Christmas will be here...

in 3 days, and I have yet to get my good old faithful tree out.

Although, I feel christmasy but I am not in the mood to bring out the tree.

I think this year, I will concentrate on the true meaning of Christmas.

Oh heck it... I may just bring the tree out tomorrow... and have a little christmas lights in the house and still let the children know the true meaning of Christmas.

It had been a hectic year and it will be an even more hectic 2010 as I have to prepare Aver for better homeschooling curriculum and Ash will be in Primary 3, which requires more guidance in her work.

For now, I am crazily preparing Christmas gifts :)

I love the feeling of giving and sharing whatever talents the Lord has bestowed upon me.

I hope those who receive my handmade presents will love (like) it too.

And Merry Christmas to everyone out there (who still click into this little space of mine...), let's rejoice that God had given His only son to us to save our lives and to cleanse our sins.

The Hollywood Dinos Show at Jurong Birdpark

Watch this...

Enjoy it...

However, if you are expecting the same effect for Hollywood Dinos in Jurong Birdpark, FORGET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to the 'show' yesterday afternoon, all excited and eager to experience the 'more than real' dinosaurs and blah.. blah... blah....

BUT....

It is a big disappointment!

The area is small and it takes about 45 minutes to complete.

There is a walking dinosaur... oh yes... but not robotically controlled but a poor guy in the suit trying to walk (like the real dino!) And, 'he' does not come out often as Singapore weather is too hot for 'him'... 'he' wil most probably suffer from serious heat stroke.

The guide also sucks!!! Okay, I forgive him as he is a teenager doing a part time job but well ... he possess a 'part-time' attitude.

Then there was an entertainment by another group of teenagers. They did try their best to hype up the trail but seriously, it is a very very feeble attempt. They knew it also but really did try their best to put up their smiles. The most ironic part, one of the girls said, "I hope you enjoyed the entertainment and is all hyped up for the trail." (Yeah,... right... DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Big time!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

And then off we go into the caves... blah blah blah... duh duh duh...

Then you get led to the little enclosures where the sponsers tried to sell you their stuffs... another big DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really... the whole trip from the time you park your car to the time get back to your car should take an hour or an hour and a half....

oh.... by the way, you are not in the Bird Park at all, it is off the side of the park. Consolation... you get to see the spoon bill bird... one kind only....

So, unless you get the tickets for free ... I really do not suggest that you spend the money for this so-called show. I rather you spend the money to enter the Bird Park itself. The latter is more worth it.

I have photos... but sorry... I am not in the mood to put it up here as it really SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are offended after reading this post, I am sorry but this is one time that I am totally disappointed and after watching the video I posted up above.... it just gets on my nerves. The organisers think that we are stupid fools and can be easily fooled.

Polymer Clay Desserts

I tried to use polymer clay. I love the may products I saw so I went out and bought some clay plus a new (cheap) oven toaster for all my crafts needs.


I tried it out yesterday near to midnight... I just had to try it because I cannot stand another night of sleeplessness. You see, I have this bad habit. Whenever I need to learn a new thing or to design something to sew, I will go over it in my head until I am familar with all the steps before I start on it. So this polymer clay thingy has been on my head for three to four days and I slept with it in my dreams, woke up with frustrations when I cannot figure it out, went back to sleep again and the cycle went on for nights. I could not sleep properly. And since I had a birthday party coming up, I cannot embark on the polymer clay project...


So I gave it a go yesterday and I still need to get to know my oven a little better to get the right result (in other words, not burning them!)

My First Try... Donuts

Second try... Cake

Next up... Chocolates

Tell me what you think.

04 December 2009 , Homeschooling continues in the evening.

We started lesson with a quick flash card on the theme 'My Body'.
I picked a few words, showed it to her and asked her to pick out the word that I said.
Well, the ability to link the written word to the aticulated word is still not there so it requires more pratices.

This day, we learnt the vowel 'o'.
Aver is able to make the 'o' sound and identify the 'o's in each of the words in the writing sheet.
Then she moved on to practice writing it and has no problem with it.

After writing the 'o's, she practiced writing the letters that she learnt in earlier lessons.
Her tracing skills improved and her written letters looked nicer now.

After all that writing, I gave her brain a little memory work out.
I showed her the picture below for about 5 seconds and then cover it.
She was then to pick out the characters that she saw in my picture.
She was able to do it.
Then I showed her my picture again for another 5 second.
This time round, she was to place the characters that she picked out at the correct places.
She did well for this round too.
I learnt this from her enrichement lessons that she attended earlier in the year.


Then we proceeded to shapes. I had different shapes in different sizes and colours.
Here, she was to catergorise all the jumbled pieces into shapes.
Next time, I will get her to do it in sizes.

And, to end it all... READING TIME!!!

She had enjoyed her lessons so far and she will even go to the kitchen to get the red marker and then come ask me for lesson.

Aver's homeschooling continues and it is picking up speed slowly.
This is because I have kind of forgotten what I had done with Ash when she was younger, so I am cracking my head as I go along. This is just me growing old...



The second lesson comprised of flashcards, learning the letter 'i', and reading.
We started with word flashcards on the theme 'My Body'.
Then we proceeded to doing a few activities from a particular preschool activity book.
Next, we learnt the letter 'i' - the phonetic sound of it and writing both the capital and small letter 'i'.

She was then to identify the letter 'i' from the words and also from a jumble of letters.

Thereafter, she revisited the previous letters that she had learnt, 'a' and 'e'.
Here, she was to identify all the capital letters of 'A', 'E' and 'I'.

After all those hard work, we settled down to read and then it was sleeping time.

Failed!!!

My layered agar-agar.

Hello Kitty looked like it got punched by a jealous kitty.

Mickey Mouse had used a cheap dye for his hair...

It's my first try at layering so I have expected it to fail.
It requires lots of patience.
So I will practice it again.

Homeschooling Continues

We had a Parent-Teacher Conference at Aver's childcare the week before.
From the teachers' feedback, we knew that Aver is progressing well in school.
However, due to her bi-weekly fever (something that we do not know why yet) she misses school on a regular basis too. So, I decided that we (sorry, I...) should try and supplement some learning at home. It is something simple to reinforce what was learnt in school.
Actually, I had started a few months ago but time just forbade me to do it on a regular basis.
This time round, I really have sit down and structure the lessons.
This is the start...

She started with practising writing of the letters 'A' and 'E'.

Then I wrote some letters out and had her identify the letter 'a'.

For the next activity, I wrote out the capital letter 'E' and the small letter 'e'.

She was to identify all the capital letter 'E'.

As she did the activities, I had her articulate the sounds of the letters.

She did well for the lesson that day.