Our letter 'C'

It was Chinese New Year, so we jumped straight into festive celebration. We read a few stories related to Chinese New Year and made a dragon puppet out of paper bag! Theo stick the dragon tongue, coloured the dragon and stuck on its googly eyes. Easy to make, nice!

Then Theo helped to sort sweets and counted them.














We also 'toured' Chinatown on a WEEKDAY, can U believed it was still crowded. Well, I guess weekends were worse! We got this traditional costume. we learnt so much at Chinatown, Theo was so excited looking at all the "Cun Lian", "Pao Zhu" and all the traditional chinese new year decorations.

And when Chingay came to the heartlands, we caught it. God was good to us. We were dining in nearby restaurant at the time Chingay was due to start. But it rained and the whole event was postponed till we finished our dinner. haha, what a day to thank God for. :)























We Started our traditional letter craft, and attempted to make a "polka-dot" caterpillar. This was really good for fine motor skills that Theo was good at. He stuck on the googly eyes, (kids just lurve googly eyes!) and ta-da, easy peasy!
He counted some 1-cents coins.




















Then we did writing on shaving cream. I know, such a mess! But he liked it. I love it when children don't mind getting their hands dirty, its a way to learn and serve. Of course, which child can contain their curiosity and excitement with SHAVING CREAMS on their hands? I applaud Theo for his patience. He had to write "C" on the wall, a few times. Then it was freedom; cream here, cream there, cream everywhere!















Then we did some experiment making clouds with cotton wool. We read that rain happens because the cloud were so full of water that it fell from the sky, creating a drizzle, a shower and a downpour.

We also did some cotton wool painting. I think he was probably so enthralled by the sight of water fountain that we had pictures of water foundation in all forms; magic ink, paint, chalk, cotton wool painting. I like it!

We had a breakthough this month. Theo and I finally progressed on our bilingual program! Mummy spoke mandarin on some days and Theo had learnt to sit and listen in to Chinese stories, and recite a mandarin prayer all by himself. We also added 1 mandarin song into the creation theme. In addition, we read "Mao Mao Cong" (A hungry Caterpillar by Leo Lionni) and made a Mao Mao cong craft. Sorry, didnt have pictures to show, cuz we got too busy doing stuff!

Our Bible theme this time was : Creation
We read our Bible for days of creation and mummy narrate from picture cards from file folder fun while Theo will take the 'created items" and place it on the sheets. Mummy took some time to conceptualise this so that it could be hands-on, interesting and memorable for the child. (See more on Creation craft). we also did God made me and God loves me activity. We sang songs from "God made the moon and God made the stars..." etc. This game can be played a few times and we could also do simple story sequencing.




















Free Play

Theo's got a scooter! yippee... Theo had it everywhere he went... zoom zoom zoom, and our little baby had to be a part too.



















We caught some ants carrying food from one point to another at the stairway near our flat on one of our morning walks. (Sorry, no pictures to show cuz mummy didnt bring the camera on that day). But it was a really nice opportunity to observe and appreciate nature and animals. And mummy had to suppress her "eeeeeeeeeeeeeee... let's get out of here" impluse. So we could have a REAL lesson on ants and their dilligence.

Lots of playground & running around time for boys who need to be in the action!

































Time of learning-to-share-and-not-fight-over-toys moment! This has got to be a one special moment I love. Theo was so spontaneous in sharing his yakult drink, he had to hold didi head to let him drink. Very very cute!









Theo is fully into pretend play. He even has an imaginary friend named, "Go Go". He has gone on the plane, and on "mission trip" to help others build houses and cook for the poor. of course, our little one had to be part of the team. He is learning very fast as well.














He is also curious about sun-rise and sun-set, why it is dark and why there is light. A coincidence that we are doing creation to explain why there was day and night.

Airshow 2010

Our letter "T"

We chose "The Ten Lepers" for our Bible lesson with the associated character trait of "thankfulness". We read the story from the kid's Bible and role play with all his stuff toys as the 'lepers', and he was the 'doctor'. Then we played the 'thank you' game.

It was rather fun and effective in getting Krunchy Boy (to verbalise "thank you" as it utilise repetition to help a child get used to saying it.

We found that KB can be rather reserved in situations that calls for initiating a conversation or greetings with strangers or people he is not familiar with. So this can be a rather big thing for him to overcome. With lots of other intentional training at home throughout the weeks, we discovered that he said "thank you" to a cellgroup friend of ours when they send us home, he also said "thank you" to a little girl who offered him sweet. On both accounts, it was a first. Subsequently, he also managed to say "Bye" or "Hi" softly.

We used a song "Thank you Lord (you choose)" from children's praise & worship by Kingsway, Children's ministry. The song really helps in letting him sing what he is thankful for! And soon he was picking out his toys in the house and many people he thank God for in the song. When we went to the airshow, he started to sing "Thank you God for aeroplanes." We loved that song to bits.

Treasure hunting for triangles mummy hid around the house. We try to make something out of triangles. I did some and KB did some. He got interested in the latch of my big bag later and spent some time figuring out how to open and close. Nice discovery.



















We did the usual familiarise with the letters with "T" crafts which he painted the "T" and tore assorted shades of green paper to make leaves for his tree.
















I used to think rice-writing does not work, but he proved me wrong! He was having such fun writing with his fingers! He even initiated a small 't' and a big 'T' and did a song and dance.
















I asked KB where does the Terrapin lives? He tells me "From the market". Ha haha.. such is a city boy's encounter with nature. I proceeded to create a lapbook from one of the books we were reading. Although I usually don't do lapbook much, I felt that this is one way he can play games and be reminded of some tiny bits of facts. (We try not to overdo information at this age). "One tiny turtle" is such a heart-warming yet informative living book. KB enjoyed the living book so much I had to read over and over and over and he would even sit outside the washroom with me on the toilet seat reading the book to him!!! He had also dramatized the story many times over pretending he was the little turtle. Motivated learners are most creative. He counted the hatchlings, played with life cycle, talked about predator and prey, and named the various body parts of the turtle.





















Painting tires of his little truck and cleaning up after.

We made a tunnel using the letter foams. Ok, this was mummy's idea. The boys enjoys the tumbling around and racing each other they didnt care if the tunnel crashes within minutes. I love to watch them play together without a care. Having two boys so close together in age is a blessing as they can play together (and snatching! So lots of opportunities for teachable moments of love and sharing). KB recites the 2 guidelines when playing with Didi.

"Number 1, Must share, number 2, Cannot snatch, because I love my brother".


































Making tea! We used caffeine-free Rooibos green tea from South Africa. KB watched as the colour of water turns from clear to golden yellow. Tea is ready and he had a cup to taste.



















We did some measuring with a customised ruler made of turtles! We measured furnitures around the house and counted the number of turtles that made up the length of the objects. This is a one level up on counting objects in hand, but I ventured anyway. It was challenging at first, but we counted it slowly with him.

Free play






























































I provided the chalks. KB proceeded to draw on the pavement just outside our door. He had progressed from abstract drawing to symbolic drawing. You can see the "t" shaped symbol which is a representation of the shape of an aeroplane. I noticed alot of similiar shapes drawing on the floor and asked him what was he drawing. He tells me he is drawing an aeroplane. Look at the many aeroplanes! He cleans the floor by pouring water. Crayola chalks really cleans easily. No brush needed.

He also drew a water fountain using magic ink. He tells me there are big ones and small ones of many colours.

KB saw a wire hanging nearby my keyboard and asked me what was that. That question led to the finding of a mircophone which now sits permanently on my bedside shelf. KB will go once in awhile to sing very very loud! He loves to sing "How Great is our God" into the microphone. I had to remind him not to 'eat' it cuz he places his mouth so close to it.
























We went to the park twice in a week to jog. It is so nice to finally be able to take baby Elias out wherever we go. KB is playing alot with his sibling. KB knocked out and took a 3-hour afternoon nap each time. Mummy was bushed as well! Then we went swimming the following week.




















Mastery of chopsticks! Yipee! KB was really happy to be able to use chopsticks like us. My mum tells me I mastered the use of chopsticks when I was three-yrs-old, but KB beat me to it. He was two-years and nine months.

KB's love for transportation is admirable. Everything he does in his imaginary play has something to do with a plane or a train or a bus! This is his construction of staircase to the bus, going to work with a backpack like daddy! He woke up recently and tells me he wants to go to work so eagerly.He cries when he realised he wasnt really 'allowed' to go to daddy's office. Sigh... maybe one day we should really let him walk around daddy's office.:0)