Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

When we’ve received so much blessings from God, remember to always share and help others.

And when we do share and help others, don’t do them reluctantly.

[To some, it may not come naturally in the beginning, thus we may need to ‘train’ ourselves and learn the art of giving, for it’s when we’ve given and shared with others that we can feel the joy and better understand what the Bible means when it says: ‘it’s more blessed to give than to receive’]

When God sees our attitude, perceptions and actions towards giving and helping others, He will see too whether we’re worthy of receiving His blessings.

We should give and share with others not so that we’re blessed nor because we want MORE of God’s blessings, but because we’ve received so much from HIM to begin with.

These past few days both kids have somehow refused to take their afternoon naps, leaving me with pretty much no rest for one whole day!

On a good note though, our ‘arts and crafts’ time together made a comeback!

You see, since Anya started school, it’s been very tough for me to find any time to do arts and crafts stuff with the kids at home like we used to. I so miss those times!

Today Anya made a glittery heart-shaped thingy for Daddy (since it’s Valentine’s Day! Heh.) and a chicken-shaped hat (hmm!), while Vai exercised his fine motor skills and scribbled with crayons, played with ink and chops, squashed and molded some clay and stuck colourful matchsticks onto playdoh.

Looks like the kids did enjoy themselves too!

Take a three-second glimpse at my site and anyone can see how it doesn’t have ‘video boxes’ at all.

So far I’ve taken heaps of photos and videos of the kids (thanks to my Canon Ixus that allows me to do both easily!), but I hardly post any of the videos here.

[In fact, I’ve only posted the one when Anya tried her hands on conducting the orchestra at last year’s Babies Prom and the one when she tried doing the flying fox climb and jump last December in Jakarta!)

And so… I’ve finally created a Youtube account! (though I’m probably one of the last few around who’s yet to have an account with them!)

Now the kids’ words, chuckles or silly tumbling actions can be easily viewed, heard and most importantly treasured by us, their parents.

I’ve posted six clips there so far!

Enjoy!

I love how the watermelon somehow looks so oversized in the hands of a preschooler

Here’s one nice activity idea that can keep your preschoolers engaged and entertained!

The kid gets to imagine, create their own stories and stick the pieces onto the felt board.

For Vai’s case, he simply loves sticking the pieces, any pieces, onto the board (it’s a great way for us to go through some of the animal names too, btw!)

The pieces are rather tiny though, so yes I was with Anya and Vai through out their playtime. You know, just in case a little felt cow goes missing and comes out ‘the other end’ of a toddler!)

Anyway.

This particular set is called: Farm Felt Kit, by Early Learning Centre

Money in itself is neutral. It’s not evil. And it can be used both constructively and destructively.

The problem is, it is because of money that people do evil things. And such cases happen everywhere, everyday, every second.

Because of money (read: for money), people are willing to look down on others, hurt the innocent, cheat on their best friends, sell away their kids and even kill their spouses.

The reality is, we ourselves may (easily) fall into this.

So let us learn to always remember to be THE master of our money, and not make money the master of our lives.

Yup! We just came back from sunny Malacca!

Four cars. 7 families. 14 adults. 7 kids. 2 bungalows at A Famosa Resort.

We had fun!

Gokart. Horse-riding. Swimming. Not to mention the late-night games of cards and Taboo (this is an excellent game btw!). The kids had gone to bed by then and so we had to really try to laugh ‘softly’ throughout the night. Tough one.

And oh, I tried out their paintball game and err, got a little bumpy ‘souvenir’ from the session! The blue-black mark on my right arm made the whole experience more ‘real’ and memorable though. Heh.

On Chinese New Year day itself we’re all in our red tops (some of the kids wore cute traditional costumes too!) and even had our own ‘hongbao-distribution’ session in the evening! Nice!

Anyway, here are some of our photos and some of the activities’ fee references (more for those who plan to visit the resort in the future!)

Enjoying a nice and breezy early morning stroll

For three laps: RM55 / gokart.
Anya went for it with Daddy (one lap), then Daddy and friends continued and enjoyed the thrill of the speed (and dusts!) afterwards

Paintball: RM55 / person / session
(incl. a very thin shield, ‘gun’, helmet and 50 bullets)

Note: with hardly any ‘body protection’, getting ‘shot’ did feel like getting a big whack! Serious ‘pain’-ball stuff.

Glad I went and had a go. Err, I wouldn’t want to do it again though. Heh.

The men however, well, looking at the photo above, they had quite a blast I think!

Horse-riding: RM 10 / two rounds

Frankly, it was a really short ride (that lasted for just a minute?), but we went for it anyway just so that the kids got to experience what horse-riding is like (and oh, the sun, it was SO blazing hot!)

Our bungalows came with 4 bedrooms each and a private swimming pool. We all had so much waterfun there too! (the pool water tasted a bit funny and Vai swallowed quite a bit of it till he burped!)

And, what is a trip without a group photo at the end of it all!

With no families to visit here in Singapore, our recent getaway with friends sure was a nice way to spend and celebrate Chinese New Year together!