Happy birthday, Daddy! (edited - with pic of present)

Dear Daddy,

Here's the birthday greetings from the 2 older Gers.

Pls make sure your soccer boys win something this year, because you spend so much with them, even on your birthday as well. Make sure you enjoy today in Vietnam!

Clever Gerrard! What's Daddy's is also Mummy's, and what's Mummy's is still Mummy's!

Seems like Gerrard is able to understand that Daddy has gone overseas.

Finally, a proper birthday greeting at the 3rd take!

Daddy's present arrived on time! Thanks to DHL!

This iPad has Daddy's name engraved on it. Now, got to wait for Daddy to come home and open the package.

Sembawang Park (edited, with videos)

Liat's out with his soccer boys to Vietnam this week. They left the Nation just on Monday. Me and the kids are already missing him...

Yesterday, I brought the 2 older Gers to Sembawang Park. To them, this playground is special. Because, unlike the usual playgrounds they've been to, this one has sand instead of the rubber floor.

Child-safe swings with backing.

Seat was too high for Gerrard to propel himself.

Gerlyn has high risk-taking element - kept wanting it to be higher and higher.

Look how confident she was!

Always trying out new things.

Gerrard is always more cautious than his sister.

Kept wanting to climb. More! More!

Hello!? Daddy!? Where are you?

Tried the rock-climbing element. Obviously the holes were safer...

Playing with sand..

Gerrard's try on the rock-climbing wall.

Note that he hesitated when he went to the slide. It was a bit too fast for the 2 Gers...

Happie Fathers' Day

Liat's getting busier and busier over the yrs. Take this holidays as an example. He hardly had a break and I felt the time spent on the kids was somehow compromised. The Gers simply adore their daddy's company.


I always make the kids give him a 'welcome parade' when he's back.

And it's always 'find Daddy' time at night.

Liat helps read bedtime stories and pat Gerrard and Gerlyn to sleep while I settle Gerry.

And most of all, I have to be the 'technology police', keep reminding daddy to stop his iPhone or blogging when the Gers are around... ;[


Nevertheless, he's quite a good dad. So, here's wishing him...

Liat always claimed he used to be fair. Now, who do you think Gervin gets his fair skin tone from?!

Simple void deck fun. But actually no ball-kicking is allowed...

Hot Wheels 1 - Play Toys

Before I document about my Gers' cycling experience, it is worth talking about their experiences with the wheels.

Gerrard has to learn and experiment everything by himself. Gerlyn and Gerry are more of the 'monkey-see-monkey-do'. In terms of documentation, Gerry has more videos and pictures as now Mummy is on no-pay leave and has time to play with him...

This video was taken last weekend. Gerlyn was playing with the skate-scooter while Gerry was chasing her with his push-toy. Out came Gerrard. Note how Gerry reacted when he saw Daddy!

In this video, Gerry was out at the void deck with the Pooh car. He realised going uphill was tedious. Note how he responded when he realised he's in a little bit of trouble...

This is taken yesterday. Gerry has the most advanced psychomotor development compared to his elder siblings. Gerlyn only started on the skate-scooter afte age 2. Also, I think he is more of a risk-taker, just like Daddy.

So much for the play-toys. We are now entering into the phase of bicycle act. Will document their progress.

What a Busy Day!

It is the June holidays, but life is very much ordinary as the 2 older Gers go to childcare centre as usual and Daddy still runs his soccer trainings and Math remedial.

Yesterday, I think finally the holiday spirit is here!

Morning Exercise
For the start of the day, I brought all the 3 Gers down to the playground. It was usually done by Daddy, but he was out for soccer with his students. Saturday morning at about 9am. Hardly any other playmates at the playground and the Sun was hot! I don't remember the Sun was so hot when I was a kid! Anyway, the children had their share of fun and Vitamin D!

Gerry was frequently left out by the two older Gers. Maybe because they went to the childcare centre together and being older, they can communicate better. Unfortunately, Daddy's not around. Else Gerry would have a playmate. ;p

Gerry will have to wait for Gervin to be older...

Gerlyn teasing Gerrard.

Bathtub time!

The 3 Gers all loved the bathtub. Always had a hard time trying to get them out of the bathtub. I wonder what will happen when Gervin is old enough to join the trio. Are we to dig a pit in the toilet?!

Free-and-easy
We always collect feedback from teachers regarding Gerrard's and Gerlyn's behaviour in school because they always get to do their favourite activities at home, and we encourage 'free roaming'. Afterall, they do need that free space after the long hours spent in the childcare centre.

One of the best habits we ever inculcated into our children is reading. They can read in many places - home, restaurants, library, car... It is the best activity that you want to give your children when you need them to sit and wait.

Look at Gerrard in this video. Of course the distance between him and the book needs to be corrected. But he is quite an avid reader. Don't forget to look out for the Hello Kitty ring on his left forefinger, which actually belongs to Gerlyn!

Art Garden @ SAM
Planned on Friday, but I was trying to recover from a fever and cold... Anyway, went with the 2 older Gers when the other 2 younger ones were napping.

The kids are very fortunate. My father had never brought me to a museum. And the Museum didn't have so many child-friendly activities then...

1. 3D Paper Fruit
We did not realise that they were classified according to levels of difficulties, we just chose their favourite fruit - apples. It was a nice sit-down activity, except that the flaps for glue application were a bit too small for toddlers, and simply too many folds for them to handle. Gerrard sat through, Gerlyn was a bit low on patience towards the end...

Gerrard working with Daddy.
Gerlyn working with Mummy.

Finally, the apples were ready!

2. White Elephant
Gerlyn liked this activity the most. The Gers were given stickers which they were allowed to stick on this elephant anywhere they wanted. I guess the trunk's the elephant's identity, so ALL their stickers went to the trunk.

This is a happy elephant, because it has lots of stickers!

3. Cake Decoration

This is really like one of the felt books that they have. Gerrard was pretty obssessed with trying to find every dot of felt and fill it with the deco.

Gerrard liked the cake decoration a lot.

Brother and sister working together.

3. Dress up

Girls being girls. Gerlyn kind of enjoyed this more than Gerrard....

Girl dressing up girl.

The shortie asking Daddy for help.

4. Watching short films

The short films were cartoons with artistic themes. Gerrard watched these more intensely than Gerlyn. I wondered whether he understood these...

5. Colouring

Both Gers had different concepts.

Gerlyn was more conventional. Just colour within the boundary.

Gerrard was different. He tried to colour the alphabets using the stencil. Except that he did not gauge properly the space he needed to fit into the picture.

Shhh... Do not Disturb. Young Picasos at work.

Gerlyn tried to copy Gerrard.

Gerlyn and her tricolour elephant.

Gerrard working intensely with the alphabet stencil.

Gerrard and his alphabet stencil elephant.

6. Snacks at Olio Dome
After all the activities, Daddy brought the whole flock for snacks at the Olio Dome located at the left wing of SAM. The Gers has potato wedges, carrot cake, cheese cake and smoothies.

Delicious. Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!

The cheese cake was so nice that Gerrard actually ate it.

By evening, the Gers were pretty drained...

I hope we can go out again next week, before Daddy leaves for his overseas trip with his students...

Home Intervention Programme 3 - Sentence construction and picture description

Gerrard does not do well in description. One way to help him is to get him to construct sentences on his own.

1. Find simple pictures that a sentence can be used to describe it.
2. Write sentences and cut out the verbs and nouns.
3. Lay out a picture. Give options for the verbs and nouns, so that he can choose and pick the correct one.
4. Gerrard is to look at the picture, and read through all the options before choosing out the correct verbs and nouns for the sentence.

After trying many times with successful attempts, he is able to do simple sentence description without the helping visuals. Now we are into the next phase with simple connectors like 'and', 'using', 'with'...

The ultimate aim is to have him to do a picture description on his own (like what we had for English Oral). That, will have to take time and effort for Gerrard.

Gerrard trying out on his own.

Handwritten words are huge, hence making the sentence physically too long for reading....

Options are given for the sentence construction.

Typed and taped for durability.

Fast-forward >>

It's amazing how time flies.

Just like Gerry, Gervin is doe-eyed, except that he does not have double eyelids like that cheeky Gor-Gor. He is equally adorable and cheerful. Very curious, always wanted tolift himself up to see what his siblings were up to...

I'm left with about 14 weeks before I get back to school to teach again.

I think I will start to have separation anxiety again....

This is delicious. Nom Nom Nom...

Gerry wearing his uncle's pants. And this is made by mummy's grandmother!

Where is Gerry??

Gervin: Auntie Joyce, I know you like Cafe World!

Cheeky Monkey

Out of the 4 children, I think we may have to manage Gerry the most in future years.

He seems to be able to get away with many things with his cheekiness and his charming smiles. My parents melted everytime they see him.

Cheeky Cheeze!

Weather's so hot.Time to air the diapers!

The following 2 videos show how he has learnt to 'sneeze'. He picked this up from my mother, who has sensitive nose. Basically he isn't blowing his nose, but 'blowing his mouth'!

Another monkey-see-monkey-do incident...