Don't Forget The Lyrics

After being in school for almost three months, Reuben has learned his goodbye song pretty well. He has got the lyrics, tune and rhythm right. However, the accuracy of his utterance needs to be improved. But I'm not at all worry about that because children's utterance will get clearer as they grow older. Right now, can you decipher the words he's singing about ? Have a guess! :)

Sha la la, Sha la la
Take my school bag, going home
Say goodbye, to teachers
Goodbye to my friends

Goodbye teachers, goodbye friends
See you tomorrow
Lao shi zai jian, xiao peng you zai jian
Da jia ming tian jian!

Laundry Basket Cocoon

The two of them are so much fun. They were goofing with their own laundry basket one evening. They were pretending to be caterpillars, trapped in a cocoon, waiting for their time to be transformed into beautiful butterflies. They must have watched the video "The Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle too many times. They have such wonderful imagination that the laundry basket becomes their instant cocoon. Love them nuts! :)

Jie-jie butterfly has flown away, left only di-di butterfly in his cocoon.

Animal-Lover

Reuben loves animals. In fact, "animal" is the only 3-syllabic word that he can utter very very clearly. He has a small plastic container which he keeps his plastic animal figurines inside. He can name and make the sound of almost all the animals in his container, e.g. hippo, snake, turtle, cow moo, goat baa, sheep meh, horse neigh etc. Unfortunately, the number of animals in his container is decreasing as some were misplaced. Well, it's a good excuse for me to source for these cheap plastic animals to add to his collection. Shopaholic mommy :)

Row Row Row Your Boat

There's a Pasar Malam behind the Seng Kang market. There are some fun rides for children. The boating ride looked rather interesting and Phoebe wanted to have a try. She liked it very much and I thought it was quite worth it, $3 for a 5 minute ride. She likes to be in control sometimes. The boating ride allows her to "row" the boat by cycling the pedals with her hands. It was easy to manoeuvre. Poor Reuben was whining by the side of the pool. He wanted to have a go too but he's too young for it. In fact, he's too young for all the fun rides. Wait till next year, Reuben! You'll have your chance :)

When I re-looked at the video recording, I thought I sounded silly! I kept asking her if it was fun. Of course, she was having fun! You can see the smile and excitement on her face :) Silly mommy :p

Sharing the Ipod Touch

Phoebe has learnt to navigate the Ipod Touch very well. She's also able to use the PC/laptop pretty well. She loves some of the children's website that we have introduced to her: UpToTen, Starfall, CBeebies, Nickelodeon Junior etc . I'm well aware that our children lives in an ICT era. I cannot teach them the skills of tomorrow but I can help them to acquire the skills of today. So I let them play with whatever IT stuff that I can grab hold of (with wallet limitations of course!).

Caught Phoebe and Reuben sharing the Ipod one evening before bedtime. :) I love to see their engrossed expression.

I can hear some of you commenting that it's no good to lie down on the bed to read/play with the Ipod Touch. It's bad for their eyes. Yes, I'll take note and will remind them next time :p

Mozzarella that Binds

On Wednesday of the March holidays, we were free and did not have any plans for the day. Phoebe woke up early. Spontaneously, I decided to let her make bread pizza on her own since she had made it before and we had the necessary ingredients at home. She enjoyed herself very much and did not need much supervision, except the baking process which involved the hot oven toaster. When she had completed making the bread pizza, Reuben woke up just in time to enjoy the fruit of jie-jie's labour. Phoebe was very glad to share her pizza with di-di. The two of them had a fun time eating breakfast together, in their pyjamas! Haha. I wanted to do a follow-up activity with Phoebe, and that is, to do a recipe for bread Pizza but we haven't had the time to start our mini project. Maybe one of these days, we'll find time doing it. With two young kids, time is never enough but I just hope that we're spending quality time together :)

Look at the long strand of Mozzarella cheese! Simply delish! :) Reuben enjoying his pizza too, with his favourite blanket on his chair :)

The two of them wanted to share a cup of plain water too. They're enjoying each other's company. Hopefully when they grow up, it'll be their sibling love that binds them together, not just their similar pyjamas. :)

Reading to My Kids

Phoebe and Reuben love books. Going to the library has become part of our fortnightly activity. Sometimes, we'll go to the library without them because they are having their nap. But I always ensure that my house is filled with a fresh supply of books for them to read and flip. Reuben has caught the book-loving bug from Phoebe. Phoebe has already graduated from the Joy Readers. She could read Level A-D of the Joy Readers. Reuben is the rightful heir to the books. Right now, Reuben's favourite book is still "Run, run, run" though he also likes 8 other titles from the Level A series. Every night before the children sleep, we will read some story books to them. Phoebe always ask for more. Two stories are usually not enough. She'll ask for four, or five or more, stories after stories. Right now, in addition to the usual library story books, we're also reading Children's Beginning Bible stories to her. She loves the Bible stories. We hope to build up her Biblical knowledge through reading the Bible stories to her. We're glad that both children love books. My daily prayer for them is that they will improve in their word recognition and that they will grow up into independent avid readers.

Papa reading to Reuben. Look at how engrossed he was!


Level A of Joy Readers

What Tooth Do You Have?

Papa was driving us home one day and Phoebe and I were talking about our day. I asked her if she had eaten too many sweets in mama's (grandma's) house. She said she ate 2 sweets and 1 chocolate for the day. Phoebe loves to eat sweet stuff but because of her single kidney, we always limit her sugar intake. I told her that she has sweet tooth, just like mommy. Then she asked, "What about didi?" I replied that didi likes to eat salty stuff. Phoebe said, "Oh! Didi has salty tooth!" All of us burst out laughing. I told her that didi likes savoury stuff, just like papa. Then Phoebe added on, "And Auntie? Auntie has spicy tooth!"

(^_^)

Hints From My Children

I was waving in the car. Phoebe was in her booster, sitting behind the driver seat. She said, "Mommy, when you wave your hand, (the skin/flesh on) your arm also moves." (-_-)

I was in the study room, using the computer one night. Reuben struggled to take the heavy Uzap from the bedroom and gave it to me, saying, "Mommy, tu tu tu tu... (the sound made by the Uzap when it was operating)." (-_-)

Enough hints... Time to take out my sport shoes...

Reuben is Two - Celebration Part 2b

On Reuben's actual birthday, we had a mini celebration in Little Learners for him. Papa and I took leave to celebrate Reuben's special day with him. In the afternoon, we continued with the celebration with Reuben's maternal grandparents. We gave them a lunch treat in Putien Restaurant in City Square to celebrate Reuben's birthday and also, in a way, for us to thank them for looking after Reuben for the past two years, especially the fact that mama's health was not in tip top condition. After the lunch, we walked around in City Square and took some goofy pictures for remembrance. We believed everyone had fun. Before Reuben fell asleep that night, we prayed for Reuben, thanking God for watching over him dearly. We pray that God will continue to hold Reuben close to His heart and give him favour in wherever he goes and whatever he does. We also pray that as earthly parents, we will continue to take good care of Reuben and guide him to walk in God's righteousness. Glory be unto God always! :)

Reuben is Two - Celebration Part 2a

The children's birthday celebration is always without the absence of grandparents. Reuben's too is no exception. We had an earlier celebration on the weekend with his paternal relatives as everyone was free only in the weekend. Since Reuben likes trains, we got him a Thomas birthday cake. After a delicious dinner treat by papa, all the paternal cousins, aunties, uncles and grandparents gathered to sing Reuben a birthday song.

I love these two pictures! It's difficult to get the two children to look into the camera and these two pictures managed to capture the moment! :)

Reuben is Two - Celebration Part 1

Reuben has officially crossed the two year-old bar on 2 March. We did not hold a birthday party at home for him. There were just a mini celebration in school and also with our parents. When Phoebe celebrated her second birthday, she had a Barney cake. Likewise, we also got Reuben a Barney cake for his second birthday. Instead of the regular party favours in party bags, I bought the children a box of puzzle each. I think we were more excited than the children ; we sang the birthday song louder than the children. But Reuben enjoyed blowing out his candles (with a bit of mommy's help). Haha! :)

It is just the beginning of Term 1, the children still looked a little blur. Haha :)

A Recipe is Brewing

Hey, after writing about the previous entry, I suddenly have an idea! Maybe blogger mommies can do it with your child(ren) too. You can make and compile a

_________'s (name of child) Recipe Book

Phoebe already knows how to make some simple food items, such as

Roti Pizza
Cheese Nachos
Cornflakes cups with Honey

I can also teach her other simple food, such as

Tuna Sandwich
Baked Rice with Mozzerella Cheese and Tuna

I can get her to write (with my assistance in spelling) a simple recipe for each food item. For those younger children who cannot spell yet, you can take a picture of each process, develop the pictures and get the child(ren) to sequence the event and paste the pictures into the recipe book. So it becomes a pictorial recipe book! After that, compile the recipes and Tadah! your child will have his/her very own, first receipt book. It's fun to make and it encourages the child to write. It's also good for memory development with the recalling of sequence.

Hmm... maybe I should get started with this idea as her March holiday project. Today is already Wednesday! Not many days left!! :(

Or, maybe I should gather a few more other children in our place and made do the food project with the other children and get Phoebe to teach them ? So she becomes, Phoebe the Little Chef! We can have 5 two-hour sessions in a week, making 5 different food items. After each learning/cooking experience, we can do a mini MLEA and get the children to do sequencing in the process of cooking, or simple fill in the blanks, or other simple written work, in the form of a receipe. Then by the end of the sessions, each child will have a simple compiled receipe book! Cool?

Event Planner
10.00 -10.20 a.m. : Welcoming and tuning-in with a simple action song
10.20 - 10.35 a.m. : Story-telling (related to food hopefully)
10.35 - 10.40 a.m. : Toilet break and washing hands
10.40 - 10.45 a.m. : Demonstration of making simple food
10.45 - 11.15 a.m. : Children hands-on session in cooking
11.15 - 11.30 a.m. : Eating and washing up of hands/face
11.30 - 11.40 a.m. : Recalling of events, teaching of mini MLEA
11.40 - 11.55 a.m. : Children hands on in doing follow-up activity (e.g. worksheet)
11.55 - 12 noon : Pack up and go home!

Children will keep their written recipe with me first and they will get to bring them back only after I've compiled for them, at the end of fifth session.

Anyone game for this? :) I'll probably only have space for 4 children :)

Cheese Nachos

I really enjoy seeing her delighted face. She was very excited when she alighted the school bus, with a plastic bag in her hand. We were walking along the void that and here's our conversation.

Mommy, I have something to show you. It's cheeeeeese nachos.
Playing along, I exclaimed,
Really??!! Wow! Did you make this in school?
Yes! I made it all BY MYSELF. It's very yummy you know.
Wow! What did you put inside your cheese nachos?
I put cheese, this one (mommy interrupt : that's the corn biscuit?), tomato and raisin. I want to eat it now.
Can I try some too?
Suuuure.
Hmm.... it's very nice.
I told you!
How did you make the cheese nachos?
It's very easy. You put the cheese on the biscuit, then you put in the raisins and tomatoes. Then you put it into the oven to melt the cheese. Like that lor! It's very easy.
Did everyone make cheese nachos?
Yes!
Did you enjoy yourself?
Yeeees!

Verdict : School is good - learning is done and children have fun.
Case : Closed.

Possible home follow-up activity :
1) Get her to write down the process of making Cheese Nachos, like a recipe
2) Demostration of how to make Cheese Nachos again.
Ingredients : plain cracker, mozzerella cheese, diced tomatos, raisins and other possible ingredients.