All With Just A Finger

"Mummy, I want to paint! I want to paint!"

"Ok, what do you want to paint? What colors do you need? Go and get them."

"Umm.... I have an idea!" He brought out a few bottles, pulled out some papers from the drawer and arranged them on the table.

"Where are your brushes?"

"No need for brushes. Just one finger! You watch me!"

Now, this was entirely child-led, which is pretty much how we do it at home. 

Unless the boys are doing some lapbooking with me and the art/craftwork is part of our thematic activities, then I may set the structure and provide some instructions to ensure they learn what I set out to teach. 

On a typical day, the boys pick their own themes and decide on pretty much everything. 

My peanut has dedicated this to his grandpa. He promised to make something for grandma too. Very soon, he said. :>

After K2

A friend told me about this site only a few months ago. I guess everyone thinks a Singaporean mother should already know about this famous forum, but I don't. 

I was shocked when I started reading some of the discussion threads about selection of Primary schools. Until then, I wasn't even aware of the details, like the different phases for the primary school registration process. I was one of those parents who used to think that there is still a long way to go before my boy enters primary school, so there is plenty of time to think. Apparently NOT, according to the regulars of that forum. 

Which brings me to the objective of this post - to make a record here about our thoughts on 'After K2'. Up till this February, I was very convinced that our boys will go to local primary schools. I didn't even consider the option of international schools then, though we can apply.

But a few incidents made us reconsider the international schools. We visited a few and talked to educators and parents whose kids are attending them. 

There are many factors I like about the programmes offered by international schools, particularly the International Baccalaureate and the Primary Years Programme offered by some schools. However, the way-too-relaxed culture of these institutions with their lack of annual assessments and "slower" curriculum compared to the standards set by Singapore M.O.E. is a real drawback. Even the best international schools will not have a strong Chinese language curriculum which is another key factor in our decision-making. 

Well, we are also the kind of parents who think that having assessments such as tests and exams is actually good for the child. I am not concerned about the common grouse on too much homework or stress etc... I think that is part of growing up in a competitive world. You either learn to manage it and strive with flying colors, or you just won't do well later on in life. 

So after deliberating for months, I still couldn't decide whether to go local or international schools. It was frustrating! 

Then one day, E uttered some words of wisdom - regardless of the schools we choose, for as long as we continue our attitude and approach with our boys, they will do well. We can and will continue to raise them as inquisitive children with a hunger for knowledge and love for learning. 

And that's it! Bingo! He is so RIGHT! 

What's wrong with me?!  For a while, I was blinded by the greed and desire to want the perfect solution. I want an education that offers the best of everything. But it just doesn't exist! 

Of course, as parents, we have a significant and formidable influence over our children's development. So why fret over school choices? The dilemma that troubled me for months just disappeared into thin air. I sighed a great relief and gained a whole lot of perspectives (again).

This is another classic case of 'still waters run deep'. And I am referring to E. 

Going the local primary schools path means we will have to register under Phase 2C, so no joy in that. But with this clarity bestowed by my darling hubby, I also no longer worry about the 'what if M doesn't get into the preferred primary school' scenario. 

I remain optimistic. One thing doesn't change - we are still the parents. So no worries! :> 

Simple Bliss

To my unmarried girlfriends and those who are married without kids, their first reaction was almost always 'Huh? What?! Why? There must be other things that are more fun to do... '  when I said how much I am looking forward to eating my lunch leisurely and in peace, without children's voices in my earshot. 

For almost 5 years, I have not been able to do that really. 

It is not quite the same to go out to a restaurant or cafe and lunch there without my kids. While I enjoy fine dining, sometimes I do prefer to just eat alone in the comfort of my home. Make a simple lunch for just me and nibble in peace. 

I can do that now that my boys are in school. Ahh.... finally!! :>

Today, I did just that. My simple source of bliss. And I am savouring every moment of it. 

You Stand. You Eat. Sushi.

I have heard only the best reviews from people who have been to the Standing Sushi Bar at the OUB Centre, established by our friend and one of my favourite people, Howard Lo. 

I started drooling the moment I saw their photos on Facebook and have been craving for sushi everyday since. The thought of sinking my teeth into those plump slices of sashimi and tucking in to a bowl of chirashi-don is pleasure in itself.

Finally, I will have some time during one of the weekdays next week to head down for lunch. Who else are coming? 

The New Best Friends

He calls them his best friends now. I like them the moment I saw them in school on his birthday when I brought over cupcakes. 

Both are such gorgeous kids, with wonderful sense of humor and full of cheekiness, just like my little monkey. No wonder they get along so well. Of course it helps that they all sit at the same table. It makes me smile, just to see them like this. 

One thing I have noticed right from the first week we started at this new school is how his classmates will shout 'Marcus! Marcus!' whenever they see him in school. They always look so excited to see him, as if he is their best friend. It was also like this before, when he was in the previous school. I don't deny it's heartwarming to me. 

M, on the other hand, doesn't appear to feel anything about it. Not flattered, not bothered either. He is just this one cool little chap who doesn't care much about anything... Haha 

Nothing Beats A Little Companionship

Without fail, they will retreat here everyday for a little boys-only chit chat. I love to stay out of sight sometimes to eavesdrop. :)  

I adore the affection they shower on each other. Siblings can really be the sparkle of a magical childhood.

The Age of the New Dinosaurs

"I'm a discoverer, Mummy!" 

That was what my 5 yr old said one day.  

On his adventures, he would come across all sorts of strange dinosaurs that paleontologists have never seen. Only he knows how they look like and what they do and eat. So he is drawing them everyday to add to our vastly growing collection.

We must have over 300 drawings of his dinosaurs now, not counting those which we have 'misplaced'. He can easily churn out an average of 3 pieces a day during this 'highly artistic and inspired' phase.

These are some of the latest with fascinating details. 

hee hee... I love the jaws and teeth! 

I just adore the details on this robotic dino. He drew the little people to show contrast in size. :) 

Three heads on a body! Every monster and dinosaur must have an unique name. 

Love the tail on this one which he dedicated to Papa.

This one accidentally shot the Sun, hence the Sun in pieces (at the bottom). Haha! 

This one made me laugh! Looks a little like the creature in a Dr Seuss book.

This dino with giant jaws loves music, and it just chewed up all our musical instruments. Dedicated to Mama as I was very sweet to him that day. Hee... 

The life cycle of dinosaurs. And the book which contains the details. :>

On Spelling and 听写

I don't do such tests with my 5 y.o. at home and he doesn't get them in his kindergarten this year either. I think they are useless exercises unless a child appreciates the usage of the words and can form proper sentences with them. 

With the English language, instead of the repetitive copy writing of the same word (the very old-fashioned way that I grew up with) or spelling tests, I prefer to focus on reading and exposure to words through the trans-disciplinary thematic learning approach and lapbooking.

Once the child has been exposed to the words enough, he will naturally be able to spell. M is already writing a fair bit daily, as he spins stories to accompany his drawings. Once or twice a week, he writes with me as part of our lapbooking activities.

I do the same with the Chinese language. Guided by the approach of '听说读写', I focus on the listening, articulating and speaking, followed by reading and word recognition. The writing segment isn't as important at this point. There is plenty of time to practise writing next year.

In addition to word recognition, we work on 造句 －forming sentences with a set of given words. 

My 5 y.o. is learning to express a lot more now with his growing Chinese vocabulary and gaining understanding in forming proper sentences. 

This approach has worked pretty well so far. I just need to increase our time spent on this. 

A quick chat with his Chinese teacher last week about his progress and I am happy enough for now. In this kindy, there are many new entrants at K1 level, like him, who come from predominantly English-speaking families. His teacher said his Chinese standard is among the best in this group. But there are some weaknesses, which I have also noticed. So those areas will be the focus in the next few months. 

High on Puzzles

A 150-pieces giant World Map puzzle (for age 5 to 10) which he completed on his own. The sense of accomplishment is obvious.

The boy has politely asked for more fun puzzles, so we shall be on the hunt for our next big box. 

I prefer puzzles that have educational value instead of those with just pretty or cute Disney pictures. This set is great for the abundance of details on continents, countries, landmarks and animals around the world etc.. An awesome resource for teaching Geography and Science.

Mess, Glorious Mess

To me, one of the worst tasks of being a stay-home mum without a helper is cleaning up toys. It makes doing laundry, ironing and washing up a piece of cake. In fact, I may even consider them enjoyable in comparison.

Of course it's no biggie if there is only one child, especially if he is very young or much older. But with two (or more) under 5 and with a passion for small Lego pieces, it is a totally different ball game.

Having to deal with the daily mess lying around the house can really drive me nuts sometimes. It used to be so much easier to get the boys to clean up their toys when it was just the big pieces of Lego or other toys like cars. 

Then about 18 months ago, when they started playing with the minute pieces meant for ages 6 to 12, and E mixed up all the 10 sets on purpose to encourage creative inventions, the nightmares began. 

Despite having a big mat to dump the thousands of pieces onto, the boys always manage to kick, drop and throw the pieces all over the house. When it comes to cleaning up, they protest, procrastinate and point fingers at each other. Then the tears. Urghh!!  

What started out as gentle persuasion, coaxing, explanation and clean-up games, eventually turned into a series of bribes, shouting, threats and even disciplinary actions. Nothing works! Not consistently anyway. Restricting them to playing in just one room doesn't work either. 

So for some sanity, I have learnt to close one eye at first, then both. For as long as I can endure the mess. The boys don't mind tiptoeing around the living room and seem quite good at avoiding stepping onto the small pieces.  But the mess is still such an eyesore to me. And at the end of the day, someone still has to do the clean-up! Argh! 

Making It All Perfect

One thing I have noticed during my boys' playtime is the need for perfection.

When M draws, he wants every piece to be perfect. He gets upset if he thinks the end result is 'not good enough'. Sometimes he calls a piece 'too ugly' and will just trash it and start again.

Though we always praise his efforts and assures him that they don't look ugly or imperfect, we also don't want to stop him from re-doing it if he strongly feels so.

It is the same with Lego play or craftwork of any kind. 

Above: M trying to fix a special crane that he has built. We told him in the beginning that 'it is unlikely for the small little cab and base to support such heavy and tall structure at the top'. He managed to balance it out after a determined try.

Recently, I have noticed the same with Chipsy. In the last three months, he has taken a strong liking to arranging things around the house that he can find into certain forms and shapes. He would patiently arrange them all, ensuring that each piece is perfectly in line with the next. 

Sometimes he just starts all over, again and again, all on his own. No tears or sign of frustration. Just single-mindedness and patience towards his goal. 

He has very good focus, I must add, as he can easily work on a task for over an hour now. Certainly no mean feat for a 3 yr old.

Chipsy's Three Candles

A cosy celebration filled with family love and kisses on the actual day. My precious little baby is officially 3!  

To my dearest Chipsy, 

You are such a wonderful little person and everyday, I count my blessings silently that I have you in my life. 

I love to watch you going about your daily routine and you (almost) always make me smile. Even when you were throwing tantrums, there is something so adorable about you and your tantrums.  

Every night when I kiss your forehead and send you to dreamland, I think of how much I love you and how much I want to be a better mum. 

You have such a wealth of energy and enthusiasm in you all the time. You are full of cheeky ideas and you love to laugh. Every time I hear you laugh, I can't help but smile.

Keep laughing, my baby. And yes, to the question you often ask - you make mummy very happy. 

 

From my heart, 

Mummy xxxx

Pictures above: taken in London July 2009

Craft: Creating a Farm Scene

A very, very tedious project. Though it was lots of fun!  

Many years ago, a relative gave a project pack on Farm Animals to M. It contained over 50 pre-drawn animals. I only took it out last month and got M to help cut them. 

Then the boys painted both sides of every piece.

While they were painting, I made a hen coop, stable for the horses, pig sty, cow shed and a simple barn from a big stash of cardboard boxes that I have saved.

The kids loved them! Especially little chip who would use them for pretend play for over an hour each time. He talked to the animals, fed them, pretended that it was night and put the animals to 'bed', then it was daytime and they have to wake. He moved them around the 'farm' and pretended that the animals interact with each other and throughout, he giggled at his own jokes. 

Watching him play like this makes it all worthwhile...

Craft: Making Paper Plate Monster

Usually when my boys start bugging me to let them watch TV in the afternoon, I will suggest many alternatives which I deem more constructive and educational. 

Sometimes, we will play games and puzzles. Other times, we go through the forgotten books on our book shelves. And one afternoon recently, we made paper plate monsters! 

The kids are so proud of their monsters and they should! All I did was bring out my entire stash of craft materials and psyched them up to make their very own monster. Ideally, as scary as possible to impress daddy. 

They happily went to work after rummaging through my stash of 'everything under the sun'.

Above: Chipsy made this intending it to be the monster's eye and then decided it looked too much like ice-cream sundae. So it can't be scary.

Cutting up foil, his chosen 'shiny hair' material.

Chipsy posing with his monster. 

Working hard to assemble a special claw. 

He insisted his monster must have claws. After examining many materials, he settled on the idea of bending the pipe-cleaners. Hmm... I thought it was clever! 

After assembling the parts and drawing in more details, he was finally satisfied enough to have it displayed for daddy to see. This sea monster has two rows of eyes and 4 red tongues! 

Result: two time-consuming crafts that taught the kids plenty as they went about it on their own independently. And better still, no TV at all!  A very proud mummy and 2 even prouder boys who showed off their monsters to everyone. 

I Love My Cake

They were so proud of their cakes, especially little Chip.  :>

Gosh! I love kids!  

Thoughts on Readiness for Work

While the idea of school readiness is a widely accepted concept, I think readiness for work is more important than readiness for school. 

I read a very interesting article recently which suggests that one of the reasons for all the learning failures around the world is the problems created by the movement in the past decades to make learning fun. The problem is learning isn't fun. It is work! Though there may be aspects of work that can be fun, there are also aspects that aren't. But regardless, they just have to be done. It is the same with learning. Thus, it is important to teach a child that work is something that has to be done, and done to the best of one's ability, even if the work is neither interesting or fun. 

The article concluded that 'the child whose parents do not succeed in teaching him this, faces a very hard and difficult future'. Maybe a little harsh, but I do concur.

After all, success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. No matter how clever a person is, without the right work ethics and attitude, he still won't get far in life. 

Lapbook: The Runaway Bunny

Both boys made their own lapbooks on this literature earlier this year with the lapbooking classes for their age group. 

(Note: Above photos aren't complete. Only parts of each lapbook are shown.) 

About half of the thematic activities and materials were similar for both lapbooks, the rest were customised for their age group. The objective is always to ensure that there are some age-appropriate materials and some challenging activities for every child. 

The types of transdisciplinary thematic activities and manner which they were introduced and presented in class also differ for each age group. Hence, the boys' lapbooks actually look rather different. M played major role in organizing his mini-books, but it was not expected of N given his age. 

The themes drawn from the literature were also slightly different. While the two main themes were the same for both groups, the older group explored different sub-themes, taught with different reference materials and were challenged with more complicated art and craftwork. 

For N's group, each lesson was filled with multiple 5-15 min thematic activities that were designed to help develop concentration span, teach the concepts and develop different skills set pertinent to this age. 

For the older class which consisted of N2 and K1 students, mostly at pre-reading and pre-writing stage, the emphasis was different. Not only were there more thematic activities that required longer concentration span, selected mini-books were also customized to meet the differing abilities of each child in class. 

Every now and then, my boys will sit with me to look through our lapbooks and I am always comforted and encouraged by the sheer amount of knowledge they have retained through our lapbooking process. For every question I ask, the boys will ponder and fire up a whole load of related questions. We almost always end up discussing more on the subjects, sometimes throwing up lots of opportunities to be explored further. It is truly lots of fun! 

Am I a True Singaporean?

60 Signs that you are a True Singaporean. (from talkingcock.com)

1. Thanks to SMS, you have an extra large thumb.
2. Tks 2 SMS, u oso dun no how 2 spel n e mor.
3. You pat MRT and bus seats to cool them before you sit down.
4. At lunch, you start discussing what to eat for dinner.
5. Your wedding photos include shots of you dressed up like Louis XIV, Michael Jackson, or Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic.
6. When speaking to foreigners, you somehow feel a need to adopt an accent. (If you’re a DJ, this happens even when you’re not speaking to foreigners.)
7. You won’t raise your voice to protest policies, but you’ll raise your fists to whack someone over Hello Kitty.
8. You’re forever talking about businesses you want to set up but will probably never get around to starting.
9. You don’t know ¾ of the people attending your wedding.
10. You separate food into 2 basic groups: ‘heaty’ and ‘cooling’.
11. You’re never completely sure how many times you’ve sung the second verse of the National Anthem.
12. You think that what makes you ‘married’ is not the legal registration but whether you’ve thrown a 12 course dinner.
13. You marry for the real estate breaks.
14. You have kids for the tax advantages.
15. You move to where you want your child to go to school.
16. You feel you can’t walk around naked in your own flat.
17. You force your children to take Speech & Drama classes, but pray they won’t wind up in Arts later on.
18. You suddenly realize you’re very interested in biotech - just like you suddenly realized three years ago that you were very interested in e-commerce, and before that, engineering, and before that, medicine and law.
19. You think being an entrepreneur is setting up a bubble tea/Portuguese egg tart/gao luck/porridge shop right next to an existing bubble tea/Portuguese egg tart/gao luck/porridge shop.
20. You think people are inconsiderate when they don’t leave their table immediately after eating at the food court but think you have every right to take 25 bites to finish the last red bean in your ice kachang.
21. You find it impossible to make suggestions without drawing a fishbone chart first.
22. If you’re a guy, whenever you get together with your guy friends, you invariably trade army stories.
23. If you’re a girl, whenever you get together with your girl friends, you invariably trade stories about how your stupid guy friends are forever trading army stories.
24. You think the most important sporting event in Singapore this year was David Beckham switching from Manchester United to Real Madrid.
25. You somehow feel that food tastes better when eaten by a longkang.
26. It actually makes a difference to you being called an ‘NSMan’ rather than a ‘Reservist’.
27. You’ve eaten more times at the Esplanade than you’ve actually seen shows there.
28. You need campaigns to tell you how to be courteous, to flush toilets, have sex, etc.
29. When you visit the Zoo, you wonder what the animals taste like.
30. You feel the urge to add the suffix ‘-polis’ to everything, viz. Biopolis, Airtropolis, Fusionopolis, Entrepolis, etc.
31. You always feel oddly hungry at 11 pm, and are willing to drive to far away places for supper.
32. You meet in hotels a lot.
33. Your children have a rudimentary knowledge of Tagalog or Bahasa Indonesia.
34. You work at McDonald’s when you’re old rather than young.
35. You’ll gladly spend $50,000 on a car, but will go to great lengths to save a few bucks on ERP charges or even a few cents on a parking coupon.
36. Pork floss and mayonnaise on bread is a completely natural combination to you.
37. If you’re pregnant, you have the strange ability to make people on the MRT fall asleep instantly.
38. You ask for the bill by miming a signing movement.
39. You’ve started referring to foreign employees as ‘talent’ instead of ‘expatriates’.
40. At the dinner table, you’re always discussing which other food places serve better versions of what you’re eating.
41. You copy down licence plate numbers of cars involved in accidents.
42. You think your boyfriend doesn’t really love you unless he gives you part of his liver.
43. During sales, you book hotel rooms near malls to enable you to shop more efficiently.
44. You pronounce the letter ‘R’ as ‘ah-rer’ and the letter ‘H’ as ‘haytch’.
45. No matter how old you are, you keep associating people with their secondary schools. (alternative: No matter how old you are, you secretly need to know what other people got for their PSLE, O levels and A levels.)
46. You’re always on a quest for the definitive version of your favourite local dish.
47. When you explain things to people, you keep (a) using alphabets, and (b) speaking in point form.
48. You believe that you can generate ‘creativity’ through rules and committees.
49. You ‘chope’ a seat by placing a packet of tissues on the chair.
50. You’re very forthright with your criticisms of the Gahmen, unless there’s a chance they might actually hear you.
51. You diligently track the whereabouts of your favourite hawkers, i.e..you know that the famous Tiong Bahru Bao is now in Jurong, the famous Outram Char Kuay Teow is now in Hong Lim Centre and the famous Lau Hock Kien Hokkien mee from the old Lau Pa Sat is now at Beach Road.
52. Your mother probably can’t speak your ‘mother tongue’.
53. You’d rather drink your own pee than pay someone more for water.
54. You secretly find that the best part of the Speak Good English Movement is hearing the Singlish bits in their ads.
55. You have an automatic sensor in your head which categorizes people you meet into stayer/ quitter, cosmopolitan/heartlander, normal/ express/ gifted, etc.
56. You think we’re living in a modern, sophisticated country even when our leaders still insist on wearing their school uniforms.
57. You wish your constituency is in a walkover, because otherwise it’s damn ‘leceh’.
58. During elections, you decide that there is no credible opposition even though you don’t know the name of the opposition candidate in your constituency.
59. You think having a constitution is like the condition you get when you don’t eat enough fibre.
60. You can never quite remember what “the core values” of Singaporeans are.

:D