Alphabets

Valerie was playing by herself one night, when I suddenly noticed she was putting alphabets on the magnetic board that she got from her birthday. I saw her putting the letter 'A' and she said 'A', then 'N' and she said 'N'. I was shocked beyond words and quickly asked Ivan to come over. Just then she put on the letter 'S' and said 'S'!!

Does this mean Valerie know her alphabets already? Later when my sister came over, I told her the incident and she asked Valerie the same three letters. And she repeated the same. The next day, I pointed to a brochure and asked her what is the letter and she said 'T' and 'O' correctly. I was very thrilled.

Later that week, at Heguru class, she was learning the letter 'N'. I showed the card to her confidently and she said 'N' loudly. Sensei was quite surprised.

Anyway that was about the few incidents that happened. After that she never showed she know the alphabets anymore. And I didn't specifically test her either. Up until last week, while we were out shopping at Jusco, there was plaster tapes on the floor and they were shaped like 'L'. Valerie then pointed to the tapes and said 'L' and then pointed to another 'L'. There was one that looked like a 'T' and she said 'T'. Our hearts leaped a beat, she still remember her alphabets!

And just last week, she suddenly pointed to my shirt and spelled out 'SAVE THE PLANET' one by one... The only letter she didn't seem to know was 'V'.

Sometimes I wonder if Valerie knows the full set of alphabets, or is it because when she sees something, it just come to her mind and she just blurt the letters out? Maybe the memory is stored somewhere and some day the letters flash across her mind and some day, they don't and she doesn't seem to recognise them.

Or maybe she just doesn't like to show her parents that she knows them. Only once in a while she likes to give us suprises? Ahh.. the wonder of how brain works.......

Sunday School

This year I've decided to enrol Valerie to Junior Sunday School after recommendation from a church friend. However I found out that the entry age is only at 3 but Valerie has just turned 2. But since she's born in 2008, she's considered 3 academically. So she's allowed to join but mommy needs to be around to accompany her until she's more independent.

Initially I was hoping to send her Sunday School as part of a transition for her before starting kindi. But after observing her for 2 lessons I guess I have a long way to go. No need to think about going to service while leaving her there. She's pretty much sticking to mommy the entire time. Only at the activity time (last 20 mins), she will not look for me. That's usually arts and crafts time where kids are divided into classroom according to their age.

On the hind sight, I could see she tried to join in the activities. After the first lesson, now she can show me the 'pray' gesture. When I say 'Let's pray', she will put her hands together and pray. Before this, she will let me say the prayer and then she will say 'Amen' just before she goes to bed. But she could never get the 'pray' gesture despite me teaching her many times.

Now we've started the family prayer where we hold hands together to pray just like what she learn in school. This has become one of her favourite moment before she goes to sleep. But somehow she only wants Daddy to say the pray, when I try to pray, she will put her hand to my mouth to stop me and then point to daddy. This happens every night. Maybe she knows daddy is the head of the family?? Hehe...

And at offering, she's very funny. I gave her RM1 and asked her to put into the offering bag when it's her turn. After putting, she will follow the teacher around and keep looking at the bag. Luckily she didn't come back and ask mommy for more $$$.

In terms of singspiration, she's slowly picking up songs. For the fast songs, she's still trying to follow the actions. For the slow songs, she could sing 'Jesus Loves Me This I Know' very well, that's because I've sang this to her since she's born. :) We're given an activity each week where parents have to do with children. Usually is to reinforce a particular bible verse that is being taught. There is also weekly memory verse. But I will not enforce that for now.

One of her favourite is the puppet show. This is the only session where she pays full attention to. I now see the vast difference between sending her to Heguru and Sunday School. Heguru is pretty exclusive and kids are taught they will have equal turn to participate in each activity. Well, you paid for the classes :P

But Sunday School is like a representation of what public kindi / school will be in the future. There will not be equal participation from each children simply because the group is a lot larger. And only selective kids will get to play a game or an activity. I feel this is something Valerie has to learn to get used to.