Life in Japan - Day trip in Chiba

We took a 1.5 hr drive to Chiba (located in the greater Tokyo region) on a Saturday recently. It was beautiful and we had a wonderful time exploring despite walking a lot and climbing probably thousands flights of steps. This is one of the many reasons why I love living in Japan. There's always something to do (apart from shopping) as a family on weekends and so much culture and history to enjoy

Montessori Focus: The Prepared Environment

Today's post is on child education. For those who are not child-friendly people, I will strongly encourage you to stop reading so as not to be bored by my child talk! *oh dear, I'm sounding like such a boring housewife mother... tsk tsk*

I'm a big fan of the montessori way of educating children. Aiden goes to a montessori preschool in Japan and at home, we have also created a montessori environment where he is free (and safe) to explore and learn. In montessori, this is called "the prepared environment". For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the montessori philosophy, here are some pointers on the definition and features of a prepared environment.

Principle
The key concepts of Montessori are communicating respect for the individual child, the importance of freedom of movement to aid the child's physical and cognitive development, and allowing children to participate in daily routines of self care and care of the environment to assist learning and the development of independence. It is believed that children learn through their senses. And they learn by watching and re-applying their new found knowledge by moving around without inhibitions.

Safety
Attention must be paid to the safety of the environment. When there are no fears of danger, children are free to explore.

A place in every room
Have a corner in every room for the child's personal belongings (which explains why my son has got toys, books etc, everywhere in our house)

Others

• Shelves should be low so that the child knows how to get his toys and books, and where to pack them away when he is done.
• The child's bed should be low so that he can climb in and out of it without any help.
• A child -size table and chair in the main play area for the child to do art and craft work. This is to prepare them for future learning at school and to develop good posture that aid concentration.
• Have several stools in the house for the child to use to turn on the lights and wash their hands at the sinks. This is to foster independence.
• Place the child's utensils in low drawers so that he knows where to get them. Again, this foster independence.
• Have a place (wall or door) where the child can put up his drawing or artwork. This help to instil a sense of pride in them for their own achievements.
  

So anyway, our nightly routine involves getting Aiden to tidy up the living room by packing his toys away and putting them in the labelled drawers of his toy shelf (Montessori philosophy – assuming responsibility) before he goes to bed. But the other night, he was taking his own sweet time and after about 101 times of telling (sometimes yelling) him to put the toys away, we gave him an ultimatum –

“PACK UP YOUR TOYS NOW OR I WILL NOT READ YOU ANY BOOKS FOR BED!”

He got his act together immediately and this was what we got.



He was already out of sight by the time we noticed this mess that was transferred from the floor to the top of his shelves.

I guess we still have a looong way to go....

What's for dinner?

My husband and I love indian cuisine so I cook indian meals from time to time. I craved for tandoori chicken the other day after coming across a recipe online. This isn't the first time I make tandoori chicken but I used to get ready made marinade from the shops so this is the first tandoori that I have made from scratch. It wasn't difficult but you do need to get the timing right as the chicken has to be marinated for at least 6 hours and not more than 8 hours. The end result was so satisfying that I don't think I will ever revert to using store bought tandoori marinade ever again.
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Recipe

Ingredients
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 Tbsp garam masala
1 Tbsp sweet (not hot) paprika
1 cup plain yogurt
2 Tbsp lemon juice
4 minced garlic cloves
2 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon salt
4 whole chicken legs (drumsticks and thighs), or its equivalent, skinless, bone-in
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Method
Heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat, then cook the coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne, garam masala and paprika, stirring often, until fragrant (approximately 2-3 minutes). Let cool completely.

Whisk in the cooled spice-oil mixture into the yogurt, then mix in the lemon juice, garlic, salt and ginger.

Cut deep slashes (to the bone) in 3-4 places on the leg/thigh pieces. Just make 2-3 cuts if you are using separate drumsticks and thighs. Coat the chicken in the marinade, cover and chill for at least an hour (preferably 6 hours), no more than 8 hours.

Take the chicken out of the marinade and shake off the excess. You want the chicken coated, but not gloppy. Panfry the chicken to brown it.

Turn the chicken so it is brown (even a little bit charred) on all sides. Transfer into a roasting tray and bake in in oven at 180 deg C. The chicken is done when its juices run clear. Let it rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.
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I served the chicken with a vegetarian pilaf (basmati rice cooked in vegetable stock and mixed vegetables) and a cucumber raita. I don't want to crowd this page with recipes so if there's anyone interested in having the rice and raita recipes, just leave me a comment :)

If you like tandoori chicken like I do, give this recipe a go. Cooking from scratch really isn't that hard and I promise you the result is oh so worth it!

I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl

Nina Simone (1933 - 2003), another American Jazz Singer that I like. This song is my favourite of hers. I love her distinct voice in this beautiful melody. And the lyrics too. Sometimes we just need a little sugar in our bowl don't we?

Have a fabulous week ahead!

Beauty lies in the eyes of my son

Last weekend, my husband decided that we should go on a day trip to Chiba located in the greater Tokyo area. The place that we were visiting was famous for its stoned Buddha (reputed to be the largest in Japan) and a 100 feet tall Goddess of Mercy. The whole area was very hilly and involved a lot of walking and climbing of steps. My husband warned me about this and told me to wear my trek shoes for the day. We were rushing to leave so I quickly put on an airy blouse (summer now in Japan and freaking hot) and a pair of jeans.

We were in the elevator when it dawned on me that my trek shoes did not match my outfit for the day. In fact, I would even say I looked like a fashion disaster (which explains why there are no photos for this post). I started grumbling to my husband about how horrible I looked when I felt my boy's hand touching mine. He was looking up at me and in a very soft and sweet voice, he said:

"Mummy, you look pretty."

Awwww.... how sweet is that?

Purposeful Play: Creating a story book

Starting from now, I will be writing on a series of activities that I do with my almost 3 year old on a regular basis. I call this “purposeful play” as play, in my opinion, should never be meaningless. It is thru play that children learn. Their little brains and minds are like sponges, absorbing every piece of information that come along their way. My husband and I are firm believers in early brain development and we have always been on the same page when it comes to how we stimulate Aiden and provide him with the right environment and opportunities to learn.

On a boring afternoon recently, I decided that it was perhaps about time I introduce the concept of making a story book with Aiden. We have been reading story books to him on a nightly basis since he was just a few months old to cultivate his love for reading. By now at the age of 35 months old, Aiden is very familiar with what a “story book” means. So the other day, I asked him if he would like to create his own book with me and his face lit up with excitement. We got out some plain flash cards (I did not want to use normal writing paper as they would be too flimsy), hole-puncher, some strings, a glue and scissors. After stringing a few cards together, we went to the computer to look for some ideas.

I explained to Aiden that he had to think of the kind of story that he would like for his book. Just as I expected, he said he wanted superman (his current obsession). Then I asked him to give me an idea for every page so that we could look for pictures of Superman that we can print out from the computer. It was so cute as he started throwing out sentences like “superman is strong”, “superman can fly”, “superman can fight naughty people” etc. Based on his ideas, we searched online for suitable pictures that related to his concept. After printing them out, we stuck them on the individual pages of the “book” before colouring them. The end product looks like this:

Of course Aiden still cannot write so I had to do it for him but all the lines were his ideas. Initially I thought he meant "Aiden's superman is strong" but I soon realised he meant "Aiden Superman"! I guess he has been so obsessed with Superman that he is now fantasizing being one himself. My favourite got to be the last page of the book where he told me to write "Superhero Super Aiden". That was his way of ending the story. How cool is that?

So here we have. Aiden in his superman costume and showing off the book he created with pride.

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Getting your child to create a storybook is a very good learning activity. He get to witness the whole production of something from stringing together paper/cards, developing ideas, printing of pictures and colouring them. Involving him in the stringing of cards and pasting on the pictures can help improve on his fine motor skills. Getting him to come up with his own storyline stimulates his creativity and develop his critical thinking ability. Encouraging him to verbalize his ideas will help to hone his communication skiils. This activity will also give him a great sense of pride that is beneficial to his self-esteem. I know because Aiden went to school the next day with his Superman book and showed off to his friends! His teachers told me that he was so proud. And so was I.

Bento Update: Happy Friends

Just realised I haven't posted any bento updates recently so here's one I made recently for Aiden's lunch at school.



I'm trying to be a little more creative with Aiden's bentos but it has been hard. This boy is rather lazy with feeding himself so whatever I put in the bento have to be bite-sized. And bentos for kids are usually decorated with vegetables like carrots cut into shapes of flowers, or broccoli acting as "bushes" or little "trees" to fill up empty spaces in the lunchbox. But Aiden doesn't like carrots and broccoli. And if I put these into his lunchbox, I fear he may be pissed off and will thus refuse to eat the rest of the stuff (it happened before).

The other day, I was feeling quite sick of doing bentos the usual way and decided to just do it and added star shaped zucchini and flower carrot (stuck with a decorative stalk that is inedible) to beautify the bento. I painstakingly cut out strips of nori to make designs of shirts for the rice "people". Don't they just look like 2 little good friends?

Thankfully the bento came back from school that day empty. Well, except for the zucchini (which he will only eat them in grated form) and the carrot. And he specifically told me not to put the carrot in his lunchbox again. I guess that was his final warning to me.