All About Flashcards

There is a large variety of teaching methods and flashing cards is one of them. My elder boy, Reagan, has always been a flashcard baby. It works for my boy and I've witnessed how much and how fast he has learned through cards-flashing.

Benefits of Right-Brain Flashcards

• Activates the right-brain
• Develops instant/photographic memory
• Teaches languages
• Connect left and right brain when pictures are shown and words are read out. 
• Easiest and fastest way to input as much information to the child at the shortest time. 

How To Flash the Cards?

•  Cards are to be flashed at a very high speed, at least less than a sec per card.
• Each topic can consist up to 10 cards or more, and comes with a title as the "cover page"
• You can start by flashing 10 topics per session (one session a day is good enough) and gradually increase the cards to your child's comfort level. (Reagan is doing 25-30 topics per session).
• Always begin the flashcards session only when you and your child are both in a good and relax mood. 
• Video example of a flashcard session
• Video example of Reagan learning to read via flashcards 

What Makes A Good Right-brain Flashcard?

• Cards to be at least 260gsm and above (thick enough to flash fast)
• Cards to be at least an A5 or A4 size 
• Pictures have to be large, bright and clear, preferably with a white background
• Words are to be large and clear, either in bold black or bold red in colour
• Pictures and words have to be on a separate card. (Pictures and words cannot be on the same page)

BrillJuniors is one great website where you can get ready-made cards that meets all requirement of a good and authentic right-brain flashcards. It belongs to one of my friends, who is also a mummy experienced in cards-flashing/cards-making, so you can be assured that her cards are catered to right-brain flashing and are of good-quality. 

So if you like to embark on this flashcards learning journey as well but lack the time to self-made your own cards, do give BrillJuniors a visit!

Reagan loves to read out loud at 23 mths!

Another milestone we've reached!  Reagan is beginning to read out loud from 23 months old onwards . Click the video which was taken when he was 24mths. He may not be able to pronounce the words very well yet, but I'm glad he is trying really hard to read the words and sentences.

When he was a baby, reading books together is one of our favourite past-times. I would point and read the words out loud before describing the pictures on the pages. Gradually when he is older ard 1year+, I made him point to the words while I read out for him. And when he turns nearly 23 mths, he began to read out the words he points on the books. And then his reading just takes off from here! I really love to hear him read, his cute babyish voice sounds so squeaky high-pitch hahaha!

Reagan is extremely obsessed with books (as usual). He buries himself with all his books everynight, or carries his books around, looking for anyone at home who can read them together with him.  

This is the first book he can read out all by himself. 

Brown Bear Brown Bear, What do you see?  by Eric Carl. I've been reading this book to him since he was a baby and till now, it's still his all-time favourite title! I used to make him point to the different animals, while I describe to him one by one,like the colours and the sounds they made etc. He finds it so amusing especially when he was still a baby.

After he succeeded reading out his very first book, I began to search for new series of storybooks that we can use to practice his reading. I ordered the Spot series storybooks online and he loves them very much! I bought like 8 different titles, and below 4 are what we've began to read together. 

The pictures are cute, bright and colourful. The sentences are not only short and simple,they are also bold, dark and clear too, which makes reading easier for him. 

Reagan enjoys reading every adventure of Spot,the puppy. He can recognise and read most of the words by himself and able to relate them to the pictures. Therefore I knew I've made the right choice of books for him. 

I guess soon, I need to search for more new titles. Well, I hope he continues to enjoy reading as much as I enjoy listening to him read hehe!

Reagan Power Up with Eu Yan Sang Chicken Essence !

It was an honor to receive an invitation to attend an event by Eu Yan Sang, showcasing their new series of Power Up chicken essence. Unfortunately I was heavily pregnant and on "standby" mode during that time, so i had no choice but to give that event a miss. Still, I am excited to know that they intend to deliver a carton of 6 bottles of Power Up Chicken Essence for Reagan to try and review ! Yeah! 

Presenting Eu Yan Sang Power Up Chicken Essence to my little king !

 The carton I received from them is the Power Up! Vision , which helps in concentration like boosting mental power, improving eyesights and promoting quality sleep. Simply perfect for my toddler who is attending preschool now. 

Everyone should know that Eu Yan Sang is a leading and established brand specialised in health and TCM. One of their new series of chicken essence, Power Up! Vision is packed with 100% pure goodness of pure chicken, Wolfberries, Beiqi and Baihe extract.

And most importantly, it is easily digestible, and contains NO sugar, NO salt, NO fat, NO colourings, NO cholesterol, NO flavourings and NO preservatives! Totally suitable for kids !

Although it is recommended to take straight from the bottle, but I'm pretty sure my boy who has the fussiest taste buds on Earth will probably not give it any chance. And because he is such a picky eater, I'm constantly worried over his lack of nourishment. I guess Eu Yan Sang Power Up! chicken essence can help to solve my problem finally! 

 Till now, I'm always trying to limit the use of salt or other artificial flavourings in Reagan's meals. Most of the time, I use either homemade stock, sweet root vegetables, olive oil, spices like roasted garlic, onions or herbs like red dates or basil, to add that natural flavours into his meals. Salt, sugar and light sauce are still quite forbidden in all his homecooked meals. 

But now with this bottle enriched with all the goodness I need, I can easily come up with more recipes to work with!

One of the easiest recipes I tried and is loved very much by my boy ; 

Macaroni with Chicken Strips and Vegetable

After the macaroni is cooked, just add in a bottle of Power Up! for that extra natural taste and goodness boost into the broth!

Tadah! Simple as that! 

If my fussy boy Reagan likes it, I'm definitely sure all kids will love the taste of Eu Yan Sang Power Up! chicken essence. It is actually quite mild and not as overwhelming as I thought. 

Now I feel so motivated to whip up more new recipes to "Power Up" my boy! 

My 2nd darling boy Kyrian, has arrived!

Introducing our 2nd darling, Kyrian Sun! 

Borned at 38 weeks + 5 days, weighing 3.26Kg, natural birth delivery with epidural.

A short summary Kyrian's labour story

- 6.30am I felt a "pop" and thought it was just another hard kick from my active baby. 5 minutes later,I can feel water trickling down. Went to the toilet to check and spotted blood stains on my undies. More water started to trickle down uncontrollable. Woke hubs up and informed him that today is probably the day :P 

- 8.30am Reached the hospital and checked that I was already 3cm dilated and my water bag was leaking. Doctor burst my bag and more water flowed out. Contractions started to come every 5-6 minutes. Cramps and backaches, but still bearable. 

- 11am Heed the doctor's advice to take my epidural now , so I can conserve energy for the pushing part, which is the most crucial stage as I've higher chance of womb rupture during natural delivery. 

- 4pm- Can feel the contraction getting more intense and requested to increase dosage of epidural. Doctor checked that I was already 6cm dilated. 

- 6pm- Finally dilated at 10cm, the nurse called the doctor to come back for the pushing part. 

- 6+pm - Probably around 15 minutes later, out came baby Kyrian and I started latching him immediately right after birth :)

The first time Reagan met his baby brother Kyrian, he was so excited and eager to touch him!

Baby Kyrian at 5 days old !

So for the next 30 days, I'll be doing my confinement and milking myself every 2 hours to keep up with his appetite. 

Once again, Hubs asked if I've ever see myself with two boys? Well, now I can say yes....because I can actually feel it now...how much I'm going to love my boys, and how impossible my life will be without them :)

Parents Meeting Session + School Exhibition

Today is the parents-teachers meeting session organised by Reagan's preschool. Parents get to have a one to one talk with the teachers and also get to see the work and crafts they did in class this term. 

I simply love the creative crafts that the students did! Can you spot Reagan's project? haha!

Hubs and I appreciate the 25 minutes discussion with his teachers as they touched upon Reagan's response and behavior in class, and talk about what we can do to help him improve and exceed further.

Points Emphasized by His Teachers During the Meeting

• Reagan is very gentle and well-behave. Always full of smiles and positive energy.
• Very focused, has good attention span and extreme observant.
• Teachers informed us that they have never encounter another child at his age who has such strong interest in books and reading of words. Almost all the time, he never fails to pick up a book from the library corner, point to the sentences in the book and get them to read the words out for him. 
• Has a very close and strong bond with his teachers. Love to hold their hands and often asked to be carried or cuddled by them. He is actually more comfortable interacting with his teachers than his classmates. 
• Shows pride and strong sense of self-satisfaction in goals he managed to achieved by himself. Clapping and cheering for himself is one of the ways he expressed it. 
• Responds very well to praises and compliments, especially from his teachers.
• Reagan is still not as confident in his physical skills (running, jumping from a higher ground, climbing steps etc.). Teachers advised us to allow him to be more active and give him more encouragement. 
• Reagan started school with not much understanding of the Chinese language. Now he is able to understand and follow simple instructions in Mandarin. 

His teachers are aware that we're going to withdraw Reagan after this month and advised us to reconsider again as they felt that Reagan has improved tremendously and doing very well in school. Initially the reason why I put him into his morning playgroup is due to my last trimester of pregnancy. I was afraid I wont be able to handle him alone during that time and was hoping that school is able to "drain his energy",and kickstart a daily routine for him. After my birth and confinement, my plan was to homeschool him and send him for enrichments classes again. Overall I'm pretty impressed by the school's interesting themes, curriculum and his devoted teachers, and how they have maintained good communication and updates with the parents on how or what the child is doing in school everyday. I may consider signing him back to the same preschool again when he is older, as for now ,I've more plans for my 2 years old. 

This is the collage book that the teachers made for each student. I love it very much and really appreciate the teachers' hardwork and effort in compiling Reagan's photos in school and art-work together. 

Before we left, I spotted the Reagan's photo on the school's "Apple Of My Eye" tree, cute isit it?

Preschool Progress Report Book

It is pretty exciting to see my boy's first report book from school haha!

Overall Reagan scored pretty well for his social & emotional development, as well as his language & cognitive development. He has room for more improvement in his fine and gross motor skills though.

A summary of Reagan' progress report book from his preschool. (From 18 months to 2 years old). 

Social & Emotional Development
-Plays with another child
-Hugs and kisses people he likes
-Recognise self in photographs & mirrors
-Shows many emotions
-etc

Language & Cognitive Development
- Enjoys rhymes, jingles and body games
- Enjoy looking at books
- Understand many words and responds to directions
- Points to a picture that shows action you name
- Listen well and enjoys story
- Ask for things to be named
- Complete puzzles
- Make needs known through combination of gestures, vocalization and words
-etc

Gross & Fine Motor Skill
- Imitate adult activities
- Play simple musical instruments
- Feels the difference in temperature, taste and smell
- Enjoys messy play
- Scribbles using whole arm
-etc

Chinese Language Development
- Listen to story
- Enjoys and joins in songs, rhymes and finger plays
- etc

Summary of Teachers' Comments

• Observant and focused
• Follows two steps directions
• Likes to smile and clap to celebrate own achievements
• Likes books and often points to pictures and words, and asked for them to be named
• Appears calmer during art and craft
• Settled well in school, familiar with routines and less separation anxiety
• Seek assurance from teachers by holding their hands and request them to hold him instead of other children. 
• Enjoys sand and water play
• Determined to feed himself without teachers' assistance.

A little update on wat's going on in April/May

2nd Pregnancy- Baby Kyrian

I managed to keep baby Kyrian in my womb till the 37 weeks mark! Yippie! He is officially considered full-term now!

Alright...now I'm dying for him to get out of me!!! Maybe because I'm never reached so far during my first pregnancy, and also because of my crazy massive weight gain, I've been feeling really impatient and uncomfortable at this last stage of the "waiting game." I've been haunted by the aches and pain of my pelvic and spine, leg cramps, heartburn, reflux, breathlessness...u name it, I've experienced it. Sleeping at night is a torture because I couldn't find a good sleeping position. I'm also waken up very frequently with the need to pee every hour or by the intense cramps on my calfs. Lumpy fats, cellulite and stretchmarks are also busy making a world map on me, especially on my thighs, back and buttocks! I not only feel and look like a heavy orang-utan, I'm even moving around like one too. 

Next week is my next gynae appointment and I hope he can give me some good news that baby has engaged into my pelvic or on his way out or something. Although I had a c-sec delivery during my first pregnancy (not my choice though), I'm really wishing to go natural this time which I believe bring more benefits to me and baby. In short whatever goes wrong the first time, I hope to experience it right this time. 

Homemade Learning Materials

These few weeks since Reagan is in his morning school, I've more time to myself and started working on some DIY learning materials and flashcards for him. Since I probably can't really take him out during my confinement after birth , at least I've some games prepared to play with him at home. Reagan is still obsessed with his alphabets ever since he mastered all the letters and phonics sounds, so the games I made are usually on the alphabet theme. He used to only point and show me the letters or sounds each time I ask him, but now he can recite out all the letters and phonics sounds verbally by himself, which is one more step of an improvement I see. 

Reagan and his coming Baby Brother

Many have asked me whether I've prepared Reagan for the arrival of his didi or whether he understood that a little baby brother is on the way. Well honestly I didn't really mention much to him what's going, why mummy is getting fatter and rounder or why mummy is always carrying a giant ball under her top. I just feel that it may not be necessary since I don't need Reagan to prepare or change anything , or stress him on the new role of being a big brother. I just want him to be himself and assure him that there's no big change coming up, daddy and mummy still love him as much. 

Anyway my mom have already told him that there's a baby in my tummy that is known as his "didi" . I not sure how much a 2 years old understands, but he is able to point correctly to my tummy whenever my mom asked where the baby or his "didi." is. Well I'm sure Reagan will make a good big brother anyway. Almost every night he is helping me to apply lotion on my tummy and that's probably the first kind of bonding the brothers have. Well actually he finds it enjoyable to use the lotion to trace shapes, alphabets or draw on my big tummy...oh well. 

More on Reagan

We took him to Cafe Melba again to try their bouncy castle but he was very afraid of it and whined for us to save him haha!

He is more interested in the stone-pit and started picking up some for us.

Our brunch at Cafe Melba. We still like the food there but again, they should really buck up on their service. We have to help ourselves with the baby chair, asked for baby utensils that never came, and asked for butter for 4 times but never came as well and they forgot one of our orders again. And all these while the cafe was not even half-full yet. Enough said. 

At least my darling is enjoying his pancakes and that's what made my day.

 I noticed that Reagan is having a much closer and special bond with his daddy recently. He talks about his daddy even when he is not around. Eg. He will pick up daddy's clothes, specs, Hp or any of his belongings and bring to me, telling me it is dada's one and asked me to keep for him. During his bathtime, he will request for his daddy to bathe him. When he is eating certain fruits and snacks, he will keep some of them and tell me  "dada eats", he wanted to leave some for his dada to feed him when he is back. I realised he likes to imitate daddy too. When daddy is wearing a cap, he will request to put on his cap too. And when his daddy does silly actions, he laughs and follows them too.

Reagan's School Update

Reagan is still enjoying his school and loves his teachers very much. His teachers informed us that he is participating in every single activity in class now, even the singing and dancing too. Although he is still getting sick quite frequently, especially the cough and flu virus, however  he recovered much faster now ever since I start him on his immune support supplements. 

Anyway, as what's I've planned earlier, I've decided to withdraw him after my labour and confinement ends and put him back into enrichment classes again. I really miss the times when we attends classes together especially when he is always so enthu and full of excitement showing me each task or activity he can complete by himself. 

Well I should probably end here, my next post most likely will be the arrival of baby Kyrian, confinement and stuffs. Still wishing it'll not be further than next week...sigh...

So till then, adios~