Valerie is 2!!

Time really flies this year, and Valerie is finally two! This year we wanted to keep the celebration simple but we ended up inviting the same group of people, Ivan's family, my family and Uncle Herrick's family. And this time we let Ivan's mom to be in charge of the food. Last year, we didn't want to trouble her that much but she still ended up cooking loads of dishes. So this year, we let her come up with the entire menu. And she cooked fried rice, 2 types of mee, sandwiches, jelly, paos, fried wantons. One wonders how she managed to do it all by herself!

Ivan's dad provided fresh fruits as usual and we had a sponsor of chicken wings and curry chicken. We ordered balloons but not as many as last year :D  The birthday cake was sponsored by Ivan's bro so nothing fancy looking compared to last year, but taste wise, well, you could never fault a Secret Recipe cake :P

All in all, we cut down a lot on the birthday budget and we still had lots of fun :)

Hey mommy, can I drink this?

Let me just take a lick!!

Mommy, Daddy and Me with my birthday cake

Bloooowwwww....

Let me cut... I can do this!

This year Valerie is old enough to open the pressies...

Crayola Art Desk with magnetic alphabets and numbers! Purrrfect!!!



Check out my Minnie Mouse cap and swimsuit, so matching..

Last pressie, from mommy & daddy

Look how engrossed Valerie is with the toy...

Finally a smile on her face! Mommy knows best :D

Look at me feeding nen-nen to the baby...

Flash Cards Works!

Right up to now, I seldom test Valerie on what she knows although I've been showing her tons of flash cards. As described by Shichida method, the flash cards should be done at half a secord per card and at large quantity (at least 200) to activate the right brain.

For us who are left brain dominated, this does not make sense. How could anyone remember anything that is flashed that fast? Let alone a small child? I have to admit, on many occassions I'm tempted to flash the card slowly, pronounce it slowly, and show maybe about 10 objects. And if Valerie could show me she remembers any of these, I'm very happy. 

Nonetheless, I resisted that idea, and continued to show the flash cards at the speed recommended.  According to the Right Brain educators, we are also not advised to test our babies as this will put a  lot of stress on them and thus make them lose interest in learning altogether. So, being an avid follower, I didn't test Valerie. In a way, it's also good because I'm also not stressed, knowing she will learn eventually. And my job is just to provide her the opportunity to learn, as well as to take the time to bond with her.

It was until last week, Valerie digged through her box of books that she found the Baby Einstein flash cards on Animals. She took it out and gave it to me, waiting for me to do something with it. I bought the set long time ago, thinking I would use it to flash animals card to her but then later dropped the idea because they were not A4 size as proposed.

She's more excited than she looked, really... :P

Since Valerie expected some activity out of it, I took out 3 animal cards and asked her which one is 'Elephant'. She looked at the cards and picked the right one. Then I asked her to put in on the headboard. This seemed fun to her. Then I added more cards and she picked the one that I named. Soon there were animal cards all over our headboard.

I have to say I'm pretty impressed because she got about 98% right out of the stack that I've asked. Those she didn't pick correct were because they have not been shown in the flash cards so she didn't recognise them.
So I have to say, flash card works. Flash them fast, flash them in big quantity. Believe it or not, your kid can remember them even if it doesn't make sense.

Valerie Can Count

I couldn't remember since when Valerie could count, probaby about 3-4 months ago. To be honest, she got bored of those dot cards I've been showing her. So I thought of another way to teach her counting, while going up and down the stairs. Everytime we went up or down the stairs, I would count 1, 2, 3... and she soon caught on and tried to recite after me.

I didn't think it was significant until 2 months later, Nanny came up to me excitedly and said.. 'You know, Valerie could count 1-10. You must have taught her that'. Just then I realised, 'Yeah, Valerie could say the numbers in order'. Then I told Nanny that I've been teaching her all the way up to 17 (because there are only 17 steps in our house... hehe... ).

Nanny said, 'Can meh?'. I said 'Why not? Nobody said kids can only remember up to 10. If you teach them more, they will learn more.' I then told her she is taught up to 100s in Heguru, but whether she knows them, I'm not too sure.

The next day, Nanny told me... 'Yeah, I tried more than 10, she could go up to 14... then the rest not very clear'. In fact, Nanny and her kids got so excited that they tried to get her to recite from top, from halfway like from 7.. and she could continue with 8, 9, 10... The only thing they didn't attempt was saying the numbers backwards. :)

Then and again, I wouldn't really say Valerie could count. It's more like reciting the numbers in order. If one day she could tell me '2 balls' or '3 apples', then I think she really understand the meaning of quantity.

It's a Horse, Daddy...

Last week at Heguru, Valerie played with blocks again. This time Ivan saw for himself she could really build. So after class, we dropped by Robinson since I have some vouchers and decided on a set of Megablocks. That evening, daddy built her a giraffe while Valerie was stacking some blocks on her own.

Daddy told her 'This is giraffe'. Valerie stared at it for a while and then said 'Horse'. Daddy said 'Giraffe', Valerie again pointed to the 'Horse'. Okay, it did look a bit like a horse. Since it's about her size, daddy suspected she might want to sit on it like a real horse. We warned her not to and then went to have our dinner.

Few minutes later, we heard a crash and saw Valerie running to the dining room. She pointed to her butt and then pointed to the living room. Lo and behold.... her horse has broken into pieces. Why... I'm not at all surprised to see she has attempted to sit on it even though we have asked her not to....

Activity on Colours

I've finally made one activity for Valerie to practice her colours. I printed a picture of a tree and 4 colours of berries. Then I cut them out and got them laminated. As usual, when Valerie came home from nanny, she saw the 'Tree of Berries' and pointed to it. She knew it's another game.

I sat Valerie down and ask her to pick the 'Red' berries. She picked the first 2 correctly, after that she couldn't wait to get her hands on the other colours. After that Ivan played the same activity with her again while I bathed and asked her to pick 'Blue' berries. Again she got the first 2 correct, and then she started picking other colours.

So Ivan and myself figured that she knew the colours but she only got the patience to pick first 2 berries correctly.

Another time, while I was doing homework with her, she picked the Orange crayon. As she was doodling, while I was colouring her Mandara diagram, she suddenly pointed and said 'Orange'. I was quite surprised. I guess she knew her colours after all.

For those who would like a copy of this activity, feel free to email me. I haven't figured out how to share this on the post yet :)

Valerie Can Build Tower

Last Saturday daddy was not around to go to class with us cause he has to work. So grandma tagged along to help out. After class, I brought Valerie to Isetan and I let her sit at the children's play area. 

Few months earlier, she didn't know what to do with the blocks despite us showing her to put them on top of each other to build a tower. In the end she ended up throwing on the floor or tasting them with her tongue. So Ivan has banned her from playing blocks for a while.

But this time, I noticed she took the block and put it on the existing square tower. And she repeated this piece by piece until the wall was about 5 levels higher. Yea!! Valerie can finally build block towers! So I told Ivan, maybe we could consider buying her a Lego set now or Duplo or something. Or maybe just the cheaper blocks made from China sold in those small toy shops. Who knows, she might like building blocks today, and won't want to have anything to do with it another day. No need to buy such expensive toys. Something I'm learning as a parent with a toddler now. Kid's interest is so short that you don't need to buy expensive branded toys.

Daddy Bonding Time

Some of you may not believe it, but Valerie has never called Ivan 'Daddy'. Well, she does know who is her daddy and she can point to daddy if you ask her. But she will never call daddy, 'Daddy'. On the contrary, she has called 'Mommy' since she was, hmmm.. I can't remember... 9-10 months??

If she's hungry, it's 'Mommy!', if her diaper is wet, it's 'Mommy!', when she wakes up and finds no one in the room, she'll cry 'Mommy!'. But never 'Daddy'. In fact sometimes when I'm not free and I get Ivan to pick her up, she will look around for mommy, if her first option is not available, well, she'll let daddy carry. Better than none, I guess.

Recently, I realise something. Ivan has never really bonded with Valerie. Sure, he has always been the 'Papa Maid' around the house. He wakes up early to boil porridge, run around to get the milk bottles ready, set up the bath tub, make sure the house is protected, if not, double protected  (I'm not exaggerating!) from mosquitos and all. But he never really has much hands-on moments with the baby. The only exception is when I need to get chores done, he has no choice but to carry her. He will then bring her downstairs, sit her on a sofa and turn on 'Little Einsteins' for her. That's his version of daddy bonding time.

So last week, I enforced a new rule. Daddy has to read her at least 2 books at night before she goes to sleep. Heck, I even bought a 'My Daddy is Fun' book to emphasise the word 'Daddy'. As expected, Ivan whined and showed me the bored look, but I couldn't care. I told him, he has to take up some of the actual parenting work :P

Relunctantly, he read. I have to say daddy did a pretty good job, in fact, he told the story a little differently than how I'd normally read it, but interesting enough to capture Valerie's attention. So after finishing 2 books, daddy couldn't escape. Valerie gave him more books to read. Haha... Less computer games time for daddy now.. Yeah!!

I'm not sure if it's coincidence or what, but after 2 nights of daddy's story telling, Valerie started calling him 'Daddy!'. In fact, nanny told me, Valerie actually said 'Daddy' at her place too. This has never happen in history. Before that, when nanny say 'Daddy arr'... Valerie will answer 'Mommy!!'.

Over the next few days, Valerie will actually look for daddy and tell me 'Daddy', pointing to the door. She wants me to carry her out of the room to play with Daddy. Isn't this great? I know deep down, Ivan must be really pleased. :)

So to all the daddies out there.... don't wait, roll up your sleeves and start bonding with your kids. They need daddy's love too, and that means sitting down and really spending time with them. Look at it this way, you may play computer games until your hair turns gray, but kids? Once they are out of the door, they won't be looking for you anymore. So treasure the time now, when all they want is you.

But that doesn't mean you should stop being the Papa Maid around the house, ok??

Photo Memory Training

Thanks to one mommy whom I met online, she told me about this shop called 'Kids Station' at Endah Parade which sells right brain training material. So I went to take a look during lunch time with my colleagues. The shop sells a lot of brain training activities which are very interesting. What caught my eye was the Eye Training Set which comprises of 4 categories: Photo Memory, Colour Differentiation, Space Memory and Instant Memory.

The lady in charge was very pleasant and even sat us down to explain how the activities are played. So in the end, I bought the set at RM78. She told me these sets are made and sold by Shichida mommies themselves. Although I know the materials can easily be self-made but since I need a sampling so I just bought one set to try it out first.

When I took out the set at night, Valerie quickly walked towards me as if she knew that's something new for her to play. As recommended, we should start with 2 objects and show to your child about a few seconds. Then get your child to put the objects on the card based on what he/she can remember.

For very young kids, we are told to put the velcro sticker on the spots so to help them to know where to put the objects. Valerie was very excited and she loved all the activities played, but she has no patience to wait for the few seconds. I'm not even sure she knows she's supposed to stick it according to what she sees. She just couldn't wait to get her hands on the colourful objects and stick it on the card.

After 2 sessions, I've decided to increase it to 4 objects instead since it's pretty boring with only 2. Afterall, it's a 50-50 chance of getting it right. But I have to admit, I didn't follow through to putting the objects at different position every time we played it. I put them at the same spots instead to let her know it's supposed to the same as the one on my card. I know this is not much of photo training then :P

So after about 5 sessions, I managed to catch her on video doing the Photo Memory activity. Pretty impressive... eh?? Too bad I recorded using the wrong angle, sigh..


There are many more interesting stuff sold there like a set of 50 Mandaras for you to practice with your kid, Tangrams and Linked Memory. The mandara set looks interesting, maybe I'll get that when Valerie is old enough to understand the activity. I didn't get to see the Linked Memory set because they were all sold out. There are also memory boards games, flash cards and many more. Do check out their website to view their catalogues http://www.kids.net.my/

Tantrum at Shopping Mall

These days, I feel Valerie has started to enjoy pretend play. Give her any soft toy and she will hold one in each hand and make them kiss or take rides together. Her favourite is feeding the 'bunny' or the 'bear' her milk bottle. At night, in order to get her to drink water, I first have to offer to Mr. Bear, then to her and then both Mr. Bear and herself will take turns drinking water.

Last Sunday, while we were waiting for daddy and grandma to go to the toilet, Valerie saw this 'car' parked near where we stood. Since the person-in-charge didn't mind, I let Valerie climbed in. This is the first time she ever got into her own version of a car.

She was busy turning the steering wheel while opening and closing the door, pretending she's really driving. I could see she thoroughly enjoyed it.

About 10-15 mins later, when grandma and daddy were back, I told Valerie we needed to go home. She shook her head and continued to turn her wheels. When I open the door, she closed it back. Then I tried talking to her but she just ignored me.

Grandma then told me to hide at one corner to see if she would be scared and looked for us. After a while she did stop and turn around to look for us. When she couldn't see us, she continue playing!! She has so much confidence that mommy wouldn't abandoned her!

In the end, I just opened the car door and forcefully took her out of the car. She was wailing loudly from the shopping mall, to the carpark and into the car. After taking her milk, she remembered again and started to whine. Gosh... looks like she's getting more persistent about the things she wants these days. Another sign of Terrible Two coming up??

Brillkids Little Reader

I've started Valerie on Little Reader (LR) and Little Maths (LM) about two months ago. How I got to know about them was through a search for Shichida maths files. A mommy has created the maths files and uploaded it in LM format. So I downloaded the trial version to have a look and tried in on Valerie. And she absolutely loves it!!! If you want to find out more, check out their website http://www.brillkids.com/ . They give a 14 days trial.

When I showed Valerie the first lesson, she immediately took on the actions words on the screen, following each action word (eg. point, wave). When the lesson has ended, she would cry for more. Sometimes she even grabbed my mouse to try to get the lesson to start again.

The LR lesson has 3 parts initially: Word Flash, MultiSensory and Picture Flash. In later stages, it now includes a Phonics flash. The Multisensory shows the word, and then the picture with a one line narration and lastly a short video clip of the object. I find this is really good to teach the meaning of an action word because a video clip tells it all. As for lesson on animals, you can also hear the sound of the animal makes. So this is exactly what I'm looking for.

Apart from that, I also like the functionality of the program where you can create your own flash cards and there is a setting to choose whether you want to flash only the words or the pictures or both! And you can even choose if you want the words to be shown first or the picture. There is also a setting to shuffle the words/pictures randomly. This is sooooo much easier than using the powerpoint.

LR also has a large library for you to download from and these files are created by mommies / daddies themselves. So it's pretty good, save myself a lot of time as most of the topics (Music, Arts, Encyclopaedia Knowledge) that I want to show Valerie were already created. All I need to do is download and import them into the LR :) They also have files in powerpoint, feel free to take a look.

As for LM, well, Valerie followed through initially but after a while she found looking at dots quite boring. Now, she'll whine when I show her LM but I still continue to show here anyway :P

I'm not sure if this is actually teaching Valerie to read or not as she's too young to show it. But one thing for sure, she enjoys LR and that's all it matters. And even if she isn't reading yet, my thought is, at least she's building up her vocab. Upon hearing a word, she know which object it is or which body part to point to or what action word to show me. At night after she has washed up, she knows it's LR time. She would grab my mouse and hand it over to me. And then try to carry my laptop to bed. Aiyooo.. so small girl but want to carry such a heavy thing. I have to go and help her of course...

Just a few days back, she gave me a surprise. During the words flash, she suddenly said 'Eye', and then 'Nose' correctly even before the word is being pronounced. I couldn't believe it! Does this show my baby can read? Even if it's just two words, I'm really elated. But it only happens once, hopefully more to come in the future :)

Here is a video clip of her watching LR, the first one is on Parts of the Body...


This one is on Action Words...

Heguru Assessment

After attending Heguru for three months, Valerie was scheduled for an assessment last week. It was not an academic assessment as I was expecting. It was more like a one-to-one session with the sensei. Sensei commented on her change of behaviour in class. How she's paying attention more and have stopped running around. Yeah, I agreed she has improved a lot. Ivan and myself kept talking to her and telling her to sit down in class and don't run around. We also told her not to touch the abacus. And last week, she walked towards the abacus, but later she turned and looked at me. I signalled her to come back and she did! So although her classmates were happily playing the abacus, she actually listened and sat down.

There are a few new things that sensei recommend we could practice with her at home.
1. Mandara - although Valerie is still small, we could get her to colour the Mandara worksheet in full colour. And then show it to her throughout the week before the next class. So in a way to train her to remember the diagram. Then we could draw it back in class.

2. Peg Memory - Heguru usually provides the peg memory sheet whenever we start a new set. We're asked to sing the peg memory song to Valerie at home to help her to remember. This just gave me an idea. I'm going to scan and print another set, laminate and cut it out. And let Valerie match the picture to the number (since she loves doing that in class anyway).

3. Linked Memory - We could get the LM set and create stories to link 10 picture cards. Then cover them with numbered blank cards. Then flip the blank card to show the picture card underneath as we repeat the story (this is practiced in Heguru). I'm starting out with 6 cards for now and repeat the same 6 cards (instead of creating different set every time) and will slowly add 1 more card. I'm merging both Heguru and Shichida method here, not sure if this is right :P 

But one thing I learned from another mommy's blog is, the correct way to do LM is by creating a line that links object A to object B and then another line to link object B to object C. Instead of one sentence that links object A to B and C. And I find this to be true. I can remember better using the earlier method. After doing this twice this week, I noticed Valerie really sat down to look at the 6 cards I showed.

4. Homework - I've never started on homework simply because I thought it's silly to get a toddler to do homework when she doesn't know what's going on. But we're told that kids will learn very fast on the concept of homework and passing up of homework. That the older kids in the other class look forward to doing homework every week and even cried if they forgot to bring it back to class. So I've started this on Valerie this week. Let's see how it goes.

The Elves and the Shoemaker... (not again!!)

And the best-read book of the month is.......... "The Elves and the Shoemaker"... Sigh... Ivan and myself has reached the point of shivering just by hearing the title. Valerie absolutely loves this book! I bought three new books for her to read and this has top the list of nine books that she has.

She wants this book to be read every night... and not just once... five to six times!! Over again and again until I had to put a stop to it. I've tried to distract her with other titles but nope, she would grab this book and put on my lap again, and pushed the other book away. Don't know what's so attractive about this book, is it the shoes... cos I know she has a love for shoes (another post on this), or is it the cute elves? Or is it my impersonation of a sneezing elf?

I'm really going nuts reading this. In the end, to kill my boredom, I've read it at different speed. I think this is one way to train speed reading in Heguru.

But one thing that has been very impressive is how Valerie could remember which page corresponds to which dialog/story line for nine books! Sometimes she would pick up a book, open a page at random and say 'No....'. And that is exactly the dialog of that page... Another time, she would say 'Hello....' and that's correct too. Although that book has only been read four times. Even I couldn't have remembered which page is what if I don't know how to read. Maybe her memory training is starting to pay off? Hehe...

Paying Attention in Heguru Class

Prior to the Raya break, Valerie has been extremely naughty in class. Not only turning circles next to sensei, she has even started walking left and right, and up to the abacus, played with it and came back. When I tried to hold her to sit still, she arched her back and wanted to cry. I have to let her go and wander around the class because I didn't want her to cry. Cry meant putting stress on the baby and thus shut her right brain of learning.

Every time she walked around, she started to attract new accomplice. One week, it's XY (girl, 2 months older), then another week it's JY (girl, 1 month younger). At the end of the class, Sensei Sandy always say 'Valerie.... '. Sigh.. she didn't scold or say anything la.. but I know that Valerie has been a cause of chaos in class. *blush*. So I asked Sensei if there was any suggestion to get her to pay attention in class. She asked me to try to sit her down and talk to her. She said children this young do understand what we are telling them. We just have to keep reminding them what is the appropriate behaviour.

So armed with new hopes, I kept talking to Valerie every now and then for next 2 weeks since there's no class on Raya. I told her to listen to Sensei, pay attention to Sensei what she is showing in class. Join each activity, when sensei say 'Attention', do the bowing action, when it's Mandara, look at the screen and remember all the colours. I talked to her as detail as possible. Heck, I've even tried the 5 mins suggestion, talking to her right after she has gone to sleep. Whatever works...

So last Saturday it was a moment of truth. I thought if this still doesn't work, I'm considering of stopping the class but I really hope not cause I really enjoy the class. The first 15 mins went by in a breeze. During the 'Attention' time, she actually followed sensei and do the bowing action. Then at relaxtion time, she put her hands to cover her eyes on her own. I thought that was a marked improvement. At the Mandara session, she actually looked at the screen first before doodling on the paper. Last time she won't bother to look, just grab a colour pencil and start drawing lines.

Then 30 mins went by and still no sign of her going to the abacus. On and off, she did try to stand and walk around but I held her back and reminded her to pay attention in class. And she would sit down and not rebel. Also, she seemed to enjoyed every single song that was being played. Where there were actions, she would try to follow them. By then time we reached 45 mins, I was almost relieved. We were almost done with the class and still no sign of her delinquency. Instead, the other two girls did have a go at playing the abacus, but thankfully Valerie just sat and watched.

At the end of the 1 hour, Sensei usually came to each of us to sign attendance. For the first time, she said 'Valerie, you're a very good girl today'. I was completely elated!!! Yes, finally she's not in the naughty list for a day! Later Ivan told me, he's been peeping from outside the room and didn't go shopping. And he too said he always saw Valerie sitting down , not like how I've always described her :P

Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed until the next class...

The Singing Baby

Valerie has suddenly expounded into singing over night! She started singing the entire 'Barney Song', 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and 'Five Little Ducks' all in one night. Singing along when I'm singing of course, using her limited vocab. Is this due to the Little Einstein cartoons that she's been watching? That's her favourite cartoon and she needs a dose of it every day.

When the Little Einstein starts, she will sit very still and stay glued to the TV. Then she will sing along '5,4,3,2,1' with her hands raised. Then when it's time to 'pat pat', she will put her hands and pat her lap and then raise her hands to say 'Blast Off' at the right timing. Sorry, those who watch this cartoon will know what I'm talking about. :P  So whenever she wants to watch Little Einstein, she will tell me 'Pat pat ahh?', then I will turn it on for her. I think this is a really good cartoon, it teaches classical music, composers, exposes you to world art and most importantly, I think Valerie learns 'timing' from it. She knows when to pat, when to stop and when to follow the actions again by listening to the music.

But come to think of it, Valerie has always been 'singing' since she's two months old. I've always sang her lullabys to go to sleep and after that she has always been 'humming' to sleep. Yes, since two months old! But the humming is sort of tuneless. It's very weird and nanny call it very 'ngam cham' (naggy) when she takes her nap. But I call it 'singing'. :P

That night when I put her to bed, I sang her 'Jesus Love Me Tis I Know' (thinking I could sing her to sleep faster). But guess what, she also wanted to sing along. In the end, she ended up more wide awake than before. Brrhh.... Then on Sunday, during the church service, after we sang a song, we were silent for prayer, then all of a sudden I heard someone humming the tune of the song we just sang. It was Valerie :P (not to exaggerate, she just hum the first two lines laa..)

I've uploaded a video of her singing along 'Five Little Ducks' following her Robin i-pen series.

Girls Will Be Girls

I used to be worried how much Valerie looks like a boy during her first few months. Then later, I worried how come she likes all the boy things like she loves to play with balls and trucks. Everywhere she goes, 'Ball Ball' here and 'Ball Ball' there.. And everytime she kicks the ball... Ivan says it's a very straight kick, even my brother confirms that. Ivan says even adults can't get straight kicks all the time. Too bad she's not born in England and she's not a boy, otherwise Ivan would start buying Arsenal jerseys for her.. hehe..

Anyway, all the worries about Valerie being tom-boy are over. Look at her recent changes... Now that's mommy's girl!!

"Where are you going Valerie??"

Can't you see I'm shopping?? Mommy also like to shop what...

Valerie found a new friend to play with recently...

Me and my teddy bear... (yes... she's finally holding a bear, and not a ball)

Colours

I tried teaching Valerie colours before getting her on the ESP games. Somehow she's attracted to Red and snatched the card away and walked around.

When I asked her which one is blue, she just ignored me. After a couple of minutes I asked her 'Valerie, please take blue and pass to daddy'. So that this looks like a game for her.

Ivan as always just busy with his computer games and laughed at me trying to teach her colours. Sure enough, she took the 'blue' card and walked to the end of the room to pass it to daddy. Then I got her to pass the remaining 'green' and 'yellow' card.

But the 'red' card? It's a no no... that's her card. She won't give it up and held on to it the whole night.

Summary on Right Brain Training (0-3 yo)

After reading the three books by Dr. Shichida, this is my conclusion. I don't need to get Valerie to remember everything that I flash to her. But rather, understand that part of right brain training is to have the ability to image. Once a child knows how to image, she will have unlimited ability to perform instant memory, maths calculation ability etc.. So there is no need to be frustrated if your child doesn't remember or understand the 200 cards you flashed to her.

For right brain training to work, we first need to have a strong love relationship with our child. Because right brain education works best when the child is happy, feel loved by her parents. When the child is stressed, unhappy or crying, the right brain will shut off. So it is no point forcing the kid to sit through a flash card session when she's crying and doesn't want to pay attention.

Three ways to communicate love to children:
1. Hugging
When a child has completed a task, hug the child and thank her for the help. Tell her she is a big help and how much you love her. Give a strong hug for about 8 seconds. This is to communiate mother's love to the child's heart. Many times we just give a hug but very brief hug, that is not enough to make the child feel love.

2. Listening to child's conversation
Listen carefully to what the child has to say, this willl capture the heart of the child. Use the echo method. If the child say "I'm feeling sad", You ask "Oh, why are you feeling sad?". By echoing after her, it is an effective method to converse with the child.

Avoid using commands and instructive words, but rather in a tone of request when we want to ask the child to do something. Instead of 'Put the toy back into the basket', we can say 'Amy, could you please put the toy back, this will make mommy very happy'.

3. Five minute suggestion
5 minute suggestion is used when the child has just gone to sleep. During the first 5 mins after the child has slept, the conscious mind goes to sleep but the subconscious is still actively functioning. So this is a good time to work on the subconscious mind. Speak to the child softly any good things you want her to achieve (like throwing bad habits, healing) and good to express your love to her also.

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There are six special abilities of right brain:
1. ESP - 5 senses of the right brain
2. Intuitive Image - right brain memory
3. Speed Reading - right brain photographic memory
4. Computer Ability- right brain calculation ability
5. Perfect Pitch - right brain music ability
6. Language Acquisition Ability - right brain language ability

As there are too many methods described in the books, I only managed to list out what is relevant to Valerie at her age now. The trainings look simple but getting Valerie to follow through is not easy.

How to Train Right Brain (0-3 years old).

1. ESP Training
1 (a) Telepathy Play
Hold your child in your hands and give a strong hug saying "I love you. You and I are one in our heart". Then image in your forehead a square red colour and say "Mommy images a colour in my forehead and sends it to your forehead. You can see the colour, because you have the third eye in your forehead, OK? Now close your eyes and catch the colour and please tell mommy what colour it is".

1(b) Clairvoyance Play
Place 5 ESP cards in a row face up. Have the child hold another set of 5 ESP cards in hand facedown. Let them place one card after another facedown, corresponding to what they think is the same card as the upper row. After they have placed all the 5 cards, let them turn over the cards to check of they are the same cards with the cards in the upper row.

2. Flash Card
Show the child picture cards and dot cards at the rate of 0.5 s per card. Flash about 200 cards per day. This is to open up the right brain. It may seems that memory training is better accomplished by showing the cards slowly and explaining one by one, but this is left brain training method. This will cause the left brain to function and the right brain unable to function.

Right brain education utilises unconscious and large quantity input without the use of memorisation. Mechanical repetition without seeking comprehension opens up right brain circuits. By flashing cards, you show pictures and say words at the same time. So you connect both brains. Pictures and images are processed by the right brain, while language and words are processed by the left brain. Flashing cards strengthened both processing.

When shown a large quantity of cards at high speed, the right brain memory that allows us to memorise things in a flash will be developed.

3. Memory Training
3(a) Linking Memory
Use picture cards. Pick 2 cards randomly and make a story. For eg, 'Rabbit' and 'Hat'. The rabbit jumped over the hat. And show the cards to your child and put them face down. Have your child tell what pictures the cards contain. Once she can tell the pictures in the 2 cards, increase to 3.. and then to 4 etc. Make sure to use the cards in the order you started. So 'Rabbit' will always be the first card, and 'Hat' always the second. Once the child can memorise about 40 - 50 cards, something amazing will happen. She will be able to memorise the order of the cards in one glance as an image without the help of words.


3(b) Mandara
Have your child look at the mandara card for 20 secs and memorise it. Then put the card down and give her a blank card. Have her colour the blank card as she remembers the mandara card with colour pencils.

Another one is to have your child keep the mandara card in her pockets all the time and tell her to look at the card when she has spare time. Look for 5 secs and close her eyes and see the after image. Repeat the procedure until the child can create the image clearly in her mind when she closes her eyes. Imagining ability can be developed using this way.

4. Vocabulary
Continue to teach the child more words. Point to objects and name them. Read books to them. Sing songs.


5. Computer Calculating Ability
When a child is at right brain predominance, she can easily develop numerical calculation ability. Dot cards and simple equation cards are used to develop this ability. Dot cards are a set of 100 cards which 1 - 100 red dots 2cm in diameter are printed randomly. You can show dot cards to your child at the rate of one card per sec. For the full 65 days Shichida maths program, please refer to http://figur8.net/baby/2010/08/22/how-to-teach-math-using-shichidas-65-day-program/

6. Language
Let the child listen to the language tape for 30 mins starting at age of 2. The more words in large quantity children receive every day, the more naturally they will activate their right brain to master the language without any forced effort.

I'm thinking of getting Ivan to download some japanese anime for her to watch. Maybe doraemon in japanese to pick up japanese? Hehe.. wishful thinking... but worth a try...

The Barney Song

Yesterday night, I suddenly gave Ivan a big hug just for fun. Valerie, standing nearby saw it and decided to join in. She walked towards us and demanded to be hugged as well. So Ivan carried her up and three of us hugged together. Then we moved in circles and I thought of the Barney Song and sang.

After that, we put Valerie down and I went into the bathroom. Ivan told me Valerie was turning round and round while singing 'Ma Mi Mu (I love you), Ba Ba Mi (You love Me), Ma Mi Ba Ba Mu Me Mo (We are happy family)'. And in the correct tune!!!

We were so amazed. This is the first time Valerie is able to carry a tune. And being vocab limited, she played with all the B's and M's sounds she could muster. What a cute girl... :)

Valerie showing her violent side

I know all parents will say their kids are the best, and I'm no exception. I feel overall Valerie is a pretty well-mannered child. She hardly fusses or throw a tantrum (maybe she hasn't reach the terrible two age?). When we say 'no' to something she wanted, she will curl her lips and show she's unhappy for a while and forget about it. Sometimes, when she want something like a balloon or a toy that is not hers, she will point and look at me for approval. Even if I say 'yes', she will not dare to take it, unless I take the toy and give it to her myself. So she has some sort of a boundary control.

But yesterday, while we were at MIL's place for dinner, Valerie was playing at the living room while both of us had our dinner. As usual, grandma would watch over her and her cousin brother who is 5 months younger, she known as 'Didi'. But Didi, always like to walk up to her and snatch her toys. Whatever she is playing. Even if both have exactly the same toy, Didi still like to take hers. When the toy is snatched, she will not dare to take it back from him. Instead, she will curl her lips, and run to grandma and whine, pointing and saying some words that we don't comprehend.

So I supposed this 'unhappiness' must have bottled up in her for a while until yesterday, she finally went forward and hit Didi twice on the face. Didi then tried to do the same to her but his mom step in to stop him. All this while, both of us were at the back washing dishes so we didn't see what happened. When we left later and seated in the car, I tried to talk to her.

Me: Valerie, why did you hit Didi?
Valerie: *start hitting mommy instead*
Me: *I hold her hand* Valerie, you know you can't hit Didi...
Valerie: *start hitting mommy again*
Me: *I hold her hand* Valerie, you can't hit Didi...and stop hitting mommy...
Valerie: *start hitting mommy again*

 
At the mention of Didi, Valerie would start hitting me again. So after a few times of trying to 'discipline' her, I thought what actually led to her behaviour. Then I asked her this 'Valerie, are you angry because Didi took your ball away?'. This time she didn't hit me, instead she hugged me and put her head on my shoulder.

I hugged her back and stroked her back reassuring her it's ok. I guess she must be upset that her toys are always snatched away, that she finally hit him back instead. At that moment, I saw no room for further disciplining and let it go. I then remembered something I read from the Shichida book about the importance of listening to your child. Going down to her level to understand where she is coming from. Have I not done that, I would have just spanked her till she cry and scold her to not repeat the same thing.

When I told nanny the next day, she said I should have given her a good spanking so that she won't repeat this. Well, I understand where she's coming from. But I don't feel spanking her would have solved anything. Perhaps if she repeat hitting Didi again, I may have to do so.

Effects of Heguru

After attending a month's class at Heguru, I'm reflecting if this program is good for Valerie. Comparing the weekends before we started the class, she used to be at home just walking around, playing toys and lots and lots of TV!! Mainly because, turning on the TV is the best babysitter around so that both of us have time to do our own things. It was after a few months that I started to feel bad. I felt Valerie is at the stage of learning and we are not doing much except giving her a few toys to keep her quiet while we catch up on our downloaded shows. Or turning on channel 613 for her while we get our chores done.

And at that time, we have also stopped reading her books from Dr Seuss and one-picture books because she was no longer interested. We tried buying her some other story books but she would just take a look at the book and run away.

So what are the changes in Valerie after the classes? I find that she loves flashcards a lot. Initially I have no idea what I'm supposed to flash or how fast I should flash them. So I made a few flash cards that are most relevant to her eg. apple, flower, bear. Her favourite words. When I started flashing the word and then the picture flash card, she would smile and repeat after me. (she can only say words that start with 'b' or 'm' at this moment).

After that I progress to making more and more flash cards on the powerpoint. Hehe.. E-flash is a lot more convenient for me, save on printing, buying the flash cards, cutting and sticking them. I'm not sure if there is difference in effects with manual flash though. One thing I notice, I need to flash the cards really fast in order to capture her attention. If I do it slow, she will lose interest and walk away. Another thing is, when I started, Valerie does not pay attention to it, but I just keep flashing regardless of where she is in the room, after a while she comes back, sit down and look at the flash cards. Slowly she starts to love them.

Then I started the dot cards, after a while, she will try to say 1 - 10 after me as I flash the cards. And it's very funny, those she can't say, she will replace with what she can. So I will hear 'mama, mimi, momo.. etc.. ' and then I will hear 'eighch, nan, dan' (8, 9, 10).

Ivan doesn't believe she will remember anything from the sessions. But occassionally, I couldn't help but to test her (I know it's a no-no to test babies) with 2 picture cards and ask her which one is 'grapes', or which one is 'elephant' and she will always point to the right one. But I have not seen much success with words yet. As for dots, she can point to the right one when she's willing to participate, otherwise she will just ignore you or pick the wrong one and play other things. I now flash about 110 objects to her at one go, about 0.5 - 1 sec per card.

I've also bought the Level 1 non-i-Pen series from Popular. I have to say these are the best for Valerie. Each page has a 1-2 liner of narration story with colourful illustrations. So it's short enough to capture her attention. Now she has 5 of these books. And she wants them all read to her before going to sleep. Those that she likes, sometimes she wants to be read twice, or more. I have to put a stop to her requesting me to repeat so many times (it's tiring). Her favourite now is 'The Flying Tortoise' (used to be Red Riding Hood). I don't know why she likes it so much, but this will always be the first book she picks. Ivan tries to hide the book last, but she will always manage to find it and give it to us as the first book to read and we will giggle.

Overall, I'm pretty happy to have started sending her to Heguru, although a lot of people will conclude instantly that only kiasu parents want to send their kids to school at this young age, trying to make genius out of them. But it's clearly not. I start to understand now why some parents will squeeze out the extra budget to send their kids this early to school. Because they are at this stage of wanting to learn so much, and we as parents should not deprive them. I was surprised when I started the flash cards to see how much she craves to learn. Now every night, when I say 'flash card' she will run quickly to me and sit down to watch. When it's done, she will (without fail) cry every night, wanting more. And I'm not making those flash cards fast enough.

My Shichida Books arrived!

Woohoo... the Shichida books I ordered from Japan has finally arrived!! I was so excited and relieved that they passed through the custom with no problems. The reason I ordered the books was because I was desperate to find out more about this right brain training.

Personally I believed Shichida is the original right brain training. And then followed by Tweedlewink which improvised it and created it's own range of courses and products. And then you have Heguru, where the selling point is the MD used to be managing Shichida for 14 years and have also improvised it's method based on Shichida. But like most review from mommies in Malaysia, the standard of teachers in Shichida have dropped (I don't know how true is that) and a lot prefer teachers at Heguru. Heguru schools in Japan is said to be so popular that it has exceeded the number of Shichida schools (again not sure how true is that). I chose Heguru mainly because it's 30 mins away from my house and it's the closest method to Shichida. There's a Tweedlewink in Puchong, even nearer but I'm not convinced to pay RM100 to watch DVD in class :P

You see, I've registered Valerie in the waiting list in Shichida when she was 6 months old, and while waiting, I brought her to Musikhaus in Mutiara Damansara to test out if she would adapt well in a class. Something I've learned from mommies forum. Test the child in a cheaper class first and also to train her to sit through a class before sending her to expensive classes like Shichida / Heguru.

But after trying out 6 weeks we were exhausted because of the distance. Puchong to Mutiara Damansara on a Saturday afternoon takes like 1 hr + to get there and another 1 hr to get home. When the total journey time is double of the class time, you know it's far. So we didn't continue with Musikhaus after 6 weeks. And when we get the call from Shichida in January about enrolment, we declined. Wisma Lim Foo Yong in KL or Centrepoint. Both are about the same distance as going to Musikhaus. With all the rushing and jam, we knew we couldn't survive.

That's until we found Heguru at Midvalley. It's 30 mins from home and Ivan could do shopping while I attend the class with Valerie. The combination is just perfect :D Sometimes I would give Ivan a list of things to buy from Jusco during that 1 hr. That's like killing two birds with one stone. hehe...

Ok, I've diverted again. Back to the books. Well, after joining Heguru for a month. I like the classes and the sensei. But I'm concerned that I don't have much information on what is right brain training all about. And there is no workshop for parents to attend and all the books are in Japanese. I don't even know what home training I should be doing. If given a choice, I would prefer to join Shichida instead because I get to attend parents' workshop and they provide worksheets and guidance how to do home training.

I guess I'm the type of person that needs to know everything from top to bottom. Otherwise, there's no point in paying a bomb for a class if you don't know what is going on. I have to understand what each activity is all about and most importantly, how to train the right brain. So after finding out that there are some books by Dr Makoto Shichida in English, I was so excited.

The only problem is you need to email them and then call them up to give your credit card details. So yes, you need to call to Japan. But no big deal, it's a short call. I actually enjoyed listening to them speaking Japanese. They are just so polite and sweet.

I bought 3 books. Since I'm paying the same delivery charges, I thought why not grab all the relevant books. So here is the list:

1. The Shichida Method
2. Children Can Change Through Right Brain Education
3. Right Brain Education in Infancy

I have to say they are really good books if you want to fully understand what right brain training is all about. And I'm glad I got all 3 because they complement each other. The Shichida Method is like a handbook showing you the methods to train a child in right brain. Straight to the point and no nonsense. The 2nd book focuses on how we should raise a child in right brain education like showing a lot love and positive affirmation etc.. The last book may be a bit boring for some, it's more on the theory side of right brain education. Understanding how the right brain works, the principle.. etc.. All 3 books have overlapping testimonials but very inspiring. Basically the books say once the right brain is unleashed, you can do almost anything as long as you put your mind to it.

The only caution I have is finding a balance in between believing in yourself too much and having the dependency in God. Because there is one example quoted where people of one community praying to God for changes and when the changes came through, the author believed it was more of the power of the right brain willing the change to happen rather than God working the miracles.

Other than that, great books to have. Will explain more in the next post.

Heguru Class

After 1 month of attending Heguru, Valerie is recognised as the most 'active' one in class. She likes to go to the front every now and then and turn in circles next to sensei during the flash card session. I have to drag her back every now and then. Here is the snapshot of the activities in the Heguru class:



1. Telling the Time - At the start of the session, sensei will teach the kids how to read the time on the clock by turning the hands of the clock very fast. I think it is also to train the eye. Valerie pays attention to this.

2. Follow the picture - Sensei will have a small picture tied to a string and display it around the class, the kids will follow the picture and try to see what it is. Is this eye simulation?

3. Self-intro session - This is Valerie's favourite where sensei will display the name card and call her name. Valerie will quickly stand up and walk to the front and hold her card while sensei say her name. Her name used to be called last and can see she's always wanting to go to the front when it's not her turn yet. But in the recent classes, her name comes up first. I wonder if it's new strategy by the sensei because of her 'activeness'?

4. Relaxation Time - Sensei will dim the lights and play soft music with narration. We're supposed to close our eyes to relax and try to imagine based on the narration. Now when the lights is dimmed, Valerie will put her hands to cover her eyes. But she won't stay still as usual. After few seconds she will open her eyes and see her other classmates also staring or doing something else. But I notice if I try to close my eyes and relax, Valerie will not walk around so much cos mummy is not looking at her. And she always want mommy to look at her :P

5. Breathing & Affirmation - Valerie will try to follow every now and then.

6. Spot the Difference - Sensei gives 2 - 3 photos for Valerie to spot the difference or to guess which shadow is the shadow of the picture shown.

7. Mandara (diagram on left) - Picture is flashed on the screen for a while and we have to put the right color on the picture. Then next session, we have to draw the shape and colour as well. This is more like a test for mommies as the kids are too young to understand. Most of them will grab the colour pencils and happily doodle on the paper. Starting last week, we now have to memorise previous week's mandara and be tested.

8. ESP - Valerie fails miserably in most of the ESP sessions. She will point to the wrong answer or try to take the entire card away without choosing the answer. Sometimes she doesn't want to choose at all. But there are the rare times where she got the answer correct. This is more like a guessing game to me. Either that or my baby really doesn't have much 'sensing' power :P

9. Flash card - Lots and lots of flash cards session on various topics, ie. objects, action words, opposites, numbers, malaysia flags, world knowledge, paintings, music, emotions, colours, foreign language and chinese chars. Halfway through, Valerie will start turning rounds next to the sensei. I noticed there's a circle pattern on the carpet next to the sensei. LOL, maybe they should change carpet. :D There's also the super flash sessions on the screen on japs words, just very very fast until it catches Valerie's attention.

10. Maths - I read in forums where mommies shared the more home practice they did with their kids on certain sessions, the more they will pay attention in class. I find this very true. Initially Valerie doesn't really pay attention to the dot cards and keep wanting to have her hands on the big abacus. After I bought the dot cards and practiced with her on weekdays, now she will pay attention to the sensei. Maybe it's because now the session makes sense to her so she's interested?

11. Linking Memory - Sensei will form a long story as she places each card on the floor. I think there's about 30 cards or so. Each kid / parent will need to take part forming a sentence for 3 pictures. After that sensei will cover each card in sequential number. Then we have to remember each picture in the order. Same as the Maths, after I practiced this with her using 4-6 cards at home, she actually start to pay attention in class instead of trampling on the cards.

12. Tangram (diagram on left) - One of her favourites, most likely because she can get her hands on the various shapes and study them, rather than trying to piece them together to form a picture. So another session where mommy does most of the work.

13. Peg Numbers (diagram below) - There's a song that links the pictures together and each picture represent a number. For eg. 61 - sea shell, 62 - sea horse etc.. and this is being repeated a few times. The sensei told me peg numbers is to associate objects with numbers so that you can remember a very large number like 467936 by remembering the objects.

14. Other hands on activities - Many other quick hands-on sessions to keep the kids interested in the class. It is no joke trying to captivate a small kid's attention for 1 whole hour. So I'm glad they have all these hands-on stuff to keep them busy. Things like matching a row of objects after seeing the one on the screen, plucking red berries from a tree and putting them in a basket ( I think this is so cute) and many more which I cant remember now. Valerie will always cry a bit when the things are taken from her end of the session.

15. Song and dance time - I find this very funny. When Valerie is supposed to sit through the flash card sessions, she will go up to the front and turn rounds next to the sensei. When it's time for her to actually follow the sensei to dance along to a song, she will sit down and stare at the sensei dancing without moving an inch. Brrrrrhhhh....

16. Outdoor activity - This is Valerie's favourite. The minute the door is open, she will run straight out of the room. At the open area, there's usually a short physical activity for the kids. Valerie loves this very much and I personally think she excels in this session. Once there was bowling session, the kids are supposed to roll the ball into the 'goal' area. Valerie just went and kicked the ball straight in... Haha... Another time, kids have to walk through a tunnel. Valerie went first and when she's done, she went back to the queue, so she did it twice compared to other kids. Oh oh.. another time, they have to hold a spoon with a pingpong ball and walk around the room. Valerie only dropped the ball twice and when she's done, she managed to drop the ball into the basket and the spoon in another.

17. Hiragana / Japs session - Towards the end of the class, there will be the hiragana song which Valerie loves to hear (maybe because I tried to sing to her at home every now and then but out of tune of course :P ). And then there will be another japanese song, Valerie will climb up the table and move around to the song. And then all kids will start to be on the table, moving around. Aiyoo... Lastly, tracing of japanese chars and chemistry element. Valerie loves to trace with my hand guiding her. She always pay attention to tracing although she cant write yet but she's very good with scribbling on the paper (notice the 'conteng' lines in the diagram). She started off with straight lines, now I start to see her drawing curves. I think she's progressing.

18. Story telling - This is not so happening for Valerie mainly because I think the pictures and words are too small for the kids. Plus the sensei pronunciation on english is not that fluent and the intonation does not capture the kids. (well, you cant expect too much from someone who speak english, mandarin and japs). I think my story telling is more interesting :P Maybe it's the end of the 1 hr, so most kids don't really listen to the story and start figiting.

There are many other mini activities which I can't recall at the moment. But I'm surprised to list so many here, I guess it is quite a well-spent 60 mins in the class, provided Valerie pays attention of course.

Toothbrush

Recently I've added tootbrush picture into the flash card collection to teach Valerie. Now whenever I brush my teeth, she will point to the toothbrush to indicate she knows what it is and wants to have her hands on it.

So I washed her tiny toothbrush which I've bought months ago and showed it to her, she was so excited. But I kept it away and told her to drink her milk first, then water n then we will brush her teeth. (Currently I used a wash cloth with the baby toothpaste to wipe her teeth before sleeping.

Valerie seemed to understand and she quickly lie on my arm n drank her bottle of milk. When she's done, she point to her toothbrush. Then I said, 'Drink water first'. She opened her mouth and gulped down some water from her water bottle. Then again, she pointed to her toothbrush.

I put a little toothpaste on and slowly guided her how to brush her teeth from top to bottom. She smiled and I could see she felt a bit funny hearing the 'slush slush' sound of brushing. Then she tried it on her own. Valerie seemed to enjoy it, so I'm planning to try the brushing teeth routine with her.

MaMen!!

I'm inspired by a mommy's blog where she posted a video of her daughter saying prayers at the age of 2 years! After that I showed it to Ivan and he was impressed as well. So that night itself, I thought why not start praying with Valerie?

I taught her to put her hands together when I say 'Pray Pray', and then I said a simple prayer like 'Thank you God for nen nen (milk), Amen!'. Valerie quickly catch on and say 'MaMen!!'. As she said it, she will also nod her head. Haha.. so cute.

Then I said 'Praise God'... and she said 'Pis God'. Ah well.. almost close. So now, after the night feed and before going to bed, I will say 'Pray Pray' and she will put her hands together and after a short prayer, she will say 'MaMen!!!'.

Valerie is Weaned!

You know what most breastfeeding mom fear most? It's when their baby is addicted to the breast and refuse to wean off. I know of one mom whose kid is still refusing to wean after 2 years old. I'm not against moms who prefer to breastfeed longer than 2 years old but personally I felt quite tired of going to the pump room every day to express my milk after 1 year old. And to bump into well meaning people who said 'Oh.. you're still doing it? That's good.. That's good...' Well... it's good if you're enjoying it. It's not when you start to dread it.

So about 17 months, I decided I will stop expressing milk in the daytime. Ivan is not that supportive of it, in fact he always make me feel guilty about stopping, but I'm so determined to ignore him this time :P It's quite a feeling when you know it's your last time to pump. You hold the pump and the bottle and knowing this will be the last. And after that, when you start seeing all your preciously stored bottles disappearing one by one in the fridge... well.. it's kind of sad. But I know it's time to move on.

The suprising thing is, Valerie doesn't seem to miss the breasts at all! For the last 4 months, I have been mixing 3 oz of bm and 3oz of Frisolac Comfort for her afternoon feed. Thankfully she took them without much fuss. Then slowly, I reduce the bm ratio and increasing the formula ratio. So by 17 months, it was like 1 oz of bm and 5 oz of formula. So making 6oz of full formula, she just took them, probably not noticing mommy's milk is no longer in it. :D

Then at night, I was still breastfeeding her, as a consolation to both myself and Ivan. But after 2 week or so, I decided to give her a 5oz formula before sleeping and she gulped it down and still can breastfeed! So I was thinking, have I been starving her all this while? She could actually take it more!

And the amazing thing is, the more doses of Frisolac Comfort I feed her, the more frequent her poo is and softer too. So I start to realise that the formula really does work for constipated baby, it's just that I wasn't feeding her frequent enough. In the end, I also fed her formula in the morning. And I have to tell you, her constipation just disappeared!! Can you imagine that, all the tears and struggles for the last 10 months just gone. No more forcing her to drink more water, or eat more fruits or hi fibre stuff. The problem is solved!

Have I known that earlier, I would have stop breastfeeing at 12 months.. Gosh... So what's remain is the middle of the night nibble. Valerie still likes to wake up every 3-4 hrs to suck and I'm so sure she's not hungry. I'm also getting annoyed that I've not had a sleep through the night that most parents already enjoy by this age.

So at 18 months, this is the final decision. To stop breastfeeding completely since she's waking up out of habit to nibble. The first night she woke up abt 3am, I just pat her, carry her, hold her to sleep. And did she put up a fight! She cried and cried for half an hour, eventually no milk so she went back to sleep. I was prepared it would be worse the next day.

The next night, she woke up about 4.30am, I gave her water, she took it and then she said 'Nen Nen'. So we made her a 3oz bottle and she gulped it down without struggling and went back to sleep. And then things start to get better, she wakes up later and later each day that she wakes up at 6.30am. Now that is what I call sleeping :D :D

For the past few days, things have been good. Valerie has not even woken up at 6.30am for her mini milk feed, she just sleep straight till 8.30am. So we've done it. Yey... Valerie is completely weaned from the breasts, no longer constipated, has gained a lot of weight and is finally, sleeping through the night.

So if you ask me which is better, breast milk or formula? I personally think formula from 12 months onwards... This is saying from experience :P

Heguru Trial

I finally took Valerie to Heguru for a trial. So happened that I was at MV doing my facial on Wed and Heguru was open so I walked up to have a look at the place, saw the CD preview of the programme and signed up for the RM80 trial. What I like about it is that they have a trial class and you only need to commit to the programme on a monthly basis. Unlike Shichida and Tweedlewink, no trial class and they want you to sign up per semester of 3 months. The thing is, how do you sign up for a RM1200 course for 3 months, without trying it in the first place. 3 months is a long commitment, if your baby doesn't like it, it's like paying to suffer.

So we brought her to the class on Father's Day. I forgotten that Sunday was Father's Day. When we reached MV, we only had 50 mins to lunch and I've promised Ivan a Fathers' Day treat. I picked Chinoz at Gardens cause I've always wanted to try it but mainly because the place is not that full and I thought the food will arrive faster :P

But I have to say Chinoz's food is pretty good. We orderd Spaghetti Carbonara and Smoke Salmon Pizza. The pizza is just superbly yummy with lots of smoke salmon on it. After the quick lunch (sorry daddy), we rushed to Heguru. We were 5 mins late. When we walked into the trial room, we could hear one baby crying very loudly. Entered in and we saw it's a 20-months old boy, crying non stop after sensei asked him to introduce himself in front.

Valerie just watched in amazement. Then sensei asked her to stand in front to introduce herself with a big name tag prepared. Valerie just grinned and walked to the front, not knowing what is happening and smiled, while trying to grab the name tag from sensei. There was only 2 babies for this trial, Valerie and the boy. And the boy continued to cry hysterically.

In the end, the sensei had to allow the boy and the parents to leave the room while continue on the lesson. So only Valerie left. We started with a quiet relaxation time. Listening to soft music and we're told to imagine something with our eyes closed. I covered Valerie eyes for a while, before she start pushing my hands away and walked around the room, smiling.

Next is Mandara session, where a picture of geometrical shapes and colours in shown on the screen, we're supposed to watch it for few seconds and then recolour the same thing on the worksheet. Well, errrm.. Valerie obviously doesn't know what is going on but she's having fun picking crayons and drawing lines on the worksheet, while sensei helped mommy to colour the shapes. I'm quite embarassed at how bad my memory is :P

After that, it's a series of very fast flash cards that covered a lot of things like words, numbers, japanese chars, chinese chars. There was also flash cards of famous paintings and musical instruments, words in French, chemistry element and world names. In between the flash cards, there were other sessions where Valerie could get her hands on the exercise. I don't know what they are called. Placing those geometrical shapes according to the picture on the sheet. And then tracing of Japanese char and a chemistry element?! There's singing and dancing too. Oh, and also a guessing game session, where Valerie supposed to pick the card with raining picture, is that to train ESP? Looks more like a 50-50 probability to me.

How does Valerie react to the session? Well, she just enjoyed running round and round the room while I tried to pick her up ocassionaly and ask her to look at sensei. At one point, she even climb up her work table and started turning round and round while the teacher is singing. Certains times she would walk to the front and try to snatch the cards from teacher. Gosh!! What an hyper kid!

Halfway throught the session when sensei open the door a little for the other boy to join the class from outside (he would cry the minute he walks into the room), Valerie took a leap and run straight to the door trying to explore new grounds. Gosh, the kid!! I have to pull her back in to pay attention again.

Then there was craft time, where she's supposed to draw something for Fathers day. Of course she could only draw lines, so I traced her tiny hands on the paper, sensei gave Valerie a few stickers to stick and I wrote 'Happy Father's Day'. Valerie sticked the sticker on the floor, aiyooo.. so sensei put it back onto the paper. The other boy joined in the craft, still crying a little while his parents coaxed him to draw. Valerie then took a few stickers and gave it to him. She said 'Nah....' Very cute right, her own craft not finished but want to kacau 'kor kor'.

At the end of the session, I had a chat with the sensei and asked her a few questions. She told me the younger the easier and better to train the right brain. Of course first session can expect Valerie not to pay attention so well, but she seemed to enjoy the class. She told me I can start seeing results in a year's time. Then, daddy took her to the playroom and she enjoyed climbing the slides (she loves slides, don't know why).

I checked a few more details at the counter and will decide if I want to sign her up. The thing about this right brain development is, I don't expect a 1hr per week to do miracles on her, cause it takes daily practice as well. So if I want to sign up, I have to seriously find out more about this and what I need to do at home to make this effective on her. It's either I go all out or don't start on this at all.

Time to go home...

Yesterday Valerie has one of the animated moments. When we arrived at nanny's place to pick her up, I saw her playing with a ball near the house grill. When I got out of the car, I saw her throwing the ball and walked away. Minutes later, she came back with the milk box.

Nanny was laughing hilariously. Apparently, when nanny told her 'Mommy is here', Valerie understood. She threw away her ball and walked to the back to get her milk box (nanny always pass me back the empty expressed milk box every evening). She knew it's time to go home.

We're all stunned how she could relate going home and getting the milk box without being taught. What a cute girl... hehe...

Daddy comic strip 9

Baby Valerie :Errrmm...What shall I order today..??*tough decision*


Baby Valerie : Ohhh...Mr.Pizza...when are you coming....*slurpss*


(Published by Papa Bear Production Ltd)

My Baby Loves to Read

Around the age of 10 months, Valerie started showing interest in books. When I flip through those one-object-one-word baby book, she will look at it, instead of grabbing the book and chew on the corners. So I thought it's a good time to start bed-time reading.

One of my friends highly recommended the Dr. Seuss series. And I started with the 'One Fish, Two Fish...' This book is perfect, cos it basically has a one liner to a picture. So you don't end up reading a very long paragraph with the baby staring at only one picture. She will lose interest that fast, I tell you...

At first, she will pay attention to only like one, two pages and then turn away and start playing with other things. But as I persisted on reading a few more pages every night, I could see her slowly paying more attention.

I also show her the association of real objects with her one-object-one-word book. Like I take her rubber duckie, put it in front of her and point to the book and say 'Duck-ie'. She stares at the toy and then at the book for a few moments, then as she sees the connection between the actual object and the picture book, she has a big smile on her face. It's like a revelation to her.

By about 13 months, when I turn on the night light mode, soft music playing on the background, she know it's bedtime. She will crawl to the stack of baby books, take the Dr Seuss book and put it on my lap to read. That's just so sweet! After reading the Dr Seuss book, we will spend some time going through her one-word book. Her favourite is 'ball.. ball...'. Anything round, is ball ball to her. She will point to the object and say 'ball.. ball...'.

Around 15 months, whenever I start with 'One fish.. two fish..', she will give a very big smile and giggle. I don't know what's so funny with that but she will do the same expression every night. And then when it's time to sleep, she will always whine and quickly grab any baby book and put it on my lap... It's her little protest of 'just one more book, mommy... please...'

So, up to now, she could identify and say a few words:
-Ball ball (obviously),
-Ish (which means fish, can't pronounce the f yet)
-Babble (which is apple)
-Da-ch (duckie)
-Bear bear (this is pretty accurate)

Oh.. we also have this animals book, although she can't speak the words, she can understand a lot more than you think. Say 'cow cow' and she will point to the cow. Say 'chicken leh.. where is chicken' and she will point to the chicken. This is her daddy's favourite time. Up to now, she can spot about 4 animals, cow, chicken, sheep, and horse.

Not bad for at 15 month old, eh?

Daddy Comic Strip 8

Baby Valerie : Nobody is going INTO the toilet....!!!

Baby Valerie : ....or OUT from the toilet....!!!

Baby Valerie : I mean it .....!!!

(Published by Papa Bear Production Ltd)