A few days after we returned from vacation and Iyah got back to school I found out that they will have their racial harmony day at school. Have I known about this while we were in Manila I would have gotten her a fancy filipino traditional costume. Instead a friend from school gave us her daughter’s chinese dress for Iyah to wear. She looks adorable of course but I would have loved for her to wear a kimona and saya next time. I would be more prepared next year I promise

Technorati Tags: Preschool Diaries, Racial Harmony Day 2010

I’m loving school vacation, the little girl and I get to do fun things and go places on a weekday which is great. We don’t have big plans this month but we’re definitely enjoying ourselves. It would have been nice if we had Branson tickets but nevertheless just relaxing at home and going out every few days suits us just fine. I like having no plans and the little girl does too, she knows it’s her school vacation but we do a lot of learning activities at home and I don’t think she minds at all.

Technorati Tags: Writing

I had my first parent teacher conference today and I’m so glad it went well. It’s the end of the first semester and parents were given a schedule to meet with their form teacher to discuss the progress of their child. We were also given their porfolio to look at and return the next day. It’s so nice to see pictures of Iyah doing all sorts of activities at school. I’ve seen her observation checklist and her progress is great. The teacher informed me that Iyah doesn’t like to get her hands dirty (like touching glue and paint with her bare hands). I’m going to pick up art supplies for us to use during the school vacation, gotta let her get use to the using her hands for art projects. I’m happy that we did well this first semester, phew half of the school year gone.

Technorati Tags: 1st Semester, Parent Teacher Conference

Since my little girl started school this year I’m using the printer and scanner more often because she brings home her workbook every Friday. It’s no biggie because it’s easy to find images online to use for her homework but I do need to find a good scanning software for projects that requires a little more than just printing, cutting and pasting. I assume that on her second semester at school there will be more projects to do so it will come in handy for sure. I know this is just the beginning of homeworks and projects for us but I want to be prepared.

Technorati Tags: Writing

Our afternoon agenda: practice writing letters, play with playdoh, read a book or two, play some more and then nap time.

We practice writing letters at home, usually I make her practice the letters they would be tackling next at school. She’s doing great, I don’t put too much pressure on her and I really try to make learning fun for her especially at home. She still needs to practice more on how to hold the pencil properly but she’s great in tracing letters. It’s not 100% perfect all the time but at three I’m pleased at her progress.

Today marks Iyah’s 2nd term at nursery school. These are some of the things she brought home from school. I have all her projects and school work from the first term all piled up but I haven’t had the chance to take pictures yet. So this term I will try to take pictures of her projects each week so I won’t fall behind.

She’s doing well at school, she’s keeping up with the school work and she has lots of friends. I’m not expecting much from nursery school really but I can see that she’s learning so I’m quite happy. More than anything I want her to be able to socialize with kids her own age but it’s great that I get good feedbacks from her teacher. Looking forward to another term of learning and lots of fun for the little girl.

Technorati Tags: Preschool Diaries

Iyah’s one week school vacation started yesterday and today we went swimming with her friends from school together with their mommies (who are now friends of mine too). The little girl was so excited to play with her friends and of course she loved to swim so you can bet my little girl was ecstatic. This was the first outing that hubby wasn’t with us so I had to do everything myself. This explains the lack of pictures, I was so busy making sure Iyah is safe at the pool so I didn’t use the camera much.

I brought a manual pump for Iyah’s float and it was a big hit with the kids, they took turns using it. We stayed at the kiddie pool so the kids can freely play on their own, within our reach of course. Iyah lost her balance once and swallowed some pool water but she was fine, she didn’t even cry nor stopped playing.

When we got home I was so tired and my whole body was aching. I realized today how hard it is when it’s just me, makes me appreciate the husband even more. I was so sore I went to bed early and stayed there eventhough I wasn’t sleeping.

All in all it was a fun outing for the kids (and mommies too). We’ll definitely do this again on the next school vacation.

Technorati Tags: School Vacation, Swimming

So Iyah had her first Chinese New Year celebration at school. After a few minutes of crying (more on that later) I left her with the rest of the nursery class to celebrate. I’m quite excited because this was her first class activity at school and almost everyone came in their ethnic costumes. This was Iyah’s Qi Pao dress that I’ve been talking about, it was a little too long for her but size 3 was a bit tight around the neck and armholes so I got the next size. Anyway she still look adorable in it. After the celebration all us moms decided to have their pictures taken at the playground (it’s good that they love to take pictures too) and we had some cute photos of the kids. I even had a photo of her and her teacher. All in all it was a nice day, I’m looking forward to the long holiday!

One of the things that I really want to avoid is being late for the little girl’s class, I make sure we arrive ten minutes before her class and I arrived ten minutes before her class is dismissed as well. I know she’ll be scared when she doesn’t see me waiting for her by the door, and I don’t want that to happen. So far we’ve been doing so well, I love that her class is in the afternoon because we take our time to prepare in the morning. I hope I can say the same for the other things on my to do list, I’ve been meaning to get term life insurance quotes from a friend since last week and I haven’t talked to her yet. I have to do something about this, it’s already Friday and I can’t slack off anymore.

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I meet different types of people at the little girl’s school when I pick her up after class, there’s the mommies like me, the helpers and the grandparents. It’s not uncommon here for grandparents to look after their grandchildren and I see that a lot at the school, there’s even one grandpa who stands at the far side of the block and light up his cigar as he waits for his granddaughter to be released from class. I’m one of those who tinkers with their phone while waiting and there’s others who chitchat with one another. I haven’t made friends with any of the parents yet except for the usual smile and nod, maybe because I always have earphones stuck in my ears and I’m tinkering my phone (lol).

Technorati Tags: Writing