point chart (30 mar 10)

All along yy has a point system to get rewards. Previously I only wrote his points on a pcs of paper and add on (or substract) from there. Today I created a point chart, got the ideal from CMA. Did one for charlie too. Maybe this carrot and stick method will works for her.

The blue chart belongs to yy while the red chart is for charlie. Let see how they can go from here.

After 2 weeks of observation :

whenever yy is rewarded with point or as and when our girl wants some point, she will take out her point chart and tell us "I want point". I will always ask her in return "but u have to do something good to get the point". My girl will then reply saying "I am good". When I insist not giving her, she will cry and cry. After a few failure attempts, instead of asking, she went ahead to get the stamp herself and we have to snatch it back from her.

22 - 26 mar 10 (week 1 term 2)

This is not a good start after a week holiday.

23 mar (Tues) - yy fell and hurt himself in school.
24 mar (wed) - he left his file in school with his homework in it.
25 mar (thurs) - yy did not take the tea break prepared for him, during recess today, as he did not find his lunch box. That not all. After which, he discreetly finished them in class during the change in lesson when the teacher left the class. When I question him why he eat the biscuit in class. He told me he was worried that I will scold him and also the teacher told the class they can do anything except talk loudly. Haiz.

Phone call from yy’s form teacher (23 mar 10)

Yy fell down in school today. His form teacher called and informed that he fall flat on his face on the concrete flooring. From the conversation, I was a bit confused if the teacher was just informing me on the incident or it is quite a serious fall, as she wants us to bring him to a doctor. Moreover the teacher was not able to tell me precisely if the blood is from his nose or the wound beneath his nose.

Fortunately the doctor checked and informed that there is no bone cracked or teeth chipped. Only external wound and yy sounds all right over the phone. Infact I sensed a bit of joy in him. I guess he experiences something different today from daily routine school schedule.

There are bruises on his forehead and nose area.

CCA (23 mar 10)

Today is the first “compulsory” CCA lesson for primary one students. We are being informed to send the kids to school by 9.45am in their PE attire. In actual fact, I don’t even know what is the CCA he is attending today. Was only told that the CCA this year are dance, line skating and wu shu.

Due to the schedule, yy has to take his lunch at the school canteen. I told him beforehand that he has to go take his lunch first after his CCA program then he can play with his friends if there is extra time. I have also warned him not to eat seaweeds only (that is his friends’ fav recess snack). In the end, he bought a 30 cents biscuit for his lunch in school. Haiz guess I have to be more specific in what he is supposed to eat and not to eat.

4th week in school (22 – 26 Mar 10)

Charlie don’t seems to be adapting to her 3 hrs nursery. First she fell sick, and then she refused to drink milk in the morning, now she sobs and cries refusing to go in. Her teacher told me that she refused to mingle with her friends and do her worksheet in classroom. She refused to sit with her classmates and will just sit at a corner alone and cry. She will whine and cry intermediately for the whole 3 hrs. The worse is she refused to tell us why she is unhappy. She could not pin point to any incident or unpleasant experience which is bothering her.

As Charlie is more vocal and has an outgoing personality. I don’t think she will be bullied or intimidated by her classmates. Moreover kids at 3 years plus will not gang up together to isolate newcomer. I suspect she is not settling well in a routine schedule with limited flexibility. Unlike at home, she gets to do what she wants and bargain for more. Even if I am right, I’m still having problem getting her to mix with her classmates. Let see if who will win this battle (or rather who surrender first).

ps : on the other hand, yy does not give me any problem blending into different environment from childcare, preschool at PCF then Kidszone and the latest ie primary school education.

sentosa (17 Mar 10)

One week school holiday is here. I took 1/2 day off to bring the kids to Sentosa. Today was actually the eve of Universal Studio opening tmrw. Thinking there will be some characters walking around, rehearsing for the big day. Too bad there was none.

The internal transfer by monorail is complimentary (actually we paid for the ride from Vivo into Sentosa), so we dropped off at all the 3 stations and walked around the station. Nothing too interesting but the kids seemed to enjoy the walk.

The third station brought us to the Siloso beach which has a sand sculpture event going on. However I was rather disappointed as it a very small scale event with only abt 4 to 5 sculpture on display. As for sand castle making lesson conducted by the professional for kids, by the time we reached, they are working on the last 15 min touch up on the star fish. It was supposed to last till 6pm but the demo ended around 4.30pm and the professional continued with their own sculpture.

The kids enjoyed the last programme most which was not in my plan. We were walking along the beach and saw this little area where the kids can have some water play. Fortunately beth brought along towel and changable clothing. So yy and charlie literally dipped themselves in the pool and got themselves soaked wet.

conversation with charlie over which hairstyle to choose (15 mar 10)

find this conversation very interesting......

Me : “your hair is long, mummy cut your hair this weekend ok?”
Charlie : “ok. I cut like mummy yi yi”
Me : “mummy yi yi? Then have to cut here and here and here. Ok?” same time I was pretending to cut her hairs with my fingers
Charlie : “cut like mummy yi yi. Nice” she repeated at least twice.
Me : “ok then u cut your hair like mummy yi yi”
Charlie : “I cut like Yang yang” she changed her mind.
Me : “u want to cut like mummy yi yi or yang yang?”
Charlie : “cut like yang yang cuter”
Me : “ok.”
Charlie : “I cut like mummy yi yi nicer” she changed her mind again.

Not sure if it is only coincide but she will use cute on kate and nice on her yi yi. How come she never mention my hairstyle !

2nd week of school for charlie (8 ~ 12 mar)

Last week was the orientation week for school as newcomers are allowed to stay for only 1 1/2 hrs per day. Therefore this week marks the start of proper education for my girl. Very excited as she enjoys her class and is adapting well for the first week. However it did not start out as what we expected.

8 mar - charlie was down with mild fever yesterday thus skipped school today.

10 mar - she started to have cough but still went for class today. The aircon environment in school is not helping. She needs to take medicine as her cough still persists.

11 mar - Charlie did not attend school today not due to her cough but she simply refused to drink her milk. Infact she behaves like this since the beginning of this week. She will take more than 40 min just to drink 3 oz of milk. As for the rest, we have to take turns to coax her into finishing it off. Today I could not take it anymore and scolded her. Then our princess said she dont want to go to school. so she stayed at home. vomit blood !

12 mar - no problem this morning, cos the daddy said no need to drink milk since she having cough. daddy saved the day !

10th week in school

9 mar (tues) - yy was late for school again. Infact he has finished his lunch much faster today and has some free time in between before he has to change and go to school. So he took out a craft activity book and started cutting and folding........ till the very last min. Sigh, really dont understand what both yy and the maid are doing at home. It is as if my house got no clock to remind them of the time.

11 mar (thurs) - today I found his classmate's worksheet inside his bag. At least it is better than his worksheet "taken" by his classmate.

School Term 1 is over. Hopefully all these will be split over to the next term.

Eeee so cute

I bought this cute sun shape for yy today cos the weather is too hot in the daytime. Thinking that it can provide him with some shade on his way to school. he likes it alot when I shown it to him. However on our way to school, he was hiding behind me with the shade on and removed it way before we reached the school insisting that it is not hot.
However once he reached home today, he wore his shade again at home. I was puzzled and asked him if he likes this new sun shade. To my surprise, my boy told me that he liked it but he dont want to wear it to school cos his friends will say "Eeeee so cute" but he will wear it to other places as other adults will feel it is all right for big kid like him to wear cute stuff. wow I didnt realise my boy is beginning to feel uncomfortable with things that are too cutey.

in the end, he is wearing it at home at night

charlie's first day to school ! (1 mar 10)

we also believed that charlie is the more adverturous one and we will not have any problem with her adapting to new environment. I supposed we have been misled by her "gunho" side at home.

today is her first day of school (n2). infact her very first attempt to attend class of any kind. To our surprise, she appears stiff and reserve. Even when the kids are playing at the indoor playground. She is being "pushed" around by the other kids who cut quene.

During the assembly time where all the kids gather in a room to sing a songs, charlie is not enjoying herself at all. To the extend that she wept and wanted to leave the room.

It was much better in her own class as the teacher tried to get her involved with the class. Her tofu princess character still persists in the totally new place. She will walk all the way to the back of the class where I was siting complaining to me that his classmate "stares" at her closely at the face, pull her thumb and accidentally hit on her chin. Charlie later got distraction when she saw a classmate with 3 clips on her fringe. I guess she decided that girl is going to be her friend cos she will sit next to her whenever she can.

Explore Kids at Downtown East (28 feb 10)

Got 2 complimentary tickets to Explore kids which is expiring next thurs. so die die also have to go this weekend. As per previous time, we dont have any decent photo as the kids are exciting climbing and running non stop.

There is only a couple of kids playing at that time as we reached quite late. unlike the last time when we literally following charlie, cushioning her. This time she was left alone most of the time, climbing in the maze on her own. As for yy, this round he is more daring to try out the slide and he likes it.

basically the kids did not reply me when I asked them if it is fun. They just dash away for another round.