Our sunday

Today we went to Eastin Hotel to attend one of seminar organized by one of the branded milk Co. This is the first time we attended this kind of function. Since the event started at 2.30pm so it means that Ethan cannot take his nap time but we asked him to take a short nap like about one hour but he didn't. Both parents fell asleep while accompanying him. He was the alarm clock for us as he woke us up saying that it was 2 o'clock.

We arrived at the Hotel at about 2.15pm and we took the escalator to Level 3. A lot of parents had already arrived and we registered ourselves. The staff gave us a piece of form to fill up in order to get the goodies bag from the milk co. We went to the children corner to let Ethan have some fun. We had been offered by the staff to take care of our kid when we go for the presentation in the other room. At first Ethan refused to let go so we just informed the staff and we would think about it before letting them know. We let Ethan colored the "Doraemon" and asked whether he wants to stay here with the other kids or not. Yes was the answer then daddy went to register him. When the presentation started we informed Ethan that we will go to the other room and we will pick him up at 4.30pm. He said bye bye to us.

Half way through the presentation, daddy went to take a look at Ethan whether he was ok or not. Daddy found him eating the muffin and playing with the toys. The staff walk towards daddy and asked daddy whether is this kid his son. Yes and the staff informed daddy that Ethan was a very independent boy. He even asked the staff to bring him to the toilet. Daddy saw that most of the kids were accompanied by their parents or grandparents. Seems like we are the one who left Ethan alone in the children corner. After the talk, we went to pick Ethan up and he was happily playing in the room. We had some refreshment before we left the hotel.

Ethan slept early at night.....

Eye problem

Recently we had noticed that Ethan is having an eye problem. He will consistently blink his both eyes. Seems like that was something inside the eye. Last time he had this problem too but only for a while but this round he has persisted the situation for few days already. We planned to bring him to the eye specialist to inspect his eye.

We hoped that after the inspection he could recover from this.

Some art work

It has been quite some time that we did not do the art work together. Seems mother start to discipline Ethan on his nap time so that he got spare time to do extra stuffs.

Today we started with the cut, paste and draw. This time mother had to sit beside him to look at him cutting or else the whole color paper will transform into small pieces of rubbish. He likes to cut the paper into small pieces. After he finished cutting, he has to paste them on the paper. Mother asked him to draw anything on the paper.

Paste the house

He drew the door and window on the house. Mother asked why is it so many windows in the house. His response was that the house got lot of levels so it would need a lot of windows. He even said one house is Ethan's and the big house is mama's house.

Concentrated on the drawing

He even drew the tree, sun, cloud and birds in the picture. The last thing to do, paste on the wall.

Mother wanted him to practice his drawing skill and not only writing the number on the paper as recently mother noticed him has some interest in learning to draw with the help of the book. Maybe is time to consider whether to enroll him to the art class or not....

His drawing

For us this was a surprise as this is Ethan's first drawing that mother had noticed. It was part of his school homework. We never think that he can draw. We were please that the school had taught them how to draw.

Need a discplince

Mother wants to discipline Ethan on his day to day routine. Basically the two main concerns are his homework and the nap time.

Homework:-
Mother wants to set a timetable on his homework like he only has 15 min to finish his homework on one subject. We need to train him or else when he enters the primary school that time where got ample time for him to finish all his homework with his current attitude.

Nap time:-
Last time he takes his nap starting from 1 o clock but recently after his homework and reading session, we actually delayed it to 2 o clock. He can take his nap time until 6 something in the evening. Well, cannot persist with this situation anymore because after he wakes up late from his nap time, he actually only can sleep around 12 at night which causes him not really can wake up early next morning. Mother wants to set the nap time from 2 to 4 then in next year he only entitle one hour nap time. We need to gradually adjust it because we were afraid he will attend the afternoon class when he is in primary one.

After adjusting this two main issues then he got spare time to play. Let's hope the plan can work. Mother will start from today.

Washed the plates

We did not expect him to help us to wash all the plates in the sink. At first he self fed himself with the multi-vitamin then he wanted to wash the spoon. But he was not tall enough, so he moved the chair to the sink and he started to wash the spoon. Then he continued to wash all the plates and stuffs in the sink. We were pleased with his action even though we have expected that we might have to rewash again all the plates.

Homework issue again

Few weeks ago he was still fine with his homework but recently the situation changed. He was very slow and day dream when doing his homework. Just a simple few words he can take ages to finish it.

Today he needs to write the Chinese character, he informed mother that he wanted to take a nap first. Ok the deal was on and before he slept he requested mother to read the story book to him. When mother finished reading the book he bargained for more. He seemed like doesn't want to take the nap. Instead wanting mother to continue reading and reading. Mother rejected him knowing that without nap time it would even be more difficult for him to finish his homework. He wailed a bit then he fell asleep.

When he woke up he still refused and made funny action doing his homework. At last mother gave up and said to wait after the dinner and daddy comes back to guide him. After everything was settled, mother quickly bathed him and brought him to the room and asked him to finish what he promised then mother went to take a bath. After the bath, mother went into the room and found out actually not any progress on the homework. He was doing other things instead. Mother was angry with his attitude and said she will not take care and ask him to do the homework anymore. Is his choice not to do that then he needs to take the consequence of it. He was afraid and tried but he seemed like having no concentration at all of doing that. He waited until his daddy walked into the room. He constantly asked daddy to sit beside him to accompany him but he was doing funny action again.

Daddy was out of patient after asking him so many times to write the word and walked away. He was like the boy who cried wolf asking his daddy if he sits beside him then he will write it. After few attempts daddy felt like being cheated then daddy was really mad at him. So the next action was to beat him. He cried non stop and mother also cannot stand his attitude so we collected the homework and banned him from doing his homework. We told him that we will let him not able to hand over the homework to the teacher next morning. He wailed even louder and begged for the homework then we rejected his request. We told him that we gave him so many chances but he did not appreciate it so he has to bear his choice.

He even refused to sleep and walked around the room. Mother erased all his Chinese characters that he wrote because his words were like scribble on the book. Mother gave him the last chance after he said sorry and that time was already 11 something. Mother did her own stuff , Ethan was doing his homework. Half way through mother cannot stand anymore so he needs to complete his homework without anybody accompanying him. Seemed like he had learned his lesson so he wrote it nicely and completed it but that time was already 12 in the midnight....

Now we need to see whether he learned the lesson or not. The result only can be shown in Thursday as normally Wednesday he will not have any homework because every Wednesday is his school fun and sport day.

Shopping center.....

This is first time mother and Ethan went to "Time Square" in Penang. We had our lunch at "Swensen" after visiting the hospital. Sometimes mother just felt like we are actually out of date. Normally when new mall opens in Penang , we will not pay a visit after the opening ceremony. Like Gurney Plaza, mother's first time visit there was because of company team building and the first visit was after the plaza had been opened for more than one year. Even QBM nearby the place we stayed but we only pay a visit to the mall after the mall had been opened for more than half year....

Not yet

Sometimes daddy will on and off bribe Ethan with the electronic gadget if he gets good result. Mother always protest about it. Daddy said want to have a electronic dictionary for Ethan but mother does not agree with it. Mother wants him to start with the traditional way, find the unknown word in dictionary book. You can say that mother is out of date but she just wanted Ethan to learn from the basic first.

So far mother also did not feel Ethan needs an electronic dictionary because he is too young and mother still can teach him the words. Will plan to teach him to search the dictionary when the time is right. Mother thinks that the electronic dictionary will be the last source if Ethan really cannot handle the situation.

New game

Actually mother did not invent this game. This game has been printed in one of his Chinese nursery rhythm book. The book contains some activities beside teaching the young kid to read the simple Chinese nursery rhythm. He likes the game very much and he told his mother that he knows how to read the word hanging on the apple tree. At first he still cannot read all the 8 words but he took the initiative to ask mother to teach him the words. Surprisingly he memorized them very fast and now he knows all the words. He told mother he wants to play the game so mother enlarged the apple tree by drawing on one of recycled poster and pasted it on the wall.

He was happy to see that and he tore down the words from the tree and read aloud to us. He said that one word scores 10 point and in his first attempt he only cannot read one word.

Sweet action

Everyday when we bring him to the kindergarten, he will wave good bye and kiss us before we leave the kindergarten. Sometime we forgot this step and he will run all the the way out from his classroom to stop us in order to say goodbye and kiss us. So sweet the action.

We don't know whether other kids have done the same thing or not. However, whenever his does this action to us, his classmates will look shock and stare at his actions.....

Bribed him

Yesterday was the final of the 无敌状元 competition. Daddy asked him whether he wants the "Besta" digital dictionary or not? He wants it. Daddy told him that he will entitle for one if he gets Number 1 again in the next exam. Mother said daddy tried to bribe the kid....

Follow one by one

Recently Ethan was hooked on the Android 'Fish food game" ever since daddy introduced to him. Ever night after his dinner time, he will request to play the fish game. But hold on! Not so fast as he haven't finish his homework yet . Today he woke up at 6 evening and we went out for dinner so he did not manage to do it before dinner time. Mother told him that he should finished his own responsibility then he only get to play it.

Below are our conversation:-
Mother : You have to finish the homework first. Follow one by one (一个接一个)
Ethan response: Can I finish two by two so can get to play it fast?
Mother asked: How to finish two by two?
He just laughed and followed mother to the room to finish his homework while mother went for her bath.

After he had finished the homework, he immediately walked down and asked for his favorite game. Mother went up to the room to check on his homework, yup he really finished it and kept all the books, pencil box and color pencil into his school bag.

His homework

Mother wants him to have the habit of "今日事今日毕" on his homework no matter whether it is Friday or holiday in the next day. So far so good even though he will bargain with mother to do it later especially when come to writing the Chinese character. He will bargain with mother that after nap time then he will continue to write it. Seeing that he wrote in snail mode and totally loss of concentration then it is better to let him rest.

What mother is pleased is that he really kept his promise and maintained his self discipline. Mainly because he will inform his mother that he wants to finish his homework even though mother wants to bring him out from the room after he wakes up. He will finish all his homework then only walk out with mother. So shame on mother.

Video capture

Every night Ethan will request to view back the photo or the video that we have taken since he was born. When he was born we actually did take a lot of video but gradually reduced it. So we promised him to take his video so in future he can view it back.

Today itself mother already captured two videos of him but unfortunately the SD memory card does not have enough disc space.

Improvement

After half month's of special note for Ethan to learn Chinese words, mother has seen some improvement with him. He showed the keen interest of trying to read the Chinese sentences from the book. Mother was glad that this method did work on him and he was happy to learn it everyday. He even requested the special note from mother if mother forgets to provide to him. With this mother cannot be lazy any more.

Since this method can work so mother is thinking of providing him the special note on BM and English.