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JD's FIRST report card

So, semester one has ended, and JD brought home his very first report card. It was a nice celebration of a child's first semester in kindy, celebrating the steps they have all taken, some seems so small yet are so important.

It's also a big thing for me, because here I am, as a mom to JD, receiving his first report card, with his portfolio of art and craft, how could I not possibly be moved and proud. To see him grow, learn, adapting to a new environment, making new friends, trusting his teachers, talking about his friends in school are all first time experience for me. He is growing up quick, and not one day goes by when he fails to make me laugh. Even if on a bad day when we get onto each other's nerves, a child's love is something I have never experienced but growing to love more and more everyday.





At the back of the report card is a copy of JD's favourite drawing. When JD handed it to me, he said the person in the picture was me! Hahaha!


We also brought home a big bundle of his semester's work, of hand prints, fish painting, aeroplane, sea creatures...

In the teacher's comment, it says:

"Jayden we love to see your smiling face at kindy and listen to the interesting things you have to tell us. You love to play with the blocks and ride the bikes - keep up the good work!"

JD also got lots of practice on his fine motor skills where he was able to make shapes, identifying shapes, colours. He did well, but needed a bit of help to identify oval and diamond.

And he can count pretty well with his 10 little fingers.

JD's teacher also said he is willing to share, likes to help pack away but still developing in these areas.

But he is quite happy to try new things and enjoys music and movement.

So it has been a big year for him so far!

Apart from kindy, he also completed another term of swimming and has also done well for his first term at gymnastics!



Back to JD's teacher comment about him "telling interesting things". I can relate to that. JD started asking me if he could bring something from home for "show and tell". So I did and encouraged him to do so. I felt it was a big step for him to feel comfortable and confident to stand up in front of his friends to share a story. I wouldn't have been able to do that when I was his age!

So, guess what he has been bringing to kindy? Each week for the last 4 weeks? And the same thing every week?

(drumroll)

His favourite FIRE GREEN CAR! Sometimes I will listen in. And usually he will say something like "This is my fire green car. It is green in colour and has yellow fire. It goes really fast. My daddy bought it for me......" or sometimes he will recall the time when daddy brought him to see the Cars movie.

And reason why he names it the fire green car. Simply because the car is green, the yellow cover thingy looks like fire, thus Fire Green Car. I simply love the way kids label things.

On the note about sharing interesting stories with his kindy friends, apparently JD talks a lot about his family. A mom at the kindy once said to me, "My son said he likes playing with JD because JD always talk about his family." It was very sweet.

Green

We have had red, blue, and the most recent was green. It was good being green. We ate lots of greens to start with, snow peas particularly which are in season, honeydew drizzle with some honey. We were also "green" to our digestive system by eating lots of wholemeal bread, wholemeal pasta and brown rice! We talked about being green, by conserving energy in the house, turning off the lights when we are not using, turning off the TV on time by 9am to conserve energy, and and and NOT standing at the fridge with the door wide open! Ha, that was hard to achieve!

It wasn't hard to think of "green" activities. We made this frog puppet, which turned out to be of great fun. JD enjoyed this craft, and we were able to cut out circles and refreshed what we did 3 weeks ago on size comparisons. JD also learned about full and half circle from this craft.

Later on, JD hid under the table to perform a puppet show for his sister whom was sitting on the highchair. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to capture it, but it was a very nice moment.

We also took out this frog lifecycle craft we did a few months ago and went through it with JD. He could still remember most of it, though he tends to skip the part about the eggs turning into tadpoles. JD refused to pose for me but instead wanted me to pose with his craft work :)

There was also a "Grass Snake" that we made. JD liked this craft a fair bit because he had the chance to help me cut out strips of sticky tape for the snake, talk about simple fun! He didn't want to pose with the snake because he said "It looks too slimy!" and he was trying to shoot the snake with his Lego built gun! Yikes!


I also added in a bit of maths for him using some home made numbers flash cards and his marbles. It was fun for him but the excitement probably lasted no more than 5 minues before he started to get distracted by the sound of a delivery truck driving past, the barking of the dog next door, the postman on his scooter. It was time to take a break for some wholemeal toast with cheese!

Then there was more playdough fun where he made himself a "motorbike with strawberries" birthday cake, a gourmet fruit pizza and a "green apple monster with sticks"! I think the reason why JD has named his cake that way is because he likes motorbike and strawberries!



Since it was Green week, I took out one of JD's favourite Chinese story books " 扑通" and read it again. I usually read it in Mandarin then again by English to him. He knows the story now and here's a funny clip of him telling me the story. But, pardon me for his sneezing :)




As for Chloe, well, I think she went through a growth spurt last week. She just kept eating and I was always giving her something to eat througout the whole week. We also found out that she likes a good feed of Penne Bolognaise!

For Mandarin this week, we learnt about 小青蛙, 青色, 青菜, 青萍果, 青豆, 圆形.

Chloe is still doing the same stack of flash cards of 手, 口, 脚, 眼, 头, 妹妹, 哥哥, 爸爸, 妈妈 but I also added in a few new ones like 猫, 马, 大象, 绵 羊, 狗 with my own animated voices which she found amusing.

Once again, I realised kids learn the most through play. Last week I realised she could recognise the word "头" when I asked her to put a block on my head, then followed by her head in Mandarin. I was quite amazed at how quick kids learn and it was marvellous. No doubt, she was very pleased with herself when I clapped loudly followed by one of her cheesy grins!

Kids are generally happy when we spend some time playing, laughing, reading with them, and at the same time meeting their most basic needs of food, drink, clean nappy, clean clothes, warm jumper on a cold day, a treat of hot chocolates with marshmallow on a cold and wintry night....

Monkey girl in action!

My husband used to call JD the Monkey Boy. Now, we also have a Monkey Girl. Yes, she is a real monkey who loves to climb. Maybe 2 terms of Gymbaroo so far have done something good to her climbing skills! Well, just maybe not onto the table and I think soon she might want to stand on the table and sing us a song, hahaha!

Compared to JD, I just don't remember him being such a climber. And I first noticed that when we were at our weekly Gymbaroo session. JD used to avoid doing the ladder climbing, and he was much happier crawling through the tunnel and doing other stuff. Chloe, well, she was off climbing the ladder with little help the first time I put her on it, and that was probably 2 months ago.

Not only that, she likes to squat or stand on the little chair, bobbing her bottom up and down to music. Bollywood star in making perhaps! And I have to keep going back to her, sit her down on the chair and remind her "恺仪, 坐下来！坐好好!" or " Chloe, we sit on the chair, we stand on the floor!" Yes, repeat, repeat, repeat, it will sink in one day!

Nonetheless, I still caught her in action.

Uh huh, here I come, I see a target!

Another leg up and I am on the table top!

Well, my Gymbaroo teacher said to always go bottom down!

Heh, I am happy, got what I want (my mommy's camera lens cover!).

For now, I shall remain seated because my mom said "if I stand on the chair, I might fall and face the VERY scary consequence of 屁股开花! (bottom split open!)" Oops, I can't let them happen and definitely not in front of the camera.

My Robots - JD's Version

JD loves robots, rockets, monsters and aliens. His passion for rockets and monsters have been going on for over a year, followed by robots for the last 3 months and in the last few weeks, the aliens are starting to join the scene too.

While doing his big business this week, he started talking to me about all the robots he has been building with his Lego blocks. I was only in the room next door sorting out the laundry and ran to grab the camera.

So, here you go, as JD talks about Spongy and what his robot and monsters like to eat.

A Very Long Overdue Date

Yesterday was the first time in 2 years we had a day to ourselves, with no kids in tow, for a day anyway. Somehow we just kept pushing it back and back. There's always something that came in the way, like the husband's career change, the excessive workload that came with the job, timing not right, starting out a new business, a new baby, a growing 3.5 yo that requires lots of time and patience, me juggling working full time with a kid, pregnancy .... and the list can go on and on.

I guess, things are just starting to settle down now.

My husband took a day off, and we spent the whole day together by ourselves. We dropped the kids off at daycare bright and early by 8am! We went for breakfast, had coffee, read the paper, chatted, enjoying the company of one another. There was no worrying about the 3.5yo getting bored, not having to worry about feeding the baby, we were free.

To not have that freedom for so long was just exhilarating!

We went shopping, stocked up on a few things for the upcoming birthdays and xmas. We walked, we chatted again! It was good to talk uninterruptedly. Good, quality conversation.

We drove to places, we jumped in and out of the car not having to worry about buckling the little ones into their car seats. We chatted non-stop in the car. Not worrying about one saying "Excuse me, can I talk now?" or the younger one fussing over a toy that was dropped onto the floor. My hubby drove, I sat back, relax.

We walked holding hands, and my shoulder felt lighter all of a sudden. I didn't have to carry my bag stock with nappies, wipes, spare clothes, bibs, water, hats and what nots! I could carry my little handbag with just a purse, a phone and a set of keys! In fact I could not worry about bringing a handbag at all!

We ate. We lunched. Big time at the Oyster Bar. We sat in the warm winter sun, enjoying the view of a bright winter day in Perth! Maybe I ate a bit too much, but heck, this kind of quality time does not come around too often. Pic from top to bottom: We share entrees: Oysters Kilpatrick, Chilli Squid Salad and our Mains: Scoth Fillet Steak and my NZ Grouper!

4pm came! It was time to pick up the kids. It was a good day. A long overdue date.

BLUE

Last week we were into everything BLUE! Somehow, somewhat, for some unknown reasons, we were all a bit disoriented. I had everything planned from Mon to Fri , but ended up we spent most of the week doing Playdough!

I had put down Playdough as one of the activities. So we made a fresh batch of blue playdough taken from this site. JD just wanted to do Playdough and so we did. Sometimes it's better to let him drive the interest than me trying to make him follow what I have planned. Well, within reasonable limit anyway.

Then he wanted to do racing cars! He woke up one morning and said "Today, I want to do everything with racing cars!" I really was scratching my head for idea until JD prompted me to turn on my laptop looking for a picture for him to colour! Ah! Initially he had wanted to colour the whole car in RED. Nothing wrong with it, but I am also trying to encourage him to try something BLUE. It was a big effort for him to stay away from red and coloured part of his car in blue.

JD is usually better with water paint. With crayons or colour pencils, he tends to lose the interest a lot quicker, and when he is bored with it, he will usually colour the whole picture in one colour and more often than not it will be red. Like this.

But along the way, we get to learn about 蓝色, 蓝天. Then we sidetracked and talked about the weather, the storm and some story JD made up about aliens coming to visit us on a stormy day :)

Then JD got an idea. He wanted to cut out shapes of strawberries. So we went further and he asked to cut out lots of blueberries using some red, green and blue craft paper. He is almost able to cut out a circle, but he needs a bit of help to finish it off. While JD was cutting, I noticed that he is still deciding between his right and left hands. He usually paint, draw, eat with his left hand, but he is more comfortable using scissors with his right hand.

But what got JD really excited was making a Blueberry Buttercake. He was almost jumping out of his skin when he knew we were going to get some blueberries from the shop. There he was, happily pouring in a cup of flour, sugar, eggs.



And happiest holding a bowl of blueberries!

While making the cake, JD learned about 糖, 牛奶, 腼粉, 鸡蛋. Then I refreshed his memory of counting and he could still remember 一，二，三，四， 五， 六， 七，八，九，十! One thing though, I have no idea what blueberry is in Mandarin? Anyone?

The best thing though, we all get to have some delicious morning tea.

We don't often get the fresh blueberries here. So we usually get the frozen ones. But the frozen blueberries and strawberries have become quite a healthy snack for the kids when they feel like something sweet or icy! JD loves it!

As for Chloe, well, she has now claimed the green chair that once belonged to her brother. Each time we sit down at the craft table, she will climb onto the chair and sat herself comfortably there. Most of the time, she was more interested in grabbing the basket of fruits and giving them a lick! Just as well they are pretend fruits!