A-Z collage cum word-pic matching game

This learning aid was made due to popular demand. As most parents aren't ready to invest in individual alphabet collages, I had lotsa inquiries about an A-Z collage cum word-pic matching game.

I finally got down to making this collage and I'm glad to say that it's ready for sale and I'm ready to take orders for this learning aid!

In this set, there are 2 words per alphabet and if the alphabet has two different sounds, the words featured will reflect this.


There are a total of 52 pictures and 52 words. Only the non-velcro set is available.

You may use these cards as flashcards for the very young tots and subsequently lay them out on a flat surface and let the tot do the matching of words to the pictures when (s)he is older and is starting to recognise words.


As I'm currently running a promotion on all alphabet collages at the moment, this A-Z combo set is going for $52 nett (no further discounts on this item).


Picture of this product is currently unavailable. It does look similar to other alphabet collages I've published on my site thus far. :)

You can either order via the order form from my blogshop or simply drop me an email at simplymommie@gmail.com :)

Julia Gabriel PlayClub (Term 3 Week 8)

Last week's lesson at JG was really quite different. And the difference was that Alicia finally agreed to speak to her teachers. :P Usually she doesn't say a word to them but she will whisper quietly to me in class. I guess she's just not comfortable to speak to people she's not familiar with.

Well, it was also the first time she's been asked for an opinion during class time. Her teacher who was demonstrating the artwork for the day asked her if he should put 1 or 2 scoops of glue for the craft and she pondered for awhile, then said TWO, enthusiastically, but raising the wrong number of fingers... lol. She usually raises the correct number of fingers but I think she was so excited (coz she actually jumped up from my lap to answer the question), she just raised her whole hand instead.

During the demo for art, the teachers will also usually say 'stop!' when they stop putting the glue/ glitter/ paint. Right after the teacher finished saying 'stop', and when he was about to move on to say something else, Alicia again excitedly jumped up and shouted "STOP!" lol. Everyone was very amused with her that day. :)

Later while waiting to do art at one of the tables, she went to get her letter S stamp. The teacher asked her to say "please". Usually she'd just look at him and not say a word. But that day, she went up to him, really close to his face and almost spat out the word "please" at him. Really hilarious. Subsequently she said her "thank you" and named the letter S and the sound it makes accordingly. The teacher said she has made remarkable improvement. Haha. Actually she has been able to speak, just that she doesn't speak to him. LOL.

I wonder whether she'll continue to speak up in class this week! :)

The letter E lapbook

The letter E lapbook consists of:

(i) the letter E collage
(ii) elephant threading learning aid
(iii) eagle puzzle
(iv) elephant colouring page cum activity sheet (free printables):

After colouring, paste the paper on a piece of cardboard (cereal box) then cut out the little circle. Place your first finger into the hole and it becomes the lil elephant's trunk! :)

(v) accordion mini-book about elephants (free printables)

Print out the template then allow the child to do the colouring. Cut out the four individual pieces and stick them onto cardboard. Tape accordingly to make the accordion mini-book! :)

(vi) numbers 8 and 11 colouring pages (free printables)

Items 1-3 can be viewed here.

We had so much fun doing all the activities! :)

Here's how the lapbook looks like:

The cover:

I used velcro to attach the elephant threading learning aid to the cover of the lapbook so that it can be removed easily when necessary.

The interior:

On the left of the file:

I attached the envelope containing the collage pics and words with tape.

The elephant craft is attached with a piece of velcro.

The eagle puzzle is stored in a recycled plastic bag (used to contain the strips of velcro) and the bag is attached with tape. The eagle puzzle can be removed from the bag easily as there is an opening in the bag.

On the right of the file:

 

Elephant minibook is attached with velcro.

Her art work are attached to the file with glue but I only glued half of the top piece so that the bottom piece can still be viewed. :)

The letter D lapbook

The letter D lapbook comprises of:

(i) Duck-egg counting game

(ii) the letter D collage

Items 1 and 2 can be purchased here.

(iii) the letter D colouring book (free printables)

(iv) her dolphin threading learning aid (from JG)

(v) her dolphin artwork done at JG (this makes a pretty cover page for the file!) :)

(vi) a 'dress' she decorated at JG

Here's the lapbook:

  

Notice the string at the top left of the file (right pic): it's to hold the threading dolphin in place

The upper and lower case of the letter D were cut out from one of her art pieces.

The interior of the lapbook: 

I stapled the last page of the colouring book to the file and taped the envelopes containing the various items to the file.

The dress she decorated is slotted in behind the colouring book

Do you like our lapbook? :)

My beautiful fairy

We borrowed a pair of fairy wings from my niece for my princess for an upcoming annual staff dinner (coz the theme is something along the lines of 'out of this world').

After her bath the other night, Alicia insisted on wearing the fairy wings and she happily posed for a photo with her daddy:

Usually she poses for ONE shot. And that's it.

The rest I have to get by snapping wildly away and hoping that I get some beautiful pics.

This time, I think I got quite a few! *happy*

Hi there! I'm a fairy! Can you tell?

I can FLY!

I love my new furry wings...

Pretty little fairy... taking a break from flying...

The back view of the wings

The tech-savvy fairy...

She forgot about the wings already... too busy i-phoning

Obviously, she ain't gonna wear this Elmo PJ to the party... my aunt just bought a beautiful dress for her to go along with the fairy wings! :)

Sambal Tunis Prawns

Haven't blogged about my cooking for quite awhile now. I was so pre-occupied with my learning aids and I didn't cook anything new. :)

Just the other day when I was waiting for the chicken stall aunty to chop the chicken thighs, I saw that she was selling some pastes so I took a closer look.

This sambal tunis is meant for cooking seafood and since it's instant paste, it appealed to me, well, instantly. :P I used to like to make my own sambal and all and I have been seriously considering making my own sambal tunis ever since I saw it on Ju's site (great food, great photography. Hop over if you've not seen her foodblog). I really mean to make it some day but I've been really bogged down with lots of stuff and so I didn't need any other encouragement to buy this instant paste. After all, I had half a kg of prawns at home that day and I intended to cook them for dinner so why not try something new?

It costs $2 and each packet can be used for cooking 1kg prawns/ seafood.

Was it great?

Well, it was quite nice actually, unless you hate lemongrass - the smell and taste is rather strong.

Photos, you ask.

I've none to show this time, not because it looked terrible or it isn't blog-worthy. The only reason why I've no photos to upload is because I forgot to take photos. Sigh. I was so intent on settling down to eat dinner and continue watching the rented DVD that it totally slipped my mind to take photos after cooking.

Next time yah? :P

Fastfood

Two Sundays ago, we were doing our grocery shopping at NTUC and we came across two products that we thought might fascinate Alicia.

Here's the first:

It's not too expensive (I think it's about $3 for a pack) and each piece of smiling potato is honestly bigger than I thought (it's about 4-5cm in diameter). Simply place a few of these in a preheated oven (220degC) and bake for about 10min and they're nice and slightly golden brown.

These can be served as a carbo option for the tot who needs, perhaps, a change in menu once in a while. Great for an occasional breakfast or snack: just serve alongside some greens or fruits and even a pasta sauce for a dip.

My fussy tot however doesn't really fancy it. We think it's not bad though. :)

There was a promoter for this product that day and Alicia said she wanted to try it, and so we let her.

She seemed to like it and so we decided to just buy one to try.

This is a German product and costs $9.90 per box but it was on offer that day and we bought it for only $7.90.

There are other flavours available but we thought we should stick to the Hawaiian option for the fussypot: she tried both the Hawaiian and the Salami pizza and she spat out the salami, so we thought, Hawaiian should be fine since it stayed in the mouth and eventually went into the lil tummy.

A note of caution though. As with delicatessen meats, the sodium content is pretty high so don't overdose your tot with the pizza. :) 

The best part about these two products is that they are both to be baked at 220degC in a preheated oven for the same amount of time, so you can just toss them in together and wait patiently for that 10min. :) Bake for a longer time period if you are baking more pieces of course.

As with most other things, Alicia decided that she doesn't really like the pizza when she got home. Sigh. 

Waiting to be baked

Check out the thickness of the smileys :)

A note of thanks :)

To my dear friends and readers who have spared the time to drop me emails, smses and MSN msgs to ask if I'm alright after my unfortunate encounter at SMH, thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement.

I will definitely continue to make my products available to genuine clients and my blogshop, as I mentioned in my earlier post, is still technically in operation as I've not deleted the account. You can still browse through the blogshop for my old products and should any catch your fancy, don't hesitate to just drop me a mail at simplymommie@gmail.com. I will continue to keep friends and regulars in the loop. :)

Thanks for the support :)

An unforeseen turn of events...

It has only been a couple of weeks since I set up my blogshop proper on weebly and I decided, just for the fun of it, why not have a BP on SMH? Hence, I went about the procedures of having a thread set up on SMH and for the first couple of days, sales were fine until yesterday when I didn't even get any enquiry.

I brushed it off, thinking it was just probably a bad day. Every business that just started up meets with hiccups.

Then today, I finally discovered the reason.

A devious person had copied my learning aid ideas and undercut my price. That's already improper in itself, but the person even stooped to going through my thread, checking out the nicks of my clients then poaching them by sending them private messages on the forum to 'advertise' her products.

Really. How low can someone get?

You could say that that's competition and I just have to learn to cope with it. I say, competition - fair competition - is when you come up with your own ideas and sell them on your own platform and not snoop around other people's clientele.

Business with integrity, please. I thought that's basic.

So what now, you ask.

Well, I will just go along with the BP (it ends on 22 Aug), though I don't expect any more business, with someone like that lurking around. I just can't compete with her prices I guess - I can't help it that my time is worth more than hers, at least in my opinion.

As for the future, I regret to say that I will no longer be posting any more pictures or ideas of my homemade learning aids. I will, however, continue to share free downloadable materials. You would expect that I won't allow that lowdown person to continue to ride on my creativity. Friends and regulars are still welcome to enquire and purchase the new products, but my learning aids will no longer be available to the general public.

My learning aids are conceived through my own creative thought processes and ingenuity. They aren't just laminated colourful paper because besides the time and effort I put in, you know you're purchasing a product at that price because you value the creativity.

If the ideas are copied, you know then, that those learning aids are merely laminated paper - and that's why they go at a fraction of my pricing.

I was initially disappointed and incensed because my newly-setup blogshop would henceforth not be selling anything else new (the current items will continue to be, technically, on sale). But after thinking it through, that wouldn't be entirely a bad idea. I could then channel my energy and time to other things, like finally getting about writing and getting paid for my writing. My daughter though, is still the top priority.

The most important thing I've learnt and come to realise after this?

I still have a big fan of my work, and she will, I hope and assume, continue to be my biggest fan because when I replaced her missing apple on her apple tree learning aid today, I saw pure happiness and delight, all over her cute little innocent face.

What greater joy can a mother wish for? :)

New products at my blogshop

Check out the product descriptions and costs at my blogshop! :)

An overview:

Learn more about shapes!:

Counting apples learning aid:

Flower sorting (sorting according to colour/size and sequencing according to size):

Letter F collage cum word-pic matching game (works great as flashcards for the young tots too!)

Review of Eric Carle's Do you want to be my friend?

This is a quaint little book which doesn't have any words other than the title and at the end of the book!

It has pictures of an animal and a tail of the next animal each time you turn the page, but no words.

While it doesn't quite boost the vocabulary of a young reader (since there are hardly any words to speak of), it addresses something crucial in reading skills - something that will benefit young readers in comprehension in future - and that is the skill of prediction.

The fact that there are no words, the reader is forced to concentrate hard on the pictures and of course, as parents or guardians reading the book with the tot, do encourage the tot to guess what animal comes next on the page just by looking at the tail.

The most interesting part lies in the last animal - which, I hope, you will find that out for yourself by getting your hands on the book! :)

My first BP at SMH

Hi there!

If you love my home-made learning aids, this is just to inform you that I'm having my first BP at SMH from 16-22Aug.

Follow this link!:
http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/581296/4369940.html

Parts of the Body learning aid

I received a request from a mummy the other day to make a Parts of the Body learning aid and I thought, well, since I'm gonna teach Alicia that anyway, why not just make one now?

I got to work and here are the learning aids, available in both English and Mandarin.

Alicia LOVES the new learning aids! :P

Check out the details at my blogshop! :)

English version:

Mandarin version:

Letter E learning aids

Just in case you've not visited my blogshop to chk out the letter E learning aids, here are the items available for purchase. :)

The letter E collage cum word-pic matching game:

Elephant Threading activity:

Eagle puzzle:

Julia Gabriel PlayClub (Term 3 Week 6)

Week 6 at Julia Gabriel. 4 more lessons... We're counting down to the end of the term! lol.

Theme this week: the letter C.

The art piece the Mandarin teachers prepared: a coral crown:

The English teachers didn't prepare any art materials that day. Instead, the kids were allowed to make their own cereal crunchies by scooping cornflakes, rainbow sprinkles and a bit of honey and mixing it all up for a pre-snack time snack. :P

Alicia was more interested in the cereal crunchies than the coral crown but once she reached home, she started plucking out the sequins from the crown and well, she had her fair share of fun there! :P

New protein food option for the tot

Was at the wet market the other day and the yong tau foo stall assistant recommended this product to me:

This pack costs me $2.50 (200g)

If you eat chawanmushi, you may have come across these cute pieces of fishcake before. The other option apart from pandas was stars and I held both in front of Alicia for her choose and after considering for a short while, she decided to go with the pandas.

These pieces of fishcake aren't quite the normal fishcake we eat. They are less salty as they are packaged for children and they claim to be high in protein. 

Naturally Alicia was very taken by the appearance of the fishcake during dinner but she took a long time to chew and swallow them... sigh. I'm sure that doesn't really happen with other kids though. They taste fine to me and I think she may just be consuming these because they are cute rather than for the taste. She was quite excited to bite off the ears... the eyes.. the mouth... and she asked 'where's the nose?' *faint*

The letter D - literature

Books we read in conjunction with the teaching of the letter D:

This big book is available at Popular bookstore and retails for I think less than SGD$10.

A great book for dog lovers as it has pictures and descriptions of different breeds of dogs!

Other books we read:

         

Other "Spot goes..." books are appropriate as well. I know of some children who are absolutely in love with Spot the dog! (and Clifford too!)

My article for Today's Motherhood

Sent in my breastfeeding story to Today's Motherhood and here's the link to the story :)

My blogshop: Simply Mommie's Precious Handmades

I finally went about doing up the blogshop site and you can take a look at the collection of handmade learning aids I make. My learning aids are all over the place in my blog so I've decided to place them together in another site for easy viewing (and purchase, of course).

These learning aids are all original and handcrafted by me and hence, with the amount of labour (all the cutting gives me a sore and an almost-blistered right hand!) and time that go into the learning aids (not to mention the cost price of laminating pouches, original ink cartridges for printing, velcro etc.), they do not come, well, cheap.

Nevertheless, if you can see past the fact that the learning aids are just laminated pieces of paper that have been made visually appealing, you would be able to appreciate and recognise the creativity and the love that went into making them. :)

Happy shopping. :)

Here's a print-screen shot of my blogshop:

Alphabet Fun

This is a learning aid we bought during one of Takashimaya's toy fairs and I think it was incredibly cheap (like about $7?) I really can't remember but I was rummaging stuff in the storeroom the other day, trying to look for something and Alicia kept bugging me. Hence I quickly turned my attention to the stack of stuff we bought from the toy fair the other time since we bought some learning aids in advance then. Time to check if they were suitable for her learning now... and so, I took out this set for her to play with and she has been excited about it for the past week or so.

I'd say the great thing about this set of learning aids is that it's self-correcting and hence if it's not the right puzzle piece, the kid will know because of the bad fit.

Counting the pieces she's put together...

Look at her cute pouty lips as she says "two!"

On the underside of the cover, there are a few suggestions with regard to how to make use of the learning aid but I think Alicia has her own ideas for now how she wants to use it. :)

Nevertheless, she has great fun with this set of learning aids and she's very good with the puzzle already. Talk about appropriate time to take out this set of learning aids.

Nowadays she'd purposely place wrong puzzle pieces together and tell me it's "wrong" and there is a big "hole" between the puzzle pieces.

Kids.

I'm not sure if you still can get this set of learning aids from Takashimaya or its related toy fairs but you can keep a lookout for it the next time! :)

Review of Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Here's another of Eric Carle's books though only the illustrations were done by him.

Nevertheless, I think it's quite an enjoyable read as well with an animal taking the centrestage with each flip of the page!

Needless to say, that helps to focus the child's attention on the animal and also because the book's about the sounds the animals make, Alicia had quite some fun while reading.

Her favourite animal from the book currently is the elephant and she would pinch her nose and wave her other hand like a trunk, imitating the sound an elephant makes. :)

Next in line of her favourites is the boa constrictor - which is well, essentially a snake in the kids' eyes and and I just wonder why the author couldn't have made it simpler for the kid by referring to it as a snake instead. No prizes for guessing that Alicia hisses whenever we get to the page about the boa constrictor. Then again, she's always fast-forwarding the reading to those two pages she loves and hardly focuses on the rest. Sigh. Kids just have a mind of their own, don't they? :)

Overall, it's a good book but I think Alicia really misses Eric Carle's From head to toe as she's been asking for it, often asking for where the gorilla who thumps his chest is! *faint*

Time to borrow that book again for her.... :)

Julia Gabriel PlayClub (Term 3 Week 5)

It's mid-term and the last week to withdraw from JG without forfeiting the deposit. Like I mentioned in my previous post about JG's lessons, I've decided to withdraw Alicia from JG and so that's what we did on Saturday.

After all that's been said about the increasingly worsening teacher-student ratio and how I feel the class has become mainly about crowd control, I still think that the teachers are creative in their teaching ideas for drama time and art.

Here's one of the pieces of art Alicia did last Sat. The theme last week was "three".

A mobile made of 3 hanging fish (with 3 stripes each on the body)!

The other piece of art work was stenciling the chinese word san (three) on a sheet of paper (I'm too lazy to dig out that piece of work to take photos).

Waterplay was fun for her that day and she enjoyed music time too - it's the first time this term that she started showing signs of enjoyment during that segment. I dunno why but she's been really grouchy during music time for the past month of lessons. Well, I'm glad she finally went off to dance together with the rest instead of insisting that I carry her!