Nicholas's School Placemat

This is Nicholas's placemat in his school. It has all his favorite cartoons on it. Sure he will enjoy his lunch/ meal more with his favorite character there.

Nicholas's School Update #4

This week, the school rounded up the topic on "vegetables". There is a consensus that vegetables and fruits are really good for the body and we shall have more portions of such goodness.

The teacher wanted to try something different with the children when it came to coloring. Usually the kids get to choose whichever colors they wanted but for today, the teacher wanted to see if the kids could follow accurately what they see on the example given. So different portions of a vegetable was colored differently. Result...they had a couple of misses but generally the children could copy well, hence thumbs-up for good observation skills. They also talked about neat coloring - "coloring within the lines". hmm..its about time since the kids are 4 this year and can be encouraged to have that discipline to control "penman-ship" when coloring.

A new rhyme has been introduced - Pop goes the Weasel. The children adored it and can do the actions well. They were invited to "perform" in small groups.

The little boy enjoying himself during the outdoor play..oh..he said he looks like hamster when he smile like that!... Think he misheard me when I said he look very handsome when he smile.

Doing Maths with counters..

The school are also reinforcing good behavior in class, especially when it comes to routine things like going up and down the stairs, shower time, toilet time, hand washing, nap time and lunch time.

Stairs - we keep in a single line and use soft voices. No need to be yelling when moving along the stairs.

Shower - Towel, clean clothes on the chair before stripping for shower.

Toileting - No throwing excessive amount of paper in the small toilet bowl, always flush & wash hands thoroughly.

Handwashing - no wasting water and dry hands thoroughly

Nap time - lay bedding before shower

lunch - no need to shout lunch time song, we don't talk with mouthful of food.

I'm so glad these are practised in school. Nicholas is like our Discipline Master at home, always reminding us on the rules, especially on the "no talking with our mouth full of food". He always said that to his 2 sisters.

They did a science experiment was on "fireworks". The teacher showed them a video (New Year's countdown 2009 in London) on fireworks and brought their attention to the motion of the low explosives.

After viewing the video, its time for some experiment! They used food coloring, oil and water for this simple experiment. Instead of fireworks in the sky, they created fireworks in the water. The droplets of food coloring in the oil will disperse upwards upon submersion in water and droplet descend, droplets float up, disperses into strings of colors...just like Fireworks.

School Excursion - "The Gruffalo" Play

This is his second time going for such play. His first was If You Give A Mouse A Cookie in March this year with his 2 jie jies.

I would say its a very good engaging play and you can hear laughters from all the little children.

I was glad to be there to explain the story to my boy...if not, I guessed he would be lost even though the school did make an effort to tell the kids the story days leading to today.

The storyline goes like that:-

On it's way the mouse encounters several dangerous animals (a fox, an owl, and a snake). Each of these animals, clearly intent on eating the mouse, invites it back to their home for a meal. The cunning mouse declines each offer. To dissuade further advances, it tells each animal that it is going to dine with his friend, a gruffalo, whose favourite food happens to be the relevant animal, and describes the features of the gruffalo's monstrous anatomy. Frightened that the gruffalo might eat them, each animal flees. Knowing the gruffalo to be fictional, the mouse gloats, thusly:

Silly old fox/owl/snake, doesn't he know?
there's no such thing as a gruffalo!

After being quit of the last animal, the mouse is shocked to encounter a real gruffalo- bearlike and hideous, with all the frightening features the mouse thought that it was inventing. The gruffalo threatens to eat the mouse, but again the mouse is cunning: it tells the gruffalo that it, the mouse, is the scariest animal in the forest. Laughing, the gruffalo agrees to follow the mouse as it demonstrates how feared it is. The two walk through the forest, encountering in turn the animals that had earlier menaced the mouse. Each is terrified by the sight of the pair and runs off -and each time the gruffalo becomes more impressed with the mouse's apparent toughness. Exploiting this, the mouse threatens to eat the gruffalo, which flees.

World Youngest Pianist

Ryan loves music..every time the girls played their musical instruments, he will stop whatever he is doing and crawls to them..even when he is midway drinking milk!

A musician in making??!!

Protective Brother

This photo was taken this morning at about 7am. My dear Nicholas was in his dreamland when baby Ryan crawled away and calling out to the birds outside the window. This woke Nicholas up. With his half open eyes, he saw Ryan was trying to stand up and without waiting, my dear Nicholas dashed behind Ryan and put his protective hands around him.

His natural instinct to protect his brother really touched me. He had shamed me with this beautiful act of his! Mommy was still glued to the mattress, too lazy to wake up!!

But my dear boy, hearing his brother's voice, woke up straight away! Seeing his brother is standing up, dashed right behind him to act as cushion in case his brother falls!

Oh..thank you, my darling, I'm really so proud of you!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year is completely different from last year whereby we had 3 celebrations in 1.....baby's full month celebration; Mother's day Celebration and Father-in-law's birthday. This year Mother's day is a simple and quiet affair at the nearby hawker centre as the 3 kids (my 2 girls and SIL) in our house are having their exams and Ryan was not well.

DIY Mother's day card by the girls and Nicholas. Why 4 cards, one might ask?? Cause my sweet Rachel did one on behalf of Baby Ryan.

Flowers from the 2 girls bought with their own pocket money...The Lantana was from Rachel..plucked from the garden in the morning.

And hand made flower from Nicholas...

This is from my half baby...(hubby)..gagaga...

Though no fanciful celebration, but I enjoyed the day nonetheless. My 4 and a half babies behaved themselves well without getting me angry and no nagging at all the whole day! Whoppie! How I wish they can be so co-operative everyday!

Nicholas's School Update #3 - Mother's Day Surprise

Last week, the school had initiated a "Hush" project for the kids. The school told the children that they (school and kids) are going to surprise the kids' mommies with a very special gift for Mother's Day. They went on to explain to the children that its a secret and surprise and thus, they (the children) are not supposed to tell what they will be doing in school to their mommies.

Nicholas had been very good in keeping mums. When I ask what he does in school, his reply to me was "hush! Its a secrets. Secrets mean cannot tell. hush..." Its really not easy for a small kid to contain the excitement of showing or telling. So proud of him!

So it a week of complete dedication to all the wonderful mums. The children have very sweetly put together a present for Mother's Day. They decided what & where to paste the "add-ons" and this is from Nicholas!

Obviously, the card is made by the teachers.

See the sweet smile!! Aiyo! He never smile so sweet for my camera

This photos are pasted on the card..don't know if you can see the photo clearly...its of him doing the craft...see the loves he put in to make the flowers...

Thank you Pre-School-By-The-Park!! You are amazing!