Universal Studio, Singapore

The kids were treated to Universal Studio on this special day...Singapore's birthday! My in-laws send us there, saving us the $$. Can't imagine if we had to park there the whole day! Its gonna cost a BOMB!

Took a photo with my new Panasonic Lumix Micro Four Thirds camera! hee..a birthday present from hubby :)

The first to greet us is these beautiful animals from Madagascar! Too bad, the ride was not ready yet.

For the sake of our dear boy, all of us went for the kiddy carousel, King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round.

Then we proceed to Far Far Away Land and took all the 3 rides there (excluding the ferris wheel in the Fairy Godmother's shop). But even the junior roller coaster frighten my deary boy! *faint* Hubby was chosen by the host in the Donkey Live show and he gamely showed the kids what sportmanship is

Then its off to The Lost World where the fun begins! We took the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure and watched the WaterWorld "live" show. The crews are very entertaining, sending laughters all round while we waited for the show to begin. The only disappointment is that the Canopy Flyer was not operating.

The kids went for their first round of Rapid adventure while I accompany Nicholas at the holding bay.

Its a SURE-WET ride..no matter where you sit...even with a rain coat on!

The kids went on this Dino-Soarin'

After a quick lunch, we walked on to the Ancient Egypt. Hubby took the girls to ride on the Revenge of the Mummy while I queued with little boy for the Treasure Hunters' ride. They came back screaming "Its fun! Scary! Mummy, you must go!" And there, hubby took over the queue with Nicholas while I went with the girls to the scary roller coaster ride. The girls couldn't contained their excitement and kept talking about it while we were queueing.

The sun was scotching hot and we ran into for an ice-cream to cool our body systems.

Nothing going on at the Sci-Fi City with the ONLY attraction closed till who-knows-when.

We completed every available rides and was still early. So went on to do the not-so-exciting stuff like watching the Steven Spielberg stuff. Then the girls wanted to go for repeated rides. So they went on while Nicholas followed us to shop at the shops with our voucher.

Here's a picture of us with the Kung Fu Panda.

Nicholas was getting restless as he didn't had his afternoon nap. He couldn't even smile for the camera anymore.

So these are what we got with our voucher. A cap for Nicholas and a magnetic photo frame, now on our fridge door.

Rating of our visit today: 7/10.

The Must-Do attractions are:

• Jurassic Park Rapid Adventure
• WaterWorld show
• Shrek 4D Adventure
• Revenge of the Mummy (highly recommended)

(The list is based on what we had rode on the day.)

Ryan @ 16 months

Things he can do:

1. Can walk very well now, sometimes even "running" a few steps which never fail to make my heart skip a beat.

2. Understands simple and common instruction such as "keep the toys", "sit down".

3. Know how to on and off the TV.

4. Able to walk down 2 steps without holding his hands. He had learn to use the wall as support.

5. Know where all his food/ treats are kept (fridge) and every now and then, will go to the fridge and tries to open it. Of course, he is not strong enough to open the fridge door, but it never stop him from trying.

6. Knows which room belongs to who. He knows where to find his favorite grandpa and where to go for his milk and food.

7. He dances to the music and claps his hands when he sees us cheering him on.

8. Waves good-bye - clenching and opening of his fist, sometimes, turning them left and right.

Things he still trying to achieve:

1. He still can't talk but makes more sounds now like "b" when he sees bird and buses.


General Observation:

He gets easily jealous over Nicholas. Whenever Nicholas sits on my lap, he will squeeze his way in and Nicholas had no choice but to give in for every one's comfort.

Once, I was trimming Nicholas's toe nail and he too lie down and placed his leg on my hand and called me ("ah ah") to do the same for him.

He is also a tyrant and will not give in to Nicholas when they play together. If he wants something that Nicholas is playing with, he will insist that Nicholas gave it to him or he will scream! It got Nicholas angry and refuses to play with Ryan at times. But, being the loving brother, he still loves and "sayang" him like old times when Ryan didn't get into his nerves.

Ryan is a "out-going" boy and I really meant it literally. He loves going out, even for a short ride. So, he follows me when I drop Nicholas off at school and to the market. Actually, he follows anyone that one to bring him out of the house! He cries if he sees us leaving the house without him.

He had suddenly developed a phobia of the sound of aeroplane flying past. He will dash to us for refuge when he hears it. Though scared of the sound, he still fascinated with planes and helicopter.

He loves Percy from Thomas and friends story. If he sees Percy got hurt, he will be frighten and cry. On a side note, we find him and Percy looks very alike.

Nicholas's school update #11

This week is National Day themed week. The children learned information about our National flower- Vanda Miss Joaquim, our flag, coat of arms, pledge and National anthem as well.

They repeated a tracing and drawing activity that the children had done during the earlier part of the year and the children has shown marked improvements.

They explored flowers such as the orchid, gerbera and chrysanthemum. The children sniffed it, touched it and "dissected" it too. Basically the children ripped it apart!

We then used the petals to create a collage that was displayed during our National Day celebration.

Watching the fighter jet flew past during one of the outdoor play and the children were thrilled!

On Friday, the centre celebrated National Day with the children and the kids did some cookery.

Nicholas's school update #10

The centre make it a Sport week last week in view of the coming Olympic Games.

They start the week with an outing to Kidz Amaze. Initially, I didn't sign Nicholas for it as I know he will be too timid to slide and play around like other kids without me around. But the school called just slightly after 9am saying that Nicholas was upset that he couldn't go and when I talked to him over the phone, he was sobbing. So after telling him what to expect, I told the teacher to let him go and I will reimburse them later.

As foreseen, he had fun rolling around and picking balls for the ball cannon but when the teachers gather them to go for the highest slide, he started to panic and shed a few drop of tears. Other then that little hiccups, he enjoyed himself at the SAFRA Jurong!

And on Friday, they had a fantastic "Preschool Olympic Games"! Although the weather was not on their side (it rained ALL day), the little ones still managed to have plenty of "sporting" fun!

The teachers set-up obstacle courses for the children using the tables, chairs, baskets of small balls, medium sized balls, hula hoops and other items that they found within the classroom. The children had a blast participating in the games and we had a special energy fueling snack of fruit and muesli.

Nicholas's school update #9

This week, they expand the vehicles topic to construction equipment. Again, another topics which never failed to catch my boy's 100% attention.

They talked about the bulldozer, dump truck, excavator, forklift, cherry picker and crane and shared the following information with the children:

• Bulldozers have a large blade that is used to push large quantities of soil, sand, etc

• Dump trucks are used to transport loose materials for construction.

• Excavators are used for digging holes and trenches and to scoop as well.

• Forklift trucks can lift heavy things such as boxes and crates amongst other things.

• Cherry picker trucks are used in mining, construction, exterior painting, etc.

• Cranes are lifting machines. It can lift and lower materials and move them as well.

They also did an activity that focused on identifying and arranging items according to sizes (in ascending order), a matching game (matching logical pairs/uppercase and lowercase letters) and a string painting activity. The children created a variety of designs using lengths of twine that they dipped in several different colors of paint.

In addition to that, they have also been practicing their balancing skills on the wooden stumps and attempting to stand on one foot without falling over!

Nicholas's school update #8

For this week, the children were introduced to emergency rescue vehicles such as ambulance, police car, fire truck, tow truck and aero medical helicopter also known as an air ambulance. Notice their topics are mostly surrounding transport/ vehicles? The school uses "interest-teaching" style. The kids in his group really into transportation and that explained why their topic is always surrounding this area.

They did a math activity involving missing numbers and the children tried their best to fill in the blanks in the number sequence. The children were given a number line and number cards to assist them with the activities.

They made laminated name sheets that includes faint grey outlines of the kids names and a blank box for them to write as well. The children were given the option to choose a picture of their favorite emergency vehicle that they could color in then it was cut into pieces to form a puzzle that they had to put together. It was a challenging task but we managed to do it! A handful of children needed some minimal assistance to complete the puzzle but most of them could do it independently.

Fixing the puzzle

The children had a surprise during the middle of week. The school had gotten a new trampoline! It's awesome and the kids love bouncing on it!

On the Chinese part, the teacher with the help of picture cards explained to the children the usage of the water-vehicles. Next she get the kids to come out explained to the class what they had understand about the vehicles. I personally loves this! This is a very good way to know if the kids really understand what had been taught and also, to speak up in front of their friends, it really takes lots of courage!

And to wrap up the high-energy week, the kids made peanut butter and banana sandwiches to supplement all the energy they dispensed!

Cutting up the banana

Enjoying their fruits of labour

Take Home Kit - by trainee teacher

Nicholas brought home a folder with a sticker that said "Take-Home Kit" on it. In there was a letter from the trainee teacher explaining that this is her project for the attachment in this school. It also had a instruction sheet on what to do.

Its supposed to be mommy and child play but I rope in Charmaine to play with him while I be the narrator. I will tell a story revolving the train captain and the kids are supposed to listen carefully for the number of passengers alighting/ boarding the train at each station. After 5 stations, we are to see if the kid got the correct the number of passengers left on each train.

The first attempt was a failure as he was so engrossed in the figurine and the train that I have trouble getting his full attention. But the 2nd attempt is good. he can focus and listen to the number and the instruction "alighted/ boarded". We went on to play a few more times with some changes made to the numbers.

Think its a very good idea and effort from the trainee teacher. A very good play and learn project.

Nicholas Goes for Swimming Lesson

During one of those days where hubby brought the kiddos out for their exercise, he saw a coach giving swimming lesson and went over to check out price. His price is around the market rate and locality is ok for me. The only draw-back was the timing. It crashes with Nicholas's school Chinese revision lesson but that was the only slot available for his standard and so, we make the decision of him skipping the revision class.

Anyway, I arranged a trial class for Nicholas and he was excited about the class when I told him in the morning before dropping him off at school.

When I picked him up from school, he was so excited that the first question he asked me when he saw me was "Mommy, are we going for swimming lesson now?!" And when I replied yes to him, he immediately told his teacher with excitement.

He, although still the timid boy, but had plucked up encourage to greet people if I gave him amble notice. So when he met the coach, he greeted him loud and clear "Hello, Uncle David!" which deserves my immediate praising for him for being a good and brave boy.

I had told the coach that my boy might look brave which in actual fact was not. The coach was very nice and patience in teaching him and he enjoys the lesson. Oh forgot to mention that the class size is small, only 3 boys including him. Nicholas had no problem making friends with them.

The coach started with getting him used to water...making friends with water. He asked him to blow bubbles and also taught him the 2 basic kicks - Flutter and Frog kick.

See, my boy dares not put his whole head into the water.

After half the lesson, my boy join the other 2 boys in their swimming to and fro the pool with the help of a swimming board.

I asked Nicholas if he likes the coach after the lesson and if he wants to continue to learn from him and he said "Yes!" And so, this marks the beginning of his swimming lesson.