FollowI bet many of you do not know what animal lives in a hutch eh? Some of you don’t even know the meaning of a hutch. Admit it if you’re one of them 🙂 When I was flashing this pile of cards to Alycia on the name of the place that animals live in, I…
All posts in Alycia’s pre-school
Alycia Has Finally Mastered Writing
Two weeks ago, when Alycia came back from school, she excitedly told me that her teacher has given her lots of homework to do. After lunch, she excitedly took our her homework and began writing. From what used to be at least an hour coaching her to do writing, Alycia managed to complete writing her…
Alycia Writing Mandarin Words
That’s My PaPa
That’s Alycia’s drawing of papa (father in Mandarin). Don’t you think it looks like a scarecrow? I had a hard time teaching Alycia write the character papa in Mandarin. Though I had dotted out the word for her, she still could not remember the order of the strokes. Each time she does her Mandarin homework,…
Alycia Finally Understands
Alycia finally understands how to do this Math exercise : and she did the entire exercise on her own with only a few mistakes made. Her writing has also improved by the leaps and bounds. However, Alycia still could not do the exercise where she has to rearrange all the numbers from 0 through 30 in…
Back To School Again
Today is the first day of the second school term for school kids after a week-long school holidays. Alycia woke up early and reached school early today. Today is also the first day of Alycia’s computer enrichment class.  School hours are also extended by 15 minutes because of the computer class. As expected, Alycia came…
Flashcards
Alycia’s pre-school gives tons of flashcards (English, BM and Mandarin) to students each week. For kids with busy working parents, I wonder if anyone at home ever flashes the cards to them. While it is really good to be receiving the flashcards from the school, the parent really needs to spend some time everyday to…
Mathematics For 5-Year Olds
Don’t you think this is a tad tough for a 5-year old (in Aly’s case, a 4-year old)? Or is this the norm? Alycia can only count and recognize numbers from 1 through 20+ but her pre-school is already teaching the 5-year olds in her class numbers up to 30. Alycia is the youngest in the…
Is This Too Tough For A 4-Year Old?
Frankly, do you think the word ‘xiao’ or smile in Mandarin is a tad too tough for a 4-year old to write? Though the meaning is straightforward, the word itself has so many strokes that even we adults find it difficult to remember to write, well at least for me, a yellow banana who speaks …
Abacus Calculation And Chinese School
Alycia’s pre-school is using the abacus method to teach the preschoolers Maths.  Her pre-school is gravitated towards Mandarin and most of the preschoolers there eventually go to a Chinese school.  Last week, Alycia brought home an abacus to be used for her Maths homework.  When I taught her to use the abacus, she appeared lost. I had a tough time trying to teach…
Alycia’s 1st Day Of School – Year 2
Yesterday was Alycia’s first day of school this year. Though this is her 2nd year in pre-school, she had only attended less than 4 months of classes last year. During the first month of pre-school, she kept falling ill (twice a month) and I pulled her out from pre-school in the second month. She only…
Junk Food
Whenever there are birthday parties or children’s day party in Alycia’s pre-school, I would be worried about what junk food she would be bringing home coz it would be almost impossible to stop her from eating them. All hell would break loose if I ever try to stop Alycia from eating them. Last Friday, Alycia brought…
School Holidays Are Coming!
Are you happy that the school holidays are just days away?  For me, I am happy coz I don’t have to wake the girls up early and prepare Alycia for school. This means I get an hour extra to work in the morning. I’m also worried coz I know Alycia will definitely be restless being cooped…
Food’s The Great Motivator
That’s Alycia’s mid-morning snack in school today. It’s toasted black sesame and wheatgerm bread (2 slices) with boiled chicken ham (I only buy deli meat once in a blue moon coz it’s not very healthy), cheese and crispy seaweed. Every Tuesday and Thursday, Alycia has extra Mandarin class after school from 11:45am – 12:45pm. So on these days, I’ll prepare something more…
Pre-School Fun and Junk Food
One of the things that motivates Alycia to go to school is that she gets to bring her lunchbox filled with her favorite snacks to school every morning. When her classmates celebrate their birthdays, she gets to eat cakes, junk food and bring home birthday packs. Last week, Alycia got this birthday pack when her…
Lantern Party
Alycia got well in time to attend the lantern party held at her pre-school yesterday evening. There were hundred over people – kids, their parents and maids and the garden of the school was an ocean of human. We had to wait for almost an hour for everyone to arrive before the walk round the…