Term 1 and the end of term holiday

Term 1 flies in a twinkle of an eye.

Initially, waking up was not an issue for Little One. However, as the days goes by, Little One struggles to wake up each morning. There was no tantrum but I could see if given the choice, she would rather be in bed.

Little One is learning to pack her bag properly. She checks her time table and packs accordingly. Most of the time, she packs correctly. Occasionally, she forgets a thing or two. It is her responsibility to learn to take care of her own stuff. Hopefully, in this coming term, she will not forget to bring anything to school.

Homework is to be put in the folder which she carries to school everyday. However, she does not have the habit of keeping them in the folder. Many times, they came back crumpled. I have to remind her again and again to use the folder. I am glad to say this finally is being put into practice.

Spelling is not a big issue but I do get problems when she does not cooperate with me to learn the words by heart. It is not a must to score high marks but if she does not put in some effort to learn, I truly worries for her. This is another responsibility issue which I have to tackle this term.

Little One and her classmates used their own whiteboards and markers during lessons.  This, I feel, is great! At a glance, the teachers will know instantly, how the students fare.

Health check by the ministry was done in the first term. I am glad that there are no major issues with her health and her eyesight is normal. However, her eczema starts to flare since the beginning of term. I wonder what is the cause. I have similar issues but not as bad. I wonder whether it is because of the hot weather or could it be other allergen.

I had to get her baby teeth extracted as the 2 adult teeth behind them had almost reached full size and food had been trapped between those teeth.

She has been bringing homework back every other day and most of the time, it is Chinese homework. Only the last 2 week, there was no homework. She had her first online homework to do during the holidays. It is a new experience and I believe in future, there may be more of such works.

Holidays!
During the holidays, we have been going to various activities, most notably Gardener's Day Out , National Gallery, Sentosa (Kidz Flea) and Singapore Design Week.

In Gardener's Day Out, Little One learnt that one can grow and harvest one's own crop in Singapore. Pity we don't have much space for farming in HDB flat. Hopefully the dreams can be realised as per the Future of Us exhibition whereby local flats can utilise the open air space on top of our blocks for rooftop gardening.

We visited the National Gallery again. This time, we spent time to study the art of some pieces in the gallery. One of the painting that caught Little One's attention was Forest Fire by Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman. She was wondering why the animals were behaving that way. I asked her to examine the piece carefully and analyse what was going on. This detailed painting captured the expressions of the wild animals and how they were trying to survive. I encouraged Little One to think deeper how were the animals feeling. I asked her what she thinks causes the forest fire. Of course, there were no absolute answers for this painting but I would like to point out to her that this is what could be happening if there was a forest fire, be it of a natural cause or man made "slash and burn" disaster. Although our conversation was pretty superficial, I wanted her to know the importance of protecting Mother Earth.

Little One is pretty inspired by the children she saw in the Kids Flea. I had told her the children were there to learn how to do business. It reminded her of her Entrepreneur Day organised by her kindergarten and hence, she was pretty supportive of the programme and she bought 3 items for below $10.

As there were free workshops in National Design Centre, I brought Little One over whenever hubby was not available to take care of her. I had signed up for several workshops. She attended the Clothes Call workshop to upcycle T-shirt and also watched a fondant rose design demonstration by
The White Ombré.

1st week of school mayhem

Day 4

It's official! Yes, Little One is officially schooling! Did tears well up my eyes on her first day of school? Well, nope. This was for the 1st 3 days, Primary 1 (P1) parents were allowed to visit the school with their kid/s and the P1 students in her school were allowed to return home 2 hours earlier. (I am not sure about other schools though). Hence, in a way, it was more or less similar to timing of a kindergarten.

So, here goes...

Day 1

On the first day, Little One started the day bright and early, complete with smile. She was so exciting about going to school. I am not sure this mentality would stay on till the end of Primary 6 but I do hope so!

Unlike the the school I attended in the past, the teachers conducted talks for parents to get us familiar with school system and how we could help our child/ children with their work. There were talks for the 1st 2 days. I intended only to stay for that. When all the talks ended, it would be time to bring Little One home.

I sent Little One to her class, got her to be familiarized with the route from the gate to the class. We had already met her form teacher on Orientation Day. During that time, Little One was already brought around the school so the school was not that unfamiliar to her. She was pretty excited to start the new school term.

Together with other parents, I stood outside the classroom taking photos of her first moment in class, witnessing their first class assembly singing the National Anthem and reciting the pledge. I was pretty amazed to see Little One moving her lips when the school's song was played. Later I found out from her, she does not know the lyrics of the school song. So, she was just lip-syncing.

Time table was given on day 1. Her bag was pretty heavy as we were required to hand up most of the workbooks and activity books to the teacher. This was something that was different from the past too. In the past, we were to carry every textbook, workbook and exercise book so long that there was a lesson conducted on that particular subject that day. And on the first day then, we would carried everything to school because we did not which lessons would be conducted.

The P1 students in her school were allowed to return home 2 hours earlier these 3 days. I am not sure about other schools. So, that means I did not need to pack her any lunch boxes for the 1st 3 days. I visited her only during recess time and watched her buy her food from afar. She had a buddy with her who guided her along. After recess, I managed to talk to her at the assembly area. One of her classmates also returned early from the canteen. When he saw me talking to Little One, his eyes started to water. I panicked but still I comforted him. Fortunately, he calmed down and sat quietly after that.

For the first 3 days, P1 would be released from the hall. After the talks, I waited for her to be release from the hall. After which  I would  guide her back to the gate which I believe the teachers would continue to do after the 3 days of orientation.

Day 2

I guided Little One to pack her bag the day before. Little One told me that there were some more books teacher collected on Day 1 but were not listed in the book list. I had to assure her that we will be packing those and submit on Day 2 together with other required items..

During the talks, I got to know P1 will be subjected to screening test to decide whether additional help is required to provide to the students. Little One told me that they had to do some school work for Chinese. I believe that was the screening test since they would be distributed according to their abilities.

Little One bought too much food for recess. A plate of bee hoon and a slice of water melon. Comparing to the day before, this time she ate too slowly and she could not finish her water melon and passed it to me. I wonder what would happen the next time she can't finished her food.

Things did not seemed to settle down one Day 2. Little One brought home a set of colour pencils that belong to one of her classmates. It was not labeled so we do not know whose it belong to. Luckily, we have a wadsapp group for most of the parents. We found the owner and the pencils were returned the next day,

I noted the class has their own library corner and children were to take off their shoes prior entry. Oops! I had yet to label her shoes!


Day 3

There was no talk on this day, so I sent Little One to school and waited through class assembly before returning home. There were still quite a plenty of parents around. Someone in her class got sick and vomited. The parent of the child happened to be there and brought him home.

When I went to school hall to fetch Little One. I was surprised to see yogurt in her bag. She told me that she borrowed money from her buddy to buy the extra yogurt! She said chicken rice cost $1 and the yogurt $1,10. Guess what? She still has 10 cents in her pocket. I was pretty upset because I gave her $2 as pocket money which in my opinion is not very little money.  From then on, I banned her from borrowing money. I do not want her growing up to think that she can borrow money to get stuff she could not afford. She must learn to spend within her means.

Nevertheless, I still walk on the grounds with her and showed her where I would be picking her up in future.

Day 4

This day onwards, she would be having full day class. Parents are no longer allowed into school vicinity. I sent her off at the gate. For the first time, I thought she was growing too fast! I started to worry. What if she forgets instructions which I think she would. What if she lost her way? What if she day dreams in class? That was when I took the above picture. That was when I felt teeny weeny bit of emotions.

Picking her up was pretty exciting too as I did not know what to expect. I just wait outside as per many parents or caretakers did. Soon I spotted her coming near the gate with her class teacher and friends.

I asked whether she had problems going to her class. She replied no. At that moment, I felt pretty proud. Nevertheless, I reminded her in case she was lost and did not know where her class went, she can always go to the General Office to seek help.

Again, I had problem with her pocket money and how she "spends" it. This time she bought a sandwich for 70 cents but returned with 20 cents. I am not sure whether she dropped the coins or had handed the wrong amount of money to the vendor.

Her teachers gave them some forms to bring back. Some of them already became as "kiam chye" (crumpled). This was despite the fact that I had show her to put her forms into the folder which I supplied. Sigh!

Day 5

The first time she brought home homework from school. Her spelling list came back as "kiam chye" =_=

She said her Chinese textbook was being kept in school. So was her Character and Citizenship textbook. I wondered whether was it because some parents complained that the school bag was too heavy?

I asked her what she ate for recess. She said she only ate the stuff I packed for her lunchbox as she could not finish during her tea break time. So did she managed to save the money I provided for that particular day? No. She spent 30 cents on a pencil because she thought she was running out of pencils. So, she had discover the fun of stationery shop.

___________

So, that was the 1st week. Pretty exciting and confusing, isn't it?
If your child is attending school for the 1st time, how was the week for you?

Little Development (Jan to Mar 15)

This year, Little One is attending morning session at her Kindergarten. I made that arrangement last year, I thought she would probably need to get used to waking up earlier in the morning since majority of Singapore's Primary School operates in a single (morning) session. I thought we would probably have more time in the afternoon for some home schooling or outdoor trips. But alas, she is getting grumpy especially when I ask her to sit and study. I realised she is not getting enough sleep and most of the time, she spends the whole afternoon napping away. Hence, for the whole quarter, I had not done any homeschooling except during the school holidays which we recapped and reinforced on what she had learnt in school.

Nevertheless, here are some of her academic milestones. Mostly are skills development for entering Primary One next year.

Spelling
The school alternates English and Chinese spelling. Most of the words are relatively simple but some I do find bombastic for her age.

Show and Tell
She did only once last term. Teacher informed parents via communication books to prepare her for the big day. We prompted her with questions and asked her to remember her answers. According to her teacher, she did rather well.

Articulation and reporting
Little One is talking more about her school, sharing what she has been doing in school. She talks about her friends too. I am surprised at this age they already have cliques of friends which they would hang out during playtime. She even told me about her friends disputes which sort of upset her because she wanted to be friends with all of them. She definitely start earlier than me as I only had my own cliques during Primary One.

More responsibility
The school is engaging her with more responsibility like keeping her readers in the cubby hole. She is also to bring her stationery to school and is held responsible for all her belongings.

On my part, I made her checked her bag each night prior the school day to ensure she bring everything (which is just a pencil case with stationery and a communication book) she needs to school. I also made her read her spelling list and note when is the spelling date so that she could learn her spelling on time. Most of the time, I have to remind her over and over again because she tends to forget about them. I am also entrusting her to purchase items and teaching her to count her coins.
This term I shall see how she fare. This week, I have not seen much improvement. Probably due to the one week holiday break about a fortnight ago, she had.forgotten her routine.

Next year, she will be in Primary One. I am pretty nervous at the rate she is going. I wonder whether she would fare well when the time comes.

Health issues
Little One had hearing problem earlier this year. Yes, she had hearing problem. We brought her to see doctor twice and now finally solved. I hope to share this on my blog when I find time to draft it out.

Other activities

Speech and drama 
Little One attended a 5 day speech and drama class over a period of 5 weeks. It was a workshop conducted by the library. I had signed her up to test whether she likes such classes. It turned out that she does not really like drama classes although she does enjoy watching.

Frying egg
Little One learnt to fry an egg despite not having a schedule for her to work around the kitchen this quarter.

Street Smart skills -Memorising numbers
I made Little One memorise phone numbers so that she would know what numbers to call when there is a need to. This is, I think, an important survival skill.  I started with hubby's number. However, I remind her that she is not to call daddy when it is not required. In near future, I would teach her where to seek help from when she needs it.

Outings

Despite the "lack of time" to do anything together with Little One, we managed to visit quite a number of places last quarter. Most are done during the weekends and school holidays. Others are done when we managed to squeeze some time out. Many of these are her "first" trips.


Walking trails
We went for Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail. It was her first guided neighbourhood heritage walk this year. Last year, we signed up for Balestier walk. It has much interesting stories and sites to visit. I particularly like the air raid shelter and stories of it. The air raid shelter is not opened to public. I think the only way to visit it is to sign up for its heritage trail.

Tan Tock Seng's grave. One of the must see in Tiong Bahru

We made our rounds in Emerald Hill. It is a neighbourhood located near Orchard Road. It was former homes of wealthy Peranakans. Hence, if you are in Orchard Road, you can take a walk down this lane to have a look at the pretty Peranakan houses.

I think it is pretty cool to have such lovely house number plate!

This quarter, we also took a walk in Wessex Estate. This area is very peaceful and quiet. You will find lots of black and white colonial bungalows here. Besides these, you would find the Colbar Eating House (Cafe Colbar) which has a history as early is 1953.

Black and white bungalow

Little development (Oct to Dec)

1. Preparation for P1 - exposure to money management.

This is not my idea. It was the school's idea to prepare Kindergarten 2 (K2) children for Primary 1 (P1) next year. Hence, there was an Entrepreneur Fair. K2 would sell stuffs to the rest of the pre-schoolers. We armed Little One with S$4 in coins and she bought these with S$2.90. I am glad she did not attempt to spend all her money but she forgot my advice to buy only 1 tidbit. She bought 5! I guess tidbits are hard to resist?!?

Pardon for poor photo quality. In total, she bought 4 tidbits, a sticker craft, a pen (which she thought was a glue), a bottle of bubbles, a balloon, a piece of sticker, a paper clip and a photo of herself.

We reinforced the above idea by letting her pay for her favorite food. Look at Point 10.

2. Went exploration in various new places
This quarter we went to many places together , mostly during the holidays. We visited Istana, Kidstop, Gillman Barrack, Pasir Panjang Nursery, Telok Blangah hill, Ponggol Park, Kampong Lorong Buangkok, and Queenstown Driving Centre Open House. Isn't it amazing though Singapore is a small country, there is still lots of places we have yet to explore?

3. 1st concert performance ever!
Yes, this is her first performance in school. Although her previous childcare has concert performance but we were given the option to opt in or out of the performance. We feel it is the right time now for Little One to perform.  We were excited about it. She is too!

4. 1st time at HeART Studio
This is the first time she attend a course at an Art Studio. This is a giveaway we won. The teacher is very dedicated and took time to explain to me what she had done.

5. Contacted conjunctivitis

Little One contacted conjunctivitis last October and had to missed out her cousin's birthday party. We took the chance to explain the importance of hygiene and cleanliness.


6. bathing by herself.

We started asking Little One to bath by herself. So far so good.


7. Leaf painting
This was the first time she did printing with leaves. This is done by incorporating various printing tools.


8. Shredding,peeling veggies, cutting tofu and cooking for the first time.
During this holiday, Little One experience the above activities. Now that holiday is over, I think she would have lesser opportunities to work in the kitchen. I shall see how I can incorporate this activity in her life. Meanwhile, she is adjusting to her daily school schedule.



9. Motor skills
Her motor skills had improved a lot. She is able to climb higher, she is able to go down the escalator without much help. She rode a sampan and tried to row it.


10. Buying her own food
She is buying her own food and bringing it back without much fuss. She is still learning about money transaction.

11. Swimming
Her father started to teach her swimming this quarter. It has been going on and off  during the whole quarter. I guess that is the disadvantage of not bringing her to swimming classes. Still, I am very proud of the 2 of them. Little One is able to swim with the float on. She looked real cute kicking and propelling herself forward while she swims with her float on. I am proud with Hubby because he managed to train her to swim this way. I hope Little One would be able to proceed with swimming without the float.

12. Teaching Han Yu Pin Yin
This quarter I have start teaching Han Yu Pin Yin. Initially I was worried that she may confuse with phonics but luckily, that did not happen! :)

You have grown another year older

Dearest Little One,

Another year had gone by. You have grown another year older. You are growing taller and taller. Your little hands are getting less and less babyish. Your face is still quite chubby although less chubby than when you were younger. I really like the way you are now. 

You are getting more and more active. You love climbing the gates of the door, the way I used to do as a child with Ah Yi. You are progressing with your little swim, better than Mommy, I would say because Mommy does not know how to swim with the float on.

You are slowly gaining your independence. You are finally sleeping alone without Mommy by your side. You are also purchasing your first food by yourself which made us very proud. You are willing to help out in the kitchen to my great gratification. You have a passion for cooking and I hope I would not dampen your spirit for it because you make a mess out of the kitchen.

Last of all, Happy Birthday! Live well, stay safe, happy and healthy always!

 

This is the last post of the year. Sweet Day and family , hereby, wishes all readers a Happy and a Joyous New Year 2015!

Little development (Jul to Sep)

This quarter is not a good quarter for us. Little One and I had been sick every month. Probably it is due to the weather. It was rather hot these few months and it has been hazy occasionally. We didn't have plenty to highlight this quarter.

1. Exposure to Arts
She did more crafts in the library, exposed to new medium such as Chinese ink finger painting and glass painting, even acrylic painting. Also, she attended her first ballet at the library too!

Acrylic painting by the 2 of us

Chinese painting by both of us. Which are  done by me and which are by her? Clue: I think pretty easy enough. I only did 2 and a half paintings

Chinese finger painting

Glass Painting ( I only help with the outline
with rather shaking hands) 

2. Gearing up on her multiplication skills
She has started on her 2 , 5 and 10 times table. This I think would be useful for telling time and counting money!

3. Growth rate
Her growth rate indeed slowed down! I had switched back to formula and still it had not boost her height. Nevertheless, I shall give full cream milk and occasionally, formula milk if I could afford the money.

4. Went exploration in various new places
We went to Fort Canning, Victoria Memorial Hall, Art House, Balestier, Pulau Ubin and Kusu Island.

Kusu Island

Pulau Ubin

5. Finally no bed wetting!
After her high fever in July, she wet the bed almost half the time, it was almost as if she totally lost control of her bladder. Fortunately, the frequency of bed wetting came to a stop towards end August! I am glad and proud to say she had not been wetting the bed since then!

6. Good things aside. She is getting argumentative!

It is normal children at her age to behave that way. Hence, we have set a couple of house rules to cope with it. However, some times, she argues for the sack of arguing especially when she is tired.

That is a very tiring process for me. So sometimes, I just ignore her. 

If you have similar issues as I do, how do you cope with your argumentative kids?

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Little development (Apr to Jun 14)

1.  Imagination grows wild!
Little One imagination has grown wilder than before, nowadays, she keeps "pestering me" to participate in her "Flower Fairy Show", which is sometimes quite tiring. At other times, she keeps insisting there is a baby in my tummy. I am pretty sure there is none though.

2. Learning to accept wider range of food choice.
She is accepting and requesting for food which she used to dislike. Eg Apples.

3. Learning to spell
Currently, I am only making her spell 2 letter words. The longest word that she knows to spell is "SINGAPORE". That was quite an impromptu decision to do so.

4. Cooking
Unfortunately, we have yet much development besides the usual washing and mixing of ingredients. We only did some pancakes together. However, it is noted her cutting skills is starting to improve with quite cutting up of roti prata and pancakes.

5. Drawn to nature
Due to the pretty bloom in late March and early April, I managed to get her to be slightly more interested in nature. Hopefully, in the process she gets to be more observant about things going on around her.



6. Exposure to Chinese Ink, Batik Painting and creating a Clay Bust
These are some crafts which she learnt in the library.

7. Gearing up on her addition and subtraction skills.
She is adding and subtracting within 10 without much problem.

8. Exploring the soil, sand and sea
I love the idea of exposing Little One to nature. These are some of the things I had exposed her during the June holiday. We went Balik Kampong where she learnt to grow plants with me. Also, by bringing her to Palawan beach, she learnt to enjoy the waves and playing with sand and shells.

9. Had her 'first' official dental visit

10. Growth rate
Her growth rate seemed to have slowed down. I am not sure whether it is due to the fact that I had changed her to drinking fresh milk rather than formula milk. I shall be reverting back to formula next quarter and see how it goes. Despite the fact, her growth rate had slowed down, she is now tall enough to post letter at the pillar box located just outside The Philatelic Museum

11. Went exploration in various new places
We went to Singapore Discovery Centre, Kent Ridge Park, Pasir Ris Park and Westgate Wonderland.

12. Progressing to less bed wetting
It is now reduce to about 2-3 times per month.

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She posted her first mail

She had written and posted out a postcard for the first time. She is finally tall enough to mail the card herself!
This red pillar box is the only operational posting box of its kind in Singapore. These were used commonly in Colonial Days till 1971, is made of cast iron and weigh about 400kg each. They are now replaced by rectangular posting box.

Linking with:~

Little Development these few months (Dec 2013 to Mar 2014)

1. Learnt to wash her face by herself without being prompt.
She started this routine out of the blue. This is a good habit which I hope I can help her maintain.

Washing up

2. Brushing her teeth voluntarily.
For the first time she brushes her teeth voluntarily.

3. Learnt to write her English (Dialect) name in December
Although she can't tell then which are the capital letters and which are the small letters, she writes her name in a mixture of both.

4. Learning to accept wider range of food choice.
She has learnt to eat Chwee Kueh, Chee Cheong Fan, curry, handmade noodles. Although some are not her favourite, at least she is willing to experiment.

5. Getting more imaginative.
Besides being princesses and fairies, she is now a teacher and a ring seller.

Teacher

6. Learnt to write her Chinese name (43 strokes) over the past 3 months.
It is a major accomplishment in my opinion since her Chinese name is pretty difficult to write.

This is not her name. She added star and flag to show she knows how to write.

7. Beat an egg and washing rice prior cooking
Since she enjoys pretend cooking, I assume she would like to help out in preparing food in the kitchen.

8. Learning to make pom pom, blow water colours and to sew.
These are some crafts which I have introduce her over the months. She is not an expert now and is still an apprentice.

Triming a pom pom

9. Starting to interact with her elder cousins and mingled around.
In the past, she is more into parallel play. Nowadays, she interacts more and starts to play and talk with her cousins. When she is in a good mood, she even sings and dance for her cousins.

10. Growing 1 cm  every month.
She is growing taller every month and as a result out grow her clothes faster than ever. Now when I buy clothes, I choose to buy one to two size bigger.

11. Learnt to blow nose
She finally learnt the "art" of blowing nose. It is such a blessing that she can do it instead of sniffing the mucus back into her body and coughing as a result. It puts an end to her night coughs.

12. Learning to put on her own plaster
She loves putting plasters to her cut herself. I would often check whether she did it correctly. Sometimes, she put the sticky part on her wound instead. Ouch!

13. Not afraid of dog
She used to be afraid of dogs. Now she is not.

14. Went exploration in various new places
We went to River Safari, Punggol Waterway Park and Bottle Tree Park.

15. Went fully diaper-less 
For the past 1.5 month, she had said bye bye to her diapers but wetted her bed a quarter of the time. I will continue not letting her wear diapers and monitor how it goes.

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