A simple Teacher's Day gift with a little personalization



Being a parent means doing things you have never done before almost everyday, making a teacher's day gift for your 3-year old daughter to bring to school is one of them.

Both my husband and I are not a "gift" person, we don't know what to buy when it comes to buying gifts for others, even for each other. Hence, we have been procrastinating until last weekend. Then we decided we will just make something simple and personal at home.

My initial idea is to write the "Thank you teacher who and who" on the chalkboard, get Kah Yen to pose for a photo with it, print the photo and insert into a photo frame. That's it. We are done. But we don't have enough photo frames at home, so we decided to make cards instead, in this way we can also involve Kah Yen more in the making of the gift.

It turned out to be a 2-hour art & craft session. I love that all of us are involved. My husband helped to write the "Thank you" message on the board and take the photos. Getting an active 3-year old to pose for photo is not easy, so we decided to just get one nice photo and photoshop with the rest of the messages.

I pasted the photo on the cover of the card and also added the Wasi tape to brighten up a little bit.

Kah Yen pasted the 3D flower stickers and the shining beads. We also let her put some fingerprints on it, later Daddy drew eyes and wings and legs on them to turn them into buzzing bees. Don't ask me why bees. There is no logic. Just for the fun!

Inside the card, we wrote a simple message to each teacher. Then we let Kah Yen decorate it herself. She added more fingerprints and her favorate stamps on each card.  

We love how they turned out to be. And most importantly, we love that Kah Yen participated in it and she was mighty proud of herself.

Kah Yen's turtle

I was preparing dinner in the kitchen, Kah Yen was dooddling on her sketchbook on the sofa. A few minutes later she ran to the kitchen and called me "Mummy, come and see, I draw a turtle."

I responded the way a typical parent would respond to a toddler "Oh, really? You have drawn a turtle? I can't wait to seeing it." then ran out of the kitchen with an exaggerated excitement.

Honestly, I was expecting probably an out of shape circle, with some random dots, then a few twisted lines. That's how her drawings look like most of the time. At this age she can't really draw anything recognizable yet, and I think it is perfectly normal.

I was really surprised when I see this. Though at first glance I thought this looked more like a wild pig than a turtle. But...Hey! It is at least some recognizable shapes and you can see her finger gripping and coordination is improving.




Kah Yen's drawing of a turtle

 This is the original picture she was looking at from a coloring book we bought.

The two aren't exactly the same but we are still mighty proud of her. We are not in any way trying to train her to be an artist but we certainly enjoy seeing her grow through her drawings. From dots which she called "ants" to lines which she called "rivers", to finally this turtle with mouth, eyes, patches, and legs (way too many though!), how much she has grown in the last two years!



Our family time after dinner

From Monday to Friday, since both of us are working and Kah Yen goes to full day childcare, the only family time we have is after dinner. It is usually between 8pm to 830pm, latest by 845pm I will have to rush her to shower and bedtime routine starts.

Usually it is a time of free play. We don't do any teaching of ABC or 123 at home. She is not even three years old after all. I don't think I will do any coaching or schooling at home till she goes to primary school. For now she has spent the whole day in school, there is a lot of structured learning there. In fact too much for my taste, I always thought they should have more playing than learning for children of this age.

TV is totally out. We try not to switch on TV when Kah Yen is awake. Not that we are trying to be Nazi parents, we have learnt out lessons a tough way. We have never let her watch TV for the first two years, then slowly Daddy felt guilty and brought back DVDs from the library occasionally, Sesame streets, Finding Nemo and Madagascar. They are all fun to watch, the content are not bad at all. In fact we enjoyed watching together with her and seeing her all excited. BUT, we are almost never able to switch off the TV and get her to shower without a meltdown from her and much scolding from us.

It usually takes me two minutes to get her to the shower room, but if we watch TV, it takes fifteen minutes. TV is a devil.

Most of the time Kah Yen plays with her toys, and we try to join in, from cooking to building blocks to Lego to picnic. Sometimes I switch on the kiddy music, and together we sing and dance to our hearts' content. Almost every other day we read a few pictures books together. I did not set aside reading time with her every night like what we did in the past, since now her bedtime is getting later, we usually do with the kiddy bible before lights off. What makes me glad is Kah Yen will almost always pick a book or two towards the end of her play to ask us to read to her. It is also a perfect way to end playtime and transit to shower.

Daddy loves to engage Kah Yen in drawing and coloring, especially when seeing her not able to focus playing with her toys. Drawing and coloring is a perfect way to train her attention span, of which she is quite lacking from our observation.

I'd usually leave the two alone when they are doing drawing and coloring, I love to watch them from the side.

Her coloring skills has improved a lot as you can see from the Nemo and the Seaweed, she is able to color within the lines finally. Dory is colored by Daddy.

Sometimes I am not sure if we have done enough with her, for her learning and development. Especially I have friends with children of her age signing up for music classes, mandarin classes and doing a lot of home schooling. But that thought only came to my mind for a second then to my relief, it is gone. I know exactly what we want to give her for now - our time, our undivided attention, and our love, lots of love. Our family time, though it is very short, is the best part of my day, and I know for sure it is Kah Yen's too.

The (lack of) art activities in our house

I have always hoped to do more art activities with Kah Yen at home, despite the fact that I am totally not artistic and I have no experience playing with most art materials when I was growing up. It is totally a new area for me to venture into, but I am all excited to learn something new myself and provide a space for Kah Yen to explore, learn and have fun.

I have been very slow on this though. Before we moved into our new house, all she had played with are magnetic white board, paper and crayons. Recently we have finally set up the activity corner at our new house for her (though it is still very bare, I am yet to come out with a place to display art works), and we bought an easel from Ikea. She has been drawing on it with markers happily once a while, especially if we draw together with her.

Here are some photos of her using the Easel.

That's all about it though. The other side is a black chalkboard but we have not bought any chalk yet. We worry about the dust making the space messy and aren't sure if it is healthy for a todder to breath in too much. Mostly it is the messy part I am worrying about.

We have not started any painting with her for the same reason - the fear of a messy house. We have bought a table for her which is on the opposite side of the wall. There are color pencils, crayons and large notebooks for her to freely draw on, but no paint materials.

I chanced upon "The Artful Parent" blog recently and I just can't stop reading it. It is such an inspiring blog. The amount of art activities they do at home is such an eye-opener to me. Here are but a few useful links:

Making Space for Kids' Art

Forget crayons: 11 great art materials for toddlers

10 simple art activities to set up after school

I am now more determined to create an art space at home for Kah Yen and to source for more variety of art materials, even though it means a messy house for us.

Our art endeavor will start soon!

The way we play with playdough

Kah Yen has a simple playdough set as a gift from a friend. It comes with plastic pizza and bread molds, plates, forks and spoons. Hence naturally, we have been using it to make pizza and bread all the time, then cut them into shapes and pretend-feed everyone in the house.

I have never played with playdough myself as a kid. So I thought that's the only way we can play with playdough, making things using the molds given. When we grow tired of making pizza and bread, I thought of buying Kah Yen a more complicated set with a big machine that twists and swirls and makes ice cream and cupcakes! I saw it on the toy store and I was very impressed.

Magic Swirl Ice Cream Shoppe (Photo credit: Toys R Us)

The husband, speaks as if he has all the wisdom of the world sometimes, said "What? Why do you need a machine to play with playdough? Playdough is supposed to be played with bare hands!" He simply dismissed my idea with a look, that kind of look.

Oh really? With bare hands? So far Kah Yen and I always use the spoons or knives and plates come with the playdough. We have never dirtied our hands.

So the husband went ahead to show us "the correct way to play with playdough", using his own words. And these are what we have made together:

Animals made using playdough

And we had loads of fun making the shapes and put them all together. Kah Yen helped rolling the crab legs and pasting the ladybug's purple dots. I can't believe we have never thought of making animals using our playdough!

I just couldn't help thinking how toys sometimes limit the way our children can play with their own imagination and creativities.

So we are just going to buy some more colors and hopefully one day we can make things such as these:

Playdough ideas from Google image

And I am very much inspired to DIY make our own homemade playdough soon!

Coloring within the boundaries

Thanks to the childcare teachers for teaching Kah Yen to color within boundaries -  not really a milestone but it just goes to show that at this age she is constantly observing, learning and growing. And I love to capture those moments.

She colored the body and feet of this caterpillar all by herself. Look how proud she is of her work!

Finger painting fun

We received this Faber Castel finger painting kit from a friend as a gift. It is easy to use and a great way to introduce young children to painting, and less messy too.

Though we have not bought any painting materials for Kah Yen yet, painting is not new to her because she has drawing and painting activities in school everyday. Hence, it was easy to get Kah Yen to paint this lion picture (on the right) together with Daddy, on the left is the sample picture.

Then Daddy went to make a simple card using A4 paper and step by step taught Kah Yen to paint the various subjects on the card with different colors.

 Here is Kah Yen proudly presents the completed card. We had enjoyed the activity together and will definitely do more in the future.

A paper Christmas tree

We didn't buy a Christmas tree for this year. As much as I want Christmas to be a family tradition for the children, I have to let it pass this year because we are moving house soon. So yesterday Kah Yen and I sat down together and made a paper Christmas tree ourselves.

It is a very small Christmas tree and very easy to make. Just cut out the different shapes, color them and glue them together. I cut mine from an A4 paper template, but there is really no need to use a template since the shapes are all basic shapes. They can be cut out from normal B&W paper, or color paper, or cupboard or even giant form. And you can make it any size you want depends on the materials you have.

For the tree trunk I cut a long piece of rectangle shape from a tissue box, it is more sturdy and easier to hold.

I printed my template from DLTK - Growing up together, thanks to the internet even people like me who had never made art & craft before can now enjoy simple crafts like this with my 2-year old. There are alternate decorating ideas for this Christmas tree too. For example, you can print on form or cupboard for a more permanent tree, you can poke a hole in the top to make a Christmas tree ornament.

We had a wonderful time making this together. And throughout the process we reviewed our colors, shapes and sizes. Kah Yen was very proud of her creation. For the rest of the day she kept asking me "Where is my Christmas tree? Where is my Christmas tree?" :-)

I am a little builder

Two is a fantastic age. Just last week I was feeling all nostalgic that she has turned two and lost much of her baby-ness. Now I am all over it and I am totally enjoying her growing up every day.

It is amazing how fast they learn things at two. Everyday they discovery new things around them and pick up new words or rather sentences, and they don't just mimic your words and actions anymore, they internalize and create their own. They are twice more observant and imaginative than us adults. They never stop to surprise you.

Like talking. She is speaking more complete sentences now. She is able to strike a simple conversation with Daddy on the phone with a little guidance, such as "How are you Daddy?", "I am fine, how about you?" and "Byebye, see you tomorrow!" Just this morning, I went to the room where she was playing to tell her I am leaving for work. She said "Kah Yen don't go to work, Kah Yen go to Popo place." Well done girl but you made Mummy feel mighty guilt that you have learnt the reality of life so fast!

Then about toilet training, we haven't fully geared up to toilet train her yet (Can't find a block of time since I am working!). It is only in the morning when we have time we will let her sit at the potty to poo. Just 2-month back she still gave the confused look "Why do I need to sit on the potty when I don't feel like poo-ing now" and was reluctant to sit on the potty. Now she walks to the potty all by herself when I call and she can sit there for a good 5 minutes.

Then about playing. We bought her the Duplo Lego set on her birthday. We did not want to buy her earlier because she was just starting to engage in imaginative play with her building blocks, we don't want to flood her with too many toys too fast. When we first played with her last week, she was frustrated because she couldn't stack up the bricks properly, it requires stronger finger gripping and more precision as compare to Mega blocks they have at Sunday school. Then last weekend she just fiddled with them for a while and built something like this, when we asked her what it was. She said it was a train!

Daddy was very much encouraged and went on to show her how to build a tree (more like a tower to me though), she picked up quickly and soon she came to me showing her own tree.

And she went on to build three of them!

Look how happy she was when I asked her to take photos with her creations!

I am glad that we can be there to see her learn new things and celebrate with her each day.

If I ran the zoo

I still remember when Kah Yen first learnt to stack up wooden blocks on her own, we were so happy and I even wrote a post on this "From the little destroyer to the little builder". I wish to say that from then on her building skill soars and we already have an architect in the making, but that's not the truth. On and off she played with her building blocks but nothing more than stacking up a few pieces and knocking them down. With limited imagination, her attention on building blocks remains short-lived, it can hardly sustain for more than 5 minutes if we let her play alone.

I was almost going to pack up the building blocks and buy her some more "fantasical" toys - toys that talk, sing, perhaps even dance with you, toys with a lot of buttons to press and lots of lights to blink, toys that say "come play with me" whever they are left alone for more than 5 minutes - hoping that she can thus be buried in her toys for a good one-hour on average!

Then out of sudden, one day, when Daddy wanted to play building blocks with Kah Yen and she only wanted to play with her miniature animal figures, they had a new idea - using the building blocks to build a zoo for all her animals.

And from then on, building blocks becomes the must-play activity before bedtime. And their imagination soars from here. Each time, Daddy let Kah Yen choose which animals she want to send in the zoo, which animal should be guarding the gate, what color blocks she want for the door, sometimes the animals have to cross a bridge to go in, sometimes they need to take a boat, sometimes monkey stands on the rooftop because there is no more space ......

They could be on it for a good 30 minutes each time and I have to send multiple reminders in order to get her to the bedroom.

I wish their creativity never stops here, maybe one day they will give me enough inspiration to write our own version "If I ran the zoo", maybe we can even beat Dr. Seuss, just maybe.

Making a stand-up 3D Duck

So Mommy and Kah Yen's foray into art & craft continued this weekend. Last week we attempted for the first time together and made a very simple duck. This weekend we made a duck again (Okay I probably need to be more creative next time), it is a stand-up 3D duck though. I used the template from the same site  First School - Alphabet Worksheets and Activities.

The template already provided us with the body, head, mouth and feet, so I simply cut them out and colored them together with Kah Yen. The assembly was the more challenging part. The body was a big circle, so we folded it into half. A small paper plate can be used too. The feet was folded three times into a standing letter M, it was then inserted into the bottom of the body and stapled on both sides. Position of the feet was very important because otherwise the duck wouldn't be able to stand. The head was simply pasted on. The mouth glued half and folded half into a 3D. Kah Yen helped on coloring, applying glue and pasting as usual.

The other part which involved Kah Yen the most was making the feathers. And it happened to be one of Kah Yen's favorite drawing activities - making hand prints. I traced Kah Yen's hands on blue paper and cut them out, then pasted them on both sides of the body as feathers. We were so happy when it stood up like this:





Again it was a rather simply craft, and Mommy was doing most of it. But at least we spent one hour together concentrating on something instead of wandering around the house. And Daddy had one hour uninterrupted time to do his freelance work. Divide and conquer - yes that's how we survived when we had an entire day at home with Kah Yen :-)

We had some fun time taking pictures with our craft too!

One thing at a time

I have mentioned more than a few times that I am not an artistic person. I don't draw, or paint or make handicrafts. I am not just being humble. I really don't know. I did not have the chance to learn any of these when I grew up.

But, I guess motherhood is about learning new things, ALWAYS and NON-STOP. So I try to learn and do some art & craft activities with Kah Yen. Not because I have the ambition of raising a great artist, or so that she can get more extra-curriculum points when she goes to school, No, I don't have any of these in my mind. It is simply because it is a fun and easy activity to do with toddlers, also a good time for bonding, and for training their fine motor skills and attention span.

So last Saturday we made a duck together, with a bit of drawing, cutting, coloring and pasting. I downloaded the black & white craft template from First School - Alphabet Worksheets and Activities, I cut out two egg shapes (small and big) for the head and main body, two identical heart shapes (in oval rather than round shape) for the wings, two identical stars for the feet, and a rounded rectangle for the mouth. Together we colored all of them in either yellow or blue, with me doing 90% of it. I then asked Kah Yen to help me apply glue to all the pieces, she was very enthusiastic and did most of it herself, except I have to keep telling her to apply on the correct side. As you can see from the below photo, she was applying glue on the color side instead.

We then pasted the different shapes on her notebook according to the picture sample, the interesting part was the mouth, which we need to glue half and fold half to create the 3D effect.

The craft was done in less than 30 minutes. It was really a simple idea but I enjoyed the time we spent together and I hope we will be able to do more in the future. This is nothing as compared to what Daddy did with Kah Yen, but, Mummy is learning, one thing at a time.

Saturday Art

So last weekend we went to the zoo, this weekend we did not plan to go anywhere. After our usual Saturday morning grocery shopping in the market, it was 10 o'clock and another two more hours before lunch. Daddy took out a big piece of wrapping paper and covered quarter of the living room with it, and he announced we were gonna make a piece of art.

"Since we went to the zoo last week, let's draw all the animals Kah Yen has met in the zoo." declared Daddy.

Of course drawing was 90% done by Daddy and 5% done by Mummy, AND, let's just give 5% credit to Kah Yen for trying really hard.

As you can see, she was helping Daddy to color the sun bear's belly white.

After a few minutes Kah Yen realized the sun bear's belly is too big for her, this clever girl moved to giraffe, maybe she think she can help to add some details to giraffe's leg. She was still working very very hard as you can see.

Daddy was done with Zebra. Now it was the time to draw the giant crocodile. It looked mighty big and scary. "That's too big for me, I'd better step aside and let Daddy do the work", thought Kah Yen.

Kah Yen reckoned she had worked really hard this morning so she proceeded to reward herself with two new ballons before we finish the drawing. And when Daddy and Mummy asked her to stand behind the completed drawing to take a photo, she was like "Oh so fast. It was done? What should I do with the ballons?"

"Okay, Daddy and Mummy said I can have the ballons to take photo together." So Kah Yen stood in front of the drawing with Daddy held it from behind, for more photo taking.

We spent entire one hour on this. It was a great family time. Don't try to guess what did Kah Yen's mummy draw. I was trying to be busy with the camera as you can see.

Happy National Day

We spent the first half of National Day public holiday viewing our future houses and the second half doing some craft activity with Kah Yen - making a paper flag as I have promised her.

Some background of the promise. As most of us are aware, with National Day draws near, almost every street and every building of Singapore is decorated with the National Flag. Kah Yen was fascinated by the colorful displays everywhere, as she usual did with new things. Everytime we go out she will surely point at them and exclaimed "There are moon and stars" - for she does not know the word "flag" yet. But eventually she learnt this new word thanks to National Day.

By the time she woke up from her late afternoon nap it was nearly 5pm. I had to start preparing dinner in the kitchen so Daddy volunteered to make the flag with her. He first cut the red and white paper for the background, then cut out the crescent moon and the five stars. Kah Yen helped by applying glue on the moon and stars and sticking them on the paper. It was quite an easy project and they did it in a short 15 minutes.

It was a very nice flag. But.....it was not until I placed it with another real mini-flag side by side to take photo, did I realize that Daddy had made a careless mistake! The national flag background was halved horizontally, with the red above the white, the moon and stars are in red and are pasted on the white background. And he did exactly the opposite!

I thought I will have some lovely photos to show here after our activity but on a second note we'd better not post the photos since it might be viewed as offensive by some people.

So here is a photo of Kah Yen with the mini-flag we bought from the bookstore. And here is happy National Day to all Singaporeans!




Happy National Day Singapore



More on Sunday School

I wasn't sure if I should write more on Kah Yen's Sunday School until I received a call from our church Sunday School pastor on Tuesday, two days after Kah Yen's first session there. Our church is a mega-size church so we don't know this pastor personally, neither does she know us. But she called and asked how was Kah Yen's first session. She also explained the reasons behind some of the activities they are doing with the children, and how we can help her to adapt faster.

I was really touched. It is not like I am sending her to a childcare where the staff and teachers are responsible for my child's well-being and growth. My idea of Sunday school is a group of kind and loving volunteers offer to help look after the kids while the parents are in the church service. I never expected they will make an effort to get to know every child and every parent. And I never expected the way they run the Sunday school is almost the standard of a Nursery outside.

Yes. When we first stepped into the place both my husband and I felt we came into a Nursery. There are least 5-6 big decorated rooms. The children are divided into 3 different clubs according to age group (David Club (for 18 months - 4 year olds); Timothy Club (for 5 - 9 year olds); Barnabas Club (for 10 - 12 year olds)). Kah Yen is in David's club and the children are further divided into N2 (18-month to 3 years old), N3 & N4 (3 - 4 years old). Kah Yen was in the N2 classroom.


Kah Yen's Sunday School welcome card

There are at least 5 volunteers for her class. The middle of the room was divided into four squares by masking tape. I did not pay much attention to it but pastor told me later it is used to train the children the concept of boundary - They are told to stay within the square boxes during all activities, insteading of running around the room. All the children's water bottle are placed at a table outside the boxes, they can only go the get their water bottles during break. And no snacks are allowed inside the room. This is to train their self-control. The children are encouraged to pack up the toys themselves when program starts - to train them about responsibility. In a nutshell, it emphasizes a lot on character training.

The programs are well planned too. I was quite impressed when they hand out a 6-week program sheet to me. It details all the activites for each week, catering to the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual development of the child.

Kah Yen's first Sunday School session was a bit overwhelming to her, but she stayed through without much big fuss. She was tentative and reserved, but she did start to participate in the story telling and craft activity, following instructions and obeying them.

I was still very excited for the second session, eager to see how she will progress. At least she was not scared when we brought her into the room, though she pretty much remained as a observer at the beginning and throughout the singing and dancing session. However, like the first time, she was able to follow instructions and behave with good self-control during the offering time, quiet time and story-telling time.

All's well till the group activity time, there was a small breakdown. In this activity, every children was given a small plastic bowl, they are told to go the center of the room to get some macaroni from the teacher, come back and pour the macaroni to a bigger container. It was not a competition on speed or body coordination. So the emphasize was not on whether they can successfully pour the macaroni inside the container and how much. The teacher said it is perfectly fine if they drop some on the floor, just encourage them to pick up.

Hence I was really caught unprepared when Kah Yen burst into crying after she dropped some macaroni on the floor. Was it because the teacher was a little too loud exclaiming "Oh! The macaroni fell on the floor, we have to pick them up!"? I am sure she was just trying to get Kah Yen's attention and engage her. Was it because Kah Yen felt bad she did not do it correct? But she is only 18-month old, at this age toddlers are still shaky in right or wrong, aren't they banging table and snatching toys and spitting food etc, doing all the "terrible things" at terrible two?  Was it because there was no encouragement and praise from Mummy? Yes I will usually go overboard with praises when she does something well at home. At that moment I must admit my mind was working on how to engage her to pick up the macaroni, then to offer encouragement for what she had already done. I couldn't confirm but it could be either one of the reasons or all.

She finally calmed down after I carried her to the side with much cuddling. It left me thinking just how much encouragement and attention our children need from us for their emotional development.

Look forward to more Sunday School sessions, more opportunities to observe how Kah Yen learn and grow in a classroom. And as you can see there are plenty things for Mummy to learn too.

Kah Yen goes to Sunday school

Kah Yen is officially 18-month old and we have signed her up for Sunday school. Finally! This has to be one of the biggest milestones in her life, at least for now.


Of course again Mummy is the one who is way more excited than Kah Yen. Mummy has never been to a Sunday school before. So it is first time for both Mummy and Kah Yen.


Knowing that the new environment will be too overwhelming for Kah Yen, we arrived early to give her plenty time to warm up. After signing in, we were directed to a room specially for 18-month to 3-year old - David's club. The teachers/volunteers were already there, toys were grouped and arranged at different corners of the room for early comers to play. Daddy was carrying Kah Yen, and as we have expected, she clung to him tightly and looked cautiously at the place and the people she had never met.


We managed to sit her down in front of the toys later. She was still very nervous and refused to play. I thought maybe it would be better to bring her walk around the room, but she just stood on the same spot without moving her legs. Such is our little girl! She usually needs more time to warm up in a new place, she is also more cautious of strangers than some other children. After all she is only 18-month old and this is her first time in a classroom. We knew we should not force her, instead we decided we would respect the fear she has and lovingly guide her through with patience and support.


Husband managed to take a photo at the start of the program.

Teacher showing kids how to sit properly

The one-hour program started 10 minutes later and it was filled with activities. And I am so amazed to see how Kah Yen started to participate from the initial withdrawal and how much she had progressed!


(1) Singing and Dancing


The first activity in a Sunday school started of course with children praising and worshipping the Lord. The music was playing and the kids were told to follow the teacher to dance and do hand gestures. This was a bit difficult for most kids, only some older kids were following and the rest were guided by their parents. I did not expect Kah Yen to follow immediately. In fact she was still holding my hand tightly, and each time I tried to let go of her hand, she would grab my leg and asked to be carried. But a while later I managed to "skip" and she did not ask to be carried anymore. And when each of the kids was given a head scarf to wave and dance, she was following! She was waving and turning her body. She was dancing! 


I was also very glad to see that Kah Yen knows how to listen to instruction and obey, to someone who is neither her Daddy nor her Mummy. When the dance was over and the teacher asked them to return the scarf, she was a bit reluctant at first but when the teacher gentlely repeated again, she went ahead to put the scarf into the basket. Good girl!


(2) Offering time


I absolutely loved the way they taught kids about offering. The teacher gave each of them two pieces of biscuit, one on each hand, and the kids were supposed to hold the biscuits in their palms without putting into their mouth. Later the teacher would tell them that one is for Jesus, one is for themselves, so they have to offer one to Jesus by putting it back to the basket. Some older kids had done this before so they knew what to do, but Kah Yen had no idea. When she received the two biscuits, she immediately brought one of it to her mouth. I held her hand and told her to wait. Being a 18-month old, she naturally brought it to her mouth again and I stopped her a few more times. When the basket arrived in front of her, I asked her to put one biscuit inside and she did! Good job!


(3) Story telling and individual activity


I was very happy to see that Kah Yen can sit through the whole story time. This is one of her strengths. At home I would read to her story books every night and she can sit still and let me finish the book. She used to insist on flipping the books back and forth herself and would crawl away if she was not interested, but as she grew older, she became much more attentive. Even some older kids were running around during the story time but Kah Yen didn't. 


After the story, each kid was given the activity sheet, it is a family tree of Joseph, there is a sticker for every family member of Joseph and the kids were to stick them in the boxes. This is more to train their fine motor skills than to learn the names of Joseph's brothers, so the parents were told to guide the kids to the right box and let them put the sticker. Kah Yen was much more relaxed by now and I was even able to get away from her to take my phone, and I managed to get a few photos of her.

Kah Yen engrossed in her work

Kah Yen finished her work with Mummy's help
(Opps, where did Issachar go?)

Kah Yen disturbing LeLe Jiejie's work

(4) Free play time


The program ended after the story and individual activity. It was free play time before dismissal. Kah Yen joined the other kids crawling through the tunnel. Again even through this game, I could observe how she learnt to follow and obey rules. She was asked to stand in the queue and wait for other kids to go through first, she did. And when she went through, she turned back and wanted to crawl right in again, but she was told by the teacher that she had to go back to the other end to wait for her turn again, and off she went. All these happened while I was standing by the side trying to snap some photos!

It is play time finally!

And that's it! She made it through her first Sunday school. It does not matter how much she actually participated and how much she learnt, no whining and no meltdown for a first school experience at 18-month old already deserve a big hug from Daddy and Mummy! She had never attended a play date or a structured play group before. She never was told to surrender a toy in the middle of playing. And she never had to give away food which is already in her hand and halfway to her mouth. But she did them all today.


Daddy and Mummy are so proud of her!

Just because Mummy is not artistic

Does not mean that we can’t do some art activities together. After we bought crayon and color pencils for Kah Yen, she fell in love with scribbling on papers. During weekdays we usually let her sit on her highchair and draw while we have our dinner. (She takes her dinner at Nanny’s place)

Our dinner is just a short 20 minutes. We hardly have anytime to draw together with her, but occasionally we will. And one of her favorite things is tracing hands – she put her hand on the table and we will trace it with a color pencil. We of course start by showing her how to trace our own hands.



Kah Yen and Daddy's hands



Hand and other stuff

Daddy is the one drawing with her most of the time, because Mummy doesn’t know how to draw. Ok. Did you see the sun, or the moon, or the stars in the picture? If you saw them, great! Because they are drawn by Mummy and if you can see them, it says that at least they are recognizable.

Yes, that’s how bad I am in drawing, or anything artistic. I am totally not an artistic person. And that explains why I still don’t have a header picture for my blog! I have never attended a single art class in my whole life. I have never made a birthday card or a scrapbook before, not even a slightly personalized photo album. Going to art museum is hardly my favorite activity because other than saying “WOW, that’s great stuff!” I honestly do not know what else to do. It is not easy, nor it is fun to stare at a picture and pretend you know how to appreciate it, esp. if it is categorized under contemporary art.

But I always get bowled over by people who are artistic, they are not artists but they can draw, or paint or make beautiful stuff. Deep in my heart I always hope I can be like one of them. I think it is one of those childhood dreams that will come back and linger in my heart once in a while. Now as a parent, I am always impressed by mothers who can do art activities with their young kids at home. I don’t think I am less good a mother just because I can’t, but I do think it makes them look like super mums.

Ok. Just because I am not artistic, does not mean that we can’t do some art activities together. It is still a good time for us to bond and have fun, except that at the end of it I may not have a piece to show here or to hang on the living room wall. But who cares? That's not the most important thing right?

And you guessed right. I am going to send Kah Yen to art class once she is big enough. No, it is not so that she can help me fulfill my childhood dream.

And don’t be surprised if you ever find Mummy in the classroom next door! Who said Mummy is too old to learn something new?

The masterpiece of a 16-month old

I swear I did not pass her the color pencils. I have no intention of raising a child prodigy here, and I don’t believe she can learn drawing at this young age.

Even if she does have the artistic genes inside of her, she got to learn the most fundamental human skills first – that includes walking, talking and eating by herself. For now these are far more important than drawing a piece of art.

We got the color pencil box as a goodie bag gift from one of the community events, it has been on the corner of our dining table for quite some days before I threw it into her “Miscellaneous” toy box. This morning when I was preparing breakfast in the kitchen I saw our little explorer and destroyer staring at the box, and trying to open it with both her hands and the help of her mouth. When she did open it, she took them out one by one and started randomly scribble on the floor. To save our living room floor we quickly pass her some white paper. And there she is. She really does look like she is working hard on something right?

Kah Yen's first time drawing with color pencils



A few of Kah Yen's favorite things



Well obviously she can’t draw anything but a few lines so the above picture is actually contributed by Daddy.

And seeing her interest in drawing, we passed her the magnetic drawing board – a toy our friend’s children received on a Silkair flight. To our surprise she seems to like it very much.

Kah Yen drawing on a magnetic board

And here comes the actual masterpiece of a 16-month old.

The masterpiece of a 16-month old