Modified Language Experience Approach (MLEA)

My prayer every night will include : Phoebe will be able to recognise more words each day and enjoys reading and will grow up into an independent avid reader one day. So, as parents, what do we do to help her ? We bring her to the library fortnightly to borrow books, usually 12-16 books at one time to last for two weeks.

One of the books which I had borrowed for her during one of the library visits was "Pointy-Hatted Princesses". She loves princesses now and loves to be one. She loves pink. And I am teaching her rhyming words at this juncture. So this book fits our bill perfectly. Phoebe loved this book immediately and she started to select the princess that she wanted to be. She chose to be Princess Bridget because she's wearing pink and she has long hair. After reading the book, she wanted a hat like Princess Bridget. So on one of the Saturday mornings, we decided to make a Princess Bridget hat together. She helped in pasting the hearts , tearing the scotch tape for me and searching for the long pink sashes. When the hat was done, she was very happy and pretended to be Princess Bridget.

To reflect back, I had just done a partial MLEA with Phoebe. When doing it with our own children, we can do MLEA so spontaneously but when doing it in school, it seems so difficult, troublesome, time consuming and frustrating. When Phoebe learns to write better, I'll get her to write about being Princess Bridget. Then truly, we would have completed the whole process of MLEA! :)

Pointy-hatted Princess Phoebe :)

Reuben in Little Learners

When Phoebe started school in Little Learners, she was only 21 months old. Reuben started attending Little Learners in January this year. He was 22 months old. Reuben wore his sister's school uniform and it fitted him well. We gave him the ladybird trolley bag which he enjoyed pushing it around. In fact, he liked it so much that he refused to let Mrs Suppiah or Ting Lao Shi to put his bag up on the shelf and continued pushing the bag around the classroom when everyone was seated.

Needless to say, the first week was terrible. The classroom was a chorus of children crying. The classroom was swarmed with parents, grandparents and maids on the first day. In fact, there were more adults than children. The teachers had to set the rule that only one accompanying adult was allowed in the classroom for the next day. Reuben was definitely not cooperative. He refused to sit on the chair and would rather sit or lie on the floor. He cried and sat at the door, constantly saying his famous two-word phrase "Open door". He refused to queue up or wash his hands. He refused to drink or eat his snack. He would rather press his sandwich or play with it. He was definitely more bizzare and daring than Phoebe at that age.

Second day was like that too. He refused to step into the school. In fact, he refused to be unbuckled from the stroller. He cried and yelled. When it was time to go home, everyone took their bag and sang their goodbye song. All except Reuben. He would sprawl on the floor and watch others sing. When the singing was over, he would start to whine again. But he did make some good progress for day 2. We managed to put his bag on the shelf. He queued up to wash his hands, though he jumped queue a little. He did allow Mrs. Suppiah to wash his hands, though he was too short to reach the tap even with the help of the stool. He managed to sit on his chair for a while to nibble his sandwich while looking at his friend's Thomas water bottle. He also managed to "colour" his star with a wax crayon.

Phoebe cried for about two weeks. Reuben had started school for almost a month. He still cries whenever he had step into class. In fact, all the children had stopped crying and would go to school happily except Reuben. He would cry and whine, asking for his eddie and bear bear, which are in the pockets of his bag. His teachers would carried him in and then take his plastic animals out for him. Mrs Suppiah would animate them for a while. The children laughed and Reuben would be alright by then. All of his nonsense ended in five minutes. Whenever the door opens to release the children at the end of the lessons, Reuben will always be smiling brightly, pushing his ladybird out happily.

I know that Reuben enjoys school. He does not detest going to school. He puts on his uniform in the morning without struggling. He comes out of the classroom happily. He sings the "Sha-La-La" aka Goodbye song at home. He likes school. Then why is he crying whenever he steps into classroom ? Throwing tantrums I guess. Seeking for attention probably.

I'm still waiting for the day when he would walk into the classroom willingly, pushing his ladybird in. It will come, I know :)

Everyone's singing the "Sha-La-La" aka Goodbye song, except Reuben.

Kindergarten 1

Phoebe is in K1 now. Time flies. She was just a little girl when she entered Nursery in SKMCC. Now she's a jie jie to the little nursery children. In K1, we would expect a little more learning. She will have a bit of homework to be completed at home now and then. In fact, this morning, Phoebe received her first Chinese homework. She did it with care and I was very proud of her seriousness. We took a picture with her on her first day of school. I can still remember that she was not whiny that morning. She woke up and got ready cooperatively. We want to take a picture with her every year on her first day of school. :)

Phoebe on the first day of school in Nursery (2009) and Kindergarten 1 (2010)

God has Big Ears

We usually will play children's Christian worship songs in the car. The children like the songs and will hum along some familiar tunes they learn from Sunday schools. Even Reuben can add on to the head and tail of the lyrics, e.g. .......me, ........ he etc.

Yesterday, Phoebe was singing very loudly to a particular worship song, almost like yelling or shouting. So I told her,

"You should not yell when singing worship songs because it is very rude. We're singing to God, so we should sing sweetly and nicely. God made all of us and he is very big, He's bigger than us bigger than the whole universe, bigger than anything else. So we must respect him. We cannot shout when we sing to Him."

Then Phoebe replied,

"God is very very big, then He'll have very big ears! I must sing very loudly to Him orelse He cannnot hear me."

Hahaha.... we burst out laughing... :) Then I explain to her that, God knows every of our thoughts. Even if we do not open our mouth to talk, God already knows what we're thinking of. So we don't need to yell to let Him hear us :)

Haha. Such childlike thought and talk! :)

Waiting for School Bus

Since Phoebe was in nursery, we let her take the school bus to school. Every morning, the school bus will pick her up from our home and drop her at my parents' place after school. Initially, we were worried about her taking the school bus because after all, she was only about 3+ years old when she went nursery. On the other hand, we were worried that it will be difficult for my parents to fetch her from school, especially on rainy days as there is not shelter from the school to the bus stop and the school is quite a distance from my parents' place.

Every morning, I will wait with her for her school bus. The school bus is very punctual. We'll usually be about 5 minutes earlier. I like to use that short 5 minutes to chit chat with her and also pray for her before she starts school every morning. I'll usually pray for protection against viral attack and accidents. I also pray that Phoebe can concentrate in school and that she'll love learning and will be on task to complete her assignments, and that her teachers and friends will love her and Phoebe will learn about God and learn to be obedient and well-behaved.

When the school bus comes, I'll kiss her and carry her into the school bus. She'll sit down and wave bye bye to me sweetly, always smiling! Love her so much. If I do not need to go to school early, I love to fetch her at the void deck of my parents' place after her lessons. It's so sweet to see her smile when she spotted me from the bus window. She'll be very happy, grinning from ear to ear. :) It's such a delight! :)

Early in the morning, Phoebe's waiting for her school bus, with a forlorn expression. Haha. She's wearing her L size uniform. We saw this water bottle with her name on it and we bought it immediately, thought it was expensive. *sigh* All for our little precious ones...

Way to Stretch Your Dollar

A money-saving tip from a cheapo Thrifty Mother :

Divide a $2 ride amongst 4 children and how much will each child have to pay? 50-cents only! :)

Singing : Four in a ride and a little one says, "Roll over, roll over."
They all roll over and one fell down...

How To Entertain Bored Children While Shopping

Chinese New Year is coming. Inevitably, we will have to do a little new year shopping. So how do you go about entertaining some bored children while you buy your goodies? You let them play with the merchandise. Oops! I mean, you show them the different merchandise, let them select what they want to buy so that they can exercise some decision-making and then you consider buying the items (^_~)b

(Extracted from the conversation between Phoebe and Mommy...)
What ? You like those shades ? Me too. You want to buy them? How much? $5.90? Oh okie, they're not too expensive. What ? Di-di wants a pair too? That will be $11.80 for both! Hmm... I think both of you have the Barney sunglasses at home right ? The ones you got from your friend's birthday goodie bags ? I think they're good enough for the two of you...

Ready Steady Go

The two of them also love to race with each other. As always, Phoebe will win. The little boy will just imitate the actions of his sister. He can even mimick the words "Ready, steady, go!" It's such a joy to see him tagging behind his sister innocently. The two of them enjoy each other's company. :)

He Aint Heavy. He's my Brother

Phoebe tried to carry Reuben on one of our shopping trips. It was such a funny sight because both of them were so short and Reuben did not move an inch while being hauled by Phoebe in an awkward manner. It's so sweet to see them playing together :)

I am Phoebe.

The December holiday had ended for almost two weeks. What was Phoebe doing during the holidays? Beside completing her school's homework, which consist of English, Math and Chinese, I was quite happy with Phoebe's penmanship. It was something that she had picked up this holiday. Now, she is able to write rather legibly, following the conventions of penmanship - writing within the three lines. Though her handwriting is not very refined and neat yet. I thought it was a good achievement for a 4-year-old. Not only that, I was also pleasantly surprised when I saw her writing a simple sentence on her own on a serviette when she was playing in church one day. She wrote, "I am Phoebe."

Phoebe can also verbally form sentences starting with "I am..." I tried to tease her by asking her if we could say "I is..." or "I are..." She laughed and said, "No, cannot. You can only say I am..." I'm satisfied! :)

Pa Pa's Birthday

Papa was a year-end baby. His birthday was a few days after Boxing Day. We went to Serangoon Garden's Pow Sing Restaurant to eat their famous Chicken Rice and Nyonya food for dinner. The food was good and the children were well-behaved. Reuben also wanted a share of the chicken rice. After dinner, we bought a chocolate cake from Four Leaves. When we are at the void deck, papa will usually let us alight first before parking the car in the multi-storey carpark. So we went up first, closed the door, lit up all the 38 candles and switched off the lights to wait for papa. I could sense the excitement coming from the two of them. The minute papa opened the door, we sang the birthday song to him, just like in the movies. It was fun and memorable. However, I was too excited and busy to record everything down. But I'm sure papa will remember it for as long as he could! :)

I forgot to take a picture of the infamous Chicken Rice. The food was delish! :) Thinking of it makes me salivate!



Papa and his favourite princess

The Polliwogs

This is another backdated post. On 26 December 2009, a family friend of ours invited us to their son's 5th birthday, which was held in The Polliwogs. It's another indoor playground, similar to the eXplorer kid and Fidgets. Phoebe loved the indoor play but she did not really enjoy the birthday party. Maybe it's because she did not know any children there as the children were the classmates of the birthday boy. There were games for the children (but Phoebe did not want to take part in). When it was time to hit the Pinata, Phoebe broke into tears. I suppose she was scared to see people hitting the pinata. Phoebe is a girl who does not like violence. Whenever we watch a TV programme with violent content, she will scream or hide beneath the sheets and said that she's scare. I'm glad she's a peace-loving girl :)

After the party, the children played in the indoor play area. That's when Phoebe was happy and relaxed. Reuben, too, loved the indoor play area. He loved the ball pit and the toddler slide. We sat at the rest area with our eyes like hawks, keeping the children within our sight, while relaxing with our cups of complimentary coffee and tea. There was also an outdoor bouncy castle but it was too humid outside and Phoebe did not like the steepness of the castle slide. Again, it was too scary for her. After playing for the whole afternoon, the children's energy got worn off. They had their siesta in the car :) Heehee...

Oh Mommy's Armsy

Every night, Phoebe needs to hug my arm before she falls asleep. Yes, you heard me no wrong. She hugs my arm, in particular, my right arm (instead of me). Some children need to smell their smelly blankie, pillow or bolster, but Phoebe, she needs to hug and smell my right arm. Don't get me wrong. It's not that my arm is smelly. Haha. She just love to hug it. It's therapeutic for her. In fact, she gives my arm a name - Armsy. Sometimes she will exclaim in a mischievous manner, "Oh Mommy's Armsy! I love mommy's armsy", then she will hug and kiss it. She's a funny girl. I love the feeling of her embracing my armsy, but I'm also wondering how I can wean her off from my armsy so that she can sleep on her own on her own bed. Do I need to resort to amputating my armsy? Haha.

New Uniform

It is only when our children outgrown their clothes that we realised how much they have grown. It's a mixed feeling for me. I felt happy that Phoebe is growing up each day but yet, my heart aches to know that my little girl has grown up and I miss the small-ness of her and the cute babyish mannerism. Alright, the truth is, my girl is only 4+. I sounded as if she's old enough to get married. Haha.

When Phoebe first started her nursery in SKMCC, she was wearing S size school uniform. I am one mommy who does not like my children to wear big big clothes because I always feel that they look sloppy and untidy with oversized clothes. So when I got Phoebe her S size uniform, it fitted her nicely and she looked cute, neat and sweet :)

But children grow up quickly, her S size uniform became tight after the June holidays. By the end of 2009, her dress became almost like a blouse and the bloomers were like shorts. So I had to get her new school uniform. Her papa, the practical one, suggested XL size, for better mileage. Phoebe could fit just nice in an M size. XL is a little too roomy. When we brought the new XL uniform home, Phoebe tried it on and hated it, saying that it was ugly. I do agree with her. The arm hole was so big that I could put my hand in, or even two hands maybe. Haha. I'm exaggerating :) Anyway, she's starting to become more conscious of herself and how she looks.

After much consideration, I decided to bring the XL uniform back to exchange for the L size ones. She's much happier wear her new L uniform. It gives her more confidence in her appearance too. I wonder how long these 2 sets will last her. Will update again if we need to upgrade her uniform again :)

Cute little Phoebe on the first day of school in nursery, 2009.


Phoebe in her new XL uniform. She hated it. This was the best facial expression she could give me.

Boxing Day

We spent our Boxing Day evening in Aunty Ann and Uncle CM's place. Uncle Willie and Aunty Aveline was there too. We had potluck. Though all of us are busy with our children and work, the three families always make it an effort to meet up at least once or twice a year. We enjoy catching up with each other and comparing how much our sons have grown. The three boys were born in 2008, only about a month plus apart. Phoebe is the only rose among the thorns and she is the big jie-jie to the boys. She could not really remember the aunties' and uncles' names and I had to refresh her memory. When I told her that Aveline's name was Aunty Aveline, Phoebe said,"Aunty Aveline? Aveline, that's a nice name." I thought she sounded funny but mature. I forgot that little children can have preferences too. Before we went home, the children exchanged their gifts. That was also the highlight of the event for the children, especially for Phoebe, because she's starting to understand and appreciate the act of giving and receiving presents :)

It was a challenge to get all four children to look into the camera. Only Phoebe was focused. The three handsome boys were Asher, Yu Hin and Reuben.

A Quiet Christmas

Last year's Christmas was a quiet one for us. We did not display or decorate our Christmas tree. Neither did we have a party at home. We only had a small Christmas eve dinner with Jessy's family. We have invited them over to share a simple meal with us, in a way, to thank them for their time in bringing us around Malacca.

Since it was Christmas, I thought it was more appropriate to have western food, though Jessy's family prefer Chinese food :p I marinated Chicken midthighs with orange juice and oyster sauce for over night. Then I oven toasted them on the actual day. I also made garlic linguine, mashed potato and a simple salad. We had Campbell's clam chowder and sparkling white grape juice to go with the food. For dessert, my mum made for us her usual chocolate Christmas log cake.

The children had fun playing and they had gift exchanged. It was a simple, relax and nice Christmas eve for us :)

The log cake was made by my mum and Phoebe... well, she helped in decorating the cake with the ornaments ! :)

Our Malacca Tour

It is the year 2010 and I'm blogging about a very backdated account of our Malacca trip in 2009, 18-20 December. It's our first trip to Malacca with the children, our first drive up trip to Malaysia and also our first overseas trip with Jessy's family. To equip ourselves, we got ourselves a Garmin GPS. Jessy's family had been to Malacca umpteen times. So they were very familiar with the roads. Throughout the trip, we just had to look at the rear of their Subaru blue car. They were very considerate, stopping many times along the way to wait for us :) We're the timid ones, conforming to the 110km/h speed limit at the highway. There were times when we drove at 130km/h, which was also our first experience. Haha :)

Our first meal was in Farmosa Chinese restaurant, eating chicken rice balls. The food was a little disappointing but the ambience was good. The best meal we had was the Peranakan dinner which Jessy's family had brought us to. The Assam fish was delicious and fresh. The Nyonya vegetables, curry chicken were also superb. I was very engrossed in eating that I forgot to take a picture of the yummy food! :)

It rained for the first two days but it was quite alright as we were indoors and we did quite a lot of shopping, buying mainly children's stuff, especially in FOS. We also went to Jonker Street night market on the second night. It was very crowded. We returned to the hotel only after 12 midnight. It was the right decision to leave the sleepy children in the hotel with Auntie Nia.

On the way back home, we wanted to stop in Geylang Patah R and R to meet up with Jessy's family but we made a wrong turn at the highway and we got lost for almost 2 hours. We were getting worried when the sky turned dark and there was no civilization on our right and left. Our car was alone and we couldn't stop any car to ask for directions because they were zooming pass us and we were also afraid of our own security. Finally, we managed to locate a Shell petrol kiosk and could ask our way out.

Throughout the whole trip, we were very very impressed with Jessy and her husband, Clement. They were very patient with their girls. They carried their girls all the way when walking in Jonker Street. I was already very tired even without my kids but they had to carry them throughout. Not only that, they were also very considerate, making several stops to wait for us, in case we were lost. When our elephant car had some difficulty manoeuvring out of a narrow alley which had an open drain, Clement was sensitive enough to get out of his car to direct our car out of the situation. When we were lost for about 2 hours, they waited for us at Geylang Patah R and R and constantly sms-ed us to ask about our location and well-being. They could have gone home already because they also had two young children who were tired and cranky but they did not leave us in the lurch. It was until when we found our way back to the highway leading to Tuas that they were relieved and headed back to the immigration. Their girls were also very well-mannered and good natured. I guess they had inherited the good traits of their parents.

All in all, it was a fun trip. Phoebe and Reuben had enjoyed themselves with the company of Xiao Ci and Yun Er. We too, though the traffic jam within Malacca was crazy. Quoting my hubby, "Driving in Malacca is very challenging. You really must gah gah go." I agreed but that will not stop us from going there again :)

Busy

Sorry to keep you waiting! I've lots to update and is going to update soon! :)