HFMD

As I have mentioned in my previous post that Javier is down with fever. Yesterday he has a record high fever of 39.2 degree at night. So I gave him Brufen to bring down the high fever, but throughout the day, his temperature keep fluatuating. And since yesterday, he keep pointing to his mouth and say teeth pain pain. And my first thought is that maybe he is having discomfort due to teething. But on the otherhand, I was also wondering, if it is just teething, it wouldn't cause such high fever. Cos normally teething would only cause very mild fever.

1st Car Wash

All plan to bring the kids out will cancelled due to Javier running a fever. Javier have been whinning early in the morning while still sleeping, but carless mummy did not realise anything wrong. Until at about 9am when Javier hand accidently slap sleepyhead mummy forehead (we are still in bed), then I realised that his body temperature is way too hot. So I immediately take his temperature and realise he is running a fever of 38.2degree.

Thus we decided to let him rest at home instead of bringing them out today. But when daddy say he is going to wash car, the 2 boys insist on tagging along. So today became our family car washing day!!!! :)

Baking Butter Cake

Its been a long time since I last bake. So today I decided to bake a butter cake. Its really yummy and easy to make.
Actually I was thinking of making a Lemon cheesecake (non-baked type). But due to the insufficient of ingredient, I got to postphone this to next week. So instead I bake a simple butter cake for us to eat.

Free play week 17-23 May 2010

This week is our free play week, so activity will be decided by my boy instead. Most of the activity which I did is his favourite. Some of the activities we did are reading through the vegetables and fruits flashcard.

Meet The Parent Session

Last week, I received a letter telling us about this meet-the parents session. As this is my first meet the parent session, I was rather excited and looking forward to this day. Previously, when Jayden was at Little Friends learning centre, there were no such meeting as the teacher will update us on the progress of our child when we picked up our child from school.

Jayden Teacher, Ms Lim was a kind and friendly teacher. From what the teacher told me he is adapting well to the class now, he do his work seriously and take pride in his work. He is very independent, such that he can complete his work by himself without assistance from the teachers. And the teacher comment that he don't like teacher to help him in his class work, he prefer to do it himself. But he tends to drift off into wonderland when he is doing his colouring, as he put his full concentration to it when he colours, he tends to ignore other things going on around him, which include teacher talking. (* Since young, Jayden have this problem of daydreaming in class, and when the teacher is teaching he would stare into space. The teacher got to call out to him to get his attention back)

He is very well-behave in class and is a very soft-spoken boy. But recently Ms Lim mentioned he is starting to get chatty, might be due to he has some kahki in class now. Jayden is a very reserved boy who don't make friends easily, so I am glad that he is mixing well in class now and has some good friends.

Ms Lim mention that his reading skill is very good, so he will offer his classmate some help during the reading time. I am so proud of my boy when the teacher told me this.

Some of the areas which needs improvement is his fine motor skill which is not very good. He cannot cut very well, need to have some practices at home. He needs to response quickly and speak up in class.

But overall, I think he is doing great in school. I am glad he is enjoying his time in this school and making alot of friends in his class as well as on the school bus.

Sometimes back, I asked him whether he wants to change to another Kindergarten. He rejected me immediately and told me he wants to continue in this school, I guess he has develop a bond to his classmate and teacher. But since he is doing well and happy going to school, I feel so much relief now after talking to his teacher.

Mini Superman in Action???

A new park in woodlands meaning a new place for my little monkeys to roam. The special thing about this park is that it overlook our neighbouring country Malaysia. But this is not important to my little monkeys, what interest them is the large space for them to run and a very big playground for them to play. The play area is make up of 3 section, which are: 1) A much smaller but safer playground for younger kids 2)A adventurous seeking playground for much older kids which requires alot of climbing 3) An exercise area.

Navy Open House 2010

We were really looking forward to the Navy open house today as my boys would be seeing the navy ship for the 1st time. After much delaying at home, we finally left for Singapore expo at 10.30am. When we reached expo, it was already 11.30am as we spend quite some time looking for parking lot. So we decided to have our lunch at Burger King before we proceed for the Navy open house.

Singapore Art Museum

Since this week is the International Museum Week, we decided to bring the kids to visit at least 1 museum. Actually I have plan to bring them to other museum as well, but that have to wait till their school holidays. I read in the website about this 'Art garden' which is at the Singapore Art Musem, and it sounds like a fun place to bring the kids to. So after Jayden Icreative class on saturday, we hopped off to our destination.

Homeshooling - 16th Week (10-16 May 2010)

Finally bring myself to update our homeschooling for Letter K. As the post would be very long for my weekly updating of my homeschooling. It really takes time to upload the photo and writing this post, giving myself lots of reasons to postphone updating this post. :(

Teaching Addition

Since Jayden know his counting and numbers recognition quite well now ( he can count and recognise up to 100). I think it is time to introduce addition to him now.

Development of Javier @ 28 months

This is my 1st post talking about Javier developement progress. Many a times I wanted to write this post, but really don't know how to go about it as the things he learnt everyday is so much. Everyday he would give me alot of surprise.

Javier Toilet-trained @ 28 months

I can see really great result with his toilet - training, I am happy to say that he is totally diaper-free during daytime. I started to stop letting him wear diaper when I bring him out last saturday. The results were great, he can hold his urine well, he would let me know if he need to go toilet. So now I only let him wear diaper when he sleep at nite.

Taking a break from our weekly lesson

As my boys and myself is down with cough and flu... I decided to hold our lesson for this week. As I really got no energy to prepare the materials needed for our learning. So for this week, Our activities would be mostly on reading story books and playing some educational toys.

This bug which we got is quite bad, and my boys have been coughing for 1 week plus. And I have brought them to see doctor twice. I have also let Javier stayed at home for these few days as I don't want him to pass this virus to his friends.

My birthday...

The clock seems to tick by so fast ever since I turned 21...... I don't feel like admitting but in actual fact.... I am already in my mid-thirties (which others would call me a aunty liao). When I was a teenager, I would wish for the time to pass by quickly so that I can be a adult soon. But now I wish I have a stopper to stop the time from moving forward...

Wayne 6th Birthday!!!

It's Wayne 6th birthday celebration today. We have a really special birthday party today. We are off to Lilliputt to play golf for our 1st time!!!! True enough, all the kids can't wait to get inside the golf area to start our golfing!

Icreative Lesson 16 (08.05.2010)

Jayden Icreative home practice worksheet consists of a rhyming fan book and a poem.
Jayden likes reading these rhyming sentences, everyday he would read this fan book first followed by the poem.

Jayden Week 14 School work

As usual, he have to practice writing these 2 words for next week 听写. The words are getting more complex, but I think Jayden is doing much better in the writing of the chinese character strokes now. I feel that it is far more difficult to teach chinese than english. Previously I sent him for a chinese enrichment class, but have since stopped him since last month due to some issues with the teacher. Currently, I was thinking whether to source another chinese enrichment class for Jayden or not.

Feedback from Javier Teacher

Recently, I have been getting negative feedback from Javier teacher regarding his behaviour in class. To start with, his chinese teacher told me he is inattentive in class. He will walk about in class when the teacher is conducting lesson. To me, this is still not so worrying, as I believe that this phase will pass when he is older. But there is another more serious problem which I have been facing everyday at home with him also.

Homeshooling - 15th Week (03-09 May 2010)

For this week homeschooling, the initial plan was to teach Javier letter I instead of J. But I have a hard time getting some of materials needed. So I decided to skip letter I for the moment and skip to letter J first.

To the Zoo again!!!!

Since we did not manage to visit the zoo last week. We promised the boys we would bring them this week. So here we are the the zoo again.

Mother's Day Present

I received 2 presents from my boys for Mother's Day, a cute little purse and a photo frame. When I picked Javier from school, he pass me this present immediately (so sweet of him to do this). And this is the 1st Mother's Day present which Javier gives me.

Mother's Day Celebration

Times seems to pass by so fast, I am already a mother of 2 boys. And this year is my 5th Mother's Day. I am so glad that I am blessed with this 2 little rascals.... although we do have our ups and down, me angry at the kids and vice versa..... And also when I am angry, I do scold them or spank them. But but but.... deep down inside my heart, the most miracle thing in my life is pregnant with them and having them in my life now. Seeing them grow day by day, healthy and having a happy time is the best reward for me.

Jayden Reading Progress

It has been a while since I last update on Jayden reading progress. Currently he is reading book 9b for peter and jane books. His progress is quite good, although he tends to forget some of the words he learnt.

Books that Jayden read - April

In the past, Jayden seldom reads the story books himself, either daddy or me would read it to him. But now, I want him to read the books himself to build up his reading skill and reading habits. In this way, I hope he can be confidence of himself of his reading ability.

Play Play Play at the Park

Today Javier was still not feeling very well, so I did not let him attend school. So instead of his usual nap time at 4pm, he went for his afternoon nap at 2pm and woke up at 4pm. So when Jayden came back from his school, I decided to bring the boys to the park for a walk as the weather was quite cooling today.

Homeschooling -14th week (26 April - 02 May 2010)

My energy level is starting to go down again. Sometimes, I really feel tired having to prepare the materials every week. But I still have to make myself do it, cos at least by having these lesson with Javier, I would feel that I am spending worthwhile time with him. By homeschooling him, I can see that he learnt alot from these lesson.
Theme for the week: Horse

Just the day before we started our lesson, I brought the kids to the Zoo to see real horses.

Although Javier already knows about horses, but I would like to take this opportunity to refresh his memory of it again.

Based on the horse theme, I introduced him a new vocabulary related to horse.

New Vocabulary: Mane - the long hair growing on the neck of a horse

We also learnt a few new words starting with H: House, Hen and Handphone. First, I would show Javier the actual things, follow by the picture cards and lastly the word cards.

Learning Alphabet H:

On Monday: we did a letter H tracing. At the moment, I need to hold Javier hand to guide him in the tracing. But after the first try, he would want to hold the pencil and trace the letter himself.

The worksheet for the letter tracing, below is some of the things which start with H. I would go through with him and normally he would colour or scribble on the pictures.

On Tuesday: We have a sensory activity on Letter H. I pour some sugar on the baking tray to write the letter on it. Javier like it alot, keep licking the sugar off his hand and splashing the sugar all over the floor.

The expression says it all... Javier is having a really fun time for this activity.

On Thursday: We did a sticker pasting activity on letter H. Halfway through the activity, he is not keen to continue, keep asking me to help him to paste the stickers. So the completed work is a joint effort between mummy and Javier.

Javier can paste very well now. Initially he couldn't paste on the circle, he can't control his hand coordination then. But now he can paste on the circle without and guidance from me.

On Friday: We did a poking activity. I pass Javier a pin to poke hole on the letter H. Of course, this activity need parents supervision as the pin is quite sharp. So I would sit with Javier while he do it.

On Saturday: We did a stamping activity on letter H. Javier used a horse stamper from crayola to stamp horses on the letter. He prefer this activity as compared to the past few letter activity we did on the past few days.

Alphabet Matching Game:

I printed a Uppercase and lowercase letter H matching game from a homeschooling blog. I need to assist Javier in this game as he tends to get mixed up between the uppercase and lowercase.

Javier is analysing on which side to put the card

The Hippo Matching game

Doing Crafts:

The number of crafts we are doing is getting lesser as compared to last time. But I still managed to do 2 for this week.

Craft 1: We did a horse craft. I printed the horse template from here. I would cut the template the day before so that I would not waste time cutting while doing the lesson with Javier. Cos toddlers tends to get impatient and lose the attention if they are requried to wait.

This craft is mostly done by Javier himself, I only assist him to paste the feet of the horse. The 3rd picture of Javier is so cute, he is admiring on the horse which he have made.

Craft 2: Letter H House

Javier like this craft alot, he insists on doing it himself when I volunteer to help me and guide him.

Poem we read:

We read a poem on "My Horse". As I always act out when reading rhyme or poems, Javier really loves it and enjoyed it greatly during the poem time. For this poem, after reading 1 time to him, he keep asking me to read it again and again.... He loves especially the gallop part.... keep asking me to gallop with him around the house. I was really panting after this poem reading. From this poem, he learn the word gallop... He would tell me horse gallop!

Books we read:

Clip Clop by Nicola Smee

Friendly Mr. Horse offers rides to the other barnyard animals. One by one, cat, dog, pig and duck ask to be included, and then to go faster, FASTER!! They start to fall, Mr. Horse "skids to a halt"-- and over they fly, into a haystack. Mr. Horse is worried, but his friends are fine-- and want to go "AGAIN!"

This is one of the books that I wouldn't get tired of reading over and over. I enjoyed this book as much as my boys. Every night, Javier would take this book and ask me to read it to him. The rhymes are very fun to read out loud!

Blue Horse by Helen Stephens

The new girl in town, Tilly, plays alone, lonely in her room until a stuffed animal, Blue Horse, begins to talk and becomes her companion. Not only do they have a terrific time together but Blue Horse also encourages her to make friends with a girl in the park. In the end, Tilly befriends all the neighborhood children and their own "special friends" like Blue Horse.

For this book, I read twice to Javier. But he doesn't seems interested in this book, I think he does not really understand what the story is about. Although he will sit through the book with me, but he doesn't seem enthuastic when I am reading this book to him. For the book he likes, he would says alot of things when I am reading and would tell me what is going to happen next. :)

Learning Shapes: Triangle

As what we did for the square, I used the sticks for Javier to form on the outline which I have drawn on the paper. I feel that he learns better this way and he enjoyed doing this activity also.

Sorting colour Triangle:

Learning Colours: Brown

I show Javier some pictures of brown items. Next I show him the actual things which is brown. Of course, he is eyeing on the chocolate and can't wait to eat it.

I also let him colour the triangle with brown. But Jayden seems more interested in the colouring than Javier. So gorgor volunteer to colour it for him.

The 2 boys colouring the brown horse togather.

Colour Sorting Activity:

We did a colour sorting of the bear. Javier hates this activity, after much coaxing from me, then he started to do this activity. He can sort all the colour by himself... it is just that he is not keen to do it. Partly might be due to he is not feeling too well.

Learning Chinese:

We read a Tang Poem, 儿歌, a short story book for our chinese learning activity. I try to read it to him everyday. So far, he enjoys the story book which I have chosen for him and the 儿歌which I have prepare. For the Tang Poem, he can even recite part of it togather with me.

儿歌：小马儿

I read this 儿歌 to him everyday. But he only managed to recite the last 2 words of the poem when I read to him everyday. But one fine day, he suddely recite this 儿歌 to me, although he did not recite the whole of the poem, but he managed to recite 90% of it. I was so surprise and feel so encourage when I heard him. I guess we shouldn't underestimate a child. :) Kids learning ability is really very very great!!! Our chinese story book: 睡觉

This is a really simple book, but my boys enjoyed looking at the cute illustration. As I read the story to Javier... He would keep saying "Shhhhh" meaning keep quiet. Cos he says all the animals are sleeping already. So cute of him!!!!

Tang Poem: 静夜思

This is a really popular poem. I guess alot of people would heard of it before. When I recite 2nd time to Javier, he was able to follow me through part of the poem. Maybe his teacher has already taught him this poem. I also try to explain the meaning of the poem to my boys when I read to them. I am not sure whether they understand it or not. Through reading this tang poem to them, I am also learning it as well. I was not exposed to tang poem when young, so I would take this opportunity to learn as well.

I feel that tang poem tells a really meaningful story which is a great knowlege to teach the kids.

Practical Life Skills:

1) Using Tweezer to pick up beads to transfer to a bowl.

I guess I am a little too ambitious to let Javier do this activity. I can see that he is having a reallly hard time doing it. As the beads are so small, it really needs very good eyes and hand coordination.

But he still did a really good job, he managed to pick up a lot of beans and transfer them into the bowls. Initially he doesn't really knows how to control the tweezer, he keep dropping the beads when he picks them up from the table. But after practising for a while, he managed to gasp the technique.

I won't be letting him do this activity again at the moment, cos I find that it is quite tedious for him to do it now.

2)Hole Punching

He likes to do this activity, but he doesn't really know how to use a hole puncher. Cos we need to slot the paper into the middle of the puncher and the metal plate. I got to show him a few times before he understands how it works.

Jayden Week 13 School work

Chinese Homework: For this week, he need to practice writing these 2 words. The words are getting difficult... can't stop myself from grumbling.... really stressful to teach him to write these words!!!!! :( But at least he can write these 2 words very well now! Phew!

听写:
He can managed the English and the Maths homework himself, but he tends to make careless mistake. So I still need to check through his work after he has completed it.

Maths Homework: Counting

English Homework: As usual, he need to practice writing these 3 words to prepare him for the spelling next week.

Spelling: