Encouragement Helps!

Encourage your kid(s)", is a repeated phrase and a reminder in almost all motivational parenting reads will encourage parents to do.

I, of course will follow as well, since I am home to help coach them out of school time.

Being home, I encourage my son to speak to me, asking him to repeat words after me etc. No, I am not worried about his speech development, for me, he is developing at a good pace himself. What I have to do is to help him reach his milestones so that he knows Mommy cares.

Every step to helping him is a fun learning stage. I started by asking him questions, he used to nod his head whenever he wants or answers "ÿes"to something, what I did was simply get him to reply me verbally and after a few tries, he started to answer me. Be it just a ÿes"or "no", I am contented.

If I were to ask him if the food he is eating is nice, he will nod and answer "nice". His answers are my "fruits of labour":)

Seeing him talking more everyday makes my decision to be home more worthwhile. It's a blessing and a joy to us.

Getting Her to Pack Her School Bag

So, packing her bag has always been my chore, I told myself I need to start getting her hands on in packing for herself, as to train her and prepare her to pack her bag as she moves on to primary 1 next year.

All students will be given timetable when in P1, she also has her K2 timetable that I would love her to follow through. The different enrichment classes after normal school hours.





Ethylyn has been an enthusiastic helper with household chores,folding cardigan is an easy peasy lemon squeezy business (that's her pet phrase for now).



Here, she had her bag all packed and ready for school!

On the Kids

I have updated a lot about the bento boxes I made for them for the past few days. Something has been lacking, and it is none other that the updates of the little ones.

Ethylyn

Her progress in school has been good and I am pleased with her performance thus far. Though there were times she refused to learn her spelling properly and kept making mistakes, I accepted this is part and parcel of the learning process, so long she still enjoys what she does, I will take things a step at a time.

Personal development is not something I want to neglect. Table etiquette, mannerism and self presentation is something I am working on with her right now. I don't understand why, but she tends to speak really loud. Not shouting, just loud and it does affect me sometimes. Too loud for my own comfort.

There were times she refuses to greet people, no matter how hard I try, she simply refused. Well, it is not that I never try, I did and warned her before we pop over relative/friend's place (especially my MIL), she simply refused to talk or greet certain people. What else can I do??

Brayden

A bundle of joy and fun. This boy has his charm. The way he smiles, laughs and mimic adults simply makes people around laugh.

He is able to sing about 45% of a few familiar songs taught to him repeatedly, this includes those CNY songs that Ethyl has been singing and dancing along with for the festive period. He begins to recognize more alphabets with Ethyl's help in coaching him during play time. As usual, he enjoys playing those peg puzzles to match alphabets, shapes and colors.

Something that is very pleasing to note, he enjoys his lessons in school. He is also getting more independent. He started to self-feed, wants to do many things himself and very expressive (in terms of expressions).

Love being with them both as they never fail to make my days brighter and more meaningful! Love you children!

Some updates...

It has been such a long time since I last updated!

Ethyl is progressing well in terms of academic, though still room for improvement, I am pretty happy with the current results I see from her. Encouraging her is something I do until…she started saying “because I am smart”. Well, I am a little not too comfortable when she gets to think too highly of her achievements. Why? I do not want to nurture a proud or arrogant little girl, thus I have to think twice about using the right words to praise.

These days, I would say, “good job” instead of “well done, girl!” I am praising the action instead of her. I am also toning down on using words like “clever”, “brilliant”, “smart” etc. She still gets her well deserved praises when a good job done, like I mentioned, it is only praising the task she did well in, and not about her.

Her pro-activeness in learning does help makes teaching easier. Her weekly spelling tests, homework etc. I guess it’s all about making her understand the need to be enthusiastic about learning in life and in everything she does. Even if she were to fail, at least she knows she puts in effort.

The tedious and pressurize phase of her life is creeping nearer, the education system here is not the most friendly system we have but we still have to put out children through it. Nevertheless, she still gets to enjoy gaming and her quality time whenever she needs. Teaching her to start planning and prioritizing her own time is what I am coaching her with now. She needs to decide what she wants to achieve ultimately.

As for Brayden, he still can’t speak in proper sentences, however we have noticed he started counting and recognizing numbers on his number card. He is also about to count from 1 to 10 in both mandarin and English. He can spell “DOG”, all thanks to the spelling app on iPhone! He enjoys playing the educational games on my iPhone and has been picking up little things.

All these little achievements mean so much to me. It is really a blessing to have these two cute ones at home…they are such a joy!

Brayden is 91 Weeks Old

It's hard to believe when I saw my calendar early this week and saw that Brayden is 91 weeks' old. He is such a baby to us as he is the youngest. He gets alot of attention from us all and brings us tonnes of joy.

He went to school for like 3 weeks and he is coping well I would say. He is a late bloomer in terms of speech development. We have been trying to teach him new words, and he can actually say when we told him to repeat after us!

He is good with peg puzzles, thus I bought quite a bit for him to play with during Christmas for him. He likes to explore himself instead of us guiding him. From alphabets to numbers, colors and shapes matching, he can do it effortlessly. There was once he couldn't fine the triangular shape, he took Ethyl's math material (a triangular shaped puzzle) and fit it in! I would say he is pretty flexible in this area. *beaming*

Though he ain't talking much, he enjoys singing. Yes, singing. He can sing some barney songs, the simpler ones or hum to the rhythm and dance with actions. It really is a joy to sit there watching both Ethyl and him singing and dancing at times.

He likes babies. Whenever he sees younger kids, he would play with him/her and is really friendly to them (so unlike him!).

I am proud to say, we have trained them pretty well for bedtime. When we turn off the lights, little will automatically lie down on his side of the mattress and pull his quilt over and tries to sleep. No fuss, no tug-of-war. Our baby has grown up! Oh...

For A Record

I am so happy to hear Brayden call me "Mommy" TODAY!!! To be specific, it was this morning when I was getting ready for work.

He once called "Mama" many weeks ago and just once and no more. I wonder when will be the next time I hear "Mommy" again.

He is beginning to speak up more. Xiao Yi says he is a quiet boy, or rather a boy with few words. I do not agree though. He always blabbers at home and loves to shriek!

The word he says most daily is none other than "Jie jie". He also loves Ethyl alot by hugging her and puling her hair at times, but this doting sister never once raise her voice at him. She takes that as Didi's way of showing affection.

He also loves to say "Dad Dad" or "Ah Dad". Yesterday on our way back, we saw a cat and he went "Cat". Mom says he can also say "catch"; but probably both "cat" and "catch" sounds pretty much similiar to us too. For sure he can say "dog".

I am hoping to hear more from him. He still loves jiejie, Daddy and Popo more than me *sad*.

Our Lil Guy

I am so lag in the updates for the kiddos! All thanks to the changes in work and load from reno, I am kinda overstretched and sleep is a luxury!

We went IMM again over the weekend to confirm the toiletry fittings and settle all the other needed for delivery to our new place coming Friday.

See how happy little boy is? He enjoys kiddy rides, and we spent 6 bucks for one shared ride, and one individual rides each.

Next, little boy is cruising!!!

Lately, the posts were all about little boy. My sweetie also had some updates that I have been holding back for a while.

When it comes to studies, she never really need me to worry much about her, at least to this stage. She has been very enthusiastic when it comes to learning.

Her are some of her latest "work".

She does have mistakes in the earlier 听写，but she has mastered the words that she made mistakes. Initially when she started learning a word that is more complicated with more strokes, she'll come telling me, "Mommy, I don't know how to write (that particular word), it's so difficult."

I will always assure her that I can teach her and told her that she has to be confident about being able to master the word(s) under our guidance. After a few repetitions, she is confident and can master the writings well.

She is learning to write more and reading chinese books that has more words. Her readers I bought from the school are very useful I would say. She is enjoying her every learning moments...

She Really Did It!

She came back with her spelling book yesterday. When she told me hers was full marks, I was quite happy about it. I know she does put her heart and mind in everything she was told to do.

As you can see she did erase "Sam" several times. When asked for the reason, she said, "Because I wrote wrongly and I erase away and wrote correctly".

"Is it because the teachers told you to do that?" I asked

"No lah! Mommy, I know I am wrong, so I erase. Teacher only sit there and say the word."

Impressive! I hope there is consistency in her spelling tests.

Besides this, she can also write some Chinese words after a week of schooling! K1 makes a real difference in their learning. Can I be boastful and says she is actually quite smart? I hope we won't take things for granted and hope she can be humble.

Next week's spelling words...she remembered them in less than 5 minutes. I seriously think phonics helps her alot in her reading and now, spelling.

Updates and Our 7mo Boy

Ethyl's scar is healing pretty well. Her dressing was changed and the Doctor assures that looking at the way it is healing and closing u, most likely there'll be no obvious scarring as she grows older.

As a Mom, I felt much relieved upon the doctor's assurance. However, I still would want to heed advise from my Dermatologist to ensure that the scar will be minimally visible.

Ethyl has been taking this incident pretty well. I can see she is still very afraid of going to the doctor after her saga many months back. I would say I am a proud Mommy as my girl is still brave eventhough she is struggling within herself to walk into the clinic. Well done, Baby!

As for our 7mo bub, he is thriving well. It's a shame that I am unable to spend alot of time with him at this point in time, I try to be as hands-on as much as I could.

I am hoping he'll grow up faster so that I can bring both Ethyl and himself out for some fun on weekends.

He is eating quite a bit as usual, but no matter how he eats, his peaking metabolism rate will burn the food and milk he takes in and he is only weighing 7.4kg. I am not worried, Ethyl was alos in the 25th percentile in terms of weight when she was a baby. Look at her now, she is one of the tallest in class and oh, I almost forgot to update...she is one of the best in class too! *beaming Mommy*

Brayden adores Ethyl. I am really glad for this fact!

Back to Ethyl...I went to collect her final term report card and this time, the teacher in charge didn't open the book like before. She laid the book on the table and said, "Ethylyn's doing very well. She is very smart and is one of the best in class."

I was quite shocked to hear this actually. They do not measure the students using grades, but through the daily work and activities, the teachers observe that she can grasps the various topics well especially so for phonics. Her Math is also good. Hubby's worry at this point is pretty redundant. He felt that Ethyl's Math is very weak and we need to work on that.

Another point the teacher brought up...all along, during the past sessions, they would say Ethyl is a quiet girl and I told them she wasn't. They never believe me, and this time the teacher commented, "Ethylyn, Wenxi, Shermaine and Joiee Ma are the top students for English class, however, when the 4 girls are together, they we very loud and talkative. We had no choice, but to seperate them into for different tables." I laughed at this comment!

"Ethylyn is also very vocal and the same 4 girls would ask questions when the lesson is going on. This is very good! That is also one reason why they are doing well."

As for the chinese teacher, she told me she likes Ethyl. She is very all-rounded and for Chinese class, both Ethyl and her best friend Wenxi are the top. Both girls as usual loves to talk, however, Li laoshi loves Ethyl more because she is able to follow instructions and pay attention when told to stop talking.

This time, my little girl makes me feel proud of her. I hope her enthusiasm in learning will continue...

I did praise her on our way back, however, my usual sentence is, "I can see you are putting in effort, and I hope you will continue to do so".

From Scribbling to Writing

This is written by Ethyl under my supervision.

Her school has started to give the kids homework to do over the weekends. I was not really supportive to the idea, but later on thought it was a good idea as it helps her get used to doing homework and prepare her for the primary school.

The inital assignments were just to reinforce the writing of the 26-alphabets, it has evolved into writing the days and now, in short sentences.

I didn't hold her hand anymore, what I did was to sit beside her and tell her "No, not nice, erase and re-write", "Hmm...don't you think this can be written more beautifully?", "Do you think you can do better than this?, "Write the same words closer, next word with one finger spacing please." etc.

Here I am, proud to announce that her work looks great to me for a 4yo kid.

And here she is, always out of her own initiative picks up a paper and a pen/pencil and starts writng words she knows. She can now spell Monday!

Her birthday request is also simple, books for her, no toys. This is my girl. I hope her passion in learning never stops.