Teaching your pre-school (2-6) to read English and Chinese at home

I found these books (first 100 words, 8 books per set) to be very useful for pre-school children to learn their first 100 Chinese words. Each book only cost you around RM5.50. You can even buy from Popular Bookstore Malaysia.

Picture adapted from: https://www.popularonline.com.my/cnsimplified/9789670370095.html

For English reading scheme, I prefer "Key Words with Peter and Jane". Each book cost around RM9.90 in Popular Book Store and you can also buy them in a set online. I have only started to buy the first 6 books at the moment (1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c). Series with "a" are for reading while series with "b" and "c" are for further reading practice and writing respectively.



Picture adapted from: http://www.lelong.com.my/ladybird-keywords-peter-jane-full-set-36-books-kiddyzone-165268251-2018-07-Sale-P.htm

I have actually bought "Key Words with Robin" too but  found my child could not catch up with the progress from book to book.

I do not know how many key words should a child recognize in preschool but I am satisfied if my child can at least read 100-200 words in preschool. Any other good books that you have come across and wish to share with me for a pre-school kid? I would love to know more from you out there :).

Experience Staying in a Confinement Centre in Malaysia

Unlike my previous two times confinement whereby my mother came to my house and stay with me doing all the confinement lady's work for me, I went to a confinement center after delivering my third baby this year (2017). Hiring a confinement lady was not within my consideration as I have another two young children at home who I imagine, will demand for my attention hence making me exhausted during confinement. 

After researching around online, I visited Bellemom Confinement Centre in Puchong which was located in between my house and hubby's working place and decided to have my confinement there. They are charging RM8k plus per stay(28 days- start counting from the day you checked in). The price including a confinement lady dedicated just for you and your baby, a single room with bed, table and sofa, 5 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, tea break, dinner and supper), free laundry service, free one time massage for mummy, one pack of pampers for new born, a box of Chinese medicine (So Hup pills), and a pack of sanitary pad for mummy. Besides, you don't have to bring any baby cloths when you checked in here as they have plenty of babies cloths sharing among all the babies. 

This year, the cost for hiring a confinement lady has risen to around RM4000-RM6000 depending on area and the popularity of the confinement lady. My neighbor who had delivered a baby around the same time as I did had hired a confinement lady at RM4300 for instance while I happen to know a confinement lady who get paid RM6000 plus per confinement including ang pow. 

The cost for staying in a confinement centre in Malaysia varied from RM 6000-RM15,000. This again depends on area and popularity. Below are pro and cons staying in a confinement centre from my point of view: 

Bellemom Confinement Centre Puchong 

I love the rooms set up in this confinement centre. They were clean, bright and comfortable to stay (although some mummy did complained that the bed is not comfortable). There are altogether 5 rooms in the confinement centre. One room is spared for mummy who check in earlier or later than the predicted date. A door bell was placed inside each room for mummy to call for her nanny. Besides, each room has a TV with Astro programs. Alas that I do not enjoy watching TV :). 

This is an example of how lunch and dinner were served. Every lunch or dinner came with a meat, a soup and a vegetables. The soup served were mostly herbal soup (rotating). For breakfast, normally we were served with either bread with fried egg and cheese plus ham, misua soup, fried rice, fried noodles or porridge while thong sui (either double boiled raw papaya, pear, sweet potato or red bean) was served for tea break. As for supper, it was simple supper with Milo plus varieties of biscuits or sometimes steam bread. However, on the 4th week, double boiled herbal wine with black chicken will be served every two days as supper.

I like the hospital baby cot that they have in this confinement centre as young babies get to sleep well in it. We can also incline the cot to prevent baby from chocking while sleeping. 

Walkway outsides the room was nicely decorated with wall sticker. A small fridge was provided for mummy to store their breast milk pumped temporarily. 

A small room was partitioned for bathing and changing baby downstairs, next to baby room where all nannies and babies stay. If you prefer, you may let your nanny to fully take care of your baby day and night and only ask her to bring the baby to you when you want to see him or her. You can also ask nanny to bring the baby for your to latch directly during each feed. 

Overall I was quite satisfied with my confinement there except that the food was slightly below my expectation as the food quality is dependent on nannies who cook them. Besides, I was over-pampered with the good food which my mother who used to cook for me in my previous confinement I guess :). The good thing is that I have recovered well staying in the confinement centre with the rest and food obtained. On top of this, I have slimmed down to fit into my jeans before pregnancy again! 

Tips to stay in a confinement centre: 

1. Bring more cloths to spare especially when it was rainy season 

2. Bring your own supplement, chicken essence, DOM etc to get better food during confinement 

3. Bring your breast pump, milk storage bottles and start storing some breast milk if you are going to breastfeed your baby and start working later. 

4. Talk to the operator if you are unhappy about anything including their service or food served to improve it together. Don't just keep it for yourself. 

Diabetes During Pregnancy

Gestational Diabetes

When my little girl turned 2, I was happy to conceive with my third baby again. However, this time I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was 5 months pregnant. While I have no family history of diabetes, I started to suspect that it was due to my eating habits. I have switched back to eating white rice for a few months after picking up a new job. I work from 8.30 to 6pm this time hence making it very hard for me to cook dinner at night. When eating out, brown rice is not easy to get. On top of this, my new job required me to test different cakes and muffins and sweet bread almost everyday!

They called this type of diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy) gestational diabetes. I have checked online (https://www.babycenter.com/0_gestational-diabetes_2058.bc) and it says that if we fall into below categories, we are more likely to get a gestational diabetes:

While I considered myself "lucky" as I only checked point number 1 and not eight of the rest, I was still diagnosed with gestational diabetes! Doctor consoled me that it was not a big deal getting diabetes during pregnancy but these are the risk:

RISK of gestational diabetes (diabetes developed during pregnancy) 

1. Tendency of getting a large baby increases, this lead to difficulties during delivery
2. Too much amniotic fluid (polyhydramnios) which can cause premature labour or problem at deliver
3. Premature birth (giving birth before 37th weeks)
4. High blood pressure during pregnancy (pre-eclampsia) which can lead to pregnancy complication if untreated
5. Our baby developing low blood sugar or jaundice after he/she is born
6. Baby heart beat suddenly stop (stillbirth) during pregnancy (due to the condition is not optimum for baby growth in the womb)
7. Mummy has at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in future.

How was gestational diabetes diagnosed and monitored during pregnancy

I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes after failing the glucose test (we were asked to fast from10pm to 8am and get our blood tested, after that drink a cup of glucose syrup and get our blood tested again after 2 hour). To pass the test, fasting blood sugar has to be below 5.6 while 2 hours postprandial (after drinking glucose syrup) need to fall below 6.7. 

Once we are diagnosed with diabetes, we will need to get our blood tested for sugar level every  bi-weekly. And this time, we need to check our blood 2 hours after breakfast, 2 hours after lunch and 2 hours after dinner plus early in the morning (4 times a day). If we do not own a kit to test blood glucose ourselves, we will need to spend long hour waiting in the clinic to get our blood tested during the appointment for sugar test. 

An example of record of Blood Sugar Profile (BSP) test; we are advised to make note of what we eat when we fail each test so that we can take precaution not to eat similar food in future. I failed in many BSP tests after dinner and was advised by doctor to take insulin injection if this persist. I eventually took control of my BSP by controlling amount of rice eaten at night and taking a walk after dinner. It really helps!

It almost took us the entire day to monitor our BSP in government clinic. The good thing is that for government clinic, they offer us to borrow a BSP test kit with a deposit of around RM50 (refundable) provided we buy the accessories including the needles or lancets and test strips ourselves. Since I am working and will not be able to report at the clinic often, I decided to buy a BSP test kit myself. After surveying online, I found an affordable test kit at www.11street.my. 

Review- Accu-Chek Performa Blood Glucose System

Accu-Chek Performa came with a lancing device, a reader, 10 test strips and 1 lancet  drum (with 6 needles or lancets). The good thing about this lancing device is that you can adjust how deep you want to prick your finger when taking blood (I am using 3.5 setting) and this resulted in less pain than a normal lancet (used by Klinik Kesihatan). The reading device came with lifetime warranty! To use it, you only need to on the reading device, place a test strip in place, clean your finger with alcohol swap and then prick your finger and get a small drop of blood staining on the other end of the test strip. Reading will appear within seconds! The whole test will take you less than a minute!

I got myself an Accu-Chek Performa (with 10 test strips and 1 lancet drum which contains 6 lancets inside) at the price of less than RM100. It was a good deal from my point of view as I found similar item selling at Watson for more than RM200! I have also purchased additional test strips at the price of around RM58 for 50 strips (50 tests) at 11street. I have left out the lancets during purchase and hence got a box of 100 lancets in Watson at the price of RM50 plus. 

Accu-Chek lancing device with lancet drums (you only need to change lancet drum for every 6 tests and no needle is exposed from the lancet drum). The adjustable lancing device making finger pricking a less painful experience

Counselling by Dietitian (diabetes during pregnancy)

Once we are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, Klinik Kesihatan will arrange us to get a counselling (in group) given by a dietitian. The session took us around 2 hours and it is very beneficial from my point of view. During counselling, the dietitian explained to us what is a gestational diabetes, what is the risk of getting it, and how should we eat to control it during pregnancy.

We were introduced to this plate called "Pinggan Sihat Malaysia" as a guide on how should we control our diet during the counselling session

An example of suggestion for breakfast at Mamak stall. We are advised to order chapati or tosay instead of roti canai and every meal must come with vegetables

Another example of meal suggestion. We are advised to take half a plate of vegetables for each meal and grill chicken instead of fried chicken should be selected. For drink, we are advised to drink plain drink or drinks without sugar.

A brochure containing some advises was shared to us during the counselling session. You may refer to this if you have diabetes and do not have time to see a dietitian.

Well, I think Kementerian Kesihatan (Ministry of Health Malaysia) has done a good job in offering a free dietitian counselling session for all pregnant mum who is diagnosed with diabetes. We should appreciate the service and take good advantage of it. :)

P/S: I have finally able to control my diabetes by diet throughout my pregnancy without having to take any insulin injection. I am glad that my baby and myself is free from diabetes now. If you get diabetes during pregnancy, don't worry too much but watch out for your diet. I am sure you will be able to control it well with diet and walking exercise like me :).

Changing to another Kindergarten

Changing to another kindergarten 

I did not have time to continue blogging after I returned to work more than half a year ago. This year, I have changed my elder child to another kindergarten situated at the garden we stay. It has been one and a half year JY joined Tadika Kristal Cahaya and she had improved a lot academically. She can read many Chinese and English words with the implementation of reading program in her school. Despite this, I have decided to change her to this new kindergarten with Mandarin as main media in teaching (Tadika Kristal Cahaya was using English mainly) as I found her to be too quite in school. She did not communicate with others at all in school and that was worrying me.

Since my plan was to send JY to Chinese primary school later, I made a firm decision changing her to this new kindergarten hoping to see her becoming more outspoken in school. JY had joined her new school (Taska Prima Tropika) for 3 months now. She refused to go to school on and off for the first 2 weeks again but now she had got used to it. The good thing about this school is that the amount of students were very few. On top of this, the teacher was very stern on training the students (it is a must to greet people when they see them i.e. to greet the teacher good morning, to greet the parents good bye; to finish all the food served by themselves daily). The syllabus was simple, but JY begin to learn writing within the line or box (for English and Chinese) and spelling for 3 language was practiced every week (simple words but to train them to spell and write words on their own). It took a while for JY to follow writing on the lines as well as spellings as it was not a practices in her former kindergarten. But now she had got used to it and start enjoy going to school.

I like kindergarten with outdoor playground for children to run and play each day before school starts.

JY enjoyed the new school very much. The teacher has arranged for a water play session during school holiday for the day care children

While I don't think it was possible to look for a perfect school nearby but I was satisfied with this new choice of kindergarten. The number of students is not too many and teachers here are very dedicated and loving. I enjoyed now and then listening to the teachers in school telling stories about my kids when they were there each day.

Reading program however was not practiced in this new school. Hence, I have bought books to teach JY myself at night to continue her reading program practiced in former school.

Labeling Your Kids Belonging

Happy New Year 2016! School had started again and after buying the kids some new stationary to go to school, we were told to label them so that they won't get mixed up with other kids' belongings in school later. 

I used to label JY's stuff using stickers printed from a sticker printer which I then left aside because it is tedious to use. It was a great experience when I was offered to try stickerkid's labels. We can customize type of stickers (for multi purpose, printing on cloths as well as shoes), colors, as well as inserting pictures (for large stickers) that we want and order it on line. Among the stickers sold, I found the multipurpose stickers (printed in pink in picture below) were especially very convenient to use. It is water resistant, stretchable, removable as well as "re-stickable". The material is very special  in a sense that you could even stick it well along a curve surface! It is so convenient to order these stickers to label our kids' stuff especially when they have so many things to label! If you are interested, you may find out more at www.stickerkid.com. 

Stickerkid made labeling easy 

I do not know since when JY loves My Little Pony so much that she wishes to own everything with Pony on them! Perhaps it was due to watching the link when she "youtubing" with her Galaxy Tab. The products with My Little Pony is 2-3 times more expensive here in Malaysia as compared to other Disney cartoon such as Frozen and Princess. A small school bag with this cartoon on it is currently selling at around RM150 in AEON! As my little girl still could not take care of her belongings well, we certainly have to label everything she brought to school :).

JY was satisfied with a small set of My Little Pony stationary to starts school with

5th Metatarsal fracture- journey of healing

How I googled to scare myself and help myself

Two weeks ago, I missed two step at the staircase back at home while back carrying my  19months old toddler and fractured my 5th metatarsal. The snap was very painful leaving me hugging my foot for the next 30 min while applying ice immediately. My foot started to swell later in the evening (I fell in the afternoon) and I thought I was having a sprain or injury to the tendons or tissues tearing... It was Sunday on the following day. I found the clinic offering x-ray in Bukit Serdang and headed there. Unfortunately, x-ray service was not available on that day and the doctor assured me that it is normally not a fracture if I can still move like this as a fracture is very painful according to her. After getting some medicine for reducing swelling (papain) and pain from there, I headed to Cheras to find the Chinese tukang urut (铁打) thinking of getting it fixed. The sifu suspected that I was suffering from tissue tearing as I did not have any sprain detected. He bandaged my foot with some herbal medication and asked me to go back on Tuesday for follow up.

It was Monday (3 days after the fracture) where my foot started to swell so much (inside the roller bandage) and I felt like it is going to burst out! After removing the bandage in the afternoon, it really swell severely! I loosely bandaged it and decided to get it x-rayed after googling about my signs. I suspected myself getting the 5th metatarsal fracture as my signs and symptoms are very alike with another guy who showed how his foot bruised and swelled in the internet. I requested for an X-ray on my foot in another clinic at Bukit Serdang. The doctor was surprised by how I mentioned to him that I suspected myself to be suffering from 5th metatarsal fracture. Finally, the X-ray result was released and it was confirmed that my 5th metatarsal was fractured in the middle shaft.

How my feet looks 48 hours after fracture

Side view- 48 hours after fracture (Bruise at the toes and base of ankle was obvious, bruise also at the base of my feet) 

X-ray of the fracture feet

With the reference letter written by the doctor and x-ray photo, I referred to Putrajaya Hospital (This time I have chosen Putrajaya Hospital instead of Serdang Hospital after googling its information on orthopedic). As usual, there is a long queue and I was lucky that the doctor decided to see me on that day after knowing my condition. Otherwise, I will be given another appointment to consult on other day. . The nurse and doctor were surprised that I could still walk with a fracture foot.  Dr. Vijay (a young orthopedic) who sees me confirmed that it was a snap and advised me to get an aircast instead of getting my foot cemented. He commented that since I can walk, it is better to use aircast as I can still walk without "tongkat" and taking care of my children at home. He also told me that I could took it out before going to bed. I was charged RM30 for the visit as it was not a fully subsidized hospital (like Serdang hospital who would only charge RM5 to consult a specialist) which I thought was very reasonable.

With Dr. Vijay's recommendation, I called up Wellchem Sdn. Bhd. (a medical supply store from PJ) to order an aircast. Two days later, I got my long aircast sent to me at RM583 including GST. It looks very stylish and easy to wear and taking off! I felt so thankful to people who invented this. I thought that he or she is such a genius to invent an aircast as cement replacer.

Aircast could be obtained from Wellchem Sdn Bhd at PJ. It was sold at around USD70 online

I then started to google about 5th metatarsal fracture and found a lot of information. A study conducted by a hospital in UK on "Aircast walking boot and below-knee walking cast for avulsion fractures of the base of the fifth metatarsal: a comparative cohort study" concluded that a walking boot was a better treatment compared to a short leg cast. Although mine was not an avulsion fracture, it gave me confident that an aircast would be a better choice than cement. I started to feel depressed when I found out that many people out there took very long time or even have to undergo a surgery to eventually heal their 5th metatarsal fracture. Some took 6 weeks to heal while others took more than half year!!  It was well known that the blood circulation to the 5th metatarsal was limited and this somehow makes it heal slower. Some says we should take supplement while some doctors said it is not advisable as we need a balance of nutrient (not just certain vitamins or mineral) to make it work and if we take supplement, we might end up consuming too much of certain minerals/vitamins alone which doesn't do any good to promote healing. Some says we should start to walk when we can to promote healing too!

I decided to share my experience as well to contribute to the pool of information google on 5th metatarsal fracture healing. I have wore the aircast for 10 days fourth day after the incident and starts to feel much better now. Every day I put on the aircast in the morning and took it out in the evening.  I apply hot water bottle on my fractured foot for about 20-30 min each night while doing some massage with ointment.  After that, I bandaged it (with a triangle bandage), walk around in it before going to bed. I took Calcium Magnesium, EPA and vitamin C daily which I thought would be beneficial. I also drink a cup of ginger tea or sea weed tea (sea bird nest which was plant based) before going to bed thinking of it will help to promote healing.  It was 15 days after I have fractured my metatarsal and now it was left with a little swelling (not obvious but dissimilar with uninjured foot) and a little pain when walking. My next orthopaedic  appointment is 11 days ahead (by the time my injury will be 26 days old).

7 days after fracture (wore aircast for 3 days)

_______________________________________________________________________

My second appointment with the ortho had went through smoothly. It was a long queue at Putrajaya Hospital that day with 160 patients ahead of me queuing for payment! It took me 2 hours to make payment and another 2 hours (altogether 4 hours) to complete the whole process of consultation and x-ray which from my point of view is still acceptable. Charges for the service at Putrajaya Hospital as following (for citizen who are non-government servant):

Registration   RM30
First time consultation RM5
Subsequent specialist consultation RM89
X-ray RM100

Unfortunately, they did not print out the X-ray and just saved the soft copy in their system (good thing is that this is much environmental friendly). Hence, I could not share the X-ray progress here. From the X-ray photo, the doctor pointed out to me the new bone cells which started to grow around my fractured part. I have found online that this is called callus. It looked not solid (blur) in the x-ray. Dr. Idris asked me if I really do not want to take the surgery for faster recovery. I answered that I would prefer natural recovery if it is possible. He then gave me another appointment after 6 weeks time (by the time my fracture is 68 days or around 10 weeks old). I was warned that I must wear the aircast at all time except when taking bath and going to bed. I told Dr. Idris that I am having very serious back ache these three days. He just shared with me a copy of physio therapy methods and asked me to do exercise.

I kept on wondering why am I having this lower back ache. At last, I figured that it was due to the aircast. At home in Malaysia, we do not wear a shoe when walking around in our house. Hence, the single aircast which makes me 2 inches higher resulted in poor posture when walking. This had resulted in my bad back ache! After searching around the internet, I saw some ortho suggested just normal elastic bandage and supporting shoes for treating non-displaced mid shaft metatarsal fracture. I decided to wear aircast only when I go out with my shoes. Other time, I will just bandage my feet to walk around to reduce my bad back ache. By the way, my feet  is not feeling any pain beside some discomfort when walking. It feels like tingling around the injured part. However, I knew that bone growing takes time and protecting the injured part is still crucial to prevent the newly grew bone from being damaged.

___________________________________________________________________________

It was 10 weeks after I got my 5th metatarsal fracture. I have been wearing my air cast on and off (normally only wear it when I go out of the house, where I walk a lot or when I feel dis-comfortable walking on my shoes). This has solved my back ache problem completely :P. Besides, I have went to The Mines Wellness Centre (Traditional Chinese Medicine Centre) in Seri Kembangan twice to get acupuncture treatment for my feet and bought a herbal mix to boil at home for soaking my feet). The treatment was very effective on me as I no longer feel very painful when water dripping on my fractured feet during shower 2 days after one acupuncture session. If you are interested to find out more about the acupuncture treatment there, you may refer here: http://ghhs.com.my/v1/index.php/traditional-chinese-medicine/


That day (68 days after fracture), I went to see my ortho again in Putrajaya Hospital without my aircast. My appointment was 9am and I have arrived there at 8.40am. The whole process of paying the bill, taking x-ray and seeing the ortho was only completed at 12pm. The doctor checked if I was still having pain on my feet by pressing different part of my feet. At last, he told me that he is going to discharge me since it seems like I have recovered from my fracture :). the ortho also told me that I was lucky that my healing process was considered rapid as it took in average 3 months for a fracture to heal. I was glad to see callus forming around my fracture as shown by my ortho on the X-ray below. Although it does not grow as nice as my original metatarsal, I am grateful that it only took 10 weeks to heal without surgery.

A naturally healed 5th metatarsal fracture (10 weeks following fracture)

5 Waldorf activities at home for 1-4 years old

Although we knew the benefits of Waldorf pedagogy, the school fees for these nurseries or kindergartens are rather expensive here in Malaysia and their availability is scarce (especially in Serdang and Seri Kembangan, Selangor). It costs us around RM600-800 to send a kid to a Waldorf nursery (from 9am to 1 pm) while it only cost us RM200-RM400 to send a kid to an ordinary nursery (7.30am to 12.30pm).

After quitting my elder girl, JY from QDees for 6 months due to her sinus development after attending the nursery for 3 months (she started with flu and nose allergy and eventually developed into sinus), I resent her to another nursery (Tadika Kristal Cahaya in Seri Kembangan) nearby our house which was less crowded. It was an 'ordinary' nursery applying 'ordinary' teaching pedagogy which including learning ABC the traditional way.

I thought we may be able to conduct Waldorf activities at home aside from sending the kids to an ordinary school. Hence, I let the kids play with these so called Waldorf related activities whenever it is possible at home.

1. Water Play

Water play at backyard

As usual, children love water play. I just filled some pails with water at our backyard and leave them to play. My kids will normally play by themselves for 1/2 hour to 1 hour before they get wet and ready to take a bath. Water play was one of the sensory play which improve touching senses development. There is no limitation on how to play but rather let the children play creatively while enjoying the water. 

2. Sand play 

Sand play at back yard 

My aunt had bought my kids a bag of kinetic sand with some molds and I have put them into a tray and let them play with it whenever they like. I know I should not be using plastic materials or toys for Waldorf pedagogy but I don't want to waste those old toys that the children already have. They have used the sand to make ice creams (mold them with a milk powder scoop and put into a cup). They have also made birthday cake and we lid candle and poked it into the cake, singing birthday song, blowing the candles off before they cut the cakes and dividing them. It was another open ended games/ toys that is cheap and beneficial to the kids.   

My kids enjoyed making birthday cakes with kinetic sand

3. Scooping 

Scooping exercise

I place a tray at one corner in the kitchen and put some containers and scoops (changing the containers and type of spoons/ scoops from time to time) with rice or beans and leave it to the children. They enjoyed scooping the rice or bean from one container to another. Sometimes my elder kid who was 3 years old, would make a shaker by filling a bottle with some rice or beans. Sometimes she just enjoyed filling up a bottle (narrow opening) with the bean by pouring, using a tong or her little fingers. Recently, my 1.5 years old JL also starts pretending that she is making her milk by scooping rice in a bottles and shaking it. I think this is an easy way to train your child's motor skills. There are so many benefits of sensory play that Waldorf had associated with. It says that it will lead to proper touching senses development which eventually improving the brain synapses (making your child smarter?).  

4. Painting and palm printing 

Water color painting on a wet paper

Palm printing. I think young kids prefer palm printing than painting as they haven't master the skill of painting.

I am not an artist but I believe that children should be exposed to producing some art work from small to sharpen their senses on art as well as giving them experience in producing some art works. I learned about "wet painting" (I am not sure of the right terminology to use) which most Waldorf school like to do when I attended the Kolisko Conference in Serdang earlier this year.

How to draw wet painting (easy painting for young children)

Materials:
1. Some thick drawing paper (here I am using 80 lbs paper as a thin paper will break easily in creating wet painting)
2. Drawing board (here I am using a box cover made with plastic)
3. Water color (I use Buncho red, yellow and blue color poster color as they are cheap and widely available) with containers to keep them (I am using the chicken essence containers)
4. Brush (preferable a thick brush) but I just use whatever I have at home here
5. Sponge
6. Cloth (for drying the brush and cleaning the mess)
7. Water container to clean the brush

Method:

1. On a piece of thick drawing paper, use sponge to wet both side and put it on a drawing board.

2. Squeeze some water color (blue, red, yellow for a start) in a jar (here I am using Buncho, a cheap poster color material widely available in Malaysia). I diluted some color materials in a chicken essence containers with cover and put it in the chiller. I normally keep the remaining colors in the refrigerator and use them whenever the children wants to paint.

3. By using a thick brush, let the child expose on how color spread when applied on paper. Teach the child to wash and dry the brush before using another color.

Remember that the key is not to produce a master piece but to experience drawing and have fun with it. You may start teaching about color and how color changes when mixing when the child is ready.

wet painting

wet painting outcome

Showing one of the outcome of wet painting . Easy to create and yet beautiful looking. The workshop in Kolisko Conference had taught me how painting could bring in the inner peace and releasing your tension (art therapy). Adults could paint together with children for self benefits too. 

5. Baking

My previous job taught me about baking science which benefits me for life. I have bought a book entitled "500 Baby & Toddler Foods" written by Beverley Glock and found the recipes were simple to follow and the outcome were very good. So far, I have tried making sweet buns, thumbprint cookies (which I think was a good one to start with young kids), apple crumbles and banana muffins.

How to make thumbprint cookies - adapted and modified from "500 Baby & Toddler Foods"
(Like what the recipe booked mentioned, I think this is a good recipe for older toddlers to help with).

Materials: 
225g self raising flour
100 g cold butter (cut into small cubes)
75 g sugar
1 egg (beat it)
2 table spoon milk (I think you can make milk using the children milk powder too)
 raspberry jam (I am using black current jam which I have)
1 teaspoon lemon zest (I have added this when I made this second times)
handfull of dried cranberry(I have added this when I made this second times)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200 degree C. Grease a baking tray (or lay baking tray with parchment/ baking paper)
2. Place flour and butter in a bowl and rub in the butter (add more flour if necessary) until the mixture resembles breadcrumb
3. Stir in the sugar. (Add the lemon zest and dried cranberry if you want to). Add in the egg, adding milk slowly while mixing with your hands until you have a soft dough. Add milk if the dough is too dry.
4. Put teaspoonfls of the mixture on the tray (you will get around 12 biscuits). Flatten the top gently and make an indentation with your finger in the centre.
5. Place a little jam into the indentation. Bake 15-20 min until golden brown.

The cookies is crispy outside and soft inside. I think the lemon zest gave it a kick which I love! It is very similar to a scone.

So what else can we do with the young children as easy Waldorf activities at home besides these? I would love to hear from mothers and teachers out there!