[+video] Draw-A-Person... (at Month 26+)

"... eye.... eye.... nose.... mouth.... hand.... hand.... leg.... leg..." As she draws, she says these words as well. I couldn't help noticing her actions and found her literally drawing pictures of a human being. Not one, but many of them! She would say she draws "people". But sometimes, if you ask her what she is drawing, she would say "dinosaur" or "autobots"! :)

I took this video about 2 weeks ago. Enjoy.....!

And these are the products of her drawings!

Nice piece of art, eh? :)

That's one BIG head with "eyes and mouth". 2 lines sticking out horizontally which represents the "hands" and 2 vertical lines which represents the "legs".

For some drawing, she added the "hair" as well!

This is really so so cool! I really find this interesting! :)

DAP

Gotcha!!! But no, am not into politics right now... hehehe.

In my first semester, my lecturer for "Arts for Children" did touch a little about what a child would draw by stages. And it appeared more real to me now when I first witness this "truth" through Sarah's drawing of a human being. It really made some sense to me now! :)

DAP stands for "Draw-A-Person" and according to wiki:

The Draw-A-Person Test (DAP, DAP test, or Goodenough-Harris Draw-A-Person Test) is a psychological projective personality or cognitive test used to evaluate children and adolescents for a variety of purposes.

I never knew this test actually exist until I had this sudden interest to know more about the development of my little girl when she started to learn to draw a person. I find it really amusing and I am in total pride when I saw the first "human-drawing" drawn by my little girl... I'll share more about this when I manage to sort the pix I took this morning :)

In the meantime, allow me to share with you some findings I had with DAP. One of the articles I read which gives much information is found here.

"...... The way the kids draw the person determines at what mental developmental stage they are at. You can pretty much test for intelligence with a simple drawing. At the age of 3, kids start to draw circles and lines, but usually can't really make a stick figure look like a person. At the age of 4, they are supposed to start drawing people more like we're used to: head, arms, legs. But at the age of 4 (mental age of 4) most kids draw the arms and legs coming out of their heads - no body. Jakub didn't do this. His picture had a body. Even in the picture above - drawn when he was 4 months shy of four, Jakub drew a body. The doctor said that this was an indication that his mental development stage is more like a 5 year old rather than a 4 year old (I always knew my son was smart :)). At the age of 5, children start drawing bodies, arms and legs coming from the bodies. Then, between 5 and 5.5, kids start to draw more detail, including 3 fingers (not 5), clothes, etc....."

Check out more about this test as you type "DAP test" on google search. You will surely find lots of interesting stuff relating to this study. I definitely found this interesting!

2nd term exams!!!! Pray for me, ya?!

Tomorrow's the start of my 2nd term exams.... nothing more than just a paper for me to "goreng". I do pray for wisdom to answer the questions correctly. Not too sure why but I've been in this terrible state of rebelling... against studies that is... the mood is just not right. I do my revision every day but sometimes, the mind is just telling me "enough is enough".... Maybe I'm too old for all these :p

Anyway, life goes on... I'll be facing my 2nd term papers tomorrow and next week. I just pray for God's guidance and especially for me to have the right focus. My focus is just not there and I get distracted pretty easily this time (worst than before). I didnt wake up earlier than I planned to and even in the evening, I didnt spend as much quality time revising than I have hoped for.

OK-la... for now. Gonna have lunch and later back to work!

Sarah's bath time = play time

Sarah loves bath time because that's play time for her as well. We call that "water play". Dont underestimate bath times with your little ones because it is during these times that they learn so many things about themselves, ie parts of their body, listening to instructions like "look up!", "wash your neck", "left leg up", "right leg up", "armpit!", "tongue", etc... :p They learn lots about maths & science! If they have cups, they can learn to measure and develop other fine motor skills like scooping water from one cup to another using a spoon... well, Sarah loves that activity a LOT!

Recently, I bought for her the IKEA's stacking cups. I've been wanting to get that or something similar for a long time but at one point of time, I couldn't find them at all. I particularly like the IKEA cups because besides being reasonable in price (only RM6.90/set), they are colourful and each cup has different patterns and number of holes in them. That made water play interesting!

I normally vary the toys so that she will learn different things from time to time. In my in laws place, there are some cups, ducks and frog in there. She likes to squeeze the frog in the water and that made some "glup, glup" sound, and she would smile and tell me, "got sound..." after that, she would take the water-filled frog and squeeze it hard so the water would be released through its mouth. She enjoys doing that and could do that many many times until mummy needs to "force" her out of the bathroom.

Anyhow, I would try my best to make it an enjoyable moment for her whenever I had the chance to bathe her. At times during the weekend, if she behaves well during the day, I will allow her to use the bath tub and extend her bath time so she can play a little bit more... just to reward her! Now that she learns about punishment and reward, this seems to work pretty well for us! :)

[+video] Doe, a deer, a female deer....

Check out our lil singer!
Sorry... this was taken at night in the car... don't mind the video, just enjoy the music! :)
This song is one of our favourites!
And pls forgive me... my pitch lari sikit! Cannot reach the note la.... :p

And recently.... thanks to ah ee, now, Sarah has another favourite - "The Barney song: I love you, you love me"

Yippie! No need to drive to work! :)

Am so happy.... today, I got my driver to send me to work. kekeke... yeah, u guys might think rachel is siao oredi... but, yeah... just missing that nice feeling of not needing to drive myself to work... it made half of my day! :p

So now, since I'm waiting for my driver to pick me up from office, I might as well do some blogging... :p

Priority... to blog or not?

Well well well.... looks like i'm pretty bad bad bad with keeping my words, ie to get myself back into blogging all my life's updates! :p And time is just ticking! It will be yet again another busy moment that is to study for my coming exams which is about 2 weeks from now! And I need to cover as much as I possibly can.

Nowadays, I dont wake up as early as I planned to... 4.30am? to blog?! dont know why... guessed that my mind just tells my body that there is nothing "urgent" to do... no deadlines!, and so, the body should just stay asleep till later, and I've been doing that literally.

However, today is a public holiday... and I'm taking some time off to blog :D I'm supposed to be taking my afternoon nap since lil Sarah is taking hers... and so are the rest in the family. Sigh... so torn in between... cuz my room is in dire need of some tidying as well! So, what's priority? Hmm... *think think think*

OK... Have decided to tidy up my room after this post! Here's me making some noise in my blog, but apart from this, I think I really need to postpone this blogging activity till I'm done with my earlier plan in tidying up my room. Adios for now!

Blogging.... and the list goes on.... and on... and on....

And so...... it's honeymoon week for me before I start burning the midnight oil again to study for my coming exams. And I have a list of things to blog about during this time... let's see....

1. Sarah's 2 year-old birthday celebration

2. Sarah's developmental milestones... tonnes of them!

3. My assignments since Sem 1 (including all the photos of my assignments & projects! hehe...).... hmm... now gonna finish Sem 2 oredi!

4. My exam results :p

5. My school's field trip to the Zoo - Butterfly Garden

6. My recent outing with other principals to horse riding club in Demai Alam

7. Pix during my last day with my lecturer

8. Sarah's potty-training journey

9. Mother's day in Ikea

10. And of course... my life's journey here & there.... and whatever that comes!

After this, i will have some stuff to blog about my weekend... woaw! this list is not gonna end ler... :p

I've actually planned to wake up earlier every morning to blog a little bit or at least sort the photos that are piling up in the computer! So much to do indeed! But then... the body is just resisting that wake-up call... hope to do so sooner or later though :p

OK-la... that's all for now... catch up soon!

I'm DONE! Yippie!

Yey! I have officially completed my assignments at 6.25am.... Now, preparing to print. :)

After that, I can lepak awhile before I head off for classes! So happy! Du-du-du!

[UM] Last Day... & Music Practical

I'm up at 4.10 this morning to complete my final assignment for the semester... YIPPIE! Today's my last class for the semester, after which I have to get prepared for the written exams in June.

Today is also my music practical assessment. That means, solo singing and for group assg, it's percussion presentation & movement presentation. Gotta go for class earlier later to practice with the group... yet another long day for me today! Pray for me and wish me the best! :)

[REAL] Field Trip to Butterfly Garden - Part 1

And so.... here's ME.... during my school's field trip to the Butterfly Garden in Zoo Negara last Friday!

I've many more pix to post, but wait till after this Saturday... hehehe... :)

Sarah's ONE BIG TOY! :)

Last Sunday, gwamma gave Sarah her "big toy"... all the way from China! Yeah, literally... Gwamma & Unc David went to China for a holiday and gwamma bought this big fella for Sarah. Hehe... it's really very cute! Check this out...

Check out previous post about ONE BIG TOY!

Distracted.....

I was up since 4am this morning but was reading my bloggy pal's blog posts and looking at pix in FB since then.... oh boy.... now, i'm back to focusing on the right subject, ie finishing up my final assignment for the semester. Yippie!

After this, I will take some time to update my blog (before I get busy again with studying for my exams in June). I'm still owing it lots of stories and pix...

OK-la... time to complete my assignment!

In the meantime... Here's wishing all mothers a very Happy Mother's Day! Have a nice weekend to all of you! Remember to treat your mummies & mummies of your kids well, ya?! :)

[Article] Lack of Sleep Linked to Early Death

I've been having only about an average of 5-6 hours of sleep daily. Nowadays... ever since my busy moments of assignments, I wake up at 4+. My alarm would trigger at 4am... If too tired, I'll keep snoozing till about 5.30am :p, but that would mean a maximum of 6 hours of sleep a day. When work or studies call, sometimes I've got no choice... and when I look at hubby and lil Sarah sound asleep, am a lil envious actually. However, it's kinda routine now to wake up earlier. If not, it feels like I'm missing something... hmm... but now, reading this article make me think twice about having that lack of sleep... :/

Lack of sleep linked to early death: study
Wed May 5, 9:44 am ET

Article taken from yahoo news.

LONDON (AFP) – People who get less than six hours sleep per night have an increased risk of dying prematurely, researchers said on Wednesday.

Those who slumbered for less than that amount of time were 12 percent more likely to die early, though researchers also found a link between sleeping more than nine hours and premature death.

"If you sleep little, you can develop diabetes, obesity, hypertension and high cholesterol," Francesco Cappuccio, who led research on the subject at Britain's University of Warwick, told AFP.

The study, conducted with the Federico II University in Naples, Italy, aggregated decade-long studies from around the world involving more than 1.3 million people and found "unequivocal evidence of the direct link" between lack of sleep and premature death.

"We think that the relation between little sleep and illness is due to a series of hormonal and metabolical mechanisms," Cappuccio said.

The findings of the study were published in the Sleep journal.

Cappuccio believes the duration of sleep is a public health issue and should be considered as a behavioural risk factor by doctors.

Society pushes us to sleep less and less," Cappuccio said, adding that about 20 percent of the population in the United States and Britain sleeps less than five hours.

Sleeping less than six hours is "more common amongst full-time workers, suggesting that it may be due to societal pressures for longer working hours and more shift work"

The study also found a link between sleeping more than nine hours per night and premature death, but Cappuccio said oversleeping is more likely to be an effect of illness, rather than a cause.

"Doctors never ask how much one sleeps, but that could be an indicator that something is wrong," said Cappuccio, who heads the Sleep, Health and Society Programme at the University of Warwick.

Research showed no adverse effects for those sleeping between six and eight hours per day.

Field trip

Can't remember when was the last time I went for a field trip... perhaps it was during my secondary school days. But I could remember how excited I was during that time.

Well, today will be my very first field trip in my school and am so excited about it. Hehehe... Feeling like a kid myself! :D I even woke up before the alarm rang... afraid I'd oversleep :p

OK-la... Will take lots of pix and update here later... Chiaoz!

[News] 9-month-old baby chokes to death on fish ball

2010/04/14
TAMPIN: A 9-month-old baby choked on a fish ball and died while being fed by a caretaker at a nursery in Jalan Cantik near the Tampin Hospital yesterday.

Wan Nur Alif Wan Arif Fadhla was sent by his parents to the nursery at 7.30am, but two hours later, he was believed to have choked on the fish ball the size of an adult's thumb.He was immediately rushed to the hospital some 50 metres away but was pronounced dead on arrival.The baby's father, Wan Arif Fadhla Wan Yusof, 41, said he received a call from his wife, Nur Azita Ibrahim, 31, at about 11.15am, informing him of the incident."My wife is a school teacher and she called me from the school, saying that our son had been admitted to the hospital."When I arrived at the hospital, I was told that my son had died. He had choked on a fish ball and was unable to breathe," said Wan Arif Fadhla, a civil servant.

He said he was very disappointed that the nursery staff had not cut fish ball into small pieces before feeding it to Wan Nur Alif. Wan Arif Fadhla said he had lodged a report at the Tampin police station.Wan Nur Alif will be buried at the Muslim cemetery in Kampung Pulau Kerengga in Marang, Terangganu.Tampin police chief Superintendent Wooi Hooi Cheng said the nursery staff would be questioned pertaining to the incident.When contacted, an officer of a district Welfare Department said a probe would be conducted.The officer also said the nursery had been in operation for many years.

News article taken from NST

This is a totally devastating news of what a nursery could do to a child. That is why it is extremely important to know inside out of the place we sent our children to whether it is a daycare, a nursery, a kindergarten, etc. We must do all the necessary checkings to ensure the safety of our children. Do they have the basic knowledge of childcare and education? Do they have the basic knowledge of health & safety for these little ones? Does the centre provide a safe environment for these little ones? Well, for this case, I don't know what the caretaker is thinking, but giving a fish ball? to a 9-month old baby? My goodness! I think this caretaker is really insane!

ONE BIG TOY!

Every now and then both Mummy and Gwamma will be on SMS/MMS about little Sarah. This time, the voice message went like this:

"Sarah's photo so cute-ah? So lovely... Next time gwamma buy you ONE BIG TOY, ok?

Then you can hold the toy everyday-ya? Remember gwamma-ya? Bubbai...."

Sarah loved the sms... she seemed to understand every word gwamma said. She kept asking me to play it back for her and she looked very happy just listening to it. You'd agree with me when you watch the video clips. She didnt get tired listening to it even after many many times! :)

A little bit of Sarah to brighten up your day! :)

This is Sarah... in her normal mischievous look.

I was just testing something on my camera and she gave me pose #1. Yes, she was all sweating when I took that pix. After that pose, she said she wanted to take pix with giraffe. And then she took little giraffe with her and gave me pose #2....

And then mummy told Sarah that she didnt look nice with that mouth, asked her to hug giraffe and smiled... so, she gave me pose #3. Hehe... yes, that look was perfect! :)

He made it POSSIBLE for me to complete my assignments on time!

This week is not so stressful for me as my next assignment deadline is 2 weeks from now... :p Well, cannot really lepak also because there are 3 assignments to complete and I really dread the idea of not being able to complete it on time, or rather I know that I WILL definitely complete all the assignments given, but with less sleep or no sleep at all!

2 weeks ago I managed to complete the most challenging assignment in this course (thus far) - Mathematics for Children! It was an assignment whereby I had to prepare 10 lesson plans with 30 activities in total (all about pre-numbers). I had to get the whole activities done with 3-4 kindergarten aged children, had it video recorded and do the necessary editing and submit the lesson plans write-up together with the dvd. What made it so challenging for me was because time was really not on my side. When the lecturer gave the assignment, she told us that we have more than enough time to do it... hmmm... not really.... counting the hours of a full-time job + being a mummy at home + having to prepare teaching materials for the next class + rest, it's super duper challenging to do enough research, get materials ready, get the "right" children involve, get the shooting and editing done, do the write-up, etc... PLUS we had another 2 assignments and some smaller assignments to submit on that day. Crazy, aint it?

Well, it's all over and I thank God that everything went quite smooth. Praise the Lord for that! I took permission from my Principal to do my assignments during working hours. I had no choice. The time I estimated that's needed to complete all my assignments on time would include the hours I have at work too. My Principal was very kind to allow me to do that. Working in a kindi also allows me to get in touch with children and I managed to get 3 kids who stay nearby the kindi to be my assignment students! Thank God their parents are willing to let me have them. Of course, I prepared some cakes and simple goodies for the kids during the 3-days shooting. My Principal was my videographer! Hehehe... So I had everything taken care of. She even gave me ideas and advices about the do's and dont's of some of the activities I prepared... so, sometimes we had to re-shoot and get the kids to re-do certain things. And btw, they are good "actors" I'd say! Hehehe... So, I thank God that I managed to complete all the assignments.

Some of my coursemates shared about the difficult children they had and how difficult it was to even finish 3 activities with them, or how my partner in class had done the shooting but only to find that the files got corrupted at the end and had to re-shoot. There were so many possibilities of the worst that could take place, and I really dread of that to happen... but all I can say is THANK GOD! He's made everything beautiful for me. On the Saturday when I had to submit the assignment, I had to skip my first class as I only managed to complete my write-up by about 8.30am. I did not sleep at all that morning. I had my assignment bound by 10.30 and reached UM by 10.45. I almost met with an accident with 2 cars and almost hit the highway divider as I drove cause I dozed off without any warning. It was really my first encounter dozing off just like that! A horrible experience! I was praying super hard on that morning for His divine protection. THANK GOD everything worked fine. GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

I also must thank my hubby and in-laws for taking care of Sarah during this period. Not only that, but I must say that I am in a very fortunate situation where my in-laws took care of all the cooking and cleaning at home that I am freed to do my studies. It is NOT possible if this weren't the case. God bless them for being such great blessing to me!

(P/S - don't know what's wrong with blog-posting... I cant even get the paragraph formatted properly! ish!)

Just a lil update...

4-5 am is almost my regular waking up time in the morning to do my assignments or prepare for work... last week was worst as I had to wake up about 3am at times to do my assignments. It's truly a very very very challenging phase for me in my studies. Last Saturday was the submission of one of my super major assignment.... will talk more about that later.... for now, just some bits and pieces about my life! :p

March - April month seem to pass by sooooooooooooo quickly! It was Sarah's birthday on 15 March.... I havent had the chance to wish her Happy Birthday in this blog too.... no time to also sort the photos taken during the celebration.... Will do so after this week hopefully.... cuz I have to submit another 3 assignments this week. Crazy aint it? I really do hope I know why I'm going through all these now... Sometimes it seemed so unworth it... the feeling of giving up is there... but I really have to strive on. There's no turning back.... I'm moving ahead... :)

OK, gotta get myself prepared for work.... if I need a break later this evening, I guess I'll pen down more about my assignments in this blog, so all of you can empathize with me. LOL!

This morning I also took the liberty to read my blog-pal’s posts…. So many to read as it seemed like ages since I read it. Anyway, great to ke-po again in one’s life…. Keep it up, dudes!