Lesson B for Bubbles: 17th Jan'13

My poor son was down with fever on Sun, and confirmed with HFMD on Mon. It was so terrible, he cried in pain every now and then. There were a few ulcers in his mouth, and not to mention all the rashes and blisters on his hands and legs. Nevertheless, I’m glad the worst is over. He didn’t eat nor drink much on Mon and Tue, I guess I wouldn’t want to eat nor drink too. Since Wed, he was showing sign of recovery. His blisters were drying up; he could drink milk and had diluted porridge for dinner.

And so, he has been absent from school for few days. I asked if he wants to learn the letter B. He says yes. So I brought out the materials. Yes, this time, I’m well prepared!

He was so excited and wanted to dig into the items bag immediately, but I made him sit and sang the greeting song. This time, he swayed to my singing and he also chipped in when I sang “hello issac hello..” and he sang “hello mommy”. I’m so sure he would enjoy the lessons by the day.

I told him we were going to learn the letter B and produced the feely. He was “impressed” by my feely and touched it. I guided his hand to trace the letter and then let him do it. I think he’s doing great. I told him B for bubbles, and he repeated.

Tracing letter B on feely

And then we listened to the rhyme for letter B. He wasn’t that patient, by the time the first round finished; he sneaked behind me to get the items bag. Maybe I should give it a name, like “treasure bag” or something. I managed to keep the bag till the song finished.

He was very excited when it’s time for B items. He took out one by one and he could tell all of it except the bus that I do agree it doesn’t exactly look like a bus. Haha! I was pretty satisfied with myself as I prepared blue block, blue ball, basketball.. hahahaha!

Excited about the B items

Feely and B items

The thing about our lesson is his powerful energy, flowing all the time, he could hardly sit still without jumping on to everything. I have to keep up with his energy and go with his flow, for learning should be in a fun way.

I brought out the magnetic board to write, he refused to let me write on it. He got hold of it and started drawing Humpty Dumpty in circles, and heeding Jann’s advice, I helped him to add one line over his circle to make it looks like B. I guess he was amazed. And then he took over the whole board and started drawing Humpty Dumpty. When I say, let me teach him how to spell bubbles, he refused at first, but relented. So I wrote the word under the wall.

Insisted on drawing Humpty

Somehow managed to spell out for him, under his Humpty

Jann’s guide was to play bubbles, but I’ve decided he’s not in the best condition to play bubbles late at night and then wet his blisters and all. So, I managed to brainstorm an idea, to let him play bubbles pack! Hahaha.. I kept 2 types of bubbles pack for lesson use, and I asked him to step on them. The smaller bubbles popped but not the bigger ones. What a disappointment, but I took it as giving him a comparison, one with sound and one without sound. He followed the same and say “have sound” and “no sound”. At least mission accomplished, note to self, to bring him to a park to play bubbles after his recovery.

Popping bubbles pack

 I guess he doesn't understand why I asked him to trace using finger, while only pens leave trace. He used his magnetic pen and traced the letter himself. Maybe I should change to tracing using a pen? But using fingers are what feely is for right?

He initiated to trace using his magnetic pen

When asked during bedtime, what B is for.. he says BUBBLES.. the lesson was indeed a good one!

Past Lessons:

Lesson A for Apple: 14th Jun'12

Lesson A for Ant: 18th Jun'12

Lesson B for Bear: 24th Jun'12

Lesson A for Apple: 13th Jan'13

Lesson A for Ant: 14th Jan'13

You can also follow IZ's Lernen-Reise on Facebook for more personal and up-to-date learning fun

1st Week in Pre-Nursery

IZ ended his lernen-reise in CS Montessori in Nov. It has been my intention to do a half-year in CS and continue his journey in Kinderland. Towards the end, I felt very heavy hearted as he enjoyed going there and learnt a lot from his favorite teachers. His Chinese progressed tremendously, so much that I couldn’t believe my ears when Ms. Chen told us that he spoke to her in Chinese in the class, something he has never done before at home.

Anyway, this post is meant to talk about IZ’s adventure in Kinderland.

Day 1: 2^nd Jan’13

After the long wait, we have finally started in Kinderland yesterday. The school fee is just that tad difference compared to CS, but at least it’s a 3 hour programme (but hold on about this!). IZ and his friends (Si En and Kay) are in the same class, Creative 1, in Studio 6. Theirs is called Pre-Nursery.

We went for an orientation on 1^st Dec’12 to familiarize with the school and teacher. But having been away from classes (CS and enrichment) for some time, I guess IZ just had to re-start his engine to get himself going.

With his new classmates

aka playdates

IZ couldn’t wake up early in the morning; we had to literally drag him out from the bed. We walked to the school as it is just a 5 mins (adult walk), 15-20 mins (IZ walk). We reached the school at slightly past 8. He hardened when we queued for temperature check. The PIC told us not to rush him, let him be if he doesn’t want to. I talked to him again, telling him what I’ve told him days before, that he has to let his temperature taken, just like in CS and also have his mouth and hands checked. He agreed to do it. And we proceeded to the sanitizing machine. Place your hand under it and it’ll dispense within a few seconds. Cool! Think IZ was impressed too. :-D

We walked him to the classroom, wanting to drop him and go, but gosh, he was the first to arrive! We put his bag into a shelf and I took his water bottle and placed beside the bag. Ms. Fizah (the class teacher) held out some toys and IZ played with some blocks. Then more children came into the class.

On the way to school

Busy snatching

I attempted to leave the classroom a few times, but IZ never failed to notice and cried his heart out. :-(

Children were crying, and I think Ms. Fizah and Mdm Sok Huay didn’t do a good job to manage and control the “crowd”. First day of school I figured, but yet, something could have been done better.

Ms. Fizah tried to tell a story, but I couldn’t even hear the soft-spoken her from where I stood, near the shelves. I wonder how the kids would be enticed to join her in her storytelling. And she then moved to body parts, I figured that would be the theme for the term. IZ was proactive in naming body parts and also helped to stick a piece of ear onto the face on the wall.

I waited till Ms. Fizah took out crayons and asked them to draw. IZ loves drawing to max, and suddenly oblivious to my presence. And I sneaked out again for the 3^rd time. This time, hubby and I decided to just leave him there and we went for breakfast. 

Engrossed in his fave activity

I was told by a friend that he cried on and off. I guess it’s exactly the same thing he was experienced in CS, forgot about crying when he was busy with activities and started crying again when he was doing nothing.

I wish the teacher has more experience and she should have just moved on with all the activities, so the kids would join her and forget about crying.

Towards the end, IZ cried for me. Dismissal was a mess in here. The kids were crying at the glass panel (which we do not understand why they are transparent glass and the kids could lookout and saw the parent) and it was an early dismissal, at near 10.40am.

3 hours is a little too long for the crying kids, 30 mins for a subject that is not interesting would be like forever. Their concentration span, I think not there yet.

Day 2: 3^rd Jan’13

Today I brought IZ to school as hubby had to go back to work. He refused to put on the t-shirt, we had to somehow force him in.

He cried when I left him, and again during dismissal, and intermittently during the class.

Crying

Perfectly fine after school

Day 3: 4^th Jan’13

He refused to put on the uniform again. It did make me feel if the school is any good for him. I shall persevere.

But he showed tremendous improvement, didn’t cry much except for drop-off, and definitely not when I picked him.

Feeling it was a great accomplishment on his side, I brought him to a shop nearby to choose a sticker, but he chose to get a ball instead.

Exploring after school

Lesson A for Ant: 14th Jan'13

IZ fell ill yesterday, running temperature at highest 30.2degC and hovered around 38.5degC. I decided to skip school today although quite reluctantly as I really wish to keep the momentums going so we do not have to start all over again about the crying episodes. I guess I was over worrying as he was perfectly fine when I told him to get well soon so he could join his friends, and showed him pictures of his playdates cum classmates in school.

Although I’ve told myself to prepare the materials just after a lesson, so that I can do next lesson with him anytime, I was not prepared today. Yesterday was a busy day nursing his fever. Both of us didn’t get much sleep.

Like yesterday, he waited for me to prepare the materials.

We started off with the greeting song. He was smiling happily, and participated, and waved to me when we reached the part “Hello Issac, Hello Mommy”.

Then I took out the feely card, and he said “a”. I asked him to trace, he sort of get the hang of it, although wrong direction. I offered and say we can trace together. He let me guide his finger, and then he did it again on his own using straw as the pen. Innovative I should say..

Tracing letter a using straw - his idea

Then we listened to the Phonics rhymes for A (ants on the ankle) and then he took out the A items. They are more or less the same as the first lesson, the only difference is, I didn’t put in a fresh apple, but instead the apple craft we’ve done in Lesson A for Apple: 14^th Jun’12. He could tell all except asparagus and ambulance. These are not terms we usually teach him. Probably I can try widening his vocab a little.

He could tell me where his ankle is

As he was rather cranky, he wasn’t in the mood to colour the ants. Instead, I asked him to choose what colour he like for the ants. I coloured the 3 essentials ants for our next activity. As I’ve made the ant stick puppets provided by Jann in Lesson A for Ant: 18^th Jun’12, I have to do another set on my own, and an idea came to mind.

He coloured everywhere but the ants



I had to draw a new set

a-ant

My version of stick puppets using straws

I figured I can’t do much with him, so decided to let loose to watch the Ants Go Marching video on YouTube. At first he didn’t understand what was going on, but eventually, he wanted to watch the video again and again, with the stick puppets, 1000 times.

.. marching one by one..

.. marching three by three..

Showing off the final work

Feely card & Craft for A  on the wall

Un-used material as of now.. he is not ready for such nitty art yet



Past Lessons:

Lesson A for Apple: 14th Jun'12

Lesson A for Ant: 18th Jun'12

Lesson B for Bear: 24th Jun'12

Lesson A for Apple: 13th Jan'13

You can also follow IZ's Lernen-Reise on Facebook for more personal and up-to-date learning fun

Lesson A for Apple - 13th Jan'13

I was very inspired to see a fellow mummy who has recently completed her fun class for her gal. She started when her gal was 2years and 4 months, and completed when she turned 3 years and 9 months. I hope to be able to be as determined as her, and hopefully IZ loves learning as much as her girl. :-D

I’ve tried conducting A (A for Apple and A for Ant) and B (B for Bear) when he was 18 months old, although he actually could do it ONLY IF I was determined. I chose to stop the lessons as he was not anywhere near talking more than a few words.

So this morning when IZ woke up looking for things to do, I decided there and then to do first lesson of letter A again.

I quickly took out files from Jann’s lesson and prepared quickly. A reminder to ownself, to be prepared for next class even before he is ready, so when the time comes, no time will be wasted telling him ‘ok, mommy prepare things for you now..”

Surprisingly, he was really patient to wait for me to gather the materials.

We started off with the greeting song. It has been slightly more than half a year since the last time I sang the song for his lessons, so he was surprised and happy.

Then I took out the feely letter I’ve done and guided him to trace the word A. This is an improvement, as in previous trials, I’ve not done up my feely letters yet. The best part was, he could say A when I brought out the feely. It is another tremendous improvement on his side. He could recognize most of the letters now; I guess it’s really a perfect time to do the phonics with him.

We listened to the phonic song of letter A. The confusing part (on my side, not his) is phonic sound for A in Leap Frog Letter Factory sounded like a scream “AHHHH!” while the phonic sound in the CD is “eh”.. “AHHHH” reminds me of how our helper pronounce “ants”.. “AHHHHNTS”..

He found the song catchy I guess, coz he was pointing to his ankle and mimicked.

Then I asked him to dig out letter A items from the bag and he repeated after me, although he found difficulty pronouncing asparagus. This time, due to the last minute, I managed to prepare asparagus, aeroplane, ambulance and a real red apple. He refused to put the items back into the bag.

Feely and A items

I didn't want to write on the flash card as I want him to do it himself when he's able to write

I’ve also grabbed the aeroplane 3-piece puzzle for this letter. He could do it really easily. I’ll do a post on puzzles when I can.

He finished the puzzle before I could even switch my camera on

Kumon Step 1 - 3 pc puzzle

As I’ve used Jann’s cut-out of an apple to do the glue-and-pat as Abrakadoodle (see The Start of Our Art Lernen-Reise) called it, I’ve decided to do away straight with the apple tree that we didn’t manage to do in our Lesson A for Apple previously.

I noticed one of my flaw was not to tell him what to do first. I assumed he knows what to do when I asked him to finger print onto the green paper meant as tree top. And so he decided he wanted to use the brush as well. I turned it back again and asked him to finger print a few more as apple. Then I’ve got an idea.. I turned to the side he painted using the brush and asked him to glue-and-pat the remaining red paper. Tah-rah! We’ve got an apple tree with one side full of apples!

He prefers painting than printing

Fave "subject"

Showing off his work

Glue-and-pat

The full of apple side

The lesser apple side

As he really love painting and art related, it was near impossible to get him to keep the brush.

I let him paint a while more and asked if he wanted to cut the apple instead. He said yes, but he took only a bite.

A-Apple!

End of our first lesson, and I think it’s a great start. Now when I prompt him, ambulance starts with.. he would reply "A".. aeroplane starts with.. he would reply "A" and so he proudly showed daddy his apple tree and said loudly 'apple tree!".

Past Lessons:

Lesson A for Apple: 14th Jun'12

Lesson A for Ant: 18th Jun'12

Lesson B for Bear: 24th Jun'12

You can also follow IZ's Lernen-Reise on Facebook for more personal and up-to-date learning fun

IZ loves reading?

Not sure if it was coz he wanted to read or coz he wanted to escape from bedtime (as if he could)..

He has been saying "poo poo" for past two nights when I put him to sleep.. And made me put him on the toilet seat and read to him. "Mommy read story book" he would say.

I brought in some new ones from the shelves and asked him, "so, do you know how to read?" and was about to start my story on how we learn to read in school (hoping he wouldn't cry again tomorrow) when he nodded his head and said "yes".. Then he pointed to the cat and said "cat".. The fish and said "pish".. The crab and said "Pan cake".. (Pang xie!!!)..

Impressive! :-D

Bento Making Reise On-Hold

I was so obsessed with bento art after I’ve got my bento making tools.

I can definitely improve my decorative skills, but only if IZ starts eating them! He was so fascinated by the shapes and patterns I made that he didn’t want to eat much, sad!

7th Sep'12: First trial for dinner - really difficult to get these smiley faces! I wish I had a pincer..

7th Sep'12 Fruits for desserts - IZ was reluctant to eat the butterfly strawberry

8th Sep'12: Tried to shape a hard-boiled egg, apparently the egg was not big enough to fill the mould

8th Sep'12: Breakfast without egg then, but IZ didn't want to eat the whole plate, just wanted to admire them, duhz!

8th Sep'12: 11 fine multi grain cooked with pumpkin served on smiling star!

9th Sep'12: Brown mixed plain rice with cod fish & ngoh hiang - unfortunately he didn't want to destroy the bunny

Until IZ is slightly bigger, eats while appreciating the efforts I put in to be artistic, I guess I have to put this project on-hold for the time being.

Baked Potato with Cheese & Ham! 16th Sep'12

I was inspired by the potato skin I had with friends on Friday evening at Tony Roma's that I wanted to do the same at home.

Tony Roma's Infamous Potato Skin!

The first trial, I tried to simulate the same, but the end product didn’t look nor taste anywhere near.

1st Trial

On Sunday, I wanted to try again, as we have Pamesan and Cheddar cheese, I thought I do not want them to turn mouldy without using again. I altered a little, but cutting the potato skinny instead.

 I tried to loop IZ in to help out. He enjoyed playing in the kitchen, I asked him to scoop the cheese onto the potato, he did very well for the first few pieces and gone crazy after.

IZ hard at work

Then I asked him to put chopped frozen ham onto them, he couldn’t help trying some of the ham. Hahahaha! Curious toddler!

Yums!

The end result was much better, and yums!!

End product

PS: IZ likes raw cheese and ham, but not baked ones though!

Kitchen Lernen-Reise

Inspired by how IZ was fascinated by kitchen set at his playdate’s, I have been contemplating to get him a kitchen set. But most of the kitchen sets available in the market are in pink. In addition, they look pretty fake to me.

Playing with Keira's kitchen set

IZ was also fascinated by the kitchen set at Ikea, but no way would I buy such expensive toy, girly toy at that. I wouldn’t dream of IZ becoming a chef, but oh well, if he decided cooking is his passion, then so be it.

I also looked for pots and pans in Ikea, but find them too big and doesn’t make economical sense.

In the end, I’ve got a better idea. Why not try Daiso? Everything’s S$2 there!

Alas. I bought these for his kitchen set!

Lovely kitchen set I chose for IZ :-D

And I bought these to kick myself making some nice bentos for him. Hahaha.. at the back of my mind, I am so ambitious, imagining all kind of cute bento for him so he would enjoy meal time more. But thinking is easier than done. I’m horrified to think I have to wake up half hour earlier to make bento breakfast for him, and more so as I do not have creativity whatsoever running in my blood!

My bento tools!

Thus, I contemplated to start over the weekend. Hahaha! Ya, tons of excuses, isn’t it? Stay tuned for mum’s bento lernen-reise!