This afternoon The Bun and I attended the birthday party of one of his friends from playschool, C. It's the first party he's been to where the birthday kid is a friend he made independently; by this I mean that for previous parties the birthday kid usually was a child of one of my friends, or his cousin, or something like that. So it was a roomful ( Read more... )

I received a nice email today from The Bun's playschool, informing the parents about the success of their Christmas charity fund-raising drive. One of the activities organised was the Charity Art Sale, where parents were offered the opportunity to 'purchase' one of their child's (framed) art pieces by making a donation. There was also a Christmas ( Read more... )

I sometimes think I get more out of The Bun's playgroup sessions than he does. It's a great confluence of several factors: The Bun gets to play, do art and craft, and interact with other kids and adults; I get to learn from the fantastic teachers and pick up new and creative ideas; and most of all, the sense of community that has grown and emerged ( Read more... )

Teacher's Day is around the corner, and since The Bun has enjoyed playschool so much, I thought he should draw a picture for his teachers in appreciation of them. I didn't help him do anything at all, except signing his name, but I did ask him to draw what his teachers did in school and what they liked to do. This is what he came up with:


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The Bun turned three over the weekend, but I've been too busy to do a proper update on what went on. Apart from packing and prepping for my trip to Switzerland (I have to pack for myself and for The Bun - guess whose packing list is more complicated?) in limited pockets of free time, I'm also trying to do as much party planning before I go ( Read more... )

The Bun had an interesting day at playschool today. This term they're learning all about food, and so far they've done things like make their own chapati, decorate cupcakes, and experiment with carbonated water. Today involved fish - two whole fish, fresh from the market and suffusing the entire classroom with a slightly fishy smell. The parents ( Read more... )

This term at playgroup has really been great. For one, The Bun has finally seemed to have outgrown that phase where he would scream and sob for ten minutes upon arrival, only to recover and then enjoy the rest of the session with gusto. We had our fair share of mornings where he would crumple into tears upon waking when he realised it was a school ( Read more... )

The Bun's new playgroup term started this week and I didn't realise just how much I missed it (me! not so much The Bun) until I returned. Since The Bun had been crying at playgroup for the last three weeks of the previous term, I was a little apprehensive about how he would take to it again after the holiday break. Over the weekend J and I popped ( Read more... )

The Bun is sick again, which kind of sucks, but at least we have nothing planned for this week so hopefully with enough rest at home he will recover in time for Christmas. I really don't feel any excitement about Christmas apart from the fact that J will be having some time off from work. We discussed getting a small (and fake) Christmas tree for ( Read more... )

The Bun has been attending playgroup once a week for almost six weeks now and he has finally started to settle in. I know this because today he felt bold enough to leave the group circle while the teacher was talking to go exploring on his own. Usually he would be stuck firmly in my lap. At least now the music segments don't frighten him any longer ( Read more... )