Fai on 2 wheels

Fai was happy to cycle with his training wheels until one of it fell off. It must be the saltier sea air here in PD, door knobs get rusty, cars get cranky and training wheels just plop off.
Well, JY told him that it was time to start learning to cycle his bicycle. He didn't agree to it right away. His bicycle was left abandoned for months until one fine day JY said to him "Fai let's go cycling but first you have to learn how to cycle"
Fai replied "OK!"
He was rather wobbly in the beginning. He was lopsided, leaning too far to one side and his sister taught him how to straighten out by turning the handles to the other side. He fell lots of times, but got up and went back on undetered.
And in one hour, yup, just ONE hour Fai was cycling his bicycle.
He was one proud boy.
JY was rather proud of herself too.

Fai's

A green elf in its treehouse. Note the blue mushroom.

Two ogres- one big, another small. The big ogre has 4 pets - the big flying pet on the right is a gargoyle and the smaller one on a mountaintop on the left is a harpy

Fai's fruits and vegetables

Bionicle May2011

Fai is into drawing robots now - Bionicles in particular. He intends to teach me how to draw one of them.

A winged Bionicle

Bionicle 24thApril2011

I like his attention to details.

Human Anatomy 7April2011

Fai wanted to know what the the human heart and stomach looked like. After digging through our bookshelf, this was the only book I had with a drawing of human parts.

This book is very well-used with its pages held together by tape. When Fai and Han were younger, they enjoyed looking through non-fiction books and encyclopedias instead of story books.

Fai looked intently at the illustration and began to draw.....

Version 1

brain, trachea, lungs, stomach and intestines

Version 2

Now the drawing is more detailed from the windpipe to the branching tubes in the lungs, heart with blood vessels leading into hands, hair on the head and an accurately shaped stomach and lastly small and large intestines.

Fai got fed-up with human anatomy and decided that his creatures made better subjects.

Look at his creature. Try figuring out which of its body parts is its eyeball, stomach, lungs and heart.

We went to the PJ Community library later that day to browse for more pictures and we managed to find a good one but it was a red spot book. Fai snapped a few photos of the illustrations that he liked for future reference.

Unschooling my kids had enabled me to address their queries and interests immediately. It is times like these that makes being a stay- at-home-mom worthwhile.

Fai's Art at Mulu March2011

Che-che's Birthday.
Note the long legs. The 4 knights under the table are Fai, Han, Ean and Arian.

Evolution
From left, tiny plankton-like lives in water evolving into a bigger creature with wings and appendages. Further evolving with increase in size until the highly evolved creature is formed (top right) .

A hairy giant?

Fai and Machika March 2011

Fai quizzing Machika on Japan as we took the 15 minute ride cable car on Genting Skyway.
Machika says Fai has very good pronunciation when she taught him a few Japanese words and thinks that he even looks Japanese!

Tanjung Tuan 23 Jan 2011

Fai's sketch of the lighthouse at Tanjung Tuan.

Note the wooden hut at the base of the hill, the fishing boats in the sea and radar.

Heroes II for Maths

Fai was introduced to this game when he was about 4 years old. He was enthralled by the mysthical beasts, castles and knights he encountered.



In the beginning I was deadset against allowing the introduction of computer games to Fai but I relented when I realised it allowed a hardworking father some down time, allowed for some father-son bonding and perhaps get some lessons on accumulating resources, training your team and exploring new frontiers and most importantly let me have some time to myself.

Now Fai is teaching his younger brother Han the ropes of the game.
Here is a scenario from last week:
Fai was fiddling with the lego blocks and Han was playing Heroes II. Without shifting his eyes from his blocks, Fai telling Han " Don't go there or your troop will have low morale"
I couldn't believe my ears.
"Huh.....er....why would your troops have low morale, Fai and what would happen if they do get low morale?"
Fai : "I don't like to go there because my hero will move very slowly...like they are dragging their feet"

Well, that's low morale to Fai.....draggy feet.

And yesterday he was asked by his dad to didvide 88 griffins between 2 heroes and without batting an eyelash he said "You mean 44 each?"

Another time his dad said he had too much sulphur (he had 64 units) and he told Fai to give away 44 and in a flash, a few clicks later he had 20 units of sulphur left.

That's maths applied in a fun way.

Fai has also been introduced to Settlers II. I used to play this game way back when I had time to spare. He has caught on to the game rather quickly and knows the chronology of things to build such as grain farm before the mill and after that the bakery and iron mine before the weapons smith.

This reminds me of the movie 'Aliens in the attic' where the kids battle the aliens with skills they acquired from playing Wii and XBox.

Now if only computer games are not such as addiction.....

A day out in PJ 7 Dec 2010

It was a lovely cloudy afternoon and the boys were restless at home. JY was busy in the kitchen baking up a storm. So I took the boys to Taman Jaya.

Climbing web and shark swing.

Fai at the picnic bench drawing a sketch of the park.

Ean watching 2 boys playing badminton.

This man was busy picking up saga seeds. The boys picked up a few themselves. Bright red in colour, they are easy to spot.

When on a nature walkabout with Gary in FRIM, he mentioned that the insides of the saga seeds were poisonous. I did a search and indeed they are poisonous. I guess the general rule of anything that is brightly coloured in nature is poisonous.

The beautiful saga tree. Bird's nest ferns and wild orchids were growing on its trunk.

Lots of kerengga (weaver ants) on the saga tree. They can inflict a painful bite so be keep a watch out for them.

After the park, we headed to PJ Old Town.

Han's sandal strap snapped when we were on a nature walk in FRIM. We finally found the time to stop by at the five foot way cobbler in PJ Old town. These cobblers would sit outside the row of shop on stools waiting for customers to drop by with their array of tools on display. The boys watched intently as he showed off his craftmanship. The cost for sewing the strap back on was RM1.

We walked along the rows of shops and admired the wares on display.

Before going for the tree planting project in Raja Muda, I had a hard time looking for little rubber boots for the boys. Here they are lined up in a row just a 5 minute drive from my house.

LEGO by Fai

An interesting contraption.

Has wheels to swivel 360 degrees. Can be separated into 3 different parts - to be sold separately.

Fai stressed that it depends on the buyer's budget "If you don't have much money, you can buy the smaller part"
He added that for the ultimate fun, you must buy all 3 parts.

He has inherited his father's marketing and sales skills.

Fai's latest masterpiece

More details, in colour.
Fai is now more confident in exploring different mediums and ideas.

I am now contemplating getting him a range of artist's graphite pencils or sticks. Perhaps charcoal to dabble in.

Maybe even those super quality paper with bumpy surface.

Hmmmm...where can I find a good art shop around here that won't burn a hole in my pocket??

Fai's art

Castle, knights, swordsmen

Fire breathing dragon vs Electric dragon defending a stone-walled castle.

Me (pointing to the structure next to the fire-breathing dragon): Is that a crane?

Fai (with an exasperated expression): No, that's a Mage guild

Me:(?????)what's a Mage guild Fai?

Fai: It is a place to go to learn spells

Me: Oh ok.

This is something different from Fai. Not a single medieval thing in sight.

I asked Fai about the picture and he said he drew it for his 4 year old cousin who likes heavy-duty construction vehicles.

Learning from big sis

JY teaching Fai how to use 'Paint'

He followed the illustrations from a book on fondant figurines and came up with a couple of sea creatures. JY was next to him giving him tips every now and again. She is a good teacher. Never intrusive. Always allowing him space to experiment. Giving him loads of praises.

Fai said he wants to be Che Che's caking assistant.

toothpick art while waiting

Fai's works of art while waiting for dinner in Gohtong Jaya.

fun time @ IKEA

What I like about Ikea merchandise is that it encourages imaginative play.

When Fai first saw the blue chute, he got Han to sit inside and he dragged his brother around.

I think that takes a lot of trust, to sit inside, not knowing where you will be pulled to.
They took turns pulling and being pulled.

When Han lost interest and went to play camping with 2 bunnies, Fai turned into a caterpillar.

What a workout he got.

When Arian comes over....

The campsite

Their ship or fort or tower or castle or horse or tank...

Arian said "Let's say a prayer before we eat" .And after that they took their cups and yelled "YUMMMMMSENGGG!" clanked their plastic cups together and downed the H2O

PD 12-14 March 2010

Sunday 11am:

There were 3 groups of raptors. One at Tanjung Tuan, another just over my house and the last group was moving inland. Each group of raptors consisted of about 100-200 birds. It was marvellous watching them swoop and soar as they rode the currents.

Golden Showers is Fai's favourite tree. It was in full bloom and the boys managed to get a few seed pods that had dropped onto the pavement in Palm Springs Resort.

Kent happily sweeping his driveway on a Monday morning.

7am

10.30am

Watching the sunrise in PD, breathing in the fresh crisp air and listening to the melodious chirping of the birds was nice. It is a stark contrast to the smog choked air in PJ.

I shall be spending more time here.




This sunbird has chosen the Southwest corner of the house to nest. The nest hangs on a Petra vine and sways gently when the wind blows. It is indeed an engineering feat as it withstood a heavy shower the night before.