Black Swan

Sometimes when I am away from the maddening crowds and the hustle and bustle of city life, I pretend that we are far away from Singapore, and yesterday was one of those days. Just because of the word "park" (I was supposed to go to Cluny Park Road instead of Cluny Road), I ended up at the wrong end of Botanic Gardens and found ourselves at Swan Lake instead of Eco Lake. Because of that, we chanced upon an all-natural playground (No plastic in sight!) and I knew it was going to be a special day. Fate had brought us there. The little girl climbed and went down the slide again and again till she was sweaty and ready to leave. After all, we were at the "wrong" place, though it felt really perfect.

The all-natural playground - a rare sight in Singapore

So we finally got to Eco Lake and that's where the day turned magical. We met Ayn and her mummy who showed us the black swan and its nest. The black swan was a beauty! That's the reason why we had gone to Botanic Gardens yesterday as Wada had been posting about the black swan and I just had to see it and show it to the little girl as well. What a treat that was as we had been reading a book about how robins build their nest, lay eggs in it and wait till the eggs hatch. 

Before Ayn and her mummy left, the little girl got three origami swans which Wada had folded. The little girl was so happy with them that she held on tight to them and showed them to all the ducks and birds in sight.

Calmly sitting on its eggs

Then a worker came to feed the birds and the ducks, doves and pigeons came clamouring for food. They swooped down from different corners, or glided in from the lake, quacking and crooing along the way. I loved the noise and all the activity as they added in to the whole swan nesting experience for the little girl.

Clamouring for food 

The swan was unperturbed by the noise and activity around it

While waiting for Sofie and her mummy to arrive, the little girl asked if she could run around and of course I said yes. She ran to and fro, all smiling with arms wide open each time she ran back to me. How I love such freedom and wild abandonment. Run and be free, little girl!

Running freely

After her friends Sofie and Sharleen had arrived, they looked at the birds near the lake, the ducks swimming in the water, and the fishes and turtles in the lake. Then it was time for some painting at the park. I'm so grateful to Sha for bringing the art materials to the park, from drawing block and paint, to brushes, art sponges and rollers. I took some dried leaves and crushed them as I thought it would add a nice touch to their artwork since we were at a park. 

I watched as the little girl painted away with a brush at first, layering and mixing the colours as she went. Then she used the sponges to add some pretty texture to her work, followed by the rollers for a nice effect. To top it off, she pasted the crushed leaves and two origami swans (the other swan was given to Sofie). But she didn't want the swans to be white, so she added some colours to them. And this is how it looks like after the paint has dried and I love it!!!

Nesting swans

We walked to Jacob Ballas after that but much to our disappointment, the park was closed on Monday, so we went back to Eco Lake so that the girls could do more running, climbing, bird-watching, singing and dancing, which were all child-led. The perfect overcast sky truly added to the out-of-Singapore feeling that I had. In fact, I knew exactly where I was yesterday - West Park on an autumn day in Munich, where we were at this time of the year last year. Now I feel totally rejuvenated after that day trip yesterday.

Ramadhan & Eid Reading Corner (Part 2)

So I finally get round to writing the second part of my post on our Ramadhan & Eid Reading Corner. Although this draft might take a few days to complete, I told myself that I have to finish it while it's still Syawal and of course, before we leave for our trip. The first part can be found here. (Obviously I started writing this about a month ago, wrote other posts, and completed this a month later. Heh!)

Making supplication (du'a)

Ramadhan is the month of mercy and forgiveness and in a hadith, it was narrated that the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. said that, "Destruction be upon the one who has witnessed the month of mercy (Ramadhan) and has not achieved forgiveness." Therefore I think the blessed month is the best time to teach the little girl about raising her hands and asking from Allah s.w.t. at all times.

I learnt a lot from the lectures on YouTube by Mufti Ismail Musa Menk on Forgiveness and Supplication. The hadith above was said at the beginning of the lecture on Supplication, along with the steps listed below. Some beautiful du'a of the prophets could also be found in that lecture.

Steps in making supplication:
- do good deeds before making a supplication
- praise your Creator 
- ask for forgiveness and repent for your sins
- ask for something sensible, reasonable and permissible
- do not say "inshaa Allah" when asking for something
- choose words which are beautiful and full of humility
- never be in a rush when asking for something
- be steadfast
- make du'a for others
- two-thirds of our du'a should be for the akhirah

As usual, I love to reiterate our learning point with some colouring or painting. I admit that colouring pictures may not be a free form of art, especially coupled with the fact that I am the one who choose the materials to decorate the pieces after cutting and pasting the pictures. But the finished products that we put up serve as a reminder of what we have talked about and of course you can't discount all the talk that we do while doing the pieces together.

Paint with die-cut border and rose

Chalk with self-adhesive felt flowers and cut-out hearts 

Giving to the needy

In the books Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns, Rashad's Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, and Ramadan Moon, we read about putting money into the zakat box, giving money and food to people who don't have enough, and looking for things to give away. I knew that the concept of giving is something that I couldn't afford to overlook in the midst of all the other teaching points during the blessed month. Alhamdulillah, we had several opportunities to give and I made it a point to tell the little girl what we were doing and what it was for. May all the little things that we gave be accepted by Him.

Slotting coins into her own zakat "box" 

A charity drive for Hari Raya clothes

Preparing for Eid

It was going to be the little girl's third Eid and so we decided to include her in our annual trip to the Geylang bazaar during Ramadhan. In fact, she went with us not once but twice! She got to see the big sadaqah boxes for Aidilfitri, and lots of traditional clothes, Eid cookies and fairy lights on sale. And for the first time ever, we bought fairy lights for our home! We bought one with stars and another with ketupat. I think I was more excited to see the fairy lights up than her!

A stall at the bazaar which sold fairy lights

Our very own twinkling stars

Okay so we didn't bake our own cookies (I shall insert my excuse here of not having an oven) and didn't cook our own rendang or ketupat but that didn't stop us from learning what others do in preparation for Eid. The cookie set from Melissa & Doug arrived timely about a week before Eid, which is usually the time when cookies are baked, and so the little girl got busy with some slicing, decorating and serving of her own cookies.

"Baking" her own cookies

Paint with craft punch flowers and money envelope

Ketupat, crescent moons and stars made of pipe cleaners

And that concludes our activities for Ramadhan and Eid. I had hoped to do more but inshaa Allah I shall keep those ideas for future Ramadhan with the little girl. And as usual, whatever that was good came from Allah s.w.t. and whatever that was wrong was from me. 

This blog is for the intended purpose of sharing and I am heartened when my mummy friends asked me where I had gotten some Islamic books or materials for my daughter, how my daughter learnt to do certain things, or if I could purchase certain items for them. It brings me immense joy knowing that other children may benefit from the ideas or books that I share. Motherhood is never a solitary journey and may we all learn from each other inshaa Allah. 

Water Table

I bought the sand-and-water table about six months ago and so far, I have to say that it's the best toy that I've invested in. Although our sand-and-water table has not met sand before (hence it's called water table in our home), it's been played lots and lots of times with water, ice, water beads and soapy water. And the added paraphernalia to the mentioned media is just endless! In fact, the little girl uses it for her play at least once a week, unlike some toys that have not seen daylight after being played for only a week.

Recently, we've had two water play which I absolutely loved with the water table. For the first one, I had wanted her to do some colour-mixing with coloured water. I had seen some activities with coloured water in a group at Facebook and I thought of trying it out. So I threw some transparent containers, a scoop and some water birds into the water table, with blue and yellow coloured water, for her to explore. 

The initial set-up of the water table

The little girl realised that something was not right

I wondered what she was going to do

She wanted the penguins to "hold hands"!

Then she grouped the ibis and flamingo together

At this point, I realised that the activity wasn't going in the intended direction but I was okay with that. I let her continue on her own to see where it was going. She was the least bit interested in any scooping, transferring or mixing. After a while, she took all the penguins out of the water, lined them up and asked for some fish. Immediately, I knew where it was heading. She wanted to feed the penguins! Obviously she was re-enacting our penguin-feeding at the Bird Park a few weeks ago. She even asked for a glove, as I had worn one while feeding the penguins, but unfortunately we didn't have one at home which was small enough for her.

Queue up for some fish, penguins!

A few days later, we did another activity at the water table. The little girl loves to stand on the stool in the kitchen and watch me as I do this and that, asking me once in a while if she could help. So I thought - why not let her have her own "sink" of dishes to wash? She could have fun with soapy water, be a little like Mummy, and help me with some housework all at the same time!

Her own dishes to wash

Grab a plate

Soak the sponge

Scrub away!

And when you are done, always wash your hands

I thought she had so much fun washing the dishes that she would want to do it again but when I asked her the day after, she didn't want to. I guess she realised that real housework isn't half as fun as it look. In fact, it is actually tiring. Haha!!!

Beans Play

I am so in love with our current play set-up that I've decided to dedicate this entry to it. I had bought a set of Geometric Solids about a month or two ago but on their own, the little girl had shown little interest in them. So when inspiration came, I decided to throw some beans, geometric solids and a detergent scoop in a glass casserole, put them on the light box, and let her do the rest. When she woke up and saw the set-up, only hunger stopped her from playing, but play resumed after breakfast.

Beans play before breakfast

Each geometric solid has one removable face, which is the base for many of them and the removable face also has a little circular opening which you can plug. So when she realised that the solids can be filled, she immediately went on with the scooping of the beans to fill the containers.

Totally absorbed with the activity

After a while, she decided that it was also fun to pick the beans with her fingers and drop them through the little opening one by one. That was some good fine motor skills practice that she had and I admired her concentration as she picked and dropped the beans one at a time. Wouldn't be faster to just use the scoop? But that's just me, thinking with my adult, always-trying-to-accomplish-things-quickly mind. Children have a totally different agenda.

Picking and dropping the beans one at a time

Once the geometric solids were filled, or partially filled, she wanted to shake them as rattles. I would have done the same! I really enjoyed the plink plonk of the beans as they dropped on the glass, plastic and wooden surfaces, and I bet she enjoyed it too. The only problem is, the removable face and plastic plug for the little opening come off pretty easily, but nothing some Scotch tape couldn't fix. Once taped, she had her bean rattles to make some music.

The removable face and little opening for the cube

Left to her own devices, she went on to transferring the beans from one filled solid to another. Since their volumes are not the same, I jumped at the opportunity to talk about volume, space, more than and less than. After all, these fillable, see-through solids are meant for students to explore the properties of volume. I tried to use the correct names for the solids too, like sphere, cube and cone, but she was happy to call them square, circle and triangle instead.

Beans play resumed after breakfast

So that was in the morning, but at night, she turned on the light table and continued playing with her papa. Of course her papa was intrigued with the geometric solids too and did his own exploration. There's a child in all of us, isn't it? And I was glad I didn't clear the set-up that night. The next day, she took out the solids that I had kept in their box, turned on the light box, took her friend Hello Kitty with her, and resumed playing.

More scooping the next day

She remembered what I had done with the tape so after filling them with beans, she asked for the tape and scissors and asked me to tape them. And because the previous night she had seen her papa looking at the instruction manual to look at suggested activities, names of the solids and formulas, she did the same too. Sometimes she really imitates us to a T.

Learning the formulas?

For patiently and quietly sitting beside her, Hello Kitty was rewarded with her own cubic bean rattle. How lucky! She held it onto Hello Kitty's hand and shook it to rattle the beans. Hmmm... she definitely needs a real playmate at home. 

Hello Kitty and her cubic beans rattle

It's been two days of beans play and it doesn't look like she's tired of it yet. The last time she played with the same set-up for days was when I threw in some plastic beads and water, with some scoops and transparent containers and bottles, at her water table. She spent days scooping, filling and transferring. 

As a future activity, I am planning to throw the geometric solids with some water, plastic beads and scoops at her water table. The transparency of the solids allows her to see the beads swirling around before they settle down. And I would use the opportunity to tell her that water has no definite shape and takes the shape of its container. Updates to come after I have done that activity!

I had wanted to link this post to the the site on Amazon where I had bought the Geometric Solids, but it's currently not available. I had just seen them listed on Amazon yesterday! Oh well, there are others which are similar such as Power Solids which are cheaper but they don't come with plugs for the openings. The other one is Relational Geosolids which have the same function as Geometric Solids but it's not multi-coloured. And if you are getting these as a teaching aid in school, then the Giant Geosolids would suit the purpose.

Update:
As of 30th Sep, the Geometric Solids are on sale at Amazon again!

Birthday Bear

While I was preparing breakfast this morning, the little girl came to me asking for her party hats. I thought it was for the usual clapping and jumping while singing the birthday song. I don't know if I had mentioned it before but she's in a birthday song craze now. In fact, not just the song, but the whole blowing candles and cutting cake thing.

After I had gotten the party hats, I realised that it wasn't for her but it was for Mama Bear, one of her favourite bears. Mama Bear was propped on her kitchen top and she had taken out her cake and candles from her kitchen cabinet. And with the party hats on Mama Bear and her, and candles in place, she started clapping and jumping while singing the birthday song for Mama Bear.

Putting the candles in place

Mama Bear was ready for her party

After singing, she promptly removed the party hats and the candles from the cake. I watched quietly and wondered what she would do next. She looked for her plastic knife and started cutting the cake. Then it was time to eat the cake for Mama Bear and her, complete with, "Mmmm, nice!"

What are you doing there?

Oh, cutting the cake for Mama Bear!

I thought she was done after that but she wasn't. She took the party hats and candles again, and repeated the whole process a few more times till breakfast was ready and I had to stop her play. Such a delight to watch her play and especially so since the role-playing was totally initiated by her. 

I've read a dozen times before, if not more, how child-directed, independent play is the best kind of play and I can't agree more. Firstly, it gives the care-giver some much-needed time and space to do whatever that is necessary such as food preparation and housework. Secondly, it gives the child the opportunity to explore and do whatever he/she fancies without adult interruption and direction. 

In an ideal world, I wish that I would do very little teaching to my little girl and let her learn on her own. I constantly battle my own will not to teach and show her how things are done mostly because I know that is not the most ideal. And most times when I show her how something is done, I end up doing the playing as she will ask me to do it again and again. So who's the one playing then?

For now, let me live in my own make-believe world, where play is all that matters for the little girl, before reality sets in.

Sticker Groups

About a month ago, the little girl started peeling and pasting stickers on her own. I thought that that was itself a developmental milestone that she had achieved. The pink, blue and purple stickers were pasted on randomly and I didn't think anything about it. I was just glad that she could do it independently and was totally absorbed at it.

Peeling and pasting stickers

Her first sticker craft

And then about two weeks later, I wanted to occupy her with some sticker activity again since she loved it the first two occasions with the stars. I took out a marine sticker sheet with sharks, angelfish, turtles, starfish and whales on it for her to paste around the dolphin she had painted.

At first, I noticed a few whales that were clustered together and a few starfish on the other side of the paper. I asked her why she did not want to spread them around the paper. But she continued at it and was totally absorbed so I let her be while I continued with some cutting for her craft. Then after a while, when I realised what she was doing, I was so so glad that I had not stopped her. She was grouping the animals into groups around the dolphin with very clear clusters for each group. Subhanallah! 

Clusters of marine animals around the dolphin

Then a week later I tried it again. My husband had painstakingly cut the tarantula which the little girl had stamped with her animal stamps. I thought since I have bugs stickers, I could let her paste the stickers again. I wondered if it was just a fluke or if she would group the stickers again. But right from the get go, and I observed her this time round, it was clear what her goal was. The butterflies, dragonflies, spiders and other bugs were clearly grouped around the spider in clear clusters.

Clusters of bugs around the tarantula

Before all these, I had in the past tried to do some grouping of objects with her according to colours or types which she was never too keen. And I didn't want to push it when she didn't show interest and so I left it at that. But this discovery with her sticker groups tells me something very profound - that a child will do something when he/she is ready. It's not that I don't already know that or have not read that before but I need to be reminded and the little girl provides me with constant reminders.

Thank you Allah for the reminders. I pray that He keeps me steadfast in my upbringing of the little girl based on my beliefs and principles and that I don't buy into the hype or "norm" of pushing the little girl beyond what is developmentally appropriate for her.

Ramadhan & Eid Reading Corner (Part 1)

Our latest Ramadhan & Eid themed reading corner lasted longer than the usual month as I had let it spill over to the month of Syawal. Although it was longer than usual, I didn't think we did too many activities related to the theme at home. As my daughter is still young (she turned 2 during Ramadhan), I felt what was more important was for me to introduce her to the terms related to Ramadhan and Eid, and expose her to the significant activities that mark the holy month such as fasting, reading the Quran, and going to the masjid, and that is how I have classified my activities for the theme.

Our reading and activity corners were less elaborate this time round due to the nature of the theme. I also did not have much time to prepare. Whether I could observe fasting or not (I am still a breastfeeding mother), I felt that I should devote more time to my worship of Allah s.w.t. So here are our simple corners. Apart from books related to Ramadhan and Eid, I had included Islamic books as well.

Our Ramadhan & Eid reading corner

Books specifically related to Ramadhan & Eid

Our activity corner

Reading the Quran

Ramadhan IS the month of the Holy Quran. It is the month when the Holy Book was sent down by Allah s.w.t. from the seventh Heaven to the first for Angel Jibreel a.s. to impart verses to the Messenger, Prophet Muhammad s.a.w., during a span of 23 years. There is no better time than Ramadhan for one to read and learn the Quran. That is not to say that during other months, the Quran should be neglected (reminder to self). In fact, I want the Quran to be a part of my daily life and my daughter's too inshaa Allah.   

Reading together at bedtime

Doing her hijaiyah puzzle

Learning hijaiyah letters while doodling

  Arranging hijaiyah magnetic foam letters (self-directed)

 Using a magnifier to look at the hijaiyah letter on Omar 

(Umar is one of her BFFs) 

Picking hijaiyah letters with tweezers (self-directed)

Chalk with self-adhesive felt borders and craft punch metallic stars 

(She says this is her grandpa reading the Quran)

Going to the masjid at night

Oh how I miss going to the masjid for terawih! I had not gone to the masjid the past two Ramadhan. I had given birth on the fourth day of Ramadhan in 2011, and in 2012, I felt that my girl was too young for me to leave at night with a caregiver. On top of that, my husband was away in Germany for a while during Ramadhan last year. This Ramadhan didn't start quite as rosy as well as my husband had to serve his in-camp reservist for the first two weeks.

But after that, things were much better and I managed to squeeze in a few terawih at the masjid, with and without my husband. I still remember how I felt on the first night I was at the masjid this past Ramadhan. I was so happy that I got to be a guest in the House of Allah s.w.t. that I felt like bursting at the seams with joy. I was overcome with nostalgia too as I remembered my younger (read: single) days when I used to spend time alone at the masjid during Ramadhan. I still recall those days with lots of fondness and I try to console myself that I had the opportunity. There's no point regretting it now that I had not spent more time at the masjid when I had the time and opportunity.

So this act of going to the masjid at night is something I hold close to my heart. When we read books and there were scenes of people going and leaving the masjid at night, I made it a point to stop and talk about it with my daughter. And so the masjid craft we made all had stars to show that it was at night. I called them "Masjid on a starry, starry night". It was during this activity that I found out that the little girl could peel stickers on her own. In fact, she was very good at it! I didn't know it previously as she had always asked me to peel the stickers for her. 

Peeling and pasting the stars

Our versions of "Masjid on a starry, starry night"

Chalk with craft punch stars and cut-out moon

Ink stamps with craft punch stars and cut-out masjid from money packet

Alhamdulillah a group of mothers had planned a qiyam at a masjid on the night of the little girl's birthday. I knew it was the perfect opportunity to bring her to the masjid. Although I found out minutes before leaving for the masjid that the time of the month had come, my bags were packed and so we decided to go ahead with it. I did not want to miss the opportunity to spend a night at the masjid on one of the last ten days. 

At the masjid, the little girl had so much fun with other children and did not sleep till way, way past her bedtime. Around midnight, I went down with her to the main prayer hall to send some food and to meet my husband. We sat at a table by a vending machine, drinking mango juice and eating murtabak, to celebrate the little girl's birthday. Just the three of us at a quiet corner of a masjid yet there was nothing short of perfection in that little celebration. And that's how I shall remember the night/morning that she turned two.

I had intended to publish this in one post but I have been procrastinating and swarmed with lots of work (both in and out of the house) and Eid visiting. So I shall continue the second half of this post another time. 

Note:
The second part of this post can be found here.