Wrap-up 2014

This year flies especially fast.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to bring IZ overseas this year due to hectic work schedule for us.

Fortunately, we traveled overseas twice last year, ie. Taiwan and Bali.

Overall, it has been a good year, except for me falling sick so frequently. I start to wonder if it's pure bad luck or there's something I've not been doing right. (for sure, I've not been exercising enough).

As for IZ, he turned 4 earlier this month.

We stopped going to Ready Steady Go Kids, as we thought it's time for IZ to start on something else. We couldn't find a suitable Aikido class, something I really want him to learn, to defend himself when he goes to primary school. Aikido is supposed to be the "safest" martial arts, in my opinion. The good thing about it is, you do not injure your opponent, you dampen their attack, at the same time, taking care of not injuring him/her.

So we settled for swimming. Found a very passionate instructor in Hougang pool. It has been 5 lessons since. There were days IZ were enthu and strived to do the best (kiasuness kicks in when he sees his peer doing well), there are days he slacked (on days he didn't have peer pressure). We like the instructor very much. He is what we defined as "passionate to swim, passionate to teach, passionate to young kids". You can't get any better than this. Swimming class is fun for IZ, and fun for me to watch.

There's a slight problem though. Instructor prefers to have a parent in the pool when the kiddo wander in the water, in case he slips and struggle to stand. He doesn't want them to be traumatised. I am very very very X 1000 times reluctant to be exposed to the SUN! Tasked hubby to do it but he's not doing to my "expectation", grrrr!

And we also stopped going to Heart Studio, as IZ has been chanting "I don't like my art class" for the 1000th times. He also asked me not to pay anymore (coz we told him he had to finish the term as we paid for it). Seeing how he detest the class (although he was very happy IN the class itself), we decided to call it a quit. I felt really sad coz the teacher was really passionate about kids. Another good teacher we found, how lucky!

I looked around for drawing class (as he said he only likes to draw, not painting) and signed him up at Innoart. The teacher is from China, so she speaks strictly Chinese. When I brought IZ to the trial class, I was half-expecting him to give up half way coz of the Chinese speaking environment, but he claimed he loved it and asked me to pay.

So now, he goes to drawing class, and you guessed it, DRAW. More like copying actually but my brother who's studying early childhood said copying cultivate the concentration. Slowly, they can move on to the next phrase. Well, that's a super good deal. Killing few birds with a stone (fulfill his passion for drawing, cultivate concentration, in the meantime polishing his Chinese too!)

Parents Teachers Meeting: 11th Nov'14

Chinese language development:

Positive improvement but the boy gets mischievous over time.

He was one of the first who could write their Chinese names well, but he slacked in the end. Teacher suggested to print out his name to copy.

Typical of IZ. Once he gets hold of the way, he slacks.


General development:

The very first thing Ms Fizah brought up was his pronunciation. She said she is worried, as he didn't seem to change even after she corrected him in the class.

Probably because we slacked too. We just let him be at home, without correcting him. Right now, I've started to practice a few words a few times every night. I read that we shouldn't over-correct him for fear of bursting his confidence.

Other than that Ms Fizah said he did very well in class. He is the only one who said thank you for everything, even when given a piece of paper. We really hope this would continue, although daddy says it's a phase, up and down.

She also said he did well in the show and tell. Something I meant to ask the last PTM but I've forgotten. He could speak from the beginning, what he drew and what he planted. Such a big difference when I asked him what he would tell at the show and tell, and he said "I don't know". I guess it's just his functional personality at work in the class. As long as he knows what he is doing.

All is well, it's time to say goodbye to Nursery class and hello Kindergarten!

"How was school today?"

Everyday when I reach home from work, I would ask "how was school today, IZ?"

He would reply "good!"

Gone were the days he didn't want to go to school. Now he says "Kinderland is fun!"

But if you were to ask what he learnt in school, he would say "I don't know.."

So yesterday, when I stepped in, he said "school was good, Mommy" (without me asking), I was very happy.

Small little thing that made my mad day a good one.

Random Updates

Thanks to YouTube, out of desperation to key-in search keywords himself, he learnt to spell.

Other than his own name, and our (daddy & mommy) names.. below what he could spell by himself.

Some random drawing these days:

A girl

Rapunzel

Random updates

He says "jelly fish"

3D grandfather's clock

He drew this and asked me to fill in the blanks for those diamond shapes

He drew these and asked me
1) which one has shorter pendulum?
2) which one has the correct "9"?
3) which one has a bigger "12"?
4) which one is purple in colour?

Inspired by the teeth book we are reading, he sketched 2 sets of teeth

His 1st Roman number clock/watch?

He says the mouse waiting to go up the clock

He started to write and write assuming he was writing something that make sense

3D grandfather's clock

He says it's a big head with his mouth wide open.. below is the hands and legs..

The most detailed wall

Teapot.. pouring into teacup

Welcome Home

To welcome Aunty Selina home

All about plants..

This term theme in Kinderland is about plants, gardens etc.

I kinda know of the theme before the school sent me email, when IZ sketched this:

Sketched this (transpiration) and told me
"the water go into the root"

 He was talking about plants that eat insects, so I showed him pitcher plants pictures on the iPad but he said that was not what he was talking about.

Two days later, he woke up excitedly and banged on the bathroom door. Couldn't contain his excitement, he told me the plant was Venus Fly Trap. I think the boy even dreamt of what he learnt in school.

Not able to confirm what he was talking about, he made some actions about fly touches fingers on one of his hands, and then touches fingers on the other hands, and the plant will close up. And it'll open again after 10 days.

So this time, I searched for Venus Fly Trap photos and videos.

Asked to watch Venus Fly Trap video every now and then

As he started sketching about plants, he asked to plant seeds. He said he wants to plant seeds and water them. I thought about it for a while, but procrastinated. I asked his aunt who likes to do gardening, if she could recommend any seeds that are easy to plant. She suggested beans.

I thought beans are boring, but decided to go ahead anyway before I can make up my mind on what seeds we should try.

So here we go:

Green bean experiment

4 days later

It's amazing how the boy is so responsible to water his plant everyday and love it so much.

While I forgot about my intention to plant a seed(s).. a notification from Kinderland came..  a seed growing project and we are supposed to chart the growth!

No more procrastination, Mummy!

PS: he could name some parts of plants - root, stem, leaves, flower

IZ writes Chinese..

One fine day.. he wanted to write his Chinese name. Being Chinese illiterate (or in a better non-intimidating way, I don't read/write Chinese), I was at lost. Daddy is not good in Chinese too.

As he asked his daddy one day, if he ever learnt Chinese. Daddy said yes. IZ said "if you learnt Chinese how come your Chinese is not good?" (Gotcha daddy!)

Back to his Chinese name, so I couldn't just tell him I don't write Chinese, although he knew that much. He has never came to me with a Chinese book, not that he likes Chinese that much anyway.

How did I solve the problem?

I took his Chinese reader book and copied. I was not very confident coz I do not know the strokes and the sequence. I couldn't describe the strokes either. I let be, let him write however he wants. I can't tell anyway, you get what I mean?

You can imagine how proud I was, when he could produce below, without referring to anything. He got it within 2 days and I thought he wrote really well. Phew!

At 3y9m:

His Chinese name - I think he did really well!

Mid-Autumn Festival 2014

On the eve, we went to Punggol Park:

Blowing bubbles with a few pipes

This RWS lantern is heavy duty.. strong and steady after 2 years..
(or was it 3?)

Sparkle time!
Timid IZ still dare not hold throughout.. he would throw it away when it's halfway..
Way to go son!

On the actual day:

Celebrated with fellow friends at the playground

A jie-jie shared her cutie lantern

It's full moon, of coz!

Humpty Dumpty: 9th Sep'14

He's so addicted to drawing Humpty, he drew these within 15 minutes.

I like how the Humpty Dumpty have more detailed features like hair, fingers, buttons, nose..

With hair and nose, and fingers!

Think this Humpty dropped his shoe/sock

Notice the sad face on the cracked egg?

This looks like a baby Humpty to me - so cute!

I tot this is not a Humpty, but he said it is

Parents Teachers Meeting: 2nd Sep'14

Chinese language development:

Xu Laoshi is very happy with his effort to speak Chinese most of the times, although when he's too excited and anxious, he would bla in English. I heard from helper he likes the teacher even more now. At one period he was really scared of her. Maybe because Xu Laoshi is very strict, she doesn't believe in pampering.

He's doing well in everything except that he couldn't pronounce properly and that he is mischievous in the class. The boy has grown up.

Teacher also told me about him giving flower to a girl in the class. Hmm.. they sure start young.

General development:

Ms Fizah says he is the only boy who mingle and play with all his friends, boys and girls. Well, to start of, there aren't many boys in the class, just 3 of them. And so, IZ is the "star of the class" as Ms Fizah calls him.

He was appointed stationery leader. His job was to make sure every classmates get a pencil and there are 2 erasers on the table. Ms Fizah said he did well. Wow, his first leadership role I guess. I like the way they are given responsibilities in the class.

Pencil grip is still the same. But this time round, we mutually agreed that as long as he could write and he's happy, we'd probably not correct him too much. When daddy corrected him, he couldn't write well. Ms Fizah actually remembered I mentioned about a girl who wrote with palm grip yet she produced beautiful handwriting.

Ms Fizah says he's naturally curious about how things work. At the AMAZE playground field trip, he figured how things work and excitedly told his teacher about it.

For neighbourhood police station visit, he got to sit on the police car, at the driver seat. I swear he has never shared with us about that.

Both hubby and I are happy that he's enjoying himself in Kinderland. 

Random update

Guess who am I?

I am the... Leonardo!

"Daddy and IZ" he says

DIY spidey mask

His latest creation - vacuum cleaner!

"This is Princess Elsa walking in the snow"

Kids In Play - Last Session for the Year

Date: 2nd Aug'14

It was my second work in KIP. My first here.

This time the KIP team did something different. It was a mass station games day.

Together with their caregivers, the children played games planned meticulously with us facilitating:
1) to enhance the family bonding (team games)
2) to learn to manage "what I need" and "what I want" (supermarket games)
3) to refresh their knowledge on where to get help (word puzzle)

The group I was in, got 3 out of 5 top prizes, I was really happy for them.

One of the families, siblings actually, an elder sister (teenager) and a younger brother. The sister looked out for the brother, they touched my heart.

In the supermarket game, when they have to "buy" food they  need, the sister helped the brother along. Yet not depriving him of the actual snacks on the table despite the snacks would cost them "money". She calculated carefully that they already had what they need, and she let the brother has what he wants. I think she did the best in striking the balance.

I could feel the love she has for the brother, I could feel the protectiveness.

And so, they were one of the big winners that day.

That was the last session for the year. I look forward to doing it again next year.

Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the December live-in camp, otherwise it would be a great experience for the kids and me.

IZ's 1st Experience

Date: 23rd Aug'14

It was my 3rd time volunteering with the same group of people from Teckchen Choling temple.

But it was IZ's first.. a lot of explanation, but I thought it was a good start.

The Project Maude is now extended with collaboration from Community Clubs, thus the meet-up place was at Jalan Besar CC not at the temple

Early bird gets the worm.
I told him it was time to wake up, he jumped out of bed immediately
although he slept past midnight.
He was really excited to take early the 8am bus.
He said "mommy, you didn't buckle me"
Note to self: bring him on public transportation more often

Both beloved joined me for the good cause

Group photo before we split to our respective blocks

IZ made a new friend "IS"

IZ's job was to distribute face masks

Bonding session too

After walking for more than 3 hours.. he still had the energy
as the ninja turtle!
Creative!

His favorite turtle.. haha!

It was a good experience to do it with IZ..

One thing that bugged him, what happened to an uncle who switched on his tv so loud that he couldn't hear us knocking on his door. So, it was Science lesson to teach him about impaired hearing.

I was really proud of him not complaining about the strong urine smell at the corridors of the 1/2 room flats we went. And he greeted the elderly by their names, exactly how we greeted them.

Way to go.. May we be enlightened further to continue helping people who are in need.