Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Little children do not ask for their parents to be rich. They don’t resent their mom for not being pretty. They will not choose whom they wish to have as their parents.

But, all little children expect this : fairness.

They will not accept favouritism in the family. When they see how a parent prefers one brother better than the other, it’ll hurt them deeply. They’re sensitive towards such treatments.

They’ll feel unloved. And to them, it’d be like being psychologically hurt.

[Just like in the case of Jacob’s family in the Bible, where Joseph, whom Jacob the father ‘preferred the most’ amongst all his other brothers, was resented – and later sold to foreigners – by his jealous brothers]

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When there are more than one child in the family, we as parents are expected to be as fair as we can towards them.

But given the complicated and unique situation each family has, ‘being 100% fair and wise at all times‘ tends to be tougher that one may think.

Despite the challenges we face though, let us try our very best as parents to be fair to each and every little one, for we know that it is the right thing to do, as loving parents to those whom God has entrusted.

Anya has learned quite a few English and Chinese songs from school. And usually she’d sing for me the new songs she’s learned when I pick her up right after school.

And so this is her (click HERE), showing to me how her ‘I love you Mama’ chinese song goes.

Honestly, if I hadn’t known the english version of the song, I would’ve had NO idea what she’s saying (well, other than the sentence ‘wo ai ni hao Mama’ of course! Heh.)

Still, it’s always nice to hear your kid sings out different songs for you!

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Btw, the english version goes like this:

I love you Mommy, deep down in my heart
I love you Mommy, deep down in my heart

Deep deep, down down, deep down in my heart
Deep deep, down down, deep down in my heart

[And oh, she often sings the version ‘for Daddy’ too]

Took the kids to the huge National Library near Bugis Junction today.

Anya enjoyed the trip a lot, and she ended up borrowing a really nice english-mandarin pictorial board book (which I know even I myself will learn a lot from it!)

As for Vai, other than checking out the books, playing horsie on the library’s kiddy chairs and laying on the carpet (!), he went through pictorial books together with me too.

Click HERE to watch his attempt to repeat and say the animal names properly.

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Anyway, do check out these related links:

>> Fun activities for beginning readers

>> Helping your child to love reading

Here’s one parenting book I’d like to recommend today.

First-time Mom, by Dr. Kevin Leman.
Getting off on the right foot – from birth to first grade

After a friend of mine shared how insightful the book is, I finally managed to get a copy from the local library (again, thanks to another friend who borrowed it for me during her trip to library!)

Dr. Leman is a Christian psychologist with decades of family-counselling experience. His books are mostly about parenting, marriage and family issues.

His writing is really easy to read and he shares lots of real-life examples as well, making it easier for us to understand the points he’s trying to put across.

Though I’m no longer a ‘first-time mom’ when I read the book, I still find many useful tips and info. On handling toddlers and kids’ tantrums, parenting values and ‘mistakes’ we tend to make, etc.

In fact, later on I think I’ll share parts of the book which I personally find interesting and insightful.

Anyway, if you’d like to get a little preview of his ‘value-packed parenting’ talk, click HERE to watch a video clip on youtube.com

Happy parenting!

Now that Anya has started nursery, she’s picking up more and more chinese as well. Which of coure is a good thing.

BUT.

I’m so hopeless at it.

Hardly any of the chinese characters can get inside my head (okay, I know a few really simple ones, but that’s about it!)

And, I can’t even confidently read the words with the curves at the top (pinyin)!

*slaps forehead*

Anyway.

Since I can’t be that much of a ‘verbal help’ to Anya, I thought it’d be good to have some of the chinese characters she’s learned displayed at home. You know, just so that she’s more familiar with them too.

And, I came across this website!

You can print out their colouring pages, worksheets (the strokes) or check out their vocabulary list (eg. names of body parts in english, pinyin and chinese character).

As for us, so far we’ve printed out some of their ‘flashcards‘ and stuck them on our wall!

Anya now occasionally walks over to the wall and identifies the characters. And Vai, well, he’d often repeat what Anya cites, and add a bit of his silly faces every now and then!

At our place, the nearest recycling bins are about a minute away from our block. And to go and throw our recyclable stuff every day is honestly not a convenient option for me (though I’m sure the kids won’t mind)

And so at our home, we put our recyclable things (egg cartons, plastic milk bottles, cereal boxes, etc) into one big plastic bag, and we’d only bring it down to the recycling bins when it’s actually full.

Anya knows what stuff goes into which bin by now. And Vai, he wants to be actively involved too nowadays. He’d tiptoe and push each item into the relatively high bin by himself (if it gets stuck at the lid, Anya helps and pushes it further down)

The kids always look forward to our ‘recycling trip’.

And as for me, somehow I feel somewhat satisfied too, knowing that I’ve ‘rescued’ at least quite a few things that otherwise will end up being ‘useless’ in the main dump.

Whether we like or not, in general we all have ever been ‘pretentious’.

When we’re alone or amongst people who don’t personally know us, our true characters often come out more naturally, compared to when we’re amongst people whom we’d want to impress.

When we’re amongst these certain people, our actions and words may even be ‘more holy’ than usual.

Yes it is normal and culturally understood if we act more naturally, say, when we’re at home, than when we’re at the office or at a party.

But a more important point that we need to think about is : when we think no one is looking, what do we do? when we’re in a place where we think no one knows the real us, what do we do?

Truth is, God sees everything. And God knows even the tiniest thought that goes through our mind.

So let’s be accountable and responsible for our life, words and actions. Even when ‘no one’ is looking.

Here are some of the screenshots from the video clips we took of our little family last Saturday.

I love the film mood and feel of the shots.

Now, our next challenge will be finding the time to edit the clips (hubby’s role) as well as finding a suitable background music and producing a ‘story’ (my role).