Abra-ca-da-bra!

Evan wanted to be a magician for his kindergarten's circus-themed costume party to celebrate the end of the school year. So, we obliged him by getting a few items to complete his costume.

We purchased a plastic top hat (RM10.90) and wand (RM6) from Party World, a cloak/cape (RM23.90) from Balloons Bouquet and a coat from Domii (RM79.90). 

All other items are Evan's own i.e. red striped long sleeve shirt, underwear and socks from Gymboree, bow tie from Domii and black pants from last year's kindy annual concert. Larry folded a paper rabbit and I helped cello-taped it to the top hat. I also made a white band to encircle the hat - to match the wand. The 'cummerbund' is actually a curtain tie-back which I fastened to his waist with paperclips! I also sewed some playing cards on his cape. Larry styled his hair with gel. Evan wanted a moustache but I was not keen. I think he looks very dashing like this!

Hubby only managed to snap a dozen or so pics at the party...... and here are the selected few:

The children had snacks, games and singing. Then Pastor Margaret gave out the prizes for best dressed boy/girl from each class. Evan's classmate who was dressed as a circus tent won the prize for Petunia class. There were tigers and lions in his class.... and a lion tamer too! 

The following morning, we collected Evan's progress report from his class teacher. With that, Evan's kindergarten years officially came to a close.

Graduation & Awards

TJC had their annual Graduation & Awards ceremony recently. 

Evan was one of the graduates..... he was really looking forward to the event cos he will be performing in a dance together with his Petunia classmates.... and he will also be in the choir.

Prior to the ceremony, the graduating 6-year olds had their graduation portraits and class photo taken in school. Looking back, I never had the chance to actually 'graduate' from kindergarten at all - in other words, no graduation ceremony. When it was over, that was it - proceed to standard one. No photos, no gowns, no mortar boards and no awards. Oh well.... actually there was the annual concert to showcase our talents and that was it.

Mrs Stephanie Wong - the principal of TJC, spoke about the theme for the night : "You've Got Talents" - where each and every child is recognized as individually different and blessed with different talents. Hence, this year onwards, each graduating child will receive an award. To give you a better picture, here are some of the awards which were given out : Best Helper, Best Conduct, Great Coloring, Awesome Artist, Most Caring, Bright Smile, Most Attentive, Best improvement, Creativity in Music & Movement, Best Reader in English, Math, etc and Student of the Year. Way to go TJC!

Evan received an award called "The Golden Rule Award" for best memorization of bible verses. The school has a booklet with bible verses for the kids to memorize. So every morning on the way to school, Evan will read and memorize the verses in the booklet. Looks like his effort paid off! It was indeed a pleasant surprise at the ceremony when it was announced that he won that particular award in his class. I am one proud mommy! Here's a pic of the slide that appeared when Evan went on stage to receive his scroll and award.

All the performances up on stage were so captivating. Tears welled up in my eyes when the kids sang 2 very touching songs in English and Mandarin. Good bye and farewell to Tadika Juara Cerdik - it's time to move on to another chapter! 

ASP Mini Concert

I managed to attend Evan's After School Program mini concert today after suffering from severe food poisoning for the past week - thanks to the curry I ate on Deepavali. Anyway, I am much better now and still continuing my antibiotics and probiotics.

The concert started very promptly at 1:30pm after a simple lunch (meehoon, fried rice, wantans and vegetarian curry). After an introduction by Teacher Yuan Ling and the customary speeches...... 2 talented 6-year olds came up on stage to emcee the event.

Former principal : Mrs. Cynthia Ngui presented the certs to the 'graduating' 6-year olds. Here's Evan with his 'sweet' smile.

Then the 6-year olds introduced themselves on stage and talked about their favourite ASP activity. Of course, Evan's one was undoubtedly 'Art & Craft'.... so he's video-ed here together with a few of his friends who share the same interest.

The 5-year olds were up next with a skit 'The Little Yellow Hen'....... well.... it's actually the story of The Little Red Hen.... but since they don't have a red chicken costume...... the title was changed accordingly! Most of them have painted faces of various animals who refused to help the Hen.

There was also a solo performed by one of Evan's classmates - a tall girl who sang 'I Have a Dream'. Then the 6-year olds presented this: (the principal's daughter is just beside him!)

For the finale, everyone went up on stage to sing 2 Chinese songs:

Well, thus ends Evan's last day at the ASP. I am sure he will treasure all the fond memories there.

Canteen Day!

The day finally arrived for TJC's Canteen Day - for the 6-year olds. The children have been learning about money and now it's practical time! 

RM10 per kid is actually quite a huge amount.... Evan brought back RM3.50. 

Anyway, Evan was so excited about the Canteen Day that he couldn't stop talking to me about it when I picked him up from school yesterday.

He bought 2 packets of Twisties - cheese flavour - which we refer to as cheese curls (like those in Veggie Tales). He knows his sister loves to eat them. He also bought a pack of puffy stickers for her. Actually he wanted to buy a hairband but he said it sold out very fast. So he ended up with this pack of stickers. Nevertheless Marissa was rather thrilled with his loot. Both of them sat down quietly after dinner and ate their Twisties!

 

For himself, he bought this: and another toy called 'sticky man' recommended by his principal! He missed the Angry Birds mechanical pencils which he told me he wanted to buy for Marissa. Those Angry Birds merchandise are really hot!

He also ended up with quite a lot of nuggets and sausages! Burp!

Joint Birthday Celebration

Today's Evan's 6th birthday! He had a joint birthday celebration with Abigail in kindergarten today. Abigail also celebrates her 6th birthday on 18th August!

I baked some mini cupcakes frosted with white chocolate buttercream. In the photo it looks lemony yellow cos I colored the icing.

Evan distributed the party packs to his friends and finally exchanged party packs with Abigail. Each party pack contains a Lego coloring sheet, dust-free eraser, choc wafer and a Lego sticker.

Marissa enjoyed feeding herself an entire slice of the Hello Kitty cake! Evan gladly walloped her mini cupcake. I baked extra cupcakes for the After School Program children as well. The party ended within half an hour. Most of the kids could finish both cakes and some even polished off whatever was packed in their snack box from home.

Sports Day

TJC's biannual sports day - this time held at Dream Centre. Smaller place but cosier. As usual, there was a march past.... and then a rousing dance performance by the 6-year-olds.

Video of Evan in action during 6 Petunia & 6 Daisy's sports event simply entitled "Finding Nemo"

His team struck gold! Hooray for Yellow team!

Victory! He's still on a winning streak with the Snakes & Ladders board game.

The sports day was very well organized and everything was completed in a breeze. It was cloudy most of the time but as the event ended with the prize giving ceremony, the sun started blazing.

Pastor Margaret from DUMC awarded the medals

Feeling very proud of himself.

Posing with Joe - from Hibiscus class.

Surfer Dude

TJC celebrated the end of the 1st semester with a beach party! I made 30  mini cupcakes for Evan to bring to kindy - butter cupcakes with pastel blue buttercream icing and a shark's fin made from cardboard. Here are some pics of the party:

 Evan - the surfer dude - with his class teacher

Hubby made a surfboard for Evan and decorated it with Angry Birds which we printed out on our new Canon printer & Evan crayon-ed it. All the boys were very excited about the surf board!

Someone even brought Angry Birds cupcakes - so cool - with beachy elements. Evan said he ate the black one but he didn't like the cupcake cos it was chocolate flavored.

Many thanks to Buffafly for the above group photo of Petunia class.

And the Award goes to............

Best Improvement in 5 Aster class 2010!

We went to Evan's kindergarten on Saturday to meet up with his class teacher : Teacher Cindy and to collect his progress report and exam results. Teacher Cindy said he is much more focused now and is more disciplined, hence the award. Other awards given out to students on the Awards Day (on the 2nd last day of school) were Best Handwriting, Best Conduct, Best Helper and Student of the Year.

Academic results are OK - am surprised that he scored 98% for his Chinese language - with a careless mistake of counting the number of strokes in a Chinese character. His handwriting and coloring has improved a lot as well from C's last year to A recently. Am most certainly proud of his improvement!

The Last Day of School

The last day of school a.k.a. party day! The kids came dressed in their concert costumes. As with all parties, the children had a whole lot of food and snacks to eat! They also had Super Fun Time.

Photos above were taken by Buffafly cos I couldn't make it to the school. I am sure the school will take loads of photos too and include them in the DVD that I've ordered. The DVD contains pics of school life and the bienniel concert as well.

TJC Concert & Graduation Ceremony

Evan performing his dance routine post-concert! He is wearing a Kadazan traditional costume minus the headband which fell off.

Anyway, I am proud that he danced so well - he remembered all the steps. His performance was the first on the agenda : Colours of Malaysia. It was a combined performance by 5 Aster & 5 Bluebell.

He was indeed very excited about the concert. He even reminded us that he will take a short nap before the concert starts in the evening. He also asked his father to comb his hair nicely after he put on his costume. Then he also reminded hubby to get going on time so that we all won't be late for the concert!

I must commend the efforts by the teachers. It was all very well-organized - lots of parents, grandparents, siblings and maids attended the concert. The costumes were all very colourful and well designed. Evan's costume costs RM60. He said he looked like a prince in his costume! 

The auditorium of DUMC i.e. the concert hall was very well equipped. It was indeed a grand event. I was surprised the kindergarten did not get the kids themselves to emcee - instead 2 young adults were the MCs for the event. However, three 6-year olds did go up on stage to give a welcome speech in three different languages.

I still remember that I was the MC during my kindergarten concert at the Convent. I was 6-years old then. I can vividly recall the costume I wore. It was a short coral red skirt with small flowery print and lace at the hem. I wore it over a white blouse. My mom also sewed me a matching headband. I performed a dance together with my classmates - we danced to the tune of 'Skip to my Lou'. I also gave a solo organ recital. A few of the Convent school's classrooms were readily converted into the concert hall by sliding open the partitions. Everything was so simple back then - I miss my good old schooling days! Oh.... and I never had a graduation ceremony from kindergarten. Hmm..... need to check with my mom.

Da Vinci Creative Kids Trial Art Class

Evan showing off his artwork done under guidance by the art teacher at Da Vinci Creative Kids, Ikano Power Center. We signed Evan up for a trial class : RM40 for a solid 2-hour lesson. He enjoyed the class very much! When we came to pick him up at 9:30pm, he was still so engrossed painting the picture! 

So starting next week, Evan will commence the Junior Da Vinci Creative Arts Programme designed for 5-11 year olds. RM150 per month or RM420 for 3-months.

Videos from the ASP Party

Read about the ASP Party in my previous post!

ASP Party

The After School Program (ASP) had its party cum mini concert today.

Lunch was provided for all parents. After filling our tummies with fried rice, fried meehoon, fried wantan, fruit salad, vege curry, cake & orange juice, we adjourned into the hall to enjoy the performances by the children. Evan was so happy to see us!

This was the first performance by the 5-year olds. An action song whereby the kids flipped the 'pancake'.

Evan also performed together with his peers under the guidance of Uncle Paul (the music teacher).

It was a simple percussion musical performance. Evan & Lydia seated side by side....

This one's a combined performance by the 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds. They danced and swayed to 2 Mandarin songs. There were other performances too by the 6-year-olds.

Evan brought back all his art and craft from the ASP. 

Basically, the classes taught are : Gardening, Domestic Science, Art/Craft, Chinese Language, Creative Arts, Music and Gym.

Evan certainly enjoyed his ASP classes (much more than the regular school).  Bad news is that next year, the fees are gonna increase..... *sigh*

A Marriage Proposal

Lately Evan has been talking about getting married..... to ahem! his 'girlfriend' in school.

He has this to say about marriage:

"When we adult already, then we can get married. I want 'C' to stay in my house for 30 years. She can help me clean up the mess in my room."

When I asked him whether he proposed marriage to 'C', he has this to say....

"Yeah..... she said YES"

He will be telling me about her almost everyday....

" 'C' colored in my book..... 'C' gave me a sticker..... 'C' drew this picture for me..... etc

I was so amused! And then for the fun of it, I asked him how many kids he would like to have.....

"10!"

Wild Wild West

I didn't attend the Wild Wild West party in the kindy but I assigned asked Joseph's mama: Buffafly to snap some pics of Evan.

Happily eating a cupcake!

I think his friends 'bullied' him..... Evan said he was shot by his friends who had 'plunger guns' and he quickly ran away from them. I told him that he should not be afraid as Jesus protects him. 

Anyway, he said that Zoe was a horse and he could ride her...... and Faythe was a Red Indian girl with an axe but she didn't injure anyone with it. Glad that all the kids had fun! 

Thank you Priscilla for the pics!

Evan's a Cowboy

Howdy, partner! It's a Wild Wild West party at Evan's kindy today!

Easy-peasy kacang putih no preparation needed & no extra money spent on his costume this time.....

I bought Evan a cowboy costume from ELC a year or two ago and it was quite big (size 3-6) then but now he fits very well into it. The costume doesn't come with a hat but I managed to buy one from Gymboree when they released their Halloween costumes in 2008. Socks also got - from Gymboree too - purchased at the same time. Unfortunately no cowboy boots. He wore the costume for play a few times but since it was too big, we just stashed it in the wardrobe. I even bought a wooden hobby horse for him from ELC when it was on 50% off! 

So this morning, he wore a Gymboree long-sleeve shirt, pants & underwear too! underneath his ELC cowboy costume. 

I drew a moustache and thickened his eyebrows with a tube of expired mascara that was lying in my drawer! I hope it doesn't smudge!

After School Program

 

Asked Evan to smile but he did this instead!

We went to pick up Evan at 3:15pm after school dismissal. He has now started on the ASP (After School Program). Basically the kids who are enrolled in this program will be involved in activities & extra classes e.g. Mandarin class, gardening, cooking etc. 

I spoke to Evan's former class teacher and she told me that Evan cried when Joseph went home (The boys used to go home together). He thought he was left behind. Then he remembered that he was supposed to stay back for the ASP. To my surprise, he ate his lunch (loh shee fun).... albeit being the slowest to finish his meal. He told me that he went to the Multimedia room and he said he didn't need to wear his uniform.

We bought a new backpack for him.... from Hush Puppies cos his old one is too small to fit all his belongings. We plan to let him use it for the Hong Kong trip as well. He was showing off his bag to everyone. 

I was hoping to arrange transportation for him from school to home on alternate days but no transporter willing to go to KL. As for other kids who stay back for the ASP, they stay nowhere nearby. So..... have to take time off from work to be my son's driver!

Writing Desk for Evan

I bought Evan a new writing desk & stool set specially ordered from Babyland SS2. Cost is pretty steep but it's a high quality desk with plenty of handy features.

Art Master Activity Desk by Step 2

Hidden compartment to store drawings and such

Lights to ease eye strain

Lots and lots of storage space - behind the desk and also at the sides.

Plus there's a shelf on top to store writing & art materials

Considering that this is made in USA of durable plastic plus all the features mentioned above - RM660 is just OK for this. For comparison's sake, Ikea's Mammut table and chair already costs RM160+..... and the table has no storage compartments. 

We keep Evan's activity books, paper, colours & art material in this  desk. Sometimes, he will sit down and draw, colour or write. Even Marissa is interested in using the desk to doodle.