Time for a permanent hiatus. . . .

Instead of spending time unpacking and getting back into our normal routine, I spend the last few days in bed. Not from jetlag, but from a nasty bug that has affected a lot of people the last few weeks. Even my dear hubby who normally doesn't get sick was out of commission for a few days. I thought I had the good fortune to avoid it but I guess it was just waiting for me to get home to strike me and Lil' C .... sigh.....


Lil' C is still having a slight fever and just so tired. Poor baby!! On the other hand, since I am kinda sick myself, she is getting so much TV time that she is kinda happy about being sick!! :) I will have to figure out how to wean her off TV when I feel better.


Now, about this blog...... after much thought, I have decided to put this blog in permanent hiatus. No, this does not mean that I will stop blogging. Frankly I did think about shutting all of them down but I think I would miss it too much. Plus it has been fun interacting with all the new friends that I've made through the blogworld. So, I have decided to combine both blogs into one, that means I will be blogging in my Just My Rambling blog only. That blog will become my all-in-one blog. I know, it's kinda wierd. While everyone else is adding blogs, I am shutting down my blog but I think this will work out better for me.


As I mentioned before, I have too much on my plate right now. There are a few things going on in my life that I will disclose in due time but for the moment, please do come and visit me and Lil' C at Just My Rambling blog. If you currently link to this blog, I would really appreciate it if you could link it to Just My Rambling blog instead. A thousand thanks!!!


Oh, in case you are wondering about my food blog, no worries! KookyCulinary will still remain. I will continue to share more yummy food & kids bento there. So do drop by & visit, ok?


Thanks to all of you who have been visiting this blog. Your visits and comments mean a lot to me. I hope that you will continue to visit my other blog. See you there!! :)

Teaching your toddler to read

One of the question that I get asked a lot is "How do you teach your child how to read?" This is usually after they see Lil' C reading on her own either at the library or at school.

Lil' C started reading on her own around 32 months. At 3 years and 2 months, this is what she is reading. Her favorite princess book.

She is able to read the whole book by herself. I think she only missed 1 or 2 words from this story.

Frankly, I have no secret method to share. When Lil' C was around 9 months, I did try the Glenn Doman method. Unfortunately that only lasted 2 days! Both of us were so bored doing the flashcards. The Glenn Doman method is a good method but it is not for everyone.


I think what worked for Lil' C was the amount of reading that we did. Since I was at home with her all day, we read a lot. Probably around 10-20 books a day. When I was pregnant, I was not working and I went shopping everyday and I think I bought a book almost everyday! Usually I get them at Marshalls or TJMaxx which is like the reject shop. So their books are very cheap. That's why by the time Lil' C was born, she already had a huge collection and it is getting bigger everyday.


We also go to the library at least twice a week. The libraries here are really great. There is no limit to the number of books that u can check out. So we usually bring a whole stack home.


I guess what I did was instill the love of reading in Lil' C instead of forcing her to read. We would read all kinds of books from picture books to early reader books. I even bought her a kids dictionary & encyclopedia! Hey, they were 70% off! How could I resist! :) I am a bookworm myself, so reading to her was something that I really enjoy.

Through our daily readings, she started to pick up alphabets and soon words. Before I knew it, she started reading on her own. It's good that she's reading but to me, what was important was that she loves to read. It's the 1st thing she does when she wakes up every morning.

So what is my secret to teaching a toddler to read early? It's READ, READ and READ! Read to your kids as often as you can. Instill the love of reading in them and they will soon be picking up books on their own. Most of all, have fun reading! :)

Looking for affordable eyeglasses?

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A sledding we will go . . .

Lil' C is a little to young to go skiing. So last weekend, we took her sledding instead. We drove to the mountains about 1/2 hour away.

The first thing she did when she got there was to lie down in the snow & made her snow angel!! :)

The snow was very nice at the sledding area. There was a lot of snow. Here's Lil' C trying to make snow footprints but the snow was up to her knee! So her snow prints were not to be seen.

Lil' C sledding off the hill with her friend, J

Another fun way to sled - on your tummy! :)

At the end of the day, a tired little girl gets a ride from daddy.

Some beautiful scenery at the sledding area. I love snow! :)

Did you make any new year resolutions?

Happy New Year everyone! Hope everyone had a fun holiday! We just got back last night after spending a week with my sister and her family. Lil' C had the greatest time playing with her cousins. Sometimes I feel very guilty that Lil' C doesn't get to see her cousins more unlike my own childhood where I grew up with my cousins. I guess that is one of the biggest cons when we live abroad. :( Hopefully she will get to see them more often this year.

Anyway, it's Jan 1, 2008 already. A new year, a new start. Anyone made new year resolutions?? For me, this year I really want to spend more time homeschooling Lil' C. Ever since she started preschool in Sep last year, I have been slacking off in this area. Chalk it up to laziness due to my newfound freedom!!! :) Lil' C will still be attending preschool because I want her to socialize with other kids. However she has been showing a lot of interest in lots of other areas like spelling and math. I would love to capitalize on that interest before she loses interest. So I really need to get my act together and get organized this year!!

What about you? Any big plans for this year? :)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!!

I can't believe it's only a week till Christmas. Last week was a little crazy since it was the last week of school. There were lots of activities and a birthday party to attend. I am just a little tired, so I 've been trying to take it easy this week.

Originally I plan to go back to Malaysia in 2 weeks time but that trip has been postponed till maybe after Chinese New Year. Instead we'll be going off on a short vacation next week. Yippee!!! I will be taking a short blog break from this blog. I will be updating my other 2 blogs because I still have some outstanding jobs to complete. Hopefully I can get them done before my vacation.

So, here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! Hope you all have a great holiday!! :)

P/S:

For those that ask whether my gingerbread house is edible or not, the entire gingerbreadhouse is edible. It is made up of gingerbread cookies, icing sugar & candies. However I don't think I will be eating mine because it has been sitting on top of my fireplace for a couple of weeks so it's been collecting a lot of dust!! hehe....

Gingerbread House

Yay!! I finally got the Christmas gifts sent off in the mail today. The post office was a mad house with everyone trying to mailing their gifts off. But at least it's done and the gifts should arrive before Christmas day. :) ok, back to regular posting.......

Every Christmas, I always wanted to make a gingerbread house but have never gotten around to do so. Well, this year, I finally did one. I bought a gingerbread kit from Costco for $10. It comes complete with the gingerbread, icing and one whole pound of candy!

First the construction. That was the easy part.


Then the eager little one happily started to decorate. She decorated the roof, the front of the house and was having a lot of fun until ....... she realized that she was not allowed to eat those candy. Slowly she began to lose interest........ sigh........


So this mommy ended up decoratingthe gingerbread house all by herself!! :(



Anyway, it turned out pretty cute, eh? hehe.... Luckily we don't have any ants in the house, so I can just leave the gingerbread house on the mantel on top of the fireplace.