Science - Music & Class Teachers - 3years 5months old

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (26th September 2011)

In class

Last week, when I went to meet Zo Ee's class teachers for the parents-teachers interaction day, this was what her teachers said. Zo Ee has been feeling very comfortable in class now, freely chatting with us(the teachers) and everyday she is telling them something new (a new topic). The day before the meeting, they were chatting about human body I guess. The conversation goes something like this

Teacher: Which is the organ that pumps blood?

Zo Ee: The Heart . Heart is the center organ of our arteries system.

Teacher: How many kidneys do we have?

Zo Ee: Two

Another teacher told me that Zo Ee explained to her about the Submarine and its various parts and function that she drew for her class work (Water transport) for that week too. And today, I saw Zo Ee chatting with her class teacher when I picked her up. She's so engrossed that both she and the teacher didn't notice my presence at all. When I asked her what were they talking about, her replied "Diamond." I can see that the teachers enjoy talking to her and are astonished with her knowledge and answers.

Nursery /Kindergarten Coordinator
Bumped into Zo Ee's school coordinator the other day after taking Zo Ee to class. She saw me and stopped to tell me this, " How are you and things going on for Zo Ee? Are you please with the school? Oh! Have you been informed that we have started pulling her out for higher reading and materials. She can read so well and is such an amazing child. " I told her that I'm fine with the school as long as Zo Ee is happy in school but I was concerned whether Zo Ee will like the new teacher who is giving her one to one attention, she brushed me off saying "That won't be a problem."

Music Teacher

Zo Ee showed her teacher the Daring Cell Defenders book today and started to explain things to her. Zo Ee started with the types of invaders; virus and bacteria. Her teacher's jaw almost drop when she heard her talking about bacteria. Then Zo Ee moved on explaining how the bacteria begin to divide; 1 to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 8 etc. Briefly on How bacteria/virus make us sick and our body defends and fight them. Then she moved on to what happened when a splinter poked into our skin. How this area got infected, resulting in a pus and what is a pus until the wound heals, leaving behind a scar. She even explained what is a scar tissue to her teacher. The whole sharing with her music teacher that I overheard really cleared my doubts about her understanding about that book that we read together few weeks ago . Although her explanation is not as details as the book but she got most important points right.

Hurricane - 3years 5months old

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (26th September 2011)





According to Zo Ee, she painted this Hurricane with water colours.

Helicopter - 3years 5months old.

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. ( 26th September 2011)

Another drawing for school tomorrow; Air Transport - Helicopter

Dictionary Again - 3years 5months old

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (25th September 2011)

Look what she is reading! Her weirdest interest is to read the dictionary. Mummy upgraded her to a bigger dictionary 5 months ago(when she turned 3) - Collins Easy Learning English Study Dictionary because of the higher level books she is reading. Occasionally, she is dipping into this randomly. This is not her first read, she has completely read her 1500 words dictionary twice at 2years 9months old and numerous partially reads.

Structure - 3years 5months old.

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old.(23rd September 2011)

Building with her Jenga blocks.

Designing Games - 3years 5months old

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (24th September 2011)

Lately, I noticed that Zo Ee is designing many different games with her own regulation too and insisting Mummy and Daddy to play with her while obeying to her regulations. I can see that she is expressing her ideas strongly and more openly than before.

Learning style - 3years 5months old

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (22nd September 2011)

I am very impressed as how Zo Ee learns on her own. I'm not sure whether is this a plain trait of giftedness or she is just plain special. When Zo Ee reached home today, the first thing she did is to reach for some books from the book shelf. She climbed onto a stool and reached for 4 basic grammar books which I bought for her few months ago. They covered topic like Pronouns, Past Tense, Future Tense, Adverb, Adjectives, Adverb of Degree, Adverb of Frequency and Conjunctions. I did saw Zo Ee read them once or twice when I first bought them and we have not read them together. I thought maybe at a later stage. Today seeing her re-read all of them immediately after school really triggered me that she's trying to read more on something similar to what she had been exploring yesterday at the "Reading & Writing" section from Brainpop. Jr. My guessing is that she's trying to relink and make connection from both resources. Am I right?

Submarine - 3years 5months old.

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (22nd September 2011)

Zo Ee came back from school today, telling me that she'll need to bring a submarine picture to school tomorrow. I have no idea what is it for but she said just a submarine picture. So she drew it and this is her complete version. I thought a submarine with propeller, fins and a periscope will do. Zo Ee insisted to add in the stairs, dining room, bedroom, kitchen, doors into her submarine. I'll check it out as why does her teacher need such a drawing from her.

Advanced reading - 3years 5months old

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (22nd September 2011)

Although our reading session together is limited to bedtime reading now, still, Zo Ee is draining Mummy's too much. She is choosing and reading science topic from books that even I need time to digest and understand. And she is jumping from topic to topic, a day on cells, another day on anatomy then technology then chemistry, then botany, crystals etc. I am having a tough time re-learning these as we read along and explaining them to her. Last night, she decided to read the book "Essential Atlas of Technology."

These are the topics she chose, some topics that I have not even read about before.

1. Four-cycle internal combustion engines

2. Liquid fuel rocket

3. The process of obtaining sulfuric acid

4. The process of making paper.

5. How to build an igloo.

6. Types of Dam. (When I told her that recently that the dam we saw during our Hampi trip was a example of arch dam, she disagreed, claiming that it was a buttress dam that we saw. Now I have doubt whether it is a arch or a buttress dam.)

7. Navigable canals and locks - how a lock works

8. Aqueducts

Teacher's & other comments - 3years 5months old

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (21st September 2011)

A conversation with her class teacher. All the teachers; 25 teachers from Nursery 1 , Nursery 2 and Kindergarten sort of know that Zo Ee can read at high level except this one teacher who came into her class yesterday. Coincidentally, Zo Ee was allowed to read her teacher's psychology book. ( I have no idea of that) and this teacher who had no idea of her reading walked in and was so shocked to find out that she can read so well. So from this conversation, I can assume that all the teachers know that Zo Ee can read at very high level, including adult books.

It's actually quite common that strangers stopped by to ask, "Is she really reading?" especially in a bookstore. Basically, she will be reading a book beyond her age, usually books for fluent readers or chapters books or even adult books. Occasionally, she will read out aloud for fun and this usually caught many passerby's attention. From her look, Zo Ee definitely looks like other toddler, that's why it's always followed by the question , "How old is she?" Whenever they got to know that she is 3, or recently going to be 3 1/2 next month, most are shocked beyond belief.

Lokulus - 3years 5months old

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old (17th September 2011)

New Puzzle - Lokulus

2nd Poems Book-3years 5months old.

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (17th September 2011)



About this book: 192 pages, DRA - 38, RL - 3.5, GRL:P.

After embracing her first Poetry book - The Kingfisher book of Funny Poems, over 200 funny poems selected by Roger McGough for a few months (yellow book below), I finally managed to find her another book today- Where the Sidewalk Ends (30th Anniversary Special Edition) by Shel Silverstein. Zo Ee sat down and read the entire book this afternoon in one sitting. When I asked her, Do you like poems? Yes was her reply.



In fact, last month she had wanted to brought the first book to school so that she can read it to her class teacher.

Oh! Now it did make sense....no wonder Zo Ee is so good at rhyming words. Now, I know where she learns... It has never triggered me that she learned from poems cause she read the first book all by herself. Mummy bought her this second poems book which she read in one sitting just now. It's over 200 pages with 130 poems. Amazon review stated that this is a book for 9 -12 years old.

Enjoying her new book.



Zo Ee's first Poems book.

1st reward Money - 3years 5months old

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (17th September 2011)

After collecting 30 stars, we promised to reward Zo Ee with IR300; each star is IR10. With this money, she can buy anything of her preference and today Mummy took her out for shopping with her first IR300. We stopped at a toy shop , and Mummy saw this toy below which looks like something Zo Ee has been looking for for some time now. When I showed it to her, immediately Zo Ee wanted this. When I checked it out, the pieces are very tiny; from 2mm- 6mm. I was a bit worried seeing the actual size but Zo Ee was very persistent that this was what she wanted. She spend quite some time playing with it even at the restaurant that we stopped after the toy shop. She created a symmetry pattern which looks awesome to me. I've never seen her doing any thing like that before.

And when we reached home, she had wanted to create the tulips as per the instruction book. She spent about an hour to finish the entire thing and struggled a little to put the tiniest ones in place. She did make a few minor mistakes which Mummy corrected. She had no problem doing the individual flower but found it a little tricky each time to move on to the next flower as where to start. Sometimes, she went a little higher or lower than the actual stated grid location. Since this is a new toy, she insisted that I helped her; not doing anything but to sit next to her and look! Just in case she had any queries or if she was stuck. Zo Ee even told Mummy, "Please stay here until I finished the entire picture."

That's her final picture. I think this shall keep her occupied for some time since she has so many samples to copy from train, fish, human, windmill, birds, butterflies, apple etc.

Since the first toy didn't cost much, only IR150, Zo Ee bought this sharpener with her remaining IR150. It was actually IR155, Mummy contributed IR5.

Website search - 3years 5months old

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (16th September 2011)

Oh! Mine! After about 2 weeks using Brainpop Jr, today Mummy saw Zo Ee using its search function. She was typing a word in the search column. When Mummy asked her what was she doing, she replied I want to search for soil; I guessed video clip on soil which she did. Gosh! Just unimaginable, Zo Ee doesn't need any guidance and she is learning how to use this website to the fullest.

Mooncake - 3years 5months old

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (16th September 2011)

We didn't have any Mooncake last year. This year we were lucky to receive some from a visiting colleague from Singapore. Zo Ee was all excited wondering what is a mooncake. After we cut it, she said "It looks like our earth...this is the crust, mantle and core. : )

Necklace - 3years 5months old

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old (15th September 2011)

Zo Ee drew a necklace and herself on the white board.

Easy & Hard Quizzes - 3years 5months old

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (13th September 2011)

Out of curiosity, I had Zo Ee answered the multiple choices Easy & Hard Quizzes from Brainpop Jr. She has never try any yet and my thinking was why not. We never do Q&A session after reading. To me, reading is to impart knowledge. But as Zo Ee gets older, she started to ask questions here and there while reading but not the real Q&A. On a few rare occasions, I may ask her a question but its really rare and it happens only when I have doubt in her understanding a big word etc.


I chose her favourite two; Solar System and Digestive System. Since she is quite new to this website; as it has been only introduced to her about 10 days ago and it has approximate 230 videos, I noticed that she has watched these two videos the most; 5x and 4x respectively unlike the rest, mostly 1x, a few 2x since she has wanted to cover all the video clips systematically. She has completed about 90% of them thus far. I am very impressed that she diligently finished each videos in every sub- topics and topics before moving on to the next. Ok. Maybe this is her second nature; huge appetite for knowledge and is interested in almost EVERYTHING!

Zo Ee was very quick at answering most questions; she spilled out some answers spontaneously even without looking at the multiple answers provided, especially from the Easy Quizzes. Here is her result. For Solar System, she correctly answered 4/5 from the Easy Quiz and 4/5 from the Hard Quiz. 5/5 from the Easy Quiz and 4/5 from the Hard Quiz for Digestive System. She breezed through the Easy Quizzes and paused to read the longer answers in the Hard Quizzes, but she still managed to answer the longer questions in less than 30s each. Nevertheless, its unimaginable that she is capable of answering even the Hard Quizzes well too. Sometimes, occasion like this really proof to me that Zo Ee 's capabilities are beyond words, at least to me. I think this is pretty advanced for her age if my guessing is not wrong; Am I right? Please forgive me on this, as at many occasions, I don't really know what is norm and what is not anymore.

The Solar System
Easy Quiz
1. Which planet from our Solar System does this picture show?
Saturn

2. Which planet has thin rings and a storm called the Great Dark Spot?
Neptune

3. Why is Mars called the "red planet"?
Zo Ee got this wrongly. She chose because it has a Great Red Spot. The answer should be because it has reddish dust and rocks.

4. What is the center of our solar system?
The Sun.

5. Which planet is a gas giant?
Neptune.



Hard Quiz
1. Why is Venus the hottest planet in our Solar System?
Its clouds trap in a lot of heat.

2. How is Uranus different from the other planets in our Solar System?
Its spin on its side like a rolling ball. Zo Ee spontaneously answered this even without the need to look at the multiple choices.

3. How are the planets in the Inner Solar System different from the planets in the Outer Solar System?
The inner Solar System planets are warmer.

4. Why is Pluto considered a dwarf planet?
Zo Ee answered - because it orbits around Neptune instead of the Sun. The correct answer should be because it is smaller and its orbit around the Sun is different.

5. Which sentence is true?
The sun is the closest star to Earth.

Digestive System
Easy Quiz
1. Which part of the digestive system does the picture show?
Stomach

2. Which is a long tube that connects your throat and stomach?
Esophagus

3. What happens to food AFTER it gets broken down in the stomach?
It goes to the small intestine. Zo Ee answered this spontaneously without looking at the multiple answers given.

4. Where does digestion starts?
In your mouth

5. An organ is a body part that does a special job. Which part is an organ?
Stomach



Hard Quiz
1. What happens in the small intestine?
Nutrients in the food get absorbed.

2. Which happens LAST?
The food moves into her large intestine.

3. Which sentence is FALSE?
Zo Ee chose - Exercise helps keep your digestive system healthy. The correct answer should be -Your esophagus absorbs different nutrients in food.

4. What do gastric juices do?
They help digest food inside the stomach.

5. You MASTICATE food to help break it down before you swallow. What does MASTICATE means?
To chew.

Zo Ee says - 3years 5months old.

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old (11th September 2011)

This was taken last week, during our visit to Hampi town, India.

Zo Ee saying a lot (everyday event) but here are a few that really captured my attention. I just wanted to pen down a few today; marking she turned 3 years 5months old today.

Zo Ee saw Mummy adding some salt into the pot..... " Oh! Salt is a type of mineral."

"When you eat, the food go through your mouth, then esophagus, into your stomach, then small intestine, big intestine and finally out from you anus as waste. "

Zo Ee saying to Mummy, "Vagina is a small opening between your legs. This is where you past through we you were born."

"Mum! Do you know who invented soap?"

"Mum! Who actually invented hairband?"

" Mum! How do things get rot? How do human get rot"

" That's the algae in the pond."

" Heh Mum! That's cheating!"

" How do bad people snatch things? How do they snatch away your piggy bank?"

Armed with a long ruler, Zo Ee trying to measure our book shelf , " Mum, I'm trying to measure how tall is this bookshelf, what is its width?"

" Mum, our kitchen top is made of stone. " while knocking at it with her little hand.

And her favourite of all is " Mum! I am doing some testing. Oh! Look! " and then sharing her results spontaneously with Mummy.

Mummy asked her, "Zo Ee what is an inverterbrate?" Zo Ee, "Animals without backbone. (pointing to her backbone.) I have a backbone."


Mummy, "What would you like to buy at the toy shop later? " Zo Ee, " I do not have enough money." It's true that she has not enough at that moment, she is currently saving her reward money to buy her choice of toy.

"Oh! Look at this powder. Look at this! (while touching it), look ! it was grinds from rocks into this powdery form."

Brainpop Jr - 3years 4months old

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (10th September 2011)

I heard a lot about Brainpop website for months now and have been reluctant to allow Zo Ee to explore it just yet until recently. Even recently, Mummy introduced her to it with the idea that it will keep her occupied for certain period during our recent trip to Hampi while in the long 8 hours day journey. No doubts, Zo Ee immediately fell in love with it.

Since we didn't sign in as a member, Zo Ee finished 80% of the video clips in the 5 days trial. If it was not due to Mummy restriction, kicking her away from the PC, she easily finished everything within that trial period. From the moment she awakened, immediately she wanted to watch brainpop. Mummy limited her watching to one hour each session and as many sessions as she likes provided she gets some break in between. She diligently going through the clips in a systematical order; she wanted to watch each clips in each topics before moving on to another without missing any. She finished Science, Health, Social Studies, Maths, Arts and Technology and partial of the Reading & Writing. A few clips she watched twice, mostly once for all the rest. There are a few more clips that she needs to cover but am very amazed as how systematically she watches and explore Brainpop Jr. (K- Grade3) Mummy has yet to introduce Brainpop (Grade 4 -Grade 12) to her and foreseeing that Zo Ee will definitely enjoyed it better than Brainpop Jr but Mummy didn't want her to skip (Mummy knows that she will definitely do) instead has a clearer understanding of those basic concepts first although she has been reading facts books at much higher level, even into the adult level for sometime now. Mummy especially like Brainpop Jr.'s explanation on each new concepts or words. We will sign her up to Brainpop UK when she is bored with Brainpop Jr. since all Commonwealth countries are following UK syllabus mainly. I foreseeing that this will happen very soon because once she understood and absorb all information , she will not want to watch them again. That's pretty her nature since young. She may want to watch them after a year a part or so but definitely not in the next few months.

Landscape - 3years 4months old

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (9th September 2011)

Zo Ee with one crayon in her hand was very excited looking for something while calling out to me, "Mummy! Mummy! I'm going to draw. I want a piece of paper. Mum! Mum! Where is my paper?" When she got one piece, immediately she started on this. She was fast as if she was trying to capture her flow of thoughts... (that's what Mummy is guessing) and within 5 minutes, above is her work - A landscape?

Cutting craft - 3years 4months old.

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (9th September 2011)

We saw this folding and cutting idea in a book, so we decided to do the same; folded some colour papers, Mummy drew the shapes and Zo Ee cut them out.

Hindi Poem - 3years 4months old

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (27th August 2011)

This video was taken on the 27th August 2011 (2weeks ago). I am still not use to the new video camera as how to edit video; to add date and title to it. I still can't. Sigh... I am missing my old broken video camera.

Zo Ee's teachers were very surprised when Zo Ee chose to recite this Hindi Poem in front of the class the other day as this was taught in class while she was away during our Australia holiday. Teachers said she can recite so well! That's why I wanted to capture her in action but I have not a single idea what is it about. According to her teachers, Zo Ee also sings 2 other Hindi songs(adult song) and the India national anthem!

Computer skill - 3years 4months old

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (7th September 2011)

For the past 1 week, Zo Ee has been busy exploring Brainpop Junior website - one title after another. This is actually the first website that Zo Ee shows tremendous interest at and thus has strongly encouraged her to use the mouse and navigating through this website. She is able to control the mouse well, clicking on the selected films and also navigate between web pages; Science - Animals - Food Chain or Math - Geometry - Plane Shapes or juggle between titles that she wants etc.

Microsoft words

As for typing, occasionally she enjoys typing using Microsoft words. So far, there is nothing special that she has typed that worth blogging. Basically, she is experimenting around with typing; changing between capital and small letters. Trying out the symbols; coma, fullstops, question mark, exclamation mark etc. She likes to type a line of words, and then erase them all. She will sit for half an hour during each sitting.

60 pieces puzzle - 3years 4months old

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (31st August 2011)

Zo Ee's first attempt in solving a 60 pieces conventional puzzles. As usual, Zo Ee is not keen in doing this type of puzzle since young, so in order to motivate her, Mummy promised her a surprise gift if she managed to finish this puzzle. Upon hearing this, she showed some interest and started slow; piece by piece while watching TV. It took her about 40minutes to complete everything. She actually completed the last 70% within 5 minutes. So it didn't look difficult to her, just that she has little interest. Sometimes, Mummy wonder why is this so since she has interest in almost EVERYTHING.