Mr Men

As part of the festive period, several malls in town are now holding thematic shows -anything I guess to attract the festive dollar.

Last Friday, we brought Faith along to Centrepoint for the live Mr Men show. To give some context, Faith is no stranger to the Mr Men and Little Misses series. In her collection of bed-time books, she has Ms Whoops, Mr Noisy, Mr Good and Mr Grumpy.

Indeed, the Mr Men series conjures up childhood memories even for myself and Eve and it is quite amazing that it has survived - and evolved one generation later to include the Little Misses series - a reflection of gender consciousness I guess. In writing this blog, thus, I decided to check out more about the series...and what really made it tick for me when I was young and why it continues to intrigue kids like Faith.
According to the Mr Men official website, "The Mr Men and Little Misses show invite children into a world filed with characters of different dispositions- to put it mildly! - who regularly come in conflict with each other and still manage to co-exist rather happily. This is the important "stuff" of early childhood:
- finding out everyone doesn't see the world the way you do
- learning to make and keep friends despite conflicts
- beginning to recognise and label feelings, your own and others

The world of the Mr Men and Little Misses is a reflection of the kinds of social and emotional issues children are facing and working out for themselves. Most important with respect to learning, it's a world that invites children to laugh along as our characters try to negotiate their day to day lives.
If you are four-years old and afraid of the dark, or bugs, or monsters in the closet, it's no laughing matter. But if you can laugh when Mr Nervous encounters a bug, this may allow you to take a step back and see yourself in a more light-hearted way. Sometimes it's hard for you to admit when you are wrong and there's Mr Stubborn. Sometimes you're grumpy or rude or feel lazy or like a dare-devil or are just terribly happy. And some days nothing goes right, just like it doesn't for Mr Bump or Little Miss Calamity.

So not only does the series offer a way to begin to see things from others' point of view (perspective taking), it gives children a way to lighten up about what feel like serious matters when they happen to them. Happy one minute, Grumpy the next. The parade of characters across the screen is also a mirror in which children can see themselves."

It all makes sense really and to be sure, no kid will think so deeply when interacting with the different characters in the Mr Men series. But I remember when I was young that I was able to identify with different characters when I was reading the books in the series which in a way kept me wanting to read more because each time I read them, there seemed to be a piece of each character I could identify with. Now, after reading the excerpt from the official website, it is really quite ingenious that a person could dream up something like the Mr Men series.

For those of you uninitiated to the Mr Men series, here's introducing the cast of Mr Men that we saw on stage last Friday:

Mr. Rude
Mr. Rude is the forty-fifth book in the Mr. Men series by Roger Hargreaves and the second one created by Adam Hargreaves. A new character has appeared. He is called “Mr. Rude” and has a French accent (alluding to the stereotype that the French are rude people). Mr. Rude is rude to everyone, as his name suggests. He insults a man with a big nose and an overweight woman. To the overweight woman he says "Fatty!, you're supposed to eat the things in the fridge, not eat the fridge as well!" Mr. Rude is published as Monsieur Mal-Elevé in French.

Mr. Bump
Mr. Bump is the sixth book in the Mr. Men series. Mr. Bump can't help having accidents. He takes a vacation and falls off a boat, falls into a deep hole at the beach. When he wants a job, the best job is walking around and bumping into trees on Mr. Barley's apple orchard, making the apples fall off the trees.

In Mr. Bump Loses His Memory - in which he falls out of his bedroom window and bump his head, promptly causing him to lose his memory. He is told, by Mr. Muddle that his name is, in fact, Mr. Careful, causing our confused Mr. Bump to try several jobs for which great care is needed, such as carrying eggs and delivering milk in glass bottles. His memory is restored when he walks into a tree... and then he promptly falls into a river.

In the 2008 TV series The Mr. Men Show, Mr. Bump is a regular character. He keeps his looks and is always having accidents, more often than not non-bump-related ones such as accidentally being cleaned in a car wash. Like Mr. Grumpy and Mr. Small, his favorite food is liverwurst sandwiches, as mentioned in the Beach episode. He lives in a square house which is olive, with a black chimney, arched windows and a bandaged roof. Often, Little Miss Whoops (or Little Miss Helpful) is the cause of his accidents. He also lives next door to Miss Whoops, and is her brother, much to his dismay. His catchphrase in the show is, "Poopity poop," usually exclaimed when his situation turns bad.

Mr. Bump appears under the titles Monsieur Malchance (French), Don Pupas (Spanish), Meneer Pech/Meneertje Bots (Dutch), Ο Κύριος Σκουντούφλης (Greek), 意外先生 (Taiwan), 꽈당씨 (Korean), Mr. Hergwd (Welsh), Unser Herr Schussel (German), Fætter Bumle (Danish), מר נזק Mar Nezek-Mr. Damage (Hebrew), Herra Skellur (Icelandic).

Little Miss Sunshine
Little Miss Sunshine is the fourth book in the Little Miss series. There was a King who lived in a castle in Miseryland. Little Miss Sunshine is on holiday. She saw a sign saying "This way to Miseryland." So she was on her way to Miseryland. She saw a Guard at the Bridge Door. Little Miss Sunshine gave the Guard a Big Smile. Then the Guard took her to see the King of Miseryland and she had an idea. So Little Miss Sunshine and the king went back to her car. Finally she made a new picket sign saying "Laughter Land" and she boomed an enormous laugh then the king laughed too. Little Miss Sunshine is one of the happiest people in the world, besides Mr. Happy and Mr. Cheerful.

Little Miss Sunshine is a regular in the 2008 TV series The Mr. Men Show. She keeps her looks and personality, and runs a morning show called "Good Morning Dillydale" with her partner, Mr. Happy. Her voice is very perky, almost to the point of ditzyness. Her house is pink, with a flowerbed, and flowers on the house as well. In the UK and US Versions, she is voiced by Alicyn Packard and Jo Wyatt.

Little Miss Sunshine has been published under the alternative titles of Madame Bonheur (French), Doña Sonrisas (Spanish), Unsere Sonja Sonnenschein (German), Mevrouwtje Zonnestraal (Dutch), Η Κυρία Γελαστούλα (Greek), 樂觀小姐 (Taiwan), 밝아양 (Korean).

Mr. Happy

Mr. Happy is the third book in the Mr Men series. Mr Happy discovers Mr. Miserable (who looks exactly like him) and helps him become happy. In Mr. Happy and the Wizard, Mr. Happy finds a wizard's spell book, and decides to use spells to make people happier. But things don't work out quite as he planned.

Mr. Happy in the 2008 TV series The Mr. Men Show looks exactly as he did in the books. He co-hosts a morning show called "Good Morning Dillydale" with Little Miss Sunshine. His catchphrase: "Wonderful!" He also has a deepish voice, sounding like a stereotyped game-show host. In the UK and US Versions, he is voiced by Sam Gold and Simon Greenall. Mr Happy spent many years as the official face of Glasgow's Miles Better campaign.

Mr. Happy appears under the titles Monsieur Heureux (French), Don Feliz (Spanish), Mr. Hapus (Welsh), Unser Herr Glücklich (German), Meneer Blij/Meneertje Vrolijk (Dutch), Ο Κύριος Χαρούμενος (Greek), 快樂先生 (Taiwan), 행복씨 (Korean), Fætter Glad (Danish), Gubben Lycklig (Swedish).

Little Miss Naughty
Little Miss Naughty is the second book in the Little Miss series. Little Miss Naughty loves to play practical jokes. She awakens one day thinking it looks like a good day for being naughty. She knocks Mr. Uppity's hat off his head, breaks Mr. Clever's glasses, and strips Mr. Bump of his bandages placing them on Mr. Small. The Mr. Men hold a meeting to decide what to do. Mr. Small meets with Mr. Impossible, who can make himself invisible, and each time Little Miss Naughty tries to do something naughty, Mr. Impossible tweaks her nose and it cures Little Miss Naughty of her naughtiness.

In the 2008 TV series The Mr. Men Show, she retains her purple color and shape, but now has curly pink hair, fuchsia nose, pink rosy cheeks, wears a neon green bow, and also has a Transylvanian accent in the U.S. version and Bristol accent in the U.K. version. Her catchphrase: "Sometimes I just can't help myself." On occasion, her pranks backfire on her. In the US and UK Versions, she is voiced by Alicyn Packard and Jo Wyatt.

Little Miss Naughty has been published under the alternative titles of Madame Canaille (French), Dona Traviesilla (Spanish), Unsere Ulla Ungezogen (German), Mevrouwtje Stout (Dutch), Η Κύριος Ατακτούλα (Greek), 장난양 (Korean), 淘氣小姐 (Taiwan).

Happy 5th anniversary!

5 years ago, at this time (close to mignight) on Nov 23, Eve and I were in our bridal suite with our closest bunch of IDA friends. All the other guests had left by then, but true to form, this group had stayed on and accompanied us as we ate our late night supper rolled in by in-room dining.

Last night, coincidentally, this same group of friends had come over to our place, as CP had come back from Indonesia for his mum's birthday. This time round instead of in-room dining, YM had brought along some buns from a famous pau store. Instead of the hotel champagne, we had a bottle of Bailey's and Choya to share. In place of the hotel room, the gang accomodated us by meeting us in our humble HDB flat just so we could meet up with them, whilst Faith slept in the room.

Eve and I had not realised how surreal it was that we would have this same group of friends on a last-minute rendevous till 2am last night just laughing and talking. Such is life after 5 yrs together and Eve and I wouldn't have wanted it any other day. The sweetest memories are the ones we share together, and it doesn't take a fancy restaurant or big party to make us realise that we have constantly been blessed - by having our friends, our family, ourselves and now Faith in our lives.

It is 1 now and as I write this, Eve is asleep, having been exhausted by Faith who had a 2-hour afternoon nap - and probably as a result, had some problems getting to sleep tonight.

It is nice just thinking how the last 24 hours have passed - after our friends left at 2am, we joined Faith in bed; I woke up at 9am for my usual badminton session while Faith and Eve slept in till close to 10; when I came home, Eve and I brought Faith over to mum's place - just as we always do on the weekends. And after that, we went to AMK Hub where we treated ourselves to a nice lunch - nothing fancy like last year's Saint Pierre dinner - this time round to "New York, New York" - a restaurant almost like Swensens - but serving better food at less than $20. After that, it was off to NTUC - like we always do. And then, it was back to home to do our X'mas tree - we wanted to surprise Faith when she got home that night. And after that, it was dinner at the former Oasis restaurant - now in Toa Payoh - it is amazing how porridge could taste so delicious especially in a rainy weather.

In short, a simple anniversary day, yet another nice one. Life's simplest pleasures are indeed the best ones.

Yet, I cannot let this day go without doing something special for Eve. While there has not been any flowers or gifts or a fancy dinner - we do have lots of memories of how far we have come and how different life has been even if we look back one year. Here's just a few to remind us - when we look back come next year 2009.

From bloom to bloom...

From home to home ...
From lounge to lounge... From hugs to hugs... From smile to smile ...

Our very own X'mas tree

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree! How are thy leaves so verdant!
For every year the Christmas tree, Brings to us all both joy and glee.

- Lyrics of 'O'Christmas Tree'

It all started about a month ago. Eve and I had just dropped off MIL at her place and we were on the way back via Marymount Road. As our car descended down the windy road next to the old age home, a large sign at the Goodwood Florist caught Eve's eyes "Early bird special - 49.50 for Christmas Tree".

From that moment on, I knew - for the first time, we would be having our very own Christmas Tree in our house.

Ever since we had our own place, Eve has been toying with the idea of a Christmas tree in our house. Each year however, we would be too busy to get it done - mainly because of year-end travel plans. This year however, things have turned out a little differently. I've been working out of Singapore for year-end, and as for Eve - with Faith being grown up and with classes coming to an end, this year seemed as good as any to do what Eve has always dreamt of.

So it was with much determination that Eve went about selecting the right Christmas tree. The first decision was whether we should be getting a real or fake tree. The latter is actually more expensive than a real one, but of course, the fake tree may be used more than once. We were also concerned that the real tree might end up shedding the pines quite frequently and we would end up having to clean the place rather frequently. Plus, we weren't sure if the real trees would have some sort of sprayed on chemicals to lengthen the life of the trees in transit - and this would not be ideal since it would only be expected that Faith would be touching the tree. A decision was thus fairly quickly made - our family's first Xmas tree would be an artificial tree.

Once we decided on that, we (mainly Eve) shopped around for an ideal tree. You'd be surprised how different trees can be - even for fake trees. After checking out Toys R Us, NTUC, Tangs and Robinsons, we finally settled on the tree in Tangs - it provided best value for money given that it had the "look" we wanted without being overly pricey.

Next came the decorations - and this time round, Eve made all the decisions - right down from what colour the decors would be, the type of tree-skirting, to what kind of lights we would be using. We obtained most of our decors from Robinsons and Far East Flora.

With all the equipment purchased last evening, we were all set to fix up the Xmas tree. Fortunately for us, our bunch of close IDA friends had come to our place last evening for supper and had helped us set up the tree. One friend acrimonoiusly warned us "I don't mind setting up the tree - just don't ask me to help pack it up". And I soon realise what he meant - the fixing in this case was really as easy as fixing an "air-fix" model - one needed to just join parts that were clearly specified. However, because the lights and decors needed to be "wired" on to the branches, one would imagine that the "packing" of the tree, might take as much time. This would especially be true if we are hoping to keep the packaging as compact as when we first got it before unpacking.

Nonetheless, Xmas tree decoration turned out to be really quite fun. And Eve and I spent our wedding anniversary afternoon on this joint project stringing the lights, tying ribbons and fixing up the decors. We are both really looking forward to the time when Faith would be able to join us in this family activity.

So as of today, Eve and I are proud owners of a beautiful Xmas tree in our living room. Though we aren't sure when exactly we will be taking it down, we are glad we did it this early so that Faith would get a more glittery Xmas this year.

As I write this, the lights in the living room have been switched off - all that remains is the hint of soft lights from our first Xmas tree.

Pat's Schoolhouse

Last week, I was at Halifax Road, checking out the facilities of the Chiltern House branch there. There was a Pat's Schoolhouse just 2 doors away and I decided to take a look.

Was telling my cousin before about our shortlisted choices of pre-nursery schools and she told me to consider and check out Pat's Schoolhouse too. So there I was, even though I wasn't having any high hopes, carrying out what I thought would be necessary due diligence.

The school occupied a bigger compound, compared to the other schools that were lined up along that stretch of Halifax Road. I made my way in through what was supposed to be the front door and tread in an empty stretch of corridor, in search of the usual reception lobby. There was none. I saw an open door with 2 persons inside and knocked hesitantly on the door before explaining the reason for my interruption.

The woman sitting nearest to me was chirpy and friendly. She bounced up and started to talk to me, bringing me on a tour of the school for about 1/2 an hour. I was skeptical right from the beginning, quick to dismiss it as one of the usual run-of-the-mill type of school. At the end of that half hour, I changed my earlier opinion. I was actually excited about the prospect of the school.

What strike me most about the school was its philosophy and teaching method. In all, none of the schools took pains to run through the curriculum with me in detailed. But this lady took me into an existing class and started to show and explain to me about the alphabet charts stuck onto the walls of the class.

I can't remember what was the method of teaching called, but it was adapted from a person from the UK, who had first developed it for under-privilege students (similar to the Montessori story). Instead of placing emphasis on learning to recognise and write all 26 alphabets, children were encouraged to associate words & stories to each of them. For example, C is for Clever Cat, H is for Harry Hat & K is for Kicking King. The beginning sound that the tongue makes in pronouncing all the words is the same as what the alphabet would sound like i.e. C makes the sound "ker".

The idea behind it is to lay the foundation for each child to be able to then use the alphabets to construct and deconstruct words in order to help them to spell and read in future. This concept became clearer when I went into the classroom of either a N2 or K1 class - couldn't remember which.

In this class, there were works of the children's mathematics assignment pasted up on the board. It was a colourful array of A4-sized papers, with different drawings, drawn and coloured by the children, each accompanied by another small piece of paper on which a mathematics problem was written.

Just as an example, one of the work on the board was of 2 trees; one with 15 green apples and 7 red apples, painstakingly done. On the paper attachment of that artwork was this accompanying paragraph, "There are 15 green apples on one tree and 7 red apples on the other tree. How many apples are there altogether?".

A few things strike me as I looked at all these works by the children. Firstly, these were all grammatically correct paragraphs and written very legibly. Secondly, even though it was only 2 sentences in that paragraph, it required a few skills of the children at that tender age to put together - the ability to transfer their creativity of a thought-out scenario on paper by way of th drawings, to form and construct proper sentences in English, to spell every word and also, to create a mathematical problem at the base of it.

I asked if these problems were all created by every single child and if they had had help at all. The proud reply from the lady was that yes, it was all based on the individual creativity of every child, although there was help given by the teacher for the spellings. That was when she went to a nearby shelf and started to open up a few exercise books of the children to show me what she meant.

Initially, I was a little confounded. In one of the exercises, there were two paragraphs of words written. Top paragraph of words, while in English, seemed to be filled with typos and words that I couldn't decipher. The second paragraph read correctly and mirrored the mathematics problems that were pasted on the artwork.

The lady started to read the entire first paragraph aloud to me and that was when it dawned on me. I couldn't remember the spellings but a few words strike out at me. Friends was spelt "frans" and altogether was spelt "altogada".

In essence, the children were told to construct in English a mathematical problem and write them down on their own. These were the first para of every exercise books, the ones that were filled with wrong spellings, although some were correct. They then go through these with the teacher, who would then help them with the grammar and spellings.

What was incredible was that even though the children might not have learnt to spell every single word at that age, they were using their best efforts to decode and deconstruct the words according to how they would pronounce them. Hence, while "altogada" was the wrong spelling, you can't quite fault the boy for spelling it this way becos it kinda sounded like that. And I thought altogether was a fairly long word to spell at that age.

In short, what was taught to the children at N1 & N2 to learn the alphabets through sounds would later on help them to read and recognise words and in turn, help them to spell.

Coming out from the tour, this progressive teaching was what impressed me most! And it was done in a way that was fun but at the same time, achieving the goal of helping children to prepare for primary school.

Each of the Pat's Schoolhouses also came with a music room with a teacher that was solely dedicated on providing music lessons to the entire 150 students of the centre. That room had a piano and different types of percussion instruments too.

Apart from that, the lady also explained to me that they use a lot of cooking lessons to teach and interest the children, employing the use of the 5 senses like touching and smelling etc.

The outdoor playground facilities weren't much to crow about really. There's just the usual array of outdoor toys in the small little porch out front. The emphasis of the school, as I can see is very much on developing the children academically, albeit in a fun way.

Unlike the long waiting list for SJCK, Pat's SH appears not to have such issues. Registration for N1 in 2010 only opens in Jun 09 and the lady assured me if one registers by Aug or Sept, there shouldn't be any issues about vacancies. Of course, after she shared with me the school fees, I could figure out why. It costs an astounding $909 (nett) before subsidy per month for a half day (starting from 8.30 am to 12.30 pm) session, 5 days a week at N1.

On the bilingual focus, Pat's SH is similar to CH, in that there seems to be an equal spilt of English and Mandarin activities each day.

I found out later that the woman who tooked me on the tour and spent considerable time explaining to me was the principal of the Halifax Road outlet :) No wonder she seemed to know every detail at the tip of her fingers.

I shared this with Louis after the visit to the school. We agreed that the curriculum and teaching method sounded fantastic. Our reservations were of course, the cost and also the fact that for most of all Pat's SH outlets, it is only a single session for 1/2 day classes, which starts around 8.30 am. The only exception is its Claymore Road branch, which has an afternoon 1/2 day class.

Nonetheless, the ranking of the schools have somewhat changed with this visit. We see CH & Pat's SH to be on par, followed by SJCK.

What is your name?

"Faith!"

Or rather, she manages to say what sounds like "Faye" in response to us asking her "what's your name?"

I don't suppose Faith is an easy name for early speakers. At 1 year 7 months, 3 weeks and 4 days old, she uttered her name for the first time. We were heading back after dropping my mom home when she said her name in the car.

Pleasantly surprised, I praised her for getting her name right and then I popped the question, "What's your name?"

"FAYE!", came the resounding reply from the back of the car.

Tickled, Louis took his turn to ask her again, "What's your name?"

"FAYE!". This time, reply was tinged with quite a bit of pride at her own little achievement.

She made us play a little game of taking turns to ask her her name and shouting her name in pure delight, giggling every time we praised her for it.

Ahhh... it may seem like such a little thing, yet it made our night for Louis and me :)

Laduree macarons

That's right. These are the real deal straight from Laduree's Champs-Elysee outlet in Paris.

Supposedly, they were to be our anniversary present, compliments of our best man in anticipation of our upcoming 5th year wedding anniversary. I said supposedly becos Louis and I adamantly refused to acknowledge perishable goods for presents ;)

In all seriousness, it was the sweetest gesture. CP's like my "soul mate" when it comes to our love for food. We generally share near-exact sentiments about our likes and dislikes of food, food preparations and even right down to how we like our food to be served and eaten. Even though I've yet to try the renown Pierre Herme's famous macarons, the ones from Laduree were what I used to crow about to him.

He called on early Tue morning to tell me that he's only in town for a short one and a half day and wanted to find out if I've got time that day to meet him. He refused to say why he gave such short notice of his return to town nor the reason for which brought him back.

All becos he wanted to surprise me in person with these macarons from Laduree. Lucky guy took a 2-week trip to France to meet up with his many friends there, travelling from the Northwest to the Southeast of France. Along the way, he had himself many a gastronomic adventures too.

Sharing yet another common soft spot for the "caramel-sel" flavoured ones, he made sure there were 2 of them in the box (out of a total of 8).

Thanks, CP. They still taste great! Louis and I are slowly savouring them.

Registration for Pre-Nursery

It may sound like we're jumping on the bandwagons of the typical "kiasu" Singaporean parents to think about registering Faith for pre-nursery when she's only 19 months.

Let me assure you that we're not. At least, not going by the queue number that we've been allocated for one of the schools.

Louis and I have kinda procrastinated for a while about this topic of putting her name in for pre-nursery at some of the schools here. In fact, we've talked about this a few months ago. One thing lead to another, we did not match words with actions and thus, only found ourselves exploring and evaluating a very short list of schools for consideration now.

The number that we're talking about is... two (2) schools :)

Being a current Julia Gabriel student, she has some sort of priority preference (over normal walk-ins) for pre-nursery at any of the Chiltern House schools. That plus the fact that we are comfortable with the philosophy, curriculum and calibre of teachers, it was a no-brainer that we would consider Chiltern House for her pre-nursery.

Next on the list, through much vouched-for recommendations and word-of-mouth from various sources, was St James Church Kindergarten (SJCK).

We managed to arrange for a visit to both the Chiltern House (various locations) at Turf City & SJCK this week. Here's Louis and my sentiments on the 2 schools, based on the tour provided.

Chiltern House
Concept and philosophy wise, it came as no surprise to us that there's not much explanation or selling needed to be done for CH becos of its affiliation with JG. The admin person who took us on the tour and who explained about the school was very personable, articulate, knowledgeable about the school programmes, syllabus and approach. In short, if one is already a student with Julia Gabriel, I would think the integration or change to CH would be pretty smooth.

The school is housed in an old 2-storey bungalow. Not sure how long the premise has been in used, but while the general conditions of the school appears to be well-used, it was clean and well-maintained.

The Turf City branch is the largest of the CH schools, with 3 outdoor playgrounds for the kids.

St James' Church Kindergarten
I have to say that I was most impressed by the sprawling ground and near-to-nature concept of the school. Becos the school is located in Dempsey, there were things like fruit orchard, herb patch, fish ponds, rabbit huts within the school premises, which would provide the school students with more exposure to mother nature beyond just the normal playgrounds.

Perhaps the expectations of SJCK was higher becos we had heard from many friends and colleagues who highly recommended it. However, we came away from the tour feeling a little disappointed and not particularly impressed with the curriculum or philosophy except for the facilities.

I was told that the Principal of the school was very a dynamic and impressive lady from friends who were lead on the tour by her. Unfortunately, I can't say the same of the VP. From the tone, body language and the way she conducted the tour, one gets the impression that she was going through the motions and would have preferred to spend her time doing something else.

Neither did she seem particular enthusiastic when we asked her about how bilingual classes were conducted. Her reply to us was that there are both an English and a Mandarin teacher in each class, that there's not a lot of emphasis on "structured learning" as pre-nursery children still learn a lot through play, and that the presence of 2 teachers in 2 languages provide exposure of the languages to the students.

When we pressed for further information on the rough amount of time or activities that children were exposed to in English and Mandarin on a daily or even weekly basis, she seemed a little impatient with us, or our line of questioning. Her reply was that in each day of school, only about 20 mins would be devoted to "structured" lessons. There would be some days when the English teacher would read to the students and other days when the Mandarin teacher would do other activities with the students.

In short, it was not much of an answer to our questions. We got the sense that she's not very sure of the answer herself.

Overall
The stronger selling point for me in CH was its bilingual focus. By that, I mean going beyond just the fact that each of its class has at least an English and Chinese teacher on hand. Here, the school has a systematic and concerted approach towards exposing the children to both languages by fostering what I would term "compulsory activities" in each language.

Meaning, based on what I'd gleaned, that in a typical school day of 3 hrs (or was it 3 1/2hr?? I forgot), activities would be broken down into 30 mins intervals. While some activities would be done in English and others in Mandarin, there would be times when the class in split into 2. One half would have to do a specific activity with the English teacher, the other half with the Mandarin teacher. Then, they would swap.

SJCK appears to be less structured - there would be some lessons conducted in Chinese though the VP who brought us around the tour was a little vague as to how much.

The reason why Louis and I are placing more emphasis on exposure to Mandarin is becos we currently only speak to Faith in English. She has zero knowledge and exposure to Mandarin, save for whatever Chinese TV programmes that we watch.

At the moment, we are ranked 95th on the waiting list of SJCK for the class intake in 2010. There are only about 5-6 classes for pre-nursery per year, with a maximum of 14 students per class. Based on simple arithmetic, the school is more than 100% oversubscribed and we're only in calendar year 2008!

In all, each school has its pros and cons and judging from the web reviews, there are certainly proponents for either school. The most important thing however is what we think will benefit Faith as an individual most.

There is another option for now - which is to place Faith in Julia Gabriels' pre-nursery when she turns 3. The benefit of this third option is not only that she gets the Julia Gabriel learning method which we like, but also that she only needs to go there 3 times a week instead of 5.

This gives us the flexibility for us to do things with her on the other days if we want to, without over-tiring her out - she is still a child after all and we have the benefit of me being a SAHM to guide, teach and play with Faith. Hopefully.

Pay attention to "Me"

After our breakfast this morning, Faith and I were as usual sitting in the living room with the TV turned on to Playhouse Disney.

I had the newspaper in front of me and was thinking to catch up with the day's news. After flipping through a few pages, I found Faith with her Doodle Pro, sitting next to me.

She signalled to me to doodle along with her on the Doodle Pro. Since she was conveniently sitted on my right, I used my right hand to draw vague circles with one of the magnetic shapes while I continue to read the newspapers.

Seeing that my attention was not on her but on the newspapers, Faith stood up and yank up my hand to signal that she wanted me to stand up. I was reluctant to as I wanted to continue reading the headlines. My dear daughter was fairly insistent that I stood up and made lots of noises until I finally caved in.

Then, she bent to pick up the Doodle Pro by its handle with one hand and with her other hand, dragged me into her room. When we were in the room, she clambered up awkwardly with her Doodle Pro and indicated to me to sit by patting the sit next to her.

When I smiled and sat down next to her, she happily started to push the Doodle Pro next to me and make me draw alongside with her. Finally, she had gotten me away from whatever distractions that were occupying my attention to now focus on her. Just her. Alone.

I was highly amused and very tickled. She's following in the footsteps of her daddy. Doing what he does whenever he wants her to focus on something instead of being distracted by the blaring TV in the living room.

Admittedly, I conceit to letting her watch lots of TV programmes on weekday mornings. It arosed out of habit when she was younger and would want to cling on to me. Letting her be distracted with the TV allows me to make up our bedroom, prepare her morning meals, start her lunch porridge cooking, prepare her bath and other morning chores that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do.

Now, its become more of a habit than a need to keep her occupied, especially when she started walking and became more mobile.

It is usually on Saturdays or public holidays, when Louis is around that there's someone else in to play with her while I do the morning chores. During these times, Louis prefers to have the music playing in the background instead of having the TV turned on becos he doesn't want her to be too hooked onto watching TV.

On a few occasions, he would bring her to the bedroom to play when he felt that she's too distracted to concentrate on the task at hand. I hadn't realised that Faith had observed and has now put to use this particular practice to get my attention.

So while I was in the room with her - with no further distractions - we both sang and danced to a few songs after we were bored with doodling. Following that, she pointed to the few books that I left on top of her chest cabinet and asked me to read to her.

I couldn't resist calling Louis halfway through and telling him about what Faith did, even though I knew I was interrupting him at work :)

I'm glad and proud of my little one. She'd used an effective method to get what she wants instead of crying or throwing temper tantrums.

Faith

It has been a really long while since I last sat down to blog. It has been a hectic one month ever since I returned from London and this weekend, I finally get to take a breather.

It is amazing how time just flies. In the one month, Faith has gone through a rapid transformation from being our "baby" to a girl who now not only understands every thing we say to her, but who has also continually surprised us with her little achievements.

Close to a month ago, Eve had bought a Bruin Bear Light and Sound activity cube shape sorter. It is essentially a toy which allows Faith to match the shape and colour of the blocks for insertion into the container.

Initially, Faith did not seem that keen on the toy and this thing about matching the shapes did not seem to really keep her interest. Instead, she was keener on using the toy phone that was attached to the toy. I had however, occasionally sat down with her just to show her how to insert the blocks - from the easy shapes to the more advanced cubes which were multi-faceted.

A week thereabouts transpired since I last sat down with her and the cubes as I had come late almost every day of last week. Yesterday thus, I was actually quite amazed when she was able to sort out the toys and inserted the all eight blocks into the matching holes with no prompting or direction.

Eve too was quite shocked as she had only thought that Faith was able to insert the circular block (the easiest block), but had no idea that Faith was now able to tackle the rest of the blocks - even the more complicated flowery and crescent shapes ones.

Both Eve and I have a lot of reasons to be proud of Faith. Faith has grown to be a caring and affectionate girl who never fails to smile when she picks our faces from the crowd, or who runs to the door with the key whenever she sees me at the doorstep. And with less and less prompting, she is now initiating her own hugs, byes-byes and goodbye kisses to for example, my mum and dad whenever she leaves their home over the weekend.

Where we used to have to nudge her to "hug and kiss nai nai and ye ye", she now runs to them to hug them, before she makes her way out of the door. Occasionally, she still needs a reminder to look at people when she waves good bye - especially when she is preoccupied with a toy, but all it takes is for us to chide her once before she does the right thing.

Just today, we had Cherry and Terence over for dinner. And both Eve and I were extremely proud of Faith. Not only did she really behave herself at the dinner table, she also listened when told for example, to eat with her spoon, or to return the watch to Aunty Cherry, or to pack up her toys.

Eve and I speak to her like an adult and amazingly, she understands our every sentence. We now do not even gesture like we used to have to - for example, we used to have to point to the toy basket to signal for her to keep her toys - now we just speak to her, as if she were a grown-up girl.

Indeed, sometimes, Eve and I are secretly sad of how fast our little baby is growing up. In the past, where she used to cry when we left her with my mum and dad, she now waves her goodbyes to us whenever we leave her there.

When I take her aside to discipline her, you can tell she feels hurt and is aware that she has crossed the line. When I ask for her help to set the IKEA table and to help me with the chairs, she now just pulls out all three chairs without any further prompting. And when I ask if she wants water, it is always either an emphatic no or yes. And at night, before her bedtime, her routine of brushing, wiping down, kissing us before she sleeps, and waving to me "goodbye" comes so natural to her now that it was as all this is now effortless.

In no time, our little baby has grown up to be someone we communicate with just as we would talking to an adult or teen. And Faith is all of 19 months.

What Eve and I are sure of, we will continue to give Faith all the love that we can so that she in turn grows up to be a confident and loving girl. I am sure we will miss the babyish side of Faith, but we are also proud that Faith has come so far in so little time.