1st Swimming Lesson

22 Aug 2011

Today was Eugene's first swimming lesson. Well, how did it go?

He cried.

I thought that he was afraid of the water but not leh, he was playing happily before we started the lesson. Also the instructor said, from his observation, all the kids do not really fear the water too much.

Eugene only cried if the swimming instructor have the kids lined up to do some stuff like queue up to learn how to go into the water or sit side by side to learn how to kick with their legs under water.

Hah, Eugene is the type who don't operate well in a regimented structure. He likes the play and learn type of way. He don't like to have to being told and made to do it. Show him how to do it and he will do it in his own time. 

I guess I'll 'teach' Eugene the instructor's instructions by implementing it in such a way that it's not an order. Guess I'll have to go early before the lessons and stay a bit longer after the lesson.

Well, I'm mentally prepared that he'll be mostly just splashing around and not doing much for the next couple of months liao.

One good thing is that he'll be so hungry that he'll eat a lot after the swim lesson (he's kind of underweight for his age).

Hmm.... I get very hungry too.... hope that I'm not the one who will put on weight instead.

Eye-Lashes

Eugene has long eye-lashes which unfortunately is causing a problem for him.

Every morning, he would complain that his eyes are painful - why? - well, it seem his eyes' dirt will get stuck on his eye-lashes and when he rubs his eyes, some of the dirt will get into his eyes.

Sometimes, his top and bottom eye-lashes got kind of glued together too, lol

Curry Day

In support of "Curry Day" ! For those who do not know what's it all about - please google to find out.

Didn't  cook a pot of curry but had roti-prata with fish curry.

 

As the saying goes, "when in Rome, do what the Romans do".

Foreigners here in Singapore, please respect the different races and cultures. We are a multi-racial country.

And to the PRC couple and the countrymen who thinks like them :

This is Singapore, not Chinapore

Holding A Pencil Correctly

Eugene came home and said he wanted to draw. Yes, sure and he went to take his colouring book and his container of colour pencils.

Then I noticed it. He's holding the pencil the correct way! Yay!

I had tried teaching Eugene to hold the pencil correctly (see here) but most of the time, he will still hold it the "fist-grip" way. I've never really insisted that he had to hold it the correct way as I do not want to put him off holding a pencil.

So, really, this came as a surprise to me.

He can grip the pencil properly but he tends to try to draw/write without resting his hand on the table for support. 

So he's using his arm to move the pencil instead of his fingers and thus cannot control the pencil properly - though sometimes he do rest his hand on the table for more support.

Me : are you going to write alphabets?

Eugene : no, I'm drawing shapes

So here're his attempts at drawing circles and triangles.

Hmm.. he just wants to draw inside those margins and not anywhere else on the page - don't know why.

I'll teach him to use a ruler to draw straight line so that he can draw inside - waste so many pages like this right?

I checked with his teacher and she confirmed that she's been teaching the kids the correct way of holding a pencil.

And the teacher has been also teaching the kids the correct grammar to use. And I was again surprised that Eugene was able to use the past tense in a sentence appropriate to the situation.

Dinosaurs VS Humans

 

Just read this in the newspaper recently :

Purchase of 3 dinosaurs at risk as donations fall short of target 

Less than $2m of immediate $8m needed raised as new deadline looms

By Tan Dawn Wei, News Editor

The deadline set by its sellers has come and gone, but the money to buy three dinosaurs for Singapore’s upcoming natural history museum is still not in the bag.

Since it embarked on an intense race to raise $12 million for the fossils from Wyoming in the United States a month ago, the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research has managed to collect only $1.89 million through several donors and public donations through its online portal.

It has since negotiated an extension of the deadline – originally July 31 – with its American sellers and now has one to two months to raise the rest of the money.

The immediate task is to collect $8 million first to secure the three dinosaurs. The remaining $4 million, to be used for transport and to mount the exhibits, can be raised later.

$12 million! to buy 3 dinosaurs for our museum.


Please! why don't you use this amount of money to help the poor, elderly, disabled etc in this country?


We've being seeing and hearing about the plights of all these people - why don't you channel the money to help these people?


In my neighbourhood, I always see this old lady pushing her big trolley of cardboards which she is obviously collecting to sell. It's heartbreaking you know. 


And today, an elderly man took the cover off a dustbin and starting rummaging thru the bin to collect cans.


Yes, I can understand that the dinosaurs are a part of a fantastic history. The dinosaurs are valuable but are these bones more valuable than a human?


You guys got the cheek to even ask the public to donate for this. 

Please lah, get your priorities right.

Bl#%dy   Sh#@

Interactive Phonics

Eugene is not the type where he will sit 'quai quai' for you to read books to him. His idea of reading to him is that you have to narrate the story in your own words,  not read out what's written.

If you read out what's written, his eyes will look here, look there and then he will refuse to look at the book.

Animations is what will hold his attention (isn't most kids?) and he had learnt a lot from kids programmes.

Now, regarding phonics, Eugene learnt his phonics from the "Leapfrog" series which are very good to hold a kid's attention 'cos got nice cartoons to portray the sounds (Thanks to "Our Baby of Love" who introduced "Leapfrog").

Then I read in some mommies forum about this website and it's really good for interactive phonics - http://www.starfall.com/

I guess most of you parents would have known about this website but I've only found out about it (ya, me slow). But for those who do not know, do check it out.

 


>

Art Garden @ Singapore Art Museum 2011

29 July 2011

"Mummy Dearest" room. 

Dress up the dolls and

decorate a cake - using velcros.

"Paramodelic-Graffiti" room

Eugene wanted to touch everything there but it was not for touching. 

The kids are supposed to fix the tracks themselves (of cos with help from a museum assistant to guide them) but the tracks were already laid when we got there........

The toy trains were battery-operated. 

After a while, Eugene got bored with it.

No fun and no challenge just looking at the trains going round and round on their own. 

Eugene actually picked up the train that was given to him to play and put it back into the bin and said he wanted to leave.

he much preferred it here..........

He can fix the tracks and accessories himself and to get the trains moving, you have to wind it up.

There were no other kids in this room and so Eugene had all the attention of the assistants there who helped and played with him for awhile.

He had the whole table to himself. I guess this was more challenging to him. More accessories like tunnels, bridges etc to add to the tracks and also to have to wind up the trains to get it moving.

He was scared of the elephant at first but later warmed up to it and kept asking to be given stickers to stick onto the elephant.

"Fruits" - er, boring lor, paper fruits
"Tree of Love" 
"Dancing Solar Flowers" - can see, cannot touch
"Superhigh" - can push the coloured blocks around and can sit or stand on it - but Eugene don't find it fun leh.

Went to the Chapel to watch some films for kids and also to take a short breather and light snack. Ok, the breather was more for me, ha ha.

I find that there were less interactive stuff to do.

I much preferred last year's and I'm sure Eugene too.