Do You Remember KALKITOS?

Back in the 80's, there is one childhood activity that I loved very much. I actually forgot the name but after describing it to hubby, he told me it was Kalkitos. What is Kalkitos? It is a collection of rub-down transfer activity game. Players are given sheets of blank scenery which they can fill up wherever they like with transfer pictures of people, animals, objects, vehicles to create their own unique stories. It is simply a great way to let your imagination runs free!

I have been wondering why it is no longer available for this generation of children. It was such a waste until a month or two ago I saw it at Cziplee Bangsar! Yes! I found my Kalkitos!! BUT... it is expensive. RM22 per pack. So that deterred me from buying and it doesn't look very appealing in terms of the illustration. 

Yesterday I was at the bookshop again and this time, I decided to buy one because deep down in my heart, I really missed it. :) I bought one of the K-Atlas series. Since it has some of the famous landmarks my son loves, why not? educational right? 

After opening it, I was a little disappointed with the content. For RM22, I expected more pictures for transferring. Anyhow, everything now is more expensive. Can't wait to introduce it to Reese. Here is their website http://www.kalkitos.sg/  

Hands feeling itchy! :)

All Set for 2012!

We had a simple Christmas celebration this year. Nothing fancy just dinner with love ones and celebrated my father's birthday. Reese got quite a lot of gifts. Educational toys which will add hours of fun for him :)

Some of the books for next year

In less than a week it will be new year. Time sure flies huh? Well, it is going to be an exciting year for us! Reese will be starting his homeschooling again and we will be doing 1st of 2 years of World History under Sonlight program. I am very excited. Science looks interesting too. Now, Math... mmmm... Reese dislikes Math and thus I slow down a lot. He will be doing Grade 2 Math and I hope he will show more interest next year! 

Homeschooling has become easier as I have learned quite a few things from experience. This time, I am more organized and preparation time was less. We have just set up a new workstation for Reese as he has outgrown his table and chairs. 

New workstation 

There will be more field trips and activities for Reese next year. Oh, and more playmates too! We are also looking forward to our Europe trip in February. It is going to be a really wonderful field trip for Reese. He will be learning about Ancient Rome next year and being able to be at those historical sites for real.... ah... just wonderful! Reese is a lucky boy. :)

My Instructor's Guide and program schedule all done for the 1st 3 months!

Obscene and Embarrassing!

A couple of days ago, while on our way to a picnic lunch with my friend and her twin girls, Reese started talking about sexual organs in the car. First he exclaimed loudly that his testicles hurt! Then he said his penis hurts! It was really embarrassing! I was apologizing to my friend and the more I asked Reese to stop the more he talked about them! Then he went on to talk about fallopian tube, vagina and a whole lot more! My friend was chuckling away and I felt very uncomfortable. Luckily the girls didn't know what those words were. 

He has been talking about production of sperms and how they swim into the vagina, milky liquid and everything about reproduction! He talks about it at home and also when we are outside. When I tell him not to talk about it while outside he will ask why not? So hard to explain to him. Imagine strangers who do not know us and listen to our conversation or the things Reese talks about.... what would these people think of us parents? Gosh.... 

Hope this interest on human production will quickly pass..... 

The amount of knowledge he knew about human anatomy at this point in time is equivalent to 5th-7th grade biology! And probably secondary level for certain specialized topics of human anatomy. Seriously. 

He can describe with scientific names the digestion process, functions of the different organs in the human body and draws the organs in the right positions in the body, the nervous system, muscular system, the skeletal system, immune system, division of chromosomes and etc. Do you know the names of the 3 white blood cells? I don't but my dear son knows... they are neutrophills, macrophages and lymphocytes!! Quite a mouthful right? 

I seriously need to catch up but I don't quite like biology!

FRIM Visit

 

At the start of the hike

Yesterday was a really adventurous and memorable day. First I finally met my schoolmate whom I have not seen for 18 years. We went for a picnic with our kids at FRIM (Forest Reserved Institute Malaysia) in Kepong. After a lovely picnic, Reese was asking to go for the canopy walk. So off we went in search of the canopy walk station. First we saw a sign that said 900 meters to the canopy walk station. Fine, we decided to try. Not bad at all, a big rocky path... long walk but the kids were fine. When we reached the base, another sign said 500 meters to the start of the canopy walk. What we saw ahead was actually a hike up the hill with no proper stairs but it looked manageable plus we didn't want to walk all the way back. It was a long walk. We thought that perhaps by walking on the canopy it will lead us back to the bottom. How silly of us. We were not prepared for the hike. I was wearing sandals with heals and Reese was wearing sandals too. We have no proper equipment and I was carrying my handbag! Crazy right? But we have no choice, so we started the hike. The kids were doing great and along the way we saw some fungi. As we hike up, it became more and more difficult and the kids were getting really tired. After all, it was half a km hike up a steep hill. Horror! We forgot the kids' water bottles. Poor kids were exhausted and thirsty. My friend had to carry one of her girls as she was about to faint! 

My dear friend, her twin girls and Reese at the picnic

After a very long and difficult hike we reached the canopy walk!! Yahoo!.... next challenge, my friend's kids were afraid of heights. Coaxing them on to the bridge was ok but as they walked on it.... they were truly afraid, it was so high up! Even Reese was afraid initially...but somehow... we got through. Phew! (later I found out that my friend was also afraid of heights!)

At the station. About to walk on the canopy!

At the start, everyone was a little scared!

Kids were more relaxed at the second part of the canopy walk

My boy, at this stage he was no longer afraid and was having fun

To our horror, we had to hike down the steep hill (500meters). Argggrrhh! This was the most difficult... it was steep and it was tough helping the kids down. Reese refused to touch anything for support because of mosses! Really difficult and time consuming. I felt like crying at one point! Miraculously we did it. 

Fungi we saw as we hike up

Once down the hill we had to walk the stony path back to the main road. It meant another 900meters walk! We were totally exhausted at the end and was sooooooo glad to see our car! All the kids declared that they hated FRIM.... hahahaha... 

What an adventure! Later I realized that my sandals' soles were torn. Crazy crazy crazy.... So glad to be home and I have aches all over! I asked Reese whether he still wants to go for canopy walk and he said yes! Next time we will be well prepared and we are definitely going to enjoy the scenery on the canopy! 

The Smokehouse Hotel at Cameron's

We took a short break to celebrate hubby's birthday at Cameron Highlands. It was a lovely weekend and wished it was longer! Traffic from Tanah Rata towards Brinchang was really bad. We spent most of the day at the hotel instead. :)

Our room.

Lovely flowers everywhere in the garden.

The view from our room. It over looks the garden and the golf course.

 

Enjoying the cool air in our room. Just relaxing.

Strawberry farm at Raju's. Yummy sweet strawberries.

Reese clowning around. He loves the Smokehouse a lot. He kept wanting to stay in instead of going out exploring.

 The interior of the Smokehouse Hotel. Every night they will light up the fireplace. A real fireplace.

Our very delicious dinner at the Smokehouse Restaurant . It was to celebrate hubby's birthday.

 A full English breakfast. It was yummy too. :)

 We will definitely stay at the Smokehouse again. Wonderful service with a personal touch. It's worth the money we pay.

Reese's Interpretation of a Bird's Eye View of NYC

Just came back from work and saw this on Reese's drawing table. According to him, this is a bird's eye view of New York City. I can tell you this is totally from his imagination as we have not came across  pictures or videos with such a view. Gosh, his imagination is really something huh? Amazing piece of work. 

Sex Education

"Mummy, do you know that sperms travel from the urethra all the way to the penis and shoots out from the tip of the penis!" *Reese was demonstrating the direction flow of the sperm to the tip of his penis* LOL

This dumb mummy at first told her son that only women has urethra (I got confused with uterus!)... Reese gave me a puzzled look! After checking... men have urethra too... * I really need to study*

There is this lovely book we borrowed from PSN's resource centre on sex education. A very child friendly book. It's a book about babies, bodies, love, sex, reproduction and families. Child-friendly illustration and at times humorous too! One thing I like about this book is that it has just enough information to educate them and not too much to leave them exposed or overwhelmed. Suitable for children above 5. Reese loves the book. He has been reading it everyday.  

Book Title: Let's Talk About Where Babies Come From
Publisher: Walker Books
Author: Robie H. Harris

Shrink Plastic Craft

This is a really easy craft to do and the end result is amazing! 

The cost of making this craft was almost nil except for electricity! :) We did this craft in less than 20 minutes. We are going to make a lot more as gifts for Christmas. Hope you like it!

I recycled some plastic boxes for this craft. Look for food boxes/packaging like the above.  Most of these plastic boxes will have a small triangle with an indication of the plastic grade. Look for plastic #6

Cut the plastic accordingly and draw away! Use permanent markers like Sharpies (RM11 for 5 colors) or alternatively you can use color pencils (You need to use sand paper to roughen the surface of the plastic before you can color with color pencils).

Reese drawing and coloring 

City at night

Use aluminum foil or baking sheet as a base and put your plastic on top of the foil/sheet. Have a preheated toaster oven/oven at about 250-300 degrees.  If you have a very powerful hair dryer, you can use it too!

Watch the magic! In less than 3 minutes, your plastic will curled up and shrink and eventually it will flatten out.

Done! We have a nice looking art piece. After shrinking, the color of your art work becomes more intense and the size of your plastic will shrink to 1/3 of it's original size. Thickness of the plastic is about 2mm! I didn't have a puncher at the time of making this otherwise you can punch a hole before baking and later sting it to make charms, earrings, bookmarks, keychains, ornaments....etc

Art at 5 years 2 months

Love the perspective of the main buildings

Word Art

Not sure what this is but I just like the houses and apartments.

Love the fact that the house was almost submerged in the floor waters. It is pretty realistic.

After watching the youtube video of the Kajang flood.

At times, he likes to draw really fine and small buildings

Again, love the perspective of the suspension bridge

A rough sketch of the Penang bridge

Very creative! Alphabet soldiers at war!

Mr. F's house from the animated movie UP

Flood

I think this is in Florence, I can see the Duamo's dome falling! Can you? :)

Hurricane! See how the electrical cables got in the way... and buildings literally broke into halves?

Volcano eruption

Storm

Lightning being attracted to the tall rod... not sure what you call that... but it was inspired by a book he was reading about electricity