Through her eyes #10 - Ring a Ling

How many of you remember this? :)

As a kid, a treat for me in school will be these triangular packets of Magnolia milk. These days, if I wanted an ice cream, 'branded' ones would come to my mind immediately - Ben and Jerry's, Cold Stone Creamery, 

Häagen-Dazs, etc. 

What I took for granted is a rare treat for the kiddo! She'd listen out to the familiar "Ring-a-ling" and rush down with me in toll, excited about her treat? This small humble van is what kids' cold dessert dreams are made up of! 

Do you prefer a cone or wafer? Or if you are adventurous enough, why not try it with "roti"? What about flavours? Choices are a plenty - vanila, chocolate chips, blue berry, mango, raspberry ripple (my personal favourite!) or the local delights - coconut, red bean, sweet corn? 

I thoroughly enjoy my weekly moments with the kiddos as we dash down to the carpark where this magic van awaits us. :) What are your favorite flavours / concoction?

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Through her eyes #9 - Jim Weiss 'Live' Story Telling and the tale of Hercules

Dumpling is an avid reader and has a voracious appetite for good stories. We are blessed as she started reading independently early on and this has made my homeschool sessions much easier as a lot of our themes and the books that we read are child-led.

Recently, Jim Weiss visited Singapore for a story-telling event amongst other workshops that he conducted. I do not quite recall where exactly I have heard of Jim Weiss but I recalled that all that I have read have been great reviews so far. Known as a 'master story teller' having a liquid gold voice, I bought tickets to watch him in action with the little one. And he did not disappoint. 

The hall was packed and everyone waited anxiously for him to start. He was very animated and held the attention of children and adult alike with his expressive reading style. Jim told 5 stories that afternoon - the Tortoise & the Hare, a Hercules adventure, a "wise man" tale, The Lion & the Mouse, and The Fisherman & the Genie.

It was quite an experience for me to watch him slip into the various characters of each story easily - one moment he was the proud lion and in the next second, he was totally believable as this small and frightened mouse (in Lion and the Mouse) who knew that his life was just hanging on by a thread for waking the Lion up.

Jim also has a special gift of being able to read the 'energy' level of the crowd well. When he could sense that the crowd was a tad fidgety (especially with the younger children) he had everyone participate in the story telling. In Hercules, he had everyone help out by chiming in (with sound effects) during his story telling. It is no wonder he was swarmed during the intermission for autographs!

Dumpling queuing in line to wait for her album to be autographed

Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan was amongst the crowd of audience and in an impromptu moment (during the interval), he too, shared a story.

 Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan,  Minister for Environment and Water Resources, presenting a token to Jim Weiss

While in the past, Dumpling used to read in the car, we have now managed to successfully break this bad habit by letting her listen to Jim Weiss's CDs instead. :)

Here's sharing a clip on Razor TV and you can see why this award winning story teller is well-loved by both the adults and children. I would highly recommend his CDs to encourage the little ones in reading more and introducing to them fairy tales too. 

Dumpling's recommendation? She & He: Adventures in Mythology. She really likes the story Atalanta and the Golden Apples since she is still very much into Greek Myths but her favorite Hercules tale (not told) is about the Queen of Amazons which she wrote about below.

For me, I like that Jim was able to bring the stories to a level that is easily understood by children even when the stories are on bigger topics like Myths and include classics by Mark Twain, etc. :) In addition, these CDs would complement our homeschool topics well too. We heard that talks are in the way for him to return next year and yup, both the kiddo and I will definitely be watching him in action. 

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Through her eyes #8 - Project Tooth Keeper

"When you wake up in the morning, brush your teeth. <>

When you go to bed at night, brush your teeth <>"

(To the tune of "When you're happy and you know it")

"Mama, I like the tooth fairy because her dress is pretty. I like Baby Cat because she is funny and a bit naughty, just like me!" 

 

(From left to right: Baby Cat, Sister Cat & the popular Tooth Fairy)

:: The skit
Dumpling and I had the chance to watch a short skit put up by these 4 final year students from Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. Centred around a family of cats - Mama Cat, Sister Cat and Baby Cat, the story aims to educate the little ones on the importance of hygiene and dental care. 

The skit is interactive and is filled with funny moments where Dumpling was left giggling over Baby Cat's funny antics - how she tries to sneak in candies and 'outsmarted' Mama Cat by eating peanut butter (since it is not sweet!) instead.

From a parental viewpoint, I like that the main song is catchy and the message was very effectively put across. The team was also able to establish an easy rapport with the audience (the toughest kind I'd say with a bunch of active preschoolers) and it was clear that they won the hearts of these kids with their brilliant smiles through the lovely tale.

Dumpling loves the skit and can still recall the song that was being sung. So how did she rate the skit? 

She gives it "two thumbs up"!

She added and recommends for "all mummies and daddies to bring their children to watch this because it is very funny and very cute. I like the show."

:: The History
Project Tooth Keeper is a final year project a group of final year communication students from NTU (Grace Chow, Nina Zainudin, Emily Ho & Susmitha Changaroth) on children's oral health. The project came about due to a worrying statistic that showed more preschool children in Singapore are getting tooth decay. Project Tooth Keeper, in partnership with the Singapore Dental Association, aims to promote good parenting and education on children's oral health, focusing on parents with children from 0 - 6 years old. 

So, who will win the most beautiful smile in the land? Keen to find out more? 

Join the team this Sunday, 9 March at Woodlands Regional Library, where your kiddos can learn about the importance of "Brush Well, Eat Right & Visit the Dentist" while you parents can learn more about how you can help the kiddos in the various talks at the Forum. :) 

Here's where you can sign up! 

Website: http://www.projecttoothkeeper.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projecttoothkeeper

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu4krGqONxOxsf-snzg_jcA

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Through her eyes #7 - A different perspective

There are many times when I feel old and jaded especially after having a bad day. However, when I reach home daily and I see the smile on my child's face, to hear her peals of laughter as she runs excitedly towards me, everything melts away.

And there are days that I marvel at the simple way children are able to find great joy in simple things. Dumpling said "Look mama, I am flying, just above the clouds!"

Perhaps sometimes, all we need is a different perspective, a different angle. :)

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Through her eyes #6 - Papyrus

As I was in my zoning mode, I suddenly heard an excited shriek last Saturday "Mama, Mama, look! It is Papyrus!" We were at a floating platform at one of the ponds in Jacob Ballas and I went "What? Papyrus?!?!" I have not seen the 'live' plant, only the end product from one of our homeschool field trips at the Art Science Museum to watch the Mummy Exhibition. 

I turned around and saw this:

And true enough! My daughter's eye sight seems to be better than mine! If you have not seen Papyrus before, take a walk through Jacob Ballas this weekend - you will probably find hidden gems at every turn. :)

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Through her eyes #5 - Dumpling's daily activities journal - a FUN FUN FUN way to learn time! :) + FREE PRINTABLE!

Dumpling is getting the hang of telling the time and has been very excited in being able to "read" the wall clock. One of the things that she usually does these days upon waking up is to look at the clock immediately and tell us the time. If she is not quite able to (as in to the exact minute of for e.g. 7:37am because my wall clock does not have the numerals for minutes labelled on it), she'd sneakily wait for the minute hand to travel to the positions she knows and then read it off proudly (and LOUDLY, I must add).

For some strange reason, one fine day while rummaging through the storeroom, she found my beloved Gruffalo paper plate (which I hoarded for 2 years!!!). While all I saw is 'partyware', she saw a 'clock'! And asked for us to use it and make it into a clock! Here it is!

We made this together with a braid fastener in the middle to hold the hands and we have been using this to revise and to work on our "time" sessions. Along the way, I dug out an old resource which I have and that is a dry erase book which the kiddos can fill in the time and draw in the hands.

It then occurred to me that it would be a lot more fun for the kiddo if the activities listed in it are about her day instead. The idea is to make it 'applicable' for her where she tries reading and recording the time before she begins some of her daily activities!  

I printed mine into a booklet and above is the book cover

Since she likes looking at the wall clock once she wakes up, I incorporated that as part of the 'time' which she needs to record in this journal too  

 The page is designed for homeschooling and non-homeschooling kiddos

And I have included some fun evening activities as a checklist too!

Now, have you gone all excited about this journal? I am pleased to share that you can download this activity journal here! 

Edit: I printed my copy as a booklet but the file is in A4. You can laminate it and then write on it with markers so that it can be reused over and over again. :) This is our last stage in the journey of learning and writing out the time where we have already learnt the basics.  

I received several questions about how one can start off teaching time. I started off teaching Dumpling using a resource which I blogged about here. As an overview, the steps which we went through are:
- introduction of long (minute) and short hands (hour)
- teaching of o'clock (long hand pointing to 12)
- teaching of half past, quarter past and quarter to (use pizza slices, foam etc if you need to, to show half and quarters)
- teaching of counting in 5s so that the child is about to read in blocks 
- drawing of hands (Gruffalo clock is wonderful for that. We progressed from gear clock to our DIY clock where she needs to manually move each hand)
- writing the time in digital clock format (using digits)

For multiplication by 5s, it will take a bit of time. Manipulatives are good. We also used hands & feet - 5 fingers and 5 toes. There's a certain element of rote learning in this but the idea is to let the child understand that each block equals to 5 mins and if the child is stuck, he/she knows how to count in groups of 5 to get for e.g 40 the minutes (half past = 30, and then add on 2 blocks of 5). There are loads of songs on YouTube which are useful in getting the child to remember them too. 

(Please note that as with all the other free downloads in this blog, it is for personal usage and is not for any form of sales. I would also appreciate it if you do not edit it and then sell it as the entire purpose of this is to share this resource so everyone can use and enjoy the pack.) 

This is part of our Fun with Math series! 

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Through her eyes #4 - BA NAH NAH!

We were leaving Jacob Ballas Children's Garden when Dumpling suddenly stopped and said "Mama, look!" I turned and saw her pointing to a rock on the floor and mumbled noncommittally "yes yes, banana."

She repeated herself and said emphatically "no MAMA, LOOK AGAIN!"

Then I saw it...

Did you spot it too? :) A banana lover! LOL

In case you are not aware, these little yellow 'men' love bananas!

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Through her eyes #3 - My Instrument, My Choice

Some time ago, I briefly mentioned that Dumpling has taken on a new instrument but I did not elaborate because frankly I have no idea how long she will stick with it and I am also not entirely sure if I have the tenacity and perseverance to continue to plow on with her.

Simply put, I have a 'love-hate' relationship with this instrument. I play a keyboard instrument and it was a shock to the system when Dumpling first attended the class and I realised how hard it was. I was totally lost and unprepared for the intensity of this small string instrument. As I was not sure how long Dumpling will stay with this (she chose the instrument, not me and she asked for lessons after hearing it) we picked a basic model for her very first violin.

She has since outgrown the earlier model and I was advised by her teacher to get a new one for her. And so, off to violin shopping we did over the weekend! 

The sale person brought down about 5 violins of her size (from various ranges) and played for her to hear so that she can make a choice. 

When he played it a second round, Dumpling was curious and asked "Shouldn't I be playing it? I need to hear it right? So I should be playing it to see which I like? Why are you playing for me? Can I have it please? I would like to try it on my own - to bow it, feel it, to hear it."

The. Salesperson. Was. Stumped. (And I was looking for a place to hide my face.)

Did I mention that my kid is just a tad over 5YO?

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Through her eyes #2 - La Mian 拉面！

The food court near my home is not exceptionally large where the choices are very much the usual Chicken Rice, Mix Economical Rice, Korean, Japanese, Fishball noodles, etc. I was with Dumpling at VivoCity food court recently and her eyes suddenly brightened with life and she sat there watching one of the stalls. She then excitedly told me “妈妈， 看！ 拉面!" (Mum, look! Its 'La Mian!)

One of the most interesting topics her Chinese classes did last year was on Cuisines around the World - 世界美食。I recalled that Dumpling made mini paus and La Mian with simple dough the teachers provided. What I always took for granted and would walk past the stall without a second glance was something no lesser than an "Art Form" for Dumpling as she stood there, watching in awe as the skillful chef 'spun' noodles on-the-go. Then she said "Mama, the chef has KUNG FU!" (I blame this on Kung Fu Panda. Pffff)

And of course, the homeschooling mum in me could not resist taking the opportunity to explain to her how the strands of noodles would double with every 'fold' the 师父 made. :) What has your child shown you this week? 

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Through her eyes #1 - Bye Bye Butterflies

From a recent Homelearning Field Trip which I helped to organise, some 30 odd kiddos not only had a chance to tour Butterfly Lodge and understand a bit more about this beautiful insect but many also brought home with them a caterpillar kit to rear and watch the metamorphosis process.

Our caterpillars pupate only after  4 - 5 days and was at that stage for the longest time! And as 'luck' would have it, we were out the morning when both emerged from their chrysalis! What greeted us when we reached home after lunch was not 1 but 2 butterflies! Dumpling was thrilled to bits!

This was our 3rd time rearing them and compared to the second time (first set did not make it, our caterpillar died after 4 days for some reason), Dumpling is a lot better at saying 'Goodbyes'.

She kept telling me that the butterflies were beautiful and was really happy that they "made it this time"!

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