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!

Toilet trained?

Today, Kimi achieved another milestone. Not sure, it was sheer luck or it's a sign that he is ready to be toilet-trained?

As we were preparing to take our bath, Kimi suddenly just said, "ng-ng" and went to sit on the potty, all without any prompting. Within 2 seconds, he stood up and quickly turned to look at the potty. I asked him to sit again and this 2 seconds thingey went on for about 3-4 times. Finally, I told him to just sit there to wait for poo poo and this time he poo-ed in the potty!

Well done, Kimi!

Letter B

This week we learned more about the Letter B. I've chosen Bears as 1 of the themed animals in this week's learning.

All of the books we read this week were on Bears and I also created a bear wheel depicting the 8 main types of bears. I've included the list of books that we read below.

We start each learning day with reading 2 or 3 storybooks. Then we got down to do some sensorial fun and this time, I introduced the different kinds of beans to Kimi. After that, we did a craft with it and use the leftovers for some fine motor skills game.

Estelle also came to join us during one of the days and I believed the kids played more than 'study'! Keke! But well, kids DO learn thru play don't they?

Basically, this week was everything about the letter B and we pointed out all things that began with the B to Kimi. Even hubby joined in.

We also learnt about the life-cycle of a butterfly all thanks (many many tons!) to Shirley (Jireh's mummy, who has done such a FAB job in nurturing and educating Jireh. Jireh is not only such a sweet sweet little boy, but he is an amazingly bright little tot!) who introduced the life-cycle playsets to us.

Well, am happy to say that Kimi is well aware of Bears, the letter B, beans and the colour blue.

Reading List

1. Baby Bear, Baby Bear What Do you See - Bill Martin Jr/Eric Carle
2. Touch The Sky, My Little Bear - David Bedford/Jane Chapman
3. Babies - David Bedford/ Leonie Worthington
4. Just Like You - Emma Dodd
5. Best Bear - Emma Dodd
6. Cuddle - Beth Shoshan/Jacqueline East

Touching and feeling the various beans and later pasting them on the butterfly line-drawing. Interesting but can be quite a messy craft...

Learning to pour (transfer) the beans from 1 cup to another. Kimi managed to do this with minimal spillage after a few tries, but ...
his favourite is still to pour all the beans on the table! I was almost 'faint' from all those picking of small beans! haha!

Cheeky, cheating little bugger! Putting both the cups together to catch the beans!

Then we played some matching games which Kimi got all correct.

Followed by ESP game and Kimi, too got it all correct. Look at his contented face when he managed t0 get the horse card.

To end off our lessons, we have PLAYTIME! And today it is BALLOONS, Blue of course and throw in another for differentiation. Kimi loves this part the best! Haha!

Kimi pointing pointing out the blue balloon to me ...

and then the Orange one. Yay! He learnt 2 colours today!

Our completed Butterfly craft. Made from Black beans, red beans, green beans, brown beans and Black-eyed beans
2nd day of learning fun, Estelle joined us. Here, both tots are hard at work.. learning (tracing) the letter B as well as trying out 1st writing. First writing recommends writing in horizontal and vertical lines instead of tracing the letter from A to Z. After that, they just attacked the paper! haha! Lovely scribbles!

Look how sweet Estelle is posing with her completed Bear craft !

The completed project - look at Kimi's bear...1 missing eye! keke!

Letter A

I confess - I am so guilty. I've been tired, busy, think it's more like lazy of late that I haven't been really spending time 'teaching' Kimi. I endeavour to do better from henceforth (I hope and try! )

Really, I SALUTE those moms who do homeschool. Really, it is no piece of cake. You would never have thought how much time or effort has been put in to plan what and how you want to do. Then it's preparing the materials. And Kimi is only 20 months? I can't imagine the time spent for school going kids! These moms are really great!

When you decide to homeschool your kids, it's not about saving money, etc. It's really the love and commitment that is involved and it just shows how much a mother is willing to sacrifice and do this so that her child gets the best out of life.

Sadly, I don't have such strength or tenacity. Prefering to leave it to the 'experts' we call schools (not much an expert too these days - look at the system and sorry to say, some of its teachers!). But for now, I can still manage and I hope to let Kimi experience as much as he can indoor and out.

Although Kimi can recognise the capital and lower cap A and makes its phonics sound. I'd still like to reinforce this letter to him, showing him different things that starts with A. And thereafter, I will paste up the printed names of things we have learnt throughout the house.

I've also decided to do a lapbook (more like a journal) to record and keep all things related to the chosen subject matter. So that, Kimi can still look at them say 6 months from now? I'll share some pix here the next time.

After subject proper, I let him do some vegetable painting but he seemed to prefer using his fingers. It's ok, just do what makes you happy alright Kimi?

Kimi feeling and smelling the real asparagus - activating all the senses for learning fun
Then it was crunch and tearing time with the foil
No asparagus for me today mom. I want to use my fingers ...

and, maybe my hands too!

Teeheehee! Look at my hands mom! As scary as can be!

Soya Braised Pork

Cat's braised pork looked so yummy that I had to make some today. It didn't looked as good as hers ... but it was delicious.

Kimi and hb liked it so that's what's most important to me ... looks department? never mind! Keke!

Whenever I cooked this before, I would use lean pork, not wanting to use anything that has any bit of fat on it (I really can do without them you know?). But, everytime Hb would complain it was tough.

So this time, I had wanted to use those large rib bones (found in Pork Rib Soups -Bak Kut Teh) but chanced upon thise Soft Bones and immediately I grabbed these! Glad I made the right choice cos it the meat was tender yet minus the huge amount of fat found in those Pork Belly.

And I also like lightly panfrying the tau-kwa instead of adding to the braise cos I like the natural taste of the tau-kwa rather than it being soaked in the sauce instead. Well, I can be wierd sometimes. You can add it in together if you wish and throw in some mushrooms too! I had forgotten and anyway, this is not the authentic Soya Braised Pork. Guess, this is the modern approach?

Ingredients

• 450-500g Soft Bones Pork
• 2 tau-kwa

Marinade

• 2 tbsp Oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp Dark Soya sauce
• Some sesame oil
• 1/2 tbsp corn flour
• Dash of pepper
• Dash of 5 spice powder
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1-2 star anise
• 2 tsp of Maggi Chicken powder (no msg)
• 1 tbsp of sugar (dark brown sugar preferable)
• 1 tsp of chopped garlic
• 2 slices of ginger

Method

1. Wash and clean pork.
2. Mix the marinade to pork and let it marinate for at least 1-2 hours. Better longer.
3. After marination, heat a little oil and brown the pork (do not add sauce).
4. Once browned, add to slow cooker.
5. Add some water to the marinade and pour into the slow cooker.
6. Fill up the water till lightly covers over the pork.
7. Turn on high and let it simmer cook for at least 3 hours. Taste before serving. Adjust taste as needed.
8. Lightly panfry the tau-kwa and cut into chunks.
9. Serve the braised pork with hot rice and tau-kwa
10. ENJOY!!

The Mummy Who Dreamed ...

It's the week of celebration at Esplanade specially for children being Children's Day on 1st of October.

I made plans to spend the whole day with Kimi there, hoping to soak up some arty airs. Besides 1 paid performance, "The Leaf Who Dreamed" plus other stories with Tick, Tack and Tock". There were free performances and story telling throughout the day! Isn't that great?

For my standards, I felt that Kimi did wonderfully, sitting and listening earnestly the first 20 mins - in fact even better than some other older kids there. Actually, kids under 2 are not allowed in but, if you purchase tickets then it's ok (???).

Well, this 'trial' has given me confidence to bring Kimi for more productions, etc. So, I've been looking out for more suitable performances.

Due to Kimi's nap time between 12.30 to 3pm, we could only cover the story telling from 3pm onwards. I would have loved to have him sit through the Kid's Chinese Instrument performance. Pity, it was at 2.15pm. Well, next time!

Aunty Pat joined us after his nap and we had dinner at the Bay. It was really a very tiring day (for me) but it was one of the best fun filled days for us both! I wished everyday was such fun and bliss!

The lovely display (Pix courtesy of Serene)
Kimi with the cast - see how difficult to get him to smile at the camera these days?

But, Kimi was definitely fasinated by the Dragon. It's a sneak prelude to the show in Jan 09. And, yes! We have decided to go too cos it's all about animals and Kimi is crazy about them!

Kimi stole the Tiger Balloon ....

The 2 cuties after the show. Kimi was so fascinated by the puppets hanging above!

Finally, a frontal shot and smiling too! Some days I DO get a little lucky!

Wow! This is really my special day! Kimi was so keen to pat the dog.. just like how he pats (slaps) Enzo.

The cast of the story-telling performance - "The Lion And The Mouse"

Kimi is so captivated with the story-telling

Aunty Pat giving Kimi a reassuring pat when it got a little loud...

Up for some run time at the roof top. I love this pix! My 3rd pix of the day with a smiling Kimi. And look at the lovely blooms!

Another flower to add to Kimi's knowledge list - Frangipanni. Any idea why Kimi looked so serious? He heard some band sounds and was immediately captured! After this he ran towards the sounds, dancing, shaking and clapping! Haha! The free waterfront band performance was doing a rehearsal.

Rub Rub!

Recently, Kimi has been bugging me to let him apply the moisturiser on his face on his own and keeping going on and on with "rub-rub, rub-rub"!