The Rainbow Fish

Today was Papa’s solo day with Sophie. I had to attend Auntie Serene's wedding lunch at the church and her wedding dinner at night. He took her to Yamaha at 11 am for her music lesson, then let her nap in the car before getting her lunch.

After lunch, they made their way to the show “The Rainbow Fish” at 2.30pm. Unlike their previous experience with theatre performance, Papa was full of praises for this show. He said that it was engaging enough and Sophie did not fidget at all during the show.

There was also a little kiosk for children to do some related craft work ($6) before and after the show. I thought that was pretty smart since the parents would love to keep the little ones busy while waiting.

This was what Sophie came back with – a rainbow fish mobile. It was simple but she did it almost all by herself. She was so proud and happy with her work that she took it everywhere she went.

After the show, Papa had to take Sophie to her lesson at Act 3. They were good together until she came back around 5.30pm. According to Papa, she was well behaved and very cooperative that day. He enjoyed his time with her thoroughly. Upon hearing that, I decided to buy tickets for their next show "The Elves & The Shoemaker" in October.

Heels... Girls Would Be Girls...

Sophie was so excited when she saw my heels. She quickly unwrapped them and put them on. She tried to walk in them but she could not balance. Thus, she just sat on the coffee table and posed!

Papa said the shoes looked good on her. She reminded me of Cinderella... that would make me... the evil stepsister???

Kite Festival

Ah Gong is a kite fanatic (at least that is what my mum says) so he told me to take the kids to the indoor kite flying demonstration at Toa Payoh Hub (Kite Festival). I told him we would go together after I came back from NCPS Funfair, but he did not. Instead, he let Sophie take her nap (but she refused) and then he took her there by public bus, all by himself. I thought he was pretty brave.

Anyway, I quickly went down by cab with Alfee to meet them. I found them sitting at the steps of the open space, waiting. Apparently, the demonstrations would only start at 5pm. By then both Sophie and Alfee were very tired and hungry. Alfee fell asleep in Ah Gong's arms while I tried to engage Sophie in appreciating the kites. The demonstration was alright, but the organisers were not very good. They were pretty aloof and could not answer any of my queries. At one point, one of them even invited Sophie to paint on a kite (someone was already painting on it) so I had to restrain her. The other girl would be quite devastated to have her work "destroyed" by an overzealous preschooler. In the end, I had to promise her a kite to paint on before she was willing to let it go.

At home, Sophie took out a piece of paper and started drawing her experience at the Kite Festival. She drew someone flying a kite (Princess design). Then I taught her to spell the words for her sentence.

I can read

A few days ago, I started on our “Wall of Sight Word” with Sophie. I felt that she is ready for some simple sight words recognition and reading. Thus, I introduced some sight words using her sight word readers. She seemed to remember well.

Then I decided to test her and write a few sentences using those sight words and included a few common words like “apple”, “boy” and “ball”. To my surprise, she could read the sentences. So I pushed her further by getting her to do a simple dictation “I see a boy and a ball in a picture.” and she did it. Of course she had to draw the ball, the boy and the picture instead of writing the words.



Yesterday, we tried again. This time, she was able to read better and she even remembered those non-sight words. I am impressed that she has improved so quickly. I believe it is time to encourage more independent reading.

Practising Piano

Tomorrow will be Sophie's third piano lesson. She was given some homework based on her 'ability' and my first response to her teacher was 'You've got to be kidding!' followed by 'No way, she can do that!'. In fact, she was not even willing to try it in class last week.



The rest of the week was stressful for both of us. I am not musically trained so I cannot correct her mistakes. Thank goodness for IPhone! I asked the teacher to let me take video clips of what she needed to practise so that I can help her at home.



Practising piano really requires a lot of discipline and time. I hope Sophie will continue and eventually learn to play the instrument. Meanwhile, we survived this week... Hooray! We will face tomorrow's challenge bravely.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar And Other Eric Carle Favourites

We first saw the billboard for this show at Act 3 during Sophie's weekly lessons. I decided then I would be taking her there. She has never attended any plays or performances like this before so I thought we should choose a familiar show for a start.The plan was for Papa to watch Alfee with my helper while we spend quality time bonding. Well, we used Plan B. Our helper was on leave so I thought Alfee was better off with me. Papa would watch the show with Sophie while we wait outside.So we headed for Fusionopolis (sorry, I have never heard of this place), Genexis Theatre.

It was unfortunate that Papa did not like the show at all. He said most of the children were cranky and noisy in the theatre. Halfway through, Sophie started crying for me. I presumed she was too bored. Papa also complained that the show was exactly like the books and the DVD animations we bought for her so there was no "wow" factor at all. He maintained that such shows should be interactive because children lose their attention very soon. When I asked Sophie, she just said she liked it but that was about all. She did not ask for more or look for the books at home. She just put it behind her. Frankly I was disappointed. I was hoping she would thoroughly enjoyed herself like everyone else I was told. Should she be excited and raving about it? Now I am worried about The Rainbow Fish because Papa have to take her again. Hopefully, Papa would not fall asleep...

For the rest of our Sunday, visit Alfee's blog.

Spitz - スピッツ / テクテク

This is one of Papa's favourite Japanese band - Spitz. Somehow, Sophie is particularly interested in this song, especially after she watched the MTV. I like the song too! She kept asking why the girl left and the orange monster cried. She has such a tender heart sometimes.