Review: Leapfrog Reader

I had purchased a Leapfrog Reader for Big J during a Robinsons Sales in June 2015. It came in a bundle which includes the Leapfrog pen and 2 of the compatible books: Cars and Brave. It comes together with a Sample booklet for Big J to try on the writing and also, pages from various books for the Leapfrog pen.

Initially with just that 2 came-along books, Big J was not interested in them. I then purchased the other books, mainly for kindergarten level, hoping he might gain interest in them. True enough, he started reading them. 

Kids Stop Visiting!

It has been about a year since Kids Stop started its business.

We have been there for 4 times already and yesterday, was the 5th time!

Recently Kids Stop revamped their membership and is quite attractive than before!

Montessori 3-Part Cards: Shapes!

It has been awhile since I last posted here.
I am quite busy with my children and also, setting up my mini online shop. :D
As promised, I am going to share another Montessori 3-part cards: Shapes!
Similar to the instructions of Colours, thus I am not going to repeat myself here again.
Enjoy printing and cutting them!
Lastly, enjoy your bonding time with your child when doing this activity!

Montessori 3-Part Cards: Shapes

With love,
Fynn

Teaching a Preschooler (To Know - Basic)

It is not easy to teach a preschooler.

About a year ago….

Looking at other kids of the same age as Jay, being smart and able to do a lot of things that he couldn't do makes me worried. I tried to teach him based on what I saw on the news feed (Facebook) about those kids of about his age.

I got frustrated when Jay did not understand what I was teaching, even after repeating it umpteen times.

I started screaming and shouting and then, he was about to weep.

I started mumbling to myself, “Why other people can do it and you can’t?”

(One of the things I he could not do was drawing diagonal lines…)

Montessori 3-Part Cards: Colours

I am doing a lot of research on educational activities for Jaydan (going 4 this year) and I chance upon Imagine Our Life. Initially I was looking for educational felt projects to do and after looking at her site, I saw the 3-part cards that she used for her child.
I then googled more on the Montessori 3-part cards and decided to create my own to cater to the needs of Jaydan: Starting with Colours!

Colours: Base Cards

Review: Preschool Prep Co.

When my friend told me that her daughter, who is 5 months younger than Jaydan, is able to read some sight words, I was shocked and at the same time, panicked. Jaydan still did not know how to recognise alphabets yet!
So, the first thing that popped out of my mouth was, "How did you teach her?!" To my surprised, she told me that she let her daughter watched the DVD by Preschool Prep Co. and that was how she learnt. Immediately, I purchased almost the whole set of Preschool Prep Co. products from USA in July 2013.

Handcraft Remote Control

Recently Jaydan likes to take my radio controller and hold on to it before I switch off the lights, fan or TV. He would ask me to wait and only when he use the controller and point towards the switch and said "beep!", then I am allowed to switch on and off the lights. Same goes to the fan and TV.
So, I decided to make something by myself to let him continue his pretend play and give my remote control a break. At the same time, let him recognise words. 

Home Made Nuggets

Jaydan is a very picky eater. Most of the time, he wants to eat crispy food and I have no choice but to resort to instant food like nuggets, fries, etc.
I went online to search for a few homemade nuggets as I felt that instant nuggets are not very good for long term as I do not know which part of the chicken meat they used and what other ingredients are added into it.
There are a lot of different chicken nuggets recipe around and I chose 1 to try making. This recipe requires me to use the food processor to mince the meat into gluey texture.
Although a lot of work is needed for this version of chicken nuggets, Jaydan and Jayson gets to eat a healthier version nuggets and I am happy about it!

HOMEMADE CHICKEN NUGGETS

Fun Activity - Cheese Sticks Making

Didi is down with fever and runny nose. So, hubby n I were trying our best to separate the 2 of them. However, Didi always like to go near Korkor and disturb him. So, I decided to do some baking with Jaydan in the kitchen to prevent Didi from going near him! Hahaha!!
(Baking was on New Year's Day - 1st January 2015)
Jaydan loves to work in the kitchen too! Baking is one of his favourite things to do. So, he immediately agreed to make the cheese sticks.
We carried in his blue table to the kitchen and also the 2 small chairs and turned it into our working table.

So, we started off by measuring the amount of flour needed. Jaydan was so happy as he got to do it!(Mummy was nagging next to him, asking him to stop when the measuring scale showed the required amount.)

After handling the flour, we sieved it together. Most of it was done by him. I was there to help him to scoop those near the corner to prevent the flour from dropping onto the table.

There was a time when he dropped some flour on the table and when I was about to nag at him, he said nevermind in a very cute manner that I couldn't stop laughing!

I helped him to cut the butter as I did not want him to deal with the knife yet. (Dangerous...!)

Then, I took out my Philips food processor and tried to mix all the ingredients together as mentioned in the recipe I got from Pin, BUT FAILED. In the end, I put everything into a metal bowl and asked Jaydan to do the pinching method. It turned out that he enjoyed doing the pinching method! He said that it is like playing playdoh! haha!

After Jaydan done kneading the dough, we put the dough into the fridge and let it cool down. Meanwhile, he took a bathe.

After bathing, we did the flattening, rolling and cutting of the dough. We sprinkled mozzarella cheese onto the cheesesticks.

We airfried it using airfryer and Jaydan was so eager to taste the cheesesticks that he had made. Once the first batch was out, he left me in the kitchen to continue the rolling and cutting of the dough while he ate the cheesesticks in the living room. (Poor mummy!)

Obviously, he loves the cheesesticks! However, the way I airfried it made the mozzarella became too dark. I should have bake the sticks first then half way through, eggwash it then put the mozzarella cheese. I will update here once I get to do it again with Jaydan and see how is the outcome.

Below would be the modified recipe as I usually don't follow recipes that I have found to the exact. I would adjust accordingly to the liking and preference of my family members.

Cheesesticks

Ingredients

• 270 grams of all purpose flour (plain flour)
• 110 grams of cold butter (cut it into cubes for easier pinching)
• 1 egg
• 1 pinch of salt
• 3 tbsp of cold water
• 2 tbsp of parmesan cheese powder
• 100 grams of mozzarella cheese (I would try other types of cheese next time and update again

Steps

1. In a mixing bowl, add flour, butter, egg and salt and use the pinching method to mix them well until it looks like crumbs. (For Jaydan's case, he also added in his "squeezing" method as his hands are small.)
2. Then add the 1tbsp of cold water at a time into the mixture and mix them till all the 3 tbsp of water mixed well with the mixture.
3. Put the dough into the fridge and cool it down. (about 45 minutes)
4. Preheat the airfryer at 180 degrees.
5. Put some flour on the tabletop and the rolling pin (to prevent sticking), and roll the dough flat.
6. Cut the flattened dough into the desired shapes you like and place it in the airfryer.
7. Bake for about 8 minutes.
8. Take them out from the airfryer and put it on a plate.
9. Repeat step 6 to step 8 until all the dough is used up.
10. Take the baked sticks and brush a layer of egg on it.
11. Sprinkle some mozzarella cheese then bake it again for about 4 minutes.
12. Repeat step 10 and step 11 till all the baked sticks become cheese sticks!

Enjoy your yummy cheesesticks baking with your child! It is a very simple recipe to do it together with your child!