Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Here’s one place you can visit with the family over the weekend.

Bottle Tree Park.

Some 10 minutes walking distance from Yishun MRT Station.

We checked out the place with our friends in January this year. Considering that it’s not that far from the ‘housing areas’ at Yishun, we’re quite surprised to see it’s pretty secluded and ‘green’. Felt like we’re in a little village area.

The kids played with sand near the playground. And they tried out water paddling around the big lake too (Only one adult and two kids allowed on one boat, so Daddy did all the paddling. And he got a very good 15mins leg-workout! I would’ve displaced my knee caps if I went instead of him! Heh.)

They sell live seafood there too and they have quite a few activites available, like prawn fishing! (we saw some people caught a huge prawn from the pond!)

But I guess the more popular one amongst kids is their ‘LongKang’ Fishing, where children get into a 40-cm deep pond and try to catch little fishes using a little net.

(For S$10 per child, you’ll get a little plastic tank and a fishing net. Kids can catch as many little fishies as they can and bring them back home)

We were on a Saturday and the LongKang pond was pretty crowded with kids (quite a few big kids too). They’re all over the place, and I must say most of them were far from ‘gentle’.

We saw some big kids randomly whacked the water with their nets hoping to catch a fish or two at the same time. Some caught a fish and let it go again. Some caught LOTS of fishes (like, fifty?), put them all in their tiny tank, walked back home while SWINGING the tank back and forth (I’ve heard stories where most of the fishies died afterwards)

I don’t know how you feel about this particular activity, but Wilson and I felt sorry for these little creatures. I guess if the management actively encourages a ‘better’ way of LongKang fishing (and how to care for them afterwards), it’ll be different.

Anyway. Other than that, we thought the place was okay.

The weather was nice and breezy that day, and we all had a relaxing day out together!

(Anya, Vai and Elissa : checking out the ‘dinosaur bones’ near the carpark)

Every child goes through developmental milestones. Big and small. And it’s good if they know that we are happy with their developments and that we ‘celebrate’ their milestones.

‘Celebration’ can simply be an action that shows happiness and appreciation of the child’s efforts and accomplishments.

It can be in a form of a smile, a kiss, a nod, a hug, a compliment.

And the way I see things, a child is generally happy when we’re happy with them. When we appreciate their efforts. When we put aside extra time to acknowledge what they’ve accomplished (read : a child is not naturally driven to always gain ‘material rewards’ from us, UNLESS they’ve been brought up that way in the family!)

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For Anya and Vai’s case, they know that I often take photos of them and their work.

It’s one of my ways of appreciating (and remembering) their effort, and of ‘preserving’ valuable moments and milestones.

Also. I think it’s just not practical to keep ‘everything’ (ie. physical keepsakes) at home.

Like that little piece of paper above. That’s Anya’s very first ‘english essay’. Hehe.

Anya just turned 5yo at the time, and we’re at a friend’s place. I was happily chatting away with my friends while Anya was on the floor with her pen and paper.

And at the time, she occasionally went, ‘Mommy, … how do you spell ‘people’?’, or ‘How do you spell ‘because’?’

I spelled the words out to her, assuming that she was scribbling those alphabets on her paper. I never thought she was actually writing a ‘story’.

This was what she wrote :

“One day the fat people very sad. Why. Because he do’t have money. Juse a little bit of money. But there a queen named Flora.”

Hehe.

She didn’t get to finish her story because we had to go home.

Hmm. Perhaps, Queen Flora then helped all these sad people who had a little bit of money?

The kids made this the other day.

Jellyfish friends!

A really simple and quick activity for little kids!

Here’s how your family can make some too :

What we used :

– Balloons (We used tiny balloons, usually available in supermarkets too)

– Double-sided tape

– Crepe paper

– Marker (to draw the eyes and mouth)

What we did :

– Inflate the balloons, tie the ends and stick double-sided tape around it

– Cut out strips of different coloured crepe paper

– Let the kids place crepe paper onto the sticky tape around the balloons

– Draw eyes and mouths on the balloons

And that’s it!!

And the kids went all silly with them!

Our little guy is 4 months away from turning three. And we thank God for His grace and blessings showered unto him every day.

Here are some quick updates on Vai:

Hot stuff

In the past 2 weeks or so, Vai has been showing his ‘interest’ in ‘spicy’ stuff. Which I find is quite interesting since my husband and I are not really into spicy food.

He’d come to my desk and ask if he can have some of my ‘kripik pedes’ (I think it’s called ‘Spicy Tapioca Chips’ in English. Not too sure about this).

The very first time he asked for it, I let him take a tiny bite thinking that he’d find it too spicy. But no. He cringed a little and asked for MORE.

Now he’d take away quite a chunk, and eat it like he’s eating some potato chips. And, he doesn’t ask for water afterwards. Interesting little guy.

[Btw, though I let him try bits of spicy stuff when he asks for it, I don’t let him eat ‘too much’ since I just feel it may not be good for his digestion, especially since he’s not even three years old!]

Puzzles

These days he shows more interest in doing puzzles (those giant 28-piece floor puzzle pieces).

He took out the box himself one day, and when I saw him trying to put the pieces together, I sat next to him and explained why this piece needs to be placed next to that piece.

And gee, it was TOUGH.

He was clueless even after I’ve explained it again and again. And I almost gave up (kept my thoughts and words to myself though),  thinking that perhaps he’ll understand it better when he’s a little older.

By the fourth time he wanted to put the puzzles together, I was busy preparing dinner, and so I told him that he should try and do it by himself because I know he can. He kept asking for help, and I kept telling him to give it a go without me. And hey, to my surprise, he DID manage to put 28 pieces together, ALL by himself! (I felt so happy for him! And, a little guilty of underestimating my own son).

Terrible Two

Ah. The dreaded emotional rollercoaster most toddlers face has kicked in.

He refuses to obey simple requests. He pretends he doesn’t hear what we say to him. He’d whine and cry easily. And in the past week, he OFTEN screams and cries out for things that he can’t have. Even, for things that we DON’T have.

Like when he woke up from his nap asking for some Ribena. We don’t have any at the time and he insisted that we DO have some at home. He went on and on, crying and screaming unreasonably for a good 20 minutes. Nothing I did (from reasoning with him to disciplining him) could immediately stop this surge of emotions. And so I closed all doors and windows. And I think I nearly went half-deaf too.

Oh well.

Other than those mind-numbing and mentally draining moments, I must say he’s still his usual self.

And at the end of it all, I honestly feel there’s nothing he can do that can make us not love him. Our silly and funny little guy.

One who has been through difficulties and struggles will find it easier to feel satisfied.
But one who has hardly been through discomforts, inconveniences and difficulties, will find it easier to complain and criticise.

[Thoughts shared by Rev. Stephen Tong during our Sunday Service last week]

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What kind of life have we been living? Or to be more specific, what kind of life have our children been living?

Is it a life where difficulties, struggles and discomforts are simply absent from it ?

We parents love our children, and we obviously do not thrive in letting our children ‘suffer’ on purpose.

However, the reality is, when our children hardly ever know what it’s like to struggle, to want something and not get it, to put in lots of effort in order to get something, we parents are ‘robbing’ them off their ‘fighting spirit’.

Our children will one day grow up and be independent. They’ll be in a world where there will be difficulties and failures.

The question is, will our children – when they’re all grown up – get up and walk again when they fall?

Yes, it’s not possible for us parents to completely know how our children will be like when they’re all grown up, because life in itself is complicated, and there are many external factors that will influence our children’s characters.

But one thing that we can’t deny is, as parents we do have crucial roles in our children’s lives. ESPECIALLY in their first few formative years, when they’re still very dependent on us, and are still learning about the world from us.

And, we CAN decide on the kinds of ‘environment’ and ‘situations’ that our children are exposed to when they’re little.

Let’s be with our children today for our children’s future.

And let’s continually ask for God’s wisdom, so that we’re better equipped too in raising and bringing up our little ones according to His ways.

Because being a parent is never easy, and we can’t be close to being a ‘good parent’ without HIS guidance and mercy.

A while ago a friend of mine asked, ‘Why don’t you have a picture or a banner at the top of your blog page?’

I didn’t quite get what he meant and so I asked, ‘What do you mean? There IS a picture of Anya and Vai as my banner at the top of my site.’

And he was like, ‘OH REALLY? I’ve never seen them whenever I visit your blog!’

Oh my.

He uses Internet Explorer 6 (and Windows XP) on his computer and apparently with that ‘browser and Operating System combination’, my banner DISAPPEARS! (yes, I’ve heard about sites that can’t be viewed ‘properly’ in IE 6. And apparently, it’s been happening to my site too all this while)

So now, I’d need your help with something.

Please please do tell me if you too haven’t been seeing my top banner on my blog. I’d like to get a rough idea as to how many readers out there are experiencing the same problem when they come to my site.

You can drop me a comment or write me an email, leonny[at]oureverydaythings[dot]com

Big thanks.

The other day Anya came up to me and asked, ‘Mommy, can I keep some diamonds?’

And I was like, ‘Why would you want to have diamonds?’

‘My friends at school have diamonds, and I’d like to have some too’, she said.

‘I don’t think children your age need diamonds, Anya. Even adults, many of them don’t have diamonds at all.’

Anya went on with her plea and said, ‘But I REALLY need some, Mommy. For my crown.’

Ah.

So she’s referring to ‘diamonds’. Not quite the kind I had in mind.
(Gee. We adults tend to interpret our kids’ simple requests too seriously at times, don’t we?)

And so I went to the kitchen, grabbed our nearly-finished cereals, poured out the remaining into a container and rinsed the silver foil.

I then used the clean (and dry) foil, and cut out diamond shapes for her.
(note: would’ve used aluminium foil instead if we had some at home)

So there you go. Diamonds for my little girl.

And Anya,well … she wanted to keep her ‘design’ simple, and she was very happy with her diamond-crested golden crown!

Took this video some two weeks ago. He was about 2 years and 7 months at the time.

Though Vai knows his numbers and ‘almost’ all letters of the alphabets by now, it’s interesting how he still finds it hard to remember basic colours, like red, blue, green and yellow.

I’d point to his red car and ask him to tell me its colour, and he’d say, ‘Reddddd!’. I’d then point to the same toy car a few seconds later, and he’d say, ‘Blueeee!’ Hehe.

Oh well.

I’m sure he’d know his colours by the time he’s in college. Heh.

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Click HERE to watch the video clip on Youtube.

[And btw, click HERE to watch 21-month-old Vai and ‘his alphabets’ back then, hehe]