S.R.I.P.

Alphabets for the week..

Animals from all over the World..

Love this floor puzzle. T decided to play with it one fine morning and this has been lying on the playroom this week. Not really teaching her geography at this stage but we're just having fun looking at the different types of animals ie.koalas, giraffe, whale, polar bears, penguins and pandas.



(Seeing thaleia trying to piece a picture of polar bear's head to the body of a seal)
Mummy: Thaleia, to piece puzzles together, you must see the pictures as a whole. The head of the polar bear belongs to the body of a polar bear.

Thaleia: No. I don't want.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF TODDLERS

Ring around a Row-sy

This Educo "Ring around the Row-sy" Bead Maze is one of the toy which outlast the rests. Made of solid wood and sturdy wires, Thaleia has been playing with it since she was 8 months old. It's nice to see how she works her little fingers and adjust the position of the maze to suit her vision of focus.

She can handle the "n" curves for now. The "S" curves are a little tricky and need more practise. Apparently this maze teaches the concept of inside and outside and well, the concept of "around". Was very very tempted to buy a bigger version at one stage but resisted in view of space & storage constraints.

Oranges..Oranges

I first introduced the word Orange to Thaleia by giving her a bowl of small oranges and she loves it. Since then, when she sees anything in the color of orange she would say excitedly.. "Orange!". It's been a long time since she had them so we got some prepared for her last night, to her surprise! Here's a short clip of her eating oranges..only when she's eating oranges will she cooperate with my instructions..pardon Mummy's irritating voice...

And saying "no more".....

Bye!

Engraved!

On the last day of 2010, 31 Dec, we opened our place for a gathering of some of our closest frens in church. As I was thinking about how a "welcome to my house" card can be done in the fastest yet meaningful way...I chanced upon a wonderful verse in Isaiah 49:16. Once again, I was thrown back to the arms of assurance of God. Regardless of what the new year will bring, one thing is for sure - HE remembers us constantly and loves us deeply.

Thaleia had lot of fun "hand painting". Wished we could write the guests' names on the palms but we were overly occupied with the food preparations! After our friends left, we managed to find one of this left behind and stuck in on the wall. Engraved..Permanent..

Hopelessly In Love with Bears

Thaleia has developed a love and attachment for bears. It probably started with a first mini carebear from Aunty Dawn. Last Friday, we left her purple carebear at Aunty Anna's place over Christmas and had to buy a new one to tide over the days. Good thing she agreed to get a different color, a red one. And, we cannot leave the house without it so bears are regular passengers on her carseat.

Here's a video of Thaleia identifying and saying the names of some of the animals from one of her favourite books,,"Brown bear, Brown bear, what do you see?". Now the animal she says most clearly and with most enthusiam is the word BEAR..hear her say it at 1:44.

My First Piece of Art

This week, we decided to practise art with crayons every morning. On Thursday, interestingly. I could see, from her scribblings, that she managed to draw a black circle (upper left hand corner of the drawing). Thaleia's just beginnning to get the idea of how to hold a crayon and make some purposeful markings on paper. Hope she inherited some artistic genes from David..cos Mummy's art skills is almost non-existent.

The Start of Home Lessons

Started a home lesson programme for Baby T since 7 June. Each night her little school bag is filled with her home school materials for the next day. Thanks to Aunty Anna for executing the lesson plans!

A typically day consists of:

• A theme
• A story of the day
• Hands-on fun
• A basket of things associated with the theme or story of the day
• A hand-sign of the day

Example:

• Theme: Colours
• Story of the day : Brown bear Brown bear, what do you see by Bill Martin
• Hands-on: Coloring with crayons designed for baby's tiny fingers (found this in Japan)
• A basket of balls in red, blue, yellow and green color
• Signing: Me (hand on chest, tapping once)

I must say, this masterpiece by Bill Martin is a godsend. This book is always there when we needed to have Thaleia's cooperation during the sometimes challenging routines like diaper change, clothing her after a bath etc. She enjoys the rhythm of the story, and the brightly coloured animals introduced to her through the pages. Hubby and I must have chanted this story at least 50 times. She does not get tired of it, it seems..

"Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? I see a red bird looking at me. Red bird red bird, what do you see, I see a blue horse, looking at me..Blue horse blue horse what do you see, I see a ..." See! I can even memorise the story now..