Thursday, 4 April 2013

UK Farm Stay! 15~16th Mar'13

Hmm.. the title could be misleading.. well, we went for UK Farm Stay, but not in UK! Hahaha..

We planned this trip to bring my parents to Port Dickson (PD) for a short trip, during IZ's first term holiday. Such a lucky boy to have a short break after a term. :-D

We decided to take it easy to drive up a day before we were supposed to meet up with my parents. I googled about the farm stay my brother told me about, in Air Hitam, Johore. I called them up and check for availability the next day, they are AVAILABLE. yippie!

The whole night and the next morning, IZ kept saying "I want to see mek-mek"!

Hubby and I took half day leave that day, we left home after lunch, and made our way towards North. I suggested to drive to Kluang train station to have coffee break. Well, it was not in the route, it was a detour but that's what road trip is all about right.

It was a very hot day but the coffee shop at the train station was surprisingly cooling. At first I was disappointed as there was no train at the station. But after we get settled down in the shop, came a short train. My guess was short distance train.

Happy boy

Yummylicious!.. and cheap too
It was a great experience for IZ, as it was the first time he see a REAL train. He wanted to board the train, I told him, next time, when we have a chance. Well, maybe we could take from Sg to Kluang for coffee next time? Hehehe..

Seeing train for the first time

Too noisy
After coffee break, we made our way to UK Farm. I was very excited when we drove through the entrance. The trail was so beautiful, although it was not constructed. It could be bad, if it was raining or it rained just before our arrival, but that day was just so perfect.

Hmm.. they are called UK Farm, but they have nothing to do with "United Kingdom, UK" okay?

Perfect weather for our excursion
It was a good 5km drive into where the resort was. But the view was spectacular, you felt like you were in overseas, some ang-moh country or what. The plantations were well maintained, and the place was huge!!!! (I got to know later that it was 200 acres big)

The trail to the resort
Beautifully maintained corn plantation
There it is!
Checking-in (it was super peak period)
Where we put up, the far left chalet.. was told there were only 4 families.. SUPER PEAK?!
The spacious verandah..
The view from the verandah
Back to simplicity room - there was air-cond, tv and wifi though (no mosquito!)
Spacious bathroom
Our "screwed" dinner
Why did I say screwed?

When we arrived, it was past 5pm. They asked us to order our dinner before 6pm, as they have to prepare. So, we ordered and asked when do we have to eat. One of the uncles replied "8+ the latest". So happily we gotten our key, and went to the car, wanted to go to our chalet.

Another uncle called out to us and said, "your dinner is ready". We went "HUH?!?!?!"

He repeated again, and I told him, he might have mistaken, coz we did not intend to eat so early.

He said no mistake, and he appeared not very happy about it.

So I told him, not that we didn't want to eat, but coz we already eaten before we arrived and the other uncle told us we could eat late, how could they prepare our dinner at 5+ before even 6pm?

So we asked the first uncle that we didn't want to eat then. He reluctantly agreed and drove his van to show us where our chalet was. We followed by our car.

Again, I repeated that not that we didn't want to eat, but coz it was way too early, for fear they would spit into our food. Hahaha! I know, paranoid.

Eventually, when we headed for our dinner at 7+, the food they serve, which obviously have been prepared an hour or so ago, turned not nice. While the black pepper lamb chop was not bad, it could have been better if it came fresh from the kitchen.

It was a very unsatisfying dinner, but we made do, as the traveling out of the farm would take us forever in the dark. IZ didn't eat the noodles we ordered for him too, we left the noodles almost untouched.

Lantern for RM10 - this is very famous in TW, surprised to have it in Msia
Write a wish.. what else, he drew a Humpty Dumpty maybe asking him to be good in next life, not to fall down again and break its head! Ha!
Setting off the lantern into the sky - can't help thinking of pollution.. where would the lantern land?
Sunrise in the morning - this was taken at 7+
Amazing.. probably the lowest coconut trees we have ever seen
Morning stroll
Getting ready for our excursion into the farm
Local products for sale!
There was option to take bus.. or..
Horse carriage
IZ didn't enjoy the ride
He said "dog!".. precisely why we need more farm stay
IZ happy
Beaming
Close encounter with baby goat.. 3 weeks old..
Feeding milk
Happy to see so many goats
Time for the sheep to go out
Interestingly..
So disciplined.. haha!
To the grass they go!
Next stop: milking process
Goat milk products
Our poor horse and guide
Herbal Farm
Nice natural blind
Flora
Sight we do not get to see everyday
Stevia tea - refreshing
Gasoline!
This view all over the place
The trail we took in the morning
Some buffalos along the way
Ostrich farm
Feeding ostrich
Re-charge with cooling honey drink
Jakun - Orang Asli (Native) Village
Their typical dressing
Demonstrating how to use sumpit to catch small moving animals
Demonstrating how to catch bigger animals - the cage is built based on the trace of trails the animal made, basically they estimate the size of the animal and build a cage accordingly
Make-shift tree house to avoid big animals while they hunt for days in the jungle
Different types of hut - bamboo, bark, atap leaves
Venturing into a hut
Goat milk chocholate ice cream to re-charge.. again..
Nice pit-stop to buy souvernir, wash-up and re-charge
Passion fruits farm
Mushroom farm
With alot of mushrooms

Wishing Tree

Smart way to earn money eh?
Yeah, that's what we did.. peeped at other people's wishes..
Treehouse on the wishing tree
IZ made it up there
Closer shot
Literally growing mushrooms
IZ made it up another treehouse!
Mulberry farm - owner say we could pluck mulberries
Yummylicious mushroom salad and mushroom cookies
Enjoying mulberry juice


The whole tour around the farm took us 3 hours with the horse carriage. It could take longer if we took the bus which needs min 10 pax to start. Well, of the 10 people, they may want to linger longer here and there or shorter here and there, thus, we decided to do it on our own.

A tip: start your farm journey the earliest, which is the 9.30am trip, and end just nice when the sun is right up on your head and the weather is too hot to venture.

Friday, 22 March 2013

IZ Says: Random

@ 27 months +

50cents coin

IZ brought to me a 50cents coin, and asked me to open. Yes, you read right, OPEN.

I questioned him back "how to open a coin?"

He insisted that I open the coin.

I told him it's not possible for me to open the coin, and I knocked the coin onto a wall to prove it.

He said "I want to eat chocholate!"


Cotton bud candle

IZ took the cotton bud container to me and said "one only". I said NO.

He took it to the grandma and said "one only" and grandma says OK.

He held the cotton bud, singing happy birthday song, so I asked him whose birthday was it.

He said "Ah-Nah" (our helper)

I said, "oh, Ah-Nah's birthday.. how old is she?"

He said "TWO!!!"

Hahahahahahah!

And then he sang:
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to Ah-Nah
Happy birthday to you!

And then I asked him "what's next?"

He gestured cake cutting. I told him we should blow the candle first, he blew the cotton bud candle he was holding and then he cut the cake using the same cotton bud. :-D

Johnny Johnny

This song we learnt when IZ watches YouTube. It has very strong Indian accent but the lyric was quite catchy.

Last night, while IZ doing his routine, rolling on the bed exactly an hour before he finally konk out, suddenly we heard him singing happily:

Johnny Johnny, yes papa!
Giggle giggle, no papa!
Open your mouth, HAHAHAH!

And all of us burst laughing!

Sunday, 3 March 2013

Lesson F for Fish: 20th Feb'13

He asked for lesson a shy 15 mins from my supposed conference call, so I had to do a quick one and left the dad finished up with him.

He took out the same F items from Lesson F for Frog: 17th Feb'13 and then we coloured the fishes together, although more like the dad and I coloured than him. We cut the fishes out and put on the paper clips.

Tara!
Fishing!

I left for my conference call thenafter, and I got to know he flinged the "fishing rod" and hit his eyes. Oops! Be careful you folks!


Sunday, 17 February 2013

Lesson F for Frog: 17th Feb'13

We have not had lesson for over a week now, due to Chinese New Year. I promised him this morning before I left home, that we would do Letter F tonight. He waited impatiently while I bathed and got ready.


Letter F items
  
Putting a driver to the fire engine

I asked if he could write F
I didn't expect him to be able to write the letter when I asked if he knows how to write the letter F. He said "yes" and took the board to the table and started writing. He cited "letter factory" when he left traces on the board.
Was not able to get a better angle, but I know he got the letter F concept correctly, thank you Letter Factory!

Putting glue on the frog

And pat the green paper on

Our frog!
Playing with the frog

Sticking out frog's tongue!

We all found it so funny when he tried to figure
  
As he couldn't grasp the idea of holding the frog, we had to do away the frog for now, he could blow wonderfully well

Past Lessons:
You can also follow IZ's Lernen-Reise on Facebook for more personal and up-to-date learning fun!

Lesson E for Egg.. again..: 09022013

I've decided to do another round of E for Egg as I do not think IZ was ready for elephant. Egg has been  his latest obsession lately, due to Humpty Dumpty.

E items

Playing with eggs I've drained and washed carefully

Asked him to hammer one of the eggshell to pieces
And glue to the egg shape

Then we made a Humpty Dumpty with the other


Letter E is up!

Past Lessons:
You can also follow IZ's Lernen-Reise on Facebook for more personal and up-to-date learning fun!

Monday, 11 February 2013

IZ says..

@26 months

GuGu was drawing a person and told him it was his daddy..

IZ: papa angry
Mommy: why is papa angry?
IZ: because IZ eat all

(He was referring to daddy refrained him from finishing the fries as he started to cough this morning.. Of coz daddy's tone was scolding..)

Wahaha! In a matter of time, he would be complaining to his teacher that we scold him at home for various reasons.. Lol!

Friday, 8 February 2013

Lesson E for Egg: 7th Feb'13

It has been a few days since we had lesson.

Told him we were going to learn letter E.

I was beaming happily when he could tell the feely were made of eyes. I bought some wiggle eyes from Daiso and then he took out the items E from the treasure bag.

This time, I didn't switch on the Phonics, instead, I sang on my own using the book. He paid more attention to me than the TV! I shall try again the next lesson.

Tracing the letter E
Letter E items! Yeah, that's a real egg! Unfortunately dropped on the floor by IZ, thus the crack, luckily it was a hard-boiled
 He likes Humpty Dumpty, thus he was really interested in the egg. It's his first encounter since his last incident with raw egg when we made muffins. He developed such bad allergy I didn't let him play with egg anymore then. It has been months.

Touching and feeling the egg, something he wouldn't be able to do usually as he is allergic to them

The hard-boiled fortunately will not cause such reaction

Peeling off the shell
 
Touching the inside

Let him taste the yolk, his first time eating hard-boiled egg yolk

Hammering the shell

More peeling

And glue onto the sheet

Mainly completed by me.. E for Egg!
Past Lessons:
You can also follow IZ's Lernen-Reise on Facebook for more personal and up-to-date learning fun!

Thursday, 7 February 2013

CHILD OF OUR TIME (EARLY LEARNING) BY DR. TESSA LIVINGSTONE


This book is really interesting as this is a real observation on children for the first 5 years of their early childhood.
I like that it shares some case studies followed by recommendations for appropriate age, ie. infant, toddler and older children.
I’m more convinced that every children can develop at their best with the right kind of support and a lot of love from their parents.
But I’m aware my parenting style needs continuous improvement, to ensure my son grow up to his potential.

Tuesday, 5 February 2013

Random @ 26 months

IZ drives too

He took his daddy's car key and pretended to press while pointing it to his toy car. Then he climbed onto his car and pretended to insert the key to start his engine.


Naughty Ah Ma

He was playing on his own when he ran and ran. We were about to tease him "naughty IZ" when he suddenly said "Naughty Ah Ma".. hahaha!


Added on 7th Feb'13:

New Clothes

I was not feeling well two days ago, and so I changed into long sleeves PJ. The one I wore when I was in confinement, breastfeeding IZ.

When he saw me, he ran to me and tugged my PJ and claimed "mommy new clothes".

I'm impressed! LOL!

PS: Obviously he doesn't remember anything about breastfeeding him in that.


Wet & Dry

Few days ago, I reached home a little earlier than usual. Before I closed the door behind, IZ said "I want to go out" and pointed to the door. I told him no, I just got home, and we are not going anywhere.

He insisted he wanted to go out, went to the shoe cabinet and took out his sandals. I'm not sure if he put them on himself or his Granny helped him into them.

Seeing I didn't show any sign of moving or going out per say, he went to the shoe cabinet again, and took out MY SLIPPERS and put them right at my feet. "Mommy wear", he said.

So given no choice, I agreed. He followed me happily with a ball.

When we reached downstairs, it started to rain. Thank goodness, we didn't go anywhere outdoor, the rain came just in time. So he played with his ball at the void deck.

The ball was shot out into the drain, in the rain. I went to pick, twice. Passing the ball back to him, he complained the ball is wet. He took his hanky from my hand and wanted to wipe the ball dry! Brilliant!

I told him the hanky is meant for him, we play with the ball till it gets dry up.

Later on, I pointed to the rain with him on my laps, and said "it's raining.. the rain dropped onto the floor and it becomes...?"

He replied "wet".

Then I pointed to the dry area and say but the floor over here is..?

He replied "dry".

Oh wow, he knows the concept of wet and dry!

How fast can you type?

I'm so tired at work decided to play this again, not sure if this is one of my best.

Here's the link if you would like to give it a try:

http://10fastfingers.com/typing-test/english




PS: I'm always thankful my sis sent me to computer course that includes FOC typing course (which means you go there and type and type and type and type) when I was waiting for my SPM (aka O'Level result)