Sophie!

Changes

I am still trying to finish posting all the entries (prior to 11/12/2009) for Sophie's World but from now on, we will be posting all our entries here. I also have a new personal blog Hanalohgy.

Thank you for your support for the past two years!

Letter Of The Week - "z" For zig zag zipper

What a way to end our "Letter of the Week"! Sophie was not a wee bit keen on doing art today. As a result, we made do with whatever she was willing to do, plus a lot of what I HAD to do...

End-Product : "z" For zig zag & zipper

Do visit Sophie's new blog to have a look at the complete set of "Letter of the Week".

MoMo Slide

Letter Of The Week - "Z" For Zebra

The last letter we had to complete yet I did not feel particularly motivated to do it. I wonder if it was because after this week, we would have no more letters to do. We have spent 26 weeks aka 1/2 year on "Letter of the Week" (excluding the two-week Aussie break) so naturally I find it almost difficult to end the activity. Of course, we can start again... But it would not be quite the same.

Alright, enough of my melancholic drama for the time being... back to the letter "Z". I did not have much cardboard left after I cut out the letter, so I could only draw part of the hind legs for this poor zebra. Luckily, Sophie did not seem to mind much. Besides, we added some grass later on to cover up.

Maybe my lack of enthusiasm was contagious. Sophie did not seem to care much about the activity either.




Oh well, the end product looked decent enough although it could have been more eye-catching if I had picked a better background colour. I can never get it right...

End Product - "Z" For Zebra

Boat

We watch a lot of PlaySchool on Australian Network and I like it better than Hi-5 or The Wiggles. It promotes creativity with its clever use of common household items as props and toys. The music is gentle and soothing, unlike the upbeat kind heard in Hi-5 or The Wiggles. Sophie loves the boats she saw in the program so I made her a plastic bottle boat to play during her bath time. And here is an animation of a song we heard this week. There is a fingerplay that goes with it but I cant find it online.

Open-ended Art: Hans Hofmann (Revisited)

After yesterday's attempt, I decided to give this week's theme another shot. I made two brushes for Sophie last night - one of twine and the other of nylon string. I taped a few strands together and inserted the bundle into a straw (cut into half) before securing it with more tape. So she would paint with a "broom" and a "mop" today. Hopefully, she would work with sponges too.

Strangely, Sophie refused to do art this morning. She ran away from me and took out her Playdoh instead. No matter how hard I coaxed her, she just would not let go of her Playdoh. So we negotiated a little and she did the background for today's art with a roller sponge. Fortunately, it had to be completely dry before we work on it further so I let her carry on with her Playdoh.

I think she is currently obsessed with cutting and she is trying to practice cutting Playdoh until she feels she has mastered the scissors.

When she was more willing to do some painting, she was quite unstoppable. She finished the painting in 7 minutes.

Okay, I feel that this piece of work is definitely more "Hans Hofmann" than the ones she did yesterday.

End Product 3

Late afternoon is definitely not a fantastic time for Sophie to do anything that requires focus and cooperation. She was running all over with paint in her hands, threatening to touch everything in her path.

The yellow was somehow lost in the white and pink, but it was fine because it was meant to be the background.

End Product 4

I think we are quite done with Hans Hofmann for now... Do visit Mommies Little Artist for more great ideas on this week's theme for Open-ended Art.

Baby You Can Drive My Car

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Open-ended Art: Hans Hofmann

This week's Open-ended Art is based on the works of Hans Hofmann. His style was pretty much an unique blend of Fauvism, Cubism, and Abstract Expressionism. I did not want to do a collage with Sophie because I thought she might like to paint more. And I chose to start with a more "Abstract Expression" and less "Cubism" style with Sophie.



I was looking for a comb everywere in the house for this, but we ended up with a fork instead. And since we were going to use a fork, I thought we could use a spoon as well.



We could not really achieve the same effect as Hans Hofmann in Colour Poem No 6 but I thought Sophie did a good job anyway. And she actually enjoyed the process so it was good enough for me... for now!



The end product took some time to dry because we used a lot of fingerpaint.

End Product I

Curious, I let Sophie do another piece without much intervention. I wanted to know how independent she could be. She relied a lot on my cue to start doing her craft, as if she was waiting for my permission... (Opps, I do tend to be too strict with her).

Sophie's work actually looked better BEFORE she finished it... some of the patterns were lost after she rubbed her hands over the paint. Anyway, still looking good...

End Product II

Do check out Mommies Little Artist for more great ideas by other mummies. I think we would try again tomorrow...

Letter Of The Week - "v" For valley

I must admit, "v" for valley is a little abstract for Sophie. She kept saying it was a mountain... which was not exactly wrong.

I think we would do away with smocks in the future. Sophie hates wearing a plastic sheet over and who could blame her? I probably would let her wear an old t-shirt or something instead.

End Product - "v" For valley