Washable Colouring Book

We bought for Hui and Xuan a washable colouring book set each when we were at Jusco shopping last Saturday. Each set come with a 4 pages colouring book and 3 bath crayons. They have been enjoying colouring the 4 cute girls since then. Then, they will bring to the bath room to wash away the colours during bathing time. After that, they can start to colour the cute girls again. One minus point, the shop don't seem to sell additional colours bath crayons. Thus, the girls can only colour the pictures with pink, purple and yellow which seems a bit dull after sometime.

Chinese Enrichment Class

Hui and Xuan is now attending their Chinese Enrichment class at one of the teaching centre. Basically, this class will teach them to recognise Chinese characters so as to help in their Chinese reading capabilities. Every lesson, they will be taught to read 32 cards, which translates to 32 x 2 = 64 Chinese characters. The first step is to know the Chinese phrase with the help of the pictures. After many repetitions, they will slowly get to recognise the characters. The next step is to get them to say the phrase by only looking at the back of the cards (only words and no picture).

These lessons are conducted evey week. After every lesson, the student is supposed to read the cards at home daily (for 7 days before the next lesson with another 32 new cards). The first few days are mainly to concentrate on reading with the help of the picture and the last few days on reading with just the words. Surprisingly, Hui and Xuan really managed to read the words (without picture) after about 4-5 days of home reading.

Today is their last lesson for the beginner class (total of 16 lessons, every 3 new lessons will be followed by a revision lesson). They love to attend the class initially because the class size is small (only 5 for their class) and is like playing sessions for them. There was once Hui was not feeling well. She still wanted to attend the class. She asked me to prepare a plastic bag for her. She said she will come to me if she felt like vomiting. See how she likes the class! 8-) But after so many lessons, their interests seem to die down. During the last few lessons, they will always ask me if the lessons were going to end. Luckily, they are still willing to attend the lessons and still enjoy them. The teacher has spoken to me before to sign them up for the next 16 lessons of advanced class in September. I am still considering because my main objective is only to give them a kick start in reading Chinese but so much in depth. I don't intend to give them so much pressure because they will gradually learn to read more as time goes. ok .. bye for now.... I need to go and pick them now because their lessons are ending in 10 mins time. By the way, we are flying back to Singapore tonight by Tigerairways and will reach Singapore tomorrow midnight at 3 plus.

福娃Fuwa

Hui and Xuan like the Fuwa "Beibei" and "Nini" respectively. Ever since we bought for them the T-shirts printed with Fuwa from the Guangzhou trip, they always want to wear them when they have the chance. They will ask me every morning if they can wear the Fuwa T-shirt if they find them in their clothes cabinet. They have also collected many Fuwa related items like key chains, post cards and dolls. Their father helped to buy these items for them when he went on business trips. He is also a collector of these Olympic related items. Recently, he also bought collectable stamps which cost him 300 plus yuan.

Extracted the following from the post cards :

Fuwa are the official mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. They are the personifications of five little children named "Beibei", "Jingjing", "Huanhuan","Yingying" and "Nini". Their names together are a phonogram for "Beijing Huanying Ni", which means "Beijing Welcomes You". Their images embody the natural characteristics of the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow and the Olympic Flame. Their colours represent those of the Five Olympic Rings. They resonate the emblem and motto of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Passion, Happiness, Health, Wisdom, Luck and Prosperity will be spread by Fuwa to every part of the globe. Fuwa convey the theme of the Beijing Olympic Games-Peace, Friendship, Progress and Harmony-as well as the Olympic Spirit of Faster, Higher and Stronger to people all over the world. Fuwa cordially invite people of every country to get together in Beijing to take part in a great celebration of humanity.

You can read about details of these Fuwa from the following site.
http://en.beijing2008.cn/spirit/beijing2008/graphic/n214068254.shtml

Guangzhou Trip

My mother-in-law and cousin-in-law came to visit us on the 18th July. We went to Guangzhou together from 19th to 22nd. It was a tiring and enjoyable trip. Everyday was like shopping, shopping and shopping. We would leave the hotel room at about 10 am and only be back at 9 pm. The girls were so tired of walking that they kept asking when can we go back to the hotel room and rest. In order to make them happy, we would take small break there and then and give them small treats like KFC or Mac ice-cream cones.

Picture taken at the Shenzhen train station

See the crocodile meat sold at the wet market

This was the type of boat we took during the 珠江cruise. We had dinner at the boat too.

Ice-cream treat for the girls
Xuan eating the BBQ lamb

Kindergarten 20th Anniversary Concert

After so many rounds of practising and rehersals, Hui and Xuan got to perform on stage at yesterday's concert. Finally, they can take a break now and no more daily practising sessions in school!

They are now counting down to their summer holidays starting this Wednesday. Just 2 more days to go!

Shoes

This Sunday, July 13th is my girls' kindergarten 20th anniversary. The school will be holding a concert at a nearby theatre. Hui will perform in 2 dances and Xuan will peform in 1 dance. They are both so excited that they kept counting down the no. of days to this event. In addition, Hui will need to perform in a group recitation for the graduation class. The teacher-in-charge wants all the graduation students to wear school uniform and black leather shoes. Oops... Hui does not have such shoes. 8-( Why is there a need to impose such "shoes" rules? It is really a waste if the children never get to wear the shoes after that!

Anyway, I went out this morning to shop for Hui's black shoes. I managed to get the following pair at RMB$35 after much bargaining. The owner said "no exchange" rule because he only earned very very little from me.

While shopping, I also got to buy the following pair for myself at RMB$25 (S$5). Quite cheap, right? Is there any place back home that you can buy a pair for less than S$10.

The things in Shenzhen are also getting pricer now. Necessities like rice, meat, vege, toilet paper etc etc are more expensive as compared to 6 months ago. Now, inflation is everywhere.. Singapore, China and every parts of the world. But things like shoes, clothes, bags etc can still get at a cheaper price than back home if you go to the right place.

礼貇小天使

今天慧被选上当礼貇小天使,所以我们一早(7:30)就到了幼儿园.礼貇小天使的任务就是向每位来园的老师,家长和小朋友问好... XX早上好... XX妈妈早上好... XX爸爸早上好... 慧今天真是有礼貇.

慧每次在外面或上学的途中遇到朋友,家长,老师或认识的人,她总会很主动的向他们打声招呼.这点我非常佩服她! 我就没有她那么大方. 有时遇到久时不见的朋友,我会犹豫不决要不要打声招呼,惟恐他已忘了会让我觉得不好意思.

Swimming

We went to the indoor swimming pool at the Ming Hua International Convention Centre last Saturday. The girls always look forward to such Saturday swimming sessions.

Stickers System

We also have the stickers system in our house. Whenever the girls has achievements like play a new song on the electrone, keep their toys after playing, learn skating, have the courage to jump into the water during swimming, take the initiative to do their homework, show improvements in their learning etc etc... they will also be awarded with stickers. They will bargain with their father on how many stickers they should get at the end of each day. See their score card ! The left side belongs to Hui and the right side belongs to Xuan.

We bought many types of stickers for them to choose. They like the hand type 很棒, smiling apple and the trophy.

Some updates, this was Hui's stickers page for her phonics class as at 4th July.

Visit to Shenzhen Window of the Park in Dec 2005

Some photos taken at the Shenzhen Windows of the Park when my sister's family visited us in Dec 2005.

Stickers

Hui has her phonics lesson this morning from 10am to 12pm. She was simply overjoyed when she got 27 points during the class. She kept announcing her points to her teacher when her points climb from 23, 24, 25 .... to 27. She was awarded with 5 stickers at the end of the class. She has 16 stickers now.

Xuan was so envious when Hui has exchanged for an eraser pen for 25 stickers 2 weeks ago. We encourage her to work harder to get more stickers during class so that she can exchange a stationery gift for Xuan too.

Hui 加油... you just need another 9 more. Keep it up with today's good work.