Violin Grade 1

He's only 5 (and close to 3 months).. crazy I know..

But that's what the dad wants to do. To start him earlier so that the journey is less painful as he grows.

(although to be honest, we can only help and hope that IZ continue to be interested in music...)

I really don't know what we got ourselves into!

Jia you to both IZ and me!

Death

Once in a blue moon, I'll do some pages of work with IZ.

Yesterday, out of the blue, I took out an assessment book and somehow we landed on this page.

Using the tips, we talked about his fear.

He told me he is afraid of dying. He said he's scared he won't be able to play with his toys. He wants to stay.

His exact words: "I want to stay"

I wonder how much a 5 yo knows about death. 

As we think of the future, there are so many uncertainties. 

I told him each and every time we talk about the death topic, that everyone dies, regardless of age. One dies young, one dies old, one dies sleeping, one dies sick.

(I hope we'll be able to build good karma to die comfortably.)

While we are at this topic. I saw someone shared this book and its contents on FB. I took a look and was really thankful. Couldn't be a better timing, really.

At a play date we held in our place 2 days ago, IZ was ultra sensitive and touchy.

He cried over how I compared him with his peers over eating fast / slow. Seems like he has been holding grievances over hubby harping over him eating slowly everyday and suddenly he just exploded.

Then he also cried over me saying he picked fight with everybody. He said "that's not EVERYBODY".

"I want to kill you!!!" in front of everybody. I guess everyone's jaw dropped to the floor.

My heart too.

But I only repeated after him. I reminded myself I had to do the talking after the play date.

So, after guests have left, I told him I felt really sad that he wanted to kill me. Immediately, he cuddled up to me, and hugged me, and kissed me apologizing again and again and that he'd never say that again. I know he didn't mean it, but it was still shocking nonetheless. I wonder from where he got the idea of killing ME. Haiz...

So, when I saw this book "Missing Mommy", I wasted no time in reading to him. He hugged me and said he doesn't want me to die.

But the second round, he wanted to read it himself. He started tearing.

I'm so glad he teared.

He hugged me and kept saying he doesn't want me to die, and that he'll never say he want to kill me again.

Then he stuck to me like glue. Following me everywhere I went, and wanted to sleep beside me and all angelic.

Thanks Cobb!

Community Report: Central Fire Station

After the longest procrastination, we finally did the community report for English show and tell.

I tried to keep it simple so that he could do it on his own.

I really like how he drew a fire beside the fire word

By this, he wrote all by himself, using his limited spelling knowledge

Unfortunately, the teacher only browsed through the pages and told Ah Nah that IZ already did the show and tell, and asked her to bring home.

IZ had no chance to present at all.

Nothing more important..

than his learning attitude.. 

Bravo son, keep it up!

The day he was made a Table Leader.. was also the day he lost his 1st pencil case..

I was so excited to read his K2 teacher;s note asking us to prepare a pencil case with 2 pencils, an eraser and a ruler. To teach them responsibility, teacher wrote. I quickly took out the stash of stationery and pencil cases I've kept for so long. They were all gifted.

I was really excited to let him choose

What he chose. We had to label them too.

I told him to make sure to bring back everything, everyday.

At the back of my mind, I was prepared to replenish stationery along the way.

Never would I have thought.. he would lost the whole pencil case along the stationery. My son is really "powerful".

He came clean on how he lose it. Actually, he didn't really know for sure. He just didn't keep the pencil case in his bag before leaving the school.

As a result, I asked him to think of what we should do. He couldn't think. So I hastily told him he has to be punished. And I wouldn't give him a new one until he earn $1 from me to get a replacement.

So I told him he'll use plastic bag and old stationery the next day. And he has to think of how he want to earn $1 from me. He nodded.

I was really proud that he didn't complain and accepted them as is.

Just a moment after that, he presented this beautiful heart and said it was for me. So sweet...

He couldn't think of a way to earn $1 from me. So I decided that he should help me in the kitchen.

He had to weigh 50pcs X 7g of pineapple paste for my pineapple tarts.

Weighing so carefully.
Find that this task is really good to teach Math and patience too!

Proudly presenting the hard work - 50pcs
for $1 (his 1st job ever!)

With that, he got his 2nd pencil case.

The real story:
To cut long story short, actually, he was too excited getting the table leader tag that he forgot to keep his pencil case. And he was chatting excitedly to a friend. Ah Nah and him made a phone call me to right away to announce the good news (ya, which is he is the table leader now), and thus, he lost the pencil case.

Proud daddy nonetheless
(for a week if there's no misconduct)

The Central Fire Station: 23rd Jan'16

This term topic: Community Helper

We were asked to bring them to the fire station or library for their show and tell. 

I then know fire station open house is held on every Saturday from 9 to 11am. Free admission to all. There's a list of fire stations in the website listed below this post.

His buddy's mom and I chose Central Fire Station as it is located next to the Civil Defence Heritage Gallery. Admission to both premise was free of charge!

Mr Tan who actively, passionately encouraging visitors to sign up to volunteer with the Civil
Defence. "Training is provided" he says.

Trying out the equipment for continuous resuscitation. IZ says "painful".
That's how strong. You need to press 5cm into the chest, even if it means breaking a few ribs.
Maintain the right size. Too skinny, this equipment will not work for you.

The brave girl volunteered to be wheeled into the ambulance.

Family member to touch the end of the stretcher. For comfort I supposed.

Introducing some common gears..

how to carry the hose..

how to activate..

How to put on their uniform..

in split seconds!

Thermal gauge

Kiddos' idol!

While we were there for a mere 1.5 hours, there were already 2 ambulances and 4 fire engines off to rescue.
That's how busy the fire station is..

Demonstrating how firemen gets to fire engines real quick when they are upstairs.

Stacking

The RT111 - unfortunately automatic equipment were not available for demo

Showtime at 10am

Live demo

Once done at the fire station, we moved next door to the heritage gallery.

We could see how fire fighting / rescue work evolve from 1800s to today. Not that the kids cared, but it was a learning experience for all of us.

It is really interesting that they have interactive activities there for the children to learn more in a fun way.

Then I asked Teacher Xinyi if she could guide IZ to draw something for his Chinese show and tell.

I was really impressed that she actually prepared something in advance.

But she said IZ already had an idea in his mind on what he wanted to draw.

Colouring in progress..

The morning of the Chinese show and tell

Related information:

1) http://www.scdf.gov.sg/content/scdf_internet/en/scdf_247/others/visit_our_fire_stations.html

2) http://www.scdf.gov.sg/content/scdf_internet/en/general/about-us/cd-heritage-gallery/introduction.html