Nicholas's School Update #7

They started a new topic in class- Transportation.

After a week of "teaching", the children were able to classify them into three categories namely land, sea and air transportation.

Then, they went on to extend their learning by introducing other categories of transport such as emergency rescue vehicles, construction equipment, human powered vehicles, public transportation, etc.

The children were also asked to draw the mode of transport that they use to commute to school, their imagination took over and we had drawings of buses with ten wheels, flying horses and a plethora of cars in a multitude of colors!

To wrap up the week, they had a special messy art activity which they dipped the wheels of the skate-scooter in some paint and the children rode it down the length of three large sheets of paper. We had a blast making wheel tracks amidst a few slip-ups here and there! The children had so much fun and their beautiful piece of artwork is now proudly displayed on the walls leading up to their classroom.

"First" Zoo Trip for Ryan

The girls had no school today (Youth day) and we arranged to meet up with my sister's family to visit the zoo, a place we hadn't been for quite a while. The girls did their work in the morning while Ryan took his early nap and we left for the zoo (without daddy & Nicholas) after lunch.

I considered this trip Ryan's first as those previous zoo excursion was done when he was a baby, with no idea of what's going on around him. Its also our first time getting the "stroller" and he certainly ok sitting in it. In fact, he enjoys sitting in there! *phew* which is a good thing otherwise, I'll be so tired carrying him throughout if he doesn't co-operate.

See, he look so cute on the zoo's pram!

After some walking and exploring for the older kids, we took the complimentary tram ride to our main destination - The Rainforest Kidzworld. Ryan was curious to see the horses but at the same time, a little scared, which is understandable given the size of the animal compared to him.

He was great with the goat though, even trying to touch them, until....

the goat bleats, which gave him a shock! He cried a little but soon got over it and back to see more of them but, this time, holding Rachel's hand tightly, getting ready to hug her for protection.

Then we watch the show as usual. Its our first time watching the revamped performance.

After the show, Rachel brought him to touch the doggies, which he gamely did.

Then, its SPLASH time! Only then did I realised that I forgot to packed his swimwear, so he just had to make do with his pamper.

Enjoying the water. He wasn't afraid of the splashing sound from the "Big" bucket unlike Nicholas, who will run away whenever he hears the "ding ding" sound getting faster, which meant it's going to topple over soon.

Picture of him watching the bucket toppled over...

We stayed there till closing time and head back home. Ryan fell asleep almost immediately when we placed him in his car seat.

Ryan @ 15 months old

My little rascal turned 15 months old! From a little bean in my tummy to a tiny little baby to now, a cute terror! Look at the shots, he is not camera shy at all! In fact, he is so excited to be photograph and after every shot, he will ask me to show him the photograph taken.

He now weighs 10.09kgs and has a height of 78cm. This put him on the 50th percentile for everything. Basically, both the Paediatrician and I are happy with his development EXCEPT on his language development department. Yes, he is still not talking, not even the most basic word "mum mum" (eat), "bao bao" (Carry). His Paediatrician suggested for him to go for a hearing test if he is still not talking by 18 months. I was surprised as he had already passed his hearing screening when he was a newborn, so why hearing test again? He definitely can hear, I have no doubt in that as he can follow simple instructions and also able to point to the correct body parts (ear, eyes, nose, mouth and head). Shouldn't he sees a speech therapist if he is not "talking"? Anyway, I told the Paediatrician that Charmaine didn't utter her first word till she turned 18 months, so she said she will give him till 2 years old before sending him for the test.

His steps are more stable now and his teeth are out, 6 at a go! 4 on top and 2 at the bottom. Oh, I was complaining that he doesn't want to kiss me anymore last month, hee.. he started giving me his sweet kisses again! Sweet!!

He will "hug" me and kiss me with his open mouth....a wet kisser!

He is on formula milk and porridge during the day and breast milk for the night feeds.

He loves playing with Nicholas and their transportation toys, a typical boy. He will follow Nicholas around and pushing the cars/trains and making the "roaring" sound.

Even at this young age, he had expressed his interest for piano. He will stop whatever he is doing and listen to Rachel playing her exam piece. He is so sensitive to piano that even when Rachel is playing her piano very softly (even I didn't realised Rachel was playing), he can still sense it and it can get him dancing (moving his hands and body).

When in the car, he would always call us "er er" and point to the TV screen asking us to play his cartoon for him. If we played others, like Word World, he will be unhappy and kept making noises till we played him his favorite Thomas & Friends and he will start moving his hands whenever the theme song is playing. Really very cute!

Nicholas's School Update #6

The children did a picture search activity to practice visual discrimination and spatial awareness.

Following direction from teacher to drive his car to the destination...

They also explored Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham and did a craft activity with an egg and ham cut out that the children pasted onto a paper plate. The children did a sequencing activity using picture cards from the story and to top if all off, made real green eggs and ham! It's essentially a green tinted ham and cheese omelet, but it turned out to be scrambled as the children mashed it up on the skillet as they attempted to mix the ingredients together. Nicholas loves it so much he asked if I can make that for his breakfast. I thought he had heard wrongly..."green eggs??" Only when I received the teacher's email did I realised he was right.

Unfortunately, the teacher is unable to send the photos to me as she had accidentally did an overwrite of the photo files when she transferred new data into the photos folder!

And I'm proud of his Chinese character recognition achievement too! Think he is so much better than the 2 girls when they were this age. Hope he can continue this zest for Mandarin.

Some of the Chinese character that he can read are:
狗 猫 牛 羊 猪 弟 妹 哥 姐 爸 妈 的 车 眼睛 鼻 口 头 手 脚 耳朵

Excursion to LTA Gallery

The school brought them to the LTA Gallery today. Nicholas was thrilled to see train so up close! He simply loves all kind of transportation. He even get to experience the "future" of public transportation as they had the opportunity to sit in an SMRT train that has been designed for the Downtown Line which is scheduled to be ready in 2018. That's a long way to go, but they had the chance to see it today!

School Update #5 & Father's Day Gift

This week, the school did activities revolving around the Father's Day theme and they talked about how it comes about.

Nicholas' school Father's Day project. A cup decorated with paints and cut outs..hee..compared to the Mother's Day gift from him, I think mine is way better!

The highlight of the week was the baking activity. The children were very excited to help mix the ingredients, knead the dough and to roll them into small balls. The end product was shared during snack time.

To encourage letter recognition, they did an interesting "alphabet soup" collage activity. The children colored a 2D bowl using crayons, painted it with some glue then pasted Alphabet macaroni on it.

The weather has been rather unpredictable lately and thus, the teachers created new indoor games for the children to play, our current favorite is the "fishing game", the children will cheer each other on as they attempt to hook the fishes using the rods.

And when the weather permit, they went outdoor where they worked on the children's balancing skills by arranging the wooden stumps in a row and getting the children to walk from one to the other without any assistance. It was quite a challenge for Nicholas initially but he soon found his courage and master the skill.

Phuket Day Day 5

Its our last day here... Think its too short, we didn't even get to do much things and we are going home.

Our flight back to Singapore was in the evening so we have the whole day to go shopping around. While my sister's family went for the Elephant trekking adventure, we got the hotel taxi to take us to Central Festival, a big shopping centre, to shop. Price wise is almost the same as Singapore so we didn't get anything there.

We had our lunch at MK Restaurant before meeting up with my sister's side to go for more shopping.

And its home sweet home after that....

Phuket Day 4 - Coral Island

Itinerary today was a very last minute decision. After dinner last evening, the adults went to look for activities for today while the kids stayed in the room to play their Game Station. After much discussion, we booked the Coral Island adventure. We bought 3 passes for Sea walking and Parasailing too. So its another day at the beach!

The girls woke up first. Saw them having breakfast and chatting at the small balcony. They were so loving (for once) and I quickly grab my camera and took a snap shot of them!

Today, we will be taking a speed boat to Coral Island.

All ready for the bumpy ride...

No life jacket available for the baby..so if anything, he will be the first on daddy's person to rescue list.

After the briefing from our guide, everyone couldn't wait to head down to the clear water to feed the fish. We brought along a few loaves of bread for the kids so they can go on a feeding frenzy.

Its free and easy time till the guide rounded us up for our next activity - Sea Walking. Only the 2 girls and their daddy paid for this but I brought Nicholas along to watch and I was also like a back up, just in case one of the them didn't dare to go.

The instructor briefed everyone what to do when they were in the water and the girls were nervous but excited. The first to go down was my sister and followed by Rachel. But Rachel came up after a while saying that she had difficulty getting the air out from her ears (which was instructed by the instructor) But we assured her and told her to try again and down she goes again. This time a success. Guess she was just too nervous and needed some assurance.

Daddy was next and followed by Charmaine. Charmaine, too, got out saying she couldn't breathe but went down again after assuring her. But still, she came up again and didn't want to try anymore. I was surprised as she was always the more adventurous girl than Rachel. So I told her to stay with Nicholas and I took her place.

Spotted everyone down under and we got to hand feed the fish. It's ticklish when the fish nibble the bread from our hands and we could see corals too, though not that colourful. Just before coming out, they caught a fish and gave it to Rachel. After taking pictures with it and showing the rest of the groups the catch, Rachel let it go..back into the sea.

The girls were supposed to go for Parasailing with their daddy but the guide said the water is too choppy and the kids can't go. So daddy and my sister took their place instead. The girls were very disappointed with that.

After lunch (provided), the kids fed the fish again and try snorkeling too before heading home.

Ryan had learn our pose for the trip (pretending to shoot with our hands)...

The kids with their cousins.