All About Your Child

My dear Binbin did not cry again! *Yippee* I didn’t call my MIL today…I just don’t want to make it so obvious that I WANT TO PROVE HER WRONG! *laugh* Thank you Clement for passing me the hammer! *laugh*

Allan and my sister think its hereditary. Nope, not from Allan; ‘cos my MIL said Allan cried for 1 YEAR! (That’s so hard to believe, isn’t it? Oh well, that’s what the lady said) Anyway, they think Binbin has my ‘genes’ ~ the ‘like-to-go-school’ genes… *laugh*

I remember how excited I was when I knew that I’m going to school for the first time. I wanted my boys to have that excitement too. I remember WHY I was so excited and wanted to prepare my boys based on what I’d experienced. But because of my commitment in my retail line, I didn’t prepare my elder one for it, and he cried for the first 3 days.

I must make myself clear: I think its perfectly fine for kids to cry on first few days of school. Its understandable. Yet its preventable when the parents put in some effort BEFORE the child starts school.

I realised it only too late. I couldn’t help my Keatkeat, so I put in my all for Binbin. Guessed it worked… here’s how I did it…

Its a year long preparation. Throughout 2008, I make sure that I brought Binbin along whenever he is woken by his whiny brother in the morning. Binbin saw what it is like to GO to school. What to expect, things like: parents were not allowed to go in with the child; the door will be closed; the windows would be locked. I gave him the MENTAL preparation.

Next, I created chances for him to mix with other children by bringing him to the playground. For those of you who are not aware, Binbin is a ‘people-magnet’! People, be it young or old, black or white, like to approach him, stroke him, chat with him and kids often come forward to ask him to join in their games. (*sad* unlike poor Keatkeat who hardly get such attention) Hence, the SOCIABILITY / ADAPTABILITY preparation.

Finally, whenever Keatkeat brought home an artwork from school or a party-goodies bag because of his classmate’s birthday, Binbin’s eyes were always filled with envy. Or when Keatkeat went for an excursion, Binbin would often say with jealousy, “Aaaawwww…. So Good! And I can’t go!” My response often act as a reminder, “Binbin, when you start school next year, you’ll have all these too and even more. So do you want to go school?” “YES!!!” was always the reply. When a kid is frequently reminded of the ‘goodness‘ of something, their emotion towards it will be positive. And that’s the EMOTIONAL preparation.

To prepare a 2-3 year old kid for something this big needs a much longer time. I would say, I paid extra attention over last year to prepare him for the big day (yesterday)… I’m glad my effort paid off. *hooray*

I received this email from my neighbour…enjoy…
Hmmm….some of these conversations are so familiar, as I recall my days as a Child Care Center teacher *laugh*

TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America ..
MARIA: Here it is.
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America ?
CLASS: Maria.
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TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.
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TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell ‘crocodile?’
GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L’
TEACHER: No, that’s wrong
GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.
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TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for wa! ter?
DONALD: H I J K L M N O.
TEACHER: What are you talking about?
DONALD: Yesterday you said it’s H to O.
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TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn’t have ten years ago.
WINNIE: Me!
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TEACHER: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?
GLEN: Well, I’m a lot closer to the ground than you are.
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TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with ‘I.’
MILLIE: I is..
TEACHER: No, Millie….. Always say, ‘I am.’
MILLIE: All right….. ‘I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.’
______________ ___________________
TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father’s cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn’t punish him?
LOUIS: Because George still had the axe in his hand.
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TEACHER: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
SIMON: No sir, I don’t have to, my Mom is a good cook.
______________________________

TEACHER: Clyde , your composition on ‘My Dog’ is exactly the same as your brother’s. Did you copy his?
CLYDE : No, sir. It’s the same dog.
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TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
HAROLD: A teacher

Yesterday was a fruitful day. I was so occupied from as early as 8am to as late as 11pm. I can feel that 2009 will be an extremely exciting year for my family and I.

So yesterday, I woke up at 8am+ to bring my boys down for the school orientation. The boys were so excited to go to school, they jumped out of their mattress as if they were going to Toys R Us.

Keatkeat was all geared up to be the big tour guide of the day for his brother. While the principal was talking to us in one room, the boys were so at ease in another room playing with the wooden train sets and mingled a little with the other school mates.

When the briefing was over. Binbin refused to leave. He wanted to stay longer. To explore more. To play more. This is not the first time he stepped into the school, but definitely the first for everyone to step into the nicely renovated place.

I had to carry him out of the place! We had no choice but to leave early because Allan needed to help my BIL to deliver Chinese New Year greeting cards….

Later in the afternoon, my eldest SIL was so concerned if Binbin had cried on the first day of school (cos’ none of the Loh’s grandchildren has NOT), she sent me a sms…. and was disappointed when I told her there was no lessons…. I bet she’ll ask again on Monday *laugh*

This morning, Binbin first sentence was, “Mommy, wake up, I need to go school already!”

When I told him there’s no school on Saturday, he face dropped to a gloom. I hope his excitement will last long… *fingers crossed*

- We had another of our ‘Throw-Away-Toys’ moment again. After Keatkeat’s birthday bash in November and Christmas, the toys have exceeded the ‘limit’ which I have set for them.

Usually we would have this practice just before a birthday celebration or a present giving session like Children’s Day or Christmas. Our perfect ‘excuse’ to do it today was the anticipation of the Lion Heads’ replacement mentioned in yesterday’s post.

You can imagine how WILLINGLY my boys were at throwing those broken toys away. When you don’t have such ‘good reasons’ even those cars that have lost 4-wheels are like treasures to them! But during ‘Throw-Away-Toys’ routine, these are first to go….

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- While Allan was reading the updates of the English Soccer on the net, I was the monster chasing my boys around my 80+ square meter house for almost 45mins non-stop!

I remember Anthony Robbins once said in his seminar, “Use your motion to change your emotions”… so for those of you who saw my SOS post on my other blog, you know I had a burning ‘head’ yesterday and just as I expected, this morning I woke up with a headache.

Guess what? The mad chase around the house did change my grumpy look… *laugh* Aren’t I glad I have kids? Sure I AM!

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- At dinner time, Keatkeat did it again. The urge to pass motion comes after first few mouthful of rice. 1st attempt was not rewarding, nothing came out from his ‘hole’ after sitting on the toilet bowl for 10mins.

Came back and took another few bites. 15mins later, the urge came again, this time, he got a satisfying result. He even exclaimed that he only needed 3 wipes to get his bottom cleaned, instead of the usual 10-20 wipes.

He doesn’t like to wash, he prefers to wipe. I think either way, I’m fine. So long as he is comfortable and CLEANed. Personally, I prefer him to wipe because if he is so used to washing his bum after the ‘big business’ is done, when he is doing ‘IT’ outside, he will have issues, cos’ there’s no water hose for him to wash.

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- Binbin have not done this for a long time, but his unique ‘talent‘ have not left him. He did it again just now. *laugh* He fell asleep while he was eating his dinner half-way. Please don’t ask me how he did it. He just DID IT!!! He was munching away and the next moment, he was snoring…. *huge laugh*

Ok, I’ve said enough of how much I love Marina Barrage. I just want to ’show’ you how madly in loved we are with the place. We went there again today. This is the 4th time in a span of less than a month. Yes, I can hear some of you murmuring away that I didn’t mention about the 3rd visit. Well, I just don’t want to bore you… *wink*

Today will be the last time for the kids to visit this place THIS YEAR! School will begin next week, so its back to the usual routine; but this time, its more exciting for me. Cos’ BOTH will be in school! Binbin - 3 hours and Keatkeat - 4hours! Allan and I have already some ‘evil plans’ up in our sleeves…. *laugh* Yeah! *clap clap clap*

Hence the ‘gallery’ in my living room will no longer be just Keatkeat’s masterpieces, but 2009 will welcome its new artist ~ Binbin.

Most of you may have noticed that I hardly blog about their academic progress. Given that I’m a teacher by experience and by nature, I should be (in most people’s mind) one who probably blog about studies 90% of the time.

No particular reason, I just don’t. I prefer to talk about other parenting issues that will impact children’s mentality and personality than just on grades.

But now that I’ve got 2 in preschool, maybe 2009 will have more blog posts about how I ‘tackle’ their English, Mandarin, Maths and what have you…..or maybe not, we’ll see…. *wink*

When you live in a multi-racial, multi-religious country like Singapore, its really hard to fully enjoy a season. It was just Christmas a while agao, and now, the shops are busy changing their stocks from blue-and-white to gold-and-red.

Yes, Chinese New Year is on 26 January 2009. Having a higher number of Chinese population over here, its unmistakably that more people celebrates CNY then Christmas. Well, the truth is: not all Chinese are Christians but MOST Christians are Chinese….

We went to Chinatown today, for a walk, just to see if those temporary CNY shops are up, just to see if the decorations are done, just to be there earlier before the crowd to get into the mood of the longest celebrated season every year.

Personally, I think that Keatkeat and Binbin have very strong legs as compared to kids of their age. I credit it to ‘never-pram and hardly-carry’ days ever since they made their first step.

We walked for 3 hours non-stop. What truly kept them going were their search for a replacement…. for these:-

(These were pictures taken during this year’s CNY in February)

Those were the mini lion heads we bought for them earlier this year, to greet my PIL when we visited them on the first day of CNY, which made everyone laughed so hard.

Binbin’s orange lion head’s beard and moustache are completely gone, the ‘body’ has been detached from the head long ago. As for Keatkeat’s white lion head, the ears were ripped off months after the above performance.

Allan and I are not very keen on getting them another set. The kids are aware. In a way, they are ’sensible’. They are willing to compromise for a smaller one. Those that are hand-held, more like a puppet, instead of getting the exact same size as their disfigured Lions lying in that Toy Box together with all their Hot Wheels.

Yes the kids found those puppets, almost half the price of what they own. But the adults played delayed-tactics. Afterall, its still another month away and the parents know their kids too well… they have good intentions in mind, they just want the lions to be still in ‘one-piece’ for the big day on 26 January…. so till the day gets nearer, the family is staying away from shops that look really Red-and-Gold from afar… *wink*

Today is my cousin’s (extreme left) elder son’s (boy in Red. in front of the cake. with the ultimate ‘I’m-not-interested-to-smile-face) 6th birthday. I call him my nephew, since cousin and I stayed with each other since the day I was born. She is like my sister more than a relative.

This was the number of kids in the party today. I had super fun with all those children, despite of my terrible condition. I guess kids are the best distraction from ‘anything’….*laugh*

Happy 6th Birthday Matin!

The following were the Christmas Presents my boys received this year…much more than 2007.

For the first time, I gave myself a Christmas Present. You can read it here…