Sharing some of the stuff we are doing

Been some time since I blog again. As I was downloading the photos, one of the folder in the camera just got moved! Where?? I dont know! Haiyah! So I got a whole stack of photos missing. And that included Ben's Bao Bei concert photos.


But to tell you the truth, we did not take many photos for the concert. Ben was having one of his tantrums. The story started right after the one week school holidays. Daily Ben has been refusing to go to school. I had to drag him to the toilet, take bath, drag him into the car and throw him in the class, with him whining the whole time.


He: I dont want to go to school.

Me: Why?

He: I dont like. I want to go home

Me : Why?

He: It is not nice?

Me: Why it is not nice?

He: It is not beautiful.


I dont kow why this habit came about. I have checked around with other mothers. They asked whether it is because there are any changes in our life (nope, no siblings coming along!)....and another mother said that sometimes children will regress. She told me to be patience and to continue to send because one day, he will need to go to school. I also have to keep a positive environment as well. At first, this was hard to do as he kept whining but the teachers help as well. Once I push him through the gates, the teachers will quickly divert his attention and voila, once I was gone, he did not cry.


The funny thing was that this has never happen for such a long period of time before. It may happen occasionally but never for as long as 2-3 weeks. Today Ben was still whining.


So for the concert, again, he did not want to go. It was early Sunday morning and I had to hold him down to change into his costumes. Guess what? He was in rage and tore at his shirt...all the buttons popped out! We had to use a safety pin. Due the missing folder (however the school had professional photographers), I can only show you what he got from the concert.




Surprise, surprise, yes, he got a trophy and a medal! For best improved student and the other one is a merit award I think. You know, I cannot read Chinese and my Mandarin is not that great when I was trying to understand the explanation given by his teachers.

Ok, other things that we are doing at home now is I am trying to teach him to read - Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons! Yes, this is a great book (and only about RM80 as well!). At first, I was a bit sceptical but once I start, I could see the sequence of teaching phonics.


Unlike other programmes which just have a phonic song, cards, stories...this one actually even has the dialogue to tell me what to say during lessons....which only last 15 minutes. Before this, when I checked on other phonics program....


example : MAT - Ma...Ahhhh...Tuh....and then they will saw it so fast..until it becomes MAT...but I never understood how??!!!


With this book...it teaches to say it slow first...MMMMMat.....say it fast..MAT! So when you sound out the individual letters, MMM...Ahhhh....T (because the T is a short sound and it usually is for many words)...so it becomes...MMMM AT.....which then becomes MAT! when you say it fast....! So logical! So good for me! And only RM80 for the whole book without needing to supplement with any other products - stories, songs or anything.


My issue now is that Ben is really plafyful and would not focus. But I have been trying to get him to pay attention to me....until today, I bribed him with a square of chocolate which my parents brought back from Auckland!

This is the tracks that we set up for Ben using our old coffee table which we kept in the storeroom after Ben was born. Not as big as friend's but keeps him occupied and keeps the living room much neater as well!

Supplemented the current tracks with a crane and a palm tree!

Outing to Zoo - 8 Septmeber 2010

School holidays! Made plans with a friend and his 2 sons to go to the zoo. Cost Rm20 for adult and RM6 for children, 3-12 years old. On top of that, you will need to pay for their tram ride RM3 for adults and RM2 for children. Map of the zoo cost another RM2...I know - they are charging for everything!!! But I guess they do need money $$ to feed the animals.

First animal was in yellow.........(haha!)... He wants to give the yellow tractor a try.

Ben trying out his photography skills.

Here goes the naughty boy again.

We saw elephants - in the background.

Ben's friends.

On the way to the zoo....looking so comfortable.

...and finally here is he having fun at his friends' house. Zoo or Thomas toys.....definately Thomas toys win!

Bao Bei

Ben started with Bao Bei ever since February this year and can see the vast improvements in his social behaviour. Further, he can recognise 80 characters and can read basic Chinese books! I am so impressed with the patience of the teachers. Another good thing about Bao Bei is that the teachers encourages the students to drink loads of water. Ben can finish this whole cannister of water in 1 1/2 hour.

Bao Bei had a one day camp a few weeks ago and Ben thoroughly enjoyed himself.

It involved some writing games.

Eating rice with his friends.

Physical games which his teachers said he was very good. So I am now thinking of starting his gym class at Fly Kidz again.

Balancing on the poles....

...and walking on the rope.

Finally his take-home gifts for that day was a small aquarium of fish and a cute paper bag which contained a sushi he made. So proud of my little prince.

Trip to Genting Highlands

Husband got a free one night stay at Awana Genting. So we took a weekend trip there. Instead of sticking ourselves too long in Genting, we pop over to the nearby rabbit farm at Bukit Tinggi on the first day. Ben loves rabbit and kept chasing after the rabbits to ask whether they would like to play with him. Unfortunately they just sat lazily gazing at Ben. This is him bending down having a chat with the rabbit. Told him to stroke the rabbit behind his ears instead. You can see how lazy the rabbit is. He got tired of asking the rabbits to join him and instead went for the nearby swing.Then he took a break... That night we took a drive up to Genting. He got tired and wanted his daddy to carry him.

...he wants his ice-cream treat. You should see him zoom down the McDonald aisle.
He tried this forklift ride. Cost us RM8 per pop! Wow. You got to be below this height before getting a ride.

...there he is in his fork lift. He did not like it at all....:(....as midway, the forlift will go up a slight hill instead of just going round and round.

...and finally a photo at the photo. Awana Genting was supposed to have undergone renovation but we were disappointed. Front office service was superb and condition of room was horrendous. It was not very clean and the carpets does not look that it has been changed for quite some time. When I got home, I had to pull out a lot of hair (icky!) from our sweaters as Ben threw our clothes and sweater on our room's floor. Further halfway during our sleep, we were awakened by the sound of lizards croaking (is that the correct word for it??? I know frogs croak but lizards?) ...Sigh...I guess cannot complain since is IS free.

Taking a break....

More updates

I got my Picasa working again and can post more photos. So happy! :).....Anyway here are photos of Ben with his trains and tracks. He really loves Thomas, blue colour and being no. 1. We really had that problem that in everything that he do, he wants to be the first! His teachers told me that but somehow they managed to convince him that he does not need to be no. 1 all the time. I am so grateful to his patient teachers at Bao Bei.

The beach photos that I promised you. He really loves digging sand and can go on and one forever.

He also loves his dump truck (thank you uncle Kok Heong!)....and would run it along all over the house.

Phew...after a hard day at work, he is all tired out. His "pi" at his side with his "blankie".

...and here he goes again with his trains.

Currently the only car he would sit on his own is the one in Sunway Pyramid.

Look at how nervous he is..... ..and finally a photo of him eating.

What has been going in Aug 2010?

It has been quite some time since I posted anything. This is because I was looking around for a camera and finally got a cool Nikon touch-screen for Rm700. Was eyeing a Canon for Rm1.2k which can do a lot of stuff (except making me look thinner!).......but thought that Ben might want to do a bit photography. So better keep on the safe side and bought a cheaper one.

The new camera is really good and takes pretty good pictures. You can see a night photo below. The only thing is that the sizes of the photos are much bigger. The home computer takes ages to upload the photos in the blog. Hence the silence. Then I tried to copy the photo from camera to my thumb drive (1G) and unfortunately it was not enough too! Hence I had to take the camera to the internet cafe (which is where I am now!) and upload the photos. The internet computer are usually faster but since the photos are huge (as I am finding out now)...it also takes a long time. I guess I have to go back and do some resizing using Picasa.

OK what have we been up to for the past few months? Parents are leaving for Auckland soon to see my cutey-pie niece, Kara (hope to post photos of her soon). So we took the whole family out for duck lunch.

I did not realise I was wearing similar stripes shirt as Ben until husband pointed it out. :)...you can see Ben trying his best to get out of his chair.

The yummy Peking duck.

Besides that we have been to the beach a lot - Sepang Morib and Port Dickson. Friend was scratching her head and saying what do Ben do there since there are no slides or swimming pools? Well, he love the sand and will dig, push, pull, etc.....with it. Will show photos later.

This month also is the last month for Hegeru for Ben. He joined in February and since it is pretty costly Rm100 per hour, I thought that I will try to replicate it at home. From February until now, which is almost 6 months, I believe that I have learned enough to do the same at home plus with help from another mother (you should check out her blog - very good! She is generous with her information and materials as well!). So below is the photo of last day with sin-seh Yvonne who has really helped a lot in terms of understanding Ben and helping Ben to love things like puzzles, linking memory, etc...I really would miss her...just that the lessons are so expenisve.

And finally, the dentist appointment at Bangsar. Am very happy to report that Ben is quite used to going to the dentist and allows the doctor 5 minutes to touch his teeth! After that is a trip to the nearby Choo-Choo Train (which is also having a 50% discount on metal cast Thomas train characters. Me and husband went ga-ga there. Sale is until end of next mont or while stocks last..have been thinking of getting the Thomas Water Tower).

Ok, time to pick up Ben from school and will continue later after I resize all the photos. Stay tuned.