Miss my friends

Teacher Herni requested the children to prepare autograph book for the K2 class children to write to one another with some words & contact no. This is a good way to let the children know to treasure friendship and also a way for parents to continue help the children keep in contact. Aston surely miss his friends as he often tell me that he miss all his friends. Mummy will try my best to bring you meet them regularly if they organise gatherings or meetups.

Taewondo Green Belt Test

Aston took the test on 25Oct and he has passed the test. He will be given his GREEN belt this Sunday.

2009 YearEnd Concert

Today is the last concert you will participate in Cherie Hearts as K2 class. I feel quite sad for you that you are leaving the teachers and friends. This year's program is very special because they arranged K2 parents to go up the stage to support the leaving school speech read out by their children. You are being selected as one of them. Mummy prepared a chinese speech for you & I am very happy you read it out loud and clear.

This is your K2 teachers - Ms Herni and Lin Lao Shi


Daddy and Mummy and Aston

Frosty Strawberry Chocolate Cake

Mummy requested my colleague Jenny to bake a cake to celebrate children's day today.
I collected from her in the office yesterday and pass to teacher to let you & your friends eat the cake. You told me you ate the strawberry and all the children finish eating the cake. I am happy you enjoy !

Lantern Making

In conjuction to celebrating Mid Autumn festival, Cherie Hearts organised a lantern making by parents and children using recycled materials. My mummy was overjoyed with this activity and started to collect used biscuit plastic container as the lantern. We decided a garden theme for the lantern and we cut paper flowers, paper grass and paper butterflies to decorate the background. We spent about two hours to complete the lantern making. Parents have to vote for the best lantern.

We won the 2nd prize !

Animal Drawings

Aston loves to write and draws on the board since he is three years old. Today he draw some animals in this way. I like his creativity.

Animal Kaiser

Recently Aston is under great influence from friends about playing animal kaiser. His interest grew stronger after daddy & ah ma brought him to play in Time Zone & neighbourhood shops. I ever went with them once and I was very surprised so many young children including girls are playing this game in arcades.





I guess it's no turning back for Aston not to visit arcade for the time being because he is very determined to collect the powerful Lion card and also the Japanese cards.

Aston is quite able to control his time & manage his time to play as he will only play two to three times and he will leave the place or play another game.

I have also realised it's not to stop him from playing but it's to let him enjoy childhood. He did not just collect the cards and leave them aside. He treasures them alot. He has learned alot from his current card collection eg the country, the names of the animals and he even learn to draw them.

Family and Friends

Today I ask Aston this question : Do you know the meaning of Family and Friends ?

Immediately he wrote on the writing board to tell me how he understand and how he interpret them.


I felt quite satisfied with his attempt to make out the difference and I was also focusing on this sentence structure.

Then I told him that FAMILY actually means Father And Mother I Love You. I explained to him to take the 1st letter in each word to form FAMILY. He got the clue and further wrote what FRIENDS mean.

I just want to applaud for his attempt and great creativity. Clap clap !!

Taekwondo Green Tip Belt

Aston took the test on 18July and was informed by school today he has passed the test. He will have a green tip belt now.

My 5 寶貝

There is new addition to Aston's sleeping pals. It's the Polar bear he recently bought it back from IKEA.

Impressed !

Aston drew this before he climb to his bed to sleep. I feel that he can control his writing skills very well and I am impressed when I see this stenciled words he writes out on his drawing board.

Sentosa

Inline with the school transporation theme, the school is bringing the K2 children to experience the fun of travelling in bus, MRT trains and cable cars. This is a missed outing in Mid April and we are so happy and excited that they organised it for the children & parents to have fun.
Due to time constraints, we only visited the Images of Singapore when we reached Sentosa.

Piano Recital June 2009

You participated today by playing the piece "My grandfather clock". When you are practising at home, you are not familiar on some notes and due to insufficient practices, you did not play that well today. You stop a while but you continued playing the remaining notes. You have shown great sportmanship which we are so proud of you. But actually you are bothered by the missed notes just now, your eyes turn a bit red & you keep rushing us to go home.

We hope this experience will fill you with the positive attitude that playing piano needs patience and need alot alot of practices.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.

BEN10 Liveshow

Today, we brought you to United Square to catch the 7pm your favourite cartoon - BEN10. Before the show start, you are busy shopping the merchandise area to get your most wanted BEN10 collections. You bought one set of BEN10 sumo, drinking cup, plate & t-shirt.

Cold Storage Run 2009

This is our second time participating in this run. We all wear green today !

Bacteria Scare - Part 3

Fever is still attacking you for the last few days. As per our plan, Daddy drove you to Raffles Hospital Children Clinic on day 6. At this time, you are flushing even redder and I can see that you are very dehyrated. You are so sick you refuse to drink water at home. Actually I know you may be hospitalised, I cannot control my tears when I knew. When staff nurse Kelly wanted to draw blood for you, she says that your blood veins are also sick, she cannot find a proper vein to poke. Blood test result show that you have some mycosoplasma, some strains of streptococcus & Influenxza A (luckily it's not H1N1 !!!). These bacteria all combined make you so weak, fever is alway at its peak and you need some more days to fully recover. You will be treated with antibiotics dripping into you. So you have to be hospitalised for treatment and observation. With the tender care of Dr Toh and the nurses, you finally get well these few days & was discharged on Friday.

Because of the intense dehyration, your skin become very dry , so dry til it peels in all parts of the body, including hands, fingers & toes. You have to apply the Vaseline cream for two to three times every day.

You will rest at home for one week and then resume to school on 25May.

Diagnosis - Part 2

Fever shot the highest 40 this morning. We are worried definitely and from past experience on fever management, we have done whatever we can this time but your fever just did not improve. We still want to do monitoring ourselves so we are quite reluctant to send you to hospital. Before we really sent you to hospital & while waiting for the fever to improve, we make a decision to bring you see Chinese Physician Lu at Ma Guang Clinic. He checked on you, your throat is very very inflammed,your rashes on the body seems to be 紅腥症. We left the clinic after letting you drank one dosage of the medicine in the clinic. Along the way home, mummy made a decision to send you to KK Children Hospital.
When we reached there, the children centre is crowded with many many children. The staff nurse check on you and informed us to bring you to rest at observation ward. I made a comment that I am scared of dengue fever on you. This is only the 3rd day of fever and a blood test will not reveal anything. The doctor told me this important information. So why the staff nurse is so blur, so inexperienced ?? So before I heard from the doctor, the staff nurse actually order a blood test on you and you are so sick already & the blood cannot be diffused out that easily. I was quite mad, but I must remain calm as I need to care for you. Shortly another nurse told me not to keep cool compressing you so she asked me to cold bath you and I follow. For this, I certainly do not mind doing it because I care about your high fever and hygience and wanted to keep you as clean as possible and ward away from other virus. Finally your fever went down to around 38 & doctor granted you to go home. He instructed us to come back 3 days later ie 13May to see him if fever is still there. I told daddy we will not come back, instead will bring you see Dr Veronica Toh at Raffles Hospital Children Clinic if need be.

Daddy took leave to take care you at home. Mummy just started work in new company so cannot take leave to care for you.

Tonsillitis - Part 1

Yesterday, the fever was kept under control under 38 degrees.

Aston did not get well & is still having fever swings since this morning. The highest hit 40 degrees. Whole body flushed red, the hotness on his body, his ears, his forehead and arms are steaming hot. You will get shivers down your spine the moment you touch him.

We are quite loss actually. Today, we have seen 3 doctors : 1 GP, 1 Chinese Physician and finally visited KK Hospital Children Emergency doctor. All diagnosed Aston with throat inflammation (his tonsils are very very red very very sore !) but only the Chinese doctor and KK Hospital Children Emergency doctor assure us not to worry about the high fever. The high fever is meant to be like this for today & will only come down the next day or two days later.

Tonsillitis is an inflammation of the tonsils, the fleshy clusters of tissue on both sides of the back of the throat that fight off germs that enter the body through the mouth. The tonsils become enlarged and red, and can be coated with a yellow, gray, or white substance.
Most types of tonsillitis are contagious. It usually spreads from person to person by contact with the throat or nasal fluids of someone who is infected. A person with tonsillitis may have a sore throat, fever, swollen glands in the neck, and trouble swallowing.

Treating Tonsillitis
How doctors treat tonsillitis depends on whether it is caused by a virus or by group A streptococcus bacteria. Doctors usually can't tell the difference just by looking at the tonsils, but can detect strep bacteria with a rapid strep test or a throat culture.
If tonsillitis is caused by a virus, the body will fight off the infection on its own. If it's caused by strep bacteria, the doctor probably will prescribe an antibiotic. If so, make sure that your child completes the full course of treatment to prevent the development of any complications.
If your child gets frequent bouts of tonsillitis (more than 5 to 7 times during a 12-month period) or repeat infections over several years, the doctor may consider a tonsillectomy to remove the tonsils.

Caring for Your Child
Kids with tonsillitis need plenty of nourishment and rest. If your child finds swallowing so painful that eating is difficult, try serving liquids and soft foods, like nutritious soups, milkshakes, smoothies, ice pops, or ice cream.
Make sure that your child drinks lots of fluids and gets plenty of rest, and take his or her temperature regularly. Use a nonprescription pain reliever, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, for throat pain.
Be sure to keep your sick child's drinking glasses and eating utensils separate, and wash them in hot, soapy water. All family members should wash their hands frequently. After a bout of tonsillitis that's caused by strep bacteria, throw out your child's toothbrush and replace it with a new one.

Preventing Tonsillitis
To prevent tonsillitis, avoid letting your child near anyone who already has tonsillitis or a sore throat. Make sure to practice good hand-washing habits, and teach kids to do the same.

Sore Throat

In this family, we are very used to self medicate for minor sickness like running nose, cough or slight fever. Two days ago, Aston complained of sore throat. We did not know what medicine we can feed him without bringing him see doctor. At that moment, I thought why we adults are so funny, if mummy has sore throat I will surely speed off to see doctor get medicine to cure the soreness. When it comes to children, why didn't we quickly send you see doctor ? We become so indecisive when we are stuck with no medicines in our house for sore throat. In the end, just one day left Aston unattended, he developed fever last night. Fever was up and down throughout today. This was the first time I see Aston so lethagic, no energy, no smile ; so I think this time you are really feeling unwell. Fever & sore throat is surely making you no mood to eat, ya, you ate very little during lunch.

At around 12noon, Mummy brought you see Dr Glen, fed you the panadol, antibiotics and lozenges and after some coaxing, playing some soft music, you FINALLY slept for 1.5 hrs. While you are sleeping, mummy disinfect the whole house and many boxes of toys. You woke up at 3plus, look tired, slight fever, took panadol and requested to play some computer games. In the midst of playing, I prepared one bowl of corn flakes, you finished all of it. I am relieved to see your appetitite coming back. I checked your temperatures very regularly and it did not subside. I also checked carefully your palm and foot for blisters, just to make sure no symtoms of HFM. At around 5plus, I prepare the Chinese Leng Leong drink and you drank it. At this time, your temperature has gone down to 37.3 but now it's 37.6.

You are now playing with Ben10 toys. Soon getting ready to have dinner.

Wishing you PINK OF HEALTH !!!

SengKang Swimming Complex

Today, Aston enjoyed May Day at SengKang Swimming Complex with his two brothers, daddy and mummy. We heard alot from many people this is a must visit for kids to enjoy to the fullest. It's comparable to Wild Wild Wet at Downtown East but the entrance fee is more reasonable & cheap, at only $1 for chidren during weekend and $0.80 for weekdays.

Sentosa-cum-library trip

A notice come from your school today that this excursion is cancelled due to swine flu. They will organise another one in someother time. You did not look disappointed as you are aware the danger of swine flu and cannot go to crowded places.

2009 TKD Inter-school forms Championship

Aston enjoyed himself today. He forget some steps but he was very calm to complete them. This is a good sportsman spirit he has learned. He was also tested to karate up to 2pcs of wooden blocks. Your hand strength can be improved further as you are unable to karate 3pcs of wooden blocks

TKD Grading Yellow Tape result

Yeah, yeah ! Aston has passed the grading test on his birthday ! He was given his yellow tape today. This is high section block.

The Children's Repertoire Outdoor Arts Appreciation Activity

You are in term 2 and it includes one SDT show named Colours of Ballet to attend on 6May.
Presented by the Singapore Dance Theatre, and kindly supported by ACTs of Life, Colours of Ballet is a special production that will appeal to children between the ages of 3 and 7. With interaction that starts the moment they arrive at the venue, this engaging performance will include singalong sessions, simple dance steps that audiences can follow, and educational elements that children can continue to learn and be inspired by even after the performance ends.

This also includes pre-performance activities both on and off stage, child & adult narrators, simple dance movements to follow along, and more.

For the group pre-performance activity, you can look behind the scenes to search for the dancers of the performance and discover so much more on your visit. (A Tour at SDT) And Learn about the artist Degas through ACT of Life's Speech & Drama lessons. (Workshop at Kindergartens and childcares)

6th year old birthday celebration

Aston celebrated his birthday with his classmates today. They have enjoyed thoroughly with the outdoor games and blow bubbles. We are happy that we have prepared party foods for the children and parents & they enjoyed the taste.

April is the busy month

April flower is DAISY.
Aston is extremely busy this month. This is because this is his birthday month. April 19 is your 6yrs old birthday. Mummy has organised a birthday party for you with your K2 classmates. Responses are pretty good as so far 13 classmates are coming. Mummy has also planned an outdoor slide, bubbles machine and racing games for the children to have fun. We will cook and prepare party foods for the children and their parents. Yes, I aim to make this a very fun, enjoyable and memorable birthday party for you and your friends.

On 19April morning, you will be taking the TKD grading test for Yellow belt. You told us you are prepared for this test and we are very positive you will pass. This will be the most valuable and memorable present you acheive for yourself.

On 26April, you are participating in 2009 TKD Inter-school forms Championship. Mr Lee has chosen you to represent Serangoon branch of 30 participants. We are indeed very overjoyed that you have this chance to explore yourself in competition. We are very sure this experience will brush up your TKD skills & let you gain confidence in TKD.

On 29April, Cherie Hearts is bringing your class to Sentosa, in line with this week’s theme of ‘Transportation’, then followed by the monthly trip to library.

Aston and Charlton look-alike

I was browsing through photos and found these two photos taken when you are 18mths old.
So cute so cute !!

Hot sunny day@Kranji Farm

Mummy is attending Tupperware Spa retreat while me and daddy enjoy the buggy ride around the farm.

Bear and Chicken go camping

Today school was closed for its team building day. So we brought Aston to watch this children tale show at The Singapore Repertory Theatre.

The tale goes like this :
One night, best friends Chicken and Bear go on a camping adventure in the Great Outdoors. Armed with flashlights, marshmallows and peanut butter sandwiches, they find the perfect spot under a beautiful starry sky.
Throughout the night, they make lots of amazing discoveries about the world around us, like what makes a shooting star leap across the sky. And have you ever wondered where the sun goes at night? Or how crickets can make such loud noises? Join Chicken and Bear as they learn the answers to these questions and more!



After the show, we did Lobster porridge for lunch at Orchid Live Seafood. Address is 16 Jalan Kelulut.
HIGHLIGHT.....
LOBSTER PORRIDGE!! ($42)
Its the best porridge I've ever tasted I swear. The porridge was those not the sticky sticky niam niam type but was happy when I saw so much SOUP. The soup tasted sweet...I love it ! Each Pot comes with 3 Live lobsters divided into halves making that 6 huge pieces... Wow it is so fresh so juicy so succulent ! $42, worth it. By the way, they don't charge Service and GST, and the waitress is so professional she will keep serving you the porridge making sure your bowl is filled. Nice !


Zao Pai Ji ($10) - Signature Dish Chicken
A must order. It tastes very delicious !

Zao Pai Toufu ($10) - Signature Fried Toufu
So crispy that you cannot wait to eat more and more..!

March holiday programs

Aston told us he decided to stay in his present childcare. We respected his decision this time.

Mummy told myself to be more tolerate & try to get over the past issues quickly. This is a decision I have made also.

I sign up with several programs in March to enjoy with him.

We went to Snowcity, we watched Pokemon on Stage and we learned pizza cooking.

My 4 寶貝

These are Aston's sleepmates...namely Bubu (the bean pillow), meimei (the soft toy), rhino & birdie. Rhino and Birdie are new additions since this year.

你快樂 所以我快樂

Aston is getting into minor behavioral problems. I cannot list out all now because I am sad & upset & emotionally affected. We think of sending him to be corrected by child therapist but the reality is to have effective behavoir management used by therapist is to have a report from child psychologist. I cannot bear to have a record of my son seeing a child psychologist so we shelf the idea.

Then come the situation of struggle of changing school for him from a academic-based to Montessori-based.

He is active mean he need attention badly.

Being active, he will unknowingly hurt others with his big large actions so need constant reminders. He cannot be ignored and he will try to grab your attention in another different way.

He is naive so he remember and follow wrong things other had done before & decide to try it out one day & as a result being labelled as naughty. With his active character, how right you are right when you do the right things - ok we praise him, he is happy. You are terribly wrong when you are in the wrong - this is because people think immediately you are bad, active & naughty boy & worse case is wrongly wronged - who bother to guide you immediately had not mummy is the one who finds out the truth for you. When you are right, you like to be praised and you are recognised with your good school work like drawing a nice picture. He is totally wrong when he did a naive thing that he did not even know that it is wrong.

He is active so he needs to do things freely, he need big space to display his actions & thoughts freely. Outcome : he splash sand to his friends during sand play.


We sent him to attend one day emergency care at Montessori-based school yesterday. He told us he likes the school & agree to change.

Mummy is very confused and unhappy because I am not reluctant to let go the Abacus and Calligraphy class he is learning in his current school. Mummy is also concerned is Montessori-based school too relaxed on academics. Does their Montessori curriculum cover all learning aspects so that they are also as strong as academic-based school. Mummy do not want to change school in hurry manner. Mummy need someone to explain to me clearly...who can help ?

Progress of Learning Piano

Aston learnt playing piano last year in February. You took part in one recital in Sep last year. Overall, you enjoy playing, you remember the notes & you can complete the theory with some guidance. So we continue let you learn. Now you are learning from Teacher Celeste on Sunday 10am. We hope you will improve under her supervision and coaching.

First Test on TKD

Yeah, yeah , yeah !! We received confirmation from TKD school that Aston has passed the grading test and will awarded with a yellow tip in the next lesson. You are promoted to learn the techniques in the yellow tip curriculum & collect the colored tapes to get ready for Yellow Tape test on April 19.

TKD Grading Test No 1

Aston enjoyed learning TKD from Mr Lee (he is from Korea !!) & progressed very well in getting his colored tapes every week. After learning TKD for about 3months, he finally get a black tape and this mean he is ready for the grading test to get a yellow tip. JH Kim TKD school is a very famous school and the test is held at its main branch located at Bukit Timah Turf City. STF judges are invited to conduct the test for JK Kim's students. We are fortunate to be able to watch the children displaying their skills (internal grading) on 17Jan. On 18Jan which is the STF grading, the test is closed doors and parents are not allowed to go in with the children. Results will be known about two weeks later.

I am a Big boy now

Aston has been trying to learn make his milk for the last few weeks. Tonite, I saw him doing it and realised that he's such a big boy able to do this independently by himself.

Little Nonya Melaka Trip

I went with daddy, mummy, 小姨and 小姨丈to Melaka for a Yearend Escapade. Daddy drove us there and the entire journey took us for about 3 hours. We were very excited when we reached the town area. Weather was scotching hot and we drank many bowls of chendol to cool us down. We toured around, took many pictures, ate chicken rice ball for lunch and had a very sumptous meal at one very authetic Nonya restaurant.

Taekwondo

You are learning Piano at Kovan center PianoForte on every Wed. There are a handful of enrichment schools in Kovan center, you name it they have it, phonics, chinese, maths, brain mapping and the famous JH Kim Taekwondo. One day, daddy was curious to find out more on Taekwondo and check the classes with the staff there. You expressed your interest to learn so we arranged you a trial lesson today. Daddy was telling me this is one method to release your energy. You know, you are full of energy and this martial arts will expel all of your mighty energy. You enjoyed the trial lesson alot and so we signed you up for the T-Kids program.