Ting Ting development @ 3 years 10 months

Here's her development at 3 years 10 months:

1) She knows her numbers 1-100. 
Yes, she is able to recognise numbers from 1-100. I will be extending her beyond 100 in the next phrase.

2) Simple Math
She knows how to do simple addition below 10. For instance, 2+3=5. This is the part which I will be practising more with her. In the next phrase, will add on simple subtraction and times table too.


3) Intense interest in Astronomy 
Her intense interest in astronomy really surprises me on how much she knows for a 3 year old child. She already know all the planets within the solar system and able to tell me the order of the planets from the sun accurately. She can even tell me that the reason why Mars soil is red colour is due to the presence of iron! Also, she knows which are the dwarf planets and which planets are rocky and which are gas giants.

One day, she suddenly told me "Mommy, I think last time we come from Mars and we take the spaceship and come to Earth!" Well well, although it may sounds far fetch, but it means to me that she was thinking about it in her small inquisitive mind to make such hypothesis.

She is also very interested in black holes and kept asking me questions about black hole. Seriously, I have no idea too, but because of her question, I had to research and explained to her.

She told me that her aspiration is to be an astronaut and next time when she grows up, she wants to build a spaceship and go to the space with me!

I hope that she will continue her interest and passion in astronomy. If need be, I am prepare to support her to study astronomy in overseas as Singapore currently do not offer such courses which is a shame. I felt our government is limiting a lot of our young ones to further their interest in areas of breakthrough. Look at America, I believe the reason why they can be so advance in innovation and creativity is their willingness to explore the unknown through exploring space.

I felt that astronomy holds the key to our future generation's survival. Many other countries like China and India are starting to devote more resources in space exploration. Who knows, perhaps one day, human beings will migrate to other planets?

4) New interest in volcanos
Her new interest is volcanos currently. She is very fasinated by volcanoes and scrutinized every details of the volcano book by bombarding me with questions. I am happy that she asked so many questions because it shows that her curious mind is thinking and in the process I learn too.

Now, she can even tell me the volcanos are caused by movement of tectonics plates. Yes, when she said the word "tectonics",  I was so surprised. I don't remember I had taught her this but maybe while reading the volcano book, we came across this information?

Anyway, I am glad to borrow books of her interest and read to her every night. It seems to me so far, she is interested in astronomy and geography.

Let's see what's her upcoming new interest.

Seriously, I am happy about her progression. My objective is to cultivate and develop her interest, strength, moral values and character with a balance on academic results.

Therefore, if she shows keen interest in certain areas, I will do all I can to play to her interest like borrowing books from the library, visiting places of interest like the science centre observatory, going outdoors to explore things in the nature. I may even plan a volcano trip to our neighbourhood countries like Indonesia for her learning and exposure.

Having a child really changed me as a person. I am very motivated to learn new things which can benefit my parenting. I like to attend workshops, courses and organise family trips for bonding and for the good of my gal. Every step taken is to ensure she can grow up in a conducive environment.

We are also contemplating whether to move house to stay near to parks (so that we can exercise more regularly and more fresh air), good schools (preferably near to our choice of primary school and even sec school to minimise her travelling in the future)  and amenities (groceries). But such property is difficult to find and it takes some time to research too.

In time to come, we shall know.

Review of 2016

Time flies. Another year had passed and now we are at the beginning of new year. Before embarking to the new journey, I shall review the happenings of 2016 and what had been achieved.

1) Ting Ting started her new childcare. 

She just started and been in the new centre for 1 month. So far, I am quite alright with what I saw in the childcare centre. However there are some issues which triggered my concerns. 

After spending 2-3 weeks, Ting Ting declared that she didn't like the centre. When I asked her why, she told me that some of the kids and teachers there were not nice to her. When I asked her what happened, she told me that was because sometimes the teachers scolded her as she don't obey the teachers' instructions. She was also upset that 1-2 kids pushed her in the school. She also felt the centre is not a fun place and there is "nothing there". 

Knowing my gal very well, she don't like it when people tells her off. Even at times when I told her off at home, she will get very emotional and started to cry. But that doesn't mean because she cried, then I will give in to her especially when she misbehaved. As a headstrong and stubborn gal even at such a tender age of 3 years old, she already developed her likes and dislikes and sometimes, she tend to insist on what she wants and determine to get it. 

Therefore, I am fine with the teachers teaching her the proper ways to behave while in the childcare centre. She also shared there were only 1 or 2 kids who were nasty to her but the rest of the kids have been kind to her. I find that such kids bullying behaviour is quite common nowadays everywhere, from her previous playgroup and even now at the childcare centre. I was not particularly alarmed by the teachers and kids. Therefore what I did is to teach her some coping skills to change her mindset by explaining to her why the teachers told her off and also how she can do better and tactics on how to cope when some kids tried to bully her. 

But I was particularly concern when she told me that "there is nothing there" and not fun. To me, enrolling my gal to childcare centre is to have fun while learning as well. Based on what I have observed during my first 3 days at the childcare centre, the teachers did try to engage the kids by having games and activities with them. So what is the "nothing there" means? 

What I can think of is that my gal gets bored of the repetitive activities and she needs more activities which can stimulate her.  

As a young child of 3 years old, I find my gal quite advance in many ways as compared to her same age group. She can speak relatively well, had quite a wide range of vocabulary, therefore able to  express herself well. 

It did occur to me that she may be gifted in some way, but I had some reservations to get her tested at this age. What is limiting her is she tends to get easily distracted sometimes. When she is in good mood, she is able to focus very well and follow all instructions given. But she is not able to consistently upkeep that concentration. This is my main concern as well. Until she is able to learn to focus consistently, then I may send her for testing.

In the meantime, to cope with her boredom, we have signed her up for enrichment lessons which the childcare centre conducts which hopefully can help to stimulate her interest. It is not a matter of kiasu, but rather, I felt that if she has the capacity for more learnings, then why not if it is within our limits.  

In addition, to help her to focus better while learning at the childcare centre, I will be enforcing to limit her screen time for TV and gadgets. Actually in my family, my husband and my mother are the ones who indulged her frequently on watching TV programmes and on the smart phone. I was not very pleased with such inconsistency especially with regards to access to all these gadget stuff. Once in a while is ok but not everyday especially when I am not around. I did spoke to them previously, but they don't seems to get it. After a while, they will indulged her again especially when I was not around whenever she asked them for it. It appears to me that they wanted to be the good guy while I am the bad guy in the family. I felt that such inconsistency had over time developed my gal into certain behaviour or mindset of entitlement which I greatly feared. 

So therefore, this is something I like to work on in this new year. I would like to have that consistently in parenting within the family to instill more discipline of my gal's behaviour. 

As for the childcare centre, I will closely monitor my gal if there is an improvement after taking up the enrichment lessons. 

2) New Job and Year of learnings

As shared in my previous post, I started my new job just a few months ago and I felt I am able to cope so far. 2016 was a year of learning for me as well. I took up a graduate diploma course while working at my new job. It was a great challenge for me after going hiatus for quite some time. But I'm glad it turned out well and I passed my bridging modules with quite good results which I was surprised too considering the challenges. 

I hope to continue this momentum and hopefully I can complete my graduate diploma course by end of this year. 

3) Friends

Because of my busy schedule with my work, school and spending time with family, I missed most of the gatherings with my friends. We also had some argument over some minor issues which I regretted. This is something I hope to work on in the new year. Hope to manage my time better so that my friends are not neglected while striking a balance with my family, work and school.

Conclusion

I have made some goals for 2017. There are many things I like to achieve but having the discipline to persevere what I set out is the key to success. Having greater self-discipline is something which I need to learn in order to achieve my goals. 

I like this quote by H. Jackson Brown Jr:

“Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There's plenty of movement, but you never know if it's going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.”