Ocean Week - The rest of the week

It is really a bad idea trying to document our activities daily.
I went to bed early the night of Day 3 to save up as much energy as I can for The Big Day, and spent the next few days recovering from the running around at the aquarium.

But anyway, here's the rest of Ocean Week.


DAY 3
It was a day of realisation so we ended after one activity.

I found this idea from Pinterest - footprint starfish, but didn't want to risk J decorating my mum's floor, so I changed it to handprint instead. Pretty naive of me to think that handprints would end up looking like starfish.

J was apprehensive initially when grandma painted her hands, but quickly got used to it and started to insist that she paint her hands on her own. Even though the painting didn't resemble starfishes, it ended up looking like sea jellies when inverted.

We had a lot of paint left so we went on to stamp vegetables instead.

And... that is all the ocean-related activities we did. I stopped because I realised I was trying too hard to capture the moment with my camera, up to the point that I was interrupting J. She got distracted upon seeing my phone so on second thoughts, that's probably what made her stop. 

The whole afternoon, I reflected. Do I want to be so focused about capturing the moment with the camera? Or should I do so with my heart. J didn't seem as enthusiastic in the activities either so should I still attempt structured activities? I don't have an answer yet.

Because I was so caught up in my thoughts, we allowed J to have a lot of unstructured play that day. She did amazing. 

She helped with the clean clothes. She pulled out the toy box and played with the little toys that were from her uncle's time. She swept the floors when my mum was sweeping. 

She didn't ask to be entertained. But at the same time, she's learning.

Note to self: I'd still like to continue with themed activities but I probably not be too rigid about it and expect things to go as planned. Maybe I should try to take her cue and facilitate her learning instead of trying to 'teach' her.

Day 4

The big day we hit the aquarium! 

What's better than seeing those fishes and sea creatures in person?

We were lucky to see the dolphins this time. We've been there for three times but have never had luck with the dolphins! Read more about it here. :)

Day 5

We are all exhausted from the trip the day before. Maybe, except J.
I attempted to make a jellyfish from this activity sheet we got at the aquarium.
It got destroyed even before we started. Was I even surprised?

When I was about to give up doing ocean-themed activities altogether, my dad decided that it was time to show J the starfruits he brought home that day. Before they rot.

So, J

1.  felt the smooth texture on the starfruit (she sniffed it the day my dad brought it home).

2. saw that the cross-section of the starfruit is, well, a star (we tried explaining that to her, not sure if she got it), and

3. did some starfruit painting.

The starfruit prints are perfect as sea stars so I gave her some blues and greens to paint an ocean first.

J really doesn't like to paint over the entire piece of paper.

We didn't manage to do as many activities as I wished to during this week but I did discovered something about the way I tried to carry out the activities and J's learning style. Let's leave that for another post.

Let me go dream about future aquarium visits now that we have the annual pass.



Here's what we did prior...

Preparation and Book List

Ocean Week - Day 1

Ocean Week - Day 2

To S.E.A. Aquarium we go!