DIY Toys: Coconut husk mini basket

Here's a simple craft made using coconut husks. We actually prefer the taste of the larger green coconuts from Malaysia, but for the sake of art, we occasionally buy Botak coconuts from NTUC or Giant. This little hanging basket can be used as decoration, a plant pot, or in our case, a Bear Holder. We finished it in 15 minutes. It's quick and simple, but requires close adult supervision.

Materials

1. Hand drill (hand-operated, not electric. Available from Spotlight. I got my Mini German-made Hand Drill from Garrett Wade)
2. String / Yarn / Wool (We get our wool from Daiso)
3. Botak Coconut husk ( I prefer uncut coconuts. To split the coconut, whack the fattest part with the back of a chopper till it cracks. Drink, eat, scrape, wash, and put it in the sun to dry)

Instructions

1. Using one half of a coconut husk, drill 2 holes, 1 on each side, where you would like the handles to be. If you plan to use it as a plant pot, drill drainage holes at the bottom too. Be careful not to place your hands at the side of the husk, just in case the drill slips and hurts you. You may find it useful to secure the husk on a bench, using a clamp (We got ours from Daiso). A towel also helps to stop the host from slipping and sliding. 
2. Braid / finger crochet / finger knit the wool to make thicker handles.
3. Thread it through the holes and tie a knot.
4. Find something cute to put inside your hanging basket!

If you want a basket that can stand unit's own, get the pre-cut botak coconuts!

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DIY Toys: Felt Busy Bag

Here's a lightweight and fun activity that comes in very handy during long visits or while waiting for appointments.

 

We basically sewed two pieces of felt cloth together to make a bag, added handles and cut out different shapes to form pictures or tell stories. Felt tends to stick to felt unless it's windy or if you  deliberately shake it off, so you don't have to worry too much about the pieces going everywhere.

What to do with the Felt Busy Bag 

1. play tic-tac-toe
2. create beautiful pictures or designs
3. form letters or words
4. take turns to tell stories, one sentence at a time, adding new pictures as we go along

I like to carry felt scraps and a pair of scissors so we can cut out new shapes that we think of. We use my husband's tiny beard trimming scissors(!) because it's sharp, precise and easy to use on felt. 

Materials needed

For the bag:

Felt (at least 3 different colours)

4 buttons

Embroidery thread 

Needle and threader 

For the felt stickers:

A pair of sharp scissors (a small beard trimming scissors works well for us)

Felt (different colours) 

How to do it

For the bag:

Cut out 2 pieces of felt of the same size for the bag (not too small - this will be your storyboard)

Sew them together using a simple looping stitch. (I used a pencil to mark little dots on the felt where the child should pierce the needle for each stitch.

Cut out 2 long pieces of felt for the handles 

Sew on the handles, using the buttons. (Children may need help with this.)

For the felt stickers

Make a list of what you want to cut out.

Cut out the shapes using the sharp scissors. You may wish to draw the outline on the felt before cut ting.

I like having a mixture of open-ended basic shapes like circles, rectangles, triangles, squares, etc, as well as some specific shapes like animals, and objects, etc.

The open-ended shapes allow the children to create freely and imaginatively. A simple rectangle could be a tree trunk, a dress, a table, while a circle could be the sun, a face, a flower or a fruit. 

With that in mind, I find that a few specific shapes like the child's favourite animals or tools could help spark off the child's imagination. We cut out their favourite story items like cats, fish, umbrellas, and baskets.

*

What I like about the Felt Busy Bag is that it is really light, takes up hardly any space in my bag, and has endless possibilities and ways to be played with!

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Woven-Paper Heart Envelope

Here's a lovely gift idea that a child can make easily, out of paper or felt. Simple, useful, and pretty.


Here's a great tutorial:
Waldorf Valentine Envelope (Sarah's Silks)

Photo by Sarah's Silks

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What to do with all the Hong Bao Red Packets? Make Chinese Lanterns!

Every year, we have tonnes of unused red packets leftover after Chinese New Year. This year, we decided to put them to good use.  These lanterns look pretty authentic!


Here are some simple lanterns that we made:

Simple Round Lantern
This one needs just 5 identical red packets, a stapler, and string. We finished it in one sitting!

Large double layered lantern
This more ornate lantern needs about 30 identical red packets, cardboard, tape, string, beads, and more patience, but it's worth the trouble!

Happy Lantern making!

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Here's a simple woodwork activity. I know many city-dwellers may baulk at the idea of a preschooler handling woodwork tools, but in many other countries, little children are tasked with chopping firewood, doing heavy chores, and can handle tools competently and responsibly. My little ones had reasonably good gross and fine motor skills, and they have been using real knives to cut fruits and vegetables since the age of 4. So far, they still have all their fingers in tact. :)

We collected thick fallen branches, sawed them into little round coins, painted them over, and voila! We created our very own currency!

Tools / Materials required:

1. Mini hand saw (from Homefix DIY/hardware store)
2. Small clamp (from Daiso/hardware store)
3. Paint (use acrylic if you don't want the colours to come off upon contact with water.) 

Making the Coins

1. Collect nice thick fallen branches that aren't rotten on the inside. 
2. Clamp a branch to a table or bench.  Make sure that it is tightly fastened.
3. Making sure that all body parts are out of the way, saw the branch into coins, with a rhythmic back and forth motion. Slow down as you get to the bottom of each coin so the coin doesn't break off prematurely and unevenly. You may need to hold the handsaw together with your child until he/she is competent.
4. Paint your coins.
5. Go shopping! :)

We may not be able to print money, but at least we can saw our own coins!

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DIY Toys: Bow and Arrow (Archery)

It was surprisingly easy to make and it provided hours of fun. The hardest part was finding a long, bendy stick. We tried balloon sticks but they broke. In the end, we went to a provision shop at an HDB void deck, or what they call the "mama shop" in Singapore. The shopkeeper gave my husband a weird look when he asked for 5 canes but, figuring this was some kind of weird sadistic psycho, chose not to ask any questions. :P


What you need:

1. 1 long, bendy stick
2. 1 piece of string (about 3/4 the length of the stick)
3. 3 rubber bands
4. Straws (thick smoothie straws work well)

How to Make the Bow:

1. Tie one end of the string to the stick, using a rubber band. Check that it is secure and won't come loose when you pull the string. 
2.  Bend the stick. Making sure the string is taut, tie the other end of the string to the opposite end of the stick. Secure firmly. Voila!
3. Tie some tassels or wool to one end as decoration, and to differentiate the bows.

How to make the Arrows:

1. To make the Arrowhead - flatten the straw and cut out two triangles to make a pointed tip.
   OR, if using a chalk dart board, tie a small piece of chalk to the tip of the straw using a rubber band
2. To make the Arrow Nock - flatten the tail end of the straw and cut out a V-shaped notch. This notch at the tail end of the arrow is for the bowstring to fit in. 

DIY Chalk Dartboard

We created our own dart board by drawing on our IKEA black board easel. Then we affixed a small piece of chalk on the front end of the arrow using a rubber band, so that when shot, the chalk would leave a mark on the board and we could keep score. 

Shooting bottles

We lined up a few empty mineral water bottles and used them for target practice!

Ground Rules

Before playing any games, be sure to lay out the ground rules first, like: 

1. No aiming at people

2. Make sure that the coast is clear before shooting

3. Only aim at designated targets

I know that 1 and 3 overlap, but I wanted to be extra safe. So far, they have worked well and we haven't had any casualties. Have fun!

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DIY Toys: Pom Poms

These little pom poms are cute versatile and very easy to make!

They can be used as toys, pretend food, money, balls, etc. The little boy decided that his white one was definitely a lychee.

The can be used as decorations, or for pom pom crafts. (Stick them together to form shapes or animals.)

And best of all, they make great luggage identifiers! Trust me. A luggage adorned with multi-coloured pom poms really stands out on the airport conveyor belt!

All you need is a fork and some wool.

1. Wind the wool around a 4-pronged fork. Make sure that you leave enough space on the fork to insert the binding string in step 3.
   
2. Create a fat ball of wool around the fork.
   
3. Insert binding string around the fat ball you have created.
   
4. Tie it tightly, pulling perpendicular to the bound loop and do a double knot. (If, like me, you use your big toe to hold the first knot in place while to tie the second, be sure to wash your toes before you begin!)
   
5. Pull the ball of wool off the fork.
   
6. Using a very small, sharp scissors, cut the edges carefully. (We nicked my husband's shaving scissors.) Be careful not to cut the binding string or you'll just end up with a hand full of woolly noodles. (Which is great too. The kids had hours of fun playing with their woolly noodles, so it wasn't a total waste!)
   
7. Give your pom pom a haircut to make it nice and round.
   
8. Voila!
   
   Try winding 2 different coloured strands at a time for a multi-coloured effect!

Have fun!

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DIY Toys: Sewing a drawstring bag

My children love little pouches, bags, wallets, (basically anything that can hold anything!) and they somehow always manage to find some treasures to store inside. This little flower drawstring pouch was all the more precious because the little girl made it by herself.

The cloth was from Daiso and the string was made from 3 strands of wool that she braided together. We used a simple running stitch. It was their first real sewing project, so I did not want to overwhelm them with a back stitch or blanket stitch. We began with simple leaf sewing projects months earlier, to familiarise them with sewing techniques, without wasting cloth! Then we progressed to sewing buttons on shirts. When they were confident enough using a needle, they begged to be allowed to sew something, we I picked something simple yet practical - a bag. The little girl had the patience to finish it all in one sitting, though she got very tired towards the end. It's now her Official Hair Clip Carrier.

Boys can sew too! The little boy's is still in the making but he's very excited about making a pouch. It's a bit lopsided but I felt that him doing it by himself was more important than perfection. Anyway, it will be the first out of many, I believe!

Here's a useful tutorial:
http://www.clipwithpurpose.com/marbles-10-minute-fleece-drawstring-pouch/

Happy sewing!

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Children Need "Me Time" too! + Craft with Ixora Flowers.

Ixora Craft

The kids surprised me with this one. This is what happened when we put 3 children together for 8 hours outdoors without planning any activities:  They invented their own toys and handicrafts.

I spent an entire Sunday with a dear friend. Both our husbands were away, so we parked ourselves and our children at Labrador Park, with no plans at all, but to enjoy the sea breeze. Besides some kick scooters and rollerblades, we had brought nothing for the children to play with. When they were tired of running about, they went off to find something else to do. Then finding them too quiet, we went to check on them, and discovered that they had devised their own craft session using natural materials. The little boy created a magic wand using a small fallen branch, leaves and flowers.

The girls invented their own Ixora craft:

1. Collect big leaves and fallen ixora flowers.
2. Pierce holes using a thin twig.
3. Insert the ixora stems into the holes.

Less is More

Here was an instance where we discovered that "less is more", and sometimes necessity (or scarcity!) is the mother of invention.

We often provide copious resources and materials for our children in the name of education and brain development, but perhaps this Stimulation Surplus may actually create a Creativity Deficit.

Children Need "Me Time" too!

It brought me back to the days past when I was a latch-key kid. With hours of free time alone at home, I designed my own board games, card games, wrote poems, taught myself HTML and even designed a fan website for Tom Cruise that received several hundred hits a day. Yes, as a teenager, I was highly indignant that Tom Cruise was so under-represented in the early days of the internet, so I spent many afternoons creating a comprehensive fan site! Anyway, there's a kind of satisfaction that only creating can give, which is one good thing that came out of the many lonely hours. But I am by no means recommending subjecting a child to hours of loneliness... or Tom Cruise(!).

The middle way, for me, would be to provide a few hours of unsupervised 'alone time' for each child. Every afternoon, we have an hour or so of "quiet time", with each child in their own designated cosy corner. It's a much-needed break for me, and some of their most creative inventions happen then.
During this period, they are free to do anything they like, as long as it is generally permitted and legal!

The children enjoy this time because:

1. They can do craft or play without interruptions or disturbances from their siblings or parents.
2. They have the space do what they enjoy.
3. They learn to respect each others' need for space and privacy.

The parents love "Me Time for Children" because:

1) We get some much needed peace and quiet!
2) The children learn to self-sooth and solve their own problems. They can choose to nap, eat, read, have a long bath, or do craft, or anything that makes them feel better. This takes some pressure off us!



Getting Started 

• I started doing this when the children were about 2 or 3 years old, but you could probably start earlier. 
• I told them that this was the only time they could do whatever they liked without their sibling disturbing them. (This was a draw for my daughter who was tired of her then toddler-brother messing up her work!)
• I began with 5 minutes, and slowly worked my way up to 1 hour. When I am especially stretched, I push it to 2 hours, but that usually ends up with the children feeling unsettled, so I try not to do that too often.

Rules

• The physical boundaries are clearly defined, eg. a room or corner each. If you don't have the luxury of space, you can move the furniture around to create a little cosy corner. Most little children love the safe and cosy feeling of an enclosed space. 
• During the quiet time, the children are not supposed to talk to each other unless absolutely necessary (like borrowing stationery or toys that they really need)
• Children can do any activity, as long as it is safe, kind and generally allowed by the parents. 
• To signal the end of the Quiet time, I sing the "clean up song" followed by the "Tea break song".
•  We then transition to a yummy tea break! 

Tips

To get the children to be emotionally willing to spend some time alone, they need to first be emotionally fed and secure. Their love tanks need to be full enough to give them mileage to stay alone. Fill their tanks by spending quality time with them first, in a way that feeds them, perhaps snuggling up for a story, doing craft, and followed by a vigorous or outdoor activity to tire them out. By then, they should be ready for some quiet time!

What it looks like in our home

After our reading time or craft activity, or when the kids have had too much of each other, I start to sing the "Quiet Time Song" while hugging each of them tightly and leading them to their corner.
The daughter like to have a long bath, and then do some handicraft or drawing.
The son will usually disappear into a make believe world and create impressive structures using chairs, boxes, string and cloth! Or he might create some toys for himself .

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What to do while watching the children at the playground + DIY Toys: Dangling Leaf Butterfly

Like it or not, children are learning from us all the time.

They pick up how we speak to strangers, how we manage our anger, and what we do when we have free time. Do we relax, read a book, strike up a conversation, or slump on a bench and scroll through Facebook?

Usually, when my children are at the playground, I try to bring along some kind of craft for MYSELF to do while they play. I enjoy sewing toys and mending or altering clothes by hand, so I sit on the bench or floor and work quietly while they play.

Benefits of being productively occupied during outdoor play:

1. When I'm engrossed in an activity, the children tend to disturb me less with trivial squabbles.
2. They get curious and come to watch me, laying ground for the time in the future when they will learn this skill.
3. By watching me work at the same item day after day, week after week, they learn patience, perseverance, and that not everything yields instant results, but that persistence pays off.  
4. I get to do what I enjoy!

It was toward the end of one of these outings that my daughter asked if she could sew something. There were 2 trees with beautiful butterfly-shaped leaves so the Dangling Leaf Butterfly was born!

Materials needed: Needle, thread, leaves, and a small branch

1. Collect butterfly-shaped leaves, or any other leaves if you can't find them. Pick freshly fallen leaves that are not too dry. Avoid dry leaves as they may tear easily.
2. Sew down the middle, or sew the 2 leaves together.
3. Attach the other end of the thread to a stick!
4. Hold it and run!
5. Add it as a display to your Nature Table. :)

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DIY Toys: The Making of a Knight

The little boy is fascinated with all things knight-related. It's so hard to stay away from violent play like toy guns and knives, when every other boy in this city owns a collection! Having said that, we can't deny the fact that most boys are attracted to themes of dominance, power and violence, and find some kind of catharsis in rough play. 

Rather than suppress it, perhaps the middle way would be to channel that energy to a more productive avenue. So, archaic as it might seem, when he expressed an interest in knighthood, I let him explore that track, emphasising the chivalry, courage, and honour. 

Since then, he has created swords, shields, armour, helmets (complete with a nose protector), flags, lances, bows, arrows, and carriages. Once he vowed to use his strength only to protect those around him, I solemnly knighted him, Sir R, the Protector. 

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Nature Table - Bringing the outdoors in

The nature table is a lovely and simple way to connect children to nature.

In our home, each child has a special garden, a little box filled with sand and gravel. If we discover any treasures or gifts of nature during our outdoor adventures, we bring them home and add them to the garden. It could be a pretty pebble, shell, casuarina cone, twig or flower, anything really.  Sometimes we include leaf crafts, beeswax or other figures or we have made.

The children love to do landscaping on their own gardens and sometimes I see them hard at work re-positioning the treasures or creating stories about the creatures in the garden.

We have a few garden rules:

1. We pick up treasures, not pluck them.
2. After a certain number of items, for every new treasure that enters the garden, one old one must return to Mother Nature.  So the garden doesn't end up looking like a rubbish dump!

Useful Links:

Earlychildhoodnews.com - Nature Table

Moon Child - Waldorf Nature Table

A Fall Nature Table – How to Create Your Own

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Raw chocolate avocado cake (Quick and no baking!)

For the little girl's birthday, we needed a gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free birthday cake. A tall order indeed, so we ended up making it ourselves. 

It was surprisingly easy to make - it took about 20 minutes. And it tasted good too! It requires no baking and the it makes use of the fact that coconut oil solidifies at temperatures below 25 degrees celsius. 

I adapted the recipe from Life, Gluten free Chocolate Pie with Seed Crust


Easy Raw Chocolate-Avocado Pie Recipe

Crust:


1/2 cup of soaked sunflower seeds 
1/2 cup of soaked pumpkin seeds 
1/2 cup raw granola / raw chocolate granola (optional)
1 1/2 tablespoons of Coconut oil
1 soaked & pitted date (or substitute it with any sweetener)
1 tablespoon of raw honey

Blend in food processor till fully blended.
Pour it into a pie dish and smooth it out to form the base and sides. 

Chocolate filling: 

2 avocados
1 tablespoon of Coconut Manna (optional)
1/2 cup of Coconut oil
1/4 cup of raw Cacao Powder
3 tablespoons of raw Honey / soaked dates

Blend above ingredients until smooth.
Pour into the pie dish over the crust and smooth out the top with a spoon. 

Decorations: 

Sprinkle raw hemp seeds / raw chocolate granola on top of the pie. (optional)

Freeze or refrigerate the pie for at least one hour before serving. The coconut oil will solidify and cause the pie to become firm too.
Remove the outer ring of the pie dish and serve. Enjoy!
(Don't leave the cake out for too long in hot weather or it might turn into mush!)

After several yummy but UGLY pie attempts using metal bowls, I finally bought myself a proper pie dish - with a tempered glass base and a removable silicone outer ring. Serving the cake was a breeze. I simply removed the outer ring to reveal a nicely-shaped cake and it looked pretty served on a round glass base. 


 

The links are provided for your convenience and if you click on the link and make a purchase, I get a small commission at no cost to you. 

If you're ordering from iherb.com for the first time, remember to key in the discount code NEF914 when you checkout to get US$10 off.

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Beeswax vs Playdough

We love beeswax.

Once or twice a week, after story time (a story without illustrations) we get out the beeswax and start creating elements of the story that the have been stirred up in our imaginations. It could be the animals, flowers, the basket of berries carried by the little girl in the story, eggs, anything!

Beeswax smells wonderful, like honey, it isn't messy, doesn't crumble, can be used over and over again, and unlike playdough, if you mix the colours together, it doesn't turn into a brown lump of ... something that the dog did! It's also non-toxic, and when you finish molding it, it hardens and your creation becomes rigid and you can display it or play with it.

The wax is rigid and it must be warmed up before use. I normally just put the wax in a pot of very warm water and it becomes soft in seconds. 

Beeswax is also a lifesaver during long car journeys or long waits in queues. The children can warm up the wax in their hands to make it pliable.

Top Left: After a homeschool lesson on The Very Hungry Caterpillar, we used beeswax to create models of the lifecycle of the butterfly - little eggs on a leaf, the colourful caterpillar munching the leaf and some fruits, the chrysalis, and finally, the butterfly. 

Bottom Left: Last week, we read about edible fern shoots in the forest, and we made beeswax models of the curly fiddlehead ferns growing by the water's edge, and some other creatures in the pond. Sometimes, we create the characters from the story and reenact the scenes on a mini stage!

I bought the beeswax from Amazon. The Stockmar modeling wax is non-toxic and uses mineral pigments. It may seem pricey but when you consider the fact that it can be re-used over and over again for many years, and doesn't crumble or make a huge mess, it's actually more cost effective than play dough. And did I mention it smells heavenly too... It doesn't leave your hands icky or sticky!



Here are some useful links.





Stockmar Modeling Beeswax - 12 Assorted Sheets
Stockmar Modelling Beeswax - 6 Colors - 100x40 mm
The Amazon link is provided for your convenience and if you click it and make a purchase, I get a small commission at no cost to you.

The Epic Guide to Beeswax Modeling in Kindergarten


How to Use Waldorf Modeling Beeswax - Tutorial

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DIY Toys: Lion Dance (Chinese New Year)

Here's a fun Chinese New Year lesson that we did during our homeschool co-op. We generally try to do co-operative activities that require the children to work together. The children decorated the lion heads and did the lion dance... and made a huge mess and a lot of noise!

Enjoy the ruckus! (Don't do this at night.)

Chinese New Year Lesson Plan:

1. Warm up:
   Musical Statues (Music: 恭喜恭喜 ）
2. Song:
   Learn how to sing 恭喜恭喜
3. Story:
   The Legend of the "Nian"
   (Find a version that explains how the villagers created the lion dance to scare the "Nian" beast away. I got mine from the library)
   Here are some story resources for reference.
   Cartoon: The Legend of Chinese Festivals-Legend of Two Monsters - Nian节庆传说-年
   Cartoon: 动画--年的故事
   Website: History of the Chinese Lion Dance
   Website: History of Lion Dance
4. Craft:
   Paint the lion faces
   Stick cotton wool for the eyebrows and beard.
   Stick ribbons to make the dangling beard
5. Speech and Drama:
   Re-enact the story
   Include the villagers performing the Lion Dance
   End with the villagers singing 恭喜恭喜 to celebrate the new year (and their not having been eaten!)

Props
Metal bowls and pot covers for cymbals
Drums/boxes and sticks.
Red cloth to decorate houses

Costumes
Old lady and villagers: shawls/playsilks
Old beggar: walking stick/bag/cloak
"Nian"beast: Mask/colourful playsilk/shawl

Cast
1. Nian
2. Old woman
3. Old beggar
4. Villagers
i. lion head
ii. lion tail
iii. drums
iv. cymbals


Pre-lesson Preparation

1. Lion head:
Collect cardboard boxes

2. Lion face:
Draw lion faces on large pieces of cardboard. I used this template.
Cut them out and stick them on the boxes with masking tape.
Cut out the mouth of the lion.

3. Lion body:
Use red cloth (about 1 x 1.5 metres per lion). Attach the cloths to the boxes (I pierced holes in the boxes using a pen, inserted the corners of the cloth into the holes, and tied a knot to secure each corner. You may want to attach the cloth only after the painting session, if you want the cloth to remain red. But I felt that the paint stains on the cloth worked well as designs on the lions' bodies!

4.  Song Lyrics

恭喜 恭喜

每条大街小巷
每个人的嘴里
见面第一句话
就是恭喜恭喜

恭喜恭喜恭喜你呀
恭喜恭喜恭喜你

冬天一到尽头
真是好的消息
温暖的春风
吹醒了大地

恭喜恭喜恭喜你呀
恭喜恭喜恭喜你

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DIY Toys: Tissue Box Toy Car

It was one of those days. My husband wasn't feeling well and I was exhausted. I left the kids alone for a few hours and rested in my room. When I emerged from hiding, I found the kids making a toy car out of a tissue box! I was so inspired that I whipped out my hand drill, some used tea lights and brass paper fasteners, and installed the wheels and even a steering wheel! Voila! A new toy!

Technically I didn't need a hand drill to make holes in the tea lights, but I was just waiting for an excuse to use it!

Materials needed:

• Tissue box
• 5 used tea lights for the wheels and steering wheel
• 5 brass paper fasteners
• Cardboard for the seats and license plate
• Lots of tiny soft toys!

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Building a House of Sticks (Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?)

Another $0 toy that lasts for days!

1. Pick a sheltered location, under a big tree, with roots on two sides to support the house structure.

2. Set up the house skeleton structure by driving five sticks into the soil (two sets of parallel upside-down "v" sticks with a long stick joining them on top)

3. Bind the connecting parts with long flexible vines, leaves or aerial roots.

4. Collect lots of long sticks to build the walls.

5. Collect large leaves or palms to decorate the walls and provide some shade.

6. Take turns to hide inside or be the big bad wolf!

7. Come back the next day and continue playing! (The house is still standing after two weeks, despite the windy weather!)

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Yummy desserts made of fruits!

We haven't been sick for a whole year! Ever since we started eating 50% raw food, we haven't had any medicine or seen any doctor. It's a far cry from how we were two years ago, all of us sick practically every month and having permanent runny noses and chesty coughs.

But raw food! Isn't that a little extreme, people ask? Just apples and bananas and salads? Doesn't that make you feel always hungry and cold? And how about cakes and desserts?

Well, we do enjoy our occasional beancurd and aloe vera desserts. And there's no shortage of raw desserts! It just needs a little experimentation! Just google "raw vegan desserts" and you'll be spoilt for choice.

Here are some really simple raw fruit tarts that the kids invented.





Fruit Tart Ideas

1. Pomegranate seeds served in avocado or mango bowls.
2. Blueberry on avocado mousse on a pear base.
3. Persimmon helicopter tarts on apple and avocado mousse.
4. Chopped apple on avocado mousse on a pear base.

If you have the time, try blending dates with the avocado. It's heavenly!

It all started when we started experimenting with different ways to cut fruit. We sliced apples and pears into thin discs, scraped some avocado over them like cream, and decorated it with whatever fruit bits we could find! They looked so pretty, we almost couldn't bear to eat them!

We get our mangoes and pomegranates from Sathish Fruit and Vegetable stall at 56 Serangoon Road, next to Tekka Mall. The pomegranates are seedless (meaning the seeds are chewable) and taste sweet, without being too sweet! The kids describe it as a Ribena sweet, with a gluten-free biscuit (the seed!) on the inside! The mangoes are the big Indian mangoes. Their bananas are lovely too, especially if you like the red ones.

And while you're there, pop by our favourite vegetarian Indian restaurant: Madras New Woodlands, 14 Upper Dickson Road, Singapore 207474. They serve the best Ghee Thosai ever! I can give up meat, I can give up noodles, I can even give up rice. But I can't give up ghee thosai!

We love the VIP Thali (10-12 little bowls of all the different dishes), Appam (rice pancakes with coconut milk filling) and Samosa Chat too.

But I digress.... this post was supposed to be about raw desserts!

Here are some other really simple and super-quick healthy raw desserts. 

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DIY Toys: Vegetable Dye Playsilks

Playsilks are wonderful open-ended toys. These quintessential Waldorf toys can become dress up toys, hoods, capes, gowns, swirling magic, blazing fires or flowing rivers.

We made our own at home, using vegetable dyes. We used:

Beetroot (red)
Tumeric (yellow)
Purple Cabbage (purple)
Purple Cabbage and baking soda (green)


Here's the tutorial: Bluebirdbaby natural vegetable dye playsilk tutorial

I bought the silks from Thaisilks.com and Dharmatrading.com . Thaisilks has 20-25% sales every now and then, if you can wait for them. The 8mm Habotai China silks work well - they are strong enough to survive rough play, translucent enough for that magical effect, and smooth enough on the skin for tactile enjoyment!

Alternatively, you can get ready-made ones from Sarahs Silks or Bella Luna Toys.

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A train-themed birthday party

We had a Gruffalo-themed birthday dinner earlier this year. For the little boy's birthday, he requested a train-themed dinner!

It was fun and easy to make using construction paper, a loo roll, 4 bottle caps and a full tissue box - so the tissues could be the smoke!

Our tissue-box train pulled carriages of food, chugging over edamame train tracks and past vast banana leaf meadows.

After dinner, the children had a craft session to make their own tissue box trains!

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