All About Your Child

These were the presents they received this Christmas 2011:

For KeatKeat – From Bak-Bak and Bak-Leong

The cute baby toy vehicles above was requested by Binbin – From Papa

Yellow Bird for Keatkeat, U-Turn Bird for Binbin – From Me

To BinBin – From Yi-Bak and Yi-Bak-Leong

To BinBin – From Bak-Bak and Bak-Leong

So what did Ah Yee, Yi-Zhang, all the cousins gave to Keatkeat and Binbin?!

More GOGO’S CRAZY BONES to add on to their collection!

This is how much they have in TOTAL on Christmas Day….and its still increasing!

In a way, I love GOGO’S CRAZY BONES, because it fits perfectly into the  reward-cum-punishment system! *laugh*

I had to remember which pieces are their favourites, so that I get to pick them when they break some rules. One piece for one misbehaviour. In a normal day, I can get about 2. Can you imagine on ‘their bad days’?!

*snigger*

They can only redeem ONE back each morning, unless they were able to be perform certain ‘difficult’ task on that day, then they will get more than one back on that day. ***Difficult task could mean Do Not Argue with your brother! *wink*

School holiday is a time for the kids to take a break from the massive work from school and the routine lifestyle of being a student. Yet, its during the school holidays that parents are the busiest!

Errr… wait a minute.

Hhhmmm… let me correct my previous sentence. That is provided if all the children study in the same session. If one child is studying in the morning session and the other is in the afternoon session, which would be true for me next year, then parents remain BUSY THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE YEAR! *super faint*

When they were younger, I love school holidays, because their need for entertainment is lesser. So a simple handicraft work could keep them occupied for a long time, unlike now, they can complete an art at a much faster speed and would ask, “What’s next, Mummy?”

So throughout the school holidays, it has been endless work for my brain to keep thinking about ‘What’s Next’ to keep my boys away from the boredom zone. And when there are OTHER adult task on hand, that is when my mind starts to go crazy and temper starts to fly out of nowhere easily.

It happened to me during the June holidays earlier this year. Therefore I told myself not to make the same mistake again! So what did I do differently this December school holiday?

Well, I signed them up for those few hours of classes. Two days of 8hours each workshop in November, two days of 1.5hours of art classes and one day of 3hours discovery class.

Though compared to 1,200 hours (24hours x 50days of school holidays), the above 22hours of complete me-time/couple-time may seemed off balance, but its good enough for me to regain my sanity!

Children need a break, parents need a break too!

Small breaks are good for both the child and the parents. It gives them more topics to chat about and it tightens the bonding between the parent and the child.

However, please, PLEASE don’t over do it! I have friends who would start hunting for 3 days or one week camping trips for their children to attend during the school holidays, even BEFORE the school holidays begin. No no no….

Bonding with your child is very important! Especially when they are young. Treasure the time together. The endless hugs and kisses. The sincere, “Mummy, I love you.” from your child. These actions start to decrease, as the child grows into teens, for most kids. So love these moments and make these moments last as long as you can.

As school reopen draws near, take this last 1 week plus to bring that bond closer with your child.

Taking a break is healthy, but too much of anything usually does more harm than good… *Smile*

Parents need a break too!