Preschooler Update: Almost Four!

Almost Four!

How quickly this chubby baby became...

.....this lanky kid. 

He is still the sensitive, thinking child I've always had.

In this shot, he was pondering about which prop to add to his 'frog pond'

 

He is a little nerdy at heart. Okay, very nerdy.

Too skinny.

But handsome (haha!)

At almost 4,  he decides on what he would like to do.

Usually its some cut & glue or math.

When I suggest Ready? Go! (right brain practise)

He gives me a determined, sour face, "No. I don't like ready go"

"Why? I never scold you anymore" 

"I don't like it. I like math. You say ready go one more time, I go downstairs.

You study alone."

Sigh...

MATH

So, we do some math everyday.

Still dunno whose math genes he got. 

Must be Winnie yiyi's, cause nobody else likes math.

He is quite good for his age.

Not a genius because 3 year old geniuses would be doing quantum physics by now.

Here, he figured out skip counting by 2 without my help.

Btw, zero here represents 10 (according to him)

 I took the opportunity to introduce him to tadaaaaaa, the times table!

Sorry la, cannot resist the Asian Mom in me. 

 

More math. 

He actually enjoys tracing numbers and counting.

 

We danced to some skip counting by 2 songs from Youtube.

And then I decided to teach him odd vs even using the red counters.

He got it in 10 minutes. End of lesson.

I must be a damn good teacher la *flips hair*

PLAY

 He was down with some viral infection.

High grade fever for 5 days and lost some weight again....arghhhh.

 Still he requested for school but we just played during that time.

I love this set of building toys on loan from Winnie.

He made these that I posted on fb.

Got some money sense, this one.

 

I also posted some laughing pics of him.

Now I recall what it was that made him so happy.

I was telling him that the creature was llama

He said, "Blama? Clama? Clement??"

Hyena laugh.

 WRITING

Tiger is also keen on writing at the moment, so we focus on skills that strengthens his grip:

Coloring within lines

 

Writing in sand.

These are leftover from his sand art kid. I added some salt for volume

  

 He is always excited when I change the trays.

This set was meant to entice Dragon girl but Tiger insisted on doing it.

I replaced the red rods with marbles.

 Major tip to get their attention:

Just add water.

Now they are learning to share without whacking each other.

CHINESE

 He has completed B cards from Baobei after almost 1 year.

Not too bad for a non Chinese speaking boy.

SOCIAL SKILLS

With strangers, he still still very shy.

The sister is as much an extrovert as Tiger is introverted.

Dragon is the first on stage and Tiger would only dance after everyone's left.

 Oh, actually he didn't dance. He was just running around.

 

 With his darling Grandma

Cognitively he will have no problems.

Socially, he has improved a lot. 

He has two friends in Baobei now. 

Hahahahaha....versus one friend last year.

I love you, my darling boy.

I wish you a very Happy Birthday in advance and my only

wish for you at 4 years old is to gain some weight and to be in the pink of health.

Preschool: March-April 2014

There is a new routine in da house.

And I no like.

Tiger will only start school every night after watching Doc Mcstuffin.

Yes, he wants to be a doctor *yawn*

Why isn't there a cartoon on pilots?

Where is Oso with his catchy "three little steps, that's all you need........."?

 You can be a spy, Tiger. I tell him.

Go do something interesting and brave and....

Maybe a spy is asking for too much.

He is actually scared to be a fireman.

I can still hope :)

Probably the only mother on Earth who wants the son

to be a fireman over a doctor.

Truth be told, I want him to set his imagination free and think way ahead of the curve,

so, to be a doctor is not the plan I have in mind.

.

.

.

.

Other than these pics, we spent some time at the park, 

cycling,

fighting,

Play-Doh.

Not so much

reading, math or right brain stuff.

Lazy month.

Theme work: Flowers

 Here's his work from the flowers theme:

Music

Tiger is very reluctant to attend his YAMAHA classes

cause they are pull-my-hair out boring now.

So much more fun to make noise at home :)

I love this cheeky shot.

Art

Made a gazillion sand art.

Very bad idea. The clean up is horrible, just terrible.

 

We made so many. Vomit.

 Thinking toys

Mdm Poh Yew said this is the best toy ever.

After her talk, I was like, "Must remember to buy this toy."

 Haha, me is so, very efficient, hor?
Me Chinese ma, kiasu-ness is inborn.

This is the only toy allowed in the master bedroom.

Actually, I made these for him because he was so slow/lazy.

I just ask him to pick out the required pieces.

Considered counting lesson also la.

Make car/motorcycle, plane or helicopter.

Rabbit? No

Dragon? No

See-saw/Ferris wheel? No

=.="

Circle time

This calender is one of our most used tool.

His personal schedule too, actually.

He loves putting a tick next to completed activities.

Right brain 

We did so little of this.

Partly because I always give him laser eyes and he hates that.

For mandala, I tried using dot markers so that he can work faster 

instead of coloring slowly, slowly.

Math

We are still using our dry erase board with the workbook.

He is loving the abacus lately, so we worked around that with 

100 board and some skip counting.

Chinese

We were supposed to learn the chinese strokes with this magnetic puzzle.

He used them for colour sorting instead.

Rascal!

He is completing B cards soon.

Speaking Chinese in school, finally.

Teacher's feedback. More playful nowadays and still speaks with an English accent.

Messy goodness

He is still in love with this gooey alphabet slime.

Didn't work with the cookie cutters. Too sticky was his conclusion

I tried to get him to read his P&J but he was like,

I can only read 2 pages. No ten pages, okay?

I am very tired.

Grrrrrr.........

How la?
Must bring out the Amy Chua in me more often?
So far, I'd only shoot him with laser eyes when
he misbehaves or under performs in YAMAHA or right brain practice.

Haven't even raise my voice, okay?
He will reciprocate by showing me sour face.
When I ask him what's wrong, trying to be the kind, understanding parent,
he answers," You show me angry face la. I don't like"
*Facepalm*

Being a kind, gentle parent sucks.
So much easier to just be Tiger mom.

Tiger at 3 years 9 months

School

Besides homeschool, he is still attending Bao Bei for chinese lessons.

He is STILL reading cards from set B.

His slow-mo pace is killing me but I didn't tell him that.

I'll ask casually,"How many cards this week?"

He broke all records last week with one card.

If only you guys could have seen my expression when I found out...

Sigh...paying rm100 per week, okay?

Whenever I insist on reading chinese books, he always pick this set 

of books by Monique Felix. He adores them.

It is a set of 8 wordless books but he insist it is Chinese.

His stories will always be like this,

Once upon a time, a 'lau shu'.....

"lau shu" will be the only Chinese word he uses.

Right now, he is in Disney's Cars mode.

So, I googled and printed out a ton of stuff for him.

Things like tracing and patterning became a breeze.

Always, always follow the child's lead.

Right Brain 

Ever since I yelled at him once for not focusing, he isn't very interested anymore.

Actually his exact words were,"You say Ready Go one more time, I go out"

So, I had to trick him into playing memory games and matching.

Then slowly reintroduce linking memory and mandalas.
Must try harder to not be a shouty parent

Science

I bought a microscope from ELC sales (50 + 10% discount, how to not buy leh?)

He isn't ready to appreciate the beauty of its function but it was

just as useful to watch him explore the apparatus, trying to figure out the parts

I was trying to install the battery, when he told me,

"Come, give me. I fix for you"

Checked with magnifying glass

Use tweezers to pry out the battery

When all else failed, use teeth.

He did this ala telescope

Laugh die me

After a demo by mama, he looked pretty professional....

 

But he still preferred this method in the end...haha!

I told him about collecting nature specimen and such 

after the blardy haze issue has resolved.

So, this is our "manly" adventure bag.

Being a teacher

He sounds like one actually. Rather bossy, like me :)

Dragon is always copying him anyways.

I love this pic cause Dragon was scratching her head in a 

Watcha-talking-about manner

 

 Being a brother

They still fight on a regular basis but ocassionally

they melt my heart, like this moment.

They were just staring at the oil blob thingy quietly, 

in mirroring positions.

Playing doctor.

Took so many videos of him giving injections, taking temperature, etc.

We spent a lot of time playing whatever they wanted. 

Mostly indoors since the haze is killing us but the authorities are too busy

putting on a monkey show for the international press to be bothered.

After MH370, he is not allowed to be pilot.

Work from home la...be a tech whiz/nerd, okay?

Pray for #MH370

I cannot offer anything more than my thoughts and prayers.

I hope they are safe, somewhere.

In the meantime...

Hug your loved ones

Be grateful

Call your parents and tell them you love them, like right now.