Winter 2016 : What is that? asked Nazran. Hey, it is snowing outside!!!

....and everybody ran out the door. Extremely happy to see and touch snow for the first time.

We were on Skype, chatting with my parent when Nazran asked me what are those white thing falling down outside. It took me almost 20 seconds to digest. Leaves falling? Autumn is over. Bugs? No bugs flying in the winter. Kids throwing confetti outside? Maybe. Hmmm... or maybe it is a big raindrop? ice? SNOW??

It is snow, alright.

We just spent a few minutes outside. It was freezing cold. 

Alhamdulillah the snow is sticking. At 8pm, it is getting thicker. We gave a chance for the kids to go out and play with the snow. We spend less then 10 minutes outside. No one can stand the cold so I asked them to bring the snow inside. haha.

At 11pm, we went out again. It was a pure joy seeing them running around, having a snowball fight (well, it wasnt fun to be the target) and giggling. 

Designer cowl in action *ehem* :)

 

My snow kids

 

Winter 2016 : Gardening in winter

Why not?

In this gloomy and cold weather, I guess we need something to look forward to. The kids are getting bored staying inside so I decided to bring the outside in.

I asked them to wash the empty juice and milk containers. I cut them and asked them to fill it halfway with the soil.

We didnt have any proper gardening tool so we use everything around us to dig the soil and fill in the containers. Our neighbour was laughing when I told them the kids are planting potatoes.  She was like... "in this cold winter?"

We planted some garlic and potatoes. Now we have an indoor garden in winter!

Fishing in the flood

One thing about balik kampung is the kids have the opportunities to explore new things that the city couldnt offer. During the flooding season last year, we went back to Kluang.

My BIL and my husband bought a fishing lines for my kids. My FIL prepared the lines.

My MIL prepared some home cook meals and we took off to the paddy field. The flood was quite bad at the paddy field so we couldnt penetrate the area. We just park at a dry area, the middle of nowhere, surrounded by oil palm estate and let the kids experience fishing in the floodwater. 

It is easy to SOLAT

We made this poster together. 

This is how I teach the kids that SOLAT IS EASY.

This is how much time you actually spent to solat, compared with 24 hours Allah gave us daily. So little. So there is no excuse not to solat.

Fun @ Atok's

Full of activities at Atok's house.

Now you know why they love to stay at Atok's.

DIY Sandwich

I grilled a few mini buns and prepared variety of sandwich fillings:

- grilled barbeque chicken, 
- homemade mini beef burger using minced meat and spices,
- steamed crab meat with mayonnaise, 
- scramble egg, 
- caramelised onions, 
- cheese, 
- mustard; and 
- sauces.

We let the kids choose and make their own tiny sandwich.

They really had fun experimenting with different type of sandwiches, one after another.

Active kids

Saturday Arts : MICE

Nazreen read this book. He asked me whether they could make some crafty stuff that day.

After went through every project in the book and taking into account available materials, they agreed to make the mouse. Very simple. I could do it in 5 minutes, but of course, doing it with the kids, it took nearly two hours to complete (plus the tantrum and the fight, and waiting for turn to use the scissors and UHU glue). 

I only allowed them to use one pair of scissors and one tube of UHU glue for this project. They need to learn to share and to be patient while waiting for others to complete. At first, they were yelling and shouting, but after a while, they have learned to WAIT and let others finished what they were doing.

These are our Saturday Arts:

A [sheriff] mouse with a brown vest and stars

A mouse with a very heavy bottom.

Cute short-tailed mouse. When your brothers took a long time with the scissors and glue, just use the green label sticker for the nose! lol! creative one.

It supposed to be a cowboy mouse wearing a black jacket and a saddle [yes, I am confused as well]

I was chasing Nazmi around that I didnt have time to cut the mouse's ears and the string for the tail went missing so... it become a bird instead. Nazmi sleeps with the bird.

Nazreen made the silhouette and Nabil prepared the mouse's house (yellow plastic)

Crafty Sunday : Paper Cup Rabbits

 By the Syazwans.

From left : Kuaci, Kobitos, Boy and Kabico.

Interesting to see different detailing there. Some rabbits have bows, one have necktie, the nerdier one have glasses on, and probably was born with blue-and-green ears, the creative one has dreadlocks tail dyed in red. Nazran said that the one in green has a flu. He sneezed so hard that his nose fell off. You dont have to worry if they ran away because they have bells hanging down their [non-existing] necks!

KAED : Heritage Studies Exhibition 2014 : The kids

Entry on Heritage Studies Exhibition 2014 (here). 

Entry on the deco (here).

 Upon arrival at KAED Gallery. They were excited looking at the photos hanging down from the ceiling.

 Nazran entering the Turkey's group exhibition area

 Someone knocked down the deco. Nazran tried to put it back together.

They played traditional musical instruments at the exhibition area. No one was around so they were playing and singing loudly. 

This is the brilliant setup! They sprayed "LOOK UP!" on the carpet (left) and when you look up, there is a series of planes creating a negative dome shape (right)

SLUG!

Since we started having our vertical and herbs garden, snails and slugs have been a common visitor to our house. My landscape architect friend said it is a sign that I have developed a balanced ecosystem in my garden. Later, I should expect to have more ants, grasshoppers, butterflies and birds. Wow.

My kids love the snails and slugs but I cant stand looking at the slug. Geli ok. Lembik. Ada dua telinga lembik..euuw.. Recently I found one of them at our living room. These are the kids' artwork (and *cough* mynotetomyhusband *cough*) to mark the day the slug came into our house. lol.

My landscape architect friend's advise:

1.  Burn the soil before I use it since I bought a pre-mix soil with organic fertilizer. It might contains their eggs.

2.   Blend some garlics and a bit of water. Strain the water and spray it to our plants. To keep them off our plants. I think I need to spray my house with that too. lol.

Post 1M4U : Green Ambassadors

After coming home from the 1M4U event, the kids (Nabil, Nazreen, Nazran, Haziq, Sarah and Jaja) were still pretty excited with their gardening sets. Who wouldnt? It is extremely cute!

My husband helped my mom to plant Pandanus amaryllifolius which I bought at the 1M4U event. Following that, the kids started to work on my mom's herb garden. Then they became a bit territorial over the small strip of land at the back of my parent's house.

Before they started to argue with each other, my husband prepared some plant pots and soil mix so they could do their own stuff in their own pots. We gave two each.

We dont have to teach them how to do it. They still remember clearly what they supposed to do. It is quite impressive to see them handled the soil and vulnerable plants with care.

Baby Nazmi loves gardening. I can tell.

We prepared plant tag for everyone using corrugated plastic board for it could withstand water/moisture. They write their names and shove the tags into the soil, halfway. They were tasked to water the plants everyday.

Green Ambassadors in the making. I am proud.

Junior Pictionary

Today, we play Pictionary. It is a present from my aunt who used to work in Manchester. 

To summarise, they have to throw the dice, move the marker, draw whatever written on the card within one minute. There is a small hourglass to tell the time. These are some examples of what they have to draw in order to complete the game.

Nazran do not know how to draw many things before but this game somehow pushed him to draw everything! And he can actually draw!

Solar System

Yesterday, I taught the kids about our solar system. It was difficult at first because there are too many components in the solar system (apart from the planets). I decided to focus only on the eight planets. (No, Pluto is not a planet anymore since 2006 - it is a dwarf planet now).

First, I showed them the arrangement of planets in the encyclopedia. Then, we watched the whole solar system moving (planets orbiting the sun, the moons orbiting the planets, asteroids come and crushed planets, etc) in the internet.

And the fun part begin. They searched for nine round-based/cylindrical items and trace the circle around it, to drew the planets and sun of different sizes. They coloured it according to the photos on the internet. Then they stick the planets on the inner side of a box. #recycle

Nabil wrote the name of each planets, cut it and stick everything onto the wall.

Tada!

Our little solar system in the kids' room. To make them memorise it easier, we listened to The Planets Song all night. It kinda stuck in my head until now.

Button 101

Last night, I taught my kids to sew on buttons. At first I thought it would be very challenging for my 5, 6 and 8yo sons but guess what? It went smoothly. No one got hurt. They handle their sharp needles very well. I have hundreds of colourful buttons and they were so excited to choose the colour to match their fleece sheet.

I use fleece sheet because it is thick but yet easy for the needle to penetrate. These artworks will  definitely be on our wall next week!

I am so proud.

The Kids : 1M4U Charity Event @ Sekendi Orphanage

Our kids were having fun at the orphanage. They met new friends, they learned new things, involved in motivational games and art & craft activities. I let them run everywhere for the whole day.

Nabil is listening to the motivational talk.

 After the talk, they have motivational games.

After they found out that Nazreen is only 6 years old and probably not being able to participate in the next motivational games that involved critical thinking and a bit of math, he was sent to the art and craft activities. lol.

(Left) Baby Nazmi was sick. I have no choice but to bring him along. (Right) Nazreen and Nazran after being lectured by their dad about how fortunate they are as to compare with the orphans (after they bugged us non-stop, asking for ice-cream). Insaf 10 minit.

This is Nazran, after he threw up. He was quite a celebrity there.

 See what I am talking about? Everybody enjoy rubbing his tummy.

*wink*