Apr 30, 2013
Kissed by my 1 year old
During our dinner today, baby Reagan woke up and whined for me to carry him out of his stroller. Hubs and I were discussing about Reagan's recent clingy behavior and how it seems that he is getting more attached to me. As I sat baby Reagan beside me, he suddenly pulled himself up, placed both his hands on my cheeks and plant a kiss on my lips! It was so random and unexpected!!! I cried out to hubs hysterically ! "Did you see that??!! Did you see that??! He KISSED ME !!!" Hubs witnessed the entire episode..with so much envy of course haha! All the time I have been the one who "forced" hugs and kisses to my baby boy. Recently he has been demanding more hugs and cuddles from me, and today for the very first time, HE KISSED ME out of his own free will !!! That feeling is amazing and can't be described in mere words....I love you baby boy! MUAIZ!
Parenting a Whiny Baby
I used to be able to decode baby Reagan's cries and whines quite accurately, usually either he wants milk, wants to sleep, needs a diaper change, sick..etc But now his whining has increased as his needs increased. Not only I've to take care of his basic needs, I've to also watch out for his emotional needs as he grew older. A baby's crying or whining is an automatic response to communicate to you his needs, such as for love, comfort or security. And I believe that a mother should never deny love and attention to her child.
The more a mother tries to ignore the baby's whining, the more anger and frustration she feels. Yes , I admit that I sometimes do get really annoyed and honestly I get this negative feeling only when I tried to ignore his whining. It's always easy for others to comment "Just let him cry, he know when to stop, you give him attention you spoil him.." Not responding to a baby's cry go against a mother's intuitive responses. so it is easier for one who is not attached to the baby to say that.
Maybe it's true that after the child whines long enough he stops, and that's not because you've managed to "trained" him to obey you. It is because they lose the motivation to communicate with you. At this baby stage, crying and whining are their only method they can use to get your attention, and if they are always ignored, they think they do not have the power to communicate and give up, they will then grow up to become less expressive and unresponsive. A mother should learn to be sensitive and knows how to respond to their babies' cues in a nurturing way, which will benefit by building up the child's trust and creates healthy bonding and communication.
Baby Reagan knows how to whine for attention and affection nowadays. Sometimes there's nothing else he wants except for some cuddling time with me. Yes I always try to respond to his whining by picking him up, cuddle and ensure him that mummy loves him and is always there for him. Never one time I blamed or labeled my child "naughty" as well. A child who demands more love from his own mother is NOT a naughty kid. Of course there have been times when I tried to cheat by pretending not to hear his whines, or wait for him to get distracted and hopefully he stops and forgets that he was whining earlier. Well, it doesn't work all the time though. And the more I ignored, the more he wont stop and the more frustrated I gets, and that's because I choose to deny love and attention to my child. And that's probably the last thing I wants my child to feel.
Of course having said much above, it doesn't mean Reagan is going to be "spoilt" with all the attentions he wants at all times. It depends a lot on the situation as well. As mentioned before in my previous entry, a parent should know the right time to say "NO." My positive attention will not be used to condone these 3 common babies' behaviors; he is going to do something which can get himself hurt, he is going to do something to hurt others and he is going to do something which will caused damage and destruction. Other than the above, why should I withdraw my love and attention from my baby who thinks he needs and wants more from his mother.
I'm glad that Hubs and I share the same philosophy for parenting. With just barely 1 year of experience, we are are still the "newbies" in the realm of parenthood and still have so much to learn. At least it's comforting to know that both of us are on the same track and agree with the same kind of parenting style that we want to approach. Our goal is to earn the trust and respect from our child and by doing so is to set great examples for them, and that's because actions speaks so much more powerfully than words. If we do not want our child to hit others, we do not hit our child too. If we want to teach our child to keep their words, we set good examples by keeping our promises to them too. We want to nurture our child to be a better person in an environment filled with love and positivity , instead of one that is filled with fear, abuse (whether physical or verbal) and unreasonably display of authority. We don't want our child to obey us like dogs, but we want him to challenge us with his thoughts and opinions, of course in a respectful manner. And lastly and most importantly, we wish for our child to grow up to be a good-natured, happy and confident individual.
The more a mother tries to ignore the baby's whining, the more anger and frustration she feels. Yes , I admit that I sometimes do get really annoyed and honestly I get this negative feeling only when I tried to ignore his whining. It's always easy for others to comment "Just let him cry, he know when to stop, you give him attention you spoil him.." Not responding to a baby's cry go against a mother's intuitive responses. so it is easier for one who is not attached to the baby to say that.
Maybe it's true that after the child whines long enough he stops, and that's not because you've managed to "trained" him to obey you. It is because they lose the motivation to communicate with you. At this baby stage, crying and whining are their only method they can use to get your attention, and if they are always ignored, they think they do not have the power to communicate and give up, they will then grow up to become less expressive and unresponsive. A mother should learn to be sensitive and knows how to respond to their babies' cues in a nurturing way, which will benefit by building up the child's trust and creates healthy bonding and communication.
Baby Reagan knows how to whine for attention and affection nowadays. Sometimes there's nothing else he wants except for some cuddling time with me. Yes I always try to respond to his whining by picking him up, cuddle and ensure him that mummy loves him and is always there for him. Never one time I blamed or labeled my child "naughty" as well. A child who demands more love from his own mother is NOT a naughty kid. Of course there have been times when I tried to cheat by pretending not to hear his whines, or wait for him to get distracted and hopefully he stops and forgets that he was whining earlier. Well, it doesn't work all the time though. And the more I ignored, the more he wont stop and the more frustrated I gets, and that's because I choose to deny love and attention to my child. And that's probably the last thing I wants my child to feel.
Of course having said much above, it doesn't mean Reagan is going to be "spoilt" with all the attentions he wants at all times. It depends a lot on the situation as well. As mentioned before in my previous entry, a parent should know the right time to say "NO." My positive attention will not be used to condone these 3 common babies' behaviors; he is going to do something which can get himself hurt, he is going to do something to hurt others and he is going to do something which will caused damage and destruction. Other than the above, why should I withdraw my love and attention from my baby who thinks he needs and wants more from his mother.
I'm glad that Hubs and I share the same philosophy for parenting. With just barely 1 year of experience, we are are still the "newbies" in the realm of parenthood and still have so much to learn. At least it's comforting to know that both of us are on the same track and agree with the same kind of parenting style that we want to approach. Our goal is to earn the trust and respect from our child and by doing so is to set great examples for them, and that's because actions speaks so much more powerfully than words. If we do not want our child to hit others, we do not hit our child too. If we want to teach our child to keep their words, we set good examples by keeping our promises to them too. We want to nurture our child to be a better person in an environment filled with love and positivity , instead of one that is filled with fear, abuse (whether physical or verbal) and unreasonably display of authority. We don't want our child to obey us like dogs, but we want him to challenge us with his thoughts and opinions, of course in a respectful manner. And lastly and most importantly, we wish for our child to grow up to be a good-natured, happy and confident individual.
Apr 29, 2013
Bibinogs Term 2 - Lesson 6
Baby Reagan and his favorite toy in class again!
Playing with the xylophone!
Letter of the week is "P" and we had PingPing Panda! Usually baby Reagan doesn't show much interest in soft toys or puppets, however today he displayed more affection to PingPing Panda. When the teacher announced that she is going to keep the panda away, he reached out his hand and tried to give it one last gentle pat, then he turned around and looked at me with his bambi-eyes and smiled.....aww....my boy is such a cutie...
For craft time, the teacher brought out the Potato for the kids to do some printing. I've no idea why baby Reagan is so amused by the potato. He smiled and chuckled each time he looked down at the potato he was holding. Something about the potato seemed very funny to him and I cant help it but to giggle along.
While waiting for daddy to pick us up after class, I put him on the lion car ride and pushed him around the front of the school counter.
Apr 28, 2013
First Visit to Hokey Pokey Playground !
Hokey Pokey is an indoor playground that is more suitable for babies and toddlers age 2 and under. They have lots of toys, car rides, ball pits, slides and even a dressing corner where you can get your baby dressed up in cute costumes! Reagan looks so cute
in the Mickey Mouse costume but he wasn't really pleased with the dress
up game haha! The place can get a little crowded during the weekends, therefore I'm still contemplating whether to get the membership for him...
Apr 26, 2013
Heguru- Daddy's First Experience in Class
It took me like only 15 minutes to wake him up from his nap, feed him milk, change his clothes and put him into his car seat.
I stood outside the class and peeked through the door to observe my two boys. Daddy was trying his best to handle him, but still I think I will do a better job than daddy haha! Half-way through the class, I decided to give daddy a break and switched places with him, much to his relief!
After the class ended, I asked daddy what he thinks about the lesson and he began to brag about himself being the only person in class to get all the answers right for Mandala and his ability to memorize the ten pictures of Peg Memory. And before I can reply, he started reciting the peg memory just to impress me. Well, daddy is trying very hard to convince me that he is also right-brain trained!
You Are Your Child's First Teacher: Discipline and Other Parenting Issues
- The Question Of Discipline
All discipline starts with self-discipline by the parents. It does not mean punishment. In fact "discipline" comes from the same root as "disciple" , so we're asking how we can raise our child to become devoted followers of their highest ideals, and not how we can force them to obey us.
- Imitation and Example
The principles of examples and imitation are so effective with a very young child that if you want to teach a certain behavior, it is the best to perform that behavior in front or (with) him, instead of giving the child orders or directions. For eg, instead of ordering, "Don't eat with your fingers!", pick up a spoon and demonstrating to him "we eat with our spoon." Instead of saying "Go clean up your toys.", perhaps you can do the duty together with your child while saying "Time to put your toys away!" Instructions combined with movement, song and good humor go a long way into getting a child involve in an activity. This approach emphasized on trying to say things POSITIVELY. Our actions speak to a young child more powerfully than our words.
- When You Say "NO!"
- When what he wishes to do would be harmful to himself , eg.playing with a scissor
- When what he wishes to do would be harmful to others, eg. pushing another child
- When what he wishes to do result in real damage, eg. using markers on the wall
- Our Own Emotions
Because children imitates efficiently, we need to monitor our own emotions and actions when interacting with them. Children don't do things to annoy you. They're exploring the world and testing out what works to get their needs met.When a child tries to approach with an annoying behaviour, parents tend to remain silent until they reached their limit, and overreacted from the string of annoyance. As a result, the child feels unacknowledged and continue the negative behavior to get the attention he expected.
- Why Parenting Takes SO Much Energy
The first thing that is necessary for a happy and healthy baby is to have a happy and healthy mother. Babies are nourished by love and care just as they are nourished by food. The reason parenting takes so much energy is that the life forces of the mother and baby are interconnected through the first three years. The young children are surrounded and consumed by "life energy" or "vitality" from their mother, therefore it can be rather deceptive that it seems you're accomplishing so little that day, but feels that energy has been totally drained . Caring for young children draws on your vital energy and you need to replenish your own vital forces to continue to feel good in your mothering.
Title: You Are Your Child's First Teacher (Third Edition)
By: Rahima Baldwin Dancy
Apr 24, 2013
Home curriculum for 1 year old- A Letter a week
Baby Reagan is getting really active and my hands are totally tied up by him. I've to constantly think of ideas and ways to entertain him or drain off his energy especially during the day. Baby Reagan is still doing his daily 5 minutes right-brain home practice and BabyCanRead book before his noon nap but I don't really want to repeat the same home practice again in the later part of the same day. There are more fun activities that I can think of doing together.
So I thought it'll be a good idea to plan my own home learning curriculum, focusing on his favorite phonics alphabets. Each week i will introduced an alphabet and plan activities that are related to that particular letter. Well I hope I will not give up and able to complete the entire curriculum which I will plan weekly till letter Z.
I put all the teaching materials in a box, which I named mummy's "Magic Box.". After baby Reagan woke up, I sat him on the floor and while tapping the box I sang a song that I made up "What's inside mummy's magic box, magic box, magic box? What's inside mummy's magic box , let's take a look!" (from the tune of "This is the way I brush my hair.."
Baby Reagan started smiling cheekily at mummy, he knows it is play-time with her again!
So I thought it'll be a good idea to plan my own home learning curriculum, focusing on his favorite phonics alphabets. Each week i will introduced an alphabet and plan activities that are related to that particular letter. Well I hope I will not give up and able to complete the entire curriculum which I will plan weekly till letter Z.
I put all the teaching materials in a box, which I named mummy's "Magic Box.". After baby Reagan woke up, I sat him on the floor and while tapping the box I sang a song that I made up "What's inside mummy's magic box, magic box, magic box? What's inside mummy's magic box , let's take a look!" (from the tune of "This is the way I brush my hair.."
Baby Reagan started smiling cheekily at mummy, he knows it is play-time with her again!
This week I started with letter "A" and since I'm inputting phonics as well, therefore I begin with the lowercase letter.
My first item that represent letter "a" is "a", "a" , "apple!"
I showed him a big letter "a" card, the word "apple" and a real apple. Each time I will repeat and stress on the phonics sound "a, a , a"
Baby Reagan's face lit up once I showed him the letter "a" and immediately lunged forward to reach for the apple.
I let him play with a full apple first, before cutting another one into half and showed him the cross-section of it. Then I gave him time to observe and explore with his hands.
I let him play with a full apple first, before cutting another one into half and showed him the cross-section of it. Then I gave him time to observe and explore with his hands.
I tried to teach him how to trace the letter "a" with a marker, but it turned out he is more interested in drawing on himself with it. Luckily I stripped him naked because I knew otherwise he would stain his clothes.
Art & Craft time! Today we're going to make printings of the cross-sectioned apple!
Baby Reagan shows much enthusiasm at first....but 2 minutes later...
..he got bored pretty fast too...
And he left a whole lot of mess which looks more like a bloody crime scene. I don't think I'll be touching paint very soon.
His "apple" artwork...different from what I had pictured.
My next word is "a" "a" "ant!"
Usually I will try to show the real item of the word I introduced, but I'm turned off by the idea of catching real ants, so I used a picture of ant instead.
This activity is much hassle-free. I made a set of flashcards on "How to draw an ant" and flashed it to him a few times and repeat the different parts of an ant. (I wish I can improve on my drawing skill..)
Then I showed him a picture of an ant without legs and guided him to draw and count the 6 legs at the thorax.
It was a fast activity and he actually enjoys the repeat flashing of the cards on ants.
Lastly, since we were using the red paint earlier, I decided to input him the colour, red.
I pulled out the red items one by one for him to touch and feel, then dropped them into this box with the word 'red" inside while repeating the colour "red." I mix them up with other non-red items and do the colour sorting again. I'm surprised he sat throughout my entire "presentation" and focus even much better than the "apple-printing" activity.
I took out 3 pairs of items of different colour and asked him to pick the red one, and he got it right...3 times straight! This was another surprise for me too ! A one year old's brain can truly absorb like a sponge! I know babies also learn through repetitions, so for the rest of this week I'll probably just repeat my demonstration and flash him the letter "a" and words.
I'm now motivated to plan his new lesson next week!
Apr 22, 2013
Leap Schoolhouse Trial
Few weeks back, Hubs and I signed baby Reagan up for a trial class at Leap Schoolhouse during the SmartKidsAsia event at Expo. The admin staff mistook her for a little baby girl. It is not surprising as we get that all the time. Usually people either assumed Reagan is a girl (regardless how boyish we dressed him up) or ask us "baby girl right?" I always smile politely, "it's a boy...that looks girly :) "
First 15 minutes is free-play time like most schools. Reagan must have thought that he is at Bibinogs school because immediately he crawled to the playmat to look for his favourite toy, the ring hoops. Of course he was disappointed that he could not find it. The toys were quite limited as well.
The next 15 minutes was gym time at the gym room where he had fun chasing a colourfull ball around. However he started whining for me when the teacher tried to make him go through some gym obstacles.
After the exercise we returned back to the classroom for snack-time, which was supposed to be brought along by parents themselves. Luckily I got some organic baby biscuits for him but he was more interested in trying to dive his way to the fan and the television in the room. Baby Reagan manged to sit through the entire story-telling time, but he started to get a little cranky during the craft session. I knew he is going to need his sleep soon because before his lesson, we brought him to visit his grandma and he did not have much nap there.
For art & craft, the teacher passed each baby some shredded papers of different textures and a glue stick to stick them together onto a paper. Baby Reagan recently loves to hold small items in hands and investigate them like a forensic scientist. I find that it's a good way to encourage sensory play as he can learn and explore. So usually I don't stop him and even find more items of different sizes and textures to encourage him to touch and feel. Unfortunately, sticky glue stick is not one of my approved items.
Baby Reagan never has an issue with returning things back, however he burst into tears when daddy tried to take it away from him. This was a wake-up call for us as we have all along taken Reagan's good behavior of returning things back for granted. Never one time did Reagan react that adversely when we took his things away. Daddy insisted that he might have learned this new negative habit from the other babies in all the previous classes he used to attend. Each time the baby refused to return the toy, they will use the screaming, whining or crying tactic and the teacher or the parents will return the toys back to calm the baby down. Reagan must have witnessed it many times, and had learned to use the same method to prevent us from taking away his glue stick today. However in my opinion, I felt it's probably part of a growing up stage of a baby. Daddy refused to condone his behavior and took the glue stick away, which led to a melt-down. Mummy practiced her usual method..."The art of distraction". So in the end, we won by calming him down without returning him the glue stick, yeah! We do not want to let him think that he can get his way by whining, crying and of course humiliating us in public hahA!
Anyway back to the lesson, I think the teacher really tried her best to capture the attention and make the lesson fun and lively. However without his favorite rapid cards flashing and alphabets phonics, I don't think baby Reagan is enjoying as much as the other babies. Nevertheless, it was still overall a good experience, but probably not one of the preferred schools that suit baby Reagan.
Our cute little baby "girl"
After the exercise we returned back to the classroom for snack-time, which was supposed to be brought along by parents themselves. Luckily I got some organic baby biscuits for him but he was more interested in trying to dive his way to the fan and the television in the room. Baby Reagan manged to sit through the entire story-telling time, but he started to get a little cranky during the craft session. I knew he is going to need his sleep soon because before his lesson, we brought him to visit his grandma and he did not have much nap there.
For art & craft, the teacher passed each baby some shredded papers of different textures and a glue stick to stick them together onto a paper. Baby Reagan recently loves to hold small items in hands and investigate them like a forensic scientist. I find that it's a good way to encourage sensory play as he can learn and explore. So usually I don't stop him and even find more items of different sizes and textures to encourage him to touch and feel. Unfortunately, sticky glue stick is not one of my approved items.
Baby Reagan never has an issue with returning things back, however he burst into tears when daddy tried to take it away from him. This was a wake-up call for us as we have all along taken Reagan's good behavior of returning things back for granted. Never one time did Reagan react that adversely when we took his things away. Daddy insisted that he might have learned this new negative habit from the other babies in all the previous classes he used to attend. Each time the baby refused to return the toy, they will use the screaming, whining or crying tactic and the teacher or the parents will return the toys back to calm the baby down. Reagan must have witnessed it many times, and had learned to use the same method to prevent us from taking away his glue stick today. However in my opinion, I felt it's probably part of a growing up stage of a baby. Daddy refused to condone his behavior and took the glue stick away, which led to a melt-down. Mummy practiced her usual method..."The art of distraction". So in the end, we won by calming him down without returning him the glue stick, yeah! We do not want to let him think that he can get his way by whining, crying and of course humiliating us in public hahA!
Anyway back to the lesson, I think the teacher really tried her best to capture the attention and make the lesson fun and lively. However without his favorite rapid cards flashing and alphabets phonics, I don't think baby Reagan is enjoying as much as the other babies. Nevertheless, it was still overall a good experience, but probably not one of the preferred schools that suit baby Reagan.
Apr 21, 2013
Bibinogs Term 2- Lesson 5
Mummy is a little under the weather today, so daddy had to take baby Reagan for at least the first half of the lesson.
Music & Movement, dancing time!
Shaking the eggs-shakers to the music
Story time!
Baby Reagan was distracted by his pretty classmate sitting opposite him. And that's Valerie, his bestie in class and they always look so cute interacting with each other.
Snack time!
During Bubble-time, baby Reagan excitedly crawled to the front to join the other babies catching bubbles. He couldn't stand up by himself yet, so he tried to reach for the bubbles by pulling onto teacher's pants, and it also looked as though he was begging the teacher to blow the bubbles to him haha! Daddy and I found it really amusing.
Letter of this week is "O", so we had Olive the Otter in class today. All the babies rushed to the front to give Olive a pat and a hug.
Today we are going to make an Octopus! I held baby Reagan's hands while we do the painting together and again, he did not resist at all! No whining or struggling. Instead he sat quietly on my lap and observed carefully as we completed the artwork together. Good job baby! You behaved very well today!
And also during today's lesson, I noticed that baby Reagan is attempting to clap! Usually every end of an activity or music, everyone would clap and cheer together. And today, I notice each time we finished a song, baby Reagan would try to put his hands together and shake them, as though he is trying to join in the clapping and cheering. Even the teachers noticed his new actions as well!
Dear baby, I'm so glad that you've shown me how much you enjoy your class.
Still, daddy and I made the decision not to continue after this term ends, due to the overseas trip next month and also, we like to explore other schools and expose him to different environment. However I'm sure in future we'll be back to join the class, maybe when he is ready for the older toddlers group.
Apr 20, 2013
Heguru - The First Lesson
Reagan had his first lesson today at Heguru , one of the popular right-brain schools in Singapore. As I'm familiar with the Shichida Method and have also been exposing him to right-brain activities since he was an infant, therefore I thought it's worth to let him try out Heguru. Furthermore, one of its' branches is just 8 mins drive from my place.
There are two teachers in each class, one to assist the flow of the lesson and one to deliver the lesson. 60 activities are packed in that one hour and everything is very fast-paced right from the beginning.
Below are some of the activities that I remembered (not in order), based on my frail memory..
- Introduction of day, date,week, month, temperature
- Input of elements of the periodic table
- Attendance taking- Teacher will call out for their name and each child would have to go to the front to retrieve their name card.
-Proverb of the day - Still Water Run Deep
-Show the clock going clockwise by hour and minutes
- Focus on picture of a blue bag and imagine it going bigger and bigger
- Flashcards about the origin of Buddism
- Teacher dimmed the lights and on the background music and told an imaginary story about a walk in a garden.
- 2 rounds of power flashcards sessions
- Linking memory
- Peg memory
- Mandala - picture showed on TV screen for few secs and students are to colour and draw the same diagram out.
-ESP games- Telepathy- is it a picture of a penguin or flamingo? Clairvoyance- How many carrots are there?
-Dots flashcards
-Teacher threw a handful of chips on the floor and covered them, students are to guess the total number of chips.
-Dots matrix- addition
-Math multiplication
- Abacus ,2x, 5 x
- Words flash cards
- Encyclopedic- Evolution of Plants with props, music and flashcards
- Phonics alphabets- letter a & b
-Touch and trace letter a
-Poem - Fat Cat
- Japanese flashcards- Nan sai des ka? (How old are you?)
-Physical excercise- Hop on one foot
- Dancing time and byebye
Home practice recommended by school this week
1)Imitate animals' cries
2)Hop on one foot
3)Poem - My Cat
There are many more activities but above are what I can remember during his first lesson. Reagan responds quite well to majority of the activities, of course especially the flashcards and phonics segments. He waved his arms in excitement and focused very well during every cards flashing. And that's because he is used to the rapid cards flashing and recognized the alphabets and phonics sounds. I believe that how well the baby's attention span is also greatly depends on his interest and the home practice. It's mainly about the familiarity and getting used to it.
Of course still there are times he would "drift away" like the linking memory or imaginary story session, because he doesn't seem to understand what's going on. Baby Reagan is in the 1 year old class and there are certain activities that many cant do yet, for eg. the Mandala segment. The babies were supposed to watch and remember the shapes and colors of the diagram on the TV screen, then draw and color the same diagram on a piece of paper. Reagan is more interested in waving the crayons and paper around, so mummy is the one that did the activity for him. The teachers understood that it's quite impossible for 1 year old babies to do this activity but I guess there are benefits of starting them early, so once they get older and able to use the crayon and understand the instructions, they will immediately able to do it. Other activities such as, saying out their own name, creating a story from Linking Memory, answering questions on the ESP games and hopping on one foot, are all done by parents demonstrating to their babies. Difficult topics such as the Periodic table and Evolution of plants and etc, are also mainly for input purposes, which is one of the emphasis of right-brain.
Overall, baby Reagan and I enjoy our lesson very much and look forward to our next class.
Baby Reagan and his daddy at the school's play area-
There are two teachers in each class, one to assist the flow of the lesson and one to deliver the lesson. 60 activities are packed in that one hour and everything is very fast-paced right from the beginning.
Below are some of the activities that I remembered (not in order), based on my frail memory..
- Introduction of day, date,week, month, temperature
- Input of elements of the periodic table
- Attendance taking- Teacher will call out for their name and each child would have to go to the front to retrieve their name card.
-Proverb of the day - Still Water Run Deep
-Show the clock going clockwise by hour and minutes
- Focus on picture of a blue bag and imagine it going bigger and bigger
- Flashcards about the origin of Buddism
- Teacher dimmed the lights and on the background music and told an imaginary story about a walk in a garden.
- 2 rounds of power flashcards sessions
- Linking memory
- Peg memory
- Mandala - picture showed on TV screen for few secs and students are to colour and draw the same diagram out.
-ESP games- Telepathy- is it a picture of a penguin or flamingo? Clairvoyance- How many carrots are there?
-Dots flashcards
-Teacher threw a handful of chips on the floor and covered them, students are to guess the total number of chips.
-Dots matrix- addition
-Math multiplication
- Abacus ,2x, 5 x
- Words flash cards
- Encyclopedic- Evolution of Plants with props, music and flashcards
- Phonics alphabets- letter a & b
-Touch and trace letter a
-Poem - Fat Cat
- Japanese flashcards- Nan sai des ka? (How old are you?)
-Physical excercise- Hop on one foot
- Dancing time and byebye
Home practice recommended by school this week
1)Imitate animals' cries
2)Hop on one foot
3)Poem - My Cat
There are many more activities but above are what I can remember during his first lesson. Reagan responds quite well to majority of the activities, of course especially the flashcards and phonics segments. He waved his arms in excitement and focused very well during every cards flashing. And that's because he is used to the rapid cards flashing and recognized the alphabets and phonics sounds. I believe that how well the baby's attention span is also greatly depends on his interest and the home practice. It's mainly about the familiarity and getting used to it.
Of course still there are times he would "drift away" like the linking memory or imaginary story session, because he doesn't seem to understand what's going on. Baby Reagan is in the 1 year old class and there are certain activities that many cant do yet, for eg. the Mandala segment. The babies were supposed to watch and remember the shapes and colors of the diagram on the TV screen, then draw and color the same diagram on a piece of paper. Reagan is more interested in waving the crayons and paper around, so mummy is the one that did the activity for him. The teachers understood that it's quite impossible for 1 year old babies to do this activity but I guess there are benefits of starting them early, so once they get older and able to use the crayon and understand the instructions, they will immediately able to do it. Other activities such as, saying out their own name, creating a story from Linking Memory, answering questions on the ESP games and hopping on one foot, are all done by parents demonstrating to their babies. Difficult topics such as the Periodic table and Evolution of plants and etc, are also mainly for input purposes, which is one of the emphasis of right-brain.
Overall, baby Reagan and I enjoy our lesson very much and look forward to our next class.
Baby Reagan and his daddy at the school's play area-
Apr 15, 2013
Watching my amazing boy..
Watching my baby boy, I remembered his tiny fragile body entangled by tubes, cords and wires in the ICU, it broke my heart and everyday I pray that we could trade places so I can endure all his pain.
Watching my baby boy, I remembered the time I kangaroo cared for him in the ICU. My eyes welled up with tears of heartache as I gently stroked and kissed his tiny forehead.
Watching my baby boy, I remembered the emptiness in my heart each time I had to kiss him goodbye and left the ICU to go home without him.
Watching my baby boy, I witnessed a miracle and the strength of love and faith.
Watching my baby boy, I'm reminded by all simplest joy he brings because I knew it was so close that I almost could not experience it.
Watching my baby boy, I know he may not understand how amazing he is, but I always remember how he battled to simply survive, and just to be reunited with his daddy and mummy.
He is truly an amazing darling boy of mine, always.
Watching my baby boy, I remembered the time I kangaroo cared for him in the ICU. My eyes welled up with tears of heartache as I gently stroked and kissed his tiny forehead.
Watching my baby boy, I remembered the emptiness in my heart each time I had to kiss him goodbye and left the ICU to go home without him.
Watching my baby boy, I'm reminded by all simplest joy he brings because I knew it was so close that I almost could not experience it.
Watching my baby boy, I know he may not understand how amazing he is, but I always remember how he battled to simply survive, and just to be reunited with his daddy and mummy.
He is truly an amazing darling boy of mine, always.
Bibinogs Term 2 - Lesson 4
Baby Reagan now enjoys shaking the egg shakers during the music and movement segment. Even at home, he seems to obtain the new habit of shaking anything he picks up, just to check if they make any sounds.
During the story telling, he kept turning around to look at me, then climbed up and wrapped his arms around my neck. He doesn't seem very attentive to the storybook reading. I knew he wants mummy to cuddle him a while, so I put him on my lap and hugged him from behind while we continued listening to the story. Recently baby boy has been slightly more clingy, or I rather call it affectionate. Many times he demands cuddles by either wrapping his arms around our neck or climbing onto us and resting his head on our chest, lap or tummy. This little one year old of mine can easily just melt my heart like that.
Zoolander Phonics is still his top favorite and every lesson, and I really meant it by every single lesson from the first day we joined the school, he always pay 100% attention to the phonics recitation. His teachers are aware and always look forward to see how engrossed he can get. He really love his alphabets and gets excited when the sounds of each letter are made. Of course I've already memorized the zoolander phonics as well and recite it to him everyday.
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