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You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2012.
I overheard this conversation between the kids a couple of days ago:
Hannah (in Chinese): 你要喝美碌吗?
Translation: Would you like to drink “mei lu”?
Ethan replied: What’s that? No, I don’t want to drink beautiful road!”
Hehe. 🙂
Hannah was referring to Milo, but because the pronunciation for “Beautiful Road” is the same, that would explain Ethan’s cheeky response.
(By the way, I asked for some help from Hannah’s teacher on how to write “mei lu” in Chinese Characters; in case you were wondering… :P)
Hannah’s class organized a short field trip to a local pet store a few days ago, and just like that first time with Ethan, I couldn’t help being a little concerned, although admittedly I was less concerned now, perhaps because the pet store was just a little distance away from school, or perhaps like they said, it’s so much easier the second time around. 🙂
In any case, Hannah was really really excited about it, and kept asking me each day leading up to the day of the field trip, if it was the day of her field trip. She got up extra early that day and I could tell she was looking forward to the trip.
I opted to leave my point-and-shoot camera with her teachers, so that they could help me take some photos of Hannah and her friends.
First time riding on the bus with her friends:
Awww…don’t the little kids look adorable?
Probably posing with a clown fish statue:
…and a group photo! Yay!
Looks like she had a blast! Now she keeps asking me when her next field trip will be.
I marvel at how fast my kids learn these days. It’s true that I spend a lot of time with them, but I hardly ever formally TEACH them anything that is remotely academic. We do a lot of free play, we talk a lot and discuss the things we see around us, we love having fun, sometimes we add some singing and dancing…but one thing I don’t force my kids to do is to write. Even for Ethan, writing came naturally to him, and that is how I believe it should be.
Hannah is showing a keen interest on writing, much to my amusement. It started with scribbles and she would pretend to write notes and letters to me, and now she is beginning to form some words on her own. Even her pencil grip is quite good, I would say.
Her favorite word to spell right now, after her own name of course, is “COW”. 🙂
She would also form long imaginary words with a string of alphabets and ask me to read it.
She even surprised me when she would write something on paper and ask me what Chinese character it is. Sometimes it doesn’t really mean anything, but she just learnt how to write the number ‘seven’ in Chinese:
Now THAT I can read! Good job, Hannah!
A couple of months ago, Hannah came up to me and said, “Mommy, I have a song to sing for you.”
So I said, “All right. Let’s hear it.”
And I loved it! It was one of the songs she had learnt in school, and I was amazed she could sing it so well.
So, well…it has been a while now and I keep asking her to sing it for me to take a video, but we keep forgetting and procrastinating, but finally I got it on video. And here it is (you have to turn the volume up a little though, ‘cos I forgot to fiddle with the volume settings on my camera):
There’s also a second verse (Daddy), but she didn’t sing that part when I recorded it.
Lately there have been instances when Pete and I would be discussing something in the car, and Ethan would ask, “What are you talking about Mommy?” or something to that effect.
We then told him it was PRIVATE, and it was only to be discussed between Daddy and Mommy.
So since then, sometimes he would come over and ask me if what I was reading on the computer was private or not, and if he was allowed to see it.
Then one day, Ethan and Hannah was chatting in the car (as usual) and they started giggling. I instinctively asked, “What’s so funny, guys? Can you share it with Mommy?”
Ethan immediately replied, “No Mommy, it’s PRIVATE! I’m just having a discussion with Hannah.”
In my face. 😛
“Daddy, you know..I just can’t wait to grow up.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to get married, have kids….I want to do all the things you do. I want to be just like you, Daddy!”
Awwww….How sweet is that?
I first heard of the MY Garden Birdwatch from Bart, and when I broached the subject to Ethan, explaining to him what we needed to do to be part of the “bird-watching crew”, he got all excited and started counting down to the day we would do the count.
This Garden Birdwatch count is an annual activity where volunteers all over Malaysia would do a garden bird count at a specific time frame, and then submit the data to be included in the yearly bird count survey. To get ourselves ready, I downloaded the bird pocket guide and the bird count sheet and brought it along with us on the date of the count.
The kids got up bright and early and we decided we would do the count on June 2 2012. Yes, they brought their binoculars too!
It was supposed to start at 9:00a.m. and last for 30 minutes, but our first count spot (i.e. at the swimming pool area) did not result in many birds landing on the ground. Birds flying overhead are not supposed to be counted, according to the rules of the bird count exercise.
Then I happened to see some birds in the playground, so we headed there instead. And our 30 minutes started at 9:05a.m.
Ethan was very diligent and wanted to spot and count as many birds as he could, but Hannah was very distracted by the playground equipment.
“You have to be quiet so the birds won’t fly away!”
Ethan checking against his bird watch pocket guide on what kind of birds those were…can you see them in the background? They were actually rock pigeons!
“Let’s see if I can see more birds from up here!”
We spotted quite a lot of Eurasian Tree Sparrows, and also a very pretty Olive-backed Sunbird, but too bad, I could not get a good enough picture. You can see an array of awesome bird shots Bart captured during his bird watch session with his sons!
The day after the bird watch and bird count, Ethan wanted to submit the survey results. He had read from the website that we are supposed to enter the data online and submit it all online. So I let him do it…and he was only too happy to oblige!
We hope to do it again next year! 😀
What I envisage is not an event or series of events, and not something that entails expansive and expensive preparations (or expensive presents). The essence of PLAY is childlike. It is what all children do naturally. Therefore, a WORLD PLAY DAY should be a day of total attention to each other, from generation to generation. A day when children and adults do what they want to do. A day that is relaxed and emphasizes human interaction. We do not need to stop the world for a day. We play in our own place, home, school or work place. Perhaps I am describing an attitude rather than an activity. A day that is FUN, shows adults and children in interactive situations promoting the healthy growth of each other in simple, self-motivated activities of their own choice. If everyone in the world can do this on the same day each year we will have a WORLD PLAY DAY.
– Dr Freda Kim, Founder, World Play Day
Before this year, I had not even heard of World Play Day. So it was a great surprise and experience to all of us when the kids’ school decided to organize an event in conjunction with World Play Day this year.
World Play Day is celebrated on May 28th each year, and it’s a day where kids and adults alike dedicate to the art of play.
Sounds like fun, yeah?
Not even the hot afternoon sun could dampen the spirits of these beautiful kids. The celebration of World Play Day started with some warm-up exercises, which the kids were all to eager to participate in.
It was then followed by the singing of the official World Play Day song.
And then the fun began. 🙂