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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Reading and Writing: Stella’s Journey (Part 2)

Through trial and error, Stella’s mum learned that her daughter absolutely disliked the worksheets she printed off the computer. Now, Stella has always been very artistic, sharing the same interest as her mum. She loves painting and to a lesser extent, drawing. But, like many other things to do with Stella she doesn’t like to be told what to do with her own art projects. Unless she is making a craft project with me, suggestions may be offered but she may not necessary accept them. So, when the Supergirl is asked to draw another apple or another object on the worksheet, her interest is likely to diminish because she gets very hung up about the quality of her own drawing as compared to the rest of the printed page. Her mind is very precise but her somewhat immature motor skills made it hard for her to recreate it in a small designated area on the worksheet. Stella encountered the same problem when learning to write letters on lines. Many worksheets and workbooks teach children to write on lines right from the start. As these were mostly made for older children, they may not be a problem for them but it was a painful experience for Stella.

Other options were needed to make learning to read and write fun for Miss Stella. I was consulted at one point. Yes, I was. Believe it or not, this nanny was consulted! I have plenty of ideas but unless I am asked, I am not prepared to step in. Years of working with parents, I have learned not to extend any help unless they explicitly wanted me to. What do nannies know? I also felt that I might ruin the mother and daughter’s journey so far if I got involved.

During one of our many conversations, Stella’s mum asked me for my opinion and with the permission via such a question, I stopped being a quiet observer and joined them in their journey. I suggested that they ditch the idea of making Stella write on lines. Instead, she was encouraged to write her letters on paper, in scrapbooks, on the whiteboard or draw them with a paintbrush at the easel; the more room to move the better. Finger painting the letters helped too. I also encouraged Stella’s mum to search the internet for some games to play with Stella. Worksheets are not the only way to learn to read and write. We soon witnessed the fun Stella had sorting picture cards into groups, playing Bingo and Snap. These literacy based games were mostly home made. Her parents also made use of things around the house, especially when they played their version of the treasure hunt game. Another thing worth mentioning is the Alphabet book that the little family made. Stella’s dad was so impressed with the end product that he had it properly bounded at Officeworks.

Most people think that children must learn to write repetitiously on lines to improve their writing skills but for a child to write well, he or she needs good fine motor skills to start with. (I am actually referring to handwriting skills here; not creative composition.) Stella did plenty of lacing/threading activities, very simple sewing, weaving and tracing stencils. She also designed and made simple decorations using Hama Beads and modelling with clay. All of these activities kept her fingers busy. As she had lots of fun, she was also preparing her hands to one day write with flair. When she did attempt to write, we encouraged her to love her own style of handwriting. Tracing dotted letters can be frustrating for the child who wishes to exactly clone what’s printed on the worksheet/workbook. What’s most important is for the child to correctly form each letter.

Note: In the next part of this theme, I will blog about the Sound Games and the unexpected ‘Teacher’.

Reading and Writing: Stella’s Journey (Part 1)

Stella was already reading when school started earlier this year. If learning the names of the alphabet is considered to be part of the process of learning to read, Stella had already begun her journey just before I started looking after her. Someone gave the Supergirl a wooden puzzle of her name for Christmas 2005 and according to her mum, Stella became interested not only with putting the alphabet pieces together on the base plate to form her name, she became curious with the names of the letters. They also used those cheap magnetic plastic letters to teach the other letters to her. By the time I came along, Stella already knew the names of at least 75% of the letters in the alphabet.

Stella’s mum has no valid qualifications in teaching literacy to young children but that didn’t hamper her enthusiasm to teach Stella how to read. She went about it through trial and error. For instance, Stella’s mum did initially buy a workbook to help Stella learn to read and write. The workbook was a poor choice because it was meant to be for older school children and the script used to teach handwriting is not the one used widely in Victorian schools. Furthermore, the then 3 year old just didn’t have the (very) fine motor skills to try writing letters on lines. That’s very restrictive for a beginner. There is however a thumbs-up feature in the workbook. Inside the front and back covers are instructions for the adult to teach the child how to make the sounds for consonants and short vowels. Knowing the names of the letters does not teach a child to read but learning the sounds can be mighty helpful. Stella’s mum also borrowed a good book on teaching reading at home from the library but she couldn’t re-borrow it because it went missing after she had returned it. Later, she came across an informative booklet while surfing the net and bought one for reference. Stella’s dad was also pretty involved throughout the whole process. One of his favourite things to do was to read to his little girl. This includes reading old books from his childhood. Teaching a child to read before school age can be seen as unnecessary but Stella’s parents weren’t hurrying her at all. They are not pushy parents. They have never forced her in my presence anyway. Her happiness is of the utmost importance to them.

Teaching a classroom full of new Preppies is a very different experience to teaching a child that you know since she was born. A learner’s personality is a factor to the outcome of any learning. In Stella’s case, she likes to take charge of what she would like to do rather than be told to do something. I realised not long after I started looking after her that if she was not interested, she would not comply willingly and nothing would be achieved. This is why even if her parents were pushy; they would only succeed in creating an unhappy little girl. She is a classic example of why children shouldn’t be forced to learn anything according to an inflexible schedule. There is a time for everything. Stella also has a strong determination and is able to concentrate for long periods. She probably inherited those traits from both parents. So as long as she had wanted to, she could stay on task to complete any work of her choice. Her Kindergarten teachers used to comment on this a lot. These useful abilities plus a very good memory make it easy for Stella to learn anything, especially things that attract her attention. All that does not mean her journey was a smooth one. There were bouts of frustrations that stifled her interest temporarily. During these ‘breaks’, Stella enjoyed other activities, developed her social skills, created elaborate fantasy play and played home made or store bought games with a bit of mathematical and thinking skills thrown in. There were also breaks that coincided with the family’s holiday or celebration plans. Learning to read didn’t consume every hour and every minute of Stella’s pre-school years. A balanced development in all areas was (and still is) just as important.

NOTE: I have decided to blog about this in parts. The next part will be about Stella’s bespoke learning. LOL

Non-Stop Work

The end of the financial year came and went and I have been working long extended hours to help the busy parents out. Even the weekends were not excluded this year. I am not complaining. My Uni studies are done for now and I have the extra time to help out. The long awaited break is now just around the corner. Phew!

Bree was not feeling well all week last week. By Friday, she seemed to be on the mend but went downhill again on the weekend. After going to see the doctor yesterday (Tuesday) with her mum, she got herself another lot of antibiotics. Bree, like Stella, is a very healthy child and she seldom gets sick. Hopefully, she will get better in time for Grandma Ettie’s arrival. I heard that she has some goodies for the little girl. The family is lucky that the trip to Buller is not happening till later this month. This will give Bree ample time to recover.

I was very lucky that the girls didn’t have to spend all days together. Stella’s Winter holidays had started and she spent her mornings at her friends’ homes from Monday – Friday, last week. The Gang of Four had plenty of opportunities to catch up and play before going away. Who says the only child is bound to be lonely? Stella had plenty of socialization with a small tight knit group of friends. She also has the luxury of lots of me time at home. Having the time to discover her real self is something many other children do not have. Stella gets to know her personal strengths and weaknesses as well as developing an ability to work independently with fewer distractions. Children who know themselves well are more able to resist negative influences.

With Stella and her parents jetting off to New Zealand tomorrow (Thursday) and Grandma Ettie arriving on Friday, this overworked nanny is finally having her well earned 10 day break. Tomorrow will be my final day. I will return to work on the 14th, looking after both girls. That is the last day of Stella’s school holidays.

Less Play Dates with Lachlan

Stella and Bree do not play with Lachlan as often as they used to. The old arrangement was to meet up on every Thursday afternoon. This wasn’t the case at the beginning of the year when Lachlan was being cared for by multiple nannies. Playing with Lachlan became sporadic from then on. Around the time I stopped blogging in early April, Lachlan acquired a new permanent nanny. The nanny I knew has moved on to another job now. I do not know the full story. Lachlan’s mum told me that the nanny went overseas. Replacing her is a younger nanny of around my age. I have met her a few times. She seems alright. She told me not to wait up for Lachlan and her because she finds the distance to the big park a bit too much and may not make it there every week. She spoke highly about this other little park near Lachlan’s house. I know that playground and it is definitely boring for children who need a wider space to run around. Stella misses Lachlan every now and then. Even Bree asks for him! She would ask if we would see Lachlan when we are on our way to the park. So, while Stella still talks fondly of things she and Lachlan did and do, I don’t think she is missing out much. The new friendships she has formed at school are keeping her quite busy. She probably won’t need a nanny for much longer.

The New Gang of Four

Stella ‘discovered’ another child in her class at the end of Term 1. It turned out that this child is also already reading like Stella. On some mornings, the two were given separate literacy activities from the rest of the class and were encouraged to work together. Occasionally, another two children joined the pair for extra maths work. This was how the Gang of Four came to be. They get along very well and I think that’s because they communicate on the same wavelength. The four children aren’t always allowed to team up together for other class activities. I suspect that the teacher wishes to see them interacting with the rest of their classmates as well. From what I have heard, I gather that the parents also get on well. I personally think that these parents have one major thing in common. They all share a deep love and commitment to help their children learn and grow. The parents organize regular play dates for the children so they can meet up after school. On one such occasion, Stella had a ball riding her first flying fox independently from one fort to another. The parents are currently planning to take the four to the Melbourne Museum to see a rare exhibition on dinosaurs. Everyone seems to think that the school holidays would be perfect but everyone is also going away for part of the holidays. I hope they end up going because from what I heard, the ‘Hatching the Past – Dinosaur Eggs + Babies’ exhibition is well worth it. Cameron and I will be going. I did state that we are both young at heart but you don’t have to be young to love dinosaurs. These magnificent creatures are part of the story of life on Earth and every one should learn about them to know more about who we really are. History, including prehistory is important for us to know about our origin. I sense that I am getting sidetracked and should therefore end this post now. LOL.

The Downs and Up of Stella’s Birthday Party

The Supergirl is officially 5 years old. She has been 5 since the end of April. It is very important for Stella to be 5. She told me that she is finally the same age as her class mates. Being 5 is important in playground politics. While she thought that she had caught up with the others, I refrained from telling her that most children in her class are likely to turn 6 later in the year. In fact, a few had already turned 6! Children can be cruel. Many learn early on how to spot differences or ‘weaknesses’ to use as excuses when the need arises to exclude or bully someone.

After attending a few birthday parties earlier this year, Stella’s mum toyed with the idea of ‘outsourcing’ Stella’s 5th birthday party. Stella’s mum wanted a party with pony rides but Stella (almost half-heartedly) wished for a fairy to visit her party. I still wonder why she picked the fairy. Fairies seem to play a big part in many childhoods but Stella has never been really fond of them. After making phone enquiries and discussing the matter as a family, they all decided to throw another arts and crafts theme party just like when Stella turned 3 and 4, except that the guest list was different this time. Most of the foods were ‘outsourced’ because Stella’s mum had to entertain the children and lead the activities. Unlike most fathers (I know) who mysteriously have to work on the day of the party, Stella’s dad was in charge of drinks for both the adults and the kids. A family friend made the party food and the cake was specially ordered from a bakery. The family friend made most of the party foods for the previous two years as well. The lady made them from her home to bring in more income. Where was the nanny? I didn’t attend the party. I never play a part in almost all of my charges’ parties. Such gatherings are a time for the children to interact with their parents and guests.

In the years of looking after children from ‘better off’ families, I have observed the extent that parents will go to throw a party to outdo a previous party they have attended. It is like the Olympics. The children that attended Stella’s party this year were her classmates plus Bree, Lachlan and another little family friend. Like her, they must have attended quite a few wonderfully expensive parties since entering the world only just a few years ago. Despite being the tender ages of 5 or 6, the ‘partygoers with experience’ were capable of rating parties out loud. While we should all take pride in children who speak confidently in public, it is quite unacceptable when they speak rudely. Adults who are not such children’s carers have to bite their tongue and pray that the carers (e.g. parents) will handle the matter when they have the privacy to do so. It is quite shocking though that many adults just let this sort of behaviour go on; ignoring what was happening and hoping that it will go away without offering any form of guidance ASAP. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not calling for carers to smack or scold offending children right away.

Seeing that I am getting side-tracked as usual, I better get back to the negative side of Stella’s party. Among the children that attended the party, 5 were unsatisfied. 4 of the 5 usually play as a group at school. The 4 girls are like the ‘Pink Ladies’ in the class. The other girl was Bobby. I have mentioned this Bobby in another post. The ‘Pink Ladies’ were supervised only by one mum (parent of one of the 4 girls). Although I wasn’t there, they were what I would have considered to be ‘girly girls’. They were being difficult right from the beginning. As soon as one found out that there won’t be any shows (because no entertainers were hired), they began to talk non-stop about parties they have attended recently. Stella’s dad noticed how they spoke to Stella in a condescending way and I can tell everyone now that he was quite troubled. The ‘Passing Parcel’ game was my idea only because they had invited younger guests like Bree and the other little boy. Lachlan didn’t stay for long because he wasn’t too well. Half way through the ‘Passing Parcel’ game, one of the ‘Pink Ladies’ stood up in a jealous fit and told Stella, “You will get the big toy at the end because you are the birthday girl. It is not fair!” With that she walked off and flatly refused to re-join the ‘baby game’. Stella’s dad told me he was fuming and made sure that his employee’s little boy got to unwrap the last pressie and not Stella. LOL.

With the help of a couple of parents, Stella’s mum led the activity to make finger puppets using felt pieces. The pieces were pre-cut to make it simple for the children to assemble. The idea was to reduce frustration but it didn’t help when some children decided to increase the adults’ frustration levels. Bobby was happy to join in when invited to the activity but before long she had decided against the idea. She interrupted the children when they tried to listen to the instructions, reminding them that “This is not school. This is a party” over and over again. Someone told her that it was OK if she didn’t want to participate and offered her some ‘Monsters Jelly’. Instead of taking up the offer, I was told that she replied, “Nah, I can do what I want.” Then she went over to the ‘Pink Ladies’ who were working quite cooperatively and successfully got them to her side. Together they joined forces and declared that they didn’t need help from adults and will do ‘Whatever’.

Not all was bad at Stella’s birthday party. She had the opportunity to strengthen her emerging friendships with three children. The group only discovered each other towards the end of first term. Today, the four play together everyday. The parents also arrange play dates for the four to get together at each others’ homes regularly. It is wonderful that the parents themselves also get along well. The children are polite and inventive. Stella’s parents talk positively of them. When it comes to Stella’s school experience so far, she is happiest when telling me about these friends. I am truly happy for her. Let’s hope that her parents do not make any hasty decisions by pulling her out of the school at the end of this semester. Just as I will blog more about these 4 little friends on another day, I will also blog more about the dissatisfaction of Stella’s parents over her schooling later.

Appointment with the Photographer

Believe it or not, Stella is nearly 5! Her birthday is at the end of this month. The family has an appointment with the photographer today. They have arranged to have photos of Stella taken professionally for each of her birthdays. In some years, they also arrange for an appointment with the same photographer for Christmas shots but they didn’t do it for last year. They have arranged for a studio sitting this time. In addition to photos of the Supergirl in a nice outfit, her parents wanted the photographer to take photos of Stella in her school uniforms because they weren’t happy with the outcome of the individual shots of her school photos. I didn’t look after Stella on Friday. The mother and daughter must have gone out to buy a new outfit for the photography session. I can’t wait to see them. One wall in the family room is slowly being covered up by beautiful photographs of the whole family.

Week Long Cooking Stint

Note: I wrote this yesterday and was meant to post it. I obviously pressed the wrong button again and ended up saving it as a draft. LOL.

This last week was the second week of Stella’s first school holidays. I looked after the girls at Stella’s home for the five days. As planned, we spent the whole week doing a bit of cooking on each day. It was very nice of Stella’s parents to pre-purchase the ingredients we required. We did have to go to the local grocery shop to pick up a bottle of milk on Tuesday, but that was easy and both girls behaved beautifully at the shop. We actually went there without strapping Bree into her buggy. I needn’t have worried. She was no trouble at all.

Monday: Mini Hawaiian Pizzas

This was made on Monday because it is something that Stella really likes. Stella is a champ and required very little help from me. The only things I did were opening the fiddly pack of shredded ham, opening & draining the can of pineapple pieces, popping the made up mini pizzas into the oven and then removing them again 15 minutes later. Stella showed Bree how to spread tomato paste on the English muffin slices and how to top up each slice with the ingredients available. Bree enjoyed spreading the paste but she also enjoyed pinching pieces of pineapple every now and then. LOL. To show how considerate Stella’s mum can be, she even pre-sliced a small block of cheese and placed it in the grater container for the girls to use. I really love this grater that they bought from IKEA. Each grater comes with its own container. This makes it easy for everyone because the grated food goes straight into the storage container.

Tuesday: Fruit Salad Smoothie

We set off to make yummy drinks right after coming home from the grocery store. Bree and I had a banana & honey smoothie while Stella had a strawberry smoothie. The girls enjoyed chopping up the fruits. Bree has only just started to slice bananas at home. She needed supervision even though she was slicing using a standard dinner knife. Because I was also having the same drink as her, she had to chop an extra banana as well. Of course she didn’t mind the extra work. I don’t think she even realised that she was chopping my share of bananas. LOL.

Wednesday: Apricot Muffins (Teddy Bear’s Picnic Cancelled!)

We originally planned to have a small picnic outdoors for Wednesday but it turned out to be a wild day. The weather was just horrible. It was super windy and when it did rain, it was like a big downpour that I have not seen happen very often in Melbourne these days. Bree arrived at Stella’s wearing her new quilted jacket to keep her warm. Her mum must be particularly pleased with the sudden chill. Despite the wild weather outside, the cooking continued indoors. We made apricot muffins. We started off making just 12 but the girls enjoyed the process so much that we unanimously decided to make another batch. Of Course we didn’t eat all of them at once. We are not that crazy! The leftovers were evenly divided to be shared between the two households. The muffins were a hit among the adults. The children and I got plenty of compliments.

Thursday: Salad

The cooking clinic continued on Thursday without Bree. We made salad for the day’s dinner while Bree was napping soundly upstairs. Stella loves to chop things with a knife and I felt that salad making involves far too much chopping to be suitable for a little tot like Bree that I decided not to include her. The Supergirl got to slice mushrooms (after I cleaned and peeled them), zucchinis, a green capsicum, tomatoes and parsley to her heart’s content. Later, she reluctantly let me boil and drain the zucchinis. While I am quite happy to let her use the electric frypan (with strict supervision) at her little table, I am still not quite sure about letting her cook anything at the stove. We also ventured bravely into the backyard to look for some mint leaves and parsley for the salad. Despite what the weather people said, the weather was still quite wild on Thursday. It was great spending a bit of Stella + @#%*-@#%* time making this lovely salad. Stella said that she missed spending time with me. It is true though. Since school started for the Supergirl, she has hardly any opportunity of having me all to herself.

Note: I do think that knives can be dangerous. I only allow such tools to be used by children under strict supervision. The children’s parents are aware that the children sometimes use such tools while with me and support the idea of letting them practice. While Bree had only just started to chop her own banana using a dinner knife and buttering bread with a small spreader, Stella has had plenty of experience doing that over the years. She now yearns to chop different things using a small paring knife. While I can easily and quickly make the salad for the family’s dinner, Stella truly enjoys chopping and cooking. She couldn’t wait for her parents to arrive on Thursday. She just wanted to tell them that the salad had already been made up.

Friday: Chocolate Banana Bites

To celebrate the end of a wonderful week of cooking, we made chocolate banana bites. These were made by dipping chopped bananas into melted chocolate before covering them with chocolate sprinkles by rolling each one on a tray filled with a generous layer of sprinkles. The girls and I had fun making them. There were funny moments when the banana pieces slipped off the skewer and sunk deep into the bowl of melted chocolate. I tried to rescue one of Bree’s but once I got it back on her skewer, the tot stuck it back into the bowl and the same piece of banana slipped off and sunk again. It was just hilarious! There was also a minor hiccough at the end of the activity when Bree absolutely refused to wait for the banana bites to set. She just wanted to eat them right away. We had to leave the tray of banana bites to set on the kitchen bench to keep it away from Bree. She ended up crying of course. We ended up leaving the kitchen – out of sight, out of mind. Later, the girls and I enjoyed every bite together. They were heavenly delicious. We didn’t keep any for the others because I didn’t think that they would keep that long. The bananas might turn all black by the time the adults arrived.

Note: Since spending a few weeks with Grandma Ettie in Sydney at the end of last year, Bree has acquired a permanent sweet tooth. She loves chocolate but her mum is trying really hard to keep it to a bare minimum.

That was the week. It went so quickly! I am just so greatful that we didn't experience any power outage like some other Melbournians.

A Surprise DVD for Stella

Stella received a surprise package last Friday. She went with her mum after school to the post office to pick it up. It was a DVD of ‘The Fairies’ – a popular children’s TV show. Now, one would think that a child of Stella’s age would be pleading to rush home to put the DVD on; the Supergirl actually did the opposite. I wasn’t looking after her that day. After getting her hair cut and dropping by the home of her mother’s client before picking up the fish n’ chips order, Stella had forgotten all about the DVD. It was after she had gone to bed that her mum remembered, when her dad asked about the parcel.

Stella’s mum offered to put on the DVD for her after lunch on Saturday. She took the DVD case to study it. She loves reading anything and everything these days. According to her mum, Stella probably watched 10-15 minutes of the show. When her parents emerged from the study, Stella was over at the art area painting. They asked if she would like to have it turned off and watch it later. Stella replied that she would like to have it on. While her mum was reading the day’s newspaper, she also observed Stella. She told me that Stella didn’t pay attention to the DVD at all. After the painting, Stella went on to play with her doll and then begged her dad for a game of Uno. While waiting for her dad, she chatted to her mum. And when her dad finally came out to join them, the family played Uno. At some point, the show finished. Stella went over to turn it off. She was heard saying, “Oh, it’s finally finished!”
The TV is turned on all hours in many families. It is used to entertain children all day long. Stella’s parents limited TV viewing since she was born. They do this by limiting their own viewing while she is awake as well. A friend of mine who lives in northern country Victoria did the same. Her six year old never acquired the taste to watch TV all day or for long periods. He too has a tendency to quit, preferring to ‘work’ outside after just 10-15 minutes of viewing. A family that I used to work for years ago live in a big house with only one little TV in the family room. The mother made it a conscious effort that TV would not play a big role in their family life. The family can well afford their own mini cinema if they wanted to but the mother told me that she purposely bought the smallest TV available to make it look unimportant. It must be hard planning for children living in Mc Mansions equipped with their own personal in-house entertainment room and TVs or other electronic entertainment fitted in almost every other room throughout the house. That’s a nightmare! Imagine sitting down with 4 children to organize their weekly TV/Media schedules. People actually do this. I read about this suggestion somewhere. I guess being prepared in advance is way better than to fight the children over movies and time permitted every night.

Decorating Easter Egg Shapes

After last week’s mental block, this is the Easter theme craft that I planned for the girls to make. It is similar to the bauble shapes that Stella and I made for Christmas except that I cut out the shapes at home. Stella’s mum bought some blank ready made bauble shape cards after Christmas. So, I am pretty sure that there are stores out there selling blank ready made egg shape cards to make life easy. Well, since I have surplus cardstock at home, I decided to trace the egg shapes and cut them out myself. Because I also have pink cardstock leftover, I also punched out some circle shapes for the activity. This saved me a few $$.

I originally planned to do this activity on Thursday because it is the last day of work for me this week. We had to do this activity today because Stella is invited to a birthday party after school on Thursday. The following are the steps to how we decorated the eggs.

1. Have the children dab a little bit of Clag glue on each little pink circular shape and then sprinkle each with some glitter. These are then left to dry. (Bree didn’t want to do it because she didn’t like the glitter getting stuck on her fingers while Stella can’t have enough glitter.)
2. At the table, have the children decorate the egg shapes with crayons. (I offered only darker colours. I cut out only 9 egg shapes for the 3 of us to decorate. Bree’s attempts were mostly scribbles going back and forth, and some irregular circular scribble. Stella’s attempts were of course more advance. Hers included her own name, heart shapes, multi-coloured confetti marks, uniform stripes from left to right, etc.)
3. Explain to the children that we are going to paint the egg shapes with runny paint and explain the need to wear a smock. (Luckily, I remembered to bring Bree’s smock to Stella’s house!)
4. Mix the paints with a little help from the children. (Stella suggested green. The girls took turns adding a little water into the bowl that I was stirring. As predicted, Bree added too much water despite being told to stop pouring and laughed her little head off. LOL. I ended up halving that and then added a bit more paint to achieve what we needed.)
5. Encourage each child to paint the egg shapes with the runny paint. Assure them that the patterns they drew earlier on will show through even if they paint over them. (Bree needed no reassurance. She painted not only the eggs but the newspaper lining the table as well. LOL) (Note: Because the egg shapes weren’t cut out of heavy cardstock, I had to watch the amount of paint each girl applied on each shape to prevent it from curling later on.)
6. The shapes are then left to dry and clean up can begin in the meantime. (It took a little longer than expected for the shapes to dry up. The girls left to play with Stella’s felt storyboards.)
7. Once the egg shapes and the circular shapes sprinkled with glitter were all dried, invite the children to dab a little bit of glue at the back of the glittery circles and paste them onto the eggs to make them even more beautiful. (Bree pasted only one circle per egg and she decorated 3 eggs altogether. On the other hand, Stella the glitter girl had to curb the urge from pasting the rest of the glittery circles on the eggs she decorated. I had to remind her that if she covered the eggs with too many glittery circles, no one will be able to see her artwork on the egg shapes.)

I wasn’t very optimistic about this activity at first because I didn’t think Stella would enjoy something like this again but I was wrong. This activity turned out to be fun for both girls. Their parents gave the thumbs up approval as well. It is easy to please some parents.

Note: For this activity to work, it is important that the children do not colour in the entire egg shape, leaving no blank space with their crayons. When painting the egg shape with the runny paint, they are actually painting the spaces in between their drawings – areas not covered by the crayons.

Play Dough Easter Eggs in a Basket

The girls didn’t venture outdoors on Monday. It was just too hot. I suggested to the girls that we could make Easter eggs using the play dough in the fridge. This is an easy activity for Bree and she loves playing with play dough. The fact that Stella’s dough is always kept refrigerated in the warmer months also made the activity more fun. It is easy for anyone to learn to roll a piece of dough into a sphere shape but it is a little trickier to create egg shapes. Most of the girls’ eggs were spherical and a few were actually pretty well formed ovoids. The eggs didn’t have to be perfect. I was most happy to see the girls enjoying themselves.

While Bree was still happy playing with the play dough, Stella and I looked in her art cupboard for some construction paper to make simple baskets for the eggs. Bree didn’t participate in making the baskets but she did pick the colours for her basket when I asked her to. Bree picked yellow and orange, and Stella picked red and yellow. We needed two pieces of construction paper for each basket because they are not as strong as cardboard/cardstock. Stella was in charge of her own basket, following my suggestions as I made Bree’s. We used double sided sticky tape to adhere the two pieces of paper together to become one and then drew lines like I did. This was done step by step and Stella enjoyed every bit of it. Then I showed the Supergirl how to fold along the lines on all sides. Bree stopped playing with the dough and came over to have a look at what we were up to. After that we got the scissors out to cut the areas near the corners that needed to be cut. Bree sat there mumbling, “Sharp. It’s sharp.” LOL. Once the cutting was done, we had to put away the scissors again. We never used to have to do this in the past but now that Bree is here in the afternoons, we have to be careful. In doing this, Stella is learning to be neat, considerate and thoughtful. The final step to completing the basket’s body was to bring the corners together to be stapled together. As a precaution, I used normal sticky tape to cover the staples inside the baskets.

Thinking that the baskets were complete, the overexcited Stella rushed off to gather the play dough eggs she made earlier. Bree copied her. I asked Stella, “Hey Stella, come and have a look at the baskets. Do you think something is missing?” She came back to have a look and answered, “Oh, I forgot to write my name.” Before I got a chance to say anything else, Stella added, “I will use the new pink pen mummy bought me. I will write Bree’s name, okay? I know how to spell it. She has two ‘e’s in her name. It is like the word ‘green’.” When she came back with the pen, I asked her if there is anything else we can add to the basket to make it easier to hold. I suggested that she think about baskets holding chocolate Easter eggs and proceeded to the art cupboard. She came over and asked, “Do you mean we should add a loop, @#%*-@#%*? We will need ribbons for that.” In reply, I said, “I think the baskets could do with some handles. Shall we try making them with the same construction paper to see if it will work?” (Duh, I already knew it would work!) I didn’t have to invite Bree to pick a colour this time; she was already right next to the cupboard. She found a piece of green cellophane inside Stella’s useful box and was looking around the room through it.

The handles for the basket was easy to make. We just folded the paper lengthwise four times and then stapled each end to opposite sides of the basket. Again, I sticky taped the sharp ends of the staples as a precaution. Before stapling the handles, I demonstrated to Stella how each would look and only then did I invite her to use her new pen to write their names on the handles. While we were folding the paper, Bree wanted to join in. I got her a piece of paper for a bit of folding as well. She didn’t quite get what we were doing and was happy to simply fold the paper without following any directions. I try my best to involve Bree as much as possible. The things that I do with Stella are often not developmentally appropriate for Bree but I do try to allow her to do something similar on the side without following the same directions as Stella. To me, it is important that she is having fun and has the opportunities to observe what others are doing and to work with her hands.

Note: I did try to include a template for the paper basket in this blog but it is not working. How annoying!