Aloysius, Bernice and Charlene.

I just cannot fall asleep now. Maybe it's due to the chinese tea I had during dinner with a friend from America. Or could be due to the excitement about how to bring my business to the next level after meeting Nicholas. I still remember my promise of giving him a Mercedes S class, just by dropping the key in his letter box as a gift of appreciation. I believe that I will achieve it in 2009 with the bars business.

I am doing this for my ABC too. As all parents do, I want to be able to give them the "best" in life. "Best" is perceived by us depending on our experiences and ability and levels we have achieved in life. What is "best" for your children for you? It might be different from my "best". I want to achieve wealth in the blood. I remember Nicholas telling me about giving our children the taste of luxury of life, then letting them decide whether they want the luxury and if they want, they will work for it. His philosophy is that without tasting luxury, one do not know what is luxury and do not even know it exists. It's different if one haven't tasted the luxury of life. I am not brought up in a very rich family. I have not tasted the luxury of life before. After knowing Nicholas, Arthur, and being with my cousins who are rich now, it broaden my horizon. I started to see a bigger picture of life. I have tasted chinese tea that cost more than $2,000 per pot. I am indeed very blessed that I have someone who has really made it in life to go to for advice.

Ok.. gotta go and settle Charlene. All 3 have been sick for a week.

Proud mommy!

Ok. Now I have some time to write. Later I gonna read my Shichida's books to gain more insight and solutions for my current challenges.

It's past midnite now, a few hours ago was my birthday :) The day before, we had a small celebration at home. Aloysius helped to fix the candles on the candle sticks and poke them on the cake. The first 2 candles were poked in with too much strength. Aloysius learnt to control his strength subsequently :) He sang me a complete birthday song too :) And he helped me to blow the candles. His candles blowing skill has improved tremendously also. I enjoyed every moment of the celebration.

Bernice can walk at 9 months old! I am so proud that she can actually walk 8 steps tonite. A week ago, she started to make 1 tiny step. When we were in Bali, she started to fall in love with standing. I can see that Bernice is someone who will not be afraid to try anything. I hope this energy will stay with her for life. Never try never know. Just fricking do it!

Charlene is able to see through at least 100 flashcards in a session. She has very good concentration span. When she found something new, she will sit there and explore on her own too. She likes exploring with her fingers. She can even pinch (using her thumb and pointer) on something and put into her mouth.

Every morning, I will do flashcards sessions for my ABC. So, if there's any phone calls in the morning, I will probably not pick up, cos I am usually very busy. I have to finish the flashcards sessions by 10am daily, and start to get ready to send Aloysius to school. I do separate flashcards sessions for all of them since their attention span are different.

Aloysius simply loves going to school. He likes his teachers too. His journey going to school is very interesting everyday. He will walk to the MRT station with me. Along the way he will explore things and look at the vehicles passing by. For example, today he heard the siren of an ambulance and the siren of a fire engine, then he saw two ambulances, mini buses, small van, big van, etc. Mommy here sometimes is confused on the names of the vehicles. hahaha... Today he explored the leaves too. On Monday, he saw dog's poo on the pavement. There's so much to learn about his environment. I am very happy that I am there to teach him when his interests is there.

The feedback from the parents who stayed in the class was that Aloysius is very independent. When we reach school, he will run to his classroom. I will help him to put his bag in the cupboard, then say goodbye to him. He will wave goodbye to me and start to play with the things in the classroom. The teacher assistant will bring him to the toilet during class time. He had an "accident" on the second day of school. It's probably his English teacher did not know what he was talking about when he says "urine". Aloysius does not understand "shee shee" for urine. The teachers are getting to know the kids better. I think Aloysius is well liked by the teachers and staffs in the school. As long as Aloysius is happy in the school, I am happy :) One of the target for Shichida kindergarten for 3 years old is to be able to count 1 to 150. So far, Aloysius know 1 to 100 already. This will be a new challenge for him. The teachers will not be concentrating in phonics. I think they will be concentrating on words recognition. Aloysius already know his alphabets well, both capital and small letters, plus the sound of the letters. The most recent addition for his speed reading cards are keywords from the stories :) I am hoping that he will recognise more words. He can recognise the words of the categories of his flashcards already. I am not very sure if it's necessary to teach him spelling though I have already started a little. He has one classmate at Shichida Method who knows how to spell very well. This classmate's mum can mix up the letters of a word and she will be able to arrange the letters to form the word! It's really amazing! She's barely 3 years old.

I am still procrastinating on going to the library to borrow books about nature to read to him. Aloysius now knows that getting dark, sunny days, raining, lightning, thunder, etc. are all nature. And mommy cannot control nature. I would love to read about why it gets dark, why the sun comes out in the morning, why there's rain, why there's lightning and thunder, etc. to him. I still yet to find the time to go to the library to do some research.

Aloysius went to school.

Yesterday was Aloysius’ first day in school. You must be wondering which school he is attending. Well, mommy here did not visit many schools before deciding. I only put him on waitlist at Nanyang kindergarten and his waitlist number is above 200. I think there’s not much hope there. Then new Shichida kindergarten was being planned. I did not have time to attend the Shichida Kindergarten opening talk by Mrs. Khoo, so I called Mrs Wong a few times in December to ask about how it is going to be like. After some survey and feedback, I narrowed down to either Mindchamps childcare or Shichida kindergarten. I visited these two. On 30 Dec 08, we visited Shichida Kindergarten at Tanjong Pagar. Then we visited both Mindchamps and Shichida Kindergarten at Toa Payoh on 31 Dec 08. hee… a bit last minute rite? I was quite particular of the food Aloysius will be given in class. I looked through the menu, and I will prefer the one at Shichida Kindergarten. I am not for too much meat, food with preservatives, and the highly processed food.

When we were visiting Shichida Kindergarten, we met Mrs. Khoo. I had a chat with her. I could feel her passion and confidence in the Shichida Kindergarten. I paid and left. I learnt quite a lot from her on parenting. She’s a mother of 4. Probably when I have more time, I will write about what I learnt from her. Just a little here. I asked about when to start music classes. She recommends age 4. I also asked her how to cope when all my 3 kids cry at the same time. Hahaha… Sometimes I really lose my cool. She said just say that they are making music together, and the music is beautiful. Another tip is concentrate nurturing the first child and the rest will follow. Hmm… I kinda agree to that yesterday.fv

Ok, back to Aloysius’ first day in school. He was very happy in school. We met the form teacher and I was given a feedback book. Aloysius has 6 other classmates, but only 4 turned up on the first day. I can see Aloysius being a vocal boy in class. He enjoyed the imaginary play room, brainatics room, art room. He also enjoyed his snack! It was mee sua soup, banana and honey lemon drink for Friday.

Ok, I gotta go… Just another brief note. Bernice and Charlene are about 9 months old. They are standing and pushing things to walk. Very soon they will be walking. They are very vocal indeed and dislike it when their things were being snatched away. They are my very happy girls. It’s a very different kind of happiness which I cannot describe having twins. It’s very fun to see them growing up together. In fact, it is more than fun, but I do not know how to describe. Aloysius can play with them sometimes. All 3 of them love to crawl around the house and chasing after one another.

Aloysius, Bernice and Charlene are my precious happy children :)