Baby Le Xin

Sunday 30 June 2013

Dramatic Play

The big new happening of Le Xin's play is her increased ability and enjoyment of dramatic play. What she does is that she will pretend and put herself in a role. She is able to differentiate between pretending and reality. For example, after she cooked her plastic food in a pot and poured them out on a plate, she will put one of the food near her mouth and pretend to eat it but she will not put it in her mouth. 

To us adult, when we see a child engaging in dramatic play especially when he/she becomes very serious in his/her role, we generally find it "cute". Above and beyond the cuteness, we also need to know the many benefits that dramatic play would bring about. When children put themselves in roles of power when they pretend, the are learning to take control the situation that they are in. When they use objects and props for pretend play they are creating symbols for things they picture in their imagination and that's improvisation which is so essential.

Children who spent a lot of time in dramatic play, literally put themselves in someone's else shoes thus helping them to be more emphatic in real life, it's like imagining how someone else is feeling. Here's a great example of Le Xin playing at her housekeeping corner at home.


In this observation, Le Xin was seen mimicking what Daddy Scott and I have been doing at home. She pretended to iron my clothes with her self-improvised prop - her deep frying pan. She also hung the clothes with hangers and hang them on a rod which I prepared for her for role-playing. When I saw her engaging in the play with so much enthusiasm , I decided to offer her a box to extend her play. Mummy why did you give me a box? asked Le Xin Well, what do you think you can use the box for? I began to question her too. She thought for a while and placed all her clothes in. I was careful to follow her lead and not to dominate her play so I asked Would you like to share with Mummy what are you doing? Le Xin replied I am washing the clothes Mummy! Amazed with what she came up with, I said Wow that's some good washing, so what's this? (pointing to the box) any idea? Le Xin replied It's for washing and I asked her Is this a washing machine? Le Xin nodded and repeated after me Yes that's a washing machine. 

Through this conversation, I realised that children's language can be more complex when they interact with someone. When interacting with her, I tried to ask her questions instead of telling her things for example... Is this a washing machine? because I do not wish to assume. The power of questioning, listening and then facilitating is so important when it comes to scaffolding young children, if only we have the luxury of time with our students in the preschools too, then we could also listen to their voices individual :p Nonetheless, let's us work on this for nothing is impossible :)

On a side note, I was also hoping she could learn the importance of helping out with house hold chores, hey people.... please don't accuse me of child label okay? Whahahaha

Saturday 29 June 2013

Celebrating Wai Gong's Birthday!

 I am always grateful to my dad for who I am today. Some people would ask me---> How is like to grow up in a single parent family? My answer to them will always be There isn't a huge difference seriously.... Reason being ---> Though I lost my mum when I was 8, I  do not feel that I am deprived of parental love because I have received double the amount of love from my dad .... He has been showing a lot of love and affection towards my sister and I since we were young, till this very day he still treats us like his "babies" hahaha but of course this sort of love has now extended to his grandchildren too and that's like WOW!!!!

 Of course there were ups and downs, good and bad times too. We do know life is not a bed of roses. We had countless quarrels and fighting  (ya caning) hmph.... but all in all I seriously think my dad plays his role well as a father. He painstakingly raise the both of us and he has indeed been through a lot in his life, my sister sms me one day saying Papa must be glad that we turned out okay despite being a single parent.....Her words has hugely touched my heart....  So well done Papa! 

 His love for us has greatly motivated me to be a good mother....not that I a super good one at least I know I am always trying my best :) So I really think parental love is important especially during the early years so never take your role as a parent lightly okay?

Back to the topic for today....

My dad (Le Xin's wai gong turns 64), so we went to a Hong Kong Restaurant to celebrate his birthday...

A family photo----- both his sons in law were busy snapping our photos haha :) Cute Le Xin looking quite blur.....

This photos reminded me of what I just told my colleague a few days back...Birthday celebrations for ourselves have since change when we have our own kids...Reason being - our birthday celebrations will always ended up like we were celebrating for them.......They will be the one singing, blowing the candles and cutting the cake isn't it? Then we laughed about it.....This photo clearly depicts what I have said but on that day, it became his grandchildren's birthday because Tricia, Travis, Tevin and Le Xin were all eyeing on his cake whahahaha!
Papa and Bin

Papa and me!

Me, Papa, Bin and Travis

Kor Kor Auntie Pin and Papa

Auntie Pin and Papa...

After dinner, we went for a little shopping at Cold Storage and Wai Gong was there to entertain all the children....

Alright, not going to write too lengthy stuff, let the videos do the talking

We were all laughing like crazy when we saw Le Xin's expression when Tricia blew the candles....hahaha :)


What great fun they all had.......the children were thrilled indeed!

I often create opportunities for Le Xin to spend time with my father and my in-laws because I strongly believe that young children should value their extended family. How do you nurture your child so that he/she will understand the need to be filial towards you when you grow old next time? For me, it is to start from young. Be a good role model, show them how you treat your parents with respect, love and care and soon you will find them picking it up from you, it's that simple. Alright I hope my dad enjoyed his birthday celebration, it was really fun experience! Till the next time we celebrate his birthday for him again next year.......seeya :) 

Art as it is!


Art activities are a great way to help children practice their fine motor skills and develop their creativity at the same time. Le Xin enjoys a wide range of art activities such as finger painting, brush painting, colouring, scribbling, pasting gluing, printing and cutting. So how do you also nurture your child to develop her motor skills and creative expression?

Thursday 27 June 2013

Doctor Set

We have been discussing a lot about occupations. Apart from teachers, another occupations that Le Xin could really relate to is doctor. That's because she often gets to see a doctor.....Hmm is that a good or a bad thing? :p

Anyway, we were at Tampines Mart and I saw a doctor set for sale so I decided to buy one for her so that she could  use it for role playing.... It was quite cool just observing her play.....

Let's take a look at what she did!

Le Xin with her doctor set

Can't wait to open the packaging....

Check her first patient - Penguin

Penguin breath said Le Xin as she started making the breathing sound.....how realistic was that? Wow!

Let me feed you eat medicine said Le Xin as she tried to feed her monkey with a syringe....

 Recording her patient's condition.....Le Xin I hope your poor friends weren't too sick :(

Next she made her penguin put on the glasses found in her doctor set and put on my sunglasses....

Have you seen such a cute and cool 3 year old doctor?

Hand feeding her monkey some "tablets"

Examining her monkey after she fed it. I hope Monchichi will get well soon after you did such a great job to care for her said Mummy!  

Learning will always be truly fun when there are the suitable props and learning materials available to facilitate dramatic play and critical thinking skills. I could observe how Le Xin was capable of  improvising the materials that she has found around her environment  to conduct her health check as a doctor.  I thought that was really interesting and good! 

Apart from creativity, I also observed some form of language skills involved as she was role playing. Good Job Le Xin so what occupation would you like to role play the next time? 

Okay leaving you guys with a cute 30s video of her....

Tuesday 25 June 2013

Making A Wind Sock!

It's time to craft with Le Xin again. Guess what? We gonna make a wind sock together. Le Xin had no idea what's a wind sock was but she certainly was quite excited when I told her we were going to make one!

Let's get started.....

Firstly, let's choose two colours....hmmm how about pink....

And black too!

Scooping the pink paint and putting it into the tray...

Next, the black paint too!

Time to put two rolling balls...

Let's give the tray a good shake.....

Observing her masterpiece....

Nice or not?

A close up shot of what she did! We going to use this as a wrapping paper for our windsock :)

After allowing the paint to dry for a night, we worked on our mini project again the next day!

Yes, we going to get it going.......

First up let's roll the wrapping paper to wrap the kitchen roll....

Holding the paper tightly while wrapping.....What good skills you have Le Xin :)

MummyT2x gave a helping hand while Le Xin tried to attach a piece of scotch tape on it...

Little Hands @ Work...

Look just how serious my darling girl was.....

Hooray almost done.....

Last part was to apply glue on the picture strips.

And attached them to the kitchen roll....

I can do it said Le Xin confidently....

When it was all done......she started swinging her windsock.....

A very proud mummy who decided to hang our work up high.....near the window! Cool :)

Collaborative work often speaks volume isn't it?  This is not just a simple craft work. It can also be used to investigate the weather phenomena. We can always bring the windsock out, have a run and use it to find out the direction of the wind. Hmm...sounds like a great idea right?

 What I really like about our windsock was it looks quite special because we made our own wrapping paper to wrap it. We could have simply used a  commercial wrapping paper or a construction paper but we chose to design our own wrapping paper instead with the technique of rolling ball painting so that more skills were integrated along the process.

The big idea is.......Always have a careful thought about what you would like to do with young children and you will discover the joy that comes with it :) 

Ending this post with a happy photo of my baby!
Somehow.... she began holding a ladle with another hand and I thought she looked quite funny so the both of us began laughing loudly at each other whahaha :)

Sunday 23 June 2013

Making Pizzas

Time for MasterChef LX to churn up a new dish again hahaha :) This time round, Le Xin baked some yummy pizzas for the whole family...... For this learning experience, I really had such a great time observing just how confident and independent she was. To top it off, she really looked extremely cute and funny that day because I made an ugly looking baker's hat for her to put on....Don't boo me okay? My drawing and cutting skill sucks but please give me credit for my effort hahaha......

The coolest part of the activity was --------> the pizzas really tasted delicious!


Alright let's get started.....

Le Xin must be thinking to herself --------> I cannot believe I really can be a baker! hahaha :) Look how cute Le Xin was!

All ready, let's get started!

Wait! Let's act cute first!

Cutting the sausage!

Wow look quite skillful right? I didn't help her at all, I just allowed her to try this on her own :)

This is what I always call "HANDS ON" haha :)

Next, Le Xin cleaned the chopping board and place a bread on it......

She scooped a teaspoon of tomato puree and place it on the bread.....

Fine- Motor Skills - Scooping.....

Trying to fill up the bread with the puree...

Space Orientation - Spreading the puree on the bread with the knife....

Next, she added the sausage on the bread....

She started decorating.....

A serious and focus baker always look attractive right? haha

Adding the mushroom....

Scooping again......

Nicely done.....Looking good! Well done Le Xin zhu zhu na :)

Adding the cheese!

Sprinkling some Italian herbs...

Observing her pizza in the toaster...She placed both her hands behind her back hence showing that she understood that the toaster was hot!

Taking a close look...

I can see the light said Le Xin

Serving Daddy Scott the pizza! 

First Pizza baked by my darling girl......so proud of her!

Enjoying her creation!

Cleaning up after the cookery! Good helping hands :)


Why is important to spend time cooking together with your children? I always think it's a fantastic idea to get children involved in the cooking process. Since young, I love to cook, even though I am a bad chef and I can't really bake either but I really enjoy observing my dad when he cooks! My dad does not like us to cook anything in his kitchen, even till today. Reason being, he finds that we mess thing up rather than really cooking a proper meal. That's so sad, I wish that I have more opportunities to cook during my younger days, to think I graduated from Food and Nutrition class in my secondary school and Food Technology in Singapore Poly :(  aww~

So now,  I deliberately offer Le Xin what I didn't get to do as a child....hahaha! She can help me to fulfill my childhood dream (nah I'm only kidding, just want to let her have some fun).  On a serious note, cooking with young children is never an easy task tough.  Firstly, you need to provide them ample time for them to explore, it also requires you to have lots of patience because they often tend to explore "too much" meaning extra-clean up might be necessary. But if you were to ask me......it's all worth it at the end of the day isn't it? Just look at how engaged she was!

Next, I strongly believe when children are involved in cooking, they naturally become interested in food. So the next step is to get Le Xin to churn out some healthy recipes which she can tried out next time with her children too! Wow I am thinking too far yeah? Instead of spending time watching TV or playing with Ipad I think Le Xin should spend more time with me in the kitchen because it simply is a more meaningful way to spend her time. I want her to know she too can help to contribute to the family, she will be seen as a competent individual who can confidently finish a task.  Well, cooking is also a skill, with more practice, I think she will certainly be more skillful :)


Last but certainly not the least the perfect reason why I think you should let your children cook is because it simply help them to build SELF CONFIDENCE - something that no one can take that away from them :) 

Have a look at this short clip of my darling cutting sausages......mad cute at least to me as always :)



Kisses from MummyT2X till the next time I blog :)