30 Jun 2014 - Javier learn to "loom" too!

Jerlene has gotten everyone at home interested in making rainbow loom.  Javier started working on his own rainbow loom today with some coaching from Jerlene.  Even my helper was trying to do it as requested by Jerlene.

As of now, Jerlene has already mastered at least 4-5 types of different rainbow looms such as single, squared single, fish tail, inverted fishtail etc.  Guess who's her teacher?  It's YOUTUBE!  Haha......

28 Jun 2014 - A visit to Singapore Science Centre

After the session with Javier's teachers, we visited Singapore Science Centre as planned.  We reached there slightly before noon and in time for the Tesla Coil Demonstration.

This is a display of high voltage electricity.  As this demonstration will be generating very loud noise, Javier and Jerlene decided to give it a miss.  Javier especially hate loud noise.  At home whenever we are vacuuming the floor, he will run to a corner to hide.  The next show was the Fire Tornado Demonstration, which was equally loud and warm.  Jerlene decided to watch the display with me while Javier was again hiding far behind.

After the show, we let Jerlene and Javier bring us to they want to go.  They were having so much fun.

At one point, we decided to go outdoor and visited the Ecogarden.

There was a treehouse which we climbed up to have a great view of the entire outdoor area.

As we were back on the ground, we saw a monitor lizard just a short distance away from us.

By then, we were pretty tired and decided to go for a late lunch at McDonalds, which is right at the entrance, next to the dinosaur exhibits.

After lunch, we went back to Science Centre and explore other areas.  First we went to the Marine Alcove where we had a very close look at the eel and puffle fish.

There was a temporary exhibit called the Island Adventurer, featuring Alfred Russel Wallace, a great naturalist who explored Malay Archipelago between 1854-1862.

We continued to explore other exhibits which amazed the kids.

One of them is the floating balls.

We left science centre just minutes before it closed.  I had never expected we could stay at this place for so long.  Actually the number of exhibits had increased from the last time we were here.  This was an enjoyable and educational day out for everyone.

28 Jun 2014 - Javier's progress in 1st half of the year

We met up with Javier's teachers today at the childcare centre.  We discussed about his progress and things that he needs further improvement.  Generally, the teacher was pretty satisfied with Javier's progress.  In fact, she said Javier is slightly more advanced than his classmates.  On the spot, she took out a story book and Javier managed to read through the entire book without us helping.  According to the teacher, sometimes she will even ask Javier to assist her in reading to the class during school lesson.  When we told the teacher that we did not buy any book for Javier to read at home, she was very surprised.  Actually we are equally surprised by Javier's reading skill.  We wondered where did he learn some of those more advanced words in the book.  At one point, the teacher took out a picture of volcano and try to explain its internal.  She tried very hard to describe the hot molten liquid that flows out of the volcano and Javier immediately shouted:"That's LAVA!  I know....".  We were all amazed as we did not expect him to know it.  If I'm not wrong, I only learn about Lava during the geography class in Sec 1.

Other than English, Javier also excel in Mathematics.  At the moment, the teacher only teaches the class up to 99 but Javier already know numbers up to 999.   Finally, the teacher commented that Javier possesses some form of leadership skill.  Whenever he speaks in class, the other students will listen and follow his instructions.  To me, I think he's just being bossy and want to be first in everything that he does.

Academically he is doing well but in terms of artwork, he still has lots of room for improvement.  But compared to 6 months ago, he did a lot better now.  The main issue with Javier is during meal time.  He is very choosy with his food and is always the last to finish.  Not only for the school teachers, I am equally headache whenever it comes to meal time during weekends.  Really need help in this aspect.

When we met up with his Chinese teacher, her comments are pretty similar to the above.

He can do very well in most areas except when it comes to art and craft.

Although he still needs a lot of practice, the teacher can see that he is very interested in art and treats his artwork very seriously.

Here is one of his artwork in class.

22 Jun 2014 - Daddy made fantastic fries

We bought an Air Fryer recently and I have been using it to make french fries and nuggets for the kids.  Jerlene loves the fries and Javier loves the nuggets.  And guess what Jerlene said to me?

"Daddy, maybe you should work in McDonalds.  Your french fries are much better than McDonalds!"

What a compliment!  So should I change job?  :-P

21 Jun 2014 - Rainbow Cheese Bread

Javier was not feeling well these few days and had not been eating.  He had slight phobia of throwing out after taking in food.  Jerlene asked him if he wants bread with cheese and surprisingly he said yes.  So Jerlene started preparing it.  First, she spread a layer of butter on the bread.  Then she carefully place a slice of cheese on it.  Finally it's the rainbow sprinkle on the cheese.

And here is the end product.  Though Javier did not finish it, at least he ate half of it, which is good considering he had not been eating for past 2 days.

Thanks Jerlene!  Let's hope Javier will get well soon.

20 Jun 2014 - The actual Rainbow Loom has arrived!

The actual rainbow looming kit had finally been delivered to our place.  Jerlene had been waiting for weeks and she wasted no time to try out her very first loom.

I was really amazed by her looming skill.  It looks complex to me for sure.

Very nice, Jerlene!  Very nice.......  :-)

14 Jun 2014 - A storm is brewing...

A storm is brewing early in the morning.  Will there going to be flash flood or trees falling somewhere in this little red dot?  Hope not.  :-)

13 Jun 2014 - Selfie with my darling girl

Say cheese................

13 Jun 2014 - My Little Magician

Tonight, I was invited by my little magician, Javier, to his performance.  He spent quite a while setting up his stage.  Once his stage was done, he began "ushering" all his fluffy friends to their seats.  I was extremely honored to take the central seat.  :-)

Javier treated this performance very seriously as he even made a magician cape for himself, with the help of his sister Jerlene.  

So now, let's relax, sit back and enjoy the greatest show on earth, Javier the Adacadabra Magician!!!!

8 Jun 2014 - Looming Craze

I believe most of you are aware of a recent craze called "Rainbow Looming".  If you do not know what it is, click here.  Jerlene learnt about it when she saw one of her friends "looming" in student care.  She found it very interesting and observed closely how her friend did it.  When she reached home that evening, instead of playing with her toys and gadgets, she stayed very quietly in her room.  Then after sometime, she came to me and showed me her hands (see below).

She actually managed to replicate the loom that she saw in the day when her friend did it.  But what amazed me more is that without the proper rainbow loom kit (which are mainly those mini colored rubber bands), she improvised it by using those rubber bands which we use to tie her hair.  That's what I call creative.  It's actually quite nice, isn't it?  :-)

Great job, Jerlene!

4 Jun 2014 - This is what happens when one shops with kids

We decided to walk over to NTUC to buy a loaf of bread for tomorrow's breakfast.  Jerlene and Javier suddenly said they wanted to come along.  And after going one round in the supermarket, instead of simply buying a loaf of bread, we ended up with a basket of..........

1 Jun 2014 - Learning to swim with arm float

Jerlene started using a pair of arm floats and tried to learn swimming in the children pool by herself.  This is after she had learnt that some of her classmates are taking swimming lessons.  I will probably need to get her a swimming coach soon.