Kindermusik Trial

I brought Alicia for trial at Kindermusik on Saturday. I had been looking forward to it but in the end, I felt that it was quite a letdown. Perhaps my expectations were too high since Kindermusik's so well-rated. I was expecting the lesson to be more educational musically but it was quite commonplace and really, I could have conducted the class myself at home with Alicia.

The lesson started with letting the kids play with a ball each for awhile to warm up then we were given some percussion instruments like the maracas, shakers, and other miscellaneous ones to play with throughout the lesson to various rhymes and songs. Could I have done it on my own? I pretty much think so. In fact, I would have included more activities that didn't just centre round the same concept of moving and shaking percussion instruments to the beat. Bored I was with the lesson. And I think Alicia was too coz she was busy walking and crawling to various parts of the classroom to pull interesting stuff down to play while all the rest of the babies managed to remain in the circle. She was particularly in love with this plush toy dog and she pulled it down, hugged it, sat on it like it was a horse then hugged it again. Everyone was amused by her. But I think deep down inside they were irritated and annoyed coz she kept disrupting the lesson with her antics. Honestly I couldn't quite bring myself to blame her either. And even though I think she was apprehensive and scared at her first lesson at Staccato, I believe she actually enjoyed herself better there. And I would think Staccato has more potential to teach little tots the fundamentals of music as it has more varied activities and covers a larger scope. Well, that's just me critiquing the music lessons from my own standpoint. I'm sure there are parents who swear by Kindermusik. Perhaps I'm too quick to judge it. But well, I'm not going back there for now and for quite awhile.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna start work on making materials to teach Alicia music on my own... :)

Reading...

I read the book "The Snow Ball" most often to Alicia before she was born ever since I received it for my '08 birthday from my friends in my department. Knowing that I was crazy about my snowbears, getting books about snowbears (or known commonly as polar bears) for me is most apt. Plus I can share them with Alicia. Double bonus.

Here's the book:

And here's Alicia reading the book on her own on her play mat when she was 8mths old.

Apparently after reading the book, she was inspired to love her snowbears (or rather mine) so here're the shots I captured of her 'loving' one of them.

It's still the most read book to date and she knows when to raise her little hands in anticipation of my reading "No school!" cheered the bears. Haha. My well-trained little one. This is a really cute board book with lovely illustrations that simply captivate her. And of course, I can narrate the whole story by heart... :) and so the story goes on although she's busy flipping through random pages of the book...

First trip to the library and the first book we borrowed!

Alicia's always been fond of books and I wonder if it's because I've been reading to her since she was in the womb. Anyway, I brought her to Bukit Merah library last Friday to secure a place at the Fun with Tots programme on 11 Nov. It's a story-telling session for children 1-3 years old. I've been wanting to introduce her to the library and I think a story-telling session would be a nice way to do so.


As I was perspiring like crazy after the walk from my place to the library, I decided to hang around in the library before leaving for home so I went to check out where the storytelling session will be held and also the children's corner. I brought her to the area where the recommended books were for adults and kids and she fell in love with this particular book at first sight. She pointed at it and exclaimed loudly so I brought her nearer to the book and she took it off the shelf. This is the book she's so captivated by:



I had a hard time trying to get the book from her hands to borrow it and of course she screamed and threw a tantrum like any other 15-mth-old. I tried my best to be quick with the process of borrowing and returned the book swiftly back into her little hands. And she really loved the book so much that she held it all the way home and she even tried to flip the pages while we were walking home. I had to explain to her that reading on the go is bad for the eyes... I had to peel it out from her grasp when we reached home as I wanted to give her a shower after the trip out and quickly put her to bed for her nap. Actually I was the one who needed the shower badly. Hee... :D

Anyway, she pronounces "dog" as "dag" currently and initially I thought she was trying to say "cat" because it sounded like "cat" to me (she already knows how to say "cat" and can point to a picture of it and say it correctly). So I kept trying to tell her that's not a "cat" but a "dog". After listening more carefully, I realised that she said "dag" and I'm still trying to correct the pronunciation.

It's a really colourful book and the illustrations are really nice. I'm thinking of buying it from Amazon.com as a Christmas gift for her (update: we really bought it for her!).
Anyway, it's a story about Christmas so it's kinda apt. I've already placed a bid for it last night and we'll see how it goes. For now, we get to keep the library book till 20 Nov and maybe we'll renew it after that.