Dear Mommies and Daddies out there, are you ever ready to go on a confrontation like this with your kid? There’s definitely more than one lesson to learn from this video, SERIOUSLY!
7 Comments »This June has been great so far! Lots of excitement and lots of achievements for the kids.
Keatkeat finds it hard to remember which day comes after which. So I created a Song using “My Darling Clementine” tune.
In case you think I was smart, nah, its a habit. I just pick words from the air and throw in new lyrics to tunes that the kids are familiar with, most of the time, its for the fun of it, rather then for educational purposes.
But this time was meant to help my little 4-year-old remember the sequence of the days, which he became so good at it now, after it was made easy with this catchy new song. Now my 3-year-old can sing it too! LOL
Well, over the years of teaching in Child Care Centre, I realise that to make kids remember ‘Anything’, turn them into songs.
So the lyrics goes like this:
Monday
Tuesday
Wed-nes-day-
Thursday
Friday
Saturday.
After Saturday is Sunday
And then Monday comes again.
In case some of you may not know the tune, I’ve attached it below.
13 Comments »Many blog’s around the blogsphere are blogging about how wonderful this Father’s Day was. Instead of joining in the celebration, I decided to share this video…..
The meaning is deep. It’s a good reminder to all parents, not just Fathers alone….
Stumbled upon this through a blogger friend. Thanks KiNiGu!
9 Comments »YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!!!! DAVID COOK WON!!!! I need not wait for 9 hours to know the results from my TV telecast of the American Idol in Singapore. Just read the news provided BY LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer
Here’s the details of the report…..and hope someone upload the video of the results on YouTube fast…I’m so eager to see….
LOS ANGELES - The grown-up rocker triumphed over the smooth-voiced kid as David Cook claimed the “American Idol” title Wednesday, and it wasn’t as much of a surprise as it seemed.
While 17-year-old David Archuleta was heaped with praise by the judges the night before, the voters decided otherwise — and did they ever. Host Ryan Seacrest said before the results that 12 million votes was the difference, and it turns out they broke in the favor of the 25-year-old from Blue Springs, Mo.
Cook was overcome by emotion, bending toward the stage after his name was announced.
“This is amazing,” he said. “This is all your fault,” he added, addressing the brother who Cook had accompanied to the “Idol” audition that started it all.
Cook immediately took the microphone and began to sing “Time of my Life,” which won the annual “Idol songwriting competition, to close out season seven.
Cook refused to bow to the conventional during his three-song set Tuesday, with Collective Soul’s “The World I Know” as his pick for a closing performance. He also sang U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and the power ballad “Dream Big,” his choice from the songwriting competition’s finalists.
“If I had to choose between playing a song that not a whole lot of people know that I could get behind, or the opposite, I’ll choose the lesser-known every time,” Cook told The Associated Press backstage Tuesday.
Judge Simon Cowell said at the time that the song choices sunk him, and told Archuleta that he’d scored a “knockout” performance in the boxing-themed performance finale.
Cook was unshaken, and now his choices are vindicated.
While “Idol” ratings were down all season, the final contest provoked a frenzy with a record 97.5 million audience votes cast by phone and text. Last year’s total vote count was 74 million.
Early in the show, host Ryan Seacrest played it coy, announcing that the split between the two contestants was 56 percent for one David, 44 percent for the other. Of course he left in question who got the lion’s share; that detail wouldn’t come until the closing moments of the two-hour live broadcast.
While Archuleta was showered with praise by the judges all season, online bookies and observers kept the faith with Cook. One Web site, which tracks busy signals on the separate phone lines dedicated to each contestant, projected him the winner correctly Wednesday morning.
By strict “Idol” standards, being rebellious turned out to be worth the gamble for Cook, whose hip and scruffy style and ability to work the camera with a soulful gaze also proved to have overwhelming appeal. There were moments of tears, too, after Tuesday’s performance and again after Wednesday’s win.
Cowell, who seemed to dismiss Cook and his chances of winning Tuesday, offered an apology in the moments before the winner was announced, saying he was too harsh and that it “wasn’t quite so clear cut as we called it.” Cowell even let on that, for the first time, he felt either finalist would have been a worthy winner.
Archuleta, 17, of Murray, Utah, was the prodigy who consistently dazzled the show’s judges and thrilled screaming young fans. He would have been the youngest-”Idol” ever if he’d won, beating last year’s winner Jordin Sparks by mere days.
The teenager seemed to find the attention the show brought him overwhelming, often appearing to be speechless in the face of praise. But he was consistently professional onstage, with dulcet tones and poise that belied his shyness and tender age.
He also became the focus of controversy when his father, Jeff, was reportedly getting too heavily involved in his son’s rehearsals and asked by the show’s producers to back off.
Archuleta made the most of his smooth voice Tuesday with Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” the inspirational ballad “In This Moment” and a reprise from earlier in the season of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Judge Randy Jackson exclaimed to Archuleta, “Dude, you are so good tonight. You are exactly what this show is about.” And Cowell told the teenager: “You came out here tonight to win, and what we have witnessed is a knockout.”
“I felt I had a disadvantage getting so much attention in the beginning. But winning isn’t the big concern. It’s always doing your best. … That’s what’s important,” he told The Associated Press backstage Tuesday.
Congratulations David Cook! You deserved it!!!
10 Comments »What a show last night! David Cook, 25, and teenager David Archuleta, 17, together garnered a record 97.5 million votes from “Idol” viewers, beating the show’s previous record by 23 million, host Ryan Seacrest said.
Seacrest revealed that one David received 56 percent of the votes, while the other drew 44 percent.
Sigh…although my heart belongs to David Cook. But based on the comments given by the 3 judges and the flawless performances by David Archuleta, I think David Cook may lose the title.
Anyhow, americans will know the results in probably an hour from now and for the little me on this small island Singapore will only know 9 hours later…Urrrghhh!
My favourite performance from David Cook last nite was ‘ I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’
And for David Archuleta, ‘Imagine’
Ever had problems getting your kids to keep their toys? I used to think that to get children to keep their toys after play is as hard as asking them to climb up a ladder hands-free.
My mindset was completely changed after working at the child care centre. It is a matter of making it into a habit, a routine, a die-die-must-do task. The key of the game - never do it like a chore.
Tip 1: Get 1 or 2 big storage boxes or containers just for their toys. When the toys can no longer stay in the box, even after trying their balancing skills in plying them up above the edge of the box, its time to throw.
Make it a practice to throw away toys that they hardly play with just before their birthdays. All parents know how easily toys pile up after each birthday celebration.
Be careful when it comes to throwing toys away. Never ever throw away a toy the child insists on keeping. Always ask, “Shall we throw this away?” Some may say, “Children want to keep All their toys.” That is not true.
Once the guideline is set and the children understand the reason for throwing some toys away; they willingly pick out toys they are not interested in playing with anymore. When there are fewer toys around to keep, it looks less tedious to the kids.
Tip 2: Get them to sing the Barney Clean Up Song. This less than 10 seconds song somehow has a magical touch. The more times the children sing, the faster their hands move. Who knows? Maybe this 20 year old Purple Dinosaur (just got to know that Barney is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year) does create songs that stimulate the kids’ mind.
Tip 3: Do the countdown. This is best when you need them to speed up and when the mess spreads across the ENTIRE HOUSE! Usually a 10-count should do the job, but if there are small pieces like jigsaw puzzles and Lego, then (to be fair) give a 20 or even a 30-count.
Tip 4: Never help your children. Always guide them, “Ok, after you have kept the cars, pick up the race-tracks.” Helping your kids will either cause them to slacken and/or create a mindset of “Mommy will keep it herself or for me, anyway.”
Tip 5: Never say, “I’ll come back and check on you.” Though not helping with your hands, it is important that you sit through the whole process with them. To the kids, they are doing it because you told them to and simply because they love you. So if you disappear to do your laundry or read the newspapers, they would feel that their effort is not appreciated.
Keeping toys by themselves, indirectly teaches them a very important virtue - responsibility. You play, you keep. You mess up, you clean up. Being accountable for your actions is one very valuable lesson.
Tip 6: Be generous with your compliments.
When your kids do what was instructed, say “Good Boy or Girl!”
When they choose to use both hands to pick up more than just 1 toy at a time, praise them, “That’s clever, you pick up so many toys at a time.”
When you can tell that they are feeling the strain or not motivated, encourage them, “You are doing very well.”
When they start to throw a tantrum in the middle of it, encourage them, “You are doing great, I am so proud of you, it is almost done. Just a few more pieces over here.”
Try not to keep saying the same words like, “Good boy or girl” throughout the whole process. Kids like to hear new stuff, so be creative with your compliments.
Tip 7 When the children have completed the whole process, praise them “Good Job. Look at the whole place now, it is so clean and neat. You kept them so fast. Now everyone can walk around without the fear of stepping on the toys, damaging them and hurting their feet. I am so proud of you.”
It is very important to point to the kids the significant difference before and after. Keywords like ‘clean’, ‘neat’ and ‘fast’ will stay in the children’s brain as the basic criteria they should maintain for the next round.
It is also a must to let your children know that what they did, do not only pleases you alone, it makes everyone else happy. This trains their mind to think of others in their actions.
Toys being the main part of their daily enjoyment, by saying the above sentence, you make known to them that their favourite toy is in danger of getting ‘hurt’ too, if the toy is left lying around. They would want to ‘protect’ their toys from harm and hence remember to keep them after play.
Tip 8: When all the toys are kept, always say, “I am so proud of you.” It is often good to give a small reward. Be it a hug, a kiss, a tiny M&M chocolate, a drink that they like or whatever that pleases the little ones. Rule of the thumb - never promise to give the reward before the task is assigned. This will give them the wrong motivational factor.
Tip 9: Never request your children to do it when they are in a bad mood, feeling tired or are in the mist of throwing a tantrum. You think they will cooperate? Not a chance!
Tip 10: Make if fun. Find a big cardboard. You can help by holding the cardboard and tilting it to create a slide where the landing area is the toy box. Now your kids can put all the toys which they picked up from the floor and slide them down into the toy box. Now it has became a game and they will love it!
Tip 11: As for the next playtime, suggest that your kids keep whatever they are playing at that moment first, before they bring out another toy from the toy box. This is not a must because such rule limits the children’s creativity in playing in a different way by combining different toys together.
To sum up the pointers, get your children to keep their toys at a time when they are in a relax mood, stick through it with them with lots of praises and make them feel their effort is worthwhile by giving a reward at the end.
Different people uses different ways to make their children keep their toys. The question is are they willing to do it? My MIL uses the cane and lots of other threats to get the toys off the floor. What’s your method?
3 Comments »Yes! Yes! Yes! Can you see I’m jumping up and down? Finally Syesha Mercado is going Home! I’m evil, I know.
When Ryan Seacrest said that David Cook was going to perform the last song, last night, ‘I don’t want to miss a thing’, my heart dropped. The very first time I saw this man on the TV screen, I’ve wished that he would sing this song, because it felt so him. And indeed he did a FANTASTIC JOB!
At last, my kids can tell me exactly what they liked about David Cook…
Keatkeat: “I like David Cook because he got moustache and beard.”
Binbin: “He can cook!”
*laugh……*
6 Comments »Mommy can be this POWERFUL! How would you feel if Cancer took away your child’s both eyes at age of 2? Look at how she handle this…..
Are this kind of Mom?
Never being over protective….
Never putting limits on your child…
Like she said, “We have to give our kids confidence, we have to give them pride, empower him with who he is and (tell him) be proud of who you are no matter what….there’s nothing you can do that I can’t do better….that’s the attitude….and that’s what I wanna give him…”
This mommy has always inspire me that when we think our kid is that great, he/she CAN BE THAT GREAT!
5 Comments »
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