The latest development is of course starting school full time.
In the morning, he'll say that he wants to stay and play at home. But in the afternoon, by the time he sets foot in the school compound , he's on a different mode. He'll grab his bag and start walking to his class. He doesn't even want to hold my hand. =P
When he reaches his class, we'll take off his shoes and change into indoor slippers. He's so keen on going into class that he often forgets about his bag. he he he...
He's in his full school uniform complete with the white Bata shoes and socks. Isn't he cute? =D
Yesterday, we went for Sean's orientation and I found out that school starts today!
I was mistaken because I thought he starts on 18th like the English Nursery students. We went to his class and met his new teacher. We liked her. She is smiley and friendly. She speaks English well too. So that allays my fear about not being able to communicate with his Mandarin teacher. It was a short meeting and he didn't want to leave so soon. =D
Today, he was excited to start school. From the moment he stepped into school, he was in a hurry to go to his class. His class was right at the end of the large school compound. It was a long walk but he was rushing to go to school. No uniform yet because we haven't confirmed and pay the school fees. Will do it in the next few days.
I love that he is excited to go to school. =D It's a great start of the new year.
We had to think up a chinese name for Sean. So like anyone of our generation, we Google for ideas. Finally we decided on a name: Wei Sheng. FIL passed on a book they had on chinese names. I just found out that the chinese character I chose wasn't the right one. The Sheng we picked out meant holy, wise rather than the one we wanted which means victory. So tomorrow I'm going to have to inform his teachers about the change of chinese character.
Ha ha ha... It's a good thing this is not official.
We'll be moving house in Jan 2010. So 2010 seems to signal a lot of beginnings for us.
A new place to live. I'm a bit apprehensive about how Sean will adapt to moving. Although we've told him about it, he still thinks that we'll be moving into a new house but the current one will still be around.
A new school for Sean. He has orientation on 3rd Jan, but school only starts for Nursery children on 18th of Jan. I hope his transition into new school goes smoothly. But there's really nothing I can do until it really starts. So we're just going to wing it.
There'll be many new beginnings in 2010. Here's a toast to the coming year. May it be blessed and bring new and wonderful experiences. =D
We celebrated our last Christmas party in this house in a big way. We cooked a lot of food! We had: Turkey, roast lamb, Spaghetti Carbonara, Bolognaise, Prawn salad, Tomato Bruschetta, garlic bread, Mango with yogurt and of course punch. Some of our relatives brought a huge tray of yam cakes, noodles, and a big Caramel white chocolate macademia cake.
What's also great was we had many relatives coming back from Singapore and Australia. So it was mostly a big family gathering. On Sam's side anyway.
This is very late. It's because Sean has been hogging my laptop so much recently. By the time he's not playing, and I'm no longer busy, I'm too tired to use the computer.
Mr. Why Probably the most significant thing this month is Sean's incessant 'Why's. I can't remember how many months ago he started asking 'Why' but this month, he has at least 5-10 'Why's in every conversation. Now we know why other parents say, "don't worry about him speaking late, once they start, it's hard to keep them quiet." ha ha ha....
Christmas party at last day of Playgroup The only thing I remembered to take photos of this month is the last day of Playgroup when we had our Christmas party. Sam was the Santa Claus of the day. When Sam came out from hiding ho-ho-ho-ing, Sean wasn't fooled for a second. He immediately asked, " Why is Daddy Christmas?" (He meant Santa Claus) Since we never really talked much about Santa Claus, he just associated him with Christmas. Even when taking photos together, he wasn't taking pictures with Santa Claus but with Daddy Christmas.
I invited the mummies and kids over to the house for an extended playgroup. The kids had a great time. We gave 2 of the rabbits away, Akamaru to Faye and Alvin, and Zorro to Jacqueline, Ethan, Jonathan, and Grace.
I invited a few mums and kids over the week after but most are already traveling to hometown. So only Sam and Yen came with their youngest who were much younger than Sean. So Sean went up to play computer with his Daddy while I had such a great time chatting that I went late to teach tuition. =P
I've also been busy packing the things in the storage room since we'll be moving house next month. So I haven't played much with Sean. He has been playing lots of computer games with Daddy. Daddy made a blog list of all Sean's games. This is Sean's game blog http://seansflashgames.blogspot.com/
But I found his old inflatable ball pit, which the maid almost thrown away, and blew it up and filled it up with balls. Sean insisted that I joined him inside the ball pit. So we had a wonderful time rolling around inside the ball pit. We even crashed the standing fan because of our enthusiasm. =P The next morning, I found parts of the pit deflated. Ha ha ha... I had punctured it. =P
Don't they look colorful? Hmmm... and they taste pretty good too. It's called the Playdough cookie because of it's colors. There are so many ways you can play around with this cookie dough: valentine, easter, birthdays, etc. The limit is your imagination. =D
I'm making these for the Christmas party at playgroup this Thursday. I got the recipe from this website The Sits Girls.
Play Dough Cookies 3/4 C butter 3 ounces cream cheese 1 cup white sugar 1 egg 1 t vanilla extract 2 and 3/4 C flour 1 t baking powder 1/4 t salt assorted food coloring (gel or paste works best)
I didn't have cream cheese so I put in more butter. The cookies have a buttery and sugary taste.
1. In a bowl cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
2. In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir until soft dough forms. Divide dough into Fourths. Tint each with a different food coloring. Wrap in plastic and chill for two hours. (I stuck it in the freezer for 15 minutes because I hate to wait!)
3. Preheat oven to 350. Shape cookies to your liking. Place cookies 2 to 3 inches apart on greased cookie sheet to allow for spreading.
4. Bake for 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and store in an airtight container.Enjoy!
Sean likes helping me out when we bake cakes. I get him to stir or sift flour. This time round, I made the cookies without his help, but I think next time he can make a few of his own cookies too. =D
Since Sean is into cooking games. I let him play with a big bowl of uncooked rice. I'm not sure what other boys do, but my son has marbles, cars, and vegetables in his bowl and he likes to pour the rice into a hat.
He's been crying during swimming lessons and refusing to swim, and finally I said, " Fine, we'll stop swimming."
I think falling sick twice after swimming is the cause of this. Sam keeps telling him not to swallow the swimming pool water because he'll get sick. Obviously, at this stage, he still swallows some water, which causes him to cough because he's scared of getting sick again, and cry, which makes his nose stuffy, and hence difficult to swim.
I was upset with him today for refusing to swim. But eventually I said to myself that if Sean really dislikes something, I shouldn't push it.
So we left halfway the lesson because he didn't want to enter the water anyway and there'll be no more swimming lessons. I want him to know how to swim so he can save himself if he ever falls into water. But it looks like he really dislikes swimming since the flu.
I'm going to cajole him the next few days to see if he'll continue for at least another month but knowing my son, I think we'll have to wait until he wants to learn it at his own time. I just feel that it's a big pity because he was just only beginning to get it.
I've been reading up on homeschooling and I like the idea a lot. At the moment, we aren't planning to homeschool Sean but since we are planning to send Sean to a mandarin based kinddy, I thought I should at least teach him English at home.
Sean's corner
First, I created a corner where we can play and learn together. It's meant to be a place where he is comfortable and know where all his things are. However we keep moving the things here and there so we haven't got to the point where he knows where all his things are.
Then on Friday, I covered his tables with white paper and plastics. It's meant to be a writing table that you can write and wipe off, like a whiteboard, so that Sean can scribble on it anytime he wants. But I found out that Sean doesn't want to wipe off the things he writes on the table. So it doesn't really work the way I imagined it to be.
Writing
Today I got him to write a few words just for a few minutes. At first I just got him to write on a white piece of paper. It turned out terrible because he couldn't manage the size of his letters. So I drew out a box for each letter and that helped a lot.
You can see in the picture. The above words 'red bird' was done at the beginning. He wrote: yellow duck, blue horse, green frog, purple cat, white dog and lastly brown bear. By the time he got to 'brown bear, his handwriting has improved a lot.
Sean tried using markers, pencils and crayons. Although he doesn't like crayons because he finds them icky, crayon is still the best medium for learning to write. It's easier to control compared to markers or pencils.
I'm not sure how often I can sneak in writing lessons but hopefully more and more often.
I made some sandpaper letters. It's a bit mismatched because I used whatever I had at home. When I ran out of the sandpaper,I couldn't find the same color. I'll try them out on Sean and see if they help with writing.
He still loves playing the computer most. I have to say there are just so many interesting things online that normal games can't really compete with the variety of games available online. But I try to get him do other things so that at least he gets a balanced day, such as playing playdough and cooking games.
We've also been playing with empty boxes, stacking them up, in a row, or puttings things into them. There are lots of things you can do with empty boxes. Just require a lot of energy on my part to do whatever Sean wants to do. LOL.... mummy isn't as energetic as Sean though. =P
Yesterday, we played shaved ice. Btw, using food coloring stains even if just a little bit. It's probably better to use syrup for coloring. It may be a bit sticky but it shouldn't stain as much as food coloring.
Daddy has wanted to make Sean a Wall.e costume. So today he cut out a box for the body. Unfortunately Sean wanted to paint it red, so it didn't become wall.e after all.
Oh yeah, I made this wrist band as a craft for the playgroup. But the idea was to get Sean remember his name and to learn how to open and close button. It's very easy to make.
