Activity Books Completed in December 2013

#1. Chinese Enrichment for Nursery

I bought this book from an expo fair a while back, and Ian had been doing it on and off, over the span of a few months.  His chinese at the beginning of the year was rather weak, and he could not really recognize the words when he first started to work on this book.  At almost the end of the year, we could see that he had greatly improved in his language, and could recognize many more words in this book.  The book focused mainly on words recognition, IQ games, and tracing simple words such as one to ten in chinese characters.

#2. Kumon More Let's Sticker and Paste!
Another book that Isabelle loved.  She appeared not to like the sticky feeling of liquid glue on her fingers, and demanded to wash her hands once she had glue on her fngers.  I let her try using glue stick and it seemed better.  She was still unable to control the amount of glue to squeeze out on the paper though.

#3. CQ Sticker Game Book (Age 2-3)
One of the 3-book sticker books series.  Unlike Ian, Isabelle did not display a great interest in sticker books.  At each sitting, she could only keep focused on one or two exercises.

#4. Chinese Book of Cutting for Preschoolers
A book similar to the Kumon's series of cutting exercises, which Isabelle enjoyed tremendously.  Needless to say, she completed the entire book in a matter of days.

Enrichment Classes - A Roundup

Another roundup of the classes that the 2 little ones are currently attending, or will be attending in the coming year.

For Ian:

1. Piano - His last group class has ended mid of this month, and he will be moving on to a 1-to-1 lesson from February next year.  He has attended a trial class with the new teacher, and it seems that his foundation is on the weaker side, considering that he has attended the group class for almost 2 years.
2. Creative Writing - He has completed the pre-creative writing class that lasted from June to November, and has attained the teacher's recommendation to progress to the creative writing class in January.  As the course is meant for primary 1 students, the teacher warned that he may have difficulty in writing as compared to the other students in the class who are true P1 kids.  Nevertheless, it is still a good exposure for him.
3. Abacus - This is the beginning of the last term for him.  I think I can hear his relief that his most torturous class is going to end soon.  Ironically, we are starting to see an improvement in his abacus after we made up our mind to end the agony.
4. Junior Math @ TLL - Since we were not seeing any result in his mathematical concepts after putting him through more than 1 year in the abacus class, we have scouted around for another alternative to help to build up his foundation.  At long last, we found him a place in the super popular/expensive enrichment school.  After just 4 lessons, it does appear to us that his concepts have improved a little.  And we are pleasantly surprised that the school teaches them (K2 kids) symmetry and measurements in the first 2 or 3 classes.

For Isabelle, she is currently still in the HGR program.  Ian has to give up his HGR class in exchange for the new class at TLL, but he is enjoying the new class just as much.  And he volunteers to do the homework everyday, which is such a total opposite reaction to his abacus homework.

Here was his welcome gift from the first lesson - ingenious!  The balloon dog appeared to be walking as you dragged it across the floor.  Isabelle loved this balloon so much that she snatched it from him the moment he walked out the class with it.  Unfortunately for Ian, he only got to play with it when she was in bed.

A hard-earned gift after sitting in the class for close to 2 hours.

[Crafts] Alex Toys - Paper Bag Puppets

Both kids got off school after lunch today, so I let them entertain themselves with a box of paper bag puppet craft kits from Alex Toys.

While Isabelle needed plenty of help from me, Ian could do the work all by himself.  Since Isabelle could not finish hers/lost interest to finish them, Ian gave his assistance and finished up the rest of it all.  The box contained 5 puppets, and it took them about 2-3 hours to complete.

And now, my boy is targetting at another box of craft kits in my stash...

Activity Books Completed in November 2013

#1 - IQ Sticker Book

Isabelle completed this book with some help from us.  She did not seem to be as interested in sticker books as Ian, so it took a few days to finish till the last page.

#2 - Usborne Sticker Books - Airport
Both of them took turns to complete this sticker book, but with Ian contributing the most.  He also attempted to teach his little sister how to paste the stickers properly but looking at the scene and the orientation of the stickers.

#3 - Kumon - My Book of Numbers 1-120
I could not even remember when Ian started to work on this book (it seemed ages ago).  But it bored him to tears when he just started.  I kept the book away for a few months, and took it out again when he was more comfortable with numbers, and he breezed through it just so that he could have the certificate at the back of the book.

#4 - Let's Colour
Another book that had been stashed away for a long time.  I initially bought this book from a Popular Expo Sale, for Ian to practise on his colouring skills.  However, he was only interested in it for a while and was not able to finish colouring the whole picture, so the book was put away.  Until recently, he begged me to let him colour the pictures again, when I took out the book to let Isabelle try her hands on colouring.  The siblings finished the book in one morning, with Ian doing most of the work, and Isabelle just scribbling on the few sheets that she was given.  Must admit that Ian's colouring skills had improved so much since last year.

These were 2 of his works, pinned up on the wall as a form of encouragement to keep up his efforts.

BambinoLUK

Ian had started on the BambinoLUK system when he was around the age of 3.  These books were supposed to help in the training of logic/critical thinking, as well as to improve concentration skills.  

He could do the easier exercises back then, but needed some prompting on the more difficult pages.  Because of our inconsistency in letting him work on these books, he only (and finally) finished the last book this month, just months before turning 6.  At this point, he could easily complete most of the exercises without help, so he found it immensely enjoyable and confidence-boosting.

[Crafts] What A Craft-ful Day!

With both kiddos at home today, we spent some time doing art and crafts again.


We took out the colouring book and started colouring away.  As usual, Isabelle was not very interested in colouring and scribbled away on the paper, whereas her brother attempted to colour as best as he could.  As he requested, he selected a few pieces of his artwork to be pinned onto the wall.

And this is my work...

Next, I fished out the foam sticker craft that I had purchased from a Popular Expo fair a long time ago.  Ian enjoyed doing this, and did it mostly on his own and with some interruption from his little sister who kept stealing pieces of the stickers away.

And this is the completed work...

In the afternoon, we recreated the rainbow craft activity that I had done with Ian way back in 2010.  I had thought that this would be easy enough for Isabelle, but she only had patience to complete the first 3 bands while I completed the rest for her.  This time round, I did not have to help Ian at all - except to draw the outline of the rainbow.


And there!  Ian's work is on the left, and it is much, much better than the one on the right.  I am pleasantly surprised at his effort to paste everything so neatly and orderly.  And he insisted to draw clouds too.  (On the right, look at Isabelle's attempt to imitate the clouds too!)

Favourite Activity After Nap

Recently, this is one of the favourite things she will do after waking up from her afternoon naps - cut, cut, cut!

Handmade With Love

This piece of pink polka dot fabric had been in my stash forever, so I set my heart on destashing it from my pile and made this dress just in time for Halloween.  But it was just too bad that the school decided not to have any celebration this year!  

She loved the dress just the same anyway, as I told her it was her Minnie dress.

Activity Books Completed in October 2013

We focused a little more on those books that were about to be completed this month...

#1 - My Book of Simple Addition by Kumon

Ian had been working on this book for well over a year perhaps?  The book consisted of drilling exercises for adding 1, and later on, 2.  At the beginning, Ian dreaded doing this book, so I put it away and sent him to learn abacus.  After a break of a few months from this book, I took it out again and he seemed less resistant towards the exercises in it, as he was more confident to tackle the monotonous exercises.  Perhaps after the horror of his abacus homework, this seemed less frightening, and he was able to do a few pages a day to complete it.

#2 - My Book of Writing Words by Kumon
This books focused on consonants and vowels, but it only required the child to trace/copy the words with a few repetitions.  I wondered how much Ian had absorbed from tracing/copying the words, but he did the exercises gladly anyway.

#3 - Let's Sticker & Paste by Kumon
Now, a book for Belle.  It was one that she enjoyed pretty much.

#4 - Chinese Sticker Book
Another book for Belle.  She had to match the shape of the stickers to the shaded shapes in the pictures.  It did not pose much difficulty for her, but I did skip the logic/reasoning exercises at the bottom half of every page as those could not catch her attention at all.

A Sinful Supper

Bought 4 of these hairy crabs from NTUC Xtra this morning, and we waited until the youngest one was sleeping before we could have our late night supper.

A River Safari Trip

This was one of our visits to the River Safari, and this time, the goal was to catch the feeding time at 4.45pm.

Pictures galore...

 Huge turtles!

 "Cheese!"

 Giant crocodile

 A red panda!

 Jiajia, the elusive panda

 Manatees, somewhat mesmerizing to watch them swim slowly

A close-up!

Showing Her Loving Side

This was how she arranged the soft toys to lie down beside her, a pretend play in tucking herself to bed.

My Little Vain Pot

She suddenly wanted to put on the headbands that I had bought for her before she was born.  After I helped her put one of them on her head, she started to admire herself in the mirror, and making faces at her own image.

Spree, Spree, Spree!

Here is my latest spree from Amazon, and the best part of it - shipping was free!

Parcel #1

The first parcel that arrived on 1st October! The delivery by iparcel was surprisingly fast - within a week after it was dispatched from Amazon.  

Ian has been begging for a taller bottle to bring to school, and one without a straw. It turned out that one of his classmates had been going around making fun of other kids who were drinking with a straw bottle, calling them babies. Anyway, it is probably a good idea to upgrade his bottle since he can finish the water in the old bottle pretty fast. And so that he will not have to ask for refills frequently.  Again, I have chosen a stainless steel bottle for him as it is probably a better choice than plastics, and he was strong enough to carry it around.  I have also chosen a good old plain bottle that is not coated with colour, so that he will not get a chance to complain about scratches any more!

I also bought a new straw bottle for Belle, in an adorable Hello Kitty design. She is going through straw bottles at an alarming rate - about one bottle every 1-2 months. Either the straw is breaking from her constant biting, or else the cap is broken. Reviews on this Thermos Titan Straw bottle mentioned that the straw was pretty durable, so we shall see how it goes. The only dislike I have is that the straw has no extra protection from the environment - you just flip it up to drink and down to 'close'. But for the very nice price tag (USD $7), it is worth to give it a try.

I also threw in a box of Nuk teats with this order, and it was a pretty good deal as compared to purchasing them locally.

Parcel #2

After what seemed such a long wait, the UPS guy finally arrived with the rest of my loots today - shoes for the little ones and myself.

Ian has worn out his old pair of Mickey Crocs much earlier than I have expected (the soles were literally frictionless).  The new pair of Crocs that I have stocked up for him late last year is still a little huge on him, hence, I have gotten him another pair in a smaller size.  It was a McQueen design that he has been requesting for such a long, long time - and thankfully, I finally found one in his size (J1).  The older McQueen design from Crocs seems to only go up to 12-13M, and I cannot remember when was the time that Ian has surpassed this range.

I also grabbed a new pair of Stride Rite for Belle in the next size, as they fit her so well.  

After stacking the available discount codes, my own pair of Crocs turned out to be free, and with change.  Scored!

[Crafts] September 2013

We found some time to do crafts together, at last!  The lazy me decided to remake one of the old creations that Ian and I had done way back in 2011.  (See the old post here.)

I cut out the shapes for the heads, legs and tails.  This time round, I let Ian do most of the work thereafter, while I occupied myself with helping Belle. 

Can you guess whose work is which? 

Answer: Ian did the one on the left.

We also managed to recreate the paper plate bunny this month.  (See the old post here.)

Ian got to draw the eyes and mouths for Isabelle (on the left), following what I did for his.

Activity Books Completed in September 2013

Not a very productive month... and here they are...

A chinese sticker book for Isabelle, for her to learn how to match shapes by pasting the stickers into the appropriate "shadows" in the scenes.  It did not pose much difficulty for her now.

These 2 books are meant for Ian.  He had been eyeing on the sticker books that I had bought for Isabelle, and I accidentally found these 2 that are age-appropriate for him.  He enjoyed himself with them, and needed little help to complete them.

Ian completed another Kumon workbook - My Book of Rhyming Words and Long Vowels.  It consisted mostly of tracing words, so he finished the book pretty quickly.