XMAS IS COMING! LET'S SHARE A PERSONALIZED VIDEO MESSAGE FROM SANTA

Don't you love to send a personalized video message from Santa to your little prince or princess? They will be so happy to see their own picture with personalized message to encourage them to make greater efforts for the coming year. It takes just a few minutes to prepare the message and above all, it is totally FREE. Let's start sharing Christmas joy with Santa Claus.

1. Portable North Pole (supports UNICEF)
http://www.portablenorthpole.ca/home
Santa Claus and his amazing PNP (Portable North Pole) console will be online during the entire holiday season. With just a few clicks, this technological marvel will let your loved ones receive a personal message from Santa Claus, sent directly from his village in the North Pole. Rediscover Christmas with this immersive and unique experience that brings the holiday magic back to life.


2. Magic Santa
http://magicsanta.ca/
Send a magical card to the North Pole on behalf of a child and Santa Claus will send back a personalized video. The video from Santa can be either in French or English.


To watch the message from Santa for Mew:
http://magicsanta.ca/gateway.html?code=EJOQPW
http://www.portablenorthpole.ca/watch/guest/JlUDvNggAZRlZ_D35pYZQw

MY FAVORITE SONG FOR TODAY

Are you expecting? I would love to share with you part of my collection of the best quotations to inspire you during your 40-week-long adventure with a tiny being inside your womb.

“Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” - Elizabeth Stone

"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, a home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten and the future worth living for." - Unknown

"Children are the purpose of life. We were once children and someone took care of us. Now it is our turn to care." - Cree elder

"Children . . . they string our joys, like jewels bright, upon the thread of years." - Edward A. Guest

"When morning sickness hits, remember this: The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." - Dolly Parton

"A mother holds her children’s hands for a while, but their hearts forever" - Unknown

"A mother's joy begins when new life is stirring inside... when a tiny heartbeat is heard for the very first time and a playful kick reminds her that she is never alone." - Unknown

HAPPY PREGNANCY!

YAY FOR EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES!

So Mew officially began her extracurricular activities this week. I enrolled her for a Karate class (white belt - first level) and a swimming class (Poisson-lune - Moonfish).

Mew was extremely excited to participate in the swimming class: she urged me all the time for its enrolment and whenever she went to bath, she would put on her swimming suit and pretend to be a swirling fish in our tiny bath, and make the bathroom's floor look like the aftermath of a flood! Talking about the enrolment of the swimming class, I could have never been able to imagine such a thing here in a developed country: the flyer stated clearly that the enrolment would start from 5pm on Monday 13 September at the quartier's swimming pool but learning from my own experience last year when I came 15 minutes late and no spot left, I decided to go there 1 hour in advance, i.e. at 4pm. Oh my God, upon arriving there, I could not believe in my eyes: a line of about 20 persons had been established in front of the door. I doubted my chance to get a spot for Mew in the class of her level, but then queued in the line anyway with a dim hope. Later, the line became longer and longer and behind me there were about hundred of parents (I was told later that the line was even around a few more blocks). No sign of door opening at 5pm as stated. We waited and waited and more parents came and got shocked at what they were seeing. Until 5.45pm the door finally opened and the enrolment started. Yet the line moved with the turtle's pace and I could only stepped on the threshold at 6.20pm. Luckily, at my turn, there was just one spot available in the class I wanted to enrol Mew. Such a relief! Happy with that, I did not mind waiting outside of the payment room for about 25 more minutes (yet I could not understand why the payment took so long for the people in front of me???). At 6.50pm, I stepped out of the building, with the lucky enrolment slip in hand, and felt so pity for a hundred of parents behind me who then still queued impatiently outside. Coming back home, I told my hubbie that it was just a swimming course and a hundred of parents had to line up for at least 3 hours to get a spot for their children (and a lot would have to come home after long hours of queuing without any success!). It reminded me of the fact that in our native country, in order to have a chance to get a spot for their children in a good public kindergarten or a good public primary school (for future first graders), families often had to queue in front of the school's gate since midnight or even earlier! But that could be understood as it was a competition for a good place of formal education. Here, it was simply a swimming course!!!

I did not go with Mew this morning to her first swimming lesson but according to her Daddy and herself, everything was very fine and Mew did not cry or were not scared at all even though she had to separate from her Daddy before following her teacher to jump into the pool. At this level, kids are required to be at ease in the water with the help of floats and no parents' presence in the water is allowed. I hope that we could have some pictures at her upcoming lessons.

I post here the photos of Mew in her Karate's uniform: she does not really like kungfu (thinking that it is just for boys) but we persuade her to continue with this wonderful teacher to improve her physical fitness as well as to equip herself with necessary self-defense skills that are extremely important for girls today.

PHOTO DAY AT SCHOOL

Mew's school organized a photo day on 15 September and the kids would have both class photo and individual photo sessions. As the photos are always great souvenirs of a kid' young student life, we decided that Mew would wear her most adorable dress to attend this event. Here are some of the photos I took for Mew before and after school on that day:

It is hard to believe that 6 years have been passed and Mew entered Grade 1 already. Time flies so quickly! We have almost forgotten all difficulties that our family had to face during her early childhood and are so proud of our lovely daughter now. Her French is improving day by day and we are no longer worried about her lagging far behind her classmates. In fact, her teacher is very impressed at her good attitude and competence in class. She is also physically active (like a monkey, lol) and we plan to enroll her in the next level of Karate course and a swimming class next week. Her drawing and colouring skills are even more refined and advanced as compared to her friends (it's so funny that while I could easily recognize Mew's artwork at the teacher-parents meeting last week, most of other parents could not even tell which was the portrait drawn by their own child among those glued on the class board, lol)

VIENS! ON VA APPRENDRE L'ALPHABET ENSEMBLE

Mew starts learning ABC in French now. She is excited to show us her homework and willing to sit down to finish it. However, her attention span is rather short, thus she is not quite happy if we repeat some exercises for several times as the teacher requires.

Her first few lessons focus on French vowels. It's not difficult for Mew to distinguish the sounds of "a", "e", "i", "o", "u" and "y". However, today we had a problem with "é" (accent aigu), "è" (accent grave), and "ê" (circonflex). I confused myself with these sounds as I thought "é" and "ê" seem to be similar in pronunciation whereas in accordance to the International Phonetic Alphabet, "è" and "ê" turn out to have the same symbol. I am seeking for the help from her teacher to clarify this issue.

The following resources of French ABCs could be of great help for your children during the beginner's stage:
www.poissonrouge.com/abcfrancais/index.html
http://phonetique.free.fr/alpha/alpha.htm
www.coindespetits.com/alphabet/alphabet.html
http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/phonlab/ipatut/index.html
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~nmswishe/pronwkst.htm
www.qesnrecit.qc.ca/ccdb/aag/fr/gallery-welcome.php
http://myabcfrench.com/my-abc-basic-french/

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL: YAY, MEW ENTERS GRADE 1!

Today 26 August 2010 is the first day of the schoolyear 2010-2011. In our tradition, the first schoolday for all Graders 1 even marks the most important event in kids' school life. It sets off a brandnew start for both kids and their parents in the formers' pursuit of knowledge and scholastic success that pave the ultimate way to life success. It is the time when our kids (and us parents) learn about the notion of "homework", "exams", etc. It is also the time when we all cherish the value of education and sometimes feel lagged behind the pace of knowledge evolution when our kids begin to ask difficult and/or complicated questions. It's indeed the time for all of us to learn and keep learning.

And today Mew enters Grade 1! How great it is! We have talked all about her new experience and adventure in Grade 1 (and even further) for the last few weeks. We started to prepare all school stuffs immediately when the school sent us the list. We sat together to arrange and organize things into her new backpack. We spent hours to make name labels and stick them to her stuffs. We told her to be concentrated in class and listen to her teacher. "You are now Grader 1!" - we remind her all the time. And she feels she is really!

However, we were a bit disappointed at the manner her school organized the first schoolday. In fact, they did not celebrate it nor launch any ceremony at all. Although they sent us a letter informing that the school bus would operate today, we waited at the bus stop until 7.30am and there was no sign of any school bus arriving. Finally, Mew's Daddy had to take her to school by bike (we planned that he would accompany her there on the first day before class anyway, but we wanted her to take the school bus by herself to gain more independence). At school, all the kids and parents waited in the school yard and tried to figure out who would go to which class (I wondered why they did not simply prepare a class list in advance and send it to us together with all other documents?). It was a little bit disorganized when parents searched for their kid's name in the list of students on the nameboard post that each teacher held in her/his hand. However, it did not take long for Mew and her Daddy to spot her name at the 15th place in class 1B (there are totally 16 students in her class this year). Her teacher seems to be older than others with a very kind-looking face, so we expected that Mew would have a wonderful schoolyear with her experienced teacher.

Once all the kids found their class and their teacher, they quickly said goodbye to their parents and off they went into class at 8.00 am. It seemed that Mew still needed a little of transition as she sobbed with her teary eyes and held onto her Daddy when the time for separation came. It was quite understandable since as a kid, she was unsure about her coming experience even though we tried to instill into her mind with the excitement for Grade 1.

We are now anxiously awaiting for her coming home this afternoon to see how her first schoolday was. It should be a beautiful memory for her after all, we hope.

UPDATED: Mew was happy with her first day of Grade 1. So happy and excited that she totally forgot to take home her lunchbag and jacket and could not even remember where she did put them the last time (such a memorable day!). We hoped that she left those things on the school bus home and we could ask the driver for help tomorrow morning. The last thing to complain about her school's disorganization today was the unexpected school bus trip in the afternoon. After the no-show of school bus in the morning, all parents believed that they would have to come to school to pick their kids up in the afternoon. And when parents arrived there at around 3.15pm, they were surprised to know that their kids had got on the school bus to come home. Few were angry while others (including Mew's Daddy) rushed back to the school bus's stop to catch up with their kids. Luckily that Mew's Daddy had arrived there just a few second before the school bus stopped to drop Mew. Otherwise, he would have to make another bike trip back to her school to pick her up, phew!

Here is a beautiful song in our mother tongue for you, our dearest Mew, to help you never forget your first day of school:

LET'S LEARN ENGLISH TOGETHER!

Mew will continue her French education for at least 4 more years. While her French will undoubtedly improve, we are afraid that her English may be negatively affected due to the lack of interactive environment. We want that she can not only speak fluently English but also read smoothly. It is important that she can learn how to read English methodologically with a private tutor or an ESL teacher. We are thus trying to find one at affordable rate. In the meantime, we decided to teach her by ourselves. 

After reviewing a number of phonetics materials for kids, I opted for DOLCH SIGHT WORDS as the first step in teaching Mew to read English. (In his 1948 book, "Problems in Reading", Edward William Dolch published a list of 220 frequently used 'service words' and a separate list of 95 common nouns. These lists are estimated to contain 50-75% of the words in children's books. Dolch words, or sight words, provide an excellent base for reading at an early age. They are often called sight words because some of them can't be sounded out, and need to be learned by sight)

I use Dolch sight vocabulary words compiled and designed by Mrs. Jill Perkins to learn with Mew. Her website provides word lists, phrases, worksheets and activities with downloadable Word and PDF files. It is a good idea to have a master printout of the word lists and flashcards for further practice.

If every 3 days Mew learns a column of words (about 10-15 words) and memorizes them by heart and we repeat checking her on those words for 3 subsequent days, her percentage of retaining the words reaches 90-95%. So far, Mew has finished Dolsch Pre-Primer sight word list and she has been able to master about 40 words. Some words she still has difficulty in recognizing and remembering, but it surely takes time to strengthen a kid's memory. Once she has broadened her vocabulary to certain extent, I write down various short and long sentences using all the words that she has learnt so far to test her. For example:
- I go up and I run down to find you.
- I cannot find it where it is. Help me!
- It is big, blue and looks funny.
- I said one, two and three and we can run away (not quite correct grammatically)

And she can read them all!

During the storytime before bed every night with her Daddy, Mew can also recognize a lot of words in the book - that's another positive sign for our joint effort!

We are now working on the Dolch Primer Sight word list and have already finished about 36/52 words. I hope that Mew will be able to complete this list by the end of this month. My homework is then to create new long sentences to test her newly acquired vocabulary. I plan that after mastering (in fact, memorizing) all Dolch sigh words, Mew can read some simple stories. At that stage, we will embark on learning English formally with phonics and grammar. It is a long way ahead, however!

Here are some useful resources for Dolch sigh word learning:
http://www.theschoolbell.com/Links/Dolch/basic_lists/List1.html
http://www.zianet.com/hrmp/sightwrd.htm
http://www.fishforwords.com/sight-word-lists.php
http://www.mrsperkins.com/
http://www.abcteach.com/directory/basics/abc_activities/dolch_word_cards/

PORTRAITS

Our little artist decided to draw a portrait for her Mommy. She sat by me and silently watched me working on the computer. Sometimes she asked me "Ne bouge pas, Mama!". I did not pay a tiny attention to her work, thinking simply that she was just playing with drawing as usual.

But it turned out not this time! Amazingly, she made a real portrait of me, with even my hair clip, my pyjamas and the stuffs on my working table. It is very impressive, fantastic and well, I have to honestly admit, I was speechless when seeing the drawing (haha, I never have any idea of what I do really look like now without her work of art). Here it is, my portrait drawn by my little angel:

Then I asked her to draw her own portrait and her Daddy's portrait as well. Mew spent about half an hour sitting in front of the mirror to draw herself. And she came out of her room with this beautiful portrait:

My daughter, she is so cuuuuteeee, isn't she?

SWEETIE, YOU ARE NOW REALLY A BIG GIRL!

Mew now can wash the dishes by herself, hoorray! And she is just 6 and a half years old! Wow, I remember that the first time I helped my Mom to do the same chore was when I was 10 or 12 years old. What's a big difference, lol!

Last night, Mew asked me to teach her how to wash the dishes. I did not believe that she could do it at the age of 6 but I let her watch me anyway. While washing the piles of dishes and pots, I taught her essential steps, from arranging and piling the stuffs in the sink in a certain order to washing all the edge of bowls and dishes while holding them tightly and carefully, and to finally cleaning the sink area after finishing the chore. And this evening, after the dinner, when I asked her to clear the table and bring all the stuffs to the sink, she insisted on washing everything there by herself! So why not let her do it voluntarily instead of urging her to help me with housework later? We found a small wooden chair for her to stand on to reach the sink. Then Mew put on her own children's apron (very professionally, lol). And I stood by her side to give her a hand just in case and more importantly, to take some snapshots of this memorable event. Mew managed to do almost all the dishwashing from A to Z by herself in fact (I just helped a little bit with knives, tall glass cups, pots and pans).

Such a wonderful night! I felt so happy when realizing that my little daughter has really grown up and become a big girl indeed. Thank you so much, Sweetie!

MY KUNGFU MONKEY

Mew attended a pre-beginner Karatedo class last semester. The Master was great: super professional, patient and disciplined. Mew completed her 10 sessions successfully and was awarded an official certificate written in Japanese! Quite impressive indeed! If during the first few sessions Mew had been so shy and timid, she became more relaxed and comfortable later on. One good thing of this Karatedo class is that the ratio of students and teacher was very low (5:1) so it was easier for the kids to follow the Master's instructions. The pre-beginner class aims at helping kids to get acquainted with Karatedo and preparing kids with basic physical exercises. As a fan of Kungfu movies, I really hope that Mew will continue her Karatedo practice until her achieving of black belt level so that she will be able to self-defense whenever necessary.

A few pictures and video to remind us of her pre-beginner Karatedo class: