Reward Chart

This year I started a Reward chart for my older girl. Her childcare teacher suggested to me to have this chart at home to reward her good behavior as she seems to do better with this chart in school.

So, we had this chart where I award her points for good behaviors. Extra point given for doing the extra like doing things without being told or being praised by her teachers or helping her friends. I do deduct points at times for bad behaviors. Like when she misbehave in school and didn't do her homework.

If you asked me, it worked most of the time but deduction of points in straight row cause dissentments and uncooperation from her. So nowadays I'll pace myself and not deduct points in consecutive days.  I also give out interim rewards like movie trips or eating at her favourite japanese restaurants when she reached every 10's on the chart.

The final reward at the end of the 100 points is a brand new kids bicycle which is what she wanted. We are working together to achieve this goal before Christmas. At 72 points now, I guess we are moving close.

You can do a simple Reward chart using Word document and insert drawings using clipart of just different shapes.  Mine is given below. You can download and use it if you like.

So, how do you manage your kids? I will like to know as sometimes my patience is tried.

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Angry Bird Lantern

Let me share on my girl's pre-school's lantern project for the mid autumn festive that I did with her a week ago. It was a environmental friendly project and we were supposed to use only recycled materials.

Well, as you can guess, my girl wanted an Angry Bird lantern.  We brainstormed and came up the idea of making a Pig's castle with the King pig inside and the red angry bird swinging onto the castle.  The angry bird will be suspended mid air using a fishing net from one end of a cloth hanger while the King pig will reside in his 'castle' with the eggs!

The main 'castle' is made from a discarded chicken essense box with cut out infront and on the top so that I can insert the candle and King Pig.  Did you get a glimpse of the King Pig sitting in there?

Here's the closeup view.

I've used an empty chicken essense glass bottle for the green pig. Paint it green with acrylic paint all over and paste the eyes, ears and nose in with mod podge.  The eyes, ears and nose are basically drawn on white paper, coloured over with markers and outlined with black marker.

We attached the 'crown' on top of the pig using mod podge.  Do you recognise the 'crown'? It was part of the christmas tree ornament ball, the top part that is attached to a string. 

King pig drying out the paint with the Angry bird in upside down posture!

My girl wanted the Bomber Bird but since I only have Red paint, we go for the Red Bird instead. We use one of the Christmas tree ball and paint it all Red and overlay with white for the tummy.  Waited for it to dry before sticking the eye brows, eyes and orange beak. The eye brows and eyes are pain white paper but the beak was from the cut-out discard from the chicken essense box. I just draw free hand and cut it out with the outline.  Looks like the real thing yah!

I attach the angry bird using a fishing net to one end of the cloth hanger and on the other end, attach the 'castle'! Totally recycled and home-made! Now, the angry bird can swing over and hit the 'castle' as you carry the cloth hanger. So fun!

I lit the tea candle and insert through the cut-out into the 'castle' to make it lantern-like.  The yellow paper trim on top of the 'castle' was done by my girl as it is suppose to look 'castle-like'. We even got the eggs infront!

The king pig in the 'castle' with the eggs and the 2 cotton cording on both ends to attach to the hanger.

We are so pleased with this lantern, except that we got the acrylic paint all over us and the floor!! It's hard to paint a round ball and it kept tripping and rolling on the floor while we dry them. We inserted one end of the paintbrush through the top of the ball and dry it upside down on a bottle. Not very stable and hence the frequent trip overs when we accidentally touch it.

Anyway, these were the paper lanterns that I bought for them that is less accident prone. It had an LED flickering light in it and it's light weight because it was made from paper. My girls walk around with it, or rather, my little one drag her's on the floor as the lantern was abit big for her. 

We walk around our place on the night of the mid-autumn festive (13 September) and ate mooncakes and drank green tea! It's part of the must-haves for this festive which celebrate reunion of families under the Full Moon!

image source: http://www.chinatownconnection.com/

Another pettiskirt & doodle bedsheet

Time flies. I guess as we age, time flies even faster.  Just a twinkle of my eyes and now it's May! It seems like yesterday that I was in Shanghai with my family. It reminds me that I must make the best out of each day and not live to regret it.

Finally, I did some sewing and will now post some of them.  Didn't actually got to sew much as I was so busy with work and being sick.  My whole family came down with cough and flu real serious. The baby got it first and then pass to my husband and then my eldest girl and finally me.  And then, my mother in law caught the bug from my baby and it went round and round. The whole clinic was full of people cough and sneezing! Well, I finally got better now and did a little sewing.

The handle on my beloved luggage was coming apart after the trip. Since we moved hotel every day of the tour, it had been over-handled and the fabric kinda came apart in the middle. 

So, when I was back, after unloading all the items from the luggage, I decided to sew a fabric cover over the luggage handle.  Will not be giving a tutorial for it since it's so simple.  Just measure the length of the handle and cut the fabric and sew velcro strip on the opening sides and it's done! I've used the same fabric which I've used for the camera strap.  As the handle is already padded, my fabric cover is a simple one so that the handle is not too bulky.  Nice! I'm happy with it. It's easy and functional. Try it if you have the same problem as mine. Now, I will be able to recognise my luggage way ahead on the luggage convayer belt at the airport!

The second thing that I sew was another pettiskirt for my littlest girl : ) Since she is only 15 months, I did away with the 2nd tier and just have 1 tier. It's still double layer with the 6"non-fray chiffon that I've used for her sister's pettiskirt, but shorter.  I've adjusted the length of the chiffon to make a smaller version for the baby.  I can't wait for her to try them on!

The last thing that I did was a non-sewing craft with my older girl.  We did fabric painting for her new bed sheet! When I saw the white bed sheet selling at $4.50 at Ikea, I was thinking that it would be a fun painting on them with my girl.  We use the Pentel Fabricfun Pastel Dye sticks which I bought ages ago, to draw and doodle on the bed sheet. 

It was really fun for her and she enjoyed it very much.  I"ve yet to put them on her bed but I know it will be very fun.   Want to try it at home? Get the bed sheets at Ikea. It says that it can fit 8"high bed so should be ok for any single mattress and it's so cheeeap! and of course, FUN too!