Keeping Them Busy

On days when the Bees just wanted to chill out at home without doing much activities, there are some unstructured free play that could engage these 2 active girls for fairly long periods of time. Where they can play together, unsupervised, and not including outdoor playground or walking time. 

Which means a rare reprieve of relaxation for me in the middle of the day, especially since both of them do not nap at all these days! 

1) Water Play

Timeout: 1 hour

This gem from Early Learning Centre (ELC) can give me a full hour of much needed peace and quiet. We would set up the water play centre in our balcony, changed the Bees into their swimwear, sat back and watched the Bees enjoy an hour of merry water play with plenty of toys thrown in. Very effective but utterly wet indeed! 

Contented and relaxed water play with lots of toys!

2) Paper Snow

Timeout: 30 minutes

Little Bee is a great fan of the scissors these days. Her favourite activity in school and at home is to cut random pieces of paper into a plethora of shapes and sizes. 

On a few occasions that Big Bee was interested to join in, they both cut lots of recycled papers into piles of small bite-sized pieces. Then they would both giggle in high anticipation, gather these miniscule pieces of paper together and throw them high up in the room. Yelling and screaming "SNOWING!!!!!!!!" as these bits of imaginary snow drifted down onto 2 delighted beings. 

It is extremely messy to clean up but well worth the time spent when I see the pure enchantment in their faces as they transformed their imagination into fruition. Very fulfilling indeed :)

The mess of "snow" on the floor but the look of delight on their faces is priceless indeed

3) Dancing and Singing! 

Timeout: 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how sweaty they are!

The Bees love dancing to happening fast music. From electrifying techno music to sexy retro tunes to upbeat Bollywood disco songs. Once, I draped my belly dancing scarves for each of them and taught them the basics of belly dancing, then Hubby turned on some exotic tunes from an Indian radio station. We sat back and enjoyed an utterly sizzling show of invigorating belly dancing from the Bees!

Spent belly dancers after 30 minutes of hip wriggling! 

On yet another occasion, the belly dancers were metamorphosed into cheerleaders, using the pom poms to create boisterous cheer moves. 

Finally, we bought a couple of children's karaoke DVDs to entertain them. With or without microphones, we can usually expect about 30 minutes of uninterrupted time as they were enthralled by the tunes and sang along, while we clapped in appreciation (and gratitude of the free time we get!).

4) Painting and Drawing

Timeout: 45 minutes to an hour

On days or evenings that I do not wish to teach them anything yet want them to do something fairly constructive, I would whip out our reliable paintbrushes, pencils and drawing paper. The Bees would then spend some quiet time transferring what were broiling in their imaginative minds onto paper. 

Big Bee would usually prefer to draw different scenes from her life experiences, whereas Little Bee would relish in painting large strokes of different colours which may contain volumes of hidden meanings to her which we cannot decipher!  

"A Trip To The Zoo" by Big Bee (click on the painting to see a slightly larger version of it)

"Earthy", an abstract creation by Little Bee