I experimented with the ways to get to the venue in United Square this week for the Growing Up Gifted class. Ways that will make it less tiring = more attentiveness for Darius.

On Wednesday, I decided to take a taxi again and spent that heartpain $18.50 (vs $1.52 for MRT). I thought maybe it’s due to me taking too long to reach the venue by walking and MRT so Dar gets tired.

Alas, I still reached quite late by taxi and managed to feed Darius his lunch in 10minutes, entering the class almost 10mins after 1pm yet it still had not started! It seemed to be the norm that class starts only when a certain number of people have gathered(and many are late) so even though it’s a 1.5 hour class, it’s not actually 1.5hours. We start late but we’ll always end on the dot. Hmm shortchanged?…but then, I’m always glad for Darius gets very tired towards the end.

Surprisingly, lately the lessons gets shorter, not much content unlike what I experienced in the trial class. Maybe I joined at the wrong time, i.e. the next half where they had already experienced the bulk of the lessons in front and I’m only getting the additional or revisions. Letters are repeated again from previous lessons so he learns the same alphabet two days in a row which was not what I initially thought. ( I thought a new one every time or at least alternate). Or is it because I chose the wrong days??? Last week was two days of U, this week is two days of V. If I chose Monday & Friday, will it be different? (edit: I did not read the brief properly, yes, it’s the same letter for the entire week but they will have different activities for different days)

Darius isn’t very interested in the story-telling this week. He has experienced it twice already from the make-up and last week’s lesson. One thing I do not understand is why they use small books to tell a story. The words and pictures just ain’t large enough to capture the babies’ interest and many start to get restless, especially when the teachers move towards some children to ask them to spot stuff or flip the pages. What can the other children do? Squirm, whine (like Darius) or walk around. The only interesting activity was them putting paper streamers on a pole and ask the children to pull them down. Darius loves pulling stuff but too many kids on the Wed class so he doesn’t get to do much.

He started getting tired in the middle of it all again and I’m reminded that the porridge may be doing its work…

Okay, so TODAY, I decided no porridge before class. I’ll feed him milk upon arrival to last til the class ends, then I’ll feed porridge.

I took public transport today, and decided to use the anti-pram underpass today. Anti-pram because there’s a steep flight of stairs at the end of the long tunnel after going up two escalators. I hadn’t use it before due to this very reason. But I really had enough of the sun-tanning traffic light junction. One can really become a fried egg at noon crossing the junction, pushing a stroller. So I came up with an idea to take Darius out of the stroller, put him down on the floor, fold the stroller, carry him with one hand, and the other the stroller like a bag, leave my bags up there (hoping it won’t get stolen) and then open the stroller with one hand, put him down and fetch the bags.

Feeling nervous, I passed many looking at me curiously, probably gloating over how ’stupid’ I am because I’m going to discover the anti-pram stairs at the end.

I finally reached the peak and started executing the plan. However, I didn’t managed to do it because this happened:

My mind went whirling…”Huh?” She has appeared beside me for sometime though others had walked past and just when I was taking Darius out, she chose to ask me this question sternly. She asked again and I went like, “Oh, okay, I was just going to bring the stroller down”. She put out her hands and asked me to give her Dar to hold. I hesitated for a moment but felt it unkind to distrust someone so helpful, and gave him to her! She carried him down and waited patiently for me to bring the stroller down. I didn’t fold it in the end since there was no need. Then, only I remembered my bags were on the floor and went up the stairs again. Stupid me, should have brought it down with the stroller.

She smiled finally when I thanked her again. I don’t know why she’s so stern before, as if reprimanding me for doing something so stupid. I really can’t believe people would help. I wasn’t expecting help. In fact, I was quite disappointed I didn’t manage to carry out what I wanted to do. But help is always welcomed!

It was really much better reaching United Square today. I didn’t have to cross that junction and reached much earlier, almost half an hour early! Plus, somebody helped really made my day.

So did the grand plan of feeding him milk only worked? Yes! He was much happier before the start of the class, playing with a new baby girl and trying to grab her clothes from behind, touching or kicking her. He always does that to any babies around him. And he’s very happy playing with the toys scattered around.

At the start of the class, he was still happy but didn’t like the story-telling. At least this time, he paid attention for letter V introduction and Zoophonics.

He also grabbed some plastic vegetables and threw them around. But he kept turning around towards me when the teachers are showing important letters while taking them out of the bag. He just can’t wait for that moment and always missed it. I had to turn him around to watch the teachers. I also noticed that he kept looking at others instead of the teachers. He would be looking at the classroom too, in front, up, back all except looking towards the teachers. Argh… he wasn’t like this at all in the beginning.

I guess he’s already getting peer influence because many babies are walking and moving around, some standing in front of the teachers where they had to repeatedly stop in the middle of the lesson to say, “Sit Down” (not once but sooo many times). I’m not liking this part at all because it’s so disruptive to Darius who is already trying to pay attention. In the end, he kept looking at the moving kids instead of the teachers talking, because they were more interesting.

After the break, he finally perked up at chinese class. We are guessing that it’s because Mandarin is a language he’s constantly hearing from me everyday, thus he’s more alert. He was super attentive to the teacher as we sang the ‘Twinkle Twinkle little star’ song in chinese, a song I sing to him every naptime. A star was handed around which got other kids wailing when told to pass and let go. Luckily, Darius is at the stage of always picking and letting go. The teacher was very bubbly with a cute voice and able to get the children’s attention. He was told to pick up fishes scattered on the floor and put them in the basket. We had fun for this one.

After the chinese class, he got restless and stoned again. We did tissue paper craft where he stick the tissues, pressing on them with my help onto a paper plate. Didn’t enjoy yet again for the music and movement where I swung him to the songs. He was just too tired even though the lesson was short. Maybe overwhelmed with people and sounds.

He fell asleep after I fed him porridge and slept all the way til I almost reached home.

The only good thing he took away from today’s lesson was that he observed the rest so much that when I let go of him in the standing position, he just stood by himself very firmly! When before, he would be putting his hands in his mouth and wailing. He even took three steps forward as if to reach out to them. I grabbed him when he started falling.

I reached home, tried it with him and he walked four five steps towards me chuckling with achievement! ^_^ Hope he can start walking independently soon!!

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