Music Classes at SEIMPI

Kiki enjoys her music classes very much. She sings and springs into action, tee-tee-ta! (foot work), and drums away with her palms.

We started attending the class in November 2010 and it's been good.

I am not musically trained so I really am not able to tell you in terms of musical rating or standard but here are some lesson outline if you please.

Topics:
Pitch - Treble Clef, Middle C, Treble & Clef, High & Low
Singing using (C-D-E-F-G) and animal sounds for high & low pitch.
(like a puppy's bark vs a bull dog's growl)

Rythm - Rythmic patterns with "Ta" in 2/4, 3/4 time. (TA-TA, TEE-TEE-TA)
Use precussion instruments

Songs / Rhymes - Singing / Chant nursery songs and rhymes, clap / tap the beat/rhythm or use precussion instruments (sleigh bells, castanets, tamborine)

Music Theory- Note Value - Crotchet, Dynamics F, P. Fast and Slow.

Score Reading - Flash cards / Books & Pictures. Recoginze Treble- C

Keyboard Repertoire - Keyboard Banner, 2/3 Black Keys

Music Appreciation - Composers and their works. Nursery Rhymes, songs and classical music

Harmony (in the pipeline)

Transposition (in the pipeline)

Improvisation (in the pipeline)

We pay $100 per month for lessons once a week, regardless how many weeks there are in a month ( ie, there could be 3, 4 or 5 lessons in a month. February itself will have 3 lessons only due to the CNY off day). Each lesson lasts 45 mins.

To find out more, you can call or visit http://www.seimpi-music.com.sg/

HQ : #05-37 Funan DigitaLife Mall
Tel :67376731 Fax :67376031

Pasir Ris : #05-07C Whitesands Shpg Ctr
Tel :65837913 Fax :65837810

Marine Parade : #06-07 Parkway Centre
Tel :63465781 Fax :63465793

Hougang : #05-04/05 Hougang Mall
Tel :63435347 Fax :63435447

***
Hope this helps if you're exploring Music development for your child. =)

Enjoy yourselves! Oh, one parent or care giver will have to sit in.
But hey, that's bonding time. I really treasure it and enjoy it too.

By the way, I do not scout for the "best" centres... for me, I scout for the most convenient location and give it a chance.

Premium- Bags!

Bren asked if I was buying bags or magazines, I said, I bought the magazines for the bags. Just like people buy Happy Meals for the toys.

These premiums really enticed me to buy them, they are so dainty and sweet, just appropriate for CNY, I'll have many new bags!

These are also some gift ideas if you're getting for your friend's BD or something.

They range from slightly under SGD 20 to slightly over $40. The yellow one you see here is $28 and the floral - $17.50.

CNY 2011 - Prelude

Pouches to store our ang bows.

Sunday, 23rd January 2011

Strong wind.
The sun was blazing and weather perfect but the water in the pool was cold as ice.
This is the second time we tried to swim but to no avail. It was terribly cold even at noon!
This is because the pool doesn't get much sun at all (due to the enclosed design of the building)
and the wind was at high notch. No one swam expect for another girl of about 10 years.
One younger girl got out from the pool and was shivering despite being wrapped in towel and hugged by the mother.

Kiki was very excited and refused to take No for an answer, but 10 seconds in the pool, she jumped out. So in the end, we settled for sitting on the edge at the pool and she kicked and splashed away just using her legs and arms. That was enough for her and we played like this for over 30 minutes.

Mickey's tail. She loves Mickey.
She now has a Mickey Mouse water bottle.


Discovering she has a shadow.

Sunday, 23rd January 2011

Introduced her to the Chinese Lion.
When we were leaving, she said - Lion, bye!

Nails

Sunday, 16th Jan 2011

The Papa was wondering where the three of us were, cos we were so quiet for over an hour.

I was trying to do some Spring-cleaning (or Sprint Cleaning haha) but ended up showing Maricar my antiques while clearing out the drawers.

As usual, Kiki is curious and would want her hands on everything new to her.
She has already spoilt my mechanical drum-bear and I dread to let her play with my antique toys..... but relented. (That mechanical bear could repeat a tune you let him hear. As usual, many of the toys I like are small in size. And coincidentally, are Japanese).

She played with the black current cup cakes for a fairly long time.

She still doesn't know the concept of these "teekum" vending machines. The later the better!

Maricar had a good laugh over the diapers especially.

Sunday, 16th Jan 2011

I like all these miniature models but if I really have to choose just one, I would say this packet of "jello" is the most fascinating. It is just 1-1/2" big and has many cups of jellos inside the tiny packet. The cups have printed seals some more.... can you see that the printed text are tinier than an ant.

Bathroom set. Kiki took the dipper, stood up and walked to the bathroom.
We were confused. It took us a minute to realise that she was trying to show us that the tiny dipper is of the exact design as the ones we have! Proportionately smaller but exactly the same!

Medicine set

and the pastry set.

Start Early

can't stand my sis....

Don't you just dig that cap-sleeve brief T she's wearing?
She wears this under her sleeveless uniform.
Those under-garment Tees are actually "for boys", I mean, they were labeled as "for boys".
Those meant for girls are all singlets.
Whatever.

Total Fertility Rate in Singapore at All Time Low

Headlines from The Straits Times

Fertility rate at all time low.
Fell from 1.22 (2009) to a historic low of 1.16 (2010)
To curb the problem, foreigners will make up the replacement rate.

I don't know how that will encourage Singaporeans to have more babies.


***
I live just 500 mtrs from a renowned primary school and I can't even be sure I can get Kiki into that school. Already I have been nudged to volunteer at the school two years before Kiki becomes seven in order to be sure to get into the school.

I can say it is a crazy idea but I cannot say I will never do it, because well, I'd never know!
(In this case, can the MP help?)

***
I have not heard of Nanyang Kindergarten until it made news when parents queued for 24 hours to enroll their toddlers into Pre-Nursery, one mother even had her baby with her in the overnight queue. I read up more about that school and discovered that they conduct the nursery classes purely in Mandarin, and they teach "shu fa" (Chinese text writing strokes techniques). No wonder it is such a draw. Chinese is like the big thing here and everywhere else.

Already I am stressed over finding a "better" pre-school for Kiki as my neighbour told me the one Kiki attends now is only for play. She withdrew her daughter from there after 4 month's observation.

***
People always tell me that we grew up well even without all the Gung-ho curriculum and we still managed to read and learn. In other words, they are telling me to be lax about it.
I am not too sure if they have picked up a local school text book or worksheet and attempt it.

***
The heat from our academic system is the main reason I had delayed family plans.
I need to equip myself with time and resources to bring up my child in the best manner I can. This is human's nature or at least inherent in many Singaporeans. Nature is nature but nurture is variable.

***
Even with these situations, we hope to have another baby.
So much so that this morning, I dreamt that I was pregnant.

***

CNY - 2O11 (prelude)

Video killed the Radio Star,

E-cards killed the Greeting Cards.

Besides my maternal relatives, NOBODY else I know sends Chinese New Year greeting cards. Nobody. It's quite a feat finding nice and cheap CNY cards these days. I mean, the prices range from 90 cents to 2 dollars each, and I normally need like 30 pieces. Luckily my sis managed to find some good ones at reasonable price. That is after we gave up the hunt and was contemplating to DIY some cards or forgo it this year.

OH! (Open House) 8th January 2O11

http://www.ohopenhouse.com/
The OH! Open House is an art tour organised by the National Arts Council. Urban Redevelopment Authority, National Heritage Board & few other sponsors.
Five very kind souls volunteered their homes to allow artists to install their artwork and let the public tour their homes. Real, living space smacked in the middle of a town none other than the Marine Parade!

This was a chance of a lifetime for us to explore and learn more about our estate, at the same time, introduce Kiki to installation & conceptual art.

We throughly enjoyed the tour, please catch this if you are keen as they're having this till next weekend only. (8th, 9th, 15th, 16th Jan 2011)


Did you know that the first Bengawan Solo shop was born in 1979 after the ministry of environment shut down the founder's home kitchen in her HDB flat? She then started her first shop under the block.

This place has all the hot topics from 328 Katong Laksa to the Seaviews and the highly sorted after Tao Nan Primary School that purportedly drove up property prices here.

OH! (Open House) 8th January 2O11

We didn't know that the tour starts at 4pm and we had 30 minutes in hand to digest.
So we went to the little ice cream parlor located just at the corner of the Marine Parade CC.
It was an interesting cafe, the Gelati (plural for Gelato) were marvelous. Really rich and wonderful. We had the Butterscotch, Oreo & Nutella (!) and the Passion Fruit.

Besides the very good gelati, the place is just brimming with artsy air. There were many displays on some painters' work which we feasted our eyes on and tried not to look too wowed. They sell templates of cloth for you to do Batik painting, cross stitch, collage, and even plain, white umbrellas with hand-drawn outline of Dinoursaurs for you to fill out with paint. etc etc.

From the sound of this, it looks like this cafe will become our hangout in no time.

278 Marine Parade Road#01-03 Marine Parade Community Club S449282
Tel:63456563
Opening Hours - Daily: 9.30am - 10.00pm
http://www.scoop-of-art.com

JUST LOOK AT THIS.

OH! (Open House) 8th January 2O11

I've never really went to any high floors to see the view and had no expectations when I saw these but hey, it's cool.

OH! (Open House) 8th January 2O11

(Above) You are actually looking at mirrors on the floor. It looks as though you're looking down into a room but it is really the floor. All the items you see - the table, lamps, cushion, books, TV are all installed upside down in the room. The mirrors reflect whatever that are in the room, hence the "depth" effect. It is scary in the sense-- it's like you're hovering on the ceiling of the room.

There's an old fashioned mama shop at the void deck that employs an "electronic eye". Can you spot the close circuit camera on top?

OH! (Open House) 8th January 2O11

OH! (Open House) 8th January 2O11

This bird cage does not look like this when you see it with your eyes. It looks distorted and out-of-shape. But when you snap a picture of it, you get to see it like a real, 3D thing.

Does it look like the black cat is resting on a raised platform?

There is no raised platform. It's flat. It's just an illusion.

Look how the real grills extend all the way to the left.

OH! (Open House) 8th January 2O11

OH! (Open House) 8th January 2O11

This is the stud ring of the hole on the canvas.
What I've focused here is a cushion that says "Relax" on it.

The artist goes about doing her regular stuff, works on her laptop, moves to her typewrite and starts clicking away, plays a few tunes on the piano, lazes on the floor. etc. The interesting thing is that you watch her by peeking through some holes on a huge canvas that seperates the space she's in, and you're on the outside.

This whole idea / concept is really intirguing. Even Kiki watched silently and intently on what was happening behind the veil. The scence that was being acted out is so dream-like, you're like watching a dream, a very puzzling dream because the subject is not you nor someone you know but she was just going about doing non-important things and the very fact that she was "unaware" of you watching her makes you (or at least me! & Kiki) glued to her.

(this is taken by putting the lens through the hole, almost like having crossed over to her world / dream)

This is taken from a distance. (can you feel the fuzziness? dreaminess?)

OH! (Open House) 8th January 2O11

Arump.... the Papa joined us for dinner.

The tour took 2 hours instead of the planned 45 minutes or an hour.

This is because there was quite a bit of walking, plus every group that came after us had to wait for the group before them to finish touring the displays. It is understandable as it is HDB flats we're visiting, hence they could only take groups of ten at each house. Nevertheless, it was an interesting tour and I really enjoyed myself a lot. I hope that at a certain level, it has enriched our minds and I surely hope it has enriched Kiki's mind too. We were all tired from the walking but in high spirits. I look forward to more such excursions. I thank the organisers, artists, volunteers, sponsors for bringing this interesting event. Thank you!

Delayed Telecast

Jig Saw Puzzle Jumbo Size

I thought over this for what I felt was like 10 minutes before buying this because I wasn't sure if Kiki is ready for jigsaw puzzles (she may just chew on them, like how she chewed out a BIG (really big) chunk of card board when she was barely five months old (my negligence! forgive me!)) Also I thought that at $23.90, this is quite costly. But I relented because I find that jumbo die-cut puzzles are quite rare. (I'm not sure but I really haven't seen much of these) and so I've decided to get this. There are only two designs, one of a lion and the other a car.
Oh, at John Little, in case you're wondering where to get them.

commercial break:

thsi is jsut to prove to yuo that eevn i misspell mnay words in thsi sentcene, yuo can sitll read it.