Le Xin revisting her work that she has done in school

24 Novemember 2012, marks  the first PTC I have attended haha but this time as a mother. Teacher Lin, Teacher Jessie and Yu Lao Shi shared with me how Le Xin is progressing in school.......We had a meaningful dialogue about Le Xin's areas of strengths and weaknesses as well as the various domains of development. Certainly I will try my best to work on her social skills as her teachers mentioned that she seldom initiate to play with her friends....Perhaps for the year 2013, I will arrange  a series of PlayDates for her so that she has the opportunitiy to interact with different children.

After attending the conference, we brought back Le Xin's portfolio and her artwork in a big 2 button transparent pocket file. Le Xin was really curious what's in there and started exploring by taking all her work art to see.

She took out a collage, pointing to the blue construction paper and said Blue!

 

Then she showed me the next art work, using her hands to move through the paper, she looked up and said Red.

 

Then she took out the documentation which I did on our first collaboration "Parental Involvement- Making a Caterpillar"  for MFS and she said Le Xin do one. I rephrased and asked Wow you did this? So could you remember what were you doing?

 

She immediately placed the documentation aside and took out the artwork which we did together - Caterpillar. Then she rubbed the "head" of the caterpillar and said Katarpilar..This showed that she was capable of making connection and could relate to what I was trying to ask her hahaha

 

When she spotted her name at the side of her work, she pointed at it and said Le Xin.

 

She took out another work of hers and said Mummy see....

 

Then she started to show me another work and pointed to the different prints that she has formed  using paint as a media...I observed her pausing for a moment to think before uttering some of her invented words to describe what she has done in that piece of art work.

 

Even what seems like just a normal scribbling to us, to Le Xin-----> it's her masterpiece! As she shared it with pride :)

 

Le Xin pointed at her hand print, if I am not mistaken this was her first artwork at MFS as I was there to accompany her for the first day.....Time really flies......

 

Haha I get very excited when I see work like this......black paper and chalk and it reminded me of the provocation I set up in the learning station using the Reggio E. approach! :p so I asked her what did you do in this art work? She started rubbing off her work with her finger...and I waited before telling her That's chalk isn't it?.....you must be having lots of fun exploring with a chalk....well done!

  

 

 Teacher Lin if you reading this, haha this photo is for you.. Le Xin was really happy to see what you have documented....Of course she couldn't understand what you have wrote, but she could still revisit her learning experience by looking at the photo. The words below the picture also allowed me to read to her what she has done hence helping her to reflect...

 

And there's goes the same for Lao Shi's documentation too. When I asked so you did this with lao shi right? She pointed to the photo and said Lao Shi Lao Shi twice haha

 

Le Xin used her nails to try to scrape out some of her the paint from her work....when I said Wow what beautiful colours you have used for this work...... guess what she did?

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She immediately stood up and showed it to Daddy......saying Daddy Look!

 

Then she went on to take a closer look at another work she has done!

 

She spotted another work with different materials pasted on it and was quick to peel them off.....When I said No Le Xin don't do that! That's your work isn't it? It's not nice if you peel off the materials on your work..... She stopped, looked up and gave me a sweet smile! haha

 

Le Xin helped to put all her work  back into the file when she had finished looking through them....

 

Le Xin observed that I was busy snapping photos of her when she was going through her work, so she asked me for my camera. She put the camera's string through her head and confidently went over to Daddy and snapped a photo of him lazing on the sofa........whahahahaha! Well done! She really amazed me every time!

 

When Le Xin revisited her work, she accessed not only the aesthetic results of her representations but it also gave her a chance to express her ideas. From the above observation, I could tell them she was really proud of her work when she presented them to me. Even though, she can't really speak in full sentences yet, she tried to say a few things that she knew  for example the colour she used and how she did it using her finger to touch her art work. She also expressed her ideas using her very own invented speech. I hope to provide more opportunities for Le Xin to share with me what she has done, and I am sure if she does that often, it will help her to build on her language skill too.

 

Leaving you guys with a very cute picture of her......haha

 

 

Corridor Fun!

Remember the post of Le Xin playing with chalk at the corridor? Haha now the play at the corridor has extended to gardening.....and playing with bubbles and my little darling simply adores it...This is just a short post filled with happy moments of Le Xin playing at the corridor....

Gardening has become Le Xin's favourite past time.....she really love watering the plants....

 

And somehow she knows exactly what to do....which plants she has watered and which plant she has not!

I am simply captivated by how focused and engaged she looks......

 

It's not just about gardening and loving plant......as she was spraying the water... she was also refining her fine motor skills too :)

 

Next it's time for some bubble fun......with Daddy Scott!

 

As the bubbles appeared.....Daddy Scott sprayed the bubbles to burst them.....whahahahaa

 

Time for Daddy Scott to play too.....nontheless observing the bubbles was still be an enjoyable thing for Le Xin.....

 

For she knew she could catch them with her little fingers.....

 

When corridor fun is concern......Le Xin will not forget her purple friend too :)

 

Daddy Scott is always there to facilitate and guide her......

 

Which makes Le Xin a very confident driver......

 

And sometimes just being there to help her with the steering wheel....

 

when turning gets tough......

 

 

Things get a little more fun when Le Xin say Daddy sit....

 

As much we know Daddy Scott will not be able to fit into the car.....

 

He never fails her daughter just to see a smile on her face....

 

Now you know it's not easy being a father......

 

even if it means acting silly in front of your child.....

 

The role of a father is not just about being a bread winner or carrying or tossing your child high up in the air......Over the years ,especially in the Early Childhood field.... I have witnessed how Daddies are increasingly showing more support to the development of their child/children. They also realised the importance of their involvement in their child/children's lives. Just the other day, a dad who was about the same age as me came to my school with her daughter. He came with a thought of showing her daughter around before she officially joins my centre in the PG class in December. He truly amazed me with how he has interacted with his daughter.....In fact, he  even took out his HP to snap a few photos of the PG class. I knew that was not allowed and I should have stopped him but tell me how could I ever have the heart to do so when he said "I will flash the photos of her class everyday and share with her about going to school so that she will not face separation anxiety when she joins in December.......Wow here I am talking about a Daddy who goes through such an extra mile for her daughter!!! I often talk about how my dad has been my greatest inspiration in many of the things I am doing now as an ECE....and I thank God for that.....above all.... it just proves to show how both Men and Women are equally important when it comes to being there for their child/children.



Bubble Soap

 In one of my blog entries earlier on, I mentioned that Le Xin was quite fascinated over a hand wash that we bought....."Kirei Kirei" which she always like to call it as "Bubble Soap" because of the foam itproduced when she pressed the "pump". Building on her interest on soap and bubbles I decided to conduct a simple experiment with her and did a short observation. Once again, I make use of the simplest materials which I can find.....Water, soap and my favourite material------> FOOD COLOURING whahaha!

Le Xin getting all ready with the materials placed in front of her....

 

I placed 3/4 full of water in a mineral bottle and Le Xin appeared to be very anxious to open the bottle cap.

 

I put two big drops of purple food colouring into the water and she observed what happened.

I realised the food colouring I added was a little too much as such the solution looked too concentrated.

 

Lava lamp in the making....quite beautiful isn't it?

 

Le Xin started to shake the solution to observe what happened...Alright it's just a bottle with purple water in it.....Very dark purple in fact and so I decided to................

 

Provide Le Xin with another 1 Litre Distilled Water Bottle which was 1/2 filled with water.

Once again she went ahead to open the cap first.

 

Then she placed a funnel in....

 

I like how we poured in the concentred purple solution from the previous bottle into a bigger bottle. It's all about working together :)

 

Looking through the water...."Hmm this look familiar didn't I try making coloured solution before?"

 

Nope in the previous experiment there no soap was added right?

 

Waiting for the soap to dripped down slowly.....

 

A very patient Le Xin waiting for the soap to flow down......Well done my darling girl!

 

Then she began to shake the bottle vigorously....

 

This is what I call close up observation......How cool is that!

 

Placing the two bottles side by side, Le Xin appeared to be comparing them.....so I asked..Which bottle do you like the big one or the small one?

 

Quickly she replied Big one and smiled at me!

 

Carrying out this simple experiment with Le Xin helps me to understand the importance of building environmental awareness based on a sense of wonder and joy of discovery as quoted from Kindergarten Curriculum Guide (KCG) by MOE. This learning experience helps Le Xin to extend on her natural curiosity, discover things for herself , as well as build on what she already know and understand ! In fact, when I was carrying out this experiment with her, it somehow brought back my beautiful memories of my life in Poly as a Life Science student .....Yeah I wasn't really thinking about filtration, titration or HPLC hahaha but what I do know is that whatever Le Xin and I were doing on that day, it will definitely help her in a way or another in future and only God knows....It's just so amazing to look at how focused Le Xin was when she was observing and comparing:) I really hope to provide more learning opportunities to support her in terms of self discovery and problem solving :)

Making Rangoli for Deepavali

I was inspired by my fellow colleagues from school who were actively engaging the children in different crafting activities before Deepavli so I decided to make a Rangoli together with Le Xin at home.  I wasn't too sure if it's going to turn out fine, afterall she is only two years old, but I thought maybe I should give it a go and hooray....she really enjoyed the learning experience.

 

Le Xin started off by feeling the texture of the rice...

 

She placed a few grains of rice on my palm and said rice

 

Le Xin placed one drop of red food colouring into the rice then she did the same for blue and yellow...

 

Look how focused she was when she was stirring :)

 

All done with the preparation of the coloured rice....

 

 

After 10 days, it was finally Deepavali, I went to look for the simplest template that I could find from the net...Firstly, I was thinking...it should also be something that she likes so that she could relate to it and I decided to choose this simple star design... I used a pencil to trace over and turn it the other side and trace again. Then I placed it on a piece of drawing board and traced it the third time to "print" the design onto the drawing board. Then I use a pencil to do the outline again so that it appeared darker.

 

An excited Le Xin spreading her gluestick all over...

 

Then she started sprinkling the rice on top...

 

She tried to press on the rice that she sprinkled...

 

Love this look of Le Xin selecting which coloured rice to use

 

After a lot of laughing and engagement, our masterpiece was finally completed. I taught her how to push the rice within the line and she tried to do so. Seriously I was really reflecting now that maybe I should just leave her to sprinkle where ever she likes... This is it----->My logical thinking always somehow hinder/affect my creative mind  hmph!!! hahaha
 

The moment I was waiting for.......to see her laugh like a happy baby :)

 

So why was she laughing happily? That was because....I actually allowed her to pour the remaining rice onto her table for exploration.....

 

Last but not least......she waved her little container and asked for more rice to play with....Wow! I can tell she was really enjoying....

 

Exposing Le Xin to different culture and inculcate the importance of diversity is something I wish to achieve through this learing experience. To be honest, it is really hard to explain the big concept about Deepavali. I can't tell her that Indians celebrate Deepavali which means Festival of Light because that is far too abstract for her to understand. I just hope to conduct at least one simple activity which is related to what Indians/Hindus will do when they celebrate Deepavli......Going forward, in future when she is older and reads her portfolio as she revisits this learning experience again perhaps everything will make more sense by then because she should be able to relate to why I chose to make a Rangoli with her during Deepavali.....This day will come and I can't wait to do more activities about festivals and celebrations....Next up is Christmas and yes I am all excited already hahaha :) Ending off with a video of my happy darling again enjoy~