Remember the post on Cousins? Going forward, here's another post about Le Xin's interaction with her cousins. This time Le Xin's cousins, my sister's children visited us at our place for some cool playdate session.... OMG they just love playing at my house so much that they do not wish to go home and my sis had a hard time persuading them to leave....whahahahhaha
The highlight of my place is definitely our pet room featuring our fish tank and cuteness overdose Bambi...
Le Xin has been feeding our bunny for countless times.....but observing how Tricia did it was something new to her.... She appears to know that Tricia knew what to do and so she just sat quietly beside her to "inspect" how cute!
Animals always play a special role in children's life....be it a dog, a rabbit, a terrapin or even fishes......These living creatures just somehow has a significant way to capture the children's heart. Tricia and Travis were playing with my two terrapins.....okay let's call them Torie and Tisie....
The happy 4 observing how my terrapins were enjoying their turtle pellet....good snack ya?
Hey look what we found......these cubes look like blue ice.....Daddy Scott bought them from Daiso for our fishes but somehow they ended up in the basin as counters...... The children had lot's of fun tossing them up and down
I guess it's very sensorial for the children to see the cubes, feel them, and of course dropping them into the red basin to hear the sound.....Le Xin observed how Travis was playing and realised that the cubes can be used in such a way. Tevin and Le Xin immediately imitated him and started throwing the cubes too.....Previously, Le Xin didn't even notice the cubes when we left them on the ground.
My sister had a taste of being the instructor for the day....guiding Travis on how to drive Le Xin's purple car..... Now you know it's not so easy yeah? :p The rest of the children went to the corridor to play with bubbles but I was just too busy with Travis so I didn't snap any photos of the rest :p
Tricia and Le Xin discussing actively on what to do in the atelier....
Tricia was deciding if the shiny paper was a good material to start off with ......while Le Xin watches to find out how jie jie was going to display her creativity...
Well done Tricia, this was what she created....good spatial orientation for a child at 7 years old :p
While Tricia and Le Xin were working at the Atelier, Tevin was keeping himself busy with chalks!
Then I made a suggestion to Tevin and asked if he would like to paint and he nodded his head. The minute I put on the blue apron for him....here's come Le Xin zhu zhu na who also wanted to join in.... Tevin painted first while Le Xin obseved how he did it.
My two darlings......future Picaso I hope!
The both of them really worked cooperatively to paint together.....I didn't catch a glimpse of them snatching each other's brushes at all... In fact, Tevin even dipped a brush into the paint and passed it to Le Xin....Le Xin was excited to exchange her brush with Tevin too. How sweet right? So it's not true that Toddler's Creed is always present among toddlers........these two fellows were already understanding the importance of sharing and turn taking :) Bravo~
We completed our masterpiece......nice?
Tricia went into the Bambi's room several times to carry her......what a brave girl she was!
She was not even scared that Bambi might scratch her :) Thinking of buying a pet for your child now? Think twice.......remember behind all the cuteness is the word "Committment" Sorry I very loh soh but I always need to emphasize this!
The main reason why I really love the idea of Le Xin interacting with her cousins is because I truly believe that when children learn in a small group (regardless of their age) they will somehow focus on building collective and individual knowledge. I embrace such cooperative learning and group learning techniques will help Le Xin to raise her individual achievement. Collaborative learning is all about learning the idea of "give and take" and it does not only focus on children working on their individual product and producing signficant end results which is what many adults are seeking for these days. When Le Xin forms a cooperative group with her cousins, I felt that she is also becoming a stronger individual. In Singapore, we do not really have many school that practise mixed-age grouping, I supposed this is due to teacher-child ratio. However, I actually feel that mix-age grouping and peer consultation actually allows teachers to give greater attention to their students.
"While we acknowlege that learning is always individual, we think it is critical to consider the social construction and existence of knowledge as well. Learning in a group support a quality of learning that is different from individual learning. A focus on collective understanding - requiring constant comparison, discussion and modification of ideas- make possible learning that is not accessible to individual working alone" ----- Quoted from Making Learning Visible by Project Zero - Reggio children
How true isn't it?
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