Is this a good habit?

What do you think? Sitting on the throne and read? The man wanted to give the boy a book while he tried to poo sometime back and I said no. To me it is a bad habit. 

Yesterday I gave Reese a book while he tried to poo and it took him forever to call me to clean him up! Really a bad idea. :) Tell me what you think.

Cycling

All these while we thought Reese is just lousy at cycling. He can hardly pedal properly. We stopped doing this activity for many months and about 3 weeks ago, I decided to get Reese to cycle but one of the tires was flat so no cycling.

Last weekend, we went to a bicycle shop and got a bicycle pump. After pumping both tires, Reese went for a ride. Wow, what a transformation! He can pedal very well. Strange....

Took him riding again yesterday around the playground. He rides like a pro! 

I figure out from the start, it was not Reese that was lousy, it was the tires!! We did not check the tires. They did not have enough air!! We are such blur parents!

Now there is hope my son to ride a bicycle. Ha! 

So how do you teach a child to ride without training wheels? Got to do some research.

Internet Censorship

I never expect this to come so early. My son is only 5 years 7 months and I already have to start monitoring and censor some of the contents he is exposed to. 

Just yesterday he found a Youtube video entitled NYC Earthquake. He was watching it a couple of times and I thought it was just another of those harmless video. Later in the day, my student's mum alerted me that the video was a little gory(He showed it to her while I was in the room teaching). 

Oops! When I checked and true enough... *sigh* 

All these while, we sort of banned him from watching anything related to disasters because those videos indirectly cause him to fear water, sea and a few other things. I realised he will still search for these videos and watch them and the moment he dedects my presence, he will immediately close them! Smart boy but not good for us! He now knows how to hide things from us. Gosh!

He searches for images and videos on Google search whenever he wants. He can spell well too. Imagine him spelling 'Life after people the great collapses'. 

Obsessed with Life After People - The Great Collapses!

One fine day (about 2 weeks ago) my dear son was browsing the internet and he found a youtube video of buildings collapsing! It was a program by History Channel, Life after people - The great collapses.

My son is obsessed with these videos! Day and night he will watch them on the computer or iPad. He will show it to everyone who pays attention to him.

Because of these videos, he now knows a dozen more famous landmarks and structures like Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, Willis Tower (Sears Tower), Macau Tower, Ambassador Bridge and many more. He will google up these buildings and look at the images. Honestly when he mentioned some of the structures, I have not heard of them before!

Reese telling me the names of the buildings from the program.

When You Allow Your Child to Read Comics...

This is what happens when your child reads a lot of comics!!

When I first introduced Reese to comics, I never thought that the language used in them...... eerr... really bad!!

Mind you Reese reads child friendly comics like Tintin, The Smurfs, Disney series...educational comic like Survival Science (Gempak Starz).

Survival Science series is the worse of all. After reading only 1 book, my son started to say phases like "What the?" , "What the heck!". I was shocked. What do you think? Rude words and phases don't you think? 

Yesterday evening, he played with my box of magnetic alphabets and made the above. My dear son cleverly came to me and said... "Mom, look what I made? Words I am not allowed to say... hehehe..." 

Thank God he doesn't use these words and phases in his everyday speech!

Random

My son is saying prayers when he feels like it. His prayers are serious and at times include words like sin! He will pray when he has no control of certain things/situations, when he is angry with me and will ask God to stop me from sinning! No kidding. Haha...

He is growing up and seems to understand a lot of things. Just yesterday night he was telling his dad about 9/11 and what the naughty men did and told him that it was TERRORISM. How did he know? He was listening when I taught my 9 year old student the word. Not too long ago, we read a short story about how a missionary escaped the Japanese soldiers with over 100 children. I went on to explain a little about the cruelty of the Japanese soldiers and later we went on to talk about World War II. Reese asked a lot of questions and at times I don't even know how to explain to him. Didn't want to reveal too much of human cruelty and a host of other bad things. I tried to focus on the good stuff.

We are learning about different religions of the world and yet it's not easy to explain why others worship different Gods when in our faith we believe in one true God. We had a lot of discussion and yet I still cannot fully explain to him because I still have my doubts and issues to deal with in my faith.

We bought a kid's bible for Reese and reading it to him everynight. Well, skipped a few nights because I was too tired. I would like to include some bible studies in our learning from now on and it is also a chance for me to be closer to God.

Reese has started Chinese lessons with my mother. He is interested and is willing to sit with my mom and learn for half an hour every Friday when my parents babysit him. Learning to recognise and write Chinese characters seems easy for him so far. He can orally tell me the strokes and how to write them. He is also motivated to learn because he is my teacher! He will teach  me what he learned. :) I tried teaching him myself thinking that I can do it but even the basic sound following ping yin was hard for me and I taught Reese the wrong name for certain strokes! I am hopeless. Hehe... Glad that he allows my mom to teach him.

Our homeschooling is increasingly becoming unschooling! A lot of times I will let Reese decide what he wants to learn instead of following the program schedule! He messed up my schedule and we are like 2+ months behind schedule for certain subjects and many months ahead for others. The only constant is math. He still doesn't like doing math but he has no choice. Our schooling journey is not always smooth sailing. At times we had shouting match, tantrums and crying but we always kiss and make up in no time. We do not do schooling everyday. Usually 3 times a week but we read daily. Be it a comic or something serious. I have included more craft related activities since Reese has interest in them now. At times we do nothing at all the whole week! When I first started homeschooling, I was constantly worried whether my son was learning enough but now I know my son is learning a lot because he is motivated to learn from everything he sees and experiences. How much you learn is not determined by the amount of worksheets/activity books you do or being able to read, spell or write at an early age. We learn to enrich our lives and not to pass exams!

Sometimes I have to keep reminding myself that Reese is not even six yet. There is no rush in his learning. We should enjoy the process and have lots of fun.

Lego Fever

Reese is still in Lego building mode. Day and night he will build. Check out our Lego city! Reese did most of the buildings from scratch. 

Reese's Lego city

My favorite town house

The latest and most impressive building he did was from the Creator Series. A beautiful town house with a garage. He patiently fix the little pieces together brick by brick. It has 1174 pieces in all. Reese did it in a few sessions over 2 days. We helped him gather the parts and along the way corrected him a few times over wrongly fixed pieces. Reese did great. 

Imitation Lego. We pay RM165. Hubby bought it from an online store. The real Lego Eiffel Tower is about RM2000!

A another project for Reese to work on with his daddy dearest

Hubby found a few imitation Legos from China selling online. All selling very cheap. He decided to get one and try. We just received it this evening. First impression was quite good. Quality wise, not bad at all but of course it's not as well done as Lego. It is somewhat harder to piece the bricks together. The locking of bricks to base plate or other bricks requires more effort. If you are not a serious Lego collector, paying Rm165 is definitely worth it. 

Playing Chef and Restaurant

We played chef and restaurant today. Reese wanted to be the chef and I was the waitress and cashier. Prior to this Reese made a nice signage for our Restaurant. It's called Reese and Florence's Grill. Then he made a Menu with exotic food selection and later Reese made another sign that said 'Thank you, please kindly wait to be seated!'

Reese's kitchen

Complete with stove, and 'cupboard' for the different types of food

Our restaurant signage. Reese designed and decorated it. I helped a little.  

Menu and signage

Reese set the table for his customers

Yummy food cooked by Reese.

What if you don't get to go....

Yesterday night, went to pick Reese up from his grandparents...

Reese: Mummy, why didn't you come and pick me up just now? (picked him up later than usual)
Mummy: I am now here with dad to pick you up. We had to park daddy's car at..... have dinner...
Reese: Did you suddenly go 'Opps' and remembered that you forgot to pick up a young boy?

(Mummy and daddy laughed)

Mummy: Reese, what if mummy and daddy go to Paris without you?
Reese: I will be very very very very very very..... angry.
Mummy: Then what will you do?
Reese: I will stomp, jump and shout and scream!!!! I WANT TO GO! I WANT TO GO!.......
Daddy: For how long?
Reese: For an hour!
Mummy: Now, tomorrow late afternoon you must take a nap ok?
Reese: What if you go without me?
Mummy: We will never go without you. We were just kidding.
Reese: Are you going to wait for me to wake up?
Mummy: Yes
Reese: What if I cannot wake up?
Daddy: We will carry you into the taxi!
Reese: What if....
:
:
:

Today is the day! 

Hopefully I will be able to update our daily adventures in Europe for the next two weeks!! 

Funny Reese...

He gave my mom this list of things he wanted from her home last Friday

My son is funny. Lately he is crazy over decorative ornaments. Since it was CNY, every ornament he saw at my mom's or aunt's he wanted them. He would asked for them. Sometimes successful and sometimes not so.

He got a little frustrated and wrote this list and demanded my mom to get him the items. He even illustrated them! I love it.

January 2012

Been busy with work and getting into a routine for our homeschooling after all the holidays. We got a little lazy! Our schooling journey thus far was quite good. Reese was reluctant to do his work and was always finding ways to get out of it! It was tough and my temper did not help either. But after a week of scolding, crying and talking, Reese finally realized that he has no choice. I had to explain to him that if he wants a better life in the future, he needs to learn and earn money the easy way! I gave him examples of hard labour equals very little money and one has to toil under the hot sun and vice versa. At the moment, he equates money to better life but he doesn't understand that there are other factors that will make living life meaningful (Will have to tackle this area when he is older) :)

Reese is playing better with other children. In fact, every time  when a playmate has to go home, Reese will complain that he has no one to play with him. He has been asking me to arrange playmates for him. 

As with adults, whether familiar or not, he communicates well with them. :) I think socially he has matured quite a bit.

Next Wednesday we will be having a follow up session with the developmental pediatrician. I am glad to say that we have only good things to tell her about Reese and hopefully she will declare Reese normal and disassociate him from Aspergers Syndrome. :)

Waiting at the concert hall...

Last Sunday we went for a concert at MPO's Family Fun Concert. It was our first as a family. A little bit of drama happened because we were not aware of the dress code (Smart Casual). We were there an hour before the concert and had to dash home to change clothes! We live in Kota Damansara. Anyway, it was quite good and Reese enjoyed the experience. We will go for the next in April!

January is coming to an end and we will be traveling to Penang this Sunday at 4am or 5am (to avoid traffic jam) for CNY and be back in KL on Tuesday! Crazy but no choice. Hubby can't take any more leave else it would be nice to stay longer instead of just 2 nights. Really not looking forward to the hot weather and traffic jam in Penang!

We are all counting down to our trip in February! 31 days to go.... yes!

I dissected a praying mantis!

My dead praying mantis

While cleaning the apartment, at a corner of the balcony sliding door I found a praying mantis. Still wondering how it got there because I stay on the 12th floor! Anyway, when I found it it was already dead. Then I was thinking should I pick it up and let Reese view and perhaps dissect it ? 

See, I was a little afraid and used a tissue to hold it.

I let the idea pass because the thought of dissecting it..... errr... wasn't very appealing. For some reasons I just didn't even want to pick it up and throw it away. I was going to ask hubby to do it. :)

After dinner we came home and told hubby about it and asked him to remove it but hubby was already giving me weird looks and all! (He has a phobia of cockroaches). So I decided to be the brave one and picked it up. In my heart I knew it would be such a waste if we do not take a closer look at the mantis! So I did it. Reese looked at the mantis from all angles with a magnifying glass. Next he wanted to see the wings under the microscope then the legs and then the eyes...gosh... I was tearing each part of the poor mantis. Couldn't do the eyes though because it was too hard. Ha! I did it. All done in less than 15 minutes. Reese had fun and I guess I had fun too but also felt a little 'geli'. What is next I wonder but first I need a real dissection kit!

Busy looking at the eyes of the mantis. He was asking me why the pupils are!

Partially dissected praying mantis

Food Poisoning

My poor boy had food poisoning last week. It took 6 days for him to recover. Had diarrhea and vomiting  at the same time, and was in and out of sleep for 4 days. Saw a normal GP (Such a waste of money!), then Hospital ER (was told to throw away all the medication given by GP) then the following day to our trusted pediatrician (Reese was given probiotics). Poor boy was constantly complaining being weak and hardly took any food or water. Day 4 onwards he was better but was still having diarrhea and vomiting. Managed to take spoonful of food and water every hour or so. Finally, today he is alright and his stool has harden. He has lost significant amount of weight. What an experience!

At Tropicana Medical Centre at 3am

Day 3, weak but managed to watch some cartoon

Day 7, recovered and enjoying a book and sausage bun

Engrossed in the book

Random thoughts and sharing

He loves reading in the car. 

Today I took Reese and his playmate to the science centre. After having fun exploring and playing we went to the resource centre. Both the kids chose their own books and sat down to read. I was watching Reese. Watching his expression and the little smiles forming while he read was so satisfying. I can see that he thoroughly enjoyed what he was reading. I could hear soft giggles too. He was so handsome. Ah... I love my son so much! :)

On average we spend about 2 hours in the car everyday. To kill boredom I usually have 3-6 books in the car for Reese to read. Sometimes he will read to me or he will read quietly. I am just so glad that he loves books and seems to have a good balance between playing iPad/computer and reading. We used to restrict his playing time on the iPad but now it is no longer necessary. He is not addicted to it. Now, I allow him to play as long as he wants but usually after 10-20 minutes, he will stop and pick up a book to read, draw or just play with his toys. He gets bored with the games! :) 

My very cheeky boy.

Reese has been telling me about his future. It gets more elaborate and detail each time he talks about it.

He wants to get married a day after he becomes an adult! *LOL*

He still wants a wife named Alice and she has black hair and insisted his wife will work, earn money and take care of us! Hehehehe... He said he will build a modern apartment just opposite our current home. There will be 60 floors and he will live on the top floor. His modern apartment will have more pools than our current condo. He wants to have twins now. He wants to have his office in his modern apartment so that he can teach there. Reese still wants to be a teacher.  

A week back, Reese was helping me arrange 40 sets of books. Initially he was very excited and diligently work on them and arrange the books neatly. After completing 8x40 books, he declared he was 'totally exhausted' (his words). Then he said "But I only have energy to play, Mummy you finish the rest". 

Next few weeks are going to be busy for us. Lots of activities and outings for Reese enjoy and socialize. We are going for 2 workshops on Robotics organized by PSN, watching Jim West's puppet show and puppet making workshop next week, a day trip to the elephant sanctuary and park and a visit to FRIM with a friend and her twins. Ever since Reese stopped going to school, he actually has more social life than before! :)

Reese is getting more advance...

Just this morning, while changing, Reese said "Mummy, the rectus abdominis controls your stomach."  

Other things he said:

One of daddy's favorite band Audio Adrenaline... The daddy asked me whether I taught Reese about hormones! because Reese told his dad that adrenaline is a hormone after seeing the name of the band. :)

"Adrenaline is a hormone. It is produced from a gland, when you are scared." 

"Mom, do you know baby's bones are made of cartilage? It's soft." 

"Biceps and triceps controls your arm movement."

He talks about neurons and brain activities, he talks about light going into our eyes through the pupil and how it hits the retinas and signals are then send to the brain, he talks about how babies are made and etc...

Gosh, honestly all this knowledge he got was purely from reading books. I have only briefly gone through the human digestion process sometime ago. Not only can he remember the facts, he can also pronounce the scientific names. 

I am a little worried. He is only 5, will I be able to keep up with him in his studies as he grows older? Will he complete high school (secondary) before he turns 12? It is very possible. 

2 nights ago, I went for a meeting organized by National Association of Gifted Children Malaysia and had a chance to meet a former child prodigy who entered Oxford at 13. It was really sad that his life was pretty depressing. He was pretty much a loner. Everyone treated him differently at school. He talked about his struggles at university and how he can't take failure. He started working at age 16 and even in the corporate world, he was treated differently and employers expected much more from him just because he was gifted. Life was truly not easy for him. He is successful but not happy. He is currently married and pursuing his passion in photography. 

I don't want Reese to end up like him. I really have to sit down and think of how I want to give him a good education and a balanced social life. I want him to be happy. 

mmm... not easy having a gifted child. 

A Short Penang Trip!

Reese was really happy to visit his grandparents. It was raining a lot and we didn't do much. We took Reese to The Blue Mansion and we went for the tour of the mansion. Reese was a good boy and only towards the end of the tour that he became restless. We even saw the Penang CM! Reese has questions throughout the walking tour and we have to stop him from asking questions! The tour guide even appointed him her assistant and asked him to make sure no one took photographs in the mansion. My boy took it very seriously and kept telling me that he will make sure of it. So funny.

As for hubby and myself, we had some good food and did a little touring of the heritage site. 

On Sunday night we went to have dessert in a small shop and while waiting for our dessert, I casually read out a sign that said "No outside beverages allow. Thank you!". Then Reese asked what 'beverage' means. So we explained to him. Then he stare at the sign for a moment and commented, "Why there is no 'd' for 'allow'?" At first we were all puzzled by him and then we got it. It should be:

NO OUTSIDE BEVERAGES ALLOWED. THANK YOU!

My son was correcting our grammar! Hahaha.... 4 adults and none of us realized the mistake!

Games

When we saw the developmental pediatrician a few months back, she said to introduce board games or games with rules to Reese. Today we went to Toys R Us and bought 2 games. Snakes and Ladders board game and Tumbling blocks. It took me quite a while to browse through the games section. 

When we got home, we played tumbling blocks. It was an instant hit. We all had a great time playing it. Great family bonding time. Our little family was laughing and cheering each other on. The loser had to do a loser dance which Reese demonstrated to us. Shaking our butts like mad! :) Reese truly enjoyed the game. 

Next up was Snakes and Ladders. This one was a little slower and thus less excitement compared to Tumbling Blocks. Reese even picked up a book and read while waiting for his turn! We did finish the game at the end. 

We played another round of Tumbling Blocks at night before Reese went to bed. Now we have a new routine of playing games! 

Reese is getting busier. We have biking sessions around the car park once or twice a week, morning exercise at Kiara Park once a week,  gymnastic class every Saturday morning and now games sessions probably 2 to 3 times a week. 

Reese has stopped going to his kindy and I have made adjustment to my work. Now I have more time to spend with Reese and do our schooling at home. I plan to have more frequent field trips, arts and craft and science experiments. Our schooling will be more fun and no rushing to complete our work within a time frame. 

Everything is beginning to fall in place and I have become a more hardworking homeschooling mother! :)

Should I sell or wait?

Lately, I have been thinking, should I sell Reese's baby stuff, books, shoes and clothes away? He is already 5 and yet I am undecided. Should I have another child? I want to but...

• financially we may not be able to support a second child the way we want to
• working will almost be impossible for me unless I hire a maid again *shutters*
• having to start all over again, bringing up another child from birth... mmm...
• at least 6 years difference between Reese and 2nd child... mmm...
• will hubby be able to handle the kids and will they make him go crazy? :)

mmm... 

* I already selected the books that I want to sell and even set up a blog just to sell the things and yet... 

I want a second child...

• so that Reese has a companion and someone to share responsibilities with when it comes to family matters. If we are gone, he still has family. I don't want him to be lonely.

• I love kids. 

mmm...

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale

Yesterday went for the preview sale at BBW warehouse sale. The venue was huge. There were so many books that I just got tired browsing! It's crazy. They have a really big children section. Their selection of children books were quite ok. Mostly books for toddlers. They did not have books from Usborne or Scholastic except the Horribles series. There are some reference books from DK and a lot of books from Disney and some other publishers. So if you have toddlers, this is the sale you don't want to miss. Books are dirt cheap. We are talking RM5-10 for most books in this section except box sets with toys and stuff(did not look at price but my guess is it shouldn't be more than RM20). 

My loot

Those looking for cookbooks, lots of selection but I only got Jamie Oliver for RM24. Did not browse through the fiction and non fiction. I was too tired after spending nearly 3 hours at the kids section! They also have quite a selection of coffee table books. 

I got some comics, two Horrible series box set and it's annuals, Mr. Men and Little Miss books, a story book, some books for myself and a comic for hubby. My damage was RM500. 

So that is it! I will impose a self ban, no book purchases for 1 year! I bought too many books this year.  I have spent over RM7000 on books this year alone. Almost all on Reese's books. My two new 6 feet bookshelves will be full by next week when Reese's homeschool books arrive from US. It's a shame that I only have 1 child to enjoy all the great books else it will be more worth it. :)

I am most happy with the Horrible series

Playmate: Update

Reese is enjoying his time with his playmate twice a week. He plays well with the girl. I was observing one of their play session it went like this:

Reese: Sarah! Let's go to war!
Sarah: Ok.
Both took their guns and 'helmets' and started running around the house.
Reese: Sarah, we need our tanks!
Sarah: Oh yeah. Let's go get it.
Each took a little rider and started moving around.
Reese: (Pick up the telephone) Mom? Hello mom, I am now in India. Going to war!
Mummy: Hello Reese, you are in India?
Reese: Yes, that's right. I am in India.
Mummy: Why India?
Reese: I want it to be India. Going to war with Sarah. See you and bye.


Reese: Mum, I need to put medication in my tank.
Mummy: Why?
Reese: Because I need to take medication after war.

Reese: Sarah, Look out! Enemies!
Sarah: Reese! Let's kill the enemies!
Reese: Ok, pshhooo, pshhooo.... there dead.
Sarah: Yeah, let's go over there.... more enemies!

Sarah: Ah... let's go home Reese.
Reese: Ok, let's go back to our home and rest.

Reese: (Calling me on his phone) Mum, we are home now. We have bunk beds!
Mummy: Oh... great. Have fun. Bye.
Reese: Yeah, bye but mum, you messed up our bunk beds!
Sarah: (Clearing the clothes on the sofa bed)
Reese: Sarah, nevermind... mum will clean up the mess!
Mummy: ????

I am so glad that he found someone that plays at his level and they talk a lot during their play.