(2006/01) Jan 2006 MTBs

CL
The leapfrog letter factory is helpful hor? It helped D recognize the alphabets but more on the sounds that the alphas make.

Now he's into the Word factory...he's trying to memorize simple 3-letter words i.e. C-A-T, D-O-G, P-O-P, D-U-C-K, S-T-O-P...

But I have to agree with ky that for now, the reading part is essential, that is if they are keen. Right now, my boy only likes Dr Suess Green Eggs and Ham and had kind of memorized 1/4 of the book... he's got elephant memory!
 


SSF
I think no need to pay full month of the maid levy. You'll have to inform MOM earlier (I think). From what I remember correctly, when maids go on home leave, the maid levy is reimbursed for the period they are not around. You are saying she wants to go home for home leave and come back for 1 year? or just go home immediately? As for the pay...it's really up to you wor... if she's going home permanently, it's solely up to you if you wanna give her full month's wage. If she's going back on home leave and coming back, the 15 days home leave that they are entitled to, are actually paid for by us. But I told my helper that I will give her half month first when she went back, the other half will give her when she returns home to us.
 
Hi mummies,
Been too busy with work at my current job to login anymore, unlike old times. Seems like the thread is still going strong. Well done girls
happy.gif


Slyeo, Chilles and wenyl
Sorry I know this is kinda late but please send me a private message with your bank account numbers regarding the refunds for the previous spree. I lost my handphone some time back and lost most of your hp numbers.

SL, Wenyl
I think I've still yet to refund you your $6 (sl) and $4(wenyl) respectively. Pls confirm.

Chilles
I've totally no idea if I've refunded you $3.50 already or not. Pls confirm.
 
aileen

why not just buy a bible story book? One thing abt bible is that it's made up of many timeless children's stories and u don't have to tell him abt the God part if u don't wish to. There's many old testament stories like King's Solomon (on being a wise king), David & the Goliath (small boy vs a giant), Joseph & his brothers (repaying good for evil) etc. Even in the new testament, there's parables like the prodigal son (telling abt how much a father loves a wayward son) & the lost sheep. It all can be used to teach good values to your boy without being religious abt it.

If u just tell it as a story, it will really seem just like a story.
 
Aileen
Me too so ha ha for Aden I not spending a lot of time with him on learning actually. More with charmaine and it is on revision and not getting her in ahead of class.

She never top her class but I think she is working hard enuff, maths test 36/40 test 2 37/40 and current chinese test 44/50. ha ha surprisingly her chinese not good because it is HYPY. But I think she is better with chinese character.

For bible, actually there are kids bible. I am also non christian but I do have a bible at home. There are still good values you can adapt.

Ky, Mamachan
ha ha my boy does not like to read. So I have to use those books with sticker activity then he feels a sense of participation and not just sit and listen.
 
CL/Mamachan

My boy likes letter factory too.
happy.gif
He has also memorised some books like '3 little pigs' & 'Ollie'. He's definitely more interested in learning to read than write. Lazy bum. haha.
 
MamaChan, your boy goes to a Montessori preschool right? Is he on the pink scheme already?

hm, my K is getting quite reluctant to do work with me ... I'm beginning to think if should send him to 1 that's twice a week, but with his 2 other enrichments on the other 2 days, he'll be out 4 days a week ... huh, I don't quite like that, and hubby says since he does seem to be learning at home, may as well don't bother to send him till he goes to school Jan next yr, but by then I think I'll be in trouble to cope with 2 new schools since ds#1 is going to start P1... Men don't think so much one leh n think women are super-women...

Aileen, get a simple bible illustrated stories one. ds#1 asked for it too when we saw a lot in one of the warehouse sale, and he's been talking abt Christianity. We are not Christian and hubby went to a church school (pri n sec ... hm, girls school are called convent, what abt boys?) but he didn't take up the religion. We are open to it; if one day, that's what ds#1 choose to go for, we are ok.

SSF, is your maid going home for good or coming back again after the home leave?

.ky.
 
Aileen
It's not so bad getting Edgar a baby bible... coz it actually helps teach some morals and values. I'm not sure how "against" you are about owning one or sharing one with Edgar, but like how Mashy shared, can leave out the God part i.e. Jesus loves you or God loves you very much. Haha, even when I was studying in a mission/Methodist school, my non-Christian friends have to carry a small, new-testament bible and attend once a week assembly (like a small church service) except for the muslim kids. But whether they continued to become Christians, it's their choice.... May was my secondary schoolmate!! Can ask her! haha.
 
Thanks to all mummies who asked abt A. She's fully recovered already. Will be bringing her back to KKH for her post hospitalisation review this thursday. However, another bad news that spawned from the blood tests during her hospitalisation is.. she is Alpha-1 Telassemia positive. Sigh. one problem after another
sad.gif


Anyway, that means A is only a carrier and will not suffer any symptoms of Telassemia except for borderline low blood count and anemia. Need to see what her pd at KKH says. However, that also means either me or my hb is Alpha Telassemic. :/ Need undergo more tests to determine who is the culprit.

Someone was asking y I brought A to KKH even though I had personal bad experience there. Thats a good question cuz I don't really know the answer myself. Something just nagged me to bring her there on that particular night instead of our usual Mt A. Anyway, we got the single bed A ward for A so it was pretty alright. The nurses were also very friendly & attentive in that ward.
 
thanks mummies! ok,i'll go get him a children's bible then. I'm ok reading it to him like a story book lah. then maybe after reading, he'll think that bible is just another story book and stop bugging me to buy him! hehe... he's like a broken recorder, so if I don't buy him one, I know he'll keep bugging me day in day out until he gets it!
 
Mamapanda
hey we should have this test done when we were preggy right so maybe you are likely not the culprit.

My fren's son too did not detect that till when he was admitted 1 year ago.

Aileen
Aden oso will.But his mummy oso quite good at ignoring
 
Aileen

haha, i think my boy is opposite. Maybe coz he already has a few children's bible and some bible story books, he kind of take it for granted. So even when praying, he's also very ai mai like that.
 
chickenlittle
Problem is when we're preggie, we're only tested for Beta Telassemia. The preggie test does not test for alpha telassemia. When A was 1 year old she also tested negative for beta telassemia but PD told me that she could possibly be alpha telassemic cuz she shows the signs. So lesson learnt is, if your kid eats alot but doesnt put on weight or is anaemic despite having proper balanced diets, consult your PD if there's a need to test them for alpha telassemia. Genetic problems cant be cured so its better to know early.
 
ky
I visited MMI when D was 18 months old for a free trial to see what they do with the kids. The little activity stations and all that. I was quite impressed by what they had to offer but I was put off by the price. In fact, most montessori based centres are quite expensive due to the brand names of which it's out of my budget for his schooling.

I try to make learning as fun for my boy as possible, in methods that I know how, and making sure he does activities at his little ikea table like coloring, play doh, etc etc and making sure he puts away his toys immediately after using. It's over time I realize that as much as montessori methods are good, but our kids will pick up to do certain things by themselves over time. I.e fine motor skills in rolling a piece of paper to make it into a telescope and montessori teaches rolling of mats or academic skills like phonetic sounds of the alphabets (learnt from leapfrog as well as when we're dining outside, he's bored and out comes the doodle board, we will randomly write alphabets and he will make the sounds of them) or when cleaning up his toys, we would count the number of times he puts the toys into the toy box... so it's the little things I guess.

So right now, I spend most times reading to him, using Dr Suess books for his level which I really like as it's funny and silly enough to catch their attention with their rhyming words. hahaha, it's good for us parents as we won't get bored like with Spot books... now, I will also include reading to him a chinese book after feedback from his school how best to "help" them be more inclined to Mandarin. At least he's now asking us in mandarin ,"Zhe shi she me?"

So end of the day, to me, it doesn't matter whether he attends montessori schools or normal schools, what matters is that he enjoys learning at his own pace and time and I just "go with his flow" and interests.
 
mashy
Just bring him to a PD and tell the PD u want to do a blood count to test for anaemia. When the test result is out, the PD will be able to advise you if he's iron deficiency anaemia or telassemic. However, alpha telassemic cases are not so straightforward unless they do the alpha telassemia tests. A was also initially diagnosed with iron deficient anaemia by the PD (despite my protests and insistence that she's been eating a proper diet and cant possibly be nutrition triggered anaemia). Only then did the PD diagnose her with possible alpha telassemia.
 
Mamapanda
Don't have to worry too much. Thalassemia Alpha-1 is not very dangerous to them at this stage. I would think clinically they are asymptomatic? Likely when she's older and planning to get married and have kids, she has to make sure that the man she's marrying is non-thalassemia carrier too. If not, that would be worrying.
 
Slinky,
what is the difference between B and A. i was tested positive during pregency.
damien eats alot but never put on weight.
 
mamapanda
after reading your post, i am worried, too... my gal also eats a lot, but never put on weight. any other symptoms i should look out for?
 
Hi mamapanda, how heavy is A? Now I'm getting worried too ... so this test started with A being hospitalized previously?

Mamachan, sorry ... somehow keep thinking that D goes to a Montessori school. 1 of your posting stress a lot on fine motor skills which I find Montessori (to me) focus. I use that at home with the kids. Just that K's not keen on Montessori phonics ... he prefers sight reading. That's how my older one started and eventually the school use Jolly Phonics for him. I find Zoophonics help K a lot ... he learns his sounds that way, and yes, certainly leapfrog. Now, I'm trying to get him to blend and doing the beginning sounds. but he tends to run off after a while. We leave books around and he recently pick up the Oxford Reading Tree books and is able to start reading some himself.... the short storylines are quite cheeky like him, so perhaps that's why they caught his interest. It's quite obvious what words he can recognize and what he can't ... but it was not so obvious with my older one. So I'm just sharing how different kids would take to learning, that's all. But like CL, I tend to work more with the older one than the younger one....

.ky.
 
ky
It started last year when A had high fever. Her PD took a blood test for her and found that she's anaemic. So the PD suggested that we give her iron rich foods as she could be simply iron deficient anaemic and take another blood test 1 month later. The 2nd blood test we took, her blood count was still low so the PD took another blood test to see if A is Thalasssemic. However, ordinary blood tests for Thalassemia only tests for Thalassemia Beta, which she was not. So, back then the PD suggested that she could be Thalassemic alpha instead. however, KK is the only hospital that does tests for thalassemia alpha so we never did any until she was hospitalised last month. It turned out that her PD was correct.

sunny
Thalassemia minors have no symptoms like what Mamachan mentioned, except for low blood count and anaemia, which is common amongst many others, so its easily misdiagnosed as iron deficiency anaemia. An easy but not so accurate way of telling is, despite taking iron pills or iron rich foods and the blood count is still low or borderline, you can possibly be a thalassemia minor. Another side effect, thalassemia minors are mostly skinny, no matter the amount they eat. I kind of suspect it could be me cuz everytime I take a blood test, I'm always almost mistaken for leukemia case cuz my red blood count is always lower than the normal limit, sometimes, far less than my white blood count. However, I don't have any family history of thalassemia, so it might not be me also.

Belinda
I'm not too sure about the differences between A and B. Maybe u can google it and see. However, I do know that B is the more "serious" thalassemia and most thalassemics are beta. Alphas are the minorities, thats why private labs don't do the tests, only KKH.
 
Aileen,
No worries on the introduction part of christianity to kids at this age. Just like what u say, read to him like story book.

J1 was in a christian based CC before we withdraw her. Till now, she still can rem singing grace before eating. Hb and me did not stop her, although my mum dun really like it.

Like what Mamachan mentioned, I was in a methodist sch as her and I am not a chrisitian. I do carry gideon bible (mini bible) in my school bag everyday. Every morning, there is reading short bible verse and saying prayers. There are weekly chapel service. I loved that although I am not chrisitian. Cos there are something that I learnt during the verse reading and I love singing worship songs as well.

I think they are still young to differentiate religion at this moment. Perhaps can explain to him? I explained to J1 what is the statue sitting on my mum's prayer table, tell her what grandma is doing when she burn joss stick. When we passby church, I will tell her what she learnt in that CC. When we passby indian temple, I will tell her abt her what her Indian teacher will do. A good way to teach them religion and race also.

RE: Tracing and writing
Mummies, you can try tracing first. With dotted straight lines and slowly to dotted alphabets. I did that with J1. Now she can only spell her name and write J,A,I and E. Not very nicely written but can figure out the words. She still dunno how to write M. Now I am more lazy, just write the dots on the whiteboard and let her doodle herself.

RE: Recognising Alphabets and Numbers
Other than flashcard and tracing, I let J1 play computer games. Bought a few pooh, mickey and nemo computer games for toddlers. I limit only 30mins of playing and this is one of the me and J1 time. I will explain to her in mandarin (she is stronger in mandarin) when she dun understand. She will type the answer and click the mouse on her own. Things she learnt in the CD is counting, numbers, alphabets, pronounciation, shapes and colours. If you are interested, I can post the photos of the games. Another free educational game website is the Playhouse Disney website that she frequently visit.

URL : http://tv.disney.go.com/playhouse/games/index.html
 
may

my boy loves the playhouse disney website. All i needed to do is go to the website and he'll do everything else himself. I was surprised that he knew how to go back to the diff websites (like charlie & lola, mickey mouse clubhouse) to play the same games without my help. He's definitely a computer geek. Yesterday he was happily playing with his vtech comp.
 
Belinda,
alpha Thalassemia is a result of gene deletion in chromosome-11. Beta thalassemias are caused by mutation of the genes which produce an excess of beta chains that bind to chromosome-16, which form toxic aggregates in high concentrations. Delta thalassemias are cases where both alpha gene deletion and beta gene mutation is present.

For alpha cases, depending on how many chains are missing, the seriousness of the thalassemia will differ. However, if two thalassemics come together and have offspring, their offspring will have progressively more chains missing.

For example, mother has 1 chain missing (alpha-1 minor), the father has 1 chain missing (alpha-1 minor), their offspring will have 1+1=2 chains missing (alpha-2 thalassemia). Altogether, there are only 4 chains in each chromosome. Humans with 4 chains missing have zero survival rates as chromosome 11 is the gene responsible for haemogoblin production.

For more info, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassemia#Alpha_.28.CE.B1.29_thalassemias
 
re first teeth spree

i can do one if needed. will order from either drugstore or americarx. can also order burt bee to try. pm me if interested

may
dun blame yourself. it's easy for #2 to fall sick cos of #1. i find that over time i can see tat jx recovers faster than jh, less discomfort when sick n falls sick less. plus my 2 have terrible sensitive nose so i think bm does help jx
 
May/Mashy
Wow! your toddlers are computer savvy eh? I'm trying to delay my boy's exposure to the computer as much as possible... though I know that when they get to Pri 1, they have to learn to use the computer...
 
SY
what abt the oral B one tt we ordered tt time? tt one seems ok too.

mamapanda
can you share where you ordered the little grittles gummy bears.I wanna stock up for that too.
 
mamachan

can't be helped. He kept coming over when we use the computer. So have to let him use lor. Anyway his cc won't be giving computer lessons, so just let him play some simple games online.
 
mashy,
I bookmarked for J1. She will on the laptop herself, go into the bookmarked website and play whatever she wants. When I say time is up, she will auto shut down everything. She knows I mean off means off, else no computer games for her for next day.

Mamachan,
Hehe..cos I lazy to teach her nowadays. So the games online teaches her some educational things. I do vet thru the games and the site before allowing her to play. No violent games.
 
may

i didn't wanna make it that convenient for him. That's why didn't do the bookmark thing. Even set a password so that he can't access the computer without us.
 
May,
my cousin told me that her dd search for barbie doll in youtube..end up all the "adult stuff" come out.
No matter how, i think still need to be supervised.
 
Belinda
ha ha now I think i have to take note. My girl have been searching for all videos in youtube. everyday highschool musical till I xian. If not she will ask aden what he wants to start searching for him
 
mashy
I swear by My Brest Friend. U can even remove the covering to wash.

computer savy
I let my girl play Winnie the Pooh computer games meant for 3-6 years old. She loves those games and don't be surprised when they can complete the game without help. Try the Winnie Pooh Preschool and Piglet's Big Game. Its just nice for their age. A loves them. All u need to do is to guide them the first 1-2 times and after that they can play it better than you.
 
mamapanda

saw that there's 2 types of my brest friend. One is the hard foam type. the other is the inflatable type (which means can bring ard). Is the inflatable type good enough?
 
Mamapanda,
Ya.. J1 got the Winnie Pooh Preschool too.

RE:Website surfing
Ya, she is surfing net within my sight. I will be either be ironing clothes or folding when she surf. So I can talk to her as well.
 
Lil Critters
I usually wait for Amazon to have sale for the particular ones that I want to buy then buy from Amazon. Luckyvitamin don't carry them and Drugstore and anywhere else is quite ex comparatively.
 
Brest Friend
Hmm I never use the inflatable one before so cant comment. If i need to latch outside, I normally cross my legs and use the sling to help support A. Sitting on arm chairs that can give your arm a 90deg support helps alot too. When I'm at home I'd definitely use my feeding pillow as it helps relive back aches.
 
mamapanda
thanks for the information. just now brought my 2 kids to see GP 'cos they are having fever.... again.
the GP told us not to be so worried about the weight gaining. he mentioned that it's normal that kids at 3-4 yo doesn't gain much weight.... meanwhile, i will just gv more iron-rich food for my gal.

re: computer
i am like mamachan, i am trying to delay my gal's exposure to computer as much as possible.
happy.gif
 
krissie
yeah tink i will get either the oral b or tom of maine's which seems quite popular

mummies
here's updates on my kids.

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mummies with 2 kids
sometimes i feel jx very poor things. yesterday evening both kids woke up from their nap ard the same time and both were crying. jx wanted me to carry but jh was fussing. so i let maid carry her but she still cried. jh just fussed and refuse to get up so i went to carry jx. then she stop crying. then when i carry jx into the room, jh refused to let me carry her and i had to pass her to maid and she cried so poor thing. really feel that i always sacrifice her.
 

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