J's first week of school

J's first week at school FINALLY ended! It had been a LONG and tortuous week for all of us at home.

We started his first week already not on a very good note....On his first day, we arrived at 8.30a.m., we were greeted by the school's admin staff...who told us to go to one of the classroom for him to have breakfast. It was CHAOTIC in the classroom...kids running around, talking...some eating their breakfast on their own at the tables. And to make things worse, we did not even know who his form teacher was going to be. I was allowed to accompany him for the first 3 days and he seemed pretty happy.

The first day went by quite fast coz it was just half day and we took him home slightly after lunch.

The second day was ok...except that J almost fell into the deep pool (1.8m deep) while having waterplay time because his teachers didn't notice him running out of the "allowed" play area and off to the deep pool. I could not have imagined what would have happened should I have not been there. To us...that had been an issue and we started to question if the teachers were even experienced looking after kids that young.

The third day was when it all went out of control...J was resisting being in the toilet for diaper change and he ran out of the toilet on his own. AGAIN...no teacher went after him but ME! At that point....I think I just totally lost it! I was really upset with the way the teachers are managing the kids...especially with only 4 kids at that moment. To me...that was the issue. If you cannot manage 4 kids now....I cannot imagine what the situation is going to be like with 4 more kids joining the class in a few weeks' time.

I had to speak with the Principal. Later, I found out that J's form teacher is not experienced with kids in pre-nursery as she had been with the nursery level for the last few years. As a school....shouldn't they be putting someone more experienced at this level since they are the youngest group of children (apart from the infants) who probably need more delicate care and teachers who know how to manage them especially when they are new to the school environment!

Then, everything just went downhill from there. I started to blame myself for putting J in the CC. I was also telling my hubby maybe he's just not ready for school or the school's program is just not as engaging to J as being at home. ALOT ALOT of "MAYBES" went through my mind for the entire week!

We thought that we had prepared him quite well for what to expect...we read him books about school and the fun things he will get to do in school, we brought him for a walk in the school premise and also letting him put on his uniform for a walk at the void deck. We also walked from our home to his school on some weekends and letting him know that was where he was going to attend school at and the route we will be taking.

 With all the preparation we had done with J, we didn't expect that he would react so adversely to being in school. It was as if his personality has changed...from a smiley toddler to a crying toddler! He was so reluctant to go into the school each morning and he was crying almost the entire morning EVERYDAY.

He didn't want to join in any activities, even his favourite play was not enough to make him feel comfortable and want to be there. It really pains me as a mummy to see him cry everyday at school...but I know we don't have a choice because there is simply nobody else at home who can watch over him while hubby and I are at work.

J basically spent the entire week being carried by his teachers all the time. Each day I dropped him off at school, I hang around to peek at him but it really pains me so much seeing him cry. On many occasions, I just wanted to take him home with me but I didn't.

I looked forward to taking him home with me everyday and it's so heart wrenching to see his eyes so swollen from the crying the whole morning and he just didn't seem happy at all.

All we hope for him is be happy to be at school! When Friday came, we were all so relieved that the week was finally over and he didn't have to go to school over the weekends. We just wanted to spend all our time with him, shower him with lots of love and just let him be happy!

We only hope J's crying is only temporary and it would be a better week, NEXT week.

Oven-baked cornflake chicken sticks ~ 6 sticks

 

 

Over the weekend, I bought some chicken breast and thought what dish can I make with them. I wanted to make a new dish for J, so I decided why not combine the chicken breast with his favourite cornflakes. It turned out really well...It was tasty and both us and J enjoyed it very much.

 

It was also a good opportunity for him to practise holding his food in his hand or using a fork to feed himself. :)

 

 

Here's the recipe:

 

Ingredients:

 

50ml milk

1 chicken breast (approx. 120g)

1 egg

Original cornflakes

Plain flour

Rosemary herbs

Black pepper

Canola oil

Salt (optional)

 



 

Method:

1.Cut chicken into strips and soak in milk for 20min.
2. Crush the cornflake until like crumbs( can use blender. I used a rolling pin with cornflakes in a ziplock bag)
3. Prepare egg wash(beat egg in bowl) and a plate of plain flour. Season the cornflake crumbs with some black pepper, rosemary herb n pinch of salt(optional). Remove chicken strips out of milk.
4. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Lightly coat chicken strips with plain flour, then dredge in egg wash followed by cornflake crumbs.
5. Drizzle some oil on the chicken strips. Bake in preheated oven for abt 10-12 min. Or slightly golden brown.
6. Leave to cool for 5min before serving to ur LO.

*recipe is suitable for LO who can bite n chew well.
* It's tasty and even adults will enjoy! :)
*You can serve it with some homemade pasta sauce or ketchup for extra taste.

 

Letters of the Week ~ A to D

It's been a while since I last posted on the blog...J and I have been progressing through our letters of the Alphabets and this week we are onto letter D.

The past weeks since we started on the 'Letters of the Week' had been amazing. Each Monday, J would be greeted with new items in his little suitcase, accompanied by the new letter in his letter factory device! :) He enjoyed exploring them a lot and it's a good way to widen his vocabulary.

So...here's a summary of the various letters of the week:

Fun with ABC

Being a SAHM is really NO easy job! Why do I say so? Amidst the housework, laundry, cooking that you have to do, there is still playing and learning with the LO.

I started researching on the internet for ideas on how to go about teaching J his ABCs. My objectives are simple. At 16 months going onto to 17 months, I am not expecting that he would be able to say, write, know or identify his ABCs immediately. It's more as an exposure for him and help him develop a love for learning & also show him that learning can be so much fun!

As a teacher myself, I have seen the intensity of our education system and the toll it takes on the children. At the Primary levels that I teach, the content that the children have to learn at 7 years old are really quite "deep". Even I, as their teacher, feel that certain content may not be age-appropriate for them. Also, the short curriculum time does not allow children to explore their own learning interest and penalizes children who are slower in understanding concepts. There are current changes to the education system in Singapore, but all these policies TAKE TIME to change. Hopefully, by the time J goes to school, the system would be seeing more improvements! :)

 Enough talking about the school system...so while searching for a possible plan, I came across this website where the author comes up with her own "Letters of the Week" to homeschool her 3 children.

If you are interested, do check out this link: http://www.letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html

 It was indeed a gem found. I really like her ideas...However, I also found that some ideas may not be that suitable for our local context. I only found this after J has turned 1, so did not managed to follow through all her plans. Her "Letters of the Week" plans are meant for 2 years old onwards. So, I try to modify and customize my own "Letters of the Week" for J's learning.

Today is the start of our 3rd "Letter of the Week" lesson. So far, I have been quite pleased with how it has progressed with J with Week 1 and 2. We start off Monday with exploring items in his little suitcase (got this for his 1st birthday party as deco....$$ well-spent. Super useful) Any box will do...recycle your shoebox also can. I put different items starting with that week's letter and a cut-out of the letter using different materials.

Tuesday is supposed to be a reading or learn a song day. So far, I have only managed to do singing because I have no time to compile a reading list. For Wednesday, we have been doodling...using pencil. Will be trying out various materials too in the weeks to come. Or hoping that my hubby can do a 'Chinese day' with him. [Sounds strange? Not really. We are doing bilingual education with J at home, where I speak only English and my hubby speaks only Mandarin to J]

On Thursday, we explore a shape/colour. And on Friday, we explore a number. Weekends? Rest and lots of play for the little boy!!! ;D

As for today....since we started on the letter 'C', I cooked a Chicken, corn and carrot soup for the whole family!!! hee....After dinner today, hubby was suggesting I make carrot cake or corn cupcakes tomorrow!!! hahaha....even daddy is picking up his ABCs all over again! yay :)

Suitcase filled with items associated with letter 'A'

J exploring the use of a pencil & his finished product

His all-time favourite...playing his piano

All these are just mental notes for me right now...I'm hoping that I would be able to put these plans into writing for reference. :)

For mummies who are also thinking about what to do with your LOs, why not try this out?!

Oh yes...forgot to mention also that as you are trying the plan out with your LO, it is good to have an idea what kind of learner he/she is. For J, he's a kinaesthetic & auditory learner.

Basically, he needs to SEE and TOUCH things in order to understand & explore them. And he loves music and anything with sounds, hence HEARING activities are also good for him. So accompanying the suitcase, we also bought the Leapfrog letter factory toy which when a letter is inserted and pressed on, it sings the letter and its sound. We found that he was very interested in the learning and he is actually picking up the letters quite well.

Letter Factory

If anyone have other good ideas, please please please share with me! So I can explore with J. Thanks. If you do try them out, let me know if it works for your LO.

**If anyone has good ideas on how I can get J interested in learning colours and shapes....pls leave me a comment! Haiz...He is totally not keen on shapes and colours. Not even with activities.

Fish Baked Rice~ 1 serving, 250g

One of my personal favourite dishes is a yummy baked rice. While preparing J's dinner last weekend, I thought why not try something different, rather than the usual rice with dishes and soup.

Probably at his age, he's not so concerned with how the food looks, but rather how it tastes. Although using the same usual ingredients that J is familiar with, it's with a TWIST.

And yay! J loves it so much, he was asking for more! Initially, I thought he would not be able to finish the portion I prepared...but surprise surprise...he FINISHED all!

Having said that, many of my recipes shared on this blog are self-created or modified to suit the taste of my LO.

Ingredients:
100-120g cooked rice (this proportion will depend on how much your LO is currently eating)
Homemade pasta sauce ~ Check out this link for the recipe: http://jschronicle.blogspot.sg/p/simple-pasta-sauce.html
50-60g fish (I used threadfin. Other options: codfish, salmon, even meat)
1 small egg
1 tsp chopped onion
1 tsp chopped corn
1 tsp chopped carrots.
1 tsp chopped broccoli
2 slices cheese [I tried regular cheese~adults eat + Bega string cheese~J eats: see below for more explanation on the cheese.]

Method:
1. Heat some butter/olive oil. Sautee the onion, corn, carrot and broccoli until soft.
2. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.
3. Add in the cooked rice. Beat an egg into the rice and vegetable mixture until cooked.
4. Put the fried rice into a small baking glassware, top with slices of fish and bake in oven for about 10 min or until the fish is slightly cooked.
5. Pour the homemade pasta sauce over the fish and top with cheese.
6. Bake in oven until cheese melts and slightly brown.
7. Leave to cool for a while before serving. Straight out of the oven can be scald LOs' tongue.

**Recipe is good for toddlers (1 yr old onwards...or if they can already chew rice well) & adults. For adults, add seasoning if you like and adjust the portion accordingly.

**As mentioned earlier, I used 2 different kinds of cheese: Regular cheddar & Bega String cheese. Overall, I found the texture of the regular one much easier to eat for J after baking as it still remains quite creamy. On the hand, the Bega string cheese turned out a little rubbery after baking (somewhat similar texture to mozzarella), which was a little difficult for J to chew & swallow. I had to remove the layer of string cheese while feeding.

**Recipe can be modified to have pasta instead of rice. For pasta, I would suggest, you mix together with the pasta sauce before putting in to bake.

**Hope ur LOs love it as much as mine did! :)

Bite-sized Veggie balls

Ah....so here I am getting on with my batch cooking and trying out new dishes for J after almost 2 months. We are quite glad J is settled to being back home but having such an active toddler at home with no extra pair of hands makes it really difficult to prepare a meal without him screaming for attention.So batch cooking has always been a great solution for me!

That also reminds me that I need to start drafting his weekly meal plans so I know exactly what to prepare in huge quantities! :)

So, to start off...I modified a previously posted vegetable nuggets recipe using slightly simple ingredients and steps.

Tada! Veggie balls..

Ingredients:
2 medium potatoes
120g Japanese pumpkin
1 corn (remove from cob)
1/2 small yellow onion
pepper
plain flour
1 egg
breadcrumbs (I used the Korean breadcrumbs...basically any kind of breadcrumbs also can. I have tried using cream cracker crumbs before. The taste was so good but it's on the oily side, especially for little tummies... )


Method:
1. Boil potato and pumpkin until soft. Mash together.
2. Chop the corn and onion until fine.
3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Mix the corn and onion together with the potato mixture. Season lightly with black pepper.
4. Take some mixture and roll into small balls.
5. Lightly coat with plain flour, then egg wash then dredge with breadcrumbs.
6. Drizzle with some olive oil and bake in the oven for 15-20 min or until slightly golden brown. Half way through baking, you may want to toast it around the tray a little to ensure all sides are nicely brown.
7. Leave to cool a while before serving. Can be too hot for LO when the veggie balls are just out of the oven.


**Recipe is good for toddlers (1 yr old and onwards) and adults. For adults, I normally fry then sprinkle some salt...hee. More flavourful mah! Original tastes as good too. :)

**Much healthier than store bought ones. All natural flavourings. And most importantly, you know exactly what goes into the food your LO is eating.

**To save time, make them in advance and store in a Tupperware to freeze w/o baking/frying. Cook only when you want to serve.

**Lastly, ENJOY!!

Bound for Singapore!

28 Dec 2013: This morning, the packers came to pack up our stuff in preparation of our return to Singapore. They were very efficient...with the boxes out of our house within a few hours and off they go to the yard. 59 BOXES in total...all bound for Singapore!

Mummy....where are we going??

31 Dec 2013: This day is a very special for our family, as it marks the end of our 2 years journey living in HCMC and we go back to our home. These 2 years spent in HCMC was unforgettable. Many wonderful things happened to us and we forge really good friendship while there.

Most importantly also was the fact that J was also conceived there and he had spent the past 16 months living in HCMC. It's going to be a major transition for us coming home, and especially to our own house which J has never lived in before.

As for me, it's also quite a change....from having a part-time helper at home and housekeeping to handle all the cleaning to just me alone with J. To be really honest, I am quite stressed out just by the thought of it. And I don't know how many people would be able to comprehend my situation.

Anyhow, we are really thankful to have found a wonderful helper during our stay in HCMC. Someone who loves J and have helped us to take good care of him for the past one year. And whether or not he would actually remember who she is in future, he would be able to see this blog and know that this aunty has taken care of him before.

J and Aunty Haiyen