the bean tells a joke...

...sort of

last night, the bean took a plastic octopus from her bathtub back into the bedroom.

as i was putting on her night nappy and leg warmers i decided to distract her by asking some questions:

me: "what's this?" (pointing to the octopus) "is it a spider?"
bean: "no", taking a cursory glance at it and looking away (i think she was playing with something else at the time - could've been my watch)

me: "is it a fish?"
bean: "no"

me: "is it a crab?"
bean: "no", not even bothering to look up by this time

me: "is it mummy?"
bean: "no", after she glanced at me and the octopus to see if i was crazy

me: "is it po po?"
bean: "no", not looking at me

me: "is it gong gong?"
bean looked at me and slowly said, "yes".

i laughed and said, "surely it isn't! what is it?"
bean: "puhs!" (for octopus) pointing right at the octopus's head

"wheee!"

"peeease?"
the bean aka the monkey has been using the P word for several weeks now. with prompting 90% of the time. but she does deploy it as ammo for when she wants to bf. lately, she would trot to me with a sweet smile then look at me with a semi-desperate "meee" (her word for mommy) followed by "mirk peeease".

"wheee!"
i forgot to include this in the (short) list of W words. "wheeee" is the bean's word for swings. because one says "wheeee" when one sits on the swing of course.
but she also says "wheeee" when we're going downhill in the car.

"beeek" = beach
one very hot spring day we took the bean to the beach. not 5 minutes in the car she became impatient and began to repeat "beeek". when her po po told her that we would be there soon, the bean stared at her, then a few minutes later, her chant of "beeek" and unhappy fidgeting would start all over, so it was no use her po po trying to placate (or trick) her.
as soon as she caught a glimpse of the azure sea, however, she gave a joyful cry of "beeek!" and was finally happy and gurgling.
it makes me cringe at the thought of future car rides: "are we there yet?" or "why is it taking so long?" is sure to be an irritating refrain...

"mai mai mai!"
of all the teochew words to pick up, the one the bean has is "mai" for "no"...and she really uses it well too. sigh...

our 2nd term @ the under 3s class & a couple of W words

1st day back at school

the bean's under 3s class has started again and it was amusing to see her orientate herself to the school and the other children. because of the break i think she was quite excited to be back and kept looking at everything and everyone, not being able to keep still for too long. i think most of the other mothers found their children behaving the same way. it will probably take another week or 2 for them to settle down again.

anyhow, it is nice to see the bean being more vocal too - even when the directress wasn't addressing her!

during the sing-along session, one of the songs we regularly sing is when we pick a colour from the child's outfit and then sing about it. today, it so happened that there were quite a few children wearing blue. when the directress asked a second child in blue if we should sing about "blue", the bean nodded enthusiastically. then when the directress asked a third child if we could sing about his blue polo t-shirt, the bean actually said, "no", to the twitters of the other mothers who were sitting nearby. i guess by that point the bean had tired of the colour. (the boy who was asked didn't say a word.)


"whale!"*

here are a few more words that the bean would really say out loud (most of her other words are still gibberish sounding):
- whale (when she sees her soft-soled shoes with the whale motif or plastic whale figurine)
- wheel (when she sees a picture of anything that resembles one - even pinwheels)
- watch (it sounds more like "wak")

she can identify a few of the alphabet letters and some of the numbers. we are slowly working on number concepts, counting and the alphabet of course, but no pressure. most of the time it is the bean who points out the letters and numbers to me and asks me for their name. it was this regular activity of hers that has gotten me to work on introducing the alphabet and numbers more formally to her.

* btw, the bean doesn't say the letter "w" yet

cloth nappies at 'large'

we have remained at medium-long to large sized nappies for a while now as the Bean's weight, mass and figure fluctuate. she has slimmed down loads (sigh, i miss my chubby baby) and the legholes of the fuzzibunz in L are really too big, so her petite sized fuzzis are the best fit.

but my favourite going-out nappies are the swaddlebees snaps. these are very slim-fitting and are great for clothes that aren't designed for cloth nappies.

i also have 2 all-in-one monkey doodlezes and they aren't too bad if i don't forget to leave the Bean in them for more than 2-3 hours.

for nights, i really like the combo of fleece night bearbottoms (covers) and bumgenius fitteds.

i am sort of looking forward to putting her in training pants. i've bought 2 bummis ones that seem quite good but wonder how much wee they can hold. i have also a selection of brightbots that are very cute.

carrying conversations with herself

this is actually a phenomenon that started a few months ago but which i had not reported here:
before she began forming actual words (at least any that are intelligible to her parents, that is), i caught the Bean once holding forth to herself just before bedtime. she would mutter something in a questioning tone and then make a "unh uh" reply. this she kept doing for a goodish while before she suddenly looked at me, perhaps realising that she was being watched, and smiled a cheeky smile.

i guess her "call and response" was essentially based on what hub unit and i had/have been doing with her - asking her questions about pictures or whether she loves so-and-so etc - and her own replies.

anyhow, now she is doing this with recognisable words:
"ye ye?" "no"
"nai nai?" "no"
"po po?" "no" ... ...

echoing our questions: "do you love ye ye?", "do you love po po?" etc.

what a funny little girl...

some misconceptions about montessori

there is a lot of misunderstanding and misconceptions about the montessori educational philosophy. some of it is because there are a lot of schools that use the term "montessori" but actually have varying methods and approaches, leading to different experiences. "montessori" was a brand name that has been widely appropriated and almost any school or nursery can claim to be montessori if it adopts some of the methodologies and principles.

the under 3s programme that the Bean is enrolled in, however, pretty much follows the spirit and letter of the programme that was developed by dr maria montessori and the principles set by the AMI (Association Montessori Internationale).

but i thought i'd broach some misconceptions here, anyway:

1) someone told me that the montessori system is very "italian".

well, the only thing italian about it is the name and its founder. in fact, dr montessori was actually rebelling against the italian education system of her time when she developed her teaching methods, which originated from her first pedagogical experience - with slum children who were at the time considered delinquent and of 'sub-normal' intelligence.
a medical doctor by training (she was the first female graduate doctor in italy!), dr montessori was inspired by the pioneering work of a french educationist, edouard seguin, whose didactic materials she used and adapted for her class of children of different ages.
thereafter, using her clinical training, she observed the children in her school and developed her own teaching methodology and materials, just as any scientist might observe, analyse and then deploy new experiments.

*more info on the development of her methods can be found in the biography by rita kramer - see references below.


2) the montessori system is stiflingly structured and requires children to sit and work quietly by themselves. in describing the montessori system to others, i too have been guilty of reducing it: "quite japanese in style" was what i said, perhaps leading other people to assume that meant strict structure.

i spoke to the bean's montessori directress about this and she said that it is quite a common misconception. but she said that the system is not about creating quiet and obedient children or requiring children to be so. the nature of each child would not change through the programme: a sociable child will still be a sociable child, an active child will remain active. however, she said that the environment and the materials there inspire the child to want to master his or her chosen activity.
she then told me an experience she had with one hyperactive boy. he was admitted into the school aged 2.5 years, which is a little late for the under 3s programme.
his first week ('day' really, since the programme runs weekly) at school he was jumping and running everywhere, but on his second week, he went to one of the activities ('watering flowers') and asked how it was done. after watching the directress demonstrate it once, he actually completed the entire activity by himself AND THEN he decided to repeat it not once but four times.
the directress said that she was amazed at his concentration powers, thinking at first that he was going to jump around and spill the water. in fact, he did not spill a drop of water from the watering can. she said that he decided on this activity himself; and that he wanted to do it over and over showing how much influence the environment and the materials have on young children.
unfortunately, the boy's mother was not very patient waiting for him to complete his work and the next week, she rang the school to say that she was pulling him out because he does not suit the montessori style - he was naturally active and she did not want him to be locked into too structured activities.
the directress thought it was a pity that the mother missed what her son achieved on that second class, as well as the fact that it was her son who chose the activity himself and enjoyed it so much he did it five times.


3) montessori gives too much power to the child in academics and there is no way of finding out how much or well he is learning.

in the 3-6++ years montessori schools, "there are no text books, and seldom will two or more children be studying the same thing at the same time. Children learn directly from the environment, and from other children—rather than from the teacher. The teacher is trained to teach one child at a time, with a few small groups and almost no lessons given to the whole class. She is facile in the basic lessons of math, language, the arts and sciences, and in guiding a child's research and exploration, capitalizing on interests and excitement about a subject. Large groups occur only in the beginning of a new class, or in the beginning of the school year, and are phased out as the children gain independence. The child is scientifically observed, observations recorded and studied by the teacher. Children learn from what they are studying individually, but also from the amazing variety of work that is going on around them during the day." (michael olaf)
so yeah, this is misconception is understandable, especially in hyper-competitive educational environments, and here i am thinking of singapore primarily with its kiasu-ness.
i too am very interested in finding out how much each child gets out of such a system and how it compares with 'traditional' or mainstream schooling.
the author and montessori teacher paula polk lillard said that she found by letting children choose the topic they want to research they can actually develop a project in depth, incorporating various academic disciplines in the process.
i am hoping to observe classes at a montessori preschool and primary school in the coming weeks and will report on my impressions here.

references:

• Kramer, R. (1988). Maria Montessori. London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd.
• Montessori Philosophy, AGE 3-12+ YEARS - http://www.michaelolaf.net/1CW312MI.html
• Lillard, P. (1996). Montessori Today: A Comprehensive Approach to Education from Birth to Adulthood. New York : Schocken Books.

the bean defies mummy

for some weird reason, the bean has decided that she would rather not say the word green anymore.

lately (past 3 days or so), whenever i point at something that's green and ask her what colour it is, she would mumble something that sounds like "yellow" (a much garbled "grau grau" sound). and one time, she even made an annoyed "tsk" sound before ignoring me.

this comes after she kept blissfully saying "gweeeeeeeeen" for a few days. i wonder why she's turned off "green" and if she's turned off more from the questions about the colour.

she would, however, happily tell me the name of (most) any other colour: purple, red, blue, on occasion even yellow. she can't pronounce orange yet; i just accept whatever utterance she gives me even if it sounds nothing like it.

btw, a note on poop. lately, she has decided that if she is too busy watching tv or playing with her toys, then she would prefer to say no to the potty and poop in her nappy! it's happened at least twice in 2 weeks.

just 2 days ago she was fidgeting whilst playing with her peg board, so i told her i would get the potty to her. she made a sound of protest but kept focused on her activity. when i came back to her with her potty i made a perfunctory "do you want to sit on your potty?" to which she replied, "no."

my rejoinder was "of course you'd say that" and proceeded to put her on it nonetheless.

her po po, who is visiting us at the moment, laughed and said that the bean had nodded her head to the same question when she asked her a minute ago though.

anyhow, even though she told me "no", the bean did very successfully fill the entire potty - whilst playing with her peg board game.

my mom said that the bean's asserting her will now and to brace myself for more protests, confrontations and back-talks.

sigh...the terrible 2s have really begun.