(2007/12) Dec 2007 MTB

*Yawn*
Loooooooooooonnnnnnnngggggggggg weekend...
Haha, cold turkey now..

Bluelily, how about you?

Yesterday took Ryan to watch Ups. First time in a cinema. Not bad
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hi phy,
my weekend nothing much.. Sat go ikea buy some cutleries for jr and a small chair for him.. Sun go IL as usual.. Mon hb gotta work. I face the little terror at home alone......
 
ya.. its ultra long wkend for me. thurs took leave brot sr for her gug make up class, fri company has a whole day community service day event and then sat stayed home coz HB had to work, sun went my mum's to make curry puffs and sr did some gardening with my dad. Yday went taka, the last day of the toys fair.. got an eletronic keyboard and an intercom phone for sr.
Would leave the keyboard at my mum's coz my sister knows how to play more songs dan me n hb who only know DoReMi, Twinkle Twinkle and Ke Ren Lai.. haaa
 
slimz u bought the mickey intercom phone ah? I bought that too! Cos jr likes to play with my phones.. i put the toy phone in place of my real phone.. he got cheated. hahaaha. I bought the basketball set too.. havent kai zhang yet.. and mego blocks.. pocket burnt a hole at the toy fair!
 
for me, long weekend started last Friday (early dismissal).Took my mother and little 4-month-old nephew, my MIL and Ryan to shop at Isetan Scotts (bought a bumbo seat for my little nephew at $49.40) then had tea at TCC, then went Jacob Ballas (unfortunately my boy fell asleep so we adjourned to shop at Bukit Timah Plaza NTUC instead.

Saturday went to climb BT timah hill with Ryan. Leg cramp after that! Haha. Then a family gathering at my place. None in my family wanted to taste my friend noodles again so my mother cooked at my place instead. Had wine, cheese, baked chicen wings (hubby specialty), fried noodles and other junk food
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Sunday went to a birthday party then adjourned to friends' place for MJ session
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My favourite.

Monday? Hmmm, oh, went Dim Sum with friends then adjourned to Orchard, wanted to catch UPs. Too bad no tickets so watched at Balestier instead..

Busy weekend. Now like panda haha

Slimz,
What make-up class? Err, I don't have hor?
 
bluelily, the mega blocks gd catch? i wanted to get but i tink we went on the last day no more stocks liao =( and yesh, we got her the mickey intercom..haa.. to communicate with her =P

phy, that time sr sick and missed her first class.. dey were able to give her make up so long i can produce MC or the bill =P it was oso russell and ash. Although oso taught "E" but the activities were abit diff. The 3 E words were oso diff. There was a chinese segment abt 15mins.
 
slimz, the mega blocks cheap! $50+ become $20 only.. but it's those with figurines.. pooh and princess theme. I bought the basic set instead.. less discount.
 
ok, i brot A for her first class at GUG today.

verdict: it was just okay (to me).

hygiene: was great..teachers were conscientious in cleaning tables before n after use..

programme: wasn't overly impressed. i tink a full 20-25 mins was spent on introduction. then singing 'Hello' in several languages..i felt it was quite time wasting. n wif e poem reciting which no one cld follow except e teachers n caregivers who cld read e words...hand actions weren't too engaging as well.. phonics bit was ok..tho i felt it cld b done at home.. chinese story tellg was waaaay too long..e story was too long n only e chinese teacher herself paid attention..e rest of e kids were too busy gettg distracted by one another..

well, to b fair, e class tat i was in was full so it was a little harder to settle all of them down..

jus to share somethg wif e moms here..

there was tis little girl in e class..fr start till end, she was running abt e whole time..din even stay seated for more than 5 sec (no kidding) so it was v natural for other kids to b lookg at her rather than e teachers... so during e snack break..teacher ash asked e mom if her girl was like tis even at home..

mom: ya, she's like tis ALL E TIME running abt, cant stay still..
teacher: oh yar, e previous teacher warned me not to refrain her from running becz she will get violent..
mom: ya, if she senses danger (??), she will start screaming..
teacher: but does she practise her phonics at home?
mom: ya, she does..mayb she's bored becz she KNOWS EVERYTHING INSIDE OUT tts why she runs about. btw, she already got a place in a very good nursery n kindergarten so i'm not too worried..i'm just here to while her time away.

me: .........

i'm appalled at e mother's arrogance. wah..if her daughter knows everythg inside out, dun enrol her in n disrupt e class la..other students want to learn lor. i was a bit pissed becz tis mother didnt put in a conscious effort at all in stopping e girl fr running whilst other mothers were nice enuff to ensure that their kids din disturb e teachers (even tho they cldnt stay still too).

'nuff said.
 
Steffietan,
u went for the bilingual class huh? U feel bilingual useful or not? I signed up for English class coz I feel my boy weaker in English. But it seems the bilingual classes are much more popular!

Anyone attending the gug sat 9.30 class?

Re: long weekend
my friend and I brought our kids to hay dairies at lim chu kang. The kids had fun looking at the goat milking. Also went to frog farm. Kids could feed frogs. Quite fun also. Went organic vege farm and bought lots of stuff!

I think the farms are very interesting places for the kids. Free entry, free parking!
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<font color="aa00aa">hi ladies!!!!!!!!!

my newly launched kids collection is up.
lots of authentic Gap and Adidas apparels for this month.
the Adidas ones will be uploaded later.
for the rest, u can view them at my blogshop..

http://www.lynziscloset.blogspot.com

hurry to avoid disappointment!

support eh, frens.
thanks!</font>
 
hi mumeeeess, good morning!! recently here so quiet yah
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wanted to share abt GUG on Stef Sunday 930 mrng class. this is my re-sign up class and i am SOOOO disapointed.

1. When i step into the room, i dun noe wer should i put my diapers bag &amp; my hand bag. in the end my hb just leave it at the side of tablessss

2. the indian teacher not frendly at all, wen see me &amp; gal at the corina never say "Hi". not like Teacher Averline. actaully i dun mind her drawing skill not so good... bt how can she forgot the ABC phonics? she can from F jump to K... oh my god. cunfuse children.

3. A boring session, wen sing "if u hapie and u know u clap your hand" can see all the children are not hapie at all....

4. teacher is not so tacfull when handle active kids like my gal. they oni show fierce face &amp; keep asking them to sit down.

A BIG disspointed, at the end of the class, i ask for swape class room.

Nowonder Steffitan give not so good comment abt GUG. They have changed!!!! all those good teacher is no longer there anymore. accpet teacher averline, but she is wif Baby class.

i think i will discontinue wif GUG if i still not sactisfied wif the new class room.
 
RE: GUG
Last Sat, Aidan went for his 1st formal GUG class. His teacher is Senior Teacher Ida. I must say I am quite impressed by her!!

She is the no nonsense type of teacher, very strict with the parents and students. When the hyper-active kids misbehave, she has a way to control them. She can be stern, so the kids obey her naturally. Yet when she cuddles the kids and make them sit on her lap, you can tell she genuinely has a heart for them.

My boy wasn't at his best performance that day. Maybe due to lack of sleep, he was quite closed up, and stuck to me.

When the other kids went up to the teacher to check out the zoo bag, he refused to budge. But the teacher came right up to him to show him the bag, not once but twice!

When it comes to tracing, the teacher remembers who has done it and who hasn't, and she specially called Aidan to her so that she can teach him the alphabet!

In contrast, when Aidan attended the trial class, the teachers were really lousy! Whenever any kid misbehavior, they will PLEAD with them, "Can you pleeeaaase sit down..." When the kids don't listen, you can see their faces change to exasperation and impatience. During tracing, they just act blur and totally heck care about those kids who don't go up to them on their own.

So I think teachers are the most important. Try to find out which are the good teachers and switch to their class!

BTW I'm in the Sat 9.30 class. From what I know this class is already full. But Teacher Ida's 11.30 class still has vacancy!
 
higgledy, yes, Love &amp; patience to kids is wat i wanted. but some how the teacher i meet last sunday is really lousy.

i see, too bad i can only attend the Sunday mrng class... really cross fingure that the new class teacher is good.
 
tmr will b her 2nd lesson at GUG..let's hope my impression of e class will improve a bit..actually my hb told me to take it easy..it IS still a playschool..can't expect much..(err, but we paid good money for it right?)

anyways, i can tell u..everywhere we go, whichever school, there's bound to b overactive children..so got to b prepared.

funny, today A told me she wants to go to 'school'..err..i tink GUG met her expectations of a 'school'...hahaa..
 
higgledy,

personally, i dun find e chinese segment useful. well, yea, a china teacher recited a story in mandarin (i mean she sounds really good n all) ..but tats abt it..i dun think there's any +ve reinforcement thereafter. but then again, i tink tis segment is a little too rushed. i tink they hv some 20 mins to finish up everythg. aiyo.
 
tub,

ya..i actually like JG better..i sent my son there for their Chinese prog when he was abt 20 mths or so..till now, he rems stuff being taught by e teachers. BUT wat to do..for now, time n distance are of essence to me.. i need a time slot tat is good enuff for me to rush home in time for my boy when he comes back fr sch. my hands are really tied when i hv to handle 2.
 
sunshinsummer, steffietan,
Actually hor, my expectations also quite high for these play schools. True lah, the kids are meant to have fun there. But we are paying so much for it leh! If they charge like 10 bucks per hour, I won't be so fussy lor. But it's a whopping $44 per lesson! If the teacher is lousy, I'll surely swope class lor.

Frankly speaking, I think 1.5h for bilingual doesn't seem very practical leh. Too short time for 2 languages!

If you really want bi-lingual, I think maybe JG's 2h class is better. And I think both their English and Chinese teachers are quite good. Only complaint I have is class too big. That time our trial class had 20 kids!

So when they do art and craft, each table can only sit 6-7. There are only 2 tables. Which means there is a lot of waiting.

Once again I think it boils down to price lah. If JG is not so ex, I won't complain, but it's $55 per lesson! To spend so much time waiting, I very heartache leh!

(very stingey mom here... keke...)

Mommies who have attended JG, are your classes smaller?
 
RE: Weekend hangouts
Last weekend, I brought Aidan to Tampines Ikea. I think it's a great place for kids. We had lunch at the restaurant, which has a play area in the midst of the dining area. So we adults can eat while keeping an eye on the kids.

Aidan also had lots of fun playing with the toys at the children's section. And Ikea is one of the very few places with free parking!
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Mommies, any other children friendly places to share? After working such long hours mon-fri, I really want to spend some quality time with Aidan during the weekends!
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<font color="aa00aa">hi ladies!

steffietan,
how r u dear?
A must be so big and active now.
ooh..your first time at GUG doesnt sound too good.

when faiq was 12 months i enrolled him in GUG.
lucky for him his teachers were very good and can handle kids well although there was this one super irritating kid who went around pulling other kids hair or knocking their heads.
his mum was also irritating cos she NEVER even scold or restrain her kid. all other mothers talked to each other but none of us talked to her cos she very yaya..her son also yaya..he will go around saying all the phonics, kept hurrying the teacher to do the next activity and when the other kids still havent finish, he will go around rolling his eyes saying so slow...so slow..
piang!

before i decided to put faiq in GUG, me and a friend did go for trial at JG. personally, i prefer JG to GUG. the programme is better suited for my boy and the environment seems more conducive but my major drawback was the time and the fees.

any of u here heard of centrestage before?
i'm thinking of enrolling faiq for their speech and drama class there next.</font>
 
GUG class:
my girl is attending the sunday 1130 tots class at suntec .. both the english and chinese teachers are not too bad.. sr loves teacher wei (teaches english). i used to tink the chinese teacher is veri quiet coz when sr was in the babes class tis chinese teacher would sometimes relief the class wen either of the babes teachers are out and tis chinese teacher hardly says anything at all during relief.
But last sun was sr's first class for tots and i tink its not too bad. I wasn't quite looking forward to the mandrian segment coz 2 weeks back i brot sr for one of the wkday makeup babes class wich has chinese segment. It was totally not OFF then..but aft her sunday's class, i would say the sunday chinese segment is much better (mabbe its the teacher)...
 
lynzi,
I'm thinking of enrolling Aidan for speech and drama also! But should be next year. Coz he still can't talk, how to drama? Haha...

When my brother was a kid, my mom sent him to speech and drama at JG. It is so cute watching the kids role play. I think it is very good in building up their confidence and public speaking. But they need to be older lor, maybe 3?
 
how abt act 3? tink one of our dec07 mums sent her son to act3 .. started recently..
cocoangel u here? care to share ur views?
 
ok, so today i went for e 2nd class at GUG..n i realise tat teachers do play a v impt part in maintaing e order of e class.. i got teacher wei n ash n i hv to say tr wei did a gd job today..she did not hesitate to stop her class to get e todds to sit n also was constantly hintg at caregivers to ctrl their todds.

today's lesson din seem that draggy fortunately. =)
 
<font color="aa00aa">higgledy,
the speech n drama class at centrestage has 1 class for 6 to 18 months and another class for 18 mths to 2 and half or 3 years.
i have enquired.
apparently, at this age when they cant talk, they just imitate eg. lion's roar and do the actions.
im thinking of going for the trial soon after i come back from my holiday in october.
with fasting month coming and hari raya, i will be super busy liao.

steffietan, slimz,
yup in GUG the teachers role is very important and parents also must play their part.
motivated teachers and those who can discipline well are few and in between..which is why such teachers their class are always full and in demand.</font>
 
Lynzi,
I'm sure you can understand how difficult it is to have good classroom management. I handle a class of 42 and yes, sometimes they drive me up the wall, across the ceiling and slide down the other side of the wall...
 
This evening when I came home after work, my maid told me a wonderfully good news!!!
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One of our neighbours in another block is an Australian family, both husband and wife are teachers at the Australian school, and they have a little girl who is 2 years old. 3 times a week, they have a play group at their apartment, and they have invited Aidan to join them!!

This morning, my maid brought Aidan to their place to check it out. There were 9 kids, mostly ang mohs and Koreans and 2 Chinese including Aidan. They played games, did coloring, and even had lunch there! And my maid told me Aidan was so happy that he ate SOOO much!! Haha...

To think that for the past few weeks I have so troubled about not being able to send Aidan for weekday classes, then now, this invitation dropped from the sky. It is such a blessing! :D:D
 
<font color="aa00aa">phy,
oh yes i think we can understand how difficult it is.
thank god those days are over for me..hehe.

higgledy,
where do u live??
oh lucky u and your boy.
oh yes will definitely inform u gerls after i go for the trial.

from tomoro onwards i will be on leave till monday.
need to drive to kl for my hari raya clothes..still need to go jb and geylang too before fasting starts.
also need to do spring cleaning until my tiles and countertops shine..hahaha!!
but on thursday i'm taking time out to spend time with faiq.
will be going to polliwogs with dini.
anyone wanna join us?</font>
 
Higgledy, that's nice of ur neighbours! If only there's a home playgroup in my neighbourhood! Think jr lacks playmates.

Lynzi.. i'm also thinking of going Polliwogs after seeing missylan's pics. But can only be weekend.. maybe Sun. Anyone wanna go on Sundays?
 
i remb very long time ago,has one mother like to organise outthing for this forum one rite? recently din hear anything liao...

hope she can organise it again...
 
RE: Outing
Yah. Last time when I was living in China, whenver you gals go outing, I can only drool. Now I'm back, next time have outing, I want in!!!
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self-org plygrp:
bluelily, jux gather woodlands mummies and do it! i ever had one at my hse .. and tis sat we gg to ve pinic at the nearby park .. its nice when u see our kidos playing with other kids ..
 
Outing/self-org playgrp
Think several of the mummies here bz with new pregs or bbs le.. that's y so quiet. haha.

slimz, polliwogs is a new play area at East Coast for kiddos.. thinking of going this Sun. Wanna go? hehe
 
sun sr got gug class frm 1130 - 1pm wor ..
ecp used to ve frisk n romp but they moved le issit? is polliwogs to replace frisk?
 
ya phy where u have in mind? I can go only after hb back from reservist.

Went Polliwogs yest.. so so. The place is smaller than i tot. but v cheap.. $8 nia compared to others.
 
higgledy, yup. $8 is the entrance fee for polliwogs on weekends for 90mins of play. The place quite small i feel.. and jr can really play the bigger slides, ball guns (dunno what to call tt?). He just run ard and pick up balls all over the play.. climb abit here n there. haha

slimz, pinic at botanic garden ah.. onz.. provided hb is back from reservist and gotta be Sun or Sat after 3pm. hehe.
 



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