Humpty Dumpty and more

This is a classic nursery rhymes I guess every adult or kids would love.I always love a collection of rhymes in the whole book so that I can pick and read and sing as I like.


But somehow I find this series interesting as it added more spice to the original rhymes.You can also create your own rhymes

using your own words.There's a whole Tadpoles nursery rhymes series can find in the library.

This is a translated chinese counting book by Mary Novick.

It consists of 1-20 numbers inside each page and fill with surprises

with using numbers when you lift the flap.So the little ones will love this full colours with fascinated illustration.Enjoy counting with your little one !

 

Jyn's reading

 We have missed last week Japanese lesson @ happy train due to Jyn's fever. So the lesson will be postphone to next term.

From now, I think I should add more topics related to reading together with Jyn.Actually, from birth till today ( 20 month + 2 weeks ), we have done quite many sessions on book reading together.Due to busy schedules previously, I had failed to share it here ( guilty ).I will make it a point to share as much as I have read previously/ongoing books whether myself or with my little man.The review I put here is base on my personal opinion and just for sharing. Some are rare books which I find on website or in library which I find interesting to read to my little one.

So...without any delay, today I want to share this A3 size interesting book " Big book of crazy mix up " by Nick sharatt which I bought from wood in the book ( a local bookstore ). I picked this book because Nick sharatt is always in my top 5 children book list when come to selection.
Reason been,Text is simple and I simply love the illustration and also the creativity on making the context interesting for "restless" children.

I know my little man is not those quiet kid who would site down to read from A-Z. So this make the selection of books very challenging for me .
So those award winning titles like the" tell me how much I love you" , or "mummy, do you love me" that kind of straight forward flipping is temporary out of my list .
Ok come back to this book by Nick, this book is not that exceptional cheap , if not for the 20% moving out sales, maybe I will not consider this title .It cost about $28++ or coming to $30 if I remember correctly.


 

I love the SUPER BIG TEXT of the book. Baby at this age loves big things and is easier for read together session . And what makes it more fun is it can be MIX AND MATCH as the title says to combine different part of the picture to make it really "CRAZY" for reading.It makes no sense but I find it is ok to make reading a crazy thing at this age.Most important thing is they tend to pick up vocabulary easier.







 




Spider becomes ice cream !







Happy Train @ Bugis - English Lesson

Last week we went for the English lesson@ Happy Train.This time round is another teacher which is also very friendly. Her name is peichin.I would expect the English lesson to be abit different, but quite disappointing, the lessons are more or less similar to chinese except the context is different.Example, in the previous chinese class, children were taught on how to fit a four by four jigsaw ( a dog ). But in English lesson , it was also taught on the same concept but with different picture only ( police car with child crossing the pedestrain crossing.So I guess it will be abit boring for adult. For kids, I am not very sure but Jyn kept rubbing his eyes during the lesson.Overall, the structure is strong and very fast pace and somehow , I need to convince myself that it is not"boring" afterall.
But one good thing was the teacher was very interactive with the children and once they notice there's any shown of impatient child, she will try her best to get her attention back.As I say, there's alot of interactive moments with parent and child and it was a great bonding time.

Overall I will rate 8/10 for Happy Train . I am looking forward for the Japanese lesson next week.

 

Happy Train @ Bugis

I have been trying to let Jyn engaged in short programme over the weekend since he just turned 20 months.

I admit I am not a very resourceful mum and have seen many mothers bringing their kids for all kind of enrichment classes.But that doesn't make me a hardworking mum to go centre to centre to go find out more.

I just "googled" any 3 from the whole range of enrichment class online and just do my research from there.

And I just happen to saw this "Happy Train" enrichment centre and decided to call up.The receoptionist sound proffesional and she actually told me the list of things they will engaged the child into.Sound promising, but not cheap.
This is quite a "in" things recently in SG mostly on right brain training, but it is over decades that other western countries are already practising on their children.

I decided to go for 1 trial lesson before deciding on which is more suitable for my little man. Jyn is very very active during this stage as he can't sit still for another min, just curious on EVERYTHING. So , after knowing it is a sit in 60 mins lesson , deep down my throat, I know it is not going to be simple for me.

Anyway,I am very firm on trying out this trial lesson to see how it goes. Ultimately I want him to be more attentive and patience as I find him to active to do some certain tasks. I am also considering on those gym lesson also with music and dance.I will see how it goes.And most importantly, I just want him to get more socialised since he is an only child.Ok, so we headed down to "Happy Train" on 10 Marth 2013.

The place is situated at chye sing building ( near shaw tower ).I have already done my homework to google the place before I went down. But , it took me awhile to find out where it actually is when I reached that place. It is actually situated right between the "chong qing" steamboat and the duck rice stall .The entrance is so small that you won't even notice it's existence if you not been there before.

It is on the 6th Floor and the lift was very cramp and small. I find it hard to maneuver the stroller around.So be prepared not to get those stroller which is too big. It is very easy to find when we reached on 6th floor. You will see it once you stepped out from the lift.

It was an eye opening for me as I saw about 10 over kids at the entrance . I guess it's after lesson time. Mostly are Japanese kids with their parents who spoke in their native language.It's abit rowdy as there are also local parents chatting about the lessons and with the teachers .But the atmosphere was comfy and welcoming as there are toys and puzzles laying on the one row of tables near the entrance.

Jyn was so thrilled that he immediately run to pick up his favourite "maze"toy. After reporting and payment at the reception,

we just roamed around the place to take a peep inside the classroom how how it is organize beforethe lesson start in less than 15 mins.

   

I am impressed that the centre actually took a mindful thought to put up a
chart with children's photos and also photos of birthday boy and girl.

Lesson is about to start in 5 min and I brought Jyn inside to have a feel inside the classroom.The class only allows 6 children with 1 accompanied adult.The sitting is set in a way that children suppose to sit infront the desk and parent /caregiver is sitting right behind the child.Worksheet was already placed neatly on the desk before lesson.

Today was supposed to be chinese lesson so all materials already set up infront of the white board.

 

The lesson start swiftly with the teacher step in and a short introduce to herself.It started with chinese rhyme song. Then followed up by small colouring stuffs.


The lesson was planned in such fast pace that I find it quite hard even for me to catch up.Each part of the lesson ends in about 10 mins or some even 5 min.But the chinese teacher was very well trained in handling when some children started to look away.Jyn was anxious and keep crying initally and want to look for the "grandma" . But the chinese teacher was fast enough to switch to another task to get the attention back from the child.


In between, we are encouraged to work on the crafts with our children together.When came to flashcards moment,I find it quite impressive as the teacher was very experience in showing the children with very high speed flash cards. We ended the lesson with the goodbye song and sticker for children also .So within the 60 mins, we have done quite a number of activties, like fixing puzzles, sing couple of rhyme songs with simple instrument, feel and sense , colouring, 1 chinese stroke, learn about weather, months , concerntrating game , memorize game ,learn on sequence , learn the concept on numbers 1-20 and more /less. These are the things I remebered so far for the 1st lesson.


After the lesson, the teacher actually carry my boy to soothe him and bring him out from the lesson smiling. My boy actually loves it.This is the kind of teacher that I like - passion.
I can feel that not because Jyn was new student and expect that kind of special treatment and expect us to sign, but I can sense the teacher's passion.The teacher will chat with every parents like friends and I can see those children attending the class are happy and they really enjoyed it.

Overall , I find the class is very past pace and very interactive as you can expect many activities without any messiness as the teacher is very good in organizing.

I have decided to sign up for the next 2 trial lessons (we suppose to sign up 3 trial lessons for 3 languages - Eng/Chin/Jap ). But if you are not too comfortable in signing up all 3 , you can just sign up 1 lesson also.

I find there's no hard selling and the admin lady will not pushed if you do not intend to sign up. They will let you decide and see for yourself.I will update again on the English lesson again.

 

Jyn's learning milestone

I am amaze at the learning ability of young children.Actually,I have been quite dliligently teaching Jyn alphabets and numbers and all the while he was quite playful and I never expect him to absorb all information while he plays.

Till one day, I actually try to "test" and ask him to repeat after me , eg "1" . And quite amazingly I heard he say "2". I continue to say "3" and he cited the next number "4". And I continued with him till we reach the last number and he says"10 !"
.I am truely amazed.Ok,even I have no clue if he really knows what come after next number or he memorized them,but I am satisfied with his progress at around 18 months then.

Today he is 19 months coming to 20, my aim is to let him hum the ABC songs ( at least ) and maybe to let him know well on the 26 alphabets before 24 months.My ambitions, bad mum !

Anyway, will update this blog again along the way.

Books Books !

Recently, I am in the book zone mood and decided to brush up my personal development skill.

Not very sure of what I intend to do. And the most common topic which everyone will need or have to master is financial freedom.So have started to look up in library on such topics.

Actually, Im not very savy onto this kind of topic and and decided to look up something interesting which I can share with my son when he's older and for me to relearn.

I have came across this book titled "Raising a $mart kid".This is written by Rosina Simon.

She was a ex senior banker who has a rich background on financial market and has been working in HSBC,citibank and JPMorgan for the past 20 over years.And she decided to give herself a break by becoming an author for her first book.

I like the way she used practical examples on how she encourage her 3 children when they are younger ( who are already in their teens now ) and get them expose to different ways of saving,buying and spending and how  to reinforce their concept on money matters.
And some of the funny occasions whereby the grandparents are actually involved in helping

their grandchildren on the awareness of saving of money. These are by far some of the best tips she can provides to her readers.

But some of the ideas are quite old but it is no harm in bringing up the matter on the pro and cons on credit cards and what are good loans and bad loasn.You can give this portion a miss if you are already familiar with. So if you are interested, can go to your nearest national /Public library to borrow.

Inspiration from Steve

Recently, I am obessed with books of great ,successful people.

The urgency of unlearn and relearn occurred to me as I feel life is short and feel like I am really lacking of some important knowleges in life.I came in touch with some great books which are written by gurus like Adam Khoo , Dennis Ng and Steven Jobs etc.Most books are teaching us about life and how to be successful by following their formulas.There are lots and lots of information on the net and in libraries as well.

There's a very significant behaviour that each of them possessed.PASSION.I love the book especially written by Leander Kahney on " inside steve's brain".It was one of the fastest book which I have completed ....withing 3 days.You can search on youtube and there's an interview on Steve Jobs on how to be successful.

He had mentioned about PASSION. It is the passion on computers that pushed him forward and make him a legend. I couldn't but agreed with him that without a PASSION, it will be extremely extremely hard for a person to succeed.Slowly, you will give up totally.

PASSION drive people to their fullest potential and it can really bring one to success.This is a simple rule and YET so far out to reach.

This is a book about inspiring and it brings us inside of how apple was started and how this genius of technology has changed and invade into part of our lifes. Truely inspiring.

He really adored on what he is doing and he expected people who work with him to be passionate in their work.That's his charm.

Though I am not a apple fan ( even though I hold a iphone ), but I truely give this man my respect on how a detailed person and his determination on bringing apple back to it's feet again and make it an invader in communication industry. 

It brought me tears on how cancer has robbed Steve's wellness at the peak of Apple's success and his determination to fight this detrimental illness .For apple fans, Im sure you will love this book.

This book is availabe in popular book store , but it can be borrow from local libraries as well.