Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

[Our 4yo little guy, Vai]

Since I got my hands on my Canon Powershot S90 last March, I’ve been using it to take most of my photos.

Including the ones you see on my blog.

For a ‘point and shoot’ kind of camera, I’ve been very happy with my S90.

But.

However more convenient it is to carry and take photos with this small camera, I still LOVE the look and feel of shots taken by a bulky DSLR. Hehe.

Like these ones.

[Our 6.5yo big girl, Anya]

[Anya is now 6.5yo, and she was 2.5yo when Vai was born]

There’s this one book I’d like to get my hands on soon.

It’s called ‘The New Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are‘, by  Dr Kevin Leman.

I believe a child’s order of birth somehow affects his/her characters. Not ‘cast in stone’, of course, because I also believe there are just so many factors and situations that take place in a child’s life that will influence the shaping of his/her characters.

For example, Anya is a first born, and she just has this ‘thing’ about :

– being the one who makes the decision
– being better than others
– being organised

I’d really like to find out what Dr Kevin Leman shared on this ‘birth order’ topic. First born. Middle born. Last born. Potential family issues. How he managed his kids’ different characters, etc.

I’m sure the book will be insightful!

(Just like his other books I’ve learned a lot from which I mentioned in my blog before, eg. ‘Making children mind without losing yours‘, ‘First time mom‘, ‘What a difference a Daddy Makes‘)

Anyway.

Have you read the book?

Are you a first born?

How’s the first born in your family?

How are your child’s (first born) overall characters?

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[INFO]

Btw, this book is not widely available in Singapore, so if you’d like to get this book, discerningbooks.com has actually come to offer a special 10% discount to all blog readers (for orders submitted latest by 28 November 2010).

Here’s a list of other books where you can get your special 10% discount!

Simply drop an email to info@discerningbooks.com with your book order, and mention that you’re a reader of Our Everyday Things to enjoy that 10% discount!

Enjoy!

The other day the four of us went to check out Kartright Speedway.

(it’s about 10 mins walk from Joo Koon MRT station)

You see,  Wilson found this great deal online at catchoftheday.com.au, where we needed to pay S$21 per person (for a 10min go-karting session) instead of the usual S$32 – S$45 per person (price varies depending on the day and time of your session). What a sale!

It’s been close to two years too since we both had our go-karting session (it was in JB, Malaysia), and so when we found this deal, we went, ‘Hey, OK! Let’s get those online vouchers!’

It’s nice for the two of us to have a little break from our daily routine too.

So we went with the kids to Kartright Speedway when the weather was clear and great!

(Btw, the circuit here is better and bigger than the one in Kart World, near Lakeside MRT Station, and was officially opened in January 2010!)

After getting ourselves ready (read: filled necessary forms, got our wrist tags, etc), the kids officially became our ‘photographers’!

One held a Canon Ixus and the other, my Canon Powershot S90, hehe.

Photo below was taken by Anya before we left the pitstop.

Oh. How I love the speed and adrenaline!

Really. To a mommy and a housewife like me, it’s refreshing to put ‘household chore thoughts’ aside for a while and just enjoy stomping on the gas, haha

It was a good 10 mins!

Errr … my shoulder and right arm were all sore the next day though, AND my right knee got all bruised.

Not that I mind, of course *smile*

[Anya and Vai checked out the ‘hair covers’ and helmets afterwards. And as you can see, Anya wore the hair cover and helmet correctly, while Vai went to show us how to NOT wear them!]

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[Info]

– The circuit is closed every Monday!

– Do check out their schedule and track availability before you come down, because it’s often booked by others and is not open to public

– Minimum height to ride the go-kart is 1.40m

– Wear ‘covered shoes’ (read: no sandals, heels)

– Click HERE to check its rates

– There’s a hawker centre and Burger King near the circuit, if you’re thinking of getting some food or drinks

Mister Maker is the arts and crafts guy from the UK’s very popular children’s TV channel CBeebies on BBC! (Starhub cable channel 303 if you’re in Singapore)

Anya and Vai remember him very well because they watched his TV shows for so many times during our visit to Indonesia last June!

(When I asked if they ‘know’ Mister Maker’, they BOTH could even recall some of the crafty things that Mister Maker made! I was amazed!)

[Mister Maker was funny, silly and GREAT with kids!]

Anyway, just recently Mister Maker toured around Asia and stopped by Singapore last weekend!

AND, we were invited to meet him in person! And to join his interactive arts and crafts session held at Paragon Shopping Centre!

Cool!

So of course we said, ‘YES! We’ll be there!’

[The kids made Googly Alien Eyes!]

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I’ve uploaded MORE photos on my Facebook photo album!

Click HERE to view them!

And click HERE to watch our video clip on Youtube!

Anyway.

If you’re into imaginative play and are looking for arts and crafts ideas for your kiddos (that uses ordinary household objects!), go and watch his TV shows or check out his website!

Happy crafting, everyone!

The other day, I asked Anya to think of a Bible story that she’s heard, and re-write the story in her own words.

[Other than letting her exercise her writing skills, I wanted to know what she’s learned and what she thinks of one particular incident / Bible story too. And really, a story often gets rather interesting when written from a child’s point of a view, heh]

OK. Getting back to Anya.

She thought about what I said for a while, and said, ‘OK, I’ll write about David and Goliath!’. She then took out her drawing paper and started writing.

I didn’t know how much she’s written until I saw the paper.

And I thought, ‘WOW! She wrote SO much!’

I liked how she ended the story too, hehe.

PS: It’s more like the ‘prelude’ to what happened between David and Goliath 🙂

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A note to Anya’s Sunday School Teachers:

Thank you for sharing God’s Word, and teaching Anya, Vai and their friends all these years, every week. All of your efforts are never in vain.

[Anya decided to create this using the leaves she collected]

Some three weeks ago, the kids’ school was temporarily closed due to the Hand Foot Mouth Disease (HFMD) outbreak there.

[Note: When a school has more than a specific number of confirmed cases in a month, the school needs to be closed for 10 working days, according to Singapore’s Ministry of Health. Basically, this is to prevent further spread of the disease to other children]

So, while Anya and Vai were out of school for TWO weeks, I decided to just keep our days free and easy (ie. we still go out and do stuff), while I sort of homeschool the kids at the same time.

We picked the topic of ‘PLANTS’ as our lesson theme.

[Kids saw for themselves how plants that received lots of sunlight grew differently in colour compared to the ones placed on a cupboard and received little indirect sunlight]

Just to share with you some activity ideas, here are some of our plants-themed activities we did:

– Collect different kinds of leaves and created a collage / drawings

– Watch youtube video clips on plants (there are many educational videos under BBC Wildlife, eg. here’s one on Venus Fly Trap]

– Eat mung bean soup!

– Experiment on growing green mung beans and putting them under different sun exposure

– Borrow books about plants from the local library

– Create crafty things / drawings using mung beans

[Photo above: Vai used green mung beans to ‘colour’ the green part of a Venus Fly Trap. This activity allowed him to exercise his concentration, hand-eye coordination and fine-motor skills as well]

…

Anyway.

Happy to say, we survived those two weeks away from school.

And we hope this Hand Foot Mouth Disease outbreak goes away real soon (it’s such a nasty disease!)

…

Btw, have you been somewhat affected by this Hand Foot Mouth Disease outbreak?

[Second attempt in making a car out of fondant. Tried a different approach and I was happy with this one! Oh btw, that’s ‘V’ for ‘Vai’ on the car’s rooftop! Haha]

Okay.

This post is SO long overdue!

…

[Get ready for a very long post! If you’re not into baking or birthday planning, you may want to skip this one!]

Hmm. Let me start with this:

For those who are new to my blog, my son just had his 4th birthday two weeks ago.

I decided to make him a birthday cake, using fondant. Which probably was seen as a little mad by some because I’m a total beginner when it comes to baking anything. Let alone using FONDANT.

You see, about 2-3 weeks before Vai’s birthday, I thought to myself, if the birthday cake is covered with fondant, it’ll look ‘nice and neat’, so why not give it a go anyway! (Especially since I’ve experimented on using fresh cream on Anya’s 6th birthday cake earlier this year!)

[Our one-month old oven]

And so the week before Vai’s birthday I experimented on making chocolate cakes. And settled with one particular chocolate cake recipe.

I then went to Phoon Huat store to get some alphabet cutters and stuff.

When I was checking out, I asked the store assistant if they have any ‘fondant packets’ or something (at the time I had NO idea what to look for or how the ‘package’ would look like). She replied, ‘I don’t think we have any left in stock’.

[Making my first marshmallow fondant!]

On my way home, I remembered about seeing a Youtube video on marshmallow fondant, and I thought, ‘I should just make my own Marshmallow fondant then’

And so I stopped by a supermarket and bought 5 packs of ‘mega marshmallows’ and a few packets of icing sugar.

Now. The planning part.

That weekend was actually a busy one for us (ie. We’re NOT home the day before Vai’s birthday celebration on Sunday):

Friday, 20 Aug : Actual Birthday

Saturday, 21 Aug : Off to stay overnight at Holiday Inn Hotel by 11.30am

Sunday, 22 Aug : Return home by 2.30pm, leave home at 4pm for church WITH the cake as Vai’s birthday celebration was at 6.30pm

…

[My arms and fingers did feel a little sore from all that kneading and folding. You can tell how I SO need to exercise regularly!]

Looking at that busy birthday weekend schedule, I knew I had to plan ahead and make my fondant and birthday cake a few days EARLIER.

So this was the plan which I actually carried out:

Monday, 16 Aug :
– Made Marshmallow Fondant.
I made my first fondant ‘creation’, ie. THE blue-coloured Dinoco Lightning McQueen and a few ‘balls’ (that will go around the side of the cake)

Tuesday, 17 Aug :
– Made yellow-coloured car and ‘cut out’ a few stars and shapes, the alphabets (L, E, V, I) and made a few more ‘balls’.

[Anya helped and spread some butter on the baking pan]

Wednesday, 18 Aug :
– Made chocolate cake (bottom tier) at night, wrapped it in cling film and put it in the fridge
– Made a ‘traffic light’ and a little ‘boy’ figurine!

It’s supposed to be ‘Vai’ wearing his blue top, btw. Hehe. It was my first time making a ‘person’ out of fondant, and it took me a VERY LONG time. A pro would probably get it done in 10mins or so.

But. I was very happy with the result! I went to bed in the wee hours, but with a big, satisfied smile! Haha!

[Keep fondant at room temperature, wrapped in cling film and stored in an air-tight container. Do NOT refrigerate as it’ll melt!]

Thursday, 19 Aug :
–  Found the ‘wires’ I needed (to stick the fondant stars onto the cake) at a neighbourhood hardware store! YAY!
– Cut the wires into shorter bits, and made more ‘marshmallow fondant’

[I ‘sliced’ the number with a knife, inserted the wires and left it at room temperature to ‘harden’]

Friday, 20 Aug :
– Made the number ‘4’ (above photo)
– Made buttercream (to go all over the cake, before you place the rolled fondant over it. After I put buttercream all over the cake, I put it in the fridge)

Btw, as you can see, my chocolate cake ‘crumbled’, and was all over the buttercream!

And I was like, ‘Uh oh! Why does the surface keep on coming off? Bleh. It’s going to be covered with fondant later, anyway!’

– Made more chocolate cakes (the 2nd tier for Sunday, and another small cake – photo below – for Vai to cut and share with his friends that day, since Friday, 20 Aug was Vai’s actual birthday)

On that same day (Friday, 20 Aug), I put some buttercream on the chocolate cake, rolled out the green-coloured fondant and put it over the small rectangular cake.

[I thought the fondant layer should be a little thinner though]

Vai LOVED how the cake turned out, the car and everything that was on it! He could NOT wait to bring out the cake that night and share it with his friends!

YAY!

*One happy Mommy upon seeing one happy birthday boy!*

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[Those two cars – bottom left – are REAL TOY cars. We put them on Vai’s cake just before we brought out the cake at Sunday School]

By the time we all left on Saturday morning to stay overnight at the hotel, all ‘necessary materials’ to make the bigger cake on Sunday were done and prepared.

Well, at least I thought so.

I was like, ‘Wow! I don’t need to RUSH like I usually do!’

Errr … but then again, things were different from what I expected when Sunday came.

We reached home at about 2.45pm, and within 1.5 hour, I was supposed to:
– get myself and both kids ready to go out again
– take out the 2 buttercream-covered cakes from the fridge
– roll out the fondant
– decorate the cake, etc

And I was rushing like MAD.

[Soon after, the kids left the house with Daddy so I could concentrate – and RUSH – better. Thanks Daddy!]

First, I estimated wrongly : I didn’t prepare enough coloured balls to go around the two tiered cakes!

And so I rushed and made as many balls as I could!

After making enough to cover the smaller cake at the top, I decided to just make a ‘blue ribbon’ to go around the bottom cake!

Second, I didn’t know that I needed to put the fondant in the microwave for a few seconds to ‘soften’ it! (I found out about this from a friend only afterwards)

So I did spend quite a bit of time trying to re-knead the fondant (and applying more shortening) to make the surface ‘smoother’ before rolling it out.

[The RUSH was unbelievable!]

But finally, I got it all as ready as I could!

I was so relieved.

And happy!

*smile*

[Took a quick shot of the cake before heading out!]

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When it was finally 6.30pm, it was time to bring out the cake.

And here’s the rewarding part: Vai was surprised and SUPER-HAPPY when he saw HIS cake!

And right there, at that moment, I felt everything that’s been done was so worthwhile!

The little guy was very happy, and the cake was lapped up by everyone!

One satisfying experience!

[The layers : chocolate cake, buttercream and fondant]
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I must say, this whole experience was again another adventure for me.

An experience where I learned new things and learned from mistakes.

And, I’m thankful to God that I have a hubby who was supportive from the moment I told him I wanted to try something new for Vai’s birthday.

I’m thankful for the many friends who shared their inputs and baking advice with me (So glad that these days we have the internet and heaps of insightful youtube videos too!)

I’m glad I went ahead with this ‘attempt’ to make Vai’s cake using fondant too, because:

– Again, I get to share with my two kiddos how we should never say we can’t do something IF we’ve never given it a good try

– I learn how ‘determination + a bit of planning + hard work + love’ matter, and how these factors do help in achieving a goal and getting things done

– I can encourage others out there who’re thinking about giving it a go to ACTUALLY give it a try too!

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Anyway, here are two more photos to share!

[Vai and the boys in his Sunday School class]

[With big sister Anya]

… is that you get to capture the everydayness of life that we treasure.

Without feeling the ‘weight’ very much.

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Btw, just wondering … do you ‘always’ bring along your camera when you go out? Or do you normally rely on the camera on your mobile phone?