Chinese too!

I was sceptical about flashcards, but with the convenience of DVD flashcard programmes these days, it just seemed like it was no harm to try.

I just tested him today. Am amazed! Started him with the flashcards at 5mths. He's 11mths now. He's never seen these words before other than on the WinktoLearn DVDs.

Sweating it Out

I saw this performance this morning, and was so astounded to see how much of a physical workout this is for Gil Shaham! Watch how he starts breaking out in droplets of sweat at around 3min mark and then developing into riverlets that flow down his violin by the 3.20min mark.

Rollerblading Babes

Hai, now I wish I could go rollerblading!

Barred

Parents have been barred from entering the school since the beginning of Term 3. Oh well, unless we want to join the queue to have our temperatures taken. I took advantage of the situation to park my car at the roadside, read/eat lunch and wait for the boys to come out. But on one of the first few days of term 3, I actually waited outside the schoolgate to make sure my tou-nao-xiang-wai boy didn't walk right back into the school like he did on the very first day (siao, right?! it still baffles me).

Aiyoh, the weather so scorching!


Such a contrast. Mom in needle-heels and another flip-flops.


Pathway to walk round the school to where I usually park - less crowded road, makes getting away easier. ;-P

Bus

And it's the SBS-Transit ones that grab his attention...altho' now green schoolbuses seem to attract too.


See how excited he is when he sees a bus approach?


And yeah, he recognises the word!

My Fat Thumb

Nah, not clubbed, but fat compared to those I see around me. *haha*

Way too random a post, eh?

Trip Out

As part of this morning's "entertainment", JR followed me to the Bank. Along the way, he saw the Tasmanian Devil & Bob the Builder. I'm not sure why he's so fascinated with their faces.





We changed his car seat yesterday (yeah, he's 11mths old...time to upgrade). So far, he's been fairly happy. The new car seat offers him a much better view of his surroundings, and the view outside the car. He just LOVES seeing buses!


After dropping by the bank, we went to the supermarket and visited loads of apples. Gee, there were South African APPLES (yeah, the word "APPLES" are so clearly printed on the packages), Fiji Apples, Japanese Apples, and I don't know whatever other country. Hey, it's sure cosmopolitan in that supermart! PINK apples...ever seen them? Actually their colouration is more like Rainbow Mangoes. I'm so unexciting. I simply grabbed a tray of organic Gala Apples.

Organic Apples are really tasty, and these were so soft that all I needed to do was cut them into smaller sizes and JR could chew them up himself. He's got 8 teeth and another 2 more on the way. Hai, I didn't even realise he was teething until he went around biting every one of us this afternoon, then I pried his mouth apart to check. *haha*.

Testing II

Ah, now apart from "Hi", he can definitely pick out several other words.

Where's Baby?

Ah, and he was so fast...the moment I asked and tried to click on the camera, he had already reached the card. When I tried to put the cards further away, he wasn't interested in playing the game!!! Grrrr.....

Where's Dog?

Flower Stalk

Yeah, he actually watched the whole rendition of "One Stalk Flower". Hahah!

Old Friends

2 of my oldest friends, from way way back! Ken(har, he prefers James since he went to the U) Yup, real way back as in toddlerhood. Angie sang at my wedding too.

Too bad I missed their recent concert at the Esplanade, but hey, they got on YouTube! haha.

Angie & Ken:


The whole crew:

Words in Print

This kept JR occupied part of the time in church today.

Words that I wrote on the day's bulletin. Words that he recognises.

Sapper

Kids sap, not just my energy, but my sanity.

How not to when he is so person-specific? Groan.

Joneses

Comparing with the Leongs & Chans? Hey, I hate that too, but reading these remarks from a bunch of parents of GEPers just irks me. They laugh at how "other" students' parents are so "kancheong" and such, how scoring is not the be-it-all of life and what's important is that the child give his/her best.

Hai, their kids are the cream of the crop, no matter what, they will at least attain a fairly reasonable result. And gee, all GEPers will have a high chance of being offered a place in a top school, unlike all the others, provided they at least put in some effort in preparing their portfolio and present themselves properly during interview. So far, the only ones that I've come across that don't get a place are those who don't bother to prepare at all - yeah, *zilch*, but it's rare for any to be so extreme, yah?

Would they be so *bochap* if their child was NOT smart? Haha, maybe the grass on the other side is greener to them?

(Ah...still remembering how this mom asked me how my boy did and I only realised later that it was so I would ask her how her son did - he topped the whole school! Stupid me, lor.).

Recitations

I want Video CDs (DVD/VCD) like these. So far the ones I've found either have very small words, or there's very long stories on the poems/phrases instead of the sing-song style with big big characters - like flashcard programmes.

I'm not interested in the explanation/stories at this point bc I want to show to the baby, lah. Just for the fun of it. I wonder where to buy such.

And TJ has learnt this DiZiGui in school, so can go on at it with baby...haha.


And poems too.


Oh well, but the big big words like in the 1st sanzijing vid is most ideal, not that i'm so interested in sanzijing...

Patterns

Would you consider these difficult? I don't. But apparently they are supposed to be extremely challenging for a 12yo, altho I find that it shd be within their ability. Erm well, the 12yo found some difficult....the 10yo had no problem doing the graphic ones though. Different minds.

Number pairs:




Graphic patterns




Better know your ABCs!




And then...how come draw correctly but answer wrongly?!


I think this question is not written well, leh

Did He Do That?

Coincidence or Reality?

He has been able to recognise that "Hi" word for quite a while now, and will even try to verbalise it with a screeching "hi" sound. I already thot he was quite "slow" since the girl in the Rober Titzer's video could point and act out the words from like 8 or 9 months old! JR is almost 11mths old! He has not been able to point or gesture to various parts of his body or at things. Only perhaps to raise his hands to ask me to carry him. Or to close/open his palms when he hears the "Twinkle" song, and raise his arms to show "Hurray" as in the "If you're happy" song.

I'd made a little cardholder of words that he has come across in the "Your Baby can Read" videos that he has been watching since 5mths' old. This morning, while going thru it, he of course said "Hi" at the 1st word as usual, and when he saw "Head", he patted his head....then he saw "Ears" and he said out "ea" ...and then he saw "Mouth" and said "Mao". Was I dreaming that he did that? Was it coincidental or intentional? Couldn't get him to do it again, but well, the sounds WERE different, unlike his usual "do-it-all" "BABABABA or MAMAMAMAMA or DADADAA" sounds.

And when I walked into the Fairprice Xpress at the petrol station today, he excitedly went "Ba ba ba" when the door to the store opened and he saw the array of Bananas there....Hmm....oh well, he said the same thing when he saw the word "Ball"....

Splash

No CCA for wk1 of new term bc of h1n1, so I promised to bring TJ & bb to the zoo once again to play in the waterplay section that we missed the last time. That's the advantage of being FOZ - won't feel it wasted to make just short trips to the zoo.

I was surprised to see such a long queue of cabs trailing from the taxistand at 3.30pm on a weekday!

I didn't manage to take photos of the baby crawling around and splashing since my arms were busy guarding him and balancing my backpack. But once I got baby changed back into his non-swimwear and sat at the sidelines waiting & watching, I caught these pix.

The kids just lie in wait when they hear the warning bells:

....warning bells for the torrential splash!

Baby only got to see the zebras once again (hey, we sat on a "zebra-print" tram!), and I think he recognises the words on the signboard for "Chimpanzee".

Sunday Service

First time serving Sunday Service.

Holiday Work

D finished with his 2nd round of Prelims in the past week(yeah, in the 4th week of the sch hols). He thus has a week break from school. Initially we thought it was really crazy that he has exams during the sch hols, but it's good in a way. Bc he just had exams, we said he could do whatever he liked this coming week(within parameters of course! LOL!). If he hadn't had these exams during the hols , I think he wouldn't have this *clean* break at all. Probably we'd be hollering at him to study all the way through the rest of the year until his big exams are over in Oct!

He does have to work on the items he is preparing for his mid-july music trials tho. It's an extremely competitive arena even tho' violin is still less "popular" than piano, but nevertheless one of the most common instruments, altho' at least the participants at these trials would be limited to some extent due to the min g7 criteria set by the sch (unlike schools like DHS who don't set a min grade for their trials).

D had earlier wanted to perform Czardas, but LB selected Vivace & Symph Espag. So now, D really has to work triply hard since he only started learning Vivace a few weeks ago. And as for the other, he has not prac that for months! I guided him thru prac today (on the piano lah!). He has been putting in some solid 1.5 to 2hrs' work the past few days and feeling tired from it as well, since he normally only does no more than 1hr's work. Hopefully he gains stamina/strength soon.

Poor kid also has to revise his g5 theory work again since there's a 1hr theory test on that same day. ;(

Badminton

After the ping-pong phase faded, the boys picked up badminton, so we got TJ a pair of rackets for his birthday last month. They spend almost every evening playing with their friends in the neighbourhood.


Initially, I found that TJ complained of his arm(wrist) being tired after only a short while of playing, so I made him wear his wrist-support band.

With regular playing, it prob became stronger. He no longer finds it tiring.

Talent Academy

The audition was today. Warmed up in this studio for 15mins first. I'm so *suaku*. I've never worked on a piano with the score-stand so high-up above the piano cover! So not used to it.

The audition went as well as can be expected. ;-P One of the presiding trs had LT repeat a section which had the high-F/high-A in the Kite-Flying piece as he'd not managed to hit the high-A accurately as he went thru' the piece. And he even conducted him. Not sure if that's a good/bad sign. Was he trying to see if the boy had potential and was teachable?

And on my way home, I passed by this. Made me crack up, man! See what is written around the top of the school's round logo(?!).

Storyteller

This is so cute! TJ was so fascinated by it.

Wah, the guy practised the yuan-yang pai for 8 hrs a day!

Big Baby

My biggest bb is officially 15! Oh my, she'll be doing her O-levels next yr!