Fun Places and Activities Archives - Page 16 of 16

Art – Black Paper gives amazing effect

Ever since I brought my kids to their very first art class in Wow Art Studio (see my post “Art can be so beautiful“), I realized that black paper really gives amazing effect to a drawing in pastels. Hence, while I was shopping in Daiso, a $2 storewide shop in town, I saw that they sell pastels and it gave me the idea of getting some black construction papers for my kids to draw on.

Pastels and Black Paper

YH, at his age of 6, loves to draw Dinosaurs. XX, at her age of 8, loves to draw Butterflies.

Colouring on black paper

With this pastels that resemble chalk, it can get a little messy with little hands rubbing against the drawn pictures as they move their hands around the paper. Luckily, as the paper is black in colour, the messiness does not look as obvious as it is on white paper.

After they have completed their colourful drawings on black papers, I framed them up and asked the kids to use window markers to decorate the boring white border.

Here is how it looks like! Great colour contrast against black background!

Art on frame

We had an afternoon of fun with this simple art work.

Now, this frame is up on our living room wall as a proud piece of decoration.

Try it with your kids!

Art can be so beautiful!

My kids love art and craft, however, I have not signed up my kids for any art and craft lessons as I have been hearing stories that such structured lessons kill creativity. Then, I saw a free deal for free art lesson and really jumped into it. Now I have a good excuse to let my kids go for a trial class (and it’s free!)and see for myself how killing it can be.

It was a bank account promotion to sign up trial art lesson at WowART Learning Studio. We went there on a Sunday late afternoon. XX and YH were excited especially they have been watching children’s tv show that taught art and craft with an art class background shoot. And not to mention all kids love art and craft.

The class was a comfortable size of 5 kids age ranging 5-8 years old. That day’s topic was on Sunflower. The kids were briefed by a friendly teacher who showed them a big stalk of Sunflower and photos showing different angles of Sunflowers. After that, they were given a black sheet of paper and taught to draw a circle in the middle. They were given short oil pastels to colour their own ideas of how the flower looks like. The oil pastels resemble broken pencil ends and the kids were taught to use them in “sleep” position and they gave amazingly beautiful colour strokes!

For the next part of the art, the kids were given two 8×8 cm square Styrofoam boards. On them, they use pencils to carve out sunflowers in different views, one lateral and one top view. This was a little hard on YH as he tried his best to carve out the picture using the right strength without spoiling the picture. XX could do this better. After that, they chose their own colours to paint over the 2 sunflowers. Then, using the Styrofoam as a stencil, they stamped hard onto 2 pieces of white paper.

Voila! Here’s the final masterpieces of XX and YH!

YH masterpiece

(By the way, did you see that YH wrote his name on his masterpiece in gold letterings? I am amazed he has such neat handwriting and he is only 6 and is a boy!)

While the kids happily brought their pails, palettes and brushes for washing, the teacher pasted their artwork on a black piece of paper with cardboard frame. All the while, I was peeping through a window with baby YT and kel outside the classroom. I thought that it was thoughtful that the big window satisfied the curious parents while not disturbing the class. I was able to flick out my camera as and when and take photos through this window.

kids washing up

When the masterpieces were presented before me, I exclaimed with much pride and admiration, so much so that I think other mummies were casting a critical look at my direction. Well, I must have looked like a country bumpkin or super drama yummy mummy with exaggerating praises for my kids’ masterpieces! Well, sorry mummies, I love to give lots of praises when it comes to my children’s artwork. I simply love their art and drawings even from their toddler days! I could even admire their art pieces for minutes at a go! (it has to be minutes, couldn’t be hours yeah?!) I do not think I could have come close to what they have done when I was their age. So, please bear with me while I savour their little masterpieces…

kids' masterpieces May 2013

The kids enjoyed their first art lesson very much. And they have been bugging me to sign them up for the June holidays art classes. I think the myth of art classes killing creativity may not apply to all, depending on the philosophy of the art school. Our one-time experience shows that art classes fascinate children and they were taught much attention to details on the subject that otherwise they would never had paid much attention to. Also, the techniques used in bringing an otherwise boring drawing to one with much colour and life to it, couldn’t have been taught at home nor explored on our own. Besides, my sister-in-law took her lovely girl to another art school which has similar philosophy, i.e., teaching details on subjects with art and craft. (You can read it over here.) It further confirms that art lessons are fun and have lots to learn from!

I am happy the kids enjoy and so do I!

A simple and relax birthday celebration for a 6 year old

Most mums will celebrate their kids’ birthday with much fanfare. In our family, only the 1st birthday is a bigger party to celebrate our kids’ first year’s milestone. For all birthdays after that, we prefer to have a simple celebration with our close families, which often may seem more of a family gathering for the adults and fun play time for the young ones.

I am not a party person, but I love to organize and plan parties for the little ones. I usually leave the food part to my husband, and activities part to myself.

Early this month, we held a simple birthday celebration for YH who turned 6 this year. Prior to the celebration day, I printed a crown from picklebums for YH to decorate and wear on his birthday. I printed a tiara for XX too, so that she can join in the fun. Almost everything I do for one kid, I have to think for the other 🙂

The party started with a steamboat dinner fully prepared by my dear hubby, kel. The kids sat on one small table and finished their food pretty fast, while the adults ate for a full 2 hours, eating and chatting away. After the dinner, it was art and craft time! All the kids (6 of them, including my XX and YH, the other 4 are their cousins) sat around 2 small tables and started making a turtle which they would be bringing back home. I gave them each an egg carton as the turtle’s shell. One pompom and 2 eyes for the turtle’s head. 4 pipe cleaners for the turtle’s legs. And each a paint brush and paint to decorate the turtle’s shell.

Voila! Here’s the end product of the cute little turtles the 6 kids did! Of course, I helped them along in gluing the pipe cleaner legs to the shell. As some of the “legs” did not glue on properly, I used a stapler to do the job which I believe could better tolerate the kids’ rough playing of the turtles especially for the boys.

While waiting for the turtles’ legs to dry, the kids played with Lego Duplo blocks. After that, each kid went home with a small gift and the turtle they make. But not before 2 birthday songs (one in English and one in Chinese) and a piece of KungFu Panda cake each.

Among the kids, the oldest is a 13 year-old teen and youngest is a 4 year-old kid. I was glad that the teen (my beloved niece) joined in the art and craft and enjoyed painting her own turtle. The youngest managed well with help from the older kids.

This was a simple birthday celebration cum family gathering. No fanfare, no wows, no rules, no stress. Yet, I feel is the perfect celebration I wanted for everyone. Relax and simple. And then, there’s a Part 2 to the celebration. On the actual day of YH’s birthday, he was treated to a SPECIAL day of fun with just kel and me and him. No other kids. So that all attention is to be showered on him and just him!

What’s your preferred style of family celebration?

5 Fun Places to go with your kids

“Where shall we go today?” This is a question that comes to my mind every weekend morning. I have come to realize that the places kids below 6 would enjoy are places that they can run around and put their curiosity in place.

Hence, I have put together some great outdoor and indoor places that my kids enjoy.

1) Lower Pierce Reservoir

This is a great place to bask in the ambiance of nature’s smell, feel and look. We drove slowly along the way leading to the reservoir while we kept a lookout for monkeys. We did not wait long and monkeys came out of the trees and stayed by the road. We stopped our car, and the monkeys came closer. Obviously they were waiting for us to throw some bananas or food to them. But many road signs advised against this for many reasons of upsetting nature and creating danger. We took some photographs. The kids were having fun distinguishing the sex of the monkeys. Continue reading “5 Fun Places to go with your kids”