I haven’t really been doing craft with the twins, mainly because I’m lazy scared of the mess, but since I had some spare time this morning (N was sleeping in), I thought I’d let them have some Art and Craft time.
They received some Crayola egg crayons when we were in Singapore, and I got them some Crayola washable stampers from Popular, so I added them to the selection of materials for this round of Invitation to Create. I also provided the My First Chalks from ELC, as well as a stash of stickers that I’ve accumulated over the years.
I taped a sheet of drawing block on the table for each twin, plonked them into their high chairs, then let them choose whatever they wanted to work with. With N, I didn’t usually give him so many different items to choose from, but with the twins, I’ve come to realise that I needed a bit more variety to prevent them from fighting. Of course, they would also fight over the exact same crayon sometimes, but at least they could be more easily distracted by something else, if I had more options for them.
Ready to make a mess!
They both opted to draw with the crayons and chalk initially, then moved on to stickers. Meimei generally has better fine motor skills than Didi, so she was able to peel the stickers out with ease. Didi tried ripping the sticker sheet when he couldn’t remove the stickers, then whined for help. Meimei was also determined to use the crayons and stampers to “colour” the face of one of the stickers for some strange reason, and seemed quite pleased with herself after she successfully did so. After a while, they both asked for the mini stampers, but weren’t quite able to get the hang of them, so I think I’ll reintroduce the stampers when they’re older.
Busy creating their own masterpieces
The difference between Didi and Meimei: one stamps on the paper, while the other stamps on his hand before attempting to “transfer” it to the paper *facepalm*
It was quite interesting to watch them create their own art pieces. Meimei seemed to be more aware that the sheet of drawing block was quite large, and made better use of the space on the paper. Didi focused only on the area directly in front of him, despite my attempts to get him to use other parts of the paper. They both liked “stacking” their stickers, pasting them one over the other, but Meimei spread out the stickers a bit more than Didi did.
After some time, Didi decided to decorate his face with the stickers, since he had already decorated his hands with the stampers. Meimei watched him, tried putting a sticker on her own face, then figured it would be more fun to put the stickers on Didi’s face instead. I was really amused by her, and I’m so glad I managed to catch her in action. Love how she laughed at Didi after she managed to put the stickers on his cheek!
What should we do with these stickers?
Paste them on our cheeks, of course!
Do we look funny?
Maybe we should remove the stickers…
Come, let me help you…
Heehee, he doesn’t know that I pasted another sticker on his face, instead of helping him to remove the other stickers!
He’s so silly!
I’m going to paste another one on him!
HAHAHAHAHAHA
I’ll probably try to let them experiment more with various art and craft materials after N has started school, especially since they really seem to enjoy it. Perhaps it’s the novelty factor, since they hardly get to do this, but it’s great for their fine motor skills development, plus it allows them to be creative, so I need to start planning more such sessions for them!
PS. For those of you who are extra observant, you may have noticed that the twins were wearing a different t-shirt in the series of photos where they pasted stickers on their faces, and if you’re SUPER observant, you may also have seen a pamphlet and the same t-shirt in front of the twins’ art materials.
The picture on the t-shirts was drawn by a child patient at KK Women’s and Children’s hospital (KKH), and Johnson’s Baby is partnering KKH to support women and children in Singapore who require financial assistance in medical treatments. In celebration of their 125th year, Johnson’s Baby will donate $1 to the KKH Health Fund for every photo on Instagram with the hashtags #JohnsonsBabySG and #BetterWorldForBabies. This campaign is ongoing, and will run till the end of August 2018, so please start posting your photos on Instagram, and don’t forget to keep your profile public. Help Johnson’s Baby hit their target of raising $20,000 for the KKH Health Fund!
