EV's nursery/kindergarten settled!

Oh... I just have to share the joy. We have successfully enrolled EV into our choice kindergarten GSCK for 2013 onwards. And it's for the morning session which had only four places left when I called yesterday. Dear hubby went at 330am this morning to line up, and we're glad that it has all turned out well.


Yes, we're crazy to starting queuing up in the wee hours of the morning for the public enrollment (prior to this, enrollment was only for siblings of current students). But we're not the only crazy ones. Apparently, the first person in the queue arrived at 12am, followed by a few more at 2am. Dear hubby was the sixth person there. Then other fathers also continued to arrive soon after. So yeah, we're not that crazy.


So why GSCK in particular? Well, it's near where we stay, so logistics is more convenient. But most importantly, I wanted EV to be in a kindergarten with a good outdoor playground. Hmm... shouldn't I be looking at the curriculum and what the kindergarten teaches, you say? Yes, that's important. But I also believe that a good outdoor playground with a sand pit and a tree house will bring about great memories for EV. It'll be what she'll remember when she recalls her kindergarten days in future. Why do I say so? Not only because preschool age is the age for more play, but also because of my own experience. Ask me what I remember about my kindergarten days and I'll tell you that I remember the fun I had at the playground or swimming in the mini pool. In fact, this doesn't just apply to me, but to almost everyone whom I've posed the same question.


Similarly, when EV grows up, I want her to recall blissfully the fun she had at kindergarten. She will be spending most of her growing up years learning, studying and coping with the demands of primary school, secondary school, tuition... the list goes on. Preschool is the only time when she can learn and yet play in a totally carefree way. And having a good outdoor playground will allow her to get out in the sun, make sand figurines or climb the tree house. Activities which I know she will remember for a lifetime.

EV's emotional surprise

The problem with parenting is that sometimes, one tends to forget that kids actually feel emotions, even though they don't know how to express it. They understand what it is to feel happy, sad, angry and so on. But because one doesn't see them expressing it (or may assume they don't know how to express it), whether through facial expressions or verbally, one tends to forget that kids have feelings too.

That is, until the kid surprises us by actually verbalising their feelings.

That's what happened to EV. The other day, my father in law brought her downstairs, telling her that he was going to bring her to the swing. Once downstairs, he didn't bring her as promised, saying that it was too hot, and they ended up walking around the estate. My girl came back, walked into the home with a downcast look and said 'not happy'. That was the first time she voiced her feelings, and it took her everyone by surprise. What they thought was a little 'trick' to get her to go downstairs, was actually taken seriously by EV. 

This also supported my view against giving empty promises. Whenever I promise EV anything, I make sure I deliver, to the best of my abilities. Otherwise, I don't even mention it. Because I want her to grow up understanding that one cannot give empty promises; one must mean what they say. Because giving empty promises will only end in disappointment, as this incident clearly shows. Still, this incident has opened my eyes even more to EV's capability to feel emotions - do not underestimate a two-year-old.

I think from this incident, our whole family have become more aware of EV's emotions, especially now with her new brother. I'm glad it happened, as we have all learnt something from it.

C for Cake

During the past week, when I was faced with the seemingly neverending tasks of feeding and changing my new born son, which by the way is something I enjoy doing for my precious, I had the feeling that EV was somewhat feeling neglected. She has been a loving older sister, always running to her little brother's aid whenever he cries, or patting him and asking him not to cry. She enjoys being involved in the caring of AA. But I can tell that she does feel a little left out at times, or even bored. Just the other day, I asked her whether she missed pasting & painting with mummy, and she nodded yes. Oh... really felt a tug at my heart when I saw that.

I knew having AA would be more demanding and take me away from EV, but I decided and was determined to start Tot Club as soon as possible after AA's arrival. So today, we did C for Cake. 

Alphabet

I changed the order a little today. After the greeting song, I went straight to the 'Crocodiles Creeping' phonics song. EV loves music, so almost immediately, she followed me as I did the actions to the song. We then did the feely card, before proceeding to introduce the theme and paste the images for cake, corn, carrot, chicken, cup and caterpillar on the Cc A4 sheet. She was quite enthusiastic about tracing the upper & lower case 'C', and asked me to help her do it. We wrote the words for all the images together, and we also went through the spelling and letter sounds for the word 'cake'. 

Art

We did a cake craft from Jann's class. EV was a little perplexed and you could see she was wondering what the styrofoam was, but she repeated 'cake' after me. I asked if she wanted to colour the cake, and got a yes from her. She picked the colours for this craft, while I pasted the cotton wool, and helped her with some of the colouring. When she saw me put the candles in, her face immediately light up, as though she finally understood what this craft was about. We sang 'Happy Birthday To You' together, and she even 'blew' out the candles. I think that was her favourite part.

Pretend Play
We stretched our imaginations today, and did a little pretend play. We were both hungry creeping crocodiles looking for food, and then crunching on chickens, corn and carrots.


Music
We sang 'Pat A Cake' for our closing nursery rhyme. Just in time, as AA started crying for his afternoon feed. EV pointed to her brother and said 'Didi, cry, hungry'. My clever girl!

Mummy's fun phonics adventure

As I had shared here, I have been attending a phonics course conducted by Jann, a SAHM. Last Saturday was the last lesson. I was glad to be able to attend all six lessons at one stretch, as I was mentally prepared that I may have to disrupt it if my new baby decided to come out early. But as baby is still extremely cosy, I managed to finish the whole course without needing any make-up classes. 

While I wished there was more time to go through the individual letter sounds as well as to practice prompting, I think the phonics CD that was provided as part of the course is a good source material for the letter sounds. Other than that, for prompting, I guess it's practice, practice and more practice. It could be good fun too, as I see it as a path of discovery that one can take with one's child. Mummy and child learning together, that's nice.

I really enjoyed Jann's sharing during the lessons, and found all of them extremely inspiring. She shared many tips and ideas from her own experience of bringing up her two children who are of kindergarten and primary ages. Not just for teaching phonics, but for other areas such as reading, writing, maths and Chinese. She even gave some insight into what to expect for primary school. And it is these practical tips that are useful for parents. I like that Jann is very approachable, and I admire her willingness to share. I've always believed that learning should be full of fun and play, and Jann has reaffirmed this belief.

Sounds good? You bet! You can email Jann for more details: jannalin_mrc[at]hotmail[dot]com. For anyone who is still contemplating whether to sign up for Jann's course, I say - go for it! If you are looking for ways to support your young one's preschool learning with some home teaching, but have no idea where or how to start, then this course is a good starting point.