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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....