The Quiet Book Giveaway by my playshcool.net

Myplayschool.net is celebrating their 400 likes on their Facebook page and is giving away "The Quiet Book" suitable for kids of age 18 - 36 months old, hand-made by Pauline.

I think is is GREAT for all parents!

By reading this, you will stand a chance to win too! Simply click on the above link and like their page on Facebook!

This book is ideal to carry along to keep the ever active toddler engaged in it's activities.

Find out more about this book here.

Off We Go To The Park!

Quite a shame to say, we have been staying here for more than a year and yet to really bring the kids to Pasir Ris Park. I shall point the finger to Hubby again as he is very reluctant to go outdoors!

This time, he finally agreed (well, it was the week before), and we went to buy kite, wanting to fly it in the park. Coincidentally, Dad came to our place just as we reached the park and Ethyl was thoroughly disappointed.

We promised the girl we shall return, and true enough, we return last Sunday.

The girl forsake her kite in the car after seeing the huge playground. See? She has been blaming Gong Gong and Po Po for coming at the wrong time, yet she didn't fly her kite in the end. Kids.

We had so much fun! This is a place we definitely will return to drain out the 2 power house.

Homeschool - Puzzling Fun

Challenge is always there when trying to coach my little man. He doesn't abide by the so called "rules and regulations" that I set for him. I take it easy, as he is still too curious with almost anything to I expose him too.

One activity that makes him play for hours(yes, he can put puzzles repeatedly for at least and hour and more), puzzles and building blocks.

I always have to play around these 2 items to make him learn. We do randomingly. I used to plan, ended up, I irritated him for insisting he do something and I get frustrated with his unwillingness to oblige.

Now, we are both happy! I use alphabet cards to help him with phonetic sounds, numbers learning and the magnetic board at times to do drawing and teaching him simple strokes.

He now writes "H" and "I" to make Hi-5!

Every little thing counts. He may not speak very fluent sentences, but with every additional word(s) he adds in to his short sentence, simply makes me lose sleep over.

I will miss him when he goes to school next year, though he is a menace when he is home!

Inaugural Trip to Resort World Sentosa (RWS)

To be frank, RWS is not appealing to me. I never even really wanted to bring the kids to the Universal Studio to catch some fun.

However, my sis got tickets to watch Voyage de la Vie, so we went ahead last saturday since it has been a while we stepped into Sentosa.

It is always nice to meet up with the Tans as both my little ones enjoys the company of Lleroy.

We parked our cars at Tiong Bahru Plaza and took the free shuttle bus into Sentosa.

Seems like it was last October that we last went to the island, and it now looks so different (where RSW was built).



The "A" was missed out while I was adjusting the focus.



Ethyl whent "wow...a castle"


the tiny peeps



The Tans



The Lims



the lil ones again!



I can't remember it was how many years ago I last watched a circus performance. at least a decade ago! This is defintely worth watching!

After the show, we went to Lau Pa Sat for dinner.





Out appetizer!

We always enjoy outings with my sister. The youngest alway has her own program, so, she is always not included in our outings!

Phonics Helps!

Brought Ethyl to LCentral at Bedok for an assessment yesterday and she can gain direct entry to their "Success PFS" program.

I sat through the assessment with Ethyl, am very impressed that the little girl could read so well. Just because she has been doing her role dutifully, I always leave it to her to read by herself these days.

I saw her read the various passages and witnessed how she blend the difficult words together using phonics, a skill she acquired from school and with little teaching from me.

The phonetic sounds was perfect. She never really underwent enrichment in this area and I am proud she does well.

If you ask me what is important for a pre-school child, I would suggest we focus on foundations like phonics for the kid. As they grow older, they can progress to different enrichment that suits their needs.

After a long oven hiatus...

I stepped away from my oven after the excitement of owning one faded. Upon Ethyl's nagging, of which I really admire her perseverance, I stepped into the kitchen and meddled with my baking utensils once again with Ethyl as my lil baking assistant.

Brayden called me "cooking mama" as I baked. That was how he relates baking with that game.

I tried the same recipe before and it was yummy! But this time, I had to do it twice as it was burnt the first time!

The momentum to bake seems to be creeping back and I am looking for my moulds (Brayden played with all my kitchen stuff and kept them in his secret hiding place) for egg tarts. I hope to bake Portuguese egg tart (I found one recipe that I think will taste good).

When will I start baking cookies??

Ingredients:


180gm Butter

180gm fine sugar

2 large eggs, beat lightly

250gm cake flour

1tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp biocarbonate of soda

220gm of mashed bananas

50gm whipped cream

1/2 tsp banana essence

2 bananas sliced (can change to some walnuts to be placed on top of the cake)


Method:


1. Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy

2. pour in eggs gradually and beat till creamy (i split the mixture into 3 portions)

3. Add in whip cream, mashed bananas and banana essence - mix well

4. Add in cake flour, baking powder and biocarbonate of soda and mix well (mix only for a while)

5. pour mixture into 8" round tray (i used a bundt pan instead) and arrange bananas or walnuts on top

6. Bake at 175C for about 55 to 60 mins (mine cooked in 30 mins at 180C) so please monitor. when i left in round tray for 45mins, it's burnt!

How is Brayden?

We all love his cheekiness to the MAX!

Little did I know home learning can make a significant difference from a school environment. I am shy to admit that I am neglecting him quite a bit these days with home coaching, to my surprise, he still picks up whatever small things we have been doing together! That's the beauty of spending time at home.

He can now distinguish between a fire figher and a policeman. Whatever milestone, whether is it ahead or behind his peers, it didn't really bother me at this stage, so long he learns and enjoys learning. This is all I asked for.

I didn't want him to be a couch potato, however there are many things he learned while watching educational programs. What I need to do is ensuring he tunes into the right programs.

There are many photos I posted on Facebook and a tad lazy to transfer them.

We also caught the NDP preview, shall take some time to upload the pictures by this week and post them up. There are simply too many!

How Much Preparation is Enough for P1?

We are sending her for Chinese, English, K2 integrated program in prepartion for P1.

Besides these, I bought her assessments - English, Chinese, Math, Science upon her request. Am I doing enough?

Whenever I come across some parents who are no less kiasu than me, they will tell me they send the kids to tuition classes, blah...blah blah...somehow, I feel Ethyl is pretty much a kid who picks up concepts pretty fast and understands well. Am I doing too much?

She always comes to me complaining, "Mommy I am so bored, I don't know what to do!" This happens when she just finish her assessments on a total about 30 pages and completed in less than 15 minutes.

I gave her whatever I can, ask her to do her favurite painting, drawing, coloring, play pretending, or even tv watching, yet she still finds bored.

Class teachers feedback to me is she is pretty outstanding in her class. I told her, I may just send her to 3 academic focused classes, once every week. Other than those, she will get her art and swimming. She came back pouting and said, too few classes for her *I almost fainted* I also intend o send her for drum lessons which she requested, but the class has yet to start.

Stress is not something she feels at this moment. Because of her learning ability, I am a little lag in pushing her. I just hope she will enjoy her school and retain that enthusiasm for learning.

After saying so much, I guess preparation is a little ambiguous in this sense. Preparation not only is about academic excellence, survival skills are as important.

Learning to count money correctly, checking her school time table, preparing her school bag, ordering the correct food and complete eating in a shorter time are vital survival skills.

With bigger class compared to kindy, the part whereby she manages her emotions, friendships and her responsibilities towards her belongings are equally important.

Here, I play a role whereby I need to teach her how to strike a good balance, be her mentor, her friend in need, her Mommy where she can pour her woes to and a playmate when she needs one.

I hope she will enjoy her school days and we will be smooth in the transition.

I'm on a Roller Coaster Ride (again!)

Two days before, I looked at Ethyl's face and watching her with much attention. I know time flies past especially the time when I am basking in motherhood bliss. None-the-less, a part of me do hope the kids to grow up fast, while the other part of me is secretly hoping time would just halt and let me enjoy them longer.

It was like yesterday that I held Ethyl in my arms, nursing her and bonding with her in our room, in our hall of our first matrimonial flat. I loved watching her suckling and satisfied after dining on me and the fulfillment I get to be able to breastfeed her.

Soon, she flipped, crawled, cut her first tooth, took her first steps etc.

The days of her being a toddler, I brought her out shopping alone, dining at different cafes, restaurants and walking along the stretch of Orchard Road while Hubby was busy at work. All these are memorable and meaningful to me. Our first born, garners all the attention and love from me.

As I reminise those days, reality brought me back. I still love her, but the way I show it is slightly different. I am a little more demanding nowadays as I hope to incalcate the right values and mannerism in her everyday life.

Today, as I register her for P1, my heart undergone another tedious round of tension test. As we registered Ethyl, it was so natural that my eyes felt warm. I lost appetite after that.

As I approached the registration room, my heart thuds faster, probably my BP shot up to a new height then. I am anxious, no doubts as there are only 60 seats left for us. But the main reason behind it is because I suddenly couldn't accept the fact that my Ethyl is going to P1 next year.

As much as I wish time would wait, which is impossible; all I had to is simply enjoy her every moment I have. Having her chatting with me, requesting for my hugs and kisses, showing a little jealousy sometimes and smelling her hair whenever she lies next to me!

Yes, I am an emotional Mommy...I know that very well! I just hope the registration doesn't give us a tough time.