Don't Throw Away Your Sweet Wrappers

Don't throw away the store-bought fruit leather wrapper. Re-use it as a fanciful packaging for your homemade sweets and fruit leather.

It's essentially the same recipe as the edible playdough from my other post reproduced below for convenience:

Ingredients:

1. 10 (1/2 cup) dried dates pitted

2. 3 cup nuts and seeds (almonds, cashew nuts, walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, etc.)

3. 3 TBS cacao powder (optional)

Directions:

Using a blender, add in all the ingredients, blend on high until it is sticky enough to be formed/knead into a dough by hand (about 30 seconds to 1 minute). The dough shouldn't stick onto your hands. If necessary, repeat another cycle of blending after letting the blender rest for a minute.

I use the Magimix high-powered-blender, but any blender will do. So don't let the lack of a powerful blender discourage you from making your own healthy and nutritious fruit leather for your kids. You can also use a food processor. It will work equally well.

Storage:

1. Keeps in fridge for 2 weeks.

2. Also freeze well for future use :-)

Additional Information:

I am not sure how the culture is like in Singapore's kindergartens, but fruit leather is very popular snack with Danish kids' of Baby FECS' age in the Danish kindergartens. 

Somehow things taste better and more fun in fanciful wrapper. Homemade fruit leather can be disguised in commercial wrapper, without the artificial coloring, favoring and preservatives, so that Baby FECS can still fit in with the other kids in the kindergarten, when she takes it out from her lunch box :-)

I also use it as a Montessori activity with my kids. While I roll it into shapes for the fruit leather for their lunch boxes, they play with a separate sample portion of the dough, trying to make their own shapes and creations. Their dough is discarded or eaten the same day, while the ones I made go into the freezer.

Here are the dried dates I use. I buy them from the Netto Supermarket and it costs 25 DKK per packet of 600 g. I think it is cheaper in Denmark than in Singapore, as the cost of living in Singapore seems to have increased a lot over the years.

Now it's ready to blend :-)

Blend on high for 30 seconds to one minute until it is sticky enough to be knead into a dough by hand. If need be, repeat another cycle of 30 seconds to one minute of blending.

Now it is sticky and of the right texture to form into a dough.

 You can also make into shapes for kids by rolling the paste between two baking sheets. As the paste is very sticky, it is easier to roll it between two baking sheets.

 Remove the top baking sheet

 If it's too thick, fold it into half

 Form into different shapes using cookie molds

Freeze it to harden and set the shapes

  

 18 August 2019 (3Y3M2D). Baby FECS was very happy with her homemade fruit leather wrapped in store-bought fruit leather wrapper.

Luggage Double-Up As Make-Shift Baby Cot

As first time parents with our first baby, we thought we needed all those baby equipment. All those baby equipment cost a fortune, take up space and actually add stress to our lives. We traveled and packed travel cot with our first baby. We realized that many of the baby equipment is not needed, and they actually add stress to our life.

With our second baby, we managed to travel lighter, doing away with the travel cot. We use the luggage to double-up as the make-shift travel cot instead. We used the adult size pillow from the hotel  room as "mattress" in the suitcase for Baby FECS. We succeeded to make Baby FECS (7M25D)  falling asleep in the luggage "baby cot" today during our first evening in Sydney :-)

How to Store Your Iron Without It Taking Precious Space?

 

Do you find that iron is sometimes quite annoying and it is hard to find a place to store them? 

It takes up precious cabinet's space. 

We searched for a iron holder that can be mounted to the wall, so that we can move our iron out of the cabinet to make room for Baby's stuff, but those iron holder that we found are all too small :-( 

Then it suddenly don on me that, hey, we can simply put it in a cloth bag, and hang it on the wall next to the iron board storage. So here it is, neat and easy, and did not cost us a single penny :-) Problem solved, beautifully :-)

Let Picnic Blanket Double-Up as "Carpet" for the Baby's Room

There is no need to buy expensive carpet for Baby's room. We were searching for suitable baby carpets, but didn't find any tha is suitable, not to say that they are all super-duper expensive. Suddenly it don on me that we could use our picnic blanket. It is also easy to wash, keep clean and maintain. And Baby will out-grow it soon, and before you know, she is a teenager. When that happens, we simply keep it away and replace it with one that our teendage girl would prefer.

We have an adult carpet below, and we simply place the picnic blanket on top. This helps to prevent the blanket from slipping away, compared to a real proper carpet. Thus, with that this issue is solved.

If you don't have an existing carpet below, you can use a slip-proof under layer.

Let Your Sports Bag Double-Up As Your Diaper Changing Bag

There is no need to buy an expensive diaper changing bag that you have no use of after the Baby has outgrown it, and has to sell it off.

I searched and searched for a diaper changing bag, but none of them are suitable, and all of them are super duper expensive.

Suddenly, it suddenly don on me that my sports bag can double up as a diaper changing bag. It will make you look less like a mom too, if you know what I mean ;-)

Versatile Vegetable Sticks



To save time, you can prepare the vegetables in advance and store it in the fridge



What to cook dinner? It is a question that I struggle with daily.

Vegetable sticks - this is a simple idea, that comes to the rescue, when I run out of ideas, one that I always try to have it available in my fridge. I got this idea from a good friend of mine, JS.

These vegetable sticks consists of basic carrots, red pepper bells and cucumber. Dip it into the classic Chinese dipping sauce, and  you have an easy, yet healthy and tasty way of meeting your vegetable intake for the day, without too much fuss and pressure. Finding it too troublesome to make the classic Chinese dipping sauce? You can also simply eat it with soy sauce or sasame sauce. It is full of vitamins from the raw goodness.

Many a day, it saves us from thinking about what to prepare for dinner, just team it with a meat on the side - oven chicken, roast beef, steam fish, etc. It is one of our family's favorite food. We usually included blanched broccoli along with it.

I normally cut these vegetables in the morning, place them in the container and keep it in the fridge. I will take some out, when I am making J's lunchbox. I will take them out, when it is dinner time. They are also good for lunch, or as toppings in sandwiches. These vege sticks are really versatile.

If I do not have time to prepare them in the morning, it doesn't take too long to cut a portion for dinner on the spot too.

Weekly Family Meeting Agenda Template

It is the start of the year, and we are going to have our first Weekly Family Meeting Night (WFMN) tomorrow. Sometimes, it is useful to make an agenda for your WFMN.

I have been wanting to make an agenda template for quite sometime now, but I only got to do it a couple of weeks ago. It was too late for 2014, but it would be useful for our WFMN in 2015. Better late than never :-)

It can be a simple sheet pinned on your family notice board. During the week, if any family member has something to suggest or raise for the family meeting, it comes in handy for he/she to jot it down on the Agenda:

Click here for a WFMN agenda template that I have created that may help you. It is really a super simple template.

How to Provide a Fun Way to Give 听写 (Spelling & Dictation) to Preschoolers?

 

We have replaced our Montessori Salt Tray with Doodle Art, as J is able to control his pencil grip. Here is how it works.

 

Age: From 4-6 years old

 

Objective:

To provide a fun, easy and convenient way to learn English phonics, Chinese 汉语拼音 (hanyu pinyin) and Chinese 汉字 (Chinese characters) through 听写 (tingxie) meaning Spelling & Dictation.

 

Materials:

Doodle Art

  

Directions:

1. It can be used in the following situations:

 

- While your child is waiting for Mommy to do her make-up and get dressed...

- While waiting at the entrance for Daddy to be ready to bring your child to kindergarten...

- While Mommy is doing chores at home...

- While sitting in the train...

 

2. Say a letter out loud and clear to your child.

3. Your child writes the letter without following any text.

4. Correct the result of what your child has written

 

Advantages:

1. Fun & Speed - J does not like to use paper and pencil to write for 听写. With Doodle Art, it is much easier and faster, and he is much more motivated.

 

2. Mess and paper free - no eraser needed.

 

Disadvantages:

1. This doesn't allow more complex 听写 to be executed, but it doesn't matter at J's age.

 

Additional Information:

The Chinese teacher in Copenhagen that J attends has a very high academic standard. 听写 has been introduced to his class a month ago. Unless I go along with her, J will fall behind the class, although thus far his teacher has been very kind and compassionate.

 

听写 is a very common learning method used in China and Singapore. You say a word or a letter and the child writes out the word, without looking at any text. It is rote learning at its core. But then again, how can a child learn to write ABCs without any rote learning? How else can a child learn how to write Chinese character without putting them into memory?

 

But how can we balance the east and western methods, ensuring that the child learns his hanyu pinyin, letters and yet does not kill his joy for learning? I have no easy answer. I am still experimenting.

 

In my opinion, J is a little too young for 听写. But to my great surprise, how effective it has been. He has been learning his ABCs for months, always missing out a letter or two here and there. But he was able to nail it down and mastered it, when I gave him 听写.

 

I remembered I hated 听写 as a kid. But I have a mum who was very dedicated in giving me 听写. As such, my Chinese was almost always at perfect score and at the top of my class throughout my primary school years. But my mum didn't know English and couldn't help me with it. As a result, I am one of the poorest in my class for English.

 

Even though I have gone part-time, time is too short in a day to cover everything. How can I squeeze it in, so that J does not fall too far behind the Chinese kids in Copenhagen? 听写 is usually done on paper and pen. However, the Doddle Art provides a convenient way to work it into a mom's daily busy routine.



15 March 2014 (5Y0M9D) - J learning to write his A-Z from memory, while I was busy with other chores

 

 

Our mini version of the Doodle Art for use on the train

Doodle Art is available from Amazon:

Have a Bag for Each Class

 

To manage our busy and hectic life with young children, it helps to have a system that will work like clockwork without too much thinking each time.

For us, I find it helpful to have a bag for each activity that J goes ot. It requires only 2 steps.

2 Steps

1. Have a Bag for Each Class

Have a bag for each class and always packed so that it will be ready to go. For J, it will be:

1. Chinese class
2. Sunday's piano class with Kati
3. Monday's piano class with Kathrine
4. Football
5. Swimming

2. Inculcate Good Packing Habit

Thereafter, inculcate good packing habit in your child so that things are always returned to the respective bag after each use. For J, for example, it will be:

Whenever J does his Chinese homework, he will take the material out from his Chinese class bag. Whenever J finishes his Chinese homework, he will place the material back to his Chinese class bag.

Cost

This system requires that one to invest in more than one bag, but one can scout for good bargain at thrift stores.

The only thing is finding the space to store them. Tou don't have to store them all at the same place. For example, the piano bag is placed beside the piano. J's Chinese class bag is placed beside his writing desk. The football bag is placed in the cupboard. The swimming bag is placed in another cupboard. With a little creativity, it may be possible to find small corners for each of them at home.



Here are our bags for swimming, Chinese class, piano and football respectively

Have Basic Food Available At Home at All Times

We find it helpful to always have in our fridge and food supply the basics. In this way, we can always whip up a fast, easy and basic meal for our family without resorting to junk food.

For example, below is our standard food list. Our standard full list consists of 63 items, but the basic consist of only 22 items (highlighted in red) that we ensure to make available at all times by replenishing them weekly:

Fruits:
1. Avocado
2. Banana (Superfood)
3. Blueberries
4. Apples (Superfood)
5. Oranges
6. Pears

Vegetables:
1. Bean spouts
2. Carrots
3. Chinese cabbage
4. Frozen corns
5. Frozen green peas
6. Potatoes
7. Red pepper bell
8. Ricola leaves
9. Spinach leaves
10. Mushrooms
11. Broccoli (Superfood)
12. Chillis
13. Chives
14. Cucumber
15. Lettuce
16. Lemon
17. Tomatoes

Dairies:
1. Milk
2. Yogurt (Superfood)
3. Cheese
4. Eggs
5. Wholegrain wholemeal bread (Superfood)

Meat:
1. Fish (such as salmon or cod fish) (Superfood)
2. Chicken
3. Pork
4. Beef
5. Lamb
6. Duck

The trick is to include vegetables that can be eaten raw such as spinach leaves, ricola leaves, lettuce in the basic list.

It is also useful to include the food of different colors such as banana (yellow), carrot (orange), red pepper bell (red), spinach (green) and blueberries (blue) in the basic list.

Our basic list includes all the superfood listed by UK Dailymail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-369042/The-10-super-foods.html

We consider blueberries to be standard because it is readily available in Denmark and is said to be good for brain power. It is very easy to just sprinkle on yogurt for a meal.

During our weekly shopping, we then add variety with tofu, fish, beef, chicken, pork, crab salad, pate, etc. and what are seasonal such as strawberries, watemelon, cherries, etc. to supplement the basics.

It is good to have the list printed out for reference so that I don't forget any essential food. You can see a copy of our list here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8uGpq3ubWWCcjNyQXg5VFkwbHc/edit?usp=sharing

Before we go shopping, whether it is on the net or to the supermarket, I will refer to this list and do a stock check. Then I will tick the missing items and bring them along with my shopping.

We buy the others once a month or so until they are depleted. For us, they are:

Grains & Others:
1. Nuts (Superfood)
2. Rice
3. Noodles
4. Oatmeal
5. Millet
6. Quinoa
7. Brewer's yeast
8. Wheat germ
9. Nut butter
10. Goji berries
11. Black beans
12. Red beans
13. Mung beans
14. Frozen shrimps
15. Can food such as tuna, mackerel, roe or baked beans (Superfood)
16. Onions
17. Garlic
18. Ginger
19. Sea salt
20. Maple Syrup
21. Honey
22. Soya sauce
23. Sesame sauce
24. Sesame oil
25. Oyster sauce
26. Chinese rice wine
27. Olive oil (Superfood)
28. Green tea (Superfood)
29. Earl Grey

-----------------------
Here is another way of categorizing our food list:

Breakfast:
1. Banana
2. Blueberries
3. Yogurt
4. Nuts
5. Milk

Lunch:
1. Lettuce
2. Tomatoes
3. Cucumber
4. Cheese
5. Bread

Dinner:
1. Carrots
2. Potatoes
3. Spinach leaves
4. Ricola leaves
5. Red pepper bell
6. Broccoli
7. Chives

Chinese Food:
1. Mushroom
2. Beans spouts
3. Fresh red chillis
4. Chinese cabbage
5. Eggs

Lunch Box:
1. Apples
2. Pears
3. Frozen green peas
4. Frozen corns
5. Avocado

Grains & Others:
1. Rice
2. Noodles
3. Oatmeal
4. Frozen shrimps
5. Can food such as tuna
6. Onions
7. Garlic
8. Nut butter

Yogurt with Blueberries

We keep a constant supply of blueberries in the fridge. When we are pressed for time, we will whip up a quick breakfast or lunch.

Ingredients:

1. 1 small bowl of low-fat yogurt
2. A handful of fresh blueberries

Directions:

1. Pour yogurt into a small bowl, sprinkle with fresh blueberries and serve.

Avocado Snack

Ingredients:
1. 1 Avocado halved
2. Salt to taste

Directions:
1. Cut half an avocado, sprinkle with a little salt and serve

Additional Information:
This is a very healthy and convenient snack that Daddy and J like. If we are pressed for time, or simply to wipe up a fast lunch, this is something we would do.

Prepare 3 Meals All in One Go in the Morning

Ever wonder how some moms just seem to be able to pull the day all together without much frenzy?

I learned this from my Japanese friend, Himiko, who has since returned to Japan, but I always remember:

Have the discipline to get up early in the morning and prepare 3 meals ALL in one go - breakfast, lunch and dinner together.

Chop and cut all ingredients beforehand. Then place them in the fridge ready to be cooked. If it is soup or stew you are making, you can make them in the morning already. You can just warm a portion at dinner time. This way of working helps you to reap the economies of scale from one time work.

Once when I visited her, I saw that she had all the preparation done ready to whip up dinner in the evening in no time. That would means waking up probably at 5.30am, early in the morning ready to to face the day, before the frantic pace sets in. It is a good advice.

The only challenge for me is alas I love my sleep too much, so until today I have yet to achieve it, but I am getting better :-)

My friend does so without complaining or calculating. She reminds me of the woman of noble character described in Proverbs 31:10-31. Whenever, I starts to complain about work, I think of my friend and Proverbs 31:10-31.

Fun Uses for Food Packaging... and Outdated Namecards

Don't just throw away your supermaket packaging. Also don't throw away your outdated namecards. They are very fun real props for Grocery Shopping Play, instead of buying fake toys:

Some suitable packaging of items to keep would be salt box, tea, milk carton, corn flakes cases, dish washing tablet box, cheese packaging, ice-cream packaging, etc.

The trick is to find the smallest size packaging possible, as they take up less space, cuter to look at and is friendly to the child's small hands.

You can supplement it with some can food.

My namecards were outdated due to the office address change. I used the back of them to tag price for the "grocery items" at our "Supermarket"- this play served as a very fun and useful way to revise numbers with J and even for teaching addition. I will share more in another post the lesson plan for Grocery play.

How to Organize Your Child's Montessori Classroom?

Designing Your Child's Work & Play Area... 

with focus on Functionality, Ease of Management & Simplicity (The FEMS Concept)

As J grows from a baby to a toddler to a boy... soon to start school in a year, his need for a learning environment designed to suit his stage of development increased. I have been putting this off, when I was working full-time. Now that I have the chance to go part-time, I wasted no time in getting J's learning and playing environment organized. In this post, I will share my experience of how our family design our child's work & play area, maximizing on our strengths and working within our limitations.

Montessori Classroom - Language & Sensorial Area

Due to the constraint of separate space, J's bedroom is divided into sleeping area and Montessori Classroom area. 

Here is the Montessori classroom area.

Here is a close up of the J's book shelves with each compartment organized as follows: Christian education, Chinese books, English books, Danish books, jigsaw puzzles, educational board games, Workbooks and Encyclopedia.

Here is a close-up of the Sensorial shelf with work trays for displaying sensorial materials for the first 6 compartments and the last 2 reserved for freeplay work trays.

Here is a close up of the language shelf with each compartment organized as follows:

A theme letter compartment, Letter magnets, Letter salt trays, Lego letters and shapes bricks, a compartment with door for the storage of finished work and a compartment for storing the language materials.

It is our plan that each time J has finished a work, he will deposit it into the storage compartment. At the end of the week, he will choose which of the better ones he would want to keep and discard the rest.

Above the shelf stands the ABC boxes containing tiny figurines represent the letters and a set of workbooks he is currently working on. The wooden box contains some spare stationery such as crayons.

We have also included the national flags of Singapore, Denmark and China as part of his heritage education. It is my plan to start School Time with the singing of the National Anthem. Now, which one would we sing, you may ask :-) We will start with the Singapore National Anthem that he has heard since he was a baby as part of his lullaby :-)

In this corner, we have included the Ikea Billy bookshelves. 

The first shelf from the left consists of books, mainly baby books. You may ask, hasn't J overgrown baby books now. Not really. They serve as good beginning readers for small children. Included are also some hand-me-down beginner reader books from Singapore, many thanks to my brother.

The next shelf consists of DVDs.

The third shelf consists of CDs, mainly children's songs in Danish, English and Chinese, as well as children's Christian music.

The last shelf at the bottom consists of Chinese books and flash cards for beginning readers. J is learning how to recognize Chinese characters from these materials. We bought them mainly from Singapore and some are hand-me-down from my brother's kids.

The top shelf to the right is allocated for Montessori Practical Life's work trays. J does not do as much Practical Life now, but it is still good to have. So only two work trays are allocated to Practical Life, and they will be rotated accordingly compared to 8 work tray spaces allocated when he started Montessori activity when he was 2 years old.

The next shelf is displayed with Montessori metal inserts spread out for his easy access and selection.

The third shelf is displayed with color pencils and crayons so that he can easily select a pencil to do his metal insert work or other work from the workbooks.

The last shelf is displayed with homemade Montessori Movable Letters useful also for teaching and playing with Chinese Hanyu Pinyin and the frame for the metal inserts.

 

Another view of the classroom. We don't have space to put the Montessori Maths materials in the same room, and it may not be desired as well. We have displayed them in another room.

Montessori Classroom - Maths Area

We now have a Multi-Purpose Room. In this Multi-Purpose Room, we have allocated a corner for the display the Montessori Maths materials.

This Multi-Purpose Room is used as Guest Room-cum-Clothes Drying Room-cum-Ironing Room-cum-Montessori Maths Classroom. 

In this way, we overcome our problem of the lack of space by making a simple room free as much as possible from beautiful, but unnecessary furniture to make space so that with a mattress thrown in, it can quickly be converted to a guest room.

My significant Other and I have talked about it. We could have used our money to buy a bigger house, and spend the money on beautiful furniture such as sofa-bed, etc., but I would have to work full-time, and I would not have the time to do Montessori with J.

This is the best arrangement for us. It also saves on cleaning cost and time, in a smaller place :-)

Here is a close up of the Montessori Maths shelves so that we can rotate the work trays in each compartment.

It is organized in a logical sequence starting from the easiest material for J and increasing in difficulty according to the Montessori curriculum. 

Clockwise from left: Number Rods, Spindle Box, Teen numbers from popsicle sticks, Even-&-Odd Numbers, Introduction to Decimal Quantity, Introduction to Decimal System, Golden Beads, Thousand Cubes for the Bank Game.

The Cubes are displayed so that J can go and take them himself, without help from me all the time.

Updated 23 May 2014

Montessori Maths shelves continued...

Colored Beads, Teen Bead Hanger, Teen Board, Hundred Board, Negative Snake Game, Complete Golden Beads materials, Stamp Game, Addition Strip Board and Addition Working Charts.

Updated 23 May 2014

We have placed a kids-sized desk and chair in this room as well as a carpet so that he can do his work in this room.

This cabinet serves as storage room for hangers for guest wardrobe and beddings.

Here is how it looks when it is being used as a mutli-purpose room for drying clothes :-)

Free Play Room

Apart from Montessori activities, free play and pretend play is still very important to provide a varied and well-rounded development for the child. As such, we kept J's original playroom downstairs. And it serves mainly as that - a Playroom, but not a Montessori Classroom. He can invite his friends to his Playroom, when he invites his friends over for play dates. Of course, his friends are allowed to his Bedroom-cum-Montessori Classroom too :-)

During the day when we are downstairs, he can also do his work in his Play Room, and thus we included a kids' size desk and chair.

We included a black board for some chalk fun.

Here is a close-up of the Expedit shelves containing the toy boxes.

Each compartment stores a theme toy box that can be rotated.

Clockwise from top: Lego Duplo, Lego Hospital, wooden blocks, wooden blocks again, Lego, Food and kitchen play stuff, wooden train set, art box, baby toys for guest, cutting work trays, swords, dress up boxes.

For more information on how we organized J's Play Room, please read this post.

It is hard work to design and implement your child's Work & Play Area, but it is also a lot of fun. Enjoy the journey. This post is for our memory. We will fine-tune as we go along and as J grows up.