THE TWLNS ANG GRANNY TRAVEL TO SCHOOL

                     THE  TWINS AND GRANNY TRAVEL TO SCHOOL

 

 We all love our new school but the journey there is taking a lot of effort to put it

mildly.

   Our Montessori school was closer and the journey took about 10 minutes.

   Between us we could manage that fitting it into the day’s routine. I do most of the pickup because that is lunch hour for parents and involves leaving the office to reach the school and ferry the children home. Even more difficult is for parents  to get back in the car to return to work after evading all efforts to keep them at home.

   With the change of school we have a much longer commute. On days with good traffic flow it takes 15 to 20 minutes but this can be extended very considerably by a downpour, a VIP cavalcade or just heavy traffic congestion.

   My car has gone to the workshop for auto geriatric complaints and will be replaced by a van for the school run when the paper work is through.

   There is a school bus but at 4 ½ they aren’t ready to manage the bus journey just yet. We are still using child car seats because they aren’t 40 lbs yet. So they do sit still.

   I expect the drop off and pick up will be easier as they get older but it will always be a crazy round of school hours plus swimming, etc.

   It would be good to find a way of using the commute time.

    We sing and sometimes play simple versions of ‘I spy’. The van has a DVD player but that will be a problem because they won’t get out when we reach our destination.

Hand held electronic games are also addictive.

Any suggestions?

THE TWINS SETTLE INTO SCHOOL AND IT’S DEJA VU FOR GRANNY

THE TWINS SETTLE INTO SCHOOL AND IT’S DÉJÀ VU FOR GRANNY

 

  There was a lot of excitement over getting ready for the new school. We shopped for uniforms (From the school uniform shop), shoes (bought in London where they are a bit cheaper), back packs ,lunch boxes etc. Fortunately most of these are standard items. This eliminates peer group competition but of course it also stifles individual choices and eventually the development of personal style.

   Given the definite characters of the two girls I don’t see this as a problem.

   The girls are in different classes. This is school policy for twins. They felt some separation anxiety at first but have settled into their classes well.

   The overall teaching plan for the two classes is the same but the individual teaching style is different.

   We are just starting on the individual road of learning to read. I have felt quite satisfied thatthey were doing OK over this. They seemed to me to know that words are a code and are beginning to recognize some by the Look and See method such as Stop, Go and Zoo.

  My sister and I read early and my own family picked up the skill without much hassle . Te school is making a big deal out of it. I suppose that it is important that all children learn to read efficiently as early as possible.  So we have homework(aged 4)!

It is certainly logical for only one script to be used. In our house all the adults try to teach and every one has a different writing style. I have the most illegible handwriting and shouldn’t comment!

We are now committed to teaching lower case pre-cursive  script only. We have a chart of letters with a description of writing method for that character and a specimen alphabet of laminated letters.

 We are given a group of 4 letters per week for mixing and matching to make words and a pack of 5 books to read per week to read with the child.

   I only hope we don’t kill the enthusiasm for learning which is there and which was growing and developing very well.

   It does seem to me a complicated way of doing something which will happen over time given opportunity and exposure.

We’ll see.

ALL CHANGE FOR GRANNY AND THE TWINS

ALL CHANGE  FOR THE TWINS AND GRANNY

 

 

   I need a good excuse for such a long silences on my blog.

So here goes—–

1. We have moved. We now are sharing my big old house. There are still packages on my verandah wrapped in all enveloping plastc and numerous bags of this and that but we have our day to day goods and clothes sorted.

      This has been a good cleaning out exercise but we still have a lot that we don’t use on a daily basis but can’t manage to discard. I have files about all sorts of things that I,ve been involved in over the years. Do I use them now? N—-NO. Should I throw them out? Y—–yes. Have I done it ?

Why do we cling to our possessions? Perhaps as part of our self image. It isn’t only me. WE have a lot of baby goods from infancy and pretty dresses that are too small.

Books and toys are easier because we have Junior to use them. There are some outgrown items that are still useful. Some of these have been given away.

This has all taken and is taking a lot of energy and time.

 I am particularly guilty and don,t like throwing out my books or my shoes.

2. We all went to London for a holiday to visit my daughter (the twins auntie) who will shortly move to Hong Kong.

   This was a major expedition with three small children on a twelve hour flight. They were so good. It was partly the novelty I suppose. We took colouring books and a portable DVD player. We flew Air Asia so there were no meals but they were happy with snacks. The meals we ordered were not eaten well.

They did have jet lag both when we arrived and after coming back.

  The hurry scurry of London was quite tiring for them (and us) and they are too small for tourist attractions. At least they have some idea of a different country and life style

1. Back to school

The girls have left their Montessori school to join the reception class in an international school.

Junior has started going to the Montessori school. He is familiar with the building as his sister’s school.

The household is quiet in the mornings while they are at school.

More about the rest of the day in another post.

THE TWINS AND FAMILY GO TRAVELLING

THE TWINS AND FAMILY GO TRAVELLING

 

   The twins have been uprooted, spun around and have landed fairly well balanced on their feet.

  We have moved house back to my old home. The construction crew who are doing reservations haven’t finished yet so we have piles of sand in the garden and workmen mixing cement, drilling etc.

   3 days after the move we abandoned the piles of possessions and took off on Air Asia to London to visit the twins’ auntie who will be moving to Hong Kong fairly soon. This visit was planned months ago and will be the last before she leaves.

   The twins and Junior were amazingly cooperative travelers. They played quietly and slept. We took colouring books, cards and a mini DVD player with some familiar DVDs.

  They enjoyed the change of scene. Visiting the park was a success. We were near Clapham Common and so could feed the ducks and geese , go to the playground and watch the amateur football teams, cyclists, dogs etc. At least part of the interest was because this was like the story books and magazines they read which are based on urban life in the developed world. Of course we have a few open public areas here in KL but few and far between. One of our favourites has been KL /Pac.

  Back home we have jet lag problems and have  been making Milo at 1am. Hopefully that will settle with time. We have about three weeks before school starts.

THE TWINS AND GRANNY ARE MOVING HOUSE

THE TWINS AND GRANNY ARE MOVING HOUSE

 

   It is said that the stress of moving house is equivalent of a death or divorce.  We are in the midst of packing and carrying things over.   The twins will hwve a much more spacious room with better storage for their belongings. Hopefully they will learn to keep them a little more carefully.

These children have a lot  that they don’t value  things as much as if they had only a few possessions. They don’t of course have any idea about  any monetary value.  In their eyes a hair clip may be a treasure although it’s market value s <RM1

   This move will be a big change for them and in addition they will be changing schools in September and will no longer be at a kindergarten where the oldest children are 6.

Hopefully they will meet this challenge. They are both reticent about mixing with new social groups.

THE TWINS REACT TO STRESS

                           THE TWINS REACT TO STRESS

 

We all went to the school Open Day and watched the children go through their simple activity/dance routines A few children were leaders but it was well designed to allow all the children to particioate.

    Our two joined in but certainly didn’t stand out as ‘stage personalities’.to me the star was a little girl of about 2 with pink crocs who was at the front end of her line. She really danced like a pro and enjoyed the audience.

  Lily and Ella have brought home some of the work they have done this half year and they are rightly proud of it. Ella was very busy today showing me how to cover a picture with cellotape. ‘A craft’ she called it. of course we do a lot of craft work but it isn’t given a formal name.

   We have tried hard to avoid over organization of the twins day. Filling the day with organized activities keeps them busy but it takes away play time.

They have swimming lessons twice a week . We regard this as a survival skill at this stage. Perhaps they  will develop it as a sport later. They can move freely around in the water but don’t have well formed strokes as yet.

One afternoon they have music-kindermusik- not formal piano lessons. They seem to have lost interest in this lately so we will stop until after they have settled in to their new school environment.

Our club has a swimming gala twice a year. They were entered for the under 5 race across the training pool and for the family race which is a relay of three. Either two parents and a child or one parent and two children.

  Ella swam her event well and finished well. Lily jumped in but didn’t start on time and had to be persuaded to do it well after the others had finished. Never mind – everyone had a present for taking part. The noise a splashing of the relay was too much for Ella and she didn’t do the lap for that event.

 Mama swam the women’s event and won so they had a medal to take home. *erhaps next year they can swim the family race with all three children. Junior is splashing around well now.

  They were very bothered by the prospect of that gala and Ella had two disturbed nights before the day.

We have more stress coming soon. Change of schools and moving house.

Probably they will accept the changes more easily than the adults!

TIMES ARE CHANGING FOR THE TWINS AND GRANNY

         TIME FOR A CHANGE FOR THE TWINS AND GRANNY

 

Everything always happens at once The twins are 4 ½ now. They will move from their Montessori school to ‘Big School’ next term. Of course they will be in the nursery class but thee will be a lot of older children about and they will feel part of a much bigger organization.

Meanwhile we are looking forward to going to their Open Day this week and will be shown dancing and displays of art work.

We will have to change our daily routine a bit to allow for an early start and a longer commute to school.

We are lucky that the family opposite us has twins who will be going to the same school . There are several nursery groups so they may not all be I the same class but at least there will be familiar faces. We do know some older children as well so not everything will be strange.

Probably we adults worry more about change than the children do. Hey went for preliminary interviews and took that in their stride.

At the same time Junior will be three and will start in their present school.

On top of all  this the repairs to our present house have reached a stage where we need to move out. We will move over and share my old house. This will be familiar territory to them but of course it will be different. Again they will bounce and accept the change before the adults have settled down to a new routine.

Now we are packing and moving our possessions. It’s amazing how much stuff one accumulates.

THE TWINS NEED TO LEARN TO SHARE

The Twins need to learn to share

 

 

  Although they are not identical Lily and Ella are very supportive of each other. We

 had guests for lunch at home. The small girl who came with her parents was offered

 some ice cream in the pink bowl usually used by Ella. Lily attacked her fiercely to

 regain  possession .

 These bowls come in multicoloured sets from Ikea. I’m sure that most households

 with small children have some. The trouble is that there is only one of each colour

 per set. So if our two girls have two girls to play that means four sets to provide each

 girl with a pink bowl.

The colour code for boys doesn’t seem to be so important.

I used to think that the pink business was just smart marketing. We have not

promoted or encouraged the colour pink but it is there high up as a desired attribute

for so manythings. They just seem to like it.

Recently I have noticed that I have one twin for fifteen  minutes or so on her own and

she is happy to do an activity by her self. I have planted coriander seeds with Lily

and painted Ellas nails shiny pink.

With out the continual interaction with her twin each girl talks more sensibly and

works at whatever is in hand with good concentration.

 They are very different people. Somehow we need to provide for individual activities.

We are fortunate to have physical space to do this  but emotionally each child seems

to need the whole of the important adult’s attention.

  Junior has joined the fray now and continually interrupts. He is very determined to

get what he considers to be his rights(that means the lion’s share whether it is food,

attention or paint).

Sharing is definitely a learned behaviour and in reality most adults aren’t very good

at it. 

  

GRANNY HAS CONCERNS ABOUT SAFETY WHEN THE CHILDREN COOK

GRANNY HAS CONCERNS ABOUT SAFETY WHEN THE CHILDREN COOK

 

  In our busy household we have kept th small children away from the working areas of the kitchen.

   Home is the commonest place for accidents to children in the preschool age group. Some of these incidents are minor but there are some serious casualties.

   Scalds and burns are high on the list followed by cuts (from knives and scissors}and falls(from climbing up to get forbidden objects)

   Injuries from electrical equipment such as washing machines and blenders are less common but serious when they happen.

  As they grow we have to reach them about dangers and prevention of injuries.

  Talking and books with pictures and stories helps.

  This holiday we have cooked bread and we had another cooking morning when we made cup cakes.

   The kids had plastic bowls and wooden spoons each and creamed butter and sugar, mixed in egg and then flour to make the cake mix. They helped tp spoon it in to paper cake cases.

  Then we learnt about hot oven doors and they watched me using oven gloves.

   When their cakes were done they could sense the heat from the pans without touching them and were shown how the hot cakes were put on the rack to cool.

  I also showed them the kettle and how we pour out with the spout  pointing away from us. They stirred hot drinks under supervision.

  Our cup cakes were surprisingly good.

  My assistants really enjoyed standing on a stool and washing up. All the utensils are plastic or stainless steel.

  The recipe we used was the old simple one of ‘The weight of the eggs in butter ,sugar and flour.’

1 egg

½ cup self raising flour

¼ cup fine sugar

 ¼ cup butter

Different flavours or colours can be added.

GRANNY AND THE TWINS MAKE BREAD

GRANNY AND THE TWINS MAKE BREAD

 

   The twins went on a field trip with their school. There was great excitement because they travel in a bus with their friends.

   They went to visit a bread factory as part of their programme about Good Food.

   They enjoyed their trip immensely. They learned the brand name of the company’s bread and brought home a loaf and some buns.

   I thought that it was sad that the bread was a loaf made from bleached white flour enriched with vitamins and the buns were heavily sweetened.

  They had not discovered that bread is made from flour and yeast and water or that  flour was wheat grains that had been ground to powder.

  I will have to find some wheat grains to show them and some pictures if growing and harvesting wheat.

  We went to my house at the weekend and made bread so that they know about flour and the effect of yeast.

  We mixed the dough in the bread maker and they helped to knead it and form small rolls. These were put on baking sheets and left to rise before baking.

  This was a popular activity and I plan to organize more hands o  cooking sessions soon.