Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

The first time I tried making these steamed brownies was when I decided to experiment on ‘baking’ earlier this year, ie. a few weeks before making Anya’s 6th birthday cake.

[The recipe was given by a friend last year, AND was given by another friend again in February! Thank you ladies!]

Since then, I’ve tried making these from time to time

[The result has almost always been pretty good, thanks to the simple-to-make-and-NO-OVEN-needed recipe!]

AND, kids in general LOVE these brownies, btw!

Anyway.

I’ve had people asking me about the ‘Steamed Brownies’, and so, as promised, here I present to you, my very first RECIPE post.

[Disclaimer: I’m still a beginner in baking, and below is the recipe I got from my friends. I’ve reduced the amount of sugar and chocolate powder in the recipe below though]

Ingredients

– 100 gr Self-Raising Flour / Plain Flour / Cake Flour
– 180 gr Sugar
– 4 Eggs
– 25 gr Chocolate Powder (the yummier the chocolate, eg. Hershey’s, the better the taste!)
– 1/2 tbsp Baking Powder
– 1/2 tsp Vanilla
– 1/4 tsp Salt
– 150 ml Cooking Oil
– Chocolate Rice for the layer (I read somewhere that you can also try using grated cooking chocolate)

Directions:

1. Prepare the wok filled with boiling water. Make sure the wok is large and deep enough to hold the baking pan, and that there’s enough water (water level should NOT be any less than 2cm below the baking pan)

2. Mix sugar and eggs well

3. Sift : Self-Raising Flour, Chocolate Powder, Baking Powder, Vanilla, Salt. Pour into no.2 and mix well.

4. Once mixed thoroughly, pour in cooking oil

5. Grease the baking pan with butter, and place a layer of baking paper on the inside of pan (some people go without baking paper and just grease the pan well)

6. Pour half of the batter to the greased baking pan.

(Top photo: As you can see, the layer of chocolate was more towards the ‘top’ than nicely placed in the middle, and it’s because I poured ‘too much’ in the first half of the steaming!)

7. Make sure that the water in the wok is BOILING HOT, before placing the baking pan into the wok.

8. Cover the lid of the wok with a kitchen towel (recommended!), and place the lid on (The towel will absorb any steam that collects on top from dripping onto the cake)

9. Steam for about 15 minute on medium flame (Try to NOT open the lid until the end of 15 mins. I did peep a few times the first time I tried steaming to make sure the water didn’t dry up BEFORE the 15mins was up!)

10. Add Chocolate Rice (or grated cooking chocolate), and pour the remaining batter.

11. Put the lid back on and steam for another 15 mins.

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That is it!

And very most likely, the steamed brownies will turn out well!

Have a go at it yourself …

Happy Steaming! *smile*

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PS: Do share with me how it turns out if you’re giving it a go yeah! And if your photos are on Facebook, please do TAG me! Would love to see how it goes for you!

[Our Parenting Photography Workshop, where babies and toddlers in the room were amazingly ‘cooperative’ throughout *smile*]

As promised, this post will feature quite a bit of photos of last Saturday’s Nuffnang Bloggers Symposium!

Here goes!

[Baby Allen sleeping soundly]

It really was an honour to have had the opportunity to share some photography tips and photo-editing tips that afternoon.

And what made the event even more special for me was (finally) meeting up readers, fellow bloggers and parents.

In person.

[I wished we had MORE time to mingle and casually chat after the event though!]

…

And here’s a shot of us speakers with Kenny Sia, THE Malaysian blogger who came all the way for the event!

[From left to right: me, Kenny, Wendy, Joe, Leslie and Velda]

And just before the event ended, we took a group shot of ‘everyone’.

(Couldn’t fit ‘everyone’ – more than 400 people – in the photo and on the stage though)

Anyway.

It was great!

And I hope everyone of you who came had a good (and insightful) time too!

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[Photos: Except for those ‘extended arm self portrait’ shots, the others were all taken by hubby Wilson]

This is one activity both Anya and Vai love to do everyday.

Drawing. Scribbling. Writing.

On the drawing books we got for them.

…

They’d sit and do stuff on this coffee table (which has now become their ‘activity table’!) as and when they have some ‘spare time’.

Like, when they’re all ready to go out and are waiting for ME to get ready. Or when they’re waiting for their meals to be prepared.

Well, I must say, it’s interesting to see their progress.

Especially Vai’s.

You see, I got drawing books for each of them (btw, you can find drawing books at only S$1.05 at ‘ValuDollar’!), since Vai was about 2 – 2.5 years old.

He used to just … scribble. All over his drawing book.

And I did think, should I even give him a drawing book to begin with, IF he’s only ‘scribbling’ away anyway, I mean.

But then, I gradually started to see … ‘progress’.

His strokes were not always that random anymore.

Like, when I saw messy lines, … to him, those lines were ‘rainfalls’.

…

And so over time I learned something:
Just because we adults could NOT see, imagine nor understand what little ones have drawn, it does NOT mean that what they’ve drawn means nothing.

Sometimes, we adults are so used to ‘interpreting’ things the way WE see them, that we forget about how KIDS often see (and draw) things in a different light.

…

Anyway, here’s one of Vai’s latest ‘scribbles’.

It’s a bird – with a crown on its head! And he was drawing a shark right below it!

*smile*

(Did you guess it right?)

The other night, I was with Anya and Vai when the bedroom light was off and it was time for both kids to go and sleep.

And Anya, well … she’s never been interested in going to bed.

‘Sleeping is boring’, she’d say. ‘You can’t do anything while you’re sleeping!’

*I’d usually keep my cool, smile at her and hold back my laughter whenever she says that, haha. Aren’t we all glad that we DON’T have to do anything while we’re asleep?*

Then she said, ‘It’s not nice being a kid!’

I smiled and asked, ‘Why do you say that?’

‘Because we have to go to bed! Mommy and Daddy don’t have to go to bed like us. I prefer to be a Mommy than be a kid.’

‘So you want to be a Mommy, do you?’, I casually asked.

‘Yes, I want to be a Mommy.’

I said, ‘Okay … so that means tomorrow you’ll sweep and mop the floor, prepare breakfast for everyone, wash the dishes, cook, scrub the toilets … ‘

She listened intently, as I continued on, ‘… and oh, whenever Vai is done doing his ‘big business’, you have to go over to the toilet and wash his buttocks too yeah … ‘

Then she went, ‘EEEWWWWW! Neh, I don’t want to be a Mommy tomorrow then!’

*smile*

…

The episode kind of reminded me of our human nature.

And how we all also have a tendency to only want the privileges / rights to do things but NOT the responsibilities.

How we need to remember that Rights come with Responsibilities.

Ah. There’s always something to learn from our little ones.

Thanks kids.

The day finally came!

And more than three hundred people filled SMU‘s auditorium at about 1.30pm!

Just before 3pm, our ‘Parenting Photography’ workshop started.

Some sixty to seventy of us all together, and this was how our (cosy) class looked like!

We had singles, young couples, wives, husbands AND even babies and toddlers in the room! (and amazingly, the class was NOT noisy with kids’ cries or anything!)

And, I’d like to thank everyone for coming!

[Anya and Vai went off to watch Mr Bean’s animated series over in another room during the workshop. Thanks to the Nuffnang Team, there’s a Kid’s Room specially dedicated to the little ones!]

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Oh btw, the organiser did share with me how there’re more than one hundred of you who’ve registered but couldn’t get seats due to the classroom’s space constraint. Still, I thank you for registering! And hopefully we get to meet and learn from each other at another Nuffnang event!

Overall it was a nicely organised event, I reckon, thanks to Nuffnang and of course Canon!

I’ll share MORE photos of the event soon.

For now, I’ll leave you with a group shot of all six of us speakers with ‘Boss Ming’ (co-founder of Nuffnang).

From left to right:
Me, Nicole (mycherrymagazine), Wendy (Xiaxue), Joe (techielobang), Velda (bonitochiko), Leslie (ieatishootipost) and Ming

Now that Anya is in K2 (read: Kindergarten 2, the year before she goes to Primary One here in Singapore), I get to see more of her love for writing and words.

Which to me is interesting, especially since she’s (only) SIX years old.

[I know I was totally NOT like her when I was her age! I was more interested in climbing poles, gates and roofs, haha]

She likes to play the game ‘Scramble’ (pictured right) whenever we let her play with Daddy’s iphone.

She would take note of words on the streets or on the bus and say to me, ‘Mommy, I now know how to spell EMERGENCY! Can I spell it for you now?’

She would ask me how to spell certain words even when she’s in the toilet!

And she told me last night how she likes writing better than drawing (though she actually draws a lot).

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Just last week, I introduced to her how fun creating rhymes – using Indonesian words – can be, hehe.

And now she’d create rhymes in Indonesian, like:

Ada anak namanya Apit.
Kalau makan pakenya sumpit.
Tangannya pernah kejepit.
Terus dia teriak, ‘Sakit! Sakit!’

[Errr … sorry, can’t quite translate it to English and STILL make it rhyme, hehe]

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Yesterday she had her first ‘spelling test’ at school, … and she did well.

And I’m not surprised, … looking at her fascination with words all this while, I mean.

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In our family, we try to always encourage our kids to continually explore and develop their potentials. But the thing is, we of course do not wish to see them going to the other ‘extreme’.

We don’t want them to use their talents (or whatever that they’re good at) solely for their own benefits.

We don’t want them to be selfish people who place their confidence solely on themselves and their own merits.

And so we make it a point to explain to them (and insert these values in our day to day conversation), the points below:

– IF we have been blessed with a talent to write (or with ANY kind of talent for that matter), then we MUST continually explore and develop it, BECAUSE we need to learn to be responsible and accountable for everything that we do and have

– IF we can excel in anything, it’s only because of God’s grace

– God may bless us with a talent (or two, or more), BUT it’s also our responsibility to develop and nurture THAT talent. And this means we ourselves need to put in the effort, time and persistence in developing what we’ve been given

– We need to always remember to be thankful to God for what we’ve been given

– God wants us to use those talents to glorify Him, and to be a blessing to others (like, for Anya’s case, if she has the talent to write, then she needs to use her writing to encourage others, etc)

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Sure is a whole lot of life principles that the kids need to learn to apply.

In fact, each and every point applies to us all too, doesn’t it?

And we all know it won’t be easy.

Which is why we need to depend on HIS grace even more.

Every day.

“I want to do it myself, Mommy”

We parents hear this a lot from the kids, don’t we?

Little ones want to accomplish certain tasks themselves, but many parents sometimes feel they’re still too young to do get them done ‘properly’.

Also, they believe it’ll be ‘faster’ too if the adults do them.

In our family, we believe in encouraging Anya and Vai to do certain tasks themselves since young.

Like, going over to the counter to order some ice cream or drinks, making payments to the supermarket cashier, approaching a restaurant staff and asking for an extra spoon, etc. And I’d usually be near enough to see where they are and how they’re going, just in case they suddenly need my help.

[In the above photo, Vai was ordering some french fries at McDonald’s. I love how he looked so small compared to the rest of the people in the queue, hehe]

At home, Anya and Vai also have their ‘areas of responsibilities’.

Our 3.5yo Vai is ‘in charge’ of ensuring that our bathroom is tidy by taking out any ‘to-be-washed clothes’ from our bathroom to the laundry. As for our 6yo Anya, she is ‘in charge’ of the neatness of our ‘shoes area’.

Our hope is that through these simple activities and tasks, they both learn to see themselves as responsible members of the family, as being ‘capable’ to do certain things without any ‘adult’s constant help’, and when they do need to interact with strangers, they can feel more confident too in expressing their requests to them.

Anyway.

I found a nice article on ‘Teaching Children Responsibility and Independence‘ the other day and I’d like to share some of the points in that write-up here today.

Happy reading, and hope you’ll find this article insightful and useful!

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Children start the drive toward independence at an early age. Some parents, accustomed to meeting all of their children’s needs, are reluctant to give in to their children’s demands for independence. However, this is the time for parents to find the balance between letting their children begin to do things for themselves and providing their children with the support and guidance they need.

With this increasing independence comes the ability for children to understand the concept of responsibility.

Here are some things parents can do to foster responsibility and independence in their children.

– Let your children do things for themselves.
Even very young children begin to show an interest in doing things for themselves. Parents can encourage independence by letting their children do things for themselves as soon as they express a desire to do so. Parents should focus on effort and avoid being critical of the end product.

– Let your children help with challenging tasks.
Parents should encourage their children to try to do new things and to face new challenges. This will certainly boost children’s sense of competence. Parents should be careful to choose tasks that their children are able to accomplish.

– Learn to model responsibility and independence.
Children learn by watching their parents. One of the best ways for parents to teach their children to behave responsibly and independently is by displaying those behaviours themselves. Parents should let their children see them making decisions without wavering. Parents should let their children see them taking care of responsibilities in an appropriate manner.

– Help and encourage your children to solve their own problems.
Problem-solving is a skill that must be learned. Parents should then encourage their children to come up with their own solutions to their problems. The ability to problem-solve is a skill that will be useful throughout children’s lives. It will also aid in the development of confidence and independence.

– Be there to provide support, when needed.
Even the most independent-minded children need to lean on their parents from time to time. Parents should make an effort to be available to their children and to provide support when needed. Children who know their parents will be there when they need them will have the confidence needed to explore the world.

– Verbally encourage your children.
Parents should provide their children with lots of verbal encouragements when they display responsible and independent behavior.

– Give your children responsibilities.
Most children want to help their parents and to feel needed. One of the best ways for children to learn how to behave responsibly is to be given responsibilities. Parents can give their children responsibilities in the form of chores. Parents should make sure that the chores assigned to their children match their capabilities. Parents should also take the time to show their children how to do their assigned tasks the correct way. Parents should keep in mind, though, that how well their children perform a task is not as important as what their children are learning about responsibility.

Wilson and I have been attending weekly Bible Class on the topic of ‘Spiritual Formation for Children’, and we’ve been really blessed by every teaching shared by Ev. Maria Mazo.

We learned about SO many important parenting and biblical principles.

And we’re reminded too about how we really MUST depend on God’s grace, wisdom and strength when it comes to being parents.

Because we ourselves are sinners. And so are our little ones.

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Anyway.

One of the topics we covered recently was about praying for our children.

We all love our children and we surely pray for them.

But.

When we pray, do we pray for specific things? Or have we been praying for general things? 

Now. First things first.

The Bible tells us to ‘pray unceasingly’ (1 Thes 5:17).

This basically means we should pray frequently. It also means that we should remember to say a little prayer wherever we are – even as we’re walking about, waiting around or doing things.

Next.

So what things about our children’s lives that we should be praying about?

1. Pray for your our children to be protected from physical, mental and emotional harm

2. Pray for God’s Holy Spirit to make Himself known in the hearts, lives and relationships of your children

3. Pray for children’s spiritual growth, character development, and help with any character weaknesses

4. Pray for their views and attitudes about themselves

5. Pray for their ability to say NO to temptations

6. Pray that they will turn away from wrong directions that they might be going towards

7. Pray for the friendships they’re choosing

8. Pray for them to remember that WE LOVE them

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When parents truly pray for their children, their prayers bind their souls and the souls of their children, and ultimately their lives and relationships will deepen even more.

So here’s a question to us all:

How have we prayed for our children whom God has entrusted in our care?