Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Painting To My Heart’s Content



I enjoyed myself so much at Artsy Sip doing my first painting (since I was in Form 3!) of Van Gogh's Starry Night that I kinda organized a private session with Artsy Sip agaom with a group of my friends and did my 2nd painting - Van Gogh's Olive Trees With Yellow Sky and Sun.

 




Seeing how much I enjoyed painting, hubby got me a set of Acrylic Paints and some blank canvases to paint to my heart's content! #alsobecauseiwontwastemoremoneyatArtsySip



And so I got back and started painting just a week later.

I painted another Van Gogh's painting - Les Alpilles, Mountain Landscape near South-Reme because I am such a fan of his paintings.

Of course my work is nowhere near his.  Although I know nothing about paintings, but his colours and strokes are amazing.
My take is on below left, and Van Gogh's on the right.
 


And just this week, I managed to paint my 4th Van Gogh's paiting - Thatched Cottages at Cordeville.
This was attempted while I was home sick with fever, and my parents so nicely took care of Vern for me.

This is the process of my sketching it and drawing it.
 

And this is the end result after 3 midnight painting sessions.
Left is mine, and right is Van Gogh's.
 


A bigger photo of my latest painting attempt.
Nowhere near the original of course, but I am still mighty pleased with myself.


Ooh, and I got myself a simple table easel too. :)



Here you see all 4 paintings of Van Gogh’s I attempted.

#1. Starry Night, Saint Rémy, 1889 (Bottom Right)
#2. Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun, 1889 (Bottom Left)
#3. Les Alpilles, Mountain Landscape near South-Reme, 1889 (Top Right)
#4. Thatched Cottages at Cordeville, 1890 (Top Left)




The paintings are now on the wall of my living room just on top of my piano. 
Four attempted cheerful versions Van Gogh's paintings. ;)
#vangoghfan 



I would say painting is so therapeutic for me. And I'm so glad to be able to paint whenever I like now. :)




Monday, February 26, 2018

Vern Reciting 1-10 in 4 Languages & a Kiddy Cantonese Rhyme @ 2 1/2yo

Between my 3 kids, I would say Vern is the one who loves languages the most.

Just like to his brothers, we speak to him English as his main language. But then he is exposed to his yee-pho speaking Cantonese to him, and unlike his brothers, he picked up Cantonese fast.
At his current age, he can even hold a decent conversation with Yee-pho in Cantonese! :)

As I know he has a knack for languages, I just added on simple things for him to learn. 
Just like teaching him to count while we walk up the stairs in our house.

Of course I started off with English, and then I slowly taught him in Cantonese, then Malay and then Mandarin.

Below is a short clip of him reciting the numbers 1-10 in 4 Languages - English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin & in Cantonese.


And as I said he is quite good in Cantonese, he can even recite a simple Kiddy Cantonese Rhyme that Yee-pho taught him, although not perfectly. My pho-pho taught me this too when I was a little girl and so I am really pleased Yiu-Vern knows this now. :)



Sometimes really cannot tahan this little monster baby.
He is at an age where he can be really whiny and his crying is like a shouting match all by himself!
But then looking at these 2 videos, he is really cute and super lovable! #biasedmum

Ok, now to teach him 1-10 in hokkien, and to endure another 1 year for the Terrible Two to be over! :)

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Shern Learning & Enjoying the Piano @ 8yo

Shern has been learning the piano since he was 4yo. He is 8+yo now and so it has been 4+ years.
He has come a long way. From his First Mini Piano Recital to his first ever Yamaha Junior Music Course (JMC) Exams 2 years ago.

Yes, this was Shern about 2 1/2 years ago when he was 6yo.

 
16 October 2015


One thing though, he has always loved going for classes, even now.
I'm sure friends play a very important role there, as he made many good friends in his Yamaha class. 
But the teacher's role is even more important.

I personally believe that having a great teacher plays a very important part in nurturing the child's interests in a subject(s). 
Thus, I am so blessed that both Shern and Khye have such a dedicated and great piano teacher. 

His teacher is great in teaching the syllabus, and also to throw in certain songs of their interests.
Eg: Besides the usual Yamaha syllabus, he teaches them to play Xmas songs during Xmas, CNY songs during CNY, Beauty & the Beast song when it was a hit in the cinema, etc.
This makes learning fun and not just restricted to play the syllabus only.

His teacher is also great in maintaining class order, ensuring discipline and yet is a really fun teacher. 
He often gave them class parties and the most recent one was because they just finished their JXC exams. 
And also to reward them, they each got a Shaker pencil with their names engraved in it. All out of his own pocket money!

With his teacher's influence, Shern loves Richard Clayderman's songs and so he started learning to play on his own.
I tried printing out the notes for him but then they got a bit too tough for his level. And so he tried to learn through watching Youtube videos.
He learned a little and was ecstatic he could play his favourite songs. This spurred him on..

What I'm proud of is standing by and watching how his interest in piano grew.
And to see him having the interest to want to learn how to play a song. To see him working hard learning how to play it.

And then his teacher stepped in and taught him properly on using the correct fingering and correcting his mistakes. And then with the correct guidance, he is learning faster than on his own.

And so this is Shern attempting and still learning how to play the song. 
Still lotsa hiccups and mistakes but then he is learning.

Enjoy listening to him learning how to play. I recorded him while he was practising...
This short video clip was taken about a month ago.



One day I hope he can play the whole song properly for me to enjoy.....

And I really have to thank his teacher for instilling his love for music. 
Thank you teacher. Thank you for making them love making music. 

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