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Showing posts from April, 2015

Four-legged Escape Artist - 12 Apr 2015

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Posted by Brandon Cookie, a Miniature Pinscher that joined our family. She is black and brown with a white dot on her forehead. When we got her, she shivered because she was very scared. Minature Pinscher is a one-person dog (Only close to one member in the family). Day one with  Cookie was challenging. She was whining at night and waking all of us including the neighbours.  I started to train her to follow me since it is a one-person dog. She started to follow me from the backyard all the way to the car porch and it worked! She started to trust me more when I play with her. The next day, I taught her to walk on the grass. She was scared to walk on the grass at first but she slowly built up courage. She started to walk on the grass and trot when I ran. I was so happy. We bought her a cage, a water bottle and a bowl. One time when I sat on the mat, she went on me and slept on my lap. I was so surprised but I had to wait for two hours because she slept on me. ...

Homeschooling with Charlotte Mason

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W e love the Charlotte Mason methods. Each school day is like a feast, lavishly spread on a long table, with an abundance of ideas and variety, and each small guest assimilates what he can. I use the weekly schedule provided by Ambleside Online , it's very flexible and I do not prepare my lessons. We're so grateful to all the wonderful moms from Ambleside Online, for making this journey possible. We found a caterpillar when we read the Parable of how the caterpillar who did not believe it'd one day be a butterfly. We kept the caterpillar, and soon it turned to a cocoon. After some time, the cocoon dried up and disintegrated into pieces. We, too, thought that something went wrong and there's no more life. Lo and behold, one day, a moth emerged! It was so encouraging to us - to have faith in what we're doing, even when we don't feel it.     We read stories from the living books, very very slowly, sometimes we finish a short story in a week or more. Th...

Adventure Sports camp -10-12 April 2015

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Posted by Xian Wei This year, I joined an Adventure Sports camp for 3 days, also organised by Radiant Retreats. This is a level 2 camp, just before the Wilderness Skills Camp under the Bronze Category. This time there were about 16 participants. We were divided unevenly into 3 groups.  Rope Climbing...Our first lesson of the camp. The ropes blistered my hands..      After that, we went river trekking at Kg. Chemperoh again, but this time we went further upstream. In the midst of river trekking, we also did river crossing because the water was deep there. When we finished, we were totally drenched... But the water activities weren't over yet! We went for rafting after that and did river tubing there. It was really fun... By then the water activities were over. It was time to go back to the campsite...  The next day, we did basic abseiling. Next, we did map reading. We were asked to draw our dream island. The top left...

What a Goat Year - Feb 2015

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It's Chinese New Year. Year 2015 is the Year of Goat or Sheep or Ram, whatever. One of the things we enjoy, not sure it's a tradition or not, is making crafts for decoration. Paper cuts is a popular Chinese handicraft. It's good for training the motor skills as well. Learning some simple designs from Youtube  and the techniques of cutting can be tricky. We've some visitors this CNY, so we put up more decorations in the house than usual. The red crafts sure made our house looked cheerful and festive.  Another tradition we enjoy is meeting up with our family members and friends. Especially those who come back from afar. We do not reside overseas so we do not feel the anticipation of travelling far for family gatherings. Most of the gatherings revolved around eating, and eating and eating. The kids enjoyed throwing the Pop-pop at each other, and the more daring ones played the firecrackers. Think the boys have outgrown the mild sparklers. Visit from my Myanm...

Cameron Highlands - 31/1 - 3/2

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In recent years, Cameron Highlands has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. We haven't been to this highland like for more than 7 years. This highland, surrounded by mountains and lush valleys, is the size of Singapore. It's one of those places we can go for a cool respite from the heat. We drove past the tea plantations, and they looked exactly like what we remembered years ago. Hopefully other parts of CH would be the same, despite what we read in the news. The OMF Bungalow, an old colonial bungalow near Tanah Rata - looked like a different world hidden in the mountains. It was very windy, and COOL. We couldn't have enough of the cool, fresh, mountain air. Breathing in until every cell in our bodies was filled with the sweet, refreshing, clean air. We didn't expect at Tanah Rata, the temperature was at 15 Celcius daytime, and even lower at night. A beautiful, well-maintained garden with rose bushes. It was simple, yet spacious so that we could ...

Healthy Start - 17 Jan 2015

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We're very unfit. Some of us are slightly better, but still lacking in stamina. So we decided as a family that we should do something. Hiking may be good for the boys, but may not be so good for our old knees. The older boys, together with their father, tried out Bukit Apek, which is near our place. It's good for beginners, we heard, yet still challenging with many trails. We're beginners, and the first thing we have to overcome is, our discipline to get up early :(( We're still trying, not so much success, but a start (hehe). There're a few entry points to the hill, this one is from Jalan Awana 23, Taman Segar Perdana, Cheras - a famous landmark is the dessert & drinks stall just before the entry point. This place is very popular with the locals, young and old. The initial trails were very steep, so a walking stick is advisable. Thanks to the big trees and the lush green growth, the hike was cool and shady! There're a few pit stops l...