Goodbye Playgroup

Tomorrow is Noah's last day in Playgroup (the school is closed on the 29th and 30th). I don't know how much of an impact this will have on his daily life and therefore have not really discussed it with him. The kids should be the same and the teachers may remain the same. It is crazy to think that he will not even be in the youngest class anymore. Goodbye baby Noah. Goodbye Playgroup. Hello big boy Noah and Nursery 1.

He POOOOOPED!

Noah pooped in the toilet! Just before Noah's shower, Seth flippantly told Noah to go do a caca in the potty. Noah asked for the big toilet and to our surprise (he had not even said he needed to poop), he pooped! Now he says he is no longer scared to poop in the potty. YAY!

Holiday Cheer

It's the holidays!  Valerie found an old potato lying around, and presto-change-o, we have some neat new stamps to play with.     

Later, Elias (Noah's school friend) and his parents came over for a Christmas/Hannukah afternoon celebration.  First off for an afternoon of fun: cookie making.  Last time we made cookies, we tried the typical old-fashioned sugar cookie; the European contingent declared this much too sweet.  This time, we used a French "sable" recipe... much better.

Then, we decorated the cookies:

                                               

And here are the boys proudly showing off their handiwork.... and patiently, patiently waiting to eat the cookies as soon as we turn our backs:

"Good job, Elias.  High-five!"

After the cookies, we moved on to chocolate... The game of "dreidel" seemed appealing at first...

However, after a few turns, and a few attempts to spin the dreidel, they started asking about when they could eat the chocolate.  As soon as they learned that they couldn't eat the chocolate until the game was over, they rapidly decided that the game should be over as soon as possible.

There was then a brief interlude making macaroni necklaces...

And then the two boys returned to the most popular toy of the day: the toy cars.

The toy cars are so exciting, and there are only 14 or 15 of them, so sharing was a bit difficult.  However, any and all disputes were happily resolved with a hug:

After a little dinner, it was time for Elias and his parents to go home.

Happy holidays!

School Life

With the school year coming to an end, Noah received his first yearbook:

Here's his class photo:

There's Nojus, Noah, Kathryn, Riko, Elias (Noah's good friend), Gavin, Rachel (with Sam behind her), Kfir, Lian, and Jing Shuen.  The teachers are Jia Hui, Isabelle, Liza, Siew Ling, and Rebecca. Little Amy was absent that day as was Esmee, Noah's best friend according to him.

As all good yearbooks do, it summarizes Noah's main activities during the year.  Here is Noah playing with letters, tracing them with his fingers and learning the sounds:

And here is Noah playing with numbers and working on his math skills, matching the "number rods" to the numbers, and organizing the "red rods" from largest to smallest:

They also learned about plants and animals, dressing up as a leopard and watering the bushes. According to his progress report, he knows his living animals well, but needs some work recognizing his extinct animals!

His favorite activity, perhaps, is painting, drawing, and making collages:

Another of Noah's favorite activities is playing outside in the water...

... and in the gravel pit with his friends.

                                   

Then, there are all the celebrations, like "Children's Day" and Deepavali.  And of course all the many birthday parties that absolutely must be celebrated with cake and cookies.

Overall, I think Noah has had a pretty good year in "school."

Noah Graduates from Playgroup!

Noah's nursery school runs on a calendar year basis, so as of January first, he will officially move from "Playgroup A" to "Nursery 1."  Big steps for a little boy!  Next thing you know, he'll be off to college....

We met with his teachers last week for an end-of-the-year wrap-up, where of course he received the expected glowing reviews.  

How could you not give rave reviews to a boy with a smile like that:

                                        

They carefully evaluated all the new, important skills he learned this year.

One week, every night at dinner, he was obsessed with folding napkins.  Well now we know: that week, he mastered skill 5.1!  And that week he was obsessed with the zipper on his jeans... skill 8.1!  I wonder what is on next year's skill list?

They also evaluated his social and emotional development:

He has the makings of a born leader!  Hurry, I hear there is a presidential election coming up in the US next year!  Is it too late for him to enter?

He has gained some impressive leadership experience this year: his teachers report that he has taken charge of two important "Playgroup A" committees: the "New Student Welcome Committee" (NSWC) and the "Playgroup Potty Committee" (P-PC)  In his role on the NSWC, he mentors and advises new entrants to the playgroup, banishing their tears with his big smile.  The P-PC, too, has an important job in the Playgroup organization.  Noah leads by example, demonstrating his talents peeing on the potty, encouraging others to experiment with this innovative new technology, the toilet.

Overall, it's been a good year!

Potty Update

In our last potty-related post (because-i-want-to-do-pipi-in-big-toilet ), Noah refused to pee at school because he wanted to do pipi in the big toilet. This lasted for a few days. He then agreed to pee during school hours but only at the big toilet just outside of school, then in the school bathroom but only with his favorite teachers! Otherwise, he is and has been for quite a while now completely potty-trained when it comes to daytime peeing (including nap time).

We are still fighting the poop war though. He asks for his diaper every time he needs to poop. We try to get him to attempt to do the deed in his potty. At first he would refuse to even try, then he would sit on it but not really try and now he sometimes makes a sincere effort to try but so far to no avail - even though we bribed him with five immediate stars and thus a little present and even a piece of chocolate. So poop goes in the diaper for now. I would rather he poop regularly and in the diaper than not at all which is what happens when we don't give him the diaper during the critical period. If anybody has some advice on poop matters, please comment. To be continued...

Happy Birthday Suza

Ever since a few months before his second birthday, Noah has been really into birthdays, his own upcoming birthday at first but also friends and family birthdays. He keeps a mental list of whose birthday is next. For weeks now, he has been talking about how his Aunt Suza's birthday is coming up and how he was going to make her a collage (he loves making collages and saying the word collage).

A message from Noah to his Aunt (in English and what he tells us is Chinese).

 Happy birthday Suza!