Another Gift?

Although she still fussed alittle during her violin lessons/practices, but I can see that she's also trying her best to control her tanthrums and trying to listen to our 'instructions' and for that, I tried to compliment her whenever I see that she could do/sharpen a certain technique.

Today, she displayed the above again and thus, whilst waiting for her arts lesson to end, I went with hubby on his errands(he sent us there, heee) and I couldn't help and got her this:

A dollie bag charm

Hubby said that I've to stop buying her gifts even if they're small ones like this 'cos it'll make her unappreciative of whatever we get for her. Yeah, I agree and that had been what I've been telling my sisters about, heee but I dunno why I simply just can't help it lately. Ok ok, for her good, I shall exercise control from now on!

I'm a Big Girl now, I shower myself!

It's been a while since I've been preping her(mostly verbally) that she'd soon have to do everything(almost) herself including, showering.

Looking/asking around, it seems like most children here are showered by parents/domestic helpers/grandparents, etc til they're at least Pri 2-3 and I was thinking, oh my, do I really have to shower her til she's reached primary 3 level/age? Well, if it has to be, then of cos it has to be But anyway, to prepare her to be more independent(for future or whatever), I've been guiding her during her showers occasionally and today, I thought, hey, why not give it a try?

Renee's never like water flowing down her face as she feared it stinging her eyes and so, I thought she wouldn't take to the idea of showering herself 'cos that'd mean washing her hair herself, hahaha. However, she surprised me by agreeing to the task and so off we went into the bathroom, me standing 'on watch', :D(of cos I rushed out to get my camera when I sud rem that I should record this, lolz. but the batt ran out on me before her task was fully completed). She further surprised me by washing her hair rather well, but of cos with the initial 'instructions' here and there to remind her since she's never been able to see how I did it for her. The whole process took about 15mins and when I teased her shower had taken too long, she remarked that she's enjoying the shower but was getting alittle tired when she reached the last of the scrubbing part - her feet, hahahahaha.

Thereafter, before I went into the room to do my face masque, she told me that she wanted to do some reading and took 1 of the thick story books to the sofa. After a while, I began to wonder why she hasn't came to me with questions like always and I went into the hall to have a peek. Well well, another surprise for me - she was brushing up! It was 9:30pm and I recalled, that was the timing I've set for her for non-school days. I asked why was she brushing up, was she getting ready for bed? and she nodded. I told her I was very happy and proud that she's such a good girl. Then remembering what I had jokingly told her whilst we were watching the tv earlier(a girl was tucking herself to bed and I'd said to her "oh that's such a good girl, look, she tucks herself to bed") and I asked if it was due to that, she smiled shyly and so I teased her again, :). Then, she started to dust her bed, her feet - these were all that I've taught her(but she seldom does these days, lolz) and again, I told her that I'm very very pleased with her good behaviour and will sure tell papa about it when he's home later, :). As parents, we all know that we don't get such good behaviour from our kid(s) everyday, so whilst I always enjoy such display of virtues to its fullest each time it happened, I'd ensure that I compliment, to encourage her :)

Late Dinner Event

Every year around this timing, we would have the opportunity to 'request for tables' due to previous year's biddings and as usual, hubby didn't want to utilise the 'full number' as alloted according to the amount and asked for only 3 tables this year. However, it turned out that it was a little cramp this year.

Renee was looking forward to this dinner as she knew that she'd get to meet her cousins Xuan Le mei mei, MingMing and Ming Ni jie jie. My SIL arrived late but luckily there were only her and XL, so we managed to let the 2 girls sit beside each other and hubby went to keep his clients company.

At past 10pm, Renee still looked alert - thanks to the short afternoon nap and the one she had on our way to the temple. And although the whole event had ended earlier this year and hubby's clients also didn't stay on as late, we managed to reach home at 12:25am but due to this late hour, Renee would be skipping school again tomorrow - that made up to 3 missed lessons this week, :(.

We've been slacking on her violin playing lately too as I've been caught up with her classes arrangement and feeling tired at times. Hopefully this won't last long... dun wanna see past efforts go to waste...

1st Phonics Lesson

Although she was feeling better on Sunday, I had thought that an extra day rest at home would do her more good but she woke up with a worsened cough yesterday morning! Couldn't bear to hear her coughing, I told her to skip another day of school but she wanted to go. However, I managed to persuade her to go to the doc's with me, enticing her with the prospect of Mcdonald's breakfast again, :).

Today, I've dressed her up in the wrong uniform but she told me that she still took part in the Kinderfit.

She told me that she also spoke-out(answering a qns) during their CMC(Music) lesson when the teacher asked them questions. I had thought her willingness to speak out now was due to my telling her that we'd not let her continue with Lorna Whiston's S&D if she still is not willing to perform/speak when asked/spoken to but she told me that it's because she didn't really get a chance to answer in the past and now that the girl whom always answered out loud had left the school, she was finally given a chance to(I guess she just doesn't want to 'fight' to answer).

Renee's having her 1st Phonics & Reading lesson this evening and as the medicines cause drowsiness, I told hubby not to let her eat the bread on the way home - so she could have her lunch shortly after coming home. Then it was violin practice before her nap and this arrangement seemed to work rather well - at least we didn't have to rush through practice(even though it's a short one) before going for the class.

Punggol plaza - so near yet so far. By vehicle, we could reach there in less than 10mins' time, and although there's a straight bus(I think it's 1 bus stop) but I hvn't got Renee her own transitlink farecard and thus, trying the bus route today wasn't good - didn't want to have to fumble with the fare payment whilst the bus move off and I can't hold on to Renee(duno why bus drivers just have to move off immediately even when elders, pregnant women or parents with the youngs had juz got on board). And to take the train, we'd have to take the LRT, transfer to MRT to Punggol station, changed to Punggol route LRT, abit silly I find, why can't they simply just link them up direct?

I've forgotten to bring my book again and so, I had to wander around the mall whilst waiting for her. She had always wanted to hold on to my ticket whenever we travelled by the trains and needless to say, when I got her her new farecard today, she was upset when I want to safe-keep it for her each time after she's tapped it against the reader. So, I promised to get her a card holder(with a sling so she cld hang it over her neck) so she won't accidentally drop it.

Not expecting to find a nice card holder sling, I found one! Was contemplating if to get the Dora's, Disney Princesses'(definitely not e barbie's hahaha) but finally settled for this since she's got a couple of PM's 'friends card' :

And these stencil rulers made her extra happy, lolz

It was slightly past 7pm by the time we've finished our dinner(seemed rather nice just the 2 of us, :>) and as this mall doesn't have a taxi stand, I told her that we could take the trains back again - I don't feel like crossing over from the bus-stop, so, we took the long and troublesome route back again... By the time we got down from the LRT station, it was raining! Good thing I'd brought her hooded jacket and the rain wasn't too heavy and we managed to get back without her being wet, phew! Geez, what's going to happen when the rainy seasons start?...

Kidz Amaze

I've recently started to chat abit with an ex 'neighbour' and she invited us to her son and daughter's birthday party @Kidz Amaze today. We don't know each other very well but they've been such nice and sweet people during the few days we shared the same ward - they even bought Renee gifts on the day of our discharge! For that, we exchanged addresses as I wanted to return the favor when her daughter's born. We did correspond for a while but there after, everyone got busy with life and we lost touch.

Surprisingly hubby needn't much persuasion to go to this party and Renee, after I've related to her on how we got to befriend 'this aunty' and show her the pictures on the web of the place we've been invited to, she was excited to both meeting them and going to the place. However, as she was hving a little fever last night and runny nose, I contemplated if to bring her there but she was sooo afraid that she couldn't go, so it's a good thing she woke up feeling better this morning...

Free play at the maze playground began at 2pm but we were late, and being unsure of its exact location, we wasted further time in search of it. It was already past 3pm by the time we got to the party room and the facilitators were beginning to gather the kids for some games, so Renee had to join the group before she get to eat(good thing I've cooked her porridge at home earlier). Even we had to rush through our food 'cos I felt that Renee, being new to everyone, might do with me being around at the games area(papa has to go over to the temple first) @level 2.

At the games area, the children were made to wait for nothing whilst the facilitators took their time to discuss on the rules and after a while, not just myself, I saw that some parents had gotten alittle impatient as well. It was a simple enough game(though I had to wait til Renee ran to my side and tell her the rules 'cos they were soo soft and most kids couldn't hear them at all, some even tried to catch the ball! lolz) and Renee could partake in the running around, avoiding being hit by the ball thrown by the facilitators, despite not knowing anyone there. When this game ended, the children were made to go back to the party room at level 3, just to have a drink of water. Again, instructions not clear enough and when I asked if they'd be going back downstairs again, the female facilitator I've approached did not reply me in a very nice way, geez.

Children were asked to hold hands and walked in circles, whilst the facilitators(2nd pic) stood aside, discussing the rules of games - ???

When they finally went down again, they didn't tell the parents which level they'd be going to and when I asked 1 of them if it's back to level 2, the guy told me curtly that it's level 1. They're bringing the kids to the playground itself - is this supposed to be part of the birthday party games when it's free play at the playground before and even after the celebration...? Anyway, this multi-level playground appeared to me a better/fun place for older kids and as our Renee's not that bold a girl to try all these high climbing stuffs, I decided that I should go along with her but I was stopped for not putting my socks on. I quickly went aside, put on my socks and was stopped again - cannot bring my bag in, aiyoh! It's sooo troublesome and I thought maybe I should just watch from the fenced-out area but when I realised that they're going to let the kids on their own(even though they're being 'released' group by group') at the playground, I quickly beckoned to Renee to come over to me, as I want to know if she'd like to go back to the party room. This time, our gesturing communication didn't work and she must have thought that I was encouraging her to go up the playground and she shaked her head and waved for me to go to her. Having no choice, I quickly get a locker for my bag and stuffs but, by the time I got to her, she quickly told me that she's afraid to go up there and down the multi level slide. Geez, that had looked abit scary to me, let alone a kid like her. I quickly took her out of the group and the same earlier female facilitator gave me a 'go lor, who cares' look.

I was rather annoyed with the whole thing and so I told Renee that she should have just come over to me when I beckoned her to, and this poor girl was quite scared. She must have already been worrying that I'd just leave her there to try those 'scary stuffs' on her own, so I calmly told her it's ok, just that I had wanted to bring her back up when I beckoned her over and she should have just came over to avoid this 'miscommunication'(it's not like she's at a strict rule school/place that she's not allowed to leave the group).

Errmmm, what were they waiting for?

Although this is where they were being 'released' to the maze playground,...

(my camera din capture e full pic, it's much higher, and u can see it's qte dangerous for young kids to go up on their own)

But it's this 'spiral slide' that frightened Renee

These pics would show how high this maze playground is

Earlier, before I realised that they're letting the kids play at the maze, there had been 'no reaction' again for awhile and I've text-ed hubby that we'd like to go over soon. So when he replied that he could pick us up earlier but Renee, whom felt 'safer' at the party room, had already began playing with the kiddy rides, lolz. I asked her if she's ok that papa come to pick us earlier and surprisingly, she's ok.

She and her kiddy ride

Upon returning to the party room again, I managed to have a brief chat with my friend and I saw that Renee had started playing ball with the birthday girl. When I was about to leave, I quickly text Papa telling him to come up when I saw that they're preparing for the cake cutting session. It was a short meetup/party for us but it's nice meeting up with an nice 'old friend' after so long...

The goodie bag

It's the busy season of the year for the temple at Jurong and as hubby's volunteering services were needed again today, we went over with him. We waited til the ceremony/procession ended at past 7:30pm but unable to find proper seating area, we decided to skip the free but rather good dinner there and head over to the rest at my mom's(which we went only last night!) for our dinner instead. We ordered the exact same dishes as last evening's and needless to say, Renee happily ate the fish head again tonight, lolz.

Playing with the hand-held maze game from the goodie pack whilst waiting for papa

Kissing the fish head before feasting on it, hahaha

Given that she's just had slight fever last night and sleeping late tonight, we decided to let her skip school tomorrow.

Busy and Tired

Woke up around 9 this morning and thinking to get the replacement chest drawers, we all went out for breakfast at... Mcdonald - Renee's insistent, lolz.

Thinking that we would be able to find what we needed at Rivervale Plaza, we headed to the Mc there but unable to find the drawers, we drove over to Compass Point. We bought some stuffs at CP but still couldn't find the drawers and in the end, we decided to go over to the NTUC @AMK hub where we finally got what we wanted(should have just gone to the Mc near AMK park). We ended up making more purchases and it was already past 2pm by the time we got home.

I began to clean up the drawers, unpacking and repacking stuffs from the existing drawers to the new ones and despite me being exhausted, Renee repeatedly requested to dine out. She first wanted to go to Tony Roma's and when I said I don't want to, she suggested Dian Xiao Er, to which my reply was also a No. Then, to please her, I told her that we could go over to the restaurant at grandma's and it's that or no where, then she finally gave in, hahaha. It's probably due to her not having a proper lunch today that she took on more rice than ever(her usual's already considered alot for someone her age) and again, she had another happy round of digging into the fried fish head again and the staff being curious, all came over to look at what she's eating and said 'wah, she's good ar', hahaha.

Out of School Learning

Someone told me that if we pull out of the Kindy, Renee might miss out in the learning of non-academic stuffs. I don't fully agree. There are many things that we, as parents could teach our own kids, at home. Also, sometimes she watches discovery channel with us and we'd try our best to explain things to her during the show.

Last week, when she came out from her arts class, she told us that the teacher has asked them to pick and bring back some leaves(I think, could be due to part of the theme, they were drawing trees n such) and cautioned them not to pluck them fresh as that would hurt the plants. Now as I recall, this is also part of non-academic learning, isn't it? :).

Coming back to the leaves, I've forgotten about it as it was supposedly to be Papa's job but good thing I've remembered today, I shortened her violin playing time, just to go down with her to look for nice dried leaves, :).

For variety, we'd wanted to pick dried leaves from this species, but there didn't seem to be any!

Then it's cleaning time...

Then it's alignment time, errm no good, ok the other way... haha

Then, fold the sketch file and squeeze tight, haha

Now, who said that the kids can't learn anything non-academic out of the school? :)

Wrong English Enrichment?

It all started when Renee first asked us to teach her on how to read. It was then that we found that her phonics are weak, she can't blend, thus can't read. That puzzled us since she's already half way 'thru K1 now... After some home coaching for awhile now, she's finally able to do some simple blending and she's reading quite some words now(she'd ask for the meaning at times, which is good/important, 'cos not all the times I get to read with her and won't get to explain to her when she reads alone if she doesn't ask).

However, despite our home coaching, she's been requesting to be sent to English classes so that she can learn to read more and I've been on the search for a good phonics teaching school since. After her wonderful experiences with Lorna Whiston's S & D holiday programme, I thought I should just sign her up with their English Enrichment classes, without realising that they actually do have a pure phonics class, aiya! On the other hand, after the holiday programme, she began to prefer the S&D classes more but when I told her that I'm signing her up with the EE, she said "ok la"(light-heartedly :>), maybe because she likes LW's teachers from the S&D prog and thought they should all be as likeable. Indeed, she has enjoyed her EE class from day 1 and to my pleasant surprise as mentioned in my earlier post, they let the children read the books they've borrowed home out-loud and that, also help boost a child's confidence.

Here's some new comments on her reading :

Last week's

This week's - On the book 'Guess Who', I've told her that her intonation at the end, asking the question and giving the answer, must be emphasised differently, she remembered and... did it! :D

As the weeks went by, I slowly began to feel that the EE lessons actually do not concentrate on phonics and upon my friend's reminder, I briefly restarted my search on phonics schools. Found one, but before I decide on anything, I spoke with Ms Kelly, the teacher of her EE at LW and kindly, based on what I've told her, she said that indeed, phonics should be more of what I wanted and told me to check with their counter staff. They were helpful and when I asked if I could transfer Renee over to the S&D classes as we could not make it to their phonics class(Fri aftrn - she has nafa Arts...), they readily agreed.

I've earlier fixed the diagnostic test with the phonics school for this evening. The teachers there are locals but those teaching phonics are all qualified/certified in teaching pre-school phonics(need separate training in teaching this, aiya, now then I know. I bet many preschools teacher are not trained in this area). During the test, we can tell that Renee likes this teacher's style of approach - fun and that, also attributes to a child's learning. To my surprise, Renee was said to be ready to join their Advance group but for peers company, she suggested that we could also put her with the Intermediate. Oh, definitely, no point rushing up to the level with older kids, it would also serve as a form of 'revision' to her. Anyway, like I said, her current phonics skills - beginning blending, isn't very strong yet. I'm even worried that Intermediate might be too fast for her - 'cos it's left only 1 month to go. Anyway, will see how it goes for her. If really not enough, can always join another group again and in that case, I hope there'd be available class then, lolz. The only setback is, as the teacher's 'fun', the class(the children seemed abit older when we were there) was rather noisy. Nevermind, let her have a chance to fit into different types of learning environment, :).

Racial Harmony Day

I nearly had Renee dressed in her chinese collar-ed CNY dress yesterday and a last minute double-check stopped me on time, :D. It is today, that they're celebrating the racial harmony day at school.

I did not see any notice in the communication book to inform us of any performance but Renee has came back singing a new malay song yesterday and said that there might be one. It's hubby who brought her over today but despite me telling him to check with the school on the performance, he did not and thus, no photos/videos to show me. Haiz, I should have gone with them(but then again, he might not want to return for the show anyway). I don't know why the school doesn't inform us on such performances by our children these days.

In any case, after much much considerations of various factors, we've finally decided and have handed in our official notice of withdrawal to the school this morning. And giving a month's notice, Renee's last day of school with Kinderland Preschool Serangoon will be on the 20th August, 2010.

A Little Journal

Since Renee had expressed her desire to learn to read, we've been trying our best to guide her from time to time at home(though we're surprised that she's still unable to do so when she kept asking us what each word was when she was trying to read the books I've bought her). And today, a thought came to me, to further encourage Renee on her spelling/reading skills, I told her to write(the prog we paid a loyalty to e school for, apparently get the children to using the computer to type which I personally dun like/agree to. I've also noted spelling mistakes on the children's work printed on e brochure, haiz...) about our outing when we get back but I've forgotten about it til she showed it to me before she went to bed, :) :

A short & simple one but it's good progress I would say, from being unable to read to writing this, well done, Renee! - I must rem to ask her to do this more often, heee(ermmm, will I rem? lolz)

A Day of Fun, Games and... Fireworks!

No family gathering at my mom's and also, another no violin lesson today(teacher needed to stay back at the pri sch for meeting), so hubby decided to bring Renee to the 'beach' after her numerous requests to go out.

It was around 5:30pm when we headed out but unfortunately, the place where we wanted to go was already sealed up for developments but since it's near to the Marina country club, we went over there.

So much has changed at this club since the last time we were there(we used to dine rather frequently at a seafood restaurant there when Renee was little). There're many game machines and more shops dealing with sea-sport stuffs now.

Although we've not wanted to dine there but Renee was really hungry and couldn't wait, thus we had no choice but to go to the P seafood restaurant(which we rem, wasn't that fantastic and still is...) but there was a nicer view this time, where we sat...

Renee repeatedly requested for papa's permission to go to the playground when we get home and again, she had another great time. Due to the visit to the club, we did not go to check-out the International Friendship event held @ SK and thinking that we might have came back too late for the firworks, we went back after Renee's had her fun-filled time at the playground. But, not long later, the fireworks began!

First spotted this machine when looking around for something suitable for Renee, but later realised that it required the player to hit hard in order to register the 'hit' and this girl, daren't continue playing the 2nd time when she didn't do a good job the 1st time, hahaha. Aiyoh, too 'xiao jie' lah, even after papa asked her to use her left hand for better strength assertion, she also didn't last much longer, so papa took over, haha

Then we moved on to...

Of all the games, she liked this car racing one better

Ermmm, after figuring out how to make this thing work, our token was 'eaten' by the non-working machine! lolz

And it's only after her favourite choice - a ride on the firetruck that I noticed a few more that are more suitable for her age, but we've already used up all 10 tokens...

Then it's fireworks!(but my camera's batt went out when it started, lol)

Dental Follow Up

As everything had seemed fine during Renee's dental follow-up appointment today, the doctor proceeded to do some 'cleaning' for her and the next visit is scheduled a year later, for a normal routine check/cleaning.

The past few visits, it had appeared that her teeth are in good clean condition but this time round, tar tar has formed! Why? 'cos we've started letting her brush her teeth totally on her own, a few months ago!(I used to brush both times for her, then slowly progressed to letting her brush only in the morning and then...).

All these while/visits, she had always been calm and relaxed but this afternoon, as the doctor was cleaning a couple of plague that had become abit harder to remove, she cried at the end of the session - it hurt(when she rinsed, there was abit of blood trace)... Prior to the tearing, she was making 'some sound'(her Aunt Elsie will know this sound very well, hahaha) due to the pain and the doctor teased her "aiyoh, don't make this kinda sound, it scared me, like a monster", hahaha. Then when the cleaning had not stopped as she'd wished, she began to 'shake-kick' her legs and the doctor teasingly told her to stop "aiyoh, don't do that, you want to break doctor's chair isit?" hahaha. Sooo funny! Luckily, although I hadn't got my camera with me, I've had the wholesession video-ed with my mobile! :D

New Dresses Again ^-^

The car needed to be sent in for some servicing early morning and thus, Renee skipped school today(good, give me a breather, I've been sooo busy lately with the sourcing of a new cleaner/cleaning company and something else...).

And since her English enrichment's in the afternoon, there's no need for her to skip, however, instead of hailing a cab, Renee wanted to take the trains. So, I told her that in order for us to do that, she'd need to hurry up on her lunch and she did, :). On the way, I asked if she'd like for us to get another vehicle to ferry her to these classes, she said no as she needed the 'exercise' BUT, when we're near the centre, she said she'd need papa to fetch her back 'cos she's already very tired and that perhaps we'd take a cab in the future if no car's available, hahahahaha. Ya, who asked her to sleep sooo late and wake up soooo early in the first place? :)

I was enjoying a good read whilst waiting for her class to end, hubby text-ed that he'd be picking us up, which was good as that enable me to finally pick up the dress I've ordered sometime ago, :).

Then, at the mall where I met up with the spee organiser, I couldn't resist and bought this too, heee.

Hula Hoop

Since the time we've enrolled Renee's participation to the school's sports day, she's been asking why I passed up the form, hahaha. When asked why, she said that she has been unable to row the hula hoop very far in a straight line. She even complained that I had not even bought 1 for her to practice at home, hahaha(oh man, I've only signed her up). I asked if it's only her who can't do it and she said that some of her friends had been unable to do the same but the girls can twirl better than the boys, :D.

So today, whilst waiting for hubby to pick me up from my facial appointment, I chanced upon this hoop and on top of some other 'goodies' for her, I bought it(she later told me she likes the purple coloured one, aiyoh, I should hv gotten that, hahaha) to humour her - should have seen the look on her face, :).

Artwork Display(Nafa Arts - 1st Semester)

Some friends have been asking about Nafa's artwork, yet it's been >1 month since we've last got all her artwork back and I've still not put them up...

Finally got my butt moving and took them out of the portfolio, so, ta-ta!, here they are, in accordance to :

What they did on 1st day and CNY had been put up, so I will not put them up again, just click onto their links to view...

This is tagged 'Teacher's Favourite'