After C's swim class this afternoon, we decided to drop by the farm that was near by. It was a good choice because the children had a good deal of fun feeding the goats and rabbits there.

Think we will be back next weekend. :)

This is Cheryl's pet phrase these days. She would request to do craft every night and before we even started, she would tell me that she wanted to do certain particular tasks.

She did some writing for Chinese and then went on to do some pasting and colouring.

C is learning about masculine and feminine forms of nouns.

:) Nice!

Daddy and I always look forward to C's art class on Saturday. Not just because our Princess is extremely enthusiastic about her art class, it is also because she comes back with her many wonderful drawings and paintings.

C drew a boat this time. Perhaps I should consult Teacher Moe about getting C to work on drawing something for Church. ... hmm... okay, I will email Teacher Moe. :)

The theme in school is Recycling and several weeks back, C told us that she had to bring some empty cans to school.

This evening, I saw that she had turned one of the empty cans into a snail. :)

Now, I am wondering what else did she make in school.

When C learned that I was going to get her her own camera, she was very happy and today, her package arrived in the mail. Apparently, our Precious couldn't wait for our return from work before she opened her package.

Our Spark, posing with her new camera. Well, it wasn't long before she snapped away...

the view from our window... 

Not bad! The camera came with these cute Disney characters. Okay, now Daddy and I await in anticipation for the shots that she would take in the days to come.

This evening was very productive because C wanted to do so many activities.

Updates from Ms Novelle about C's progress for English. She is doing very well indeed with her plural and singular nouns. Her handwriting has also considerably improved.

For music, C has moved on to a new music book and Polka was the first song she learned. Teacher Sophia commented that C is improving too and playing better in class.

Several months back, I spoke to Ms Ling and asked about C's progress for her Mandarin because besides the Mandarin Readers that C returns with every now and then as well as the fortnightly updates on what has been taught in class, C doesn't have any writing to do. Hence I was wondering if C was able to recognise simple Mandarin characters. This evening, while we were doing our nightly craft activities, C showed me that she could recognise and in fact write some Mandarin characters. I "tested" her and she "passed". Ha ha.

21 July is a special day and more so when we live in a multi-racial society. We should never ever take our peace for granted because all it takes is an insensitive remark about someone else's religion or race and that would spark a mayhem.

C went to school decked out in her cheong sum, which Grand Mummy bought her for Chinese New Year.

 She even wore her bracelet to school. She can be such a vain pot. Daddy took this picture and my, my, our Precious is a lady now. :)

C didn't have homework to do this evening hence we were free to do our nightly activities. Last Sunday, I finally made a trip to get her some craft books and other workbooks to occupy her in the evenings.

I wanted to sign C up for some Math enrichment class initially but we were turned away. In the past, I would usually print Math worksheets from the Internet websites and then bind them into a book for her. So far, she had been working on addition and subtraction sums and now that C could read, I thought it would be good to introduce her to simple word problem.

Our first activity was very manageable and C could read her sums easily. They also tested her comprehension skills as she needed to work out whether the sums required her to add or subtract. But she did alright. :)

After the serious stuff, we did craft work. Simple cutting and pasting and then colouring. C loves to do these and she was begging to have a go at one more before we turned in for the night.

At the beginning of the term, there was a letter from the school which informed us that C would be having her eyes tested. It was a routine test and we saw no reason why C shouldn't do it.

So, the conclusion of the test "Normal" although at the very end of the report, doc's recommendation was that she should exercise proper eye care.

I did a little reading up over the Internet to understand what the numbers mean...

The following information was taken from Eye-Test

What is considered normal vision?

Normal visual acuity is 6/6. Just a size which considered
The first number represents the test distance, 6 metres. The second number represents the certain size of Snellen letter on the eye chart.

What is 20/20 vision?

In the UK we work in Metric compared to Feet in the USA.
In Metric Acuity, 20/20 equals 6/6. The conversion is that 20 feet equals approximately 6 meters (actually 6.096).

What do all the numbers mean?

In order to make comparisons visual acuity achieved is expressed as a fraction - the standard chart distance is six meters, normal acuity is designated 6/6, and other acuities are expressed as ratios.

A rough comparison of Visual acuities on Eye test chart

6/3           Not many people achieve this - sniper perhaps
6/4.5         Excellent
6/6           Normal standard
6/7.5         Able to see telex text on TV
6/9
6/10          Driving standard equivalent
6/12
6/15
6/30
6/60

From this chart, it seems that C is alright. She is able to read the small text; subtitles that appear on the television screen.

More practices on number bonds. Now, C has to write her own.

She is able to recognise that if the numbers exchange their positions, they still add up to the same.

We always look forward to the craft pieces that C returns with from Josiah.

This time, she made a bracelet.

The colours are nice and the bracelet was a good fit.

We wanted to go kite flying and when we finally put it on our "to-do" list on Saturday, the rain ruined the occasion hence we had to postpone the activity till this evening.

C was sorely disappointed and when we told her that we would definitely go for her kite-flying this evening, she was elated! There were many people there at the field and their kites were already in the air, flying high.

Daddy and Uncle Ben were the ones who got the kite in the air first.

C and her beautiful butterfly kite that Aunt Margaret got for her. 

Our kite in the air, with the other kites.. It was quite a sight especially with the clear blue sky as it's backdrop.

Aunt Di and I also tried our hands at flying the kite...

Some weeks ago, C took her swimming test and passed it.

It must be a big thing because C got a certificate and a badge for it! :) She was mighty proud of herself ... well, Daddy and I were too. 

Cheryl is now learning to do another style now.

Cheryl's latest art piece: butterfly.

This is the second week of the new term and this evening, C was particularly excited because she told me, "I have homework to do!" Ha ha! This was because she hadn't had much homework to do in the evenings except for the reading of her log book.

She exclaimed loudly that she is learning number bonds and doing more exercises in class.

Nicely done!

For English, C is learning about singular and plural nouns. I also noticed that her handwriting has improved. :)

For Culture, C is taught to care for Earth. She talks about pollution and recycling all the time now. 

C revisited her books of mazes. She was wondering how she could spend her time in the evening and then after some deliberation, she said that she would do her mazes.

The thing about these mazes, she would plough through these exercises very quickly and at one time, do as many as 10 of them. Her other activity books are also almost completed so perhaps we would make a trip to the book store soon... Or I could surf the Internet for more. Hmmm....

Daddy wanted to take us here but we couldn't seem to find the opportunity to until last evening. We were wondering where should we go for dinner and then Daddy commented that we should go there.

Oasis, a taiwan porridge restaurant parked in the middle of a very tranquil and lovely garden. 

Because there were only 3 of us, we ordered ourselves a very modest spread of simple dishes to go with the steaming hot porridge.

Guess what? We loved the food and the place so much, all of us gave it the thumbs up and had Aunt Di, Uncle Ben, Asher, Aunt Margaret and Aunt Jules joined us for dinner this evening at the same place.

Yummy food! And we would be back ... with Grand Daddy and Grand Mummy. They would definitely agree to the food. :)