The Brothers

Where Is The Space?

I recently bought this telescope from Jamie's school at a hefty 50% off deal! This is currently selling at The Science Center at almost $110, woooooo.....

Trial Lesson @ Little Neuro Tree

Joshua has enjoyed the flash cards and songs singing sessions the best! Will I enrol him ? Hmm, not at the moment as he is still very restless and tends to put things in his mouth.

More books

Joshua simply licks on anything that are within his reach. Hence the need to buy glossy books that are waterproof also to prevent him from eating up parts of the pages!

I Can Write!

It's not within my initial plan for Jeremy to write his chinese name at 4yo 5mths, but he did it unexpectedly! Here he was writing his chinese name worksheet he brought home from school.*

* I had customed made a chinese name dot-to-dot book just 2 weeks ago and b4 it arrives, his school already started them practising their chinese name!!

Salt Lamp = Negative Ions ??

Been wanting to get one salt lamp years ago but as it was quite pricey for my consideration, I've then put off the idea. And just days ago, I saw someone selling at a local forum at a very attractive price !! After checking on the pickup location, here it is sitting in our house :)

Solar Grasshopper

This is an amazing easy experiment to teach children about solar energy. Cool!

Online Learning for Jeremy

Today no school for Jeremy as tomorrow's his zoo excursion so he stays home till 3pm for his mental arithematic class.

And I've found a very good website that teaches the whole spectrum of English for children aged 4-8 and decided to download the 14days trial for Jeremy. Jeremy aced most of the activities and he enjoys learning through this media ! Hence, this shall be part of his homeschooling curriculum too!

Visual Stimulation Infant Books

Added few more books for Joshua's eyes & right brain training purposes. And I found some A3 laminated mini posters for him instead of those typical huge wall charts that need to paste onto walls. Cool!

Chinese Readers for Primary One

As I was browsing some books at the bookstore, I saw these series of books which captured my attention instantly!! I took a quite peek and "Wow" ...and now these books are seated nicely on our bookshelf.

e-Learning

I have not been organised in my daily homeschooling plan for Jamie (not to mention Jeremy!) till I have decided to draft up a routine time-table so that I will strictly follow it through. Here, I am incorporating e-learning into the curriculum.

Student Progress Report

This evening Jeremy took back his chinese report card from the enrichment school. I am pleased wif his progress though he has been rather mischevious on stage. And below is Jamie's report when she took back on Wednesday night. As usual, she is weaker in her oral and expression.

Money, Money, Money!!

I am subtly introducing Jamie what is the value of money/coins since the start of this year and today, she is more confident in handling money. I am not in a bit hurry to rush her but it's good that she starts learning it now since she has to buy food herself on every Tuesday and Thursday. She has completed the "Coins" workbook and now she is going into "dollar" workbook.

Reading

Joshua loves to "meddle" wif board books whenever he gets a hand of it. Instantly he will try to lick it before flipping open the pages, whahahaa!!

Classical Ballet

Jamie had her 1st RAD exam this morning at 10am. It's her "1st" because this time she will be graded by an overseas external examiner. We reached the school by 835am. By 915am, we were all ready to enter the studio for her assessment. Nevermind the results, most important is that she did her best and had enjoyed every moment of it! She will be promoted to Grade 1 after the exam.

** Jamie & her group rehearsing for their dance items while waiting for the 1st group to end.

How much change???

Since the start of the year, I've been giving Jamie opportunity to buy food over recess on every Tuesday and Thursday and the rest of the weekdays, bringing packed food from home. She is coping with money with a new sense of learning yet couldn't fully understand the virtue of saving. What do I do then?? Well, first of all, I opened a saving account for her at POSB. Next papa brought her to choose a piggy bank that she can save her pocket money. And lastly, with the recommendation from L, I've managed to get this wonderful Money Sense board game for her to learn how to deal with money diligently. It's F-U-N!!

Heuristic Problem Sums

Call me "kiasu or kiasee" mummy, anyway I'm not in the lest bothered for I know what is best for my children so as to prepare them well for the challenges ahead. Here, I started Jamie solving problem sums using model bars instead of writing out the equations and steps which I've been coaching her since late last year. She has little problems in solving these herself without drawing out the models but I think it's good that she understands and knows how to derives from these models so that come P3, she will have minimal hiccups in adapting these steps.

Yoohoo!!

** Click PLAY to view the video.

An Overcomer Jamie

I remembered Jamie started her 1st swimming lessons wif an instructor at my fren's condo some 1.5yrs ago, in Y2008 Oct. Back then, the instructor just let her be whenever she refused to try to blow bubbles or head down. It only lasted for about 3mths and she ceased learning there due to unforseen circumstances. And I continued her wif another coach around February last year and she's still wif this coach since then. But stopped swimming for another 3mths from Sept'09 due to recovering of kawasaki diease.

*******

So, in between she still didn't try hard to do head down or even jump into the pool etc. But the breakthrough came about some time this year when she suddenly "open" and tried it herself during every swimming lessons, slow but bit by bit. Perhaps gotta thank Jeremy too since he started swimming early this year and has been progressing faster than expected. Now she can even swim wif the kicking board wif head down, completely. Praise the Lord! What a breakthrough!!

Reading

I rarely have time to read alone wif Jeremy. This evening, while I was free from Joshua, I quickly grabbed some phonics readers, sat him down and he read to me. I'm glad that I've made reading an enjoyable pastime for my children to cultivate. They will probably grow up to be an avid readers if we continue this reading habit together wif our children.