Reagan's Learning Milestones at 20 months

Social Skill
- Enjoys being around with other children
- Gets excited during an activity
- Shares and plays amicably
- Listens and follows instructions well individually or in a group
- Shows no signs of strangers' anxiety

Physical/motor development
- Still trying to improve on walking steadily and self-feeding with a spoon
- able to draw circle and straight line when told.

Language/Speech
- Imitate single word sounds
- Express well through signing
- Hums accurately to favourite songs
- Able to recognise and points correctly up to 100 objects (body parts, animals, things around us etc)
- Shows interest in foreign language like "San Zi Jing" in mandarin and "Hiragana" in Japanese

Cognitive development
- Recognise alphabets from A to Z and their phonetic sounds.
- Recognise the names of colours ( red, blue, yellow, green, purple, pink, brown, black and white).
- Recognise names of basic shapes ( circle, square, triangle, oval, rectangle, diamond, crescent).
- Recognise numbers 1-10, both numeral and quantity.
- Read 50 sets of words and phrases.
(For all the above, he cant say out many of the the names vocally but is able to point to the correct answer when asked to, and able to sort and match them correctly.)

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Reagan is doing well and I respect his own pace of learning and catching up. I wish he has more confidence in his physical/ motor skill, such as walking up and down the steps or balancing himself on a beam etc. And probably more practice on his practical life skill too ,like self-feeding, drinking from a cup, zipping or buttoning his own clothes,combing his own hair and brushing his own teeth properly etc.

 

The next one will be his speech development, although he is always babbling non-stop , imitating single word and shrieking in joy and excitement now, I hope gradually he will learn to express more vocally, using proper phrases.

 

I'm pretty satisfied with his cognitive learning, because with his amazing attention span and fast rate of grasping concepts now, it is certainly a joy to teach him. He responds well and always shows great enthusiasm especially during the learning of new concepts. Soon I like to introduce more puzzles ,memory games and writing activities.  

 

 Every single accomplishment he achieved, regardless how tiny it is, is considered a giant fulfilling joy to me. I hope my darling will continue to enjoy learning , and together we will have so much more fun more than ever!

CNY Horsey Year 2014

I'm glad I did a flashcards topic on "Chinese New Year" some time ago and he's able to learn and relate everything he sees around him during this festive season, from red lanterns, to lion dance, red packets, spring couplets, yu sheng etc. He would get excited and try to point them to show me that he can recognise them.

 Last Chinese New Year, Reagan was down with fever and flu and was not in his very good mood throughout. This year was entirely different, he was beaming with smiles all the way and enjoyed capturing everyone's attention.

It is also the first year he participate in the "laoing" of the yusheng ! Reagan first learned about the tradition of "laoing" "yusheng" from his flashcards. This year we had our reunion dinner at Mandarin Marina hotel's Peach Blossom. When he saw the waitress serving the yusheng ,immediately he whipped up his chopstick and attempt to stand up. He was so ready to participate!

Gong Xi Gong Xi to his grandparents in the early morning of CNY chu yi.

CNY visiting with my family of "4".

Happy CNY everyone! May this Horsey year be an awesome one for all!!!

Wall & Furniture

The "cloud" theme wallpaper for my boys' room has been done up and I love the overall cozy feel it brings.

 

Most of the furniture that I ordered online have arrived as well.

Classic white wardrobe

 

"Aeroplane" theme drawers and shelf

 

 "Pirates" theme toy chest

that comes with miniature furniture and figurines inside.

 

"Petrol kiosk" storage shelf

 Suitable for displaying all his music CDs

 

Lastly, customised wall decals of my boys' names...

Yes I'm naming my 2nd boy...Kyrian, which means "The Lord" or "From The Lord"

 

Will update more on their bedroom soon...

His very own Waterpark

One of his outdoor play after he had his breakfast in the morning.

The First Play He Watched

 "What The Ladybird Heard. " by best-selling author, Julia Donaldson.

 

The play is about a very quiet ladybird who hears two crafty robbers plotting to raid the farmyard and steal the farmer's prized cow. She comes up with a very clever plan to stop them, helped by the very noisy animals all around them. So with all the mooing, clucking ,baaing, neighing, they scared and foiled the robbers' cunning plan.

 

Reagan seems to be the youngest kid present in the theatre, but I guess because he is familiar with the farm animals and the sounds they made, therefore the entire show is able to capture his attention and he was truly entertained for that whole of one hour play.

 

HIs eyes lit up when he saw that balloons were being distributed to the children after the show ended and his daddy carried him to get one too.

Baby Reagan is a big boy now and he has begin to appreciate the fun of watching a concert/play. I'll be checking out the sistic website again very soon for more interesting play to bring him to.

JG - Bilingual Playclub - CNY party + Sandplay

It was CNY class party for this week and the kids were dressed in their traditional costume! Each of them also brought along one of their favourite cny goodies to class.

My happy little cheena boy!

 Enjoying the snacks with his classmates

Sandplay for their outdoor activity this week. I changed him out of his costume so he wont dirty them in sand.

Engrossed in his sandplay with his buddy

 

Recognising 26 Letters of the Alphabets (at 19 months)

I think 18 months is like a magical age when we gradually witness many of Reagan's "outputs". It was only yesterday that hubby and I just discovered that Reagan recognised all the 26 alphabet letters at 19 months old. It was by chance that my mom tested him on his alphabets on a book and he managed to pick all the letters correctly. Then one day when I was having a casual chat with my mom, I informed her that after his bedroom/studyroom is ready, I'll start to emphasize on the teaching of alphabet letters. It was then my mom mentioned that she thought I've already taught him because Reagan has proven to her that he can recognise all the alphabets. So we tested him and she was right.  He can't actually say out the letter but he will point to the right letter that you want him to point to.

(Click VIDEO HERE)

We tried on other topic like "colours" and he is able to recognise the name of the colours,  red, yellow, green , blue, purple, orange, black, white and grey and sort items to their respective colours.

Therefore it was certainly a pleasant surprise to all of us. In my personal opinion, I felt that his strong foundation derived from the early right-brain training and flashcards are factors that enables him to grasp concepts faster and easier. Honestly, I haven't really sit him down seriously and revise thoroughly on the topics alphabets and colours. But he did have a few flashcards topics on alphabets and colours which I flash to him almost every other day, some random puzzles related to alphabets and of course the occasional singing of his ABC song. Therefore I believe these early exposures contributes as well.

Reagan did not follow the "traditional" method of language learning, which usually begins with recognising alphabets first, then phonics, follow by reading and spelling. He actually learned to recognise words and phrases first before the alphabets letters, which is also how the Glenn Doman Method works. My next step will be starting him on phonics soon, emphasising on the initial sounds of each alphabet letters and guide him on his writing of the alphabets.

Reagan hasn't been expressing much vocally, although he enjoys babbling and humming to his favourite tunes. I hope before he turns two, he not only master the 26 letters but also able to read out the letters and their phonics sound. Both of us are looking forward to our new learning goal together!