Colorful caterpillar

I saw this activity on an online shop, and I decided to make one instead of buying it. 

What you need:

• Cardboard

• Drawing paper

• Pencil color

• Pen

• Scissor

• Scotch tape

• Glue

• Buttons

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This activity requires the kids to match the same color on the caterpillar with the buttons. This involves their color knowledge and also hand and eyes coordination. You may make it more colorful as you want.

Christmas Tree Card

This is the Christmas card that Jenn made for 2014, simple yet cute! I know it's too late for Christmas, but you may change the theme into some other events, or maybe this year's Christmas card =)

What you need:

• Plain white cardboard
• Circle stickers (combination of light and dark green)
• Pen

Instructions:

1. Draw dots on the paper which will form a Christmas tree
2. Place the stickers on the dots
3. Don't forget to add a star on the top of the tree
4. Write a message on the back side

Cutting Skill - Advance

It's been a while since my last post, first of all Jenn and I would love to wish you a happy new year, may 2015 brings lots of love, happiness and peace to you all.

Today we practiced Jenn's cutting skill, it's very simple and easy to make, all you have to do is just draw on a paper and let them have a quiet time for a while. You may wanna make it easier by googling some drawings and just print them out.

What you need:

• Paper
• Marker
• Ruler
• Paper Scissor

Jenn's work wasn't perfect, but I'm glad that she tried her best =)

Counting Shape

Jenn enjoyed and did well in this activity, it includes shapes, colors and counting. Let's give it a try!

What you need:
Paper
Marker Pen
Stickers

How:
Print out different shapes for each task, color it with differently too.
They are required to count the shapes and stick down the stickers on the box.

Colorful Toothpicks Activity

I love making DIY toys for Jenn, and this is one of them. It's a simple color recognition activity and also practice their little fingers' muscles.

What you need:

• Empty bottle (I upcycled a mineral water bottle)
• Thick plastic (as the cover)
• Colorful stickers
• Toothpick
• Rubber bands
• Marker

We had to color the toothpicks with markers, we made 6 different colors. You may have more colors, depends on the size of your bottle. Stick on colorful stickers and make a hole, not too big, but just enough to fit in the toothpicks. Cover the bottle with the plastic and secure with rubber bands.

Jenn needs extra patient and concentration to do this activity, but she loves it so much. She will ask for more when all the toothpicks are inside the bottle.

Big vs Small

I was trying to introduce big and small sizes to Jenn with this activity, but seems like she didn't get it. It's a simple sticking stickers activity, you may wanna give it a try.

What you need:
Cardboard
Origami paper
Sticker
Glue
Scissor


Firstly, prepare the circles by using origami paper and sticker, I used colorful sticker and paper to make it more fun. Then instruct your child to pick the circle and stick it on the cardboard. When they can differentiate between big and small, you may ask them with detail, eg: big yellow circle. It practice their knowledge about color too!

Silly Monster

Jenn watched Monster inc and she loves it! Here's an activity to make silly monsters with so much fun! It involves sticking eyes and mouth stickers.

What you need:
Cardboard
Origami paper
Googly eyes
Stickers

I prepare the monster's shapes, and let Jenn to stick as much eyes as she wants and mouth for each monster.

And this is the result, don't be surprise if the monsters have a very strange look.

Uppercase and Lowercase Alphabets

These are simple activities to introduce your children about uppercase and lowercase alphabets. Jenn learned about uppercase and lowercase from the first time she learned about alphabets. I have an abc chart which contains uppercase and lowercase, I found it was very helpful, you can get it at the nearest bookshop.

We need paper, marker and magnetic alphabets for this activity. Draw circles and write down uppercase alphabets on a piece of paper. Make sure it's not too small for the magnetic alphabets.

First activity is to match the uppercase alphabets on the paper with the lowercase magnetic alphabets (it can be found in almost every online toy shop).

The second activity requires alphabet stickers, paper, marker and ruler. Draw boxes on the paper and write down a lowercase alphabets on it.

This activity require the children to match the lowercase and uppercase alphabets by sticking on the stickers. 

Sorting Shapes

Jenn learned about shapes and she knows them quite well, you may wanna check out the activity about Introductions to shapes over here. It's time for sorting shapes!

What you need:

• Origami paper
• Glue
• Marker
• Paper

Prepare the activity by cutting some shapes on the origami paper, we had circle, triangle, square and rectangle. Then draw the shapes as the header on a piece of paper. This activity simple require them to sort the shapes and stick on the origami paper under each group.

The result is quite messy, maybe we should use different paper for different shape. Have fun! =)

DIY Birthday Cake Theme Card

Cousin's birthday is coming, so it's time for Jenn to make another DIY craft. We've prepared a gift for him, wrapped it nicely, but we need a birthday card! 
Instead of buying an ordinary card, making a birthday cake theme card popped out of my mind.

Here are what you need:
Origami paper
Marker
Glue
Scissor
Cardboard
Colorful stickers

We created a lot trash in our daily life: milk box, cereal box, cardboard flyers or invitations. Instead of trashing it, we can upcycle those into useful stuff, and it prevents the earth from getting any worse.

This time we used an old cardboard invitation as the main material. Draw a cake on the cardboard, cover the surface with origami paper. Don't forget to make the candles on the top of the cake, and cut out the shape.

I let my girl to stick the colorful sticker, asked her about the colors and also asked her to count them. It's a simple activity but also lots to learn about. 

Introduction to Shape

Jenn have learned about alphabets, numbers, animals, colors and it's time for introducing her to shapes. Let's get started!

What you need:

• Origami papers
• Glue
• Cardboard

Cut shapes of circle, triangle, square and rectangle using origami papers.
Make sure to use colorful origami papers, kids find it more interesting.

Tell them the shape names and how it looks like. 
Let them stick the shape you asked on the cardboard, you may ask them specifically. For example: Blue triangle, orange square, purple circle, red rectangle.

Keep repeating the shapes until they memorize them.

Colorful Wheel

Teaching color is so much fun with this DIY colorful wheel! This is so simple yet cheap activity.

These are what you need:

• Cardboard
• Marker
• Scissor
• Clothes pins

How:

Make a circle on the cardboard and cut it.

Color the cardboard with colorful markers. 

And viola - it's done!

Squeezing the clothes pin was kinda difficult for her.
She need both of her hands to pinch those, so I gotta hold the colorful wheel while she pinch to open it.
Practise makes perfect, after couple of times, she can manage to hold her own colorful wheel and put on the clothes pins.