Sunday, 30 May 2010

It's been a month or so since I started teaching nat Mandarin more intensively. For nat, when she is in the mood, she can pick up the words or phrases quite fast. If she is not in the mood, don't bother. At this stage, I am teaching her sanzijing, I find that comics are a great way of getting the kids interested in the language. She looks at each picture curiously and urges me to tell her the story, so I usually ask her to remember the poem before telling the story.

Also bought didi a new toy, a ladybug ride-on, which he loves to bits. It is quite good for building up his leg muscles and I'm glad to see that he seems sturdier now.

Something interesting we discovered about the little miss over the weekend, is that she has a good memory. She has been playing with my iphone for quite a while now and her fave app is a storybook app that reads out stories. One of the stories she loves listening to is The Princess and the Pea. This weekend, she suddenly decided to do a recital for us, and we were totally amazed that she can recite it to us, verbatim. It's quite funny, she has even got the accent down pat :) haha! Turn up the volume because she gets a bit shy halfway through and it becomes a whisper. Oh yes, watch out for the ending, it's hilarious.

Thursday, 27 May 2010

Yesterday was the last day of school and it surely was a "dotty" day. The children were encouraged to dress up in anything dotty.

And here's what the little miss turned up to school in.

Didi Lucas was in school as well for his swim class, he loves exploring the school grounds, hopefully it means we will have no separation anxiety problems when he starts school here next year. Sigh ... how fast my babies grow up.

Sunday, 23 May 2010

I have recently been spending a lot of time focusing on nat's mandarin. I am glad to say that the effort has paid off somewhat and she is definitely more comfortable listening and talking in mandarin. One day, I will write a longer post about it. For today, just wanted to share this interesting anecdote.

Over the weekend, I bought this book from Popular. It teaches good morals and values through chinese idioms and phrases. Nat is at an age when she is easily influenced and I think it is a good time to start teaching her such values. What I like about this book is that it is in the form of comic strips and nat adores comics. So we go though a few values a day. We don't actually memorise the idioms, instead, we just enjoy the comic together.

One particular comic strip she likes comes from this value. The comic strip shows a mum mopping the floor, she requests for help from her daughter, who keeps telling her that she will do it later. Nat can totally relate to this because these days, whenever I ask her anything, like how was her day at school, her answer will be ... later. She would rather be snacking or listening to nursery rhymes on the car radio. If you can see the picture, the comic strip mum dramatically faints in exhaustion, which sets nat off, chuckling away. I think I have repeated this story to her like 20 times since Saturday. Today, she gave the story a new twist. She told me that she had a new story and requested for me to go through the comic strip with her again. We started off with the mum requesting for help. Then when it came to the girl's answer, she actually said ok, instead of later. Maybe it has finally dawned on her that, as the chinese idiom reads, When requested to do something by our parents, do it quickly without lethargy . Good job, baby girl, keep it up!

Friday, 21 May 2010

My little man, all of 20 months old, in summary.

1. Fave phrase: Oh No!

2. Fave food: Vitagen

3. Fave cartoon character: Little Einstein, Leo (affectionately called leo-leo)

4. Fave move: Running at full speed and banging against the sofa, then exclaiming Oh No

5. Mummy's fave: Getting a big affectionate kiss from him

6. Fave person: Nat Nat

7. Fave male: Dah-ddy

8. Fave sport: Swimming

9. Fave animal: Birds

10. Fave pose: Covering his eyes when he sees scary things (like dinosaurs) and burrowing his head in the pillow when mummy is angry, after he has done something naughty

11. Best assets: His eyes, twinkly and expressive

Wednesday, 19 May 2010

It's been more than a month since nat started ballet lessons. My heart fills with pride when I see her improving and being so focused during the lesson. Today, they learnt how to do "splits". Not easy, will post a video of her her when she finally manages to do it. Meanwhile, here's her superman pose. Enjoy!

She is also reaching a stage where she is asking about everything and anything. The other day, she saw a pool of water droplets outside the car window. I think the air-con within the car was too cold and causing condensation on the window. She turned around and asked me in all seriousness, what's that? Uh, I was silent for a while, kind of forgot all that science stuff. Sigh, looks like it's time to revise some of the o'le general knowledge, don't want to teach baby girl the wrong stuff.

Sunday, 16 May 2010

Whoever came up with the concept of Children's Season at the Museum should give themselves a pat on the back. This is a great programme for kids - child-friendly with lots of fun activities. I remember I first brought my baby nat in 2008, before didi was born. She totally loved it - so kudos to the person who came up with the idea of changing a museum to a place of fun instead of a boring and dreary place.

The idea is, for a limited time period, the organisers transform certain areas of the museum to creative play areas where the kids can enjoy and learn. This year, they focus on using soft sculptures and fabric shapes on a flannel felt board. The kids remove the felt characters from different parts of the flannel and create their own stories.

Nat was particularly taken by the moose with funny hands and legs.

Didi, the typical male preferred the cool looking felt car. There were other activities too.


They had an area set up where the children could make their very own tribal mask. Nat liked this activity as she loves colouring with markers and her mask was particularly bright and cheery.

Didi was a little too young for this activity, so he trooped off with daddy. The pair had fun playing with the shadows cast by the interesting swinging lights. I initially had some reservations about coming to the museum on a weekend, but I did want Gary to join us for this activity. In the past, I usually went on weekdays and he never managed to see the kids enjoying themselves here. It was a good decision, we were early and it was not too crowded. I think this Children's Season run throughs from May to June, so I guess I will be back with the kids soon, probably could arrange to have playdates with friends here as well.

Sunday, 16 May 2010

Had a Parent's Teacher Meeting with nat's teachers, haha, first time experience. That's what I like about this school, they do try their to involve the parents in activities. The teacher had some pics of the kids enjoying their classes in school. They shared with me that as one of the older kids in class, nat is generally quite independent and sociable. She loves story and playground time and is not fearful of Mandarin as she used to be. She has a good memory and can repeat word for word the songs, poems and prayers that they teach in school. Haha something new to me, she can't quite catch a ball. Hmm, let's work on that, little miss.

This weekend, with the kids thankfully feeling better, we were back to nature. And everyone enjoyed it! Botanic Gardens, Hort Park ... all in one day. No wonder gary was wiped out at the end of the day. Haha, he was getting used to the lazy weekends we had been having for the last 2 weeks.

Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Just some pics and video on how we spent the day.


Little man having fun during swim class.


Little miss mummy slings her baby Sally.

Learning phonics @ starfall website

Had an interesting conversation with nat this evening. I was showing the kids this nursery rhymes website, when she suddenly said "I think that's Mona Lisa." I looked at her in amazement and asked her how she knew. Very knowingly and conspiratorially, she said "Because she has long hair." Then she burst out in giggles. I said it before, and I say it again. Kids say the darnest things.

Sunday, 9 May 2010

Didi lucas is a lot more active than nat @ 19 months. He loves to climb everything, up and down the sofa, lounge chair, bed. Once I even watched as he tried to haul himself onto his high chair. One does have to keep an eye on him at all times. Here is a video I managed to capture of him playing with our towel rack and attempting to do pull-ups. Haha ... funny little man.

Here's another video of nat singing. Ever since she started ballet classes, she loves to prance around singing and dancing, and she does enjoy an appreciative audience that claps after her performance.

Oh yes, I was introduced to this activity by a friend, clay dough. Basically, the dough can be bought from Popular, it comes in an original pack of white clay. It is a bit like plasticine, except it feels a little moist when you first knead at it. Using the dough, nat and I made a cooking pot, pau, pizza and a varity of other food items. Thereafter, we left it to dry at the balcony. When it is dried, the clay hardens. Next step, painting. I like this activity because it is kinda like two activities in one, and nat looks forward to the painting. Every so often, she will run to the balcony to look at her clay items and check if it is dry. One thing though, nat hasn't really learnt the art of differentiating paints, she just mixes all the paint together, so the colour ends up a rather yucky brown. Check it out! Well, it's alright, I still appreciate my baby girl's work of art, I think!

Sunday, 9 May 2010

Today is Mother's Day, a day to thank my mum :) Really appreciate all the things she has done for me, all the support she has given me, especially always being there for me and the kids. It's interesting, I used to be kinda scared of my mum when I was young, as she was rather strict with me. Yet, as I grew older, I feel as if our relationship has evolved and we have definitely grown closer. Some days, I even miss the times when I was in JC/University and we used to go shopping/lunch/walks nearly every day. Nevertheless, these days, even if I don't see my mum, I do try to call her and chit chat with her at least once a day, just to see what she is up to.

Happy Mother's Day!

Thank you, Gary for a wonderful and delicious Mother's Day home-cooked meal of Rock Melon and Parma Ham and Sakura Ebi Pasta. You are the best!

Something interesting to update! Didi lucas has a new bed. He seemed to be getting too tall and long for his cot so we decided to upgrade him to a new bed. Initially, I had wanted to buy something similar to the one we had bought for nat from Spotlight. However, they told me they don't sell it anymore. Well, if you are not intending to spend thousands of dollars on those cool kids' beds from Europe (that come with slides/ladders), the next best bet is Ikea. So one weekday night, Gary and I trooped down there and got a nice blue toddler bed for didi, only 99 bucks. Think he will need some time to get used to getting on and off the bed, so we will be more watchful of him these few days. Already, this adventurous little man enjoys climbing up and down the bed. Well, practice makes perfect! We do place pillows and mats on the floor at night though, just in case he attempts to roll off while we are sleeping. Interestingly, nat has not much interest in the new bed, she associates things that are blue with boys and much prefers her pink Dora bed.

Saturday, 8 May 2010

Nat has the dreaded chicken pox, so we have all been stuck at home this week. Here's a list of how we have managed to entertain ourselves:

1. DVDs
Dora and Little Einstein are staples. I have seen some of the episodes so many times that I can even memorise what happens next. I have also picked up some Spanish, since Dora speaks a mix of Spanish and English.

2. Mandarin and English
I spent about 30 minutes each day doing Mandarin lessons with Nat. She is rather receptive, surprisingly. So far, we have covered the Mandarin strokes heng2, shu4, pie3, na4, dian3. We have also learnt da4 xi1 gua1 , da4 xiang4 and xiao3 cao3 mei2 and xiao3 lao2 shu3. We have progressed slowly but surely in our san1 zi4 jing1. Overall, it's been quite a success. For didi lucas, I have re-organised my flashcards collection and am running through the various flashcards with him on a daily basis.

3. Painting

From painting on paper, we have gone on to painting the balcony floor and even painting the leaves on my precious plants. All for the sake of exploration and creativity.

4. Reading
I have recently discovered these phonics readers from Scholastic and bought the Dora range. The stories are short, colourful and interesting. Give it a try, nat and lucas both love for me to read it to them and we can go through quite a few books at one go. Thereafter, they will take the book from me and pretend to read it on their own.

5. Treasure Hunt

On cold rainy days, when the living room is dark, nat snooped around and found 2 torchlights. My 2 babies became explorers, hunting for hidden treasure. I had a blast watching them. When I tried to switch on the light, nat firmly told me that they were on a mission, and please could I not disturb them.

Saturday, 1 May 2010

My son adores his big sister. For such an active little dude, he can actually keep still and hold his big sister's hand for five whole minutes.



Yesterday, I brought didi lucas for a trial tots tennis class. Besides Julia Gabriel, which focuses more on the singing/music & movement aspect, I wanted to expose him to various sports, and help him to better focus his attention. My baby boy had a wild time. He is so different from his big sis. Once the class started, he just trooped in, cast a glance at me for reassurance and he was off to play! I could see that he enjoyed the class, running up and down, poking his nose into the tennis balls and other equipments at the side of the tennis courts, jumping around with the other tots in the class. The coach was chasing him all around the courts and rescuing him as he attempted to climb over the net. At the end of the class, the coach suggested I wait another few months, let him grow up a bit, and he would probably be able to take instructions better. Will probably sign him up for the class next term. It was no surprise, after the class, he fell asleep the minute he was buckled into his car seat.