10 Little Indian Boys..

Above 4 videos taken of Rachel singing the nursery rhyme: 10 Little Indian Boys. Hehe. Listen. She did not manage to sing the full song for all 4 videos & neither she gt any of it right.

Seimpi Lesson 7

Sorry folks. We gave lesson 7 a miss cos poor me (mummy) had to work. And i believed we will miss lesson 9 as well cos we will be going on a holiday that weekend.

I tried to schedule a make up class for lesson 7 but none of the dates/timing were suitable. The recep told me the dates/timings she gave me are the nearest lesson schedule for teacher Marcia's class although the progress are actually 1 month ahead. 1 month ahead! Its like jumping 4 lessons in advance. But the timing are only on Sats morning which happen to be my work day as well. ( i work on alternate sats).

Guess i have to give the make up lesson a miss too. No choice. Hiaz. Will check with teacher Marcia what did Rachel missed on the last lesson conducted & try to catch up from there.

Seimpi Lesson 6

22 Aug 2010 (Sun):

In this lesson, we did 2 new exercises. To refresh the kids' memory, teacher Marcia went thru the different note values & the counts accordingly before they attempted to do the below activity. Joining the notes to their #. of counts.

And in this one below, helping the bear find its home by circling 2 black bars as it goes along.

We also did more flash cards & mix n match games. Teacher Marcia emphasized that the kids got to learn the notes & their placing on the music sheet. For example: C wld look like a circle with a short line in between & D sits just directly below the 1st line. See bottom illustration.

Rachel 'passed' her homework given last week. She managed to follow the teacher's pointing & counting & her saying out loud the notes.

For homework given, they were to play a new music piece " Hot Cross Buns" But teacher Marcia informed that she would nt point to the notes & have each child playing it correctly. Instead, the kids got to play by themselves & read each note out. The last half an hour was used to play on the previous piece & practiced on this new piece.

This is how the pitch on treble clef looks like. For C, its a circle with a short line in the middle. ( 3rd circle from left - top). Then D, just directly below the 1st line. E sits right in the middle of the 1st line. F in between the 1st & 2nd line & lastly, G sits in the middle of the 2nd line.

Perhaps, this wld be easier to look at, with its corresponding note. This one also showed the pitch in bass clef but that is for later.
I happened to scout ard for a 2nd hand keyboard & js as luck got it, one of my fren got one to give away. Although it doesnt look professional, at least its good for practice & the keyboard & volumes are all functioning properly. That should be enough currently.

The whole view of the electronic keyboard.

I want to have sme of those flash cards that teacher Marcia used to show the kids so that I can guide Rachel along & keep her memories fresh. But where can i get those? I find them very useful & easy to use. Even as a adult myself, i learn along the way & it helps alot.

Can someone tell me which website can i download from or anywhere i can purchase them? TIA!

Class Photo 2010

The kids got back their class photo taken for the year 2010. Lionel is in K1 & Rachel is in N1

This is Lionel's class photo. Can you see Lionel? Hint: 3rd row.

This is Rachel's. Can you see her? Hint: 1st row.

Night Frights?

I prefer to term it as nightmares.

This few nights, Lionel, for no apparent reason wld be heard sobbing & whimpering after falling asleep. He wld not respond when u shake him or call out to him. Cant hear what's he mumbling abt too. He wld twist & turn & start kicking the bed head.

( 4 of us shared 1 bed, so we have to sleep in the other direction. Lionel wld be right next to the bedhead, followed by Daddy, Rachel & me. Poor me wld always get pushed off near to the edge)

I am always the one to get up upon hearing his whimpers & sobbing & wld try to wake him up to ask what is the matter with him. On luckier nights when i managed to wake him up, he wld reply that there's nothing wrong or that he cant remember.

But somehow i found a method which works. Believe it or not! I wld whack him on his legs or backside using my hands & that wld stop the whimperings & sobbings. Then i purposely got him to visit the toilet for his night urination.

I remember an incident which was quite scary. Few years back when Lionel was abt 2-3 yrs old, the same thing happened to him too. But that time, no matter how we shook him or yelled at him to wake up, Lionel wldnt open his eyes & continued to yell & scream. Daddy forcefully shook his shoulders & in a firm & loud voice, told Lionel to: " GET UP"

The next morning, i told my mil abt this incident & she immediately bought Lionel to the temple. She did not tell me what exactly happened but i was supposed to keep quiet & not asked a word about it & the problem seemed to cease.....

......Hoping its all part of Lionel playing too much in the day time & causing him to have nightmares at night.

Seimpi Lesson 5

15 Aug 2010 (Sun): Seimpi Lesson 5

We arrived a little earlier today & went straight to the keyboard. Lazy mummy did not practice with Rachel & so we did some last minute preparation.

Today, teacher Marcia taught another 2 new notes: quaver & semi quaver

Quaver = Half Count

Semi Quaver = Quarter Count

To help the kids remember, quaver is quoted as having 1 tail & semi quaver having 2 tails. Hehe.

We did a recap of all previous lessons learnt like the notes C D E, playing with thumbkin, pointer & tallman, semi breve, dotted minim, minim & crotchet & their counts, and also using cards to mix & match accordingly.

Teacher Marcia used her flash cards to go thru the notes, including quaver & semi quaver & the kids have to tell the number of counts/pizza/star each note has. I find the kids very "cooperative" in this game. When teacher Marcia flashed semi breve, someone wld mention 'semi breve', another wld say '4 counts', then a 3rd child wld helped by saying the next note. The cycles continues.... ( no discussion prior to play the game this way) Haha.

Of cos, the piano banner was not forgotten. Each kid was asked to stepped on the 'C' key or 'D' key, and also on the 2 black bars & 3 black bars respectively.

Then we played another game. With their backs facing the teacher, the kids got to listen to the number of claps teacher Marcia clapped & answer accordingly. There's this child by the name of Shealey or something, i find her very smart. Apparently, she has attended some music classes before.

On the activity book, we did 2 units. We listened to some tracks on the player & the kids got to circle the number of shapes according to what they heard on the player. For example, in track 10, the player wld play 2 claps, so the kids circled '2' etc...

Rachel wanted to use the same colour as the corresponding picture to do her work. So she used green for track 10, followed by blue (11), yellow (12) & pink (13).

In this unit, we traced the dotted lines with our fingers & use a crayon/coloured pencil to do the tracing, helping the clown to find his house.

This was the homework given last week. Teacher Marcia went thru with each child again, on the notes shown & guided them on the keyboard.

Teacher Marcia commented that Rachel has the potential in playing the piano & recommends that we invest in a keyboard so that she can practise.

Homework for next week wld still be playing the above piece but this time while pressing down on the keys, the child got to say out loud the notes at the same time. More keyboard guidance will be done in the next few lessons. Till then...

Sol Cafe @ Turf City

14 Aug 2010 (Sat):

Apologies for the long wait.

This morning, i brought the 2 kids to ICA to collect their passports. From getting a queue # to being served, its all done within 5 minutes. Unbelievable!!! Usually, the wait is long. So nw the 2 kids hv a new biometric passport.

We took a bus back to Toa Payoh cos we intended to take the free shuttle bus to Turf City. At TP, we had a break @ BK. The kids had bread from Bread Talk & i ate some onion rings.

Upon arrival @ TC, we headed straight to the playground area outside Sol Cafe. I read from a random blog that they have pony riding but i cld nt see it anywhere. Only upon leaving the place, then i realised the pony riding grounds was nt within the TC itself but nearer to the entrance where you turned into Vanda Link.

I had some videos captured below of the kids having fun at the playgrd. Enjoy.

Happy National Day 2010

09 Aug 2010 ( Mon):

Today is our country's birthday. We celebrated 45 years of independence till date. Here's wishing Singapore a " Happy 45th Birthday! May Singapore continue to strive, stay strong & free forevermore"

Further along, the coming YOG - Youth Olympic Games on the 14 Aug (Sat). The Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame begins from Greece (Athens) some few months back & has since arrived in Singapore on the 5th Aug 2010

During the opening ceremony on the 14th Aug 2010 (Sat), the flame will be brought into Esplanade, passing from one athlete to another, until it reaches the last torch carrier; often a well-known athlete in Singapore, who will light the fire in the cauldron. And of course, there will be a display of fireworks as well.

May Singapore win many medals & trophies & do us proud.

Dinner @ Jusco, Malaysia

8 Aug 2010 (Sun):

Here, here, here we go again, into Malaysia, to....... to buy milk powder! What's with us? U wondering? Why do we have to buy the milk podwer from Malaysia? Isnt there in Singapore? C'mon, cos there are! Just that.....well.....according to hb...he did the calculations....its cheaper & more worthwhile to buy it from Malaysia.

Okay, so we bought.....drums rolling....guess how much? 8 boxes of 2x650g each = 16 packets of 650g each = 10400gms of milk powder. Go figure! That amounts up to $411.10MYR ( each costing $51.30MYR) ~ SGD$179

Okay..that's not what i wanna discuss abt. I like to introduce this particular restaurant in JB, in Jusco, in Tebrau City. We had dinner at this restaurant called YS Hamper. Its a medicinal herbs shop cum restaurant. In chinese, its called: 汤师父.

We decided on having dinner after looking thru its menu. Perfect! It nourishes ur body, relief you of throat & cough discomforts & get rids of unwanted toxins in ur body.

汤师父

Lot S50, Aeon Tebrau City Shopping 1 Jalan Desa Tebrau, Taman Desa Tebrau, 81100 Johor Bahru

Rachel making faces.

Summer Tea - 养生花茶

Both kids love it.

I ordered for myself: Wintermelon with water chestnuts drink - 冬瓜马蹄露

And for my portion, i had mee suah with dried scallops & abalone slices - 干贝鲍片面线

High graded mixed seafood hotpot - 原盅海中宝

Stew vegetable with ji zi - 上汤构杞笕菜

Nourishing soup with America ginseng & cordyceps - 强肺益气汤

Steam cod fish with dried scallop & bei qi - 太子参北茂蒸鱼片

Hb & the kids had rice to go along with the food we ordered. Some other items we had are:

"Zhi Ke Hua Tan" - 止咳化痰. As both Rachel & myself were having coughs with phlegm, hb ordered one set for us. It comes in 2 different concoctions - one is black, thick & taste bitter, the other one is sweet & taste like tea. The server told us to drink the bitter one first, followed by the sweet tea. Supposed to get rid of the phlegm & smooths the throat. Dun know what kind of herbs/ingredients were inside though; nvr asked.

Total bill comes up to S130.45MYR ~ SGD$57. But we find it worthwhile & besides, it was a long q & waiting time was like 15-20mins. So we presumed that the food is good & IT IS GOOD!!!

** Note: If you are feeling heaty, nvr order dishes that comes with dang gui. On the menu, they will tell u what the soup/dish is for & how it helps ur body. If you not sure what is suitable, the servers are always there to assist & recommend. They even indicated on the menu what dish/soup is not suitable for pregnant woman or kids. Very helpful.

Make a trip down & try the food. Tell me what you think. :)

Primary School Registration 2010

Was looking at MOE's website for the registration results. The school of my choice has only 74 vacancies open for phase 2C but has 110 applicants.

Balloting will be needed in this case & priority will be given to applicants staying within 1km from school grounds. What if all these 110 applicants are all within 1km? Then will i stand a chance? Given that i'm also staying within 1km as well.

What if my child's name is not called at #74? Then, this means i hv to re-register at my 2nd choice of sch??? This falls under phase 2C (supp). Looking at the results for the 2nd choice, they have 125 vacancies but only 74 applicants. Chances are defintely higher.

This is scary! Though i'm not registering this year but the above result do give me an idea of what to expect next year.

Collection of passports

4 Aug 2010 (Wed):

i received 2 pink cards from ICA in the mailbox indicating that the kids' passport are ready for collection from the 05 Aug onwards. Yippee!

However, i have to make an appointment with ICA to collect the passports at a specific date & time. And i have to collect it within 1 month. That's not a problem. Most probably, i will be bringing the kids to collect on next Sat - 14 Aug 2010 as i will not be working on that day. So i have to make an appointment asap.

Can't wait to see their new passport. :)

Dinner at Jalan Besar

1 Aug 2010 (Sun):

That evening after Rachel's music lesson, we went for dinner at a chinese restaurant along Jalan Besar Road. Cant remember the name of the restaurant though. We ordered some lamb dishes, ( i was apprehensive of that), garlice marinated prok ribs, sweet & sour fish slices & 1 green veggie.

The layout of the restaurant. Notice the "wheels" on the long benches next to the wall? Its looks like a great water mill if u dun look at it closely.

Here's Rachel trying to aim her piece of tissue paper at me if i tried to take a photo of her. Haha.

Lionel.

Fooling ard with Daddy again before the dishes were served.

Thinking of yum seng"?

The dishes we ordered.

Learning to use a chopstick.

IMO, the dinner was not that fanstatic after all. The garlic sauteed pork ribs were hard & was a rip off. The only dish i liked was the sweet & sour fish. Plus i was having a bad flu, thus i didnt really enjoyed the dinner. Let's hope the next dinner during one of our outings wld be much much nicer.

Seimpi Lesson 4

We did lesson 4 today & we tried our hands on the keyboard. We learned about the pitches in different note values, for example:

C in Semi Breve

C in Dotted Minim

C in Minim

C in Crochet

D in Semi Breve

D in Dotted Minim

etc..

etc...

We looked at the piano activity book today & played the notes shown. C in Semi Breve is played this way - we (Rachel rather), placed her thumbkin on the " C " key under the 2 black bars, and as we count together, C ( semi breve = 4 counts), C (2 3 4), C (2 3 4), she pressed & held down the " C " key.

For this, it was " C "in Minim (2 counts) & then followed by " C " in Crotchet (1 count)

I guided Rachel here by holding onto her thumbs & played the notes accordingly. But when its her turn to play solo (haha), she didnt listen to teacher Marcia's count & just continued pressing the " C " key non stop. I told Rachel not so fast, to listen to the teacher here. Teacher Marcia repeatedly went thru with her for another 2 times, each time telling her (Rachel) to listen to the count & bravo, she did it all correctly by herself the 3rd time round.

Since there wont be any lessons next week due to National Day, we were given homework. Teacher Marcia mentioned to play daily for at most 2 minutes, not more, otherwise, the kids will get distracted & give up. (where am i gonna find a keyboard to practise?)

In this exercise for homework, we need to learn to play the notes using thumbkin, pointer & tallman as the notes " C ", " D " & " E " are all in use. So looking at the notes above, it goes: (top bar) - C D E E, (bottom bar) - E D C C. Piano teachers, am i right here?

We did 2 activities in the activity book today:

1) We were played the high pitch & low pitch. Then the kids got to paste the sticker which shows high pitch (monkey climbing up the tree) or low pitch (monkey coming down the tree) accordingly. Actually, the pitches were like Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do then Do Ti La Soh Fa Mi Re Do.

Rachel here played guessing game. I got to helped her along. Nevertheless, she got it all correct.

2) And they also coloured the different types of note values in each animal. Example: colour all animals red which has Semi Breve (represented by the note itself). Colour all animals blue which has Minim, etc...

After class, Rachel requested for Mac again. In the evening, we went for dinner at a chinese restaurant along Jalan Besar, near the stadium. That's for the next post.