Trial @ Playdays

The class began with 15 mins of freeplay, keep the toys into the box, sit in a circle, some songs + actions, babies were called up one by one to collect their name and photo to paste on the board, learn about elephants with an elephant puppet, craft session with paint and glue to create an elephant's face on a paper plate, snack time, bubble time , more singing with the teacher playing the keyboard and lastly dancing to the goodbye song. 

I enjoy watching how baby Reagan interact with the other babies today. He would stroke their head or face and gave them as bashful smile before crawling away to the next baby.

During snack time, they had blueberries, biscuits and yogurt drops for the babies. I was really surprised that baby Reagan fed himself and finished up everything, he even asked for more snacks! Baby Reagan is never a good or big eater. He seldom finish his meals at home, even if I prepare similar snacks that the school offered them today. This time I guess probably eating with the other babies together on the same table motivated him to finish up his food. And when other babies asked for more, he wanted to have more too, haha!

 My baby boy emptied the whole bowl all by himself!

It's always a joy to bring my boy to classes and witness his learning journey, love you baby boy, you're awesome, totally.

Trial @ Magic Fiddler

It has almost been more than a week ever since the irksome haze "confined" my baby boy at home. His eczema returned to attack him again and almost every hour I've to butter him up with loads of creams and moisturizers. After the haze and his skin got better, I got daddy to drop us at City Square on his way to work. I've just called up Magic Fiddler and there was a trial class available for us to attend today.

The class began with the "Hello song", rolling of balls to each other, singing with props like egg shakers, silk cloth, wooden sticks etc, jamming with the different musical instruments, parachute fun and lastly practicing on the real keyboard.

Baby Reagan understood when I asked him to greet his new friends in class. He would wave his arms then smile shyly at them. His favorite activity now is chasing after the rolling balls. That's what he did most of the time at home. Therefore, he enjoyed the segment when everyone sat in a circle and rolled the balls to one another. He likes the singing session as well, although he didn't really participate in doing the actions together. He only sat on the mat with his eyes fixated on the teacher, while she sang away. Each time the teacher brought out a new box with the props, Reagan immediately crawled speedily to grab hold of the first item he can reach for inside the box, and started shaking it with all his strength. He was so busy exploring the musical instruments that I knew that he wouldn't even notice if I left the room.

We put all the kids in the center of the parachute as we waved it up and down, singing to a song. Everyone escaped out of it, except for baby Reagan who was crawling around in the parachute, giggling in excitement. Other parents played peek-a-boo with him while he was on the parachute and that thrilled him even further. I believe he loves the parachute activity most!

 Lastly, all the kids were led to another room where they get to be seated in front of their own keyboard to practice the notes they learned earlier, "c" and "d". It's rather amusing trying to teach your 1 year old the right key to press on the giant keyboard. They find it more interesting to bang on the keyboard and creating a racket instead. But it gets me pretty contented each time baby Reagan tried to press the key, and immediately I started visualizing him in a striking tuxedo on a stage, charming the audience with an awesome music piece from Mozart. Yes, I was absolutely mesmerized by my baby boy.

 I think baby Reagan has started to show interest in music, or I shall rather say he enjoys creating noises...that are music to his ears.

Trial @ GUG- GIfted Babes

Baby Reagan 's trial class for the Gifted Babes bilingual programme at Growing Up Gifted school. I knew that they have a segment on zoo phonics as well, and so I was quite confident that Reagan will enjoy it. We arrived half an hour early and so the teacher opened up a playroom for us to wait inside.

 Once again, baby Reagan was mistaken as a baby girl by the teachers there, haha!

There were two teachers in class, one spoke in mandarin and the other one in English. Since it is a bilingual programme, both teachers work together in such a way that one will instruct in English, the other one will translate in Mandarin and vice versa.

 The lesson began with free play as usual, recite a couple of poems, rhymes, Introduce letter "X", bringing out a fox puppet and painting a picture of a fox with bare hands. During snack time, the school doesn't provide the snacks and parents are supposed to bring their own. Next, the teacher read them a story book about bears-hunting. The book was quite small and by this time, most of the babies were quite distracted and tried to move away from the mat. After the story ended, they took out some props like fake grass patch and brown pillows, and the babies were to walk/crawl over them and pretend they are in the forest hunting for bears. I think this segment was quite interesting as effort was made to link the previous story to the sensory play. Reagan enjoyed the part when I held him to walk over the grass patch with his bare feet. He kept looking down at his own feet and then looked up at me with that satisfied smile on his face. Lastly, the teacher surprised the babies by bringing a lifesize bear into the classroom and announced that they have found the bear!

Next, the teacher continued to introduce items that made the phonics "X" sound , like "boX" and "foX." And after that, she began the zoophonics recitation, the segment I've been waiting for! Like a proud mama, I knew that baby Reagan's attention span during the phonics segment is going to impress everyone. Baby Reagan sat very attentively throughout the entire alphabets and even waved his hands along with it. It was enough to surprise the teachers and some parents there as it was rather an unexpected response from a 1 year old baby who came for the first trial. Of course I then explained that baby Reagan has been exposed to alphabets at a young age at home and also in the previous classes he attended, and so now he enjoys any activities related to phonics or alphabets.

Lastly, we moved over to the music room to sing and dance a few nursery songs with the teacher playing the keyboard, before we ended the class with the goodbye song.

Overall the entire lesson structure is quite similar to Bibinogs, although different animals are used for the zoophonics, and the space at GUG is much bigger. If to compare the teachers, Bibinogs' ones are louder and more engaging, which made the class more lively. 

Happy Daddy Day! (lunch @ Peach Garden)

 Baby Reagan wants to wish his daddy, "Happy Dada's Day!"

Science Centre - Omni-theatre & Mega Bugs Exhibition

We were so looking forward to witness his first Omni-Theatre experience at the Science center.  His expression was simply priceless when the lights are dimmed and the show "Flight Of The Butterflies" began. I put him on my lap , cuddled him close to me while I pointed and described what appeared on the screen. Well, his attention probably lasted for only 15 minutes, before he was distracted by the commotion made by a baby sitting a few seats behind us. He shifted from my lap to daddy's lap and kept peeping behind, trying to find out where the crying came from. This is my cheeky little kaypo!

 Visiting the MegaBugs Exhibition

 

 

 Marine Alcove

 

 Although we completed our excursion within a couple of hours, baby Reagan's energy was absolutely drained out! After his milk feeding, he slept throughout the whole noon! Daddy and mummy hoped you enjoy your day with us, love you baby boy!

Fun with dada & mama @ Royce Kids Gym

Royce kids Gym is another popular indoor playground which is comparable to Hokey Pokey. In terms of space and organization, Hokey Pokey seems to look much spacious and neater than Royce. However Royce definitely wins Hokey Pokey if to compare the number and variety of toys. They even have a corner for kids to play video games! I like the different types of swinging chairs they have, however their ball pit is not as big as the one Hokey Pokey has. It doesn't matter to baby Reagan though...he still loves the colorful balls.

 

Surprisingly it wasn't that crowded on a Saturday, probably because the fee is slightly more pricey than the other indoor playgrounds. If I remembered correctly, I paid ard $30+ with socks for an hour of play only!

The last few times I put baby Reagan on the swing at Hokey Pokey, he struggled and whined to get down. However this time when daddy put him on the swing, he had so much fun laughing with him! I'm glad that he is not afraid of the swing anymore!

Watching my boys having so much fun together, I knew the trip here is worthwhile..

Baby signing

We admit that we haven't been very consistent with our signing practice with baby Reagan. Well, until he unexpectedly signed back to us at 11 months (corrected age). His first sign was "MILK" (open fist close fist). My mom was bathing him when he actually signed to her that he wants milk. Check out video here. Daddy is now convinced that baby signing really works and started signing more often to him. Our next sign to teach him is, "thank you."

Discovery trial @ BlueHouse Nursery

Blue House nursery is one of the few Reggio Emilio inspired preschools in Singapore and it is also where I first got to learn about this approach. It doesn't follow a strict or sequenced curriculum as teachers follow the children's interests and allow the child to lead.This education emphasize on the formation of creative intelligence, free thought, trust, and learning through interactions with their parents, teachers and their environment. It builds on the culture that respect childhood and the development of the child's ability to be independent, explore freely and communicate their ideas.
Reggio Emilio view the environment as a living organism which the children respect, learn and share a relationship with. Therefore the layout, the design, the arrangements of objects and materials used are all specially selected to encourage learning, discoveries and problems solving.  

Today Reagan and I made time to drop by the school to join their Baby & Toddler Discovery Program at the school's atelier.

 I haven't seen a more spacious and pretty classroom like this. The school really made an effort to turn this room into a very comfortable and conducive environment for babies learning and exploring with their parents. In fact, this is the kind of room and ambiance I would enjoy an afternoon away chilling with my girlfriends with some cakes and wine haha!

Overall, the atelier is a spacious room with a few different stations that provides different learning activities or stimulating objects that are either recycled or easily found in a household. The babies are free to explore around the classroom with their parent. In the mid of the class, the teacher will gather all the children together to sing some songs, then they are again free to explore the room and lastly when time's up, everyone gathers again for bubbles time. 

We reached the school  25 minutes early and so we got ourselves comfortable on the sofa and I read him some children books from the bookshelves.
When he entered the atelier, he couldn't even wait for me to put on the socks and crawled away by himself to explore one of the stations. Now Reagan is at the stage of yearning to touch , observe and explore anything he can lay his hands on. Especially things that can move or things that he can make sounds with.

He enjoys the station with all the metal and shiny objects and kept clanking the cup and pot together to produce noises, which somehow kinda amused him.
He also love the water play, where toy animals are thrown into the icy coloured water and children are encouraged to pick them out with their hands or with the scoop provided.

This trial class provides us a good experience understanding the Reggio Emilio style of learning. There was not much of a teaching involved from the teachers since it is basically a child-led exploration program. I think he did enjoy himself since there is totally no restriction for him to crawl around and touch everything in sight. However I didn't sign him up on the spot for the package , mainly due to the long traveling distance from my home to the school and also of course the hefty course fees! With just one hour of exploration and not much of " structured lesson plan" involved, I'm unsure whether it really justifies the cost. I guess I'm still one of those typical Asian moms that are more willing to pay for class that focus on academic as well and has a proper curriculum, compare to one that base on mainly just free-play and exploration. And to prove my point, Reagan and I were the only Asians present right from the time we stepped into the school.

I believe Asian or Singaporean parents are more willing to pay for academic schools like Kumon, Mindchamps, Adam khoo etc... and probably not on a program that focus on total free-play. Well, anyway baby Reagan gets to play everyday! And from the trial class, I've gotten some ideas on how to provide him the same Reggio Emilio approach at home, especially the ideas on turning recycled items into certain fun activities for him. I'm sure he would enjoy it the same :)

Reagan's Play Area

This is Reagan's play area where I always put him in every morning while I prepare his meals. Recently he has learned to open the door of the playpen to escape haha! It is like suddenly I will see him crawling across the kitchen floor, giggling away while spying me at the same time.

 This is one of my best buys from the recent Motherhood expo exhibition.

 Recently I've been reading up room designs for children which are Montessori-inspired. In future when we move to our new place and Reagan gets his own room, I'll want to implement the Montessori concept as well , which emphasized on simplicity, neat-organization, training on independence, responsibility and stimulating environment. I shall probably touch more on that when the time comes. 

 

 All his toys are divided and grouped according to different days before being kept inside the storage box. Which means he gets to play the toys in one selected box a day, and the next day, he gets to play the toys from another box. So instead of dumping all his toys together to him at one go everyday, I rotate his toys around, so he wont get bored of them easily and I get to observe which are the toys that he really likes and which are the ones that he had already lost interest in. And also with only one box of toys per day, it is much easier for me to clean and sanitize them daily!

I'm so glad that baby Reagan finally understood that he has to help me to keep his toys away when I start singing the "clean up" song. All these while I've been singing him the song, encouraging and demonstrating to him how he should pick up the toys and put them back into the box. It was only 3 days ago that finally my one year old boy can do it all by himself!

I'm now trying to input him the understanding of giving and sharing and so far it has been rather positive. Reagan is able to understand when someone ask him for something and most of the time he is willing to give or share the item he is holding. And even if he doesn't want to give it to you, he responds by shaking his head and displays his shy and cheeky smile to you. Keep it up baby boy, you're picking up fast, mama is so proud of you!

Cousin KY 's Bday Party

The first birthday party that Reagan attend is his cousin's! 

And he loves his Mickey Mouse party goody bag!