In my world: The Dewey Dinosaur system ;-)

*****

Sometimes in the middle of cleaning the rooms, I discover little gems left behind by the children. This Friday series was started with the intention of celebrating the imagination and creativity in a young child’s world…and hoping that it’ll bring a little ray of inspiration and joy to your day, as it does mine.

 

In my world: Beam me up!

 

What’s that yellow and pink thingy then?

Make good guesses…

…

Nope.

…

Uh-uh.

…

Still no clue?

It’s the holder from the lanterns the kids have been playing with earlier this week during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

After tiring of running around with the lit lanterns, the kids detached the holders from the lanterns and have been playing at pretend fishing.

Apparently DD threw hers up a little too high and it hooked itself on the beam of the ceiling lightbox.

(How does throwing a fishing rod help you to catch fish anyway?…That I guess, is a question for another day…)

*****

Sometimes in the middle of cleaning the rooms, I discover little gems left behind by the children. This Friday series was started with the intention of celebrating the imagination and creativity in a young child’s world…and hoping that it’ll bring a little ray of inspiration and joy to your day, as it does mine.

Kids Say: Do as I say, not as I do?

“Son, you didn’t tell me you needed to go pee!” 

“Mummy, you didn’t tell me when you need to pee.”

Touché…

Kids Say: Where’s the cow?

The night before, DH was teaching DD the Chinese words “上” (English: “on top”) and “桌子” (English: “table”). So at breakfast in the morning…   

DD: Mummy, 牛在哪里？ (English: Mummy, where is the cow?)

Without thinking (and obviously without listening properly), I answered…

Me: 牛在桌子上。(English: The cow is on the table.)  *I’d wrongly interpreted and thought she asked, “Where is the cat?”. Yes…yes…I know, 牛 and  猫 (English: cat) sound VASTLY DIFFERENT…boo hoo*

DD: Mummy, I said cow. How can a cow be on the table?

Me: Oh! Um… 牛在… er…(English: The cow is in…) *racks brains for the Chinese word for “field” but comes up empty and gives her a sheepish look*

DD: …

DD: Hmm…I think I’ll ask Daddy when he comes home.

Me: *ARRRRRGGGHH! Self bashing. Epic failure.*

…

I so need to work harder at this…

And, okay, you can so stop rolling on the floor in laughter now…

Kids Say: Read it!

Sometimes we use activity sheets from workbooks when we run out of ideas for educational stuff to do with the kids. So the other day, seeing that DS had completed the activity worksheet given to him, DH got out some Thomas the Tank Engine stickers to reward him for his completed sheet.

Asking him to choose which sticker he would like, he asked DS – “Would you like Thomas or Henry or this red colour one, I don’t know his name?”

DS: It’s not Thomas and Henry.
DH: Yes it is. See, *picking up his toy trains* this blue train is Thomas, and the green one is Henry and the red one…
DS: No, no, no. This blue train is Tomy, and the green train is Tomy, and the red train is also Tomy.
*Flipping the trains and pointing to the text on their underside* See? T  O  M  Y, Tomy.

It doesn't say "Made in China" this time!

He.is.so.right.  It’s absolutely precious.

Kids Say: Of similes and single deck buses

DS lined up all his vehicles in a straight line. DH walked into the room, noticed the vehicle line-up and pouncing on a “teachable” moment, he asked our boy, “Hey son, how many cars are there?”

DS: Two cars.
DH: And how many vans are there?
DS: One.
DH: No…actually there are two. This, *picking up the green VW*, is a van.
DS: Hmm, nope, that’s a single-deck bus.
DH: No, look, there are two surfboards on top of it. Do you know what’s a surfboard?
DD: It’s for people to ride on the waves.
DH: That’s right. So…because surfboards aren’t very long, and they cover the full length of the vehicle, this can’t be a bus. It’s a van.
DS: *picks up the vehicle, turns it over, peers at the underside and remarks * Nope. See here? It says, single. deck. bus.

Actually it says, "Made in China"...

DH: Oh, you are so stubborn!
DD: As stubborn as a donkey?
DH: Why yeah, that’s correct usage of the simile! Who taught you that?
DD: I taught myself.
DH: ………….

Kids Say: Wooly curly

Remember our kindness chart that we started some weeks ago? 

The kids have been accumulating stars and on Monday night, DH said they were due for their reward. Originally, we’d planned to bring them to a nice ice-cream parlour nearby, but as we drove out from the carpark of our apartment block, DS asked, “Mummy, are we going to get the wooly curly one?”

“What wooly curly one, son?” (Sheep??)  

“Do you know what’s wooly curly?”, I asked DH.

“Mummy, I like the wooly curly ice cream.”

After a few questions back and forth, DH figured it out…

OH! Ikea’s soft serve ice cream! It’s curly-wurly!

So, we took an impromptu detour to Ikea. Turned out to be the best thing ever.

We’d have had to spend at least $3-4 for a single scoop of ice-cream in a standard paper cup at the ice-cream parlour, but instead we’re now here having wooly-curly wafer cone fun at $1.50 each, four times over, at the self-service ice-cream machine.

The name’s so cute it’s stuck fast in our heads. Soft serve ice cream will always be wooly curly ice cream to me, from here on. 😉

Kids Say: Ice cream…I scream?

On Sunday, at breakfast –

DD: Am I going to school today?
DH: No, today you’re not going to school because today is Sunday. Sunday…
DD: Ice cream?
DS: *jumping in eagerly to the conversation* I cry!

I collapse on the floor laughing.

*Sunday ice cream is a phrase from Eric Carle’s book, “Today is Monday”.  Click here for more information on the book.

Kids Say: In the middle of the night…

TwoCultureMom was chatting with DD on Sunday and she came by to tell me this really funny little vignette.

Apparently, they had been talking about going back to school on Monday after a week of holidays. And TCM had asked her if she liked school, to which DD replied, “Yes!”

And then DD added, “And sometimes, in the middle of the night, I go to my other school!”

Yikes! Anyone who didn’t know us better would be thinking…

Slave drivers!
Hothousers!
“Sweetie, I know it’s 2 a.m., but you’ve got to go to school!”

*****

The sometimes middle-of-the-night school is her weekly Chinese class on Thursdays at 7:15pm. 🙂

When I recounted this to DH, he commented that technically, DD was not wrong in stating it was night, as 7:15pm is much closer to being defined as night (albeit the start, as opposed to middle) than evening.

What’s your definition of the crossover timing between evening and night? 🙂  Would 7:15pm be night or evening for you?

Kids Say: Yes

Me: *plonking into my seat at breakfast* Good morning, son!
DS: Yes. *in a solemn tone*
Me: … *with a slight frown* No, when I say good morning to you, you should say “Good morning, mummy.”
DS: Yes.
Me: Say, “Good morning, mummy.”
DS: Good morning, mummy.
Me: Yes.

…

…

DH who has been silently listening to the whole exchange as he measures out the kids’ vitamin dose, gives me a knowing grin.

YES…the irony is not lost on me.