a few things about school

we got a few comments on facebook after i posted the photos and my last blog post link, which made me see that there were quite a few things that i should record.  so here it is:

• the school is an early education centre called "new oriental", and this class is especially tailored to young toddlers aged 1.5 to 3 years of age.  it is the first time they're running this full time class in guangzhou, but they've had a few years experience doing so in beijing and shanghai, and they're a reputable early education centre which runs weekly classes that runs for a hour or so.

• because it's only less than a month to the chinese new year, there're only 5 students this month, and 2 teachers and a baby sitter.  after the new year, there'll be about 10 students.

• alan had chosen the spiderman school bag for himself, his other options were a few different micky mouse bags (photo of spiderman bag here);

• we bought him this new pair of shoes especially for going to school.  alan had wanted a black pair, but ended up with the green ones as there weren't his size in black.

i should write more about his first school day experience once i receive the photos from his teacher - he's been the best boy.

alan's first school day

today was alan's first school day, and we took this photo in the morning before we head out.  he was happy about going to school and he kept on saying "qu shang xue" ("go to school" in mandarin).

this is our spiderman school bag, which alan had picked for himself.

we've just returned home as i'm writing.  teachers said that alan had been a very very good boy!  he was the first to finish lunch, ate double servings; and the first to sleep and slept for 1.5 hours, the longest among 4 other kids.  he didn't cry at all.  and when we went to pick him up, he didn't want to leave!

more photos to follow once i received them from the teacher.

mother-toddler bonding

just read on dr. ducan jefferson's blog that poor mother-toddler bonding was linked to teenager obesity, because these kids lacked a secured pattern of attachment, which may develop an unhealthy way of response to stress later in life (read his post here).

i must make sure this does not happen to us.

christmas 2012

the three generations of men, standing next to a musical santa claus, in the christmas evening of 2012.

fast developing language skills

a visit to a toy store just outside the supermarket.

only a day after my last post about him being able to say two syllable words, he spoke his first four syllable word, which was "qing wa wang zi" (the frog prince in cantonese).  and since then, he's been speaking almost everything.  he copies everything we say, and he now speak short sentences!

last night, we watched the "gongfu panda 2" trailer on youtube, and he kept on saying "gongfu panda", "gongfu panda", until he fell asleep...

by the way, he speaks a mix of english, mandarin and cantonese.

HK Ocean Park

we went to the hk ocean park in september, and i forgot to record it here.  it was a very nice day.

alan can say the names of most of the animals, like "monkey", "penguin", "dolphin", "panda"... all those two syllable words.  he just copies whatever we say!  so cute!

two syllable words

over the last months, alan has learnt to speak many many two syllable words - real words, not just ones he makes up himself (and he keeps making up words, too, multiple syllable words in that case).  he copies everything we say!  it's really funny!