5 hours of waiting.....

Yesterday I woke up at 5am. Hubby and I were contemplating whether to buy Ipad2 online when it opens for sale at 1am on 29th of April or we should go to a Machines store to get them. So the crazy me decided to go queue and buy! We were monitoring the queues at various outlets of Machines on Facebook and as of 5am (29th of April) the queue was around 20+. So at about 6.30am, I left house and headed for MidValley. When I reached the queue, there were about 50+ people ahead of me. So I waited 5 hours and went home with 2 Ipad2s. This was the first time I actually queued up for so long to purchase something. The whole experience was not too bad. Sat on the floor (pins and needles after a while!), played Ipod(Got bored after sometime), chit chat with a couple next to me, sms hubby and finally walking into the store and pay for my products!
Now hubby has his own Ipad and Reese has one. No more fighting!

This is only half the queue at 9.30am, when I left around 11+, the queue has grown to a few hundred. All Ipad2s were sold out in a few hours.

Order cards that were given to each customer before entering the store. Once you make up your mind on the Ipads, no exchange is allowed. Each customer is only allowed to buy 2.

The first hundred customer were given a goodie bag. T-shirt, notepad and a bottle of water.

7th Wedding Anniversary

Hubby and I went through so much in 7 years as husband and wife. The greatest joy is having Reese and we celebrated our anniversary by having a buffet lunch at Al-Amar in Pavilion KL last Sunday. Reese enjoyed his Lebanese food and he eats for free!

Yummy!

Eating his favourite Wantan noodles at Lotong (Lot 10). He can easily finish the whole plate. Everything gone in less than 15 minutes. :)

Major Construction and Destruction...

New York City (Lots of skyscrapers) with a parade going on

Partial view of his construction. Here you can see part of the city was blocked off (Fences, bolders and cones) for the animals to into the city

Right in the middle there is a harbour

All ready for major destruction....

Total destruction!

Reese is in building mode. He builds elaborate structures like St. Basil Cathedral, Mickey Mouse Castle, New York City, St Petersburg Winter Palace, United Nation building... (He is into Little Einstein). Along the way, he will tell us what was going on and bla...bla...bla... and his greatest joy is when a disaster strikes! Hence the destruction. Total satisfaction for him. Crazy boy!

TV Privileges Removed, Effective Punishment? Nah!

The last two weeks were not very good for Reese at school. Most days I got complaints from his teachers over his behaviour. So last Friday I really blew my top! I got so mad with Reese that I told him as punishment, he will not have Cartoons for a whole week and really threaten him that he will not be going back to school! (As I type this, he is standing next to me reading my post!)

So did it work? Nope. He never even bother to ask for any TV. He happily plays with his toys or read his books. He can really live without any TV! *S0 proud of him*

Anyway, today he was behaving well at school. Really cracking my head what else we can do to get him to behave! Rewards are short term solution. Threats are not working too well either.

Going to make a reward book for him to be used at school. 1 yellow sticker for good behaviour and remove a sticker for bad behaviour/or he will be given a red sticker for really really bad behaviour. If he gets a certain number of red stickers, he will be punished like taking away certain privileges. Collecting a certain number of good stickers will allow him to redeem a certain reward. I wonder whether this can work at school.....

Reese Singing Silly Songs...

Singing 'No, No, Yes, Yes' and 'I'm a nut'

Reese singing silly songs. He has been obsessed with singing in the car using the song book. Check it out... quite funny and he is out of tune most of the time.....hehehehe

'Russia Church' Reese's latest obsession....

In two days, Reese drew 5 drawings of the 'Russia Church' he saw in Little Einstein's Fire Bird episode. I shown him some pictures of Russia's unique churches with onion domes. Reese had been studying them and drew them repeatedly. Each one more elaborate then before.

First drawing

Second Drawing after seeing some real life pictures

Third drawing with fireworks

Forth drawing with pixie dust (did this at school)

My favourite. Pixie dust, buds opening and becoming flowers. If you view the picture in detail, you will find dots everywhere. They were pixie dust lighting up lights!

Art At 4 years 6 months Old

Reese draws all the time but it has somewhat slow down as compared to a few month ago. Now when he draws, he 'draws' a story! He tells you what is going on in his drawing. He draws with a purpose and most of the time, he draws very quickly without caring whether it is beautiful or not. He just want to tell his story though his drawings! He usually completes a drawing in less than 5 minutes and when he is really in the mood, he can take up to 20 - 30 minutes working on his drawing or sometimes a few sessions to complete it.

He only likes to draw and not colour but when he does colour, he does it very well.

He loves castles. He coloured the above all by himself and added some fire works on the left picture and a sun and fountain (in pink) on the right picture.

In a city. A rocket blast off with sparks and falling debris.

A cumulonimbus cloud. Lighting strikes the communications tower and electrical cables.

Check this out. He was trying to draw lanterns hanging over our heads across the arch!

Tornado. House and fences got swept away!

Right at the top you see a flat and tall volcanoes erupting. Second row depicts a house with palm trees. Next row was a jungle and the next row was a huge cherry bush. Next different types of flowers and the last... can't remember what Reese told me. :)

Hot air balloons around sleeping beauty castle.

His favourite. Sleeping beauty castle with shooting fireworks.

Reese said this is an extinct volcano with houses built on it and can you spot the twin towers?

Fire in the forest

Homes with open windows and lots of lanterns and street lamps

A home decorated with a big fountain and hanging lanterns on street lamps.

Hot air balloons at Putrajaya and see how he drew to show a part of the hot air balloon flying behind a part of his castle (right). Below the hot air balloons is the bridge.

Reese said this is the Pantheon. See how he tried to draw those Doric pillars.

Sometimes, he draws really pretty pictures like this one. Most of the time he draws to tell his story and not care whether the picture is beautiful or not.

Rarely he draws with different colours. This is one of the exception.

Inspired by the dancing and sing flowers in Alice in Wonderland

The four seasons. From left, clock wise - Spring, Autumn, Winter and Summer.

Reese's art work on the school board. Parents that saw his work were impressed. Even the teachers took an interest at the way he draws. Reese is very proud of his art work when it is on display. He gets to draw during group time or whenever he doesn't want to join in an activity. He has his own permanent set of markers and A3 paper at school.

Our Loot for the Month

10 'I Wonder Why' books for Reese and 'What on Earth Happened?' for Mummy

We went to BookXcess yesterday and came back with some books! Reese's little library is growing. If you are looking for some good general knowledge books for kids (not too complicated) then now is the time to go BookXcess. They have about 3 different series for children (5-12 years old) on general knowledge. We bought the 'I Wonder Why' series (they have about 10 books out of xx books in this series). RM12.90 per book. They also have '100 Facts' books about pyramids, planet earth and etc. There is another series... can't remember the name. Oh, they also have some Reader's Digest compilation books on some interesting topics. Better go now before these books go out of stock.

Father (playing Ipod) and Son (reading a book) while waiting for me

Really engrossed in the book

Aiya! Reese found out that I was snapping pictures and quickly cover his face with a book!

At 4 Years 6 Months Old

Reese is finally 4 and half! Another 6 months and he will be 5! Why is time moving so quickly? I miss the little baby Reese. I have been looking at his baby photos and videos and sometimes wish I can go back to some of those moments.

For some reasons, I have been seeing a lot of baby photos of friends on FB and some mummy bloggers. They are so cute and I am drooling with envy. Mmmmmm..... still considering whether to have a second one! :)

Anyway... back to my sweetheart. He has grown so much. We are so lucky to be his parents. We love him so much. We are learning to understand him better and is working hard together with his teachers to help him behave and fit in better in his current school environment. He is scheduled to see the developmental pediatrician on 3rd August 2011. We hope to have some answers to his behavioral problems at school as well as a conformation of his giftedness.

He expresses himself very well and super cheeky. He is still very sensitive to loud noises and sometimes bright lights too. He is very sociable and is a little giant for his age. Everywhere we go, people will think that he is at least 6 years old. He is also very demanding and expect you do act immediately when he ask for something.

Reese loves building things and creating scenes or situation during pretend play. He is a child that needs a lot of space when it comes to pretend play. He creates situations like a town/airport got hit by an earth quake, tsunami and flood, castles with draw bridges with soldiers guarding and war broke out, going camping with fire place and fishing pond and clothes line and etc....
As he plays, he will narrate to us what is going on. At times, when we are too tired, Reese can really mess up the whole house. No kidding. Every corner and available space will be filled with his toys. We cannot remove or touch them without informing him (He has a superb memory so we can't trick him).Otherwise he will throw a big tantrum and sometimes became hysterical! He is quite a perfectionist.

Besides play, Reese loves to draw. He draws regularly. He loves to tell us stories through his drawing. His drawings are always based on his own life experiences. He still doesn't like drawing people. He loves drawing castles and fireworks the most. His drawing skills has improved as well. He doesn't like coloring but when he does, he does it very well.

Outdoor skills still lacking. Must be because he is hardly outdoor. Doesn't know how to ride a bicycle yet. Need to work on that (we have to buy one first!). He only likes to run and jump around. :)

He is very cautious when trying new things. A lot of times we have to force it on him before he realized that there is nothing to be afraid of! Some improvement though, he is no longer afraid of moving rides. He enjoys them very much now. He is still afraid of water though. Anything to do with water is a no for him. Even going near a lake is a big no no. He thinks that he would drown! My boy will think of all the possible bad outcomes associated with water!

Academic is way advance. Grandma is teaching him a little bit of Chinese. He seems to like it. He is learning Chinese characters too.

So in general, my boy is a happy boy and growing well. I thank God for such blessing. Amen!

Volcano Eruption Experiment

Last night we did a fun experiment on volcano eruption. Reese was so excited and he did the pouring and scooping.... it was just pure fun and educational. We were learning about volcanoes and the formation of it. During the experiment, Reese had a chance to see how the lava flows out and how it spreads to the surrounding area and at what speed....etc...

To do this experiment you will need:

Baking soda/powder (4 tablespoons)
An empty plastic bottle (500ml)
Vinegar (enough to cover 1/4 of the plastic bottle)
Dish washing liquid ( A few squirts)
Red food colouring ( A few drops)

Put in baking soda, dish washing liquid and food colouring into the bottle. Then add vinegar and watch the action. Cost of this experiment is about RM5. Baking soda is expensive. :)


Have fun.

Mummy, I want to get married!

While in the car after fetching Reese from school:

Reese: (With a serious tone) Mummy, when I grow up I want to get marry (married).
Mummy: Oh! (shock) Why do you want to get married?
Reese: (think for a while) Because I want to have a baby?
Mummy: Eerr....
Reese: My son will be called Peter. Just like gong gong Peter.
Mummy: (Impressed and still a little shock) That's great. So your baby will be called Peter. Nice.
Reese: Yes, my son will be called Peter eerr.... Peter David. My son will be called Peter David. Like my two gong gongs!
Mummy: Wah... nice...nice...
Mummy: Who is your wife?
Reese: eeerrr..... Solomon!
Mummy: ???? Huh? but Solomon is a man! Your wife must be a girl (woman) and not a boy (man).
Reese: mmmm.... My wife is Alice!
Mummy: Alice in Wonderland? That Alice?
Reese: Nope, a different Alice.
Reese: My wife has black hair.
Mummy: I see, is she beautiful?
Reese: Yes, she is beautiful and she has beautiful earrings!
Mummy: Hahahahha....

** Can't wait for my son to tell me one day that he is getting married for real! When we had this conversation, he was all serious. Should see his expression. I wonder why he suddenly talks about marriage... we certainly did not touch on these topics.... :)

My son's favourite cartoons are girlie!

His all time favorite cartoon

Cinderella
Beauty and the Beast
Alice in Wonderland
Rapunzel
Peter Pan
Mickey Mouse Club House
Ni Hao Kai Lan
Super Why
Agent Oso

My son loves princesses! He loves Minnie (He requested for Minnie when we were at HK Disneyland), He loves Kai Lan, He likes Princess Pea from Super Why.... He just loves all the girlie characters!

All his cartoons are hand picked by us. He never saw Ben Ten, Ultraman or any of those cartoon that involves monsters or villains fighting. When watching cartoon, any screen that involves evil witches or scary monsters..... Reese will close his ears or run away from the TV screen!

My son is weird. Does your son like princesses too?

Something funny, lately he has been watching Beauty and the Beast repeatedly.... and that leads to him pretending to be the beast and me being Belle.

When he plays, he will very sweetly calls me Belle just like on TV! He will asked me to dance with him, and then he will tell me how he is changing into the prince when I am in love with him......

Earlier... He came to me and I asked for a kiss... my sweet little boy look me in the eye and said in a very sweet manner.... I am in love! and kissed me.... hahahaha.... I asked... who are you in love with? I am in love with you Mummy! and kissed me repeatedly.....

You are VERY RUDE Mummy!

Whenever Reese got me mad, I will raise my voice when I talk to him or I will shout (My patience running out). Then my boy will reprimand me!

Mummy: (Scolding and shouting at Reese) #(*&$)s^^%$$##
Reese: Mummy! You cannot shout at me! That is very RUDE.
Reese: Stop shouting at me! It is very very rude. You cannot do that! Do you know?
Mummy: #^%#(#*^$&#^@
Reese: (Tears starts to flow....) Stop it. You are very rude. Be gentle. GENTLE!

*Shake head*

We always tell him not to be Rude. Shouting/screaming is rude, Not answering others' question is rude, Must always use 'please' and 'thank you' when you ask for/receive something.....etc...

So whenever he whines and wanted something, he will say something like:

Reese: I WANT IT! GIVE IT TO ME!
Mummy: Don't be rude.
Reese: PLEASE! I WANT IT!!!! GIVE IT TO ME!

To Reese, adding the word 'please' will make everything alright! Hahahaha.... So whenever we tell him he can't have something... he will add the word 'please' and thought that will give him what he wants.

*shrug*

Learning a lot....

Science
It's been 2 months or so since into our homeschooling. There were ups and downs but overall, both Reese and I learned a lot. My son enjoys Science the most. So far we studied the different kinds of weather, floods, earthquakes and tsunami, volcanoes and air. All we did was read and discuss and did some worksheets. Reese can predict the weather by just looking at the types clouds, he can tell you how to make rain, how floods, earthquakes and etc happened. We did some simple experiments and they were fun.

Critical Thinking
I also did some critical thinking worksheets with him. He loves them. Currently we are working on analogies. He just can't have enough of them. In the exercise, you are expected to compare a pair of objects and its relationship and then you are given a different object and you are suppose to find another object to complement it with the same kind of relationship as the first pair. Reese got 100% right most of the time. I introduced the word relationship to him and was not sure whether he understand the word. Anyway, yesterday I just casually asked him to explain one of the answers and never expect much but he did surprise me!

Mummy: Reese, can you tell mummy what is the relationship between these two?
Reese: Sure, first this is a big circle and in it is a small square then it became like this (pointing to the next object) Circle became small and the square became big. That is the relation. (smiling away)

Mummy: Reese, can you tell mummy what is the relationship between these two?
Reese: First it was ABC and then it became CBA. ABC was forward and then it went backwards! That's the relation.

History and Geography
We did some history about the Egyptians, Greeks and now Romans. We talk about their food, homes, transportation, clothes and their daily life in the past. It's a simple introduction to these world cultures. At times, Reese wasn't that interested especially when we talk about the kind of clothes they wear! :)

Math
I started with addition facts and almost daily drilling of about 60 questions and 1 worksheet from Horizon math. Honestly I did not count the number of questions (addition facts) until last week and realized its way too much. Reese didn't like to do math! It's my fault really. At the beginning, he finds it fun doing the addition facts and he can finish them within 15 minutes for 70 questions. Usually I will repeat the questions until he is able to do them in less than 2 minutes for 35 questions (usually 2 repeated worksheets). As the facts gets harder, he started to dislike it. ( I should have reduced it to 35 questions instead of 70 when it gets harder!) The prints were really small and thus doesn't look like a lot (35 questions on one side of the paper). Bad mummy. So along the way, there were struggles to get him to do his Math. Somehow we got through it but with him not very happy and always finding excuses and it came to a point where he will yawn the moment he work on the 2nd question!

So after another episode of shouting and all last week, I decided I am at fault. I just have to find a way to correct it. So instead of 70 questions, I only ask him to do 35 questions and we abandon the old Horizon K worksheets and replace it with Horizon Grade 1 Math worksheets. We continued playing Teacher and Student Game. Reese became the teacher and he taught me how to do the Math. The last two days were a success. No tears, no tantrums and in fact he wanted to do more worksheets from the new Horizon book! I just have to go slow and keep reminding myself that he is only 4+!!! Really a bad mummy. I felt so guilty actually.... I am just another kiasu mother! Anyway... I am changing!!!!

We are almost done with our addition facts and soon we will work on subtraction facts. I must say, learning addition facts first is really an advantage. Reese never uses fingers to count, he does it mentally and also from memorization. Now, you can ask him any addition of 2 single digit number and he is able to tell you the answer. Example: 8+9, 7+6, 3+5.....

You can do it at home. No need to go to Enopi or Kumon! If you go and google up 'How to teach addtion/subtraction facts', you will find a lot of resources including worksheets. :)

Reading/ Read-Aloud
Reese is currently reading the beginner's bible. Usually he reads a chapter and we discuss the content. Read-aloud is fun too. We finished The Box Car Children, My Father's Dragon and now we started on The Hundred Dresses. We also do poems and rhythms using other books. It's really nice to just read and read and let our imagination soar!

English
We are working on sentence construction/ spelling and comprehension.

That's it for now. My not so little Reese will be 4 years and 6 months end of March. Time sure flies....

Stunned...

The last few months were really tough with Reese constantly being difficult and me screaming and shouting at him all the time. The past 3 weeks seems to be good and I hope it will continue and the difficult phase is now gone. Just last week or so... while driving... Reese stunned me.

In the car and Reese ask for pretend play

Reese: Mummy, you wake me up the ninth time and I will be very mad. OK?
Mummy: Ok... let's start!
Reese: zzzz....zzzz....
Mummy: ReeeeeeeSEEEEEEEE!
Reese: You woke me up Mummy....
Mummy: Sorry......
Reese: zzzz...zzz...
Mummy: ReeeSEEEEEE!
Reese: You woke me up again!
(After the 8th time...)
Mummy: ReeeSSEEEE!
Reese: (With a very angry voice) YOU WOKE ME UP AGAIN!!!
Mummy: Oh... I am sorry....
Reese: Go to the corner! Now! You hear me? Go to the corner and think of the CONSEQUENCES!
Mummy: OK..... Sorry....
Reese: I need to calm down. I don't want to talk to you until I calm down. UNDERSTAND? DO YOU HEAR ME?

Gosh! I realized that what he pretended to say was exactly the way I spoke to him when he got me angry! Even his tone sounded like me! Hahahaha....

Reese Played His 1st Song!

Ah..... yesterday Reese played his first song on his toy xylophone. So proud of him.

He was playing with the toy xylophone when I decided to just play a simple tune for him. I played 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars'. He became interested and I briefly taught him the first part of the song. He repeated after me and after a few more tries, he played the entire song all by himself.

When we reached home, he played the song for his daddy. I will be teaching him another few songs. If he is keen to develop his new found skill, maybe I will get him an electronic piano and teach him piano!

We are suppose to enroll him in Yamaha kids music lessons but timing was not right, have to wait till they start a new class.

In the mean time.... we will make use of the toy xylophone!

Developmental Pediatrician

About 1.5 months ago, I had a word with Reese's teacher concerning his behaviour at school. It stills baffle us why he refuse to join group time (since beginning of school last year!). We had tried everything and it didn't worked. So now during group time, he will do his drawing instead (He has his own set of markers and A3 paper at school). Teachers at school can't get him to sit down and learn with them. Very rarely he will sit with them to do any work! Yet he learns by simply observing and listening while playing! Teachers also said that he is not fitting in well socially. He whines with shouts and tantrums (very exaggerated kind) at the slightest thing. He disturbs his friends with the cheekiest smile! *sigh* just so that he gets to see the kind of reaction from his teachers. Thank God he is not the aggressive type. The head teacher said the most, after a few months they will be able to get a child to obey them and work with them but not Reese. So the head teacher concluded that we should take him for an evaluation and see whether he is really a gifted child and if so, at least they will equip themselves to handle him and help him to fit in with other children. Sound serious huh? *sigh*

So happened when Reese was down with that viral fever, we spoke to our pediatrician about it and was recommended to see a developmental pediatrician. She said, if he is really gifted, we should intervene early to help him fit into society better else when he grows up, it will be more difficult. She said gifted children will find it more difficult to interact with their peers due to more advance intelligence.

So made a call to the one and only developmental pediatrician practicing privately and guess what? Waiting list to see her is 5 months! Crazy! We are told that it's going to be expensive too.
So at the mean time, will try to get him to behave better at school and wait.

Honestly, to me, Reese is very normal. Maybe at school the teachers were too nice to him? They are never strict and children are always given choices. They do not force them. I strongly feel that Reese is merely taking advantage of them and bullies them! My other option is to take him to another school for a trial or something like that and see whether I get the same kind of feedback from teachers. But my only reason for him to attend school is for social interaction! It's alot of hassle going around looking for another kindy and I am really not keen about it and don't want to spent too much on fees. He is learning at home with me and so far, we are having fun and he is learning so much.

Actually I am a little reluctant to take Reese to see the doc simply because we felt that he is normal even though the teachers seems to think otherwise. After much thinking, we will go ahead because we also want a formal confirmation on his giftedness. So far, we are guessing only.

Yesterday afternoon, after my class with a student (same age with Reese) they started playing and Reese was telling him about earthquakes destroying the town (pretend play with his blocks) then how tsunami waves swept the houses and buildings away (all the while using his blocks to illustrate his point) and how these buildings became debris (Reese uses big words).....etc... my student just looked at him blankly and not interested. Upon seeing this, I realized that my son is indeed advance and constantly talking about things that are way beyond his age. Could this be a problem at school? Getting bored is one thing, but not having friends who are on par with him could cause him to be alienated? *sigh*

The Promised Land... Reese's Version

Animals going through the maze to reach Canaan Land

His little world

Animals lining up to go Canaan

'Tim Sum' place heavily guarded by soldiers and firefighters

Reese's version of the promised land by God and 'Tim Sum' place in Hong Kong. :)
According to him, the animals are lining up to go through a maze to reach the promised land (Been reading about Canaan and God's Promise). Then the animals will reach Canaan. Then next to Canaan is the 'Tim Sum' place in Hong Kong. Soldiers and firefighters have to guard the place and next to the 'Tim Sum' Place is the Red Sea.