Early Math Matters - Math & Cognitive Development Enrichment for 3-6 years old

The Importance of Early Math Education for Preschoolers

Being parents of preschoolers, we do enjoy the moments when our kids share their world with us as they explore and learn with great enthusiasm. We always want the best for our children and give them all opportunities within our ability to achieve their potential to equip them well for the future. I've learnt that early math education is just as important as early literacy. Math is needed to build reasoning in a child and exposing them in their early ages can leads to benefits at later stage. In fact, young children are naturally interested in math as it exists in the world around them . By obtaining a strong Math foundation to understand concepts and terminology early can prepare the child to apply the skills learned and make it easier for them to make a connection with the real world.

Why EARLY MATH MATTERS (EMM) ?

I've been trying to source for an enrichment class for my 3 years old BabyK and that's when I chanced upon Early Math Matters; a premier Mathematics & Cognitive development enrichment centre that specialize in preschool math education.  It is also the sister company of NeuroMath Academy founded by Mr Norman Tien, a PSLE Math trainer with 20 years of experience. 
My requirements are pretty simple. I want a programme that can build up BabyK's math fundamentals learning in a fun and stress-free manner. At this young age, play is the perfect learning environment for them.

EMM believes that purposeful play can allow young children to grasp highly complex mathematical concepts if they learn math concepts in a fun and engaging way. This is totally in line with what I want Kyrian to experience now.

MATH INTELLIGENCE PROGRAMME (3-6 years old)

Young children learn math best by engaging in dynamic, hands-on games and activities. The Math Intelligence Programme is catered to preschoolers age 3-6 and focus on teaching math concepts through purposeful play lessons with interesting learning aids and experiential manipulative.  Lessons are made to be fun, interactive and engaging to help them build a passion for math.

Now let me show you some photo previews of the activities that BabyK did in his 3 years old class. 

Practicing number bonds to 10. The kids learn all the two numbers that make up to 10 by matching the caps to the right bottles.

After the teacher demonstrated the number bonds of 10 concept, the kids get to do a related simple worksheet to enforced what they've learned.

Auditory memory game that requires the kids to listen and count the number of clicks they hear for each round. Somehow BabyK really loves this activity and gets really excited to shout out the answer when everyone is still trying to focus on listening.

Learning simple addition of 5, using simple blocks to input the concept.

With teacher's guidance, they did some simple addition equations together. 

Visual memory game when the kids pretend to be holding a camera to take a picture on the screen. They have to remember and try to place the items back to the correct position.

This is also a type of photographic memory game that teaches them about spatial awareness .

IQ logic activity - Arranging the shapes according to their sizes and number of dots.

Spatial recognition game , learning about position of an item. 

Fixing a puzzle together.

Motor skills training - cutting with a scissor.

Another one of Kyrian's favourite segment; walking a straight line while balancing an egg on a spoon. 

Every week, the kids are exposed to different interesting games and activities that strengthen their Math foundation and cognitive development. And these are what EMM meant by learning through purposeful play. At the end of each lesson, the teacher will conduct a debrief session for parents to share what was taught during the lesson. She also provides feedback on the child’s strengths and learning gaps and advise what parents can do at home to improve their learning progress.

EMM is very gracious to share to my readers some of their manipulative and hands-on games that are played by the 3 years olds in their Math Intelligence Programme. 

All these games used in their purposeful play are designed to engage all of the child’s 5 senses and help them build a strong foundation for problem solving during their early experiential learning phase.

My Review

The programme definitely instills a strong interest in Math for BabyK and builds up his confidence in approaching numbers and concepts.  This is exactly what I want him to benefit from an early math education. If he enjoys math, it is so much easier to teach him more. I can also see great improvement in his concentration level and observance skill. For a 3 years old,  he is able to visualize and interprete very well. Most importantly I can see his great enthusiasm towards coming to class and to share with me what he learned every week.
I used to think that Math is a very difficult and boring subject, as I myself struggle with the subject in school. However now I understand that it is different if the child is able to cultivate a strong interest in the subject at a very young age and EMM gives the child an opportunity to achieve this.

PROMO CODE TO SHARE TO MY READERS

I highly recommend this programme to parents who is looking for an enrichment that specialised in early math for kids at a young age. So if you're looking for one that is able to kick start a child's love for math and for them to learn math in a fun and stress-free environment, then The Math Intelligence Programme from Early Math Matters is definitely the right enrichment school to start off with.

More information of Early Math Matters can be found below. Do make an appointment with their friendly consultant if you like to visit the outlet to understand more.

Website: http://earlymathmatters.com

Address: 42 East Coast Road, #01-02, Singapore 428762

Tel: +65 6384 0797 , +65 97703263

Kyrian's 2 Years old Birthday Party - MINIONS theme

Minions is one of the cartoon characters that I thought I'll never expose my kids to. I don't find them educational, they speak gibberish and they look more weird than cute. Despite that, I swallowed back my words on the day I witnessed a Minion advertisement made my younger baby boy laughed so hysterically tat he almost choked on his banana. And that's the beginning of his love for Minions. It then brings us so much joy to watch him dance or listen to him blabber after the Minion's tune, especially that "bababa..banana~" song.

So when he turned two, we knew the theme to select for his birthday party.

MINIONS THEME!

All the kids were invited to the party dressed in yellow and blue to fit the theme too. Yes, all the little minions are going to assemble here !

These are the minions party props (hats and goggles) for the kids and my customised table-top name display.

 Pre-packed party bags for the guests (Assorted Minions theme stationary).

 Simple decoration as our photo backdrop

Balloons decorations + Customised name table display + Party bags + Party Props + Pinata are all ordered online from TAOBAO.

Minions is a common birthday theme, so I managed to grab quite a lot of interesting loots from there.

As for the words pasted on the wall "Kyrian is two", I made them myself using coloured and glittered paper.

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Bouncy castle that Hubs arranged to bring back from his previous trip from China,. He got it at a good deal at around $200.

On the side note, most of the little guests asked if there was going to be a magician once they arrived at our place. They love the magic show at Reagan's birthday party which they attended the month before and was hoping to see it again at Kyrian's birthday. The kids have pretty good memory.

But the new bouncy castle didn't disappoint them either!

The party was held on Vesak's day, so we catered vegetarian food from Lion Kitchen, which was pretty good in my opinion, especially the yam paste , also the first to be finished up.

The kids took turns to hit the Minion pinata but it was not as easy to do so for their age. The parents were like yelling at the kids to "hit harder hit harder!" It was quite amusing actually, until babyK dropped the stick and went over to hug and "sayang" the Minion pinata~ !
I was taken by surprise. My innocent babyK must be wondering why everyone is being so mean, forcing the kids to hit his beloved Minion ! Aww...

Anyway with some help from the adults, the minion finally got ripped apart and all the goodies rained down on all the excited little sugar-craving scavengers.

The next surprise was the special appearance of the Minion mascot! 

What is a minion party without a minion?!

And yes that's my husband inside haha! He actually rehearsed a special birthday dance for BabyK but at the last minute he was too shy to perform in front of all the guests . So instead, he promised the boys to dance with them after the party. 

Our Minion distributed the goody bags to the kids and have a photo taken with them one by one.

Next our babyK's birthday cake is  from Nana Bakes , the same bakery that I bought Reagan 's train cake from. They managed to quote me a reasonable price for a 3D minion character cream cake in fruity lychee flavour. 

 Thanks to one of our lovely guests who managed to help us get these special fire-sparks candles at the very last minute again!

And lastly thanks to all who came to share this memorable day and got charmed by him at the party. 

Is hard to believe my darling baby superstar has reached the number TWO ! Where has the time gone seriously?! 

Our Happy Little Suns - Kyrian , the second child after my first preemie

It was nearly one and a half year later when I held that distinctly double lines on my pregnancy kit again, staring at it in disbelief. Unlike the reaction of my first pregnancy, this time my senses were pervaded by an uncomfortable premonition of fear. I remembered that dryness in my throat and churning in my stomach, and the very first words I uttered were.. "oh shit." And amusingly ... I  called hubby after sending him the photo of my positive pregnancy kit and his first words were almost similar to mine.. "SHITTT....!"

To be honest, my second pregnancy was unplanned. In fact ,the Hubs and I have even talked about stopping at one child, especially after we have maxed out our strength, energy and finance on our firstborn preemie. If one already had a premature birth, there's an increased risk of having another premature baby. At that moment, we still have this phobia of the next one putting us through the same horrendous experience.

After collecting myself together, I tried to look at the positive side. All the while I was rather struggled over my inability to carry my child to full-term. The feeling of being"short-changed" by the birth of my first born preemie. It seems to have robbed me of the experience of a healthy long term pregnancy, and the precious first few hours or days bonding with the baby, the taking of photographs in my ward , or just basking in the glory of our newly-created family.

So I'm guessing God's plan is to compensate me with another chance to achieve the experience that I once thought I could have...and that's unless my next one managed to stay comfy in my womb for at least 37 weeks.

There were a lot of precautions to take, such as the increased multiple times of checkups at the gynae's and extra medication prescribed to strengthen my cervix. Once I was near the end of my second trimester, I was put to full bed-rest at home. My mom and hubby succeeded in fattening me as they were determined to see a good number for the second baby weight this time. I was held captive like a goose, being forced feed up to 5 times a day. Without any exercise (I was even forbid to climb the stairs at home.) and the crazy intake of their so-call nutritious food, my weight rapidly increased like nobody's business. I gained a total of 27 kgs for this pregnancy and continued to gain more even during my confinement period

(I shall talk more on my weight lost transformation in another post.)

Fortunately, my second child managed to reached full-term, hitting 38 weeks and 3 days. This time I was determined to achieve a natural birth delivery, despite my gynae's disapproval though. In the end, BabyK was smoothly delivered naturally with epidural within 8 hours, and achieved a good weight of 3.3kg.  Most importantly, I witnessed his first cry , I cuddled him, I kissed his cheeks, I latched him for breastfeeding...all these immediately right after his birth. It seems that I've finally gotten a psychological closure. Now, I've got a pleasant birth story to share too.

(The first meeting of Rboy and his baby brother.)

My second boy is named Kyrian, which is the greek word for Lord. In truth, I goggled the name Kyrian and the first photo that caught my attention was this freaking yandao model with the name Kyrian. And that confirm my decision to name my second boy, Kyrian.

 BabyK has an entirely opposite personality from his older brother. He is much more active and alert, and was easily enchanted and humoured by the things around him. Yes, he giggles all the time, especially when interacting with Rboy.

BabyK was also a very vocal baby and his first few comprehensible words were at 7 months old. Before he turns two, he can speak in clear short sentence like , "Hello, my name is Kyrian. I am 2 years old.", and my all time favourite phrase, "Mummy, didi love love you."

 At times my darling babyK can be quite handful, but overall he is really an affectionate snuggly little baby who loves to throw you lots of surprise cuddles and kisses.

Furthermore, he is my favourite photography model for showcasing our kids' OOTD (outfit of the day).

I've to shamelessly say that my son is such a charmer~~~~~

He loves dressing up, enjoys posing, takes instructions very well, loves the camera and the camera loves him haha!

So it didn't take long to make the decision to sign him up for modelling this year, hopefully to gain more exposure and most importantly, doing what he is good at. We are really looking forward for his first casting!

(His modelling portfolio shoot at 22 months old)

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Lastly, I shall end this blog entry with a photo of my two precious sunshines in my life. This photo is taken last year from BabyK's one year old outdoor photo-shoot session.

Embarking on this journey of motherhood is full of unforeseen challenges but trust me, it is tough only at the best of times. The payoff can be fantastic and so surprisingly awesome that it helps keep my momentum going on, especially during physically taxing and emotionally draining days.

Moreover, there is nothing that leaves me more in awe than witnessing my sunshine boys present me with new wonders every single day. I treasure each and every moment with my heart overflowing with gratitude. Well, I hope this blog will touch the hearts of other moms who share the same thoughts and know that we are all on the same boat. As well as prospective moms-to-be who are looking forward to embark on this wonderful journey, also the curious passer-by who happen to find motherhood astonishing and fascinating, and needs more convincing haha.

Yes, it is life's blessing, to be a mother, so just enjoy it to the fullest.

Our Happy Little Suns - Reagan , my firstborn son

The purpose of creating this blog is to document the beautiful footprints of our happy sunshine boys and to share our exhilarating parenting journey. I thought I should then dedicate a post to them, introducing my two precious little sunbeams in my life. 

My first sunshine in my life is named Reagan, it means "little king" (he is still ruling  ...). I usually pen him as Rboy in my blog. Rboy is the child that was born too early. At my 28th week of pregnancy, my blood pressure hit over 200, I bled profusely , vomited uncontrollably from the intense pain in my abdomen, followed by a minor seizure attack. The doctor explained that my placenta had detached itself and there was sign of fetal distress. Baby's heartbeat was dropping alarmingly and they had no choice but to remove him from my womb to save his life and mine. Very quickly, I was wheeled into the operating theatre for an emergency c-section under GA. Pre-eclampsia was what they suspected I had, a life threatening pregnancy condition which affects 2-8% of all pregnant women.

My baby boy was delivered with no signs of life. He was neither moving nor breathing. The medical team rushed him to the NICU , trying their best to resuscitate him.

We never forget the doctor's exact words , "He is a miracle baby."

My baby won the first round of battle... which is to stay alive.

(Reagan 's 1st day at the NICU)

Rboy is a 29weeks preemie, weighing 1.2kg, which dropped to only 950grams the day after. 

To witness my baby boy painfully tangled in all these wires and tubes was truly heart-breaking.

His tiny ribs were expanding and contracting in a sickening manner, gasping for every breath in great difficulty...but I was not allow to carry or to comfort my baby. The only thing I can do is to watch, wept...and pray...I never felt so helpless in my life.

The sense of guilt and worry got my anxiety soaring high. The prolonged uncertainty and fear of having a struggling preemie in the NICU is inevitable. I was totally not prepared for this.

The next couple of months was an emotional roller coaster ride for us. A melancholic way to begin our first-time parenthood journey. Although Reagan looks so tiny and fragile, he was a strong warrior and fought hard to overcome all life-threatening medical conditions that came his way. During his two months stay in the NICU, he was diagnosed with lungs infection, bleeding in the brain and a hole in his heart. We can do nothing but to pray, and yes we prayed hard..every minute and every single day.

Miraculously ....he recovered from all of the above conditions. Doctors have no explanation . "Sometimes it just happened. " they said.

Beyond the traumatic experience, came the triumphant. We waited for 59 enduring days before we get to cuddle our precious baby boy back home with us.

I learnt that prematurity can have long term side effects in life. Premature babies who survived are at risk of impaired cognitive skills which includes developmental delays and learning disabilities. Comparing to their full-term counterparts, they also face higher odds of chronic health issues and lower immunity.

Therefore I made the most apparent decision to become a stay-at-home-mom. We had too much lost time...now I just want to bond and spend every minute with my baby. Equipped with an early education background, I wasted no time to bond with my boy, exposed him to lots of sensory play and right-brain stimulation. Rboy was a very calm and quiet baby. His physical/motorskills milestones were lagging behind even after his adjusted age. It was until nearly 2 years old then he learned to walk independently.

On the other hand , we also noticed that Rboy had an astounding attention span and was very keen to learn and explore. He grew very fond of flashcards and attained very strong interest in alphabets and numbers. It was until around the age of 13 months then we found out that he could easily recognise alphabets, including differentiating all upper and lower case letters. He understood numbers and its quantity, as well as most colours and shapes, even the more complex ones like rhombus, sphere, pentagon, octagon ,cylinder etc. The most amazing discovery was that Reagan could recognise and read words at the age of around one year old. It was not easy to pronounce the words very well at his age, but he could sign to us or point correctly at every word we asked for. I tried my best to keep up with his speed of learning by engaging him in more challenging "words play" which he loves so much.

Before he turned 2 years old,  he could identify any random words and able to read , pick up and form sentences.

With no knowledge of phonics, he was still able to "decode" or "breakdown" words and read them accurately. It didn't take long for him to turn into an independent reader by the age of 3. Picking up any children book and reading it by himself became a very easy feat to him. And now, his current favorite stunt is unlocking our cellphones to read our messages , or to log into YouTube to type in the names of the videos that he wants to search for.

(Reagan at 3 years old)

Soon, through the encouragement from one of his teachers, we sent him to a child psychologist who put him through the Stanford-Binet V, an internationally recognised IQ assessment test. We wanted to understand more on his intellectual capabilities and learning, as well as the ways on how we can support him further. The report showed that Reagan scored within the top 1% and was placed under the gifted range. With his IQ report, he was successfully accepted by Mensa at the age of 3.

Rboy has grown to have a character of his own. He has never really been an active child and usually prefers to watch and observe his surroundings, but neither is he a withdrawn boy. He speaks with enthusiasm about things he loves, like trains and railway tracks or his favorite movies that he watched. He also possessed the traits of a perfectionist and has high expectation of himself. This leads to frustrations most of the time though. He has a fear of not getting things done in the perfect way he wants and would then choose not to attempt. It was obvious that he has an issue of facing failure, which is not supposed to happen at this young age. Rboy also prefers the company of older children and adults and often have very few words with kids at his age. Therefore, confidence and social skill are something I like him to improve on.

It's still very amazing to watch our tiny fragile little baby grow into a boy with so much love and personality. Witnessing him once fight for survival in the NICU is an unforgettable memory in this lifetime of ours. This experience also put things into perspective for us as we learned to even more cherish the value of life. We are always reminded of the heartache we felt in our journey to be with him, which made our heart filled with so much gratitude. We are so blessed to have our Rboy, our beautiful bundle of joy. 

Please hop on to the next entry here on my second baby sunshine, BabyK .