Toddler No More

Bree is no longer a toddler. How time really flies? Turning 3 meant that she is now typically labelled as a preschooler. It will be official by the end of January when Bree starts attending Kindergarten once a week. Everyone is excited to see how she will go.

For this birthday, I have decided to buy a few little things for her. I selected a spiral bound drawing book, a pack of lead pencils and a pack of coloured pencils for Bree to keep a pictorial ‘journal’. I am hoping to encourage her to make an ‘entry’ regularly. It may not work but I would like to give it a try and her parents are supportive of the idea.

Picture books have always featured in gifts I buy for my charges. This year, I selected “Belinda” by Pamela Allen. Bree loved it and has requested everyone to read it to her over and over. With repetition, she is starting to recite bits and pieces as the story is read to her. For instance, she likes naming the vegetables that Old Tom has in his garden. Today, she pointed at the illustration of a tomato plant in Old Tom’s garden and said, “He grows tomatoes too!” and then followed that with, “I love tomatoes.” She probably wondered why the text didn’t mention the tomatoes specifically. LOL.

What I have bought for Bree are not the only things she has received for her birthday. As in previous years, she received plenty of gifts from family and friends. I think I will blog about them in another post.

The Little Card Maker’s Little Dilemma

Stella aka The Little Card Maker, her little apprentice and I have now successfully completed the card making project. There is however a minor hiccough. Stella is suddenly reluctant to give the cards and lollipops to a particular few classmates. She voiced her opinion after school today and I suggested that she better discuss such matters with her parents. She even said that she will tell them that they won’t get any! Her mum and I did have a phone chat this evening after the Supergirl had gone to bed. We, the adults all knew why she was reluctant but because the cards and lollipops weren’t to be distributed immediately, Stella was asked to reconsider later. She was told that she might change her mind on the day. It is obvious that she is still quite angry at some of her classmates’ recent antics. The teasing is now on and off, depending on the mood of those horrible children.

Bree ‘Scissorshand’

Bree is in love with a pair of special scissors of mine. She will sit for long periods of time snipping paper using these scissors. Bree’s coordination is still pretty clumsy and she is struggling to use basic scissors, including those that are made to fit small hands. In my ‘tool box’ is a pair of Bounce Back scissors that I bought years ago. Many young charges have used it with great success. This pair of Japanese scissors has a ‘lever’ that can be flicked upwards to act as a spring for self opening. The spring makes it easier for the child to maintain constant control of the cutting process. Once the child gets the hang of the movements required to operate a pair of scissors smoothly, he or she will no longer needs to use the spring feature. The spring feature can be deactivated by returning the ‘lever’ to its original position. I just love little gadgets like this that makes life easier.

Bree has access to a stack of used office paper. She enjoys cutting them up in no particular order for now. (The document shredding machine must be worried sick that it might be made redundant soon.) The only thing she is expected to do is to sit down on her chair for this activity. She is reminded to not run around with a pair of scissors in her hand even though this pair has rounded tips. As a result of regular practice in recent weeks, I now noticed an improvement in her posture as well. She is less tense than when she used to be riddled with frustration every few seconds. Soon I will be able to introduce her to a simple but purposeful cutting activity. I am hoping to invite her to cut out pictures of fruits from supermarket catalogues for pasting. She had pasted pictures onto paper after seeing me cutting them out from catalogues before. So, I am hoping that she will initiate this but if she doesn’t, I will. One day Bree will be ready to cut along printed lines (straight, zigzag or wavy) and I will print them out onto light card stock for her to practise. Stella used to enjoy doing this. Following the lines is trickier than just simply cutting around a desired object.

The Busy Little Card Maker

Stella’s mum recently asked her little girl about how she would like to farewell her classmates. The Supergirl had grand plans but we all know that she will never be able to achieve them all, so she was asked to seriously trim down her plans. After much consideration, she decided to give each classmate a homemade Christmas/Farewell card and a small lollipop from Suga (a lolly shop). She had originally wanted to make star shaped ginger biscuits but her mum steered her to the idea of store bought lollipops instead. The Supergirl and her parents worked together to come up with a suitable message and had it printed on sticky labels. My job was to help the little card maker make the cards. She and I didn’t come into agreement immediately. Stella had wanted to make complicated 3D pop-up cards but I simply couldn’t see how she or I would stick to the repetitive work of making multiple copies of them. In the end we agreed to decorate a card with glitter and sparkly sequins, an idea we got from a book that Stella was thumbing through for ‘research’. Using a Christmas theme stencil set of mine, we painted a chosen shape with PVA glue on each card and then sprinkle glitter on it. Before the glue dried, we had to shake the excess glitter off. On the next day, the little card maker and I would begin decorating the previous day’s batch by sticking on some stickers and sequins to dress up the card a little bit more.

We have now been repeating the same two day cycle on the days that I worked, churning out 3 or 4 cards every two days or so, for nearly two and a half weeks. Results wise, that may look quite poorly but this little card factory is only operational for around three quarters of an hour after school per day. And just like big name brand factories, this production line also experienced a few minor bumps along the way. A card or two were ‘accidentally’ damaged during manufacturing process and another two were withdrawn because the little card maker reckoned that they were unsatisfactory. And yet another one was also damaged by an over enthusiastic young apprentice (Bree). All of these had to be replaced ‘painstakingly’ by hand, taking up even more precious time. LOL. Today is the last day of production. We have successfully created enough cards for the whole class plus a couple to spare. Except for the message printed on a sticky label, the spare ones are left blank without the name of a recipient. I breathe a sigh of relief now that they are all ready for distribution. The girls are probably happy that this project is now over for good.

Teasing Miss Stella

Little Miss Stella was teased incessantly recently. It all started when she was told that she was not invited to a certain Queen Bee’s 6th birthday party. Little Miss Stella was fine about that because she was already invited to another birthday party and was looking forward to going to that one. Unfortunately, a couple of the other ‘wannabees’ were determined to not let Little Miss Stella forget the fact that she was not invited to a cool party. The teasing went on even after the party date. At the other party that Little Miss Stella was invited to, a couple of the little party goers (one of the busy ‘wannabees’ and that Queen Bee) attempted to start another bout of teasing but this time the birthday girl’s mum and aunt was quick to put a stop to all the nonsense. The birthday girl’s mum reported to Little Miss Stella’s mum when she came to pick up the Supergirl. Her mum was grateful for their kindness in looking out for Little Miss Stella. The birthday girl’s mum also said that Little Miss Stella will be sadly missed next year and wondered aloud what the class will be like without at least two of the friendlier members.

What Is It With Bree’s Sandpit?

The sandpit that Grandma Ettie recently bought for Bree is gone. LOL. Bree doesn’t seem to have much luck when it comes to her favourite pastime. Some family friends came to stay last weekend. After the children used the sandpit no one remembered to put the lid back on and a feline or two promptly dropped by to use it as a toilet. The children discovered what was left behind in the sand on Sunday and the adults dragged the plastic sandbox and its lid to the driveway to remove the soiled sand and to give them a proper hose down. They were left to dry on the driveway. On Monday, one of the family friends was in a hurry to get to the bakery to buy some croissants for the kids. As he reversed his big Toorak Taxi down the driveway, he ran over the sandbox and its lid causing them both to crack beyond repair. So, that was the end of Bree’s hobby again for a second time. The poor man thought that he ran over a kid and was completely beside himself.

Free Lectures at Safeway @ QV

The Safeway supermarket in QV at the city is undergoing renovations. The products are all over the place and this makes it hard to shop ‘systematically’. The aisles also seem narrower than ever and I hope this is only temporary. Narrow aisles won’t do in this particular Safeway because many shoppers like to shop in groups and spread out to take up as much space as possible to chat or to discuss the quality / the use of the products on the shelves.

I was there a few days ago and bought only 4 essential items that came to a measly total of just $10. It was either because I was drop dead tired or that my ageing memory chips were playing up, as I had forgotten all about the newly installed self-checkouts. I even filed past them on the way to be served by a checkout attendant. When the young checkout attendant saw the items I unloaded from the basket, she asked, “Only 3?” I fished out a small pack of lollies under the bread and answered, “No, there are four actually.” Up to that point, I was still my cheerful self despite being very tired and longing to get home ASAP. Then I was given the lecture of my life. I was asked if I had ever used the new self-checkouts. She then went on to explain how to use the self-checkouts and why I should use them. I don’t mind gentle suggestions but this checkout chick was bombarding away very loudly. She asked a few questions but there was no way I was allowed to answer them because there never was any intention for her to allow me to do so. She was too busy bombarding away as she checked out the items that I had bought. If anyone saw me looking very guilty for taking up her time, they should have tried looking at the two customers after me. The woman after me bought only two items and the man after her bought only one! To avoid a similar predicament, the Asian students after them wisely moved to another checkout. Those kids are unusually quick in sniffing out a potential ‘loss of face’ situation. I just put up with her verbal spray and even thanked her before I left. There was no point in complaining. This store is making a roaring trade. People living in the city rely on it.

I recently heard that some supermarkets were trialling the idea of charging customers for plastic bags. In fact, Borders is already charging customers for plastic bags. Now, I am all for greener living and I personally use calico bags for all of my shopping. Even the girls, Bree and Stella are taught to use a little green bag whenever we go shopping. So, I am not totally against the idea of paying for the use of plastic bags, but if they can start charging this to promote greater environmental awareness, I can’t see why they won’t dig up some reasons to start charging for other services that are still free to customers today. For instance, with the installations of these self-checkouts, these shops would probably one day find a reason to charge a small service fee if a customer instead chose to be served by a checkout attendant.

The Safeway supermarket at QV opened its doors around September 2003. The staff members were mostly friendly. Most of the checkout attendants were Australians. They were probably students from universities nearby. Cameron and I used to have our favourites and would prefer to be served by the ones we liked. I can vividly remember one guy that looked like Ian Thorpe but shorter. Then some were gradually replaced by more people from the subcontinent of India who were just as friendly. I think they too were mostly university students and I often wondered why the others were replaced by them. Cameron and I too have our favourites among the ‘foreign workers’. A few of them seemed happy and would make small talk – something of a rarity in the city. With the influx of these machines recently, I think even the friendly and probably cheaper overseas born checkout attendants are finding themselves a no match in this fierce competition. I wonder if any were given the boot or whether some were retained to help stock the shelves. What is obvious is that this is one example of how it is becoming harder for students/unskilled workers to earn a small living and with the global financial crisis looming ever so close, it really looks like there is going to be a tough period ahead.

Abandoning the Blog Again?

Yes, yes, I am absolutely guilty of abandoning the blog again. I actually wanted to blog about the wonderful things I did with the girls during Stella’s third term holidays but I just kept putting it off. My lack of enthusiasm is because I just don’t think that there are people out there interested in reading about what a nanny does with her charges. They probably are more interested in what a mummy does with her little ones. My writing could also be a problem. The writing style and contents may not be engaging enough. Someone once complained that I carried on a bit. People may also be put off because I may be coming across as harsh and mean.

Another reason that I temporarily abandoned the blog is because I was away from home for 10 days recently. I played the role of being a temporary live-in nanny to Bree when her parents were away. They first went to Sydney for a few days of work and then flew overseas to attend a wedding. Looking after Bree around the clock was fun. Her parents were so satisfied with how everything turned out; they are hoping I will do it again when they plan to go away without Bree. While I enjoy caring for this little girl and loved the fatter pay check (who wouldn’t in this financial climate?), I hope her parents are not taking up the habit of leaving their precious child with me. They have been great parents so far.

As for this blog, I will keep this blog going for a while. I think I mentioned in a recent post that I am aiming to post at least 8/10 times per month but my heart is simply not into this anymore. There are other things that I enjoy doing more now than maintaining a blog that serves little purpose. Maybe I should start considering deleting this blog and start afresh with another one that is not related to my work as a nanny.

Red, Blue & Yellow

Conversations with Bree are less and less one way these days. I did a lot of the talking in the past. Her input was minimal when she first started talking. A lot of the things we used to talk about daily were pretty much the same stuff. The intention was to recycle words and reinforce concepts. Today, Bree does just as much, if not, even more talking than I. LOL.

Through describing things, Bree has learnt the names of basic colours like red, blue and yellow. She learned from real examples around her and blue is the first colour she recognised. Red was quite easy for her to identify as well but for some reason, Bree found it hard to say ‘yellow’. It just sounded funny. When we are out and about, we are always on the lookout for things of a certain colour, e.g. a red car, blue sky, a yellow taxi, etc. Recently, she has taken an interest in identifying brown, black and green.

In the previous post, I mentioned the sorting game Bree and I played using the bear counters. I still bring the bears to work with me at least once or twice a week. To make it more interesting, I try turning up with bears of a different colour for a surprise. So, instead of bringing 10 blue bears of two sizes, I brought with me 10 red or yellow bears of two sizes. Ten green bears of two sizes are next to visit the little Miss. After that, maybe next month I will introduce sorting by colour. For that, 10 baby blue bears and 10 baby red bears will be needed to sort them into two colour groups. Bree will be concentrating on sorting the bears into two groups at first and will be encouraged to sort up to 4 colours later on. Since the idea is for Bree to sort by colour, it is important that the bears’ size remains constant and thus is the reason that only baby bears will be used for now. As Bree’s powers of observation and concentration increases, I might eventually throw in the big bears for her to sort by colour and size but that won’t be for a while yet.

Helping my charges learn is one of the best parts of being a nanny. In the process of helping them learn, I too become a learner. Studying the intricacies of how children learn is something that I am totally passionate about.

Big and Small

Bree and I had a little conversation about her Blunnies a while ago. She had placed hers next to her dad’s and I pointed out that her father’s work boots were big and hers were small. Later, we also compared other things around the house. Soon, it was very obvious that she knew what was big and what was small. That was a mini milestone indicating that she was ready to be introduced to my pack of Bear counters. I did not introduce the whole pack of 80 counters right away. The first game we played was sorting the bears by size. We used 5 big bears (aka Papa Bears) and 5 small bears (aka Baby Bears). To minimize distractions, the game was played using only the blue bears at first. Blue was selected because that is one colour that Bree could identify at the time. At first, she watched how I sorted the bears by sitting the big bears onto one plastic plate and then the small bears onto another plastic plate. I deliberately slowed down the process and sorted the bears one by one while Bree watched attentively. By the time I had only three small bears left, she more or less got the idea and helped to place them among the other two small bears. After that, she sorted them again over and over. In the weeks afterwards, Bree asked almost daily if I brought the bears with me. LOL.

I bought this pack of counters years ago. They have been used by many children in my care. I remember vividly when I bought them from this snobby toy shop; I was told by the shop assistant that preschoolers were too young to use these counters. Funnily, she even told me that she knew what she was talking about because she too is an ECE teacher. LOL. Pretending that I was also buying for older children, I just politely disregarded her comments and continued to purchase other items associated to the pack of counters. It is true that Bree is too young to work on many of the suggested activities but as can be seen here, she was clearly ready for the basic level work. I prefer to observe children to see what they are capable of than to simply write something off as too challenging. Like the other children before her, other activities related to these bear counters will be introduced to Bree gradually. It is very important that we always offer learning experiences that not only offer opportunities for success but we should also offer that little bit of extra challenge to stretch the child’s imagination. Imagination is probably not the right word because what it means to me is very different to what others have in mind. Does anyone have a better word?

Note: Photo of the bear counters has been removed.

Wagging School @ Age 5!

Stella is wagging school and her parents are helping her to do so. LOL. She isn’t the only one from her class doing it. Another child, one of the New Gang of 5, is also wagging school for the same reason as Stella. Nope, she is not wagging to go shopping with her mum and nope she isn’t going to Europe for a holiday. It was however a fact that she was to wag in August to go to Beijing with her parents but that idea had to be shelved back in June because her dad couldn’t get away from work. So what is Miss Stella up to or should the questions be: What are these parents up to? Why are they encouraging Stella to wag?

LOL. Stella is not exactly wagging school. She is testing out another school. Her friend is also testing out yet another school. Fed up with the lack of support at her current school and tired of mingling with people with more money than sense, it is now almost certain that Stella will be attending a new school next year. The school they have selected for her this time is an alternative school known to offer an excellent academic programme in a different way that also allows her lots of room to grow. This school had accepted Stella last year but her dad backed away because he wasn’t familiar with alternative education. I think Stella’s mum was also put off by the school’s distance from their home but after nearly 3 terms of lousy service, they have had enough. Stella is now getting ready to move. Arrangements have been made for Stella to visit the school between now and the end of the year – a transition process to prepare her for full time attendance next year. I wonder how her parents got her accepted when such schools usually have long waiting lists.

Stella went with her parents for a short meeting after school a couple of weeks ago. She told me that the ladies were nice and how one of them reminded her of her favourite Kindergarten teacher, Miss F. Miss F was just a trainee teacher who was at Stella’s Kindergarten for a term when the Supergirl was 3. The relationship between the two must have been very good because the Supergirl still likes her very much.

This last Friday, Stella wagged school to attend this other school. She had a great time and told me all about the things she could do at the new school. She was also inspired by a discussion on mammals and begged me to go online to look for pictures of mammals with her. She had wanted to write a book on mammals.

I don’t know how the arrangement for Stella to ‘attend’ two schools will work out in the next term. There are always a lot of events scheduled for the fourth and final term of the year. I do however hope that the new school will live up to the family’s expectations next year. I really do sincerely hope that they have found Stella a learning community she can belong to. Children like Stella are often misunderstood and are sometimes deliberately ‘forgotten’ because their needs can increase the teacher’s work load and drain resources/attention planned for the rest of the class. And in some rare instances, not to say that this is happening at Stella’s current school, people with insecurities of their own are also intimidated by people like Stella. If I have a magic wand, I too wish to say a spell and get her out of her current school ASAP.

Bree’s Vocabulary Explosion

Bree is talking more than ever. She talks to her parents and I all the time and when she is playing with her toys, she talks to them as well. I have been talking to her since day one. Everything we did together, I always talked her through the process, even when she was too young to understand all of the words that came out of my mouth. She loves my company and will sometimes drag her chair to the breakfast bar to join me when I cook at the kitchen. I tell her what I am doing and what I am making for dinner/lunch. It’s easy to assume that this lonely single child is just seeking human contact but you won’t believe how much she is learning through all these mini conversation sessions. Recently, I made her a vegetable omelette for lunch. As I was beating the eggs, Bree hopped down from her chair and begged me to open the kitchen utensil drawer. That drawer still has a safety latch to prevent Bree from playing with sharp objects. I asked her what she wanted and she pointed at the egg beater and said, “Here @#^*-@#^*, use an egg beater.” LOL

On some mornings, I arrive to find Bree under the care of her dad because her mum has gone to the market. She usually comes home not long after Bree’s dad has departed for work. Since she is always in a hurry, we (Bree and I) usually help her to store away the fresh produce. Through the simple process of unpacking and sorting, Bree learns the names of vegetables. Some people think that their precious little children are too good to be doing work like this but if given the opportunity, such work is not only educational but it also satisfies their urge to help out. Children of Bree’s age are keen to help around the house.

At Stella’s house, the girls and I enjoy play acting. This is something that Stella really likes doing and Bree is beginning to show an interest in it too. Now that Stella is reading, I will write down examples of situations for her to act out. For Bree, I whisper a simple command in her ear for her to act out so that Stella can guess what the little imp is doing. One day, Bree’s and Stella’s dads arrived at the same time at Stella’s home. The two grown men decided to sneak in as quiet as possible to see what we were up to. They stood there watching for quite some time before Stella realised the two intruders were there. LOL.

Bree’s mouth doesn’t shut either when we go out for walks on most days. Never mind if she is naming the same things on the way out and again on the way back, she just has to yak and yak along the way. She used to describe things using only single words but nowadays she tries to construct ‘complex’ sentences of 4 words or more. When we do go out in the morning, we almost always walk past an elderly gentleman and his German Shepherd. She had been introduced to the dog when she was very small and called him ‘Rex’. When going to Stella’s in the afternoon, we also walk past a yappy little Jack Russel that lives on the same street as Stella. The elderly couple who own the Jack Russel introduced him as ‘Chip’. When we were out walking one day, Bree announced to me that Rex is big and Chip is only small. I instantly thought: “Oh, how wonderful. Bree knows the difference between big and small.” Recently, I decided to tell her that Rex is a German Shepherd after we saw him at the shops and did the same by telling her that Chip is a Jack Russel after walking past him on another day. Later when she was playing with Stella’s plastic animals, she found a Jack Russel and came rushing to tell me that she found Chip. She then turned to Stella and taught her that Chip is a Jack. LOL. Stella corrected her and proceeded to gather up all of her plastic dogs to teach Bree a few different breeds. I overheard what they were up to and I didn’t expect Bree to retain anything. The idea is to expose her to as many words describing as many concepts as possible.

Bree’s New Sand Box

Bree always receives something fancy when Grandma Ettie comes for a visit. During her recent visit, Grandma Ettie came empty handed! Well, if you compare this visit with previous occasions, she did come almost empty handed because she brought only two long sleeved t-shirts. Apparently she had been asking the little tot what she wanted over the phone and apparently, all Bree wanted was to go to the beach to build sandcastles. I totally believe that too. Since the sand was removed from her sandpit earlier this year, Bree has been asking quite regularly to go to the beach. We haven’t been doing much of that recently because it has been too cold. Although she loves the sand and would stay in the sandpit for a long time, it’s not quite the same as when we visit the beach. At the beach, Bree not only loves playing with the sand, the cheeky little one also loves chasing after the waves. After that ear infection, none of us are too keen for her to get soaked outdoors until the return of warmer days.

I heard that Bree thanked Grandma Ettie for the two t-shirts without being prompted. Her parents were happy with how Bree behaved around Ettie. Bree’s parents prefer smaller presents because they wanted their daughter to appreciate simpler gifts but the t-shirts weren’t the big surprise. So, while I was away taking my short break, the whole family visited a large toy shop because Grandma Ettie wanted to buy a sandpit for Bree. It was the first* time that Bree visited such a large toy shop. (By first*, I meant that she was walking on her own two feet and the toy shop is bigger than the typical toy shops.) Before the shopping trip, her parents wondered if Bree might run around like a wild child and discussed possible ways of handling the situation if she became uncontrollable. Grandma Ettie was more positive. She already knew that Bree could behave like a perfect little lady when expected. She had apparently taken Bree to an even bigger toy shop when the tot stayed with her in Sydney late last year.

The trip to the toy shop was a success. Her parents decided at the last minute to leave the buggy in the car and the little girl walked maturely like the rest of the family. She was happy to hold the hand of an adult most of the time. At the toy shop, she wanted to ride a tricycle that was left on the ground but for some funny reason the pedals weren’t working. After picking the blue plastic sandpit with her mum’s help, they walked past a short table displaying Thomas the Tank Engine trains. There was already a little boy playing with the trains and Bree joined him and attempted to start a conversation. LOL. The little boy was painfully shy and kept to himself. Before parting company, Bree decided to not only say ‘Bye’ but offered him a hug as well. The little boy got so frightened that he cried.

Ettie made a big fuss of the delivery time for the sandpit. She wanted to make sure that the store would deliver it while she was still in Melbourne. She also complained about the model they picked because she wanted something more expensive. Bree is not complaining. She is super happy with the sandpit. She plays in it almost daily. I am just glad that this one has a proper lid to keep the sand clean.

It’s a Breeze to Cook for Bree

Note: Here in this post, the term ‘cooking’ means cooking a meal from scratch and it is an activity more complicated than heating up leftover soup or making a Vegemite Sandwich.

I don’t really enjoy cooking but I do prefer doing it on colder days rather than in the middle of Summer. Cooking for my charges is part of my work requirement as a nanny. So, there really is no way of avoiding this chore at work. I do however make it an important point to mention during job interviews that I do not specifically cook for the rest of the family. Some people expect nannies to whip up a proper 3 course dinner for the parents, but I don’t do that. They don’t have to hire me if they are not happy about this.

At Bree’s home, I now pre-cook at least a couple of her dinners each week. When Bree was younger, her mum cooked almost all of her dinners because she wanted me to keep an eye on the little one. Now that Bree is more mature, her mum is beginning to relax. I do most of the cooking when Bree is napping. Most of the meals that I do cook for her are quite easy to make. Her mum picked them not just for our convenience but also because they are suitable for freezing. Soups like Chicken Minestrone, pasta sauces like the good old Bolognaise Sauce and things like meatballs or rissoles are all examples of food that can be divided into smaller portions for freezing. Frozen or refrigerated home cooked meals make it easy for Bree’s parents at dinner time. Since Bree started to spend the time after nap at Stella’s home, I no longer serve her dinner each night. My cooking must be pretty good because little pots of frozen meals happen to go missing quite often. I might need to set a giant mouse trap to catch the two big mice. LOL. It is actually quite funny to witness one of them thanking me after owning up to it.

I have been blessed with many good eaters throughout my career as a nanny. Bree is one of the very good eaters. This means that she is willing to try anything you set in front of her. She may not eat everything on her plate but she will at least try something new without any protest. When she was down with an ear infection recently, she was off food for a while and when she was on the mend, she wanted only porridge with a drizzle of honey. We (her parents and I) also noticed that if Bree had been in the company of her dotting grandma Ettie, she would have a sudden increase of cravings for all things sweet. Among my charges from the past who happened to be good eaters, a few of them have parents who encouraged them to regularly enjoy (more like abuse) junk food simply because they live in an era of abundance. Bree’s mum does allow her daughter to enjoy a bit of junk food every now and then, and she is a tad less strict as she used to sound like in the past.

Allegedly Hot-Housing Stella

Stella has now returned to school for a third term. While she seems to enjoy her friends there more and more, her school experience has been quite a different one for her parents. They are not happy with the ‘service’ and I think (I have a strong feeling on this) that Stella will switch to another school if not next term, then she will likely start afresh in the first term next year.

Stella has been coming home with readers that are way too easy for her for more than two terms now. Her teacher is aware of Stella’s abilities but for some reason the Supergirl keeps coming home with readers that are for beginners. The school can’t possibly be under resourced. The fees that they charge for Preppies are one of the highest in the country. I am not implying that the teacher did nothing. After Stella’s parents spoke to her in first term, she did make some changes in the classroom. For literacy, she organized for Stella to work with a reading buddy who is more or less reading at the same level. This same issue to do with super easy readers was brought up again when Stella’s parents met up with the teacher in the final week of term 2. They were told afterwards that Stella apparently needs plenty of practice and the readers that Stella took home were chosen to ensure success to boost confidence.

Stella is still reading the readers she brings home dutifully but it is obvious that she seems to enjoy her own books or books from the library much more. She seems happy to go along with the literacy program at school but it is quite a different story when it comes to the maths on offer. The Supergirl, as well as her three other maths buddies, are simply bored beyond belief. I knew long ago that this was going to be the case for Stella. Learning about shapes, patterns, sequences, basic addition and subtraction, sorting, grouping and counting from 1-10 are simply no longer challenging to a little girl who has already been doing work like this for the last two years. The teacher did organize for Stella to work with 3 other children. She offered the children extra work but it was pretty much the same kind of work the rest of the class was doing. When given the opportunity to work together, the children worked diligently all through the 2nd term. The friendships between the children grew. In this blog, I call the group ‘The New Gang of Four’. This term however, the children are getting restless. They no longer enjoy doing the extra work. Even Stella is beginning to whinge about doing the same thing over and over. She doesn’t have a habit of whingeing and I wonder if she is influenced by the others in the group. There were plenty more choices when she was at Kindergarten. Now that she is at school, she has to do pretty much what the teacher has planned.

Stella is at least enjoying the social aspect of going to school but her parents (especially her mum) doesn’t seem to have as much luck when it comes to some of the other parents. There have been a few unpleasant experiences. During one fundraising evening, the topic of ‘Hot-House Kids’ came up in one of the many conversations that was going around, and one mum ‘jokingly’ made Stella’s mum feel uneasy by asking how she managed to get Stella to learn so much. The plans to allow children of similar abilities to work together also caused resentment. The parents of one of the new gang of four heard that parents were asking if their children miss out if the teacher is paying more attention to the ‘gifted’ children. In one birthday party that Stella attended, the mum hosting the party went around ‘introducing’ the child to everyone, telling them that she is the ‘gifted’ one and that she doesn’t know who Diego is. Gee, I didn’t know it was a crime to not know who Diego is. There are no rules stating that each and every child from the birthday child’s class has to be invited to the party. Why did they invite Stella?

I can honestly say that no one is ‘hot-housing’ Stella. The child is just inquisitive and eager to learn anything that fancies her. If Stella is ready and willing, why stop her from learning? We, her parents and I do not force the little girl to complete hours of paperwork. She learned a lot of things through play and games. As I have said before, if something is no longer appealing or fun to her, there is no way we can make her stay and learn the rest of the lesson. Many children of Stella’s age are already enrolled in many after school programmes. I read that some children who aren’t much older than Stella have something scheduled outside school for up to 5 days a week. Now that’s scary! Other than two terms of toddler music programme when she was really little, and swimming lessons in the warmer months, Stella’s parents have not signed her up for extra curricular classes outside her school. This is not to say that they didn’t entertain the idea. They had wanted Stella to learn an instrument but she was not very interested. They eventually agreed that the little girl should enjoy at least another year free from such commitments. Parents who do hot-house their children will not make such a choice. They are obsessed with scheduling something ‘educational’ for every minute their children is awake. That is suffocating.

(Note: Stella’s parents never describe their daughter as ‘Gifted’. The tag was used by some parents to describe the groups of children that were selected to work together and Stella happened to be selected for both the literacy and mathematics groups. Stella’s parents have declined to have her tested.)

Reading and Writing: My Thoughts on Stella’s Journey

Witnessing how Stella blossomed into the avid reader that she is today was amazing. It not only feels great that I was able to offer Stella’s parents suggestions and encouragement throughout the journey, I feel wonderful that they had taken the time to consult me! That means a lot to me. Teaching a child to read is something that I really enjoy looking into. Every Winter when there is less happening outside, I find myself sitting at my desk trying to figure out a magical way for children to learn to read English. Cameron seems to think that I have a bit of an obsession with this. Funnily everything is packed up for another year when Spring arrives. The deep desire to solve the literacy problem vanishes, replaced by the desire to enjoy the sunny days outdoors and on figuring out how to teach the wonders of our Universe to little children.

I am pretty sure that I have mentioned in the past my wish to blog about how Stella learned to read. Well, this is the final instalment and I have been so long winded that it ended up being a 5 part series! Hopefully, this didn’t put anyone off my blog permanently. Do leave me a comment if you have enjoyed it. Please don’t judge me too harshly for I was not born a professional writer. One reason that I have a blog is for me to improve on my own self expression.

A Return to Stability

June was a busy month for me but July was like a roller coaster. The month (July) started with Bree getting better from a nasty bout of ear infection. On the day after Stella and her parents jetted off to New Zealand, Grandma Ettie arrived and my long awaited short break started. Then I returned to work on the day before the start of Stella’s 3rd term. I looked after both girls from Monday – Thursday for two weeks and then it was time for Bree to go to Buller with her parents on the 25th. I had only Stella to look after all week last week but because she attends school, I only looked after her for a few hours each day.

We are beginning a new month this week. It looks like we are returning to some kind of stability again. I will be working from Monday – Friday for two weeks and from Monday – Thursday for the other two weeks. This is pretty much the typical arrangement for most of this year. I am so glad that this Friday is one of the two Fridays I don’t have to work. Cameron and I have planned to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics in China. We hope that things will be smooth sailing for them. Stella’s parents did originally plan to take the Supergirl to China for the Olympics but plans changed and they ended up taking her to New Zealand during her school holidays.

I have been blogging mainly about Stella lately. So for a change, I will blog more about Bree this month but this will have to wait till I finish blogging about Stella’s literacy journey. In terms of regularity, I hope to write at least 10 posts this month. I no longer have the desire to post more often than that.

Reading and Writing: Stella’s Journey (Part 4)

Stella had become progressively more skilful at digging out the sounds of and building simple words, but it took a tad longer for her to reverse that process so that she could read. I personally did wonder if this was because she was having trouble identifying some of the letters. In fact, I found out later on that she had trouble (on & off) identifying letters like ‘b’, ‘p’, ‘q’ and this was even after she knew how to read simple words. Mixing up these letters is quite common among young children.

Reading did happen eventually. It happened just as suddenly as she discovered ‘writing’. This time, we virtually heard the big ‘Ka-Chink’ from within her head when she suddenly discovered what blending was all about. Stella was in the middle of a late breakfast that very day. I had only just arrived for the day and her parents were busy getting ready to head off to work when she pointed to the cereal box and slowly said, “Kellogg’s”. Sceptics may think that Stella was just recognising a popular brand name but in the days following this first attempt, she began to read more and more words. She was hungry for words to read, looking everywhere for them. Unfortunately, this new found fun activity didn’t last long because not all English words are phonetic. The situation was also further aggravated because her parents stopped the ‘reading lessons’ temporarily due to their busy schedule. This period also coincided with two holiday trips (one to Indonesia and another one to Buller). When she no longer found it fun to just point out simple words in books and proudly read them out loud, she gave up trying and went in search of other great things to do. She had wanted to truly read a whole book by herself but words that can’t be sounded out easily and words with vowels that she had yet been taught were popping up everywhere, ruining the fun for her.

After a long break, the ‘reading lessons’ commenced again. In the days after Stella’s involvement in a fight at Kindergarten, she became quite clingy. Her mother saw that her playful self was returning when she was learning to play the UNO her father bought that she decided to play a game of revising the letters and sounds Stella already knew. Surprisingly, Stella enjoyed that and took up the invite to learn more but the process was slower at the start because all she wanted to do at that time was to play UNO. LOL. She loved that game to bits and still does.

Stella’s mum began by introducing the rest of the sounds that weren’t taught yet. It was a slow process involving plenty of revision to make sure that she didn’t forget the ones she had learned earlier. Armed with a book of mine containing a list of suitable words, Stella’s mum made lists of words for Stella to read. Each list focused on one sound and was then made up of other words sharing that same sound but spelled differently. It is from such lists that a child learns that sounds for spelling patterns like ‘f’ and ‘ph’ are the same and only the more common spelling patterns are introduced. All of the lists were filed neatly into a binder. Stella would take it out to read every now and then on her own. Her confidence to try sounding out a word increased tremendously after this. Another thing that had also helped Stella in reading picture books was a basic list of useful sight words.

By the end of last year (approaching the beginning of this year), Stella began to read better than before. She even dug out and read aloud books that she deemed too babyish earlier. She continued to enjoy being read to but she also preferred to co-read a picture book with another person. You could tell that she was really reading and not reciting like she used to. Today, Stella is beginning to read short chapter books at home. She also enjoys reading books (especially non-fiction) she borrows from the school library. The readers from school are a different story altogether. She kept coming home with readers that were way too easy but she reads them dutifully through. LOL. The content of some of these readers were so dull that sometimes Stella’s dad encourages her to pick something else to read when it is his turn to listen to her reading in the evenings.

Possible Career After Nannying: IT Work

I sometimes sit and wonder what I will do after my long stint working as a Nanny. I wonder if our dream project will ever be realised. If that doesn’t work out as planned another career option is definitely needed to help us stay afloat. The idea of not having anything to do with nasty parents seems interesting, even though the families I work for now are simply fabulous.

Whenever we go to the city, we see a great influx of imported workforce here to work in the IT industry. There obviously are plenty of jobs in this field, if we are brain draining skilled professionals from other countries to fill positions over here. So, IT could be an interesting career option that I should look into. Even if I never score a job, it doesn’t hurt to learn a thing or two about new technologies. We had major problems with our computer about three months ago. Instead of tackling the problems head on, I had a melt down and felt completely useless.

I only ever attended one basic computer training course and that was when I was still attending University many years ago. Before the training course began, all I wanted was to learn was some basic word processing skills to help me complete my assignments neatly. The trainer was so wonderful and supportive that I ended up completing the course feeling like I should ditch my dreams of becoming a teacher for a Computer Science degree so that I could one day work for Bill Gates. Looking back now, that seems mightily immature of me to be so overtly confident but looking at the IT industry now, it really was not a silly choice to move to at the time.

Cameron and I recently had a look at some IT training programmes available while surfing the internet. He was looking to learn more about networking and network security. Acquiring relevant certifications that are current to today’s needs could increase job opportunities and possible pay rise. I joined him to see if there was anything out there for me. Cameron half jokingly suggested that aside from the entry level programmes, the others were likely to be out of my league. I had a look anyhow. The Cisco certification Certified Entry Networking Technician is one such entry level course for people with less experience. Cameron on the other hand was looking at Professional Level Certifications. He is hoping that the extra training will give him an edge over other candidates when looking for jobs overseas.

Reading and Writing: Stella’s Journey (Part 3)

When teaching a child to read, many people place strong emphasis on the initial sounds of words. After teaching Stella the sounds of consonants and short vowels listed inside the covers of the workbook they bought, the little family made an Alphabet book. Each page is devoted to one sound and the adults helped Stella in hunting down and pasting pictures of objects sharing that same initial sound on it. They had a ball. I, on the other hand was more curious to find out if Stella was able to hear those sounds if they were in other parts of a word. Sorry that I love complicating things but there is a reason behind this: The ability to hear the sounds inside a word made makes it possible for a child to realise that each word is made up of sounds and the ability to manipulate the sounds within a word will help the child to learn to read later on.

I decided to find out one day during her 3rd term holidays in 2006. So while Stella was busy lining up her plastic animals, I casually asked if she could hear the ‘f’ sound in the word ‘elephant’. (No written word was involved in this little activity.) She looked at me suspiciously, probably wondering what I was on about. It was quite an obvious example as well. She probably thought that I didn’t think much of her! LOL. She didn’t answer the question until after her naptime! Before going to the park that day, she played with her line of animals left there since that morning. Without any prompting from me, she announced that she can hear the ‘g’ sound in ‘tiger’. She even said, “It’s like the ‘g’ in ‘girl’.” In a matter of weeks, she was telling everyone who would listen what she can hear. It was like an obsession for a while and it was all done without looking at any words. She concentrated on saying the words (sometimes slowly) and listening to the sounds. She paid attention to every sound, not just the one at the beginning. You should see how delighted her parents were. Instead of playing I-Spy in the car, they turned this into a game and played it together.

Midway through the first term in 2007, an older child in the same 4 year old Kindergarten group pointed out to her the way to read words of things printed on a set of flashcards that the two were looking at. (This older child was staying for an extra year at the Kindergarten because he was apparently too socially immature to proceed to Prep. He also had a tendency to baby the younger ones in the group – very interesting. (Unfortunately for Stella, he moved to another state.) After learning a few neat tricks from the boy, Stella came home to show me how to ‘read’. I eagerly reported that to her parents knowing that they would definitely be delighted by the news. We soon realised that she didn’t really read but was in fact parroting what was shown to her. Days later, I noticed something interesting. We were supposed to be tidying up but Stella went to look at her alphabet cards. I could see that she was working with them but was too busy to pop over at that instant. When I did, I saw the letter cards for ‘e’,’l’,’f’,’n’ and ‘t’, all lined up next to her favourite plastic elephant. I will admit now that I felt dizzy at the time. She was outside the back door retrieving a painting that she left outside to dry. When she came back in, she wanted to pack them up but I asked her to leave them there to show her mum. She pointed to them proudly and told me that it said ‘elephant’. I was so excited that I nearly fainted right there, right then. The adults’ reaction (including my own) reminded me of the kids in the movie ET when they discovered that the ‘Man from the Moon’ could talk.

Stella’s dad kept asking what I did but I didn’t do anything. That wasn’t the only thing that she ‘wrote’. From then onwards, Stella began to enjoy word building almost every day. The boy didn’t manage to successfully teach Stella to read but I strongly believed that he had propelled her into writing. This must be the power of peer tutoring. No one is sure if the boy ‘taught’ Stella again but according to the teachers, the two had been seen sharing picture books together at the book corner sometimes.

Note 1: In the eyes of many people, what Stella was doing is not accepted as writing because many words were misspelled. This is a matter of differing opinions. To me, that’s a child’s early writing. I am so very glad that Stella’s parents accepted her inventive spelling as a stage that Stella had to go through to truly practise the sounds that she had learned.

Note 2: In the next part, the coin dropped twice and a beginner reader was born!