Jan in Disney

We went to Hong Kong earlier this month, and we decided to pay a visit to the disneyland there since we had not visited it before.

It was a nice hideaway from the busyness of Hong Kong, and thankfully the park was not crowded when we were there and the scorching summer heat had just departed.

Jan enjoyed many of the rides there, but I suspect it was just another amusement park to her as she wasn't that into disney characters yet. I suspect the "disney magic" worked more strongly in my wife...

Jan started school!

Since Jan turned two, we noticed that she had gotten increasingly restless at home, most likely bored by the lack of new stimulus and people to play with. As such, we began our hunt for a school for Jan so that she can get some regular playmates.

We finally decided to put her to the Montessori at Tiong Bahru plaza, based on friends' recommendation as well as the school's convenient location.

In her first week of school, Jan was reluctant to join her new friends. She gave all kinds of excuses to not to go--want to sleep, need to go wee wee, need to go poo poo. She cried when we left the school. One of the days in the first week, she cried from the start of the session to the end (about one and a half hour).

Her second week was much better, though she would still give some of the excuses, and would repeatedly comfort herself by reminding herself that granny would be picking her later. Miraculously, towards the end of the second week, the excuses disappeared, and she was running into the classroom by herself! The teachers commented that Jan adjusted quicker compared to the average child, most took two weeks to settle in. Thank God for that, we were really happy to see that she enjoyed the sessions.

Konichiwa!

The #1 question we got over the past few days was "How was your Japan trip?"; the #2 question was "You went to Japan?"

Yes, we were in Japan for six days, and it was really a very last minute trip.  An original work trip to Japan got canceled due to H1N1. We were disappointed both because we had already made arrangements on taking leave from work and also we had built up an expectation to see Japan.  So when the H1N1 situation turned for the better, we resurrected our Japan plans--this time as a family holiday and not for work--bought air tickets, booked accommodations, packed and left the day after.  Definitely the most last minute trip for the both of us!

Right: Me doing last minute planning of the trip.  Not sure what my girl was reading... 

For our lazy readers, a one-liner description of our trip would be: good but tiring, too short. 

Good because Tokyo definitely has a lot to offer -- interesting and very different culture, many types of food to try out, lots of shopping, numerous outdoor options and a great chance to practice Japanese for people learning the language!

Tiring because everyday we had to lug around our 12+kg girl, along with her meals, change of clothes, water bottle, wet tissue, etc etc...and we also had our SLR camera with us.  I was surprised at how sore my body was at the end of each day...think hiking was less strenuous.  Moreover, everyday we need to feed her milk, feed her food during mealtimes, shower her at night and put her to bed, wash her bottles, pack-unpack her stuff. Whew!

 

Top: Me with my standard gear -- Jan's bag and the camera bag

Left: PT had to carry Jan for much part of day, esp when Jan naps

Too short not only because Tokyo and its surrounding has much to offer, but also the meager number of usable hours each day.  This trip gave me a more realistic expectation of how much parents with young children can do each day.  I have learnt to plan my days to just focus on one or two highlights, strategically plan rest stops and include lots of time buffer.

When I started writing this blog entry, I was planning to cover the highlights from the entire trip.  However, as I went through the photos, I found that there were just too many things to talk about, and if I were to cover all of them, this entry would probably sit in my laptop for a very very long time.  So this is the introduction to an upcoming series of entries that will talk about the interesting sights and sounds we encountered during this trip.  Stay tuned!

Jan goes to school!

* Warning: This is a looooooooong post..........

Jan's turning 18mths soon and we thought it'll be good to expose her to some classes... so we signed her up for a holiday programme with Julia Gabriel for a week and the theme was "Off to the farm!". We also wanted to check out how the lessons was conducted and to gain some insight in teaching toddlers.

The first half hour was basically taking attendance and free play with all the toys on the red mat. Before lessons started, the toddlers will help put the toys away in the respective trays. Jan was quite upset on the first day when she had to put the toys away but it got better. She even helped the teacher to carry the tray!

The proper lessons was about an hour. It starts with morning greetings to all the teachers, adults and toddlers. The lead teacher would then do a demo of the craftwork that the kids would be doing shortly after. Here's the collection of art pieces that Jan did over the span of 5 days!

After the craftwork, there were songs, introducing the letters "p" and "g", "Magic Box" time, story-telling and more songs!

The last half hour was basically snack time and play time. Jan has many first-time experiences tasting different food like oatmeal squares, raisins, cocktail sausages, raisin bread, marie biscuits etc. I love to see her expression when she tastes the food. She also learnt to self-feed quite a bit from the class which I'm happy about :)

There was a variety of outdoor play time activities like the usual playground, sand play and water play. It was good exposure for Jan. She learnt to climb up the stairs, go through tunnels, down the slide etc.

All in all, I would say that this was a good experience for both me and Jan. It's actually quite tiring since I had to be with her in school in the morning, rush home after class and then get ready for work in the afternoon. Thank God for bringing me through the tough week!

Will post about the school excursion to the farm soon!

Well done Trinity!

All of us who send our kids to Trinity's nursery should really pause a moment and give it our most sincere thanks, because it offers awesome value for free!  After sitting in a Julia Gabriel class over the past week, I made a mental list of what I liked and dislike about the class.

What I liked was that Jan got to interact with and learn from other kids of her age group.  I also appreciated some new ideas of activities we could do with Jan (e.g. playing with playdoh).  Jan also learned more about how to feed herself!

However, I found that even for professionally trained teachers, it was not easy to engage children of this age using a classroom format--much of the time half of the children were lost in their own worlds.  Also, the instructor led parts of the session was only 1 hour long (the remaining hour is free play), so I find it a bit short...

So if I think of the session in a slightly simplistic manner, it was not too different from a typical Trinity nursery session!  Music, activities, snacks and play.  Yes, Julia Gabriel has more trained teachers, but Trinity has loving and committed volunteers!  Haha...think my church is going to get me be a spokesperson for the nursery.  Three cheers to Trinity's nursery!

I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet

We went to the zoo during one of the past weekends!  I haven't been to the zoo for quite a while, so it was probably as exciting for me as it was for Jan.  I rediscovered this world class treasure that we have in Singapore.  I was really impressed with how the place is setup, such that visitors can have close-up experience with a huge variety of animals, not be obstructed by cages and fences, and enjoy shade from Singapore's blazing sun.

Unfortunately, Jan was not feeling very well that day, so she didn't get to see much of the park.  Moreover, the park was rather crowded that day, so that further dampened our experience.

Nonetheless, I would want to go back there again.  I think it is a great place to visit, especially when you bring kids.  It is the perfect place for me and pt to bring alive all the animals we have shown Jan on picture books.  Moreover, there were a lot of informative display boards about animals in the park, and I think we adults can benefit much from the park too.  However, next time I would prefer to take leave on a weekday to go, hopefully it will be less crowded and more enjoyable.

Oh ya, if you are wondering what the title of this post mean, it is the title of a story that we frequently read to her.

Below:

1. The famous (probably now infamous) white tiger. 
2. Jan with a tired face...she was feeling sleepy for most part of the trip
3. These otters were really funny.   They would move around as if they were stuck to one another.

  

What should you learn next, papa?

Frequently I find myself spending time with Jan but have no idea what activity I should do with her.  I really want to make full use of the time to do something enjoyable together, and even better, teach her some useful skills.  Occasionally, I stumble into a good idea...but more often I am just blank.

So far, I found it useful to go to books and websites for help.  They have given me ideas of what skills I should focus on helping Jan develop, as well as recommended activities that I can do with her.

Moreover, once Jan master whatever skill that I want to impart, I will need to find new activities and new skills to impart her.  So I can't just learn once and the relax.

It's a constant learning journey for us parents!