Life at 6yo..

Sometimes, it makes me wonder why do they need to make kids at 6yo learn the spelling and "ting xie" of long and complicated words.. 

Nick's spelling words for this coming Tuesday..

1. Water cycle

2. Evaporation

3. Condensation 

4. Precipitation

5. Collection

Ting Xie for the next few Thursdays..  6 words a week.. This coming Thursday, it will be the 5 words on the 1st row..

*Poor mummy has to ask papa how to read them and write the Han Yu Pin Ying on top of the words.. :( 

Selfish Mummy..

Last week, before the tsunami and earthquakes in Japan, Nick came out with a big plan to help the children in South Africa.. He wanted to sell off his toys that are in good condition and buy food, cook them and send them to Africa for the children. When we told him it's not going to work because the food will be ROTTEN by then, he was rather disappointed.  We tell him he could send cash and the charity organization will send the money across on his behalf, but he was very certain that we cannot send money as it may not reach the children at the end of the day.. :( We wondered all week where he learnt that from.. 

Last Sunday, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan made the young man pounder again. This time, he wanted to be there for the children, babysit them while their parents rebuild their home.. Such a small boy, with such a BIG ambition. :)

Then, the nuclear plant exploded, leaving the already troubled country in a bigger mess..  Seeing the chaotic situation in Japan, many of us would have wanted to stay away from it as far as possible, but it made him more determine to help those people in Japan.. When asked, he would say he wants to help them to rebuild their homes, look after and play with the children while their parents get busy with all the other things, he wants to pack his toys for the children to play etc.. And he said "i want to join the army when i am older so that i can be there to help them.. ". 

I supposed i have to feel very proud of my son because he's only 5yo and he has such a HUGE heart to walk out of his comfort zone and help others.. But, i am still a mum.. If i can choose, i want to keep him in Singapore, safe from all the dangers around.. :(

The Boy and his Mad Love with the Dinosaurs and Volcanos...

Sometimes, we have absolutely no idea where did the love for all these come from. 

Just like for dinosaurs and volcano, it just comes out of the blue, when he starts reciting all the names of the dinosaurs and telling us the dinosaurs all died because all the volcano decided to "EXPLODE" (he meant erupt) at the same time, the hot lava (yes, he used the word LAVA which i have no idea where he learnt that from) burn them all.. And they died.. :(

Well, it just started that way.. And he can spend hours and hours flipping Sam's encyclopedia even though he could barely read them. 

Last Sunday, we found this at Toysrus.. Feel that it was rather reasonably priced so we bought it for him.. 

Back home, daddy gave him instructions on how to break the hard sand brick to "extract" the dinosaurs out..

See some huge piece that came off? The small plastic hammer that nick is using is not capable of that.. Daddy played cheat after a while and used the real hammer to break the brick as it was taking too long for nick to break the sand block.

My young Paleontology and his assistant (i.e. daddy) at work.

Finally, can u see the dinosaurs? It's is like after 2 hours of hammering did Nick finally see them. 

Then.. 1 came out.. 

Then 2 dinosaurs..

Then 3rd one joined in.

And not long later, all 6 came out. 

*Mummy too excited, forgot to take pictures.. :P

After the dinosaurs appeared, Nick went on to prepare the plaster mix to make the volcano..

Then poured it onto the mould.. Smoothen the base of the volcano..  Then, wait for it to dry. :)

This weekend, we will be painting the volcano.. Stay tune!.. :)

2 Little Monkies = 1 Big Plan

Something big is brewing..

If you don't cooperate with me.. I'll kiss you till you do!!

*Bleh* How?? U going to change your mind?? :P

About Nick..

Nick is going to Primary 1 next year and i am having a nervious breakdown soon! And, i am wondering if i the only one facing this..

Over CNY, i spoke to a friend whose daughter is in P1 this year. She told me that her girl is coping fine in school. No tution, just PCF then now P1.

I called a P1 Prep Class and the teacher told me a child is ready for P1 when they can read "I, You, He, Her, Is, Are, The, This, That". Is sufficient.. (i am more than certain that Sam could read those at K1 and a whole proper book at K2!!)

Am i really Kiasu?? Nick for sure can read more words than just those few, but still, i find him a slow reader.. *rofl*

Monkies and their Master Pieces

Since i isn't able to bring the monkies out on most days, so bought some art pieces for them to keep them busy.. Howeve, Nick isn't very patient, nor interested in crafts, so Grace end up doing almost everything.

Nick with his froggie photo frame.

Grace with her car photo frame.
Grace with her cat sitting on her head. She did it at the art class..
Grace and her little lamb which she did at art class too!!

Grace painted the Santa..

She also do up the foam crafts..

She did this cute paper bag puppet..

While Nick did this "crossed eyed" lion..

That perhaps summaries what kept them busy this whole school holiday.. :)

His Christmas Wish..

I told Nick to think what he wants for X'mas.. Then we can go and buy together.

Today he called me at work..

"Mummy, i know what i want for Christmas already.. I want to play snow!!"

Darns.. Where has snow and is cheap??

Shit.. I got myself into trouble again.. :(

Maybe... Maybe... I'll bring him to snow city at Science Centre.. :P

Poor Nick.. : ..(

He's got itchy hand.. 

He went to touch the iron..

He got burnt at his palm..

He cried buckets.. 

Yet, he went to school without the maid or teacher informing us. 

He kept quiet and hide his hand when we got home at 8ish..

The maid finally opened her mouth and spoke up on the accident at 8.30pm and we rushed him to the doctor.. 

It was a huge open wound that needs cleaning up and hopefully prevent an infection since it's been left unattended for almost 12 hours!

Then, the doctor informed us that there is something weird about the wound.. It had some whitish thing around and in the wound. And much questioning, Nick told us he had PUT GLUE on the palm, attempting to stick his skin back!  *ARGH* How naive can a 5yo kid be.. I am guessing it must be darn painful!..

After doctor clean up the wound, he also wrapped a thick bandage on his palm and instruct us to keep the bandage dry and go back daily for the next 2 weeks to clean and dress the wound.. 

And the damage, S$160 (for the 1st visit only!!)... *ARGH*

 * Update : Visit 2 for cleaning up costed $45.. 

** Nick, am counting so that i can claim this back from you when you grow up!.. *evil grin*

This School, That School..

You perhaps cannot understand how can i ever be so impressed with a Kindergarten. 

I took what Grace learnt in school for granted.. I felt that since we are paying arms and legs for Shichida Kindergarten, the amount they have taught to her was value for money.  She's usually ahead of her peers in childcare be it her speech or her motor skills.  

Since the previous childcare Nick and Grace was in was dirt cheap, i thought that they would at least do some good job in teaching sufficient stuffs if not more. 

Well, it isn't so. 

At first i thought the childcare was facing shortage of teachers problem, so i sent Nick for enrichment classes. The other reason i thought was, Nick is a slow learner. 

Well, now am thinking otherwise.. I think the childcare has short changed the kids!! 

It's week 4 since Nick started this current kindergarten, and, 

1. Instead of like the childcare had said, 1-20.. This kindergarten is doing 1-100.  

2. Nick is spelling words, reading and writing! And not just going on and on with phonics sounds only!

3. He's reading and writing chinese words unlike in the childcare, he never knew how to read and write a single word!

Damns, what have they been doing in childcare all these while?  How much more is he supposed to know but dunno because they aren't taught to him in childcare? DARNS!

I am not Kiasu! So Not Kiasu!!  Just ranting!!

Desaru Fun! (Dated 3 July)

It was out of the blue that hubby and me decided to head up to Desaru! Friday morning we talked bout it, and Saturday, the whole family headed out to Desaru! Yes.. That's almost how impromptu our trips are!!

Us on our way there.. 

Arrived!! Finally.. After the 2.5 hours drive.. 

Hubby and me in the van at the Fruit farm.. Picture taken by Grace.. Not bad hor!

The fruits at the farm..

The Koi pond in the farm..

The mini zoo in the farm!

Us at the Ostrich farm.

Parents are Silly creatures, aren't they?

And i am one of the silly one too!

While Nick going "gila" over his fighter planes, so is his mummy going "siao" over his new found ambitions!

As much as i know children's ambitions are "2 days wind and 3 days rain", i somehow hope i can help him to realise his 1st big ambition.. :P

Already, Nick had made me scan all the pictures from the NDP newsletter, enlarge them so that he can paste them on his wall. He went 1 step further by comparing the newspaper and the scanned pictures, identfying which models they are and scrubble them on the paper as well.. He asked for extra copies of the printouts so that he can learn to draw them. He's asked to go to borders to look for books on fighter planes and air force uniforms..

And me, been sitting beside him seeing him do all these silly activities. I have promised to bring him to the library tonight to look for books on fighter planes.. I have gone to the extend of contacting the air force on how can Nick join the air force in future and also checked with them if he can still join the airforce if he has flat foot and according to his doctor, he will be only doing clerical jobs only.. Good news is, Nick still has a chance of joining the airforce! And, the helpful staff was so nice to even tell me when he turns 17yo, with good O levels results, he can apply to join the airforce. Hope the policy, by then, will not change yet!

This weekend, we will visit the air force mesuem so that he can learn more bout them.. :)

Small Fellow, Big Dreams!

Nick has 2 ambitions after the NPD preview..

1. He wants to join the air force pilots the fighter plane..

2. He wants to be the President of Singapore..

I wish the 1st ambition can come true at least.. :P The 2nd ambition is kind of tough and far, but not impossible..

Jia you Nicholas!! :)

Happy 45th Birthday Singapore!

It's still a bit early, since it's neither Singapore's Birthday nor Nick's Birthday yet! But well, by chance, some unknown Mr Nice sms-ed me by mistake telling his friend he has some 2 tickets for the preview for him. :P I asked if i could have them since none of the monkies had watched the NDP live before!  And he offered the tickets to us instead..  Not only did he offer the tickets to us, he offered us 4 tickets!! :) Of cos, he made my day and he made me so thrilled that i simply forgotten i needed 5 tickets instead of 4.. Haha.. How could i ever be so BLUR!! 

Nevertheless, while we were leaving home to catch the parade preview, Grace cried buckets when she came to know that she will be left behind.. After much pleading and crying, we decided to try our luck at the door. 

Count us damn lucky!!  Luck didn't only strike us once, but TWICE!! At the entrance, we were told that only 4 could enter the parade preview since we only had 4 tickets and another hunk saved our day.. He had 2 tickets but he only needed 1 to enter.. So we gotten the extra ticket from him and head into the padang for the preview.. :P 

* In the pictures, you see both Nick and Grace opening their mouths so big cos they were screaming at the top of their voices when the hear National Day songs that they knew how to sing! Machiam so proud being part of the parade!!

* In the last picture, you see Grace taking the flag and cover her face, that's because she was so scared by the fighter planes and mummy was too busy telling Nick to watch, taking pictures that i didn't get the chance to hear her telling me she's scared!  So in order to prevent herself from crying, she took the flag and cover her eyes hoping that by not seeing them = not scared! Made us laughed till our tears rolled up while we were looking thru all the pictures!

 

A Baking cum Movie Date with Best Friends and Kids!

It first started with a movie date.. i 'chio-ed' a few girlfriends with kids to catch Toy Story 3. Then, auntie Irene came out with this idea of meeting up before the movie for a little baking session with the kids.. 

So, this came about.. 

Grace mixing her nutella into her cup-cake..

Nick and Ernice.. 

Hiroshi..

It was supposed to be a kid's baking session, not too sure why auntie Xtine was busy "digging" the nutella.. 

Auntie Irene, our baking "instructor"..

Then, auntie Xtine busy writing her name on the cupcakes.. 

Auntie Jen and Jake were also busy filling their cuppies..

Our cuppies are almost ready to go into the oven..

While waiting to put the cuppies into the oven, Nick and Grace were busy taking pictures of each other..

The cuppies are BAKED!! The "fruits" of their labour!!

After that was the movie date which we had forgotten to take pictures cos it was super chaotic.. Never in my life had i gone to the movies with over 20 people.. :P 

The date was fun.. We should do this again real soon!!.. :)