A Mother's Love

One good Mother's Day book, I would say is THE RUNAWAY BUNNY. We read this for more than a week.

It is a simple story about a mother's unwavering love to her child. I have never understood the depth of a mother's love until I became one.

The world I saw is being a daughter for thirty years, until that night I became a mother.

I held my daughter with tears with my eyes thinking this is what a mother feels like. I thought of my mom.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and the moms that touched your heart.

Caps for Sale!

BOOK:
This one book, (part of the homeschooling curriculum) my daughter had fun playing pretend!

NEW WORDS:
A new word she learned- peddlers! We looked around manila, yes there are a lot of peddlers around.
Fun word she learned is moustache, we kept on drinking milk and making milk moustache

Balancing my Caps

ART
I tried to draw copy the same technique one scene from the book, pointing out details as we go along.

SONG
Finding a song to match it, we sang Monkey See, Monkey do from the Kindermusik album.

SKILL
She tried to develop her balance skills with all the caps on top of her head.

Fun fun fun- my daughter is a hat person

Also trying her patience in  putting cups one on top of the other, slowly slowly to make sure it doesn't topple down.

Daughter saying cup, cups for sale!

Photo Me!

Our memories fade through time, we take photographs immortalize milestones. How do we take photos ?

Here are some tips on how to manage your photos:

1. Think before you shoot.
We take for granted digital photography, we end up having hundreds of photos and have only one worthy of printing. We end up eating up gigabytes of our hard drive.

2. Organize your files
It's so frustrating to search for photos, you know it's there but can't seem to figure out where. Depending on your preference , if the camera model comes first then organize by date, or by date then sort by equipment used, or just sort by date. Put year first , month, date and description of folder. (example 2014 03 24_Blog Photos) Make a weekly or bi-monthly schedule.

3. Select what you  upload
Social medias make it easy to share your photos, but be respectful of the privacy of others, especially of your child. Share only with family or friends, not too much that the child will be embarrassed when he or she grows up.Not to a point that all people seem to know much about you and your weekly activities and whereabouts.

4. Print your photos
A  photo when printed is more appreciated than seen on screen. You can make a book out of it. Your little one will be happy to see and help her remember details when she was too little to recall.

got these freebies from Photobook, spent sleepless nights finishing these

5. Always take photos with passion
Best photos are taken with strong emotions, either of the photographer or of the subject.

Happy snapping everyone!

Peek a Boo, I Love You!

Every baby loves a game of Peek-a-Boo and my daughter is no exception.

Summer a year ago, we had this theme in one of her classes.

Summarizing the activities, here are some suggested activities for your growing baby:

1. SING & READ a book, Play Peek-a-Boo with family members, in blankets, behind doors, there are endless way to surprise a baby.

2. WALK YOUR FINGERS Up and Down with nursery rhymes such as Eensy Weensy Spider, Jack & Jill

3. PLAY THE DRUM with foreign songs and put a beat on it, try fast and slow, loud and soft

4. BOUNCE IN A GYM BALL , it's a good exercise and helps the babies' brain wire and hear the rhythm

5. SHOW HER REFLECTION  they love it, she'll also learn to focus, track her movement and explore facial reactions which is critical to her emotional and social development

unbreakable mirror can be bought at baby shops

6. LET HER CRAWL IN A TUNNEL and play a fun classical music, let her navigate and reach her goal

7. WADDLE IN THE WATER, add fun by adding rubber duckies and count them all!

Have fun, every stage of your growing baby is unique, create the best memories with it! :)

Hearts in Love

Hearts Day ideas for young and old

1. READ
Pick up a love story classic or a story about hearts.

learning about the letter V,- veiil valentines, vest
shape- heart and color- red

2. ARTS
This is a nice time to be creative.
Express your artistic talents.

3. CRAFTS
Make origamis or cut-outs.

In these flowers you literally see where your money goes

4. COOK or BAKE
A way to a man or woman's heart is through his and her stomach!

Let's see if we can make one today

5. SING or  PLAY AN INSTRUMENT
A romantic or fun song will make someone smile

We're Going on A Bear Hunt!

This book has been one of my daughter's favorite even before being part of the Before Five in a Row  (a homeschooling guide) series.

Make Believe
We made our own  hunting right behind our yard. We acted the expressions together being excited, happy and scared.

We played.

Splashed water around with shoes held on her hand,
pretending to cross a river

Made mud by mixing soil and water

She didn't like to step on it barefoot, instead she wanted to sweep it clean :)

Pretend forest with our potted plants put together

walking through the forest

she decided to water the plants instead

At the end of every reading we run to the bed with little teddy hiding in a cave-like blanket.


Family & Foreign Language

We identified family members, though she probably didn't grasp the concept of siblings because she didn't have one. Instead of just brothers and sisters, we used characters in chinese, which has a more specific names for each member of the family.

Enjoyed reading such simple words, which she now fills in the words when we are reading. 

Welcome, Year of the Horse!

Chinese New Year Activities:

Photo taken by my husband at Manila Ocean Park

1. We did our own animal dancing - We were singing the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?  in an upbeat tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as we do the animal moves - quacking bleeting, barking and neighing all around.

  

2. Since it is the Year of the horse, we took blue horse as our art activity, my daughter drew doodles with me. J

Eric Carle's Blue Horse, Our version with crayon & pencil

3. Received Coins, Angpao (red envelope) & Chinese Paper Art to do

Choco Coins &Paper Art from Taiwan

4. Identified fruits that hang around the house

5. Enjoyed playing with doll and matching Cheongsam