HBLL: Home Based Learning Loving & Home Based Loving Learning.

“Jie, can you help blog some activities so that I can share with my friends who are struggling with what to do for hbl holidays?”My sister requested.

This was what motivated this consolidation of my posts. It was extra work at first. However, as I slowly compiled all the years of heart works, it rewarded my heart with fullness of gratitude and joy unto the Lord!

I took No Pay Leave for a period of 6 years to Stay Home and care for my babies till they entered Primary school after I had my number 2. This blog came about because it was a platform where I could share home activities with my friends and also store a visual memory of our times spent together.

I wouldn’t say in a flash, as the years are short but the days were long during that Stay Home period. This is my 7th year blogging. My posts have dwindled because my children are growing into their tweens and teen and I have my job to juggle with.

I recalled how those years were a tad lonesome as mums in my era were not much into such play set up scenes. I relied heavily on western blogs for ideas. Now, the landscape has changed! I see aplenty flourishing Instagrammer mums creatively and resourcefully sharing their ideas. It was such a sweet reminisce of my past! It is really heartening to know we are actively engaging our kids in a wholesome manner! I will be sharing some of them with you.

Nontheless, the bane of this era is the pressure that one has in trying to catch up with the mummy Joneses. So let me begin to assure you that your presence and attention is enough for your child/children. You do not have to follow any of my ideas nor feel inferior over your ‘lack’ of such hands-on participation. You do it your own way. Feel free to just adapt and pick whatever suits YOUR FAMILY DYNAMICS during this #StayHomeforSg period.

I know a group of parents who are valiantly fighting and serving Sg in the front-line, their children will have to take a backseat. THANK YOU for your sacrifices! Another group of parents would be worried, as it is still Business As Usual (BAU) because they #WorkFromHome. They worry how they will cope with children now having nothing much to do as #HBL stops for our school holidays! To these parents, I hope some ideas here to occupy kids can help alleviate some burdens. There would be the group of parents who have worked extra hard, and are waiting for the holidays to start so that they can finally spend some quality time at home with their children or just simply rest. Thank you Teachers. Take a good rest to refocus back on your own family. Whichever category you belong to, I hope this post can give you some ideas and inspiration to bounce off your own unique HBLL at home!

HBLL: Home Based Learning Loving

This period, may we begin to renew our perspectives. I like how a friend termed HBL as Home based Loving. I cannot agree more. However, this itself is a tall order. Therefore, there is much Learning how to Love when we are stuck 24/7 at home.

For us, we increase our quiet times and dependence on our Lord Jesus so that we can be more centred in Him. This allows His Holy Spirit to overflow in us and through us to our children. “For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever!”Romans 11:36

We try to extend more grace to ourselves and our family members so that space is given for mistakes and growth can slowly take place in this tight space at home.

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#hbl day 17: Hooray another week of hbl conquered! Last night a gentle reminder from Holy spirit- stop trvialising my kid when one doesn't know something 'basic'. '你这个字也不会??? /有没有搞错? /这么简单你也不会??" (You don't even know this word? What? So simple, like that also don't know??) If each day i say this a few times, in a week the kiddo would have heard more than 15times how 'stupid' i have insinuated him or her to be. Where did all my growth mindset go to??? A long way to go… That's why we need the Holy Spirit to work in us! Thereafter, i prayed for help to coach my kids more patiently. It's precisely because they don't know, that there is a need to coach. Whatever that is lacking, this is the best time to help zoom into the root of the issue. More than that, I need to be more pro-active in showing my affection. My middle kid always almost pounces on me for a quick hug or kiss whenever he feels bored. That's a lot of times throughout the day! So i decided to 1. Catch them by surprise and pounce on them with HUGS & KISSES every time i walk around the house. 2. Start the day with PRAISE and WORSHIP songs to have breakfast together and prepare for hbl. 3. Commend their EFFORTS in hbl and revision. 4. Give them the ATTENTION when a need arises Today, I'm rewarded with warmth and satisfaction in the faces of my kids and in my heart. Oh don't forget your other half too!😍 #growingupdays #parentingmoment #reflections #thanksgiving #radiatejoyfromhome

A post shared by Angie Yeow (@growinghearts123) on Apr 24, 2020 at 4:53am PDT

HBLL: Home Based Loving Learning

What is the difference from the above? As we learn to love each other, we also want to instill the love for learning during this HBL period and beyond. Let’s not forget to PACE our children with GRACE and FAITH. We also take the chance to dive into bible studying, playing, exercising, cooking, doing chores, reading and reviewing past works together. I really thank God for this time to catch up with my children’s studies as we are present and can set aside a consistent time to coach them for 1 hr daily. I find that our routine of chinese reading and learning becomes more doable with constant practice. As we cast our anxieties to the Lord, our children also follow our lead in being content.

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#throwback: We celebrated our eldest bd quietly this month. Big breakfast pancakes with eggs benedict, hollandaise sauce and raspberry syrup was a must for that day. This firstborn of ours is crazy over eggs especially poached eggs. I didn't have a card for him today so i quickly chalked up on the blackboard something to decorate our simple family affair… With this CB, he was really disappointed that he couldn't hold even a small party. Papa thoughtfully planned to celebrate at swensons before the CB kicked in. That really cheered him up. So with #stayhome we spent the day with usual routine- quiet time, hbl and watched movies together. Papa also ordered his fav bkt for lunch and hamburger for dinner. This period we also trust God in sustaining our health and also cast our PSLE cares unto the Lord. We are already contented to be healthy and have our daily bread spiritually and physically. Thank you Jesus for blessing us with our beloved boy!!! We are privileged and honoured to be his parents.🙏💗 Wrote this long post to remind us of this special times together and to remain content whatever the future may bring, God is with us! For those affected with major exams, we're all in this together! Let's PACE with GRACE and FAITH! #thanksgiving #growingupdays #reflections #godisincontrol

A post shared by Angie Yeow (@growinghearts123) on Apr 23, 2020 at 8:08am PDT

Thank you for reading till here! I have collated according to

1. Hands-On Art
2. Sensory Play
3. HeArtful of Ideas
4. Cooking Together
5. Reading and Writing
6. Chinese Learning
7. Educational Reccommendation
8. Christian resources
9. Posts on Learning

Just click on the photo image and it will bring you to the blog post details.

1. HANDS-ON ART

Includes how to make Infinity cubes and what are the key aspects to maintain creativity.

Includes magnet making and pouch painting processes.

Drawing of a basketball

Motion Painting with basketball.

Drawing with a wacky artist.

A lapbook lesson on this storybook ‘How to make an apple pie and see the world’.

Using our corridor staircase, kids had ice-ski painting!

We used real fish to do a fish print art work after reading ‘Swimmy’ by Leo Lionni.

This was one of the craziest project of painting egg shells for our neighbours and ended with a race car painting and whole body wriggling art attack!

This is a highly SIMPLE sticker art.

Use your own creativity to do a set up for your kids to paint! Any toys will do. You may be as inspired to paint too!

Lapbook lesson on ‘The very hungry caterpillar’ book. Plenty of hands-on and food activity.

Includes marbling art.

This lapbook is based on ‘The man on the moon’ story book.

Play with nature at home with simple mirror set up.

Kids need a corner where they can easily reach for their art materials for free play and creation. We did an Art Cot station.

Another nostalgic sensory play that leaves beautiful marks and garners squeals of delight from your kids! You can use water colour or food colouring too.

This was a mega wall painting project. You can do it on the floor too!

This is effortless. Just give them rolls of electrical tapes and let them go bonkers with laughter!

Designing fashion plates for painting of wooden dolls and using Pic Pac app to do stop-motion clips. This app will provide endless fun with kids re opening their toys for action movies!

This was the art process taken to enter an art competition.

Recommendation on Art resources

1. Lyttle space has started a series of mini art lessons on her instagram. Do check out this creative artist’s site!
2. You can also go National gallery Singapore to view all their amazing digital artworks. You do need to vet through them if you wish to show to your children.
3. Virtual Tours for 12 famous museums You do need to vet through them if you wish to show to your children.

2. SENSORY PLAY

3. HeArtful of IDEAS

A Heartful of Ideas includes more hands-on activites and games!

Recommendation on Learning Through Play

1. Our LIttle Play Nest : Parenting site with loads of great activities
2. Ellie Funbox : educational hands-on tips and provides her unique boxes for a fuss free play time.
3. Curiouskit : An Arts and science cum tinkling fun box provider
4. PLay by Melissa : Aplenty of ideas for tiny todds
5. The Homeschooler : Creative and enriching activities with hand made materials
6. 2mamas4kids : They have an amazing spread of hands-on activities that never ends!
7. Lupwaiwhisperer : She has loads of science and hands-on activities to inspire and also help parents cope at home.

4. COOKING TOGETHER

5. READING AND WRITING

6. CHINESE LEARNING

Recommendation on Chinese Hands-On Learning resources

1. CHALKACADEMY: Betty is the guru of simple and creative hands-on learning when it comes to Chinese Learning. Her wealth of activities accumulated within a short span of starting her blog is an amazing journey to follow!
2. Han Character uses pictographs to illustrate meanings of each Han character
3. My Story Treasury : an online Chinese bookstore with a knack for quality Chinese book picking and now doing nuggets of meaningful Chinese activities with her kids
4. PandaCub Stories: A creative and fun loving space where she illustrates in comic fashion to help bring out Chinese language effectively
5. Hands-On Chinese Fun: Chinese Teacher who reaches deep learning with the strong reservoir of book recommendation
6. Play Le Xue : A inspiring mum entrepreneur who created her own sets of Chinese character strokes templates for play and learning
7. Chinese TV programme 挑战不可能 is an amazing series of impossible feats done. It will be a thrill and enrichment for our children to watch!

7. Reccommendation on Educational resources

1. BBC Teach
2. Ted Ed
3. KhanAcademy

8. Christian resources

1. The good fight of faith (How to grow a mum’s spiritual heart with lil ones in tow)

My One Word Series

1. Connect
2. Renew
3. Anchor
4. Cultivate
5. Portion
6. Immanuel
7. To the weary-hearted mum
8. Have Faith in Missing Out
9. In a dozen years our first retreat
10. Worship is a life attitude, not just songs

More christian learning resources

1. spotofsunshine : As named, Sunny’s a spot of sunshine for all who visit! She has a lot of christian resources for kids especially activities in her instagram. She is a great encouragement too.
2. Gracedlaced : Her blog is a reservoir of godly perspectives and god directed encouragement.
3. Ameschen : She not only shares plenty of down-to-earth parenting experiences, she is also the author of ‘The invisible People’ children’s books author.
4. The Treasure Box Singapore : Pursuing God’s dream placed in their hearts, Foong family quit their jobs and started a ministry solely to encourage discipling of our next generation, our children. They also started their online sunday service to cater to our kids! My children enjoyed every session and look forward to more of God’s sharing through them.
5. Kallosmag : This is a great  resource for christian Young christian women that addresses current issues. We have subscribed to the magazines ourselves too!
6. See Shir Li: She has been a great uplifter as she aptly describes her instagram. Always pointing back to Jesus amidst juggling work and ministry and kids.
7. Mum in the Making: Justina is an inspiring and down to earth God pursuing lady. She homeschools 5 kids and shares her practical life with much love and humility. Her blogalso offers aplenty of activities and scientific facts!
8. A juggling mum : Susan shares her life with much ease and authenticity in her faith as she raises her daughter.

9. For more posts on Learning

1. Be a hands-on parent, not a handphone on parent
2. Process of education starts from the heart of our home
3. For what is worth in our academic pursuits?
4. New Routine: Interest based 1 to 1 and chinese reading habits
5. Teach the art of learning to learn?
6. Moving Minds, Heartening Hearts
7. A loss nothing compared to gains in Sept Hols
8. The heArt of growth mindset
9. The heArt of growth mindset: I can learn anything!
10. Smile it’s Exams! Great time to grow and glow!
11. Raising motivated kids
12. Small spaces for 3 growing hearts
13. Younger Peek-a-day! Routine
14. Growthmindset videos for KIDS by Childhood 101

Thank you for lasting till here!

Let’s STAY HOME, STAY SAFE, STAY HEALTHY and CHEERFUL together! GOD BLESS YOU!

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