In My Head

I have been much of a couch potato at home lately as my belly gets bigger. I rest on my recliner while teaching Charlotte homework, watching movie, reading newspaper, reading emails...not very good pregnancy exercise, I know.

One evening, I was watching TV on my recliner, Charlotte started to sing "mi mi mi, mi mi mi, mi so do re mi..." (Jingle Bells) and I was surprised how did she come out with that. She actually sang it correctly, the whole song. So I told her to go to the piano and play it out. I told her to go ahead as I can hear if she plays wrongly and I continued to glue myself on the recliner. I was expecting a boring right hand play, but she showed me this...

It was still boring, but I was very pleased! She is just starting JMC book 2 and she could improvise this!

Pat had told me to teach her "jingle bells" once after the Saturday lesson but I have been procastnating it. I was surprise to hear it came from Charlotte that night. Further more she was playing with her left hand too. So went next to her when she played it again. I asked her if her teacher had taught her this but she said no, she said "I had it in my head!" 

Then & Now

This is picture was taken when Charlotte was 7 months old. She loved running her fingers on the keys when we put her in front of a piano. She had never bang her palms on the key like most kids do even at that young age. I don't know how she got the idea of using her fingers since then. After 5 years...

she is almost finishing book 1.

I started my piano lesson at age of 13, and it was never a challenge coordinating left and right hand when you are that "old". Charlotte is now starting to play with both hands and coordinating different finger on different hand at different note could be a challenge. I see her determination, I see her concentration in getting it right and I am very pleased. I taught her a song last night and she asked to be left practising while I attend my evening meeting. And I did get a very pleasing result after 1 hour! A very good girl isn't she?  

Amazing!

A couple of weeks back, while I was busy doing ironing and laundry Charlotte found "new" treasures in her "old" toy storage boxes and she was actually quite fascinated with some of those (make mental note: to save money, maybe I should just dig out the old toys once in awhile).

I didn't really pay attention to what she was doing but I knew she was playing on this learning board and it was actually very noisy initially but the noise went unnoticed as I tried to get the laundry done. When I was finally sat down at night, she brought out the learning board and said "mommy, listen..."



This is a replay that I took yesterday. WOW! How amazing was that! I never taught her to play like this before and to be honest I had never touch my piano myself for ages! I also did not teach her the "Do Re Mi" and I have no idea how she could play that all by her "trial & error" in such a short time. She then sang the tune with the Do Re Mi too.

Another treasure she found was the harmonica. It was the one from attending the Kindermusik earlier. She insisted to bring it along when we went out for dinner over the weekend. I thought it was a bad idea because it was going to be very noisy and probably disturbing other guests at the restaurant. But I was wrong!! The harmonica has only 1 octive and as we were at the restaurant I taught her the same song just to avoid her making other people feeling annoyed. This is the result...



This is also a replay, she was trying to be funny when I told her that I want to capture that in a video. I never thought she could figure out the blow & suck sequence of a harmonica over a meal!

Whether it was just a coincidence or she has that little bit more than just interest, I am signing her up at Yamaha officially. Hopefully this goes a long way.

Rock A Bye Baby - Charlotte's Version

I hardly get a change to run my fingers on this piano these days although Charlotte always requests for songs but when I just started my first note and there she comes and says "come, come, let me show you" and pushes my hands away.

Of course I let her and I am very pleased to see the way she imitates and pretends like a pro...

This is her version of Rock A Bye Baby:

Rock a bye baby on the tree top,

When the wind blows the cradle will rock,

--------------------------------

Down "become" baby, "and" cradle and all...

Jesus Loves Me This I Know

This is one of Charlotte's favorite hymns these days...

Jesus loves me this I know

For the bible tells me so

Little ones to him belong

I am weak but he is strong

Yes, Jesus loves me (3x)

The bible tells me so

Obviously, Charlotte had her own version of it. The "s" are missing and she only sang the chorus once instead of 3 times.

Music Video

Presented by Charlotte & Christopher

My Little Musician

I am glad that Charlotte shows her little interest in music, like songs, dances and musical instruments. She likes to play with the piano at home and I noticed that she is playing it with her finger coordination instead of palms or with loud and heavy bangs. She sometimes pretends to play and ask us (either me, or Brenda or her grandma) to sing, and sometimes she would just stand besides the piano and sing along as I play the songs that she is familiar with.

Last week, when we were about to leave for dinner her daddy told her that we are going to this restaurant where there will be people playing piano, and other instruments like drums and cello. Immediately she requested to play on the piano and refused to leave the house if we don't let her. She played for maybe a good 10min and finally agreed to leave as she accomplished her "dream" of being a pianist.

When she is ready I will be looking out for piano lesson for her but for now, it will be just simple rhythm and beats that I teach her as well as from her Kindermusik classes.

Bedtime On Demand

Lately Charlotte has her bedtime on demand that I have to fulfill in order to tuck her in smoothly. Here is what she will request:

1. Read a book - sometimes, she is ok with just once. Other time, she asks to repeat. I have learn the trick that if I told her it is only for once before hand, she will be ok with it. So I need to make a deal with her before start reading the book.

2. Sing - this is really on demand, at least 5 songs. The list goes on with every new songs she learned or heard (only those captured her attention). No deal can be made with this demand. I think she enjoys music/songs. I will sing whatever she requests and when I think it is time to stop, I just have to tell her ok, it's time to sleep. If I am luck, she will agree with me and call it a night. If not, I will have to try again after another song. My mom said I am Charlotte's living radio :)

3. Say a prayer - this is usually my request, but she follows.

Here are the list of songs and how she named it:
Star = Twinkle twinkle little star
Moon = It's a chinese song
Sun = Oh Mr. Sun
Woody song = when she loved me
God so good = God is so good
Bluebird = a song from Kindermusik lesson
Sun behind mountain = God is all around us (this is her new favorite)

Just to share with you the lyrics of God Is All Around Us by Twilla Paris

The sun behind the mountain is setting in the west

The bluebird and her little ones are gathered in their nest

And I am on my pillow because I need my rest

God is all around us, and He knows best

He's higher than the treetops in the tallest wood

Why He would come and speak to me, I'd tell you if I could

It makes me want to please Him in all the ways I should

God is all around us, and He is good

God is all around us everywhere we go

Caring for His children that's all I need to know

He's stronger than the eagle circling above

He's wiser the oldest owl more gentle than a dove

He's closer than pajamas that fit me like a glove

God is all around us, and He is Love

She Loves To Sing!

Charlotte started her singing "talent" by completing the sentence with the last word, like this. Remember her favorite lullaby? She is also able to fill in some of the words everytime the song is play. She is now able to sing a few complete songs like twinkle twinkle little star, rain rain go away, happy birthday to you, and others.

Last week, I bought her a new toy after discovering that she was pretending to sing using a microphone. I was very surprise to see that because I have not told her about microphone. She probably pick it up through TV program, wedding receptions that we have attended and etc.

The toy set comes with a microphone, a mic stand, a base that has a musical feature that plays 24 different songs, and a mini amplifier. First, I only gave her the microphone and keep the rest for other days. She was very excited when I gave it to her and she happily singing away. I kept the rest of the set in my room.

Yesterday morning, as I was getting ready to work she discovered the remaining parts of the microphone and requested for it. I have no choice but gave it to her as she seems to know that those are suppose to complete the microphone that I gave her earlier. So, I took the set downstairs and set it up for her.

See how stylish that is...

3rd Semester At Kindermusik

It has been months since I last participate at Charlotte's music class at Kindermusik. We still continue her lessons but her daddy brings her most of the time due to my injured wrist condition. In fact, we just signed up the 3rd semester for Charlotte and the theme is Fiddle-Dee-Dee.

I noticed a great deal of improvement of Charlotte participating, enjoying the lesson and so much more responsive compared to the last time. She was very involved and responsive to every single action and movement the teacher asked and very independant. I used to (and had to) do everything together with her and beside her, encourage her to get involved. She is able to take the instruction from the teacher and did the action/movement that the teacher asked wihtout needing me to partner with her. She can partner with her teacher and with other kids and she is ok to hold hands with others (including other parents) when it comes to a circle activity. Of course, on and off she will look out for me and sort of asking for assurance and praise when she did it correctly.

When it comes to story time, she paid full attention listening to the teacher and all the time she was sitting on the "story telling mat"! The teacher will only take out this mat when it comes to story time and she will put it away when the story is finished. Charlotte used to decline sitting on the mat together with the rest of the kids. She preffered to sit on my lap but yet couldn't sit still throughout the whole story time. This round, she sat down on the mat before I even told her to do so, and she sat there throughout the whole story time and was answering questions that the teacher asked, totally responsive and involved!

Towards the end of each session, there is about a 5min "quiet time" where the teacher will pull out a basket of soft toys for them to take one each and lie down listening to the soft music while the room light is dimmed. When the quiet time is over, the teacher will ask them to put back the toy and continue for one last activity before they sing the "Goodbye" song. Charlotte was so tuned to that "quiet time" and I could see she totally into the relax mode when the light was dimmed.

I talked to her teacher after the lesson and the teacher said probably she is ready to be graduated from "Our Time" to another level. I was so happy to hear that!

Charlotte's lullaby

Nope, it's not Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, it's not Rock A Bye Baby or other traditional lullaby. Read on if you want to know what that is...

Charlotte enjoys movie a lot, by now she has watched Madagascar, Ice Age (1 & 2), Barn Yard, Open Season, Toy Story (1 & 2), Shrek (1, 2 & 3), Snow White, The Ant Bully, Bugs Life, Bee and many more. Lately, she picked up a song from Toy Story 2, which played when Jessie told Woody a story of her past. Charlotte refers to that song as Woody Song because she associate it with that movie.

For past few nights, she kept asking me to sing this song to her when I tuck her to bed. Well, it is a very nice song but I couldn't remember the entire song (yet). So, what I did was just repeating the 1st verse. Last night, she asked again and of course I sang it to her. She was sleeping in my room last night because Brenda was sick. As usual, I sang it over and over again, repeating the 1st verse. Very soon after, I heard Pat snored...it was before Charlotte fell asleep :0 That was alright because Charlotte did eventually fall asleep too. It was until about 4am, Charlotte woke up and asked me to sing that song again!

It is a very nice song, "When She Loved Me"

When somebody loved me, everything was beautiful
Every hour spent together, lives within my heart
And when she was sad, I was there to dry her tears
And when she was happy, so was I
When she loved me.

Through the summer and the fall, we had each other, that was all
Just she and I together, like it was meant to be
And when she was lonely, I was there to comfort her
And I knew that she loved me.

So the years went by, I stayed the same
And she began to drift away, I was left alone
Still I waited for the day, when she'd say "I will always love you"

Lonely and forgotten, never thought she'd look my way,
She smiled at me and held me, just like she used to do,
Like she loved me, when she loved me

When somebody loved me, everything was beautiful,
Every hour we spent together, lives within my heart
When she loved me.

Checkout this part of the movie in Toys Story 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is_hpHzEMiE&feature=related

The difference is my baby, I WILL always love you!

2nd Semester At Kindermusik

This is Charlotte's 2nd semester at Kindermusik. Some of her classmates had graduated from this class to another class for children >3years old. I think there are only 3 of us left in this class but we definitely have many new comers since the past few weeks.

As I mentioned in my earlier update of Charlotte's progress at Kindermusik, she continue to show good progress week after week. Her teacher called me last week (Pat took Charlotte to class last week) and told me that she sang in the class! It was not a surprise to me because she always sing with me but it is a nice news to hear from her teacher. Last Monday, Pat was away for business trip again and I took Charlotte to class this time. We were kind of late because Charlotte insisted to wear her own dress when I was changing her to get ready to class. I spent a good 10min with her struggling with her dress, sigh! Well, we were in time for "Our Time Hello". Charlotte took a drum from her teacher and sat down with me like an expert. She was happily playing along when the song started. Then I heard a soft "hello hello" from her! Heh heh, my heart raised a little :)

There was this activity where all of us formed a big circle and the teacher put a drum in the middle. The game was to sing a song and at the end of it each kid gets to beat the drum 3 times. So the game started and Charlotte was at the left of her teacher. I thought ok, Charlotte gets to beat first. However, the teacher decided to give the 1st chance to the boy on her right. That means, Charlotte will be the last one to get to do that. I was very worried that she would make noise and throw her tantrum because she has to wait for her turn. So, I was explaining to her that "Charlotte must be patient, the game is to take turn and so you must wait for your turn". She listened and nodded at me.

The game started, I was crossing my fingers because we had almost 10 kids that night! Charlotte participated, sang happily each time the game started again without a single sign of frustration. Finally, it was her turn. We sang, ran around in the circle and it was her turn to beat the drum. She listened to the teacher telling her that she has to beat it 3 times. She then took the drum stick over from her teacher and did it every beat as skilled as she is! That night I came home with a big smile on my face :D

Of course, I told Pat the very next day. I told him the whole story over the IM and I asked "such a good girl hor?", he just replied "Yes", period. Well, that's his usual self but I know he is very happy to see the ROI (heh! heh!)

So, what did we get this semester? It's a new theme: Wiggles & Giggles and the new activity set looks like this: (2 activity books, 2 CDs, 1 pair of sandblock and a cute transparent bag)

We have now graduated from Away We Go, the theme for the 1st semester.

(2 activity books, 2 CDs, 1 pair of harmonica and a paper toy bus)

Progress at Kindermusic

Charlotte started her music lesson at the kindermusik 5 months back. She started as a very shy and closed little girl but her progress is rather significant...

During the initial lessons, most of the time she just lying down facing the wall or hiding behind me all the time, ignoring all the happenings around her. We thought it was a mistake signing her up at such an early age but the teacher kept telling us to be patient. She said she has seen many kids started out this way and they did just fine in time. They need time to observe and to get themselves comfortable with the environment and making friends with others, especially for the only child of the family.

We use the "lead by example" strategy to encourage Charlotte to participate. So, sometimes it is very tiring jumping and running around especially after a long day at work however we saw great improvement from each lesson. She is also learning many other disciplines and skills besides music like sharing and letting go of an instrument when it is time to return. The teacher will give out musical instruments to each of them and to the parent too but it is only for 3-5min. They will have to return it to the teacher and move on to the next activity. I was very worried that Charlotte will throw her tantrum when we asked her to return the instruments because she probably hasn't have enough of it for that short 3-5min but to our surprise she behaved rather well in this area. She walked up to the teacher and put the instrument back into the box gently. The teacher always praise Charlotte because she never throw the instruments when returning it :)

One big challenge is to make Charlotte hold hands with other kids when it comes to a circle activity. Charlotte didn't like to hold hands with others and I had to carry her with me in the parent circle while other kids were holding hands running and dancing with the music in the children circle. Maybe she has yet to master her coordination skills and this activity could be dangerous for her. I realized Charlotte is very conscious of her safety when we were in KL with her cousin Christopher few months back. Once, she was sitting in Christopher's stroller and Christopher was trying to push her around in the house. She totally didn't like the idea and only allowed adults to push her. She finally agreed to hold hands with other kids and did the activity together 3 lessons back! That's when we realized that she has developed more confidence in making her steps too!

At the end of every class, the teacher will sing a goodbye song and that's when all the kids will go and give teacher a goodbye hug. The teacher will then give out a good boy/girl sticker to the children. Charlotte refused to hug the teacher but just a waive of goodbye from far. We tried to bribe her with the sticker but obviously that didn't work out. The teacher fully understood Charlotte's behaviour and patiently waited at the end of every class, hoping Charlotte will eventually run towards her and give her a goodbye hug just like all the other kids did. Finally, Charlotte gave her precious hug to her teacher tonight and she was the first one ran towards the teacher when I told her it's time to say goodbye!!! Both the teacher and myself were very very happy to see this :D

Is She Potentially Musical?

We noticed that Charlotte picks up new learning often from songs that I have been singing it to her (or with her) since her birth. Ever since we registered her to the kindermusik she has developed even stronger interest in music. She also able to recognize musical instruments like piano, guitar, xylophone, drum and also she is easily attracted by musics and songs. We can get her to sit still (for quite awhile) especially in the car if we play her favorite CD and sing along with her.

In "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" I wrote about her first accomplishment in the attempt of singing and later I also discovered that she is also able to do the very same for some of those songs that we have been singing it to her day and night. MIL also told me that Charlotte likes the Chinese New Year songs very much. She is now very good at this particular song "招財进宝" by catching the last word "宝" every time this phrase come up. I heard it myselft when Charlotte sang it the other day, it was really cute (LOL!).

One of Charlotte's favorite interactive muscial DVDs at her grandma's house (besides the CNY songs VCD) is the Hi-5. Last week, I went to pick up Charlotte after work as usual. She was watching the Hi-5 and Brenda told me to pay attention to her as the song "Feelings" coming up. I was very pleased to see her following the actions and movement together with the gang as they sang the song. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera with me. Otherwise, I could have recorded that moment.

Just yesterday, I found out that she actually picked up the alphabets song "ABCDEFG" from the Leap Frog Magnetic Letter Set that I got for her from my recent business trip. I was a little disappointed when I first introduced it to Charlotte. She didn't pay attention and not attracted by the letter name and sound when one alphabet is attached but she prefers the letter song and keep playing it over and over again! Yesterday evening, I was sitting with her in the kitchen and watching her playing with this toy (as it is attached to the fridge). She did the same thing again, put one alphabet into the slot and instead of pressing on the letter to learn the name and sound she pressed on the song button and started to sing along and dance with the music too! She didn't get all the 26 alphabets obviously but she was able to complete each phrase with the last 1 or 2 alphabets. She sang the X, Y, Z the loudest and with the most accurate tune! I don't think she knows what those really mean but it is like she memorized it each time the song is played and finally she is able to sing along! She has such a sweet and wonderful voice and I have to say she has the mommy's gene (hehe!).

There was another discovery tonight, as usual she will choose her favorite movie to watch each night before bed time. She chose the "Happy Feet" and happily munching the cereal bar. She sang together with all the little penguins when they were attending Ms Viola's singing class. I can hear a very soft "da da da da..." and she got the rhythm right! The most interesting part was, she stood up and dance when she saw Mumble starts its tapping. I managed to get a video clip on this, check it out...

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

"star" was one of those very first few words that Charlotte picked up around the 8th month but I didn't realize that she has gone further from just knowing this one single word.

Since I was very tired for the last few days, Pat helped me to pick up Charlotte from MIL's place after work. However, I always greeted Charlotte at the door step when her daddy drove her back. I could see her big smile from inside the car when she saw me waving at her. I greeted her the same way for the last 2 days but the difference was she noticed this one bright, big star in the sky right above when I picked her out from the car. She repeatedly saying "tar! tar!" (it's "star" without the "s") and keep signing with her hands, that's asking me to sing to her the "twinkle twinkle little star" song. So I sang to her while she did the signing throughout the entire song.

Yesterday morning, she walked into my room and as usual made a lot of fuss especially when we were all busy getting dressed for work. So, I asked her to lie down on my bed and look at the starts I pasted all over my ceiling. She got very excited when she saw that (she must have forgotten it) and started asking me to sing again! I sang but I was surprised by this great milestone that Charlotte has achieved!

Me: twinkle twinkle little...
Charlotte: tar!

Me: how I wonder what you...
Charlotte: are!
(very surprised by this so far and I continue...)

Me: up above the world so...
Charlotte: high!

Me: like a diamond in the...
Charlotte: kai!
(my goodness!!!)

Me: twinkle twinkle little...
Charlotte: tar!

Me: how I wonder what you...
Charlotte: are!!!
(she clapped as if a big accomplishment!)