will be attending the Asian Festival of Children’s Content 2011 over the next four days, including a Masterclass on Picture Books – i don’t know what to expect, really, but oh, how excited i was when i learnt about this event.
because i LOVE children’s books. a LOT.
i thought i’d start blogging about my own kids’ collection of books for a start, the ones they enjoy asking demanding me to read over and over again, the ones that strike a chord with them.
i’ll start with one of the very first books we got as a gift – eric carle’s classic ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’.
there is SO MUCH that you can learn/teach in one eric carle book.
you may remember auni’s reading of Baby Bear, Baby Bear back when she was two. the use of rhythmic phrases and repetition of words, along with the rich, colourful illustrations, make it easy for the young reader to read along with it. i probably should have introduced ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear’ to her first, which has more familiar animals and simple use of colours as adjectives. ‘Baby Bear’ has more ‘exotic’ animals (eg. flying squirrel, prairie dog, mule deer) in various actions (eg. slipping, gliding, strutting) – but hey, they sure added to her vocabulary…
so back to the Hungry Caterpillar.
the caterpillar is cute, curious, and insatiable – just like a kid. he has immature impulses to do whatever he wants (ie. eat) – just like a kid. the repetitive phrases (eg. “But he was still hungry.”) are used to help in memory retention.. and because kids just love repeating things, don’t they?!
among the few things a young reader can glean from this book:
1. the life cycle of a butterfly – from egg to caterpillar to butterfly. (well, surely this is the most obvious/important point of the book!)
2. the days of the week – the story spans from one Sunday when the caterpillar pops out of his egg, to the following Sunday when he turns into a butterfly. and in between, the days of the week are introduced progressively; on Monday, on Tuesday, etc.
3. counting – the caterpillar eats one item the first day, two items the next day, three on the following day, four, then five, before he pigs out on Saturday. i’m not a math-oriented person, but i suppose i should use this as an opportunity to teach addition as well.
4. the names of fruits – an apple, pears, plums, strawberries and oranges; they are healthy and yummy.
5. the names of other foods – they pick up words like ‘pickle’, ‘salami’, ‘Swiss cheese’, which they may not otherwise find in their daily diet. it’s also useful to be able to highlight the difference between ‘a slice of’ and ‘a piece of’.
6. the consequence of overeating – you get a major tummyache, as seen from the suffering in the caterpillar’s eyes as he doubles over from his greedy binge.
7. green is good – he repented, ate through a leaf (you could say it’s a kind of vegetable) and felt much better.
8. living things need food to grow.
did i miss out anything??
with that, i’ll end off with auni’s own reading of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’…
bought this from a Borders sale for five dollars some time back for the kids. it’s called ‘Stretch’, but they associate it with ‘yoga’ coz mommy does some of the strange stuff on the pink mat too….
owls often symbolise intelligence, wisdom, knowledge – plus, they’re REALLY cute. (and ok yeah, there’s a literary reference too: Owl Babies is one of my favourite children’s books, makes me teary every time, sniff.)
pink (her favourite) and black (my favourite) hoot loot. well, i had to compromise.
treated the kids to a stay at royal plaza on scotts over the weekend, and had close family members over for high tea at carousel.
just a commoner… ;p
cake compliment of Carousel.
the brother who still refers to his sister as “my baby”.
the coincidentally colour-coordinated grandparents, heh.
many eligible princes.
the maids-in-waiting.
yes, even he likes to squeeeeeze her. a lot.
the royal plaza people were so kind as to help set up some chairs and a table at the pool side for a small party in the evening.
night owls.
sleeping beauty was forced to wake up from her slumber power nap to blow out the candles…
and pose for insufferably many pictures.
the mommies.
the children.
kate middleton she may not be, but marry a prince… who knows?? :D
happy turning terrible terrific three, my owl baby.
the girl seems to have a knack for recognising letters. she’s picked up a few by associating them with the way the letters look… e.g. ‘A’ looks like a mountain; ‘B’ looks “boncit” (big-bellied); ‘C’ looks like a moon; ‘E’ looks like a comb; ‘S’ looks like a snake, etc.
well, whatever works for you, honey…
spelling out ‘OLIVIA’, our current favourite read. they love the fact that Olivia and her mother negotiate for bedtime storybooks the same way we do. :D
her third lesson, all suited up. parents get to sit in for a bit.
at some point, they play these ‘contemporary’ songs for the kids to let loose and move their limbs while still listening to rhythm and instructions. you can tell from the shaky parts that i was trying very hard (and failing) to stifle my giggles… :p
“selamat hari raya… kain tu betulkan sikit, makcik….” (though she will flatly deny the label ‘makcik’ and correct you with an “i am princess!!” whatevuhhhhh.)
two and a half years, and we have her insisting she doesn’t need a pull-up for bedtime (but not before asking to pee at least three times before going to sleep!). she’s been going without in the day for three months now, but we put her to bed in them just in case, and they’ve been dry in the morning for the past few weeks, and i probably should’ve just let her go without it earlier coz it’s irresponsible to the environment and all, i mean, what DO you do with dry-but-used overnight pull-ups anyway, right?! you don’t, say… recycle a dry-but-used sanitary pad, after all. O_o
so i figure, my slight reluctance to let go of her pull-ups was for a solely sentimental reason – it’s most likely the last diapered baby bum we’d ever have. you know, all puffy and cushiony and, like j.lo’s best assets, looks SO good in tights and pants.
now, let’s hope she proves herself right in the morning…
i guess i spoke too soon – “inspired” by discussions on the merits of the Peter & Jane series, i managed to persuade aniq to try it out one evening, by insisting that it’s “VERY EASY”.
it took a week of frustrations (on both sides) as we plodded through book 1a before he surprisingly picked up speed and went on to 1b.
i think one of the challenges i faced teaching the kid (other than the typically boyish playfulness and impatience) was having a younger sibling interrupt us ever so often – e.g. she’d demand for HER book to be read, or ask for a drink, or chatter on and on, or be plain mischievous and cheeky, as evident in the video below:
in any case, i have to say i feel a liiiitle bit relieved at having made actual progress in our “thorny but exciting” road to literacy.
every day i pose the same question to the both of them: “what did you do in school today?” and so far, the girl has been more forthcoming with her replies, varying them each day, sometimes answering “play toys”, or “i sing”, or “i draw”, or “i eat”, or “my friend cry” (nothing to do with what she did but a reply it is).
one of the things she readily picks up is the singing part. there’s this one particular song they sing in centres before every meal, a merry little ditty that mixes english and chinese and which i have NO IDEA half of what it means, other than that it asks all their teachers and friends to join them in the meal and to enjoy the food together… or something. obviously her so-called chinese is all rubbish, and i should probably rectify this with a proper ‘doa sebelum makan’, but… oh well.
i’d video-ed her for fun and simply suggested she say “thank you” at the end of each song, and out of the blue, she amended it herself with a “thank you everyone” (!) AND a bow, so that just… tickled me.
wanted to write down something brief about their sibling relationship.
i’d sometimes get angry at the little one for not putting away her things (toys/pencils/books) and would threaten her with The Naughty Corner, with the usual ‘countdown’ – “i’m going to count to ten… ONE! TWO!…” – ok, that’s more of a ‘count UP’, isn’t it? – at which the big brother will invariably, for some unknown reason, jump in to rescue his sister – “never mind! waitt… i help auni!” – and proceed to put away her things for her.
i’m not sure WHY he does it, when he himself gets into hot soup for forgetting to put away HIS things and i’d threaten him The Naughty Corner + ‘count UP’, with plenty of protests and resistance from him.
(disclaimer about The Naughty Corner: it is not some dark, dingy dungeon or anything that i banish them to, really. it’s just a corner at the balcony where the Punishee is sent to remain and reflect – in loud teary wails – till he/she decides to rectify themselves.)
however heartening it is to witness his sense of empathy for his sister, i’m wondering if it’s a good idea to let him clear up after her every time, because the other day she nonchalantly responded to my nagging at her mess, “wait abang help me keep.”
!!
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there were other caught instances of sibling affection:
- i’d scolded the little one for something (again!) and she went all drama and wailed to high heavens, and the brother, who was watching tv, called out to her – “come, come,” and she trundled over, where he hugged her… (while still watching the tv ha ha.)
- i’d be distracted with something and the little one would want to pee, so off to the toilet her brother would go with her, instruct her out of her pants and pullups, hoist her up her stool and training seat on the toilet bowl. (at this point i’d come in chuckling.)
- little one was napping on the sofa the other evening and he sniffed her face and smooched her.
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