Terrible Two

Recently, I have been trying to keep my sanity and cool every other day. I have always label myself as those hands-on mums who prefer to handle even the most nittty gritty matters when it concerns Zaccheues. In short, I am the working mother by day and the educator, discipline mistress and the Civics Moral Education (CME) teacher at night. I see all these as my duty as a mum to impart the right knowledge and values to Zaccheues. At times, I might grumbled, complained and nagged but most of the times, I took my duties with pride and stride.
However, I think my patience is running low towards Zaccheus these days. He is not behaving as well as I would like to. At times, Zaccheus would throw his toys on the floor, hit his cousins and even DS and myself. He would also refuse to apologize for his mistakes. Things were made worse when he constanly whines and cries whenever I don't give him what he asks for. Initially, I was still being patient to him by explaining to him why he can't have certain things. But his refusal to stop at times drove me so angry that I shouted at him and even hit his hands. Many a time, I feel like a lousy mother who can't discpline my son well.
One day, I chanced upon few online articles talking about 'terrible two' stage in a child's growing up years. According to the websites, toddlers at this age tend to exhibit certain negative behaviours as part of the 'terrible two' process. The articles also give useful suggestions for parents. After reading it, I was feeling so relieved as I now know I am not the only parent going through this, and also the problems do not lie with my son but rather it's a general problem accross this age.
So few days agao, I laid down some ground rules and set up a refelction corner in the house. I went through each and every rules with Zaccheus and told him the consequence (reflection corner) if he doesn't conform to the rules. I hope to let him understand about the cause and effect of his actions. So far, Zaccheus has been behaving well except for occasional whines and cries. Having said these, I will continue to be a dedicate mum to all his needs and developments. At the same time, I am also casting my fears, nervousness and eagerness on God and relying on His strength to pull through this 'terrible two' process.

A great bonding time @ Sentosa

As it says 'A picture paints a thousand words'. These photographs depict a wonderful bonding time for our family of three. DS and I look forward to another such great holidaying in Phuket in December...


Building sandcastle at the beach


Lazing at the cafe


An exciting ride on the luge


The day ended with a nice dinner @ Hard Rock Cafe

Slowly!

Whenever Zacch ran too fast in the shopping mall, DS and I would tell him to go 'slowly'. As such, he picks up this word easily. But the funny part is, he used this word on DS whenever he was driving too fast. Take for example, tonight, when we were on our way for dinner in DS car. Zacch suddenly told DS, "Daddy, slowly!" in a demanding tone. And he even repeated few times to bring his message across to DS. That always brought laughter to both DS and I. :)

Affectionate boy boy

Zacch has always been affectionate towards people he likes and he outrightly portrays it by hugging and also kissing them. At his grandma place, he always kisses & hugs his cousins to bid farewell or to comfort them. At our home, he kisses DS & I for everything, be it morning or bed time kiss, when in pain or even when he wants to apologize for his mistakes. At Godma's house, he kisses from po po to yi ma to yi yi to Godma each time he bids goodbye to them. At our friends' house, he hugs & kisses his little friends affectionately too.
At times, I am worried that his "too" friendly behaviour might cause complains from overly concerned parents. There was once my colleague jokingly mentioned that my son should attend all boys' school for fear of complains from his classmates' parents with being too affectionate towards their child. Haha... Mummy has to admit that my cutie boy has always been particularly friendly towards his little friends than adults. At any time, he is more willing to hug & kiss his friends than Aunties or Uncles... And I don't think DS and I will stop his too affectionate display of love for other people so long it doesn't get out of hand... :p

Reading is Good!!

I started Zaccheus with the habit of reading daily when he turned one. I have read online and in newspaper and magazines about the benefits of reading and hence, determined to inculcate the love of reading in Zaccheus. But I was not keen with buying many books and pile up at home as they are not only costly but also taking up spaces in his room. So library became the avenue to get our supplies of books. I do know of few friends (mothers) who are not advocate of library books because they think the books are dirty as they have been passed from one child to another. I do agree with this point, however, I am more of agreeing that there are more benefits to borrowing books from library than to purchase them at the stores.

As such, Zaccheus and mummy have been diligently visiting the library every week to borrow books. And we will borrow between 8-10 books each visit and everyday, we will set aside some time to read books together. To encourage Zaccheus to love reading books, I even rope in his favourite soft toys such as Dorathy the Dinosaur and Alvin chickmunk to sit beside us to read the books together. Zacch was always elated and put the soft toys nicely beside him, sometimes even kissing them. I am proud to say that this reading habit is still ongoing and Zaccheus has definately like reading books. Today, I do not have to remind him to read books, instead, he will turn to me and tell me "Mummy, read books". And of course, I will be more than happy to read to my lovely boy.

The habit of reading has definately paid off. Zaccheus's command of vocabulary is beyond his age. He recognizes and understands many words that it makes me amazed and impressed at times. Some examples of "bomabastic" words that he could recognize and read out are marrow, planet, comet, yatch, caterpillar etc. And not to mention, he could also recongnize and speak elementary level words such as school, church, helicopter, banana, bag, staircase etc. I remember 1 month ago, I brought him to AMK Hub for a walk. And as we walked past the taxi stand, he kept telling me "train", and I looked at the taxi for awhile then I realised he was actually linking the advertisement "SMRT" to train. Next, we passed by an advertisement about Singapore Zoo and without hesistation, he said "zoo". After that, we walked passed sticky rice restaurant, pepper lunch fast food, Subway and Mcdonald. Again, as we walked past each store, Zacch said "rice", lunch", "way" and "mcdonald". I was clearly impressed that he is able to recognise so many words. Reason why he did not say 'sticky' and 'pepper' was because we have never come across such words in the storybooks we have borrowed so far.

Having said that, I am once again a proud mother to know that my little darling has inculcate a reading habit and also benefitting from it. Reading is GOOD!

Zaccheus 2nd Birthday

Zaccheus turned 2 on 20 June 2010. Months before his birthday, I had been thinking whether should I organise a kids party for him or book an external venue such as Gogo Bamibini to celebrate his birthday. My extravagant and illogical personality told me to go ahead as it is an annual event and what most important is, our little darling is happy on his BIG day. On the other hand, my frugal and logical side of me told me to celebrate frugally for few reasons. Firstly, to prepare for Zacch's exorbitant school fees starting next year, secondly, we recently spent on a holiday trip to HK and lastly, not to make it make it a point to spend so much on his birthday celebration every year.

The decision was an easy one. I chose being frugal and decided to hold a simple but warm celebration with family members and friends whom are dear to us. And being a Thomas & friends train fan, the theme was obviously Thomas & friends train cake and matching clothes for Zacch.

Despite being a simple celebration, Zaccheus had great time playing with his cousins and blowing candles from the Thomas & friends train cake.:) Once again, I want to wish my little darling a belated blessed bithday and may the grace and favour of God be upon him.

Zaccheus's fourth overseas trip - Hong Kong

Gong gong once said:" Zaccheus is barely 2 years old yet have been to many countries". Indeed, Zaccheus has travelled to Bangkok at 11 months, Malaysia at 15 months, Japan at 18 months and Hong Kong at 23 months. Whenever possible, DS and I will plan for a family vacation during my school holidays break. Being an avid shopper myself, I can't help but tend to choose countries with many shopping places. However, HongKong was never on our list when we were planning for the trip in late April. Actually, DS and I wanted to bring Zaccheus to either Desaru or Port Dickson together with Godma Eve, but our plans to travel there had to shelf aside due to late bookings. That's when we decided to go to HK for a short 4 days 3 nights stay.
During our 4 days in HK, we were like the typical tourists - visiting places of interests such as ladies market, fai yuen street, causeway bay, harbour city, ocean park etc. We chose to bring Zaccheus to ocean park instead of the overated Disneyland in HK. To my dismay, Ocean Park is nothing just like a humongous amusement park. Their underwater world was flooded with people with little ventilation inside. Little Zacch was fine with the seemingly lack of air while DS was cursing with frustration. Zacch liked the Panda village as he got to hug Panda mascot over and again. I have to admit that the Sea lions show was amazing with Zacch clapping from time to time. The kids rides were nothing to brag about as most are available in Singapore. Even the adults rides like ferries wheels, rollercoasters & abbys are similar to the rides in our country. The highlight of the day was the cable car rides. For someone who is fearful of height, I seemed to enjoy it on the return ride back. On the contrary, Zaccheus was enjoying the rides tremendously. He kept chattering non stop throughout the 10 minutes rides, which made DS, Godma Eve and I laughed.
The shopping trips were good but tiring as I had to carry Zacch in my arms for most of the times. He either refused to sit on the pram or allowed DS to carry him. At one of the fashion clothes, Zaccheus told me:" no no clothes. Want toys." At that moment, I realised that my little Zacch has already grown up. He wants to make decision and be in control. That makes me more cautious if ever I want to bring him out for a shopping outing together.
I think the place that Zaccheus enjoyed most was not Ocean Park nor the toy stores. It was the hotel room where he could play with the telephone, jumped on the bed and had rounds of pillow fight with Godma and DS. He also enjoyed taking the train and bus rides. Overall, bringing Zacch overseas might be tiring but it is truly worth it when I know he is enjoying himself.

June holidays - 1 week enrichment programme in JG

Being a working mother, I can't help but feeling guilty that I am unable to spend more time with Zaccheus during his formative years. As such, when it comes to school holidays like now, I would be eager to sign Zaccheus up for holiday programme. Today is the last day of his 5 days holiday programme at Julia Gabriel which costs slightly more than $300. After attending the 5 lessons, I have to admit that the programme doesn't meet up to my expectations. The reasons are as below:
- The holiday programme is only conducted in English instead of billingual in playclub.
- Each activity was draggy with playgound time stretch to as long as 30mins.
- No speech & drama during the 2 hours lesson.
- One day of outdoor trip to Sentosa was neither engaging nor fruitful. Parents & kids were left on their own to play at the beach. Shouldn't there be some activities at the beach area? Why am I paying so much when I could bring Zaccheus to beach myself?

Nonetheless, I want to give credit to the tireless and energetic teachers whom have never failed to make every lessons fun.

Having said this, Zaccheus will still be attending JG in the next 2 terms till he starts Chiltern House next January. However, I might want to change from the billingual playclub he is currently attending to Edudrama from next term. My take is that I am really unsure how much Zacch has benefitted from the playclub even after attending 2 terms. Of course, one takeaway is that Zaccheus is in love with 'school' and 'class'. Compare to Playclub, I think Edudrama is a better choice of enrichment class. It encourages and instills confidence in the child as they are encourage to speak up and act during lesson. The former is good for a daily school programme but not suitable for a weekly enrichment.
To sum up, these are just my opinions. Whether the Edudrama is really beneficial will have to wait till Zaccheus attends the lesson.

First movie in cinema - Shrek Forever After

Holidays have begun - it means more fun-filled activities for Zaccheus as Mummy is available to spend time and bring him for outdoor trips. The first day of holidays began by watching the movie, Shrek Forever After, together in the cinema. At first, I was worried that Zaccheus might not be able to stay throughout the 95 minutes show but my worries were unfounded. After watching this movie, I am quite sure that Zaccheus and I are going to watch more cartoons in the cinema in the years to come. :)

Chiltern House is the One!

The 5 months of frantically searching for Zacch's preschool has finally came to an end this Monday. Indeed, I am proud and ecastic that Daddy Seng and I have come to an unanimous decision that Chiltern House is the preschool for Zacch.
Eversince Zacch left Kinderland after a week, he was traumatised by the word "school". To him, school has became a place where Mummy and Daddy left him alone with a bunch of strangers. School has became a room where he will in from 8-6pm. School was just a place to eat, sleep and did everything there...
I was in the "school" for two days and I felt restricted and bored myself. "School" was not fun as it seemed that there was alot of waiting for "actions" to happen. Waiting to queue to wash hands, waiting to have food to be served, waiting to play toys, waiting to bath, waiting to go into the classroom to sleep and lastly, waiting to be picked up by Daddy and Mummy. So after one week of school in Kinderland, we had enough and decided to withdraw Zacch out from the school.

From that day onwards, I decided that the next school for Zacch will be a half day curriculum instead. I was determined to search for another school; a school Zacch will love and look forward to. As such, I became fussy and particular each time I went to visit the school. My checklist when I am looking out for Zacch's school are below:
- The principle vision and beliefs
- Quality, appearance and personality of teachers
- Decoration of classroom
- Class venue (whether in a partition area or in a class)
- The type of outdoor or freeplay for the kids
- The timetable program
- The school environment (whether under HDB or a building)
- Lastly, my gut feelings for the school

And the list of schools I have visited are:
- Sunny Bunny Montessori (Sim Lim Ave)
- Cambridge Development Centre (Mei Hwan Dr and YCK)
- Learning Vision (YCK)
- Character Montessori (AMK)
- School House by the Garden (Philips Ave)
- School House by the Bay (Serangoon)
- Little Skool House (AMK)
- Pat's Schoolhouse (Whitley Rd)
- Learning Centre (AMK Hub)
- Call up Kinderland YCK
- Call up Mind Champs (Toa Payoh)
- Call up United Montessori (Bishan)
- Call up Hampton House (Bishan)
- Call up St. James Kindergarten

So far, the school that impressed DS and I most is Chiltern House at Halifax road. Reasons being:
- The school changes their theme every term and the classroom decoration follows the theme and is done very elaborately. Upon entering the classroom, I liked it immediately as it gave me a warm feeling.
- The program for N1 includes speech and drama (very Julia Gabriel), music, crockery and maths. And the impressive thing is the speech and drama and music lessons are conducted by the JG teachers themselves. WOW!
- The lights are dim and classical music are play to calm the students during the snacks time. Interesting!
- The food are being catered from a Brazil restaurant in Six Avenue. haha
- The school is located in a terrace house building, as such, they have the luxury of space for outdoor activities including a playground of their own.
- I was told that the Chiltern House teachers go for courses during every holidays.
- The school has a different set of program during June and December holidays.
- The pupils go for field trip every term in accordance to the theme for the term.
- The songs that the teachers sing are very similar to the songs in Zacch's billingual playclub. For eg, the teacher will sing song to have the students to sit down instead of shouting. Very catchy.

But two criterias before the student can be enrolled; they must be toilet trained and have to go through the interview with the principle.

Based on the above analysis and experience of having visiting so many schools, I am sure that I have chosen the best school for Zacch, knowing that he will be looking forward to go to school everyday. And to tell me that he loves school one day! However, being the best comes at a heavy price as the school fees and the bus service per month are not cheap. Guess we cannot have the best of both world; cheap and good education. Having say that, DS and I will never compromise on having good education for Zacch.

Orange Theme

Zaccheus is in an ORANGE mood today; wearing orange t-shirt & carrying orange bag. Eversince I bought the t-shirt for him, he kept telling me "Alvin guitar". He was referring to the movie, "Alvin & the Chipmunks", in which the character, Alvin plays the guitar. My Zacch loves strumming the guitar & hence, when I bought him the t-shirt, he was obviously elated. And to build up the mood, I decided to add in the ORANGE tigger bag which Uncle Gopal and jiejie Rebecca bought for him at last year Christmas present. Zacch was obviously unoblivious to his orange theme which Mummy dressed up for him... haha.

Mummy is back to bloging!

Wow, it has been awhile since I last blogged about Zaccheus development. As much as I wanted to sit down and blog, I was constantly busy with one thing or another. In school, there is hardly any chance for me to catch my breath before heading to classes, preparing lesson resources etc. Once at home, I am always busy with my little one (Zacch). Everyday upon reaching home, Zacch would say, "Mummy" and I would walk up to kiss him on his lips. After my shower, I would bring Zacch to our room for some quiet and bonding time together. I love those moments where it is just the two of us together and cuddling with each other. I would ask him about his day at home and whether he has missed me. Despite unable to answer to my endless questions, Zacch would never fail to give me a smile and nod his head to my questions. If no one distracts him, both of us could stay in our little room together till Daddy Seng is back from work. Then, there will be another round of cuddles and kisses for Zacch. :) After Daddy has his bath, our family of three will be out for a night activity. Our night activities including visiting Zacch's Godma house, library, AMK Hub, Thomson Plaza etc. Upon reaching home from the night out, Daddy Seng, Zacch and myself will collapse on bed to rest for the night and the routine will continue the next day.
I don't mind the tiredness as it has allowed me to bond with Zacch. His every and little achievements is my pride and joy. I pray that Zacch will be a blessing to not only Daddy Seng and myself, but to everyone around him. AMEN.