Pretend Play – Breakfast with friends

When Angelo told me that he wanted to have breakfast with his plush toys, no doubt that this could be a great pretend play.
We will celebrate something special with it but not too fancy.
A special breakfast party with friends is surely hit!
This will fill their stomach for a few hours while doing some fun things!
We used some plastic plates and utensils from Ikea.
Angelo prepared the table and sorted the tablewares by it’s color.

After sending out the invitations, three of his closest friends came and party with him.
As per his request guests was served plenty of pancakes and milk.

The host of the party was very accommodating and lively. He even joked his friends that they can eat as many pancakes as they want.
Look, how he’s being so nice and thoughtful to his friends.

There was lots of chikahan and kwento’s and they were all having fun especially Angelo.

I smiled thinking about what a lovely moment to be reminded that everywhere is an opportunity for learning, for connecting, and let make believe bring your party to life..

Happy Saturday Playing!

Best of 2012

Happy New year!

One of the great ways to bring in the New Year into our life is to reflect on past times and FUN memories.

Like what I’ve said 2012 has been full of so much goodness to our family. I will always be glad to look back through a full year of posts that will remind me of all the sweet memories I’ve shared with family and friends, and all the fun learning through play activities I’ve had the privilege of sharing with you over the past year. Thank you for an amazing year! Sharing my life of being expat,makulit na chatmate of my sister,supportive wife to daddy A and loving mother to little A is very rewarding.

This blog has become such a big part of my life. Lots of kwento and sharing happened here.Thank you for spending your precious time of reading our life!

Here are the most-viewed posts over the year.

Who wouldn’t know Angry Birds!We did this activity when little A and I are in our Easter theme unit. I always love doing activities with him without stressing him out.Our little guy loves Angry Bird toda max and since playing it on the phone is a big NO for him I simply used emplty bottles and created our customized Angry Bird Bowling set. Isn’t cute??!

Seussical Magical World – Dr. Seuss theme was just right for little A’s 3rd birthday.This will always be our favorite theme.From planning to execution everything was made out of love.

Pretend Play – Playing Veterinarian – Pretend play was always a huge hit for us. And playing veterinarian/doctor gives us the chance to explain the importance of conquering the fear. Well,kids will always be scared of the doctors but at least with this fun activity we can helped them to widen his imagination.

This really surprise me. This post is the mostly search here. Maybe because little A was really cute here or maybe they were looking for the “Cedie and munting prinsipe” outfit.hehe

Summer delights – Nutella Chocolate Swirled Banana Bread -You should really try this! Masarap talaga kaya pasok sa top post.

A day with Super DAD! This post is extra special to me. With all the DIY I made pwede na kong maging “Wife of the year”..hahaha. I loved surprising hubby and made sure that in every occasion of his life he will always feel special.

I was so glad to finally get to play with the idea and hubby was really amazed!

Thank you again sweet readers for making 2012 a wonderful year!

Happy New Year!

Kids Cuisine – Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you are looking for enjoyable ways to spend more quality time interacting with your kids,teaching them to create fun tasty foods is the perfect way.

When baking with little A I need to choose recipes that are easy,quick and cheap. The cheap part has to do with the fact that most of the times there are measuring and spilling mishaps over flour and egg cracks.

Here’s the recipe that he really love to eat and easy to make.His own version of Chocolate Chip Cookies..

The easy to follow recipe encourage him to practice his counting skills, scooping and pouring and eye and hand coordination.

It also build his self- confidence.

I can see Junior Master  Chef in the future..

Don’t you think so?

Introduction to Scissors – Cutting Play-doh

Materials:

• Playdough (home made or store bought)
• Plastic safety scissor

With this activity I just let little A hold the scissor the way he wanted and allowing him to poke,cut and stab the playdough.

Later on I demonstrated the proper way of holding the scissor.(thumb in the top loop and  index finger in the bottom loop.Using the scissors was a challenge for little A.He kept turning his hand over and he had a really hard time keeping his thumb on top while cutting, but got better the more we practiced.

He was amazed by his ability to cut the Play-doh into multiple pieces.  I would highly recommend this activity for other tots.We will definitely be doing this again soon though.

When he’s done with his cutting skills. He had a better idea.So we moved from cutting into baking.

I didn’t argue.

I’m glad he was so enthralled with playing. He said that he wanted to bake a cake with sprinkles.

I always try to enrich the pretend play with new information, props and role play ideas.

We love, love, love to play with play dough, do you?

A simple play…

Playdough.Wooden Kitchen Utensil. and Scissor.

Play dough normally is a wonderful sensory activity in itself, but the added materials makes it more fun for little A.

Learning through play – Creative Play

For a toddler who is always on the move long road trips can be tough. Especially when they finally become conscious that they’ve been trapped on their car seat for a long hours.

One of our stress buster is refocus his energy by playing “Create a story”.Each of us takes a turn narrating any stories that we may think. This game is such a big hit to little A.

Last weekend after eating breakfast I had the chance to finally arranged all of my compiled recipes I was planning to write it in my notebook.

Of course knowing how active little A he then asked me if we could play our “create a story”. This time instead of narrating he wants to put it into illustrations. He wants me to draw his story. Ok, this is a sign that he’s bored and he wants something to do. So I grabbed his small pad and pen and I set aside what I planned to do. He then started to narrate his story..

Little A – One day there’s  a little boy.

Mommy – What’s the name of the boy

Little A – He said his name “Little A”

Mommy – What is he doing..

Little A – He’s holding a balloon. So many balloons..

(So I complied) I drew 4 balloons and asked him to count. I also asked him the shape of the balloons. I even hold his hand so I can guide him to draw as well.

He then asked me if we can draw mommy and daddy.

After seeing the illustration he said “no mommy”. .  I asked him why? Mommy and Daddy will also hold balloon.

A simple activity using his imagination.

 A simple aid to build his vocabulary and communication skills.

I’m amazed how much faster the time passed by we were so engaged! Before I knew it I need to prepare again for lunch time.

he drew this he said this is little A and daddy..cute!!

 

This is me and Little A (sorry but drawing is not my cup of tea)

The great chance of learning…

If I give him a crayon, chances are he will scribble it…

If I give him a puzzle, chances are he will dump it…

If I give him a set of foam stamps, chances are he will play it…

If I give him a box of marbles, chances are he will scatter it…

If I give him a jar of glitters, chances are he will waste it…

If I gave him a bunch of toothpick and playdough,chances are he will explore it

If I offer him the pile of playdough,chances are he will build a tower …

But with each and every future chance I gave to to him..I know he will surely grow and learn from it.

Because the great chance of learning is through taking chances..

Key to raising little boys…

When I found out for sure that my first little child would be a boy – I worried endlessly about becoming a mother of the male species. I came from a family of all girls. I love pink , skirts and wearing dresses.

 I grew up playing luto-lutuan and dolls. And the idea of playing wrestling,running around the house,robot,cars and naughtiness bit scared me. But now living with two boys (Little A and Daddy Al) – I do understand one key to raising little boys. Give them adventure and make it real!

Little A was fascinated with his 1st birthday photobook and insisting to wear the same costume that was on the cover.I was tempted to say ‘no’ but he was so persistent.I grabbed the costume to his closet and put it to him.He was very happy and I can’t wipe off the smile on his face.It’s truly the cutest thing.

little A said.."mommy picture"

tita ake said he looks like Cedie ang munting prinsipe

this is his simple smile..holding his photo book.

 

Thank you Tita Belle for the lay-out.

Fine motor fun -popsicle sticks through a pringles tube

Here is a very simple activity that engages children on practicing their fine motor skills.

Instead of putting popsicle sticks on the box  why not ask your little tot to insert them one at a time in an empty canister/clear plastic bottle with small hole/slot.

Learning and practicing skills without even knowing it.

You can try beads,coins,pom – poms or pipe cleaners. Just make sure they do not put anything small in their mouths.

Fun with Opposites

As a learning activity to help little A to learn Opposites . I set out the materials on his play table during his nap..It includes CD’s,cotton for SOFT, colored pasta for HARD,net for ROUGH and satin lace for SMOOTH. Little A and I have been enjoying the time exploring some of the materials we already have in the house. A super fun, messy [but yet clean] sensory activity for him.

I usually try one time to show to him how to do it properly but he refused to do it that way and goes on the way he wants. One thing I learned from teaching him is most activities don’t really turn out like I plan.

But the most essential part is he can expressed himself, he likes what he’s doing and we are having good times. And that’s all that really matters, right?

So I stopped interfering,looked at him and I smiled when he’s starting to show interest. He took the colored pasta and paste it in the CD, then grabbed the cotton and placed it on the CD. The little boy knew exactly what he’s doing and I am a bit nostalgic because he wants to do it by himself without the help of mommy. My heart wants to soar and ache at the same time. He’s growing fast and he’s becoming really smart.

When he’s done I realized that it’s really true that the process of creating craft projects is always more important than the end result. Allowing Little A brings out his creative expression reflects his own unique style and creativity…

Angry Birds craze..

angry birds bowling set

Angry Birds bowling set is always on my to do list. But for some reason I am so lazy to do this craft. And since Easter is fast approaching and the Angry Bird craze is sweeping the internet, so I figured this would be perfect for Easter activities.These little birds are everywhere and almost all of the people I knew are getting addicted playing this application. Hubby became fanatic and even the little one does too! Though he doesn’t know how to play it correctly.

I had this template ages ago. This was supposed to be for hubby’s birthday. We wanted to have Angry Birds theme party but in the end we decided to just join his colleagues for their birthday celebration.

So here is what you will need to create the Angry Birds Bowling set

• Empty plastic bottles (1.5L)
• Colored papers (Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, White & Black)
• Angry Birds Balloon Template  (www.thepartyanimal-blog.org) – it’s a free template!
• Tape
• Printer Paper
• Scissors

I used 6 bottles for the birds and spiderman ball for pig. It’s an easy peasy thing to do cut the colored papers horizontally,wrapped in the bottle,sticked their face and TADA!! You are now ready for an hour of fun and laughters!!

smile first before the action takes place

let the fun begin..