A Trip to the National Library

My husband went to Fraser's Hill on weekend and Baby Nazmi had a fever. I sent and fetched my other three sons at two different tuition classes with this boy...

I bought them lunch on the go then we went straight to the National Library. I have planned to bring them there since baby Nazmi was born. You know, during your maternity leave, you will tend to register your kid's everything - from the back account, insurance, education plan, including National Library membership.

The kids' library is so different now. 

We sat at a corner so baby Nazmi could lie down and drink his milk. Kids were having fun picking up books from the bookshelves and returning it to the trolley.

Nabil registered for a session in Hypermedia room. They provide educational games for kids above 9 years old. After Nabil's session ended, they watched Upin and Ipin together in the room next to Hypermedia's.

Then they played some games online and watch educational videos. 

You just need to register on the spot and show your ID or your kid's MyKid to borrow the book from the library. 

School break : Igneous Rocks!

I bought my son an encyclopedia on Rocks. I have actually read the book until the end (nowadays, parents have to read until the end every book you bought for your kids). Geology rocks!

I taught the kids about rocks two days ago. What is rock. What is mineral. FYI, there are three types of rocks - igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. 

Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The kids need to first understand in detail what is volcano before we could move forward. So, we watched together a few videos on volcanoes and then, the formation of igneous rocks. There are so many interesting videos on geology on the internet!

After watching the video, I arranged the books at the bookshelves while Nazreen started to draw a mind map on types of rocks and section of a volcano. I suddenly looked up the bookshelves and saw a very special box that my brother wanted to throw away but Nabil salvage it from the pile. It is a collection of VOLCANIC ROCKS!!!!! HOW COOL IS THAT????!!!!! 

The kids were so excited to be able to actually touch and smell (sulphur) volcanic rocks! The best thing is they could actually relate to what they have watched on the videos. Geology rocks!

School Break : Picnic @ Titiwangsa Lake Garden

It is Malaysia Day and my husband have to work. 

After my husband left for Fraser's Hill, I prepared some food and asked my kids to gather some books, caps and a mat, and put it in the car. 

They have no idea what we are about to do because we rarely went for a picnic. I prepared some beef wraps, mushroom soup, hot chocolate, plenty of plain water and some biscuits.

They were extremely excited once I drove into the lake garden area. They saw the lake, fountains, horses, people jogging, cycling and families having great time together. It took a while for us to find a shady spot but once we found it, IT IS PERFECT.

Opposite the lake - separated by the jogging track, not too close because Nazmi would definitely be running towards the water. Shaded. Close to other families - this is important considering that I am alone, taking care of four handful sons.

They enjoyed their food very much. Then they read some books. Nazreen took out his sketch book and draw the scenery for a while. 

After that, I let them play for a few hours at the playground. 

I thought bringing four sons for a picnic by the lake, alone, will be a nightmare but it went smoothly. It was easy. We can do this again :) You could do it too.

Meet Elly, the Box Monster

Nabil made this on Saturday.

I keep empty breakfast cereal, toothpaste boxes and all type of boxes in the kids' room so they could do something creative with it anytime. 

Nabil googled some cute monster images on Saturday morning and he came across a cereal box monster art project for kids. He straight away gathered necessary equipment and start working on it. I helped him to wrap the box.

He coloured the eyes, cut it off and pasted it on the orange box. Then, he drew the mouth and the stylish hair.

After that, he added six i-dont-know-what. Fins? Hair? Ears? But, it is so cute.

The end product, meet ELLY.

I am proud.

School break : Word

I taught Nabil to use Microsoft Word during the school break. I gave him a few assignments and  after he completed everything, he gave me this. 

School break : RMAF Museum

We went to the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Museum on Saturday. Unplanned but it turned out great! They have two exhibition areas - at the field and in the hangar. 

The kids were running here and there, very excited to be surrounded by military aircraft - fighter jets and helicopters. Who wouldnt?

I was also excited to be so close to these superb aircraft. When we finished looking at the aircraft on the field, we walked to the hangar and it started to rain. Perfect timing.

Nabil inside the cockpit of Canadair CL41G-Tebuan, a turbojet that could go 480mph.

Nazreen, doing his thing. 

Nazran - trying to lift the jet.

And this is our favourite photo of this visit. 

One patriotic baby on RMAF jet's wing. 

Homework : Animals

Another Nabil's homework for the school break. It is for his Science class, a lesson on carnivore, herbivore and omnivore.

First, I taught him how to google for images. He has to google 12 types of animal, four for each categories. I reminded him to search for the one with white background - so the final outcome will be uniform. I helped him with drawing a circle around each animals in Photoshop and printed it out.

He planned to paste them on the manila card which he had cut out earlier, but unfortunately the manila card is not hard enough so I told him to paste the whole thing on a thick beige buffalo card. It creates a nice coloured ring around the animal. It looks cute.

He punched the hole, paste the hole reinforcements. I am glad to introduce him new kind of stationeries during the whole process - circle cutter, puncher, hole reinforcements, steel rings, cutting mat and an art scissors which looks like a dissecting scissors but I didnt know its name.

And instead of using a rope to tie the rounds as per instructed in his text book, I gave him steel rings.

How cute is that?

School break : Golf Range

Today, I made a quick lunch for my family. Simple grilled chicken sandwich....

 .....because we were in a rush...

 ......because we want to play golf.

It has been a while. The kids were having so much fun eventho some of the balls just move like 1 metre from where they were standing.

Nabil and Nazreen were watching other experienced golfer hitting their balls.

Nazran checking the field before he hit the ball.

Me? I hit a couple of balls too. Last time I enjoyed it very much. But now I prefer to sit back and watch the boys enjoying themselves. Baby Nazmi sleep all the way.

Small Nice Wolves

This is their activity during school break. Reading.

I really love this Big Bad Wolf T-Shirt. I bought the cute T-shirt for them and for my husband during the recent Big Bad Wolf Mission 63. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy one for me. 

School break 07 : Camping

We camped in Atok's house compound. I wanted to do this long time ago because I love camping very much (here). Before we bring the kids camping for real, we just wanted to see how it goes. Two days before, they came out with a checklist - ubat nyamuk, dapur, air kosong, jaket... etc. so cute. This was when we arrived at Atok's house.

Teambuilding :)

Snack before dinner.

"Fireplace". We use it for BBQ later. They were excited to have a torchlight each. 

BBQ. 

I love how our clothes smell like smoke. Just like the old days. The camping days.

We also put this around the camping site. This was their first time to see this.

Good night!

We planned to go for a midnight walk at 1am, but it was cancelled due to the rain.

CAMPING IS FUN!

School break 06 : Origami

We made origami, a Japanese paper folding art. We have a few options - star, fish, rabbit and penguin. I chose rabbit and penguin because they are the easiest, although not that easy for 3yo Nazran.

I teach them about penguin and rabbit - their habitat, what they eat and showed them some videos of both. Then I asked them to prepare a photography set for their origamis.

Penguin

 Rabbit