End of 2nd Week in Playgroup - 6th Jul'12

Edited on 12th Jul'12: Mid of second week, as his dad was away for business trip, we chatted with him over Skype. When asked if he likes going to school, he shook his head and nodded almost immediately, shook and nodded, couldn't decide if he likes or not. To us, it was a good sign, there IS SOMETHING in school that he likes in school afterall. :-)

He finally didn't cry when Selina dropped him to school in the morning, on the last day of second week, on his 9th day of school. And he kissed and hugged every teacher before leaving the school.

Below his progress for the week, I would say, "welll done son!"

Teacher's comment on his comm book

His artwork - weather clock

Theme for this term is Weather and Fabric. It didn't take him long before he knows what's sunny and rainy. He will gesture with his hands, how rain drops. As shared by teacher, they were showed video on how rain is formed, I did the same at home.

I managed to search Mister Sun Sun on youtube and watched together with him.



Additional words he could say at 19 months: heart, frog, crab

Random Lernen-Reise - Jul'12 Part 1

30th Jun'12:

J for Jiu Jiu (or Da Jiu)

1st Jul'12:

Bought some Chinese books from Popular, let our Chinese Lernen-Reise begin!

2nd Jul'12:

B for butterfly

7th Jul'12:

Got this small magnetic board to draw on-the-go from Jann (even when picking his dad up in the airport!)

Second Week in Playgroup - 5th Jul'12

Selina feedback that IZ is getting better in school... **beaming in pride**

Sitting by himself at the other end on top of the picture

At the most left from this angle

Third Day in PG – 27th Jun’12

I decided to let Selina send him to school while I went to Mc’D to get my breakfast. Partly so IZ get used to not having me around, partly so I can eat breakfast in CS. If I were to leave my spot for a while, I would have no place to sit to wait till he finished school.

Happily, I brought my Mc’D breakfast up, and was surprised to see Selina and IZ sitting at the reception area as teachers were not ready. And IZ started crying seeing me. Duhz!

He started off crying once the door was closed. But teacher did make it easier, staying with him initially and let him by himself.

Teacher stayed close

He was ok by Montessori time, but still cried when the class was dismissed.

Independent during Montessori time

I bought a Groupon deal for Build A Bear, building one bear at only S$9.90. I thought there’s no better time to build one for him, as I will not be going to school with him from tomorrow onwards.

Rub little heart

Kiss and may all his wishes come true

Place the heart into the bear

He adores the bear

It was like he knows what's going on, he likes the bear more than any of the soft toys he has. Felt belonged probably?

Second Day in PG – 26th Jun’12

He started crying at temperature checkpoint, I asked Selina to send him in, I followed halfway.

I went down for prata breakfast to take a breather from seeing him crying and went up again to be tortured.

Supposedly yummy prata

Just like the first day, he was engrossed in Montessori material that he forgot about crying for that short while.

His fave Montessori time

Guided by teacher, holding on to his water bottle

Standing on the most right - hanging on to his comfort item

From the CCTV, I saw that he cried on and off and hang on to his water bottle the whole time. He finished the whole bottle at the end of school.He cried when he came out from class.

Still hanging on to already emptied bottle

Knocked out after school

First Day in PG – 25th Jun’12

As I mentioned in my post on Last English Class in MLG, we are moving on to Playgroup (PG) in CS Montessori, located just opposite our place, on roof top in NEX.

I have applied for 3 half days to company him to school. I had mixed feelings about it, to let go completely so he’ll not cry or not miss anything in his childhood. Thus, I have decided to bite the bullet and “enjoy” his crying moments in school.

On the first day, he was still sleeping at 7.40am. School starts at 8.30am, I had to wake him up and prepare him to school.

Sleeping prince

Ready to go to school - not knowing what holds

We arrived pretty early to school, at about 8.20am, temperature checked and cleared. Then we waited for our turn to check mouth, hands and feet. Teacher Susan took off his socks and checked. Quite detail I would say.

Then Teacher Susan sent him into the room, and asked him to wave bye to me. There he started crying. I asked Teacher Susan to quickly close the door. I couldn’t bear seeing him crying. Selina (our helper) already started to tear. I was too depressed to feel anything.

Then I watched from the CCTV, he was crying so badly and kept pointing to the door. Forgive me, there’s not much photo from all the crying as my heart broken into pieces, I felt weak all over I didn’t think much of taking picture.

IZ sitting on teacher's lap

As time flies, he settled down during Montessori time. He was able to sit and do something. I was quite proud of him at that point of time.

Crying at the start of Montessori time - at the most right standing

Teacher guiding IZ at the top of the pic

Doing it himself

Made a friend

Returning the material to the shelf - top right corner

When class ended, he was crying all over again.

Lesson B for Bear - 24th Jun’12

It is quite difficult for me to do classes and take photo the same time. I have to rely on the dad, who are not doing a good job, but better than none. Hahaha..

We woke up, and he wanted to sit on his table. So I asked if he wants to do some work. He nodded his head. So I grabbed my stuffs out and started. 

Waiting in anticipation

I started off by letting him trace the capital and lower case of B using marker. 

Guiding him to trace

Then I asked him to take out B items from the bag, naming each as he took them out, and when he placed them back in.

Blue ball!

B items!

Then I took out the bear mask and asked him to put glue. He enjoyed putting glue on, and then placing the brown papers on the mask.

Putting the glue on

Pasting brown paper

I put the mask on him after, took a picture of him and showed him. He was happy. I tried to read Goldilocks and the 3 Bears to end the class, but he wanted more. 

IZ wearing bear mask he made

Unsuccessful story reading

I didn’t prepare for more, so I grabbed a piece of drawing block and asked the dad to draw a bear face and let him paint with blue. 

Painting the bear blue

Blue Bear

Display his work

PS: You may want to follow our Lernen-Reise on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/IzLernenReise

Past Lessons:
Lesson A for Apple - 14th Jun'12
Lesson A for Ant - 18th Jun'12

Lesson A for Ant - 18th Jun'12

As I will be on business trip for 3 days, I decided to do this lesson with IZ before I left.

He was still pretty interested in the greeting song, especially the part I pointed to him and when I sang his name.

I made a pair of feely letters A and a and guided him to trace along. He somehow uttered “a”, I wonder if it’s the letter or his “eh”. Hahaha.. anyway, it was good beginning.

Then I made him pull A items from the “improvised” bag, but the bag appeared to be too shallow that he wanted to peep into it while he pull them out. Hahaha.. Cheeky boy I have. I asked him not to peep, he could understand, he straightened his head and just reached out his hand and pulled, but not for long before he was tempted to peep again.

Added "Angry Bird"

I tried to teach him to spell ant on the white board but he was not interested, so I had to move on quickly to art & craft, his favorite.

I tried letting him colouring the smaller ants but he merely scribbled some. So I changed my strategy, I gave him the bigger ant to colour. Asked him to choose a colour, he chose dark blue and he started colouring. I was very impressed, as he managed to colour mostly on the ant instead of anywhere else!

But his concentration didn’t last long as expected, he wanted to change colour pretty often, and here’s the end result! Hahaha.. not bad for a 18 months old, I am very proud of him!

Very proud of this work of his

And I continued to colour the 3 smaller ants and put on the sticks Jann provided. IZ liked the ants on the sticks so much he didn’t want to put all of them on the wall, he held onto one and ran here and there.

Do you see his scribbling?

Obssessed with ant on the stick

I guess I’ll have to continue with this impromptu way of teaching him, and keep re-strategise during lesson to accommodate his age right now.

Putting up work for display

Additions to IZ's Corner!

PS: You may want to follow our Lernen-Reise on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/IzLernenReise

Past Lessons:
Lesson A for Apple - 14th Jun'12

3rd Phonics Class - Rescheduled

It was supposed to be my 3^rd class with Jann on Sat but I was totally exhausted after MLG’s last English class. Didn’t sleep well the night before as IZ once again woke up at about 2am, couldn’t sleep again coz it was too hot, and how he refused to wake up to MLG, rushed through my breakfast, late for class and then we were on the way to Kwan Yin temple. I planned to pray, eat lunch and rush to Jann’s place, then rush to Tan Tock Seng Hospital to visit my senior who has just got his brain tumour removed. Thinking about all the plans already exhausts me.

It felt like godsend when I received a text from Jann asking if we are NOT attending class. I quickly arranged for a replacement, thank goodness I opted to pay in full when I started class, then I have the privilege for replacement. So, mummies who are interested to join can bear this in mind.

I am looking forward to Jann's class this week.

Last English Class in MLG - 16th Jun'12

We have decided to call in a quit in My Little Genius (MLG) since IZ is going to start Playgroup on 25^th Jun. As the classes conducted are alternate English and Chinese, we had the last English class on Sat.

Both his father and I admit MLG did teach him a lot, although can’t say the same about Chinese class. That, I’ll touch in my future post, about IZ and Chinese.

IZ could follow through instructions in MLG class now; he doesn’t need assistance or guidance from me. He would return materials to teacher and clap his hands. Occasionally he would follow teacher’s actions in song & movement.  Bear in mind, all these are done seated on a chair, doing work on a table, with a parent companying behind them.

The one thing he couldn’t sit still was the flashcards section. The most he could concentrate was 2-3 topics and he would start to wander around the class.

The skeptical feeling on how he could sit still entire class diminished. He has been able to sit on some days and not on some. Well, he is only 18 months old afterall, I do not expect him to be seated there like a piece of stone. Then, he would really be missing his childhood.

PS: Do you realize I do not have any pictures of MLG classes since we registered? I was told no photography is allowed. Haha.. I was lucky to be able to snap some when we went for trial earlier on.

My Little Genius @ Upp Serangoon Road

I first brought IZ to MLG for trial classes when he was about 8 months old. Back then, he was learning how to crawl. The activities, at that point of time, were pretty exhausting (for me), as he was not capable of doing anything, except placing everything and anything into his mouth and there were only 2 students in a class, kind of defeated the purpose of sending him to classes for social skills. Although I should have been more appreciative coz he was not as mobile as he is now! 

MLG's 1st Trial

I liked MLG’s materials, a lot and they are all amazing. I have never seen the same materials twice.

I didn’t sign us into the program then, coz I thought he would not be able to benefit from it.

It wasn’t until almost 11 months old that I finally wanted to get him into some class, to mix with other kids to minimize “one child syndrome” again. This syndrome is always at the back of my head.

We registered with Baby Jumper Gym (BJG) in Kembangan. If you Google about it, you’ll notice they are no longer there. Anyway, experience in BJG will be something I shall share next time, this post is about MLG.

To cut story short, I finally convinced hubby to register with MLG January this year. We signed for one term, and then continued for another term as we saw positive result.

Putting everything into his mouth phase

Mesmerized



Chinese lesson - dragon boat

Learning to crawl