Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

I have nothing against gadgets like iPads and iPhones.

We have them, and we use them ourselves.

I guess the question is more about, are our children exposed to these too much that they’re actually missing out on ‘real experiences’ that they’re supposed to have more of?

Holding onto crayons.

Making actual colourful strokes.

Feeling the paper surface.

Getting smudges on little fingers.

All are sensorial experiences that drawing on an iPad and other gadgets can never offer, however engaging they are … yes?

Let’s not take such real experiences away from little ones.

(Even if it means we need to go against the ‘norm’ that today’s digital world offers)

Okay, here’s something nice for the whole family!

Personalised shirts, thanks to DrawYourShirt.com!

You see, sometime back we took some photos and came up with this water colour ‘family shot’, AND we printed it on FIVE shirts!

Our first personalised shirts! =D

Now, I thought it’d be nice for YOU to have these personalised shirts too!

Thanks to DrawYourShirt.com who printed our shirts, they’re sponsoring a total of EIGHT white shirts for two families!

Yes, that’s FOUR shirts per family!

You can print your personalised texts, or photos (or your kid’s drawing?) on the white shirts! (Winners simply need to send the texts / graphic to the sponsor, and they’ll print them on the shirts).

(Or, if you have no idea on what to print, simply choose from their ready stock ones?)

Something nice for the whole family to wear over the Ramadhan holiday, yes? =D

Do check out their website to see the kinds of shirt printing they can make!

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Here’s how to enter the giveaway:

1) Leave a comment and let us know what you plan to have printed on the shirts.

2) LIKE Our Everyday Things Facebook Page, if you haven’t already done so =)

3) SHARE this giveaway on Facebook, or Twitter.

Easy! =D

[This is Anya, Vai and their cousins! We printed a bunch of reunion shirts too for my big family to wear together!]

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Other info:

– Open to those who reside in Indonesia

– Two entries will be randomly selected from all the comments left in this blog post, and four white shirts are to be won by each family.

– Giveaway will end on Saturday, 3 August, 12pm WIB, winners will be contacted on the same day.

– If you wish to have the prized shirts ready and delivered by Wednesday, 7 August, artwork must be emailed to the sponsor by Sunday, 4 August.

So, start planning about what you’d like to have on the shirts yeah! =D

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Hope you have fun with these personalised shirts like we do!!

[The swelling was a little better after we applied a warm towel over the eyelid for about 5 mins]

Brie woke up on one sunny morning, with a swollen upper eyelid.

The swelling was quite bad that her eye could only be half-opened.

She looked like she’s wearing this pinkish eyeshadow!

[The swelling at its worse on Brie]

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And you know what?

I remember Vai had this condition before too!

On his upper right eyelid, when he was about two years old too!

(This is one of those times when being a Mom of three – and having seen it before – allowed me to not feel overly panicky =)

[Blogged about this here : https://www.oureverydaythings.com/2008/12/vai-and-stye-the-bump-in-the-eye/]

And boy I’m glad I blogged about Vai’s swollen eye back in 2008! =D

I browsed through my blog archives, found the post, and read about how we cared for his eyes at the time! =)

Ah, very helpful! (because I forgot almost all about the treatment Vai received, etc)

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Anyway.

Here’s Brie’s condition:

– Swelling was worse right after she woke up in the morning

– Brie didn’t seem to be bothered by it. She didn’t scratch / rub / touch it again and again, so I assume it was not itchy or painful for her.

– No red eye, no eye discharge, no pus-filled lump. Just a small lump somewhere in the centre of the pinkish bump, towards the inside of the eyelid.

What we did in the end :

– On day 2, we placed a warm towel over the eyelid for about 5 minutes, about twice a day. Usually the swelling was a little better afterwards.

– Not much improvement by day 5, so we applied – very lightly – an eye ointment (Gentamicin) to help clear the infection.

And … the swelling got much better afterwards! Phew!

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By now it’s been 6 days since she had her swollen eye, and the swelling is more or less gone.

I expect it to completely go away in a few days.

(Thank God it didn’t get to Anya and Vai!)

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Have you come across this condition too?

What was prescribed to you and what was the recommended treatment?

[Spotted a sea turtle!]

Oh I’ve been wanting to blog about this, but I’ve yet to find the time.

It’s about our snorkeling experience at Bunaken Island, when we went to North Sulawesi last month for a mission trip.

Will soon blog about how we got there, the prices of the boat rides, snorkeling equipment rentals, and a few other tips and info!

Emm, hopefully I manage to do it sometime next week! =)

As a Mom, I can say that there are certain days that seem to last longer than usual.

Days when I feel tired, and mentally drained.

Moments when I have to deal with much whining, talking back, crying, bickering between siblings, refusal to listen, etc.

(This is of course on top of the usual potentially headache-inducing factors like, daily traffic jams, piling housework and dirty dishes, issues at work, etc)

But then, I remember someone said this to me sometime back:

‘Put in the hard work today, and I promise you will look back with fond memories when you sit in your quiet house, wishing they were little again’.

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When my day gets tough, like really really tough, I remind myself that … children will not stay little for long.

The screaming, tantrums and unreasonable crying will not last forever.

There’s a time for everything under the sun, and what we face today will soon pass.

And by the time childhood (and all its ups and downs) is over, we WILL most likely miss it all so much, that we most probably miss hearing their loud noises and seeing the mess they make around the house.

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Seeing the bigger picture and putting things into perspective sure helps to push me forward when the day gets tough.

(And other than a prayer asking for extra patience, joy and strength from God, … to me, one Magnum ice cream or a packet of M&M’s help cool my mind, too =)

Why did that person say such a thing about me?

That is just so disrespectful of him! Can’t believe he did that to me!

I don’t think she respects me!

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Whether we realise it or not, we often are preoccupied with how we’re treated by others.

We expect to be respected and treated right.

We want to be looked after and paid attention to.

We want to be understood.

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I thought it was just natural to feel that way.

I mean, we know that we should treat others right, but the tendency is, the bigger focus should still be on ME, ME and ME.

Today, I was rebuked by Rev. Stephen Tong’s sermon.

And I thank God for this reminder.

My perspective of many things was renewed, and I was reminded again of what’s more important that needs to be done.

Now, I’d like to share a small part of it with you today:

When we are still alive:

… what others do to you is a small matter.
… what you do to others matters much MORE.

When we’ve passed away:

… what you do to others, is no longer relevant
… how others remember you, matters MORE, because it reflects whether or not we have lived our lives to be a blessing to many, when we are still alive.

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Question is:

How have WE lived out our lives so far?

Have we touched people’s lives when we are still alive?

Do we make a positive difference in other people’s lives, when we still have the chance to do so?

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Food for thought.

Have a wonderful week, everyone.

We’ve been in Jakarta for a year by now, and one of the things I miss doing is going out and about with the kids, in the outdoors.

I miss hopping onto public buses (nope, we didn’t have a car throughout our 13 years in Singapore), heading towards the beach, watching the kids play with sand and getting all wet.

I miss walking down a pedestrian walk while pushing the pram, with the two older kids riding their bikes near me.

Unfortunately, we don’t have much access to such outdoor activities for the family here in Jakarta.

Well, one ‘green’ place that we did check out a few weeks ago was this place called EcoPark at Ancol

It was built in 2011, which explains why I couldn’t see huge, old trees there.

Having said that though, this is probably the only one available in the city of Jakarta that’s designed to promote greenery.

And, it’s a HUGE place.

You can rent bikes there (eg. Adult bike rental is Rp50,000/hour)

Have a picnic with your family.

Enjoy a good stroll.

Let the kids run around.

Observe the different animals that roam freely (available at allocated areas only)

Btw, we’ve been there twice, and we did see goats, deer, geese and ducks =)

[Nice and quiet surrounding]

[You can hop on this boat and it’ll take you around the lake at EcoPark Ancol. Can’t remember the price they charge per person though]

[Big girl, little girl]

[Notice our matching shirts? Haha. We specially ordered these personalised shirts with our family photo on them from drawyourshirt.com! Love them!]

[This is the ‘farm’ area at EcoPark Ancol]

So, do I still miss roaming around freely with the kids and being in the outdoors?

Yes of course.

But at least, we’re finding out more and more places to go to as a family.

That are not malls, I mean =)

Have fun with the family, everyone!

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Info:

> Entrance to EcoPark is free, BUT admission price applies to everyone entering Ancol.

For info on admission prices, click HERE!

> Come early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Can’t quite hide from the scorching sun as there’s not much shelter / big trees there.

> If you’re coming with little ones to EcoPark, do bring along your snacks and drinks. There are no food/drink stalls inside the area.

Someone asked me, ‘How do we read to a two year old? If I read all the words in a storybook, he doesn’t seem to understand and he’d want to get up and go.’

Well, first of all, I personally think small children do understand what we’re reading to them.

It’s just the understanding of the whole story or concept may take time. It’s a process. And it does depend on their age too.

small children do understand what we’re reading to them.

To a 2-year-old toddler like Brie, I’d read a sentence or two, then I’d ask her about something interesting that she can find in the book.

Like, when we’re reading this book ‘One more candle’, there are drawings of puppies, cats, balloons, cakes, a bicycle, butterflies etc on the different pages.

So, I’d ask Brie to find something, and point it out to me.

This keeps her engaged (compared to me just reading all the words in one go).

She’d look for it, point to show me, and say the name of the thing that she’s found.

[Brie : Now where is that bicycle again? I saw it just now!]

As she looks out for different things, I keep on reading the story to her.

And sometimes, I’d just re-tell the story, based on the pictures on each page, without reading any of the words in the storybook.

It’s about introducing books and the love of reading and learning into the lives of children since young

To me, reading a book to a toddler is not about teaching her how to read. Not just yet at that age (well, unless your child is a genius =)

It’s more about them hearing the story being read by us.

It’s about observing images and learning about new things and words.

It’s more about snuggling up and looking at pictures together.

It’s about introducing books and the love of reading and learning into the lives of children since young.

One More Candle

I thought I should share a bit about this book now.

What I immediately love about it is, the illustrations, the colours and the whole simple story that ends up with a strong family bond between siblings.

You see, when there’s more than one child in the family, most likely at one point or another you’ll hear, ‘When is MY birthday?’, ‘I want to get birthday presents too’, ‘Why is she older than me?’, ‘I want what she has!’, and so on. A natural inclination towards sibling rivalry.

And so, if you ask me, one way to encourage good sibling relationships and instill positive family values is through reading books together, books that focus on family love and relationship, like this one.

[‘One More Candle’ is written by Merry Susiarjo, illustrated by Emmeline Pidgen]

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To find out more about ‘One More Candle’, or to get your own copy :

> Click HERE (order online)

> If you’re in Indonesia, contact the local retailer Twelve Elves Books Indonesia (email: 12elves.id[at]gmail[dot]com)

> If you’re in Singapore, you can contact them through this email : 12elves.sg[at]gmail[com]

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Happy reading, everyone! =)