All About Jia Huey

It's party time!

2009-12-16T01:15:00.000-08:00

JH's school had an early X'mas celebration to kickstart the year end holiday.

On the way to school with Shae Lyne

Waiting to perform with Kylie (in pink dress) and friends

2 happy girls and 1 hot mama standing behind

Dropped by at KFC on the way home

A happy girl.

Time flies......

2009-06-19T02:01:00.001-07:00

Having Jia Huey is the most wonderful thing in my life, I can't wait to see her this Sunday!

It's STRAWberry!

2009-06-16T08:51:00.001-07:00

Attended a class with Jia Huey the other day, and was so disturbed by the teacher's incorrect pronunciation.

Teacher: Children, what is in this picture? (hand holding a picture of strawberry in front of the class)

Student : Strawberry!

Teacher: That's correct, well done! It's a STORE-berry. Children, let's read, STORE-berry!

Oh gosh! Did I send Jia Huey to the right class?

Tips for mealtimes

2009-04-30T01:41:00.000-07:00

Read from http://parenthots.com/advertorials/Practical-information-and-tips-for-mealtimes.aspx and will try out the following tips:-

1 - Plan regular mealtimes

2 - Make mealtimes fun;
* by serving food in interesting shapes/sizes
* decorating plates
* by doing food presentations like "JH has got fish, carrots, and brocollis in her bowl, they will make her grow bigger and stronger! Let's eat!"

3 - Get them involved;
* At the supermarket, ask them to spot easily recognisable items such as tomatoes or carrots, then congratulate them when they get it right. Remind them that the ingredient they’re eating is one they cleverly found in the supermarket.
* they can watch and listen to you from their highchair as you peel and chop ingredients and talk them through preparing the meal.

4 - Treat your toddler like an individual
* Even though they’re little, your toddler will have already developed personal tastes about how they like to have their meals served.
• You can also give your toddler their favourite cutlery, plate and mug so they’re more likely to look forward to sitting down for a meal.

5-day week

2009-04-29T01:40:00.000-07:00

This is my daily plan for Jia Huey. If you have any comments, please let me know.

Day 1 - Reading day
Morning - reading flashcards (daily routine)
reading story books - improve vocabs with expressions & descriptions
learn to recognise alphabets and numbers

Afternoon break - lunch, bath and have nap

After-nap - playing puzzles on alphabets and numbers

Interactive tools - books, puzzles, DVDs and www.youtube.com - childrens songs on alphabets & numbers

Day 2 - Music day
Morning - reading flashcards (daily routine)
reading books on children rhymes and sing with it
sing along and dance with the music - with simple instruments like a ball, tamborine, shakers and bells.

Afternoon break - lunch, bath and have nap

After-nap - playing children songs on piano

Interactive tools - books, children's musical instruments, www.youtube.com - children rhymes, DVDs on disney musics

Day 3 - Colours day
Morning - reading flashcards (daily routine)
reading story books - emphasize colours in story telling
colouring session with water colours or colour pencils

Afternoon break - lunch, bath and have nap

After-nap - playing matching games on plants & fruits - learning to identify fruits and vegetables and how they grow. Matching fruits and vegetables with their plants/trees helps to build up the habit of keen observation and develop visual discrimination skills.

Day 4 - Mandarin day
Morning - reading flashcards (daily routine)
reading mandarin flashcards and learn to recognise chinese words
reading books - Mandarin children's rhymes
listening to Mandarin childrens' songs

Afternoon break - lunch, bath and have nap

After-nap - repeat reading flashcards in Mandarin
watching Mandarin version of educational DVD - 學華語，漢語拚音，繞口令，弟子規

Day 5 - Fun day
Morning - reading flashcards (daily routine)
playing games with blocks, a ball, dolls or kitchen sets
watching childrens' DVD such as Barneys, Dora the explorer, Disney cartoons,
Thomas & friends

Afternoon break - lunch, bath and have nap

After-nap - go for a walk or go swimming

Challenging mealtimes

2009-04-28T08:33:00.001-07:00

I am slowly replacing Jia Huey's daily porridge with rice recently. It has been quite a challenging start to get Jia Huey familiarised with the effort to chew, compared to the easy-to-swallow porridge.

Since the beginning, I have been patiently feeding Jia Huey at every mealtime, side by side, telling stories and even let her watch her favourite cartoon's DVD as exchange. Of course I know, feeding in front of the tv is not a healthy habit. But I would give in if it means Jia Huey is willing to chew and swallow her scoop of rice that she has been keeping in her mouth since 15 minutes ago! On average, every mealtime takes 2 hours to complete.

From here, I slowly observe Jia Huey's preference, I found that she prefers softer rice.

- Thus I start to cooking softer steamed rice, with more water and a bit of sesame oil to stimulate appetite. Also, by steaming the rice, the ingredients on top will add good flavours to the rice. (Thanks Shaw Fern for this fantastic idea!)

- I use softer ingredients such as pumpkin, sweet potatoes, tomatoes or steamed eggs

- I chop all the ingredients into smaller pieces especially brocollis, carrots and baby corns to make it easier to chew.

- I substitute frozen fish with fresh fishes. In other words, I have been going to the market more frequently.

- Should I need to use pork as an alternative, I will mince it and marinate before cooking.

This has been going on for 2 weeks now, and her mealtime is shortened from 2 hours to 1.5, then 1.5 to 1 hour. My next target is to achieve 30 - 45 minutes each cycle.

Bread with jam & cheese

2009-04-24T07:01:00.000-07:00

Starting this year, I am trying to introduce more solid food into JH's meals. For example, instead of just having milk in the morning, I tried to give her bread with jam and cheese, or some cereals for her breakfast. She adapts well and likes cheese a lot. So we have been doing this breakfast routine for almost 2 weeks now.

We went to Mui Ne last week and there was a fish pond on our way to the hotel's breakfast lounge. One day we saw someone throwing some bread into the pond to feed the fishes.

Thus I explained to JH how fishes float near the surface of the water to eat the bread.

Little JH looked curiously and with concern she said, "Fish don't eat bread with jam and cheese."

Yes they don't, do they?

In the eyes of a 2 yr old

2009-03-28T00:38:00.000-07:00

So, we start the day by reading flashcards.

Mummy:" Tiger...Lion....Elephant.."

" Tiger.....Lion....Elephant..." JH reads happily.

Until we came to this card,

Mummy:" Tapir."

"Bear bear wearing MamyPoko!" shouted JH.

Mummy:" ........................................"

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Few weeks passed by and now she reads the card as " Tapir Mamypoko!"

Home "school"

2009-03-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

We are back to Vung Tau after a long 4 months holiday. After unpacking and cleaning up the house, I was set to get everything back to normal, which includes sending JH back to her playschool. Not to my surprise, the one and only play school that is using english as medium is full. In other words, there is no place for JH until May!

Disappointed, and disheartened, my mind is bringing me back to KL. There are so many children stimulation courses available in KL, from academic based mathematics, chinese reading, english reading classes, creativity-based activities like music, drawing, dancing classes, to physical exercise classes like swimming, children gym/ yoga classes..etc. I wish I can have that for little Jia Huey!

It took me one night to calm myself down and sit down quietly. Calm and composed now, I think I will start to teach JH from home. I have yet to think of a structured PLAN now but I am going to do it. I am going to make use of the books, music CDs, dolls and all the fun games for children that I brought back from KL. Not sure how effective it will be, I will try my best and do some research online to get started. Afterall, what is essential for a 2 year old is learn from playing while having fun, apart from getting explosures to new things. So wish me luck!