Today we went to Kiara Park and together with 12 other children we did abstract painting. Kids were given paint brushes and lots of paint to do whatever they want! No restriction. You should see what the kids did.... they go all out.... so happy..... splattering without a care, painting their hands and feet and stamped away....
A nice spread of home made food for the hungry kids to munch on... after painting...the kids ran around the park, playing and exploring. We mummies lazed around chatting and munching on yummy food. What a great way to spent a Monday morning.
Happily helping themselves to the paint
Creative juices free flowing....
Do whatever you want... no restriction at all...
The kids master pieces
Reese's master piece
Younger kids' master pieces
Reese's enjoying himself
Yummy and healthy food
Hungry kids
art work drying
These two... were working on their art for more than an hour!
See what the kids found? frog eggs.... some of us took some home to see the eggs hatch!
Yesterday night, Reese just shouted to us from the bathroom that he wanted to take his own shower. I said ok and hubby watched over him. He did it and it was a job well done too. We are so proud of him. After the shower, I asked him whether he was proud of himself and he smiled and said a big YES. :)
Gosh, my boy is really growing up so fast. Soon I will miss the privilege of playing in the shower with him!
Reese is quite independent now. He can even prepare his own breakfast like cereal and toast.
Somehow, without being told, he will turn off any lights, electrical appliances when not in use. After meals, he will take his plate and cup to the kitchen and wipe his own mouth. He will wash his hands when in contact with the slightest dirt. :)
We had our second science co-op meeting. It was fun, fun, fun. Reese got to be 'teacher' for 10 minutes and he taught them about black holes and dark matter. Next was lesson by Uncle Adeno who gave all of us a lesson on skeletal system. Kids got to assembled a skeleton named Mr. Badda Bones. Uncle Adeno came prepared with some music too. While figuring out the parts of the skeleton and assembling them, the kids got to listen to 'Bad to the Bone' by George Thorogood & the Destroyers.... cool eh?Ok, the lyric of the song wasn't cool...but the music is! :)
Reese preparing for his 'lesson'
He diligently wrote 6 sets of labels and drew 6 black holes for his friends to make a mobile
Teacher Reese!
Everyone listening to Reese's lecture on black hole and dark matter
Kids assembling the skeleton
Team work. So proud of the kids. They were even able to label all the bones...
Uncle Adeno explaining some mistakes they made
Fully assembled skeleton complete with labelling
'Pengacau' Reese!
Everyone decided to take a picture with Mr. Badda Bones
The past few weeks we did not do our usual studies. Reese was obsessed with Astronomy. So I just let him do his reading and watch videos on the subject. We did some baking. Reese is quite an expert now.
Reese is also into creating things. Here he created his first game. Some war game using Lepao blocks as soldiers and he drew his own world map. He has his soldiers fight from different countries.
Lately, Reese has a ravenous appetite for knowledge and also being creative. He is into astronomy especially astrophysics. He reads about galaxies, stars, planets, exoplanets, the interstellar medium and etc...
My knowledge of space is confined to the names of the planets in our solar system! So when Reese started asking me things like heliopause, spaghettification and singularity.... I went bonkers.
I took Reese to the Science centre and borrowed some books on astronomy. He has been reading them and told me even more stuff which I have no idea about. He also watches Youtube and Brainpop to feed his curiosity about astronomy. He eats, sleeps and talks nothing but astronomy related topics!
Books from Science Centre Resource Centre
Books from our home library
So finally, I sat down and did some research of my own and watched some youtube videos and read up a bit about the stuff Reese was telling me. Time is a constrain for me but never the less, I was totally amazed at my son's understanding on astronomy. Even I needed to read and watch those videos a few times to truly understand the concept of space time and a few other things. Reese is only 6 and I am 36! Pretty advance stuff he is reading and learning. All on his own initiative.
He drew some pictures explaining the concepts and theories of astrophysics. Totally impressed. Check them out. He drew these from memory and spelled 99% of the words on his own.
Yesterday morning he said he wanted to teach his friends from science co-op about black holes. He was so serious, he went on to draw the black hole, make labels and also a mobile on black hole. Hehe...
Black hole mobile
Now I am scratching my head, how to convince his friends to let him be 'teacher' for 10 minutes!
Apparently all these are not enough, he told me he wanted to demonstrate the theory how planets or stars can bend space time. So he got a blanket (space time) and asked me to hold it for him. :)
Here he explains the theory of black holes.
Now you have an idea what Reese does when he is really obsessed in something. It has been going on for a few weeks now and shows no sign of slowing down! By the way, we haven't done our usual learning like math, history and English for the past 2 weeks but I think he learned enough astronomy to cover a few grades!
Here are 2 great links if your children are interested in astronomy:
I initiated a science co-op recently and we had our first meet last Tuesday. It went well, all the kids got along fine and I was really impressed that almost all of them was able to named the parts of the organelles in a cell! I mean, the names are not the easiest to pronounce but the kids did well. One little girl can even remember and proudly said Deoxyribonucleic acid which means DNA! Amazing. These are kids are between the ages of 7-11 years old except Reese who has just turn 6.
We did our learning in a playground and we will continue to have outdoor lessons whenever possible. It is wonderful learning in the outdoor. Gentle breeze blowing, the smell of grass... ah! love it.
All the parents in our group are supportive and we will be taking turns to teach the children. We are currently doing Human Anatomy and Physiology. Kids did cells with me and our next meet will be about the skeletal system and so happen we have a parent who has over 16 years in orthopaedics! We also have a midwife and a pharmacist in our midst. The children are so blessed to have real professionals to teach them. :)
The kids enjoyed themselves. After the class, they feasted on snacks and played, played, and played!
Some photos:
Reese was quite distracted at the beginning. *sigh*
Kids watching an animated video on cells
Me teaching the kids. A lot of discussion and the kids came out 1 at a time to put an organelle
on my hand drawn cell and to explain it to all. Every child participated.
Everyone was asked to draw a cell of their own. Lots of hands on work.
See Reese in the background? *sigh*
We did a cell mobile and this is our group photo! Reese is the only boy in the group. :)
Punishment: 1 week no iPad and Comics for various reasons...
Didn't seem to affect him at all! He got up in the morning and went straight to his books.
After we got home from art class (tell you about it in another post) and lunch, Reese went straight to his building blocks. Then he decided to do a newspaper cover story about Titanic. It even comes with a website: www.com.newyorktimes! :)
Next he went into the room with me and spent the next 2 and half hours reading more books! Maybe next time I should take away the privilege to read and draw instead!
I love the following quote:
"Parenting a gifted child is like living in a theme park of full thrill rides. Sometimes you smile. Sometimes you gasp. Sometimes you scream. Sometimes you laugh. Sometimes you gaze in wonder and astonishment. Sometimes you're frozen in your seat. Sometimes you're proud. And sometimes, the ride is so nerve-wracking, you can't do anything but cry." Carol Strip & Gretchen Hirsh, in Webb, Gore, Amend, & DeVries
Yesterday I was at the point where the ride was so nerve-wracking, I can't do anything but cry. The past few weeks has been very challenging with Reese. Hopefully this phase will pass soon.
