When I was young, I grew up surrounded by siblings, cousins and a large group of neighbor friends. We had a wonderful time growing up together and we were all raised to make our own fun. We didn’t have any of the electronics handheld devices of today and even the TV program was very limited.

We rode bicycles along the dirty road in front of our houses. We played dressed-up using the remnant pieces of clothes from my mom (she was a tailor). We played hide-and-seek in the woods behind our house. We caught spiders, grasshoppers, beetles, dragonflies and even birds just for fun.

Basically, we played using our own imaginations. We didn’t get toys from our parents so often. So, we really treasured them very much whenever we got one. Our parents, on the other hand, worked very hard to make ends meet but they were happy.

The door to our house were opened throughout the day – except only bedtime. But we never once worried about thief, strangers or anything dangerous from the outside. We had free access to each other’s house but we had no complaints.

Today, the environment is completely different. Our boy has a lot of toys and electronics devices to play with, but he lacks playmates. I’m glad that there are two boys (one Indian and one Chinese) who are staying next to my in-law’s house. Occasionally, they come over and ride bicycle with Little Edison.

Even when we stay in a private apartment with security guards, we don’t open our main door all the time. I’m not worried about safety, but I prefer privacy. I dislike strangers looking through our door or listening to our conversation.

Our boy also doesn’t get to meet with his cousins so often. Maybe just once or twice a year due to our distance. Every time when they meet, they have lots of fun.

I’ve a series of pictures here from Year 2008 till now. You can see how much the kids have grown up over the years.

Year 2008 – In Jacob Ballas Children Garden. Little Edison and Jaerone (my nephew) were about one year old. Jaynie (my niece) is one year older than Edison and her brother, Jaerone.

Year 2009 – At my parents’ house in Ipoh. This is my father with the three kids.

Year 2010 – In Cameron Highlands. Little Edison and Jaerone were about 3 years old. Jaynie was 4. And in this picture is my sister, Stevie.

Year 2011 – In Jusco shopping center, Ipoh. Taken just a month ago.

And now, they have one more playmate – that’s my baby niece Khloe, who is about 1.5 months old now. In my next home trip, I’ll probably be seeing Little Khloe snatching toys from her older cousins.

Jaynie & Khloe, our two princesses in pink and my mom.

They should meet up more often, I know.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
• Father and Son
• Happy Father’s Day 2011
• Cousin Time
• Relationship with In-Laws: How Do You Fare?

Last week has been a super busy one for me, both at work and at home.

Work-wise, January is our financial year-end and quarter-end. Needless to say, we’re all rushing for shipments to meet our revenue target. Chinese New Year is also around the corner. We had to work with our Taiwan, China and Hong Kong subcontractors for overtime manpower support during the CNY holiday.

In addition, it’s THAT time of the year again to submit our performance self-review and objective setting for this year. How much bonus that we’ll get this coming April will depend on how well we write-up our self-review. So, we’ve to think thoroughly and report all our accomplishments – and also start to think of what we want to achieve this year.

Phew!

I’m glad that I’ve submitted mine last night.

Last weekend, I’ve been doing a fair bit of spring cleaning around the house. It’s that time of the year to declutter again (OK, more on throwing away than declutter!). I’ve five boxes of old clothes that belong to our boy, which I don’t know what to do with them.

Initially, I wanted to throw them away. But when I looked at them again, I recalled the moments of my baby boy wearing these clothes. I even have some pictures of him wearing them. Look at this!

Argh, I simply can’t bear to part with his baby clothes because of their sentimental values. So once again, I decided to keep them. I put them all into vacuum-seal storage bags and moved away the boxes. They really save a lot of storage space for me. His wardrobe looks way neater too.

On the other hand, I threw out quite a number of my old clothes. Some of them are relatively new and in good condition. I passed a huge bag of them to my hubby’s colleague who has just married a Vietnamese wife. I’m glad that he is willing to take these clothes because it’s really a waste to dump them.

I changed all the bed sheets and washed them. Luckily, the weather was great and all the sheets dried up within a day. Now, I’m left with just our store room – which I plan to declutter this Friday after work.

By this Saturday, I’ll be all ready to celebrate the Chinese New Year! Yay!

Possibly Related Posts:

• New Year, New Beginning
• Back in Ipoh
• Bouncy Good Time at Changi!
• The Worst Week of the Year
• The Unexpected

The crying was very bad last week but it gets slightly better now. Not Little Edison, I’m referring to the children at the pre-nursery classes who have just started school last week.

Some of them started bawling the moment their parents leave the classroom. I can’t imagine those who take a school bus. They might be crying all the way from their home. Sigh.

The beginning of school is often very challenging for young children. Some of them may need more time to adjust to new people and environment than others. But with time, they will eventually settle down to the school routine. And they will gradually engage in the classroom activities and start making friends too.

So, don’t be despair if your child is crying at school. I experienced it two years ago when our boy started his pre-nursery. I also shared my 6-point plan on how to tackle separation anxiety in our children. Read it HERE, if you need.

Little Edison started his K1 this year. He was so excited about it, and he kept repeating, “I’m 5 years old now, I’m in K1. Next year, I’ll be 6 years old. I’ll be in K2.” And I said, “Yes, you’re a K1 big boy now!” He is very proud that he’s a big boy now.

This is his third year in the same kindergarten. So, he is very familiar with the classroom. He waltzed straight in, hung up his bag, dropped off his water bottle and walked up to the hall for his morning devotion. He is so excited to see his friends again.

For K1 and K2 children, the school offers a range of enrichment classes to enhance learning through creative activities. These classes are held once a week (one hour per lesson) after school hours. I signed-up two classes for Little Edison – the Chinese Integrated Program and IT Starter for Preschoolers.

Our choice of Primary School for Little Edison is a SAP school with strong emphasis on bilingualism. Thus, I signed-up the extra Chinese class for him so that he can have a good start in Chinese Language.

The IT Starter class, on the other hand, is to familiarize him with the use of computer and internet. It also equips him with the essential ICT skills, improve creativity and build-up his confidence through group projects.

I hope that he will enjoy these extra lessons this year.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Kindergarten Graduation Concert 2011
• Saturday Snapshot: At the Pool
• Little Edison’s Drawings
• Edison’s 4th Birthday Celebration
• Happy Birthday, Edison!

I bought the Basic Chinese 500 – Beginning Reader Book for Little Edison a few months ago. When I attempted to teach him for the very first time, it wasn’t quite successful. The main reason was due to his lack of interest, and secondly, I didn’t know how teach him in a more interesting manner.

At the end, we gave up and the books were chucked aside in the book shelf until I rediscover them again recently.

Unknowingly, as I read the last page of the book, it leads me to it’s website. Under the “Download” section, there is a very useful Basic Chinese 500 Parent’s Guide that is available for free downloading. After reading it, I gained a better understanding of the book and its structure.

As an introduction, the Sage Formula Basic Chinese 500 is specially formulated for young children to learn Chinese. It has selected 500 Chinese words which are most frequently used in children’s literature and most relevant to their day-to-day life.

The author has grouped and arranged these words into 5 levels from Beginning (the set that I bought for Little Edison), Budding, Building, Confident and Fluent. Each level contains 5 books that come with “han yu pin yin” to show pronunciation as well as English translation.

In each lesson, he learns a new word. This word will then be repeated in various scenarios and subsequent lessons so that he can grasp the meaning of it. The book emphasizes on one new word per lesson to make it easy for young children to learn. Gradually, he will understand how the book is structured, and he will be expecting one new word from each lesson.

Most importantly, the author also shared on how to start using the books on page 19 of the Parent’s Guide. This part really enlightens me on how to teach him more effectively. She has a suggested planned schedule here, but I derived my own by adding a little speed to it. Here’s my planned schedule:

• Day 1: Read lesson 1 to 5.
• Day 2: Repeat lesson 1 to 5, and add lesson 6.
• Day 3: Repeat lesson 2 to 6, and add lesson 7.

From Day 4 onwards, I’ll repeat the last 5 lessons learnt and then add one new lesson. That makes it a total of 6 lessons per day, and I think our boy is pretty much comfortable with this speed now.

The author actually recommends more than 1 reading session per day. However, due to my work commitment, I can only arrange one session per day every night. One important note to share here is that it’s important to establish a regular pattern and follow the schedule faithfully every day.

We’ve been reading the book for the past one week, according to my planned schedule above. I’m glad to say that we’re gradually gaining the upper hand on the progress and our boy is showing interest again.

Last but not least, I’ve also discovered that the Basic Chinese 500 is available on iPhone and iPad. How amazing! I bought the iPhone Apps at a little cost of US$4.99 (cheaper than the books actually). So, at any time of the day, I can dish out my iPhone to do some revisions with Little Edison. Great, isn’t it?

The only downside with this Apps is that we’re unable to scroll from one lesson to another without returning to the main menu, which is quite frustrating at times. Hopefully, the developer can improve on this part in near future.

Possibly Related Posts:

• What’s On His Book Shelf?
• Introducing: Smart Tray and Spelling Accelerator
• Maris Stella High School Open House
• All About P1 Preparation
• Learning Chinese (Part 1)

This is our boy’s latest favourite iPhone game. It’s called the 3D Mini Golf Challenge, a lovely miniature golf game created by Digital Chocolate. It’s available in two versions – free version (lite) and full version at a little cost of US$1.99. Expansion packs are also available for the full version.

At the beginning of the game, the player has to select either a male or female golfer. And so, Little Edison selected the female golfer. Then, he will begin with the first 100 holes of miniature golf fun. He has to compete for points at each hole to unlock more.

In short, the game requires him to visualize the course and figure out on how to manage the obstacles like fire pit, fan, skull etc in each stage. Some of them are quite difficult, even for adults.

He will line up his shot with a swipe of a finger. A handy shadow will appear showing the direction and strength. Once he is comfortable with setting, he will release his finger from the screen to shoot the ball. I remind him to watch out on the strength, depending on the distance of the hole. Now, he’s an expert!

When he’s stuck at certain stage, he will consult us for help. It’s also a good bonding time for us when we indulge in a game at night – usually within fifteen minutes or so before bedtime.

Whenever his ball rolls into the fire pit, he yells, “Aiya, my ball is burnt!” When he managed to complete a stage and unlock the next, he’ll run excitedly to me explaining how he did it.

This is our boy playing with the golf game last week at my parent’s home. And he got Jaerone (his cousin) excited about it too. The two boys love the game so much!

As to fear on whether he’ll get addicted, we will limit the game to half an hour each time. He still enjoys playing with other educational games that I bought for him, and he still wants me to read his Dora and Diego Phonics Books with him. So, I guess it’s still alright now.

Possibly Related Posts:

• iPhone Games
• iPhone Apps for Kids
• Loving my iPhone
• SGP Case for iPhone 4
• iPhone 4