Cars & roundabout - 3years 1month old

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (30/5/2011)

Cars circling the roundabout.

Mummy is finding Zo Ee's drawing more and more fascinating. Here, is a roundabout with 3 cars. This is the first time, Mummy seeing her drawing cars and they just look too perfect for a 3 years 1month old. Unbelievable! Good Job dear!

First experiment - 3years 1month

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (16/5/2011)

Oh! How can I miss this post!

2 weeks ago, Zo Ee proudly announced " I want to do this experiment tomorrow." while stumbled upon this last night. She explained to Mummy what are the things needed to carry out this experiment. I am glad she actually understood the meaning of experiment after watching many on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Fox History.

A man - 3years 1month old

Zo Ee a 3years 1month old. (29/5/2011)

Mummy found this nice sketch in Zo Ee's book, not sure when did she draw it. Mummy guessing , somewhere last week as this is her new book.

Zo Ee's first email - 3years 1month

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (26/5/2011)

Daddy was away for the past 5 days and Zo Ee was missing Daddy a lot. She kept asking me where is Daddy, although she knows that Daddy will only be coming home this Saturday. So Mummy, suggested to her to send Daddy an email. She was all excited and below is Zo Ee's first email.


Subject: hello daddy

baba

baba

i miss you.

love
zo ee

Reading Da Vinci Code - 3years 1month old

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (26/5/2011)

Previously, I have never bother to really wanted to know Zo Ee's reading level but lately I am wondering how advanced is her reading skill. Here, I tested her with an adult book instead - reading the Da Vinci Code synopsis for the very first time. Although some mispronunciation but definitely awesome for a 3years 1month old.

LEGO town - 3years 1month

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (25/5/2011)



Zo Ee building her own LEGO town.

Ode to Joy - 3years 1month

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (24/5/2011)

Zo Ee playing a new song-Ode to Joy. This is her 5th time playing it. Adding to her songs collection; Mary had a little Lamb, Jingle Bells, Doe a Deer, Happy Birthday and twinkle-twinkle little star. All these songs were chosen by herself. I admired her skills playing songs with both her hands. As for now, we have no restriction as to which hands she plays, it's good practice for her actually. She also likes to play her songs at different locations of the keyboard, sometimes at the lower keys and other time at higher keys.

Multiplication - 3years 1month old

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (23/5/2011)

2 weeks ago, Zo Ee insisted to do these pages, ended up copying the answers from the time table.

A week later, she actually mastered the simplest few; 0x, 1x, 2x and 10x tables.

Piggy bank - 3years 1month

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (22/5/2011)

Zo Ee was so excited seeing this craft - piggy bank in the toy shop and insisted us to get her one. She was so obsessed with it, reluctant to let go of the box from the toy shop till we reached home. Once at home, immediately she wanted to start painting her piggy bank. She started with light colours and actually spent an hour on it. The final colour of her pig is black. Ha! This is exactly same as the pigs found in India. They are all black in colour.

Zo Ee's own Maze - 3 year 1month old

Zo Ee at 3 year 1month old. (20/5/2011)

Little Zo Ee designing her very own maze!

She was explaining to Mummy that she drew some path on the top right hand, with a starting point on the middle left page. To play, one needs to move those four dark shaded shapes through the maze.

Poo - 3 year 1 month old

Zo Ee at 3year 1month old. (18/5/2011)

Zo Ee was telling Mummy, "Mum! Mum! I'm drawing some poo. Daddy's poo, Mummy's poo and Zo Ee's poo." So this is actually not a family portrait but a family portrait of poo!

Experiment - 3year 1month old

Zo Ee at 3 year 1month old. (16/5/2011)

Zo Ee announced, " I want to do this experiment tomorrow!" while stumbled upon this last night. Lately, she enjoys all sorts of scientific documentaries like What you Didn't know, all sorts of experiments on Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Fox History, BBC etc.

Drawing shadow - 3year 1month old

Zo Ee at 3year 1month old. (12/5/2011)

Zo Ee asked Mummy Zo Ee how to draw shadows. Mummy showed her some examples and later in the evening, Zo Ee showed Mummy this picture; a sun, a deer and its shadow. It is pretty amazing that a just turned 3 year old, would want to draw picture with shadows. I am wondering when is the average age a child will want to draw like that?

Face Expression - 3 year 1month old

Zo Ee at 3 year 1 month old. (11/5/2011)

Zo Ee said, "He is wondering? A bucket and sand on the top left square and waves on the top right square."

Multiplication & dancing - 3 year old

Zo Ee at 3 year old. (5/10/2011)

Few days ago, I saw a Multiplication workbook with an attractive CD at a bargain price, S$5.50 at the local bookshop and couldn’t resist buying it. If I see a book or a toy that I like, I’ll have to buy it immediately whether its on bargain or not because people here don’t keep stock; what you see is what you get and you won’t be able to get two same items at the same shop. Neither will they help you to order later or re-order their same old stocks. Basically, imported books and toys are treated like precious here; children are not supposed to touch it.

When I got home, Zo Ee was excited seeing the new book, immediately she wanted to do multiplication. My idea was to keep it for her later, maybe after she knows her time tables as I have not yet introduced any to her. She insisted and ended up copying the answers from the table provided with the book. She finished these in 10minutes; 2 pages for 10 minutes not bad but most importantly she was satisfied. This really makes me think at her other current workbooks; where she will finish a dozen pages in that same amount of time. I’m thinking which is more appropriate for her? She can do 20 addition sums (up to 10) in less than 5 minutes and not as fast for addition sums more than 10.

She ended up dancing with her Minnie along with these multiplication songs. This is a typical her, dancing freely in front of the television which acts as her mirror; she can actually dance up to 2 hours non-stop, pausing only during songs transition. and not getting tired. She may sit down to read a book after that.

Recently, a few incidents really make me think, should I treat her like a 3 year old or a 6 year old? If she is capable of doing things like an average 6 year old, why would I hesitate to teach her Chess or multiplication or 2nd grade math but will allow her to play other toys beyond that age without second thought. Am I being fair to restrict her just because she is 3 now or will I restrict her of these similar activities if she were to be six? In fact, she has started singing along on her second day, so I foresee she’ll know her multiplication very soon.

Beautiful car - 3 year old

Zo Ee at 3year old. (9/5/2011)


Zo Ee proudly showing Mummy, "Mum! Look at my beautiful car!"

Reading King Arthur - 3 year old

Zo Ee at 3 year old. (8/5/2011)

Zo Ee reading King Arthur and the Knights of the round table by Benedict Flynn. Author mentioned this book is for 7+ but many reviews say that this is more suitable for 9+.

_____________________________________________________________
He grabbed the handle. The sword seemed stuck in an anvil. There was some writing on a block of stone beneath, but Arthur thought it better not to read it, just in case it said the taking of the sword was not allowed. He tugged at the blade. It gave a little, and then stuck. "Oh come on," Arthur puffed, giving another heave. And then the sword came out as gently as from a scabbard. Kay had given up hope. Arthur threw him the sword. To his surprise Sir Ector and Kay were standing together at the edge of the lists, where the knights jousted. "What's wrong?" Arthur said. "This is not Kay's sword." "The inn was locked, Sir Ector," said Arthur. "It's the only one I could get. I'll take it back when you're finished." "Arthur," Sir Ector said. "Tell me where you found this sword." "It was stuck in an anvil in a churchyard. On top of a stone. I'm sure no one saw me take it. I promise I'll take it straight back."
_____________________________________________________________

Zo Ee at 3 year old. (7/5/2011)


HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Documentary - 3 year old

Zo Ee at 3 year old. (1/5/2011)

Recently after turning 3, she has started to show interest in watching television on her preference channels; Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Animal world. She saw a volcanoe eruption on the Discovery Channel from a television in a hotel’s cafe. Once we reached home, she actually asked for Discovery Channel. Since then she seems to like Documentary a lot. Everyday, she has been asking me, “Mum, I want to watch Discovery Channel, Mum I want to watch Documentary.” Not sure where did she learn about the word Documentary. Now I realize that she can happily watch these programs without feeling disturb but still not the movies. She was crying inconsolably the other day, watching a couple arguing on a scene.

So now I limit her to 1 Disney cartoon (30-40minutes) and another hour of her choice of documentary program everyday.

Knowing too much - 3year old

Zo Ee at 3year old. (5/2/2011)

Zo Ee was working on one of her workbook; the question said "Colour the animals which can run blue. Colour the animals which can hop green." Zo Ee went on to colour these animals; cheetah, lion and rooster blue. Rabbit and Kangaroo green. She was reluctant to colour the horse and deer. I overheard her telling herself that horse gallops and deer - frolicking. I know most children will just colour them blue but not Zo Ee. This is the problem, she knows too much for her age.

This actually brought me back to a scenario between Zo Ee and my dad when she was 17 month old. My dad actually pointed at a car on the magazine s cover while asking Zo Ee, "What is this?" He was expecting her to say car but Zo Ee was confused because he kept pointing at the different part of the car and she didn't know how to answer him. He was agitated why she couldn't even answer a simple question like that. Finally, he kept his finger still on the tyre. So little Zo Ee finally answered him "tyre!" My dad was agitated and told her, "not there, what is this thing?" while circling the whole picture with his finger. Zo Ee finally answered "car." and he was pleased with the answer he expected. But that incident really prompted me as to how little Zo Ee perceive the world. Even at such a tender age, she is already seeing things way beyond children her age. Is this good or bad?

Wounded knee - 3year old

Zo Ee at 3year old. (28/4/2011)

Last week, little Zo Ee fell down and hurt her knee for the first time. She was distressed seeing her wounded knee that night and was inconsolable, kept asking me what happened to her knee and refused to accept any of my explanation. I ended up Googled some information/video clips for her to watch. She was satisfied after knowing that eventually the wound will heal by itself.

Comment - 3 year old

Zo Ee at 3year old. (1/5/2011)

A local classical professional singer was amazed at how little Zo Ee moved her body gracefully. She was copying the singer child but did it in a very graceful manner. The singer was very impressed and I could see her impressed face expression and myself too as I have never seen her able to do so earlier or anything like that. She commented that little Zo Ee is very talented and she can see a very potential dancer. She was asking me whether she loves dancing and has she been dancing a lot at home. Yah. Definitely, little Zo Ee has been dancing a lot by herself.

Words search - 3 year old

Zo Ee at 3 year old. (30/4/2011)

Mummy was busy and Zo Ee found this word search book in the shelf. I have shown her how to search and we had actually played a few some weeks back. Just now, She was telling me about some words but I was not paying any attention to her. After some time, she showed my this pretty messy page, but upon looking closely, she had actually found all the words by herself. Mummy praised her but told her, Mummy would appreciate if she could do it more neatly and viola!!! her second effort by herself is so much better. She was actually completing her 2nd piece at 3am in the morning. : O