Natalie's "Reading" @ 2y7m

Eunice has been bringing back some take-home books from school this week. It's her "homework" to learn how to read. Those are simple books with pictures, so most of the time the child will be looking at the picture to predict the words. It's pretty easy for Eunice, even Nat can "read" them. But I tried to get Eunice to recognize the words.

Every night when I try to teach Eunice, Nat will be around and said she wants to read too. So I let her after Eunice finishes reading. I took 2 videos of her reading and couldn't resist to post it up. She's such a drama queen and such a cutie busy body!

No, she can't read. She's just reading from memory or by looking at the pictures in the book. :)

Swimming

In December long holiday, one of the most fun things that we did was to visit swimming pools. We went to 3 different aquatic centers / swimming pools just to check out their differences, also because we have the discount vouchers. The girls were very very happy and they really played crazy, and both slept really well after the swimming. :)

When we went for the first visit at Monash Aquatic Center, we did not know what to expect, and EG said he won't go into the water. So he was taking pictures for us. And you can see how clumsy I was trying to hold on to two girls. But he took beautiful pictures.

In the wave pool

The wave is pretty strong and I had to hold on my girls pretty tightly.

Some shots at the wave pools

Taking a break at the kid's pool

Enjoying the bubble pool

Some shots of me and my girls :)

After this, we went to Aqualink Boxhill and Healthways Aquatic Centers, and EG decided to join in the fun together hence we didn't take any photo. However, we still had great fun in both the visits. Everytime I said we're going swimming, the girls will be shouting in joy.

None of us knows how to swim. Both girls were pretty timid in the water. Eunice tried to avoid her face into the water or even scolded us for asking her to try to dip her face into the water. She complaint the water is smelly (chlorine). After that, I talked to a few parents and decided to send Eunice for swimming class as swimming is a very important skill in Australia. Also, it's a survival skill so no harm letting her doing it.

Eunice started late in the lesson as most children in Aus will start swimming lesson at as young as 1yo, but mostly at 3yo. We put her through a holiday intensive program (5 consecutive days of lessons during school holiday). In the first & second day, she was afraid and timid in the water. But after that, she built her confidence in her swimming teacher, and she got much better and loves swimming now. I was pretty amazed that even though the class is only 30 minutes, she actually did a lot of things in the class. Not a slack moment at all. So, it's really value for money!

After 5 days, we continued her in the weekly swimming program. She'll ask us everyday - am I going swimming today? She'll be very excited on the swimming lesson day.

Cutie girl. I bought a swimming cap for her to ease the washing.

Posing for the camera :)

She's pretty good now. She kicks and scoops with floats around her. And I can see the teacher trying to let her do it by herself and I believe that really boosts her sense of accomplishment. She loves swimming so much - which I am glad, very glad indeed.

I took some pictures of her when I went for her class (for the first time - very excited), and I didn't see there's a note saying that no camera / no picture. So ever since then I never take any pic of her anymore.

During the lesson

Getting ready to swim

Go my girl :)

Kicking kicking kicking

Swimming by herself with float

Swimming backwards with noodle

Floating on her back

Since she started late in her lessons, she's with the 3.5yo children in her lesson now. But the teacher has pushed her pretty hard that she's going up another level after 1 term. Pretty proud of her. :).

VIC Swim Level Progression Diagram.
Eunice is now in Pre School Beginner Gold and we'll find out which level she's going to in next term.

I love going for her swimming lesson with her to watch her swim. We'll enrol Nat when she's 3.5 yo, so that I don't need to be in the pool together with her. But even for now, Nat also knows how to swim. She'll tell Eunice to KICK! And they will both have lots of fun when we put on water in the bath tub at home and that's when they start "swimming" too. :)

2015: Eunice in School

It's been a month since I last blogged.


I do have many things to write about, but I was feeling jittery over the whole "Eunice-first-day-in-school" thingy for almost a month plus. Yes! I am serious - A MONTH. Everytime I thought about it, I felt like there's a lump in my throat.

In Victoria, a child can go into foundation (previously called prep - preparation - And I prefer this term over foundation) when he/she turns 5 years old before 30th April. Eunice is born in Feb, so she's "qualified" to go to prep this year.

While we were planning to move here, I already knew that Eunice will be going to prep in 2015, and I was pretty relief on that fact that I don't need to pay for the expensive childcare once she goes to primary school. But as the day comes nearer, I felt anxious. Going to prep is a big thing here. Everytime I tell others that Eunice is going to prep, they will show me a "O" mouth and said, REALLY? SO FAST! SHE'S NOW A BIG GIRL! Yea, 100% giving me that response. So it's a big thing!

Comparing in Malaysia, a child goes to primary school from 7am to 1pm (6 hours) when they're 7 years old, but here, my baby Eunice is not even 5yo yet (in another 2 weeks :P) when she starts to attend primary school from 9am to 3.30pm (6.5 hours). And she'll have her lunch in the school - packing lunch box is my another headache that I won't talk about.

I can't help but thinking to myself, will she be able to mix in? Will other children bully her (since she's more on the shy type)? Will she finish her lunch? During one session of 2-hr orientation last year, she told me she's hungry when I picked her up. She's supposed to have her lunch during the orientation (to let them have an idea on lunch break in school). So she went on and told me she went to toilet during the lunch break, and when she came back, everyone has finished their lunch and gone to the playground. So she went to the playground too. Imagine my horror! (101% protective mom!). Since then, we "trained" her to finish her meals at home before going toilet.

Another reason that I am anxious is because I have never attended a school here before. I do not know what to expect - when is recess time? what to pack for recess? sandwiches again? fruits? cheese? will it spoil? etc etc... (Typical worrier traits) I am glad that I met a Malaysian mum who's here for long time to answer me all my questions. Even buying uniforms stresses me out - so different from what we had in Malaysia.

And finally, I have to admit that I am not ready to let her go. I concluded that after stressing myself out for almost a month. I am just not ready to accept the fact that Eunice has grown to a big girl now.

So, the day has finally came. I couldn't sleep well the night before and I got up as early as 630am to start preparing for the BIG day. EG laughed at me asking if I am the one going to school. My baby? She's ALL EXCITED. She woke up, brushed her teeth, changed into her uniform that I took out the night before, wore her new socks, and came to the kitchen for her warm breakfast!

So we sent her off to school. I saw some mums wiping their eyes as they left the room, and another mom whom sent her son to the same kinder as Eunice standing outside of the classroom, anxiously making sure her son is settling well, just like me. I talked to her and she told me that she couldn't sleep well too. So, I am not alone! Even the principal jokingly said that there'll be a room for the mums to cry, or maybe considering serving some beer for the devastated mums!

Picking up children was another eye opener for me. I saw a mum ran and hugged the kid tightly when the kid came out from the school. Now all the articles about "sending kids to school the first time" in the internet make sense to me, and EG concluded that this is a MUM thing. For him, he thinks the school is the best place his daughter should be at, having great fun everyday.

Of course, it all went very well. Eunice came out with smiling face. I asked her if she had a good time, and she said YES. And she told me the games that they played, the little little incidents in her class, and most importantly, she finished her lunch!

So, the first day of school drama is now over. Next week onwards it'll be all rushing everyday to send her to school before I go to work, and thinking what to pack for her lunch box everyday (my most headache chore!).

My girl, Eunice, is now a preppie girl! She's a big girl now!

Getting ready to go school on the first day!

Love this picture...

Took another shot before going into the room

At the corridor

Her desk

Giving her a big tight hug before leaving.
A friend commented that it's as if she's getting married! :P

Occupying herself as we walked out of her classroom

Eunice and her good friend from kinder.
Anxious mum (ME!) peeking at the window to make sure her baby is settling well.

Bye Bye 2014

Tonight, after EG settled the girls, he told them, "OK, go and sleep now. And happy new year to you both! Tomorrow is going to be a new year."

Natalie asked, "What's a new year?"
Eunice asked, "What's going to happen tomorrow?"

Cuteness.

Both our girls have grown a lot in this year. And thankfully, both of them are adapting very very well in this new place. No wonder many said children adapt real fast - and it's so true. Eunice now has picked up all the aussie slang, and also picking up the outspoken traits learnt from kinder & childcare. She is less shy now comparing to when she was in Penang - she would tell the cashier what she wanted, and she would greet our neighbors. She's more courageous to try new things now - and she could play most of the playground hurdles now (when we first came she probably would just stick to slide & swing :P)... And she can talk 15-20 minutes BY herself TO herself! Hope that's not a bad thing. :). And you know what, EG and I have been telling each other that she's grown up so much that "cute" is not the right word to describe her anymore!

For Natalie, she grows so fast that I hope time can slow down a bit. When we arrived, she could just baby talked but now, after 3 months, she started to talk 2-3 words, even my aunt who talked to her after 2-3 weeks also got a shock that Natalie could answer her question on the phone. After going to childcare for 5 months, now she can talk a whole long sentence, and I can now have a decent conversation with her. Her speech development is amazing, even the child care carers told me that she can talk really really well, comparing to some of the children at her age. I gave the credit to her sister, Eunice. Eunice has been Natalie's most faithful play mate ever since we moved here. And I guess putting two of them in the same room helps too. There're times when they'd close their room door and play inside, they said it's their castle and we couldn't go in - which we happily obliged to have some time for ourselves. :P

Life here is so busy that I have to ask the girls to play by themselves most of the time. They fought, quarreled, and argued quite a bit in the beginning, but today, I paid extra attention to them as they were playing together, they could play really really well and they could leave me alone at a corner having a break. They played pretend play together for almost an hour - setting up a Christmas concert & lunch. They can have very good conversation between them and they can really communicate very well now.

We are very happy to see both the sisters now are very close. They look out for each other (though sometimes still fight & quarrel), and truly love each other (when we threaten to leave one at home because naughty, the other will always says no!).

2014 has been a great year for my girls - a new place, new school, new home, new room, new friends, lots of parks & plays, playdates, dress up, church activities, toys, animals, etc - so much fun for them! I am pretty sure that they enjoyed their 2014 a lot, much more than the parents.

Next year, 2015, Eunice will be going to primary school nearby, and Nat will be "promoted" from toddler's room to pre-kinder room in childcare. Can't believe that they have grown up so big now.

Both my girls in March, 2014

Both my girls 9 mths later in Dec, 2014.
They look so grown up, is it because of the hairstyle?

Finally, I thought I should post this video in my blog as remembrance. I was warned not to post in Facebook though I really want to! :D... The father was having a good time imitating how the Elmo danced in Sesame Street together with the girls. They do this almost every morning (it's holiday now :P) and the girls normally laugh at him because they said he didn't do it correctly. That's why I so love holiday!

Happy new year from my two lovely girls to all of you. Thank you for your love for them. They truly love all the attention that they have. :).

A taste of kin-dah

Kinder, or Kin-dah - with the Aussie accent. :).. I learnt that from Eunice.

Eunice attends Katrina Pre-school and she loves her kinder. She talks about her kinder all the time - things that she did with her friends and teachers, activities/art/science that they did, things that they talked about, etc. Her kinder is just down the road on the same street from our house - maybe 5 houses away. We walked her to kinder most of the time since it's so near. It'll be silly for me to drive. :)

So, it was Melbourne Cup Day public holiday (after 5 months since the last holiday!!!! @_@) on Tuesday and my office decided to close on Monday so everyone has long weekend. Since I was not working, EG suggested me to sit in Eunice's kinder for half a session just to see what our beloved daughter is doing in her kinder - which I happily obliged. I brought Natalie along - yea, they allow that. She just roamed around and played with the activities on the activity tables, and sometimes joined in Eunice's friends - oh those pre-schoolers, they love small little child like Natalie. :)

It was a pretty good experience. We went in around 8.30am and they played by themselves all the way till 10am (I was actually bored - and kept asking Eunice when will the group time be...). Most of the children were not there (due to the long weekend), and there were only 10 of them in the class. So it's not as noisy as it usually is.

She made a snail - can you see it? :)

Posing with Alyssa at the play dough table

This corner has new activity table every term. This term it's a light box table.
My little Natalie is enjoying it lots :). 

The teachers put on the art smocks for the girls and let the sisters paint together :)

Can you see what Eunice made? She told me she's going to make a dog and I didn't know how she's going to do it (zero-creativity mum!). So, she took a tissue box as the dog's body, 4 small cupcake wrappers as its legs, 3 straws - 2 for ears, 1 for tail. And she drew a circle on the black paper, and cut it out herself (yes! by herself!), and she told me she's going to give him 2 eyes and a star nose by sticking the glitters, and she drew the dog's mouth showing teeth. :).. Amazing! So proud of her. Even the kinder teacher was amazed and put it on the display shelf to show everyone. :)

Writing her name on the dog..

Oh I love this - the sisters drawing or writing together :)

Natalie is never a shy girl (not for now), and she's busy entertaining herself in the kinder too. She loves this corner. See the note pad next to her? She asked me, "Ok, so.. now... what you want?".. and I just simply answered something, she'd type on the keyboard, and the turn to scribble the note pad. How cute. :)

My little girl had fun too

Puzzle corner

I was pretty amazed with the paint activity below. The teacher got the children to choose a color, and she poured some paint from a big bottle (like a juice bottle) onto the table. Then, the children will smear the paint with their hands (just like the pic), and then the teacher will pour another color in and let them mix it to see how the color changes. They asked the children to draw something using their finger tips, and they will then put a piece of paper over it to print it onto the paper, and next, put to the drying rack to dry up.

After this is done, one of the teachers will help to clean up the children by washing their hands at the basin, dry the hands, take out the smock carefully so it doesn't dirty the child's shirt, while another teacher will use a sponge to clean up the table for the next child to play the same thing. Repeat the same process for 10 times (10 children)!.

I really really have to salute their patience for the children. I probably will give up after 2 times. And I'll never let my kids do this at home. :P..

Fun time for the kids, really!

And finally, at 10am, the teachers turned on some music and all the children said - Oh, it's PACK UP time. Everyone started to pack up (very good training!). And after that, it's the group time that I've been waiting for the whole morning! I just love to see children sitting down quietly listening to the teacher - looking at their attentive faces. :)

So it's dancing time. Teacher Carmel turned on a song, she called it, "Freezing song". Very cute. Obviously it's not the first time the children danced this song as they already know what to expect but it's still very cute. :)

Group time - Dancing 

Natalie joined - very reluctantly :)

The children just looked so cute - I couldn't resist and took a video of them. :)

And I left after this - it was near 11am and Natalie was already complaining that she's hungry. After 2.5 hours at 1pm, I came back again to pick Eunice. And she cycled home. Oh, she actually asked for bicycle to cycle to her kinder that morning and we parked her bicycle in the kinder.

She's grown so big now. I have another real bicycle that I picked up 2nd hand, waiting for her daddy to do it up nicely for her to cycle. :)

Cycling home...

A new sun hat that we bought for her to protect her face :)

I really love Eunice's kinder. So, I decided to register Natalie to this kinder for her 3yo and 4yo in 2016 and 2017. Hopefully by then we can still sort out our work schedule to fit into her schooling schedule. :)

Playdates

Playdates here are common.

The first play date that Eunice went to was to one of her good friend's house in the morning before she attended the kinder at 11am. The kid's dad offered to fetch Eunice to his home to play with his daughter, and to drop both children back in kinder at 11am - so EG can work a little on Tuesday morning - very thoughtful of him.

Second play date that Eunice went was to another girl's home (Malaysian parents here since high school) during school holiday, together with the first girl - just for the kids to catch up, the mum said.

Eunice and her friends

Water play

Recently, one of the mums just gave birth to her 3rd kid and now in confinement. I offered to pick up her daughter from school so they can come and pick her up when they are coming out to fetch the son from primary school nearby around 3.30pm+, instead of coming out 2 times to fetch both kids. And invited the first kid together.

I took a few pictures of them playing. I was only the coordinator. Eunice was happily showing them around the house, her toys, her coloring stuff, etc. I didn't need to do much, though I did prepare some muffins and jelly for them.

It was really cute to see all the little girls playing together.

Drawing at the easel

My favorite pic of the day. All cramped into the small mushroom house.

Dancing when the radio played their favorite Frozen "Let It Go" song

Now to Eunice's bed, showing off her (or Nat's) singing Elmo

Enjoying a packet of Nachos with cartoon

Kids these days really know how to enjoy themselves :)

Swing time before going home!

They are all going to the same primary school next year. They are all good girls, And I sure hope they will stay close to keep each other company in the new place next year. :)