Introducing...Ethan & Andrea

Finally... a photo update for members.

Here're my beloved children - Ethan & Andrea

Visit to Hill Street Central Fire Station

It was an impromptu decision and we off we went last Saturday!! There is no specific guided tour, so you could step in anytime from 9am onwards till 12pm (I suppose). The information I receive was tour starts at 9am and 10am. Anyway,we spent about 1 hour plus then went for lunch at Funan Centre, forgot to visit the Museum though. Perhaps next time...... Check these out!

JX enjoyed the ride so much,he went up 4 times!!!

Inside the Emergency Ambulance.

Demonstrations, the firemen are really brave to slide down 3 storeys!!

Visitors were mainly families with childeren.

Encouraging your child to read story books

JX learns to read. He particularly like this story and has repeatedly read it over and over again. He only recognises some basic characters and remembers the rest of the story. Heard that children at this age tends to memorise things better, so besides stories, you could try getting him/her to recite poetry too!

To us, grasping the Mother Tongue from young is important as he would get plenty of chances to learn English in future. At home, his Aunt and me would speak to him sometimes in English. Also, he would learn English from the websites. In fact, he has expressed before that he likes to watch English VCDs and speak English, perhaps from the fact that most of his classmates speak English at Nursery 2.

Enjoy reading!!!

Holiday Activities for children

Holiday activities for children:

http://www.singaporeforkids.com/

http://www.asianchildrenfest.com/

http://www.forestadventure.com.sg/

Check it out!!!

IF you like Thomas & Friends

Thomas & Friends show at Singapore Indoor Stadium this Dec:

http://www.sistic.com.sg/portal/dt?dt.isPortletRequest=true&dt.action=process&dt.provider=PortletWindowProcessChannel&dt.windowProvider.targetPortletChannel=JSPTabContainer/sEventsCalendar/Event&dt.containerName=JSPTabContainer/sEventsCalendar&dt.windowProvider.currentChannelMode=VIEW&dt.window.portletAction=RENDER&contentCode=thomas1209

Here's an interactive website on Thomas & Friends too!!

http://www.thomasandfriends.com/usa/



Enjoy!!!

Whee! I have passed the 1 year mark!!!!!

Xinran celebrated her 1 year this Sept. I bought her a small plastic chair so that she can push around at home!

Btw I read this in 10/10 Straits Times

"A 2006 report of the landmark Perry Pre-school project in the United Stated showed that the benefits over the life of the child stood at more than US$8 for every US$1 invested in early childhood education" I am beginning to believe that the behavior of our student now may be partly influenced by the type of child care education they had in the past.

Chinese books sales(商务印书馆大减价)

（见今天早报）
商务印书馆自９月３日（星期四）至１０日，一连８天在中华总商会嘉庚堂举行清货大减价。除了成人书籍，同时也特设特价儿童书专柜，推出书籍和光蝶产品。
时间：上午10时至晚上9时30分。

Websites for interactive learning

Just created a National Library membership card for JX and he used it to borrow his very first book! We may be a bit slow in this but he does have lots to read (books passed down by his cousin plus interactive websites).

YL attended a reading workshop recently about parents reading with children and the speaker introduced a website from Taiwan. Stories can be read out and reading activities created for parents to read with their childeren. The wordings are in "traditional chinese" but the activities are fun!

http://children.cca.gov.tw/home.php 儿童文化馆

Here's another 2 websites which have been shared previously:

http://www.mm-bb.cn/ 妈咪宝贝 (shared by Mdm Qin on parenting and many many more......)

http://www.starfall.com/ (on learning English)

Enjoy!!

Finally, Our First Family Outing in 2 weeks!

After a terrible bout of flu... finally... a family outing! Nothing beats cooling down with a nice cool ice cream after a cycling trip!

Countdown to Mei Mei's arrival in late Aug/early Sept :-)

A picture together at last!

...and yes... with matching polos!!

This was taken @ Mimolette (restaurant) at the old Turf Club.

A great place for kids to visit... but TBH, the food is expensive and not that great. But hey... the kids enjoyed the free balloon animals, face and arm painting and the (paid) horse rides. So it isn't that bad really. The whole deal reminds me of "cartoon-character cakes" - real darn expensive and not that tasty but... the kids love it.

Its me again!

Wow haven't been posting anything for months...

Time flies and my daughter Xin Ran is 11months now. She is becoming more and more curious of her surrounding and is trying out everything within her reach! I am still bringing her to parks and reservoirs frequently which i feel is keeping her clam and relaxed especially during this hot season.

Learning Chinese Characters

Too early,too late? You might want to try out:

JX's cousin passed him a set of word character cards (字卡) and he started word recognition about 1 month ago, till now, he could recognise up to about 40 plus characters and form short sentences like "我爱爸妈" minus the punctuation marks. We see him every weekend and the learning process is repeated every weekend. I believe this applies to English characters and words too. Of course, when he is "studying" , he does role play (he pretends he is the childcare teacher).

Wisdom of Aesop's Fables

JX's grandma and father like to tell stories to him and he learns quite about good behaviour and habits through stories. JX's father would dramatise stories from Aesop's Fables or educational vcds on character building to leave a deep impression on him. The effect is really good,he remembers characters and content of the stories by acting out the story. It is also useful if you could apply it to everyday life, e.g. when he feels lazy,remind him about the story of "The tortoise and the hare".

Family Life Education Workshops (May-July 2009)

Fei Yue will be having Family Life Education workshops conducted in English and Mandarin.

For English workshops, simply log on to http://www.fycs.org/index.cfm?GPID=91 to check out the list of workshops happening in May – July 2009.

To check out the Mandarin workshops, log on to http://www.fycs.org/index.cfm?GPID=41 .

Fei Yue is having a nation-wide seminar – Preparing Your Child for Primary School for parents. This seminar will be conducted in English and Mandarin. For more details of the seminar, please log to www.fycs.org.

Birthday Cake...

Ethan's 3rd Birthday Cake -

I didn't believe it was possible... until we saw it/ate it!!!

Interests & Activities

Can't resist putting this up,anyway,I'll probably stop posting for a while and ......

(1)JX played today on the drumset for the first time and lo and behold,we strongly believe he has got the talent!Had a chat with one of the person i/c "there" and he said: if a child has the interest and aptitude,sustain that interest in him/her so that perhaps he/she could pursue this interest in future.The environment (including parental support)is important too.

(2)We played a game for the past few weeks with him and he is very interested.You could try this out with your child/children too: create simple maps.Mahjong paper is big enough,else you could start with A4 size paper and start creating a simple map on your surroundings.E.g.the place you stay,the buses and routes you need to take to go to grandparents' house,the zoo,the library etc.Add in traffic lights,trees etc.Then,tape 3/4 A4 size papers together to extend your map!

Have fun!!

Adult language vs Baby language

This is really fascinating.I believe most of you have experienced this too.My mum (main care-taker)has always been communicating with my boy in adult language.She doesn't believe in using baby language like "pom pom","shi shi","mum mum" etc.
Just spoke over the phone with my boy and he actually surprised me,it's like he has changed to a new person all of a sudden.Our mandarin conversation goes like this:
JX:Are you alone at home?
Me:Yes.
JX:Are you afraid when you are alone at home?
Me:No,why did you ask? Who told you to ask this question??
JX: ......
Me:Would you be afraid if you are alone at home?
JX: Yes.
Me: Why?
JX: Because I have no one to talk to.
Me: (nearly fainted......)

National Family Celebrations 2009 (Check it out!)

National Family Celebrations 2009National Family Celebrations is an annual national campaign to celebrate the importance of the family. This year, the Celebrations will run from 30 May 09 to 28 Jun 09.For more details, visit website: http://www.nationalfamilycelebrations.sg.

Offers at Sentosa especially for kids

Offers at Sentosa till 31 Mar 2009,check this out!

http://www.sentosa.com.sg/events_promotions/promotions/index.asp#298

Cartoons and Books

Yo peeps!

Some books and vcds that I'd like to share with NV mommies and daddies... Just let me know which item(s) you're interested in borrowing... :)

Think you can click on each image to view a larger version...

Books galore!

Here's a list of Bob the Builder & Postman Pat VCDs that I just purchased through Motherhood's BP:

BOB THE BUILDER : BOB'S BIRTHDAY
BOB THE BUILDER : BOB'S EGG AND SPOON RACE
BOB THE BUILDER : BOOTS
BOB THE BUILDER : CLOCKTOWER BOB
BOB THE BUILDER : FARMER AND OTHER STORIES
BOB THE BUILDER : MR BENTLEY'S TRAIN
BOB THE BUILDER : PILCHARD'S BREAKFAST
BOB THE BUILDER : PIZZA
BOB THE BUILDER : PHOTOGRAPHER
BOB THE BUILDER : ROLEY'S IMPORTANT JOB
BOB THE BUILDER : RUNAWAY ROLEY
BOB THE BUILDER : SAVES THE HEDGEHOGS
BOB THE BUILDER : WENDY'S MAGIC BIRTHDAY
BOB THE BUILDER : WENDY'S WELCOME AND OTHER STORIES
POSTMAN PAT V 2 - POSTMAN PAT AND THE BIG BUTTERFLIES
POSTMAN PAT V 4 - GREEN RABBIT
POSTMAN PAT V 6 - THE TRAIN INSPECATOR
POSTMAN PAT V 7 - PERFECT PAINTING
POSTMAN PAT V 8 - PIGEON POST
POSTMAN PAT V 10 - THE GREAT DINOSAUR HUNT
POSTMAN PAT V 13 - POSTMAN PAT AND THE RUNAWAY KITE
POSTMAN PAT V 14 - BIG BALLOON RIDE
POSTMAN PAT V 16 - SURPRISE PRESENT
POSTMAN PAT V 17 - PERFECT PIZZA
POSTMAN PAT V 28 - POT OF GOLD
POSTMAN PAT V 29 - FANTASTIC FEAST
POSTMAN PAT V 33 - TALKING CAT
THOMAS & FRIENDS VOL - SING ALONG SONGS

Other cartoons: THOMAS & FRIENDS VCD No. 30 to 38

Boon Yen

Cookery for boys?

Why not? Playthings shouldn't be stereotyped......

Hi all

Its my first post!

Maybe i will start off with my baby girl xinran. Believe it or not, i dreamt of her when i was camping with my odac members at endau rompin national park in Malaysia, 2 years ago. Thats why the last character is "ran" which means nature in chinese.

She is now 5and half months old can now roll and loves listening to music. She will even protest when she's not brought to the dining table while we are having our dinner!

She raise her arms when she wants to be picked up and gives me a pat on the back :P

Getting your child/children to love eating fruits/vegetables

Saw these 2 articles in Zaobao yesterday,we could learn a few tips from the experts:

http://www.zaobao.com/fk/fk090223_520.shtml

http://www.zaobao.com/fk/fk090223_521.shtml

My boy (touch wood) so far likes vegetables,we used to make cute munching "sounds" and even make up a song (just put in the vegetables as part of the "lyrics") Decorating the vegetables in his plates works sometimes too. He likes eating anyway and always show interest in what adults eat,so we let him try a bit of this and that."Strange foods" that he doesn't mind eating include onions,black fungus,mushrooms (dong1 gu1) and medicines (YES! Don't know why,he likes to shake the bottles and gulp the medicines in glee......) And,you have to praise him when he eats vegetables and fruits,praises work..........it works for students too :D

Gallop Stable

Hi!  Have u guys visited Gallop Stable at Pasir Ris Park?

It has been one of my boy's favourite!  Lots of fun filled activities available - feed/stroke the pony, pony rides, riding lessons...  Fantastic hang out during weekends!!

Bonding with your child

Just made 2 discoveries recently:

(A) Jingxuan must have learnt something from his Speech and Drama Class at the Childcare Centre. He pretends that he is brushing before he actually brushes his teeth!! Also, he usually carries the stool to the basin so that he can stand on it to brush his teeth. Today, he actually pretends that he is carrying the stool to the basin!!! Good, think I'll teach him some drama skills, hahahaha......

(B) Treasure every minute during bedtime to chat with your child/children before he/they sleep. Besides telling bedtime stories or singing or reciting poetries, you could also recall with him happenings during the day/recently, inculcating values as you discuss with him.

The Mom Song(with lyrics)

Just received this link from a friend,similar to the one that Kenneth uploaded (it is not available now due to copyright issues).Enjoy!!!!!



http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=53343862102&h=pfEc9&u=WsmvT

Fantastic websites

Hi,I've shared this via e-mail too,just to include the websites here:

http://www.starfall.com/

http://www.mm-bb.cn/