Nathanael's turning 1 soon!

I've always been concerned and worried over Nathanael's growth. A few months ago, I decided to ditch the weighing scale and refocus my priorities for him.

Nathanael's pd asked me once if he was a happy baby. That really put me in deep thought. Isn't that the most important to a mother? The meaning of Nathanael is 'given by God'. In other words, he's a gift from God. Have I forgotten to commit Nathanael's growth into His hands? Wouldn't our Heavenly Father, who loves us so much that He gave His only son to die for us, take good care of Nathanael?

Recently, I realised I have more to be thankful for other than just lamenting over Nathanael's slow growth and poor sleep pattern to my family and friends. Thank God for His wonderful blessings and protection over Nathanael in the past year.

A list of 10 things I want to thank God for:

1. Nathanael's milestones are never on time. In fact, he achieved most milestones early.

2. He gave us many surprises. The first time he clapped his hands was when I was playing the piano. I've never felt more appreciated!

3. He is a determined boy and doesn't give up easily. That's why I could breastfeed him exclusively.

4. He loves exploring and investigating new things. This characteristic of his makes me smile so very often. Do u know he found out for himself what a door stopper is for? He will sometimes help me open the door and make sure it reaches the door stopper.

5. Like his bro Zech, Nathanael loves music.

6. He loves his food and is forever hungry.

7. He started communicating to us at 10 mths.

8. He is an efficient baby. With a bottle, he finishes his milk within 3 min. When nursing, he is done in less than 10 min.

9. I've always complained about Nathanael's sleep pattern which was entirely different from his very independent bro. Somehow at 10 mths, I decided to sleep train him again. This time, he's ready. I finally resolved the sleep problem that was troubling me for almost a year. It's truly a milestone for Nathanael!

10. He is a healthy baby!

Life hasn't been a bed of roses with Nathanael. But this gift from God has taught me many life lessons and brought me immeasurable joy.

Praise The Lord for His abundant blessings and grace. Just like Nathanael's Chinese name 宣奇 meaning 宣扬神的奇妙, may God continue to reveal His wondrous works through this little one.

 

What's in your name?

We named Zechariah after the old testament prophet in the Bible. A minor prophet who was used by God as a messenger to the Israelites, the name Zechariah means 'God remembers'. There were many instances in Zech's life when I was touched and reminded time and again that indeed, God remembers.

Zech turned 3 last Dec. In the past few weeks, he has learned to recognise and even spell his own name.

Of course, the easiest to recognise is the letter z. With some prompting from me, Zech formed his name using the magnetic letters.

Then I created a little rhythm of the letters in Zechariah using the bongo drum. The drum was given by Zech's papa from Vietnam. Love the tone it makes! Zech caught it really quickly.

Used play dough to form his name. Zech had some difficulty doing this as the letters were quite small. Realised bigger fonts are better for young children.

Name game. Zech searched for his own name. Placed paper shreds in a shoe box to cover up the names. Increased the challenge slightly by including names beginning with Z. Zech had to look closely to identify his name so he could not just look at the beginning letter Z alone.

It has been a good start for Zech. The next stage? Understanding the background and meaning of his name before moving gradually to writing.

Move, play, learn

Teaching a preschooler is fun but challenging. Zech has lots of energy that needs to be unleashed every day. So for him to nap well, I have to ensure he gets to exercise and sweat it out at home.

Tailoring learning to a child's preferences is really effective. Zech has been learning about shapes and colours. What's more fun and meaningful than to incorporate learning with working out his psycho-motor and fine motor skills? It's an integration of PE/Art with Math/Eng.

1. Bean bags in different shapes (bought them at Growing Fun) - I call out the name of a shape. Zech picks the correct shape and standing behind the nesting cups, he has to throw it into the basket.

 

 

2. Making shapes with playdough - Printed out these playdough mats from 3dinosaurs.com. Simple enough for Zech and good for him to focus on the properties of each shape. The best part for him is he gets to enjoy free play with the playdough after that!

3. Coloured bottles - Used food colouring to make the coloured bottles. I call out the colour. Zech has to transfer the correct coloured bottle from the tray to the basket. Then he crawls through the tunnel (bought from Ikea), out through the other side and runs back for the next colour. Can do many variations with this.

 

4. Sorting out pom poms into coloured paper tubes - Zech uses his pair of tongs to pick up the pom poms and puts them into the correct coloured tube.

 



 

 

While Zech is learning and having fun, my little one is also busy (if he isn't crying). To my surprise, he crawled into the tunnel and started exploring. He's really my little explorer. So adventurous!

 

 



He is making mini discoveries every day on his own. Discovering his own reflection in the mirror, banging plastic bowls together to make sounds and the wonder of the door stopper behind the bedroom door etc. Most of all, he likes destroying Zech's lego master pieces and train tracks.

 

His fav toy, plastic eggs. He loves to throw it, chase after it and even babble to it. He is, in his own way, learning about the world. It's really amazing to see how the little one progress without much help and stimulus from me.

 

Learning is indeed everywhere.



The river is calling...

Been planning to go to the River Safari this year. After constant reminders to Zech's papa to get the corporate pass, we were finally going.

Just before doing that, I spent some time with Zech reading up on pandas and piranhas. Borrowed the books from the library at Nex. Prepared a 'River Safari' lapbook too.

 

Zech tried some of the activities. Really glad he was looking forward to the trip!

So off to the River Safari we went on a weekday! Reached about 10 plus. Not many visitors! Mostly tourists. Cool!

At the entrance, Zech posed with the crocodile.

Giant otters! The first animals we visited at the Amazon Flooded Forest.

Manatee. Clumsy-looking but rather adorable. It was lunch time.

Zech didn't like to be in the dark as most of the animals in the Amazon zone were housed in the aquarium that mimics their natural river habitat. He was becoming disinterested until we came upon these.

Piranhas! Somehow, Zech was captivated by these small creatures with shiny scales.

Once we were out of the Amazon, Zech was relieved. He wanted to see the pandas. That seemed to be the highlight of the trip for Zech. He can't take the boat ride as his height doesn't qualify. Fortunately, he was very cooperative and waited patiently for us adults to take the boat ride before visiting Kai Kai and Jia Jia. 

 

He didn't miss much. Most of the animals were hiding somewhere.

 

 

 

 

Now for the highlight of the day! Zech was thrilled to see Kai Kai! He obligingly took pictures when I asked him to. See his happy face below?

 



 

 

We had lunch at the Mama Panda Kitchen.

 

All things panda! Really really cute! Food is average but, ambience is more important for me, so the panda theme made up for it.

 

 

After lunch, Zech visited the pandas again. This time, we saw Jia Jia sleeping.

 

 

Thanks to the pandas, Zech perked up and even dared to put his hand on the glass in front of the Yangtze alligator. This seemingly small creature looks harmless here but it apparently kills human. See how interested it is to see Zech?

 

 

 

The River Safari took us a good half day. We left around 1 plus. The boys were tired, especially Zech. Nathanael slept most of the time. He probably only saw the pandas and the stingray.

 

Bought this for Zech at the souvenir shop before we left. Quite an interactive book. Reading it to Zech was like having Kai Kai and Jia Jia talking to him.

 

Had a follow up with Zech the next day. We read the books before trying out the activities in the lapbook.

 

 

 

Zech fixed this panda puzzle before asking for a story about the pandas. That's what he usually does now after completing a puzzle. Seems like storytelling is a motivation for him to do puzzles.

 

 

 These few days, I hear Zech talking about the River Safari. If he were to go again, it's only for the pandas and yes, the boat ride when he's grown tall enough. It's panda frenzy at home now.







'School' for Zech at home

This year marks the beginning of school at home for Zech. No formal curriculum. Only short lessons planned by Mummy in the morning and afternoon for weekdays. Strictly no lessons on weekends which are reserved for family outings.

Starting from this year, I regularly let Zech draw and colour. It was just at random last year. Unfortunately, this boy doesn't enjoy colouring. He likes to draw lines. Straight lines, crooked lines, jagged lines etc. So I got him to do lots of matching activity sheets. To make Zech more enthusiastic about writing, I bought him a set of stationery.

Zech's 'no nonsense' stationery.

But really, the quality is much much better than those cute stationery. His name is pasted on the classic pencils. I love his pencils and so does Zech!

His portfolio with all his activity sheets. Divided into basic skills such as visual perception, cutting etc., colouring and do-a-dot.

Bought him many activity books from Popular. They are part of his school routine every morning. These are fun activities and not worksheets like most preschool books.

These books just remind me of my own mum who bought similar ones for me when I was little. The only difference between Zech and me is I loved to colour the pictures inside the book. Even when the books were not meant for colouring.

Something else that Zech enjoys is cutting. It's his newfound skill. Doesn't he look diligent here? We were amused to find him so focused and intent.

Bought him this Kumon book for some paper cutting practice. Really cute and creative pictures to encourage cutting.

I've also started using the wordless book to share the Gospel with Zech.

Made the wordless book using A5 coloured paper.

For the past month, he has been memorizing 'The Lord's Prayer' so for the month of Feb, it's going to be Gospel month! Just started yesterday with the colour gold and will follow up with a craft related to heaven.

One of our homeschool aims is to get Zech to retell the story of Noah. Using this pack of cards as stimulus for retelling.

 

Zech has learned his basic shapes last year. This year, we are reviewing the shapes and going beyond the basics. Review in different forms such as games like this one.

His favourite is treasure hunt. Searching for the correct shape can be so much fun!

Zech is also enjoying his Mandarin lesson with Mummy every morning. He likes to practise writing the Chinese characters using the board as shown below. A very useful resource! Zech's Por Por bought it for him at a book fair. :)

Teaching one to one is quite a breeze most of the time. The activities above are spread out throughout the day so Zech will not feel tired or bored. He still has his playtime. Lots and lots of play which is important for his age. And of course, not forgetting his daily reading time. We usually read at least 4 English and 4 Mandarin books.

Zech's routine is rather different from last year's and he is still trying to adapt. But I must say he has been very cooperative so far. Hopefully, it stays that way. :p

Zech @ 'Titans of the Past'

'I'm scared Mummy', Zech repeated this umpteen times as we walked through the 'Titans of the Past' exhibition at the Science Centre.

Gigantic creatures in the dark with eerie sounds in the background were rather intimidating for a 3 year old. There are replicas such as these.

Zech, standing some distance away from the T-Rex, didn't want to go near it at all but looked at it in awe coupled with fascination from a distance. 

Then there are the real stuff.

The skull of the T-Rex, which Zech could not appreciate.

However, his mummy and papa were so interested in the skulls of the dinosaurs that they took time to examine it and read the information on the panels. There are also guides stationed near some of the popular exhibits like the T-Rex which is the highlight of the exhibition. The guide was quite informative and this is really what I like about 'Titans of the Past', a tremendous improvement as compared to the previous exhibits on  'Megabugs'.  Tried to get Zech's attention by pointing out the names of familiar dinosaurs and feeding him with bits of info but he was too frightened to even look at the skull. 

 

The good thing about this exhibition is it's quite child-centered. Feel there is something for both young and old. There are interactive exhibits like this below.

 

Climbing onto Triceratops.

 

Zech enjoyed pressing the button to listen to the sound of the baby dinosaur. He did not dare to press the button of the adult dinosaur so we pressed it for him. He had a fun time listening to the sounds.

 

 

 

The last hall was a big open space with a big screen showing a documentary on dinosaurs.

 

 

 

There were also replicas, more interactive exhibits, craft booths and a big sand pit for kids to pretend to be paleontologists. That was the most enjoyable for Zech. See the kids using a brush to look for dinosaur bones and fossils? 

 

 

 

The craft booths look interesting too. Making clay dinosaurs, coloring styrofoam dinosaurs, 3D dinosaurs etc. Just before the exit, we walked through an aisle showcasing ice age mammals. Like the mammoth most.

 

 

Zech also saw his favorite animal, a small horse. Seems that my boy enjoyed himself so much we had difficulty getting him to go home. He was in tears and sat on the steps, refusing to leave. Too bad all good things must come to an end.

My rating for 'Titans of the Past' : 4/5

Not as big as the museums in the States but good enough to learn more about dinosaurs and their behaviour. And some of the exhibits are genuine pieces. Find the exhibits good exposure for young kids like Zech who will like it due to the interactive exhibits and animated dinosaurs.