Congratulations Kids!

Mommy Moments!

Kylie's achievement has been remarkable since she started school at 8th month old.

here's Kylie with grandmama completing toddler class - Most Attentive Listener!

1ST APRIL 2009 - MOVING UP CEREMONY, Cavite, Philippines. Kylie is a pentagon awardee, 

HIGHEST AWARD POSSIBLE! (Mommy was 2 months pregnant here)

Kerim's achievements are remarkable as well. Although, having the privilege to be together together, he didn't go to school so early like Kylie. We tried to teach him a few tricks and lessons every now and then. He's done a lot of impressive things at 18th months which reminds me to update the pictures in our Multiply.(using it for archiving photos still)

But here's our favorite so far - our cheeky monkey Kerim:

No or Yes, every little things that kids do deserve CONGRATULATIONS! And I believe every Mommy would agree with me on that.


Keep achieving!

Doha School Fair Fever: Another Entrepreneurship Opportunity

We were off to a good start with teaching entrepreneurship to the kids at an early stage. Another Doha School Fair Fever was done in Kylie's school, this time called "table sale." Well, it might not be a fair at all, but definitely we bought more than we sold! Hahaha! Good finds, really.

As this is the first table sale in Newton International School, there were lots of weaknesses in the event specially the promotion of event. Very few people came to actually buy. Majority of the buyers are sellers!

Princess Kylie and her fellow entrepreneurs (with costumes!)

manning her stand!

she was also willing to sell some of her princess stuff! - awesome kid!

while this mini-entrepreneur plays!

tired and drinking water! pheeww hot day!

with the ever supportive Turk dad! 

We still have some stuff to sell and it's Mommy's turn again to look for Doha Fair! ;) All these opportunities give us tremendous entrepreneurship lessons to learn!

Small lessons. Big Steps! Who knows...

Keep exploring!

Book Review: Oxford Reading Tree - Bottles, Cans, Plastic Bags

Another book we read during the Earth Day is from Oxford Reading Tree titled Bottles, Cans, Plastic Bags.
 
The book is part of the series of Read at Home First Experiences which introduce young children to new situations and are ideal for reading together. Each book contains all the elements of a first time experience in an entertaining story full of humor and detail.

We definitely enjoyed this book where the children cleaned up the beach and were introduced the concept of waste segregation! It was also emphasized in the story the value of the restoring the environment to its clean state. The proactive way of cleaning the environment is helping together to clean up somebody else's mess. While the kids were cleaning the beach, they helped a seagull who was tangled in the plastic rings from some of the drink cans trash. The sea gull couldn't fly. It illustrated the harm to wildlife when people leave litter on beaches which can be further elaborated to kids as acting irresponsibly towards the environment.

There's also the incentive of finding the purple snail, which is actually painted by Dad. Unexpected good things happen when we act responsible towards the environment. This is a very good lesson to impart to kids. Especially for Kylie's age that "WIIFM" is so natural for them: What's in it for me? that is!

There are two activities at the end of the book which we enjoyed doing together: Sort the Rubbish and Snail Trail Maze.

Also, it is interesting to note their waste sorting: Glass, Cardboard, Cans, Food Waste, Plastic and Paper. Now, if only we could implement this in Qatar.

Well, I could recommend this book. Especially if live examples could be shown to the children. 

Keep reading!

Qatar Environment Protection - Beyond Earth Hour

It may be coincidence or planned, but Qatar is living up to this year's Earth Hour theme, Beyond Earth Hour. This weekend, there are several campaigns on Qatar Environment Protection.

One of them is the Qtel E-waste Recycling Day  on 2nd April as detailed in the news article.

Also, the Environment Fair 2011 is scheduled for this weekend as well, from 1st April to 3rd April at Doha Exhibition Center.

Environment Fair 2011 schedule is detailed below:

Friday, April 1^st   1:00pm – 7:00pm

Saturday, April 2^nd 10:00am – 7:00pm                                                         

Sunday, April 3^rd  10:00am – 7:00pm

                                                     

If you are in Doha, please participate in these activities. Be environment-friendly!

Keep exploring!

Book Review: Space Mission

Turknoys just had a great kick off the week with Budget Book's Space Mission series. These series are shiny board books invoking lots of imaginative play in outer space for the kids.

The main character, Andy, in Galaxy Getaway, sees a shooting stars and follows it with his rocket. He passed by lots of planets, gets caught in meteor shower and sees constellations.After all that adventure, he was given a hero's welcome at home (Earth!)

In the Moon Walk, Andy again takes off with his rockets, saw meteors and land on the moon. On the moon, he became friends with a robot. They share souvenir. Andy gives robot a little flag from Earth while robot gives him some moon rocks! Well, that's Mr. Universe Andy being so friendly with creatures (or robot!) from moon.
 
Similar with Moon Walk, Robotmania  is about being friends with robot in outer space, this time in Mars! So cute - "life on Mars is great and robots even played basketball!" It takes great imagination to come up with robots in Mars having barbeque, hanging out and enjoying the planet Mars.

In Up, Up and Away, Andy got himself a new flying saucer during this birthday and invited his friends to join him for a ride. Space joy ride! That's the mos awesome birthday gift ever. Until the hungry astronauts received message from Earth that it's dinner time. They managed to explore the different planets, most especially Jupiter and Saturn.

These books are perfect for 1 year old and above. Kerim can't get enough of this series. He loves the glossy and smooth feel of the board books. Kylie, on the other hand, can read all the words while expressing her amazement at the way Andy and friends explore.

I took one sample photo of the book as I can't seem to find them in Amazon. (shame!) It's relatively cheaper than other books of the same quality. I suppose we were lucky to have found them. Budget books indeed!

Space Mission Budget Books Series

What a great way to introduce astronomy to young kids.

Keep reading!

Sibling Bonding - Turknoy Style: Swimming at Intercontinental

These two Turknoys would do anything to get in the pool and stay out of there! Now that summer days are almost here, we will definitely frequent the beach, pools and playground at the Intercontinental Hotel-Doha!

let's go to explore, i'll drive mommy!

let's go, got the toys!

ahhh relaxing view = turknoys busy + beach

an on with the pool!

happiness!

and then play!

Normally, the kids would be so dead tired that they fall asleep in the car! A wonderful relaxing evening! ;)

Keep exploring!

Book Review: Dora Celebrates Earth Day

Today is Earth Day!We have celebrated this cause today by reading "Earth-friendly" books, one of which is Dora Celebrates Earth Day!

In this book, Dora is making a scrapbook filled with tips about what we can all do to help save our planet. All the tips are so practical that even my four-year-old Turknoy can relate.


These are the tips listed in the book.

1. Always make sure not to waste water., takes short shows and turns off the faucet when brushing teeth. (with the photo of Boots brushing teeth, cute!)
2. If you have water left in the drinking glass, we can use it to water plants. ( practical tip!) 
3. Turn off the lights when not using and turn out the lights during the day when there's plenty of sunlight.   this is a no-brainer tip but few follow to heart!) 
4. Rides a bike, not a car. (uh oh, we are so guilty of NOT doing this!) 
5. Brings own cloth bags during groceries. Reuse the same bags every shopping. Sandwich bags can also be washed and reused again and again. 
6. Do not leave refrigerator door for a long time. Decides what you want to get before opening the door. (so simple yet not many follows!) 
7. Share toys; do not throw old toys, give to less fortunate kids. 
8. Plant fruits, vegetables, trees and flowers.
9. Play outside!
10. Recycle and segregate wastes properly!

Well, judging from the tips, Dora made an awesome scrapbook. All kids should be taught about these tips. And if your child has this fascination about Dora, it would be more effective to inculcate to them the value of saving Earth!

The book is also printed on recycled paper. Leading by example, there you go. 

 I would definitely recommend this book to parents and teachers alike. We couldn't educate the children enough about the value of environmental protection.

Here's to hoping that everyone participated in the Earth Hour and more importantly, committing ourselves to saving Earth BEYOND Earth Hour in our own little ways. Hey, the ten tips above could be small but of great impact!

Keep reading!

Last Day: Qatar Marine Festival 2011 (26 March 2011)

Today is the last day of the Qatar Marine Festival 2011! It's so sad that it has to come to an end. I hope this could be an year-long event. Who knows!

For those who are about to come to the festival for the first time, enjoy the fun despite the huge crowd.

As I have been receiving lots of queries on the location,here's the location map for your reference.


View Qatar Marine Festival in a larger map


Other links you might find helpful to assist you on lots of activities are in these links:

Sailing, Sports Activities and Mini Golf 
Sea Giants
Carnival Parade
Visual Art Symposium
 Al Seef Cinema
Bahoor World 
Traditional Handcrafts 
Sands Kingdom
How to get there - Water Taxi
Dancing Fountain
Seals Show 
Day 2: Qatar Marine Festival 2011
Qatar Marine Festival 2010
Set Sail for Qatar Marine Festival 2011 (Promo)
Sea Change for Marine Festival Promo


Stop by the Marine Library, they will be giving all the books away for free! Wish we are going today  but we'd rather rest from almost week long of exploring at the Qatar Marine Festival 2011!

Great if you would give us feedback how you have enjoyed your visit. And to the Qatar Marine Festival Organising Committee, thank you very much and kudos on the great work! Please consider our suggestions for a year long event such as the festival!

Awesome!

Crystal Clear White

Mommy Moments!!

I thought I’d share what I do (or at least attempt to do) for my organization as part of my job description. I advocate strategy management and continual improvement. And I must admit that it is a rewarding and challenging job!

People tend to get trapped in day-to-day activities and it is a challenge to make them appreciate the overall view of what’s going to happen if/ when they make things happen. It is also a challenge to make them accept not things are not “good enough” and there are still opportunities (lots of!) for improvement.

As parents, we are all guilty of this sometimes. We tend to get lost in attending to our children’s day-to-day needs such as putting them to sleep, making them eat healthy, attending to their home works, preparing for that birthday parties and playgroups, that we lose the reason why we are doing these things and how do we see our family several years from now.

In organizations, it is important the we set the mission, vision and brand values. I believe that it should also be the case for parenting. Mission is why we exist, vision is what we want to achieve in the next number of years and brand values are what traits are important to us. I could write on and on about this but bottom line for this post is that we, as parents, should be able to set goals for our family’s success NOW. And the important part of this, we need to be able to articulate this in a way that our stakeholders (family members) would understand.

All successful people, families or organizations plan to live life to the fullest by planning strategies and achievements. They create their own chances in life. They set goal in advance so they can take control to drive themselves towards success.

It might be difficult to define the your family’s vision for 5-10 years but it has to be done to arrive at annual goals.

Goals define target. Targets make things achievable. (I should stop with this jargon really, I am driving myself nuts!)

So for the WHITE entry this week for Mommy Moments. A visual representation of our family’s target in the next years:

we will own a Porsche! ;)

sailing - soon we will!

here's our little executive ;)

Life is so colorful at Mommy Moments:  Orange, Green, Purple and this week's WHITE.

Qatar Marine Festival 2011: Sailing, Beach Football, Ball Games and Mini Golf

There's more of Qatar Marine Festival 2011 that we didn't get to enjoy fully. Probably due to lack of time, but could also be from lack of interest! It's a shame that the family is not into sports much. That has to change in the next months or so, once the toddler gets more (oh boy!) active!

In sailing, we get to see different types of sailboats by Qatar Sailing and Rowing Federation. We saw, as well, para-sailing, when we were enjoying a movie at Al Seef Cinema.

oh, it's para sailing

someday, we'll try this - yeehaaaaaa

We get to observe as well some games of beach volleyball and some ball game.

bossaball

beach football!

bossaball court!

Apparently, the ball game here is BOSSABALL. A newly invented sport which combines football, volleyball, gymnastics and spectacular acrobatic moves. Bossaball shows are conducted by highly skilled teams from Brazil, Slovenia, Belgium and Holland.

There's also mini-golf which we were looking forward to try but since it's in front of Bahoor World, we were always distracted.

Keep exploring!

Qatar Marine Festival 2011: Sea Giants

You will definitely feel the great ambiance at the Qatar Marine Festival 2011  when you see the Sea Giants!

The Sea Giants exhibition is a walk through experience for visitors to learn more about their favorite sea creatures.

SHRIMP

HAMOUR

SHARK

STARFISH

CRAB

FASKARA

Keep exploring!

Qatar Marine Festival 2011: Carnival Parade

What's a festival without a parade? Qatar Marine Festival 2011  definitely put a lot of thoughts and creativity on the Carnival Parade.

Bahoor!

musical fish!

under the sea

on target - LOL ,poor driver

so fitting for the sponsor - Qatar Airways!

Our favorite is this:

BRILLIANT!!

Keep Exploring!