Sunday, May 29, 2011

Baby #3: Pregnancy Week 24

Went for my routine ultrasound a few days ago. Unfortunately, my OB still couldn't take a better picture of Baby O. 

The good news is she weighs 650g, a very good weight as I was told, and measures 16cm from top of head to butt. My weight gain so far is 4.3kg. 

Very pleased. 

Though I first felt the 'bubbling' sensations during Week 17 (it was Week 22 for #1 and Week 20 for #2), there were days when I hardly felt any movements from her. Not sure why, but I read that it is perfectly normal. 

Usually, she would start a party inside me just when I was winding down for bed. Recently, it seems she is most active when I'm eating. Usually it only takes a few mouthfuls before she begins her little rituals of reminding me of her existence. How does she know? The food won't have reached her so quickly.

In the last 3 weeks, I also feel her movements more whenever I read to the boys. Sometimes, she would get really active the moment I began reading. It is almost like she heard and was signaling her approval. Haha! 

On most days, I don't have any form of discomfort, except when I forget and bend over, like when I mop the floor. That gives me a numbing sensation at parts of the belly and sometimes it can be really uncomfortable. Now, I am also beginning to feel occasional lower backache if I walk too much in a day and a very 'square' butt and sore coccyx if I sit for too long. I blame my flat butt for the latter - there just isn't enough flesh to provide any cushioning! 

When I first realized I was expecting again, I considered making a quick weekly blog post to jot little details of this pregnancy, which could very well be my last. 

And to take a weekly shot of my bump. Maybe even to get some professional photos taken of my boys hugging me and my bump. Cliche, I know. But still I'm convinced that I will be appreciative of them years later when I am old and the kids have left their nest. 

Well, I've done none of these, so far. 

I was too busy working when pregnant with #1. With #2, I was too busy looking after the kids and getting housework done to realize the weeks were slipping by. This time round, I am still too busy with the household, working and looking after the kids. 

I don't think I will do any weekly update anymore since I haven't done it so far. Most of the time, I don't even think of the pregnancy until she kicks me or I have any form of discomfort. There really isn't much to write about on a week-to-week basis. 

But I better start thinking about the professional photo shoot if I want to get it done. Or at least take a weekly side profile of the bump. Clothed at least. 



Thursday, May 26, 2011

Sharks Obsession



I can't even remember what sparked Chip's intense interest recently about sharks and marine animals. Maybe it was the documentary he watched with E. 

Not a day went by without him mentioning something about sharks. I am so amazed by his ability to recall so many new facts about sharks. He definitely knows more about the topic now than I do! 

Couldn't resist taking these two photos of him and his homemade puzzle. :>

Trying to look like a menace! Haha.. 



Way cool! 


Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Learning Chinese at Home (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1 .... 

For M who is almost 7-year-old now, I adopt a very different approach at home.

Before, I used to coach M in almost the same way as I am doing with Chip now. The only difference is we didn't read as wide variety of Chinese books in the past. But in the last 6 months, I've increased the intensity and time spent weekly on the language and included lessons that equip him with skills to ace the school assessments. 

When M was in K2, his kindergarten didn't teach hanyu pinyin (HYPY), which in my opinion is a good thing. Instead of sending him to HYPY classes which required him to begin in January (last year when he was in K2), I taught him myself in end Oct (just before his term 4/K2 ended) using just one assessment book from EPH. The wait was to ensure that he had recognized enough new words before HYPY was introduced. 



We had home-learning sessions twice a week for about 7 weeks (we stopped in mid Dec) and he went from knowing nothing about HYPY to being really good at it by the time he started Primary One this January. There wasn't any confusion between HYPY and phonics at all. 

He finds HYPY a breeze in school. The school text/workbooks are real straightforward. Even the mastery tests and additional worksheets from school are fairly simple in my opinion. But we all know that to excel, one can't just be good at them. So of course I prepare him for more. 

We use one main assessment book which includes 320 pages of worksheets organized according to the Primary 1A Chinese/Higher Chinese syllabus.



I like it that the same content from a chapter of the textbook is being introduced and tested in as many as 22 different practice formats, which will certainly help to strengthen his foundation. Usually he will do between 15 to 25 pages a week on his own and I only revise them with him afterwards. 

I don't find it necessary or that useful to go ahead of school syllabus, so instead of spending our precious time learning the Primary 1B or 2A syllabus, I introduced other materials such as the 四五快读 series.



While I know of this series since M was 3 y.o, I only introduced the Book 3 to him last July when he was in K2. I skipped Book 1 and 2 because they introduce very basic words and phrases, which can be better taught using the other resources that I already own. For the same reason, I also didn't use these first two books with Chip.

Despite the raving reviews on this series, I have reservations on depending solely on it to coach the kids. The book format and passages are really boring and there are often phrases that the kids can't relate to. So instead of following the suggested lesson formats faithfully (and blindly), I only use the books as one of my resources to meet my overall learning objectives.

We also try to read-aloud daily for between 10 to 30 minutes per sitting. That said, so far we have only managed an average of 4 times a week.  The main materials I use for read-aloud are the 好朋友知识报, our growing collection of Chinese storybooks and passages from different sources that I have, including the assessment book. 

He has certainly made huge improvement since January in word recognition and fluency. Now he can read a passage of about 200 to 300 words fluently in 3 to 4 minutes, depending on its difficulty and actually understanding it. This is something which I am really pleased with. 

One of the areas which he struggled most with a few months ago is in our preparation for 口试 (oral exam/oral skills). Since he doesn't speak Mandarin as frequently as I like him to, this is to be expected. Unless a child is a fluent Mandarin speaker, acing the oral exam will require some practice and honing of skills. I put in a lot of hard work (read: hours of tearing my hair out and making my blood pressure rise) in this area, but it seems to pay off. Now it remains to be seen if he truly does well when tested in school. 

Besides his fortnightly 听写 given by his teacher which I get him to learn on his own and only tested him the day before, I don't give him any words/phrases to write or learn and he has no writing homework from school either. The only writing he does is for the practices in the assessment book I just mentioned. Surprisingly, he can now write a lot of new words from memory. So the method I've adopted so far must have worked well enough to 'imprint' the words in memory without him wasting time/effort on 习字 (repetitive writing).

The most encouraging sign is his growing interest in the Chinese language and culture. He is more enthusiastic towards Chinese storybooks now and would even join in voluntarily when I am reading to Chip. Often, he would select a few Chinese books for me to read to him. The most recently is 鸡蛋哥哥.



Interestingly, when a friend lent me the set a few months ago, he shunned them. But now, because of the improvement he is making in Chinese, he is beginning to give most Chinese stories more time and more willing to make the effort to listen to and read them. 

I think he is finally more convinced that Chinese stories can be just as fascinating as the English ones. In the recent few months, he has amassed sufficient vocabulary and is a lot more confident and keen to just pick up any Chinese book and attempt read-aloud himself. 

The fact that he has emerged top 3 in class for the Chinese subject has also greatly boosted his confidence and awaken his competitive streak. The intrinsic reward he gets from that unofficial ranking seems to work sufficiently well to keep him motivated, as he puts in the necessary effort to maintain that position. Now, he will openly declare to me that he is actually quite good in his Chinese too. Haha! 

See, the tiger mum in me always believes in this - a child always enjoys what he is good at and will be more willing to put in effort to continue to be good at it. So if we help 'push' a child who is weak in something up to the point when he realizes that he is/can be good at it, his own motivation will take care of the rest.

I'm pretty sure I've managed to push him past the biggest hurdle in this learning journey. The road ahead should be easier now, as long as he maintains a positive learning attitude. 

I don't know how much to credit the school for this because from what he has told me so far, the quality of their Chinese lessons is far from meeting my expectations. The lessons are all very simple and straightforward, following the textbook/workbook closely. Though there are supposed to be daily lessons, in reality he seems to get only 3 to 4 proper lessons a week. The remaining periods were used for all sorts of other admin/assembly-related matters. Well, at least he likes his Chinese teachers (yeah, he has 4 Chinese teachers, not just ONE because the main teacher is always away for courses/training/involved in some school events and CCAs! It's so ridiculous!)

Never mind. We are making reasonable progress and we are both happy about it. Good enough for now! The march on continues....  




Monday, May 23, 2011

Homemade Book: Under the Pacific Ocean

Another one which Chip made earlier this month. 

This creation is a clear example of his cheeky nature in the way he talks about the main character exposing his derriere .....   :P 












One day, Swimmer the diver was on his boat. 
He was going to catch a sardine and then off he go.
He caught the sardine and then he was soon going to go.
He was going back to the cabin of his boat.
Then he dived back in the water and he forgot his pants.
When he came on his boat the fish saw his butt.
He was up on his boat and he accidentally pushed his pants in to the water.
So the diver didn't have any more pants and he peed in the water.
So he dived down into the water without his pants and the pee went on his face.


Entirely his own work. The only help he got was in the spelling of some words. 

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Homemade Book: Dragon's Best Dinner










Deep in the woods in a cave inky black
A dragon in a cave was sleeping, then he wake up
Then he thought he is hungry
He was going to eat
So he was going to come out of his cave.
Then he saw a rock coming down for the sky 
He open his mouth and he blow out fire
Then he ran and he bumped into a grizzly bear 
The dragon said to the grizzly bear
Soon we are both going to have a munch
But actually I'm going to eat you
He pump out a great ball of fire. 

Maze on the last page: Help the dragon go back home. 

Entirely his own work. The only help he got was in spelling of some words. 

Friday, May 20, 2011

His Source of Happiness and Pride

After completing his assignments in class, M will usually pick up a book from the mini-library collection available in his classroom for silent reading. Sometimes, he prefers to draw.

He drew and coloured this Megatron in school last week during those few minutes of free time he had in between lessons over a two-day period.



Upon completion, the boys in his class crowded around him to admire his work. A few of them have now asked him to draw them different Transformers characters. He is only too happy to oblige and has since produced 4 different pieces for the boys. I heard there is a small wait list now. Haha!

He confessed feeling a great sense of pride to know that his classmates think so highly of his drawings. It pleases him tremendously that they were really appreciative when he presented them with his small "gifts". What a great way to bond with his friends! :> 

Looks like his form teacher has also recognised his interests and potential. M has been selected as one of the ten kids to represent his school in an art competition this June. Will blog about it after the event. 

I'm excited for him. This experience will be truly meaningful since he will be producing a piece with someone else and he is representing his school at the competition. It will be a notch more interesting than just participating in any art competition that we can sign him up for (though we've been too lazy to sign him up for any competitions so far). Whether he wins or not is secondary. More importantly, he gets the opportunity and experience. 

Till then.... 


Thursday, May 19, 2011

Homemade Book: Under the Ocean








One day a diver the brave was on his boat. 
He dive into the ocean and he saw a lot of things in the ocean. 
He saw squids, star fish and a shark. 
Then he saw a gigantic squid. 
The squid reach out its tentacles and grabbed on to the diver. 
The squid bit the diver and he was dead.
The diver was dead and the squid went out again going far.


Another of his recent work which he completed entirely on his own, except for the help with spelling of some words. :> 

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Homemade Book: Shark








Sharks have poor smelling. 
Sharks have poor eyesight. 
Sharks have very sharp teeth. 
But baby sharks are called pups!
Sharks actually don't bite people sometimes. But do you know what sharks eat? 
Sharks eat fish. 
Sharks cannot stay when they are on land. 
When shark teeth are broken, they grow new ones. 
Sharks got a tail.
Sharks can dive. 


Entirely his own work. His idea, his words and illustrations. The only help he got was in the spelling of some words. We didn't correct his grammer and sentence structures at the time he created the book because he did it on his own. But we pointed them out when he showed the book to us upon completion. 

For the first sentence, he meant 'sense of smell'. 


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Homemade Book: Crocodile











One day a crocodile was in the forest. 
And he was hungry and he was going to eat. 
He was looking for a bunny to eat and then he saw one. 
And he chased it. 
The bunny was too clever and he jumped on the tail of the crocodile and grab on the tail. 
The crocodile turned and bit the bunny. Ouch! 


Entirely his own work. His idea, his words and illustrations. The only help he got was in the spelling of some words. 

My Fish Scrap Book

Call it a case of unstoppable passion!

Chipsy, my 4-year-old, has been creating short storybooks on a daily basis in the last few weeks. Some days, he even churned out 2 or 3 in one sitting!

Here's one of them. The idea, sentences and illustrations are all his own. The only help he asked for was in spelling some of the words. :> 









I love the innocence in his illustrations and the simple short and sweet sentences. 

This little gem has gone into our pile of treasures, along with the others which he created before. 

More to come.... 

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