June Holiday Workshop Giveaway #2 - Label of Love Studio's Tee Shirt Printing!

Art is a big part of what I do at home with Dumpling and it is also for that reason she started on Art classes at a young age. Amongst the things we made are recycled paper where we used that paper in making papier mache items, decorating cushion covers and even some really COOOOL monsters page corner bookmarks out of old envelopes!

Now, tee shirt design and printing is one of the recent interest that we have especially since I am preparing for Dumpling's birthday party and am considering printing some for the boys. And for this June Holiday, I am very excited to share that Label of Love Studio has kindly sponsored a Tee (+ Tea) Party worth almost $50!

Here's the details!

Want to let your child experience designing and printing his own tee? A delicious TEE (TEA) PARTY awaits you! Label of Love has designed this 1.5 hour workshop specially for your child! 

What the child will takeaway after workshop 

1. Basic concepts of tee printing 

2. Hands-on experience on designing tee layout with their materials (and yes, their names will be on the tees if they want, and their drawings too!) 

3. Bring home a beautiful tee he/she will wear with pride! 

4. Putting values into practice - Mutual respect and courtesy 

5. Have a yummy waffle + ice cream + drink on the spot worth $12.90.

(NOTE: Child must be between 5 to 10 yrs old).

This package is worth $45.80. It includes a white tee, a material kit AND a delicious tea break after the session. Tea includes homemade waffle + ice cream + a drink from chiller section for each participant.

(Image from Label of Love Studio)

Date: June 24, Tuesday 

Time: 230 - 4pm 
Venue: Maple Loft Cafe 
Next to The Duxton at Tanjong Pagar 
Nearest MRT Tanjong Pagar 
(Plenty of parking space at The Duxton)

Enter the Rafflecopter below and stand a chance to win! Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

:: Terms and Conditions:

- Entries that do not fulfill the requirements stated will be disqualified without notice.

- The child has to be 5 years and above, based on the month and year of birth.

- Winners will be notified by email, through the email address provided.

- This giveaway is open to Singapore residents only. 

Disclaimer: The sponsorship of this giveaway is by Label of Love Studio. No monetary compensation was received for this post. 

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram! 

Heart Studio - Little Picasso - Review + Giveaway!

Sponsored Review

Dumpling has been progressing along in her Art journey with Heart Studio for more than a year. She 'graduated' from Little Dali almost a year ago (which you can read more about here, here and here) and is now with Teacher Elma in Little Picasso. With the coming of age (ha!), comes a tad more technical skills and the little one has been exposed to different mediums and themes - Water Lilies (with water colour) to Pointillism on canvas.

For this term, we have been blessed to be invited for a term review of Dumpling's progression in Little Picasso. In a strange twist of 'fate', this module introduces Dumpling to Vegetables, which is one of her least favorite food items. :p LOL

:: The Class
Regardless of level, each term spans across 10 weeks and for Little Picasso, each term yields 2 artwork. While Little Dali focuses on smaller projects, at this level, there is more details given to the shape, form, composition and techniques.

What struck me immediately as we entered the class for our first lesson was that teacher Elma brought in 'live specimens' - as in real vegetables were brought to the class where the children had a chance to be introduced to the various vegetables, touch them, observe them (seeds and all!), feel the texture, etc. I really like it as I feel that it provided much more depth and perception for the children before they chose the vegetables they wanted and proceeded to paint.

:: The Progression
For the first 2 lessons, the sketch was done on the usual draw blocking where the children were given chances to explore with the shapes and sizes of the vegetables they chose.

Here, Dumpling started with carrot, mushrooms, potatoes, avocados and...

even chili padi! (otherwise known as bird's eye chili). Check out how 'decent' her artwork was after lesson 2. :) 

Once the students got the 'hang' of painting the vegetables from the sketched version during lesson 1 & 2, they then went on to paint on a larger piece of brown paper. 

The children had the chance to 'change' the items and were not at all confined to those they had selected initially. In fact, half of what Dumpling chose to do for this piece were vegetables which she did not paint during the earlier lessons. 

With some experience garnered from the previous sessions, Dumpling knows that the very first thing she needed to do was to do the outline of the vegetables she chose. Once that was done, she painted the background of the table the vegetables were sitting on.  

Lessons 4 & 5 were spent on colouring in the vegetables and of course the detailing. I am often very fascinated at this stage of their art pieces because this is where I feel the pieces come to 'life'.

Here, Dumpling was taught how to sketch out the outline of the shadow before filling in the dark grey colour.

Thereafter, she was taught to use various hues to add on the details.

The final art piece!

Now, here's the exciting news! Keen to let your kiddo try out Heart Studio's Art classes? You may unearth a Little Picasso too! 

GIVEAWAY ALERT!
 Holiday Programme - Toy Story & Let's Go to the Beach!

(Giveaway is not valid for existing customers/students)

     

:: Painting

The children will learn how to draw forms using shapes and lines and at the same, they are taught using the techniques of painting, mixing of colors and color harmony and contrast. This painting programme will open a window of experience for the student to try out canvas painting to the many different interesting subject matters that have been chosen for the class.

:: Lets go to the Beach

10am-12.30pm

10^th June 2014

2 passes to be won -  WORTH $150 IN TOTAL

:: Toy Story

4.30-7pm

17^th June 2014

2 passes to be won -  WORTH $150 IN TOTAL

:: Terms and Conditions:

- Entries that do not fulfill the requirements stated will be disqualified without notice.

- The child has to be 5 years and above, based on the month and year of birth.

- No repeat winners are allowed.

- Winners will be notified by email, through the email address provided.

- Winners must confirm by reply email or phone call, within three days. Otherwise, a new winner will be picked.

- No changing of date or time is allowed.

- No Existing Customer allowed.

- This giveaway is open to Singapore residents only. 

Enter the Rafflecopter below! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: Dumpling was invited to review Little Picasso for a term to give our opinions and experience of the classes. No monetary compensation was received. All opinions and views are entirely ours. 

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram! 

Earth Day Ideas - Page Corners Bookmarks!

In this household, whenever Dumpling tells me that she is bored, I'd ask her to challenge herself by creating things. There are days where she will cut up papers, staple and stick them together to make something new and there are days that I will suggest an activity. It was such a day on Good Friday as the little one has been homebound because she has been fighting a cold. I decided to let her work solely with existing materials we have at home and repurpose them for something useful in 'honour' of Earth Day.

(A typical usual crafting scene)

The idea started when Dumpling asked me what Earth Day is, when we were at the library and she saw a display of suggested titles, etc. In case you are not aware, Earth Day is an annual event on 22 April, where events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection (source).

That question triggered started a series of small pockets of activities to keep ourselves occupied  (truthfully, and me from yelling at her too) for the past days where we have been home bound. 

We made these.

Here's a close up :)

I first saw these page corner bookmarks here and I fell in love with them. Practical and cute, these are definitely useful for us because Dumpling is going into chapter books and she finds it hard to track which page she has left off at. We have bookmarks but those are hard to come by these days and I thought why not make them ourselves especially when we can easily make them out of 'old materials'. 

To start off, I did a demo where I snipped off the corner of a red packet and then pasted the cutout of a flower on the top corner. It looked like this (bottom photo).

I then showed her the web page where I saw those book corners and she really liked the monster series so away we crafted. :)

To start off, you will need these:

:: The gathering list

1) Old envelops (since we are on a recycling mission here)

2) Any old stock card items - post cards, inserts in magazines, flyers, etc. (These are lovely as the backing for the eyes or the teeth)

3) Newspapers / Hong Pau 

4) Scissors 

6) Glue 

7) Marker

8) Optional: Masking / Washi Tapes 

(I happened to receive some from Scotch Expressions Tapes from 3M and put them to good use here! I have to say that I am pretty impressed as they were easy to use, pretty and definitely easy to 'remove where it did not rip off the piece of paper it was stuck to)

:: Steps

1) Snip off the corner of any old envelops

2) I then added the sharp jagged teeth for Dumpling to cut them out

Now, for the above versions, there is no protruding backing piece like the pieces here:

3) If you prefer such an option, you will need to fold down the envelop corner and cut it out where it forms a square when "opened". Thereafter, fold one side up and cut it off. Because Dumpling was actively involved in this project, after folding up the triangle, I 'puffed' the piece up where she can start cutting by  following and cutting up the line at the edge before cutting across. 

4) Therafter, Dumpling stuck some washi tape on the remaining top triangular piece

5) She then pasted a row of teeth (made earlier by her by using the remaining bits from the earlier hong pau) to the underside and then added on the eye pieces (made from hong pau and newspapers)

6) Color in the eyes and voila! We are done!

She wanted to make more and came up with these with more of our Washi Tape:

And we even decided to stretch it a tad further by NOT making a monster but a jellyfish page corner bookmark! And we had to do was to stick on a strip of air bubble sheet and cut out some strips as the tentacles! 

Aren't these  page corner bookmarks the cutest??? These would also make lovely gift ideas too.

In honour of the upcoming Earth Day, stay tuned for the next post on some recommended stories which I have read with Dumpling on 'nature' and being environmentally responsible :)

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram! 

Disclosure: I received a few rolls of Scotch Expressions Tapes from 3M where I found them useful for our recycling project here and hence, the sharing. This is not a sponsored post.

Play Learning Tuesday - And Cluck Cluck We Go

As much as I can, we'd always tie our homeschool sessions to either field trips, hands-on experiments or crafts. Last year, I bought a book by Jill Tomlinson as the play 'The Owl Who is Afraid of the Dark' was staged here in Singapore and from the homeschool front, we dissected some owl pellets.

The book that we bought has other stories in it, amongst which one was titled "The Hen Who Wouldn't Give Up". I particularly enjoyed the story - the hen in the story showed much perseverance and great spunk while her adventures filled some of our homeschool evenings with laughter. 

Dumpling asked a great deal of questions on eggs and the life cycle as well as how can a farmer tell if the eggs are fertilised and *gasp* what if the fertilised eggs were picked up by mistake and placed for sale in egg trays. LOL

So, we extended the session to watching some youtube videos (to learn about how to identify fertilized eggs) and some hands on play learning fun with an egg experiment and craft! 

We placed an egg in a container of vinegar and Dumpling witness a chemical reaction - bubbles started appearing on the shell which led to some interesting observations and discussions. 

Comparision of egg after 1/2 day and after 2 days...

Our shell-less egg! Dumpling poked, touched, peered through it and bounced it (it burst after we bounced from a height of about 6").

We also discussed how the egg looked bigger than the others in the same egg tray which were of about the same size as the original 'version' before it was soaked in vinegar. 

She noted that the egg has no more shell and what was left was a membrane (which I introduced using books and activity sheets). This was also when I introduced the concept of Osmosis - how water permeates through the membrane which is possible now because it is shell-less.

In addition to that, we also extended to craft and made our own Marionette! I saw this idea on a FB page and cannot for the life of me, remember where it was from! But it certainly inspired me to create something on our own! 

:: What you need:

1) Twigs

2) Some yarn

3) Toilet rolls! 

4) Duct Tape (I made some cuts, lengthwise into the toilet roll so that the flaps can over lap each other and then taped up the beak)

5) Pipe cleaners (for the neck and legs)

(The Hen below is "wingless" as the paint was still a bit damp and so we couldn't stick them on ;p) 

I hope that this gives you some ideas on more Homelearning Fun! :)

HeART Studio Workshop Giveaway!

Sponsored Review & Giveaway!

Dumpling attended a private 1-Day workshop earlier in March this year which was kindly extended to readers of Beanie N Us. The theme was on butterfly and the children had a chance to work with acrylic and oil pastels. Dumpling was of course excited as we actually kept some caterpillars at home some previously and watched the metamorphosis process. For me, I was particularly interested to see how an art piece can be created in just 75mins.

Teacher Syafiq was started with the explanation of the theme for that morning and then went through the basic shapes to help the children create the outline for the painting.

Then the kids worked on the base before detailing the outline...

(Look ma, red hands! While classmate N looks on...) 

After the base was dried (kids used a hairdryer!), they then did the outline and filled in the colours. As usual, Dumpling's choice of colours were from the 'warm' family... 

I was actually very amazed how fast the kids could do these based on just the instructions from teach Syafiq! After the butterfly was painted, the children were then taught to use oil pastels to do the outline and then added on the details / pattern onto the wings 

The part that surprises me the most was how focused the kids were! I particularly love how each child's artwork is so different in terms of colours! :)  

Half done...

And ta da! Her smiley butterfly! LOL

I am excited to share another giveaway by Heart Studio this June holidays for the 3 - 4YO! 

1) Painting and drawing techniques of Sunflowers (Giveaway of 1 class worth $75)

Students will learn to draw and paint on canvas. The lesson is a combination of colour exploration and line work which also allows the child to use their creative juices in the addition of details to their work. 

(Source: Heart Studio)

2) Robot Sculpture Creation (Giveaway of 1 class worth $65) 

Students will get to learn unique ways of handling the modelling clay to create sculptures of Robots.  The use of modeling clay helps to enhance the child fine motor skills through techniques like coiling, pinching and rolling.

Little Masters Workshop details

Age Group: 3 - 4YO

Workshop Dates: 10 June & 13 June (1 class each)

Class Duration: Approx. 2hours

Time slot: as below schedule

CONGRATULATIONS LIZA POH & FIONA! ENJOY THE WORKSHOP! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Do you have an older child? Hop over to mummy blogger friend DinoMama who is doing a giveaway for kids who are 7YO and above! 

Heart Studio LLP

101 Soo Chow Walk Singapore 575385

T: 6554 7563

Getting there:
Buses:
52,132,162,163,165,166,167,410,855,980,162M 

Parking Info:
Nearest Parking Facilities is at Thomson Plaza.

Heart Studio Review - Our Little Dali Journey Part 3: Curriculum

Sponsored Review
Dumpling has been with her Art classes for almost a full term now. So far, I am quite pleased with the approach and the teaching style. I like that the discipline challenges her focus and patience too.

Another area which I do like a lot is the curriculum; I like the exposure as the children are introduced to various media and themes. Importantly, I like the well thought out plan where the skills that they acquire lead up to the next class(es).

:: Development of fine motor skills
As Little Dali is for children between 3 - 4 years old, one of the key learning objectives for this class is the development of fine motor skills. Dumpling had a go at foam painting during one session where it is basically shaving cream mixed with glue and colour.

At a quick glance, it looked simple. As the session went on, I realised how much effort and fine motor skills it requires of the little ones as they mixed and then learn this dabbing technique!

In yet another class, she learnt the marbling technique where she had to apply controlled movements through the mixing of paints. It certainly was not easy transferring the print to the paper, 'smoothening' it out and then scrapping off the foam with those small hands :)

:: Understanding of shapes and then the creation of an outline

A fundamental skill in visual art I guess is the ability to understand shapes, then knowing how to 'break the object up' into the various shapes and using that to as an outline

Since the very first lesson, Teacher Syafiq has been introducing the concept of shapes to the children. In Dumpling's first session, she learnt to break down the shape of a Goldfish into ovals, the scales as C shapes, etc. 

This same approach was then reinforced every week and in the foam art session (mentioned above), Dumpling once again applied the same concept - e.g. the sweet is made of a rectangle and 2 triangles. 

In another session, Dumpling was taught to use the same concept to draw the outline of a tree.  

:: Building up of general knowledge and vocabulary

One thing which was interesting for me from a parental viewpoint is that for all the various themes, Teacher Syafiq does not just dive immediately into the heart of the matter (all pun intended :p). Instead he always starts a new project / theme with a short introduction on the topic before proceeding to explain the necessary terms and anatomy.

I personally like such a 'well-rounded' format as I feel that it adds to the children's general knowledge which in turn, would make it more interesting and definitely easier for the kids to translate into detailing and painting it out.

Additionally, besides painting and collages, Heart Studio also introduces children to other art forms such as 2D art, print making, pottery, etc as part of their curriculum too. :)


Edit: Dumpling has finished a term of her session at Little Dali. Here's Part 1 and Part 2  our review. 

Heart Studio is running a Holiday Programme with 2 interesting projects this march! 

1) Enchanted Clay

Children will be engaged in an exciting 1 and a half hour of fun and excitement as they explore with colourful foam clay in the world of fairytales. Known for its therapeutic effect, clay enables a child to express their thoughts and feelings through the gentle moulding in addition to building up both large and fine motor skills. The children will learn to sculpt and build their favourite fairy tale characters in 2D relief form! 

Date and time:

21 March 2013

10am to 11.30am

2) Print making

Print making is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper and on fabric. In this fun and 'messy' workshop, children will have the opportunity to tap into their creativity, explore and experiment in making printing plates and the basics of printmaking techniques. They will also learn to compose elements into their designs and bring home a stack of their very own 'handmade' prints! 

Date and time:

21 & 22 March (this is a one-day workshop available on either of these days)

10am to 11.30am

For more information, please contact Heart Studio at 6554 7563.