Learning At Home: Plants

April was an extremely busy month with Hubby's and Big Bee's birthdays, complete with celebrations and parties, as well as Big Bee's CA2 preparations, so I did not work on a lot of homelearning activities for this month's theme - the wonderful world of plants! 

I got the inspiration for this theme when I observed the conspicuous interest that Little Bee has towards all things flowery and green! She loves flowers and will literally stop to admire and talk about any particular flower - its colour, shape, size, texture - whenever we walk past any striking flora.

This is an amazing theme with so many elements to explore, and it is unfortunate that Big Bee could not participate in most of these due to school work and CA revision, but I am sure I will revisit this theme during holidays soon! 

Featured books

Jack and the Beanstalk (wonderful story to impart this popular fable to young children as well as inculcate the life cycle of a plant from seed to, erm, a giant beanstalk in this case!)

Farmers Market (great way to educate the children on the origins of fruits and vegetables produce in the market!)

Plant Life Cycle (very pictorial way to teach little kids about life cycles of plants)

We also borrowed an abundance of books on trees, woods and flowers from the library - all fabulous books and too many to mention here!

Games

We played games with leaves that we collected around the estate, and explored how little white insects infested the leaves if we left them by the balcony for too long. The Bees were really grossed out by the Lilliputian white creepy crawlies, but I used the opportunity to highlight how the elements of nature are interconnected for sustainability. 

I usually introduced themes by immersing them in some light-hearted games so this month, I got them to dabble with Playdoh to create anything related to plants. Big Bee created this beautiful flower but Little Bee was more interested to make pancakes from Playdoh instead. 

So I got her to draw plants on the children's whiteboard using the circle template, and she drew a little meadow of flowers, complete with birds in the sky, a glowing sun and hills (if you can identify where the hills are!).

Reading

Little Bee is now learning to read short words, and she could also spell out some of the easier words independently (like "egg" and "cat"). I created an amateurish set of flashcards comprising of words she could already read to boost her confidence (like "dog" and "fish"), together with plant-related words like "tree", "sun", "rain" and "seed" to impart new words into her reading vocabulary. She is now able to read most of the words from the flashcards below, but it is an ongoing task because I have to consistently set aside a daily reading time to reinforce these words to her. It is not easy when she is in a playful or distracted mood! 

I do not teach her to read phonetically, as I am not convinced that was the best way (Big Bee and I did not learn to read by phonics!). Besides, I read that only about half of English words are spelt phonetically, so I would rather depend on the method of whole-word identification through recognising beginning words and the use of visual association for now. 

Beginning word recognition and writing 

This month, Little Bee focused on learning the lower case letters of "l" and "g". She is now able to identify the lower case "l" finally as it was previously a challenge because she would usually associate it with the number 1 or capital I. She was also able to find simple short words in the word puzzle below - all by herself! I was pleasantly surprised. 

She had been showing much interest in writing words now, and would tend to scribble a lot of gibberish and chanting what she was "writing" - exactly like her jie jie last time! 

So, I got her to copywrite some words like "flower", "leaf", "tree", "sun". She drew the pink leaf and attempted 3 renditions of butterflies beside the word "tree". 

Math and Mandarin

I did not do much academic or numbers-based Math learning for this theme, preferring instead to use leaves and flowers to get Little Bee to sort them according to sizes, shapes and colours. However, I got her to start writing numbers in numerals and Mandarin characters. She was able to complete the exercise below with me providing the guiding words on a separate sheet of paper but did not require guidance for matching the right set of Mandarin or numeric characters to the flowers. 

Little Bee is also getting better at reading Mandarin words, so I prepared flash cards for the below phrases, together with pictures for visual association, and now she can recognise these 2 phrases. 

Painting

As I spent most evenings coaching Big Bee on her impending CA2, I did not have the chance to paint much with them this month. These are a couple of paintings that Little Bee created when I asked her to paint something related to plants - a flower on one occasion and a tree on another evening! 

Crafts

We only created a few crafts this month, although there is a whole plethora of brilliant crafts that we can do with this theme. 

Muffin flower craft

This is an extremely easy craft to make, using an everyday item of 2 muffin paper cups. Little Bee used up 10 minutes one evening painting different colours on each muffin cup, and we let the paint dry overnight. We then revisited the craft the following evening when the paint had dried, and Little Bee pasted the 2 muffin cups on top of each other to give the three dimensional effect of a flower. She then drew the rest of the flower, complete with hurriedly scrawled grass at the bottom. Less than 30 minutes to create this 3D flower that can be a wonderful handmade gift for little friends or grandparents! 

Handprinted Tulips

This was a somewhat messy craft activity, possible only if the kid is not adverse to dirty painted palms. I painted Little Bee's small palm a shade of bright happy pink - her favourite colour - and got her to smear her palm 3 times on a piece of white paper....voila! We have 3 tulips! Next, I plucked a leaf from an ixora plant, let Little Bee paint it green and then stamped the leaf onto the painting. Finally, she painted 3 green stems - and there you go, handprinted tulips in less than 20 minutes! 

Tissue poppies

Some time back, we layered an abundance of wispy pink and orange tissue papers to create beautiful poppies, twining green wires around the poppies for the semblance of stems. Those flowers were bright and cheery, and I would love to make more, but it was rather labour-intensive (only I was able to cut the copious flower shapes from the thin tissue papers!)

Dried leaves collage

This craft took a relatively longer time to make - took us a whole morning to collect the entire plethora of leaves and twigs from around the estate, washing them, drying them and painstakingly sticking them to create a collage of trees. But it was such an enjoyable project that Little Bee truly relished. She was gamely selecting the leaves, washing them, helping to dry them and then meticulously pasting the leaves on the branches of the "trees". She also stuck on cotton wools as fluffy white clouds, as well as drew and coloured rolling hills as the backdrop. 

Step 1: Stick on cotton wools for clouds, draw and colour in the hills, and outline the shapes of the trees

Step 2: Stick on the twigs according to the shapes of the outlined trees in step 1. Ideal to use very strong glue, which I don't have, so I ended up using ugly scotch tape to fasten the twigs together. This step was largely done by me as sticking the tough twigs together was rather challenging for Little Bee. 

Step 3: Paste as many beautifully coloured leaves around the "trees". This was really fun and interesting for Little Bee who learned which part of a leaf should be extended from the stem. This step was done mostly by Little Bee. I took the opportunity to talk about the different colours and shapes of the leaves. 

Science

The beauty of this theme is the accessibility of plants all around us. At the start of the month, I brought the Bees around our lush estate, informing them of the month's theme, and retrieving interesting leaves and flowers along the way. We collected quite a bunch and back home, we talked about the shapes and sizes of the leaves, and how they will turn brown if we cut them off their life sources comprising of the plants' roots and stems. Little Bee was so intrigued that she was constantly persuading us to go traipsing on flower walks around the estate these days! Hence, she had been collecting bunches of flowers and putting these beautiful delicate flora into makeshift vases to decorate the house. 

The Bees also planted green bean seeds and we observed how these seeds grew on a daily basis. By explaining the growth process of these green beans, they were able to understand the different parts of a plant like root, stem, leaf, etc. I took pictures at every step of the life cycle, created flashcards from these pictures and got the Bees to arrange them in the right order of the life cycle. It was evident that Big Bee could arrange the cards with complete ease and speed, but I was surprised when Little Bee could arrange the cards in the right order with minimal supervision too! This activity reinforces their general knowledge, science education as well as Math sequencing competencies in a fun way, I thought. 

Big Bee's beanstalk

Little Bee's beanstalk

Field trip

There are field trips galore for this theme - we brought them to the Botanic Gardens, but really, every opportunity out in verdant Singapore is a field trip in itself!  

Bubbles and nature could go very well together! Inset photo: Big Bee and Eugene observing closely how the resident black swan used plants to create a cosy habitat. 

Nature all around us. On a Sunday morning trip to the wet market, we chanced upon a patch of gorgeous, gossamer dandelions! The Bees excitedly huffed, puffed and blew the seeds of the dandelions, while Hubby and I explained how plants use a lot of help from animals and humans to help pollinate themselves. 

Best Mother's Day Present

I had never experienced a tranquil and halcyon morning at home in ages. Most weekday mornings see Big Bee and me preparing for school and taking a brisk and pleasant walk to school in the crisp awakening of dawn. It is then followed by a brief but wonderful time bonding with chirpy Little Bee if she manages to wake up early. And then off to work for a mad day. 

Weekend mornings will see us dashing off for Big Bee's Saturday classes and if I choose to stay home with Little Bee for some homelearning activities, it will involve a talkative Little Bee and me working on some fun programmes. Sunday mornings will see the whole family relaxing at our imperative Sunday breakfast ritual. 

This morning, as I am nursing a cough, dear Hubby decided to take both Bees out for Big Bee's enrichment classes. Which leaves me in hushed, contented and quiet repose for the entire morning right until early afternoon. This is a complete luxury for me. 

For the first time ever, I can appreciate the stillness of my own home, sitting in the balcony, inhaling the sweet morning air and basking in the shimmering morning sun whilst lazily flipping through the Saturday papers. I can literally hear the birds awakening and chirping merrily, the harmonious gurgling of the fountain in my pond and the sighing of leaves caressing each other on the ubiquitous trees around me. 

This is the best Mother's Day present ever. Thank you, Hubby.  

儿歌

This is a video of Little Bee reciting an 儿歌 as mentioned in the earlier post. She performed this song in her school 

assembly in March, and had been reciting it, along with 

other Chinese and English songs, while she is playing by herself almost everyday!

Learning Mandarin 2

There had been much furore in recent days over the government's potential decision to reduce the weightage of the Mother Tongue subject in PSLE. I had been reading many polarised opinions from all walks of life. The debate still goes on, and I am waiting with bated breath for the verdict. 

In my humble opinion, and coming from someone who is not particularly strong in Mandarin, I abhor the imminent policy that may reduce the weightage of Mother Tongue in PSLE. Yes, I heard all sorts of conspiracy theories, from economic to political, but coming from a simple parental perspective, it is sending out the wrong signal to our children. The lucid message that, if you cannot excel in something, or are struggling with something, give it up, we will provide an easier solution for you so you can cease struggling. I am not sure if this is the right type of values I want to inculcate in my children. Certainly, in the traditional ethos of our nation's pioneers, perseverence and determination are 2 fundamental building pillars to the development of our country's current socioeconomic development. 

On a lighter note, I am lucky to have my mum who communicates with my children in Mandarin 5 days a week. It makes a world of difference for them to be exposed to the language on a daily basis. But it is a myth that Mandarin speakers at home will naturally excel in Mother Tongue academically. I think what is crucial is the work of the Chinese teachers in school that make learning Mandarin fun and intriguing for the children. 

I certainly see this transformation in Little Bee, who used to reply my frustrated mother in English for every word of Mandarin my Mum spoke with her. Once she started nursery 2 this year, and with the help of her interesting Mandarin teacher in school, she is now able to read quite a few Chinese phrases (爸爸，妈妈，飞机, etc) and can recite fairly long 儿歌, thanks to my Mom's daily revision in the mornings too. It takes both hands to clap - the family and school. 

On the other hand, Big Bee likes Mandarin - and I am now trying to nurture in her the love of reading Mandarin books. I must highlight that it is not easy to find captivating Chinese storybooks that will enthrall lower primary children though. I am desperately looking for the Chinese version of Enid Blyton so that Big Bee can develop a love for Chinese literature. 

Big Bee has started Chinese 作文 in school this year, and I had become the de facto 作文老师 for her, trying to find ways to teach her to write engaging compositions. In trying very hard not to expose her to tuition centres at this age, I had resorted to surfing the internet almost nightly to find out the rigours of creative writing in Mandarin and English! I suspect I should be able to qualify as a tuition teacher soon enough! 

Here's a sample of Big Bee's first 作文 that she did in school and another one that she wrote for Chinese New Year. 

我的家庭 

我的家里有四口人。他们是爸爸，妈妈，妹妹和我。妈妈和爸爸会照顾我，也会帮我学习华文。妹妹很可爱。我很爱她。爸爸和妈妈很爱我们。我们也很爱他们。

新年

过新年了，我穿着新衣去爷爷奶奶家拜年。我拿着两个柑，对爷爷奶奶说：“新年快了！” 爷爷给我吃肉干和年糕。我说：“真好吃！”

爷爷和奶奶拿出红包说：“祝你学业进步！” 我很开心。我们就去吃晚餐。我很爱今年的新年。

Indoor Picnic

2 Saturdays ago, my cousins Fio, Irene and I planned for an afternoon delight comprising a picnic nestled in the grounds of Botanic Gardens. Unfortunately, the torrential rains and dense moody cumulo nimbus of the gloomy monsoon season obliterated the merry sun rapidly by early afternoon, which led to all of us congregating at my home for an afternoon of indoor picnic instead! 

That might be a blessing in disguise because the grannies could chit chat and catch up with each other in airconditioned comfort, and the kids could have free access to all the Bees' toys. Of course, I miss playing in the verdant greenery of the lush Gardens, but let's leave that to the end of the monsoon, which is nigh!

Some highlights of that fun afternoon:

1) Gastronomical delights worth many high tea buffets, prepared lovingly by the 2 grannies and comprising of yummy takeaways by Irene! My mum created succulent "kong ba pao" which is a recipe that I am determined to master. Fio's mum cooked up a storm with fragrant yam rice and the most scrumptious stir-fried Chinese long beans. Irene brought along a myriad of mouthwatering nonya kuehs with juicy fruits from Fio. All of us were in seventh heaven just by stuffing our stomachs full of these goodies! Who needs hotel high tea buffets when we can have such homecooked delights? 

2) The 4 little cousins comprising the Bees, Chloe and Val whipping up imaginary culinary delicacies with the Bees' oft-neglected cooking toys. I guess company certainly makes the toys a lot more appealing, so all the little girls busied themselves with preparing a whole assortment of imaginary dishes! Big Bee is gradually losing interest in toys, plus she is straddling that delicate threshold between little childhood and tweenhood, so she hopped between chattering with the adults and patronising the little ones! She is a role model for the little ones though, especially Val, who will follow her every action! 

3) An early evening of intensive and messy bubble play - an abundance of iridescent soap bubbles shimmering in the heavy, post-rain shower atmosphere. The 4 little girls were drenched in soapy chaos but it was so evident that they revelled in this fun disorder! Running around chasing bubbles, scuttling around to burst these bubbles, laughters of pure delight and squeals of mirthful amazement. Wonder to the adults' hearts indeed. 

4) The finale definitely has to be 4 little girls - stark naked - with 3 of their flustered mummies all squashed in the confines of my bathroom's shower cubicle, showering after the messy bubble play - altogether!! The Bees were tickled beyond words and I wish I could take a picture of this delightful scene! 

5) A quiet evening of co-operative and peaceful playdoh between Little Bee, Chloe and Val at Little Bee's desk. It was so cute seeing them chatting in their little kid language to each other about the idiosynscracies of mushy playdoh! Big Bee, in the meantime, was well ensconced in her room, after a nice shower, re-reading her favourite Enchanted Wood series again :)

With the weather that seems to be embracing blue skies and the golden sun once more, I think our next outing should be amongst verdant giants. That is, after Big Bee's mid-year school assessments! Meanwhile, coaching and tutoring in the household continues...

Handmade Expressions Of Love

The Bees are both very fond of creating cards and little mementos during special occasions for the whole family. Last month was a hectic month with celebrations for both Hubby's and Big Bee's birthdays. It was indeed heartening and touching to see both Big Bee and Little Bee fussing earnestly over their handmade creations during these 2 special days.

Little Bee was a busy bee indeed, having to make 2 cards, one each for Papa and jie-jie.

Front of the card for Papa with a birthday cake

The inside of Papa's card from Little Bee - she drew and conceptualised everything by herself without any supervision! I was quite surprised, really. The 2 figures on the left are Papa and Little Bee.

Little Bee also drew this all by herself for jie-jie's birthday. This is a scene from jie-jie's birthday party, and she said she is drawing all of jie-jie's friends singing a birthday song for her. That's a 3-tiered birthday cake in front!

Little Bee, who so adored jie-jie, also created a bookmark as a present for jie-jie. Everything was arranged and cut by Little Bee, except for the 3 heart shapes that she needed help from an adult to cut.

And Big Bee slaved for 2 hours just to create the perfect card for Papa's special day.

The front of the card - Big Bee is now experimenting with decorative handwritten fonts.

The inside of the card with a 3D bouncing heart to represent a beating heart full of love, and a car at the bottom that can move from left to right along a strip of paper.

Back of the card - with a secret message flap...

...open the flap, and may all Papa's wishes come true!

With the plenitude of precious gifts from the girls, especially sentimental Big Bee who had been making beautiful presents for us since a few years back, I had now set aside a treasure box of love - open it and Hubby and I will be dazzled by all these overt expressions of the Bees' love through the decades to come.

Upcoming projects: I am already observing Big Bee surreptitiously researching through our craft books to create more tokens of affection for the imminent Mother's and Father's Day. I am indeed blessed.

Colours Of Nature Part 1

Last Saturday morning, Little Bee and I were at home working on some craft for our current homelearning theme, whilst Big Bee and hubby were out for her enrichment classes. It was a great time spent solo with Little Bee, as we could focus on so many wonderful activities as well as bonded so marvelously together. I can never underestimate how important it is to have private, one-on-one time with each child so that they feel that extra tinge of being a special individual.

Little Bee and I traipsed about in our estate's garden under the warm fuzzy sunlight, diligently picking leaves for our craft. All kinds of leaves in brilliant hues. We took turns cutting out leaves in resplendent shades of colours, with Little Bee identifying and selecting those leaves in tints of red, maroon and pink - bright, rich and happy colours. 

Back home, she helped me to cut out the leaves from their stalks and then we immersed all the leaves in a tantalizing dance of water ballet to bathe them, as they swirled about gracefully, in a bewitching masquerade of dazzling fall colours. It was amazing - there is no autumn in Singapore, yet, we have an entire pail of leaves in enthralling tones of fall.

 

Little Bee was mesmerized by the leaves whirling, twirling and swirling in the bucket, and could not keep her hands away from the pail, swishing them in a magical, enchanting circle of spellbinding luminosity. 

After ample time in the bucket, we fished out the leaves, spotless, glistening and shimmering - and laid them all out to dry under the sparkling, scintillating sunshine. 

Enjoy the colours of nature. Look around us and overwhelm our senses with the psychedelic colours that are such a fundamental part of the planet we should feel so very proud to call home. And teach our children to appreciate, nurture and treasure this miracle that is our home. 

Learning Through Games

Big Bee is now addicted to word games like Boggle and Scrabble, much to my elation. So, idyllic weekend afternoons and lazy weekday nights are now spent with the family cuddled on our bed, four heads huddled over a small set of Boggle or a slightly more extensive Scrabble. 

Big Bee is getting better at these games the more she plays, and I thought it is an excellent way of enhancing her vocabulary outside of her reading. Whenever we use new words that she had never seen before, we took the opportunity to explain these words to her. Despite the competitive nature of these games, I will always assure her that we are not gearing to win, but rather, treating this as a family games session. This reassurance never fails to soothe Big Bee's somewhat competitive streak, and enhances her interest in these games despite her difficulty to pit her skills against Papa and Mummy! (But I must say she is becoming a formidable competitor!)

Boggle is also a fantastic game for Little Bee to identify and write down alphabets and short words like "No", "Cat" or "Egg" that she is now beginning to learn to spell. Whenever we play Boggle, Little Bee will join in, and I will pretend to include her in the game. It is very amusing to see her frantically scribbling alphabets and little short words or imaginary words within the limited game time, and I will also attempt to go through her word list, giving her game points so she does not feel left out. 

Family games like these are wonderfully multi-functional - allowing us to bond over board games and strengthening the Bees' English prowess! Perfect! 

Let The Parties Begin!

Little Bee received her first party invitation from her classmate last month, which got me thinking, "Oh wow - the whole cycle of being part of ceaseless parties begins!" I am now so used to just dropping Big Bee off at parties that I need to start getting used to participating as a parent in Little Bee's parties, and networking with a new set of parents again. 

Nonetheless, I am looking forward to these parties, seeing Little Bee have fun with her friends and peeking into her little life outside of our home. 

So, 2 Saturdays ago, Little Bee and I turned up at Ashley's party and immersed ourselves in lots of fun! It was such a coincidence that Big Bee also attended her friend's 4th birthday party in the same place, and that friend was also named Ashley! 

With her 2 best friends - Natalie and Alecia

Little Bee glowed like a little firefly with her best friends as well as other friends of hers. I was able to just sit aside and admire her independence. She would put up her hand boldly and informed the party hosts in a loud and lucid voice if she had not taken her turn at a game station. She was also able to chit chat effortlessly with her little cute friends, always sporting her signature grin on her face. 

Fun galore with friends! 

But what was so heartwarming was that she would never fail to beam at me whenever she ran past me, and then hugging and calling me "Mummyyyyy" endearingly. She would also introduced me to her friends, and vice versa, so I am now fully acquainted with all her friends. 

I am certain she will form solid and enduring friendships with her preschool friends, thriving in this environment of positivity and love that creates friends for life :) 

Have fun, Little Bee! 

Ebullient Eight

Dear Big Bee, 

In the blink of an eye, you are fast approaching your tweens. I cannot even begin to utter my incredulous disbelief that you are fast approaching a double digit age group. For Mummy will always regard you as my first baby girl forever. 

I will always remember that night in 2001, seemingly not that long ago in my mind's eye, when I held up the omniscient pregnancy indicator - with positive results. I remembered delaying the test, just so I could be living in a willing state of illusion. I remembered almost crying when I saw the positive results because Papa and I had only been married for barely 9 months, because I was barely 28 years old, because...because I just wanted to enjoy life as it is - liberated, unshackled and carefree. 

Truthfully, I must admit, I was not ready for motherhood when you decided to reside as a little foetus in my stomach. And despite the positive test, I lived in denial for the first trimester. 

Until I felt those tiny, ethereal butterfly flutterings deep within the recesses of my womb during the 2nd trimester. Until I felt those apologetic, finespun taps from within my stomach - no kicks from you, my dear, never huge motions when you were warmly ensconced in my tummy. As if you knew better than to jolt me abruptly into the reality of your presence. 

And I began to feel a powerful, wonderful, exquisite connection with you. An indelible bonding that propagates stronger and stronger, growing rapidly into an omnipotent nexus that we share between ourselves now. 

And when I first saw you emerging from my womb finally, your little body still speckled with bloodstains, eyes closed, mouth agape with soft, bewildered infant wailings, my heart swelled, my throat constricted with a lump so gigantic I could hardly breathe nor swallow, and my eyes welled up with overwhelmed tears. 

And I knew then - you and me - we will be together for eternity, sharing a bond so deep, so boundless that nothing can tear us apart. 

That was my initiation into motherhood - an overpowering experience that you blessed me with in an understated mien. 

And that was how you are throughout your 8 years of life - intuitive, sensitive, sensible, practical, responsible and mature. Right from those inconspicuous, unobtrusive movements - never kicks, I must stress again - within my womb. 

You are not one who relish too much attention on you, yet your traits have compelled you to be at the forefront of things. You are a perfectionist, eager to excel in everything you lay your hands on, meticulous and conscientious. You will ensure that you do everything well - from academic performance, to sports, to music, to dance, to art. A perfect daughter and ideal student who brings very little trouble and much joy to your parents and teachers. 

But I feel I must reassure you that perpetual success is not always essential, that sometimes, it is perfectly fine to show your weaknesses to others, that it is not always important to show others only your strong facade. 

You said something that lifted my heart last week - that you treat Mummy as your best friend. And I will always want to be your best friend, your staunch companion, your girly gossip partner in whichever stage of life you are at - supporting you, standing behind you always. So that you will know unto infinity that there is always someone for you to seek solace with. 

You are not highly expressive with your affections, but your little actions show how much you love us. You never forget a single birthday of ours. You always make beautiful little gifts that touch our hearts on our special days. And last night, I discovered that you cut out some silly doodle and comment that Mummy made on your spelling book, and you wrote "From Mummy" on the cut-out, hiding this little scrap in your drawer. Then I realise how important my actions and expressions are to you. 

You never asked for too much - always understanding, always sensitive. I will always remember how you reassured me that you do not need any pocket money for school because you do not wish to squander the money buying senseless paraphernalia from the bookshop. You will always remind me to save up all your angpow money in your bank, but with no demands on how you will use these funds. 

You are extremely loyal and popular with your friends. And it is inevitable that you must have showcased some subtle form of leadership amongst your friends because you are constantly surrounded by friends who crave for your attention. You are always thrust into the limelight of public speaking and lead roles in performances because teachers perpetually tell me they love having you as a student. Yet you do not revel in such recognition, preferring to be low profile, ideally hiding in the shadows, but that never happens to you in reality. 

You, my dear darling Big Bee, is an absolute gift who literally transforms my life forever. 

Happy 8th birthday, young lady - may we be best friends forever. 

In Full Bloom

Imagine a party with 13 vociferous kids, all creating a rambunctious cacophony of ear-splitting yells, boisterous shoves and exuberant glee. You will probably end up being tone-deaf for half a day or losing your voice trying to shout warnings of caution above the loud din. 

This was how Big Bee celebrated her 8th birthday last Sunday afternoon - with her closest friends and their familiar siblings from her kindergarten days, and with immense exhilaration and verve. 

We had been planning this party for the past month - or rather, I was merely the logistics planner, and she was the honcho in charge of the entire guest list, party items and games. She wanted only her closest friends from kindergarten with her, complete with a large bouncy castle to accommodate her entire gang, party games and a pinata full of goodies to help dissipate their boundless energies. 

Party elements: the ubiquitous cake, goodie bags, food, pinata and a bouncy castle! 

Her best friends, Rachael and Lizzie, arrived bright and early ahead of all the other guests, and they had a fantastic time fooling around and giggling about boys. So they were especially excited when Kai arrived, and he was aptly shy as well. These are the woes of children from single-gender schools! 

Surrounded by her closest pals who had known her since she was 4 years old

All the kids loved the gigantic bouncy castle and the roughest play imaginable happened on the castle. Shoving, yanking, pulling, pushing, kicking. It was akin to perpetual wrestling matches! Somehow, the younger kids like Little Bee with older siblings are battle-hardened from the constant fights at home, and learned how to tackle rough big kids very well. I was elated to see Little Bee blending in perfectly with jie-jie's friends at the party.

Utter mayhem at the bouncy castle! 

I hired party hosts to concoct fun party games and to host the pinata session so that I have time to network with the parents. The kids loved the young and vibrant party hosts who organised the games with gusto and gave out prizes to all the kids. Wonderful! 

Pinata galore! 

It was a great party, and it was really gratifying to see Big Bee's blissful expressions. 

Snapshots of convivial expressions throughout the party 

She loved the fact that all her best pals were with her to celebrate her special day and relished the attention showered on her as the birthday girl. 

With all her friends...

It was particularly sweet to see how her friends started making cards and writing little notes to her as their birthday wishes - I can sense a strong bond of camaraderie and friendship forming.

 

The aftermath: a clean, freshly showered Big Bee, all ready to open up her presents! 

I guess this will be the start of many parties that she would direct in future - all I ask for is her complete happiness and the knowledge that we are always behind her, supporting her and loving her. Happy birthday, Big Bee. You're a young lady now at 8 :) 

Her Caricatures

I keep finding scraps of scribblings or drawings from Little Bee in school. Her teacher told me that Little Bee is very fond of drawing and painting, always wanting to be the first whenever there is painting in class (her bossy, competitive self at work!). Sometimes, she will quietly sit aside and draw whatever comes to her fancy during breaks in class. 

One day late last month, I discovered this picture in her bag (see below), with a note from her teacher stating that Little Bee told her she drew a birdhouse. I was pleasantly surprised. When I enquired Little Bee about this, she was able to talk about the picture in more detail, proclaiming that the bird is in its house, with the sun shining on it, and stairs leading from the bird's house to the grass below. It was really interesting to hear her perspective and see how her drawings reflect her perception of the world she lives in. I find children express themselves distinctly through their drawings. 

Last week, she scribbled a self portrait of herself holding a "castle balloon" and tried writing her name on the balloon (she can spell and write random parts of her name without prompting, but will always miss out on some letters! So she will usually spell "Aette" or "Anntte" as seen in her double attempts below!). Was she indirectly telling me to dash out and buy a big special balloon for her? :) 

The Macrocosm Of Nature

With Eugene and Claire...and a whole lot of giant bubbles, amidst a gorgeous verdant setting. 

It was a moist cool Sunday afternoon - widespread gloomy grey clouds obliterated the sky with intermittent drizzles interrupting an otherwise idyllic setting. A pair of black swans were gliding ever so gracefully on the halcyon lake, just like beautiful lithe ballerinas performing a rapturous dance on stage, leaving enthralling rippling patterns in the watery trail as they drifted around languorously. Flocks of plump pigeons hovered boldly around the humans, drawn magnetically to baits of breadcrumbs, fluttering their quivering wings in pure delight. Lush verdurous trees bloomed ubiquitously, with soft emerald grass resting on gentle undulating slopes. 

Perched on one of these freshly rainwashed slopes sat 2 families, PF's and mine, reposing on picnic mats, relaxing and idly chatting, while our children cackled with raucous laughter and rambunctious yells of playful gleefulness. The Bees, with Eugene and Claire, indulged in incessant activities of bubble play, sword fighting and general exploration of the wonderful outdoors. 

It was a joy to bring our children to sprawling parks like the Botanic Gardens. They get so close to nature and conjure up imaginative and creative games, rather than confined to a Wii station at home, which does most of the thinking for our children. In such a bucolic setting, it is indeed rare for our children to get upclose and personal with the tame swans, observing where they nestled for the night, discerning the nimble movements of swans and pigeons and scrutinizing little bugs and insects crawling all around us. 

We should be back very soon, I gather :) 

The Tempest

Sorcery. Spirituality. Isolation. Ostracism. Love. Forgiveness. All coalesced in a play that is 400 years old. Written by none other than the magnificent Shakespeare. And performed splendidly with a somewhat disquieting modern twist by such awe-inspiring actors. 

The Tempest was one of the more fantastical and bizarre plays that was written by Shakespeare, in my opinion. One can only imagine how audiences 400 years ago would anticipate this particular play of his - very much like an epic "Clash Of The Titans" on stage with significant comedic elements mingled with its whimsical yet aberrant plot for its time. 

400 years later, in modern Singapore, the audience was enraptured in laughter, awe and excitement - hypnotised by the enchanting iambic pentameter of Shakespeare's blank verse, spellbound by the raw passion and remarkable performances by the excellent actors who immersed themselves completely in their characters. 

Oh, how wonderful to be doing what you love exclusively! To follow one's heart and pursue what your heart whispers to you. I must remind myself to extol this to my Bees always - in whatever you do in life, let your passion, your interests lead you. So that you can live life to the fullest, to be absolutely alive, gloriously happy and be perpetually imbued with zeal. 

My good friend BI and I, great fans of Shakespeare, emerged from a darkened theatre into the dazzling sunlight of hot Singapore, abruptly transported back to the fractiousness of daily life after 2.5 hours of brilliant escapism. We watched The Winter's Tale last year at this time. It was amazing how time passes. And our next Shakespearean indulgence: 3 witches, a tortured General and his unscrupulous wife. A tragedy of murder, betrayal and indelible guilt. We can't wait :)  

Of Magical Woods and Trees

This is the book that fired my imagination at the age of 9. That transported me like a magic bullet train into another reality, a world of pure creativity. That made me realise that mere words on a paper can be transformed into huge galaxies of existence that are pure fantasies in our minds. That was the start of a perpetual chain reaction of reliance on the written word for pure escapism. 

This book is the catalyst that fuelled the homage my mind pays to many different whistle stops to a plethora of worlds from infinite books that can only exist uniquely in my imagination. 

And I am elated that Big Bee is allowing herself to bravely step into this universe that only her mind alone can witness and experience. A pure fantastical cognizance that existed differently in each of our minds. Using only our individual instruments of reading and imagination. 

We bought the 3 books of Enid Blyton's acclaimed Faraway Tree series as Christmas presents for her last year. She completed all 3 of them in less than a fortnight. And she is now rereading the entire series again. This series was Hubby's and my favourite childhood books, and we spoke fondly of the characters and lands in the books with her. I am elated that she is as mesmerised by fairies and magical forests as I was (and am!). And I hope Little Bee would be equally enchanted in time to come. 

I am hoping Big Bee can harness all these reading into creative writing, and I am trying all means to help her express herself through writing. For a start, here was something she wrote last September before her aquaintance with the enthralling creatures of the Faraway Tree. Which was uncanny as she wrote about the tallest tree in the woods, very much like the Enchanted Wood. Enjoy this unedited version (and hence, pardon any grammatical mistakes)! 

Cover - very reasonably priced ;) 

"There was one very tall tree in the woods. It was the tallest! The birds always build their nest in that tree. It was so tall that even a giraffe could not eat the leaves of the tree. The other giraffe always laugh at the giraffe who could not eat the leaves of the tallest tree. If birds are too tired, they cannot fly up to the tallest tree. Not even a man can chop down that tree or even ten. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10."

"If they really wanted to chop down that tree it could take them four years. But nobody will waste their time doing that. One day, the newspaper wanted people to chop down that tree. It reads... (see picture above). (note from Mummy: I think I need to teach her more about the environment and sustainability!!)

Everybody wanted to chop down the tallest tree. Nobody could do it. Even animals wanted to chop down that tree. All the animals tried but they could not chop it down."

(...to be continued...)

She continued the story after I took the photos of her book last September, but I could not find the book to type out the completed story now, apologies! She had not written another story book since then, which was slightly worrying for me, although there were many journal entries and other written notices.

In this age of multimedia and multifarious distractions, I think it is highly challenging for us parents to channel our children's creativity into focused activities that will be constructive and beneficial for them, rather than allowing their minds to fall into a semi-comatose state with unhelpful TV shows, iPhone, Wii and computer games that even I am guilty of indulging the children with!

Disney Magic

We brought the Bees to the entertaining Disney On Ice show the weekend after the March holidays, and were immersed in the breathtaking magic of Disney again. 

Once again, the Bees dictated on their wardrobe selection - especially Little Bee, who is fast developing a penchant as an avid personal shopper, constantly selecting her choices of wardrobe, always opting for sassy short skirts and pretty pink tops or feminine frilly dresses! She would always chant impatiently when we questioned her choices, "I want to be 'sexy' girl!" Please don't ask me who taught her the words "sexy"!!

The girls had keenly identified themselves as alternate egos of the Disney princesses after the Hong Kong trip last December. Big Bee feels a close kinship with Aurora from Sleeping Beauty whereas Little Bee thinks she is Belle from Beauty and the Beast. It is not surprising that they chose to dress up as their alter-egos during their much anticipated Disney On Ice show. 

We managed to get a glimpse of LP and her boys from across the crowded hall during the show, and the Bees waved like eager beauty queens at WW and WD. The show was not as appealing to them as last year's Disney Princesses On Ice show, and I thought the skaters' techiques were not as adroit. However, as loyal fans of Disney, the Bees still highly approved of the performances, dreading the end of the show, watching with gaping mouths and enchanted eyes, and we were still bewitched by the rousing music and familiar characters. 

Chilling out during the intermission inside the performance hall

We are now looking forward to another total immersion into the world of Disney fantasy and pure imagination in June!