Holiday Milestones!

This Holiday season has certainly been quite an eventful one in terms of really exciting milestones that Nico has reached!

First of all, we have finally successfully weaned him from the bottle. I know we may be really late compared to other kids, being at 37 months - but well, we finally got there. I told everyone in the household (including Nico) that after Christmas, we would finally bid the bottle goodbye. And so we did. On the morning of the 26th, we asked his help to pack away the bottles and stashed them away to a place he would never find them. He asked for the bottle later in the day, but upon realizing they were nowhere to be found, gave up and never asked for it again. Of course, the  milk intake has significantly decreased since then -- for about 1.5 liters a day (yes, crazy I know) to about 250-300ml a day. I've been told that kids who wean from the bottle tend to lose a bit of weight while adjusting. Am hoping that passes quickly since it takes us months to pack some pounds on this little boy!

Second big thing for the holiday season - he FINALLY slept through the night! I never thought I would experience the day that this babe of mine would sleep 8 hours without rousing! With his milk throughout the night (about a combined 600 ml), I am unluckily woken up between 1-5 times a night with a request for milk. Of course, the amount of milk taken in directly affects how many times I need to wake to change his nappy to avoid overflow onto the bed! So anyway, last night - the 5th night without the bottle, he slept a good 8.5 hours without a peep. I actually had to check on him at about 8 am to see if he was still alive! Hiphiphooray! Crossing my fingers this is not a fluke and I get more of these slumber filled nights coming my way.

Additionally, his sentence construction and verbalization of thoughts and wants have really developed over the last few weeks! While he is generally good at expressing himself and speaks very clearly (and as my household staff would say, SLANG) - my husband and I have been pleased at the progress he is making in speaking. Sentences peppered with "of course", "I'm wondering about" and "how did you do this so fast" are such a treat to hear!

Lastly, he finally has more discipline and a longer attention span to sit long enough to finish his pencil skills and counting worksheets (about 15 sheets at a time), and complete his 50 pc puzzles without breaks. We no longer have to cajole him back to the desk to finish a sheet at a time, or line up all his toy animals to "cheer" for him with every page that he finishes. Oh, the things we had to resort to before to get him to sit down and accomplish a task!

All in all it has been a great few weeks filled with the achievement of milestones. As we begin the year, we (parents) need to get serious about our preschool shopping and consider the options out there.

So here's to an exciting year of learning ahead of us! Cheers!

"Home"made Holiday project

Yes, as the time (and date) stamp on this post shows, it has been practically two months since my last post. Such a sad showing for a blog. So much has happened in the last two months that well, I actually fail to recall at this point, what those happenings were. Ah, my terrible memory strikes again.

So with Christmas 9 days away, am about 98% done with my shopping. That is an all-time record in being early for me, since I tend to cram and complete my shopping around the 23rd. This year, I ended up not buying any Christmas wrapping paper though (well, not exactly...). The 2 sources of this year's wrapping paper are:

(1) Leftover wrapping paper from last Christmas; and
(2) Nico's dozens of art work on flip chart paper from school -- which I have made into wrapping paper.

Initially I started to collect the artwork, not able to bear throwing these precious things away. But with the weekly (and sometimes, more than once a week) collection of painted papers piling high on the buffet table, I decided to take photos of the art and considered disposing of them instead.

Luckily, I came across the blog of a homeschooling mother involving her child in painting on kraft paper - creating their holiday wrapping paper. 'What a great idea!', I thought. And off I ran to buy some red, green and gold paint - along with a HUGE roll of kraft paper, with aspirations of getting my son to create our wrapping paper this year.

Ah, how foolish Mommy was to believe he would actually be interested in such activity! Behold, he agreed to paint (a section of) the kraft paper twice. And so - I decided to recycle his art from school -- after all, he had created these as well.

They turned out very nice too! :) Happy Holidays from mine to yours!



p.s. Anyone in need of craft paper and paints?

Update as of 1Jan2012: Nico eventually got interested in painting on the kraft paper, and I had a good amount of homemade wrapping paper that I used for Christmas. Hooray!

All by Myself

The absence of posts is indicative of how truly crazy life has been.
Summary of my September/October:

• Nico gets sick 1
• Yaya 1 Leaves
• Nico gets sick 2
• Hire Yaya 2
• Pack up and move house
• Fire Yaya 2
• Nico gets sick 3
• Wait for Yaya 3 to come (hasn't happened yet - so Mommy is now YayaMommy).

Oh yes. What a month this is turning out to be!

A lesson in detachment

Some months ago, I posted that Nico's yaya had asked to leave. I actually asked her to stay until I found someone to replace her, to which she agreed. Well - months later, I have finally hired a replacement (although a little too young for my preference, we are giving her a try) but have asked the yaya to stay until the end of the month to help "teach" the replacement.

Well, this morning, yaya asked if she could leave this weekend - one week early - because she had found a new job. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the request, but I guess the overly-trusting me expected more in terms of loyalty. Just goes to show that no matter how good a yaya is, in some way, she is really still an outsider and loyalties and promises will only go so far.

A lesson in detachment.

Moving on.

Kumon Worksheets

I must credit some of the ideas of my homemade worksheets to the fabulous Kumon worksheets/workbooks. They make coloring, writing and cutting/pasting a lot more fun for Nico! (I'm still doing the cutting, btw). He also really loves the books of Mazes (pics for another time). What we haven't quite made any traction on yet though are the books on Folding Paper.

Let's Color!

Let's Sticker and Paste!

Homemade worksheets - Part 2

As a follow up to my previous post, here are some of the other worksheets I prepared and had Nico do while I am at work (or even when I am home).

Tracing shapes

Identifying (and pasting) farm animals!

Tracing letters

Identifying (and pasting) land, air and sea vehicles!

Homemade worksheets - Part1

I've been trying to get Nico to practice his pencil skills more, but he usually gives the pencil/crayons about 1 minute of attention before proceeding to do other things. 

At last, I found a way to get him to enjoy using the pencil (and asking for more)! And it tests my skills in drawing things on the spot, depending on what he wants to see!

Help the bees land on the flowers!

Decided to use some color this time to make it more appealing

He can read the instructions too!

On bumps and bruises

Over a chat with my brother this morning, I discovered that he had fallen asleep while supposedly looking after his 10 month old baby early this morning - resulting in the baby's rolling off the bed landing on the floor with a loud thud. Of course he was feeling like a really horrible parent, which is a feeling all too familiar for me, from the first time my son fell off the bed too.

Note that I said - first time.

My son has fallen off the bed quite a number of times. Maybe thrice when he was a year old, and about the same number of times in the last year, at two years old. Eventually even putting pillows or having two sleeping adults beside him didn't work. His sleepy body would somehow find its way to the parts of the bed with a little vacant space, and roll off and land with a loud thud on the floor. No major accidents ever came from his falling off the bed, and after a minute of consoling, everyone is back in bed and dreamland. Doesn't make it any more pleasant an experience though.

A lot of people tell me that having a son means expecting a LOT more bumps and bruises in the future, and I can already foresee that. Nico runs like a bullet - at times with his eyes closed, and other times moving forward while his head is turned looking behind to see if anyone is chasing him. He's ran into walls, table corners and doors, fallen on grass and on the pavement. He's had a huge wound smack across his nose, and bumps growing on bumps (really! it was U-G-L-Y. I felt like he had hydrocephalus!).

But well, I'd better get used to this because this bullet of mine is not slowing down.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

I've got shelves full of books that I have started and never finished, for all sorts of reasons. Been too busy, got too bored, or just plainly forgot I had bought them.

And so my husband was quite surprised to hear that I had bought this book - Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - and actually finished it within days of buying it, which is probably a testimony of what an interesting read it is. I just heard about it from a friend, not knowing that it apparently raised so much controversy (if you would call it that) because of the author (Amy Chua)'s extreme parenting style.

I don't intend this post to be a review or a spoiler. I just wanted to say that I (yay!) finished the book, and enjoyed it! It was an easy read and I, thought, a good one at that! While I may not subscribe to this particular parenting style, it was certainly entertaining and insightful.

Now back to my shelf to attempt to finish another book....

Sight Words and Number Charts

(And because I haven't posted in weeks, I could be here all night - catching up on posts that have been stored in my brain.)

Anyway, back to our regular programming!

Am blessed to be married to a husband who works in (and is passionate about) the education industry. He's implemented a number of ideas at home on how to get Nico started on reading and counting, particularly putting up posters of Sight Words and numbers to read daily. It's actually amazing how quickly Nico learned to count and recognize numbers up to 60, and "read" so many words. (Actually, we also used a number of other tools to get Nico familiar with words, but will save that for another post.)

One of the ways we get Nico familiar with the numbers or words on his charts is to delay gratification on his requests (in most cases, his turn at using the iPad) by telling him to go to his chart and count to 60 or read the words. It works wonders for us! I've also shared this to a friend with a toddler almost exactly the same age as Nico, and it's worked quickly for her as well :) It's time to change our charts to include numbers 61 to 70, and add to the list of words!





Sight Words or the Dolch Words List

 


Counting to 60

 

A little bit of crazy

It's been a while since my last post, so I must apologize to my invisible reader base.

The months of July through September of this year promise to be crazy hectic for us, so getting some blog time in is going to be a bit of a challenge. On top of program launches at work, a family wedding, out of town guests, a family vacation and moving out of a house - my son's nanny (yaya) has decided to leave. And so begins the hunt for a replacement - I pray I find one SOON! Thankfully, my boss is very understanding and is flexible with the work arrangements should I need to make some adjusments in schedule and location.

Now that I am on the hunt for a new nanny though, my requirements of a replacement have certainly gotten more stringent - as if it weren't hard enough looking for a nanny as is.

If only day care centers were more popular in this country!

A different perspective

Oftentimes, when I visit a toystore in search of some educational toys to get for Nico, I end up milling about the aisles for a looooong time and leaving empty handed. For the most part, I feel I am hardly able to find any not-too-complex, budget-friendly, sturdy, educational toys that would be different from those he already has. (He already has a variety of blocks, vehicles, animals, sports equipment and tools - among others.)

So on one random visit to a toystore, I was happy to spot and pick up two very basic (and cheap) pieces! I enjoyed explaining what would happen when you looked through the lenses, while Nico enjoyed looking at things (such as insects) in a different perspective!



Magnifying Lens



Binoculars



Conserve Energy!

As part of newlywed condo living, my very mathematically inclined husband purchased several automatic timers that he had put on a number of our appliances - particularly the TV and the water dispenser - to save on electricity. He had set the timer to turn the appliances off about the time we leave for work, and turn on approximately the time we get home. (He had also computed how long it would take to be earn back via electricity savings - what we had spent on the timers.)

Now that we have a toddler who could keep his eyes peeled to Playhouse Disney for hours on end, we've found a new use for those timers!

We've set the timer to allow the TV to turn on from 6:50-7:30 am - just long enough for his favorite show (Little Einsteins) and some trailers, and while we get dressed for work; and again from 9:00-9:30 pm - when we're home and just before his bedtime at 10pm.

This works out perfectly for us because not only are we able to limit his TV viewing (and choose the shows too!). The big plus is that when the TV automatically turns off without us touching it, he doesn't throw any tantrums! He just gives us a look and asks, " what happened to the TV?". We simply say, "it turned off already - we can watch later/tomorrow". No sweat!

Next we have to figure out how to peel him away from the iPad without a fight.




Meet our friend, the automatic timer.



Decluttering the mind

I love Mind Maps! Ever since one of my colleagues introduced it to me about 5 years ago, it has done wonders for organizing my very cluttered thoughts in developing programs and projects. I suspect the top reason I must like it is because I am a LIST person! My MBTI profile shows I am a very strong "J" (judging")! I love lists, planners and calendars.

I suppose the second reason Mind Maps and I get along so well is because of all the colorful icons and ways that you can make the map so visually appealing. While I am not the most creative of the bunch, I certainly enjoy artsy fartsy activities!

Lastly, it just feels good and productive to "release" and just do a bit of personal brainstorming after weeks of feeling stumped. If you haven't done any mindmapping before, do give it a try the next time your ideas are all a crazy mess in your head. It might just work for you!

Mind Map shown above is not my own. :)

Mommy-made lesson plans!

Probably one of the most common (and in my opinion, grounded) fears of a working parent is leaving their baby with the 'yaya' (nanny) the whole day, while they spend most of the day's decent hours in the office. There's so much to worry about! What is baby is doing all day? Is he picking up all this nonsense from watching noontime shows? Watching cartoons all day? Listening to those terribly annoying radio stations? What is he/she learning from 'yaya'?

Of course, I went through the same. And so ever since my son Nico was an infant (or at least, old enough to understand simple phrases and words), I tried as often as I could to prepare a 'lesson plan' for yaya  to go through while my husband and I were at work. Nothing grand - just simple stuff everyday --  the alphabet on one day, counting to 20 on another, knowing the difference between big and small, identifying colors, shapes, animals and their homes, identifying body parts, practicing reciting his full name, the list goes on!  Am thankful for a hardworking yaya who ensures that Nico goes through the lesson and more.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
eyes, nose, belly	neck, feet, hands	cheeks, ears	mouth, elbow	eyebrow, back
circle	triangle	square	oval	diamond
red	blue	green	yellow	orange
dog	cat	bird	mouse	horse

Now that we're done with the simple things like colors and shapes that all babies know, however, I find myself at a loss on what else to leave as part of the 'lesson plan'. And so you can imagine my excitement about my latest purchase from http://www.amazon.com/.

I saw this book for sale at Lakeshore Learning, but it was cheaper on Amazon (with a feature to preview some pages) -- hooray!  While designed for the classroom, I now have so many new ideas on what else we can teach Nico at home! I can't wait! Stay tuned for future posts about what I've actually done ! ;)

Makes me wonder about taking the dive into homeschooling (which is a post for another time)!



In search of balance

I am fortunate enough to work for a company that supports flexible work arrangements and working from home as the need arises. While I do enjoy that perk, I can only do so every so often as my 2-year old son seems to assume that once I spend the day at home (including work days), my time is his. He insists on sitting on my lap, using the laptop to visit http://www.starfall.com/, and tugs my arm every other minute to "watch me, mommy". So we know who always wins that battle.

And so this blog (which finally came to, after much internal debate about privacy issues vs. the desire to"journal") is for all those working moms (and dads) finding their own balance between being the boss and having one (at work and home, respectively.) Or for those who simply care to read. ;)