Evy & Edda Updates 10/10/2010

My Evy at 6.5.  She lost the baby fat on her face and looks slimmer now.  She is considered tall in her class, I think she inherited her daddy's tall gene.  We didn't skip her to 2nd grade so she is at Grade 1 but goes to enrichment class once a week if applicable.  We also signed her up in a Destination Imagination club where she will participate in activities that will challenge her critical thinking, problem solving and presentation skills.  They will get to compete with other schools in COS.

We enrolled her in a Chinese School here.  Now she goes to the Chinese School Grade 1 level every Sunday for two hours.  In this class, she will learn to recognize Chinese characters, read, write, speak and form sentences.  She would received a page of reading material and homework assignment which she would have to learn before class.  I got to say, she did well in it.  Her Chinese teacher was impressed at the sentences that Evy could form in Mandarin.  I was so pleased and proud to hear that of course.  :-P  We just received two text books and 4 work books from the school and she will be getting a test this coming Sunday.

I made her lunchbox everyday to bring to school.  It's nothing fancy like a bento because I couldn't foresee myself being that hardworking.  Her lunch consisted of brown rice, veggie and chicken/fish (sometimes fried rice or noodle) that we had the night before.  I took out her portion before we started dinner.  The next day, I reheat her rice and pack it in a 12oz. food thermos along with her water bottle and snack.  For me, this is healthier than the cafeteria food that the school served (even though this cafeteria offers healthy food choices).   Her reward for finishing all her lunch (Mon-Fri) is she will get to eat in the cafeteria on the day that I don't have a lunchbox for her (like we went out to eat on Sunday night and thus no lunchbox on Monday).  If it happens that one of those day, she brought back half thermos fulled of food, then her reward is canceled.  So, on that day, I will cook some chicken potstickers (from frozen) or omelet and pack with some brown rice for her.

I loved this picture of them!  Now this picture is my desktop.

There is a thing about them that bugs me.  They always want to fight over the stuff that the other has.  For example, when brushing teeth, Edda took the tooth paste first, and Evy had to grab it from her and used it first, thus Edda was crying because Evy grabbed the tooth paste from her.  Another example, when Evy was playing something, for instance a toy, and Edda had to come and play with the same thing, and thus another conflict disrupted.  There is a constant fighting over them as who got to play first, use first, etc.  So, I told them whoever started this nonsense again, I would have to send her back to Malaysia and live with her grandparents.  LOL!

My Edda just turned 4.  She is just a sweet girl but has a temper of her own.  She is conversing in Mandarin and English now instead of just Mandarin alone.  I think she has to pick it up if she wants to play with kids who couldn't speak in Mandarin.  Her pronunciation still needs improvement but she will get there.  She is a little shy at first but once she warms up, off she goes.  I would say she is a smart girl as well.  But I won't know for sure until she got tested at school when she goes for her kindergarten.  I am looking forward to learn her Adam 50 score when she first enters school.  I want to know how she fairs in class.  Hehe...

She will be enrolled in the Chinese School kindergarten level next year.  A chance for her to be familiar with the classroom setting.  Kindergarten class is shorter with longer recess, I guess they have to do it with smaller kids as their attention span is shorter.  Actually we can enroll her now if we think she can sit still throughout the class, but we think she is still too little and I don't think she can write Chinese characters yet.  I haven't even started to teach her how to write Chinese characters.  As she is learning how to write the numbers and alphabets now.  One thing I really need to teach her is how to read, but how to teach?  I asked her to learn the Phonics via dvd so that she can proceed to learn reading.  But her interest in Phonics is short span.  Evy started reading at 4.5 years (but she is gifted), with Edda I don't see it coming soon.  But I got to admit, I didn't work hard enough on her.  Well, she has two more years before she goes to kindergarten anyway, let see how it goes with my next update.