Aricia's 读书

I literally threw papers for che-che to do unsupervised today - 23rd (Dunno about the heart attack I'd get later from marking her papers - all the careless mistakes.) as I need to fully concentrate on mei-mei.

It was a full two hour plus of Shichida + cha-pa-lan stuffs which I need to do but really can't find much time or they're done halfway and never completed for a long time. (been spending too much time with che-che. Tons of work). Really kudos my mei-mei - she can sit through my extra long session today.

Arctic animals. Yup! Still haven't finished covering but with today's session. I'm all done. What I like to do too, is to log online and let her watch videos. National Geographic have very interesting; informative videos.

Have you heard of this Artic animal - Narwhal? I've never heard of this before but like I always say I'm always learning new things together with my children.

The final time when she buay tahan my session, too hungry liao at 6pm. She decded to challenge me like she did yesterday.
Where's your left/ right, hide her hands behind her. "I dowan to show". Lift up her legs, where's your left/right?. Crosses her leg " I dowan to show". I touched her eyes, where's your left/right Open that eye. "I dowan to see". buay tahan. Pull her hair, "I dowan to show hair" "You want to eat chocolate??" "Ok!" "where's your left. She deliberately cover both eyes and then lift up that hand revealing the eyes for me. DUH!

Can't remember which date too, she challenged me. She was suppose to circle the words 'to' in a wordsearch puzzle. She happily circled all the 'to's and included a bonus for me - 'go'. I asked her why she circled and asked her to read the instructions for me. She read "Circle the words 'to'." "Then why did you circle 'go'?" After some time she insisted "because have such word." ?!?!?!

Why do I still have the drive to do so much? Coz' it's really satisfying when I see the results and it goes to show - yes! early intervention is good.

Satisfied

Monday blues? Not for me today coz' I went to do some shopping. Yay!

After I dropped the kids, I had a nice breakfast and went to an Internet cafe near mei-mei's school to surf for one hour. Then headed down to Isetan Scotts. What I don't like though is that shops don't open early so it means I always have to rush through my shopping. First stop was to Tangs as I needed to get my makeup from MACs. At the same time, bought some stuffs from Benefit, heard they have some products good for people like me who don't have time to make up my face. Some products of theirs do a quick 'perk me up' radiance thing on the face.

Walked back to Isetan Scotts and went to supermarket. I was looking for some things, they don't have that fair anymore the staff told me. What pissed me off? The nonchalant respond from a cashier when I enquired her "I'm sorry, I only started working here." #@$%! I hate this kind of staff! Goes to show the level of service you get!

Disappointed coz' I've made my way down after seeing them having a fair before. Hmm.......what was I looking for? Tell you a week later.

Anyway, I had plans to go down Meidi-ya to do my monthly bulk purchase of Japanese groceries later in the afternoon with mei-mei. So I hope I would be able to find what I need there.

After picking mei-mei up, went to Liang Court. Had a nice meal (I think) in the foodstalls at basement. I'm always so happy when I see / plan to bring them to places which serve udon. They will be slightly well-behaved; not embarrassing me outside with their eating-tactics. Horrible!

In these pictures, she was happily slurping up the udon. She finished almost the whole bowl (adult portion) leaving only a few strands for the mummy to eat. Scooped twice into this small bowl for her.
If only my kids are not that fussy over food. Mei-mei is not as fussy as che-che (but they're still rather fussy). What kills me is the feeding part. 3+ suppose to eat by herself. She end up messing
up everywhere and playing with her food. To avoid the extra cleaning part, we always feed her until ... "mummy's going to your school even when you're in P6 to feed you if you can't eat properly. And then you'd be the laughing stork! " - that's what I tell her.

Bought groceries. And things for next week. These can't be kept for one whole week for sure, so we ate it up within 3 days.
tWhat are they? Anyway, by now you would have noticed in my massive update in here.

These are things for ひな祭り, that's why had to drop by Japanese supermarket.

In the picture above, the pink colour thing is Sakuramochi 桜餅. The white thing is also mochi. The squarish thing is Yōkan Red Bean Jelly With Chestnut - not a treat for ひな祭り but who cares. I always love Japanese 和菓子 wagashi.

I saw this!!I mean Minnie Mouse. Hello Kitty's been available in SIN for quite some time already. There's also Mickey Mouse but with these yamabokos expiring fast, I can't buy so many. Hmm... I gotta stop pampering my kids with all these cutesy foodstuffs. Rather costly you know! $6+ for one small block.

Our day

L came by SIN and we met up. Hubby couldn't go as he had to finish up his assignment; mom had to go back home to offer offerings. It was only che-che and me who went, I can't bring that little girl with me, handling 2 kids all alone ........ I always end up exhausted and .

We left home much earlier than our appointed time, after she had completed some work for me.

As I was turning into the carpark, we noticed dragon dance opposite Bugis Junction. Managed to find a lot fast and we watched the performance. Awesome!

We walked around BJ, passed by this shop with all the purikuras. Suaku mummy never did this before. $11 is too costly but we did have fun posing. Better still with the decoration part, we did rubbish coz' it's our first time and we didn't really know what to do. Gotta do this again.

These are the shots we took.

This is my favourite picture

Che-che posing outside shop
Did some shopping for tidbits at basement. Left to meet L at her hotel. Didn't know where to go (bad host) so drove to Suntec for a meal. Went to Crystal and ordered a YuSheng, didn't order those set coz' too much for us to eat.

It was an experience for L, I thought she had done this before. While we were tossing, 2 kids from the next table kept looking at us. Asked them to join in, they were too shy. They're Japanese so this is very new to them too.

Scooped up a full bowl for them to try. The kids and daddy (mummy didn't try) were so happy.
This is what the waitress would say when presenting us the Yusheng

1) Everyone gathers around the table where the ‘Yusheng’ is. Greetings like ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’,
‘Wan Shi Ru Yi’ and ‘Xing Nian Kuai Lei’ are exchanged. As each ingredients is added into a
big plate, auspicious words are mentioned by the person preparing the ‘Yusheng’.
2) Strips of Raw Fish is first added.
‘Nian Nian You Yu’
Symbolising surplus and abundance.
3) Pomelo is added over the fish.
Alternatively, squeeze a lemon or lime.
’Da Ji Da Li’
Symbolising good luck and auspiciousness.
4) Pour the Oil ( golden in colour) and circled around the ingredients.
’Cai Yuan Guang Jin’
Symbolise the strong inflow of wealth.
5) Shredded Carrots are added.
’Hong Yun Dang Tou’
Indicating the arrival of good luck.
6) Shredded Green Radish is added.
’Qing Chun Chang Zhu’
Symbolising eternal youth.
7) Shredded White Radish is added.
’Bu Bu Gao Sheng’
Symbolising promotion at work or increase in business profits.
8) Crushed Peanuts are added on the dish.
’Jin Yin Man Di’
Symbolising the overflowing of gold and silver.
9) Sesame Seeds are added.
’Sheng Yi Xing Long’
Symbolising a flourishing and prosperous business.
10) Pepper (in red sachet) and Five-Spice Powder (in green sachet) are sprinkled over the
ingredients.
’Shuang Xi Ling Men’
Symbolising the showers of blessings for double happiness.
11) Plum Sauce is added on top of all the ingredients.
’Tian Tian Mi Mi’
Symbolising that life will be sweet.
12) Deep-Fried Golden Crisps are added.
’Pian Di Huang Jin’
The ground is completely filled with gold.
13) Finally everyone tosses the ‘Yusheng’ salad high in the air with chopsticks shouting out ‘Loh
Hei’ (in Cantonese) loudly, followed by ‘Yue Lao Yue Qi, Lao Dao Feng Shen Shui Qi’. ‘Loh
Hei’ means ‘tossing for good luck’. ‘Yue Lao Yue Qi, Lao Dao Feng Shen Shui Qi’ means ‘the
higher you toss it, the better your luck, till good luck becomes so overwhelming’. Other
auspicious words and wishes are also shouted.

We spent almost 2 hours on our tea. Che-che asked to feed kois.
Sent her back to hotel and we left. There's school the next day, can't stay too late.

Back home, the kids were happy with their goody bags from L.

Here, my lil girl playing with the paper bag out of mischief

1st Haircut

Armed with a camera and video camera, I had to take this moment -Aricia's 1st Haircut.

She agreed to have her hair cut but once outside the haircut place, she ran away crying. Hahaha!

She was already licking her lollipop so it didn't take that long to coax her.

I kept a bunch of her hair, as I want to do a brush for her. I know usually people do it with the full month haircut hair but I'll be special.

Well done, Aricia! I'm so proud of you!

The routine starts - my mad routine

After a nice 4 days break in the 2nd month of the new year 2010, it's time to start the routine again.

Must say that 4 days I simply felt like doing nothing. How great will it be if I can don't care about the childrens' studies. How great will it be if I can only eat; sleep; watch TV; enjoy. But then that doesn't make me any difference from being a pig. (ah......the only difference is pigs can be slaughtered and feed others. I can't be eaten. Yeeks!)

This morning, I only need to bring che-che to school. Mei-mei slept in a little longer and she was awake by the time I got home. Gave her some quality time sessions. I really need to look into coping equally between both of them. I'm giving more attention to che-che this year, poor mei-mei. Thank goodness, KZ is able to help me in some aspects with her homework so it kind of lessen my workload. So I know my girl still gets that 100% input from both of us instead on just relying on myself. But then you know KZ is not supposed to help me in this, I have some concerns with the way she pronounces her words. And .... KZ's not working for us after this contract is over. I gotta start thinking. Totally dump the flashcard things? (can clear the space in their cupboard too. But mei-mei love flashcards leh!) and concentrate on what I need to do.

Right now, besides coping with che-che's daily homework from school (I only glance through the homeworks after she's done to make sure no mistake) she gotta do the works that I give her. They are works either from her assessment books (she has 3 for each subjects - YES! I'M THAT EVIL!!!! Why 3, some subjects 4 coz' each book concentrate on different aspects. Sometimes I select the questions for her to do, so she's not exactly attempting the full 50 questions in that topic).


ºCoping with all 3 subjects, though I let go of Chinese a little since I teach her wrong things. Hahaha! Trying hard to cope with teaching Values + she has Ethics in school, maybe just drop the whole thing and let her read her Joy Berry books.
º English - I don't do that whiteboard grammar thing this year since I've done it last year. It's basically a revision verbally. I have some books which I bought online from US for English too. It's like learning through play. Then she do some assessment book work, I go through some mistakes with her and point out how to spot the answers etc... comprehension. Ahh......suppose to go into Composition but ..... that is very long and draggy. Though I send her for LW, I still have to enforce with her at home.
º Maths - I'm very hands on. 200%. Coz' I love Maths!! (Ha! Seems like I love every subject except the two languages.). Thrill to see that she can cope with those challenging sums, so I give her more IQ kind. The more she do; the more shiok the mother feels; the more she goes "huh? again?" But those are just for fun not those markable assessment books type. If she gets wrong, I don't get angry. Her assessment books, also circled out some for her to do coz' she has 3 books.
Then certain days, I have my other books which I bought online from US. Play through learn kind; she does manipulatives too with the cuisinaire rods and other materials I have at home. (my kids can be homeschool!!)
She's good in Maths, she can think real fast. Can do word problems multiple steps. The only thing that make me angry is her carelessness. Copy down also can copy wrongly?! You know all those nitty gritty parts where she shouldn't be losing marks. She lost her marks; her mother lost her mind!! Mother very long-winded can go on nagging and nagging. This mother is also a MODEL Queen. Since Day 1 this year, I've been enforcing on her to do models on every thing. Then she says "But Ms Wong say no need." Well, it's in the 3rd or 4th unit, mummy's kiasu let her do everything fast. So when it's time for her to do in class now, she does it fast. And I got her the ruler to ease her drawing the models. Her classmates saw it and bought it too.

Must credit this mummy (must give myself a pat on the back) for dedicating all her life on the kids, sleeping late just to prepare things. Spend money like crazy just for the materials. Hubby never really complain but once he did mention about buying those Teacher Guide things for what. I told him then send child for all the different classes, you see how much you have saved with me bao-ga-liao everything right from A to Z to Phonics to Maths to ..... endless!
I say I will sell them but ... problem is will parents be as crazy as I am to take over my materials. It's alot of dedication and discipline to go through this. Think think, I gotta go through this too when mei-mei is in Primary school too. And I'm already 35. Sigh.....

My routine with mei-mei. Again I must emphasize I'm really lucky I have KZ. I can outsource certain jobs to her. KZ's had been helping me with mei-mei's Aricia Shichida's homeworks; weekly drawings and colourings; Shichida's LM (memorize and recite 50 cards); Shichida's poem recitation; Shichida's Peg Memory. And certain things I gave her to let her do it at her own planning are books like maze; right/left-brain books; cutting; colouring. Mind you, with her helping me that. I can be outside concentrating on che-che. So 2 kids are doing work at the same time without me spilting myself into 2, and risk having one or the other dreaming or kapo-ing.
When I sit down with mei-mei, it's her flashcards and things that we do in Shichida class. On top of that, 3 subjects with her too!
º Chinese - Using that resource from China. Which needs time to prepare props ahead when I'm doing the songs with her. (So when I prepare I prepare a few lessons' props together.) Reads out the Chinese words to her, show her flashcards. She has a takeout tag too, all laminated and ring-ed up so she can take it out whenever she feels like it; or I'll bring to the car. Do her Nursery assessment book. Then the mother is so happy when she speaks in Chinese (still sound very funny) and points out words to me.


º English -
☼ Phonics aspect - I need to embark on the next step (CVC) with her but I've been too busy with che-che.
☼ Words - she's reading words for me; reading simple books.
☼ Practising her writing. She hates to write I noticed so make her write. Told you I'm an evil mother. She hates to draw, ask her to copy drawing she draw streaks. Every child is different.
☼ Doing worksheets which I have downloaded to incorporate things that I'm teaching her
☼ Nursery assessment book
☼ I also have these range of books which is really interesting. Using Nursery Rhymes to teach children on grammar, opposites etc... a range of things. No stress on this, give her introduction and will pick up these books again maybe in another year to reinforce.

º Maths - Likewise, I have the range of Maths books. Using Nursery Rhymes, classifying; counting; sequencing etc.. are taught. Some days I use this.

When she's a little older like maybe 5 or 5+, I'll try to start her on my WOL. I started Athena when she was 5+ going 6 so my benchmark is earlier for mei-mei definitely.
☼ She has assessment book to do too.

Apart from that, I do concentrate on one theme for a month or maybe drag on to two months. Using the Kidssoup resources, I've all the materials ready for me to use anytime (thing is - I can't find much time!!). Remember a year ago, I was going to mom's place like almost everyday to print out things from this subscribed website, so that I can prepare everything in one shot.
Those resources do cover aspects on English and Maths. So all my materials are complimenting one another.

☼ Writing. Hates to write, doodles and .............argh! driving me crazy. I mean, you have one kid who can answer every question you ask but she has no interest in writing. So I make her practise.

I let her play some IQ games, Stiles etc.. a wide variety of games to make her smarter than mummy. And she's not at that age where she can play with it unsupervised. More likely my playful girl will find ways to 'geng'.

Basically I'm just too busy with the kids. Such life!

CNY - 2nd Day

Mom, dad, bro and family headed to Muar this morning. We didn't tag along, would rather relax at home. The temptation of putting firecrackers didn't tempt me enough, che-che would have tempted the mozzies with her blood.

Instead we headed down to River Hongbao with 2 kids + KZ. A slow and relaxing day it certainly was.


Delicacies : Ma La Toufu, che-che's fav sweet sesame ball, some glutinous rice thing



We had our dinner @ Sakae and then brought the kids to Andersen. Something triggered che-che's mind, and she started reciting out what she remembered about Hans Christian Andersen. "Born in 1805 in Denmark. He wrote books for children". Not bad! I couldn't confirm on his birthdate until I came home and checked.

Once after ice-cream was served, my 2 kids tucked in. Mei-mei's not so keen in dessert and cakes (I noticed lately), had less than 10 small spoonfuls then stopped.
We left for home tired. I knocked out in the car too!

CNY - 1st Day

The normal thing we do every year.
Hubby crawls into bed at 6+am after a night out with his friends playing cards. I used to join him, until Athena was 1. Then I realised it was inconvenient to bring a young kid with us; finding a place for her to sleep. I finally decided not to go. Haven't seen his friend's wife for a very long time.
As for me, I stayed home and watched White Chicks on TV, not interested to watch the CNY Specials - boring! Just sing and dance, the only segment I look forward to is the Zodiac prediction thing.

Kids sleeping; I fell asleep after White Chicks ended.

Lazy slow day. What a way to begin the new year. In turn, our kids also feel that CNY is a little boring except to collect angpow. That's what che-che told me "CNY is so boring, I only look forward to collecting hongbao." Now that we're aging, we feel that visiting is a routine. Know what I mean? Or perhaps now with every family so small, it isn't fun or noisy anymore. Infact for the past few years, our neighbourhood was so quiet.

The kids had their lunch at home before setting off to PILs place.

The usual - eat; eat and eat. Argh! I think I've put on weight!! Going vegetarian for the whole week!! Since today's Valentine's Day too. Che-che bought some cookies from school for the selected recipients. (So poor thing, she bought and named who she wanted to gift to. Then she whined "but I dun have........" I don't have to wait for her hint, I would have given mine to her.) Everyone else had left, we stayed on for another hour or so watching TV. A hilarious Korean collaborated with HK show. I was so tired that I literally fell asleep on the sofa. OMG! Old already!! We left for mom's place after that. Had dinner. Eat again!!! The little cousins played; fought. Poor mei-mei got bullied not by che-che but by Iggy. Poor thing. Then left for home, the kids over-stimulated and fell asleep. I fell asleep fast too. What a day. Like I said, CNY is becoming a routine for us. Perhaps next year we should look into travelling out on CNY?

Lost that girl in music school !!

Brought mei-mei out with me the whole day on the 10th for che-che's LW and music lesson. That girl had to wander away from me.

I was in music school waiting, at first she was sitting down with me then she walked a little further from me. Called her back, I merely peep into the window looking at che-che. 10 seconds later, I turn to her direction and she's not there.
Panic! Ran to look for her. Turned out we were walking in circles therefore she couldn't find me.

I swear my heart dropped. I worry if she had walked out of the music school into the mall. Though I keep complaining she's naughty etc... I wouldn't want to lose my child. When I finally saw her, she was with a friend's husband. He was "looking for me" while we were walking in circles. According to him, she walked around and then spoke to him (she didn't recognise him) "I'm looking for my mummy, I want to go toilet." He brought her to find me, apparently can't find me coz' I was on the other side looking for her. Daring siah! He was very surprised that she's so outspoken, but I tell you her outspoken-ness and outgoing nature makes me more worried.

She hasn't started her music lesson yet, and she's already well known in the school - for being that lost child. Sigh........

CNY - Reunion Dinner 2010

We did something different for this Reunion Dinner. We ordered takeaway from Soup Restaurant. I welcome this change gladly. Tossing Yu-Sheng. Think still prefer the food served in restaurant. Doesn't taste that nice... but oh well I can't cook for nuts so I better don't comment so much.

The day before the eve

I was questioned "so how's your preparation for CNY?" the day before by P. And that lead me to think - NONE! To think that I'm usually an organised person and will get all my To-Dos done at least a week before CNY. Argh..........

Spring Cleaning - left it to KZ after listing the things need to be done. No time to declutter the house; throw away old and buy new. Nothing of that sort, I throw and clear things in the house on and off; don't have to wait till CNY. And I gotta bao ga-liao everything, how to do the whole house? What I could do was to remove the flashcards & whatever daily materials I need for Aricia's home session from the TV console and remove the pocket hangers. Stash them inside the storeroom. Ha!

If it's preparation for myself. I had been so busy with baking that I can only paint my nails after my bakes completed. Some more to do but I'm tired out! We don't have much CNY goodies this time round in our house too coz' every year we end up throwing them away. We don't eat much ......look so pathetic.
I didn't specifically shop for new clothes or shoes. I bought them about a month back and kept them intact in their plastic bag/box. It's new!
I forgot about haircut! Hair colour! Today while waiting for kids in PP, I remembered. One salon is fully booked; another didn't have many customers but they said needed a long time which I don't have. Sigh.... no haircut no hair colour (and my whites are showing)

Bought these cute jellies for the children in both kids' school. I'm not sure who che-che gave the 8 jellies to. I gave mei-mei 21 jellies and she gave them all out.

When we got back home early, I quickly embarked on my DIY hair colour. I don't like the outcome - make my hair look black. I will re-do it again in a month's time.
Got the red packets ready too.

Hubby's not home with PILs. I made some mango pudding.

1st batch - coz' I only have one mold, needed to do another pair tomorrow.
The extras that I have were made into these Mickey Mouse
and Anpanman!! The kids love these more than Mickey, I love them too coz' they're small. Hee!
Had our dinner at home before leaving house to do stock up on groceries for the long week. FIL stayed alone at home.
We pop by a nursery nearby. Dunno why hubby decided to buy potted plants this year. In the end, he didn't buy coz' I explained to him "we have no sun along our corridor. The plants will surely wilt." Don't sound that positive on my part huh? Would love to have plants definitely but I'm not doing any justice to the plants so why waste the $$?

We went home to be greeted by >> 2 opened ice-cream tubs on the dining table. FIL was scooping the ice-cream and eating from it. That's not it! One of my fish was eaten. Gasp! Can't blame him, heard that he normally finds food in the house. I should be thankful that my house wasn't on fire and he didn't pee on my bed, sofa etc..

Ehh. I'm not going to make the pudding anymore!