Reading and Games...

Tim is in such a huge craze for reading... so I decided it was time to drag the Speller Junior game I've bought months ago for him to play and learn...

The game was simple, so without much instructions given, he was able to take it and play on his own. He wasn't comfortable in spelling the word without looking at the letters on the card, so I just allowed him to play it the way he liked.
He was content that he was able to read the word after forming the word.
Learning through play... :)
I didn't know if Tim would like this series of BOB readers so I bought the one and only series.
To my surprise, he enjoyed reading the entire BOB Books in this series. Will see if I should get the rest of the series too...

Have to start planning for the next level of reading since Tim has covered the short vowel 'A' now... more planning to do from henceforth...

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My childhood game, UNO, was a hit with Tim. We set those fancy cards aside, such as 'draw-two' etc and left only the numbers in the pack. We sat down and played this game for almost an hour and Tim didn't want to stop. Amazing!

Such games are definitely way better than sitting before the TV *smile* Tim learned to think, take turns and follow instructions/rules as we played UNO... will definitely play more of such games in future...

More Math Games with Right Start Math

We continued with Right Start Math... we learned about the quantity 6 and also the counting song... the song is new to Tim so we learned up to 9 thus far... but he's still a little confused about how the numbers add up... with practice, he'll get there...

In Right Start Math, the child is to use the left hand for the quantity 1-5 and any additional number from 6 to 10 are to be counted with the right hand. As we haven't been very consistent in working on the Right Start activities, Tim, has forgotten about which hand to use for counting 1-5...as you'd notice in the video... it's my fault (note to self: must run through activities daily though we can repeat the activities for 1-5 or 1-6)

The complete "Yellow is the Sun" song can be heard from here. You may even use the scores that is freely provided on the site for your own use. I thought the song was rather catchy and easy & fun for the kids to learn... :)

Here's some additional activities within the lesson plan to work on... take a look... it might be a little too advance for Tim at this stage... but he just loves it that he has something to manipulate and play with as he learns math.

We're likely to run through the previous lessons ie. Lesson 1 on quantities 1-3, Lesson 2 on quantities 1-4 and Lesson 3 on quantities 1-6 before we hit Lesson 4 on quantities 1-7.

From lesson 4 onwards the child is to begin using the Right Start's abacus, and it gets progressively tougher even though it's with lots of manipulatives... so have to take it slowly... since Level A was meant for kids from K1 up...

More homeschool updates coming up... :)

Simply Homecooked - Braised Chicken

Recently, hubby and I were discussing about keeping his family's favourite recipes that have been passed down by my mother-in-law. Since my mother-in-law's retirement from the kitchen, many of her wonderful secret recipes have only been passed onto my sis-in-law's previous maid (who has already left for Indon)...and only partial of her recipes are taught to my helper.

I'm fortunate to have my helper teach me how to make braised chicken today. It's really my first attempt in making this dish... I guess there is more room for improvements so here's to share the recipe with all of you...

Ingredients required -

1kg Chicken Winglets

20gms Galangal (blue ginger root)

A few stalks of Spring Onion (chopped into thirds)

2 Bulbs Garlic (separated into cloves; chopping is not required)

2 Star Anise

1 Cinnamon Stick

1-2tbs Sugar (1 tbs if you prefer it to be more savoury)

2tbs Rice Wine

6tbs Dark Soya Sauce

3 Cups Water

First, caramelize the sugar under low heat, adding a tbsp - 2 tbsp of water as the sugar caramelized.
After which, add in the remaining water and stir lightly. Adding all the spices and all the rest of the ingredients except the chicken winglets. Bring the gravy to a boil and add the chicken winglets into the pot. Turn down the heat and stew for an hour. Remember to stir occasionally so that all the chicken winglets are braised nicely and evenly.

Serve with white rice or even chinese porridge (糜). You may also use the same sauce (gravy) to braise pork if you prefer.

Not too difficult to prepare, but of course it takes time to perfect this dish to my mother-in-law's standard :)

We've Decided...

Some of you might have learned that my domestic helper is returning to her home town soon... we've deliberated, discussed and decided...

That we are going to take the bold step of living without a domestic helper from January 2010 onwards. Honestly, I am a little apprehensive, and not sure if I can cope with all the housework, part-time homeschool and part-time work.

I am still praying hard for grace and strength...because for the past 3 years (almost), everything was taken care of by our domestic helper, in terms of housework and even the kids' daily needs... that I am actually guilty of being complacent.

That's why in my previous post, I mentioned about a major adjustment for us in the coming new year. We've decided to let our helper go back home earlier (ie. by end Dec) and have taken the plunge to send the kids to the child care centre on a half-day basis so that I could catch up on housework and other matters at home and outside.

We are pleased that we've found a place for the kids where they'd experience Christian influence... it's a child care centre that's supported by the Christian community. That's Little Missy, donning her uniform.

We witnessed that Little Missy was very drawn by the teachers and the activities that the kids in the class were working on when we visited the other day. We know, she'll enjoy school as much as her brother did previously.

It is also our hope that Tim would find school interesting and not run about in class anymore... beyond that I hope they'd be able to blend in well in a class room environment, afterall, they've been homeschooled all this time.

I am excited yet a little nervous about the coming new year... but I know everything will straighten out as we go along... just have to keep focusing on my Heavenly Father~

The Atlantis City

With two restless and hyperactive children at home it is hard to keep the temper down... so the best way to expend all those pented up energy in the kids is to bring them to a playground.

Some days ago, my friend, Evelyn, shared about The Atlantis City, in one of our MSN chats and I was reminded that I've been to this place some years back (that was when Tim was around 1 yr old), for a birthday party. Without further adieu, I decided that the kids will have an indoor playground to play in.

After visiting Polliwogs, the kids just can't have enough of indoor playground so this is a perfect place to bring the kids to if you don't want to burn a huge hole in your pocket. The entrance fee (for kids) to this place is a mere $5 per hour, and if you purchase a concession of 5 sessions at one go, it's only $4 per hour.
We've been to this place twice in two weeks. It's a nice cosy place (not as huge as Polliwogs but sufficient to provide the fun that the kids need). There's a ball pit, a huge slide, a few swings and a gym area...
The kids enjoyed their games in this little playground and I think it's all well worth the effort of travelling all the way to Alexandra Road.
There's no need to put on socks at the play area so we the parents don't have to spend $5 for a pair of socks should we forget to bring a pair along... :)
The play area is safe, hence I had the chance to just sit and watch them play from afar without having to fuss around them.

I'll give this place two thumbs up! Do check it out!

Take Stock!

It's been an extremely crazy and busy month for me... and I do feel the guilt that most working moms are experiencing... I used to enjoy the luxury of time being around my kids doing something or even nothing... but November has been a month of travelling and lots of hard work...where I spent most of my days away from home and even the country...

Honestly, I don't enjoy being away... during the quieter moments of my solitude, I began questioning if this is truly what I want... for I've decided to walk away from the corporate world so that I could focus my time and energy to be with my children. To be a SAHM wasn't just an aspiration but I felt deeply that it was a calling for me.
As the year draws to an end in a month or so, I began to reflect on my achievement this year. Looking in retrospect, I haven't done as much or achieve much as I wanted to. My kids are spending more of their time watching TV, running around the neighbourhood and achieving nothing much in my opinion. I have been an advocate of being an active parent but these days I've succumbed to relinquishing my duties as a mother to the domestic helper... very often dumping my kids in her care while I am out and about... while I know the kids are in good hands I just don't feel right not being around them.
I'm counting my blessing that my children still remember who I am when I return from my overseas trips and when I've been out all day; they will still run to me with wide open arms and a beautiful broad smile... shouting the melodious "Mommy" as I hug them.
I guess, I need to take stock of my life right now, what I am doing and where I really want to go... before the new year begins, I have lots to think about and loads of planning to do as year 2010 will be a year of major adjustments and changes for us in the household... it won't just be me alone making the adjustments but the entire family (yes, including the kids)... so what is left of year 2009 is the time I want to take to pray and straighten things out.
I am grateful that my Heavenly Father, has watched over my kids and kept them in protection during the times that I can't be with them. I guess, I'm just feeling a little out of sorts, a little exhausted and need some time to quieten down my heart and think things through.
Year 2009 has come and almost totally gone... everything happened too swiftly... I am left with not much time to ponder over what wasn't done or what I should have done... I can only look forward to a brand new year with a brand new beginning and to look positively that a breakthrough will come our way... the drought will be over and blessings of abundance will rain down soon...

Missing In Action?

It's been a while since I last updated... sorry everyone if you have been checking in from time to time for updates... I haven't abandoned this blog... just have been too swarmed with activities and catching up with the kids due to my trips this month...

I've loads to update!!! Just need to find time to organize all the photos and thoughts before I record them all here... so please, do check back later...

More updates on my homeschool activities, places we've visited and recipes and maybe a Julie/Julia Project challenge (inspired by the movie Julie & Julia)...

Stay tuned!!!

I'm So Blessed & Loved!!!

During my 4 days in the retreat in Kuching, I was missing my children a lot. They said, absence made the heart grow fonder, well, it's true!

On the last evening of the retreat, hubby sent me a text message that melted my heart instantly!

Little Missy, prayed for me to have a safe trip back home... isn't she a sweetheart? *sigh of contentment* I am so blessed and I feel so loved!

Messy Fun - Postman!

It's been a while since I shared about a Messy Fun activity we've done. Today, we played Mr Postman!

We have two self-inking stamps and a few used/recycle envelopes and the kids just took it from there to have their own fun... it's amazing, that they worked on this activity for an hour!
The two kids working on their "job" as a postman... stamping away...
Little Missy being playful again...
Busy little Mr Postman holding two stamps in both hands...
We had a great time playing Mr Postman... after the stamping fun, we read the story book "Seven Little Postmen" by the Golden Book Classic

学华语 (Part II)

Our progress in learning chinese is slow... sometime earlier this year I shared about my plans to teach the kids chinese. We didn't achieve very much till recently (about a month ago), hubby, decided that we MUST speak mandarin on every Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday of the week. Even when the kids responded in English, we (hubby & I) continued to speak in mandarin to them.

It's been over a month now, and the kids are definitely picking mandarin up much faster and easier. So it's true that the environment plays the biggest role in nurturing the kids to learn their mother tongue.

We've noticed that both Tim & Little Missy are not resistant rather they are more enthusiastic to speak a few mandarin words in our daily conversation (albeit with an 'ang moh' accent, if you know what I mean). Other than speaking to them in mandarin, we've also made them watch their daily dose of Nick Junior & Disney channels in mandarin on days where it's a chinese day. We sing a lot of chinese nursery rhymes and it sure was more fun to pick up the language this way for my two kids.

I've recently cleared out a section of our bookshelf to contain the learning aids that I've made so that the kids have better access to them at anytime they want. Within the learning aid boxcontained a lot more Montessori's 3-part cards in Chinese.
Here's one of the learning aid that Little Missy is practicing on. The 3-part cards contained a picture/word board and matching picture and word cards. Through this exercise, the child will get to hear how the word is being read, it helps with eye-hand coordination, visual discrimination as well as a gentle start in word recognition.
Here's the 3-part cards on numbers & quantity which Tim practiced on.
After selling so many of the weather & day of the week chart, I finally made one for ourselves. I was more keen in teaching Tim about the chinese words than the days of the week, to be honest.
After using this chart for 2 weeks (kids really do learn through repetition), Tim, was able to recognize the word 晴天 (fine weather) and he placed it accurately against the weather of the day *beaming mama*

I am working on a plan to make learning chinese more interesting by adapting some of the suggested activities in the chinese storybooks as well as the workbooks I've bought from the Popular Bookstore. Hopefully, that will help the kids learn chinese in a painless way... *smile* will share more as we go along, so stay tuned!

All About My Kids & Photography

I'm so back dated in my blog post that I don't even know where to begin. So here are some random pictures that I've taken of Tim & Little Missy, in my puny little attempt to learn to take better photos (you can tell I'm definitely an amateur hee).

I've been contemplating on getting a prosumer camera for a long time... for the very fact that I wish to take clearer & sharper pictures of the kids... so far, my Canon Ixus 860IS has served me quite well. My only qualms is that the shutter speed isn't fast enough as photographing kids who are on the move gets rather challenging for me.

Hubby has urged me to try using his Nikon D70s (DSLR) for a long time (as it's severely under utilized), but the weight and bulk of the camera simply turns me off. Hub suggested that I practice photographing the kids by using my current compact camera... picking up the tips and tricks of photography first before I take the plunge to invest in a more expensive camera.

The very first thing that I picked up in basic photography is the 1/3-2/3 rule. Photographing the subject not by placing them right in the middle of the picture. So here's a picture I took of Tim when he was enjoying a morning game with his sister in my bedroom. I love that smile on his face... charmer!
Little Missy singing to us... she was standing against the window where the glare made her look very dark without flash. So I turned on the flash and took this pic but that didn't minimize the glare from the window quite well.
Tim was moving a lot as he laughed and played so the picture didn't turn out clear under no-flash photography... but I just couldn't resist putting this up because of his happy smile.
Little Missy being very curious about the lens of my camera... she made a 'mark' on the lens after this pic was taken o.O
Cheeky Tim, peering from behind the toy in his hand...
Monkey-see, Monkey-do... Little Missy, mimicking everything that Tim did... *smile*
Little Missy, wanting a piece of hubby's breakfast... :) can't block out the background much, need a better depth of field which this camera can't achieve... sigh...
On days that I feel a little more energetic, I'd bring the kids to explore different playgrounds that are around our neighbourhood. On this day, I brought the kids to a playground that took us approximately 15mins walk to get there. Tim & Little Missy simply had a hay-day...
This was how they played at the slide that day... not by sliding but by hanging...
He's such a happy kid... it rubbed off on me every time I watch him smile and laugh...
Little Missy playing with the gifts I received from the Divine Getaway... she had her tresses chopped off by her mama... I think she looks better with longer hair... so no more bob-hairdo for her from now on...