How ernest are our kids in this activity, especially our little Abel!
Retirement
4 weeks ago
Invites to Birthday @ Zoo
We haven't celebrated Keziah's birthday with her friends since her first. Now that she's turning 4, we decided to hold another small one as a gathering with her ex-classmates from her previous schoolhouse, cousins, churchmates and classmates from her music class at none other than her favourite hunt - the zoo. Felt that it's more meaningful as she's now fully aware of what this celebration was all about and it's with her friends and not just Daddy's and Mommy's friends. It's gonna be fun and play for the kids.
Thanks for those who're joining us for the celebration and do come early to explore the zoo and the huge waterplay @ Kidzworld. Let's now pray for a wonderful weather for this day of outdoor fun!
K's Art Piece - Leopard
So far, Keziah's been drawing all sorts of animals. Somehow she just loved them, especially this leopard which she kept asking for it eversince the next day she completed her lesson. We only picked up during last Friday when we went for her lesson.
Guess what she drew last week? Elephant! Muz say last week's work was brilliant! You guys can make your judgement when we get it back this week. Somehow she seemed to work better with peers around rather than individual class. Peer pressure?
K's Wish List
Wow, it's just less than a week to K's birthday celebration. A few friends have been asking what Keziah would like to have. In the past it would have come quite easily but somehow, this year Mommy didn't quite know how to respond.
Keziah has really grown up girl, wanting things a typical girl would like: Disney Princesses, Barbie, high heels, accessories ranging from hair to necklaces, bracelet and even rings, fairy dresses. Making her own necklaces from the beads we have had been one of her favourite pastime when not disrupted by her brother. Are girls just born naturally vain?
Of course, she has somehow grown to love doing puzzles along with her brother and now she's becoming a teacher to him, telling him where to place his pieces and even doing it for him. So far we stopped at 24pc puzzles and have yet to look out for more to challenge her.
Eversince we agreed to keeping a pet, starting with 2 tortoises, she's been asking for fish. Hmm...we still haven't gone on to that coz after all, it's Daddy and Mommy who are doing the cleaning.
She's also going green! Not that she's environmentally friendly, she's been eyeing on Nei Nei's flower pots just outside of the house and so keen on what's growing in there. She's been asking to grow something and today, she was asking our neighbour so keenly on what's he's doing when she saw him weeding and replanting his yard.
As usual with this girl, she's a very hands-on person and she loves manipulatives. We've been looking out for some to help her in her reading and math development. Fun and educational - 2-in-1.
Of course, she's very happy with the idea of upgrading Abel to bed coz she wants to sleep on the top deck of a bunk bed. It's just when Daddy and Mommy are going to expand her Flexa bed to this:
You can guess why she's so excited! If we ever do it soon, it's to stop her from "invading" Daddy's and Mommy's room in the middle of the night. There again, we might have one more "visitor" since Abel won't be constrained by the cot anymore.
After awhile, Mommy realised probably kids of about the same age ask for about the same things. Mommy's friend whose daughter is turning 5 is also eyeing at similar stuff. What are kids all about?
Learning to read..
We had been doing bedtime reading and reading as and when there's time. The kids have grown to love reading. However, eventhough Keziah is turning 4, she still can't read on her own. She had been learning the letter sounds since she was 2ish and know her letters really well. Mommy decided to start on a reading to help her. This hooked on Phonics set was bought some time last year and finally, it's out for use. Keziah was quite excited to begin reading as there's a story after learning one or two word families. We started with the "at" family and she breezed through that. Her zeal was nonetheless shortlived as we moved on the more word families ("an", "ap", "ad", "ag"). She tended to read by memory rather than blending the letters. Guess we just have to be consistent and try to take small step each time.
Airport Terminal 3
Our plan to go for a swim after the kids' nap didn't pull through as it rained AGAIN! We headed off instead to Terminal 3 for a leisure walk and airplane viewing. It's a nice place to just let the kids have some running space. Unfortunately, T3's viewing gallery was closed for renovation so in turn, we went over to T2 on the sky train. Wow, the gallery has now been done up as the Changi Aviation Gallery, giving some history to our airport's development and ideas on how to fold a paper plane. The kids were quite fascinated over the fireman model.
There's a few small playground littering the place and if your kids are old enough, there's even a go-kart ring at the carpark area.
We ran into a corner where the kids could do crayon shading craft and look at what Keziah's got!
There's a few small playground littering the place and if your kids are old enough, there's even a go-kart ring at the carpark area.
We ran into a corner where the kids could do crayon shading craft and look at what Keziah's got!
Last but not least, parking is only $2.50 for first 3 hours! How affordable!
"Camping" when it' wet
It rained all Saturday and we were all cooped at home. Daddy struck of an idea of camping at home. So we erected a "tent" using our bedsheet and the kids had a fun time pretending to "camp", wrestling in the tent, reading in the tent and of course, napping in it!
Developmental updates
Since Mommy started back at work, there was little time for much activities to check how the kids are progressing in terms of their milestones development. Little things just surprise Mommy.
Art and Craft is the best means to develop their creativity, understanding of colours and of course, their fine motor skills. Kids love them and it's really learning through play.
Painting
Mommy dug up the rollers that were given to the kids months back by Aunt Dexun and let them played around with them. Keziah could recall what the primary colours were and we played the magic of colour mixing. They sure got their hands real dirty messing around with the rollers. Mommy just realised it wasn't really easy to create pattern prints with them as it need them to control the strength that they exerted. Abel was having fun playing around with the paintbrush.
Doddling and Mazes
Doddling helps to develop pre-writing skills while puzzles/mazes helps in the spatial and logic development.
Abel loves to doodle, especially when Mommy allowed him to get his hands on markers. Abel seemed to be able to control his pen quite well, drawing circles and even relatively straight lines across the page. Just look at him being so serious with his work. Puzzles are still his love. We managed to dig up some old 15-pc disney puzzles handed down by Daddy's cousins and both the kids simply enjoyed putting them together. Sometimes Mommy wished Keziah could give Abel time to explore on his own for she was always ever so eager to tell her brother where the pieces should go.
Keziah surprised Mommy by writing her own name! This was the first time she had done that. Surprised as Mommy had not been very diligent in training her to write her letters of the alphabet. Thanks to Ah Ma for doing that at times with Keziah after her schoolday. We have just embarked on our writing regime and to make things more interesting, Mommy got her this writing book which had a maze for each letter.
Mommy decided to start Abel off with the use of the scissors so she bought him one of those kids safe scissors made of plastic. However, Mommy realised only after that it was quite difficult to use to cut. Abel wasn't quite successful with snipping off bits of paper so we'll try again when there's time. Only upon working on this art piece did Mommy realise that it actually involved honing his pincer grip since he had to pick up the bits from the floor. He also took great heart to place them nicely within the given lines. Somehow he liked his leaves yellow.
Keziah, on the other hand, found it a breeze to snip but now it's more about getting her to cut on the lines and manoveur corners and curves. So we did a collage of a flower using yellow and green paper as well as the paper plates we had used on the previous day for paint play.
More Fine Motor Skills activities
Abel had always been able to transfer objects and pour from one container to another with a wide opening. Mommy decided to up the challenge by asking him to scoop marbles from a container with when opening to one with a narrow opening. He did it! Think the next thing we'll do is to get him transfer small beans or rice in the same manner.
Keziah did the same activity but using chopsticks. She must have been observing us how we use our chopsticks daily that she managed to clear the challenge after a few tries. Can see her frustration at some point but it was job well done. Now it's just about not falling on the easy way of crossing the chopsticks, i.e. hold it the proper way. Sometimes she does it right, sometimes she doesn't.
Eating Orange the Adult's Way
Keziah has been doing this for awhile and Abel has just joined the gang! Must say he's relatively neat even when eating the juicy orange this way, taking small bites and cleaning the pulp, leaving just the skin.
Nature and Nurture should compliment one another. What's more, when you engage activities together with your children, you bond with them - a lifetime without regrets!
Hols...it's play play play
March holidays is here and somehow this one week break just passed so quickly. Mommy was on course on Monday and Tuesday and so that left us with only the remaining of the week to play together. Since Monday was only half a day out, so Mommy dropped Keziah off to Aunt Celina to play with her kids at Bishan and lunch over at her place. It was also an opporunity for her to catch up with her and Aunt Joanna after her training was over before bringing Keziah home. Guess what, apparently the kids did a lot of workout that morning, running around the track at the active park and probably covering 800 - 1000 m. She must had such great fun that she refused to go home with Mommy.
It's definitely alot of play and going out. We were out to two playscapes within the remaining 3 days. First on Wednesday morning, it was Keziah meeting with her usual church gang at Toa Payoh Safra Kidzamze. Abel was off to school in the meanwhile.
Then it was Thursday at Fidgets in the afternoon after their naps with Aunt Danyun, Uncle Francis and their little Yingjie. The intent was for an afternoon out at the zoo but it rained heavily. So nowhere could be better than an indoor playground. Abel took awhile to warm up but Keziah was surprisingly brave to run around on her own. She would more often than not be a follower of an older brother or sister to try new stuff. Today, she took the lead to bring her brother around and the kids did great! Abel transversed the heights on his own after a little prodding at the start, walking across the cargo net and negotiating the obstacles on his own. He even went down a steep slide probably about 3-4m high but only for that once. Keziah even asked to go up on her own to the tallest spiral slide and she was definitely exhilarated coming down it.
Friday was day out to the long awaited play "Ollie and the Slurge". Ollie is bullied at school, because of his appearance, and his ideas on caring for the environment. The boss bullies Ollie’s father at work, because times are hard. The boss’s wife bullies the boss at home, because she always wants more money. One day, the boss orders Ollie’s father to dump some unwanted waste into the sea to save money. The Slurge Monsters soon grow and transform very quickly to terrify the city! While the Slurge Monsters devour everything in their path, Ollie has an accidental meeting with Spudge, a special little creature with a conscience. Together, they deal with bullies and learn how to destroy the Slurge Monsters!
Keziah would have gone with her school for this play but Mommy has preceded the teachers in booking the tickets. Mommy was rather impressed with the production but sadly, eventhough it was the last day of the performance, we met with a huge schoolgroup and worse when it's from an international school. Kids were just out of control even when there were so many accompanying teachers and parents. Ok, kids are just kids! Or is it how you train them? Keziah was all memerised during the show but was also frightened when the slurge monsters appeared and the loud accompliments. It's a good experience Mommy believes for the kids but at this age of 4, parents will still have to talk them through so that they will understand the happenings.
Abel's doing it like a big boy!
Abel's been rather easy with potty training and now he always tells us when he wants to poo. We are still waiting for him to verbalise his wee needs to us. Nonetheless, we tried him on the toilet seat today when he said he wanted to poo for the 2nd time. The first time was a success a few days back. Yeah, he did it! With smiles too!
Daddy's Day Out with Kids
Keziah's got a day off from school since she wasn't going to excursion with the rest of her class. Daddy took a day off too to spend some time with the two. Yes, it's outing day and to no where more familiar than the zoo. They had their morning indulgence at Macs.
Though we've been to the zoo countless times, they haven't ever fed the rabbits.
They were definitely exhausted after the trip and had a snooze on the trip back. While Abel continued to nap after reaching home, our dear princess was wide awake! She was so excited at the idea of helping Daddy to wash the car that she simply dashed out to get her hands on the hose. She was simply diligently wiping the car after dousing it with loads of water.
元宵
元宵 is celebrated on the fifteenth day of Chinese New Year. This year it falls on 28 Feb. According to the Chinese tradition, at the very beginning of a new year, when there is a bright full moon hanging in the sky, there should be thousands of colorful lanterns hung out for people to appreciate. At this time, people will try to solve the puzzles on the lanterns and eat yuanxiao (元宵) (glutinous rice ball) and get all their families united in the joyful atmosphere.
Abel's school pre-celebrated the last day of Chinese New Year on 26 Feb. The teachers were so keen to see Keziah again and so we took her off from school to join in the fun. The kids made lanterns and some glutionous rice balls, rowed the boat and had a spread for lunch.
The kids just messed around with all the Chinese New Year decorations. Abel was rather fascinated by this little lion head.
We also took the opportunity to have a look at what Abel had been doing in school. His little crafts...
Our Mac is back!
Yes our Mac is back and thankfully, there's nothing wrong with the hard disk. Otherwise, all our pics would have been gone! It was the logic board that has gone faulty. Hopefully this is the one of the rare occasion that the Mac breaks down. Mommy has so trusted since the previous one that we had was still working fine after 5 years.
Term Review
Our little girl came back today with her folder full of handicrafts and worksheets that she had done. Mommy must say the artwork seemed less impressive than the ones she had done in Pat's but nonetheless, she seemed to be able to tell what she had done both for English and Chinese. We loved the pics she had drawn!
Sickly week...
The bug has caught up with us. Abel came down last week with throat infection and fever. This was one of the most horrid illness to have. He couldn't eat nor even drink his milk. Trying to get even fluids down him was a struggle. He even refused his favourite fruits. It's no wonder that it's coz of all the uclers that were in his throat. Thank God though it wasn't Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. Whew, it was a week of interrupted sleep with Abel getting up at 1+am asking for juice and refusing to go back down! Mommy had to take him back to the doctor on Thursday since his fever hasn't gone down after 5 days. This time we were thankful for the antibiotics which put the bug at bay within the next 2 days. On the same day, at midday, Ah Ma called to say that Keziah was down with fever. Mommy was worried it's going to be long drawn again but thankfully hers was just a quick round and recovered after 2 days of paracetamol.
You might have guessed it was due to the fatigue from work and taking care of the two that the blog hasn't been quite updated. Haha...true to some extent but more so coz Mommy's dear Mac was also down and now in 'hospital'. Till it's return, we won't get the photos on the blog!
Yummy Durian Puffs
Never imagined to get such good durian puffs! They are from Goodwood Park Hotel. Much that we have heard about it, we never expected it to taste so heavenly. Every mouth was oozing with the rich durian filling! Thanks to Daddy for this wonderful treat!
