Learning At Home: Japan

As we had planned for a vacation to Japan in June, I thought this provided a marvelous opportunity to immerse the Bees through homelearning activities on Japan, so that they would be very familiar with the country as we travelled through Japan. It was really fun organising a lesson plan on Japan. I was seriously astounded by the wealth of activities surrounding this theme and learned a lot myself as well! That is truly the beauty of learning at home with our children, isn't it? Not us merely imparting and teaching, but cultivating and nurturing together as a family. 

Featured books

There is a small but impressive collection of books on Japan for children in the library, and we borrowed the following:

A Visit To Japan (this is my favourite - very easy to read with eye-catching facts and large attractive photos that captured the attention of the Bees. Big Bee picked up lots of amazing facts to include into her lapbook, eg Japan has 1,500 earthquakes a year!)

We're From Japan (great for letting the Bees understand the lifestyles of fellow Japanese children)

A-Z Japan (good for teaching the alphabet to Little Bee, while imparting simple concise facts to Big Bee)

Games

A fortnight before we left for Japan, I played pretend games of going to the airport, getting on a plane, stepping into a new country, sitting in a bullet train and checking into a hotel (the whole works!) with Little Bee. From these games, she was able to pick up the concepts of the myriad transportation in Japan - plane, bullet train and bus! We arranged chairs to create a makeshift plane, and Mummy here was the old aunty air stewardess serving children's meal to an eager Little Bee! 

Song and dance

We learned to sing the song Sakura and watched (as well as imitated!) geishas dancing an ancient fan dance online. Little Bee, whose learning style is highly kinesthetic, loved the geisha fan dance, and even sang and danced to Sakura in a shabu shabu restaurant in Kyoto! In fact, she was humming the song all across Japan, and even bought a fan to accessorize her dance!

English - Reading

We learned the letters "Jj" for "Japan" and "jet", as well as "Ff" for "fan". Little Bee can now read "Japan" and "fan". Unfortunately, she was so familiar with the association of "J" with "Japan" that she will refer to all words starting with "J" as "Japan"! 

Big Bee and I created a worksheet for Little Bee to match words that she knows to pictures. Big Bee drew the pictures on the worksheet and Little Bee was thrilled to work on a worksheet that jie jie created!

English - Phonics 

I am not a believer of learning to read by phonics, as phonics merely make up less than 50% of all English words. However, I had been told by Little Bee's teacher to try to imbue phonics reading at home, so here I am, being an obedient mum and trying my best to impart something I do not really believe in. 

So, we worked on the word family of "an" this month (and we are still in the learning process, with Little Bee a wee bit confused!). I chose "an" because we were learning to read "fan", so naturally I made flashcards for "man", "pan", "can" and "ran". I used a different colour to differentiate "an" from the beginning letter to enhance the learning process. 

Mandarin - Reading

Little Bee has more affinity to reading Mandarin words. Perhaps it has to do with her other dominant learning style, of her being a strong visual learner. Mandarin words do not involve any phonics or mental matching of sounds, so I suspect it might be easier for her to look at a Mandarin character as a symbol and utter out the right pronunciation. She has a longer memory tenure for Mandarin words, being able to read more words that she used to learn, compared to English words. 

This month, we learned the Mandarin words "飞机" and "火车" to reinforce the theme of travelling in Japan. She can now read both words independently without needing to refer to the pictures.

Math

I could not think of interesting Math activities for this theme, so Little Bee created a flapbook for numbers 1 to 10. She had great fun creating it with her jie jie! 

Geography

We have a globe map at home, so I took the opportunity to let the Bees identify the locations of Singapore and Japan from the globe. Right before we depart for Japan, both the Bees can confidently point out to where Japan is on the map. Little Bee tended to struggle a fair bit when looking for Singapore though, and I can't blame her! 

I also printed out blank maps for the Bees to colour and identify where Japan is, and for Big Bee to understand the geographical borders (both land and sea) of Japan. We had great fun exploring the globe and I also learned lots of new things, eg Singapore is 5,000 km away from Japan! 

Big Bee's map

Little Bee's map

Big Bee also learned to identify all the Japanese cities she had visited, as well as understood the meaning of the Japanese flag through some reading and research. 

Painting

Japanese flag

Little Bee painted the Japanese flag, so she was always zealously shouting out "Japan flag! Japan flag!" whenever she spotted the Japanese flag as we trudged all across Japan. Back home, my mum - probably with passed-down memories of the Japanese occupation in Singapore - was aghast as to why Little Bee can recognise the Japanese flag and showed such strong enthusiasm in identifying it! 

Cherry blossom tree

Little Bee painted a cherry blossom tree and wrote the word "tree" above the painting. It is wonderful how children can absorb information so much faster if they spent time in the creation process, and this was what happened with Little Bee. 

After this painting session, she would exclaim "cherry blossom tree" whenever we read books about Japan (as it is almost impossible to avoid this ubiquitous emblem of Japanese nature!). Sadly, we did not see any real cherry blossom trees by the time we arrived, although Little Bee was still excitedly identifying cherry blossom trees from those large attractive billboards in Narita airport. 

Japanese woodblock printing

Woodblock printing in Japan was very popular in the 17th to 20th centuries. We replicated this technique using a recycled thin styrofoam fruit box from the supermarket. I cut the styrofoam box into small pieces on which the Bees drew pictures on, using a pen. They then painted the styrofoam pieces and stamped them on a paper - and we produced our very own woodblock prints! 

This craft proved to be rather challenging for Little Bee, as we need to use a delicate balance of restrained strength when carving out pictures and painting them on the styrofoam pieces, so only Big Bee was able to complete this successfully. She loved the end product tremendously, and was immensely fascinated by this painting technique. 

Crafts

Before I started researching on the types of crafts to work on for this theme, I could never guess at the rich variety of divine Japanese crafts that we can work on! I really enjoyed creating these crafts with the Bees so much! 

Japanese family fans

We created these Japanese fans with all our translated Japanese names, and the Bees were thrilled! They were waving and fanning them around, much to my amusement. This is such an easy craft to make, just took us under an hour to create all 4 fans, although I assisted a lot in assembling the ice-cream sticks. Big Bee was able to write her Japanese name independently after only a cursory glance at the computer's translated name. I wrote Little Bee's Japanese name in pencil and got her to trace it out with a black marker. They both enjoyed the process so much! 

Japanese garden

After visiting the ancient 400 year old Nijo Castle in Kyoto, we were somewhat enraptured by the serenity of Japanese gardens. I decided to let the Bees create a Japanese garden, using simple materials like construction papers, egg cartons, toilet paper roll and tiny pebbles that I secretly borrowed from our estate's landscaping!

It was a great team effort by the Bees, and we spent a peaceful afternoon on it. Big Bee drew the cheery orange carp and Little Bee drew ripples on the stream. Both of them laid out the pebbles conscientiously, and Big Bee and I tried our utmost best to make the tree resemble a maple tree, but I think it looked more like a tropical banana tree!! The egg carton was assembled into a mini Japanese pagoda replica, and I thought it was rather realistic! 

After completing the landscaped garden, I created flashcards for the Bees to identify elements of the garden. Little Bee was able to read and identify "tree" and "fish", whereas Big Bee effortlessly matched "pagoda", "bridge" and "river" to their rightful structures on our craft. This was really enjoyable! And I did get some quiet time to myself as they both laid out the pebbles :) 

Japanese paper lanterns

I did a very simple craft with Little Bee to create paper lanterns. We then strung the lanterns over old phosphorous light strands that we brought home from a party, and voila! Hanging Japanese lanterns. I would love to light little candles inside and see these lanterns shimmer and glow with bewitching incandescence. I also taught the "opposite" concept of "big" and "small" as well as "tall" and "short" while working on the craft. Little Bee also learned about patterning when deciding which lanterns to string.

Lapbook

Big Bee created a lapbook on Japan, after we reviewed the abundance of knowledge that she gleaned from this theme, and we truly enjoyed the entire process of shaping this lapbook! 

Field trip

Needless to say, we learned all there is to understand about Japan by traversing throughout the country - getting mired in its highly efficient transport system, attempting to talk to the locals off the beaten tourist track and observing the locals at close range in the many metro rides. 

Enjoying a bowl of cold Japanese jelly noodles at a beautiful hillside Japanese hut with maple trees surrounding us in Kyoto.

Sisterly love on board the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Osaka.

Monday Humour

Snippets of random (but hilarious) conversations with the Bees...

Big Bee: Mummy, is Chestnut a name for a girl or boy? (Referring to her favourite reindeer soft toy)

Me: Hm...I think it can apply to both boys and girls.

Big Bee: Oh, so my reindeer can be a boy or a girl!

Me: Yup!

Big Bee: Or it can be a gay!

Me: !?!?!?!?!?!? 

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Little Bee (in a taxi, staring intensely at some swanky condominium along Orchard): Mummy, I want to buy that house (pointing to the swanky condominium)

Me: !?!?!??!?! Don't you have your own house, living with Papa and Mummy?

Little Bee: No, that is Papa's and Mummy's house, not my house *frowned* (She probably has the notion that parents do not live with their children after seeing how our parents - her grandparents - all live in their own houses)

Me: Oh. Then you need to use your own money and buy that house, or you can wait till you are married and buy it with your husband.

Little Bee: I have no money! And I don't want to be married!

Me: When you grow up, you may get married and stay with your husband. 

Little Bee: Can I marry Papa and stay with Papa?

Me: Noooo, Mummy is married to Papa, so you cannot marry Papa. 

Little Bee: *started sobbing* I want to marry Papa, I don't want to stay with other boys!! (She probably could not bear the idea of living with other boys, just like Big Bee!)

Of Museums And Theme Parks

LP and I brought our brood of eager, zealous kids for an entire day of adventure in Singapore last Thursday. We met at 2pm and played till 10pm. It was exhausting not just for the kids, but for us, the parents!

The Bees with WW and WD

I love this display at the entrance!

We met at the Singapore Art Museum to explore the Art Garden. The kids were thrilled with all the various displays, but I must admit that both LP and I thought this exhibition was over-rated and not up to our expectations. I was somewhat peeved by the shushing museum assistants the moment we entered the Floribots exhibit, who kept warning the kids not to touch the exhibits. That largely killed their interest in what could be a charming display of a flower's life-cycle, but with the assistants who were scared to bits about the kids even poking a fingertip at the exhibit, I thought it wasn't apt that such a display should be labelled as "interactive" in a "children's exhibition".

Other than that, we all appreciated The Enchanted Forest, which I thought was very beautifully done, and enabled the kids to be immersed in a magical, wild forest. Big Bee and Little Bee, together with WW and WD, diligently coloured butterfly pictures to paste them alongside other kids' butterfly artworks on the wall, and I thought that was a fantastic way to encourage the kids' creativity through displaying their works.

I also thought that the confined space at 8Q, where the exhibition was held, was extremely friendly for children to dash all over the entire building with very minimal supervision, especially for Big Bee and WW. As for smaller kids like Little Bee and WD, the spaces for freeplay, drawing and colouring were adequate, and the 2 little kids busied themselves with art and craft activities. I even had an opportunity to watch a local short film in the screening room with Little Bee!

Of course, the highlight of the Art Garden for the kids was the highly interactive motion-sensor play of light and movement in the Funky Forest and Daisies display. We spent the longest time there. LP and I could sit down, relax and chat whilst the 4 kids went berserk, bolting around the exhibit, playing with the 2 interactive iridescent displays.

The interactive Funky Forest, where kids could magically play with fireflies, swish moving streams around, tease fluttering birds and make fruit trees grow just with touches of their hands and feet.

We decided to stop for coffee and plentiful snacks after 2 hours of boisterous activity. I was amazed at how much LP's boys could eat!

Thereafter, we went our separate ways (I went home with the Bees for a short break!) before re-meeting at Universal Studios! We dragged our hubbies (and my mum) along this time, and I felt like I am a tourist in Singapore! We entered Universal Studios with the $2 night visit pass, and were overwhelmed by the dense, thick crowds. We took a leisurely walk around the Studios, and were all rather pleased by the overall ambience and experience. It certainly felt like we were in another world with the beautiful setting in the Hollywood Boulevard. We will be back for a full day of play one day - it is simply wonderful that Singapore now has our own theme park!

We all sat down for a long and absolutely delectable dinner at the Chinese restaurant along Hollywood Boulevard - Hollywood China Bistro. Scrumptious food, festive atmosphere, moderate service. We were all highly satisfied by the wonderful food, especially our hubbies!

In all - what a day! I think it is so delightful to spend a full day wandering around parts of Singapore that we had not been to before - truly marvelous to feel like tourists yet with the comfort of knowing we can pop home to relax anytime!

Our First Lapbook: Japan

As part of the homelearning theme last month on Japan, Big Bee and I worked on a series of activities over 3 weeks which we collated into a Japan lapbook. 

Big Bee and I read several excellent books for children about Japan, which enhanced her knowledge about the geography and culture of Japan in time for our trip. She was able to identify many aspects of Japanese life from the books she read while we were there. When we were back, we compiled this knowledge into a collection of minibooks that Big Bee adores. She was so amused by the different ways of information presentation compared to the typical worksheets in school. 

It was wonderful to work on a lapbook with a big kid, as she had full autonomy to select the types of activities that she thought was pertinent to this theme. With minimal guidance from me, she was in charge of cutting and folding some of these minibooks (she loved it!) whilst creating the content independently. I find such active involvement will reinforce how she absorbed and remembered the information, and true enough, it made learning so fun for her that she wanted to do a Singapore lapbook in time for National Day!

I thought that Little Bee was too young to be involved in the creation of wordy minibooks, and as she still preferred art & craft as the main mode of learning, I did not create a lapbook for her, although she was highly curious about jie-jie's lapbook! 

Here are some elements from our Japan lapbook. It was such a tremendously fun project that even I am addicted to creating more lapbooks with Big Bee, and perhaps more visual ones for Little Bee!

Cover, designed completely by Big Bee. The Japanese words on the bottom right actually represent her name in Japanese, pronounced as Nikooru!

Inside the lapbook: we worked on a day-by-day highlight of our journey across Japan, the time difference between Japan and Singapore, geographical borders of Japan (sea and land), map location of Japan and her favourite places in Japan in a cute quilt square format that Big Bee loved!

More minibooks under the brown flap! The 4 "wow" matchbooks contain information about Japan that amazed Big Bee (see below picture). We also compared and contrasted seasons and currencies between Japan and Singapore, calculated the distance (5,000 km!) and air travel time between the 2 countries, discovered the popular sports and common religions in Japan, as well as unravelled fascinating facts about the meaning of the Japanese flag.

Back of the lapbook: Map of Japan - Big Bee circled the various cities and places she visited in Japan

A Hearty Dinner

We were at PF's house on Saturday evening for a sukiyaki dinner with some intense sake, and it was delicious and heart-warming. Comfort food at its best! The adults sat at one table, spending almost 2 hours catching up with each other after our respective vacations. The 4 children sat at the kids' table, munching and yakking away, and demanding non-stop for the divine kurobuta pork slices that we were frantically trying to cook and match up with their speed of eating. 

Amazingly, the Bees already had an early dinner at home, yet, they were able to devour bowls of rice and sukiyaki pork with Eugene and Claire! Company really makes food so much sweeter. 

It was very gratifying to be sitting for 2 hours, leisurely chatting and cooking our dinner over a merry broiling pot, whilst the kids have their separate set of conversation at another table. Minimal distractions and maximum food intake! 

After dinner, we gorged on ice-cream that I bought from Island Creamery (rich and yummy!) and juicy cherries from Cold Storage (Little Bee was the only kid voraciously stuffing cherry after cherry into her mouth, much to everyone's astonishment!). 

The kids fooled around, playing with toys and video games - sometimes creating such a chaotic din that we adults could barely converse, whilst the adults sat back, relaxed and chatted idly. As we grow older, we all agree that gatherings at home are so much more relaxed and enabled everyone to catch up more. Next stop: teppanyaki and grill at our place! 

My Brother The Chef

My brother has a deep interest in cooking (unlike me!) and relished in cooking for the family. Over the Father's Day weekend, he invited our family, together with my Mum and Dad, for an Italian feast that he single-handedly whipped up for all of us! He almost baked a strawberry dessert, if not for me asking him to take a rest and spend quality time with us in the living room! 

It was such an enjoyable evening. We were treated to starters of a piquant salad filled with fresh lettuce and strips of brilliant carrot, complete with tangy Japanese dressing that piqued our appetite. Then, he brought out steaming plates of spaghetti bolognese with succulent shiitake mushrooms and tomatoes, and a plate of mouth-watering pasta with prawns just for Mum because she doesn't take beef. Glorious! 

Mum was beaming - she was probably thinking that her cooking genes did end up somewhere, unfortunately not in her daughter, but in her son! 

We all enjoyed the evening so much. Thereafter, we sat down and went through all our holiday photos, and had a great time chilling out. The Bees were entertained to bits, and we certainly look forward to another feast cooked by their beloved jiu jiu!

Flapbooks

Last week, we worked on 2 flapbooks, customised to the Bees' different learning levels. As part of her Japan lapbook, I recommended to Big Bee that it might be very meaningful for her to list down all our trip highlights in a day-by-day format within a book. She loved the idea and when I created a flapbook together with her, she set forth to work on this project immediately with zest. 

Little Bee wanted a part of this project, of course. Whilst it was apparent why she could not work on a similar holiday project, I adapted her flapbook to something that she can personally write on - so that she can practise her writing skills and more importantly, to feel very involved in the creation process. As I am quite keen for her to be familiar in writing numerals, we created a flapbook for the numbers 1 to 10! 

Dense concentration...but only for a while! 

They both worked earnestly on these flapbooks - Little Bee for about 20 minutes (as that is the limit of her usual attention span!) whereas Big Bee wrote intermittently on hers over 2 days (she was still in her holiday mood and was not too used to writing loads yet!). 

Cover of Big Bee's flapbook with labels of the days in our trip.

Dates of our trip with brief highlights of each day. This is a remarkable way to let Big Bee remember our vacation, as she mentally ran through with me what we did each day. I found it very worthwhile, especially when we have post-vacation blues! 

Little Bee's number flapbook. Maverick her drew an arrow at "1", proclaiming that "1" could look like an arrow. She needed my help in writing "2", so I drew dots for her to follow. But she wrote the rest of the numbers independently. She drew a heart beside "9" because she told me she thought that was the nicest written number of all.

Inside her flapbook: I got her to draw out the number of items for each number (you can imagine the amount of coaxing as we approached "10"!) and also got her to write out the corresponding words for each number. She was rather distracted by then, so I had to use dots to lure her to write these words!

I found that projects which involved their direct creation and writing tended to be more memorable for the Bees. And true enough, the Bees kept referring to their finished flapbooks and could not stop showing them to their Papa and Grandma! 

Breakfast With The Birds

We just started our new homelearning theme this week - Forest Animals - and the Bees love it! To introduce the theme, we went for daily 45-minute walks around our lush estate every morning, immersing ourselves in the forest-like vegetation, scouting for squirrels, monitor lizards and birds. 

Big Bee's imagination was imbued with all that she read in her favourite Enchanted Wood series as we took these enjoyable walks. Coupled with our recent experiences in the various theme parks of Japan, she would launch into delightful commentary a la an Enchanted Wood theme park tour. Excerpts from her tour introduction: "And now, we are approaching the slope of doom where it is dark and dangerous, walk very carefully and quietly....we are getting close to the forest of horror where snakes and monitor lizards live....oh! We are now reaching the forest of the squirrels....this is the path of joy with many flowers and trees...." 

We even identified 2 potential candidates for our very own Faraway Tree in the estate - a grand tree with orange-tinged bark and another enormous majestic tree with expansive branches that reaches way up into the sky. Every time we walk past these trees, Big Bee would exclaim that these are our Faraway Trees! 

Little Bee - being rather timid at times - would cower in fear whenever we strolled past areas of "doom" or "horror" with jie-jie's description, and would skip with lighthearted beatitude through sections of "happiness". As for me, I just found it all so entertaining, immersing ourselves in this pretend forest and living an alternate life of fantasy! 

With the lovely weather yesterday morning, and prompted by Big Bee's eager question about "What are we doing today?" the moment we woke up, I decided to have an impromptu breakfast picnic with the Bees - right in our estate! I packed kaya sandwiches, cookies, fruits, raisins and coffee, much to the Bees' excitement as they hovered around me, suggesting what I should pack for their picnic. Poor hubby was immensely jealous as he had to go off to work whilst we had so much fun! 

We then ambled around, looking for that perfect picnic spot where we could pretend that we were in an abundant forest, and then settled down for a lovely breakfast beneath the solicitude of raintrees and flame of the forest trees. It was a brilliant breakfast - the Bees were absolutely enraptured as they sat on our little mat, munching on goodies with nature all around us. Of course, there were the inevitable sibling scuffles here and there, but all were peaceful eventually, and we had our signature Enchanted Wood walk after breakfast. 

We even spotted 2 yellow lovebirds, serenading us throughout much of our breakfast, much to the Bees' excitement, and Big Bee was snapping photos of these birds enthusiastically.

Can you spot the 2 lovebirds? 

What a perfect morning. Who says we need to venture out of our backyard for new experiences? Sometimes, a rich and vivid imagination coupled with an awareness of the beauty in the places nearest to us would be more than sufficient :)

Land Of The Rising Sun: Part 2 (Osaka)

Day 5, 9 June (Wednesday)

We woke up with much elation in a new city and a wonderfully spacious hotel facing the glittering Osaka Bay. More theme parks awaited us! This time, I was anticipating this theme park as it would be something new for me - Universal Studios Osaka.

After a sumptuous breakfast, we took a leisurely 15-minute stroll to Universal Studios from our hotel. The weather in Osaka was considerably warmer and more humid, as we headed further down south. We were one of the first entering the Park slightly before 10am! 

Universal Studios seemed to target a whole different set of audience, compared to magical and fantastical Disney Land. The scale was huge, with a strong slant towards movie and Hollywood magic - some of the capacious sets like Jaws' Amityville town, Land of Oz, the vast Hollywood Boulevard and majestic New York City straight from the Spiderman's movie set fascinated Hubby and I to no end. The Bees were more tickled by walking mascots like Shrek and Princess Fiona, Hello Kitty (much to Little Bee's delight but Big Bee's cynical aversion!), Pink Panther (the girls were amazed by the huge Pink Panther shop with its endless array of merchandise!) and the Sesame Street characters (Cookie Monster, Elmo, Big Bird, etc). All these characters from TV and movies transformed right into life for the Bees, much to their open-mouthed enthrallment. 

I prefer Universal Studios to DisneyLand largely due to the absence of dense, large and overwhelming crowds. Hence, we were able to amble around the Park in a relaxed fashion, enjoying the entire ambience and beautiful late afternoon golden sunshine. The scale of Universal Studios in Osaka was huge and we could literally lose ourselves in the various sets that evoke different worlds in various eras. I particularly loved the ubiquitous bronze "Movie sets plates" on different props and sets, highlighting which movies these props were featured in. 

With lesser crowds, we could watch a lot more shows although we could not be part of many rides as these catered more for bigger kids. However, losing ourselves sauntering in different worlds more than made up for the lack of rides! Needless to say, the Bees' favourite show was the Sesame Street musical fiesta held on the open street in the cool, pleasant early evening hours with stunning sunlight from the setting sun. Hubby and I really enjoyed the thrilling and loud Waterworld show, much to the Bees' chagrin! 

It was a truly enjoyable day, and I thought it was a pity that Universal Studios had to close at 6pm, leaving us with no chance to view it in the dark, complete with glittering Hollywood magic at night!

We had a fast but delicious dinner of springy ramen at a nearby mall before adjourning back to the hotel for an early and relaxed night.

Day 6, 10 June (Thursday)

The next day dawned bright and clear for us to explore the rest of Osaka! A few highlights of today:

1) Having a lazy 2-hour breakfast, giggling with the Bees and munching on food galore. Yum - my type of ideal holiday breakfasts!

2) Sailing away on the harbour on Capt Line, the ferry that transported us to Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan on the other side of the bay. The Bees were excitedly scuttling around the ferry, enjoying the azure blue bay with seagulls and a busy port ambience. 

3) Spending the entire afternoon in pure amazement in the massive Osaka Aquarium, staring in close proximity at ocean creatures like the largest fish in the world, the colossal whale sharks, cheery porpoises, graceful manta rays, intelligent dolphins that seemed to interact with the Bees from the other side of the aquarium, and witnessing a mind-boggling array of never-seen-before fishes! Hubby, the Bees and I were absolutely bewitched. 

4) Spending the early evening at a nearby food complex in the Tempozan Marketplace, losing ourselves in the quaint labyrinth of tiny Japanese food stalls, gorging on Japanese food delights. Osaka is known as the food capital of Japan, and we were not disappointed, trying a plethora of ambrosial food and snacks!

5) Sitting comfortably outdoors under the spotless blue sky and enjoying the resplendent evening sunlight while watching the Bees interact and play with some very tame pigeons. Such relaxed mode of holiday is indeed ideal.

6) Strolling without direction around, eventually settling for a metro ride into Dotombori, the glitzy shopping and restaurant district of Osaka with dazzling neon lights and endless pachinko outlets! The Bees were not thrilled by the city sights but Hubby and I were pretty dazzled by the ubiquitous bright flashing signs!

7) Having a wonderful buffet dinner at a do-it-yourself Japanese kushiage (deep-fried) restaurant! Kushiage is a Japanese-style deep-fried kabab. Kushi means skewers and age means deep-frying in Japanese. Bamboo sticks are used for kusiage in Japan, and skewered vegetables and meats are breaded and deep-fried. It was so fascinating for all 4 of us. We selected the meats and vegetables on skewers, rolled these food in a plate of bread crumbs and then dipped the skewers into a basin of hot simmering oil. Then, voila! The end result was a piece of breaded, deep fried kushiage that was so succulent and delicious albeit very unhealthy with all those oil! However, the Bees enjoyed cooking their own dinner so much that we spent a good 2 hours in this restaurant, with the 2 of them dipping and deep-frying an endless supply of kushiage. Burp! We were so full and sleepy by the time we arrived in the hotel that we slept almost immediately!

Land Of The Rising Sun: Part 1 (Tokyo)

Our trip to Japan started at least a month ahead of our scheduled departure, with lots of planning on where to go, how to go, what to do and where to stay. And followed by the booking of necessary logistics like shinkansen and air tickets, hotel rooms and theme park tickets. 

Furthermore, Hubby and I knew that we simply had to travel light as we would be travelling to 3 cities, using only public transport and lugging 2 very active kids. Thus, we adamantly (and successfully!) squeezed all our travel stuff into one luggage bag with one pram. And we were all set for the voluminous train rides across central Japan from Tokyo to Osaka to Kyoto and then back to Tokyo again! 

It was really fun planning the trip, although I must say too much planning (I am a typical overplanner) did make me a wee bit jaded by the time the holiday started! 

Here are some highlights of our 11-day trip. Unfortunately, I am too lazy to download photos taken from our SLR camera, so I am putting photos (mainly of the Bees) taken from my trusty Canon IXUS. Hence, there are not many picturesque postcard-types of shots. 

Day 1, 5 June (Saturday)

1) I love taking early morning flights with the family, so we could wake up before the first light of dawn kissed the earth, and revelled in the majestic sunrays slowly warming up the roads as we travelled to the airport. For this trip, we were out of the house by 7.30am, in preparation for a 9.40am flight! The Bees were almost bursting with excitement and pure happiness, chatting away in the airport lounge animatedly. I love seeing them like this!

2) Both the Bees were rather restless and impatient on the 6-hour flight. Although Big Bee had her movies and entertainment system to play with, 6 hours was a relatively long time for her to be strapped to her seat all the time. Little Bee was incessantly asking me whether we were reaching. It was frazzling to answer their impatient questions every 15 minutes, but really amusing to see them so eager to touch down! 

3) We finally arrived in Tokyo at 5.30pm and waited for the airport bus to take us to our hotel - which was another long arduous journey! Eventually, we reached the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel, which is a Tokyo Disney Resort official hotel, by 8pm! Hubby and I were fatigued by a whole day's journey, yet the Bees were so energetic, running all around the beautiful hotel lobby. 

4) I loved the hotel room for its sheer size, with 2 double beds that we pushed together so the whole family could snuggle together like sleeping hamsters! I also really appreciated the capacious balcony overseeing the azure bay. The Bees were so taken in by a window that opened up from the bathroom to the bedroom, and were clambering in and out of the window continuously. Tomboys indeed! 

5) We ordered room service for our dinner only at 9.30pm. But the Bees were delighted and ravenous, so they devoured much the food in record time. 

6) We finally sank into bed at 11pm, snuggling and burrowing alongside each other, giggling and chattering away in the dark, until eventually heavenly slumber beckoned us into her Eden.

Day 2, 6 June (Sunday)

We began our holiday with much fanfare and anticipation - to Tokyo DisneySea! The Bees particularly loved the Tokyo Disney shuttle bus (more like a Disney-themed bus with Mickey introducing himself blithely in Japanese!) and the Resort Liner (their version of an exclusive Disney MRT). It provided the right ingredients for a perfect setting before the real thing!

It was a day of immersing the Bees in breathtaking architecture and sonorous Disney music that filled our souls with happiness - with lots of theme park rides thrown in! Initially, we were somewhat seared by the desert-dry blistering heat of a Tokyo summer, and it took us a while to get adjusted to the dry hot weather. 

The Bees loved all the rides we took - from a leisurely romantic cruise on a steam liner along the "Massachussetts river" to a brilliant Little Mermaid musical resplendent with a kaleidoscope of colourful dancers and a beautiful mermaid singing haunting tunes from the movie. The Bees' favourite "land" was the Mermaid Lagoon, with its magical twinkling lights and dark twilight ambience simulating the mysterious underwater world. 

Big Bee took a junior roller coaster with me, while Hubby spent some quality time with Little Bee. Big Bee and me had such a fun time giggling and chatting in the 30-minute queue, as well as jumping in pure anticipation of the ride, behaving like little girls! It was such an exhilarating ride, with the wind blowing against our faces and the stupendously steep dips and sharp turns. I screamed way louder than brave Big Bee, as my poor old heart could not tolerate such excitement! After the ride, Hubby commented that both Big Bee and me looked exceedingly "high" on adrenaline! 

Mealtimes in DisneySea were always memorable because of the stunning architecture cloaked in a magical ambience. We enjoyed an alfresco dinner in the cool evening, right in front of the arid landscape and pompous volcano of the land of Vulcania. We were treated to a few loud volcanic eruptions, replete with ominous rumblings and dense grey smoke. The Bees were screaming away in exaggerated terror, but I could see they were enjoying the spectacle, especially Little Bee. 

We roamed around DisneySea in the imminent gloaming, enchanted by the ubiquitous twinkling fairy lights against a beautiful lavender twilight. 

We then witnessed the grandiose and awe-inspiring Braviseamo show that was a magnificent extravaganza of light, pyrotechnics, fire and water, complete with loud haunting musical effects. Shortly after, we were spectators to a brilliant display of fireworks right overhead! What a dazzling end to a spellbinding day!   

Day 3, 7 June (Monday)

The day dawned bright and early for another trip to the famed Disney Resort - this time to Disney Land! The Bees were fluttering around with pure excitement, but for Hubby and me, having accompanied them to a Disneyland almost yearly since 2007, we felt rather jaded. However, if the Bees are happy, we would be too! 

The summer weather was scorching hot in Disneyland, so much so that it bordered on unpleasantness. We were all squinting our eyes silly in the hot noon sun. And to add to our discomfort, today happened to be a public holiday in Japan! So the crowds were thick and dense, much to my chagrin. Thankfully, by mid afternoon, the weather was considerably cooler, hence we were able to enjoy Disneyland more.  

Big Bee went on a thrill rides spree, and emerged from all these rides glowing and grinning. Little Bee enjoyed "It's A Small World Ride" and loved chasing Disney mascots around the park, but she did not relish other thrill rides, preferring to wave at her jie-jie from the parameters. 

The finale would definitely be Little Bee and me caught right beneath the blossoming and majestic fireworks, just when Hubby and Big Bee were happily sailing in the skies within Peter Pan's ride.

It was magical, just Little Bee and me, caught in a flurry of excitement with the Japanese, far away in a foreign land, with dazzling fireworks exploding right above us, enveloping us in an ambience of enchantment. 

Day 4, 8 June (Tuesday)

'Tis a day for journeys - long train journeys! We were departing for Osaka via the bullet train (shinkansen), but decided we should take it slow and easy in the morning. Hence, we indulged in a luxuriant 2-hour brunch at the hotel's restaurant, where the Bees were serenaded by cooing musicians, much to their awkward embarrassment! 

We then launched into a journey of 5 arduous train changes - from Disneyland to the main Tokyo station, where we boarded the shinkansen, and then from the Shin-Osaka station to the Osaka station, and then to the Universal Studios station where we were staying at the excellent Universal Port Hotel with a wonderful large room that can take in 3 big beds! 

It was certainly laborious lugging that big 50 kg luggage with 2 deadbeat kids. But I think the journey itself was an experience that remains indelible in our holiday memories, and we want our children to understand the joys of the odyssey rather than remembering a country for its tourist attractions. 

We had great fun in the 3.5 hours shinkansen ride - the Bees were chomping on their favourite onigiri with tuna, which was a perfectly nutritious and fast meal! The girls fooled around with each other, yakking about all things under the sun. Big Bee was burrowing her nose into her favourite Faraway Tree books most of the time, whereas talkative Little Bee would be chattering non-stop with Hubby and me. Plenty of bonding time! 

Finally, we stepped into Universal Port Hotel - fatigued, dog-wearied and exhausted in a journey that lasted from 3pm to 9pm. Thankfully, we were rejuvenated by a hotel with excellent service, fantastic rooms and lovely ambience (our room was huge and faced the stunning Osaka Bay) - and deep, sweet slumber encompassed us as we sank into the large, soft heavenly beds...bliss!

Messy Fun

Little Bee loves to immerse her little hands with paint during our painting sessions. Then she will smear her palms all over a drawing paper and revel in her handprints. She loves messy play of all kinds, and usually creates a chaotic environment if we leave her to her own devices during playtime - pen scribbles on her hands, playdoh all around, miniscule pieces of cut paper that she labels as "snow" all over the room.

Little Bee with monstrous purple hands, roar!!! 

Her attention span is still very short and I still find it challenging to conduct homelearning activities with her, compared to the more focused Big Bee. It is an uphill task trying to teach her to write and read through the conventional methods. However, she loves art and crafts as well as painting. My Bees have very polarised learning styles, but hey, that's life, isn't it? 

Recently, Little Bee had been scribbling on a whiteboard at home, and this was what she drew of her good friend, Olivia, together with some scribbled handwriting as messages to her friend, at the start of the holidays. I guess she probably missed her friends with no school during the holidays! 

As I subscribe strongly to Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory when designing our monthly homelearning curriculum, it was fairly evident that Little Bee leans more towards the spatial/visual, musical/rhythmic and interpersonal intelligences. Hence, I try to create activities appealing to these intelligences and learning styles of hers in order to facilitate learning that is more fun for her. 

She drew this over dinner by herself one night - "F" for Flower Fish

Learning numbers the messy and intimate way - right on her fingers! 

It had worked thus far, but at times, while looking at how busy Big Bee is with her academic work in primary school, I do wonder how Little Bee will adjust to a rigid primary school curriculum, where there is minimal visual and musical stimulation. I just hope to quickly build a strong foundation for her in these preschool years so that she will not need to adjust too harshly. 

Ice-cream Sticks

We bought a pack of ice-cream sticks for a craft project that we were working on, and that was the best buy ever. With its simplicity, the ice-cream sticks were like a clean slate of activity that the Bees could spend hours of imaginative play on! 

They used the sticks to build models of houses and other structures, they decorated and scribbled on them, they formed pictures with the sticks and I could even create an impromptu number recognition aid for Little Bee with the involvement of Big Bee drawing the relevant pictures. Wonderful! These handy sticks certainly kept us busy for an entire afternoon! 

Friends Galore!

With the cycles of preschool, kindergarten and now primary school, Big Bee has gathered many good friends along the way and I must stress that her social life is really busy at a young age of 8! 

At the beginning of the holidays, she requested for a playdate with her best friends from kindergarten, Rachael and Lizzie. By this age, all the playdates and parties are unaccompanied by parents, which means the hosting mum would need to be extra vigilant over the visiting kids, providing apt entertainment and refreshments for them. I love to host big kids though - they are absolutely charming to chat with! 

So, one fine Monday afternoon, Rachael and Lizzie descended unto our humble abode, to the pure excitement and delight of Big Bee. She was literally jumping around for joy when they arrived, and the trio was hopping and whooping in big kids' heaven when they gathered. Little Bee was also thrilled by their visit, and was eagerly following all the big jie-jies around like a little puppy, wanting to participate in every activity! 

It was a fun-filled afternoon - they acted silly, talking about boys in Big Bee's bedroom for a while, then proceeded to have an indoor picnic in my living room, feasting on snacks. After tea, I brought all 4 girls out for a session of boisterous bubbles, after which the 3 big girls proceeded for a rowdy tryst of outdoor catching and hide-and-seek at the clubhouse while poor Little Bee rested at home reluctantly. We had another teabreak at the cafe, and that was my favourite part of the playdate. We gossiped about boys, school, vacations and every girly thing under the sun. I was glad that the girls were very open with me around and yakked like normal. I hope to be Big Bee's friend in addition to my role as her mummy as well. 

We then adjourned back home where Little Bee was anticipating our arrival, and all 4 of them settled down for a bout of quiet play over the board game, Game Of Life. What a fun afternoon!

A couple of days later, Big Bee reunited with Rachael and Lizzie at their former classmate's birthday party. The trio was the only girls at a party full of boys, and Big Bee came back, somewhat shocked at the rough play of the boys - mentally tousled and bruised! I stifled a giggle at the great divide of the gender from such a young age, and finally roused her to a state of grudging cheeriness after an hour of coaxing! 

Big Bee and her primary school buddies fooling around after a concert in school.

Above all these, Big Bee still had invitations for gatherings with her primary schoolmates (which poor her could not attend because this Mum needs some rest after our holiday!) as well as outings with our good friends whose children had since become the Bees' good pals too. What a busy holiday indeed! 

My Little Helpers

In the days that my helper was away for her home leave, I was extremely lucky to have my mum come over and be the excellent chef for our daily meals, as well as my 2 little helpers who tried their best to help me clean up the house, and pack things up! Hubby was also a great help by helping me to mop the house and do the laundry. Teamwork indeed! 

Still, I am mighty glad when my helper is back. Frees up so much time for me to spend quality time with the Bees :) 

Busy Bees...or Cinderella Bees?

We Are Back!

We are back from a great adventure! We survived 11 days, 3 cities, countless subway and train rides lugging more than 50kg worth of luggage and 2 hyper-active, deliriously ecstatic kids across central Japan! Whew. Hubby and I felt more tired than rejuvenated - but the pure happiness of spending all our time with the Bees more than made up for our fatigue. 

The Bees in front of ancient 400-year-old Nijo Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in Kyoto. 

With this trip, it is the culmination of our homelearning theme this June - a Japan theme! The Bees thoroughly enjoyed learning about Japan and I was amazed that even Little Bee could recognise a lot of what she learned and read once she arrived in Japan. Big Bee can now understand so much of the Japanese culture and even picked up simple Japanese phrases, compared to her previous trips there. It made the trip so much more meaningful for the Bees, I think. 

Little Bee's rendition of Japan's flag. Big Bee likened the flag to the name of Japan, telling us the red circle symbolises the Land Of The Rising Sun. 

More to come with holiday photos and our homelearning theme once we wrap up our very first Japan lapbook! 

Colours Of Nature Part 2

We love being in the midst of nature. Our weekend outings are mostly spent in the great outdoors, despite the almost unbearable heat which is a sure, sad sign of global warming these day - ensconced beneath the powerful protective embraces of antiquated trees, perched on expansive verdant fields, gazing at voluminous bodies of still or rushing waters in the guise of seas or lakes.

Our second home - the Botanic Gardens!

Big Bee trying to touch the large lily pads

There is so much that the Bees can learn from nature - the life cycles of all the amazing living things around us, inter-dependency of all species on earth, sustainability, global warming and man's true power of destruction. Probing questions had been asked by Big Bee, questions regarding the state of extinction of some species, why certain animals are seen in the environs of our estate rather than their own natural habitat (or lack of it) and global warming. Little Bee can now recognise our beautiful planet Earth from pictures, maps or our globe at home, exclaiming loudly and happily "Earth!" and trying to identify countries from the globe. She also constantly draws the planet Earth or creates it from a mixture of green and blue Playdoh.

Gazing out at a tranquil quarry, each one deep in thoughts

Achingly resplendent canopy of old gigantic trees above us

I love that this playground is built as part of the natural landscape, complete with large ants and insects along the way down!

It is so fundamental that our children learn from us the true beauty of our planet and the universe that we all dwell within. And more importantly, learn to love being in the great outdoors, revelling in all things natural and imparting a similar love and passion to their children in time to come. This is our tiny contribution towards the future sustainability of our greater home.

Big Bee and me with the golden sunset behind us