Bugs

Here's a season to lose sleep... Bad weather and new term, Sophie is down again with fever and cough. Second one since school begins. Somehow her body can't cope with the new routine (half the term gone already), so she just succumbs to bugs... Hopefully Alfee would be spared! He is due for jabs next week and I m still a little traumatized by what happened the last time we did it (fever, UTI, antibiotics, scan and MCU etc). Just had a nightmare and I can shake the image off! Usually I am able to know it's a dream but I was too tired just now to tell apart dreams and reality...Checked on Sophie and found her cold little body curled like a prawn. She kicked off her blanket and her fever broke, so she was shivering. When we co-sleep, she would just hug me for warm (maybe the other way round). But now I have to separate Alfee and her... The bed seems too big now.

Alfee & Ah Mah

Alfee only allows Ah Gong, Auntie Rose and me to carry him (Ah Boh may be the next one). Today, Ah Mah tried her luck again.

It's Valentine's Day!

I think the best thing I have done for this year's Valentine's Day is to make and teach Sophie the hand sign for "I Love You". Now we can make the simple yet powerful hand gesture whenever we cannot say it out loud. We did it this morning when she set off for school in her Papa's car. It made her grin as though we now share a special little secret. It took her some time to master making the hand sign but she was very proud when she did eventually.

Today is Valentine's Day. I admit we were a little behind because we are barely done with Chinese New Year crafts. Still, we managed to complete our little display for Valentine’s Day. I dropped the idea of a lapbook because I could not find simple activities for Sophie. It is also not easy to explain the significance of Valentine’s Day. Instead, we concentrated on crafts and the general feeling of “love” for one another.

I am not sure what they are called, but I call it “love capsules”. I thought it would fun for Sophie to put some scraps or beads inside and seal them. True enough, she was very excited. In fact, she started the craft without me. She took a piece of my ribbon and stuffed it inside. Then she showed it to me proudly.

I had to entice her to open it again and put more “stuff” inside. But I think she was brilliant to have started it off with the ribbon inside. The effect is great! I also took the opportunity to let her practice spelling her own name although she could do so already. Good fun anyway!

The end products look better than I have expected. I would not have thought of stuffing ribbons inside. Sophie can be so inspiring at times.

With Ah Gong (very excited about his new handphone) and Ah Mah (kept asking me to switch on cartoons for Sophie) around, I could not get Sophie’s attention long enough to make paper flowers. So, I had to finish them myself. The petals of the first flowers were made of tissue paper while those of the second were made of construction paper. I was teasing out the differences. I like the looks of tissue paper petals but I think the folds of construction paper make more realistic petals. Anyhow, it did not really matter. I still got Sophie sniffing them as though they were real.

We still have lots of art materials left, so I took pipe cleaners and twisted them into two hearts joined.

One can never go wrong with pipe cleaners.

Finally (after Ah Gong and Ah Mah left), I gave Sophie a heart-shaped canvas panel and let her have a bit of open-ended art session. She started with painting the panel purple, then pink and blue and yellow.

Then I provided her with paint, confetti, foam hearts, pom poms, rhinestones, plastic eyes, beads and glitter glue. And she became unstoppable, pasting almost everything in sight onto the panel.

The end product looks a little weird but I guess it is okay since she did this on her own. I am so glad that she has become competent enough to do basic art and craft all by herself!

When all the items are combined, we end up with a display for Valentine's Day. Sophie took out her Disney Princess figurines so we stuck them onto the shelf as part of the display. After all, they are a romantic bunch. I included sweets, cakes and biscuits because those are common gift items for Valentine's Day (of course they are cute too!). And a little book Biscuit's Valentine's Day by Alyssa Satin Capucilli to complete the occasion.

So there you have it! Our little Valentine's Day Special Display. May everyone have a very loved and cherished Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day!

I think the best thing I have done for this year's Valentine's Day is to make and teach Sophie the hand sign for "I Love You". Now we can make the simple yet powerful hand gesture whenever we cannot say it out loud. We did it this morning when she set off for school in her Papa's car. It made her grin as though we now share a special little secret. It took her some time to master making the hand sign but she was very proud when she did eventually.

Today is Valentine's Day. I admit we were a little behind because we are barely done with Chinese New Year crafts. Still, we managed to complete our little display for Valentine’s Day. I dropped the idea of a lapbook because I could not find simple activities for Sophie. It is also not easy to explain the significance of Valentine’s Day. Instead, we concentrated on crafts and the general feeling of “love” for one another.

I am not sure what they are called, but I call it “love capsules”. I thought it would fun for Sophie to put some scraps or beads inside and seal them. True enough, she was very excited. In fact, she started the craft without me. She took a piece of my ribbon and stuffed it inside. Then she showed it to me proudly.

I had to entice her to open it again and put more “stuff” inside. But I think she was brilliant to have started it off with the ribbon inside. The effect is great! I also took the opportunity to let her practice spelling her own name although she could do so already. Good fun anyway!

The end products look better than I have expected. I would not have thought of stuffing ribbons inside. Sophie can be so inspiring at times.

With Ah Gong (very excited about his new handphone) and Ah Mah (kept asking me to switch on cartoons for Sophie) around, I could not get Sophie’s attention long enough to make paper flowers. So, I had to finish them myself. The petals of the first flowers were made of tissue paper while those of the second were made of construction paper. I was teasing out the differences. I like the looks of tissue paper petals but I think the folds of construction paper make more realistic petals. Anyhow, it did not really matter. I still got Sophie sniffing them as though they were real.

We still have lots of art materials left, so I took pipe cleaners and twisted them into two hearts joined.

One can never go wrong with pipe cleaners.

Finally (after Ah Gong and Ah Mah left), I gave Sophie a heart-shaped canvas panel and let her have a bit of open-ended art session. She started with painting the panel purple, then pink and blue and yellow.

Then I provided her with paint, confetti, foam hearts, pom poms, rhinestones, plastic eyes, beads and glitter glue. And she became unstoppable, pasting almost everything in sight onto the panel.

The end product looks a little weird but I guess it is okay since she did this on her own. I am so glad that she has become competent enough to do basic art and craft all by herself!

When all the items are combined, we end up with a display for Valentine's Day. Sophie took out her Disney Princess figurines so we stuck them onto the shelf as part of the display. After all, they are a romantic bunch. I included sweets, cakes and biscuits because those are common gift items for Valentine's Day (of course they are cute too!). And a little book Biscuit's Valentine's Day by Alyssa Satin Capucilli to complete the occasion.

So there you have it! Our little Valentine's Day Special Display. May everyone have a very loved and cherished Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Craft III

Special Hand Sign

Our next Valentine's Day project is a simple one I found in the Internet. I drew an outline of her hand on a beige foam sheet and cut it out. We had to stop at Art Friend just to buy the foam sheet because other colours just would not do.

Next, I folded the middle and ring finger slightly and glued their tips onto the palm of the hand. Sophie took the opportunity to stick all her heart-shaped stickers onto the hand. She has been wanting to use them for as long as she could remember.

Finally, I pasted the hand onto a pink, heart-shaped foam background and decorated it with glitter glue. I even wrote "I LOVE YOU" on little foam hearts and pasted them just above the hand. It might not look very impressive, but it is significant enough to be a must-do craft for Valentine's Day I think.

I took the opportunity to teach Sophie the word "LOVE" by writing the letters on individual foam hearts and attaching them on adorable, mini wooden pegs. However, she hijacked them before I would use them. She took the scraps of foam left from the previous craft and glued them all on a pink foam sheet. Then she proudly declared it to be her gift for her papa.

How adorable she can be at times! Sophie used glue stick so I had to reinforce each piece with UHU glue, but she does not mind at all. And I really enjoy watching her creativity flows.

Suncatcher (Stained Glass Effect)

I thoughWhile making the love bug, we managed to also squeeze in another suncatcher (stained glass effect) with my extra love-shaped frames. This was much easier to manage and the effect was also very good. We used scraps of tissue paper and self-adhesive plastic sheet.

Valentine's Day Special Hand Sign

Our next Valentine's Day project is a simple one I found in the Internet. I drew an outline of her hand on a beige foam sheet and cut it out. We had to stop at Art Friend just to buy the foam sheet because other colours just would not do.

Next, I folded the middle and ring finger slightly and glued their tips onto the palm of the hand. Sophie took the opportunity to stick all her heart-shaped stickers onto the hand. She has been wanting to use them for as long as she could remember.

Finally, I pasted the hand onto a pink, heart-shaped foam background and decorated it with glitter glue. I even wrote "I LOVE YOU" on little foam hearts and pasted them just above the hand. It might not look very impressive, but it is significant enough to be a must-do craft for Valentine's Day I think.

I took the opportunity to teach Sophie the word "LOVE" by writing the letters on individual foam hearts and attaching them on adorable, mini wooden pegs. However, she hijacked them before I would use them. She took the scraps of foam left from the previous craft and glued them all on a pink foam sheet. Then she proudly declared it to be her gift for her papa.

How adorable she can be at times! Sophie used glue stick so I had to reinforce each piece with UHU glue, but she does not mind at all. And I really enjoy watching her creativity flows.

Valentine's Day - Suncatcher (Stained Glass Effect)

While making the love bug, we managed to also squeeze in another suncatcher (stained glass effect) with my extra love-shaped frames. This was much easier to manage and the effect was also very good. We used scraps of tissue paper and self-adhesive plastic sheet.

Valentine's Day - Lovebug

I found a cute little lovebug craft from the Internet and I was sure Sophie would love it. However, I had to make two trips to the craft shop for the Styrofoam ball and pipecleaners because the shop was closed for Chinese New Year the first time I went. Also, the shop does not sell foam sheets so I had only enough to make a pair of wings of the little fella.

Alhtough it seemed easy, there were many steps involved in making the lovebug. First, I cut off the bottom part of a paper cup so that the Styrofoam ball can sit on it (upside down) properly. Then I cut out wings from red foam sheet and manipulated two pieces of pipecleaner so that they form the wings of the lovebug. Then I got Sophie to apply glitter glue and paste on the spots on the wings.

While they were drying, she painted the Styrofoam ball and cup black. Our paint is non-toxic and washable sort so we needed two coats to make them totally black. Meanwhile, I made the feelers with a little heart at the end of each.

When all the parts were totally dry, we attached them onto the cup, with the Styrofoam ball last.

Then I inserted the feelers and pasted on the plastic eyes, nose and mouth. By now, Sophie has lost interest in the lovebug. She had left all the work to me. When she returned, her excitement was renewed because it looked completed. She added stickers onto its body and head before taking off with it.

Valentine's Day - Suncatcher (Improved Formula)

Utterly embarrassed by our previous attempt, I tried again today with new formula. With my fingers still crossed, I repeated the process up to the point before handing the frames over to Sophie.

I controlled the amount of glue she squeezed onto the plastic sheet. It was as though she also realised it would not work well with too much glue so she was very cooperative. Then I used a hairdryer to blow dry the glitter glue a bit more before pasting the frame over it using UHU glue.

Not to bad as before but the design is also not as nice, I am afraid. I guess I should either use waterproof glue for the frame, dry the glitter glue completely or just drop the whole idea completely.

Valentine's Day Craft II

Lovebug

I found a cute little lovebug craft from the Internet and I was sure Sophie would love it. However, I had to make two trips to the craft shop for the Styrofoam ball and pipecleaners because the shop was closed for Chinese New Year the first time I went. Also, the shop does not sell foam sheets so I had only enough to make a pair of wings of the little fella.

Alhtough it seemed easy, there were many steps involved in making the lovebug. First, I cut off the bottom part of a paper cup so that the Styrofoam ball can sit on it (upside down) properly. Then I cut out wings from red foam sheet and manipulated two pieces of pipecleaner so that they form the wings of the lovebug. Then I got Sophie to apply glitter glue and paste on the spots on the wings.

While they were drying, she painted the Styrofoam ball and cup black. Our paint is non-toxic and washable sort so we needed two coats to make them totally black. Meanwhile, I made the feelers with a little heart at the end of each.

When all the parts were totally dry, we attached them onto the cup, with the Styrofoam ball last.

Then I inserted the feelers and pasted on the plastic eyes, nose and mouth. By now, Sophie has lost interest in the lovebug. She had left all the work to me. When she returned, her excitement was renewed because it looked completed. She added stickers onto its body and head before taking off with it.

 

Valentine's Day - Suncatcher (Improved Formula)

Utterly embarrassed by our previous attempt, I tried again today with new formula. With my fingers still crossed, I repeated the process up to the point before handing the frames over to Sophie.

I controlled the amount of glue she squeezed onto the plastic sheet. It was as though she also realised it would not work well with too much glue so she was very cooperative. Then I used a hairdryer to blow dry the glitter glue a bit more before pasting the frame over it using UHU glue.

Not to bad as before but the design is also not as nice, I am afraid. I guess I should either use waterproof glue for the frame, dry the glitter glue completely or just drop the whole idea completely.