Devein Prawns the easy way..

I have recently discovered an easy way to devein prawns. Take a look at how I do it. The trick is to pinch only the bottom at the end of the tail and then pull the vein out gently. Practice makes perfect. But I guess the prawns have to be very fresh for this to work. 

Paella

Paella

Paella looks like a very challenging dish but it's actually quite easy to make. The challenge comes from getting all the ingredients in Singapore.  

Paella looks like a very challenging dish but it's actually quite easy to make. The challenge comes from getting all the ingredients in Singapore.

For 5 Pax

Ingredients

• 1 Onion, finely diced
• I clove garlic, finely diced 
• 1 red bell peppers
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of 
• pepper
• 1 Tomato ( Skin the tomato, de-seed and dice finely)
• Olive oil
• 1 bay leaf 
• a generous pinch of saffron ( Saffron is a very expensive spice and cannot be bought at ntuc. I bought mine at an Indian shop where they sell lots of spices.) Soak the Saffron in a little bit of water. This is the spice that will give your rice the nice yellow colour. 

• 10 prawns, peeled. ( you may also put in other seafood such as mussels.)
• 10 pieces of fresh scallops.
• 2 Sotongs (cut into rings)
• chicken fillet ( cut into strips and add a little bit of chicken marinate.)
• Salmon (to pan fry and add on at the end)
• 2 cups of paella rice ( Almost impossible to find in Singapore. Substitute with Arborio rice. For my first attempt, I substituted with Japanese pearl rice. It tasted good but apparently, Japanese pearl rice is a poor substitute.)
• 2 cups of chicken stock

Cooking Method

Step 1: Heat the olive oil in a pan. Stir fry the seafood. Once the seafood is cooked, place them on a plate for later use.

Step 2: Fry the chicken fillet until golden brown. 

Step 3: Add in the onion, garlic, bell peppers, tomato, salt and pepper and fry.

Step 4: Pour in the cooked rice and stir until evenly mixed.

Step 5: Add the Chicken broth, bay leaf and saffron ( I only pour in the water). Do not stir the paella again. 

Step 6: Add in the seafood and let it simmer for a while until the chicken broth have been absorbed into the rice. You can choose how dry you want your rice to be. For those who like their rice drier, just simmer it for a longer time.
Step 7: Scoop out the portion of paella for each individual and add on the Salmon. Then it's ready to be served.

Teaching Counting, Addition and Number Bonds

Teaching Counting, Addition and Number Bonds

This simple home made teaching aid will help visual and kinesthetic learner to learn better.

Materials: 

2 dogs images

some bones

number cards

Activity 1: Counting

Stick the number card on the dog and get your child to pretend to feed it the bones. Tell your child that the dog only wants to eat the number of bones as stated on the number card. This activity is made for children under 3.
To see more activities for children under 3, click on Baby Explorer 0-3.

Activity 2: Addition

To teach addition, simple set up the number of bones for each dog and getting the child to count as they bring the bones back to the bones' dish.

You may choose whether to stick the answer number card(no. 6) on first, or you may get your child to identify the number card. Activity should vary according to your own learning objective and the ability of the child. 

you can even ask your child to write out the number sentence (e.g 1+5 = 6).

Activity 3: Number Bonds

Teaching number bond - the children can then learn the different composition of the number 6 and the different number bond of 6. Notice how the bowls are placed, they are placed according to how the child learns. 

 Get your child to write down the number bonds.

Theme: Plants and Flowers - Spring

 Plants and Flowers - Spring

Activity 1: Experiential Learning 

Bring your children to a garden full of flowers.

I brought my children to Gardens by the Bay (Singapore).

There, the children have use their 5 senses to learn about plants and flowers. 

During the trip: Worksheets designed to guide and record their learning.

Post trip activity: my daughter and I decided to draw this flower.

Natalie (7 yrs old) wrote a poem.

Activity 2: Painting a flower.

Activity 3: Flower Art
click to see more on how to make these flowers.

Activity 4: Multimedia Spring Art

Materials:
Cupcake cups
Buttons
Beads
Glue
coloured cotton balls
scotch tape
felt shapes
ice cream sticks

*give the kids what you can find from your art cupboard and see what they can create for you.

 Activity 5: Plants drink water. 

How do you know? See the white flower turning orange after drinking orange water.

 Activity 6: Outdoor learning about plants: First we gathered some leaves, flowers or whatever we can find. Then we thought about what we can do with them.

 Natalie made this beautiful artwork. creative rite? Most important thing about outdoor learning is that the kids get to smell different leaves and flower.

 We went around gathering different types of leaves. Natalie did leaf shading and we came home to organise them according to their characteristics.

Emmanuel's favourite type of leaves - toothed edge.

 Natalie likes the smooth and lobed edge leaves.

 Just having so much fun.

Activity 7: Grow some plants and vegetables at home.
Our collection includes Mint plant, wheatgrass, dou miao, kang kong, alfalfa and even lime plant (not in the photo).

Growing wheatgrass is really easy. just scatter the seeds on potting soil, water it everyday and they grow really fast. you can harvest up till 3 times.

 We made wheatgrass juice with it. Yummy..

 I always believe that a child needs to consolidate his learning. So this is a pictorial representation of the process of growing wheatgrass.

Growing Dou Miao ( a kind of vegetable)

 Growing dou miao is not easy because they cannot be too wet and yet they cannot be under direct sun or get too hot. At the same time, not all the seeds will grow.

Growing Kang Kong

Make a simple planting tray with an egg tray. Just remember to create some holes at the bottom to allow extra water to flow out.

Growing green beans are easy but it doesn't last.

We even tried hydroponic. But our Kang Kong vegetable didn't grow.

Growing Alfalfa

Step1: Find a jar or container. Pour in some seeds. Not too much, a little seeds can give you alot of Alfalfa sprouts. *I created holes around the container. Holes small enough for water to flow out only.

Step2: rinse the seeds.

Step3: keep it at a dark and wet place. I kept it in my store room. 

Step4: Rinse it twice a day.

Step5: continue to rinse it until you see Alfalfa sprouts of the size you want.