BOGGLE - the mind boggling game??

Recently our nephews Shukri and Sadiq introduced the game BOGGLE to the rest of the gang. They had fun in Sentosa playing it. So much fun that each family ended up buying a set each, and have been boggling away since..

We bought a set for Jeremy 2 days ago. We tried very hard to teach him the rules of the game (which by the way was designed for kids 8 years and above). As for Timothy, he joins in the game as well, but instead of forming words I told him to write all the letters that he can recognise within the stipulated time. Their progress so far?

Jeremy:

He really surprised me tonight. Just last night, it seemed so hard explaining to him how to look for words. I didn't want him to be discouraged, so I manipulated the "shake" of the letters so that he got enough vowels to form words. Tonight, I was busy settling Timothy in his bed while Jeremy was "shaking" the letters. When I was ready to play with him, I realised that the letters were tough - he had difficult letters like "Qu", K, Y, W, X!! So i told him to shake again citing "too difficult" as the reason. He stopped me from doing so and insisted that he knows. And very quickly, he pointed out the word "KEY" to me!! So I let him try... and below is the list of words he came up with ..

key, axe, toe, keys, way, tea, tow, ways, wax, wet, no, on...

Think he was very happy with this because he said he wanted to show his daddy when he comes back from China!

Timothy:

I think he got the idea of how the game is to be played while we were trying very hard to teach Jerry. Tonight, instead of writing letters that he can recognise, like what i have taught him, he actually put 3 letters together! Since he does not know how to spell, I could only spot one correct answer (EEL) out of the 63 words that he came out with! By the way, I did not even check if Eel should be there.. and also, 63 words was what he counted. He lost count after 15, jumping from 15 to 17, correct till 23, then jumped to 40s, then 50s and 60s... Good try Timmy!

Parent-meet-Teachers

Today, we went to school to meet both Jeremy's and Timothy's teachers. The purpose of the meeting was to allow parents and teachers to give feedback on the past year's (or semester's) curriculum and also on the child's development, both academically and socially.

I am proud to say that all teachers without exception (... ok, maybe for Timmy's English teacher, since we did not have a chance to talk to her) commented that we have very smart boys. Both of them are coping very well with their academic milestones. Well done boys!!

Jeremy:

Since Nursery, I was never concerned about Jeremy's interest for learning. He has shown great interest in wanting to know and learn more. So much so that i was not able to keep up :)

I was more concerned with his social skills. He is a very quiet and shy boy. But today, the feedback that I got from school was really surprising and at the same time, encouraging. Most of his teachers said that he has opened up a lot! He even volunteered to attempt at questions in his English classes and once, he even volunteered to do show and tell during his English speech and drama classes!

I was so surprised and was speechless... I told myself that i must not give up and label him as a shy boy. I know he can do it.

Timothy:

We thought we would be told that Timmy is a playful boy. But, we were wrong! Very wrong! All his teachers told us that he is such an adorable child and guess what? He is even Mr Popular in class! Apparently, many parents today wanted to know who is Timothy because their kids have been telling them that they like Timothy and Timothy is their best friend! So, looks like we may not have to worry about his social skills.

Academically? He excels in it too! We were so surprised when his teachers told us that he is very ATTENTIVE in school and would participate voluntarily in all the activities. Attentive? We really couldn't believe our ears because when it comes to story reading time at home, he would be wandering off to do something else after just one or two sentences (unless of course the story relates to some superheroes fighting some bad guys). And for the record, he demonstrated to us that his Chinese vocabulary has improved tremendously, reciting at least 10 Chinese words that were pasted on the wall in school!

I guess we came back feeling happy and proud of our boys! Keep it up!!