Preschool, Art Classes, and beyond!

             The past year and a half, I have had the chance to teach preschool twice a week for four 3-4 year olds.  When we first arrived, I researched the pre-schools here and found out that they expect your kids to attend the schools much longer hours than I was used to.  It's also not cheap and you usually send your child half day (til 1 or 2) to full day (till 5).  For that and some other personal reasons, I realized that I wanted to do a little homeschool preschool for Elli.  Some friends found out about it and before I knew it, I had my own "World Wonders Preschool" as I call it.  It's been a fun way for me to teach and spend time with Elli and use the teaching skills I have to help other kids too.  I really enjoy it and it's just enough teaching without being overwhelming.  Sienna even gets to join in when she is behaving (otherwise she gets to hang out with our helper Nerissa).  Here are a few pictures of some of our fun times.  I don't have many pictures, since I usually run a one-woman show. The first ones are from when I first started.

Fine motor development: Marbles on golf tees

Sorting and finger strength practice 

Letter Name cars

Here is Elli and Sienna practicing balancing, something we worked on in preschool.

Here are some more recent pictures of my pre-school on Wacky Wednesday and another day when we did Dr.Suess's Ten Apples Up on top.  For Wacky Wednesday (Dr. Suess book too), my house was wacky all over, the kids got to dress wacky, we ate our snack UNDER the table, painted with our toes (with water), whacked our letters, and walked backwards among other things!  They had a great time and especially were amazed at the shoes on the wall (notice the shoe on the picture to the right!  

3M tape is awesome. 

ART CLASS: Messy Masterpieces

I have also been taking Elliana to an art class off and on at a place called Parents' Place nearby. It is an awesome place with classes for kids and adults, but there is a play area so you can always bring your kids even to adult classes.  I really love it, especially since finding all these materials (much less the space in our apartment) to do this messy art would be quite the trial for me.  Here are some of the great art she has done there this year.

 chinese caligraphy or something like it

Body Art Beach Scene

 Rainbow Fish

 Food Art with Paint and Real Food

 Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree

 Mask work and Trick or Treat bag for Halloween

 The Hungry Caterpillar

 Owl Babies

 Wall painting

Easter Cotton ball and glitter fun (sorry I'm too lazy to turn this picture around)

Rainbow fun (First picture not Elli's-here to show what it should have looked like).  Elli was really into expressing her creativity this day.

  Foam Snow Men with glue and Shaving cream

 Sienna was always around participating in her own way! 

As Sienna has gotten bigger, she has been much more inclined to get into the mess with Elli which has made it much more difficult for me to take pictures, thus the lack of further pictures of the art.  However, we will continue to have fun and I know Elliana loves her art class. 

I know I did a separate Playgroup post earlier, but here are some cute pics from a couple recent playgroup excursions.  

Fine Arts Museum 

Totally weird cigarette display-- YES cigarettes!! It smelt awful.  Left the room quickly.

At one of the FREE parent play places around town.  Elli is such a climber- got all the way by herself.

 At the children's recreational area near Yuanshan MRT.  

A really fun place that we only recently discovered-- and not too far from us! 

 Sienna loved these guys, she kept hugging and kissing them!  So funny.

They had hula hoops out and all the kids had a great time *even the adults showed some great moves!

Here is a fun day at this new Fun place near our house called Fun Kid Fun!!

(some of you may have seen this on facebook)

We like to play hide and go seek in here! 

The girls even made the cutest fish craft there!

And Here are some pictures just because they don't fit in another category and they are really cute!  Some of them are from a while ago that I never got up!

1. Elli's outfit to go to the store complete with tap shoes.  (she wasn't even riding her bike this day)

 2.  It is dress up time non-stop in our house.  Elli often chooses what Sienna will wear and Sienna normally complies momentarily.

 3. This just shows how much Elli loves dancing.  She was standing right up front to watch this hawaiian dancing show despite the rain.  Everyone else was seeking cover from the sides. 

 4. My little Chinese Doll

5.  Elli playing the piano and singing at church, notice Sienna throwing a fit in the background- doesn't disturb Elli though.

6. Sienna getting some nourishment while her sister is in a photoshoot. (quite a while ago)

7. Look at my Sienna growing up so fast!!

 

9. Strawberry Picking.  Elli was being a punk for the pictures.  

10. Just playing around in Mommy's boots!! 

11. Sienna drinking hot chocolate and loving it! 

12. Reading children's scriptures together.  I love family time! 

Christmas Fun & Hong Kong

We had a quiet but pleasant Christmas this year.  No family, no visitors; just us.  This was the second year in a row and second year ever that it has just been us.  I think that I wouldn't mind celebrating Christmas with just my little family once the kids are a little older.  But for right now, Heather and I definitely missed spending time with our family during this fun time of year.

But even despite that, we had a good Christmas.  Here are some pics that capture it all.  

Heather took the girls to a holiday celebration at a friend's house in which Santa made an appearance.  Sienna had a priceless moment with Santa, and Elli was a cute as ever.

 

In addition to taking pictures with an American Santa, we also had to take a pic with Asian Santa.  Unfortunately, I was not in this one since I was taking the pic.  Right before us in line was a young Asian couple.  Santa stood behind them while they sat in the sleigh.  Santa was making awesome gestures, like making a heart of his hands, etc.  It was so wonderfully Asian cheesy.  Unfortunately, he wouldn't repeat it with us.  We did get a thumbs up!

Earlier that month, one of our good friends Lily, who runs her own photography business, took some adorable pics of our girls.  

We celebrated Christmas Eve one night early.  Here are the girls as we read over the story of Christ's birth.  Elli and Sienna loved reenacting the story.  Here's Elli as Mary and Sienna as the angel.

Although our Christmas was fairly low-key, our New Years was action packed.  Our close friends Ken and Becky Hamblin, who live in Abu Dabi, happened to be visiting some friends in Hong Kong, which is only a short flight away from Taipei.  So we decided at the last moment to hop on over and spend a few days with them.  It was a such a great treat to see them again.  We've missed them as well as our group of close friends back in northern Virginia quite a bit.

While in HK, we spent a full day at the Ocean Park theme park (kind of a smaller version of Sea World) and had a wonderful time.  Elli rode her first real big kid roller coaster.  She was very brave, and she giggled and shouted excitedly the entire time.  In fact, she rode it twice in a row she couldn't get enough.  

We also spent another full day exploring HK, which we discovered was not the most kid friendly city.  We still had a nice day.  Here was a rather unique Buddhist temple we went to, which seemed to me more like a Japanese styled temple than a traditional Chinese temple.  It was nice and peaceful, except when our pack of little kids entered it!

 We also found a babysitter so the adults could spend an evening on our own.  Unfortunately, our plans to see some of the so-called best sites of HK at night and eat at one of the best restaurants completely failed, but we still had a great time at failing.  That's the wonderful thing about being with such good friends.

The morning we returned to Taiwan, Heather and Becky took a quick trip to Stanley's Market for some much deserved girl time without the kids.  They had a very pleasant morning shopping and eating on the seashore, and returned triumphant with many items.  

Even though it was a short trip, it was a great one.  And we made a pack to make the next time we meet abroad to be in Istanbul!