Tickled Reuben

I love the way little children laugh. Their laughter are music to my ears. Last Sunday after church service, we went to Ikea to beat the outdoor heat, as well as to have our lunch. We thought Ikea is a perfect place for us to enjoy free air con, free parking, free drinks (Friends of Ikea), free toys, free swings and slides, clean toilets, clean baby changing room, affordable food and most importantly, it has ample space for the children to run amok! Since Phoebe did not have Ballet class that day, we took our own sweet time to stroll around. When we came across the whatever-you-called-it (Ikea lights? projectors? visualizer?), Reuben was very tickled by the rotating image on the floor. We stopped to let him play for a while. He went round and round until he became dizzy. When we wanted to carry him away, he protested violently. Then he carried on chuckling and running after the motion image. Silly boy =)

School Readers

Phoebe's school made the children buy some compulsory readers. I thought the readers are very good because they are targeted at nursery level. The stories are simple yet informative. Here are the first three readers of the series.

The book picks up some high frequency words which are repeated so that children can recognise them after being exposed to them several times. Each book also has a language focus which teaches skills like questioning, prediction, comparison etc. Phoebe is able to read these three books fluently. She recognises some of the words inside but she also uses the picture cues to help herself to guess the other unknown words. I would want her to be able to recognise all the words in the readers without refering to the pictures. Hence, I wrote the high frequency and content words in flash cards and I showed them to Phoebe. Through practice, she is able to recognise more words but I need to keep flashing the cards so that she will internalise the words and not forget them so easily.

Last year, when some of us went for a school workshop, each of us were given a goodies bag with three simple readers. Phoebe loves these three books. She can memorise them because she has read them umpteen times. I'm hoping to find the vendor to purchase more of these readers.

Phoebe's school also made the children purchase Chinese readers. Phoebe again looks at the pictures to tell the story. I doubt she recognises any of the Chinese characters. She has memorised the stories and is able to regurgitate them, though less fluently. Well, at least I'm glad that she's able to identify some of the items in Mandarin.

Learning to read is an on-going process. My hope for Phoebe is that, she will become an independent reader who possesses the joy of reading =)

The Philatelic Museum

Phoebe was sick for the whole of last week. She was down with fever, highest at 39.5 degree celsius. On top of that, she had flu and cough. She has lost quite a bit of weight. Heartache for me :(

Her school went to the Philatelic Museum on last Tuesday. It's a pity that Phoebe could not go because she was very excited about it and her school has prepared the children well with all the pre-activities before the trip. I felt sad for her that she missed the learning journey with her friends. So I must bring her to the Philatelic Museum soon to make up for her loss.

Anyway, her school made the children draw a card for themselves so that they can post it out with a real stamp and envelope when they were at the museum. Her teacher must have mailed out Phoebe's card on her behalf since she was not able to mail it out personally. We received the envelope on Wednesday. It was a pleasant surprise when we saw the envelope in our letterbox! The children also made a stamp out of their own photograph. We saw Phoebe's stamp (with her own picture) when we went to church on Sunday. It is such a joy to see Phoebe's face lightened up when she saw her own stamp. I love to see her smile! :)

Reuben called Papa

My hubby told me that I HAVE TO put this video up. He is very proud that his son is able to address him papa accurately. He said that since there was a video of Phoebe calling him Papa. He must also have a video of Reuben doing likewise too. Talk about male ego, haha :)

So here you are, Reuben addressing PAPA.

Word Recognition

Since Phoebe started nursery in SKMCC, she has learnt to recognise a few sight words. The school got for each of them a set of readers which consists of several titles. So far, Phoebe has brought home these three books :

1) Dirty Dog
2) What Is It?
3) Big and Little

From the readers, the teacher will identify the sight words from each book and keep track of the words that Phoebe can read. I realised that Phoebe is able to read some of the words such as :

dirty, dog, bird, sees, me, cat, big, little, is, a the, grandad, car, ball, I

I realised that sometimes, Phoebe uses the pictures to help her to guess the word. For example, when she sees the picture of a horse, she will know what the word is. It's an intelligent guess and I'm glad that she's able to use picture cues to help herself in reading.

However, I would prefer her to know the pronunciation of the words by using phonics to sound the words out because there may not always be pictures to guide her in reading. Phonics will be a more reliable source to aid her in sounding out the words. Phoebe already knows the sound of each letters but she is not good in sound blending. Sometimes I can see her trying out, for example, when she sees 'bone', she will say /b/ /b/ /b/ and then she says 'bird'. Well, at least she got the first letter right :)

To help her develop her skills in word blending, we borrow books for the library. Phoebe likes the books 'Hand Hand Fingers Thumb' by Dr. Seuss very much. So last night, we borrowed another of Dr. Seuss book 'The Foot Book' and I read to her before she slept. Using books like these, I try to teach her sound blending to derive the word, for example, Foot and Feet and Meet. I read the book to her but whenever we encounter these words foot and feet, then she has to read these two words. She likes active reading and that's how she is able to remember these two words.

I will test her word recognition by writing all the words she knows in flashcards. Hopefully, she'll be able to read the words on her own without the help of any pictures. :)

Our Favourite Book

Since a few blogger mommies are touching on the topic of language development, I shall also briefly describe Reuben's language development. At 13.5 months, Reuben is able to articulate (in random order) :

1) Mama (mommy)
2) Mama (grandma)
3) Papa
4) milk milk
5) Jeh jeh (sister)
6) ball ball
7) no no

He's able to understand simple instructions like :
1) Drink water
2) Eat medicine
3) Di-di, call Papa
4) Sayang mommy
5) Kiss mommy
6) Walk walk
7) Reuben come
6) No-no
7) Play Peek-a-boo

With Phoebe, we were very diligent in showing her flashcards. By the time she was about 2 years old, she was able to identify all the 56 animals in her stack of flashcards. Sad to say, with Reuben, we are a little lazy.

However, I realised that Reuben's favourite boardbook is the same as Phoebe's when she was very young. The book is entitled "Happy Dog Sad Dog" by Sam Lloyd. The pictures are bright and the dogs are cute and attractive. It teaches about opposites. Whenever I draw out this book from the shelf, Reuben will immediately drop his toys and books and clamber to me to listen to the story. Sometimes, he will also take the book from my hands and turn the pages randomly for me to read. Phoebe also responded in the same way when she was younger. This book is definitely worth preserving for keepsake! :)

Vietnamese Girl & Her Sidekick

My parents had just came back from their short trip to Vietnam last week. They bought Phoebe a Vietnamese suit. Phoebe loves the costume because it's pink. I thought the suit was really sweet. Even if Phoebe can't wear it, I'll still keep it for rememberance. Maybe if her school celebrates International Friendship Day or Racial Harmony Day and requires the children to wear traditional costume, I'll let Phoebe wear this! :)

When I see the pictures below, I can't help but break into laughter. Here you have, the jie jie looking so sweet and pretty, and then the little brother, looking so endearingly sah sah and silly. Such a cute little silly boy, half the time don't know what's going on... Haha :) My little Benbeni :)

Lil Miss Chatterbox

Yup! That's my little girl alright. If she is ever quiet, that would be because she's asleep or eating. She talks non-stop. Her papa calls her his little radio. The minute she's in the car, she'll talk, eat or sing throughout the whole journey. She keeps her mouth busy all the time. Sometimes, she even talks in her sleep. One of her favourite question is, "Mommy, now we go where?" and I'll always correct her, "Where..." and she'll repeat her question again, "Where are we going?" We got her the Little Miss Chatterbox T-shirt and underwear. The character really suits her. Now she understands the meaning of chatterbox and she really loves her t-shirt :)

Osh Kosh B'Gosh

Like I've mentioned in my previous posts, I love to dress them in identical clothes. Phoebe has this dungeree since she was 2 years old and till now, she still can wear it :) My sister happened to give Reuben an identical dungeree, same brand and design but different colour. Just nice :) They look so cute together! :) LOVE them bits :)

Good Friday Event

On Good Friday, a few of my church friends came to my place. We also invited Jessy and her girlies. There were eating, a short video and a short testimony given by my church friend. Then it was OTOT (Own Time, Own Target). There were seven children in all, 5 girls and 2 boys. The girls had a good time playing together. I was surprise that Yun-er allowed me to carry her! The last time I met her, I wanted to carry her but she refused :) She was very cute and well-behaved, just like her jie jie. Phoebe enjoyed playing with Xiao Ci. Xiao Ci knows how to play harmoniously. She's really a very good natured girl. Everything ended at about 2.30 p.m. We gave the children Easter Chocolate and the adults, plastic thermo mugs as door gifts. It was a good time playing together for the kids :) When everyone went home, Phoebe told me, "I don't want everybody to go home. I want everybody to stay in my house."

Bad Boy

I thought Reuben has a bad boy look in this picture. That naughty face and lazy pose :)

We Have The Same

Phoebe only learnt to use the straw cup/bottle when she was about 24 months old. Reuben is half the age faster than his sister. At thirteen months, we witnessed him drinking from his sister's new water bottle. I think he likes the soft rubbery straw. At first, we thought that he was only chewing the rubber straw, then we saw the water level rising in the straw. We were amazed :) So I got him his first personal water bottle, Bob the Builder. The same type used by Phoebe except that hers is Dora the Explorer. I love to dress them alike and give them identical things :)

We have the same bottles!

Nesting

I like these pictures of me with the two kids. But too bad, they were taken with my handphone, so the resolution is bad and they are a little blur if I am to enlarge the pictures. Hidden under the sheets, Phoebe was sitting in front of me, with my legs nesting her and her legs were nesting Reuben, who was sitting in front of her. Sometimes, good shots or poses are really hard to come by and when the children are ready, the equipment is out of reach. But if we're to insist in looking for the digicam, the children would have lose their patience and the moment would not have been captured. Sometimes, I wish that I have pockets on my skin where I can stick my hp and digicam on me all the time, and fish them out immediately when needed. Haha :)

Papa Don't Preach

Phoebe's linguistic development was quite advance since she was young. When she was about 13 months old, she was able to match the word 'Papa' to the correct person. In fact, she called her father 'Papa' before she was about 13 months old. When I was doing my masters, some of the nights I had classes. My hubby had to fetch Phoebe from my mum's place. He would belt her on her car seat right behind the driver seat. I could still remember receiving an sms from my hubby, saying that Phoebe suddenly called him 'Papa' when he was driving home and when my hubby smiled and said 'yes' to acknowledge her at the red light, Phoebe laughed and clapped her hands. She was about 11 months then.

Poor Phoebe. Her papa was so obsessed to hear her calling him 'Papa' that he kept insisting his little girl to greet him, even though she was clearly very tired and frustrated about it.
"Oh... Papa! Give me a break!"

Peek-A-Boo Reuben

Like Phoebe, Reuben loves to play 'Peek-A-Boo' by himself. I think all children go to the same pre-birth school because it seems like most babies/toddlers I've known of knows how to and love to play this game.

Reuben Goes Weeee...

Reuben's first time on the slide and he fell in love with it. Now, whenever we go to Ikea, he'll want to play on the slide. At 13 months, Reuben loves the swing, the stairs and the slide. I found 2 video clips of Phoebe playing slides. The first one was her on the Elephant slide found in Paragon when she was about 19 months old. The second one was Phoebe on the Ikea slide when she was about 23 months old. She really looks very different.

Reuben on th Ikea slide (Age : 13 months)

Phoebe on the Elephant Slide in Paragon (Age : 19 months)

Phoebe on the Ikea slide (Age : 23 months)

Good Friday Event

Hi bloggers mommies,

I would like to invite you all to my place on Good Friday (10 April) between 12-2 p.m. for a lunch, gathering and a bit of brief evangelistic sharing... but it's mainly for gathering lah... But on the other hand, it's Good Friday, so we thought that we'll share a little about the meaning behind this public holiday. Nothing heavy going, something simple.

So here's the schedule:

12.00 - 1.00 p.m. : Lunch and mingling
1.00 - 1.20 p.m. : Watch a short video (some Christian content)
1.20 - 1.25 p.m. : Short sharing (some Christian content)
1.25 - 2 p.m. : Chit Chat and Gossip
2.00 p.m. - ??? : Feel free to stay and let our kids play :)

Please let me know if you're coming, because I need to prepare food. All mommy bloggers and hubbies and children are welcome!! :0)

RSVP!! :)