Our Art n Craft

Number 1: Fruit and Vegetable Basket

This needs a paper bowl or deep plate, newspapers, paint and a stapler.

Using the news paper, mould them into different shapes like a sphere, oblong, etc then simply color them as per the fruits you like. Here you see a tomato and a banana. Once the paper fruits are made and the paint is dry, place them into the paper bowl and using some more paper make the handle by simply twisting it. Staple the ends of the handle onto the bowl.

Number 2: Mumma and baby hen.

This needs: 2 paper cups, some color paper, paints, crayons, glue and scissors.

Method: Cut one of the cups halfway to it's height. This is for the baby chick. Now paint them, while the paint dries, using the color paper cut out beaks and feathers. Stick these onto the mumma and baby chick. Next draw the eyes with crayons. Finish off by gluing together the duo of cute baby chica and mommy hen.

Number 3: Slithering snake.

You need: Green paper, glue, red paper or white paper, scissors and red and black sketch pens.

Method: Cut out a long stripe of green paper, taper it towards it's tail end. The other end (head part) should be rounded off. Trace out the portion of the eyes and the matching rounded part just like the head part. Also cut out the tongue. Now take the snake body and fold like a paper fan making big folds. Draw out the eyes and nose, and stick this part onto the head portion of the snake, make sure you place the tongue in between before pasting. Your slithering snake is ready.

Number 4: Butterflies in the park

You need: Play dough, and butterfly shape pasta.

Method: Make small portions of the play dough, roll out into cylindrical shapes, tapering them at the ends. Now simply press the pasta onto this body. Note: Press lightly.

If you are in a mood to paint, then one can paint the butterfly wings as well.

This one is great to do on a lazy afternoon when the kids are full of energy and you are not ;)

Number 5: Slow and steady Mr. snail.

You need: Play dough and shell shaped pasta.

Method: Roll out the dough into oblong shapes to make the body of the snail, make the back portion stick onto the paper the head part is to be made standing out. Take the shell shaped pasta and press on to the mid section.

Another easy peasy craft that is a sure hit with kids.

For more adventure, color leaves, or collect some from the garden and place them around the snails and enjoy the sight of amazed kids busy for a couple of hours with Mr. snail and his house.

You can make multiple snails and play family !!

Craft Idea - Building made of toothpaste box

Few weeks back (or was it months???) while Aadi was staying at home due to the H1N1 fear in his school, we used to do art and craft projects.

This one here is a building that we created using a toothpaste box/cover.

What you need: One toothpaste box/cover, some colored paper, glue, pencil, color pens (shiny), scissors, and plenty of patience.

How to get it done:

• Cut out a sheet of paper making it the exact size of the box so as to cover all sides. Also cut out 2 squares to fit the top and bottom.
• Stick this paper to the box
• Using other color papers cut out doors and windows. Stick them on as well.
• Now with the shiny pens shade out or outline the doors and windows. Here I have shaded the windows so as to get the light-shining effect. The black window means that the office is shut and the orange is where people are still working. My building is a night-view version !!
• My son loved to stick the windows onto the building, and then announced it as Papa's office. Later in the day it became our residential tower !!
• Enjoy making this oh-so-simple craft, you could make multiple buildings and then the kids can play 'city'.

This was the 'Building' that I made with Aadi some time back.

Art class for my son

Yes...we did it...we enrolled our son at an Art class. We did not go looking for one, but it just so happened that we were at a mall and chanced upon this art class called Art Safari. They had a trial session of one hour, and then we could decide if we wanted to enroll or not.

So we sent Aadi for the trial session, while we roamed around in the mall, exploring one furniture store and eating lunch. Amol has written about this place where we lunched, you can read it at his blog. It was a Thai joint.

So after an hour of time pass we went to collect the bachha, and we were shown 2 sheets of paper, on one of them was drawn a small green apple, and on the other was a big, red apple with a nice vibrant color job, background all covered in color etc. So it was basically a 'Before' and 'After' situation. We saw what difference the instructions had made to my 4 year old son's creativity.

I was super impressed with the instructor as well, she was a sweet, bubbly girl who had a genuine affection for kids.

The Art Class is run at various locations in KL, and has been around for 10 years. The studio cum shop is very well equipped with colors of every category, shade, and texture. Other art and craft supplies are also in plenty stock.

They offer various classes, and for beginners and Aadi's age group they suggested we take the one-month class. This basically contains one-session per week, with a total of 4 sessions. Each session is of 2 hours. They will do 3 art sessions and one craft one.

This weekend was Aadi's 1st class, in which he drew a crocodile, and he did a good job, he honestly tells us what part was done by the teacher and what part he did, so I know what he is actually doing and what he is learning.

I am pretty impressed with the class and also I can see that Aadi is enjoying it totally.

So lets see what he does this Saturday for his 2nd art-class.

BTW the classes are run by the tomato creative art studio company.

I also found some photographs of the actual studio...so click here if you wish to see them.

Yes I know photographs are needed, but I have to only locate that cable that connects my phone to the PC and then I'm all set to upload them....

Now where did I keep that cable ??

Baking with kids-chaotic but fun!

We bought an oven around a month back but never baked anything (did not even unpack it properly) until day before yesterday when I finally decided that we should bake once to check whether the oven is running properly. Fortunately,I had bought cake baking ingredients and accessories when I bought the oven and so I did not have to run to the shop to get anything. I downloaded a simple cake recipe from the net,printed it and all of us started the process of baking,much to the delight of our kids. My daughter was more excited than my son because she has done baking in school and so she could relate to it. My son, at two,is maybe too young to understand the fun of baking.

This is the recipe that we followed:

Recipe for Simple White Cake

INGREDIENTS

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

My daughter,with my guidance,measured out the dry ingredients (with measuring cups) and I must say I was quite disorganized about assembling the ingredients on our dinner table which is where we set out to do the preparations. After creaming the butter and sugar and mixing in the eggs I discovered that I hadn't brought the vanilla essence and the baking powder and ran to get them. Faisal was preparing the batter in the mixer (which is also newly bought) and he got quite worked up when our inquisitive toddler kept trying to get very close to the equipment and even tried to put his hands inside the batter while the mixer was on!

We had switched the oven on and finally the batter was ready.I put the batter inside a square mould and put it in the oven for baking hoping that everything will turn out well. However, after fifteen minutes my maid said that she could smell something burning and I rushed inside the kitchen to check what was wrong.I discovered that Faisal has mistakenly chosen the "grill mode" and heat was only coming from the top.So I changed it to "baking mode". After thirty minutes I took the cake out and inserted a knife inside to check whether it was done but though the outside looked brown,inside the cake was still uncooked.And so it went inside again.

After 10 minutes it was done and I took it out.Faisal and the kids came rushing to see the end product and to taste it (even though it was too hot). I quickly poured tha cake on a plate and sliced it. We each took a slice and to our surprise it tasted just fine.It was a bit dry and a bit burnt on the top but it still tasted good!And even though the recipe says that it's a white cake,it was not white at all!

I think baking is a fun activity to do with kids...they can learn about teamwork and also about the "science behind cooking". It also teaches them about mathematics through measurements and additions. Following a recipe is a step-by-step process which gives them a good practice in following instructions.

I think next its going to be a gingerbread man,if the recipe is not too complicated, because my daughter still holds a grudge against me for eating up the gingerbread man that she baked in school last year!

Finger Puppets

I picked up a number of animal finger puppets from IKEA a few weeks back and both my kids just love them.I use them when I tell them animal stories and I think they make the story come alive.They also take the finger puppets and try them on their fingers and carry on imaginary conversations!

I think finger puppets are more handy during story-telling than hand puppets because a number of characters can be used simultaneously. Try using them in storytelling and give us the feedback!

Sand is wonderful !

I love sand because it keeps young children busy for a long time.Yesterday I took my kids to Bishan Park so that they could play in the sand pit.They don't get to play with sand very often because it is difficult to arrange sand play indoors & in their school also there is no provision for sand play (they do rice play, instead).

My preschooler Zunairah was ecstatic to see the sand pit & she immediately set out to use her play set to built sand castles. Nayaz was also fascinated but he was more slow to plunge himself into sand play.He was more pensive & was more interested in touching & feeling the sand.However,after a while he acted energetic and started throwing sand at us.I made it clear that this is something that he could not do.

I got down to play with them & out came my inner child.We made castles & roads & used twigs & leaves to decorate our creations. I was happy to see that my kids were enjoying themselves.I encouraged my preschooler to write letters in the sand with the help of a twig.

Sand play can be very therapeutic for children (my kids slept very well yesterday) & it provides lots of learning opportunities. It stimulates imaginative play when different toys such as dinosaurs or cars are introduced & also promotes physical development (when they pour or sift sand or dig in the sand).Mathematical concepts can be introduced by parents during sand play by providing measuring cups & spoons & also by using terms such as "more","less","empty" or "full".

On the whole I feel that sand play is a welcome break for modern kids are sadly so used to plastic store-bought toys.

Potato printing-a fun activity for kids

My daughter Ibnat,like all other preschoolers, loves art & craft activities. So last Saturday I thought of arranging a potato printing activity for her. In the night before when she was asleep I made the potato stamps.I cut some big potatoes in halves and and drew some designs on them (such as triangles,a cross etc.) carved out the designs by a sharp knife.I then stored the carved potatoes in a plastic container.

The next morning I explained to her what she need to do to make the potato prints.I mixed two wide containers of poster colors for her so that it is easy for her to dip the potatoes.She dipped the potatoes in paints and made the stamps on a paper. She was all excited to see the interesting patterns on the paper.She was engrossed in this activity for quite a while & thoroughly enjoyed it.

For potato printing the materials required are simple.They are:

• Large potatoes
• Poster colors (primary colors look good)
• A sharp knife
• Marker
• Large saucers
• Paper or card
• Paper towels or an old rag for wiping off excess paints

Potato printing is a fun activity for kids.You can also involve your kids in the drawing of the patterns on the potato but I didn't do so because since I have another toddler I did not want to do the carving with the sharp knife around the children!

Potato printing can be used to make wrapping papers & greeting cards.Your child can add details to the prints with glitter or colorful pens.Other vegetables such as ladyfingers and carrots can also be used.

Art & craft activities such as these boost children's creativity and encourage them to think "out of the box".It also improves their concentration and gives them the satisfaction of creating something of their own.

Play in progress...

A picture is worth a thousand words they say....so I am not going to describe what is going on...just that my son enjoys his painting sessions...and this time around I added poster (child-safe, non-toxic) colors and a roller brush to his ever-growing painting set.

Eyes, nose and mouth

For the last 2 weeks my son has been drawing faces, complete with eyes, nose and a line for the mouth. Though at times the frame of the face is absent!!
He is also trying his hand at drawing fish, and supena-man (read as Super Man). The supena-man has a face, two feet and two hands.
Actually the first time he drew a face we were at a restaurant and the master piece was on a hand tissue from the hotel. (The photograph shows this first attempt of his at drawing a face)
I used to carry some paper and crayons for him earlier on, but have not been doing that of lately, I guess I will continue with that so that he can embark on his creative journey while we parents finish our food.
I encourage his creativity and expression with the help of painting sessions, pencil drawing, crayons and color pencils are also his favorite. He also loves his art-class at Gymboree, and now he has moved on to the second level, where they get to paint on paper that is stuck on the wall!! and then they are introduced to different painting techniques, and are introduced to things like tooth brush, hair brush etc for painting effects.
I like this time with Aadi simply because I get to do something that I always loved as a child, and I love to see what Aadi draws to express something that he wants to say, it shows me a lot of the way he thinks and what he likes and what he does not.