I feel extremely guilty for not providing any development update on Zaria like what I did for Zara. Here is one which I will try to capture her development this year in 2 parts (too overdue, too much to update). And for the records, she’s 2 years 7 months when I wrote this.

♥Academic Development♥
1) She’s the youngest in her class but doing very well. The teachers said she’s quiet in class, but always have the answers for questions which other children can’t answer.
2) She can count and recognise 1 to 10 (counting objects, and not just memorising the number sequence). She can also put out her fingers 1 by 1 to indicate number 1 to 10.
3) She can recognise alphabets from A to U (capital and small letter), and of course Z, and know the sound they make. (Thanks to Letter Factory and Letterland)
4) She knows quite a lot of Mandarin, and Bahasa Malaysia vocab; sometimes, when Zara doesn’t remember how to say something in Mandarin or BM, Zaria will be helping her.
5) She got awarded, best improved in Mandarin for her age group, on her 100th day in school (June ’09).
6) She can sing a lot of songs taught in school, although sometimes I can’t make out the words (especially BM and Mandarin songs), her tune is pretty accurate.
7) She’s very interested to learn, and always asking me questions like, “How many swings is (are) there” “What is bench in Chinese?” “What is sing in Malay?” and the best is, she likes to ask “Sky starts with letter what?” “Grass starts with letter what?” Normally, I’ll ask her to give me the answer, and she’ll start with the sound first, e.g. “S-S-Sky, Samy Snake! (Letterland character for S). Letter S!!” “G-g-g-Grass, Golden Girl! Letter G!” etc etc

Zaria doing colouring in May, she’s already doing within lines. Then last month, she started ‘drawing’ by drawing circles, and then colouring the circles to create her picture.

♥Language Development♥
I think she’s doing very well in this area, able to express herself like a little adult, using some complex words, and her extensive vocabulary. Sometimes for a not-commonly used word, she may make mistake, but she’s quick to correct herself. E.g. When she wanted to do painting, she said, “I want omelette.” When I asked, “Did you say omelette?” She thought for a while and corrected herself, “I want the palatte.”
For her age, her pronunciation is very good, she could pronounce most words accurately. The only regular mistakes she makes is leaving out the S sound for S-blending sound, e.g. Sweet; Swim, School, but when we repeat her wrong pronounciation after her, she’ll quickly self correct.

♥Other Skills♥
1) Can draw circles and colour within the lines.
2) Loves to cut paper with scissors and mess up the house
3) She can work on the todler sewing card, stringing them without supervision.
4) She likes working on jigsaw puzzles, and figuring out how to buckle things or button up.
5) She can take off and put on her own clothes, but sometimes still put 2 legs into one trousers hole.
6) She can now reach for the door knobs, so she’s getting in and out of closed rooms freely.
7) She can feed herself very well, but Jelly still prefers to feed her. When she’s out with us, I normally let her eat on her own.
8 ) She stopped wearing diaper in the night since Feb, ’09 (2 years 2 months). And since then, she’s wet the bed 4 times (and we found out it’s becasue she didn’t go to the toilet before she went to bed). She normally has her last pee before going to bed, and she’ll sleep through until the following morning without another toilet going.
9) When she needs to go to the toilet (be it small or big business), she’ll remove her own pants and climb up the (adult) toilet seat on her own; and will shout out when she’s done. Sometimes, Zara will go and help her ‘clean’ up.