Whirlwind of a Time at almost 17 Months!
A little positive post here in my previous rant :o).
Erik is turning out to be just an amazing boy and he brightens up our days a lot. We can't wait to rush home and be a family of 3 at the end of the day! Of course, this does not mean Erik can't be a little whiny toddler, either! Hee Hee!
Update
We've been receiving compliments from Erik's teachers at day care that can carry out "conversations" with them and speak a lot (and they meant A LOT) of words. They did an informal "test" on an animal book for Erik and were amazed that he could name all the animals in the book and do all the sounds, as if it was too easy. This is a pure kudos to Daddy here who has been doing a lot of bedtime stories with Erik.
So an additional list of words Erik can say (since Daddy has been hounding on Mummy that she keeps forgetting) but at this rate, Mummy can't keep up.
Moon - English, Mummy is trying to teach him the Sign it
Sun - English
Thank You - Chinese: Mandarin
Good Bye - Chinese: Mandarin, thanks to the Big Bird in China DVD that Mummy borrowed from the local library
Jump - English, Erik loves to practice his "jumping" and on the bed too
Ice Cream - Chinese: Cantonese, eh, well, sometimes Mummy fools Erik with Baby Yogurt in an ice cream cone, thus, Erik knows that one a lot! Hahaha
Apple - English
Grape - Chinese: Cantonese, he learned that over a few weekends ago when Mummy first offered him grapes on our way to the city
Watermelon - Chinese: Cantonese, don't know if this one is a repeat or not but at this rate, it's hard to keep track :o) hahaha
Fries - English (not proud on this...but Erik loves fries!) Daddy made baked sweet potato fries for him as better healthier alternative, and so far, he does like them!
Bun - English, and as in Hamburger Bun, Erik somehow loves munching the burger bun?!
Kangaroo - English and Sign, well, it really comes out as 'Angaroo'
Shark - English
Octopus - Chinese: Cantonese and Sign, this one comes out as "jaoyu" missing one more word in front but still, excellent work!
Snake - English and Sign
Bat - English
Wombat - English, well this one comes out as "O Bat", but still, good work in progress
Blocks - English, this one, even Mummy has to say it in English since I'm not sure how you would say wooden blocks in Cantonese!
Literature and Math
Erik is now having advance lessons in math and literature (aka alphabets LOL). Here's a little glimpse.
Ten- English, well, this one, it was thanks to Barney and Friends. They were singing a song on counting and Erik loves singing, so he participated by gleefully shouting out "TEN!" after hearing it. Now when asked how many fingers do you have (in English or Chinese: Cantonese), Erik will say TEN
Daddy has also been trying to teach Erik, One, Two, Three...but so far, Erik loves TEN and giving High Ten's as well LOL!
Then, some time back, when Mummy was doing bathtime with Erik, she started introducing alphabet lessons into the bath with our foam letters. Erik learned to repeat it pretty easily and would remember it! Absolutely crazy! So now...he can...ahem ..."read" some of the alphabets and only (if he concentrates)!
Letter A: Daddy just did this one in the morning and Erik picked it up.
Letter C: its easy to pronounce and he sometimes thinks its the same sound as a snake "hissing" but he doesn't sign snake on this one
Letter E: well, we wanted him to know how his name was spelled!
Letter I
Letter M
Letter R: Mummy tried to teach Erik a couple nights ago...and ended up doing a pirats "ARGH!" instead...hahahah!
Letter S: since it sounds like a snake so he likes the "hissing" sound and it looks like a snake...thus sometimes he'll sign snake
Of course, our little Erik sometimes forget too! He's a toddler for goodness-sake so this is all in good fun for him. Now mummy just have to think of a way to start introducing Chinese Writing into the game plan...now that's a bit harder and I may have to leverage off Grandpa Tik and Grandma Wai to think of some easy lesson plans! Ack!
Trying to raise a bi-lingual child is a bit hard here thus Mummy went to the local library for their Chinese Express Kit, even though the material was aimed at 3-6 year olds...its never too early LOL! Mummy is trying hard to read Chinese to Erik but man, even Mummy has trouble at times, since conversational Cantonese is not the same as reading in proper Chinese. It may be easier to teach Erik, Mandarin instead LOL.
Logic
This one befuddles Mummy and Daddy a bit. Does a toddler this age (one week shy of being 17 months) handle logical thinking?
When I ask Erik simple questions like "What is the elephant playing with?" in Cantonese, and after Erik sees the picture "An elephant playing with blocks", he'll answer "Blocks" (in English).
Then go to another picture book and asks "What is the Bear eating?" and Erik'll answer "Watermelon" (in Cantonese).
In the car, when Daddy is driving, I'll ask Erik, "What is Daddy doing?" and Erik'll answer "Car" (in Cantonese), as in driving a car.
This evening, when Daddy flipped on a college basketball game for a short while, Mummy asked Erik, "What are the people throwing on TV?", he answered "Ball" (in English) after looking at the basketball being thrown around.
Is it common for a child to comprehend so much at this age? Mummy hasn't finished her reading on the child's developing mind yet. However, this one aspect truly fascinates us and of course, scares us as well...we better watch what we say and do in front of this little guy! Eek!
If this sounded like a brag-blog, maybe it is, but its also our way to keep track of Erik's milestones along the way of his childhood. Hopefully he can read it later on and just laugh at it and to know his parents were proud of him, at any stage of his life. To our defense, we don't do the whole "bragging parents" whenever we are with our friends kids since we know kids are different and they grow and learn at different stages and its ok. However, we definitely do compare on who's eating what these days...cuz our little Erik is a little "Foodie" as in he likes to choose what he eats and frowns upon what he doesn't know or like! SIGH!
Erik is turning out to be just an amazing boy and he brightens up our days a lot. We can't wait to rush home and be a family of 3 at the end of the day! Of course, this does not mean Erik can't be a little whiny toddler, either! Hee Hee!
Update
We've been receiving compliments from Erik's teachers at day care that can carry out "conversations" with them and speak a lot (and they meant A LOT) of words. They did an informal "test" on an animal book for Erik and were amazed that he could name all the animals in the book and do all the sounds, as if it was too easy. This is a pure kudos to Daddy here who has been doing a lot of bedtime stories with Erik.
So an additional list of words Erik can say (since Daddy has been hounding on Mummy that she keeps forgetting) but at this rate, Mummy can't keep up.
Literature and Math
Erik is now having advance lessons in math and literature (aka alphabets LOL). Here's a little glimpse.
Daddy has also been trying to teach Erik, One, Two, Three...but so far, Erik loves TEN and giving High Ten's as well LOL!
Then, some time back, when Mummy was doing bathtime with Erik, she started introducing alphabet lessons into the bath with our foam letters. Erik learned to repeat it pretty easily and would remember it! Absolutely crazy! So now...he can...ahem ..."read" some of the alphabets and only (if he concentrates)!
Of course, our little Erik sometimes forget too! He's a toddler for goodness-sake so this is all in good fun for him. Now mummy just have to think of a way to start introducing Chinese Writing into the game plan...now that's a bit harder and I may have to leverage off Grandpa Tik and Grandma Wai to think of some easy lesson plans! Ack!
Trying to raise a bi-lingual child is a bit hard here thus Mummy went to the local library for their Chinese Express Kit, even though the material was aimed at 3-6 year olds...its never too early LOL! Mummy is trying hard to read Chinese to Erik but man, even Mummy has trouble at times, since conversational Cantonese is not the same as reading in proper Chinese. It may be easier to teach Erik, Mandarin instead LOL.
Logic
This one befuddles Mummy and Daddy a bit. Does a toddler this age (one week shy of being 17 months) handle logical thinking?
When I ask Erik simple questions like "What is the elephant playing with?" in Cantonese, and after Erik sees the picture "An elephant playing with blocks", he'll answer "Blocks" (in English).
Then go to another picture book and asks "What is the Bear eating?" and Erik'll answer "Watermelon" (in Cantonese).
In the car, when Daddy is driving, I'll ask Erik, "What is Daddy doing?" and Erik'll answer "Car" (in Cantonese), as in driving a car.
This evening, when Daddy flipped on a college basketball game for a short while, Mummy asked Erik, "What are the people throwing on TV?", he answered "Ball" (in English) after looking at the basketball being thrown around.
Is it common for a child to comprehend so much at this age? Mummy hasn't finished her reading on the child's developing mind yet. However, this one aspect truly fascinates us and of course, scares us as well...we better watch what we say and do in front of this little guy! Eek!
If this sounded like a brag-blog, maybe it is, but its also our way to keep track of Erik's milestones along the way of his childhood. Hopefully he can read it later on and just laugh at it and to know his parents were proud of him, at any stage of his life. To our defense, we don't do the whole "bragging parents" whenever we are with our friends kids since we know kids are different and they grow and learn at different stages and its ok. However, we definitely do compare on who's eating what these days...cuz our little Erik is a little "Foodie" as in he likes to choose what he eats and frowns upon what he doesn't know or like! SIGH!
posted by Tabitha | 4:53 AM
1 Comments:
Sounds like Eric is doing great with his vocabulary. If I compare with our son, he's quite far ahead. We saw little development verbally the first 18 months. It seemed like he was analyzing and figuring out things and not speaking much.
The explosion came around 36 months and now he's caught up with other kids except he now speaks two languages and understands English.
I think it's a good idea to be casual about development in the first few years, especially when dealing with more than one language. I know many parents freak out when their neighbor is "ahead" which I think is stupid. One can be ahead at age 2 and far behind at age 5, it's impossible to know.
Keep up the great work!
AD
PS> I sent you an email regarding NYC, did you get it?
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