30 Nov 2017 - This time confirmed is drug allergy

About two weeks ago, Javier had a suspected case of drug allergy.  Today, I was very sure that it was indeed drug allergy as both Javier's legs had developed rashes.  Once again, I am going to stop all the "suspicious" medicine and hopefully the rashes will subside soon.  Sigh.....seems like Javier is allergic to quite a number of drugs, just like his daddy and mommy....  :-(

27 Nov 2017 - Certificate of Academic Achievement

There was an envelope addressed to Javier in our letter box today.  It was a Certificate of Academic Achievement for his good performance in school, both academically and conduct.  Well done, Javier!  Keep up the good work.

26 Nov 2017 - Christmas round the corner

Javier invited his ex-neighbour friend to our place for the afternoon.  As Christmas is just one month away, I took out our Xmas Tree for them to decorate.  They enjoyed hanging ornament on the tree and in half an hour's time, they were done with the decoration.  I finished it with a little bit of touch up and put up the lighting.

After that, they continued with their playtime till dinner.

25 Nov 2017 - Change of Student Care next year

The student care at Rosyth School has been operated by Knowledge Park Educare in the past 2 years.  Starting next year, the operation will be taken over by Kidz Treehouse.  This morning, there was a briefing session by the new operator followed by the registration. 

The existing students at the centre was very sad with the change as they are very comfortable with the teachers who were with them for the past 2 years.  Let's hope it is a change for the better.

21 Nov 2017 - mBot, a programmable robot!

In order to make Scratch programming more fun and interesting, we bought a robot called mBot for Javier which he can use Scratch programming to control it.

As the assembly of the robot was not so straight forward for an eight years old kid, I helped Javier with the task.

The robot set came with several sensors which can be programmed easily using a similar interface which Javier is familiar with.

After mBot was assembled, I demonstrated to them the two default modes, a line-following mode and an obstacle avoidance mode.  The demonstration had created excitement to both Jerlene and Javier.  Once Javier took over mBot, within several minutes, he completed coding his first program.  I can't wait to see what he will program for mBot moving forward.  :-)

18 Nov 2017 - Was it drug allergy?

Javier has been coughing on and off for almost a month.  This morning, he developed high fever so I quickly brought him to the clinic.  After understanding his condition, the doctor prescribed a stronger fever medicine and a course of anti-biotic.  I fed him the medicine once we reached home.  After about an hour, we observed the area around his lips was "darkened" and slightly swollen.  I immediately suspected it could be due to drug allergy.  By the time, the clinic that we went earlier had closed.  I then brought him to another nearby clinic for consultation.

When the doctor saw Javier, he did not think it's drug allergy.  He was pretty sure that it was a bruise caused by sucking of water bottle.  The reason was because there was a clear round marking around Javier's lips.  When asked, Javier insisted that he did not suck on any bottle.  As such, it's not conclusive whether it's a case of drug allergy.  To play safe, I decided to stop all the medicine that was prescribed this morning and see if the swell will subside.  Fortunately his fever has also gone down after the strong fever medicine.  Hope that he can get well soon!

17 Nov 2017 - Javier's P2 results

Today is the last day of school and Javier got back his report book.  In general, he did pretty well with all subjects in band 1.  Once again, the subject which he needs to put in more effort is Mother Tongue (Chinese).

He also received a certificate of appreciation for being a Group Leader.

15 Nov 2017 - New workstation bought during "Bachelor Day" (光棍节) Sale

Since Javier is now into Scratch programming, we bought a new PC desktop for him during the "Bachelor Day" Sale.  The PC was delivered this afternoon.  Now he can program comfortably in his own room without having to borrow my machine.

 It's an Acer All-In-One desktop with a 24" screen.

So far, Javier has published six projects to the community which you can try them out.  There are now two players games as well as a game with story mode.  :-)

11 Nov 2017 - Javier got his Red Belt!

Javier passed his Taekwando grading exam that took place 3 weeks ago.  He received his Red Belt from his coach today.  Time really flies and it has been two years since he started Taekwando.  He is now one step closer to his personal target of junior black belt.  Keep it up, Javier!

7 Nov 2017 - Jerlene did OK

Jerlene got back her report book today.  Overall I think she did not do too badly.  As expected, she needs to work harder for her English and Chinese.  Considering she had no tuition so far, I am pretty satisfied with her results.

4 Nov 2017 - What kind of insect is that? Mealybugs?

While doing our usual weekend gardening, we discovered one of our Cherry Tomato pots was infested by many little white bugs.

They're quite hairy and crawled all over the pots, soil and on the plants.

I did a search on google and these little white creatures seem to be called Mealybugs. Mealybugs are insects in the family Pseudococcidae, unarmored scale insects found in moist, warm climates. They are considered pests as they feed on plant juices of greenhouse plants, house plants and subtropical trees and also act as a vector for several plant diseases.  We tried dropping Eucalyptus oil on them and seems effective.

Fortunately, my Jasmine plant was not infested and it was blooming with nice little white flowers, which smells good when we get close to them.

3 Nov 2017 - Javier's first Scratch Programming Project

Javier had been playing a game called Scratch Junior in his tablet for quite a while. Recently we introduced him to a Scratch programming website developed by MIT. Since then, he became very interested in creating his own games. He learnt the coding himself mainly by going through the tutorials and looking at how other people code. I am really surprised at how fast he picks up the skills.  There are currently many private schools conducting such classes or programming boot camp for kids but they are generally quite expensive.  Since his daddy and mommy were once programmers *grin*, I believe he can do equally well at home with our supervision.  :-)

Javier published his first ever Scratch project this afternoon.  Click here to play!  Btw, his nickname is JJJwong.

He even wrote instructions for his game and a bit of credit notes.  Please give him your support!  ;-)

If you are interested, below are some of the coding that he had done for the game.  He now understands the use of IF-THEN-ELSE statement, FOREVER LOOP, CONDITIONS, OPERATORS and many more.  Programming is one thing, I am more impressed with his creativity in designing his game.

He currently has 7 unshared projects in the pipeline. There is even one that is meant for two players.  So stay tuned.

I am his beta tester and had a first try at his Pong Game.  I did not manage to beat the game.  Try to see if you can.  :-)