Moments in My Life

I was on the phone with my sister in Adelaide and found out my son will start school nine months later than the kids in Malaysia.  He doesn’t start kindy until September 2011.  I think most kids his age in Malaysia begin class in January.  Oh boy … now I really have to think if I should be going back to Malaysia for his study.  LOL!  Crazy thought but … it would be nice … for me!

It has been almost a week (a full week when the clock strikes 9pm) since I’ve been back to LA.  Life is settling back to the normal routine now.

Brandon has started his pre-school at Lollipop MacMaster since Monday.  He will be attending school two days a week, two hours each day.  We have one of the same teacher from the Spring term.  On the first day, it was a bit difficult for him to let me leave the classroom.  But I did leave after 30 minutes.  The teacher was pulling him away from me.  He did fine on the first day without screaming or crying.  My friend also sends her daughter (turning 3 in Oct) to the same school.  So Brandon has a familiar face to relate to.  On the second day of school (last Wed), I was able to leave in 5 minutes, again the teacher was pulling Brandon whom was pulling my cloth.  It must have been a funny scene to see that, but I was not worry.  I know he likes this type of attention.  Once I am gone, he is fine.

I still have a box and little stuff in a luggage bag to finish unpacking.  I hope to get them done by this weekend.  On Sunday, one of Alan’s uncle is having his birthday celebration at Hokkaido Buffet in Long Beach at 6pm.  We will attend but will have to leave early as Brandon has school the next day.

I signed Brandon up for Superkids Parent and Me Gym at Torrance Cultural Center end of June. Our classes are on every Saturday morning from 9:45am to 10:35am from June 27th to Sep 12th (no class on July 4th and Sep 5th). The fee for this 10 weeks class was $110 for non-Torrance-resident.

I arranged it to be on Saturday because I can have Hubby to attend with him instead of me. It was a bit tough for the first class as Hubby told me, Brandon was looking for me and wanted to go home all the time. Good news is that he loves the class now and looking forward to attend it with ‘Daddy’ every Saturday morning.

After I drop them off at Torrance Cultural Center, I will drive around to do my errands. Grocery shopping and farmer’s market are the two on top of my list. And for the past 5 times, I was ONLY able to do two things during that 50 minutes time, which actually is about 40 minutes because I try to be back at the center before the class is over.

Hubby told me the instructors set up a few stations with beams, padding, bars and such. Parent will bring each student to each station and so on. They even have singinng session towards the end of the class. And every two weeks they will have a special theme. And when I took the picture below, it was beach volley ball theme. I came in just in time before they were done with it and I quickly snapped a picture.

Summer is the best time to be in the pool.  In other seasons, our pool is just a bit too cold to enjoy because we do not want to spend extra energy to warm the pool to the right temperature.  On a hot summer day, our pool has just the perfect temperature for us to dip and cool our body down.  And I am proud to say for this summer, we’ve been using the pool very often. 

Brandon has learned to love the pool.  Of course, it wasn’t easy to get him to like it.  The first few times when I brought him into the pool, it was Nightmares on Elm Street.  He was screaming until my MIL heard him from her backyard, her house is just three doors away from mine.  I could imagine what our neighbors were thinking then.  But over time, it got better and now he can float on his back with the help of a body float. 

Since the beginning of July, I’ve been looking into getting my son private swimming lesson and found through Craigslist dot org a website or a group of swim instructors for Southbay.  After a few times over the phone with the group’s leader/organizer, I finally managed to arrange a trial lesson this Thursday at 11am with Erin.  Will see how it goes then.  The lesson is 30 minutes and it cost $45.  The session can be shared among 2 students if wanted.  I am very excited and I will try to pick up a skill or two so I can teach him when I am in the pool with him myself.

Last term when Brandon attended the Lollipop Pre-school, I was given the Cooked Playdough recipe.  This is an easy recipe but I have not try it out yet.  Just thought that I will put it up on my blog to share with my readers who might be interested to make their own playdough.

Cooked Playdough
1 cup of flour
1 cup water
1 tbs oil
1/2 cup of salt
1 tsp cream of tartar
food coloring

Cook over medium heat until mixture pulls away from sides of pan and becomes like playdough in consistency. Knead until cool. Keeps 3 months unrefridgerated.

Kool-Aid Playdough
2 small packages of unsweetened Kool-Aid*
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of salt
1 1/2 tbs cream of tartar
2 cups boiling water
2 tbs oil
several drops food coloring

Mix Kool-Aid, flour, salt, cream of tartar in a metal or glass bowl. In a separate bowl combine boiling water, oil and food coloring. Pour water mixture into flour mixture and blend. Knead until smoth and store in a Ziploc bag or Typperware container. Refridgeration is not necessary, but will help it to keep longer.

*Different flavors of Kool-Aid will make different colors and different smelling playdough. Ex: Lemonade makes yellow playdough etc.

I always not sure when my boy will start Kindy.  I have confusion because the school system here starts in September.  Today I found my answer.  I was looking at the LAUSD and found this information.

“Presently, a child may enroll in kindergarten if he or she will turn five on or before December 2 of the year of registration. “

This fall my son is 3, so he will be considered as a pre-schooler.

Next fall (2010), my son will be 4 and he will be in Pre-K.

In fall 2011, he should be 5 and starting Kindergarten. 

So only two more years away.  Two years is going to be fast and I should start checking out our local district public school (LAUSD).  It will be the same elementary school that my husband went to 30 something years ago.  But after so many years, the school changes and now they have many more out of city kids. 

My husband is not so keen on sending him there.  He told me to consider sending him to private school, unless if we moved to another city with better school district within the next two years.

Lollipop Pre-school at MacMaster Park is close for this term.  And there is only one other Lollipop class which is in Greenwood and that is already full before I came back to LA.  So instead of pre-school I signed up two other summer classes for Brandon this time. 

We have parents and me swimming at Torrance Plunge from June 22nd to July 3rd.  This is a daily class from 11:15am to 11:40am.  Fee for this is $33 for 10 classes.  It is not much learning to swim but just to get the kid to feel comfortable in the water.  Today was our first class and I estimate about 20 parents with 20 kids in the class. 

Beside swimming, I have the gymnastic parents and me for Brandon too.  It will be on every Saturday (except July 4th and Sept 5) from 9:45am to 10:35am.  For this class, I may have Daddy take him while I can go around to do some shopping.   Fee for this is $110 for about 10 classes.  This will be his first time in gym class.  Will see how it goes this Saturday.

These classes are offered by the city of Torrance which I signed up online at Torrance Season.  There are many other interesting classes too.  I am actually interested in the dance class for Brandon - Tiny Tot Hip Hop, but all the classes are full.  May be I will try that for next term.

Day 9 

I was the mommy helper for Day 9 at the Lollipop Preschool.  There were 5 kids, one called in and would not be showing up that day.  That day, Brandon was a bit more attached to me than the first day I helped in the class.  But I was still able to play and help the other kids around the class.  They made paper flowers by sticking the petals with glue onto the circle.  They also painted the ice-cream stick green which I assumed for the stem.  I am guessing this is the ’secret’ gift for the mommies on the Mother’s Day Tea on May 14th. 

During story time, they read Eric Carle’s ‘The Very Busy Spider‘.  Each students were given two animals and when the teacher finished reading the page, the student with the animal was supposed to walk up to the front with the felt animal and stick the correct animal on board.  Brandon had the dog and owl.  The kids sure know their animals.  Everyone did great at this session.

For snack, I brought home pre-packed individual bags of baked goldfish and Japanese crackers, with Mott’s Light Apple Juice.  After snack, the teacher asked who wanted to use the bathroom and one girl, Lucy, said she needed to go.  Then they lined up to go to the park and played for about 15 minutes.  Brandon was playing on the sand most of the time.  He went on the slide once only.  Later he sitting on the teacher’s lap on the swing. 

When we were back in the classroom, the kids sang the ‘Goodbye Song’ and ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’.  And that was the end of Day 9.

Day 10

It was a quick day for me today.  I dropped him off at 9:05am and left the class at 9:10am.  I jogged a little bit around the park area.  Then I went to Target.  I bought some items and went home.  By that time, it was already 10am.  I vacuumed and mopped bathroom 2 (Brandon’s bathroom) and prepare some broccoli to cook for lunch.  It was 10:30am the next time I looked at the clock.  I left home around 10:40am and when I got there, they were still at the park playing.

When Brandon saw me, he quickly ran away to the daddy helper and hugging his leg.  It was so funny.  But eventually he came walking to me.

The teacher sounded the whistle and the kids were told to clean up with the toys and then line up next to the fence. Then they walked back to the classroom in a line.

We missed school on Tuesday because he was having a slight cough.  And today he was much better so we went.  Another mommy had called me yesterday to switch day for helping in class with her today.  Since I didn’t have any plan at all, I agreed.  She will take my helping day on May 21st.

We arrvied the earliest this morning at 850am since helper mommy has to get there 10 mins before the class starts.  We only have 5 kids in the class today.  I brought some snacks and water for the kids.  When we got there, I basically talk to the other kids while Brandon busy himself with the teacher.  Ya, he keeps pulling the teacher around the classroom.  I helped a kid to do an art and later we played dressing up.  I also played with another girl making cookie and playing with the ‘putting on’ nail colors.  Brandon didn’t need me at all.  He doesn’t mind I was actually playing with the other kids.  I hardly interacted with him at all during the 1 hour except taking him to the bathroom once around 9:45am.

The teacher told me Brandon is more the organizer and he likes to clean up the things and put them away while the other kids playing with the toys he will be wondering around to see what things need to be cleaned up.  He didn’t join in with the other kids to play.  When I was there this morning, two kids (a girl and a boy) dressed up as fire fighters and was playing together … so cute.  Two of girls were playing together dressing up as princesses.  And my Brandon … well … he was somewhere else with the teacher cleaning up the easels and puting the painting away.

After cleaning up all the toys, I helped the kids to wash their hands.  Then they were sitting for story time as I was setting up the snack time. 

Brandon’s placemat with the goldfish crackers and some raisins and a bottle of water.

After they were done with the story time and share time, the teacher will take out the name cards with the kids’ names on them. The teacher said that when the kid sees their name then can walk towards the table to their place mat and wait with their hands behind their back. So the kids recognize their own names. Here is a picture of them having snack together. Only five students in the class today, one is sick.

After snack, they clean up their own place mat and lined up for outdoor time at the park. I was told by the teacher that Brandon keeps running away from the playground area. She wanted me to see if I can tell him not to do so. I tried but he still wanted to run back to the classroom a few time but we caught him before he left the playground area. He was playing with the sand most of the time, kicking the sand … his shoes are full with sand all the times after school. Sometimes dirt also got on his face too. The other kids were mostly on the playground equipment, slide and swings. I helped two girls with the swings today. They had fun. After park, we went back to the classroom and sang a few songs and then waited for the parents to come pick up. Brandon and I left last today.

I can pretty much understand what the other kids are conversing to me. They speak mainly english. As for my son, I think the teachers have a difficult time understand him as he speaks and mixes two languages (English and Cantonese) in his conversation, just like how we speak at home. Hmm … now I am thinking should I just speak English with him at home too?

Aiya … today first time I was last to pick Brandon up from pre-school.  After I dropped him at the pre-school, I came home after groceries shopping to drop of the milk and prepare some lunch.  I was over at MIL’s house at 10:40am and my nice self asked her if she wanted to come with me to pick Brandon from school at 11am.  I know how grandmother likes to see where the grandson goes to school. 

She said yes, and I asked her to come to my place (3 doors away) at 10:50am.  She usually comes earlier than mentioned, so I didn’t bother to mention she must be at my home at 10:50am SHARP.   So I went home and at 10:49am, I went outside to start up the car.  At 10:51am, she still didn’t come over, so I drove to her house and waited for her.  She finally came out at 10:54am.  She asked me how long I’ve been waiting, I told her 4 minutes.  And she said the clock in her house only 10:50am worh.  You see, she was supposed to be at my place at 10:50am not coming out at 10:50am.  Anywayz … 

Then we headed out.  It will take about 10 minutes from my home to the school, and I was kinda worried that I might be a little late.  I don’t like to be late.  The traffic light didn’t help as we hit all red lights towards the school.  When I parked my car, I saw a mother walking towards the parking with her son (Elijah - the other boy in the class).  When I approached the class, Ms. Donna was telling Brandon that I’d be there soon.  I knew what was going on.  Brandon was worried that I might not pick him up as he was the last one the class. 

I quickly took him to the bathroom but on the way to it, he told me he wet his pants.  But I told him, he still have to go to the bathroom, and he went.  Amazingly, his bladder was holding in quite a lot of water.  I could understand why he wet his pants.  A sudden shock that I might not be there to pick him up probably is the case plus an overly full bladder.  I didn’t bother about grandma, she probably talking to the teacher or so. 

When we came out, we bid the teachers farewell and we left.  I had to chang him in the car.  His shoes, his socks, his pants all really really wet.  I told Brandon that this situation (me being late) may happen because sometimes on the way there, I might hit some red lights.  Then I noticed his face was dirty and then I saw like dirt stain in his teeth.  I was like HUH!?  Did you eat sand when you were playing in the playground?  But he didn’t answer me.

Anyway, the teacher told me he lieks to sing a lot in the class.  He was singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star this morning.  He also received a special award today for his excellent work in class.  Since I was the last one to pick him up, I am not sure if every kid get this too or just him.