Learning from educational DVDs

I've mentioned many times in this blog about the rather slow speech development of baby Rynus as compared to his elder brother Renzo. After he started full day childcare since July 01, we've finally seen some pretty good progress recently.

Just like Renzo, Rynus has been picking up knowledge really fast through educational DVDs. I confess, I do give them ample TV time at home since they are in school the entire day, and they are not given Ipad or Iphone for apps, games, youtube etc. But most importantly, I do see them learning A LOT from just Disney Junior and educational DVDs.

In fact Rynus is not quite a fan of Disney Junior at this age, Renzo only developed his interest since he's about 4. So they both enjoy Thomas&Friends, Dora the Explorer, Leapfrog series and Hi5 the most, well actually they do not have anything else except for some Chinese sing a long song tracks. We only have 3 Dora, 2 Thomas, 1 Hi5 and a bunch of Leapfrog (maybe more than 7) at home, and they could watch again and again without getting bored at all.

About half a year ago, we realized that Rynus has learned all his alphabets and phonics sounds from Leapfrog. He could read the letters with clear articulation, except for letter W. Sometimes, he mixes up the sound of certain letters and their phonics sounds but that's not too big a concern for now. And he enjoys singing ABC or the Leapfrog alphabet song with us before bedtime. Slowly, but steadily, he progressed on to counting numbers. I seriously think both of my boys love numbers, unlike their mother. I still remember how we taught Renzo 1~10, and then 11~20 with a number poster hanging on our wall, but for Rynus, he picked up 1~20 on his own from Leapfrog, almost effortlessly. And whenever he is in good mood, he counts. Initially he often skips a few numbers like 7(for some weird reason many kids skip number 7 when they first learn to count, including Renzo), 13, 14, 16.. But since about 2 weeks ago, he's been doing better and better, and no more skipping of numbers!!

Here's a clip of him happily counting from 1 - 20, though I only managed to take out my phone camera when he's at number 4, and he repeated 15-17 at one point. 

 

If I say Renzo has amused us by memorizing train names and numbers from Thomas&Friends and talking in British accent like the fat controller when he's 2, then Rynus has definitely amused us by interacting with Dora and Boots with zero communication breakdown when he's 2!! Watching Dora DVD with him is probably the most fun and relaxing bonding experience. One moment you see him sitting next to you on the sofa, hiding his head under your arm while staring at the TV, next moment, he rushed to the TV like a space shuttle and "press" the answers on TV as if he's using a touch pad, and before you know it, he's back to the sofa snuggling under your arms again, waiting for the next chance to run to the TV, pretty busy to be honest...

And, once I saw him washing his hands in the washroom and Dora was asking, "Which path should we take, blue, yellow, or purple?" on TV further away in living room, he shouted, "YELLOW!!"... Trust me, he got it absolutely right!!

Though he's been trying to "participate" in the 5-A-Day-Books routine we set up with Renzo every evening, Rynus is still learning most of his stuff through educational DVDs, he can say words like "Icy bridge", "Purple", "Circle", "blue mountain", "mama duck", etc, and some Spanish words too, all thanks to Dora & Boots!!

Expert Parenting Advice vs. Actual Parenting Reality..

Rynus is 2 years 3 months old already, wow!!!

Honestly I have not been realizing how time flies with his growth. We are not paying much attention to his development milestones, maybe because he's the 2nd child of the family and we still have so much to go through with Renzo, who is just 1.5 years away from entering primary school. But today, when a friend of mine shared this "Expert Parenting Advice vs. Actual Parenting Reality" chart on facebook, I find it extremely interesting and tried to relate my own experience with Rynus' upbringing.

You see, expert is not THAT WRONG after all!!

The expert's advice might sound like "mission impossible" to many, but if you understand that your action is going to benefit your kids, you would then agree with the experts, majority of the time. The only few items that I could not agree with, are more because I know our kids will soon outgrow those stages and once they are able to communicate well, there's higher chance you could change them for better behavior with proper reasoning.   

I often say each kid is uniquely special and there's no parenting formula that works for all. But with my 2 boys having totally different characters and personalities, I noticed that our principles of parenting do not change much except for a bit of twisting here and there, although their reaction/response are often different.

For example, when Renzo was around this age, he had many requests as he was able to express himself very well. Of course he cried a lot more as majority of his requests were not reasonable, and when we refuse to give in, he often ended up with throwing tantrums. We had to prevent him from throwing tantrums by preempting him with what to expect, and giving him options to choose from. He's not easily distracted because he's very certain about what he wants and in a way, he expects things to go his way, all the time. So "alternatives", is not a solution. He has to be presented with different options, and if possible, way before he even makes his request.

As for Rynus, he is a happy go lucky boy in general, he doesn't cry or throws tantrums for no reason. His usual requests are not much (generally about food only), except for things like: going out for a walk often, when the sky is dark at night; changing to his swimwear to get a dip in the pool, on a rainy day; turning on the TV to watch his favorite Dora or Leapfrog DVD, right before bed time; unlocking daddy's car door each time, without knowing how to slot in the car key properly, etc, etc.... But unfortunately, or I should say fortunately, he's not able to communicate that well like Renzo, so instead of preparing him with what to expect, we react to his "unreasonable" requests by distracting him with other alternatives. He will definitely cry and whine just like any other kid, or most of the kids I should say, but that usually lasts for an extremely short period of time only.

If I say I've learned enough tips to turn Renzo into a tantrum free boy over the years, then Rynus is probably a tantrum free boy to begin with, erh, or maybe, just not yet... LOL...

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1 month into full day childcare

In the blink of an eye, Rynus has been attending full day childcare for a month since July 01!

The 2nd child syndrome has hit me really hard this time when I read our blog posts about Renzo's experience when he first started attending half day childcare, and eventually moved on to full day care. With our first child Renzo, we were exuberant and did everything right (or at least tried to do everything right), naturally we felt everything is new, every experience is unique, we were driven to capture every moment, to applaud every achievement, and to generally create most beautiful memories with the apple of our eyes. Then, when Rynus arrived, the experience isn't so new. We've been there, done that. Though we seem to have taken more pictures of him (for the very fact that he's more photogenic and the megapixels on our phone camera doubled since Renzo's time), the every first of his was not as joyful and exciting as Renzo's, somehow.

But still, I took 3 days of annual leave to accompany Rynus to school, and tried to figure out a daily routine for everyone in the house. After about 1-2 weeks of experiment, and adjustment, the boys start to wake up daily at about 6:30am, Daddy Chan then drives them to school and our helper sends them up and stays a little longer with Rynus in the classroom till he settles down. At night, I rush down from my work place to pick the boys up, and takes a taxi home together. This is not the most economical solution for sure as the short taxi ride during peek hour usually costs S$7-S$8 bucks daily. But we are glad that we can handle them without involving the grandparents and helper, so that they could focus on their own stuff and have more time for themselves instead. And most importantly, the boys are having a better daily routine now, which allows them to have their dinner prepared by our helper right after school, and spend more time in the evening to play and study together with us.

So how did Rynus do in school?

Well let's first take a look at teachers' feedback about Renzo 3 years ago.
Teacher's feedback: "Pretty good, getting better, on and off cries for his auntie Ayeaye, but plays well with his friends and enjoys music & dance time to the fullest. Learning to eat on his own at the same table with other kids but very quiet and do not speak much."

And now for Rynus (I feel awesome to have received feedback about Rynus from the same group of teachers, who still remember about their experience with Renzo in the past)
Teacher's feedback: "Really enjoys music & dance time to the fullest. Eats well on his own, doesn't cry much but doesn't like to be touched by others. Behaving ok as long as he's not throwing tantrums."

It seems that I have 2 pretty "anti-social" boys who are not independent, and indeed, quite a handful. And being in the same school as his brother isn't to his advantage because he doesn't become any easier to manage when Renzo is around to play with, or take care of him.

I know most of Rynus' classmates (including his 5-days-younger cousin) are adapting well in school. So he's probably the only one giving most of the headaches to his teachers. But I still feel very proud of him for being able to stay in school for a whole day now and nap there daily while snuggling his little penguin. To think the transition period from half to full day was a few months for Renzo. And most importantly, Rynus didn't really fall sick (at least not very sick to the extend that he needs to stop school for days) like Renzo did during the first month. The fact is Renzo started school at 19 months whereas Rynus only started at 25 months, so his immunity system should be stronger anyway. Unfortunately, he still caught some bugs and was having diarrhea and runny nose recently. He's not fully recovered yet but he didn't skip a single day of school for a full month, yeah!!!

After all, I've already seen great improvement in him since he started school. He's still not able to express himself much, but he likes to follow whatever we say nowadays and his articulation is almost as good as Renzo's!! And seeing both of them holding hands together and skipping to me in joy every evening at school, is really the best reward I get after a day of hard work!

when will Rynus didi start talking?

This is the question I have been asking myself many many, many many times for the past 2 years. It's quite a challenge to answer a question like this when our elder boy Renzo, started speaking in short sentences since 1.5 years old. In terms of speech development, Our almost 2 years old Rynus, is probably at the level of our 11 months old Renzo, I am not kidding!

Although recently he's been babbling a lot more, the fact is, he's been babbling like this, alright probably slightly less, since he was.. 6 months old? And we were anticipating "baby is going to talk soon" for the past 1 and half years!

I am not too concerned after hearing from many mummies that some kids start talking after 3. Indeed I find Rynus extremely adorable with his "inability to communicate in proper language".

He must be feeling extremely satisfied, or maybe even proud, with the fact that he could understand all of us 100%, but none of us could understand him. And I've probably mentioned this before, his "TERRIBLE TWOS" symptoms are rather mild as compared to Renzo's, or, probably it's not even started because that's the stage kids throw tantrums often because when they try to express themselves, we adults do not understand them well enough. "Express themselves"? Rynus? He's not even willing to open his golden mouth so nope, we do not have much concerns, at least not often.

But this time round, I must give him some credits for being able to sing along the "Leapfrog alphabets song". I've been singing this with him almost daily for a month and his progress makes us feel extremely proud!! Time like this, I can't bring myself to believe that this baby still cannot talk!!

the emotionally smart Rynus

Rynus is turning 2 in about a month time, hooray!!

He's still the forever cheerful and adorable him, keeping everyone entertained by doing absolutely NOTHING! Seriously, I really meant it!! Observing him doing nothing is fun, because he's not able to communicate yet, whenever he looks into your eyes and talks in his baby language that nobody understands, and bursts into laughter for no apparent reason, you will follow him and laugh without knowing why too!

Daddy once said Rynus is not as academically smart as Renzo. He didn't follow korkor's footsteps by achieving most, if not all major milestones a lot earlier than other kids at the same age. Instead, he is rather slower (except for walking) compared to others. I often mention that Renzo has helped us save a lot of money on enrichment classes, so we could use the fund for Rynus, as he seems to know nothing at this moment, when I say nothing, I am referring to alphabets, numbers, phonics, words, sentences, days/weeks/months, colors, shapes, lullabies, poems, etc, etc which Renzo used to know very well at this age.

Of course, I was absolutely WRONG!!

Rynus has distinguished himself nicely from his korkor, by being an emotionally intelligent boy (just like his daddy)!

Well I know it's too early to judge but he seems to have the ability, to perceive his own, and other people's emotion very well. His "terrible twos" symptoms are rather mild. He cries when you do not give in to him but he gets distracted very easily. And most of the time, he understands our emotions through body language or facial expressions, if not verbal communications.

Once Rynus held my hand and walked into the room, he signaled "shhhh..." by putting his little finger around his lips the moment he noticed daddy was sleeping...

Once Renzo shouted he needs to pass urine, Rynus immediately ran into the toilet, turned on the light, and lifted up the toilet seat cover for his korkor (he can't even use the toilet but he knows when korkor needs to use it, LOL...)

Often when I am blending fresh fruit juice, he camps outside the kitchen and rushes in the moment I'm done, and takes out his own cup and tells me, "mama, juice, juice!!"..

Whenever Renzo gets disciplined by us and can't stop crying, Rynus pats on his back and gives us the "please forgive my korkor" look...

Everytime we are about to bring the kids to the pool, Rynus digs out swimwear from his wardrobe, gets sunblock, and takes slippers for everyone (instead of shoes which he always prepares for us before we go out)...

Everyday When he's done with his food, he places (often throws) cutlery back into the sink, and he voluntarily helps Renzo to do the same when Renzo is not in the mood...

When we shouts at him for doing something wrong, he immediately covers his eyes with his chubby little hands, and then opens his eyes big and round under his hands, pauses for a second and goes "Peek-a-boo", how to get angry with him!!! 

He did made some progress and learned his phonics through leapfrog. He's not a book lover like Renzo so the only book that catches his attention so far, is the magnetic alphabet book, he could sort the letters and form the words based on the tips given, very obvious tips though.. And he will say "BRAVO" and clap his hands each time he gets it right.

We didn't manage to capture a very clear video but he can recognize and pronounce "G", "O", "D", "H", "A", "I", "S" from his favorite "Good Habits" poster.

And finally I feel confident in coaching him myself, than relying on enrichment classes, but, of course not now, he needs to take his own sweet time at a slower pace remember?!! 

Rynus' simple phonics..

Warning: Lots of videos!!!

My little cute cute, yes recently I've been enjoying calling Rynus my little cute cute, has been giving us loads and loads of joys nowadays, with his countless attempts in learning, and failing to talk. Well his vocabulary list has expanded by... just a little bit, he now knows "car car", and "card card", but his "bird", "pig", "press" and "bolster", all sound like "beh"...

And, that's about it.. That's all he's learned to speak so far...

Is that normal for a 1 year 8 months old kid? I would think not, his 5-days-younger-cousin has been talking in simple sentences, and repeating any words after adults is not a big challenge to her anymore. Therefore all I could say is that, Rynus is clearly not a studious type like his Renzo korkor. There's one night Rynus tore one of Renzo's favorite Thomas train books, while drinking his milk in bed. That "what's the big deal" look on his face, almost made me beat him up because Renzo, on the contrary, has never messed up with his books since birth, ever!

Well if I look at what Renzo was doing at this age, gosh, Alphabets, Numbers, Chinese poems, English songs, he could handle them all! Let's just pick one video of him singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" at 1 year 6 months.


This is Renzo recognizing different objects at 1 year 5 months..

As for Rynus, he has been watching Leapfrog daily, like his Renzo korkor. He did not manage to learn all his A - Z by now like what Renzo did in the past, but he has showed strong interest in the phonics sound of the alphabets, and could follow, or even make the sound while you mention the letters, he knows the phonic sounds of at least, 15 alphabets, but I only managed to record down "M", "N", "O", "P" in the video attached below:
 

I know it doesn't sound as impressive if you were to compare it with Renzo's progress in the past, so I am going to make it up by sharing this super duper cute video of Rynus laughing, while hearing "Peek-a-boo" from Renzo, I seriously love the bonding between them and my little cute cute, is just way too cute, isn't he?!!!!!!!!
 

loving his Renzo kor kor..

By now, it's pretty clear to us that our 2 boys are very different, in many many ways. But there's one thing they have in common - their brotherly love for each other.. Renzo might get annoyed or agitated at times if Rynus snatches his toys, or messes up his books, but for Rynus, he seems to love, admire and respect his elder bro, wholeheartedly, all the time!

Once, we caught him running into the bedroom and pulling out Renzo's blanket, he looked super adorable when he was attempting to cover his kor kor up, though I seriously wonder his intent was to have kor kor play with him when I saw his big grin with delight after he "accidentally" woke Renzo up from his nap...

Our helper has been telling us that Rynus often dreamed of Renzo during his naps, and shouted "kor kor", before he turned one side and snuggled up to his big bolster, and went back to sleep again..

Climbing up to Renzo's back is his favorite way of playing with his kor kor recently. And each time, Renzo's effort in pushing him away, just makes him even more excited.

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Last night, Rynus woke up at 3am and refused to get back to sleep, I had to carry him and walk around in the room. Suddenly he looked at Renzo in the dark and started calling out loud, "kor kor, kor kor, kor kor!!!!!!!!". I was so worried that he will wake Renzo up, luckily Renzo was sleeping like a log. And I ended up carrying Rynus to living room because he was reaching out to Renzo's arm and there's just no way to stop him!

Look at Rynus' "vigorous dance" when Renzo sets the DVD to fast play!!

Maybe in the eyes of Rynus, Renzo is the only, and the closest person to him besides Mummy and Daddy. I really wish one day when Renzo reads this post, it could somehow bring back some sweet memories about his little brother as a baby...