Tua Pek Kong Temple 31 Jan 2011

It was a bright sunny day after we took the family shooting at the studio. Daddy and Mummy had a walk down at the Kuching downtown near the Main Bazaar area.

We parked our car at the Star Cineplex building. Mummy really enjoyed the trip. Our first stop is the Tua Pek Kong Temple. We did our shootings at the temple. During our visits, the temple was doing some upgrading works.

Tua Pek Kong Temple 31 Jan 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Tua Pek Kong Temple is one of the oldest (or the earliest known) Chinese temple in Sarawak; it is also one of the most famous and mentioned tourist destination in Sarawak.The temple was believed to be built around the year 1800, more than two centuries; the earliest known official land title issued by Charles Brooke was 29 August 1871.

Like many of the earlier Chinese temple in Sarawak, it was a small & simple hut; the first known renovation was done in the year 1856, and subsequently it was upgraded with ceramic roofing & partial brick walls in 1863.

By the year 1880 when cement was introduced into Sarawak, major parts of the temple were then concreted as to existing look. The earlier management of the temple before the Japanese occupation was elected informally by yearly cast lots of getting one representative with two ‘tau key’ to assist the required periodic ceremonial & religious occasions.

After the war, the temple was managed by five Chinese Associations from respective major dialects in Kuching. The temple was then transferred officially to Kuching Chinese Community Charitable Trust Board in 1951 until now.

We had our 200 years walk that afternoon…

Jong’s Crocodile Farm & Zoo 30 Jan 2011

It seems it is our family travel itinerary that whenever we come back Kuching for holiday, that we will go to Jong’s Crocodile Farm.

And, it is never fail to entertain the kids!

There are a few things that we definitely will see, and considered their main attractions. The crocodile museum which I had wrote about it briefly 2 years back on my blog.

Another one is the giant Arapaima freshwater fish. The Arapaima feeding is located at the middle of the gigantic Fresh Water Pond, and other species of freshwater tropical fishes habitats.

Besides that, we can buy the fish food at the nearby refreshment corner to feed the fish.

Another attraction is the Crocodile feeding demonstration.

We were sitting at the first row just next to the pond! And, watching and videoing how the crocodiles were having their food.

There are other animals in display as well. Children just love to see animals!

Both Issac and Annabelle were enjoying the day and having fun in the Jong’s Crocodile Farm and Zoo.

                 

            

Random Shots @ Kuching 29 Jan 2011

Just a few photo shots that Daddy took during the day at home and having our dinner outside the home.

          

          

These were waiting for dinner to be served at the restaurant: Ying Ying, Wei Qing, Annabelle, Issac and Mother In Law.

          

           

Kuching, Here We Come! 28 Jan 2011

It is time again to celebrate Chinese New Year at Kuching!

We booked the air tickets few months back, we flied with Fire Fly.

It is a brand new experience using Fire Fly and this time around we have to go to KLIA to take off.

The kids were so excited as the KLIA are spacious and more space to roam and running around. And, more shops too!

Both Issac and Annabelle were climbing up and down everywhere they went!

They can feel the excitement of going back to Kuching and meet up with their dear cousins.

So happened that there is a mini air craft in the KLIA children playground area for children to play,it really looks like a real airplane!

Both were so happy sliding down from the door of the airplane!

We were boarding on time. I did bring along a lot of the kids stuffs just in case both feel bored on the plane or in the boarding room.

Luckily, both of them know how to spend the time by playing with each other. Siblings love!

Alphabet Book : b

Mummy thinking of want to do something with the balance of the colour papers that we had, thus here comes the ‘bowl’ we did this week. We had done few art crafts together, and there were left a few piece and pieces of the colour papers which Mummy feels it would be a waste if just throw away like that. That is how we using the leftovers and come out our craft of the week.

Materials:

• Various colours of colour papers
• Glue
• Pencil
• Puncher

To Make:

1. Draw a big bowl in the paper.
2. Using the puncher to punch out various of your left over colour papers, which you feel want to dispose off. Plan the design of your bowl: what is the colour you want it to be. Let the kids plan their own design of the bowl.
3. Put some glues on the bowl, and paste it with the small colour papers that you have punched out.

It is actually quite tedious as the small litter tiny pieces of colour papers really made kids out of patience. Thus, this one we do it together with the kids. End up, Issac’s bowl finally was full of the white rice pouring out from the bowl itself. As we just glue the balance of pieces out of the ‘bowl’…Hahaha…

b is for butterfly

Mummy try to at least do two art crafts a week, even though it is really tiring after working hours from office…and some of the art or paper materials that needed to prepare for the kids. But, it is kind of tension releasing exercise too for mummy…

 

So, here is What You’ll Need:

• Orange and black craft foam
• transparency sheet or clear plastic sheet protector
• white out
• black sharpie
• glue
• scissors

How to Make the ‘b’ for butterfly:

1. Cut out a lowercase ‘b’ from a piece of black foam sheet. To make the letters go along with the uppercase letters we’ve done in the past, this letter was cut from a piece of foam that was about 4” x 4” ~ small, but oh so cute!
2. From the excess black foam, cut out two antennae and the proboscis for the butterfly {what the butterfly uses to drink}. You can also add six legs if you’d like!
3. Cut out the background for the butterfly’s wings using the orange craft foam.
4. Lay the sheet protector over top of the orange wings and trace around the edge and cut out the overlay for the butterfly’s wings to the same size as your orange foam piece.
5. Using the black sharpie, draw the veins for the butterfly’s wings onto the sheet protector.
6. Let your little one dab white out onto the edge of the wings to make the white spots of a monarch.
7. Glue or tape on the wings, antennae, and proboscis.
8. Add a wiggle eye.

Like always…Belle will using black ball pen to scribble the round, round or circle, circle things on her art paper. Mummy do some modifications here as we do not have any clear protector sheet, thus just using the orange colour papers and black marker to draw out the wings veins. Surprisingly turn out very attractive.

 

Resource: http://totallytots.blogspot.com

Alphabet Book : B

This is actually a simple arts which Mummy remembered, mummy did in the primary school time. So happened that we did letter ‘B’, so mummy purposely went to Mydin and bought a set of water colour. Well, times flies and changing. During Mummy school time, the ‘Panda’ brand water colour was the most popular one, and the water colour tube is made of soft silver colour materials with the plastic white cap. Well, now ‘Buncho’ brand is the most popular one, the packaging is in soft plastic tube with plastic cap as well.

Materials:

• Water colour
• Art Paper

 To Make:

1. Fold the art paper in the centre.
2. Pour little portion of water colour near the centre of the folds. Let the children choose what colour they like. Both kids love various of colours, they almost want to use every single colour in the water colour set.
3. Fold the paper and press it flat using the ruler and try to make a shape of a butterfly, as both upper and lower portions further from the centre of the fold.

Really love to see their face expressions after they opened the fold and saw the colourful and wonderful butterfly in their paper. They love it.

B is for Bumblebee

Both Issac and Annabelle are enjoying doing the crafty alphabets, after we had done for the letter ‘A’ and ‘a’. Every night if possible we tried to make a fun craft out of the alphabet letter. Here we come to letter ‘B’. Again, it is from the totally tots.

 

What You Will Needed:

• Yellow foam sheet or construction paper
• Black sharpie or marker
• Wax paper
• Googly eye
• Black pipe cleaner
• Glue

How to Make the Bumblebee:

1. Cut an uppercase 'B' out of the foam sheet or construction paper. The original suggested to use a foam sheet that was about 4" x 5" in size. But Mummy just using the construction paper.
2. Cut out two circles from the wax paper to use as wings for your bee.
3. Cut the pipe cleaner into two pieces ~ one should be 1/3 of the length of the pipe cleaner, the other 2/3 of the length. Mummy did a little changes here as using the black colour ribbon, as our house do not have the pipe cleaner, and I feel more safer using the soft ribbons as the pipe cleaners sometimes can be very sharp.
4. Poke the small pipe cleaner through the bottom base of the 'B' to use as a 'stinger'. Same as here too, change it to the small black colour ribbon.
5. Poke the longer pipe cleaner through the upper part of the 'B' to use as the bee's antennae.
6. Have your child draw stripes on the B using the marker.
7. Glue on the googly eye and wings.

Both were so amazed when seeing their bumblebee really flying. Belle using her black pen scribbles on the rest of the paper, making the bumblebee really busy and dizzy…

 

Resource: http://totallytots.blogspot.com

Alphabet Book : a

Well, this is the idea which Mummy come out after few weeks of reading, searching online on the home school concept things. This type of art work actually, Mummy did it during primary school time.

 

Materials:

• Glue
• Red, green and Brown colour papers
• Pencils

To Make:

1. Draw an apple on a sheet of plain paper, with the stem and leave.
2. Tear the colour papers into pieces using hands.
3. Glue the pieces onto the apple.

Annabelle was so happy on the art craft that we did. Mummy replaced the brown colour stem to brown colour pencil because Mummy just managed to bought red and green colour papers, but Belle seems did not care at all, and just glued the stem with red colour papers too.

 

Issac just coloured it with brown colour pencil. He wrote his name and the word ‘Apple’.

a is for apple

This is another goodies which go along with the uppercase letter ‘A’ we have done previously, Both kids were so surprised and happy on the outcome of the little artwork. The apple looks so real!

What Materials Need:

• red, white, green and brown foam sheets or construction paper
• an apple
• glue & tape
• pencil
• scissors

How to Make the ‘a’ for apple:

1. Cut out a lowercase ‘a’ from a piece of red foam sheet. This letter was cut from a piece of foam that was about 2” x 4” ~ small, but oh so cute! I used red construction paper for that.
2. Cut out a small oval/circle from the white foam that will fit behind the inside of the letter ‘a’ to use as the inside of the apple. Due to more economical, Mummy change it to white plain paper.
3. From the brown foam sheet, cut out a stem and five small apple seeds. I cut it from a black colour construction paper for that.
4. From the green foam sheet, cut out a leaf for your apple. Using a green colour paper.
5. Glue or tape the white circle to the back of your lowercase ‘a’ so that it shows through the centre.
6. Count out the seeds with your little one and glue them into the centre to form the star at the centre of the apple.
7. Glue or tape the stem and apple to the back of the letter ‘a’.

Resource: http://totallytots.blogspot.com

A Simple Toy 9 Jan 2011

Sometimes I really amazed with the children how they can use just a little thing which can make them so occupied and happy.

A simple toys like racing cars or the jumbo blocks can manage to make them play for a whole day.

Happiness is just so simple ^^.

Our Very 1st Musik Garten Class ^^

Today is our very first Musik Garten classes together with the kids. This is our trial class for both Issac and Annabelle.

Actually, Mummy and Daddy had searching and sourcing for the ‘right music class’ for both Issac and Annabelle since last year during the school holidays. Initially, both Daddy and Mummy would like to enrol both of them to some hobby classes, such as art class or music class. Issac currently already has his own art class at school, and we would like to let Annabelle try on ballet class. As both of us ‘would like’ to let them learn music as well, just to train up their characters.

At first, thinking of just let them learn direct to the piano or guitar classes straight away, but we do not have any idea weather they will like the music instruments or not. During our enquiries at the Piano Station at Summit USJ, Mummy did read a leaflet on the notice board on this Musik Garten; after a while, this Musik Garten catch my eyes again when we having our dim sum breakfast at USJ 21. The office is just across the road. So, we just walked in and asked about the program, and we found out that it is great. The manager gave us a list of the Musik Garten music school which we can refer to as to nearest our house.

Music Brings Children To Life ~ Musik Garten is a popular early childhood music and movement program for babies, toddlers and children up to 9 years old from the U.S.A. It is backed by over 30 years of practice and academic research in leading universities in the U.S.A. This program nurtures brain, social, emotional, physical and creative development. It builds a strong foundation for children before learning piano, violin, or other musical instruments.

Then, Mummy looking at our music centre – Masters Touch Conservatory of Music which is located at USJ 9. Mummy choosing USJ 9 instead of USJ 10 due to the place would not be so crowded as USJ 10. And, when I called the centre, the administrator Lydia also kind of nice to explain the whole program to the children and how the children will benefit out of it after the program. She said we can have a trial class if we want to. That was actually end of November last year, and we were down with AH1N1 after that, then go Penang holidays with Agatha and Andrew before Christmas. There after is Masters Touch term holiday.

And, finally we started our trial class today…It is quite a meaningful thing to do today…because today is the first weekend of the year 2011. We did something together for the kids and hope they will having fun in the future for the classes to come. Mummy and the kids will be busy every Saturday 12.00noon onwards. Issac class will be from 12.00 noon to 12.45pm and Annabelle from 12.00 noon to 12.00pm together with Mummy accompany.

Sharing : 妈妈的禁忌

Got to read an article sharing by the Tadika Ceria Gembira on facebook today. Hmm…i think i myself have some of the ‘features’ of those unpopular mummies as followings. Hmm…have to change a bit: too strict,and sometimes can’t keep the promises. This is a good one which like to share:

• 只顾自己玩的妈妈

5岁的汤姆说，“我妈妈常常只管自己出去玩，既不顾家，也不顾我。有不少时候她晚上玩得很晚才回家——实际上她回家时我往往已睡着了。我不知道妈妈究竟是不是爱我。”

专家评析：其实这类妈妈称得上是“自私妈妈”，缺乏对孩子的责任感。建议应该投入至少70%的精力和50%的空余时间在才5岁的孩子身上.

• 只想着爸爸的妈妈

还不到3岁的琳达哭着说，“妈妈只有见到爸爸时才眉开眼笑。她总是把最好吃的留给爸爸，而不是留给我。她说我什么都不好，而说爸爸什么都好。我很生气。”　

专家评析：要知道，幼年期的儿童大多十分敏感，常常会把妈妈视作“私有财产”，而不许自己以外的人，甚至包括爸爸“分享”。对这么爱“吃醋”的琳达，妈妈理应有意识地作出种种表现或暗示，让她增加“妈妈确实最爱她”的自信。同时当爸爸的也应大度地适当退出妈妈视线的焦点，以便让宝宝更有安全感。

• 爱体罚的妈妈

5岁的小顽童布尼透露，“只要我淘气，如跟小朋友打架啦，弄脏了衣服啦，在墙上画画啦，妈妈就会罚我站，而且一站就是老半天。一次我用弹弓打破了邻居的玻璃窗，妈妈更是生气，不仅不给我饭吃，还狠狠地拧我的胳膊，直疼得我嗷嗷叫。于是我再也不爱妈妈了，因为我觉得她并不爱我。”

专家评析：体罚可能成功地强迫孩子服从家长的意志，但这一定只是暂时的、局部的，带来的问题远比解决的问题要多得多。因体罚而导致孩子的逆反心理和逆反行为一般在几周后即会显现出来，其中包括：经常撒谎，偷盗，爱欺负弱小同学，难以与小伙伴友好相处，缺乏同情心，不服从教师教导，有时可能极度自卑等等。在2年后则可能发展至斗殴、抢劫、闹事等更为激烈的暴力行为甚至反社会倾向，并增加成为小流氓、小霸王的危险。

• 不尊重我朋友的妈妈

4岁的贝克嘟着嘴说，“妈妈一直不喜欢我周围的小伙伴。她说汤尼说话结巴，彭努长得丑，肖斯脑筋不好使，尼尔嘴又太馋。反正在她嘴里没有一个好的。更让我不快的是，她要求我不跟他们玩，还生怕我被他们‘带坏’。而实际上他们都是既可爱又诚实的好孩子。我为妈妈感到害臊。”

专家评析：妈妈是孩子步入社会最早的引路人，在孩子面前务须注意一言一行！尊重孩子的朋友本身就意味着对孩子的尊重。而让孩子在你以身作则的指引下学会尊重他人，是他宝贵的人生财富。任何孩子都有这样那样的毛病或缺点。就让孩子自由地选择他的朋友吧，不必杞人忧天地担心孩子会被“带坏”。

• 说到做不到的妈妈

5岁的海伦埋怨说，“妈妈总是说话不算数。她曾答应马上给我买一个芭比娃娃，但至今仍没有买。她还保证在外婆生日那天带我上外婆家，但后来又说不去了。还有许许多多事情她都说得到却做不到。最后我已不相信她的话了。这样的妈妈真叫人扫兴！”

专家评议：“说得到做不到”的妈妈缺失的是诚信。诚信并非与生俱来，而是后天培养的。其实，“诚信教育”，往往始于牙牙学语之时，而且贯穿于整个童年时期。在孩子刚刚懂事起就应帮助他们在心中树立起“以诚信为本”。遗憾的是，屡屡“说得到做不到”的妈妈，为孩子提供的恰恰是反面教材，起的负面影响可想而知！

• 过于严厉的妈妈

5岁的丹尼说，“妈妈老说我这也不行那也不行。她说我写的字不端正，画的狗一点也不像，还批评我洗碟子不干净。我真的什么也不行吗？想到这里，我很泄气。”

专家评析：父母的完美主义对孩子心理的最大危害是：渐渐剥夺了他们的自信。要知道，孩子都需要自我肯定，特别对原本就较自卑的孩子来说，自我肯定无疑更为重要。有的孩子之所以变得越来越自卑，正是父母以完美主义的态度作出了过高的要求，由此孩子便可能时时处处被包围在批评、埋怨之中难以自拔，长此下去自信便可能遗憾地丧失殆尽。最后当他每每开始做一件事时，他在潜意识中往往会对自己作出否定，如：我的能力就是比不上人家，我的脑筋就是笨，或我就是不讨别人的喜欢等等。不妨将对孩子的“你洗不干净碟子”改成“你真了不起，才5岁就能洗碟子啦！不过要是你能再多花点时间冲洗，碟子会洗得更干净的”。这么一改，给孩子的心理暗示就完全不一样了。此外要认识到：任何孩子，都不可能是样样都棒的“全才”(其实成人也是如此)。要是你的孩子在绘画方面不如别的孩子，大可不必为此而忧心忡忡，因为他完全有可能在其他方面胜过别的孩子。

• 太肥胖的妈妈

3岁的玛丽哭着说，“妈妈实在太胖了，而且弄得很邋遢。每次她上幼儿园开家长会时，小朋友们都会暗暗地笑话我。我很难过，但又不知怎么办才好。”

专家评析：儿童比成人更看重一个人的外表，对自己最亲爱的母亲自然更是如此。其中的部分原因可能是他们对“心灵美比外貌美更重要”的抽象理论还难以理解。为了自己的健康，也为了“美化”自己在孩子心目中的形象，过于肥胖的母亲应该注意节食、运动和减肥，并关注自己的衣着服饰。

• 不好玩的妈妈

4岁的亚裔孩子阮埋怨说，“我能歌善舞，老师和小朋友都很喜欢我。我还会作画、剪纸、弹琴、捏泥巴，可是妈妈不仅都不会，她还瞧不起我的爱好。妈妈早出晚归，空余时就只知道读书。她还老叮嘱我一定要好好读书，因为只有读好书以后才有出息。其实，我很希望妈妈能够陪我一起玩。我真感到扫兴，为什么我的妈妈这么不好玩？”

专家评析：孩子想从自己最亲近的妈妈那里模仿、了解很多事情，以满足自己天然的好奇心和求知欲；他们更希望能和妈妈拥有相同的兴趣和爱好。如果妈妈对孩子的爱好一窍不通，总是一问三不知，甚至不以为然，孩子自然会感到很失望很沮丧。同时这对孩子早期语言能力的培养和发展也有负面影响。对幼儿来说，完全没有必要强迫他多多读书。其实在阮这样的年龄段，理应通过多玩来发展多方面的兴趣，因为玩实际上也是学习，而且是一种提升智力的极好学习。此外不妨有意识地培养和孩子相同或相似的兴趣爱好，并熟悉孩子特有的心理和语言，尽可能抽时间多和孩子一起玩，和孩子多作语言交流。长此下去，孩子自然会认为你是很“好玩”的.

Source: www.tadikaceriagembira.com

Alphabet Book : A

This alphabet Book idea also is a goodies that Mummy learned from the Homeschool Creation blog. It is filled with crafts that both kids make – each letter of the alphabet having it’s own craft with the words of each individual alphabet. I started this even is September of the year, even it is late but it is better start late than never. Thus, we started our first week with the letter 'Aa'.

Materials:

• Red construction paper apple
• White rectangle piece of construction paper
• Black inkpad
• Green construction paper leaves

To Make:

1. Cut out the apple if they are able to use scissors {we cut them out ahead of time due to limited time}.
2. Let the kids scrip the apple in half, horizontally.
3. Rip the white piece of paper on both sides, so the apple 'core' appears to be eaten.
4. Have the kids stamp their fingerprint on the white 'core' of the apple to make seeds. In this art, we have replaced the fingerprints portion with a black ink pen, as we do not have the inkpad. The kids just do their own scribbles on the ‘core’.

Annabelle just griped the pen and scribbled on top of the construction paper freely.

When I asked them, “ Who ate the apple?"

Issac answered, “ Hmm…Mummy…the ants ate the apple…I draw ants here, ok?” I was so shocked that he was answering that way. What a co-incident, this week we are learning about the letter ‘Aa’ and the ‘ant’ is start with letter A. Sometimes, Mummy feels that, such little little moments and touch seconds are the treats or the rewards or the satisfactions that being a Mum are enjoying and the fulfilments that we desired…

Resource: http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com

A is for Alligator

This is the goodies that Mummy found in the website http://totallytots.blogspot.com which Mummy discovered from Mummy Ang Lee Siang’s blog.

The followings are the materials that supposed we need for the cute Alligator art work:

• Green foam sheet or construction paper (Mummy using green colour construction paper / sugar paper)
• White foam triangles or construction paper (Mummy using white plain paper)
• Black sharpie or marker
• Googly eye
• Glue

How to make the 'A' Alligator:

1. Cut an uppercase 'A' out of the foam sheet or construction paper. I used a green colour construction paper that was about 4" x 5" in size. Also cut two triangles from the green construction paper to use for the eyes.
2. Cut small triangles out of the white paper to use as teeth for the alligator. I used white plain paper for the teeth.
3. Turn the 'A' onto its side and glue the green triangles to the 'A' so that they look like eyes popping up.
4. Glue the white circle onto the the green triangles. I cut out 2 circle shape of white colour eye, and using the black marker to draw the eyes on it. This is the alternative as I can’t find any googly eyes from the nearest book shop.
5. Add teeth for your alligator.

Both Issac and Annabelle like it very much…Hope they find that learning is fun and enjoying!

Resource: http://totallytots.blogspot.com

We Have New Book! 3 Jan 2011

Daddy bought a few books during our day out at the shopping mall. Issac loves a book which all about sharks so much!

There are so many types of sharks in the world!

We are learning one by one together…