Thinking Thursdays: Activities for autumn

We've been in quite a limbo lately, and I've been feeling like I'm running around like a headless chicken. Perhaps its the cabin fever, since big boy is still coughing and it's cold out. Or maybe its because baby J has decided that he would drop his morning nap, but has been rather indecisive about it. Some days he's tired and naps, some days he refuses to go down, but ends up being extremely grumpy by lunch time. Add to that the recent shift in timing thanks to daylight saving time, and things are a little topsy turvy.

I do feel guilty when Junior J gets coped up at home, and these days we've not done much home-learning, save for all those books we've been reading. I'm so thankful for all those good reads we can immerse ourselves in while hiding from the freezing weather!

So amidst all these changes, we've managed to do a little bit of stuff on autumn. Not as much as I would like to cover, but at least its something:

:: Crafts: We made a leaf heart, plus covered a box (one of those used to hold fruit from the market) with leaves. That box now holds a growing collection of pine cones. The boy really is a squirrel when it comes to these things! Oh, and we sent out a couple of maple leaves to some friends.

:: Jigsaws: The boy has been showing some interest in jigsaws, so I printed some autumn themed ones for him to try his hand at.

:: Mazes: He loves finding his way through these things. I laminated these printables so that we can reuse them next time.

:: Reading: Of course, we read those books on autumn! (Our booklist is here.)

I didn't get to try these out, but hope to do so in the near future:

:: Pumpkin pie playdough: This sounds like an awesome sensory play opportunity for both the boys!

:: Leaf splatter paintings and autumn playscenes, among other great ideas from this post.

:: Make leaf skeletons: I think these would be really pretty framed up!

:: Make a bird-feeder: We've been putting out bird seed for the birds, but I thought this idea of recycling a drink bottle was cool!

What are your favourite autumn activities?

Thinking Thursdays: Chestnut alphabets

We've amassed a pretty huge collection of horse chestnuts from our walks around the area. Junior J cannot resist picking these up each time he sees them, which is almost every time we go for a walk, as we've at least 3 of these trees near our house. These can't be eaten, unlike the ones from the sweet chestnut tree, but many people pick these up for decoration or craft purposes. There's something rather inviting about them, the deep brown hue and that glossy exterior, and both the boys love to play with them.

Since we're a huge fan of playing with natural materials, I thought I'd do something with some of the chestnut stash. Junior J is currently learning how to read, and I thought having alphabets on the chestnuts would add some interest to the process. And even if you're living in the tropics and don't get access to these brown beauties, you can easily do this with pebbles, which may be even more fun since they come in all sorts of colours and patterns!

So here's how you can make your own alphabet toys:

:: If you are using chestnuts, do rinse them and dry them in the sun to prevent them from getting moldy.

:: Get a set of alphabet stickers. These have to be made of thin material, the puffy types and thicker versions may not stay on. I used some of the alphabet lettering from my scrap stash:

:: Stick the stickers down using glue, since they don't adhere very well due to the waxy exterior of the chestnut. We used PVA glue. 

:: When the glue has dried, brush a layer of mod podge over the surface of the letters and the surrounding area, and leave the chestnuts to dry:

You can try this also with other shapes too, and I'm thinking of making a shapes set for Baby J with some of the remaining chestnuts.

So now we've a new set of alphabets to learn reading with! Don't you just love these natural materials?

Do stay tuned, will be back later to share about our other autumn activities... 

Thinking Thursdays: Books about autumn

Hello! We've been reading about autumn, since we can't really go out to play (Junior J is still coughing!). Here are some of our favourite reads on this beautiful season, which are mainly on two very famous characteristics of fall: apples and leaves! 

:: Apple Farmer Annie, by Monica Wellington: We bought the board book version for baby J. Its a simple story about an apple farmer, and all the yummy things that she makes from her apple harvest. While its simple, even Junior J enjoyed the story!

:: Leaf Jumpers, by Carole Gerber: The book uses poetry and linoleum-cut illustrations to describe eight common types of leaves to be found during fall. Junior J loves this book as it is about his favourite outdoor activity: jumping about in piles of leaves! Its a really useful resource for identifying leaves, and also explains the colour changes observed during autumn.

:: Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, by Lois Ehlert: I simply love Lois Ehlert's illustrations! This book chronicles the life of a sugar maple tree through the seasons, and the textural collages were made from a variety of materials, ranging from water colours and crayons to seeds and roots. Simply beautiful! 

:: Apple Picking Time, by Michele Slawson: "When it's apple picking time, everyone has to help. The whole town knows we have only three weeks to get the fruit off the trees before it spoils." This story is told through the eyes of Anna, who helps at the apple harvest with her family and is determined to fill an entire bin of apples by herself. It's a heartwarming book about determination, family and community.

:: Red are the Apples, by Marc Harshman and Cheryl Ryan: Follow a boy as he explores a garden in fall, and describes what he finds in rhyme. The text is simple, and this book is great for introducing the colours and produce of autumn.

We obtained some of our recommendations from this post, hop over for more autumnal titles!  What are your favourite books about fall? 

Wordless Wednesdays: Streets of gold

Autumn has transformed all our paths into streets of gold. 

Fluttering, rustling streets that move. 

And I am amazed how trees can make dying look so beautiful.

Linking up with

Thankful Tuesdays: Angels in disguise

This is the kind of face he gives you, when you ask him to smile.

We've been blessed by many strangers since the time we moved to Germany. The market stall-holders who always give Junior J a cookie, or a slice of ham ("fur die Kinder", they say, with a smile). Or a carrot or a flower. There was the old lady whom we walked past during one of our mornings out, who spotted Junior J, and dug into her bag and gave him a mini-box of Smarties.

Then there's the way people smile and say hello. Not everyone on the street though, but a whole lot more than you'd experience back in Singapore. And the man who visited regarding our TV and radio license, and spent a long time patiently trying to explain all the details to me in his limited English... all the while struggling with the language, but so earnest to try to help me to understand. Or our electrician, who remembered that he had to take off his shoes in our house and came armed with plastic shoe covers for his shoes (the Germans don't like to take off their shoes indoors).

Just the other day we walked past a gentleman who was fiddling with his garden. He spotted Jude and said "Hallo!", which made the shy little boy hide behind me. He then cut a rose from his garden, and tried his best to snip off the thorns, but wasn't too successful. So he dug about in his pocket, came up with a piece of tissue and wrapped the rose and handed it to the boy. It made his day.

Through all these encounters, I've realized how much we can help to brighten the lives of others, just through little things like a smile. Or by having a little bit more patience. Small things can make a big difference, and I'm thankful for all these little reminders that God has placed in our lives. And I'm grateful for these angels in disguise.

What are you thankful for this week?


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Monday Made: Leaf heart

We had loads of these leaves lying about the house, thanks to Junior J's squirrelly habit of always picking up something on our walks and bringing them back home. Some went into the leaf book. However, with autumn and its sea of fluttery golden pavements, they were starting to pile up, and we were in danger of creating some leaf litter communities.

So while we were stuck home over the weekend, I cut out a heart out of cardboard packaging, and Junior J and I pasted them down using oodles of PVA glue. And dried it wedged under the laptop. I love the warm colours and all those textures:

And speaking of textures, I've been wanting to photograph these pumpkins for awhile. The variety of pumpkins here is amazing, and these are sold as an assorted bunch in a basket for 3 bucks!

I especially like this one, for all its strangeness, and have yet to identify it. Anyone knows?

Now I have to think of what to do with all those extra leaves that we still have... any suggestions?

Weekend Wonderings: Cabin fever

The mercury took a plunge over the past few days, and we had a weekend of sub-zero temperatures! It didn't snow though. Since the boys' both had coughs that got worse with the cold, we had to stay home most of the time. They have been getting rather restless though, and I can't wait for them to get better.

Just this morning, I was busy adjusting the laundry to ensure they got as much sun as possible, and hubby was busy clearing the breakfast things. Both of us thought the other was watching the baby. That baby quietly got his hands on some bits of crepe paper that were left lying about, thanks to his big brother's art projects, and ended up looking like he was prepared for trick or treating:

We wiped out his mouth a few times, but the green stains on his hands were pretty stubborn, so I guess it'll take a couple of days before they wash out. That aside, I guess you know how versatile crepe paper is for parties (some ideas here, plus hop over here for our under the sea wall), but apparently you can even use them to dye eggs!

And here are some random thoughts that have been bouncing through my head while we've been coped up at home:

:: We're missing home and its warm sultry weather. And I'm missing my carrot cake with loads of chilli. So I'm delighted to find "A Blogger's Guide to Singapore", with all its links to various SG-based blogs.

:: Art that involves the community fascinates me. Like this tent knitted over 3 months, and displayed as an art installation in Israel. Amazing, if you ask me!

:: Apples are plentiful right now, so I'm thinking of trying this recipe for apple raisin oatmeal... once I'm able to get out to the supermarket to buy those raisins!

:: Ever heard of the 5 second rule? A study seems to show that the germs are faster!

How was your weekend? And how do you keep the kids occupied at home when they are stuck home with colds?

Saturday Scrapping: More milestones

It was one of those rare nights where I couldn't sleep. In the end, mummy guilt got the better of me and I tried to catch up on baby J's album (you can see some of the completed pages here). So here's the pages for him at 10 months... 

This was done using mainly the "Children at Play" collection from Making Memories.
A sweet friend sent the goodies over, and I think its such a lovely lovely collection! (Thanks M!)

... 11 months:

Some bits of washi, as usual. It seems like washi needs to be on every page nowadays!

... and finally, 1 year!

I couldn't resist cutting out the month from the "October Afternoon" brand logo on my stickers to use here.

Again, more "Children at Play". Pinwheels are such happy things!

Now I have to get down to journalling all those milestones down on those tags, and get cracking on the rest of Junior J's album! And speaking of milestones, this little boy made a new discovery today:

He found out with delight that the suction cup stays stuck to the glass door, and spent some happy moments sticking it up and taking it down!

Hope you're having a nice long weekend. Here's to a blessed one!

Foodie Fridays: Mussels, not

Our family's love for mussels more or less started in France, where we discovered that Junior J loved his mussels and could eat a whole load of them. For some strange reason, he'd only eat the female ones, which were orange-pink in colour, leaving the lighter-coloured males for us.

When we were in Bordeaux, mussels were pretty cheap at the market, so we tried our hand at cooking them ourselves (here's one recipe you could try). It was such a hit that we had home-cooked mussels twice, with loads of crispy baguette to soak up the sauce.

Its pretty simple to prepare, since you just need to fry the butter with the veggies and add the mussels in. However, the cleaning bit can be a little tedious, since you have to de-beard all of them and give them a scrubbing before they go in the pot to cook. Even all that cleaning didn't deter the hubby, and he came back last weekend armed with a pack of mussels from the market. We put them in the fridge as usual, and left them for the next day.

Now the thing is, mussels are supposed to be eaten fresh, and must be alive when you cook them. Most sites that we've read recommended the tap test to see if the mussels are living: you just need to knock an open mussel gently on the side of the counter and see if it closes within a few minutes. If the mussel doesn't close, the poor fellow is dead, and you're supposed to chuck them.

I soaked the mussels the next day in cool water, to allow them to filter off all the sand inside. When the hubby got down to cooking them after that, he noticed that most of the mussels were open. So we did the tap test. And they all didn't close. Uhoh.

We couldn't bear to throw that whole pack out, so the hubby decided he'll just cook them anyway, while I went hunting online for reasons why we shouldn't eat dead mussels and what would happen if we did. There was a lot of discussion about how it was a myth that you shouldn't eat mussels that are not open after cooking (apparently it was ok to eat those that are still closed, provided they were still alive prior to cooking, and cooked for an adequate amount of time)... but hardly anything about what happens to you if you ate mussels that didn't close before cooking.

Then I came across this page, which mentioned scary stuff like "paralytic shellfish poisoning". The page didn't seem too scientific, and there were no references cited, and the mussels seemed ok. But I think being parents does make you paranoid, so we opted to chuck the whole lot out just to be safe, and ate a rather mish-mash dinner that we hastily put together. There was no way I was going to add food-poisoning to the list of ailments we were already having!

I guess we should have remembered to open the package to give the mussels air when we placed them in the fridge. One thing that puzzles me, however, was that the mussels were packaged two days before in a plastic container that was sealed with clingflim, and had a expiry date that was a few days away from the day we cooked them. There was no instructions save to keep them below 7 degrees. Wouldn't those fellows have died even before they made it to the market, since the packaging was air-tight? Whatever the case, we're buying fresh, unpackaged mussels from the market from now on.

Now how about you? Have you tried cooking mussels? Would you have chucked out the whole pot of them if you were in our shoes?

Linking up with: 

Thinking Thursdays: Flipping for Joy!

Hello! Remember how we were trying to teach the boy Chinese? Thus far, its still been restricted to reading Chinese books and speaking to him in Chinese, and I'm glad he's slowly picking it up. Unlike English kid lit, which I find is relatively easy to source for, choosing good Chinese reads has been tough. We made several trips to Popular, but those trips yielded simple books which reminded me of the Peter and Jane series (they helped to teach the language, but they could be so boring!). 

So imagine my delight when I was contacted by Meiru, asking if I was interested in fun Chinese books! She's the owner of Flip for Joy, an online bookstore selling Chinese and bilingual books for children. Here are some of her recommendations, all of which the boys enjoyed immensely:

:: 乐乐趣猜猜看系列 (Flip for Fun): This set of 4 books were translated from a Belgian original, and the Chinese and English rhymes are catchy. Junior J literally couldn't wait to get his hands on the books, since flipping each page transformed one animal to another, and even continue to pour over the book after we were done reading!

Now what happens to the rat? Flip to find out!

:: 马桶的故事 (Flip for Knowledge): Junior J has had this love-hate relationship with the toilet, since we've been battling with constipation on and off, so this book about using the toilet was perfect.

It's a funny book that chronicles the attempts of various animals trying to use the toilet, and how toilets were meant for people instead. Its a great book to introduce if you're toilet training your child, especially if he or she loves animals. The boy was most amused at how the elephant broke the toilet bowl! 

 :: 数一数，亲了几下 (Flip for Love): This was a perfect bedtime story, about baby being put to bed, and getting showered with kisses from different family members. Junior J wasn't so keen on getting that many kisses, but baby J certainly didn't mind! It's a good book for teaching how to count, as well as different parts of the body too! 

:: 奇妙洞洞书：我会数一数 and 那是一个洞吗？ (Fresh Flips: new arrivals!)
Board books are a must with baby J, since he manages to rip normal books in his eagerness to turn the pages. These are board books with a twist, as the cut-outs change with each turn of the page...  

The baby couldn't stop poking his fingers into the holes in the books, and exclaiming "洞!". Even his big brother loved the stories, and both were jostling to get their hands at the cut-outs. Really fun, if you ask me!

The boys enjoyed reading these books immensely, and even I enjoyed reading them! This came as no surprise, since all the books sold at Flip for Joy are tried and tested: Meiru is an ex-Chinese teacher, and she takes the time to search for good books and reads them with her 3 year old first. Many of the books are award winners, and come from all over the world.

The books are categorized according to three categories: Flip for Fun (books that are fun and interactive), Flip for Knowledge (insightful books with a rich element of storytelling) and Flip for Love (books that highlight values). Parents can also get starter packs that contain at least one book from each category to provide hours of good reading!

One main problem of reading Chinese to the boys is that Mama over here doesn't have a strong grasp of the language. I am rather dependent on hanyu pinyin, which restricts the books that I am able to read. I was pleasantly surprised when Meiru included the hanyu pinyin on a separate insert in those books that did not include the hanyu pinyin. No more stumbling over, and pausing to check out words for the boy! Another bonus is that delivery via local post is free, and spending more than $50 entitles you to free courier delivery.

Seeing the boys so interested in the books has encouraged me to continue in my efforts in teaching them Chinese (I admit, its even harder since they get zero Chinese exposure here!), and I'll be checking out more books from her store soon. Meanwhile, if you're interested, Flip for Joy is celebrating their first anniversary in October, and every $50 spent entitles you to receive a $5 e-gift card to use for future purchases. In addition, everyone who makes a purchase this month qualifies for the store's first anniversary lucky draw, where one winner will receive a $100 Flip for Joy e-gift card.

So start flipping, and happy reading!

PS: Do like Flip for Joy on Facebook, to be kept updated on their latest happenings and promotions, as well as benefit from the articles and teaching resources shared!

[Disclaimer: We received the books above from Flip for Joy for review purposes. All opinions are my own.]

Wordless Wednesdays: A full basket

Life with sick kids means the laundry is never ever done.

The baby has puked on us at least once a day for the past few days. The dirty clothes, the soiled onesies, the sleeves sticky with food, they pile up faster than our very small washing machine can spit out. Then they lie draped about on various pieces of furniture in stages of drying (we have no dryer and the temperature outdoors is below 20 degrees).

As I was getting frazzled and frustrated, I read this:

"In her insistence upon getting things done, on living an ordered life, my mother managed to miss out on the nourishing aspects of family life and life in general: laughing at silly things, lying spooned on the couch with your beloveds, sharing good food, the tactile delight of giggling children crawling all over you. Without this, family life is an endless series of menial tasks: counters and noses to wipe, dishes and bodies to wash, whites and colors to fold, again and again in soul-sucking succession."

- Anne Marie Feld (from this article, via Evelyn)

Priorities indeed. And then I am thankful I have a full basket. Laundry-generating, mess-creating bodies no less, but still, two little boys to love.

Linking up with

Thankful Tuesdays: Fall

Autumn has been flighty and rather indecisive, but yet beautiful in its own lovely way. There are gloomy days, where it rains and we are stuck indoors. The air is cold and fingers go numb. Those days are the ones we stay in bed, and it takes all our willpower to crawl out from under the warm covers. 

Then there are the gloriously sunny days, with clear blue skies. The air no longer holds its finger-numbing chill, but retains its crispness. 

Those days are wonderful. Just to take a stroll by the lake, seeing the ducks and the geese paddling by, the sail boats in the distance.

Those days are perfect for heading out on our bikes, hearing the whirr of the wheels and the crinkle-crunch of the leaves as you pedal.

Those days are great for little explorers, to trudge through the ever-growing piles of leaves...

... and to relish the simple pleasures of jumping into those piles.

This week, we give thanks to God for autumn, and all its colours and beauty. We're just waiting for all of us to get well so that we can head out to enjoy more of fall's gloriousness!

What are you thankful for this week?

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