All About Your Child

Some of my close friends, who are also my faithful readers, often ‘scold‘ me, “Why do you always say that Keatkeat is very difficult to handle? He looks like a perfectly well-behaved boy to me (us).”

Even after sharing so many different incidents on this blog and outside of this blog to them, it seemed that it was not enough to put my message across.

Hhhmmm….probably what happened yesterday will finally make them ‘SEE‘ the light! *laugh*

Before I share what happened yesterday, let me make this clear. I strongly believe that God is fair and that in life there is always a balance. You have some and you lose some.

I am extremely thankful that I have two extremely different children. I had to pay so much attention on Keatkeat every single day that often I feel like I only have one child, because his 18months younger brother is so independent, understanding and reliable.

Each day, Keatkeat helps me to be a better Mummy. How? By doing things that people with common sense would NOT do! *laugh*

Seriously, I really feel that my level of patience gets to be upgraded with each passing day.

Common sense is VERY common to everyone in this family, except Keatkeat.

To him, his convenience is above all things else. Well, in layman terms, you can call him self-centered or subconsciously he does things that annoys us.

It IS his Scorpio-Goat personality in play.

And to Allan, personality is something that comes with him when he is born, unlike manners, which can be taught and cultivated. So to Allan, he has succumbed to that and for me, I just want to challenge myself to see if that can be changed.

So yes, every single day, Keatkeat would do something that is either a little annoying or ultra annoying, so much so that Allan will blow his top.

It IS a challenge that I face every day. Do I feel frustrated? No. I just feel that nothing is impossible so long as I do not give up. So I am taking it as a challenge for myself.

Alright, with so much said, what did he do yesterday which made us upset again?

During the afternoon, he wanted to blow his nose at the wash basin in the kitchen. Yes, the one which you wash your dishes in.

I stopped him in time and said, “Keatkeat, does your mucus have germs?”

KK: “yes.”

Me: “What do we wash in this basin?”

KK: “bowls and plates.”

Me: “So if you blow your nose here and I wash our bowls and plates here, what’s going to happen?”

KK: “bowls and plates will have germs and when we use the bowls and plates, we’ll be sick.”

Me: “Yes. So should you still blow your nose here?”

KK: “No.” and he walked to the toilet.

After we ate our dinner, I was almost done with washing the dishes and Keatkeat came and stood beside me and BLEW HIS NOSE INTO THE WASH BASIN!

YES! RIGHT BESIDE ME!

*Super Eyes Rolled*

You tell me?! Do you think he did it on purpose???!!!!

Well, let me tell you, he did not.

He did it because its so CONVENIENT!

He knew he had to take his medication (yes he is still unwell, infact his condition take a turn for the worse) after dinner. Which is why he came into the kitchen and stood beside me to wait for his medication to be given.

So while waiting, his nose tap was turned on and he just decides to flush his mucus down into the wash basin, which happened to be conveniently (placed) right infront of him; REGARDLESS IF THERE IS ANYTHING IN THE WASH BASIN!!!

Thank goodness! There was only ONE plate left! I rescued the rest of the bowls and plates. They must be CHEERING on the drainer!

Yes, his mucus was on that ONE PLATE!!!

My Reaction?!

“KEAT…KEAT!!!!” (as usual) followed by a sigh.

And just like every other time when he did something wrong, he would say, “Sorry Mummy. I don’t know why I did it.”

In my heart, I answered that question, “I know. Its your Scorpio-Goat personality at fault!”

Did I throw away that plate?

NO!

I kept it as a reminder for him. I called it the ‘Keatkeat Plate‘.

Me: “I am going to wash this plate and YOU and ONLY YOU will be using this plate. To REMIND YOU TO BLOW YOUR NOSE IN THE TOILET!”

You know what did he say?

KK: “You must wash it clean hor. Got germs.”

Me: “Oh! (acting surprise) You know got germs and you STILL choose to blow your nose HERE?!? Well, you eat your own germs better than others eat your germs right?”

*Super Eyes Rolled*

***Don’t worry, I had doubled and tripled washed/sterilised the ‘KeatKeat Plate‘.

The words on the cover of the SISTIC envelope read, “keeping the kids captivated for two hours : priceless”

I would say, I am going to MULTIPLE those two hours by at least 12 times with the surprise I had prepared for them for 15 months!

Yes, my ex-neighbour bought tickets for LEGOLAND in the month of March and the moment I heard about the special offer, went straight back into my house and grabbed it!

Bought it so long ago and only remembered to collect them today! Thanks to the chaos which house-moving can create. *laugh*

LEGOLAND Malaysia’s Grand Opening date is on 15 September 2012.

Now that we visit Malaysia AT LEAST twice a week, I see no reason why I should not get the special offer, which ended last month. We purchased the Annual Pass for 15months of free admission, instead of the usual 12 months free admission and at a cheaper price! The early birds DO catches big fat worms! *laugh*

Yes, which means we could use these tickets  from 15 September 2012 till 31 December 2013! Whoo-hoo! Thank you ex-neighbour!

So LEGOLAND, We are Ready!

A friend whom I got to know some years back is facing financial difficulties and putting food on the table is priority over everything else currently.

Yet, it pains her to see her children suffer because of her inability to provide. Red lines on her boys’ bellies, caused by the undersized shorts and pants, gives her heartaches.

She has two boys. One 10 and the other is 6. Both medium build, but the younger one is on the pudgy side.

Does any of you have boys clothes to give away, especially boys shorts and pants?

If so, please contact me at angeline@AllAboutYourChild.com and I will link the two of you up.

***It is truly out of friendship. I do not get any incentives from doing this.

HELP! Boys Shorts and Pants needed.

Going away from posting about illness, though they are still no where near to recovery, I decided to finish up a backdated post that was supposed to be up in March 2011!!! *faint*

Chinese was never my best subject in school. It has always been a miracle I could maintain a blue or black ink (instead of red) year after year, when none of my parents speak that language.

I have very little faith…and *huge laugh* you could see how pathetic I am when I did the T-Rex post, whereby the ‘chinese’ word for dinosaur was taught wrongly (by me). *covering face in shame*

To me, when it comes to teaching, the most important thing is to make IT interesting. Without the interest of the child, all effort will go to waste. Going the Learn-By-Hard method is not my style.

So for a subject that even I do Not have interest in, what could I do to make it more interesting for my sons? Especially Keatkeat?

1 ~ I have tried playing games : See post “Hanyu Pinyin”

2 ~ I have chosen to let him learn online : See post “How To Teach Hanyu Pinyin”

3 ~ I have used stories to help him recognise Chinese words better : See post “Chinese Character”

4 ~ I have sought help from cartoons : See post “Study Chinese”

5 ~ And my lastest method was going into Comprehension : See post “How to Teach Chinese When Your Child has NO Interest in it?”

After using 5 different approaches, guess which one worked for Keatkeat?

Just in case you are wondering, why do I mention Keatkeat only when Binbin is in the schooling age as well? Well, sad to say, Binbin knows and recognise more Chinese words than Keatkeat.

Yes, Keatkeat is in Primary 3, obviously he should know more Chinese words. However, my above sentence is referring to words that BOTH were exposed to and most of the time, Binbin can remember and Keatkeat cannot.

So the one whom I focus on more is Keatkeat.

Anyway, Chinese aside, Binbin has always been amazing in everything, be it learning abilities, attitude, personality, he is one boy who does not make a parent worry much. Not even when he is sick. He cleans himself up, he asks for warm water, he washes his soil pants without us knowing…. I am very thankful that I was chosen to be Binbin’s Mummy… *heart melt*

Ok, back to the topic, so which of the 5 method worked for the totally-no-interest-in-Chinese 8 year old?

It was story-telling. Yup the third on the list.

I used to think that I need tools to teach Chinese, guess its not true. All I need was creativity, heart and determination.

It is still working till this day. But does that mean I gave up the rest totally? No! Its just that if you have a kid who has almost zero or negative interest in Chinese, you may want to try this story-telling method.

It just might work for your child too.

To end this post, let me share with you Keatkeat’s favourite chinese word now. It is based on this story, “One Japanese, holding a knife (dao), standing at the door (men-kou), killed four person.”

Can you guess what word is it?

I need tools to teach Chinese, or maybe not.

With 4 visits to the clinic and 1 visit to the hospital in less than 3 weeks, I think I have enough. Can everyone in the family be in the pink of health soon? Signs are starting to show that this nurse, aka ME, is collapsing…

Other than taking care of them physically, my mind must remain alert to challenge their mischievous-ness.

Keatkeat: “Mummy, why I like cannot hear very well?”

Me: “Maybe because you are sick.”

Keatkeat: “Or is it because after we move house, you haven’t dig my ears? Two weeks already leh.”

Me: “I will check later.”

Keatkeat went back to his homework….

Me: “Keatkeat, head up. Chin away from table when writing.”

Keatkeat: “Tsk!” (as he lifted his head)

Me: “See? Your ears are fine, you can hear me.”

Keatkeat: “Huh? What did you say? I can’t hear.”

Me: *Twisted mouth and eyes rolled* “Guess you are not that sick afterall.”

Keatkeat: “Huh? Really can’t hear wat….” And went back to his work.

Kids Talk – I Can’t Hear