Letter Of The Week - "o" For octopus

I had wanted to do something different, but my brain cells were not working very well today, especially with YouTube giving me problems and my camera at the brink of its premature LCD screen death. So, I settled for "octopus". Fortunately, it was easy to make an octopus. Just cut out the "o" and "tentacles" from a cereal box and we were practically done.

Thus, I had to complicate matters a little by first painting it white. Then I let Sophie dot paint on it. Sophie was not really keen and started to play with the paint again. And when I refused to give her the scissors, penknife or scotch tape dispenser, she whined and screamed. I had little choice but to tell her off. After that, she was much more cooperative...

Seeing that Sophie was now willing to follow instructions (a little anyway), I let her apply the glitter glue and play with it (just a bit). Although she was making a mess on the table, I was fine with that so long as she did not wail for "forbidden" items.

Finally, I let her help me stick on the circle labels on the "tentacles". Sophie loves to play with stickers so you can see how hard she was trying to focus on the task. Very cute...

In the end, Sophie was able to identify "o" and recognise the creature as an octopus. So my mission was accomplished... even though I am not quite satisfied with the end product.

End Product - "o" For octopus

Mailbox

I made a mailbox (UK design) for Sophie to play "mail carrier" with. However, the letterboxes for the addressee have not been made yet (no time). I searched for a while for the tiny envelopes to be used as "letters" to be mailed out, and the Alphabet & Numbers rubber stamps. There are many variations to the game, limited only by your imagination.

Idea I
Stamp envelopes with capital letters and small letters (26 x 2).
Let Sophie to put them into the mailbox (slip them in).
Then she can take them out and sort them according to capital or small letters (2 piles).

Idea II
Using the same set of envelopes (capital and small letters), get Sophie to mail the "letters" and then retrieve them for delivery.
Have slots (boxes labelled with letters) and let her match the envelopes with the slots accordingly.

Idea III
Mail assorted letters and let Sophie "discover" them in the mailbox daily and deliver them to their slots accordingly.

Idea IV
Do the same for numbers, shapes, colours or anything at all!

What Luck!

My motivation to post a blog is really low now because I have been experiencing some problems with my YouTube posts. Somehow, all the video clips from YouTube (including self-made clips) are now just blank white screens. I checked other blogs with video clips from YouTube and theirs are pretty much the same as mine. Anyone knows how to resolve it? I would really hate to go back to the older posts and replace each and every one with their URL instead.

Letter Of The Week - "O" For Owl

Reality is slowly sinking in... Sophie is going to Kinderland on Wednesday. Time really flies. Not too long ago, I was still saying she would be 18 months in June. Now, the little cheeky monkey is getting ready for the world out there. That freaked me out actually, especially with the H1N1 out there. I almost wish we had not enrolled her... Stay at home with Mama!!! Having said that, I know we cannot protect our children forever (even if we can and want to). So, I am letting go of my little monkey...

In any case, "Letter of the Week" will still go on! Even if Sophie can only do art and craft in the afternoon after her nap. Today, we did the letter "O" for "owl". It took a while for me to figure out how to create an owl without distroying the shape of the letter. Well, this is the best I can do.

I got Sophie to dab white paint on a sheet of blue paper. It is used for mounting the letter. I was hopeing that the white "dabs" would look like feathers on the "owl's" body. I admit I did not like brown too much, so I used white, orange and red instead. Luckily Sophie did not care much about its colour... just so long as I let her have her way with the paint. Notice how she "tap" paint on her thigh towards the end of the next video clip when I said "dab dab dab" - that was from the Little Einsteins (she thought I said "tap tap tap").

Recently I must have become a "super kiasu mum", doing lots of what I usually would never do in pre-Sophie days. I actually made the effort to go to a few book fairs just to look for affordable books for Sophie. Usually, I ended up with just a few books because the selection was limited and the quality was bad. Yesterday, however, we found a book fair organised by Pearson Education South Asia at Jurong. We headed there with not much expectation, but they were selling their readers at 4 for $10! So, I grabbed as many titles (mostly non-fiction) as I could (First Wave, Emergent and Early series) under the scotching sun at the carpark outside their office. I really love their readers, but there are just too many of them and too costly.

One of the readers "Eyes" caught my attention yesterday because of the two pictures of owls. I knew then I had to show it to Sophie when we do our "owl" today. And the connection was made instanteously. Yeah!!!

I also started letting Sophie chew on biscuits because she has cut many teeth lately. I found this particular brand of butter biscuits at NTUC (AMK Hub). They are shaped like zoo animals and they taste like marie biscuits. Sophie would play with the biscuits like her animal toys, and name them before stuffing them into her mouth. Today, I let her eat the butter biscuits that were shaped like owls and she could recognise it as an owl!

So, we had quite a bit of fun despite the usual cleaning that I had to do after Hurricane Sophie passed. I love the way she squeals and exclaims whenever she gets excited about what she is learning. I am so glad she learns the way she does because it makes teaching her a lot more fun as well!

End Product - "O" For Owl

East Coast Park

We're Going On A Bear Hunt

We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen (Author) is a fun book to read aloud although it is a little too long for a restless toddler like Sophie. I had to really hem it up with dramatic hand gestures to capture her attention. At first, I thought it was a strange story because the family (a father and his four young children) to set out for a bear hunt. But with a little imagination and tolerance for child's play, I can appreciate how exciting it must have seem for a youngster to read about a bear hunt.

The Story Read By Michael Rosen



The text is repetitive and chant-like but the pace of the story picks up as the family cross the long wavy grass (swishy swashy), the deep cold river (splash splosh), the thick oozy mud (squelch squerch), the big dark forest (stumble trip), the swirling, whirling snowstorm (Hoooo woooo), and at last found the bear in a deep dark cave (tiptoe). It becomes very exciting when the bear starts to chase the family all the way back home. When they reaches home, they run up the stairs to their bedroom without shutting the front door. So, they have to make their way down again to close the door, right in the face of the bear! At last, the family is safe and they crawl into bed together. And the poor bear heads home solemnly.

The Song With Children's Art Work

Moo Moo Cow

I did not do a craft with Sophie about the letter "C" last week. Since she was restless and bored today, I thought we could do a simple one to kill time. I took the idea from Sing! Play! Create!: Hands-on Learning for 3- to 7-year-olds by Sarah Cole and modified it to suit us. Unfortunately, Sophie was too cranky (from the lack of sleep and teething) to concentrate... Of course I ended up finishing it for her.

Readers Mania "Uu"

Yes, that was why I made the umbrellabird craft with Sophie the other day. In fact, I have never heard of an umbrellabird until I read Sophie the "U" book from Alphatales some time ago. I think reading a good variety of literature (different genres) can expand children's vocabulary and build their general knowledge. Papa asked me once why I bought Sophie books on trains and trucks and I told him I prefer not to indulge her in ONLY what interesrs her. Everything should be done in moderation, I think.

I remember Faith (Pei Ee's daughter) was uttering "umbrella" during Sophie's birthday bash and I was so impressed. She was around Sophie's age now yet Sophie is still not ready to say words with more than one syllable... although she did say "no more" when we ran out of her favourite crackers.

In Now I'm Reading!: All About the ABCs by Nora Gaydos, "U" for umpire, uniform and unicorn, none of which are easy words for Sophie to understand. She thinks a unicorn is a horse drawn wrongly and the other two are words that contain connotations and a body of information. For instance, to understand "uniform", you need to know the concept of "clothes" and an "institution" or "team".

In the "U" book of Sunshine Phonics, "U" is for "up" and "under" among other words like "umbrella" and "underwear". Again, I have a bit of problem with teaching Sophie prepositions... although I could act out and direct her to the meaning of those words. Still, very tough to understand for her... How unfortunate!

Playdoh Time

Sophie enjoys watching Art Time on Playhouse Disney. She has learnt to pretend that inanimate objects (playdoh, drawings, and paper cut-outs etc) can move and talk to her. She used to "talk" to her plush toys or feed them with pretend cutlery and food, but nowadays she would "talk" to anything at all. Sometimes, she would just hold up my finger and start having a conversation with it. That takes quite a bit of imagination and creativity apparently... And that amazes me a lot.





I think Sophie is very good with abstract representation of objects. And playdoh (art and craft also) helps her to create and express herself non-verbally. She is currently still figuring out how to use the tools but her level of concentration is unusually high when she is "at work". And I can only guess what goes on in her mind when she is so engrossed at it. That is why I do not usually "disturb" her if she seems to be well in control of whatever she is doing. I like to observe her and let her amaze me.

Balloons

Sophie picks up skills without our conscious teaching or instructions most of the time. For instance, she now utters "boh" (teochew) when she could not see our neighbour's baby from their balcony. Recently, we thought she uttered "mine" when we tried to take something away from her hand. BUT actually, she was saying "mai" (teochew) which means "no" or "do not want to". She was also caught switching on my laptop and putting on a earpiece of our headphone on separate occasions. Today, I found her with the hand pump and balloons, trying to inflat some of her favourite balloons.

"U" For Uniform and Useful Information

Sophie seems to love playing with playdoh more and more each day, so I decided to make it a daily routine. We shall name it "Playdoh Time". As usual, I made her "U" and "u" with jumping clay yesterday while she messed around (quite literally) with playdoh. My camera was acting up again so I could not take any video clips.

This morning, we went to Kinderland (Yio Chu Kang) to buy Sophie her uniform. The adminstrative clerk also gave us some useful information about childcare. I am starting to feel anxious about sending Sophie to childcare. Fortunately, Kinderland always gave me a sense of peace when I was there (4th visit). They are not very advanced technologically but I feel that they are quite good caregivers. We shall see if my feelings are right.

READ!!!

How to Read Out Loud With Your Baby or Toddler



How to Read Out Loud With Your Preschooler



How to Read Out Loud With Your Gradeschooler



How to Read Out Loud With Your Pre-Teen

Is Your Mama a Llama?

On impulse, I bought Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino from September 21. Here is the story about Lloyd, a baby llama, asking his fellow baby animal friends if their mothers are llamas too. The replies come in the form of rhyming descriptions of the different animal mothers that lead to Lloyd's own answers in naming the animal mothers. The descriptive answers given by each animal baby can also double up as animal riddles for toddlers who are more articulate and interactive.



Sophie is still apathetic towards the book. I think the illustrations do not appeal to her. I hope she will eventually learn to like the book like me. I did not think much of it until I read it a couple of times. I would say it is "an acquired taste" kind of book for me. And I think the YouTube version is quite good.

Umbrellabird

We had some time to spare before Sophie's nap so I did a last minute craft (a paperbag umbrellabird) with her.I got the idea from Alphabet Art : With A-Z Animal Art & Fingerplays (Williamson Little Hands Series) by Judy Press, but I had to modify it a bit. Since I had to do most of the craft, we completed it quite quickly. Unfortunately, I think we freaked out Ah Mah when she witnessed how Sophie did her art work!

I was quite alright with just making the umbrellabird without knowing anything about it. BUT Ah Gong had to ask me about it when he saw the end product on the wall. I had not even seen a real picture of the bird so I could not answer any of his questions! Thus, I found a real picture of the umbrellabird (just one of the three species) from the Internet and did a quick research on it. I even stumbled upon a song about the umbrellabird on YouTube! How amazing!

Letter Of The Week - "u" For umbrella

I must admit that the letter "U" is not an easy letter to do crafts on. I had to refer to No Time For Flash Cards for ideas. So, there it is... "u" for umbrella.

It was a relatively simple craft, but my dear little girl was not really into doing craft today (as usual lately). So, I had to hold her hand to complete the craft... how tiring!

Once we were done painting the letter, I pasted the letter, the umbrella and the raindrops onto a sheet of construction paper. I also applied some glitter glue for the rain water.

End Product - "u" for umbrella

Letter Of The Week - "U" For Unicorn

I finally decided against doing "D" this week. Instead, I picked the letter "U" which is a little more familiar to Sophie. However, I had a lot of difficulty finding animals that begin with "U" so I settled for "Unicorn". Not the best animal to create but I managed to figure out how to put an unicorn into "U" without compromising the shape of "U".

Based on Sophie's behaviour over the weekends, I prepared myself mentally for a tough time with her today. And I was not too far off... how sad! She was not at all interested in the craft although she still enjoyed "painting". She also did not pay any attention to me or my instructions... and that really sent my blood pressure sky high.

In the end, I had to do most of the work. My only consolation was Sophie exclaiming "horse!" when she saw the "uncorn". The drying took a while because of my generous amount of glitter glue.

Once everything was semi-dried, I pasted on the plastic eye and glued the letter to a construction paper. And I did all that while Sophie was still in her highchair "painting". I deliberately left her with her art materials to see what she was up to. What a scary sight!

End Product - "U" For Unicorn

By the way, I found "The Unicorn Song" in YouTube. It is catchy and fun although I wish the religious element was not part of the song.

Magazines

We have been receiving 2 magazines for Sophie since her birthday and I think I should write reviews on them. Personally, I do find the magazines costly (almost $10 per copy) but they are truly wonderful for Sophie. We subscribed them through Righteous International Subscription Services although I would see them occassionally in Kinokuniya.

The first one is Wild Animal Baby (for age 0 - 4yrs) published by National Wildlife Fedaeration. Sophie loves the photographs of animals and enjoys reading the short, simple stories. There are also fun fingerplay rhymes and engaging activities in each issue. Initially, Papa felt that the magazine was too expensive for its contents, now he is happy to have subscribed it. Sophie has learnt to identify many of the animals from the magazine. Also, we can go to its website for more information about wildlife, parenting tips and other related activities. Here is the sample.

Of course there are also similar magazines for older children, like Your Big Backyard for age 3-7 yrs (sample), and Ranger Pick for age 7 yrs and up (sample). I cannot say much about them because I have not read any of their issues yet. However, I am likely to subscribe them when Sophie is older.

Another magazine we have subscribed for Sophie is the BABYBUG® (for age 6 mths - 3 yrs), published by Cricket Magazine Group. It is a literary magazine so it is hard to weigh its value against its price tag. However, it is a great way to expose Sophie to a wide variety of genres. I also like the main characters, Kim and Carrots, and their story. In a way, I am inspired by Kim's mother and her style of parenting. She is nurturing and ever so patient and loving towards her son. Their website also provides useful information for parents on education, resources and follow-up activities. Here is the sample.

They also have LADYBUG® for age 3 - 6 yrs (sample), SPIDER® for age 6 - 9 yrs (sample), CRICKET® for age 9 - 14 yrs (sample), and CICADA® for age 14 yrs and up (sample) under the literary catergory. Their nonfiction magazines (devoted to the sciences, arts, and humanities) include CLICK® for age 3 - 7 yrs (sample), ASK® for age 7 - 10 yrs (sample), and MUSE® (sample) for age 10 yrs and up. There are many other magazines but I cannot list them all. These are just a few potential ones that I would consider subscribing for Sophie.

War Of The Worlds

Sophie seemed to have successfully fought off the viral infection, but perhaps it has triggered off a little too much of her "war" spirit. My sweet and easygoing girl has suddenly turned into a "heavy metal rock star". She would scream for whatever the reason she deems fit. And she would give us the scowl look to go with it. Her tear ducts are also very well developed and probably trained to respond immediately upon hearing my "NO".

No longer were we able to control her in public... She was completely honest in showing her emotions and perfectly comfortable with drawing attention to herself. For some reason, she is also suddenly suffering from selective separation anxiety. She would cling on to me whenever she feels trapped in her current situation. For instance, she would wail for me when Papa was trying to feed her in a highchair. BUT if I had carried her then, she would struggle and cry for me to "separate with her" aka put her down. And should I comply to that, she would make her great escape and poor Papa and Mama would have to run after her.

I am definitely not ready to face her "Terrific Two" so prematurely and so suddenly. Even though Sophie did stop her tantrum when I ignored her, there were just too many other reasons for her to throw a fit. By the end of the day, both Papa and Mama surrendered and put her to bed quickly...

Readers Mania "Cc"

If sophie could articulate well enough, she probably would insist that she was all well and ready to move on from her recent fever episode. But Mama was not so keen to resume her schedule and routine quite yet... after all, her little body might still be in the process of recovering from the viral infection. We have not been doing much with the readers... I only read them to her one or twice this week. Perhaps tomorrow, we shall do it.

I had thought that Sophie would love the "C" book of Alphatales because the characters are cats, but she was not too enthusiastic unfortunately. Still, there are quite a few good words there.

Again, we see "cats" in the "C" book of Now I'm Reading!: All About the ABCs by Nora Gaydos. Somehow, the illustrations appealed to Sophie better... something about the way they are drawn... Hmm...

The "C" book of Sunshine Phonics introduces the "c" words like "cake" and "candles", then expands them into sentences like "I can count the candles on my cake. " with "c" verbs.

I have not played the song for Sophie, but I am sure she would like pretending to grunt and snap like a crocodile... although she is more familiar with "alligator". However, I did manage to let Sophie play with her beloved playdoh and accessories this morning. We bought her a set of moulds (alphabet and numbers) last weekend but I only opened it today. While she was experimenting with her new gadgets, I made her the letters "C" and "c" with jumping clay. Yes, black for the few days of viral infection that robbed away our sunshine.

After Sophie woke up from her nap, she seemed a little bored and restless so I thought we could do some simple craft together. So, I looked around for inspiration and found Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo by Kevin Lewis that I bought from Kinokuniya some time ago. I did not buy it immediately when I first saw it. I could not really appreciate it then. I went back and read the reviews in Amazon. After several trips and much pondering, I finally decided to get it for Sophie. After all, she loves to yell "choo choo" and put up her arm to "pull the whistle" when she sees Thomas and His Friends on TV.

End Product - Freight Steam Engine

The story is set in the bedroom of a little boy (something like Toy Story). The toys bustle about to load up the steam engine with freight in the morning and made its way through various terrains until it finally reaches its destination - the city. By then, it is already night time, so the "sleepy" train rests beside the sleeping boy on his bed. The illustrations are quite beautiful and imaginative, with building blocks as mountains and tunnels... presumably done by the little boy when he is playing. There are also many toys that are easily identifiable for Sophie to "talk" about. After reading her the book, we made a freight steam engine together. She did most of the pasting and doodling while I did the cutiing and "damage control" work.

Cooling Off Period

Sophie's temperature has stablised and gone back to normal finally. I would have yelled a couple of "YEAH"s and finished off with a tribal-like dance, if not for the fact that I am too exhausted to even clench my fist, tuck in my elbow and do a mini "yes". Besides, my fingers and toes are busy twisting and crossing themselves, just in case her fever comes back.

I think her body has done a darn good job fighting the viral infection. According to Dr Wong (TCM), she has caught a flu bug. That means her immune system has built up another notch of resistance from this episode. She still has to take her medicine (TCM) but no more nasty paracetamol or buprofen unless her temperature shoots up dramatically (>38.5 degrees). With a few more days of rest and plenty of fluid, she should recover fully... And hopefully, I too can catch some sleep.

Fever Update III

Sophie's fever went down this morning (4.30pm) after a dose of paracetamol. We tried to feed her with a spoon as advised by some of my blogger friends, but she was too smart for this. She knew our trick almost immediately - medication served in any way still tastes as horrid. She hammered Papa, wailed like a banshee and struggled like there was no tomorrow. Now, she is maintaining a low grade fever of 37.5 degrees. We cannot celebrate yet. She is now showing signs of mild dehydration. She does not want to eat or drink, and her diaper is dry after 6 hours. I am really worried about her health. I intend to take her to see Dr Wong (TCM) today in the late afternoon.

Fever Update II

I have never quite seen Sophie cry like that, not even during her injections or when I had to nebulize her. Today, she cried her heart out whenever she saw the syringe with liquid painkillers (either paracetamol or buprofen), begging me not to feed her the medication. I could understand her body language and her eyes... full of fear and reluctance. I must admit, my heart broke. I cried along with her... explaining, coaxing and even begging her to take the medicine. Sophie also understood me. With her firmly held in my arms, she moaned and whined as I injected it into her partially open mouth. She cried for a while more, then fell asleep in my arms from all the fighting (including with me). I rocked her like how I used to carry her in my arms when she was colicky and in pain (0 to 2 months old) and when she was breathless and wheezing (4 to 6 months old). I held her until I, too, gave in to my own exhaustion and fell asleep... like how I used to when she was sleeping in my arms....

Fever Update I

Sophie's body temperature has been fluctuating like a faulty roller coaster since this morning. When her fever kicked in, her eyes look dazed and glassy. And one hour after her buprofen (paracetamol does not work anymore), she became alive again. I wish I could do more for her but she has to fight the infection herself.

Fever

We did not sleep last night. We were at KKH Children Emergency around 2 am and only got home at 4am. By then Sophie was exhausted so she slept. But just as my eyes closed, Sophie woke up again at 6am. Poor girl, she did not sleep much either considering that she woke up with a high fever (39.2 degrees) at midnight. She was not even crying in discomfort. She just kept turning and tossing until I tried to pick her up and realised she was hot. Instinctively, I told papa to get a wet towel while I went for her panadol syrup. After giving her the medication, we took turns wiping her body with the wet towel. An hour and a half later, her temperature was still high (38 degrees) so we packed her bag and headed for KKH Children Emergency.

There were not many people waiting but the consistent stream of "urgent" cases resulted in an hour plus of waiting... The doctor was good actually, taking time to explain and rule out the different possible causes of her sudden fever. No ear infection, no flu, no UTI and no known cause, except "It's probably virus...". Sophie's fever has not subsided, but she is a fighter and I am here to make sure she wins.

Letter Of The Week - "c" For caterpillar

The day began with Sophie demanding for her markers,crayons and paint bottles as I was getting ready for her activity. Nowadays, it is really hard to contain her... I had to repeatedly tell her to "WAIT" and distract her with whatever I could get my hands on.

I thought of letting her do crayon work but she was not very keen. She was more interested in taking the lid of the container off and putting it back on again. Even when she was finally willing to doodle with them, her enthusiasm died soon after. However, look at the way she drew with her crayons... I think she was trying to learn how to hold it the way I do when I write. In the end, we switched to paint and it was better.

Perhaps I should have let Sophie paint before I cut the circles out. She found it tough to dab paint on the small pieces of cardboard with her brushes, so she used her fingers instead. When she got bored with paint, she went back to the crayons...

Before the painted "body parts" were dried, I had to let Sophie paste the dot labels onto them. I was hoping that she would get better at pasting (accuracy), which she did somehow.

Ta-da! Not very impressive at this point, but it should become better once we put them together. So the rest was my job - Oh boy, I am really looking forward to Sophie completing the whole craft on her own.

End Product - "c" for caterpillar

I read that it is not advisable to introduce the letters of the Alphabet in its chronological order because the first 5 letters are really hard to learn and it would take too long before the child can use the letters learn to form words. I agree because I know Sophie already knows a few other letters and it would be more effective to focus on those instead. Hmm... now I have to decide if I should do "D" with Sophie next week or some other letters.