Rivers & Lakes Reading Corner

While we were in the midst of the previous reading corner on birds, I didn't know why but I just wanted the next theme to be on rivers. I figured we could visit the River Safari, and I already had two types of river toobs. It would be fun too to talk about the natural environment, which is the river.

So even when we started the theme at the end of October (we had a little breather after the previous one), we had no idea that we would be taking a trip very soon to a land of not only rivers, but lakes and mountains too. And still not knowing of the trip, I had decided to include lakes in our theme too because of the book Little Beaver and the Echo. Was it all a coincidence? No, I don't believe in coincidence. I call it Fate.

Exactly a month into our theme, we had the opportunity to go for a holiday which we hadn't intended to earlier. Since the trip would take place three weeks after that, it wasn't easy to choose a destination and get flights that were not too exhorbitant. In the end, we settled for South Island, New Zealand. We had always wanted to go back there and we were so excited to have the little girl with us this time.

After our flight to Christchurch were booked; and I thought of all the magnificent lakes at South Island, where I sat with my hubby and marvelled and pondered, and thought and dreamt of when we were back home; my decision to do a theme on rivers and lakes totally made sense. It had all been Written.

I had decided that for this post, I shall not be too long-winded and ramble like I always do, but my introduction is already four paragraphs long. Gosh! I promise that this shall not be a 5000-word essay. I'll try!

Reading corner

So we had our usual reading corner but getting books to suit the theme was tough. First I had to find out which are the animals that live in or near rivers and I found out some of them are hippos, bears, beavers, raccoons, ducks, river otters and crocodiles. Finding interesting books about those animals was the big challenge and these are the ones that I got. All the books I had bought them online from Amazon or Book Depository.

Our reading corner

Reading with a crocodile toob

Among the books, our favourites have to be The Selfish Crocodile, Little Beaver and the Echo and Raccoon at Clear Creek Road. The last book came with an audio CD of the book and I like to pop it in so that the little girl can listen to the story while I'm preparing breakfast for her. 

Activity corner

We had two more books at this corner and they were to accompany the dress-up family bear puzzle and Malay picture-matching cards based on the Brown Bear book. The picture cards were made by a friend as part of a busy bag exchange. 

The thing I loved most about this corner was the small world set-up with the river animals. Many of the animals, like the bears, raccoons, deer, otters, hippos, tigers and frogs, came in pairs. That delighted the little girl of course as she loved pairing the "mummy and baby" animals together.

Our activity corner

 Dressing up mama, papa and baby bears

Matching the picture cards

Food play

The little girl got a tub of alphabet and number cookie cutters as a birthday gift and finally the letters came out of their tub. We had fun cutting our pancakes to spell the names of the animals. I also bought another tub of animal cookie cutters which we used to make edible art for breakfast. It was fun to make them and eat them!

Spelling with pancakes

Making duck scrambled egg

Toasting cheese on bears

Sensory play

Based on the book Little Beaver and the Echo, we had ice and bubble play at the water table. Like in the book, the beaver went out on his boat to look for The Echo, but instead found the duck, the otter and the turtle who became his friends. 

Ice and bubble play

And we had an animal matching game in water beads which she played with her papa. Since many of the river animals came in pairs, they took turns to look for the match when one found an animal in the tub. It was a great father-daughter bonding time on a Sunday morning.

Matching animals in water beads

Quranic literacy

For this theme, it was the little girl who unknowingly chose the topic for our Quranic literacy. I had intended to look up the verses on rivers in Paradise and to talk to the little girl about them, but she had other ideas, and child-led learning is always the best. She had taken an interest in Surah Al Feel, which is the 105th surah in the Quran, mostly because of the elephants in the pictures that were mentioned in the surah. 

Surah Al Feel

So I decided to let her pursue her interest in the elephants while always referring to the surah during our conversations and Quran recitation. We went to the zoo to watch the elephant shows and got to feed an elephant too. After feeding the elephant, we had a hard time peeling her and Ayn away from the elephants as they were busy pretending to be little mahouts while sitting on the elephant statues. In fact, the little girl has already requested to sit on a real elephant the next time we are at the zoo.  

Watching the elephants at the zoo

I found illustrated lessons from Surah Al Feel by Ustaz Nouman Ali Khan which proved to be really beneficial for me. After a few weeks of talking about the surah, the emotional moment came when we were seated outside Masjid Sultan one evening while waiting for her papa. It was the time of the month for me and I couldn't perform my prayers. She was listening to the imam's recitation, asking who was reading it and all, and then she asked me, "Is the imam going to read Surah Al Feel?" I think for now, it is her most favourite surah.

Excursions

We went to Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park so that the little girl could have her first experience in a river. Little did I know that the river in the park was actually part of Kallang River! It had rained earlier so to get to the river, we had to squelch down a muddy slope and walk through some grass. Doesn't that just remind you of We are Going on a Bear Hunt? Then the little girl gamely asked if she could walk in the river, which she did with her papa. Later on, she asked if she could swim with the fish in the river. Not in the mucky water, my dear! 

Walking in a river at a park

We made a few trips to Botanic Gardens to see the nesting black swans which I had written about before. Two books came in handy for the trips, namely Ducks Don't Get Wet and A Nest Full of Eggs. To read in books about birds laying eggs or ducks preening their feathers to make them waterproof, and to actually see these animals and their actions in person, are just worlds apart. I'm really grateful that the little girl could experience such wonders and that I was right beside her.

Nesting black swans and ducks at Botanic Gardens

We made another trip to the River Safari to see some river animals. Sadly, the animal show that we caught previously where we got to see the animals up close was no longer showing. But the little girl didn't mind at all as she was busy playing with her little friends.

Nile crocodile, river otter, Amazonian manatee and crab-eating raccoon at River Safari

Holiday experience

Our holiday trip to South Island of New Zealand was the highlight of the year for us. The last time we were there was to celebrate our third wedding anniversary so we were ecstatic to be back there with the little girl in tow. We wanted to share all the delightful places we had visited with her and we wanted her to experience His Beauty in all its majesty. 

It was a free-and-easy, self-drive holiday which started and ended at Christchurch. We drove in a clockwise direction, staying at Christchurch, Tekapo, Queenstown, Wanaka, Fox, Greymouth and finally back at Christchurch again. I could go on and on about the trip, but I guess I shall save the lengthy write-up of the trip and let the pictures do the talking for now. These pictures show the child-led activities of my little girl amidst beautiful nature and magnificent scenery. 

Throwing rocks at the top of Mount John, with Lake Tekapo in the background

Chasing ducks by Lake Tekapo

Throwing acorns into Lake Pukaki and watching them float 

Picking acorns for her chosen activity

Picking up rocks to serve as food on a plate to a passing duck at Lake Wakatipu

Throwing rocks into Lake Wakatipu with The Remarkables mountain range in the background

Watching ducks and throwing gravel at Lake Wanaka

Feeding ducks at Lake Wanaka

Wondering how to get down to Clearwater Creek

Picking flowers and running in a meadow beside Clearwater Creek

Crossing a suspended bridge at Fox

Watching the running water that flows from Fox Glacier while on the suspended bridge

Picking up fallen leaves and twigs during a forest walk at Fox

Finding company in a duck at a fantastic playground at Greymouth

Taking a walk with the duck around the park at Greymouth

Art and craft

I had written before of the free-form art that the little girl had done during the course of the theme. With some paint, watercolour, brushes, plastic cutlery and cotton buds, these are what she came up with.

Free-form art

I love to cut up scenes for the little girl to paste. My husband always says that I look to be having more fun than the little girl when it comes to art. Well I love craft and having the opportunity to cut up some coloured papers always cheers me up. I wouldn't want to do something that bores me to tears, would I?  So our collaborative art is what I call a win-win situation.

Scenes for the ducks and hippos

Collaborative art - done with paint and paper cut-outs

Done with watercolour and duck stamps

It was the first time that we did some craft with felt and I'm hooked! The elephants were done to tie in with the elephant excursions that we did and the ducks were done after all the ducks that we saw in New Zealand. I didn't realise it at first but later on I realised that there were so many circles in both crafts! So we got to talk about shapes too, which included rectangle (legs), triangle (beaks) and semicircle (ducks' bodies).

Felt craft

In conclusion

All praises to Him for giving the little girl and I the opportunity and knowledge to put together the theme and carry out the activities together. In the end I did look up the verse in the Quran, in which rivers of water, milk, wine and honey are mentioned. For the Paradise is where we are striving for during this short life of ours. 

"The description of Paradise which the Muttaqun (pious) have been promised is that in it are rivers of water the taste and smell of which have not changed; rivers of milk of which the taste never changes; rivers of wine delicious to those who drink; and rivers of clarified honey (clear and pure) therein for them is every kind of fruit; and forgiveness from their Lord. (Are these) like those who shall dwell for ever in the Fire, and be given to drink boiling water so that it cuts up their bowels?" (Quran, 47:15)

You may wish to read:
Birds Reading Corner
Ramadhan & Eid Reading Corner
Marine Reading Corner

Dino Excursion

I realise that many of my posts now start with "last weekend", "last week" or "two weeks ago". What can I say, I've been procrastinating, and I've been swarmed with more important things to do than blogging. So this is another late entry for an excursion to the Science Centre that took place last month. Some details are still clear on my mind and some are fuzzy, so let's see how much I can remember.

I heard that two mummies were going to the exhibition at Science Centre, Titans of the Past - Dinosaurs and Ice Age Mammals, so I decided to tag along. Prior to that, we had read a book about going to the museum to see dinosaur bones and played with the dinosaurs that we have. I had a feeling she would be excited about seeing some "real" dinosaurs. 

So on the morning of the visit, I told the little girl where we were going. She had an immediate question for me, "The dinosaurs will not roar?" I told her they would not roar as they were not real dinosaurs; we were going to see the dinosaur bones. I remember clearly how she had clung on to me when she saw the "dinosaur" in a green poncho at Ammar's dino party and I was convinced she had gotten over her fear.

And what do you know, the first thing we heard when we entered the darkened hall of the exhibition were the roars of dinosaurs. After that, she clung on to me 80% of the time we were inside. She did not even want to sit in her stroller or be put down. So the pictures you see here were taken while I was carrying a 13+kg toddler in one hand while snapping away with the other. It's not the first time for me so I guess all it takes is some practice. 

If I'm not wrong (remember we were there last month), the first display was a row of triceratops skulls. I wished I had time to read the panels but between carrying the little girl, pushing the stroller, taking pictures and pacing myself for the (what I thought was) long walk, there was little reading I could do. 

The display intended to show the changes in the skull from infancy, to toddlerhood (called "juvenile" in dinosaur lingo), to adulthood. After all, the aim of the exhibition is to show that some dinosaur species were mistakenly classified as other species in the past when actually they were the juveniles, and not different species.

I remember there were quite a number of triceratops on display at the beginning of the exhibition. I thought the above was a rather cute one of an infant with an adult triceratops. But since it was an animatronic, and moving about and probably making sounds (I can't remember for sure), the little girl didn't want to release her clutches on me.

The only thing I remember about the above dinosaurs was the little girl saying, "Mummy, the dinosaurs wear helmet!" And that was it. I read the name and I forgot what it was. I'm sure the dinosaur enthusiasts will be able to name it in a heartbeat but I'm not going to try. Whenever I think I can identify a dinosaur, it turns out to be something else. So many species look so alike!

The other thing I remember was it had an interactive panel where you could press buttons to listen to the different sounds made by the infant, juvenile and adult of this species. This was part of the 20% of the time when the little girl was not stuck to me. I remember she pressed the buttons and went home talking about it.

Next was T-Rex! There was a whole skeleton on display but I'm not sure if it was the real thing or just a replica. Oh yes, most of the bones on display are not the real thing. The real ones are probably too delicate and valuable to be transported across thousands of kilometres from everywhere it is they come from. 

Oh yes, this was another spot where she wanted to be put down. The two boys we had gone with were posing to have their picture taken and so she posed together with them. I must add that one of the boys, Umar (an older Umar, not the one she usually hangs out with), tried to pacify the little girl by saying that the dinosaurs were not real; real dinosaurs are long gone. What a sweetheart!

Just after the whole T-Rex skeleton was a glass display of two T-Rex skulls. If I'm not mistaken, these were real fossils and not replicas. Before we passed it, I saw a little girl who was crying away as she wanted to be carried and didn't want to walk past the glass display. I thought I would have some luck since my little girl was posing away for the camera before that. Well, no such luck. 

The next animatronic (shown above) creeped me out too. Just look at the sharp teeth of the adult T-Rex with a bone in its mouth and those menacing eyes! If you press a button, the adult will start "chewing" on the bone, and press another button and the infant will start eating. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what exactly the infant was eating. Is that the leg of another dinosaur? The boys stared at it for a while without saying anything, while the little girl clung on to me. I would have clung on to myself! 

The next animatronic wasn't interactive; it was just continuously roaring and "eating". I have to say that I was rather mesmerised by it and so were the children. We ended up sitting on the floor to watch it as if it were a performance. 

Shortly after, a staff of the exhibition came by and asked if one of the boys wanted to touch the T-Rex. Neither of them wanted. I would have said yes if he had asked me! A girl who was nearby heard him ask the boys and said that she wanted to touch it. So he carried her and crossed the ropes, and she got to touch its jaw and take pictures with T-Rex. How cool!

Shortly after was a big hall with a documentary screening (we skipped it), a craft corner (skipped that one too), a Stegosaurus ride (little girl wouldn't go near it) and a sand pit to uncover "fossils". We bypassed the rest and headed straight for the sand pit. That was the remaining 20% of the time that she wasn't clutching me at the exhibition.

The last part of the exhibition was for the ice age mammals like the sabre-toothed tiger, mastodon and woolly mammoth. It was just a small hall with the animals lining up three sides of it. We tried to take a picture of the kids together but it was unsuccessful. They've had enough and wanted out.

Before we entered, we were contemplating if we should buy tickets just for the exhibition or add another $5 to go into the Science Centre as well. Well I'm glad we paid the extra $5 or we would not know what to do after exiting the exhibition. The lady at the counter said that it would take an hour or slightly more to cover the exhibition and she was so right. We left the exhibition exactly an hour later. 

After a short walk round Science Centre, we went straight to Waterworks so that the kids could splash around. It was the first time that the little girl was there and while the other kids had gone off to explore the water playground, she made sure she pulled my hand so that I would follow her around. Of course in the process, my shoes ended up soaked through. Why didn't I remove them first? Don't ask me why.

In the end, she spent most of the time at the water feature with a vortex. She watched the other kids throw balls into it and she did the same. In fact, when she got home, it was all she talked about. Don't ask me what happened to the dinosaurs. Like Umar said, they are long gone.

Indoor Art

Instead of asking the little girl to paint colouring pages all the time, I've decided to let her have a go at free-form painting. You know, just give her some paint and painting paraphernalia and let her do her thing without interruption. After a month, these are what we have.

This was done after our most recent visit to Jurong Bird Park which I wrote about here. I gave her a sponge to paint with but the sponge soaked up too much paint. She ended up smearing and layering the paint with her hands which looked like so much fun. 

Then I gave her a fork which she used to scratch. The scratches uncovered the bright colours underneath the mess of brown which I thought was beautiful. Due to the fact that she was still affected by the man riding the horse during the show, she asked me to draw them, which I did, somewhere to the right of the painting. I scratched a man on a horse with a fork! The things I have to teach myself as a mother. And somewhere at the bottom, you can see two figures. That was me and her watching the show, as requested by her.

After that blob of brown previously, I thought more colours would be nice. So for the next painting session, I squeezed the paint on different corners of the paper as she painted, as opposed to giving her the paint on a palette. The good thing is, we had a chance to talk about secondary colours as she mixed the colours together. The bad thing is, the whole work looked too organised, with five segregated colour compartments. That was the first and the last then.

After that, I gave her a spoon and a fork to scratch with. After a bit of scratching and scooping, she remembered the man riding the horse again. This time, she wanted a hawk on the man's arm, just like during the show at Bird Park. So I obliged, and you can see the trio on the top left of the painting. She asked for an owl, which my hubby scratched for her somewhere to the right. I didn't really think it looked like an owl, but the girl was contented. Whatever makes her happy.

For the next one, I gave her an Avent bottle brush which I found in a corner of our store room. Since the girl doesn't drink from a bottle since she was, I don't know, maybe six months old, the bottle brush has been in hibernation since then. Now it's found a new lease of life!

With only blue and green paint, she painted away with the brush, or more like brushed away with the brush. Since the paper was on the floor, she looked like she was brushing the floor with it. Then on her own accord, she started to smack the paper with the brush, producing pretty splatters which you can see on the sides. Of course she was ecstatic to get paint splatters on herself too. I thought that was just gorgeous but then she asked for a fork and a spoon. The little girl is nothing if not a creature of habit.

So for the next one, I was pretty adamant about not giving her the fork and spoon. With blue and red paint, and using the big bottle brush, she produced the above work of art. It blew me away. I just love the wavy textures on the painting. There's nothing much else to say about it. It speaks for itself.

The next one was initiated by the little girl who took the water colour palette and asked if she could paint. Of course she could and so I put up the paper for her. She wanted to use the tiny brush that came with the water colour palette but after a while, she smeared her fingers and painted with them. The red smears were added at the end, as if on an afterthought. It really livened up the painting I must say.

The latest artwork was done with two almost-deflated balloons that we got at a birthday party a month ago. I think that's the good things about not throwing away things too quickly. You never know what they could be used for! 

She stamped away with the balloons and I love the radial textures of the green prints. I don't know why the same couldn't be achieved for the orange prints. It could be due to the fact that different balloons were used, and the green and orange paints were of different brands, hence different consistency. The green prints remind me of lotus leaves so the artwork looked like a top-view of a pond filled with orange kois and lotus leaves.

That's all we have for now. I think we have two more pieces which I have kept away but those are for another time. Happy painting!

River Plains

It has been raining a lot in the afternoon lately and plans to go out tend to go awry. But after the downpour last Sunday, I was adamant to take the little girl to the river at Bishan-AMK Park and so to the river we went.

I think the last time we went to Bishan-AMK Park was a year ago when the little girl had a playdate there with her friend, Sofie. But that was at the other half of the park known as Pond Gardens, where there's a waterplay area. This time, we headed to the part of the park known as River Plains.

I was surprised at how bustling the park was. Not that we've been to many parks, especially on weekends. Nonetheless, it was a pleasant surprise to see many joggers, pet owners walking their dogs, and parents with their children. It was a really nice sight on a Sunday evening.

To get to the river, we had to walk down a grassy slope, which the little girl gamely did. She didn't want to hold my hand and I was surprised at her balance as the slope was rather steep. As we reached further down, the ground started to squelch under our feet due to the heavy rain earlier. It sounded like a perfect time to reenact We are Going on a Bear Hunt!

So after we swish-swashed through the grass, and squelch-squerched through the mud, we finally reached the river bank. There were a few children in the water with little nets, trying to catch fishes in the river. I thought the little girl would be a little apprehensive but when I asked her if she wanted to go in, she immediately said yes. So I hiked up her leggings and in she went with her papa.

I so love this picture of them holding hands in the river

They walked to and fro in the water, looking at small fishes in the water and dragonflies buzzing around above the water. She asked if she could remove her slippers and I couldn't allow her to. I didn't want her to hurt her feet on the sharp rocks. Later on, she came to me asking if she could change into her swimsuit so that she could swim in the river. I had to say no again as the water was so murky. 

After she was done splashing and sploshing in the river, we went back up the slope and was greeted by the sight of four cute bunnies hopping about freely. The little girl was so happy and excited to see them and wanted to touch them but they were too fast for her. I later found out that the rabbits were Netherland Dwarves. 

One of owners heard that the little girl had kept asking me if she could carry the rabbits and so she asked if the little girl wanted to. At first I didn't think she would be ready so I declined the offer and thanked her. But then when I thought again, I told myself that I shouldn't underestimate the little girl. I shouldn't force her when she doesn't want to do something and I shouldn't stop her if she has requested to do it, provided it's not potentially dangerous.

So I went to the owner and asked if the little girl could carry a rabbit and she chose a gentle one that was white with black spots. She said that the rabbit's name was Lashy and she liked to be carried, unlike the rest. She asked the little girl to remain calm when she placed the rabbit on her chest as she said the rabbit could hear the little girl's heartbeat and might react if she panicked.

I supported the rabbit's bottom for her and the little girl was surprisingly calm. She stroked the rabbit's back and the rabbit went close to her face to sniff her. I told her that the rabbit wanted to kiss her and she smiled. We then returned Lashy to her owner and thanked her for her generosity.

After that, the little girl just couldn't stop talking about Lashy and it went on for the next few days. She even wanted us to call her Baby Lashy for a day or two and went everywhere with her rabbit plush. Just like how every turtle that she sees now is a Snappy (there's a story for that), now every rabbit is a Lashy. So if anybody were to ask why she's calling a rabbit Lashy, well this is the story that I would tell. As for Snappy, that's another story for another time.

Dino Egg

Two weeks after we attended the Dino Party to celebrate Ammar's birthday, the little girl wanted to see the dinosaur in the egg so we decided to hatch the dino egg that we received in the goodie bag. We immersed the egg in a bowl of water and 12 hours later, out came an orange dinosaur!

A dinosaur was hatched!

Getting to know the dinosaur

At first, the little girl was a little apprehensive of the tiny dinosaur. She asked me to touch it and hold it first. When she was sure that the thing was not real, she held it in her hand and got so excited about it. In fact, she was so happy to hold a baby dino that she put on her party hat and sang the birthday song for it. Then she took her bear and showed the baby dino to it.

"Bear, take a look at the baby dinosaur!"

The baby dino after 12 hours

After playing with it for a few hours, the baby dino went into its pool of water again. The little girl would take it out during her bath-time to shower it but after that, it went into its watery home again as the baby dino was still growing.  I had to look it up as I wasn't sure what kind of dinosaur it was. I found out that it was a spinasaurus. Then after another 48 hours, the dino was no longer a baby but a juvenile!

Look how much it has grown!

I didn't take more pictures of the dinosaur after that but it has definitely grown fatter. I found out that I could get the dino eggs from the gift shop at Science Centre. It would be nice if I could get another one or two of the eggs. Looking forward to our next visit to the Science Centre for the dinosaur exhibition!