Revolving stars

 After hearing all the good (and bad) things about Legoland Malaysia, we finally went there on a 2D1N trip during one of Hunter's school closure days. After much deliberation, we decided to take a bus straight to Legoland. It was convenient for us as we stay in the west (the pick up point is at Jurong East) and it's only $14/pax for the trip there and $12/pax for the trip back. So, early in the morning before 9am, we reached the pick up point to wait for the bus.  The pick up point There was a wait for the bus and I was a little anxious as there was no sign indicating the exact pick up point. However, my anxiety was unfounded as the bus was pretty easy to spot (with a pretty huge sign indicating that it is heading towards Legoland). The bus is comfortable and we managed to reach Legoland by 11plus am. Since we booked the tickets online, we queued at the counter and got our annual pass - a fuss free experience. Free entry for kids below 3 The first thing when we went in was to ...

 While packing the house a few days ago, I found this set of Beginning Readers that was hidden in one of the cupboards. I flipped through the set of books and they are very decodable for toddlers who have started learning the CVC words! Hunter is able to read some of the books by himself, with the exception of tricky words such as "the". I find that it is a good supplement for the phonics class and will be continuing to practise reading with Hunter using this set.

 I'm back with updates about Hunter's N2 journey so far. We are quite pleased with his progress and nothing much to complain too. These are the activities that they have been doing in school: Quarterly field trip Role playing in school Making agar agar jelly in school for Mother's Day Putting in the fillings Painting Marble rolling activity Pasting activity Water transferring activity Pre-writing activity Feeding himself in school Cutting the banana on his own Bubble blowing Balancing game What a drawing! Having fruits at the playground Card making with beans Ball throwing Playing at the playground * I have deliberately not posted any group photos as some parents may be sensitive to it. I'm glad that we made the change over to this school. May Hunter continues to enjoy his pre-schooling years.

My cousin and I planned to go to the Istana for a play date, but when we reached, we nearly fainted when we saw the queue. We unanimously agreed that there is no way the two little kids are going to wait in the queue quietly, and hence, we decided to change location. Since we were around the area, we headed off to The Joy of Toys. We were surprised that the main area was already full (at 10plus in the morning) so we paid for the entry to the Riding Room.  We were worried that the two kids would be bored after a while, but no! They stayed through the whole hour. Pretty amazing for 3 years olds. Me holding on to Hunter because he tried to ride the zebra There are two sizes for these animal rides. Carrying the big stuffed toys around All in all, it was worth it for $8 an hour. Both parents could also enter, and there were no additional charges. For more information, you may wish to visit their website .   

Being parents, one area which we are very concerned about is the amount of Chinese Hunter is exposed to. I came from a dialect speaking family, and PL speaks mostly English at home too. So we hope to give Hunter a Mandarin speaking environment (much to the chagrin of many people) since we tend to mix some English vocabulary into our daily Mandarin conversation. Friends and neighbours recommended the Ihuman Chinese app to us, raving about its effectiveness. We tried out the trial version, and eventually paid a lifetime subscription for it after much deliberation. Payment First, I must state that the payment method is very efficient for apple users who can read Chinese, but not so much for non-Chinese since all the instructions are in Chinese. It is also relatively cheap as we are able to subscribe to a lifetime membership. If Hunter uses it consistently, we would reap ALOT of benefits since they teach up to 1300 words. (If Hunter learns a word a day, that's going to be about 3.5 yea...

 Being a full time working mum, time with my boy is really precious. On weekday nights, I will try my best to revise what he has learnt in school/class for reinforced learning. Our weekday night routine (example) Depending on days, sometimes activities would stretch because Hunter was moody etc. 6.40pm: Reach home and have dinner with family. 7.00pm: Shower 7.20pm: Desk time - Min. 3-5 questions/exercises (max 2 pages) example of desk work 7.50pm: Games/activities to reinforce concepts/words learnt DIY games/activities 8.15pm: Independent play Example of independent play 8.40pm: Child-directed activity 9.10pm: Bedtime reading Assisted reading Hopefully this would be helpful for those who have asked about weekday night routines at home :)

 As usual, Japan didn't disappoint. We loved every moment of it.  We stopped by Legoland in Nagoya during this trip (the first for all of us) and it is perfect for kids! This theme park is definitely catered for younger kids. If your kids are above 9-10 years old, they would probably be bored. Location is slightly out of the way, and there are literally nothing besides Legoland (unless you count a furniture store as an attraction) and there are a lot of construction going on around the area. Rides Now that Hunter is slightly taller than 90cm, there are lots of rides which he could go on. When you go in, one of the staff will measure the height of the kid and give a corresponding colour band to indicate their height. If you can't locate the staff, fret not. At each ride, the staff will take the height if the kid has no colour band. We took a picture of the Sakura tree near the entrance and apparently, it's a seasonal display that will change! Sakura tree that is made of Lego...