How's your day, my darling?

"Did you learn anything today?"
"How much did you get for your test today?"

These are the common questions that parents ask their child when they finally have time at night to reunite as a family after a full day work. This very short reunion time during weekday nights seems to make parents feel stressed and need to go straight to the point.

SLOW DOWN, DADDY & MUMMY....

Perhaps it will be better to start conversations by asking the child questions relating to his/her emotions/feelings. This will help the child FEEL the LOVE from Daddy & Mummy.

"How's your day, darling?"
"Are you happy/ sad today?"
"Tell me one thing that made you happy today."
"Tell me one thing that made you sad today."
"Why so? Is it because you didn't do well in your test?"
"Tell me one thing that made you proud of yourself today."

From here, it is likely that your child would pour out all the stories about him/herself, his/her friends, teachers and things that happened. If he/she says he/she felt sad, maybe she wasn't learning well or maybe she was misbehaving and got a sounding from the teachers. In contrary, if she says she is happy, maybe because she learned well at school.

Children will know their parents are concerned about them, not just what they have achieved.

PARENT-CHILD BONDING will be achieved, and beware of turning this into a PARENT-CHILD PRESSURE reunion time.

Onion Planting 2013

Planting onion is so fun. Auntie Chaz Yee bought bags of black soil and contributed all the containers she had collected over the time of eating her favourite soya bean curd and MacDonald sundae ice-cream for the Clover children to plant their onions. Auntie Latifah bought the onion bulbs and the children happily started planting.

 

Do you know saying nice things and singing a song to your plant will help it grow healthily? We used to plant garlic with the children in school many years ago, all the children said nice words and sang twinkle little stars to their garlic, except for a boy, who was shouting at his garlic. In the end, only his garlic didn't grow.

 

When we told our little clover kids about this "history", all of them listened attentively. We could see them singing and speaking softly to their plants, and took care of their little onion by watering it everyday for a week at school. Most of the onions started sprouting after a day or two, good signs!

Auntie Soraya explained to the children how to plant an onion and what they could do to take care of the plant.

This is the day when the children needed to bring home their little "baby". Auntie Margaret was giving them a briefing, telling them to take good care of their little onions at home during the school holiday.

To see more photos, please CLICK HERE.

Selamat Hari Raya 2013!

Auntie Latifah did a talk-about of the costumes and items used and activities carried out during the Hari Raya festival.
 

Two children were selected to wear the costumes. Teachers also taught them how to greet Salam.

Another two children were selected...so cute!

 

Once a year we celebrate this festival, and we always look forward to it as we get to taste Auntie Latifah's superb cooking of a special Malay dish during the food-tasting day. This year, Auntie Latifah cooked soto. The clover children enjoyed this dish during the snack time. It was so delicious that all the Teachers vonluteered to take home the left-overs :) .

The children were also introduced to bahulu, biskut kacang, kuih tat, etc. So yummy!

 

The raya food for food-tasting.

Children would sit on the line and hear the Teacher explained when each type of food was eaten. Auntie Latifah explained in some Muslim families, soto is the breakfast on the first day of raya.

 

The children enjoyed the raya tarts and cookies.



The children enjoyed soto during snack time.

It's craft time!

 

The nursery children made a moon and a star to symbolize the festival.

 

 

The kindergarten children made pelita this year. All the nursery and kindergarten children produced very impressive work. The nursery children could paste very well, and the kindergarten children could cut with scissors very well. All the practical life skills of cutting and pasting helped in the eye-hand coordination. The making of craft also develop an aesthetic sense in the children.  

 

The kindergarten group of children making the pelita.

Ta-da!

 

 

To see more photos, please CLICK HERE!