Monday, September 24, 2012

Just One Boy + Me.

Nearly 9 months in.

One of the things that bugs me every night is how little time I have with the boys. The weeks seem to zoom by and by Sunday night, I always feel extremely guilty.

I know I feel bad because I am a stay-home-mum. So I am supposed to be able to spend plenty of quality time with them. And I expect myself to be able to do that with each boy. Besides coaching them or reading books. Just time to spend on cuddling and doing nothing; and time to just hang out, goof a bit, have an ice-cream. Time to stroll and chase a ball and watch butterflies. That kind of time. Darn.

Last night, after putting Olivia to bed, I went to kiss the boys goodnight. Like most nights, by the time she is asleep, they are too. I have been missing out on their whole bedtime routine for a while now. Just watching them makes me feel a tinge of sadness. My boys are so, so big now. I must make time to spend with them and it has to be something that happens routinely, not once in a blue moon and dependent on so many other factors. No matter what.

After considering our routine and everyone's schedule, I made a decision. I shall take a boy out to dinner or lunch once a week. Just me and the boy. No one else can tag along. When the brothers are together, they talk about their games too much. When the baby is around, they want to talk and touch and play with her and she will always demand my attention. When the daddy is around, all the boys' talk is out.  So it has to be just me and the boy.

Tonight, I brought Chip out for his favourite dinner - pizza and chocolate ice-cream. From 6.30pm - 9.30pm, just the two of us. We had such a wonderful time.

When we left home, he told me he was really happy because it was 'just my mummy and me'. Aww.. He skipped a lot and held my hand tight almost the whole night. He cuddled me for nearly the entire bus journey. Occasionally, he looked up with a big smile and kissed me on my arm. Several times throughout the night, he looked into my eyes and told me he had a really, really nice time. He placed his little hand on his chest and told me with the sweetest smile on the way home that he felt a lot of love tonight. That totally melted my heart. I promised him we will do this every fortnight. Our little date. He has already decided he will have pasta for dinner. :>

Next week, it will be poshie's turn. Now I can't wait to impress the boy too.



Friday, September 21, 2012

His Addiction

Some parents must coax, threaten, nag and bribe before their kids will go near books.

With M, things can't be more different.

CIMG2170

Several times a day, we have to coax, threaten and nag before we can tear him away from his books.

At home, the only time when he is not reading is when he is playing Lego, showering or watching TV. The latter isn't a daily affair, especially on days when E is not at home. I rarely suggest TV watching as a reward or activity to fill time anyway, unless of course it is an educational programme or is in Mandarin.

If I let him, he will read while eating.  He had already tried reading in the toilet. But he isn't allowed to do both, which annoys him greatly.

I know we should be celebrating his love for reading and the fact that his interests is so wide and he is so well-read for a 8-year-old, but to be honest, it can be so trying when his reading time becomes excessive (I feel guilty saying this) and gets in the way of daily routine.

His latest obsession is The Lord of the Rings by J.J.R. Tolkien, after reading The Hobbit by the same author last month and enjoyed it tremendously.

So we have a bit of a ring craze at home right now. There are lots of rings made from all sorts of materials lying around and the boys will chant

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

blah blah blah.....

Unfortunately, the bookworm is attracted to anything in English but steers clear of Chinese books unless there are 'external forces' at work. :P

Sparked by his current obsession, he has now indicated his wish to learn Elvish and want some books to start him off. He even copied the Elvish phrases from the book and tried to decipher them. Thankfully, the still-wise dad made it clear that he must master his Chinese language before embarking on any Elvish adventure.


Friday, September 14, 2012

Olivia: 12 months

In the past week, Olivia has surprised us with new development almost daily.

She points.
On her birthday, she started pointing with her cute little index finger. She points at the pictures in her books and 'talks' to me about them. While looking out of the window, she points at the road when I talk to her about cars.

She said 'bird'.
During our vacation last week, I noticed how much time she spent looking at birds and blabbering about them. The night we got back, I gave her a stack of books (which she missed dearly, judging from her reaction) while I was relaxing in bed with her. She started flipping through them eagerly. Then, she stared at a page of The Very Busy Spider and uttered 'bird' (even though it was a picture of the duck!).

This may not be her first word ('mama' is) but I have a feeling, very soon, we can expect a word spurt from her. Super cute.

Understanding instructions
She understands when I ask her 'where is the duck?' or 'show mama the duck'. She will look for the page in The Very Busy Spider book that has the illustration of the duck.

She does the same when I ask for the 'little cloud' (from the Little Cloud) and 'the red balloon' (from the Goodnight Moon).

Even if I lay a few books in front of her, she will seek out the right book, flip to the correct page. Then point at the picture that I have asked her to find and look straight into my eyes with a knowing smile!!

I must admit it gets me soooooo excited whenever she does that!! :) In fact, I realize there are many more instructions that she seems to understand.

Steps
She took 5 wobbly steps on her own today. I am not sure if I would consider this as walking yet, but she has certainly shown great improvement in balance and lower body strength and is definitely taking more steps than 2 weeks ago.

Just a week ago, during the vacation, she would make 2-3 quick steps across her playpen and collapsed with a gigantic smile.

Problem-solving
Just yesterday, she was exploring in the living room area which I had set up with suitable toys. There were obstacles which I included on purpose to prevent her from entering the 'forbidden' zone. More than once, she removed obstacles so she could advance to the area she had set her eyes on.

Once, she tried stepping into a box which was stuffed with toys, in order to access the area behind the box. Realizing how little space there was for her little foot, she brought her foot out, regained balance before removing the toys one by one, then dragged the box out. That gave her space to advance to where she wanted to go. Unluckily for her, her amused mum never took my eyes off her. She wasn't successful beyond this point. Haha. But I am so proud of her!

Every achievement and milestone is still worth celebrating, even though I have seen them before in her siblings. My little dolly deserves as much attention and love and we must cheer her along as enthusiastically as we did for her brothers.





Thursday, September 13, 2012

Homemade Baby Food

After this post, some readers emailed me with questions on how and what I cook for Olivia. Sorry if I haven't replied you via email. But here is a compilation of several replies I gave to the earlier enquiries, which should answer most of your questions.


I cook Olivia's food about 4 days a week and usually in batches. I freeze them in small Lock-and-Lock containers that can contain 100ml of food and also in ice-cube trays. I bought some sturdy plastic trays meant for food years ago and has been using the same when the boys were small. I usually take the food out of freezer and leave in fridge overnight to thaw. Then microwave for 45 sec (and cool down of course!) or warm in pan over stove before feeding her.

To increase my options of mix-and-match meals, I freeze a combination of complete meals in the containers, and single or two ingredients in ice-cube trays. 

E.g. I may cook a portion of brown rice for the family, blend some for Olivia to freeze in trays. Concurrently stir-fry a dish of pork and broccoli and steam some pumpkin. Blend portion of pumpkin and freeze in trays. Then with the same blender, throw in more brown rice, and the pork, broccoli and pumpkin and blend. Serve a portion immediately and freeze the rest of the MEALS in LnL containers for future use. On days when I think she may eat a lot more than the 100ml, I will thaw the container together with a cube of another ingredient, e.g peas/corn. Viola! 


Depending on how we cook and store our food, I believe batch cooking/freezing/thawing in microwave doesn't destroy as many nutrients as some people like to believe because I cook fresh produce as soon as I bought them.

This method also prevents wastage and makes it feasible to feed a variety of home-made meals instead of depending on store-bought jar food or chinese-style porridge. 



As for the menu, I try to plan a wide-variety ensuring that I have different whole-grains, protein and vegetables in the ready meals. Some food, when combined in a meal will enhance our body's absorption of nutrients and there are other combinations that I avoid. I also plan complete vegetarian protein meals. There is a lot more info in this old post: my kids are not eating well.

When possible, I use organic produce. But there is this Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 lists that I refer to in deciding how much organic produce to buy.





Monday, September 10, 2012

MOE Tweaks English Syllabus


I was excited when I saw the headline 'MOE tweaks PSLE English Language Paper for 2015 cohort' in the newspapers.

This change will affect my boys who will sit for PSLE after 2015. 

After reading up (more at MOE website here), my first reaction was that the revised syllabus (which M has been on since Primary 1) and the new exam format, work to our advantage.

......  As part of the programme, EL is taught through stories and texts that appeal to children, with explicit grammar instruction. Students are provided with opportunities to express themselves in an environment where language learning can be enjoyable yet purposeful. Through the reading of engaging stories in class, students get to speak extensively, discussing and sharing their views with the teacher and their peers. The main purpose is to build students’ confidence in speech and writing, and enhance their learning of the language. (from MOE website)


My boys and many of my students who are so used to the Bright Minds Lapbookers programme will have a definite advantage, since these objectives (in bold) have been the focus of my programme right from the beginning. I can't help smiling. 

The new syllabus is definitely a move in the right direction. Finally.... yay!!

Those who memorize model compositions and relying heavily on assessment books to learn English will find it harder to excel in the new exam format, which is supposedly designed to test the child's true competence in the language.

That said, while the revised syllabus sounds promising, it is the implementation that truly matters.

Unless the students are well-taught by good teachers who speak good English (we all know the other kind exists too) from Primary 1, those who are already weak in the English language will be seriously disadvantaged.







Sunday, September 9, 2012

Wake-up Call

Went to the wake of a former mentor earlier.

One great man. A formidable force. An inspiration to many.

I last met him in 2001 with E. Dinner in London during one of his business trips. He wanted to meet the guy who had persuaded me to 'drop everything' here.

A long chat in 2003 and another in 2007. His attempts to woo me back to the industry. It was very flattering but I could not commit because of the kids. The door would always be open for me, he reiterated. I knew I could count on him for that.....

Since news of his passing reached me a few days ago, I have been troubled.

Just 55. It's so wrong for a man like him to leave so young. It's so unfair. 

But this is also a wake-up call.

Slow down. Smell the flowers. Enjoy life more.

R.I.P.




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