Water of life

Water.

 The most abundant compound on earth. It covers 70% of the earths surface. The formula is H2O. It has a boiling point of 99.98° C. Even our body consist of 60%-70% of water. We used water in almost any industry. Agriculture, manufacturing, construction, medical even your latest smart phone somehow includes water during its processing. Can a car run without water? Very unlikely. But do we really know everything there is to know about water?

Water can also be in solid, liquid or invincible state. In fact there is water in the air as we speak. Water can even break through concrete through a growing plant. That's the amount of pressure water are capable of. Divers especially knows this. The atmospheric pressure at the surface is 14.7 pounds per square inch or around 100 kPa. At about 10 m below the surface, the water exerts twice the pressure (2 atmospheres or 200 kPa) on the body as air at surface level. So much pressure! (..and you wonder how come the fishes and jelly fish makes it look so easy)

Water has been around longer than us. Perhaps we can learn a lot from what little facts that we know about water. Below is another amazing revelation about water. An experiment done by Dr. Masaru Emoto. Water was exposed to music, spoken words,pictures and videos. Different exposure resulted in different physical structures after the water was crystallized and seen under the microscope. It seems like positive exposure gives out beautiful structures.

So does this mean since our body consist of 60%-70% water, exposing ourselves to positive 'vibes' is a good idea? 

Think about it.

小叶的恐龙大冒险2之三角妈妈

小叶的恐龙大冒险2

（上期回顾：小叶与博士等人乘着三栖车来到不为人知的荒芜之地，本着冒险精神一心想要探个究竟，却在半途遇上来势汹汹的凶猛暴龙…）

轰！轰！轰！轰！轰！

暴龙的每一个脚步，都爆发出惊人的力道，哪怕只要一个不小心被踩在脚下…，后果绝非人能想象。

所以，此时此刻乘着三栖车，被暴龙猛追的四个人——小叶、小花、泉知博士与美智婆婆，无一不冒冷汗，胆战心惊的。

“博士，博士！加速…加速呀！！”小叶一边喊着博士，一边摇晃三栖车的前座。

“别再摇了，小叶，博士已经全速前进了。”婆婆叫住小叶，以免他继续摇晃前座而影响博士无法集中行驶。

另一边，小花面对现况，内心极尽恐惧，却默不作声，双说合十不断在内心默念：“大自然妈妈，请保佑我们脱离困境…大自然妈妈，请保佑我们脱离困境…”

轰！轰轰！轰！轰轰！

从背后传来的脚步声不一样了，似乎，暴龙加快了脚步！

“博博博博博博博士！快快快快做点什么，那暴龙越来越靠近我们了！”小叶大喊。

博士并没有说什么，额头上冒着冷汗的他试图将所有精神都放在眼前景物，努力找出可行的逃走路线。

“啊…前面是一道悬崖！！泉知，我们绝对越不过的…对了，快使用三栖车的飞行系统！”婆婆看到眼前状况危急，但也急中生智。

“哦哦哦！好呀，博士，让三栖车飞吧——！”小叶接着道。

“呼…虽然还未完成，不过，只好一试了！”博士说。

吼————！背后那暴龙丝毫不停歇，已经整个头往前开口大咬！

咻~~说时迟，那时快，三栖车在悬崖临跌之际，突然飞了起来，博士成功启动飞行系统了！

咔！暴龙这一咬，倒是咬空了，上牙打下牙，看在小叶眼中，它简直痛极了。

三栖车飞了一阵，总算是从暴龙那一处的悬崖来到对面悬崖，降落成功…

在这里，暴龙不在，终于能够停下；更重要的，是三栖车因为启动未完成的飞行系统而大量消耗太阳能，需要吸收阳光充电充电。

至于这一边的陆地，则和对面一样地荒芜，而眼睛锐利的小花，也很快地在这儿发现了三角龙的踪影。那是一只呼呼大睡的母三角龙，身旁有一个窝，里面有一些恐龙蛋，以及一只似乎不久前才破蛋而出的三角龙宝宝。

“哇哇，好可爱哇！”小花看着小三角龙大喊，似乎已经完全放下之前的恐惧。婆婆陪着她走到土窝那儿去，随手抓了一些草叶给三角龙宝宝喂食。

殊不知，同一时间，小叶在三角龙土窝八米处亦找到另外一只三角龙，体型比新生三角龙宝宝稍微庞大，相信属于幼年恐龙。

和婆婆、小花他们一样，小叶也尝试拿一根树枝喂食，不料，幼年三角龙以为小叶是想要攻击它，竟然奋起冲向小叶，头上三支角无一不击中小叶屁股…

博士看了，只能摇摇头，不知该哭该笑。

然而，此时此刻，虽然玩的玩，闹的闹，博士却深知，他们并未真正脱离危险，这一趟冒险才刚掀起序幕…

下期继续…

上一期：http://dcedu.blogspot.com/2012/10/1.html

下一期：http://dcedu.blogspot.com/2013/01/3.html

更多小叶内容：http://www.digitalcommunity.com.my/content.php?id=196

What's for dinner?

Making dinner can be a fun and interacting way to connect with our kids. We just need to be creative and super patient. Yes, patience is very very important. And also don't be afraid to get ourselves and our kitchen table dirty. 

It's good to get our kids to help us in the kitchen. They love the idea of being able to help mummy cooking. Well, at least this is what my 3 year old Halley thinks. She loves it when I ask for her help. 

Here's a little video of Halley kneading "pan mee" dough for the first time.

Halley was so excited and proud of herself and bragged to practically everyone in the house because she had helped out in making dinner. And she ate a little bit more than usual too.

Do you have any recipes that we can make with our little ones? 

Why I like my English subject

I recently came across many students who confessed that they hate English subject. Come to think about it I was once hated the subject too but not anymore.  What could have changed that?

When I tried to think back, there was one incident during my primary school time that could have changed my perception toward learning the language.  I was from Sekolah Kebangsaan and we usually speak in Chinese and BM in school.  English at that time was not common at all.  We had this weird mindset that those who speak English is just trying to show off, ‘sombong’ some call it ‘action’ but I think most of us were just too afraid of being laughed at if speak wrongly.

All these changed when she came to our school as temporary English Teacher.  It was really so long ago and i wished i can still remember her name.  All I can remember was during one of her English classes, she brought a cassette player and start playing some songs.  We were to copy the lyrics from the blackboard and before we knew it, the whole class started singing, struggling at first with the lyrics, the pronunciation and trying to understand what the song is all about.  We had so much fun singing and we had totally forgotten about our fear of becoming laughing stock because of our bad pronunciation .

And there was another time when she brought us out of the classroom, to learn about instructions on how to make sandwiches…not from textbook but an actual hands-on making real sardine sandwiches and we actually had a picnic after that.

Having said all that, I’m not implying that my English has improved tremendously overnight or I scored A in all my English tests as a results to these, but most importantly, it has changed my negative perception towards learning English.  I paid more attention and I like my English subject.

All these interactive and hands-on ways of learning have definitely worked for me and my classmates back then.  What about you? What works for you?

龙的传人 ~ Descendants of dragon

万圣节折纸DIY

Digital Community(数码教育社区)

在西方国家，每年的10月31日，有个“Halloween”，辞典解释为“The eve of All Saints'Day”，中文译作：“万圣节之夜”。万圣节是西方国家的传统节日。这一夜是一年中最“闹鬼”的一夜，所以也叫“鬼节”。

古代居住在爱尔兰、苏格兰等地的凯尔特人 (CELTS) 认为该日是夏天正式结束的日子，也就是新年伊始，严酷的冬季开始的一天。那时人们相信， 故人的亡魂会在这一天回到故居地在活人身上找寻生灵，借此再生，而且这是人在死后能获得再生的唯一希望。而活着的人则惧怕死魂来夺生，于是人们就在这一天熄掉炉火、烛光，让死魂无法找寻活人，又把自己打扮成妖魔鬼怪把死人之魂灵吓走。之后，他们又会把火种烛光重新燃起，开始新的一年的生活。

后来，罗马人庆祝丰收的节日与凯尔特人仪式结合，他们戴着可怕的面具，打扮成动物或鬼怪，以赶走在他们四周游荡的妖魔。这也就是今天全球大部分人以古灵精怪的打扮，来庆祝万圣节的由来。时间流逝，万圣节的意义逐渐起了变化，变得积极快乐起来，喜庆的意味成了主流。到了今天，象征万圣节的形象、图画如巫婆、黑猫等，大都有友善可爱和滑稽的脸。

万圣节是儿童们纵情玩乐的好时候。它在孩子们眼中，是一个充满神秘色彩的节日。夜幕降临，孩子们便迫不及待地穿上五颜六色的化妆服，戴上千奇百怪的面具，提上一盏“杰克灯”（南瓜灯笼）跑出去玩。万圣节的一个有趣内容是“Trick or treat”，这是种孩子们提着南瓜灯笼挨家讨糖吃的游戏。见面时，打扮成鬼精灵模样的孩子们千篇一律地都要发出“不请吃就捣乱”的威胁，而主人自然不敢怠慢，连声说“请吃！请吃！”同时把糖果放进孩子们随身携带的大口袋里。

趁着万圣节的到来，亲子可以发挥创意与搞怪的想象力，一起参与折纸活动，营造奇趣又可爱的万圣节气氛！以下就教大家一些万圣节“人物”的折纸方法：

 

 以上示范来自折纸俱乐部网站www.origami-club.com。万圣节文字介绍摘自新华网。

孩子涂鸦的世界...

星期五是公共假期（Hari Raya Haji)。我大宝贝（也就是我的大女儿）没上学。大宝贝是个非常没耐心的小女生，做什么都是五分钟热度。这天吃了早餐后就告诉我说要画画图颜色。我就帮她准备纸和颜色笔让她画。很意外的是今天她坐在那儿画了接近一小时。下午又说要画画，也是画了接近一小时。

大宝贝真得很爱画画。由一开始的灰灰沉沉的颜色到这天的彩色涂鸦。由只有线条到现在有图案。大宝贝真得开始长大了。以下是她一整天的作品。

你家的宝贝也喜欢涂鸦吗？虽然看不懂他们的创作，但也可以给与他们肯定及赞赏。通常我都会告诉大宝贝“太棒了”，“好美的颜色哦”，“可以教我画吗？” 画画可以培养耐心及创造力。不要给与太多的枷锁，就让他们自由发挥吧。

以下是小叶文章其中一篇有关涂鸦的文章：- 随手涂鸦能激发绘画潜能

小孩涂鸦画画有很多益处的，只要在网上搜寻都可以找到很多有关的网站和文章。

让我们一起进入孩子们的涂鸦世界吧。。。