Teacher in school updates on what they have done whenever we pick up our kid. Today, Cyrus rejected his lunch. He doesn't like pasta it seems? So all he had for lunch was banana. Luckily, today they had cookery lesson. I think they were learning about fruits? Teacher told me that they had a chance to taste durian and mandarin oranges. Cyrus didn't like the taste of durian and spat it out but he ate the mandarin orange.
Well, surprise surprise! Today, Daddy took Cyrus to school while I waited in the car. To my surprise, Cyrus did not make a huge fuss! Daddy let Cyrus press the door bell and passed him to the Chinese teacher. The Chinese teacher sat him down on the chair, removed his shoes and did the visual health check. No crying still! He even bade Daddy goodbye.
Later when daddy came back to the car, he told me that Cyrus whined a little but no major crying.
Awww... is it because it's Daddy who brought him to school? Or it's because he understands he needs to go to school daily? In any way, Cyrus has done a marvellous job. So has the patient teachers there! Hope he enjoys school life and will be ready for a full day stay.
As expected, Cyrus cried the minute he realised that he was going to stay in school again. On the first day, he walked into the school, to the dining area, oblivious of the fact that he was going to be left in school. On the second day, he did not cry until he sat down. Today, he saw the Chinese teacher and tried to turn around and run while we were still outside. I quickly carried him and put him on the chair. He started crying even before i removed his shoes! Luckily asst teacher came out and quickly carried him. I made a quick exit once again.
Later in the afternoon, when I went to fetch him, Teacher Adeline said that he was okay, cried on and off. When they were going out for a walk, he made a little fuss but as soon as he realised that they were just going out for a walk, he was okay. However, he cried again when they were returning to school and he realised that he had to go back in.
Anyway, he finished all his lunch today and had 2 slices of apple! Good job Cyrus!
Cyrus is continuing with his school today after a long break. The other time, Grandma was the one who brought him there. Today, I got to bring him there. There is indeed a big improvement from him recently. Today he demonstrated fantastic eating skills. He managed to finish a big bowl of omelette and ham all by himself. Did most of the scooping by himself. I'm really proud of him! He wasn't very interested in circle time or story telling, but he liked the toys there. Played with the toys quite a bit and did a fair share of craft work. I hope that in time to come, he'll be able to adapt to the life in school. We are going to start him on a half day school first come this Monday.
Today, I took uccl because it was Celeste's parent-teacher meeting day. Celeste's progress in school is good as usual. Ms Serena Tan mentioned that there's no major issues about her. She's very mature and a high ability student. However, her chinese teacher, although said that Celeste is a very keen learner, she does not speak well in Mandarin and needs lots of practice in speaking mandarin. She urged us to create a mandarin speaking environment for her so that she would lose out in future. Overall, I think Celeste is progressing very well and there's no need to worry about her.
Cyrus is on the opposite end though. We finally managed to see dr lee today. Seems like mummy is not wrong to be worried about him. Dr lees said that he does seem like not on the norm for his cognitive skills. However, she also told us to monitor more and go back for a review in three months time as it's still too early to assess whether he has autism. His lack of response to us and name is a worry but she emphasises that his ability to point, good eye contact does not seem to put him on the spectrum. So she's really positive about it and reassures me that she doesn't really think he has autism. Hope it's just a wrong feeling from me and Cyrus will grow to respond better in months to come. Perhaps he is really slower cognitively. Hope to have an answer soon so that early intervention can be done.
Anyway, at 15months, Cyrus is 11.3kg but not sure of his height as the nurse did not manage to take his height due to the room we were supposed to use being taken up.
Oh yes, dr lee also said Cyrus should not be watching any TV, iPad or iPhones. Need to ensure he doesn't get sucked into TV. He really needs to learn to focus.
Daddy took some photos of Celeste having outdoor play @ Bethesda through the fence. She looks like she's enjoying it! :)
It's finally the last day of Celeste's Chinese Holiday program @ Han Language Centre (Woodlands). Relieved that it's over. Hehe.. Dragging Celeste to class this week was horrible. Despite that, I am glad that I signed her up. She is trying to speak more Mandarin now. She still didn't learn to identify words in the program like I had hoped, but at least, she is speaking Mandarin. Anyway, here's the story why I dreaded bringing her for lessons this week...
When I first chanced upon the Chinese Holiday program, it was actually Hua Language Centre that caught my eye. It's 2 week program looked interesting and I thought it would be a good idea to sign Celeste up for some lessons. Unfortunately, the dates did not suit me as I was still working and I signed Celeste up with Han Language Centre, thinking that with Han's reputation, the program offered would be better.
I was wrong. For the first lesson, although Celeste was happy to attend the lesson, I found out that the kids mainly did worksheets and had some story telling by the teacher. For 2 hours they were there, they completed a 6-7pg worksheet and did coloring. I asked Celeste in front of the teacher if she enjoyed the lesson, her innocent response was: No! Boring! I don't blame her. Who can sit down for 2 hours just to do worksheets?! Even I would feel bored.
I talked to the teacher and asked her about Celeste's progress, she told me that I just need to read more to Celeste and that Celeste is able to sit through the 2hr. Hah. That was the first lesson.
Subsequently in the week, the same old routine happened in class. Worksheets, stories by the teacher, perhaps some singing by the CD and goodbye. Celeste went into the classroom ok, not terribly excited, and came out happy to see me.
The next week came the problems. After 3 days of no lessons, Celeste went back to class unhappy. She kept asking me if we were going for Chinese lesson. Dense me did not notice that she was actually unwilling to go for lessons until I saw her red eyes when we arrived at the carpark. Her usual complaint: TIRED. But I dragged her into the classroom and the teacher took over. Luckily, the teacher is caring and patient and could tolerate Celeste's nonsense. When I picked her up, Celeste was back to normal, extremely glad that the lesson was over. :p
The next 3 days were battling days. We bribed Celeste with food that she loved, shows that I would bring her to watch and places we would go if she behaved herself when she went for the lesson. It was a huge relief to see her enter the classroom with red eyes and not bursting into tears.
It is a lesson to be learned. Mummy should ALWAYS enquire more about the teacher and the class. It was my mistake not asking more about the program and assuming that it would be "FUN" as it stated on the brochure.
It was definitely not fun and I am not signing up with Han Language for next year. Would be trying out Berries which managed to convince me with their program that it is indeed learning through play. Very important for kids this age to learn through play. If just do worksheets, I can do it myself at home.
It's Celeste's last year at Little Learners. She's the oldest and therefore the biggest in the class. Nonetheless, she loves going to school because of the loving teachers. Despite the fact that the curriculum there isn't much, I'm just glad to send her there simply because she likes it there. Happy that she is finally graduating. I find that she is a bit overaged there. Haha.. :p A bit paiseh...
