A to Z crafts - I for Insect! Making Bee from Egg Shell

This is a very cute craft, I found the picture of this little cute bee and decided to make it on our "I for insect" lesson.

I for Insect

What you'll need:
1) 1 piece of egg shell (prepare more if you are doing a few types of insect)
2) 1 small piece of white paper for the wings
3) 1 small piece of black paper for the stripes
4) Marker pen
5) A pair of scissors
6) Water colours
7) Glue

Instruction:
1) Colour the egg shell with yellow and leave it to dry
2) Cut the white paper in round shape and fold it for the wings
3) Cut the black colour stripes, you'll need 2 stripes to be pasted on the egg shell
4) Draw the eyes, mouth on the egg shell after the colour is dried
5) Paste the wings and stripes on the egg shell

This craft work is used in conjunction to my Fun Classes, you may refer here for details of my Fun Classes.


List of my A to Z crafts other than those used in the Fun Classes:
1) A for Apple Tree
2) B for Bear

3) C for Caterpillar

4) D for Dinosaur

5) E for Ester Egg

6) F for Flower Wreath 

7) G for Giraffe 

8) H for Hippopotamus 

This section will be updated continuously as and when I have new crafts idea for my kids. Do like my Facebook page "learn the fun way" to get more updates.

A to Z Crafts - H for Hippopotamus!

The materials for this craft are easily available at every household. This craft is also simple to do for a pre-schooler.

H for Hippopotamus

What you'll need:
1) 1 piece of paper plate
2) 1 piece of white paper for the eyes, ears and mouth cut-out
3) Small piece of pink colour paper for the ears cut-out (I used the empty pages of used exercise book)
4) Small piece of black colour paper for the eyebrows cut-out (again, you can use any leftover art paper)
5) A pair of scissors
6) Water colours

Instruction:
1)  Colour the paper plate, preferably grey colour.

2) Cut out the shape of eyes, ears and mouth. Draw the eye balls. Colour the white colour ears to grey (or same colour as the paper plate)

3) Paste all the cut-out on the paper plate and it is done.

The kids are happy with their hippo craft. My boy even kept it in his school bag and brought it to the school :)

This craft work is used in conjunction to my Fun Classes, you may refer here for details of my Fun Classes.


List of my A to Z crafts other than those used in the Fun Classes:
1) A for Apple Tree
2) B for Bear

3) C for Caterpillar

4) D for Dinosaur

5) E for Ester Egg

6) F for Flower Wreath 

7) G for Giraffe 

This section will be updated continuously as and when I have new crafts idea for my kids. Do like my Facebook page "learn the fun way" to get more updates.

Inter-ethnic Temples Tour - Burmese Buddhist Temple, Hindu Temple, Loyang Tua Pek Kong Temple

We joined the inter-ethnic temples tour organised by the Community Centre in our area. I signed up the tour as I thought such tour will educate my kids on the different religions and cultures of the different ethnic. The tour turned out not only educational, but also an eyes opener to us.

1) Burmese Buddhist Temple
This is the first temple visited by us. I was quite surprised to know that there's such a historic temple in Singapore. This temple has very beautiful exterior, full of nicely carved details made by woods and painted in gold and white colour.

A closer look at the statue displayed at the entrance:

Many Buddhist visit the temple on Sunday morning.

This is the Buddha made by marble in Myammar and transported to Singapore in 1921. I came to know this after reading the mural on its wall on level 2, which I'll write about it later.

There are murals telling the story of Buddha on the wall, which are quite educational to the visitors.

 These wood carve are found on the doors and pillars. Very good workmanship.

This mural tells how the Buddha figure, made by marble that weight 10 tons, transported to Singapore in the early 19 century. As shown in the mural, the Buddha figure was first sculptured from a marble at Sagyin Hill in 1918, and was transported through boat, elephant, ferry and finally reached a premise in Singapore. It must have gone through a very difficult hard time for it to be moved to the current temple.

The staff told us that each pagoda in a temple is used to keep something special and important to the temple, it can be the remains of a Buddha, or any objects left by the Buddha.

Although we are not Buddhist, I like this Buddhist temple the most, reason being it has a story to tell, and the beauty of its architecture. If you're interested to visit the temple, you may check out its website here:
http://www.bbt.org.sg

2) Arulmigu Velmurugan GnanaMuneeswarar (AVGMT) Hindu Temple in Sengkang
I have a hard time typing this name, a very long name indeed! This is the first time we visited a Hindu Temple. It is very interesting to see the Indian having their prayer and spiritual ceremony, which we would definitely not have the chance without the help of the organiser.

 The event hall where prayers having their activities and ceremonies.

 We were lucky to see this ceremony going on, where one family bought the Saree to be presented to the deities in the temple.

 

The person in charge was explaining about the temple to us.

The priest doing offering to the deity.

We were told that AVGMT is the only temple in Singapore to have two main deities, not too sure why other temples do not have more than one main deity but I think this is certainly something special.

3) Loyang Tua Pek Kong Temple
This temple is special that there are not only the Chinese gods in this temple, but also Natok Kong (Malay) and Ganesha (Hindu deity) just beside the temple.
The temple started with an interesting story, it was said that in the 1980s, someone found the statues washed to the beach and build a small shrine for the statues. When time goes by, the shrine gets its popularity but unfortunately a fire had burned down everything in the shrine except for the Tua Pek Kong statue. The devotees has since then build other temples for the Tua Pek Kong and finally settled down in the current location.

The lion statue on the entrance: 

Beautiful  wormanship on the pillar:

The person in charge explaining the history of the temple to us.

A giant abacus found on the ceiling of the temple:

 The Ganesha at the side of the temple, it is the biggest Ganesha in Singapore and India.

Another interesting fact of this temple is that the original Tua Pek Kong is coated with gold after the fire incident and is now hidden in the body of the Tua Pek Kong figure below. The temple will only open and show the public the golden Tua Pek Kong probably 30 years later.

I hope Chloe has gain something from the trips to these 3 temples. She did enjoy the visits despite not feeling well. I asked her if she would want to visit the temples again and she told me yes, I think it is a good experience to her.

A to Z Crafts - G for Giraffe! Make your own 3D art!

3D or foam art is quite popular among the kids now, parents buy it because it is relatively cheap (around $1.50 to $3.50 per piece) and easy to do. But instead of buying, I decided to make my own.

It is very easy and cost saving to make your own 3D art / card, you may use a photo paper as an alternative to the foam.

G for Giraffe

What you'll need:
1) 2 pieces of photo papers
2) A colour printer
3) Double sided tape
4) cardboard (you may cut it from used carton box)
4) A pair of scissors

Instruction:
1)  Search for a colourful picture from the Internet, print it out on the photo papers.
For me I selected the following picture:

2) You will need to print two copies of the picture, one as the base and the other one for the upper layer.
As we only need a few objects for the upper layer, I took away the background colour of the picture to save my cartridges.

3) Cut out the objects that you would like to paste on the upper layer.
4) Paste a layer of cardboard below the cut-outs, to create the 3D effect when it is pasted on the picture.
The materials done:

5) Let the kid paste the cut-outs to the picture. They could do it like solving a puzzle, give the kid some hints on those small objects.

6) The 3D picture done:

 See his funny faces with his Giraffe 3D art!

This craft work is used in conjunction to my Fun Classes, you may refer here for details of my Fun Classes.


List of my A to Z crafts other than those used in the Fun Classes:
1) A for Apple Tree
2) B for Bear

3) C for Caterpillar

4) D for Dinosaur

5) E for Ester Egg

6) F for Flower Wreath 

This section will be updated continuously as and when I have new crafts idea for them. Do like my Facebook page "learn the fun way" to get more updates.

A to Z Crafts - F for Flowers Wreath

Most of the eggs sold in grocery shops are packed by plastic tray nowadays, but you can still get the egg carton easily if you purchase one big tray of eggs (around 30 pieces). I got mine from NTUC.

F for Flowers Wreath

What you'll need:
1) One egg carton
2) Water colour paints
3) One white card (the size will depend on how big is the flower wreath)

Instruction:
1) To start with, you need to cut the egg carton into something like this:

2) You may trim the edge of the cut out to be like this:

3) Or you may leave it like this for some variance to the pattern of the flowers.

4) For those small cut out, you may use it as leaf.

5) After which, colour the cut outs with water colours. Try to use a few combination of colours.

6) Leave the coloured 'flowers' aside to dry, it would probably take half a day.
7) Cut the white card into a circle, I use the diameter of about 12 inches.
8) Paste the 'flowers' on the side of the white card.
9) You may decorate it with some writing.

 The kids were happy with their flowers wreath, but it was hard to get them pose properly with it:

This craft work is used in conjunction to my Fun Classes, you may refer here for details of my Fun Classes.


List of my A to Z crafts other than those used in the Fun Classes:
1) A for Apple Tree
2) B for Bear

3) C for Caterpillar

4) D for Dinosaur

5) E for Ester Egg

This section will be updated continuously as and when I have new crafts idea for them. Do like my Facebook page "learn the fun way" to get more updates.

A to Z Crafts - E for Easter Egg

I keep the egg shells every time I fry the omelet, which could be very useful at times. I use it as a mold for making fruit jelly, I also use it for doing crafts with my kids.

In this lesson, we were doing the Easter egg where the kids had fun colouring the egg shells.

E for Easter Egg

This is the finished product. I loss most of the pictures in my camera, if not I will definitely show you how happy the kids were when they were colouring the eggs.

What you'll need:
1) One egg shell.
2) One disposable chopstick, which you can get from food court when you buy your packed food.
3) One paper cup as the base for displaying the egg.
4) Water colour paints.

Instructions:
1) Wash and dry the egg shells before use.
2) Cut a "X" on the bottom of the paper cup.
3) Put in the chopstick through the "X" of the as shown in the picture.
4) Hang the egg shell on the chopstick and start painting it.
2) You may colour the paper cup too.

This craft work is used in conjunction to my Fun Classes, you may refer here for details of my Fun Classes.


List of my A to Z crafts other than those used in the Fun Classes:
1) A for Apple Tree
2) B for Bear

3) C for Caterpillar

4) D for Dinosaur

This section will be updated continuously as and when I have new crafts idea for them. Do like my Facebook page "learn the fun way" to get more updates.

A to Z Crafts - D for Dinosaur

We will be making a dinosaur by using just one piece of paper plate in this lesson :)

D for Dinosaur

The finished products.

What you will need:
1) A paper plate
2) Stapler or double sided tape
3) Water colour paints

Instructions:
1) Cut the paper plate into half. Keep one half of the paper plate for later use.
2) On the other half of the paper plate, cut the shape of the dinosaur's neck, legs, head and tail. Refer to the picture above.
3) Let the kid put the pieces together to form a dinosaur. Be patient, let them do it like solving a puzzle. Guide them along.
4) Staple or paste the parts together.
5) Colour the dinosaur. Kid can choose any colour, be imaginative.

Picture 1: Putting the parts together.

Picture 2: playing with his dino after the dino joined up.

Picture 3: Colouring the dino

Picture 4: doing his final touch up.

This craft work is used in conjunction to my Fun Classes, you may refer here for details of my Fun Classes.


List of my A to Z crafts other than those used in the Fun Classes:
1) A for Apple Tree
2) B for Bear

3) C for Caterpillar


This section will be updated continuously as and when I have new crafts idea for them. Do like my Facebook page "learn the fun way" to get more updates.

A to Z Crafts - C for Caterpillar

Caterpillar crafts can be done in many different ways, for this lesson, we are doing a simple yet cute caterpillar suitable for toddler to pre-school children.

C for Caterpillar

What you'll need:
1) A piece of A4 size white paper for the background.
2) A small piece of green colour paper approximate the size of 9"x1.5".
3) Water colour paints.

Instruction:
1) Fold the green paper into 6 small square, trim the side to make it a circle.
2) Open up the circles cut in (1) and paste it on the A4 paper. Refer picture above.
3) Draw the eyes and nose of the caterpillar.
4) Let the child finger paint the legs of caterpillar.

 

Getting their hands dirty......

This craft work is used in conjunction to my Fun Classes, you may refer here for details of my Fun Classes.


List of my A to Z crafts other than those used in the Fun Classes:
1) A for Apple Tree
2) B for Bear


This section will be updated continuously as and when I have new crafts idea for them. Do like my Facebook page "learn the fun way" to get more updates.

A to Z crafts - B for Bear

We had done B for bear before, for which we made a bear mask for that lesson. This time round we are making a bear using paper cup.

B for Bear

What you'll need:
1) A paper cup
2) Cut out of a pair of ears and the bear face
3) Brown paint

Instruction:
1) Colour the paper cup with brown colour, leave it aside to dry.
2) Draw a bear face on the paper cut out. You might need to help your kid if he is too young for it.
3) Paste the cut out of the ears and face on the paper cup.


Trying hard to control his hands.......

Their paper cups done:

My boy enjoys doing crafts just like my elder girl. All the crafts posted in this series are easy to make and manageable for a nursery kid.

This craft work is used in conjunction to my Fun Classes, you may refer here for details of my Fun Classes.


List of my A to Z crafts other than those used in the Fun Classes:
1) A for Apple Tree


This section will be updated continuously as and when I have new crafts idea for them. Do like my Facebook page "learn the fun way" to get more updates.

A to Z crafts - A for Apple Tree

I have started Fun Classes with my boy, who is 2.5 years old. As my elder girl will be joining him for the lesson, I try to let them do something different from what my girl had already done in the Fun Classes.

A for Apple Tree

What you will need:
1) One toilet paper roll
2) A piece of green paper cut out to the shape of the tree top
3) Small round shapes cut from red paper using hole punctual

Instruction:
1) Brush paint the toilet paper roll to brown. Leave it aside to dry.
2) Paste the small red round shapes on the green colour paper. You can draw the red apple if you prefer.
3) Cut about 1/4 length on the toilet paper roll so that you can slot the green paper on it. Refer picture above.

They happily pose with their apple tree:

This section will be updated continuously as and when I have new crafts idea for them. Do like my Facebook page "learn the fun way" to get more updates.

For my Fun Classes A to Z lesson plan and crafts idea, do check out here.

Resources: Teaching Your Kids Piano

My girl is currently playing and learning piano by herself without attending formal lesson. I do not send her for piano lesson as I think formal lessons might kill her interest, while fun and interesting lessons might not yield the results in short term thus require more capital in the investment (no, it is not a waste of money just that you'll need to spend more).

Will I send her to proper lessons in future? My answer would be "Yes" if she really has the interest but "No" if she doesn't.

This post includes the resources I printed for her from the Internet, you may refer to it if they are useful to you:

1) Printable manuscript:
http://www.zpu.cc/pr/
You may print the manuscript according to your setting, example resize the staff (i.e. the lines), add in treble or bass clef, add in bar and etc.
For those who just want to print the manuscript in blank, treble clef or bass clef  without the trouble of doing the setting, you may refer here:
http://makingmusicfun.net/htm/printit_manuscript.htm
This is useful for the kid to practice writing the notes and symbols.


2) Free download of music scores with an application for PC or Apple users:
http://www.77music.com
This is a Chinese website, sorry for those who cannot read Chinese.
There are many free music scores can be downloaded here. What I like the most is the free application which you can open any music scores and the app will show you how is it played on piano. Excellent website.

3) Free piano sheet from easy to difficult levels:
http://makingmusicfun.net/htm/printit_piano_sheet_music_index.htm
Another excellent website, I can't believe all these are free for download, many easy to play music scores for the kids which they are familiar with.

4) Theory games for the kid that I find useful and interesting:
http://makingmusicfun.net/htm/printit_manuscript.htm
Other theory worksheets or games:
http://makingmusicfun.net/htm/printit_notename.htm

I'll update this post as and when I found new website with useful resources.

If you like this post, do like my FaceBook page "learn the fun way" for more updates :)

Catching Longkang fish at Bottle Tree Yishun, so much fun!

We have done Longkang fishing before at Mainland Tropical Fishfarm in Pasir Ris, and last week we did that again at Bottle Tree of Yishun, it was so much more fun! I personally enjoyed it very much, and here I'm going to tell you why :)

First of all, the place is called 'Bottle Tree' because of the below tree imported from Australia. You can see this tree in the park, I did not take a picture of the tree as it is slightly further away from the fish pond.

I have been to the Chinese restaurant before, the food is ok and at reasonable price.

Other than this Chinese restaurant, there are also a bar and a Japanese restaurant there. The snacks selling at the bar are slightly expensive but it is very convenient as you can order the food to the fishing pond and enjoy the food while watching over your kids.

This is where the Longkang fishing area. I like the design of it as kids get to step on the stones and walking in the pond, it really looked like the fishing pond we had during our childhood.

For $10, you get a net (to be returned to the counter after fishing) and a fish tank (you can bring home). You can catch unlimited fish at unlimited time! It is so much fun when you could catch the fish without keeping to the time given. I remember Mainland was charging us $4 for half an hour or so and we were chasing the fish like mad in the short time given!

I caught a few fish by using my bare hands! This reminds me of how I caught the Longkang fish when I was a kid. Haha, I think I had more fun than my kids!

This is how much fish we had caught! The staff there just didn't care how many fish we had caught and how other people were catching their fish (I saw some catching using a big handkerchief!), and the staff kept putting in more fish for the kids to catch.

Chloe was able to catch a few fish as well!

The park is just beside the MRT track nearer to Yishun MRT. It is about 15 mins walk from Yishun MRT to the side gate opposite the Yishun Stadium. If you're driving there, the entrance is from Lorong Chencharu, which is at the other side and not  this MRT track. Do take a look of the map to find this Lorong Chencharu first.

Other than Longkang fishing, you can also do prawn fishing there, there are many adults fishing prawn there while the kids are catching the fish beside the prawning area.

You can also grill the prawns on the spot! Not sure if a fee is needed but I'll definitely check it out on my next trip there.

There are a few big fishing ponds there. This pond is full of lotus, I think it'll be very beautiful when all lotus blossoming.

My kids were very excited to see so many fish in the pond.

While walking beside the fish ponds, saw a guy catching this big fish.

There are also vegetable farms, paintball, car racing and swam paddling there which we have not explored yet. Bottle Tree Park is definitely a great place to go for all the fun activities!

You may refer to their website here and their address is here:

81 Lorong Chencharu (Yishun) Click here for Google Maps
Singapore 769198
Restaurant : 65 6759-7077(For all restaurant reservations, Exclusive Venues and recreational activities)