Cutting Skills - 3years 11months old

Zo Ee at 3years 11months old. (10th April 2012)


Zo Ee saw this on a book and wanted to make one herself. Since that's the library book, we couldn't cut it out so I drew one for her on a separate sheet of paper. Zo Ee was all excited and offered to cut it out. When it's done, it doesn't look like a 3 years old cutting effort at all(almost 4 actually). I must admit that she has graduated from her self-learning cutting school.I'm impressed with her fine motor skill.


Finished Dice.

Zo Ee's Update - 3years 11months old

Zo Ee at 3years 11months old. (22nd March 2012)

Zo Ee has been very interested in helping me doing house chores. One that she has mastered is at folding clothes; neat and proper way. Cutting is her favourite past time too, cutting and cutting many hours daily. As usual, she is more active and very confident and agile in physical movements comparing to kids her age or a year or two elder. She has been pestering me to sign her up for Gymnastic classes which I’m still considering.

Assembled this last week.

Cut out this heart shape with free hand.

I think this is cute too. Zo Ee cut a hole to fit it onto Piglet's head.

Handwritings – Recently, since she has stopped schooling for many months now, I’ve started requesting her to pen a line each day as her handwriting practice but she’s always penning more. This was completed over 3 consecutive days. I’m not particular at the content; it’s all solely her work. Occasionally, she asked to confirm her spellings on a word or two. Usually she is able to notice misspelled and self-correct. Once she has the idea in her head, it doesn’t take her long to write one sentence, usually less than half a minute.

COGNITIVE STUFF:

In merely 2 months, she advanced from not a gamer(not expose to any) to an I-phone Expert gamer on many Adult version games. Scoring mostly “A” for the Edge game up to level 13. (video) From talkative to super talkative girl since back to Singapore. Everything she has a say, a reason too etc. Whenever she wants something, she has them think and plan thoroughly; before suggesting it to us with all her reasons and her plans and precautions to make sure everything will be ok and as planned. She talks non-stop to herself and soft - toys for hours, so pretend play has been back into the house recently. Puzzle solving games are still her favourite, her latest love is Pete’s Spike age 8+ though she loves Rush Hours (bought both recently). Super fast at solving those memory games; matching two similar cards from Brainpop.jr.

ACADEMICS:

Still an avid reader as usual; reading 4-5 hours/daily by herself. Most days; 80-90% of her readings are on fact books while the remaining are fiction books. Although we just moved back to Singapore, and has no access to public library for the past 2 years, I found that I couldn’t find her any fact/reference books at the Junior section (age 5-9) anymore. Age 10+ reference section fits her alright now. Since my last update; she has read the SAT Cartoon Vocabulary I and II for the 3rd time and Idiom books for age 9-15 twice. Once she was out reading one in the stroller, and the 2 commuters in the train trying to figured it out whether is she really reading it or merely looking at the pictures. Math: I’m seeing that she is interested in Graphing-made me a few past weeks, money and their value, and using Metric units. When I asked her what is the temperature in a typical tropical country? I was expecting an answer - hot all year round but she said it’s 95 degrees Fahrenheit. When back to Singapore (2 months ago), Dh has been so busy with the move and new job position and has not time to read any Chinese with her since last October. I didn’t want her to forget her Chinese so I’ve bought her a children Mandarin songs karaoke (84 minutes). After watching less than 5x, she remembered all the songs and could read all the 800 characters, even telling DH some similar characters which have different meaning and read differently, comparing those found on this DVD to her previous reading. For the first time, DH is finding her daughter is smart. (?)

CREATIVE OUTPUT:

Zo Ee wrote me another silly poem this month, a better one this time, unfortunately I couldn’t find it any where now. Most probably she has cut it into pieces and throws them away.

According to Zo Ee this is a strange animal with a big snout.

One day, I found this in the living room which I think is cool. Yes. She has been experimenting with folding and cutting. I did show her once many months ago, and she’s trying them out by herself.

Map with many sign- 3years 9months old


An origami aeroplane from Zo Ee, completed with drawings for turbo engine and parts inside the plane.

Zo Ee’s collage – the caterpillar(Zo Ee), Daddy and Mummy the butterflies ( somthing to do with caterpillar life cycle).

I found this the other day, from her ex-school drawing book. – 3years 7months old. The many lines in circle shows fluttering movement of bees.

EMOTIONAL ISSUES:

Winning a game has becoming very important to her.
She is still my funny, loving and happy girl. She is still worrying about dying and didn’t want to grow bigger and older because she didn’t want to die. She worries about others violating the laws or misbehaving and their safety.

SCHOOL UPDATES: Still reluctant to go to school, got extremely upset upon hearing the idea of going to school.

Computer skill - 3years 4months old

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

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

Microsoft words

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

60 pieces puzzle - 3years 4months old

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

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

LEGO - 3years 3months old.

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

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.

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

Cutting with a scissors - 3years 2months old

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.

Cursive writing&other languages - 3years 2months old

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.

Skating - 3years 1month

Zo Ee at 3years 1month old. (2/June/2011)

Zo Ee is skating at LEVEL 3 (adult level). Last year (at 2years old), she was skating at LEVEL 1 and LEVEL 2.

Palolem Beach Again - 3 year old

Zo Ee at 3 year old. (16/4/2011)

We headed to the South of Goa, to Palolem Beach again. We wanted to enjoy the beach one more time before the expecting Monsoon in May/June. Little Zo Ee was as excited as before, seeing us packing for the trip. In fact, she wanted to leave that night itself and was refusing to go to bed.

She behaved well in the car for the whole 1 1/2 hour journey, keeping herself busy with food and books. She was quiet throughout, and suddenly, she exclaimed "We are there!!! We are at Palolem. " Daddy was amazed she could recognize the place, we were about 200m away from the beach and was passing by those little stalls along the road side. Daddy asked her, "Do you remember this place?" Little Zo Ee replied, "Yes. I remembered." This is our second trip to Palolem and was 2 month apart from the first. ; )


This time, we stayed in a cottage house instead of a hut, a different experience for her. She fell in-love with the sea even more this time. She was extremely brave, was not crying even hit by the big waves. In fact, she loved being crashed by the big waves. She was having so much fun and Mummy had a hard time getting her out of the water. She just refused to move and was laughing out loud after each hit by a waves. Some waves were so huge, almost knocked her down and she found it fun! She also collected some seashells, increasing her already existing collection.

We had a wonderful BBQ dinner, a treat from our friend by the beach. Since it was almost full moon, it was hide tide that night. And occasionally, a huge wave will wash up ashore, and water were at our feet while we were having dinner. What an experience!!! We had some Thai food for lunch the next day and spend time leisurely by the beach until we headed home at 5pm.

Bookmarking a page - 2year 11month

Zo Ee at 2year 11month old. (10/4/2011)

Lately, Mummy found Zo Ee has a new habit; bookmarking a page as shown. She is very particular now as where she has stopped reading and will go back to continue after some interruption. Maybe its time to get her some bookmarks but because she reads many books in parallel, Mummy wondered how many bookmarks will be sufficient?

Hopping on one leg - 2years 9months

Zo Ee at 2years 9months old. (2/6/2011)

Zo Ee's hoping on one leg. ( about 3x times )

Arranging A - Z - 2years 8months

Zo Ee at 2years 8months old. (30/12/2010)

Mummy saw these on the carpet and surprisingly Zo Ee had arranged this all by herself in perfect order. Mummy has never emphasized for her to arrange them in this manner although she has played a few puzzles few months back with Mummy which required such skill, eg. the animal alphabet train. Did she learn this in her play-school 2-months back before the holidays? Mummy tested her and she was able to put them together in a breeze.

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Then
15-months old : Reciting A-Z
2-years old: Singing ABC song - complete version

Writing Skill - 2years 8months old

Zo Ee at 2 years 8months old. (23/12/2010)

We have been very busy adapting to life in Goa, India. Many things purely cannot be described with words. Things that can be done in 5 minutes, may take me half an hour if I am lucky. A day work may take weeks or months.... so its pretty frustrating at times. Different expectation and different time frame..."Way to live life here is to be patient! patient! patient! and to let go... else I'll go crazy!"

I have busy and lazy, thus have been using facebook to record Zo Ee's development, not wanting to forget them. Recently during our home leaves, a friend asked me why didn't I update this blog for months as I used to write here daily and that question really bring me back here. Well...hopefully I am back for good.

Let's start with Zo Ee self-taught writing skill.

1/12/2010 (2years 7months 21days old)
Zo Ee wrote her name "ZOEE" (There is space limitation at the end of the paper, so she wrote one E below the other.)

9/11/2010 (2 years 6months 29days old)
Zo Ee filled in the crossword "c a t" herself.

8/11/2010 (2 years 6months 28days old)
Zo Ee came running to Mummy, proudly showing Mummy the first word written by her (self-taught)...." voilin" (violin). Zo Ee, "Mummy!Mummy! see that's the word violin!"

chess set - 25months old

Zo Ee at 25months 3days old. (14/5/2010)

Mummy has no interest in teaching her the names of the chess pieces... but little Zo Ee persistently asking the name to each piece. All it takes was only a few minutes for her to master all the names and remembered them well.

So never ever underestimate a little child's ability....

Where is Mummy made in? - 25months old

Zo Ee at 25months 21days old. (1/6/2010)

Little Zo Ee was asking Mummy, "where is Mummy made in?" :O

She spontaneously asked this question after Mummy told her that some of her Disney soft toys were made in China, one made in Singapore and she insisted one is made in France(the one without label).

Leaders - 23months old

Zo Ee at 23months 24days old. (5/4/2010)

It took little Zo Ee about a month to master these names. We don't read this book everyday, only when little Zo Ee is interested; she will bring this book to Mummy. In fact, Mummy doesn't have a fix schedule or time-line to teach her. What Mummy has been doing is sharing knowledge with her in a fun way.

Some of the leaders mentioned by Zo Ee here are:
Pope John Paul II,Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander the Great, Yasser Arafat, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Martin Luther King, Indira Gandhi, Mao Zedong, Lenin, Dalai Lama, George Washington, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, Aung Sung Suu Yi, Helen Keller, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, etc...

Zo Ee kept saying "What is Ai yit?" It actually means "saluting with her hand like some of the leaders."

Zo Ee loves singing -24months old

Zo Ee at 24months 28days old. (8/5/2010)

Past few months, Mummy was so occupied with this relocation and is too busy to notice her development. Suddenly, Mummy realized she can sing so many children songs, recite so many nursery rhymes (full version), read a short paragraph without the need of finger tracing word by word and she can recite 1-50 all by herself. She can play hop scotch;hoping with both feet. WOW! she has grown so much after turning "2"!

In fact, little Zo Ee is singing all day long. She can sing more children songs (complete version) than Mummy now. For example, if she is eating on her highchair, she will sing "finger food song.", she will sing "hair, hair beautiful hair song" whenever she brushes her hair after bath. She will sing hot cross bun whenever she is eating a bun...etc...

Left & Right - 24months old

Zo Ee at 24months 20days old. (1/5/2010)

Little Zo Ee can differentiate between left and right. When asked, she is able to show us her right hand, left hand, left leg/foot or right leg/foot correctly. Mummy didn't know exactly when did she actually pick up this, but is surprised that she knows them well.

Making the bed - 24months old

Zo Ee at 2years 15days old. (26/4/2010)

Little Zo Ee helped to make Mummy's bed most of the morning nowadays.