My little Zo Ee

Prime Numbers - 3years 9months old

2012-01-26T00:09:00.004+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 9months old. (25th January 2012)

For the past 2 weeks, Zo Ee is obsessed with math again; she's been asking loads of math questions and is interested in negative numbers; doing negative subtraction and simple division and money. Today, she showed me 5 and 6 coloured pencils in each hands while telling me, 5 + 6 = 11. Then she handed me those 5 pencils while telling me 5 is a primary number and then handed me 6 pencils while telling me 6 is a secondary number. Ok...I don't think there is any primary number or secondary number. What sheis really trying to tell me is primary = prime numbers and secondary numbers = composite numbers. She is linking from the colour concept ; primary and secondary colours. You mixed two primary colours to get a secondary colour. So the same concept applies to numbers.

More conversation-3years 8months old

2012-01-01T03:11:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 8months old. (31st January 2011)

Zo Ee: Dad, how was your visit to the dentist yesterday? What did the dentist say?

When I tried to explain to her as DH was driving....immediately Zo Ee chimed in.

Zo Ee: Mum. Please say nothing. I'm asking Daddy. I want to hear from Daddy. Daddy please tell me about it. So, What did the dentist say? Are you alright now?

Dh:....explained.........

Zo Ee: Dad you should take good care of your tooth.

Grrr.... I wondered do other 3 years old talk like this too.

Conversation - 3years 8months old

2011-12-31T03:43:00.006+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 8months old (31st December 2011)

Capturing Zo Ee's amusing conversation for the past 1 week.

If I remembered correctly, Zo Ee first mentioned or talked about dead about a year ago but I'm finding that she understood this topic much in-depth now than then. Recently,

Zo Ee: Mum...I don't want you to get old or get very sick. Neither I want Daddy to get old. I don't want you or Daddy to die. I don't want to be left alone in this world.

Zo Ee: I don't want to grow big. I want to be a kid forever so that I can stay with you and Daddy forever! I don't want to be an adult. I just want to be me like now. I just want to be a kid forever. I want to remain short and small.

Zo Ee: Mum...How was it when the doctor operated on you?
Me: What do you mean? When?
Zo Ee: When I was ready to be born and the doctor wanted to remove me from your tummy. When the doctor operated on you, was it very painful? (looking very concern and serious) How did you feel?

I didn't have any Ceasarean but was not in the mood to talk about birth to a 3years 8months old. I know she read from my pregnancy book and knew about normal delivery and ceasarean. But it's just doesn't feel right to talk about it at this moment.

Due to our coming relocation, we told and explained to her what will happen to us and our friends and that it will be very unlikely that we will meet them again.

Zo Ee: Mum...R and I will get marry. (R has been her best friend and practically they meet each other in school since last year and R is Zo Ee's best friend. Both R and Zo Ee told us that they are best friends. )

Me: Children don't marry. First, You will have to wait till you finish school. Get a job and then decide whether you really want to marry R.
Zo Ee: I know most children don't marry but some do!
Me: Children are not supposed to get marry and it's against the law.
Zo Ee: I know most children don't marry but some do! And I want to marry R. R will go to work while I will stay at home.
Me: Even so, you will have to ask R whether he wants to marry you and both of you will have to wait until you are old enough to decide. It's not possible now.
Zo Ee: R likes me and we like each other very much. R will marry me, I'm very sure of that. ***Faint!****

Writings & Drawings -3years 7months old

2011-12-07T18:39:00.002+08:00

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

Zo Ee loves to write lately and she wrote & drew these today.

I'm most surprised by her drawing on the bottom left. She claimed that she's drawing Harry Potter. Harry Potter in a skirt...huh???? I've never told her about Harry Potter and neither we have any books yet. This is not the first time, she talked about Harry Potter, she did roughly mention it 2 months back. When I asked her about Harry Potter, she said that we don't have any Harry Potter books yet and nothing more. Just wondering where did she get that idea. Book shop?

Poem for Mummy - 3years 7months old

2011-12-06T18:57:00.001+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 7months old. (6th December 2011)

Another poem from Zo Ee. This time, a poem for Mummy. So I must be proud right? ; ) but I don't really understand it; partially maybe but I can't expect much from a 3years 7months old, right?

When I asked her to read it to me, it sounded like this.

Yellow yellow evyre(ever) owchoo aplethees
As a man
Is bella good?
yes and soost.
Shoo! the bee stinged Mummy.
And my Mummy sheeshabch
What a gap fomed(formed) owch!
Is at mnoocch!
And a shoes and ch!.

First Poem - 3years 7months old.

2011-12-03T00:12:00.005+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 7months old. (2nd December 2011)

Zo Ee showed me this and claimed that this is her funny poem. I'm not sure whether it's totally all her idea or maybe copied/remembering from the Diary of the Wimpy Kid book, since I'm guessing the word Dork is from there although she was not referring to any book when writing this.

Poem 1:
SheLLs Doing all Wet as A
is what a Dork?
Its parts are very bTusss........ (a funny sound)
A Dork is it
A wheel is it
A rock!

Poem 2:
See A butterfly
is Aooo.........
Am An Acooo......
AcorotAtt...... (funny sound)
At When Dooo.....
The Hen gee!
A A O O b!
C C C C.....
A too...
T T T T
is AA OCC.

6th Swim lesson - 3years 7months old

2011-12-02T22:36:00.005+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 7months old. (2nd December 2011)

Today was Zo Ee's 6th swim lesson. I thought she did great especially from someone who is afraid to put her head in the water prior to her 1st lesson. She swam a short distance (14s video clip below). Oh....I'm so proud of her.

250words in 60s - 3years 7months old

2011-11-29T19:14:00.009+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 7months old. (28th November 2011)

Wondering how fast can Zo Ee read? A friend asked me how fast can Zo Ee read. I know she can read very fast since she turned 3 and has been reading sub-titles on the tv since two. 2 months ago, while in a friend's house, Zo Ee read out the sub-titles(as the host) loud and fast from the US VOICE programme. My friend commented to her that "You like to read fast too ha..".

So when I saw her reading her new book, I grabbed the opportunity to record it so that I could count the number of words. The video below shown - she read these two pages; 250 words in 60s. I continued to record her reading a few more pages, they turned out to be 200words/minute and 423words/minute. She actually reads faster when there isn't any picture in those pages.

Fraction - 3years 7months old

2011-11-25T00:55:00.002+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 7months old. (24th November 2011)

We made some jelly with round moulds. Zo Ee decided that we'll share one. So cut it into half; half for her and half for me. Immediately, I finished mine. Zo Ee further divided her half into four equal portion while telling me, "Mum! Do you want another 1/8 of my jelly? You can have one if you want." Then she counted, 1,2,3,4. I overheard her saying, "four 1/8 equal to half."

speed reading - 3years 7months old

2011-11-24T00:42:00.004+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 7months old. (23rd November 2011)

Today Zo Ee read the entire book; about 170 Nursery Rhymes in an hour. This is not the first time Mummy seeing her doing that. Few months ago, Zo Ee read her Noddy book about 100 1/2pages (another half is illustration) in 15mnutes.

Crazy Multiplication-3years 7months old

2011-11-13T17:24:00.003+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 7months old. (13th November 2011)

We just arrived two hours ago after being away for 10nights. When I saw the magnetic numbers pack in New Delhi (none in Goa), immediately I grabbed it for Zo Ee. Zo Ee has been excited and I didn't allow her to open it until we reached home. And when we reached home just now, the first thing she wanted to do was to open this magnetic numbers pack. While DH and I were busy unpacking, Zo Ee showed us these...

She actually used a calculator to calculate the answers. But I still find it cool that she has such idea and went beyond the normal times table she has seen thus far. Also I like that she has written down the equal sign and number two when she ran out of those pieces.

Unikato Game - 3years 6months old

2011-11-11T14:04:00.005+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (10th November 2011)

We are still at New Dehli and will be here until Sunday. We bought Zo Ee some new games and puzzles at the mall. One of them is the Unikato game. Initially, we thought it is a very straight forward game but it's not. One of the rule is that Unikato tiles may be placed next to each other if they differ in exactly one feature i.e. they must match in 3 out of 4 features.

1. Form of the symbol: circle, square, cross

2. Colour of the symbol: orange, purple, blue

3. Size of the symbol: small, medium, large

4. Background colour: white, grey, black

Initially, I was thinking it will not be possible for Zo Ee to play this game since I have no idea how to explain to her the above 3 out of 4 features rule. She wanted to play, so we played along. After seeing a few examples, Zo Ee managed to grab the rule and playing along well. She likes it very much and was playing it this morning too. Ocassionally, she makes one or two mistakes but overall she understood the game well. This morning she laid all 81 pieces out correctly.

This video shown half-way through our first game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0W3sLsHGYk

Many Faces Zo Ee-3years 6months old.

2011-11-10T02:42:00.001+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (10th November 2011)

Drawing Fractions - 3years 6months old

2011-11-07T02:38:00.002+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (7th November 2011)

Vocabulary-3years 6months old

2011-11-02T00:07:00.002+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (31st October 2011)

When we came across this word "Grit" in her book, Zo Ee stopped to ask me what is the meaning of Grit? I told her that I had no idea, why not check out the dictionary together. Immediately, she replied, " Grit - Tiny bits of sands or stones. " An when I checked out the dictionary, I was surprised that she's right. I know she has huge vocabulary, but am pretty amazed with her knowledge of words too.

Case 1 - 3years 6months old.

2011-11-01T16:59:00.003+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (31st October 2011)

Case 1 ? I am finding this very interesting. I'm wondering what is she doing on the white board.

Sunset! - 3years 6months old

2011-10-31T00:08:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (30th October 2011)

I'm drawing Sunset, Mum! I like the colour combination used by her, just very sunset.

Crossing over Puzzle - 3years 6months old

2011-10-30T13:16:00.004+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (29th October 2011)

A classic math problem about a man trying to get a goat, a cabbage, and a wolf across a river. There is only space for the man and one other thing in the boat. If the wolf and the goat are left together, the wolf will eat the goat, if the cabbage and goat are alone, the goat will eat the cabbage. How does he get all three across the river?

A friend posted this online and was surprised as to how her two children solve it differently. S0 I was curious whether Zo Ee will understand such puzzle and somehow she managed to get the answer correctly. I think it's a combination of luck with some reasoning skill but I still and won't believe that she could solve it since she is only 3years 6months old. Initially, she couldn't reason anything out by just listening to the question. So I drew it out for her. She was able to see it clearer with the drawing. Immediately she said Goat should cross first. I'm not sure why, maybe it was luck. Next was to bring the cabbage over. Followed by the wolf later. That's when I interfered, reminding her that that will not be possible as the goat will eat the cabbage while the man went back to get the wolf. They shouldn't be left alone together. She paused to think and before finally telling me that the man should bring the goat back across the river. Dropped the goat so that he can bring the wolf across and finally back to get the goat again. She got it and was proudly telling DH the answer.

Chatty Zo Ee - 3years 6months old

2011-10-29T13:09:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (29th October 2011)

I was pretty mad at Zo Ee for messing the house. She did some craft work, and pieces of papers are all over the dining hall, together with her stationeries - colours, pencils, containers to hold her cut out pieces, toys etc. Just a Mess. I told her to tidy up or else I will pick them up and throw them into the dustbin. She started picking up a little before telling me this, " Mum! Mum! You shouldn't throw my toys and stationery into the dustbin. They are not waste! You only throw waste into the dustbin. It will be a waste to throw them away. We shouldn't waste food or anything at all. "

I don't really remember when she started saying something like this (I'm guessing since 3 years 3months old.) When I told her that she can choose only one drink from the menu while dining out, this is her usual reply. " Mum, I'll have mango milkshakes and you will have ice lemon tea. I think you will like the Ice Lemon Tea. Then, we can share. You will have some of mine and I'll have some of yours." This happened to food too. She will ask us to order two or three of her choices, then DH will be included in her list.

First Story - 3years 6months old

2011-10-23T01:57:00.005+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (23rd October 2011)

I think it's cool to see Zo Ee's first writing. Is this a 3.5years old spurt? I have yet to see any sentences from her and she skipped wrting sentences and straight into her very first story. She did ask me to spell the words knocking, blasting and sound for her. The rest are her own work. We have not talk to her about ghost as such, and when I asked her what is a ghost, her reply - A ghost is a scary thing. And If you know her, Zo Ee is a fact person, reading books on facts rather than fiction. So I didn't really expect such a story from her.

More Fraction - 3years 6months old

2011-10-21T02:04:00.001+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (21st October 2011)

I thought this was cool, Zo Ee told me at breakfast today that 2/8 is equal to 1/4. She knew her simple fractions, about a year ago but mainly has to do with our pizza eating, like 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1/3,1/5. Today is something new.

Since she brought this up, I asked her whether she would like to do some fraction exercise and she was more than happy to agreed. Unfortunately, these were the only 2 pages we found in her workbook. She seems to understand the concept and needn't need any help at all.

Star! - 3years 6months old

2011-10-19T21:57:00.003+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (19th October 2011)

Look at the Stars! This is my first time seeing her drawing stars. I think her handwriting "PUZZle WRiTing" is very good for her age.

Letter O - 3years 6months old

2011-10-17T13:06:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (17th October 2011)

Drawings for letter "O" - Octopus, Ostrich, owl, otter and Oman (a country we visited last November). I particularly like the owl's feathers - she mixed brown and grey to make its texture.

Proud of her latest drawing for school, just before the long Diwali vacation

Beach Party - 3years 6 months old.

2011-10-16T12:37:00.003+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6 months old. (16th October 2011)

Attended a birthday party at Beach Cafe of Park Hyatt Goa Resort today. It's the Park Hyatt GM's daughter first birthday. This is our 2nd time attending party there. It's one of the best resort in Goa, and was named the best Resort in Asia 2 or 3 years back. Zo Ee had a nice time playing with the kids at their beach. I've never attended such a luxury birthday parties in my life and here, at 3, Zo Ee's already attended two such parties. Here is the picture of her, in her swim wear.... having a break and some snack. I didn't expect her to show off her maths skill in the party. While having her snacks, she spotted some medium size pebbles on the tables. She arranged them into groups of 3 and started counting 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, etc. One of Zo Ee's friend Mummy introduced Zo Ee to another Mummy, "She is Zo Ee. She is a very very very smart girl. She is very smart. " Look at the way she described Zo Ee although she has no idea that Zo Ee can read and do maths and crazy over science and facts.

Another thing that surprised me was that Zo Ee actually asked Zac (birthday's girl brother) whether can she play inside his plastic pool. Initially, both DH and I were very sure that Zo Ee wanted to play inside the children plastic pool by the beach, but had been standing there observing and not joining in. We actually asked her to try to play inside it, but she remained silent and watching instead. Until one moment, we heard her asking, "Zac, May I play inside your plastic pool, please?" When Zac said Yes, immediately Zo Ee stepped into it.

Speech & Drama Class - 3years 6months old

2011-10-15T00:14:00.002+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (15th October 2011)

Zo Ee attended her speech and drama class for the 2nd time today. She had a blast and loves it. Picking her up, I asked her teacher how is Zo Ee doing in the class, she replied me that she is a very creative girl while raising her eyebrows! So I asked Zo Ee about today's class, she said that she told the drama teacher that she wanted to be king Arthur, and her friends will be Kay, Sir Ector, Merlin, etc while raising one hand above her head with an imaginary sword, pretending to be Arthur. Ok. this is a drama class for 3 -5 years old, I wonder how many would understand what she 's talking about.

Spelling - 3years 6months old

2011-10-14T00:02:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (12th October 2011)

2 days ago, Zo Ee asked for spelling, she never did before and this is the first time she actually asked me to test her. Since she can spell pretty well for her age (self-taught), as mentioned earlier, Zo Ee amazed us when we noticed that she could spell most 3-letter words at 26month old. And at 3 years 3months old - she could spell most 4-5 letter words accurately.

I'm taking this opportunity as a writing practice for her instead. Rather than really wanted her to learn more words, I'm asking her to write words that I know she could spell already, starting from 3 or 4-letter words. So she didn't really have to study or try to memorize them. Below are examples for the last two days.

11th October 2011

12th October 2011

Went inviting - 3years 6months old

2011-10-13T00:04:00.012+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (11th October 2011)

When I dropped Zo Ee at school today, her teacher asked me, " Did she tell you about what happen yesterday?" I have no idea since Zo Ee didn't say anything special other than being extra tired after school. Zo Ee's class teacher told me this morning that she took Zo Ee around the school to send out invitations to the headmaster, vice and all the big shots in school yesterday. This is not a small school considering the classes they offered; Nursery1, Nursery 2, Kindergarten, 1st Standard - 10th Standard, as the school has been divided into different sections with their own heads and occupying different blocks. No wonder, Zo Ee was so tired yesterday after school that she actually napped for 2 hours which she hasn't been for months. The walking to other blocks and the heat must have exhausted her plus the ongoing rehearsal for tomorrow Nursery 1 Poem Recitation Day. Her whole class will be reciting and performing the Hush, Little Baby (with acting) which her teacher modified to a longer version for all to take part in and a poem on My little Naughty Monkey.

So yesterday, Zo Ee was representing her section to invite those important people to witness their performance tomorrow. Her teacher taught her what to say and do just before hand and Zo Ee did the talking and handing out those invitation cards at each individual office. Her teacher said that she did so well and amazingly impressed all the invitees. I'm glad she was given the opportunity to boost her public skill (anyway so far she has no fear at all talking to strangers) and to carry on a special task like that. I think its such an invaluable learning and experience for her since this is not something she can get from her beloved books. What a good way to mark the day Zo Ee turned 3 years 6months old (yesterday). I'm very proud of her.

Here is a photo of her on the actual Recitation Day, today (13th October 2011).

The whole class is wearing Green blouse/shirt with Denim Shorts, plus a little makeup. Zo Ee was excited about the makeup since she did have some idea from her DVD, those kiddy ballet dancers getting ready for their performance and I'm not into make up myself. I don't really like children to wear makeup at such age but didn't want her to be left out since all her friends will be having them. She was very cooperative. Anyway, I just put very light makeup for her; eyeshadow, blusher and a lip gloss instead of lipstick. I'm not good at make up but I think she looks alright. This is how she looks with her make up!

Linking Addition with Multiplication - 3years 5months old

2011-10-12T00:50:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (9th October 2011)

These 2 weeks, Zo Ee surprised me by trying to link addition sums with multiplication sums. A few of her examples that I could recall is

2 + 2 = 4 , 2x2 = 4
so 2+2 = 2x2

3 + 3 = 6, 3x2 = 6
so there are the same,
meaning 3 + 3 = 3 x 2

5 + 5 = 10 and 2 x 5 = 10
so 5+ 5 = 2 x 5

5 + 5 + 5+5 +5 = 25 and 5x5 = 25
so 5 + 5 + 5+5 +5 = 5x5

Maze-a shorter solution - 3years 5months old.

2011-10-11T00:07:00.006+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (9th October 2011)

I'm surprised that there is a shorter solution solved by Zo Ee for this maze. After not doing any maze for 3-4 months, today, I'm also seeing that Zo Ee's maze solving skill has improved so much. Another growth spurt!

Given solution

Umbrella & clock - 3years 5months old

2011-10-10T00:07:00.004+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (8th October 2011)

I think it's such a nice umbrella and a cute little clock from my little Zo Ee.

Prodigy? - 3years 5months old

2011-10-09T00:14:00.012+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (4th October 2011)

Today, while on my way to pick Zo Ee up, I was stopped by another lady a few meters away from Zo Ee's class. She was saying, "Hi! You must be Zo Ee's Mummy." I smiled at her and said Yes. From my puzzled face she must have known that I have no idea who she is. Initially, I thought it must be another kid's mother from Zo Ee's class since she actually walked out from there earlier. She later introduced herself, saying that she is from another section of this school. She is teaching English for the 9th and 10th Standard in the school. [10th standard is the highest standard offered in this school; Nursery 1 (3 years old), Nursery 2 (4 years old), Kindergarten (5 years old), 1st Standard (6 years old), Secondary Standard is divided to middle section 5th Standard- 7th Standard and senior is 8th Standard -10th Standard.) English, Hindi, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Geography, EE, SUPW, PE, Computer Applications, Commerce and French are offered to the 9th and 10th Standard. At the end of 10th standard, students have to sit for the national board exams.] She was telling me that every teachers in the Nursery/ Kindergarten section has been talking about Zo Ee and that she is very famous in school. This teacher who didn't want to believe what she has heard; a 3 years old is reading at very high level? So the Nursery coordinator actually invited her over to judge for herself. And today, this teacher came over to Zo Ee's class with a book for her 10th standard pupils. I'm guessing she must have had her read to her. That's what Zo Ee said too. Zo Ee even asked that teacher, "What is your name?" before she left the room which cracked her class teachers.

This particular teacher commented:
"You have a prodigy child. She is amazing. Her reading will put my 9th & 10th Standard pupils to shame. Her reading is much beyond that. Until I met her just now, I would not have believe that a 3 years old could read at such high level. And she has photographic memory too. "

Sometimes, it's good to hear such comment especially from an English teacher(someone else other than me or DH to agree that she is reading at very high level) who has been teaching secondary school students for many years and from the best school in Goa. Also this is not the first time, someone has commented using the word Prodigy although most people preferred to use the word Genius to describe her. It's a little awkward to get such remark. And I really don't know how to react to such remark, other than just a smile while saying that she is gifted. But on the other hand, I just don't want her to be a topic in the school although the teachers are not doing it in front of her or in class.

1 whole Drawing - 3years 5months old

2011-10-08T00:08:00.004+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (4th October 2011)

This is the first time I'm seeing Zo Ee drawing related pictures in one drawing (rather than many individual pictures scattering on one page). When I asked her why some of the people are not touching the ground, her replied "They are jumping in the air."

From left to right:
A-Jack-in-the-box with a Mickey hand. The first pink kid was thinking about MICKEY. The girl is skipping with a rope. The small purple boy is thinking about a flower flying in the air. The man is thinking about another Jack-in-the-box with a Mickey hand. A brown alien and also a flying helicopter in the sky.

Letter M - 3years 5months old.

2011-10-07T00:07:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (4th October 2011)

I am guessing most her friends will be submitting pictures for the letter M such as mango etc and here Zo Ee chose Minnie and Mickey. She copied these from her colouring book.

Singing on stage -3years 5months old

2011-10-06T00:03:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (1st October 2011)

Last Saturday night, we were attending DH's company function. We were walking past the stage and the singers on stage talked to Zo Ee and they asked her whether she would like to sing and she replied yes. I was very surprised she agreed to sing. Zo Ee sang 2 Hindi songs on stage, in front of about 50 people. She was cool and calm. The singers gave me this "WOW!" look for her singing and asked me about her age. Before bed that night, I asked her again, whether she will want to sing on stage again, and her answer was YES.

Last weekend, we got another positive remark on her singing at another restaurant. The waiter overheard her singing to herself and telling us that she sings so well. Hmm... Both Dh and I are not good at singing. I think she sings ok but many people commented that she never sings out of tune since young. I don't really know how to judge a toddler's singing.

Peace to the world - 3years 5months old

2011-10-04T00:01:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (30th September 2011)

Look at my serious little girl; she's so into the Peace on Earth song by Bill Elliott. Look at her hands, they just cracked me up. She was swaying with her eyes closed along with the song too. There isn't any swaying or eyes closing or hands together in the video clip, very peaceful song and just purely her own reaction to that song.

Drawing for Grandma - 3years 5months old

2011-10-03T00:48:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (1/10/2011)

Today, we intend to send grandma a birthday card. Zo Ee has this drawing especially for grandma to be send together. Six big candles and 3 little ones = 63rd birthday. There is a small heart next to it. Wondered when the hearts drawing started...she filled the cards with them. A caterpillar and an internal diagram of our body. Not sure what grandma will say about that! She wanted to label them and asked me to spell for her.

100 pcs puzzle - 3years 5months old

2011-10-02T00:08:00.002+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 5months old. (28th September 2011)

Zo Ee leisurely completed this new 100pcs puzzle at 1 hour 15 minutes. How is she doing? Is she fast or average? How much time do other kids need to finish such puzzle? Just some thoughts. Box stated that its for age 5+.

3months in Nursery - 3years 5months old.

2011-10-01T00:08:00.010+08:00

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

Almost 3 1/2 months in her new school, minus one full month away (Australia) and another 1 week school holiday (Ganesh Festival), Zo Ee is doing great in her new school. Monsoon(raining season) is almost over and she is wearing socks and shoes to school instead of sandals. With the hot weather, seeing the sweating her, (she sweats more than the local kids), the teachers placed her directly under the class fan. She is happy (so far) and teachers like her especially her curious little mind with her huge knowledge to share with them. According to her teachers, she is very comfortable with them now, expressing and chatting with them on a daily basis. Opposing to the initial month, Zo Ee's very passive and preferred to observe than expressing herself like now. Zo Ee loves to share her knowledge with others and the teachers are acknowledging that, listening and asking her questions which allowed her to express more. They agreed that she is definitely special, especially seeing the way she observed and sees things/the world around her in a very different ways, much higher level than her friends. Teachers are always amazed with her little mind and doing. Last week, she was telling her teacher something about our body, that the heart is the organ that pumps blood in our body. Heart is also the center organ in our arteries system. When the teacher asked her how many kidneys are there is our body, she replied two. These are just a fraction of her huge knowledge and her teachers already showing this "WOW!" in their face.

In class, Zo Ee finished her work fast (baby work to her - if given the chance, you can finish the whole book in less than 30minutes), and spend the time chatting and talking to her teachers while her friends are still struggling with their work. I don't mind she has to do them, especially doing them neatly, correctly and quickly. Now, she gets the idea that once she has done them and submitted them, she is free to do things. She still cannot understand why her friends refused to do their work nicely or correctly, where some even can't hold a pencil correctly yet. To her, they are just naughty and refused to listen to their teachers. When I asked her whose work is the best. Without hesitation, she replied, "Mine." Teachers always said that my work is neat and beautiful. One month ago, her teachers even mentioned to me that they don't have to tell her anything, she'll know what to do and how to do them. I guess at that time, they have not realized that she is capable of reading the instructions yet although I have mentioned to them that she is capable of reading at high level, but they just don't quite get it especially at which level exactly.

Last year, when I took Zo Ee to see the school, we did meet the previous school coordinator, who did mention that they do have some kids joining them already reading but definitely not at Zo Ee's level. She mentioned that they allowed such kids to bring in stuff/books to do/read after they are finished their work. This year, her Nursery/Kindergarten section has a new coordinator ( they rotate every 3 years), and this new coordinator didn't know the whole story initially. She didn't see why I was anxious when Zo Ee started school 3 months ago. She and the teachers are positive all the time but they just thought that I'm just one of the many parents who boasted about their child and worries too much. I did told her that my main concern is for her to like school. I don't expect much from the school and was not sure whether she will learn much from school but I'll be very happy as long as Zo Ee is happy and enjoying school. 3 months passed, I didn't ask for any changes or specific requests since Zo Ee has been enjoying school. Learning the alphabets and numbers are just a minor part of the school days. I heard that they will learn 1- 30 this year. According to the coordinator, this school is very advanced comparing to the other schools, they do reading early, like they are teaching the alphabets with the phonics from 3 years old. They will introduce 3 words sentences next year for Nursery 2(4 years old) and number 1-100. Ok, none of these are relevant to Zo Ee since she is already reading and knows her numbers up to thousands, she knows what is million and trillion too. Anyway, they do learn more than that; topic of the weeks etc. For example last week, they were doing water transport and the teachers took them out to the beach (opposite the school, just crossed the road) to look at the "barge" passing by. They do a lot of art works where Zo Ee picked up new words and technics, eg. "Blotching" which the teachers did hang this word next to their works in class. I'm not sure how much other kids are absorbing or learning but Zo Ee is absorbing everything. Her writing improves tremendously although the teacher intention is to teacher the children how to recognize the alphabet, so she has been showing them the strokes and how to write them properly. I think they are doing the letter L now. Zo Ee just grabbed the concepts and applied them in her own writing. They are learning songs and dance and most importantly oral speaking. I really like this weekly oral speaking (public speaking) in class. Other that this, they already performed once and will be another coming this October (poem recitation for Nursery 1) - the whole class is performing and November (Children's day). So lots of activities to keep the children busy. Zo Ee has been assigned to play the keyboard and giving a long speech for the coming Children's Day.

On Monday, I bumped into the new coordinator, she stopped to talk to me, asking me how am I and how is Zo Ee doing? This lady that I have not talked to since the first week of school, is telling me that Zo Ee can read so well and she is such an amazing girl. She told me that they have started to pull her out of the class for higher reading and learning. I don't really know what but when I asked Zo Ee, she said there is this new teacher reading books with her. I am really liking this school. No wonder, this is the best school in Goa and parents queued long hours to get the admission forms and some even 24 hours. Dh actually queue for 8 hours last January. It's really worth the effort. Anyway, all these kids are from rich families since this is a local private school. I've seen kids coming to school in Porsche, Jaguar and fancy cars. They have very talented kids, musically talented kids and recently one 14 years old who just published an adult thriller book of 400 pages. The reason why I'm choosing this school is that it's fairly a good school with good teachers and just 5 minutes drive from our home.

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

2011-09-30T00:05:00.010+08:00

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

2011-09-29T00:07:00.002+08:00

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

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

Helicopter - 3years 5months old.

2011-09-28T00:04:00.000+08:00

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

Another drawing for school tomorrow; Air Transport - Helicopter

Dictionary Again - 3years 5months old

2011-09-27T00:31:00.004+08:00

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.

2011-09-26T13:27:00.003+08:00

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

Building with her Jenga blocks.

Designing Games - 3years 5months old

2011-09-25T00:19:00.000+08:00

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

2011-09-24T00:02:00.001+08:00

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.

2011-09-23T00:02:00.003+08:00

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

2011-09-22T13:15:00.002+08:00

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

2011-09-21T12:19:00.004+08:00

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

2011-09-20T00:08:00.002+08:00

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

New Puzzle - Lokulus

2nd Poems Book-3years 5months old.

2011-09-19T00:07:00.010+08:00

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

2011-09-18T00:06:00.015+08:00

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

2011-09-17T00:51:00.000+08:00

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

2011-09-16T20:24:00.003+08:00

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

2011-09-15T20:28:00.003+08:00

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

2011-09-13T20:27:00.025+08:00

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.

2011-09-11T12:29:00.004+08:00

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

2011-09-10T12:28:00.005+08:00

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

2011-09-10T00:27:00.003+08:00

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.

2011-09-09T23:22:00.004+08:00

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

2011-09-08T23:55:00.001+08:00

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

2011-09-07T02:35:00.002+08:00

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

2011-09-01T00:10:00.001+08:00

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.

Magnetic - 3years 4months old

2011-08-31T17:23:00.002+08:00

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

"Mum! Mum! I'm doing some testing." Zo Ee was saying these as she headed into the kitchen with her Doodle's magnets in her hands. "I'm going to try it on the refrigerator. Ooh! It works. I'm going to try it out on the rug. Hmmm...this is not magnetic. How about the cabinet knob? Hmmm...neither is this magnetic too." pause... "Oh Mum, some people call that refrigerator and some call it fridge." while pointing to the fridge before walking away.

That's my little scientist doing her own experiment after gathering some information from the tv , internet or books.

Pencil Shading - 3years 4months old

2011-08-30T03:06:00.005+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (30th August 2011)

We found this interesting - Learn Pencil Shading book for 45 India Rupee. Zo Ee decided to try this baby portrait, she commented that this baby looks like her cousin sister; Baby Allaine.

A neat outline sketch has been provided with a finished sample on another page for each portrait. Mummy pointed to Zo Ee as where to shade referring to the finished sample and where the hair's direction etc. Zo Ee shaded all this which turned out to be amazingly well for her age. Since this is her first try, Mummy didn't want to emphasize on every details to overload her....just for her to have a feel of shading is good enough. Nevertheless, never expected it to turn out to be this good.

Science workbooks - 3years 4months old.

2011-08-29T02:35:00.003+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (29th August 2011)

Mummy is very glad to have found a few science workbooks for Zo Ee. Immediately, she was so attached to it. Zo Ee even brought it with her to the restaurant. Most of the pages are pretty easy to her and she has no problem doing them herself without any help except to some thinking questions like; Why do you think the Earth is called the water planet? and Which is the smallest continent on Earth? She couldn't answer this question as the picture was not drawn to proper proportion where two continents were drawn to about the same size. Nevertheless, she managed to answer that Asia is the biggest continent, there are 7 continents in the world and She lives on the Asia continent.

Another book on Dinosaurs. Here Zo Ee has drawn a baby dinosaur inside the egg.

Tipper Truck - 3years 4months old

2011-08-25T00:05:00.002+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (22nd August 2011)

Zo Ee build this more complicated model with the guide book. Half was build in the afternoon and the rest were build in the same night. She was pretty careless with this complicated model, still needing a little reminder here and there.

Finally, she is very contented with her tipper truck.

Mug - 3years 4months old

2011-08-24T00:18:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (22nd August 2011)

This is purely Zo Ee's idea to make a MUG from some paper. Initially, the lazy Mummy gave her the excuse, no it's not possible but the persistent Zo Ee replied, "Yes, It's possible. See..." while showing Mummy the idea how to roll the paper to make the MUG's body. Later she cut out a long paper with the width about 1cm for its handle and directed Mummy to stick it to the side of the Mug. Seeing the creative her, Mummy decided to help her to perfect it. Mummy showed her how to fold the paper into thicker to give extra strength to the Mug's holder and finally she added some decoration onto it. The only thing that the Mug didn't have is a bottom but heh! this is awesome work from my little 3years 4months old.

2011-08-23T00:02:00.002+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old (21st August 2011)

Sometimes, I am really confused at the level of books she is reading. I really have no idea what her comprehension level is. She reads from the simplest book to Poetry of 2 pages each, to Children/Adult Reference books. Once in a while she will read the Whimpy Diary Kid(not my liking) - a few chapters (she was reading this on the plane and passengers sitting nearby was giving us this "LOOK!") or a few chapters of those thicker story books. Whenever I'm curious, I'll ask her a few questions and she did understand, although I know she may not understand every single words. One good thing about her is, she will ask me meaning to words she cannot understand. Sometimes, I doubted her understanding in reading higher level books but although she may not be able to tell me the exact meanings to big words but she will give me an example of its usage in another sentence.

Maybe, it has never bother me all this while till yesterday incident.
I was waiting for her to take bath, she refused to move until she finished this book of Noddy. Since the water was ready, so I sat next to her just waiting for her to finish her book, so that I could send her immediately to the bathroom before she started on another activity. Zo Ee finished this book of 4 in 1 stories of 98pages in 15 minutes. I wouldn't have believe my eyes if I was not sitting there watching her. I guessed it's an easy book for her but finishing it in 15 minutes is very surprising to me because other than reading she did spend a great deal of time looking at the pictures too.

Any Idea what level this book would be?

LEGO creativity - 3years 4months old

2011-08-22T00:06:00.007+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (19th August 2011)

Zo Ee build this house with Mummy's help in reading certain part of its building steps. Basically, it is an empty house. Creative Zo Ee added the table, chairs, mini-figures, mugs, glass and a standing lamp to it. Mummy is very impressive with her ability to build the table and chairs efficiently. In Mummy's opinion, the house did look more complete with her addition.

The other side of the house.

Books/Science Interest - 3years 4months old

2011-08-21T00:20:00.005+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (13th August 2011)

Zo Ee has been known as an avid reader/browser since 10 months old, that's the time we started borrowing books from the library for her. Avid in the sense that she will browse all the 20 library books we borrowed daily, one after another without failed. Before that, she was pretty limited to books we have at home but since we joined the library, her reading horizon exploded. Imagine 12 months later, she has read more than 1000 library books, not once but at least few times/ per book. Now that she has turned 3years 4months old, I'm glad that she still loves reading, in fact is still her first love.

Nowadays, She reads a lot by herself and we only read together during bedtime. During the day time, she has access to books she likes and will spend time reading them by herself. Occasionally, she will come to me for some explanation or to clarify her doubts on a particular page or etc. Basically, Mummy hardly take note about what she is reading everyday at home. One particular book she has been reading recently is The Kingfisher book of Funny Poems with over 200 poems in it.

A few of her latest read with Mummy before bedtime are
Yoga
Kingfisher first Thesaurus
Daring Cell defenders (Rebecca L Johnson)

Basically, she decides what she wants to read and she may read the entire book or she may not especially on reference books which consist more than 200 pages each. She most likely will finish reading simple story books whenever she reads one. But has not finished any other story books of 100/200 pages in a go. She reads a few chapters and may read another book etc. The only story book she has finished in a go is Stories to Treasure....many short stories in a book of 200pages. And she did that at 2years 9months old. Most likely, that particular book has bigger printing which makes her reading easier.

Few days ago, On her request, we read about Kidney Failure; especially on Renal Dialysis. From there, she learned about dehydration and who is at risk and how to prevent it. She also wanted to learn about Hydronephrosis -blockage of the kidney. So that's how our reading sessions go lately, on a particular topic instead of a particular book.

If I had not mistaken, Zo Ee actually started liking adult version - anatomy book around 2years 9 months old. Not that she will read it everyday but each time she did, she grasped quite a bit of information by herself. For example, last week, Zo Ee asked me while pointing to the picture of a brain, "Mummy what is this thing called?" When I told her that I'm not sure, she replied without hesitation, "That's the Thalamus. Yes. That's the Thalamus." Of course, when Mummy went to confirm it, Zo Ee was right, it was indeed the Thalamus - tiny part of the brain. She may not read the entire book during each read of every few weeks but definitely she will not miss any diagrams in it. I also noticed that her each read/visit become longer as she grows older, started with an hour/day. She may read that particular book for an hour for a few times on one particular day or re-read it the next day , then stopped for another few weeks before coming back to this particular book again. That's her style be it reading or activities...always in a cycle.

The other day, she was glued to the tv, watching the final Voyage of the Atlantis space shuttle and was complaining she didn't want to see the commercial breaks in between. She was so thrilled throughout the show and even clapped and cheered during the lift-off. Another particular program that really interest her is the first patient with an artificial heart. She watched the whole program, including part of the surgery. These are the latest two programs that captured her 100% interest and she has been talking about it for days. As mentioned earlier, she enjoys watching documentaries, especially on science and making things but these two really stood out from the rest. I could sense that she particularly likes these two.

Anniversary - 3years 4months old

2011-08-20T00:10:00.004+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (18th August 2011)

Happy 10th Wedding Anniversary to Daddy and Mummy.

Today is Daddy and Mummy's 10th Wedding Anniversary. So Zo Ee learned about the meaning of wedding anniversary. We dine out at the New Grand Hyatt, Goa for the first time. Although I'm not a fan of India food but what we had was spectacular and nothing we have tasted as good since we arrived here 18 months ago. Definitely we will come back for another treat.

LEGO house & carriage - 3years 4months old

2011-08-19T00:39:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (16th August 2011)

Looks like Zo Ee has started enjoying LEGO. She created the little house and horse-drawn carriage with the LEGO guide. Mummy build her the tree. The rest are her own effort.

Music notes - 3years 4months old

2011-08-18T19:42:00.002+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (15th August 2011)

Zo Ee asked for a staff paper and wrote these herself.

More LEGO creation - 3years 4months old.

2011-08-17T00:19:00.002+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (15th August 2011)

Mummy is very impressed with Zo Ee's building skill. She build this 3rd model (propeller plane) from the same set we bought for her recently. She needed some help with the first model;boat and less help with 2nd model; helicopter and pretty independent building this herself. Mummy only needs to give her some encouragement.

27th Aeroplane flight - 3years 3months old

2011-08-16T01:30:00.008+08:00

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

It just came across Mummy's mind that just the recent trip to Australia, Zo Ee was in 8 different aeroplanes. Gosh, Mummy's first flight was at 19 years old and Daddy's was at 25 years old. So Mummy decided to count the number of flights Zo Ee has taken this far. Zo Ee's first flight was to Bali where we celebrated her first birthday. Here is the list:

1. Singapore - Bali - Singapore (almost 12 months old; 2x)
2. Singapore - Perth - Singapore (15 months old; 2x)
3. Singapore - Ipoh - Singapore (17 months old; 2x)
4. Singapore - Ipoh - Singapore (21 months old; 2x)
5. Singapore - Mumbai - Goa (22 months old; 2x)
6. Goa - New Delhi ( 28 months old; 1x)
7. Jaipur - Mumbai - Goa ( 28 months old; 2x)
8. Goa - Dubai - Kuala Lumpur (30months old; 2x)
9. Ipoh - Singapore - Ipoh (30months old; 2x)
10. Kuala Lumpur - Hyderabad - Goa (31months old; 2x)
11. Goa - Mumbai -Kuala Lumpur - Melbourne (38 months old; 3x)
12. Melbourne - Sydney - Melbourne (39 months old; 2x)
13. Melbourne - Kuala Lumpur - Mumbai - Goa (39 months old; 3x)

So Zo Ee has taken 27th Flights in 27 months period.

Cinema 2 - 3years 3months old

2011-08-15T01:08:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 3months old. (15th August 2011)

Few days ago, Daddy and Mummy planned to take Zo Ee to watch Smurfs at the Cinema. Little Zo Ee refused, saying that it will be too loud for her and that makes her scared. I couldn't believe it, the last time she was in a cinema, also her first time was watching G-Force at 17 months old.

After some explanation about the movie and what to expert in the cinema, plus a promise to leave if she will to find that she didn't like it. After all this, she agreed to give it a try. She was excited from the day earlier till the morning she woke up. Daddy bought her some Cheesy Popcorn and initially everything was fine. She watched for 30minutes and wanted to leave after seeing the bad wizard being so horrible and attacking the smurfs. She was terrified of the bad wizard and initially she tried to close her eyes whenever he appeared but soon it became unbearable to her and she wanted to leave, saying "Enough. I want to go now. I don't like it." while walking heading towards the exit. So Daddy took her out, Mummy continued watching for another half an hour and we left after 1 hour during the intermittent. ha ha...there is 10 minutes break here in India. She likes the smurfs but hated the wizard.I think Zo Ee will like it better if it's pure cartoon and not a mixture of real actors with cartoon animation.

.....................................................................
Then
17 months old - G-Force

Manufacturing Glasses - 3years 4months old

2011-08-14T12:57:00.003+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (12th August 2011)

Zo Ee asked Daddy.

Zo Ee : Dad, how do glasses (spectacles) being made in factory?
Daddy : Hmmm.... Daddy is not sure.
Zo Ee : First, they cut the glasses (refering to its shape), make the left and right metal curve in the factory, then put them together like this (pointing to Daddy's rimless spectacles). There the glasses is ready.
Daddy : Ooh...

Daddy was shocked to hear such explanation for Zo Ee as nobody has explained it to her before, this is purely from her own observation and thinking.

Birth subject - 3years 4months old

2011-08-13T20:21:00.003+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 4months old. (11th August 2011)

Maybe to mark herself turning 3years 4months old today, she surprised me with this. We were reading about kidney failure at her request and discussing about who are prone to kidney failure etc. Then, at the next page, she saw the word vagina. Spontaneously she explained to me," When a small baby is ready to be born, he will pass through the mother's vagina and pop out between the mother's legs. There, the baby is born. Zo Ee is too big now. When Zo Ee was a small baby, Zo Ee passed through mama's vagina during birth. There! (pointing with her finger)." I was truly shocked to hear this from her. Although we browsed through my pregnancy book months ago at her request but I have avoided this subject totally. And here, she was explaining everything to me.

C-scale - 3years 3months old

2011-08-12T00:03:00.002+08:00

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

This video was taken 3 days after Zo Ee showed interest in learning the C-scale. She played once on her first day, another time on the second day and on the third day, she was so "ON"; sat down and practice till she got it perfectly. All it takes was approximately 10 minutes of full effort and concentration. .(1 octave, right hand)

Word problems - 3years 3months old

2011-08-11T19:48:00.000+08:00

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

While bathing Zo Ee just now, I pop out this question out of the blue; "If Mummy give s you 2 candies, then another 2 for Mummy and 2 for Daddy. How many candies are there?" Immediately, she replied 6. " How about 3 candies for you, 3 for Mummy and 3 for Daddy? How many candies are there now?" Zo Ee replied 9. Cool. I have never thought that she is able to do

6 letters word - 3years 3months old

2011-08-10T19:11:00.004+08:00

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

While having a yellow gummy, little Zo Ee surprised Mummy with her "Mum! Mum! Y E L L O W spells yellow." This is the first time, she spells a word with more than 5 letters as currently Mummy noticed that she is at the stage of spelling 4 - 5 letters words. I guessed this is how her spelling skill improving gradually. She started showing the ability to spell most 3 -letters words at 25 months old. And Mummy didn't notice any longer words till 3 months ago, where she moved on to 4 -5 letters instead. And hopefully, today incident will move her another step forward.

Home - 3years 3months old.

2011-08-07T00:01:00.001+08:00

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

I like Zo Ee's home, with the house number. But I wonder why most children draw windows this way; a cross inside a square? I have never taught her to draw like this. Hmm...wondering?

LEGO - 3years 3months old.

2011-08-06T20:23:00.005+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 3months old. (6th August 2011)

Mummy bought her a new small set of LEGO (3 in 1 creator). We co-build this boat last week. She needed some help with the tiniest pieces and guidance in reading the pictures illustration steps.

A week later, Zo Ee has wanted to build the helicopter instead. This time round, she needed no help from Mummy in fixing the pieces together. Her fine motor skills improved loads. She needed less help from me in reading the steps. She knows the correct pieces and where to fix them. Unfortunately, the illustrations is definitely too small for her since this is actually for age 6 - 12.

Cutting skills - 3years 3months old

2011-08-04T23:48:00.003+08:00

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

Just about a month ago, Zo Ee started enjoying cutting with her new pair of scissors. Look at her skill now, she is able to cut out pictures quite accurately, which is very impressive for her age. So the trick is to let them learn with children safe but real sharp metal scissors with supervision. Zo Ee noticed that she will not be able to cut properly with her plastics scissors, that's why she stopped using them totally.

.....................................................................
Then
3years 2months old - Cutting with a pair of scissors

Playing keyboard for 30minutes - 3years 3months old

2011-07-30T00:00:00.000+08:00

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

We arrived home on Monday night after two days of travelling between 3 connecting flights; Melbourne -KL, KL- Mumbai and Mumbai - Goa and another 1hour road journey. The next day morning, Zo Ee immediately sat at her keyboard for about half and hour playing all her songs collection; one after another. Mummy could see that she was so happy to be reunited with her keyboard again. This is actually her longest time span playing all by herself comparing to her usual playing about 5 minutes a day, some days a few different occasion, much depending on her own mood. She has wanted to read musical notes directly from song book like her cousin sister which is very good sign to Mummy meaning Mummy can move her one level up.

While in Australia, she did play at her cousin's piano once and she didn't have problem playing although they isn't any notes stickers on the keys. This is because she has been playing /experimenting at different part of her keyboard, playing her songs at the bass end or higher end where there isn't any stickers on them. Even her music teacher noticed that she actually understood and knows her keys well; she knows that there are 8notes in an octave and different octaves in her keyboard and thus different C, D, ...notes in each octaves.

Reading Sydney map - 3years 3months old

2011-07-29T23:49:00.003+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 3months old. (20th July 2011)

After a few days in Sydney city, little Zo Ee was able to read the city map well. She could recognize those important landmarks easily without me telling/explaining to her, where we were staying, places we went and the routes we took. This is her first time reading such a detailed map comparing to months ago, she was only reading map between towns where we were traveling in Goa.

Australia - 3years 2months old

2011-07-29T23:38:00.001+08:00

Just came back from our 4 weeks holiday in Australia, thus the quiet time in this blog. Will upload some photos soon.

2x2 Sudoku - 3years 2months old

2011-06-22T01:43:00.012+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 2months old. (20th June 2011)

I'm glad that Zo Ee is playing Sudoku again after stopping for a month or so. Each time after a break, I realized that she will come back strong and with better understand of each skill. As like today, Zo Ee is able to complete each Sudoku puzzle faster and thus playing a few in a go rather than one puzzle in a day or two as before. It always makes me think that she has matured in those short period. : ) Sometimes she looks puzzled or confused over a new skill or maths problem when being first being introduced but surprisingly knowing them inside out a few weeks later without anyone explaining or any further discussion. I don't know how but she just seems to get them after a short break! Maybe some self-learning works inside her little head during those break.

Minutes Prior to this video, she has already done 4 Sudoku puzzles by herself, so all together she has completed 7 today.

Cutting with a scissors - 3years 2months old

2011-06-21T01:39:00.003+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 2months old. (14th June 2011)

20th June 2011 - cutting out squares from her Sudoku puzzles.

20th June 2011 - a week ago, Zo Ee cutting straight lines.

Aeroplane - 3years 2months old

2011-06-20T06:04:00.001+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 2months old. (19/June/2011)

Anticipating to our coming Australia trip, Zo Ee drew an aeroplane for the first time, an aeroplane awaiting boarding passengers with stairs at both doors, and wheels. She did mention this thing on top of the aeroplane which i have no idea what it is. It looks exactly like those awaiting planes at the Goa domestic airport. I am suspecting that she actually draws from picture captured inside her head; mental picture? The last time she was in an airport was 6months ago.

New drawing style - 3years 2months old

2011-06-19T06:03:00.002+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 2months old (11/June/2011)

Zo Ee seems into a very different style of drawing lately; involving many lines and segments and people figures. Can you spot the 4 people figures below?

And colours too!

Cursive writing&other languages - 3years 2months old

2011-06-18T06:05:00.001+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (9th June 2011)

Look! what I have got two weeks ago. Zo Ee trying to write cursive by herself!

Initially, I didn't get it that's why I didn't post it and thought it was just some plain drawing/writing by her. So my little one was trying to write cursive at 3years 1month old then. Cool!

This really brought me back to some old encountered; I actually realized that Zo Ee could read cursive writings before she turned 3, around 2years 10months old then where she was reading some song lyrics written by my friend. Prior to this, I don't think she was exposed to any. Also, she can differentiate, Hindi from Chinese characters too which amazed me. Some parents from her old school(English medium) mentioned that Zo Ee actually understood Hindi but I cannot comment since I don't know any although occasionally she will name me things in Hindi and she actually understood what the school bus driver said in Hindi. The driver can speak English but found it fun that Zo Ee can actually understand Hindi. According to her ex-teachers, Zo Ee reads a few "Hindi characters" or sounding the character whenever she passed by the classroom of older kids. Hmm... She knows a few Hindi Children songs from school but other than that she learns from the little kids in school. According to one Mummy, when the teachers speak Hindi to those kids that couldn't understand English, Zo Ee will translate them into English for the kids. Again, I have never heard nor witnessed any myself. Other than that she is capable of imitating/repeating Hindi words accurately , again comments from others as both Dh and I cannot speak or understand Hindi at all. Also, Although Zo Ee cannot speak Cantonese but she is able to differentiate Cantonese dialect from Chinese at a very early age. There was this one odd Cantonese song in the adult Chinese songs DVD. I remembered her asking us, what is that language when that particular Cantonese song was being played. I didn't even notice this odd song until pointed out by Zo Ee. Also, none of the adult Chinese songs were within her comprehension(even myself cannot understand) and neither she understands Cantonese thus I found it amazing that she could spot the difference.

Also, she could recite 1-20 in 4 different languages before two, learn them at finger tips. Hmm...Maybe she is really good at language and this really prompt me to teach her another language, most probably I'll teach her Malay language since that's the only other language that I know.

Maths & Science update - 3years 2months old

2011-06-17T04:02:00.002+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 2months old. (13/June/2011)

Maths Update

Starting from this week, Zo Ee will be in school for 3 1/2hours daily. And this is what she brought back from school today. She wrote another equation 1+1 =2. Yes. that's my little one, has been obsessed with maths equations lately. Obviously, she has been writing lots of simple equations daily.

Since Zo Ee started multiplication a month ago, she has already mastered 0x,1x,2x,3x,4x, 5x and 10x. I have not tested her on the rest, she knows some, my guessing maybe not perfect yet. She has been liking multiplication a lot especially those that she has memorized effortlessly through songs. She enjoys zooming through the questions easily. She feels great that she is able to complete them faster than addition and subtraction sums. The other day, she was telling us that she was doing multiplication on Daddy's calculator. She was experimenting the calculator with her multiplication knowledge and was thrilled that the calculator could give her correct answers all the time etc. So we started on some simple algebra by showing her one example a day. Then she started working on one a day or every other day. I don't think she has worked more than 10 problems so far and this is what I got. When I asked her to try on this question today, she looked at it and immediately telling me the answer is 2. She wrote the answer down without the need to some drawings to aid her as she usually did on the left page. I was shocked. Initially I doubted her, but after some thoughts, with her characteristics she will never write down any answers she doesn't know. She will either fill in the answers or leave it blanks. So she must have know. But again, I just cannot believe or accept it. How is that possible? She further converted the answer to an equation, 1x2 =2 .

Science Update

I am wondering do your 3 years old kids watch documentary programs? I am still finding this weird and unacceptable that Zo Ee has started liking these programs when she turned 3. I wondered who are their targeted audiences? She used to watch Animal planet when she was 1 -2 years old but she stopped. Then she started liking tv after seeing a volcanic eruption in a hotel's cafe after turned 3 and now is crazy over Discovery Science, Discovery Channel, National geographic and Fox History. She is Crazy over these shows - I didn't know that, How stuffs work? Mega factories. Weapons, and all programs on Discovery Science. She will want to watch one after another. She will not want to leave the house when her favourite program is showing etc. She is just glued to the tv when watching. Maybe this has to do with her strong knowledge in science from her previous readings thus she is able to understand and absorb information/facts from these programs. From our daily conversation,I realized that her knowledge has actually grows in heaps. She was talking about Helium gas, that she needed for her balloon to float up into the air with explanation etc. She was talking about electromagnetic stuffs, SI units and crazy stuffs which I don't think we had read before and I can see that her understanding are very in-depth. Whenever I see that she is learning too fast, I started to worry. It worries me whenever seeing her watching those programs.

School - 3years 2months old.

2011-06-16T13:14:00.004+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 2months old. (16/5/2011)

When I dropped her at school, most of the children were given their own drawing block and some crayons.

Teacher: Zo Ee, come and let's do some colouring. Which drawing block is yours? Can you find yours?

Zo Ee found hers but didn't proceed to do anything while just staring at the first empty page.

Teacher: Zo Ee, why aren't you colouring?
Zo Ee: It's empty, there is nothing for me to colour.
Teacher: You can do whatever you want or like with that page.
Zo Ee : Shall I fill it up then?
Teacher: Yes. Go ahead and filled it up.

She went ahead to fill it up with her drawings.

Sometimes, she just cracked me up. Yes, I know most 3 years old may not be able to draw well, thus the teacher suggested colouring instead. But, seeing Zo Ee's advanced progress, my perception is always skewed at what other 3 years old are capable of doings. Anyway, that's Zo Ee, she was already able to differentiate writing, drawing and colouring since she was 15 months old. She is very precise and particular as the words being used and has been correcting me too.

Trees - 3years 2months old

2011-06-15T19:52:00.000+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 2months old. (11th June 2011)

Today for the very first time seeing Zo Ee built some trees with her LEGO.

A tree

A coconut tree.

Cards for Teachers - 3years 1month old

2011-06-14T18:43:00.005+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (10th June 2011)

Zo Ee wanted to make cards for her new teachers. I spelled the word teacher and her teachers' names for her. The rest are her own ideas and work.

Zo Ee said that this is an 8 coloured rainbow ( she knows that rainbow has 7 colours). Sometimes, she just wanted to be different. I like the idea that she is experimenting with pattern and colours on the words Dear Teacher.

She drew her teacher (top right) and herself (left) with a blue bow and her friends. I am amazed as the drawing really resembles her new teacher. Or is it just my mind???? maybe I should take a picture of her new teacher for comparison.

She drew a bee on a Sunflower for another teacher.

A better looking cat and some faces with expression.

Playing Keyboard with both hands - 3years 1month old

2011-06-13T18:42:00.003+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (8th June 2011)

Few days ago, Zo Ee started learning to play Mary Had a Little Lamb with both hands. As can be seen in this video; playing for the 2nd and 3rd time. Although it's not perfect yet but it is a good start. She is so focused in reading the notes and her fingers' position. She is someone who prefers to try on her own than seeing/copying someone playing for her for the first time. Surprisingly, she actually understood what is required and capable of learning by herself. I guessed this is her learning style - just like the way she learns other stuffs.

enkounter puzzle - 3years 1month

2011-06-12T03:20:00.004+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old (9th June 2011)

As I mentioned earlier, Zo Ee never likes conventional type of puzzles but she enjoys playing with simple 7 pieces tangram and kaleidoscope. So far, she has only solved one tangram puzzle by herself. The rest, we co-play, I'll chip in one or two pieces whenever she gets stuck so that she can proceed and finish each puzzle with pride. Although not 100% of her own effort but it was good enough to boost her confident and interest to keep going for the next one.

Today, I got her a new strategy game enkaunter. Although it was not to be played like the kaleidoscope, nevertheless she put these together in 10minutes. If you notice carefully, she actually misplaced one ziz-zag piece upside down, nevertheless I think it is pretty good effort for her age. She just enjoys the kick of trying to fit all the pieces back into the square holder.

Putting these sample pieces back into the holder.

She completed this in 10 minutes.

New School - 3years 1month old

2011-06-11T03:21:00.005+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (9th June 2011)

Zo Ee in her new school uniform. Students have to wear black sandals or rain shoes during the monsoon.

Today is Zo Ee's first day in a new school , attending Nursery 1. When I went to pick her up 1 1/2hours later, her teacher told me, she was doing great and she even asked the other kids not to cry as crying is painful She learned her teachers' names too.

present for R - 3years 1month old

2011-06-10T03:19:00.003+08:00

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (9th June 2011)

Zo Ee wrapped this present and it's for her friend R.