Camping trip at KLD

Adam has been asking me daily to 'make fire' and go fishing. He wants to make fire in front of our house! It's about time we take that boy camping. So last week we did. We went to Kem Lambaian Danau, an outdoor camp that usually organises outdoor courses for big groups. The owners are my uncle and auntie, and the camp was empty at the time so we had the place all to ourselves. The camp is at a beautiful location, out in the wild and right next to a big lake.

*bear with me this entry's full of pictures

Adam making our tent with Tok Busu and Tok Auntie

This is the book that inspired this trip. Back when we were in the UK, I found this book second hand at a market. The title is 'The curious boy's book of Adventures'. I was planning to give it to him when grows up, maybe 7 -10 years old? All kinds of interesting things in there for curious boys from camping to hunting to making rockets and writing secret morse code. But Adam found this book and it has been one of his favourite book ever since.

When the tent is all set up and the fire started, we went fishing at the fish pond next to the lake..

Adam and his diy fishing pole

we caught 4 fishes and my husband got the biggest one - 2 kilos ikan patin!

Adam spent hours tending to the fire. He's been dreaming about this for a long time. He didn't get bored and never even asked for his toys or ipod.

In the late afternoon we went on the boat around the lake. In the picture Mia is holding some 'monkey pots' plant (periuk kera) that grows wild over the lake. In the background is my cousin who grew up around the camp and is the ultimate 'lake boy'. He was our guide when we were there.

These trees are big with big trunks but the trunks are hollow and the trees, big as they are, grow floating on the water like lilypods. My cousin said if you're stranded around water this tree is good to find as they  make good rafts.

Then we went swimming! If this isn't 'wild swimming' I don't know what is. The water looks murky because the floor of the lake is mud and there are lots of water weeds floating around. But the water is clean and lovely to swim in.

there are a lot of treasure to be discovered. Here's an escargot, breeding wildly on the shore. They also found and caught some little prawns there.

the boys went on a canoe trip

That night we had a barbeque!  those two big fishes covered in foil are the fishes we caught that day...ikan patin..huu sedap! and so fresh. the rest of the fish we kept for masak tempoyak pulak later..pergh..Adam insisted to be the chef. He refused to leave the bbq until all the food's been cooked.

The next morning we went on the four-wheel around the wilderness surrounding the camp. There are 7 lakes around the back, they used to be mines. From one of the laks you can view Gunung Ledang. We stopped some interesting places along the way. The tranquil lakes made me feel like diving in for a swim! According to my cousin in one of the lakes there's a spot where local village boys climb trees and jump into the water! Sounds like the kinds of childhood I want for my kids. Oh my.

One of our stops was to the 'Canyon'. This is a natural canyon shaped my moving water. Those holes you see are homes to thousands of little blue birds - Tiong Pasir. This was an amazing experience for us. The place is huge, full of bird holes everywhere. We even found some hatched eggs!

Mia next to pokok senduduk, picking the flowers and fruits. This plant grows wild around the canyon. You can eat the fruit and it'll make your tongue purple.

It was only a short trip and soon we had to go, very reluctantly! Adam was crying for a while because he didn't want to leave. We promised to come again, soon! Such an adventure we had. Thank you so much Pak Busu, Auntie and Iwan for your hospitality! can't wait to go again...

How to make a volcano - a tutorial

Start by cutting out a third off an empty plastic bottle. Tape the bottom of the bottle onto a board.

Crumple up newspapers into balls and tape around the bottle making the rough shape of a volcano.

Make a paste of flour and water. Cut newspapers into long strips, dip into this paste and then wrap the strips around your volcano.

Keep wrapping layers upon layers.

You can make ridges or bumps or whatever you like. Then let it dry overnight. (it needs to dry fully. Warn the kids about this before you start)

The next day, paint your volcano. Let it dry. Then the experiment can start.

Volcano eruption recipe:

1 tbsp of bicarbonate soda - Place this inside the bottle

mix together separately -
1/4 cup of water
1/4 cup of vinegar
a few drops of red food colouring
a few drops of washing up liquid

* Depending on your bottle size, you may need to double of triple up the amount stated above. We doubled up.

Pour this mixture into the bottle. Stay back and watch the eruption!

Full on volcanic eruption. Beautiful!

Have fun!

So what do they do all day?

PLAY! 

Sew as one

Yesterday Adam wanted to sew himself some traintracks (??!). He asked Mia for help..

rather good teamwork, i must say ;)

Later that day he wanted to sew some more and asked Mia to help. She said "Sorry, I'm busy!" . She was sorting out coins. Hey that's serious work too, you know ;)

Handmade apron knobs

I asked my husband to make an apron holder for all the aprons we've been making recently. He came up with this brilliant apron knobs. It is a collaboration work between my husband and the kids.

The kids painting the knobs

all done and getting dried

working together

almost there..

all done!

perfect height for the kids to hang their own aprons after their activities

I loved the resulting apron hanger. So useful! But the best part is having it made with love!

p/s: i wonder if there are any woodwork classes for kids around here?

Red slime

These days Adam is filled with the excitement of 'making things'. Everyday he asks me 'I want to make something. Let's look for a recipe'. The other day he wanted to make slime.

RED slime! It was quite a lot of fun. the slime behaves rather strange - it is solid when you grab a handful and roll it up like playdough, but when you let it rest it turns into liquid and drips down your fingers. Try it!

Slime Recipe

a cup of cornflour

water (room temp)

some food coloring *optional

-gradually mix water into the cornflour until you get the consistency you like. food coloring too. mix it all slowly. mix it hard and fast. Play.

How the baby get in there???

Today, while lying in bed cuddling with Adam and Mia...
Adam: *holding my tummy* Where the baby lives?
me: here..the womb..
Adam: How the baby come out mom? He goes up from your mouth ke?
me: no, sometimes the doctor cuts through the tummy to take the baby out... or sometimes baby come down through the vagina, like Adam and Mia...
Adam: that's disgusting!
me: nope, that's the right way for the baby....
Adam: oooh....
Adam: then how the baby gets in there?
me: errrrr.... *looked at my husband for help. he ran quick as he can to the bathroom!* Allah put him there...
Adam: what? no..... how he put in there? doctor inject something tajam here to put baby in ke?
me: no, baby grows from the egg... go get your Human Body book....




thank God indeed for that book!
from there I answered more bold questions about how the baby grows...
oh my, i wasn't prepared for this. I didn't think I'd be answering those difficult questions this early on..
pheuw!

p/s: no i am NOT pregnant!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

oh my

this is the reason i wake up in the morning. this.

*Mia saw me uploading this photo to blog. She promptly smiled and said "Aaahh, ni Adik read Octopus for Adam..."

Cookie decorating session

I was excited when I heard there were going to be Little Chef Workshop at Alamanda last week. We spent the week making aprons (will blog about this later) and then went early last Saturday to take the kids.

I put Adam's apron on first, then the instructor came over to put Mia's apron on...I could sense disaster coming. The girl doesn't respond well to kindness from strangers! She started wailing out loud and refused to join in the session.

Adam plotting on how to decorate his cookies

I thought it was going to be a baking class but actually the cookies were ready made, they were just going to decorate it. But still it was interesting..

Mia all moody and said 'Adik scared Uncle...'

putting the final touches on his star cookie

That look on his face was priceless!

*Price per session = rm10

It was a fun session. The kids had fun...but I observed something during the session. While teaching the children how to decorate, the instructors showed them a 'finished' product and specifically instructed them to copy the cookie exactly. Any initiative to be creative is promptly turned down. They had to follow the exact colour, the same technique. When Adam was going to decorate his second cookie, which was a dinosaur shaped one, there was no 'finished' dinosaur cookie to copy. I was relieved and thought, oh finally we can see some freedom and creativity here. Adam chose yellow and blue to decorate his dinosaur and the instructor said 'Yellow??? Choose green la....come on...green is better...there's no yellow dinosaur....'

This again made me think about schooling and our school system. Most schools operate on this strict basis of conformity. They expect all the children to fit into the same mold. They decide of what the children must learn, and how, and leave very little room for individuality.

So what if the dinosaur is yellow?

Dinosaur Museum

Hello, welcome to the Dinosaur Museum. Come through the green doors please...school children are most welcome here. Don't be scared of the dinosaurs, they're just fossils. But the 'Museum Uncle' (Adam the museum staff) can feed the dinosaurs (???). School children are allowed to feed the baby dinosaurs.

Recently, Adam is very interested in dinosaurs. He played 'Dinosaur Museum', he asked to be read many books on dinosaurs, and he asked a LOT of questions. Like, 'why are the dinosaurs dead?? What happened to them?' Then he proceeded to ask 'Is this one dead?/ Is this one real?' to each of the dinosaur pictures in his books (there are hundreds!). No one really knows the right answer to why the dinosaurs are extinct. All I could find are a few theories, which makes it difficult to explain to a four year old, because I can't be certain either. My husband found a video last night on youtube with animation on the theories of how the dinosaurs were wiped off the Earth and Adam was so excited he could not stop talking. Then there's the issue of evolution, which is presented in most books, but is unacceptable in Islam.

Does anyone have a good Islamic resource one pre historic dinosaurs? Please help. I'd be most grateful....

Worm Digging Tutorial, by Adam

I came across worm digging by accident recently while having a picnic at the park with my family. Mom, Mia and I were on the picnic blanket having our lunch while Daddy was taking our pictures. I was going to put on my yellow boots to join Daddy when I saw it. A huge worm! Right under Mommy's feet! I told Mom and she screamed in shock! Silly Mommy ;)

Aaanyway, after that I decided to go on a the search for Worm-py. Ah yes, I like to add a Y at the end of any word as I see please. Choose can be choo-sy, Up can be Up-py, Snake can be Snaky, Shoe can be Shoe-shi. Mom said 'Oh you mean Wormy, Adam?'. No Mom, I said Worm-py! *roll eyes*

Right, I'm getting a teensy bit distracted here. Let's get back to finding Worm-py.

First step, gather you tools. You can use a fancy digger, or use whatever you have. Here I am using a pair of plastic fork and spoons from our lunch earlier.

Now, start looking for worm trails. Daddy told me that the best way to spot a worm hole is by the 'fresh worm poop' on the ground. These are round little brown things..that looked like..well, poop!

Once you spotted these trails, just go on and start digging! Use your hands if you wish. It's a lot more fun I can promise you!

Try to rope your little sister into helping you dig as well. Remember she might need a little guidance, but she'll get there soon enough.

There, I told you. She's already enjoying it. Cutting your job in half. Ha!

Now little sisters are notorious for getting distracted easily. Especially when she sees you so focussed that it gives her an opportunity to launch an 'attack' at you. Cheeky! But, if you're a toughy like me, you might want to consider letting it slide. She's only little.

See how happy she gets?

Where was I? Oh yes. I was digging. Now after some exciting digging you may find little tunnels where the little Worm-pies live. Be gentle and eventually you will find what you're looking for.

Taraaaa!!

The End!