Teaching Grace to read

During my confinement, my sister-in-law Jessie, introduced me to a flash card system by GD Resources; "How to raise an intelligent child programme". Actually, before then I already heard of flash card system and is planning to invest in one.

So during that time, I search in the Internet for more information and for dealers of the resources in Penang. Later on I invested on 2 sets of Ready-To Read Kid, English and Mandarin respectively.

I started on the programme immediately after the purchase (and off course after reading the guidelines....grin). Then Grace was about 2 to 3 months old. I wanted to teach my baby both English and Mandarin at the same time. So there are 10 cards to flash at each session, 5 for English and 5 for Mandarin.

When Grace was little, she will look at the words while I read it aloud. That was how the flashing session started. As Grace grew, the flashing sessions turn from easy to harder and then harder. She started to want things her own way. So I have to do things differently now. Instead of sitting opposite her, I let her sit on my lap and then flashing the cards while pointing to the words. It worked....but not for very long.

So, I have to find another way to attract her. This time, I let her sit opposite to me and I then put one of the cards on the floor in front of her. When she reaches for it, I read the wordings aloud. It worked too! She enjoys collecting all the cards.

It then came to a period where she refuses to even look at the card. Whenever I wanted to show her the cards, she will just look somewhere else, mischievously. Or she will just lie down on the floor or bed! Argh....great.....how to proceed? how to proceed?!?!? I can't force her, because even if I flash the card, she will not pay attention. So I take it easy with her for a few days, and then a few weeks.

Until recently, I started on the cards again. This time, she is cooperative. She will look at the wordings and even make signs or point to the physical item of the wordings. Whew.....at least she learns from it. Every time I asked her if she wants to read and look at words, she will node and follow me to the room where I keep the cards. At least, some progress.

Till now, I am still clueless on how many words she could recognise. She just refuses to talk even now at 20 months! I guess I will just have to be patient.

Little girl or little puppy?

Today I went shopping (for LCD projector) with my parents whom wanted to buy a LCD projector for their church. After that I went over to their place for lunch and then dinner. It took quite a while for us to complete the purchase as the person needs to go to Bishop Street to collect the item from their main branch.

By the time we are ready to go home, Grace was already very tired. So we thought that it will be good for my dad to drive while I sit at the back seat breast feeding Grace and let her have a short nap. However, Grace has other plan. She wanted to sit on her car seat and want me to drive the car. So we stopped at the road side and change. But this Grace is too greedy. She wanted her feeding too! How could that be possible?!?!? I am not superwoman! So she cried and cried and cried and even shouted. So we have to stop the car again and change driver again.

This time she's really tired. So she fell asleep.

When we reached home, she's full of energy again. However, as I thought she had just slept for around 30 minutes, she may not have enough sleep yet. About an hour after lunch, I dragged her to sleep. I was so very tired but she's so very energetic! So I just lay down on the bed while she talk and move around. Then she stop and lay beside my feet and all of a sudden, she bit my right foot. I shouted in pain and asked her to stop bitting. But the more I shout, the harder she bite. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! I couldn't do a thing. I can't sit up, can't pull her ear (everytime when she bites I will pull her ear so she knows the pain too), and I couldn't kick her away. I have to just wait for her to let go. My mom heard me and came in to check. But by then Grace has released her bite.

I can still feel the pain, even right now and the bite mark is still there. Argh....it's hard to teach a child!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is hubby's birthday. So I decided to let Grace join in creating a card for her daddy.

Off course, I helped in writing out the wordings. The rest of the decoration were done by Grace, off course with my directions. She even selected the stickers!

Playing tricks

**this is a backdated post for Monday August 4th, 2008

I am not sure from where and when Grace picked up these tricks. Hubby told me that it was from some of the brothers and sisters in church, as they were playing with her on Sunday. I recon that may be she also picks up from me when I played with her "which hand is it in" guessing game with her.

What did she do? It's a pity I could not have it on video, it was so so cute.

In the afternoon, I gave her chocolate. She took it and run around the house. Then, as she was walking towards me, she hid the chocolate with her two hands behind her. Then she show me one hand, the one without the chocolate, and says "Boh" (means none). After a few seconds, she showed me the chocolate and says "Nah"(means here it is). She's playing tricks.

Another one that she did was, she hid the chocolate under her blouse, and says "Boh, Boh", then took out the chocolate and says "Nah". So cute!

"Grace, mommy is very proud of you!"

** this is a backdated post for Sunday August 3rd, 2008

Why am I so proud of my little girl? Well, it's nothing very big, here's the story.

Like every other Sunday, we had our family outdoor fun at Youth Park in the evening. As usual, hubby played in the Caption Ball team while I bring Grace to the children playground.

First thing that Grace did was to play at her favourite slide. Climbing up the staircase and slit down the slide over and over again. I think she did it for about 8 times. Then I stopped her for fear that she will get too tired.

We then when on to the seesaw. Initially Grace is riding it alone, with me shaking her. Then a polite little boy came and ask if he can ride with Grace. I said yes off course. But, Grace didn't like it, in fact she's scared as the boy is shaking too hard. So she came down.

Then she spotted another flight of stairs. The staircase led to a tunnel slide (photo to the right), which Grace has never tried before. When she was younger, she's kind of afraid of this kind of slides. Up she went and when she reached the top, she stood there not knowing how to proceed. She wanted to try on the tunnel, but had no idea how to get herself into it in a sitting position. So I asked her to look and learn from an older boy. She watched and watched and watched.

After about 3 or 4 watch, she finally starts to take some action. Initially she signal to me to go up and help her, but I told her I can't and she has to learn it herself. Slowly she move herself towards the tunnel and starts to climb into it and then change into a sitting position. Well, first step's done.

Now, for the previous slides, I will always hold her hands while she slit down it, because it's too steep and I was afraid that she might knocked her head. But for this tunnel slide, I couldn't possibly hold her hands! So I told her, you have to slit down yourself, mommy can't help you, but will be at the bottom waiting for you. I quickly ran to the other end and motivate her to slit down. And she finally had the courage to push herself down. Bravo! Bravo! I am so proud of her. Finally taking action to overcome her fear.

Once out from the tunnel, she wanted to do it again. This time, she also hesitated a while on sliding down, but some kids from behind gave her a kind push and she's motivated again. And she has no problem in the third and fourth time.

Here's the video of her in action.

Home Sweet Home

Finally, our stay in Shanghai comes to an end. We are flying back to Penang today!

Yesterday, Maurice's secretary had made phone call to the airport to check on how early we should be at the airport for security check. As Olympics is just around the corner, there are very tight security checks at the airport. I guess is to ensure everything is safe. We were told to arrive at the airport 3 hours before our scheduled flight. Our flight, MH387 is scheduled for departure at 10.15 in the morning. That means we need to be at the airport by 7.15am, which means we need to leave home at about 6.30am, which also means that we need to wake up real early in the morning, like 5.45am. Wow...that's early. Grace ended up waking up at 6.00am.

So we managed to reach the airport by 7.15am. Maurice drove us to the international departure terminal. Now, this is a new terminal. Previously they have just one terminal for both domestic and international departures. Back then, it was so crowded. With the new terminal, the airport now does not look so crowded. The terminal is bigger. Like this one. Here's some photos of the terminal.














Once at the airport, we went through the security check at the entrance. Then looked for the Malaysia Airlines check-in counters. Found it and on we go. No, no, no....the counters were not open yet. It will only open 2 and 1/2 hours before the scheduled departure time. Waited for a while and was always on the look out for the counters to open. Was second on the line. Grin...just can't wait to get everything in. We have 5 luggage totalling to 61kg.

After checking-in we went straight on to immigration clearance, going through security check one after another. Finally we are in and waiting to board the plan. Real early, it was just around 8.30am.

While we were waiting, we met a Malaysian couple with a young toddler. The little girl is around 15 months. I think her name is Shyuen Shyuen (heard her mom calling her). When I first saw Shyuen Shyuen, I was exclaiming (to myself), "oh...Grace has that outfit too". It was a grey sweater by MIKI (photo to the right). Then, Shyuen Shyuen's mom told me, Shyuen Shyuen also has the outfit the Grace is wearing. What the outfit. It's a colourful knitted sweater from Baby Gap (photo to the left). Oh...wow...what coincidence!

Later on, we board the plane. With Grace travelling with us, we have the privilege of being one of the few to board the plane first. I wanted a window bassinet seat, but to my dismay, both window seat were already taken. One by Shyuen Shyuen's parents and the other by a couple whom do not have baby or kid travelling with them. I really think that airline companies should reserve bassinets seats for passenger whom are travelling with young children. Nevertheless, I still got the bassinet row (row 11) but centre seat, 11E and 11F right in the middle!

When everybody boarded the plane, I noticed that we (mom and I) were seated in between two men. Haiyar...it will be not convenient and embarrassing to breast feed! So I asked the stewardess to help me find another seating. Found it and we changed place. It was at row 18 and 3 seats with another seat taken by a lady. Great!

Once we have our seating settled, both mom and I had to find numerous ways and tricks to entertain Grace so that she can quietly go through the whole journey. I feel like I am the most troublesome passenger on board. Keep on asking for assistance for this and that. Grin, grin, grin. We managed to get through the whole journey and at last we are Home Sweet Home!

Good dinner wrapped-up our Shanghai Trip

**this is a post for Thursday 31st July 2008

Well, well, well....our almost 2 weeks stay in Shanghai is really coming to an end. All those shopping has also tired us and we are becoming broke!

Initially we wanted to stay at home, having dinner and watching the final episodes of a chinese drama (宁为女人) which we had been watching for the past few days. However, early morning today, Jessica's parents called, mentioning that they will be treating us dinner tonight. Wow.....

So the day went by. In the morning we went to Carrefour again, for unfinished business. Mom bought some clothes for friends while I only bought a Crayola twistable crayons for Grace. Talk about the crayons....I must say that luckily I bought it! Real good quality, easier to use and not messy at all!

In the afternoon, Amos (little baby) "went" swimming in their own little pool in the bathroom. What happened when Grace sees it? Hmmm....she wanted to go into it also. So both the babies went into the pool and "swim". Amos had a short one cause he's already starving, while Grace played for at least 30 minutes. It was fun!

Then, in the evening we went out for dinner as planned. The dinner was at Tang Dynasty Restaurant. It's a big, big, big restaurant. The restaurant has a 3-storey dining area. The ground floor is the lobby area with receptionist and storage of life seafood, first floor is an open dining area with lots of dining tables of different sizes and the second floor has numerous VIP and SVIP dining rooms.

There's no elavator, so we had to walk up the staircases to the second floor to one of the VIP room. Jessica ordered the food and before long, food is served. I really have to compliment Jessica. She made the right choices on food and we had a really good dinner. Not much meat, but everything is just so delicious. Even Grace enjoyed the dinner.

And tt was so, the last dinner we had in Shanghai and this rounded up our stay in Shanghai.