Lesson Plan: God Is Good - 28th August 2011

For those who live in Copenhagen, you are most welcome to join us for the nursery class at FIBC:

Lesson Plan

FIBC Nursery (0-4 years old)

Date: 28^th August 2011, Time: 1 – 2.30pm

Concept Area: God is good

Bible Verse: Psalm 73:1 “God is good to us.”

Teachers: Elaine, VK and Stephen

12.45 – 1pm: Preparation Time

·         Teachers to arrive 15 minutes earlier to prepare and set up the room.

·         Bring a jug of water.

·         Mark Attendance.

·         Fill in Food Allergy Alert Chart for new children

1-1.30pm: Activity Time

Activity Station 1: Fishing ABCs

Objective(s):

1. To get to know the fishes

2. To introduce alphabet that God created

Materials:

1. 1 Basin filled with water

2. 10 – 15 Plastic fishes

3. 1 fishing rod

4. 10 Jar lids

5. 1 Tray

Say: “God created the alphabet and fishes. God is good. God gives us language to talk to each other.”

Activity Station 2: Cutting Food

Objective(s):

1. To train the children’s fine motor skills

2. To teach the names of different fruits and vegetables created by God

Materials:

1. Cut food toy

2. Plastic knifes

Say: “God is good to us, He created food to nourish us.”

Activity Station 3: Making Animals and People with Playdough

Objective(s):

1. To train children’s fine motor skills

2. To provide opportunity for the children to show their creativity

Materials:

1. Playdough

2. Cookie shapes mould

Say: “You are learning to create things with playdough. God created all things. Gpd is good. God enables you to play with playdough and be creative.”

 

Activity Station 4: Cutting Pictures with Scissors

Objective(s):

1. To train the children’s fine motor skills

2. To increase the children’s vocabulary with words from the magazine’s pictures, at the same time linking to God’s creation and the concept area God is good.

Materials:

1. Magazines with food, household items, etc.

2. Children scissors
3. Construction papers with Bible verse written on them.
4. Glue

Say: “God created all things. God is good to us. He provides us with clothes to wear, food to eat, etc."

Activity Station 5: Matching Family of Farm Animals (Contingency Activity)

Objective(s): To get to know the names of the animals that God created

Materials:

2 sets of animal family cards to match

Say: “God created all things, God created all the animals. God is good. God gives us mommy and daddy”.

Activity Station 6: Transferring Stones with Tongs (Contingency Activity)

Objective(s):

1. To train the children’s fine motor skills

2. To provide sensory experience playing with God’s creation - water

Materials:

1. 2 bowls

2. 10 stones

3. 1 pair of tongs

4. 1 tray

Say: “God is good, He created all the rocks and stones.”

Activity Station 7: Puzzles (Contingency Activity)

Objective(s):

1. To train the children’s fine motor skills

2. To stimulate the children’s brain development

Materials:

Puzzles for children from 1 – 2 years old.

1.30 – 1.45pm: Bible Story Time with Singing

Gather the children to sit together in a circle.

Bible Story: Creation (Genesis 1 – 2)

A long time ago, there was nothing at all. (Show an empty box covered by a piece of cloth as darkness. Depending on the mood of the children, make a cover over them with a dark bedsheet to signify darkness)

But God was there. The first day, God said, “Let there be light!” (Show the number puppet 1 to represent first day and remove the cloth from the box to provide light)

The light He called day. (Shine a torch light to signify light and put it into the box)

The dark He called night. (Cover the box with the piece of cloth again)

The second day, God made the sky. (Show the number puppet 2 to represent second day. Show a cloud and put it into the box)

The third day, God made the land with plants and the seas. (Show a transparent container of sand and rock. Show a small pot of plant. Show a bottle of water and put them one-by-one into the box)

The fourth day, God made the sun and the moon. (Show a big sun and a big moon and put it into the box)

The fifth day, God made the birds and fishes. (Show a toy bird and a toy fish and put it into the box or do the hand sign)

The sixth day, God made the animals and the first man and woman. (Bring out all the animal figurines and a man and a woman)

On the seventh day, God rested. (Show the pillow)

The creation was complete and God said, “It was very good.”

To reinforce the learning, at the end of the Bible Story, as the children: "What did God create on the first day?"

Creation Sensory TubIf there is time, take out the sand, stones and the life plant, and let the children play with the other contents in the creation box as a "Sensory Tub"

Bible Verses: Psalm 73:1 “God is good to us.”

Introduce the key Bible Verses with musical instruments, hand motions and songs as follows:

·    God Is So Good

·    God Is Good, All the Time

1.45 – 2pm: Snack Time

·    Gather the children to sit together in a circle.

·    Say: “God is so good to us, He gives us snacks to eat and water to drink. Let’s say grace together.”

·    Sing the “Say Grace Song”

To reinforce the learning, at the End of the snack time, ask the children: "God is good to us, what can you do to make God happy?" Answer: Help mommy and daddy at home. Help my friends. God will be pleased to see you be a good boy or girl."

Game: Memory Verse Activity

To help reinforce the learning, play the memory verse activity by asking the children to one-by-one repeat the verse of the day.

2 – 2.15pm: Clean up Time

·    Clean up together and sing the song “Time to Clean Up”

·    Sterile toys with wet wipe

2.15 - 2.30pm: Physical Game

Game: Musical Chair

Say: "God is good. He gives us friends to play musical chair with."

2.30pm: Parents pick up kids

References:

- My Read and Rhyme Bible Storybook by Crystal Bowman and Cindy Kenney

- The Rhyme Bible Storybook by L.J. Sattgast

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Parent Newsletter

August 28, 2011

We hope this helps you to keep up with the education your child received at the nursery this Sunday.

Dear Parents,

This past Sunday, we were privileged to have 12 children at the nursery. We would like to share with you what we did this Sunday. We hope it would help you to reinforce the learning throughout this week with your child.

Concept Area

This week we focus on God – God is good. We illustrated God's goodness to us through His creation.

Key Bible Verse

The Bible verse used is Psalm 73:1 - God is good to us. You can recite this verse to your child at home during the week.

Bible Story

We told the story to the children about God’s creation from Genesis 1:1 – 2:1. You can read about the story (children’s version) here:

http://fibcchildrensministry.blogspot.com/2011/08/bible-story-gods-creation-genesis-11-21.html

Songs

We planned to sing the song God Is So Good and God Is Good, All The Time, but we did not manage to do it. However, you can learn it here and sing it together with your child at home:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4enC172CU4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZLvS6q6agw&feature=related

Activities

We hope this helps you to keep up with the education your child received at the nursery this Sunday.

We did activities that touched on God’s creation such as animals, food, water, etc.

For preschoolers 2-4 years old, we had an activity station with pictures of food, clothes, flowers, etc. where the children could cut and paste onto a paper printed with the key Bible verse and letting know that all things are created by God. We also had a station where the children fished for fishes and letters. This activity was a big hit with the children. We tried to teach them that God created fishes, letters and language. At the playdough station, the children learned to create things with playdough. We had a station with farm animal figurines with matching cards. got creative While they were working on the activities, we repeated to the children that God created all things, God is good. The children also get to learn about the vegetables and fruits that God created through cutting plastic food activity.

For toddlers 1-2 years old, we provided them with wooden baby puzzles and some wooden toys, but the plastic food cutting toys proved to be the most popular!

At story time, we told the story of God’s creation in 7 days using simple props such as number puppets. We started by using an empty box covered with a piece of cloth to signify that there was nothing in the beginning, which attracted the children and gathered them to sit around in a circle on the floor.

After the story time, we played the memory verse game, by asking the children to repeat Psalm 73:1 one-by-one.

Thank you for entrusting your child with us.

In His Service,

FIBC Nursery

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Songs

God Is So Good

God is so good (3x)

He’s so good to me.

He answers prayers (3x)

He’s so good to me.

God loves me so (3x)

He’s so good to me.

He took my sin (3x)

He’s so good to me.

Now I am free (3x)

He’s so good to me.

God is so good,

He took my sin

Now I am free

He’s so good to me

Video Demonstration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4enC172CU4

God Is Good, All the Time

God is good, all the time

He put a song of praise, in this heart of mine.

God is good, all the time

Through the darkest night, His light will shine

God is good

God is good, all the time

Video Demonstration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZLvS6q6agw&feature=related

Say Grace Song

Thank you for the world so sweet, Ho Hum

Thank you for the the food we eat, Yum Yum

Thank you for the birds that sing a-ling-a-ling

Thank you God for everything, Amen!

Time to Clean Up

Time to Clean Up (2X)

Boys and Girls (2X)

When we are good helpers (2X)

God is glad (2X)

Pretend Play: How to Turn Household Garbage into Toys for Your Child?

Joshua simply LOVES his ktichen set, which we bought from the flea market. It is probably the best investment I have made, as he plays with it almost every morning, making food for the teddy bear and the toy dog for months now. Thus, I am spending some time to think of how to expand his stock and selection without spending too much money.

You don't have to spend money buying those expensive wooden food toys. The next few pictures show how you can recycle household garbage and turn them into interesting toys for your child, when you combine them with some of your child's toys. It provides free-of-charge play... well, almost :-)

I recycled the bread package for Joshua's plastic bread toy, and he loved it. It made the plastic bread toy much more real and life-like.

Here are Joshua's plastic pieces of bread coming straight out from the bread package:

After we have finished eating the cheese, I recyled the cheese pack and put Joshua's rubber cheese toys into it. Joshua finds it very amusing. He now has his own "cheese" complete with real cheese packaging.

After drinking the milk, I washed the milk carton and recycled it for Joshua. He can play pretend play by pouring milk into his toy cups and serve it to his teddy bear.

Don't throw away the pasta package the next time you finish a pack. Save a little of the pasta in the package and include it in your child's pretend play kitchen set stock. You can also turn it into a Montessori inspired activity for your child to scoop the pasta into a pot with a ladle :-)

I recycled the ham package for Joshua's plastic salami and ham toy. It made the plastic salami toy much more real and life-like. Joshua was very excited, when he saw it and played with it immediately.

Montessori Activity: Cutting Magazine Pictures with Scissors/Skæring med Saks/使用剪刀 [shǐ yòng jiǎn dāo]

Idea from my neighbour Yang Li

Age: 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Objective(s): To train the child’s fine motor skills

Materials:

1. 1 pair of scissors for kids
2. 3-4 pages of magazines with pictures of food, household items, etc.
3. 1 basket to put the cut pictures (optional)
4. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child by cutting the out the pictures on a page with the scissors slowly one by one.
2. Then assist your child to hold the scissors with thumb and fingers in the handle himself and have him practice opening and closing the scissors.
3. Hand your child a page from the magazine and encourage him to try cutting.

Additional Information:

J is starting to be bored with cutting papers with scissors, although his scissors skills can still be improved. Thus, I have replaced the papers with pictures from the magazines, so as to bring back some some novelty to this "old" activity. Of course, at this age, don't expect your child to be able to cut out the pictures perfectly, so long as he is having fun.

Updates 10.9.2011 (2Y6M5D):

J asked to cut with scissors today and he worked on this cutting activity for 30 minutes this morning - the longest ever. As he gets older, he has more concentration and spend a longer period of time on an activity, practicing and practicing and practicing, repeating and repeating and repeating, which was really nice.

On a busy day, when I am not so prepared with activities, instead of having to spend time drawing lines for him to cut, it is very easy to just pass him some pages of the advertising papers and scissors. One can't be a perfectionist with Montessori activity, especially for a working mom like me.

Daddy FECS was cutting J hair, while J was cutting the magazine, while sitting on the potty, while mommy got to do other things like blogging... killing 4 birds with 1 stone. One of our best attempts at multi-tasking thus far, but it gets easier with J getting older (2.5 years old) and able to do more things by himself.

Montessori Activity: Transferring Marbles with Tongs

Age: From 2 years old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Objectives:

1. To train the child’s fine motor skills.
2. To teach the concept of squeeze and release.
3. To teach the names of different colours.
4. To teach counting.

Materials:

1. 1 water-colour pallet
2. Approx. 5 - 7 marbles (keep it simple, not too many)
3. 1 small container
4. 1 pair of tongs
5. 1 Tray

Directions:

1. Put the marbles on the pallet's slots and transfer it into a container with tongs.

2. Transfer the marbles back to the pallet one-by-one with the tongs.

3. Encourage your child to try.

Additional Information:

J (2Y5M17D) tried this activity today and he could do it well without much struggle. Then he got bored with it :-(

Montessori Activity: Mixing Colours with Syringe

Idea from Veronika

Age: From 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5 - 15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Objectives:
1. To teach colours.
2. To train the child's fine motor skills.

Materials:
1. 1 syringe
2. 2 transparent glasses or bowls filled with water and 2 different food colouring (I use blue and red here)
3. 1 transparent empty glass or bowl
4. 1 syringe without needle

Directions:
1. Show your child how to suck up the blue colour water with the syringe, by saying "pull the syringe up".
2. Show your child how to release the blue water in the syringe into the empty glass by saying "push the syringe down".
3. Do the same to the red colour water.
4. Encourage your child to try.

Video Demonstration:

Additional Information:
This is my colleague, Veronika's fantastic idea. Joshua (2Y5M16D) tried this activity today. He really enjoyed it. I am definitely going to repeat this with different colour.

Montessori Activity: The "Pink Tower"

Age: From 2.5 years old (Level 2)

Activity Duration: 5 - 15 minutes

Objective(s):
1. To teach the concept of big to small.
2. To learn the skills of stacking blocks

Materials:
1. The Montessori Pink Tower or the nesting boxes
2. 2 mats
3 Some animal figures (optional)

Presentation:
1. Place the boxes randomly on a mat.
2. Place another mat across the room.
3. Show your child how to stack the boxes from big to small vertically into a tower by bringing the boxes one-by-one at a time to the other mat.
4. Dismantle the tower and place the boxes randomly on the mat.
5. Invite your child to try to build the pink tower on the other mat.

Video Demonstration:

https://youtu.be/3Wfo28SvgLg

https://youtu.be/PccJvhRZXr0

Tips:

1. You can also arrange the boxes horizontally like a stair on the floor.
2. You can turn the boxes as shown in the pictures to play as home for animal figurines or matching the animal figurines with the pictures on the boxes.

Additional Information:
J has never been very fond of our "pink tower". I saw in a blog of stacking it this way and letting the animal figures into it. And J loved it. He (2Y5M14D) played with it for the longest time ever (his longest time is still very short, about 10 minutes) on 19.8.2011!

References:
http://www.montessorialbum.com/montessori/index.php?title=Pink_Tower
http://www.infomontessori.com/sensorial/visual-sense-pink-tower.htm

19.8.2011 (2Y5M14D) - J stacking the boxes

Moo moo moo... here comes the cow... to home to home... to home sweet home :-)

Montessori Activities: Opening Sliding Lids

Age: 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5 - 15 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To train the child's fine motor skills.

Materials:

1. 1 box with a sliding lid containing some small toys inside (to entice the child to open the box)
2. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate by sliding open the lid.
2. Then slide close the lid.
3. Encourage your child to try.

Additional Information:

J (2Y5M16D) tried this activity this morning. He struggled a little, but was very motivated. He could open and close the lids several times successfully.

Montessori Activity: Stamping

Inspired by 1plus1plus1equals1

Age: From 1.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5 - 15 minutes

Objective(s):
1. To train the child's fine motor skills.
2. To teach the concept of stamping - pressure of pressing and release
3. To teach colours

Materials:
1. 1 stamping set
2. 1 paper

Directions:
1. Demonstrate by taking the stamp, dipping it into the ink pad and stamping it on a paper.

2. Encourage your child to try.

Cost: Stamping set: 20 DKK (3.90 USD or 4.70 SGD) from Tiger

Additional Information:
I am running out of activities to do for Joshua. Thus, I am very glad to find this. Joshua (2Y5M16D) tried it this morning. He had quite some fun, though it is not his favourite.

References:
http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2011/08/tot-school-letter-oo-part-2.html

Montessori Activity: Cleaning Plant

Inspired by Mommy Moment

Age: From 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5 - 15 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To train the child's fine motor skills.
2. To train the child's patience at cleaning the plant.
3. To train the child's caringness towards plant.

Materials:

1. A handful of cotton buds (I use facial cotton pieces here, as this is these are the only ones I have at home)
2. 1 small dish with water
3. 1 tray
4. 1 plant with sturdy leaves

Directions:

1. Demonstrate by dipping the cotton bud into the dish of water to make it wet.
2. Then wipe a leave of the plant from beginning to the end.
3. Encourage your child to try.

Additional Information:

I find Montessori cleaning activities the most challenging. I am ashamed to admit that I am not very good with cleaning, and have never done lift a finger to clean as a child. This is very common in Chinese family, as the children are just expected to excel in studies. But for my case, it is because my mother told me that girls have to learn to clean, and boys do not. Thus, I rebelled.

As such, Montessori activity is really good for me too, as it gives me a chance to learn in a very simple and basic way, and in this case how to clean a plant. Yes, in the department of cleaning, I am starting at the same level as J, as a 2.5 years old, which is a very humbling experience, which I don't want J to go through at the age of an adult. Yes, he is a boy, and no, I don't have the traditional Chinese mentality here. I think he should learn to clean, even if he is a boy. I am very grateful to all the Montessori mothers out there, who shared all the cleaning lessons on their blogs. It has been very educational for me.

References:
http://www.mommymoment.ca/2011/02/plant-care-for-tiny-green-thumbs.html

Montessori Activity: Zipping & Unzipping Zip-Lock Bag

Age: From 1.5 year old

Activity Duration: 3 - 5 minutes

Materials:

1. 1 zip-lock bag filled with 1 or 2 toys
2. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Show your child how to open the zip-lock bag by unzipping it.

2. Then Show your child how to close the zip-lock bag by zipping it.

3. Encourage your child to try.

Additional Information:

My Biotherm free sample bag sitting in the bathroom cabinet is screaming out: "Montessori - use me, use me!"  today, so I thought of this little activity. I put into the bag 2 matchbox toy cars. I think Joshua is a little too old for this, but no harm for him to practise opening zip-lock bag. You can also use food zip lock bag. Joshua tried it on 25.8.2011 (2Y5M15D) and he could open and close the zip lock bag. Then he spoilt the zip.

Montessori Activity: Matching Family of Farm Animals

Inspired by My Montessori Moments

Age: From 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5 - 15 minutes

Materials:
1. Farm animals printables from My Montessori Moments

Directions:
1. Show your child by putting a family set of animals, for example, the Daddy Bull, Mommy Cow and Baby Calf on the table.

2. Match it by picking the correct individual family member from the stack of individual animal cards and match with the family card.

3. Encourage your child to try with another set of family members.

Additional Information:
This is a fantastic activity. I saw it from Lori of My Montessori Moments and love it straight away. Joshua tried this some time ago, but wasn't interested. However, on 19.8.2011 (2Y5M19D) he picked this activity himself and successfully matched all the animals.

References:
http://mymontessorimoments.com/2011/01/28/farm-animal-families/

Montessori Activity: Eating with Chopsticks for Toddlers

Age: From 2 years old

Materials:
1. 1 pair of chopsticks
2. 1 bowl of pasta, noodles or sushi

Directions:
1. Show your child how to pick up the food with chopsticks
2. Encourage your child to try.

Video Demonstration by Joshua:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7zOKoxz3OE

Tips:
1. Start with serving European pasta as it is easier to pick up than Chinese noodles or rice noodles, which is very slippery.

2. If serving sushi, serve those small maki that is smaller and easier to pick up.

3. Buy both right-handed and left-handed sushi to train the right and left brain.

4. To encourage your child to use it, buy an extra pair of the training chopsticks for yourself too and use it together. Joshua usually likes to imitate me. Initially he refused to use these chopsticks, but he saw me using them and wanted to be like mommy :-) Now he asks for them himself, without me suggesting :-)

Additional Information:
On the way back from the daycare, we passed by our favourite sushi restaurant, Aji (http://www.aji.dk/). Joshua asked to buy sushi for dinner. He had been asking me to buy sushi yesterday and this morning, and I unfortunately gave in to his pestering. Joshua (2Y5M14D) ate all the 8 salmon sushi maki using the training chopsticks this evening.

For those who live near Lyngby, I highly recommend Aji restaurant. They have eat-all-you-want sushi buffet for only 98 DKK (inclusive of all taxes excluding drinks) on Sunday for lunch from 12 - 4pm.

I wrote a post on The Importance of Teaching Your Child to Use Chopsticks.

18.8.2011 (2Y5M14D) - Joshua eating salmon sushi maki from Aji with training chopsticks

2 July 2011 (2Y3M28D) - First real practice with chopsticks... pretty good :-)

Montessori Activity: Inserting Key/Indsættelse af Nøgle/插钥匙

Age: From 2 years old

Activity Duration: 5 - 10 minutes

Objectives:

1. To train the child's motor skills.
2. To train the child's hand eye coordination.

Materials:

1. 1 lock
2. 1 key
3. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Show the child how to insert the key into the lock and turn the key to unlock the lock.

2. Encourage your child to try.

Video Demonstration by Joshua:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeG8VEpVSXc

Additional Information:

J (2Y5M12D) tried this for the first time today, and he could do it without any struggle at all. He really enjoyed it, but it was very easy for him, not much challenge. I don't think I will be repeating this anytime soon. I think this activity would be for younger toddlers from age 2.

9 November 2019 (3Y5M23D): Baby FECS tried this activity for the first time today, and she could do it, albeit, not as professional as J previously.

J Summary (2Y5M12D) - Could Recognize His Own Name

Daddy told me today that he noticed that J picked out his own comforter with his name tag on from a pile of comforters at the daycare. So he asked the teacher if J could recognize his own name. The teacher said she did not think so, but that she thought that it was most likely that J could recognize the colour code. She told us that the mattress and the comforter for each child is colour-coded. J has been allocated a green mattress that goes with a green comforter with his name on.

This evening, we tested on J by writing 4 names including J's name on each piece of toilet paper. We shuffere the names around and asked J to picked out the piece of toilet paper with his name on it. We did this 4 times, and each time we shuffled the papers. J picked out his names correctly for all 4 times. J indeed recognize that this combination of letters spells his name.

Today, we played with alphabet bricks and J pointed to the letter C and says "cat" in Mandarin.

Fishing ABCs with Jar Lids

Age: From 2 years old.

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Objective(s): To train the child’s hand-eye coordination skill

Materials:
1. 1 toy fishing rod
2. Jar lids written with a,b,c...
3. 1 bowl to contain the fished jar lids
4. 1 basin containing water
5. 1 tray

Directions:
1. Call out a letter and demonstrate to your child by fishing the letter with the fishing rod.

2. Call out another letter and let your child try to fish for the letter.

Cost:
Plastic fishes: 20 DKK (4.80 SGD or 3.80 USD) at Chao Chao at Lyngy Station

Additional Information:
I got this idea from seeing a toddler playing with the toy sold in Amazon (see below). Instead of buying from Amazon which cost 50 USD, it is much cheaper to make it myself. Joshua tried this today, but he quickly asked for the fishes. I think I will draw some pictures of fishes on the lids, when I have some time.

J Summary (2Y5M11D) - Likes the Foam Books with Bible Stories

Language Development

J said "Jeg laver mad til hunden" today, meaning I am making food for the dog. He is still playing alot with his play kitchen. It is really worth every penny, his play kitchen set. The good thing is that we bought it from the flea market.

He likes to repeat what we say to him in English, but he still cannot answer us in English. He continue to speak to me in Mandarin, which makes me glad. I hope this will continue to last, although we are gearing up on the English.

He is slowly better in saying 1-10 in English, but missing out the six and eight. He could count at least 3 objects, sometimes 5, but still not more than 7 objects.

He can say A, B, C and D and loves the fish ABC song and the aaaa apple song I learned from youtube. He can say aaa apple by his own iniative, but all the others, he would only repeat after me.

Toys

J seems to be starting to like jigsaw puzzles now and seems to have more patience for them. This evening, he completed 4 boxes (the very easy ones like matching the animals with their homes, matching opposites, matching the animals and their food and matching the animals' head with their bodies.)

He is very fond of books and can be read to for a long period of time. He still doesn't like to be read the Children Bible stories. He prefers Chinese books to English books. He still loves to sing, so I sing to him Christian Chinese songs. He was very interested in Tang dynasty books last week. At almost 2.5 years old now, he started liking the foam books on Bible stories. We would count the number of sheeps in the story.

Food

After a long fussy period of only wanting to eat oatmeal and nothing else, J starting to like to eat banana and cooked carrots again. Last Thursday, he even ate a raw baby carrot at Anna's place. He also still enjoys eating rice noodles. He loves fresh squeezed orange juice again, but he is still not keen of vegetables. He is also willing to eat chicken again, if it is tender. He is now starting to eat the wholemeal pita bread again, and he also a little more willing to eat his Danish rye bread for lunch. He still does not like rice, which he used to love. But things seem to be better now than for the last 2 months, when I just wanted to tear my hair out trying to find food he is willing to eat.