Henderson Waves

Last Saturday we finally visited the Henderson Waves, the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore. It is also part of the recently opened Southern Ridges. It was quite spectacular.

I never thought I would ever describe any scenic thingy in Singapore as spectacular (hey, don’t blame me, I’ve been to the Canadian Rockies!)… But this truly was is quite spectacular. It did take my breath away. I loved it. Whoever conceptualised this was is brilliant!

 

 Breathtaking isn’t it?

Hubby-jr monkeying around with other kids

We only walked from the Henderson Waves (bridge) to Mount Faber and from there we took a cab to Vivocity (a mall). We had to cut short our plans because we picked a wrong day and a wrong time. It was blazing (and I mean burning, melting, BLAZING) hot and late morning was approaching noon! We just had to get indoors.

Oh well, next time, we’ll head out early morning and start from Hort Park. From there we’ll walk all the way to Mount Faber, if not Vivocity. Yup, that’s the plan. I’ll tell you more about it when (whenever that is) we do fulfill… the plan.

(To see more pictures of this lovely bridge, click here.)

How To Amuse Toddlers

Just as I wrote about engaging my two year old Little Missy, I came across this - How To Amuse Toddlers at Instructables.

This guy has wonderfully compiled a list complete with pictures and some instructions. I’ve done most of the activities with my kids and can vouch that they DO amuse toddlers. Having said that I still found the list very handy. So if you have to entertain little ones, go check it out.

Helping With The Dishes

Since the turn of the year, Little Missy dropped her late morning nap. This means that I have an active toddler for the whole morning! It has its fun side, she’s my little companion (shadow?), accompanying me while I grocery shop, run errands and even go on fun downtown trips (after Hubby-jr goes to school). When we’re not out, we enjoy slow mornings at home.

I’m cherishing these precious bonding moments with her as next year she’ll be attending playgroup sessions for 1½ hours in the mornings. (Sniff, my baby is growing up.)

The flipside is that she can sometimes (more than sometimes?) demand more attention than I can spare. It can be pretty annoying, not to mention a test of my patience especially when I’m trying to get the house chores done. She’ll keep yelling, “Mommy, come. MOMMY! COME! COME!!! MOMMY!!!” Yes, 2-year olds can be very persistent and often suffer temporary memory loss of the terms, No or Wait. “Later” to them means, a second later!

So I was so glad to stumble upon this “trick”. She now “helps” me wash dishes after lunch almost everyday. She’s happy just playing with water, soap water. Occasionally she “washes” a cup or bowl (plastic or melamine ones). Ya, well it is more of over-washing them in soap water…

It is brilliant. She’s happy and I hope she eventually does help me with real washing (one can hope right?). I get the dishes done and best of all, we have our bonding time over the sink!

Yes, this is how I do it. A dining chair, a sponge brush, a plastic bowl and some soap water (I usually give her more, she’s almost done in this picture). And oh yes, she usually needs a change of clothes after this. Next I’m getting her an apron!

Nintendo

Hubby and I love books and we spent quite sometime at Bras Basah that day. How on earth did we manage such a feat with two little kids in tow? Especially since Hubby-jr simply hates any kind of shopping.

He starts his chain of complaints the second I (or hubby) as much as glance at something. That never fails to drive me up the wall. So to avoid this we’ve resorted to:

a) NOT shop (I can’t avoid this ALL the time!)
b) Tell him to be quiet or else…
c) One of us brings him somewhere where he’ll be happy (i.e. toys section)… (but what if there is no “happy” section for him?)
d) Bring one of his toys along… (a toy car works but we’ve lost quite a few.)

THEN during our trip back to Malaysia we discovered a very effective on-the-go babysitter…

A little too effective?!

Yup, it’s the outdated Nintendo gameboy. We borrowed (permanently?) it from our sister-in-law (who has since upgraded to a PSP) as an “emergency weapon”. The emergency being our 5 year old going “out of control” restless on a 5-hour long bus ride back to Malaysia! Well the emergency never occurred (he was so well behaved) but hubby introduced it to him anyway.

Needless to say Hubby-jr took to it like fish to water. He is hooked.

Well it’s not too bad (yet?) as we’ve confined this activity to only weekends. He’s still attracted to other of his favourite activities even with the gameboy in hand. And who am to complain when it keeps him happy while we are happy shopping!

So is the Nintendo a friend or foe? A friend, I say (at least for now).

P/S: Hubby insists it helps with his hand eye coordination and helps him fit in socially… (yeeeah, oooookaay…)

Malaysian National Sport

When in Malaysia, play their national sport. What else? Badminton of course.

Err… I can’t say if they have a natural talent for the game… but I think they can strike a pose or two. What do you think?

P/S: I bought this kids’ badminton set (2 steel rackets and I foam/plastic shuttlecock) at TESCO (a hypermart) for only RM4.90 (that’s what? SGD2.30?) Unbelievably cheap right?

H2O = Happy Kids

My kids LOVED their stay at my parents’ house. Just a backyard, some plants, a small water pool and lots (LOTS!) of water made them very, VERY happy. (I too was VERY happy. Happy, self-occupied kids, what more could a mother ask for?!)

Well, this is what they did almost every morning (and sometimes evenings too).

 Watering poh-poh (grandma)’s plants.

 Playing in this small water pool.

Incredibly they didn’t seem to get tired of this tiny pool. In fact they couldn’t get enough of it!

NO, this wasn’t ALL they (we) did during our 10-day stay. There were other stuff too. But that’ll be in another post. I’m still catching up on our laundry!

P/S: Yes, dearest, DEAREST hubby had our computer resurrected! God bless him. Did I mention how much I love that man?

Great Sites For Kids

Shannon @ Rocks In My Dryer has compiled a LONG list of great sites for kids. It’s not just a list that goes on and on and on, she has actually categorized them. A great first stop to find wonderful online stuff to entertain our pride and joy(s)! Click on the icon below to get there. I’ll be putting it up on my sidebar too.

So far I’ve checked out KneeBouncers and StoryPlace. KneeBouncers’ great for my two year old girl and both my kids liked StoryPlace.

Coincidentally the list includes Storyline Online which I discovered via Pilgrim Parent and was just getting round to introducing it. It’s a delightfully wonderful site featuring stories read by actors/actresses. My kids may be too young to fully appreciate it but I personally was captivated by some of the stories. A definite MUST see!

Okay, I shall not hold you back any longer. Go knock yourself out and click away! 

The Wonder of Aqua Doodle

I’ve lamented about Hubby-jr’s lack of interest in writing or even doodling (just about anything to do with having to manipulate a pen or pencil) last year in this previous post. Hence it didn’t quite help when his former class teacher told me at year (2007) end review that this year (at K1) the worksheets in class would increase significantly. She meant well and wanted us to see if we could encourage him in the writing department.

We tried during the year end break but without much success. It was always such a chore to him. So I didn’t push too hard. I didn’t want to kill the joy of writing altogether!

Thankfully since the start of the year, his present class teacher managed to persuade him to write! Hubby and I were so proud when we saw some of his work - he could write his name! (My poor son, Hubby and I picked a four syllable name for him. Yes, a LONG name for someone who doesn’t like to write.) And so we were content that he was writing albeit with much coaxing in school.

And then… one day a miracle happened.

I chanced upon this Aqua Doodle thingy at a toy store (Kiddy Palace) and bought it.

Lo and behold Hubby-jr took to it like fish to water. He just wrote and drew endlessly for a week! He practised his ABCs, 123s and even drew some stuff. It was amazing to watch. The fervour has since simmered down but occasionally he still writes and draws on it (voluntarily!)

Just what is it about the aqua doodle that could lure my son into writing/drawing mania??? Only the good Lord knows! But I’m mighty glad it did.

P/S: Aqua Doodle is a mat in which you can write with water and the writing disappears as soon as it dries. The set I bought comes with a sponge tip pen which you can fill with water.

Pasir Ris Park

This morning we made our way to Pasir Ris Park after hubby heard that they’ve renovated the children’s playground. I was quite blown away when we reached the place.  The children’s play area is HUGE, boasting 4ha. I think it held about 5 to 6 or more different play stations catering to kids of all ages (including teens). This place is awesome. In our opinion (hubby’s and mine) it is better than Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden.

Needless to say my kids had a fantastic time. Here’s some of the stuff they did.

Spider’s web type of thingy?

Up, up, up.

Down, down, down. Wheee!

Fire engine drivers.

For an overview of the children’s play area click on these below.

     

There’s also flying fox for children (not in the pics), ”rock climbing” thingy for pre-schoolers and swings. Quite something else, don’t you think?

What’s more, besides the children’s play area, there’s horse riding, a mangrove boardwalk, bicycle tracks and a beach at the park. (For more info click here.) It was too bad we only had time for the playground today. But as the terminator would say, “We’ll be back!” (cheesy huh? lol.)

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Since Hubby-jr started speech therapy one of the things I’ve to do with him at home is “shadow reading”. Basically he has to repeat after me word for word and imitate the tone and rhythm as I read a storybook to him. This is to improve his articulation. According to the speech therapist he’s too nasal and speaks without really pausing between each word. His sentence could sound like one long word with many, many syllables!

Shadow reading was a tough assignment. I had to correct his pronunciation and rhythm more often than he liked. It made storytime grueling. I got quite disheartened. Thankfully I wised up and tried using his favourite nursery rhymes. It worked a lot better as they were much shorter.

Then recently I discovered a couple of wonderful short videos of storybooks on YouTube and that helped tremendously. You see Hubby-jr loves almost anything that moves on the computer! (I seriously think it’s the male genes, my daughter takes to computers too but at a much lesser degree.) And these videos were perfect because they were basically close up shots of the books (of which I had borrowed or bought), moving page by page as someone narrated the story.

After he watched the videos he was hooked. He watched it again, again and again memorizing not only the words but the tone and rhythm of the narration as well. So much so he could read the book (the real book with the computer off) to me and all I had to do was correct some of his pronunciation!

Here are the videos. The first is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? The children’s classic by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle. He loved this one so much that he’d recite the story to himself every now and then!

(The YouTube link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdHCYgO9zh8)

The second is Digger Man by Andrea Zimmerman & David Clemesha.

(The YouTube link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OOz_dz0vf4)

I have noticed that Hubby-jr has since started speaking slower and clearer. It works!