Cantonese class : Chinese writing

Saturdays are busy days for little Shean Wenn. She starts her morning with ballet class at 9am for 35minutes, before a mad dash for us going to the another side of London for her Cantonese Class (not Mandarin). She enjoys her ballet class very much but the same cannot be said about the chinese class. Sometimes, she would cry in the beginning of the class and I can see that she was not very enthusiastic about it at all.

When we first started the class, I told her that she will be going for a Chinese Playgroup. And due to the education system in the UK, a child is not required to sit down & read/write until they are 5-years old (according to the early years education system) so when I said "playgroup", her natural perception was a FUN class where she is allowed to play/jump/sing/tumble-about! So when she attended the chinese class, it was a shock to her to have to sit down quietly for a full hour (60mins) listening to the teacher and writing /doing homework. They break for 20mins for food & drinks before commencing the class again with some games or singing. She is getting used to this class and style now.

After much coaxing & prepping, she no longer finds this class a chore. She is more enthusiastic about her Chinese Class and even chirps to me out of the blue sometimes : "I'm going to practice my Chinese (writing), mummy, because I'm a Chinese!". Ahh.. a good sign, isn't it?

So, since starting her weekly 2-hourly CANTONESE class less than 3 months ago, she has been learning to write come basic Chinese words. Here, she is practicing a few words (chinese Han Yu Pin Yin followed by the meaning in English in brackets) :

Yue (Moon)
Ri (Sun)
Da (Big)
Xiao (Small)
Shan (mountain)
Li (Strong)
Dao (Knife)
Mu (Wood)

And numbers :
4, 5, 6 & 7

Humoresque by A Dvorak & concentration

Shean Wenn & I (Nov. 2010)

So my aunt forwarded a link to me the other day, asking me to watch a boy of 3 conducting the 4th movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony (I have no idea what I just said :P). Which is available here:

Wow.. such a magnificent & passionate child. I thought he just had a very fond appreciation of music. I went through his (parent's) youtube account and discovered that this child, Jonathan also plays the violin. Not just to any simple song, but a complicated song such as Humoresque by Antonin Dvorak (again, it doesn't ring a bell to this tone-deaf & musically-challenged me). I was so blown away by it I asked Shean Wenn to watch it with me.(Copy the link onto your browser)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61ZIYeyggOI&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

(There is another video of Jonathan playing the violin to Allegro at 3YO - look how happy and delighted he is with playing it! He looks natural with the violin)

She was quickly mesmerised by Jonathan - and upon further coaxing, she told me she prefers to learn the piano than the violin. At this point, I was a little disappointed (yes, I have a thing for the violin for quite some time) - but still, Piano is still a good skill if she can hone her musical talent and master this.

It made me think : How do parents of such prodigies train their kids? Did they realise their child has an innate musical talent/ear for the music, or did they plan it meticulously (ie since in the womb or at a very young age) so that they are exposed to the fine music*?

Talent aside, after watching Jonathan and a few other child prodigies : I noticed the biggest hurdle they need to cross - not getting distracted. And for a child that age, concentration certainly is not something they do very well. It must take a lot of perseverence & concentration to be able to sit down and learn a musical instrument - to listen, appreciate, and regurgitate it by practising it at hours on end. Looking at Jonathan performing the violin to Humoresque at 4YO infront of a big crowd just blew me away - not only he needed concentration to perform, he has the confidence to perform in front of a big crowd.

With Shean Wenn, I have observed that she can be good at focussing on a task - in fact, when she was barely 10 months old, she was so determined to figure out how to "clasp" her carseat that she would be on it everyday, for minutes on end just trying to find a way to clasp it. After few months of trying, she finally succeeded.

But at 3years old, her concentration seems to have dwindled. I know they go through phases but I was just telling the hub that I am frustrated to the point of tearing my hair out at her lack of concentration at simple tasks : something like sitting down on the dining table and finishing her food from start to end. She is bound to find an excuse to bolt down and walk around. It is very important to me that she can focus on this basic task - because to me, when you can master concentrating on small "matters", you will be able to tackle bigger tasks. And in life, you REALLY need to have a tight rein on finishing what you set out to do. Tell me, am I just being a paranoid-android/worry-wart or I'm just fussing about minute stuff? I know right? The things we parents worry about.

*fine music is classical music to me. The very posh type. Not the Beyonce, Jackie Cheung type of music.

Self-portrait : 3Y8MO

She still likes drawing portraits, whether of herself or of us, or of her friends. Today she came up to me and said "Mommy, can I do some drawings?" I said "Sure", anything to get her to do something on her own. She showed me the happy smiley face she drew of herself and asked me to help her sketch a dress - I drew a triangle dress (shown in photo below) and she was very happy. She then added her own details.

The video below shows some of her extra work (She added a bag) and gave an explanation of her work. I am attempting to capture more of her in videos because it suddenly dawned upon me that I haven't done so for a long time and I know I will miss her at this age. And true to what everyone has been telling me since she was born : They DO grow up so fast! I remember hoping she would turn one soon when she was born.. and now, with a few blinks of my eyes, she is almost 4. (She will tell you "I will be 4 in June. My birthday is in June").

Book Reading : Some Dogs Do

One of Shean Wenn's favourite hobby is reading! Every night before her bedtime, she likes to sit on our bed, sometimes by herself, usually with Meng and both of them will go through her books. During this time, I'm usually busy washing up the dishes in the kitchen so I seldom read to her before she sleeps. Anyway, she has a few of her fav books. One of them is by Jez Alborough, entitled "Some Dogs Do". I didn't realise she knows all the words (by memorising, I suppose) and found that out one day while I was reading to her during the day as I was "forcing/training" her to get her afternoon nap - she really doesn't like sleeping during the day. Anyway, sometimes while i fall asleep during the day with her by my side, I will wake up and knock over a tower of books left there by SW!!! And I mean A TOWER of them!

This book, "Some Dogs Do" is really fabulous because the storyline is so engaging, his sentences rhyme nicely and it is punctuated with so much humour. And at the end of it, there is a good Moral of the story - which is to tell kids that, although some people may not think you can do something, you should strive to achieve it against all odds ("Now Sid, you shouldn't lie," She said. "All dogs walk and jump & run, but dog's don't fly - it can't be done" - and at the end of the book, you'll see why Sid can fly... "Do dogs fly? Is it True? Some dogs don't, and some dogs do.") I love it too! Would recommend you to get it except you prob can't get a new book as it's given out for free in the bookpack that the UK gives out - under the Bookstart programme. This was found (i believe) in the 3-year-old's pack - there were 2 or 3 books with colour pencils, some drawing block & money-off voucher.

Meng loves the book so much, he actually bought more books from Jez, but I think Some Dogs Do is still the best!

Shean Wenn has also learnt all her alphabets - uppercase & lowercases and she loves spelling them out. You'll see in the beginning of the video. She can also spell & write her name now, which she does very fondly everytime she has a pen/pencil/crayon on her.

Favourite TV Shows : Aussie-influences

Amongst the many TV shows that Shean Wenn just LOVES, are these 2 from Australia. When she was about 1YO, the paternal grandparents gave a HI-5 DVD and said they were one of the bestselling groups on Aus, I put it on for her once & she never glanced more than 5 minutes. Fine, I then chuck it aside and hoping she'd know how to appreciate it one day. Anyhow, in Jan this year when we went back to Aus & SW met her 2 cousins for the 1st time, she also met Wiggles for the 1st time. She was hooked.

1) The Wiggles : After that when we were browsing the shelves in the local toy-shop here (Smyths, awesome!) and found they stock up Wiggles, we bought a few titles for her. It was only about £4-5 each. From then, everytime SW asks to watch a show, it would be "WIGGLES PLEASE MOMMY!". She can memorise all the songs, all the characters, all their antics, their funny trivia, she can tell us. Her favourite character is also Anthony. Her fav songs are "The big red car" (and a few more which I can't seem to recall now).

2) Hi-5 : She got into Hi-5 just 2 months back when Meng was recording it for her in the mornings. I guess this girl really likes to jive to music, esp those with catchy tunes. The Hi-5 is the UK group (not the Aus version) and her favourite character is a girl in pink (what else)! And the her ultimate favourite song is FEELINGS.

"Feelings go up,
feelings go down,
There's lots of feelings spinning round & round & round,
Sometimes they're good,
Sometimes they're bad...."

Here's a video of her dancing to the song with all the right choreographed steps which she has been "practicing". She usually sings along to it but when she knows she is being video-d, she hesitated.

Preparing for kindergarten : Outdoor uniform

It's August already! Time surely flies.. but usually time feels like it's flying faster during summer because there are just so much to do everyday. In a month's time, Shean Wenn will be starting her first day in Kindergarten. I've been psychologically preparing her for the big day and she seems very excited.

I remind her constantly :

- If any of her friends hit or scold her, she needs to inform the teacher ("Which teacher, mummy?", she asks) and also she should tell me about it at the end of the day. I know kids sometimes play rough but I'm trying to prepare her so that she does not get bullied in school. Of course, she isn't too "siu cheh" that anyone who touches her will spark her off... (so far, she isn't like that.)

- Potty training has been going well so far with her but sometimes accidents happen. So I told her if she has pee-ed or poo-ed in her pants, she should ask for help to change into new ones. I kept reminding her to wash her hands after she goes to the toilet too!

- Outdoor play : From experience, I know she likes playing with water outside so I remind her that if during play time, she has wet her clothes, she should ask to be changed into dry clothes.

The kindergarten that we enrolled her is based on the Steiner-Waldorf philosophy and they put alot of emphasis on learning through play and also stress that kids need to have ample time outdoor with nature. So come rain or shine (except during thunderstorm, i think but UK seldom have thunderstorms), summer or winter, they will spend their mornings outside playing in the garden. Shean Wenn knows the set-up of this kindergarten pretty well because I bring her there for playgroup since she was about 9 months old, so she will not be having culture shock when she goes there next month.

For a start, we will be putting her for 3 half-day sessions. However, as she has outgrown the red Ferrari outdoor attire I bought for her 2 years ago, I was looking around to buy her another suitable one. My friend Jessica who has a daughter in this kindergarten pointed me to the right direction and I bought a "bib & brace" type of waterproof attire for her - she chose the colour & pattern! She chose a PINK one, naturally!

When the attire arrived, I taught her how to put it on so that on her first day of class, she will know what to expect.

These are some of the photos of her wearing her outdoor attire. She'll be having loads of fun outdoor! :)


The only regret I have is having to miss her 1st day at school! Daddy will be sending her off and my friend's nanny will collect her and take care of her until Meng picks her up.

Celestial interests : Clouds, Rainbow & Moon

29 October 2009
2 Years 4 Months Old

CLOUDS
Conversation with Shean Wenn one day as we were standing at the staircase going back to the apartment

SW : "Mama, Shean Shean likes clouds. White clouds. Mama, buy clouds for Shean Shean, please?"
Me : >.< "Ok sure. Ask daddy to buy for you ok?"

She added a please at the end of her sentence, ok? How do you say no to that??


RAINBOW
This morning after her milk, I put her sitting on her highchair and gave her her drawing book and some crayons. I was busy preparing breakfast. I came back to check on her after 5 minutes to hear her chanting incessantly "Wainbow wainbow wainbow" (Translate : Rainbow). I looked down at her pad and saw her drawing something distinctively looking like a rainbow. This was what I saw : of course, her rainbow has only a few colours but the curved lines do look very much like she knows what she is doing (drawing!). Most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen!

(Her original rainbow)

(Rainbow she drew again in the evening)

MOON
Every evening while I prepare our dinner (I do this at about 530pm-6pm), Shean Wenn will be playing on her own. Sometimes she watches TV, sometimes she does her puzzles. But without fail, she will run to the balcony sliding door and glance up to see if there is a moon. For the past 2 days, she has been shouting excitedly to me whenever she spots it : "Mama!!! Look at the moon! Moon up in the sky! Moon moon moooooooon!"

I will stop what I do and go look at the moon with her. It's very heartwarming sharing something so simple yet so meaningful (to her, the moon is) with my daughter.