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. 

Parents Teachers Meeting: 27th May'14

Hubby and I went to Kinderland this morning for PTM. Last term PTM post here.

Time flies, IZ has been under Ms Fizah and Xu Laoshi for 6 terms already.

As Ms Fizah was with other parents, we started with Xu Laoshi.

Xu Laoshi said IZ's Chinese has improved. He converse more and sing along too. He has turned playful this term, being aware he's grown. He disturbed his classmates during class too! My guess is, he is no longer afraid of Xu Laoshi. Haha!

Ms Fizah told us he did the show and tell of the stove we made all by himself without much prompting. I'm so proud of him! As usual, he'll be nonchalant about anything we tried to ask about school. I won't know how he's doing except through these PTMs.

IZ is also said to be pretty persistent in demanding apology from his friends when they hit him (intentionally and not). He kept asking his friends to apologise and would complain to the teacher (something I taught him to do). Unfortunately teacher's response to his complaint was "they are just playing". Probably teacher could first acknowledge his feelings, that he was upset that his friend hit him instead of brushing his feelings aside.

In the portfolio, I read that IZ could express his feelings well. He would cross his arms and show an angry face. When asked why, he would tell the teacher that he was angry with so and so because she came late. Teacher wrote that he could express his feelings through words and body language.

Nothing much to catch up this term it seems, all is well.

Family Bonding Project

Theme for the term is household equipment. They learn about washing machine, vacuum cleaner, fan, etc. Basically useful things at home.

At the end of last term, during the Parents Teacher Meeting, we were given a piece of paper asking we make a 3-D equipment for their show and tell. We were asked to use recycle materials and get the child to be involved too. 

IZ's show and tell is tomorrow!

So here goes our family bonding project, as the daddy calls it.

We thoroughly enjoyed our bonding, I must say.

Making a mark for the stoves

Putting on glue
Can you see the marks on the CDs? 3 of them were done by IZ

Cutting felt for the egg yolk

He was kinda upset when he got an hexagon instead of a round

Tadah.. Our stove cum oven

The top

The bottom

And at the same time, IZ's friend who goes to different Kinderland made an iRobot replica! How cool!

Remarks: I'm not someone who's creative nor innovative, thus if you wish to make something like this, you may look here for inspiration.

Parents Teachers Meeting: 13th Mar'14

Daddy and I went to IZ's school today to catch up on his development in Nursery (Term 1).

It was heartening to know from Ms Fizah that he has developed socially. Instead of mingling with only a selection of peers like he did last year, this term, he mingled with all his classmates, addressed them by their names and was very helpful.

He appeared to be the only one in the class to be able to write his own name, granted he only writes it in capital letters.

He also invited everybody (teachers included) to go to his house. No wonder he always tell me one of his classmates wants to come to our house.

Teacher also noticed he has difficulty pronouncing the sound of F. I've talked to Ms Fizah before, whether does it call for concern on his not clear pronunciation. She said at 3 yo, it doesn't call for concern. Most importantly is we try to correct him every time he does it.

He has some difficulty cutting using a pair of scissors as he goes round the paper instead. I think he has improved a lot in this, thus, I'm sure he'll be there someday.

When asked if he throws tantrum in the school, teacher said he has never showed any tantrums in the school. Lately he want to pass urine very frequently, like every 15mins. Not always urgent, sometimes, he could wait for 5 mins and then not needing to go. I wonder what's the reason behind. Is it because he was nervous? Is it because he wants to leave the class? Is it because he wants to see the outside?

Chinese teacher, Xu Laoshi feedback that IZ's Chinese improved tremendously. He began to speak mostly Chinese, although he finds difficulty in expressing some. He understands what the teacher was saying, and thus makes an effort to respond accordingly. We thanked Xu Laoshi, for her effort, as for Chinese, we dare say, it's 95% her effort that his Chinese improved so much.

He also started singing Chinese songs at home, although none of us know what he's singing, we were very encouraging.

She also emphasized that they are currently taught to recognise strokes, and words instead of writing. 

As like previous terms, IZ will flair "poorly" in terms of household items or chores. I should really reflect on this and do something about it.

All in all, we are happy with his development. Good job, IZ!

Added on 14th Mar'14:

Oh ya, I just recalled Xu Laoshi complimented that he can recognise some Chinese words too!

He would be able to group them together, in categories, he would not mix them cross-categories:

1) 爸爸 and 爷爷
2) 妹妹, 姐姐, 妈妈 and 奶奶 (see the confusion? they all have 女 at their side)

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3) 弟弟 and 哥哥

So he'll never guessed 爷爷 as  奶奶 or 哥哥 as 姐姐.

Given more time, I'm sure he'll be able to recognise them accurately. Good job, IZ!

Actitives in Nursery..

Although we read everyday.. all kind of materials, mostly I bought or we borrowed from the library, I have never thought of the need for him to recognise words.

He started recognising his own name over a month ago, and then he learnt daddy's name and my name. He has developed genuine interest in knowing how to spell something random he came about. I answered him accordingly only when he asked.

Last week, the teacher left a note in the communication book that they would have activities:

Mon: news flash (we are to bring an article suitable for the kids)

Wed: reader (they provide us with 2 small booklet called readers)

Fri: music (we are to bring the percussion set every week)

News flash:

Well, how hard can that be? The newspaper is full of articles! WRONG! It's really hard to find one that is suitable for a 3yo! I resorted to looking at illustrations FIRST, before deciding whether or not he could comprehend what's written. Horse carriage trapped in a flash flood? Pass! Wildfire in Perth? Seems doable, and so I told him we would bring that to school. He coudn't be bothered, really. I'm really interested to know how the teacher conduct this news flash activity.

Reader:

Interestingly, the English and Chinese booklets are of the same topic, My Family. While I know it's inevitable that some families are bigger than the others, I particularly reluctant to go through pages with the "This is my brother" or "This is my younger sister". Oh, come on, he doesn't have any! But I know my problem is a small problem compared to orphans who has lost either or both the parents etc etc..

We realised they had the same smile, look at the eyes!

 

The beginning of his 5000 over Chinese Characters?! He's only 3!

And English.......

Chinese & Me

"Mommy, what is this word?", my preschooler son asked.

I stared into the workbook. CHINESE!

Frantically, in trembled voice, for the millionth time that week, I told him, I coudn't read CHINESE.

"Mommy, Mommy!", he called out to me again.

"NO NO NO! I HATE CHINESE, I CAN'T READ CHINESE!"

"Mommy, Mommy, wake up!"

I opened my eyes and saw my angelic IZ looking at me. Gosh, I was sure glad it was a dream.

I've imagined that for God knows how long.

When my elder niece, Cherry was a preschooler (more than a decade ago), she shoved a Chinese book to me and asked me to read to her. I had to make up the story by looking at the illustration. She said "that's not the same story Mommy told me". That was the first, as well as the last she ever asked me to read to her.

When my younger niece, Sabrina was a preschooler (about 5-6 years ago), she said "my Mommy said you can't read Chinese, so can you teach me Bahasa?"

I guess IZ's turn is coming up real soon... do I...

1) send him to Chinese class?
2) the heard of Chinese speech & drama class? (do they even learn to write and recognise words there?)
3) give up on his Chinese and let him learn whatever he can in the school?
4) bite the bullet and learn some Chinese myself?

For sure, history will repeat itself if I do not take any action...

Preparing for Nursery!

Brought him to Kinderland to purchase school uniform for Nursery yesterday.

Did some preparation, telling him the uniform changed coz he is a bigger boy now, he has wear proper uniform like some of the gor-gors in the school.

He agreed and happily tried on sizes.

We are really happy all his Pre-Nursery teachers would be teaching them again. They really like the teachers, that's really important for us.