New School

This week and next will be quite busy for us as we have decided to change Kimi to another playschool. And we are very happy with the new school.

Kimi was supposed to attend another school which we had registered for earlier. But a trip there during lessons REALLY put me OFF! The teacher had on a sulky face and was teaching the kids on the top of her voice. More like 'lecturing' than teaching.

I also asked them a few questions and they answered me quite impatiently. Really not happy so I went looking aroung again before we decided on this school. The teachers here are really patient and kind. I hope such behaviour rubs off Kimi cos I know if I let him stay in that school, he will just learn to scream and act like the teachers there.

This new school is essentially a childcare but I shall only have Kimi stay for half a day and homeschooling him the other half 2-3 times a week and the rest of the week, fun! fun! fun!

I like how this school has individual classrooms, omitting the 'zoo' effect where you get an instant migraine the minute you step foot in it. You know, with kids, they always want to be heard so each of them screams louder than the one before!

I also like that they have really good structure and curriculum and are sooo open about what they do and encourage parent/teacher/school interaction! Everyday, there is a contact report for us parents!

They even offered to change Cookery Class which is scheduled on Fridays to another day so that Kimi can join in the fun. This is cos Kimi attends enrichment class on Fridays and do not attend school. This is really what I call customer-centric!

And although we are not Christians, I am not against Christian moral values, in fact, I think they are actually very very good for growing kids. Learning to be kind and putting others before self through interesting Bible stories are good and I really encourage that.

I have a good feeling about this place and I really hope that I did not make a wrong decision and pray that Kimi will enjoy his time there. Kimi will start next week and we are looking forward to it!

Will update at a later date! :)

Letter C - Part 2

This was supposed to be done and wrapped up last week by the weekend but I was busy and not feeling too good. Well, its' ok. We finish up with the letter C today with hb helping to undertake a little guiding. Well done, papa!

We started with reading and this was what we read :-

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle
• If You Give A Mouse A Cookie - Laura Joffe Numeroff
• Who ate all the Cookie Dough? - Karen Beaumont

Then hb started Kimi on his alphabet and strokes practice and taught him about the life-cycle of a caterpillar (similar to butterfly - a revision for Kimi as I had went through this with him during Week B).

Hb then lead Kimi on to pretend play by asking Kimi to be a butterfly, flapping his wings, which he enjoyed!

We ended with our short lesson with Cookery Class by baking some Chocolate Chip Cookies and Kimi tasting his first SIN - Chocolate Chip Cookie after dinner! He loved it! Oh dear... think he may have a sweet tooth like me too! With stories and all, he really knows what a cookie is.

After dinner we did a caterpillar craft. Not recommended as I did most of it cos it's quite difficult to string through the poms poms with that filmsy wire. But Kimi liked the caterpillar so much and kept chuckling whenever as he sees its eyes rolling.

Happy reading with Papa

Papa explaining the process of the life-cycle of a caterpillar

Kimi tasked to do a matching game with the playset and pix card

Well done, Kimi!

Kimi pretending to be a butterfly - flapping his wings!

Getting better at strokes practice

Cookery class - Baking Chocolate Chips Cookies!

Helpful little helper!

Messing around? No, learning to count the dough as well as stealing a few tastes! Haha!

Books and Kimi's completed strokes practice sheets.

Having his first taste of a cookie and loving it! After dinner craft. Kimi giving his little caterpillar a kiss! Actually, I, too, was wondering why the caterpillar looked like a mouse? Haha!! Think it's the feelers!

Alphabet Puzzle Surprise

When we came home today, Kimi insisted on playing with the 2 pc alphabet puzzle which hb had played with him earlier in the day.

I was pleasantly surprised when I came out of the room and saw that he could piece some of them correctly and in such a short span of time. He even knew that X was for X'mas! Hmm, guess Kimi knows more than we think he does?

Some of the puzzles which Kimi has pieced
Putting the B to the corresponding pix - Bird.

Pointing out to me that S is for Snake

Gymboree Fun

Last minute decision to let the tots work their muscles so to Vivo Gymboree we went together with Estelle. It was almost like a private room for them as there were only 2 of them with another boy who left after a while.

Thursdays are best days as it allows free play from 10am to 7pm. Er, free as in free to choose the time slot and not free for you to play! haha!

Anyway, the kids had loads of fun and we intend to let them to this more often.

Oh ya, those who knows Estelle would know that after her Japan trip, she would jump at any cam that points at her and says cheese, posing and pointing to her cheeks. Well, Kimi imitated her and Serene was so lucky to capture that on her cam. Last pix says it all!

Fearless, just took to the climbing like that ...
Ready to slide!

Kimi has always been fascinated by Gymbo and enjoys balancing on this 'top'

Kimi's all time favourite - rolling in this thing ... remember Cat, our last time to Gymboree? Kimi never forgot...keke! He attacked this almost when he stepped in.

The 2 tots rolling this huge thing - they had fun!

The 2 cuties!

The COVETED pointing to cheeks and saying cheese ala Estelle shot!

Letter C - Part 1

After yesterday's intro to chickens, we dive into this week's letter, C. The whole of this week, our home were full of crowings, clucking and cheeping, courtesy of Kimi of course. Haha!

As usual, we start lessons with a little warm up and we did a chicken dance and 'clucked' around the house. Kimi enjoyed this the most, laughing, clucking and even rolling on the floor!

Then, we settled into some quiet time by reading the following books :-

Cluck, Cluck, Who's There? - James Mayhew
Cock-A-Doodle-Doodle - Cecily Matthews
This Little Egg Went to Market - Harriet Ziefert

After which, we did some strokes and alphabet C practise. It is recommended that first writings should rightfully start with horizontal and vertical strokes, proceeding to diagonal strokes, etc. Happy to note that after a few practices, Kimi is able to 'write' meaningful vertical strokes. That means, we can start him on straight-line tracing soon! *happy*

The following are what we did after writing practice :-
Day 1

• Craft - Pasting feather on a chick diagram
• Sensorial - feeling and learning about colour and weight of feathers
• Science - learning about life-cycle of a chicken
• Refining fine motorskill - lacing a rooster cut-out
• Matching & ESP game - using cards with C pix

Day 2

We learnt about another animal that begins with C and that is the crocodile and this is what we did :-

• Crocodile roll and snap play
• Reading (incl some stories on chicken as a follow through) :

1. This Little Egg Went to Market - Harriet Ziefert
2. Cock-A-Doodle-Hoooooo! - Mick Mannin & Brita Granstrom
3. Hello! Is This Grandma? - Ian Whybrow
4. Rainy Day! - Patricia Lakin

• Aphabet & strokes practice
• Sensorial science - touching & tasting fruits & veg start with C
• Matching & ESP game - using cards with C pix
• Refining fine motorskill - pouring egg out of shell into the bowl
• Eating a dinner with all the fruits & veg that Kimi has learnt

Practise! Practise! Practise!

Kimi, happy with his work
Preparing for chick craft - removing the double sided tapes' top

Pasting the feathers

Our beautiful completed craft

Kimi feeling the softness of the feathers and rubbing it on his nose.. he even tried smelling it.. keke!

Then, he blew the feathers and I jumped in and showed him what is light and what is heavy by comparing it with a book - book is heavy so you can blow it and it doesn't floats and fly in the air. Kimi also 'wowed' when the remant feather bits floated and flew around the room, making it such a pretty sight!

Learning about life-cycles with the life-cycle playset. Kimi could match all the figurines to the pix and can point out the individual steps.

Trying his hand at lacing...hmm, Kimi is still not too keen on this. After the intial lacing, he took the cut-out and swung it round and round! We'll try again next month?

Matching game

Day 2

Touching and learning about all things C
Kimi jumped in and took a bite at the corn! He loves it! I had to stop him or he may finish the whole cob! Do you know that fresh corn is even more sweet than cooked ones? Try it next time!
Kimi smelling and having a small taste (not in this pix) of the clementine. We are so lucky that hb bought some clementines and it was just in time for letter C! Clementine is something like mandarin orange.
Since Kimi has been exposed so much to eggs these 2 days, I thought it was good to let him play with them a little to reinforce the relation of chicken and eggs even if it starts with E. No harm ya?

BB Braised Fish Bee Hoon

Carved little letter 'C's using carrots to be in line with our letter of the week, C. I used most of the ingredients that began with C especially those that Kimi had learnt earlier in the day.

This dish is similar to fried bee hoon except that it has more sauce so it won't be too dry for Kimi.

Ingredients

• 50g Threadfin fillet
• Some shaved fresh corn
• 1 egg
• 1 stalk XiaoBaiCai, cut thinly
• 1 inch carrot, sliced thinly
• Chopped garlic
• Dash of pepper, soya sauce, 1 tsp Oyster sauce &/or Maggi Chicken Powder (no msg)

Method

1. Slice threadfin and marinate with some pepper and soya sauce.
2. Heat chopped garlic with some oil and add the carrots and shaved corn when garlic turns golden and fragrant.
3. Add the fish slices and fry lightly. Remove the fish and set aside before adding the veg and then egg.
4. Fry veg, egg, corn and carrot till fragrant.
5. Put in dried bee hoon, adding enough water till well covered.
6. Simmer till soft, about 10mins.
7. Return fish slices to pan and let it simmer covered for another 10mins.
8. Before serving, check taste and add a little oyster sauce &/or Maggi chicken powder (no msg type).
9. Serve warm. ENJOY!!

Tips

• I use the vegetarian kind of oyster sauce which is made from mushrooms. I find this less salty then the real thing.

BB Salmon & Mango Rice Cake

Chicken motif plate to complement this week's theme! Keke! Unfortunately, no chicken-shaped moulds!

This was supposed to be one of last week's dinner but I didn't get round to make it. It's a bear-shaped rice cake to go with last week's theme. Hmm ... sadly, the bear imprint is really not too clear.

This is so yummy when lightly pan-fried and excellent for bringing out for picnics or eating out. I love Japanese food! Alternate with ingredients for variety. You can even use red-bean as filling for dessert?

Ingredients

• Some cooked rice (I use normal rice but added a bit more water so more sticky)
• Japanese rice toppings for onigiri (Adds lovely colour! You can get from Daiso)
• Salmon cooked and flaked (I panfried the salmon slices)
• Some mango chopped
• Some mayonnaise
• Onigiri shaped moulds

Method

1. Once the rice is cooked and while it is still hot, add the rice toppings/flavourings and use a fork to fluff it, mix well and set aside.
2. Add mayonnaise to the flaked salmon and mango till well covered.
3. Place some mixed rice to the base of onigiri mould, add the mayonnaise mixed salmon and mango.
4. Add more rice to top up the mould.
5. Press down to keep shape.
6. Heat a little oil and lightly panfry the shaped rice cakes till golden each side.
7. Serve hot with vegetable sides of your choice.
8. ENJOY!!

Toilet training update

Hmm, Kimi has a new habit.

Everytime his diaper is off, he will go "ng-ng" and quickly sit on the potty. Most times, I get a puddle in it and others some deposits. Or more frustrating just a game of sitting down and getting up and checking on the potty!

The other time while showering, he said "ng-ng" and I thought it was another one of his 'games' and ignored him. In the end, he poo-ed in the shower area! *Faint!*

Really, my sis said Kimi is more than ready to toilet train. But, I'm not. Give me a little more time and we will start our toilet-training.

One thing's for sure, I'm more busy now that I have to keep emptying and washing the potty!

BB Pizza Express

My cheeky little rascal helping with the toppings. It was more of play and munch time for him. Stealing bites of the ham and cheese! Haha!

When pressed for time, this is a really quick and easy dish to make. Use whatever you have in your fridge. Experiment with different ingredients and see which you or your baby like best.

Ingredients

• 1 slice of bread (flattened for thin crust or on its own for a thicker one)
• Preggo original pasta sauce
• Some shaved ham
• Some canned peaches or pineapple chopped (or fresh apples)
• 1 slice cheddar (torn into small pieces)
• Some mozarella cheese

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius
2. Use rolling pin to flatten bread or place bread between 2 flat plates and press down
3. Apply pasta sauce all over bread
4. Place the cheddar pieces all over
5. Add ham and peaches
6. Top with mozarella cheese
7. Bake till cheese is melted and has pots of golden brown
8. Serve hot. Be cautious of hot spots as cheese and peach can hold heat well

Park Hop

Next week we are taking on the letter C and we will be learning about chickens. Kimi is rather confused with hen and rooster so I thought a trip to the Animal Resort would be most appropriate.

Anyway, Kimi woke bright and early today and when I asked if he wanted to go to the park, he immediately said, "Duck, duck!". That meant the Botanic Gardens cos the swans were still ducks to him and he loves feeding them.

After the gardens, we went chicken hunting!

Kimi trying to catch the waterhen The waterhen running away into the bushes!
When it disappeared as fast as it appeared, Kimi asked me "where"? Look at his hand exression ...
Then we saw a another bird - I don't know the name but this ia a really tiny bird. Look at how both legs are different in colour?
Kimi trying out the water area at Children's Garden

Can't believe how much my little baby has grown! Almost like a boy now no more a little baby!

Happy!

I can't resist this - Look at Kimi's soft and lovely brown wavy hair!

Happy running at the water

I love this pix too cos he is surrounded by the water and he is just so oblivious to it all! Kimi really loves water!

At Animal Resort and Kimi was a little disappointed as the horse is not there anymore. But he was happy to pat the goats!

And feed the bunnies. He said Bit-bit as in rabbit!

Grabbed the opportunity to show him the Chinchillas which also began with the letter C. Not sure if he even listened cos he was trying to stroke the cutie.

Finally the chickens! 2 roosters and 1 hen to show him the difference. Also there were peacocks and Kimi learned about another bird!