Fever experience with EO and The little things that counts....

        It has been two weeks after my last post. Nothing much, except that we were all pretty busy with revisions, school exams etc, etc. And on top of it, my daughter had a bout of fever. We succeeded not giving her antibiotics, though it's clear that she's having inflammation in the throat, and not eating or drinking much. Sigh, every time she gets sick, it shows. I think she lost at least 1 kg this time. Anyway, though we managed without the antibiotics, we still gave her medicine for her fever. I monitored her temperature diligently, and on the first day, I wasn't going to take the chance of only depending on the essential oils. But I managed to prolonged the time she had to take the medicine, instead of every 4 hours, she only took the medicine after 8 hours or longer. From this experience, I learnt that (with my nervous personality), the essential oils certainly helps if you detect the fever coming very early on. On the first day, as her fever reached 38 degree, I did not dare to wait for the essential oils to do it's work. By the end of the second day, her fever is rather mild, at 37.6 and below. I used Peppermint and Frankincense (diluted with Coconut Oil) on her as often as I possibly can and monitored her temperature. I can see her temperature going up a little after 2-3 hours, but after applying the essential oils, it goes down again in less than 1 hour. She was well again by the 4th day.
          Though I am relieved to have found some alternative to antibiotics, it wasn't at all easy. With only a dose or two a day of antibiotics, we can be sure that it can help curb the inflammation and help with the fever. With essential oils, I had to be diligent in applying them, in order for it to be effective. But I have to remember that essential oils are not medicines and should not be treated as such when using it to deal with sicknesses.
 *But as a reminder, though essential oils are not medicine, too much of a good thing can be detrimental too, thus, in the case of having children in the house, please store it away safely like any other medicines you have.*

          Other than that, I am happy to see more improvements in my daughter. She added another phrase into her spoken vocabulary (an Zhang/ dirty). The situation was that she played with something and her hands were dirty. At the same time, my mother asked her to shake hands with a neighbour. My daughter looked at her hands and replied " An Zhang/dirty" she said this so clearly, that the 2 neighbours who assumed that my daughter could not speak were very surprised.

          At home, I have been guiding her with her Maths homework. I am very happy to note some difference in her. But first, I had to admit that I have not been doing one to one with her for at least 1 month - there should be no acceptable reasons for this, so I would spare you the details. Anyway, as I held her hands and guided her to count the pictures one by one, I asked her to count by herself, as I kept quiet. When we finished marking (cancelling) all the pictures, I asked her to write the correct number beside it - she could actually do this. I can feel her hands moving to the shape of the numbers (I relaxed my grip on her hands and let her guide my hand). When I praised her, she looked at me and smiled happily.

         Since it's school holiday, we did this almost everyday, and I am happy to see her coming to the table after just a gentle call, waiting to do her work, and patiently trying to finish her work as I tried to prolong her sitting time at the table. I have yet to note how long is the time she could actually sit there and do her work, but for now, I am content. We'll do this slowly, step by step....

       I am reminding myself again and again, that she has come a long way and I believe she still has a long way to go.....

A quick update...

I have been lacking the motivation to write any post recently. But I still take photos of our lives around here. As I go through them and sort them into files, I thought, well, why not just make a quick pictorial post of of our month of July. It's gonna be August next week. 

Left to himself, Jay would draw and colour anything under the sun. His drawings are getting more complicated and with more details. His creations are always so colourful. Once, I bought 4 drawing books (I got tired of collecting his pieces of A4 papers and paper plates) - and he finished them up in 1 week. :0 Well, at least he's kept busy...

He's been asking for cute snacks to bring to school.

All credit to the daddy : )

Joy is certainly improving a lot. She has started to observe and try new food. Before, she wouldn't come near this nutritious dish (which my son called the 'black' soup). She actually finished her lunch and it's her first time with the beef too.

She had her first ice cream too. Before, she disliked anything cold. When we gave her an ice cream, she looked at me licking mine. She tried to smell and licked it.... and didn't want to give it back until it's all finished. She even used a spoon and dug into the ice cream cone...  :)

(yeah, I know ice cream has casein - she did get out of control a few days after - but at least she got to try)

Once, she even 'stole' a whole plate of fried prawns. MIL fried the prawns and left them on the table to cool. While she was busy with other dishes, Joy took off the dish cover and took the whole plate into the living room to enjoy. hmmmm.... Our first reaction was to laugh at this, though I know we should not encourage it.

We know that this girl will never let herself go starving. Whenever she is hungry, she would look everywhere in the kitchen for things to eat. She will even open the fridge at home or at MIL's house to find food. There are a few occasions where she was quiet and when we searched for her, she was sitting in a corner, enjoying crackers she got from the fridge.... 

We celebrated Joy's 6th birthday this month too! 

She chose the cake herself. - and can't wait to play with the butterfly.

Jay has been very busy too. He's practicing for singing competition. Actually, he begged his way into this competition. He told me that he wasn't given the chance to sing in school coz the teacher always let other classmates sing. When I met the teacher, I was told that the few classmates were preparing for singing competition and my son answered confidently 'Yes!' when the teacher asked if he wants to join the competition. He has to present 3 songs in 3 months for collective points. There's 2 more songs to practice for next month. 

We went to an old play area in town. I think both the children will outgrow this soon.

 

Another first for Joy. She has always been afraid to even climb and sit on one of these musical rides. This time, she attempted a few times and finally managed to sit on one. She did scream a little when the ride began moving and singing... but I held her tightly until it stopped. She is beaming happily when it's finally done. I think she knows it's another achievement for herself.

Another happy news is that Joy is going to Kindergarten 2 class now. She was in kindergarten 1 class until June - where the children are 1 or 2 years younger than her. They are often too 'helpful' and loved to help her to do everything.

 Now she is among her same age, most of them are not as willing to 'help' her (the teacher told them not to - though the innocent angels did ask, why - since the teacher always tell them to help each other... hmmm... I'm glad I don't have to answer to those questions)

Well, the point is, since there's no one to help her, she began doing things for herself. She is starting to write (though poorly), but it's a good start. Her teachers commented that she is imitating, observing others and trying things on her own... plus, she is speaking more in school. (though her golden voice can only be heard only when prompted). Praise The Lord!

2013 - May #9

Here's some of what we did today:

Jay:

Helicopter

Bicycle. To him, this one doesn't need pedals.

This is suppose to be a factory of some sort. He specifically told me the smoke comes out of the brown tunnel.

I gave in and let him create. 

More practice on sight words and making sentences.

( I got these free from here. )

Vocabulary in English. At the same time, trying to create awareness of the first letter sound and the letter. There's follow up activity to this. 

Alphabets review. Stamp the correct letter.

Or circle the correct letter. He finished all the 26 letters in one sitting. 

 Joy :

Colouring practice. With her left hand.

More handwriting practice. She can actually do this. I told her repeatedly that I am very proud of her. She just smiled at me. (For the record, we have to place her pen on the beginning which we marked as beginning. Then she would do her tracing or printing)

Felt items to help with her speech imitation. 

2013 - May #2

Joy:

This is occasionally a successful lesson, it depends on her co-operative mood.

We have been doing more sorting. I try to get her to practice flexibility in using her left hand. She would still sometimes get buttons with her right hand, then transfer to left hand.

Jay:

He breezed through the sandpaper alphabets. Mostly because he's doing phonics in school too. But I had to correct him in his sounds. His teachers teach by memorization. For eg, if I were to give him /b/ - he would go '/buh/, /buh/ bear. or for /l/ - he would go /le/, /le/ lamb.... gosh, I foresee more arguments about this in future. 

The above picture is him practicing his phonetic sounds. He got to see the words printed in capital letters, but he had to take the lowercase letters to form the words. - still needs to work on the phonetic sounds. But this is just beginning.... 

A little more updates on Joy's speech:

I did a recording with her doing a session on sandpaper numbers. Actually it's a second session on the same afternoon. The first session was a success, so I figure that perhaps I can try to do  a repetitive second session for recording. Yay! Joy did not protest to seeing herself in my smartphone which I place in front of her. It's a pity I couldn't upload it into this blog for obvious reasons.

Anyway, she is saying the numbers : 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9

Plus, giving the correct numbers to me each time. Her daddy is so proud with her when he sees the video!

2013 - May #1

Here are some new activities we are doing:

Jay:

Match Lowercase to Uppercase letters. 

He sounded the phonics sound before matching them.

We started on addition.

Joy:

I only managed to take this photo. 

The movable alphabets were jumbled up in the box. I would sound the phonics and she will match with proper letter. So far, so good. She even said 'T' (not the phonics).

She is still consistently say the numbers 1 and 2... and we have moved on to 4 and 5. In Chinese. I skipped number 3, since it has 2 sounds in Chinese. As for phonics, we moved on to   /t/ and /s/... she seemed to know them, just that not yet able to sound them. She would form her mouth correctly but no sound yet for /m/...

I am very proud of her this week. She searched for her own pajamas (from a mountain of clean clothes- I am ashamed to admit I did not fold and put them away) and changed her pants. When she cant take off her shirt, she came to ask for my help. - all this without me having to keep reminding her. I just casually called out to her that it's time to change to pajamas and I did not even turn to see if she is listening. 

Today is a public holiday, when she wakes up this morning, she searched for her day clothes, changed her pants and came to me for help with the shirt. And I did not even asked her to do this.

When hubby brought her back from grandma after lunch, she walked into a dark living room, coz I purposely switched off the lights and pulled the curtains so that we can have a nap. She pulled her daddy towards the switches. When asked why, she said "An"( dark). When hubby asked if she wants to switch on the lights, she answered "shi" (yes). Isn't this great? Another successful conversation. Hooray!

2013 - April #10

This week was a blurry week for me. For the whole week, I remembered my dates and my days  wrongly. To make things worse, both the kids are coughing, especially at night. AND little Joy was extra energetic for the past few days. For 3 days in a row, she woke up around 1 am - 3 am. Of course, this means that I didn't get enough sleep too. The first day, she woke up at 1 am. I tried to ignore her, but can't. I am such a light sleeper, that a tiny bit of noise would keep me awake - mentally. I mean, my eyes are shut, but I am aware of my surroundings. I was super sleepy at work. I can't even read my student's essays without squinting my eyes and trying hard to concentrate on their handwriting. Then, to stop myself from yawning and looking so sluggish, I took A CUP of coffee. Wow! it really makes a difference. BUT, when I wanted to have a nap in the afternoon, while the kids are still at mom - uh oh... I can't sleep. And I didn't sleep until 10pm... though I felt so dizzy and tired, and is in bed by 7pm.... I never knew coffee could do this to me. (but I've not had coffee for quite sometime). So, with the sleep routine gone wrong for the next few days, I am so ready to just lie down and do nothing. Which of course is impossible.... sigh....

Well, I am not sure if anyone could get any sense of my rambling. But that was not the intent of this post. I still do 'school' with my kids. Well, I kinda forced myself to do it, to avoid having to pick up the rythmn if I let myself slack and have a few days off. (it's equally hard to pick myself up and get into the routine of 'school' at home when I am already in comfort zone, as in the first few months of this year, when the kids attend full day school, and I have the luxury to take my afternoon nap, read, and enjoy my time alone)

ermm... that's getting off topic again. To get straight to the point. Here's what we have been doing:

Joy (approx 5 yrs, 8 mths)

Sorting

We are still working on rods 1-3. This is her trying to put them back properly.

Sticker activity. Since she has shown that she is leftie, I tried to get her to use her left hand for this activity. She would get the sticker with her right hand, then pass to her left to stick.

Jay (approx 4 yrs, 2 mths)

Cut and paste (maths counting 1-5)

Craft. Cut a heart shape, colour and paste. (his own request)

Homework from school. (since he did not attend a few afternoon classes)

Days of the week.

Requested to do the sticker activities too.

We did sandpaper alphabets and numbers too. Joy has been more spontaneous to say 'yi' and 'er' (one and two) when we did the numbers, and sounding the phonetic sounds for /a/, /s/ consistently. 

2013 - April #9

Sorting tray for Joy. She needs more practice in carrying the tray from the shelf to the table.

Needs a little help with the position of the head and nose.

I flashed these cards on fruits for a week. Today I finally asked her to point out the correct words (between 2 cards). Hmmm.... not really ok. Then I arranged them on the mat. She would simply turn the cards over to find the correct fruit I called out. So? more flashing?

Jay spent some time in cutting and arranging and pasting.

He overlooked the first one. He thought there were only 2 to paste. I had to point out to him that the question requires him to paste from 'smallest, middle and biggest'.

* We did the sandpaper letters again  - a/s/m - she really made the effort to follow the shape of my mouth and sound out the words - All three sounds. Hooray!!! 

Praying for more of this!

Speech updates

I am very grateful with Joy's teachers who never gave up on her. They have been trying to make Joy talk in school - and she really did. They are determined for her to greet them 'Good morning' (Zhao An), 'Good evening' (Wu An) and 'Good bye" (Zai Jian). I've heard her myself a few times, when she said 'An' loud and clear. She will also say 'Jian' (short form of Zai Jian). At times, she would say 'bu yao' (Don't want) or 'bu hui' (I don't know how).

This evening, she surprised us all, when she ran into the living room from the kitchen and called out 'Ah Gung' (Grandpa). MIL was in the kitchen and heard her clearly. She had to ask and to confirm whether it's Joy who called out just now. I think this is the first time she called her grandfather. :)

Later, she dragged her daddy into the kitchen, and pointed to the fridge (hubby opened the fridge for her), she looked into the fridge and told her daddy 'Chi (eat) egg'.... her daddy was only too glad to comply. :)

I am glad and very thankful with these small achievements.

Thank You, Lord!

2013 - April #2

Joy doing threading.

Then she stacked the threading buttons. Both Jay and I cheered her on as we talked about the colours. (she was in very good mood)

Practice pincer grasp. 

She is very co-operative when I asked her to choose the alphabets from the bottom of the white board and arrange them in sequence. (she can recognize almost all of them) :)

Jay is assigned to clear the board.

This is Jay playing with the threading/ geo board.

His design.

They took turns doing the activities. Jay did a few maths worksheets and Joy practice a page of tracing. They are free to choose books from the shelves to 'read' while I am working with the other.