Perfect or Kiasu ?

In the evening, I got Samuel to do some writing (sentences) and mathematics. After that, I just thought of getting him to do some spelling on colours. I have not taught him how to spell nor asked him to memorize how to spell colours. I just wanted to see if he can actually spell.

He was doing fine initially, until I got him to spell purple. He started to show his sour face and I could see tears in his eyes but I chose to ignore him. It got worse when I asked him to spell the next word, orange. I continued and asked him to spell the next few words and after he finished spelling 10 words, he came to me in tears. He doesn't know how to spell a few of the colours.

When Jesse saw Samuel with teary eyes, she consoled him immediately, "its ok kor kor, don't worry". We kept telling him that he has done a great job but that doesn't satisfy him. After telling him the correct way to spell the colours, he erased his mistakes and redo it again. Should I say he's Mr. Kiasu or Mr. Perfect ?

My intention was just to check how well can he spell, I have no intention to make him cry. Its a good thing that his school doesn't have spelling tests. I'm not surprise next year when we move him to another school, there will be spelling tests. I have no idea how would he react in class if he doesn't know how to spell.

Samuel's spelling after making adjustments to the mistakes - Purple, Orange, Black, White

Jesse's Friends (Kindermusik)

Jesse loves her Kindermusik classes. Every week she will look forward to her class.

The new term has just started a couple of weeks ago. These are 3 photos of her and the children at the end of last term (Wiggles and Giggles). When 4 little ones sits together, it is hard to take their photos.

Samuel Swimming Freestyle

It has been almost a year and a half since Samuel started to learn swimming. The first initial 12 months, Samuel has been learning swimming at the Brunei Swimming Club. 

Most of it was to help him build confidence with water. He started learning swimming breast stroke (round arms) with teacher Isabelle. 

Beginning this year, we started sending Samuel to the Jerudong Polo Club for swimming lessons. When we first sent him there, teacher Edwin started teaching him freestyle. For the past few weeks, we have been seeing improvements in his swimming.

Samuel Playing Cooking Mama (iPod Touch)

It amazes me how kids nowadays can have such fine motor skills to play with an iPod Touch. They are just so tech savvy nowadays. 

Take a look at how Samuel plays Cooking Mama on daddy's iPod Touch. hehehe. Its a video taken 2 months ago. 

Daddy took a video of Samuel from daddy's handphone when he saw Samuel so engrossed playing Cooking Mama. Jesse also wanted to play with the iPod. hehehe

Jesse started playing with daddy's iPod Touch when she turned 2. Before that, she started playing with daddy's PSP when she was 1 years old.

Chocolate Orange Square

Samuel had his first cooking class last Friday in the art school, after his art class. Samuel's art teacher's friend was teaching some children cooking and we enrolled him.

He baked a chocolate orange square. It certainly doesn't look nice since it was wrapped in the aluminium foil. The blue icing was all over.

When I opened the aluminium foil, it smells extremely nice and almost immediately I wanted to try it :p I have to resist the temptation when we were in the car. On the way back, he was reading the recipe to me.

Once we reached home, i took some photos and I immediately tried the cake. It was really yummy!! I would definitely finish everything but I didn't cause I need to let daddy and the children to try it too.

It was really yummy and I doubt it was actually baked by him, although he told me that he baked it all by himself :)

Blokus

This is one of Samuel's birthday present - Blokus. I like to see my children play board games. It teaches them to take turns & to have patience.

Samuel started to learn that he will not always win. He is willing to accept that he might sometimes lose. If he wins, he will get very thrilled and will announce to the whole world :p If he looses, he will say, "nevermind, we will play again"

Sunday Splash !

One of our usual Sunday activities, the splashing moment!

Samuel's Gift to Joyful Kids Montessori School

Recently, we celebrated Samuel's birthday at home and in school. Mummy has been blogging about this over the past week.

Today when i sent Samuel to school, teacher Yani gave me this photo of Samuel. During Samuel's birthday, besides mummy bringing a cake to school, an artwork of Samuel's 1,2,3,4 years old, he is expected to contribute to the school's library by giving away a book to the school. Samuel brought his favourite book, Peter and Jane.

If i recall correctly, mummy told me that when Samuel gave the book to the teachers, it was a heartbreaking moment for him to part from his favourite book. Something that others might think is a simple small gift actually meant so much to Samuel. Yes, Samuel loves books. He loves to read.

The following day, his teacher took a photo of him with the book he has given to the school's library and this is the photo that was given to me.

Reading

Jesse likes to pretend to read. She will open the book, point at the words and start reading. She can't read but she will pretend that she is reading and she likes to start with "one day...."

Since young, Jesse has not been very interested with words, unlike Samuel. At her age, Samuel would be able to read Peter & Jane books. She only likes to pretend :)

Library Book

Today is Samuel's turn to borrow a book from the school library. Guess what book he borrowed?
Recently we had a birthday party for him and he also attended 2 parties for the past week, so he took a book with the title "The Birthday Party".

Sticker Boy

Samuel has been attending music classes for about 1.5 years, it was more of music appreciation than the normal instrument classes. They do singing, writing, drawing and playing with toys.

Samuel started the 2nd year of the program early this year. The main difference of 2nd year program is they are taught how to play the piano. Just a very basic where the notes are at the piano.

Although there's not great changes in the 2nd year program, Samuel seems to have changed alot during the class. According to his teacher, he is not as shy as last year. He started to volunteer in answering questions. For each correct answer, he will get a sticker on his shirt.

A couple of weeks ago, I was amazed that he got himself full of stickers on his shirt. He has the most stickers, 9 of them while the rest of the students only 2-3 stickers.