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! :)