Books Yvette Read in January 2011

Most of her time spent on reading in Jan 2011 was all about reading the same books over and over again.

Wow! Said The Owl &   Tip Tap Went The Crab by Tim Hopgood are her favourite book in Jan. Go, Dog. Go! is another hot favourite book that she couldn’t let go. Surprisingly, she has the “stamina” to read thru The Cat In The Hat with me several times in Jan too.

Of course I didn’t let Yvette “get away” so easily. There is a niche area on top of our bed. (In the past, we put photos there but now we cleared them away.) We have placed many many new books there so that from time to time, we manage to read her some new books and she did pick up some to browse herself too.

Lastly, we didn’t cover much for 四五块读 too. We are at Chapter 3 of book 1 and the progress was consider slow. The good thing is, Yvette is picking up many new words covered in the Chinese Enrichment class and she loves reading books from 我会读 series.

Mega Block Project in Dec 2010

We only did a week of home learning in the first week of Dec and then we declared totally no school!

All my teaching is usually done impromptu and follow her lead. She suddenly fall so much in love with the mega block brought by Stella. So D taught her how to build castle with all the blocks in the bag and here are their creation!

14.12.2010

2212.2010

25.12.2010 (Christmas Castle for Gingerbread man!)

29.12.2010

30.12.2010

Borlotti beans (花豆) Soup & Activity for Tot

Every time when I go to the market, I cannot resist the temptation to take a few close-up looks at these beautiful borlotti/ cranberry beans. But I didn’t buy any because I had no clue on how to cook it.

Only recently, 2-3 months ago, my mum started to cook them for us when we are there for dinner every Sunday and I really find the soup very tasty.

Her recipe is really simple.

Ingredients:
100g to 150g of  borlotti/ cranberry beans
Can either use Pork rib or chicken bone. It taste as nice.
2 Large Carrot, 2 Large Potato, 10-15 red dates.
1500ml water

Seasonings:
Salt to taste

Methods:

1. Blanch Pork rib or chicken bone in boiling water for a short while. Dish and set aside.
2. Steam the bean till soft. (I never steam them. I throw everything inside. Lazy.)
3. Bring water to boil. Put all ingredients inside. Bring the water to boiling again and switch to low fire.
4. Boil for 2 hours. Turn off the heat. Salt to taste and serve.

P/S: I cook them today but forgotten to take picture.

Besides the soup, I find Borlotti Bean could keep Yvette real busy too. I will normally buy those beans with skin so that I can get Yvette practice her peeling skill. So (yes, I love it so much now and I cook every week.) after the market trip, I will get Yvette to help me in the kitchen. And this can keep her very occupied for half an hour without me supervising her!

She peels.

She scoops.

She counts. (She will count number of beans she could scoop up each time.)

Do try and let me know your experience and whether the soup suit your taste!