turn me, turn you

turn me. turn you. turn him. turn her. turn mommy. turn daddy

just ignore. nothing to be alarmed. children will pick up on their own and self correct as they grow. that is how they learn language.

that is also how we should teach language. best method is to expose them to the language and speak them at home.

we are living as a nuclear family - mommy, daddy, him. so there is only that many language that we can speak.

i try to speak cantonese to hubs as much as possible because in doing so, i can also learn!

babysitter and family speak mandarin to him. we begged babysitter to speak hakka to him but we got turned down :) nevertheless, we are happy with his mandarin proficiency. sabah's mandarin is way gentler to the ear than peninsular's.

whenever we go home to my parents house or inlaws, they both are from different clan.

MIL - fu zhou and FIL - hakka. nevertheless they are conversing in cantonese to one another.

kj was confused and he doesnt fancy it when MIL speaks fu zhou to him. he thought MIL was being naughty and he digested it in mandarin, hence trying to correct MIL.

Recent activities:


 sea animals puzzle from Popular bookstore.

at this age, he is still not a puzzle boy. not sure if i have mentioned, he is a lazy thinker. while executing this activity, he will go "mommy how? " a 100 times!

usually i'll get so sick of it till i'll walk away :p so poor daddy needs to chaperone.

he can *sort* of complete them on their own i think? well when i see him giving up, i have no choice but to encourage and helped a wee bit.

  
 colourful ikea bowl. i think EVERYONE has it ;)


 
 played with play dough last weekend. this time! he was eager to play with them.


 
 learning how to cut with a knife.

 

 he made burger!
his creation was on the right, mine was on the left.
u cant believe how ecstatic i was! ;)

 

 finally he is not afraid to rub and roll the dough!

now im getting excited, looking at places to buy the playdough maker set! ELC mother care or melissa and doug. doubt kota kinabalu has it. boo

and i was really disappointed that our short trip back home was ruined by the election date. we couldnt stay in KL hence no shopping and we missed the Goldilocks and the Three Bears Musical.

all because of the election. sorry, im not a fanatic so i would not buy tickets just to fly home to vote. call me irresponsible or ignorant i dont care. family comes first. i will not SPEND money on flight tickets just for that. but let is call it fate. the DATE has to fall on our homecoming vacation, sigh. hence all my plans were cancelled. sobs.

 

 ok, i digressed.
with play dough, children can learn Math as well!
how many balls are there in the bowl? five!

and u see the green ball? we learn colours! primary and secondary colour.

i made three colours - pink, blue and yellow because they are only what i have.

noticed that he was playing in the kitchen? that was because we were busy cooking.


 

the pan contained ingredients for jap chae korean food. we bought the vermicelli from a korean shop.

kota kinabalu has many korean expatriates. i think they could easily make up the highest population of expats here.

well the season in our kitchen now is Japan! so we have lots of japanese condiments. will post up the japanese food that the chef had whipped up, produced in our very own kitchen :)

the jap chae was so tasty that the 3 of us sucked it up and i could only manage this pic (below) when i could take a breather.

the father can eat very fast, so i must catch up :p

this is kj's last few mouths :)

 he has reached his sensitive period for Arithmetic. therefore i must seize the opportunity to do math with him.

problem is: he does not have the patience or concentration to sit through the entire series of work.

i would not force him henceforth would glumly put them away. then, this little imp will move from one activity to the other, all unfinished.
? it makes me think, is that OKAY?




kj is 39 months old

Refining motor skill with play dough

made play dough using tmx this morning.

this was our second time using tmx.

our very first home made play dough was cooked on the stove.

hence without having me to tell you, i will not cook it on the stove ever again.

i accidentally poured oil in the first step (instead of the last step) but thankfully they turned out beautiful.

the whole process only takes 7 minutes!

Copied the recipe from somewhere but i dont remember the link.

Thermomix Playdough
Ingredients:
250g Water
100g Cooking Salt
1 Tablespoon Cream of Tartar
280g Plain Flour
15ml Cooking Oil
Food Colouring or Powder Paints (to colour)

Preparation:

Put the water, salt, cream of tartar and food colour into  . Heat for 5 minutes at 60o on speed 3.

After cooking, add flour and mix for 40 seconds or until mixture is combined and thick.

Set dial to closed lid position.

Add oil and knead for 1 minute on  

Tips/Hints:

If you wish to make several different colours from the one batch, leave out the food colour in step 1. Then when dough is made, divide dough into balls and add a different colour to each ball. Knead the colour through the dough.  Store each colour in a separate airtight container to keep dough from hardening.

Encourage your children to be creative and make play dough models, characters, animals etc.

I have written this recipe as I now make it, which is the "tried and tested forum recipe"!!   Thanks everyone for your input.

He still does not fancy playing with the dough.

he only wants to make them into balls.

Gave him a plastic knife to cut but...he is still not quite *there* yet

toothpicks to poke around. he did not, i did!

cookie cutters to cut.

well, he only wants balls :(

i get discouraged easily.

im gonna brush it aside and get motivated to introduce other activities!

KJ @ 2 years old 8 months

Homemade playdough

 i made this using this recipe:

1 cup of plain flour
1 tablespoon of cream of tartar
1/2 cup salt
1 tablespoon cooking oil (i use canola oil)
1 cup of water

add all the ingredients and stir in a pot over low heat. stir constantly until they become sticky and becomes a dough. it is pretty quick, takes only a few minutes. next, bring out the dough and place on a silicone mat/ any smooth surface and knead. drop a few drops of color extract and cool it.

can keep the dough in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

I've also pinned one site which has plenty of play dough recipes. HERE. www.playdoughrecipe.org

kj does not fancy playing with play dough. he prefers to watch the father moulding animals and etc. at the moment, he does not like to play with play dough , as well as other icky stuff such as flour + water which sticks all over his fingers. OR either he is the type who is obsessed over cleanliness whereby he MUST keep his hands clean at all times. i will try to introduce play dough again another day. ;)