Double Expenses

My girls have reached a stage where I have to buy everything for them in pairs. Tian usually refuses to share her things with her younger sis and the younger sis will throw temper tantrum to get anything her sister is having.

Usually we will insist for the elder girl to share her toys with her sister but on some days, I just simply could not resist to buy something for both of them so that they are both happy (and I do not have to start persuading, lecturing......and punishing).

Another reason is that I will do anything to encourage them to drink more water and I do not mind to stock up on all those formula milk powder for this.

Free gifts from growing up milk for Tian.

Tian is such easy-going girl and I can alternate between this and another more premium brand depending on sales and free gifts available. She used to drink the 'dolphin' brand but I started to mix organic soy, millet, oat milk into the girls milk one year ago (which is more pricey) so I balanced out by buying less premium brand for her. I plan to switch Tao's milk from 'lion' brand to less premium brand when she is four like Tian. After all the recent hoo-haa about added sugar in formula milk, I am even more determined to cut down on formula and replace with organic soy, millet, oat milk which has less sugar.

Crafting Week

Sometimes I feel guilty being a work-at-home mum but seldom accompany my girls as much as I want to except during weekends when my parents-in-law are not with us and I have take care of them on my own. Even so, I will leave them to play on their own while surfing net or doing my admin work. However, since last two weekends I decided to accompany them on Saturdays without touching my laptop except when they are both sleeping. I actually feel better because I am able to concentrate with one task at a time and my girls are happy that I can play with them, read to them and do some crafts with them. One evening last week, I told my 4 yo I wanted to make a mask for her and she chose to be Belle, the character from Beauty and the Beast. My 2 yo would want anything that her sister had so I made her a simple mask. I was getting lazy so I just simply cut out a piece of paper with two holes on it. She was satisfied. A few days later, my 4 yo pestered me to let her draw pictures with water colour. Normally, I would only let her use water colour when the younger sister was napping. After she promised she would share with her sister and would not fight with her sister, I let them play at the garage. Reason due to I HATE CLEANING UP just in case they spilt the water and colours. To my surprise, they played peacefully for more than half an hour. Last Saturday, I cut out some shapes from a paper plate and let the girls pasted the legs, head and tail to make a stegosaurus (I got the idea from one of my ex-school mate's blog). Again, they spent about one hour doing all the pasting plus some colouring. My 4 yo even helped her sister draw the eyes and colour the body of her dinosaur.

Finished work of two stegosaurus

'Me' Time at JB!

Last Sunday, I had a 'ME' time at JB from 10:00am until 4:30pm while hubby babysat my 2 girls at home. It was a relaxing and refreshing day for me.

First, I went to a investment talk for Public Bank customer regarding market outlook, introduction to a new unit trust fund and financial planning. I got to know some friendly bank staffs and had a very nice banquet lunch at the hotel. It was nice having time for myself and I could have undisturbed lunch without having to feed my kids at the same time.

An informative talk at the hotel

After lunch, I called up my hubby and he said the girls were sleeping and I could stay longer at JB if I wanted. Yippee! So I went to a nearby shopping centre and spent my time at a popular bookstore and bought some better quality English materials to teach Tian.

The 'High Frequency Words' book came with flashcards that we were supposed to teach kids 4 new words at a time and the worksheets contained exercises for reading and spelling skills for the 4 words. It was for 5-7 year old but I thought it was simple enough if I teach her with patience (breath in, breath out) and focused just on the reading part. True enough, Tian could read 4 new words at once and read the sentences containing the new words after some initial difficulty (I had to admit, I was not really patient and I did scold her *guilty*). I planned to let her progress slowly and not to rush her on this so that she could have fun learning.

I did not show her the rhymes book because she would be very rigid and wanted to read both books at once which I thought would be too distracting for her.

I bought a Dinosaur comic book because she was very fascinated with dinosaurs and she could differentiate between different types of dinosaurs and pronounce their names. She was not very interested in the Mandarin book so I had not started introducing the book to her yet.

First Week of Pre-School

Tian breezed through her orientation week and first week of pre-school last week. She was a bit hesitant during first day of her orientation week as she told me she wanted to go to her old pre-school. From my previous posts mentioned here and here, I have enrolled her to this new pre-school after she attended her previous pre-school for 6 months.

She settled down well in her new pre-school. She did not cry ( I think going to pre-school before helps) and did not want to go back when I went to fetch her because she wanted to play at the small playground at the yard.

This morning, after having her breakfast and when she was watching TV, she told me I had not fetched her to school. I told her today is Saturday and she could only go to school on Monday.

Sharing

I was at KFC with Tian, MIL, SIL and her 7 yo and 4 yo sons. I promised them a treat at KFC to stop them from whining all the time when we were trying to shop.

I ordered a large french fries among other foods and divided them among the 3 kids. Then I saw Tian leaving most of her fries on her plate, I asked her if she was full and to share some with her cousins. She said OK. I took most of her fries and put them on the 4 yo's plate, expecting them to share out. The 7 yo began to grab from the plate and 4 yo refused to share with him. The fighting began!

To our surprise, Tian took all the leftover fries from her plate and gave them to her cousins. I just love her attitute. Either she is really caring or she has enough confidence that we will provide her enough when she needs anything.

Earlier when we were shopping, the 4 yo was whining and Tian simply took a brochure from our trolley to 'entertain' him. She was imitating what we did when our 1 yo Tao was crying. The way she did was cute. She took the brochure for her 4 yo cousin and said, 'Neh! Give you to see. See, this is pretty etc.' Imagine a 3 yo consoling a 4 yo. I am so proud of her.

Tian's First Drawing

Tian is 3 years and 4 months old. I have never seen her taking any initiative to write or draw although she has been to her pre-school for one semester.

As I was working on my lap top just now, she was beside me mumbling away and I did not pay attention on what she was doing. Then she showed me this and told me a story.

This is a happy girl like me. I have hair, eyes, nose, mouth, arms and legs.

This is a sad girl. She is crying because she does not have mum and dad. She stays in an orphanage. She is unhappy and that's why she does not have any hair.

I was quite surprised. This is a very simple drawing but I have never seen her draw anything except scribbling on her colouring books and I have long given up hope on her artistic ability. I now really understand that I need to let her learn at her own pace and not to force anything on her.

Books for Tian

I have stopped buying toys for Tian for a long time. Reason: She never asks for toys when we go shopping and even if I buy one for her, she will only play for a few hours and very seldom after that.

She is happy when I buy books for her and will pester for me to read and explain to her. This is a good habit but I have been guilty of not allocating a lot of time to read to her.

Books that I bought some weeks ago at discounted price

One thing I do not understand is that she likes reading but when I try to do revision on her flash cards from her pre-school, she is very reluctant to learn. I will need to bribe her by telling her that I will read the books that I have bought for her if she finishes revising her flash cards.

Did I do wrong in showing too many colourful pictures to her since young? The principal in her new pre-school told me that children will only love words and letters if we do not show them colourful pictures before 2 years old. This is to prevent them to be attracted to pictures instead of words. She showed me the materials that they use for teaching are plain and mostly without colours.

I do not know if this is true but since Tao does not like looking at books, I might be able to start showing her letters and words (not pictures) when she is older and see how it goes. I think my parents-in-law will think I am mad if I start flashing letters and words to Tao instead of pictures.

Nutritional Supplements for My Girls

It has been a month since I started to feed Tian and Tao with Multivitamin mentioned here. The effect is quite good. Both of them seldom have runny nose anymore. Even if they sneeze and cough, they will get better after taking medication once or twice (leftover from their previous visit to family GP).

The result is more significant in Tao. My MIL says she looks healthier (not that pale anymore) and fleshier but I think she is still in the 'mini size category'.

I feed them only once a day and one bottle have to be consumed in a month. After the first bottle is finished, I will stop feeding them and see how it goes. Children have to build up their immune system and cannot depend too much on nutritional supplements, that's what I think.

Before and After Pre-school

Tian has shown some improvement in her writing and colouring after 2 months of pre-school. I tried to guide her in writing (tracing) and colouring before pre-school but she refused to let me guide her hand and would simply scribble and colour as she liked. I had since gave up guiding her and left it for her teachers to handle this stubborn little girl.

Colouring before pre-school

Colouring after 2 months of pre-school

At least she can colour one area by one area. She likes to colour only small area and refuses to cover larger area. If we 'force' her to colour larger area, she will complain that her arms are sore.

Writing before pre-school

Writing since pre-school

She can trace the dots but is still impatient to follow the dots properly. Impatience is in her genes (but I am sure not from me, haha).

Aftermath of Car Accident

I went to the workshop last Saturday to pass some documents before the workshop can proceed to repair my car. I passed to them 'Perakuan Pendaftaran Kenderaan', Private Car Schedule (Insurance Policy) and my IC and driving license as well as my husband's IC and driving license (as car owner).

My Police Report. Private information covered with Tian's colour pencil

The clerk was kind enough to e-mail to me photos taken at the accident so that I can update in this blog and I have also got a photostated copy of my police report. Who knows I might need it to make complaint about absence of traffic light at that junction in newspaper if I have time and nothing better to do. Heh! Heh!

The damage on my poor car

The van swung 180 degree after knocked by me, bumped onto the divider and knocked the right front of the Waja on the left. Imagine how 'light' this van is and I doubt on the safety factor of this type of van and it is used to fetch children to and fro pre-schools!!

The damage on the Waja

My daughter now view me as a mum who will simply knock into cars. Whenever I drive her out and there is a car in front of us, she will quickly grab her booster seat and says, 'Mama, be careful of the car in front. Don't knock into the car, OK?' Hmmmph.

Need to decide on pre-school again

Before I enrolled Tian into her current pre-school, I have also 'book' a place in another pre-school. This pre-school, G has only classes for 4-6 year olds and it does not provide day-care. So the teachers are only committed to teaching instead of taking care of them after class. I had seen the syllabus and was quite impressed with what they have committed to teach the students. I enrolled Tian to her current pre-school because they had 3 year old syllabus and I wanted to expose her earlier so that she would be more prepared to go to Pre-School G.

Early this week, the principal from G called me to confirm if I would let Tian to start schooling there next year. Since they have a lot of students on waiting list, I will need to book a place for Tian with RM1000. The monthly school fees will be RM100 more expensive than her current pre-school and it is situated a few kilometres further away from my home. My only concern is that Tian has just got used to her current pre-school and I am worried she will need time to settle down again in a different pre-school.

Her current pre-school standard is also fine but I think they do not expose the students to different languages evenly. In Tian's case is Bahasa Melayu and she is not able to read the words in her book yet. She has shown improvement in tracing lines, colouring and reading (by heart and not actually recognizing words) though. I do not know if I am expecting too much by judging a pre-school from a 3 year old kid's performance and she has only been there for 2 months.

However, the principal at G told me that we need to ensure our children master their languages so that they will not suffer in Primary School especially if we intend to send her to Chinese Primary School. They will have 7 subjects to cope and a lot of homework. If they are slower, they might be put in separate classes with weaker students. I will need to confirm on this with my friend who has sons in Chinese Primary School. The principal told me that if parents and pre-school work together, the students will be able to cope well in early primary school years without resorting to tuition.

I went to see the principal at Pre-school G just now to understand more on the syllabus. As I walked out, I saw a mother bringing her son and told the principal she wanted to enrol her son for 4 year old classes next year. The principal directly told her their classes was full already. So I believe what she says about they have many students on waiting list and needs us to confirm a place with them eventhough there are still several months until end of the year.

I am in dilemma. My initial intention to send Tian to her current pre-school is to give her a better headstart at pre-school G but now I really need to consider properly. Since Tian's pre-school is having Parents Day tomorrow, I will go to meet the teachers and see how it goes....

Craft-ing Session!

Tian always wants to seek for my attention when I am doing my work at my laptop. She will try tracing dots or colouring but will end up asking me to do it with her.

Last Saturday, I thought of making lantern with her. I prepared the materials for her and she spent quite some time (without me) trying to glue pieces of papers onto the toilet roll.

Prepare materials as below.

1 toilet roll

1 piece of blank paper cut to the size to wrap around the toilet roll

Some coloured paper cut into different shapes (Use old magazines to be more environment friendly)

Scissors

Glue

Straw (Those bigger in diameter type used for drinking tea/ beverages with starchy pearls)

Any string for tying onto the straw

Step 1.

Apply glue and wrap blank paper onto toilet roll.

Step 2.

Depending on your kids' age, you might need to cut out different shapes from coloured papers for your kid. Kids who are able to handle scissors can be encouraged to do the cutting.

Step 3.

Let your kids glue the pieces of papers onto the toilet roll.

Step 4.

Make two holes opposite each other at top of the roll. Make a small cut at the straw for tying the toilet roll.