Category: 4 year old

Chinese Lanterns

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I was searching for some Chinese New Year crafts for the kids while our English speaking nanny, N, was here and playing with E and L. I made a prototype of this lantern, which raised the kids’ attention and wanted to make the lanterns immediately.

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We took out some coloured paper and followed the simple instructions:

LanternBlog

We drew lines along which the kids could cut a staight line. Little L cut like a pro. E needed to be reminded of the correct position of her arm.

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We used a stapler to fix the lanterns insted of sticky tape.

Both E. and L. enjoyed cutting and stapling, what’s more, they loved how wobbly the lanterns became.

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We displayed out creations in the hallway.

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A very easy craft that you do not have to prepare beforehand.

While working on the lanterns, the kids started to sing a German song that E. had learnt in school for the St Martin’s Day lantern celebration and, of course, Little L knows perfectly well.

By the way, Chinese New Year celebrations are ended with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the firs lunar month.

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We also metioned the Chinese zodiacs and identified who is which animal in our family:

  • E. is a dragon just like her father
  • Little L is a sheep
  • myself is a horse

2020 is the Rat’s year.

We might do some zodiac crafts so stay tuned.

Happy Chinese New Year

Memory jar 2019

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As opposed to last year’s memory jar  this year the jar was full by September I had a really hard time to tuck the last 4 months’ experiences into it. Many things have happened this year, plus E. added her own notes secretly.

The jar is full

We “pour” the paper pieces out of the jar over Little L. who was “swimming” in them.

I did most of the reading. E. didn’t feel like reading out. What a pity!

Still, we had a lot of fun remembering great times. The number of paper pieces were double compared to last year and the kids were losing their concentration toward the end.

Anyway, it was great joy to remember all the fun we had last year. A great activity throughout the whole year and also on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.

I’ll save these pieces of paper for later so the kids can re-read them if they wish when they’re all grown.

Making memories for the future.
Happy 2020!

Treetop painting with corks

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After playing outside and observing the autumn leaves I prepared an easy, colourful painting activity for E.

 

While doing it with our Canadian nanny, V., we were revising the autumn colours and talked about why leaves change colours in the autumn.

So after snack time when our nanny, V. arrived they sat down together to start painting.
(I didn’t prepare much for this activity. I just put out the paint – orange, yellow, red, and brown -. a palette and two sheets of paper with a bare tree drawn on them. I forgot to take a “before” photo. 😒)

The painting could start. E. squirted the paints on the palette, which is a great activity to strengthen the muscles in her hands).

Each colour had its own cork.

They made dots on the branches.

Autumn leaves are falling down.

Using both sides of the cork is rather messy…

 

End results…

Can you guess which one is E.’s  painting? Just after having finished, E. said something about the wind and tons of leaves and was smudging brown paint all over her tree top. Well… no comment 😜

Popsicle tree

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Since autumn arrived we have been collecting leaves, talking about why leaves change colours and why they fall down. We’ve been hugging trees, examining their bark, trying to climb up on them, just to mention a few tree related activities. Outside.

When the weather got really rainy I thought I would bring the tree activities inside. That was when I introduced the popsicle tree activity to E.

What you need:

  • 20-30-40 popsicle sticks (wooden spatulas can be bought at the chemists for 500 HUF – less than 2 euros – but in hobby stores they can be found too)
  • collected leaves (or felt leaves)
  • conkers, acorns or any other nuts
  • felt animals like hedgehog, any kind of bird, squirrel etc.
How we played:
I gave E. the bag which I collected all the goodies in and I showed her how to build a tree. I just started and she took the lead.
While doing it we were talking about the different parts of the tree (tree top, branches, leaves, trunk, bark, roots). Also we mentioned what we can see in the tree top in different seasons. (green leaves in the spring, fruits in the summer, bare branches and yellow leaves in the autumn, nothing in the winter).
She placed the leaves very accurately.
Then some conkers and a squirrel…

After a while I couldn’t hold Baby Sis back and she came to “destroy” E.’s tree. There was some screaming and “don’t touch it” but not much playing together. E. gave L. a conker to play with but I had take it away from L. as it was too small (and I wanted to avoid ER at all cost) E. tried to give Baby Sis a laminated leaf but she wasn’t interested. Baby Sis wanted the popsicle sticks, which meant the end of the tree.

“Noooooooo”
After a while E. gave up  (got a little offended) and turned away from us to build a house instead out of the popsicle sticks.

 

E. was so uninterested at the end that only Baby Sis helped me pack away. At least we practised “put it in” with her.

As you can see life and activities with 2 kids are quite a challenge. I keep trying but success is still far away…

Anyways, I’m thinking of adding some brown yarn or thin ribbons to create the roots. We’ll try again next year when Baby Sis might not want to “destroy” but rather want to build.

Stomp on the grapes

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Harvest season is here and E. was very disappointed that she couldn’t take part in the grapes pressing/wine making fun at the kindergarten. Challenge accepted. We’ll press grapes juice here at home in the traditional way.

In the morning we went to the market and bought, among other foodstuff, 2 kilos of grapes (Szaszla).

We washed them together and put them in a big plastic basin.

I also prepared for her a smaller bowl of water for rinsing her feet and a towel too and waited for V., our new nanny, to arrive.

At first, she was hesitant and  didn’t want to step in. Then she did and started to cry a little. She had ambivalent feelings concerning the experience, the feeling on her feet. She got out of the basin.

So Baby Sis gave it a try too.

After some pressure and reassurance, she tried it again and this was the time when she started to enjoy it. And she stomped and stomped and stomped like a dinosaur. She clawed some of the grapes from the sides and stomped some more.

 

 

She got the hang of it and she was even willing to sing the grapes song she’d learnt in the kindergarten.

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E. tried the freshly pressed grape juice but it won’t be her favourite refreshment.

We need to do this again with more preparation from my side and some more harvest activities to follow. Maybe next year when Baby Sis can join in more actively.