This whole afternoon had a wonderful planning session with my G12 sisters and the pastor for the Year of Sabbath. This year, our church will concentrate on 3 main areas :
1. Intimacy with God (renew our first love with God), 2. Inter-dependance (build relationship with one another and renew ties with our loved ones) and to 3. Integration (rest and re-creation of the land ie to bless the community). I am looking forward to what's in store for us this year as we begin to draw closer to God and to renew and strengthen our ties with one another.
With the new year, there are new hopes and new plans..is exciting as I was planning what I hope to achieve this year. Some of the things I hope to do this year :
1. Spend deliberate quality time with baby nicole daily on a fixed routine- building her love for stories, literacy, play etc
2. To do up a flexible routine timetable for myself, Naomi and Nathan so that the day can be much more organised to learn, to play and to practise on the piano
3. To help Naomi with Math and Chinese which are the weaker subjects so as to prep her for P1 next year
4. To teach Nathan to read
5. To help them to have a mindset that learning is fun and not boring andnot to pass tests or exams only
6. To have time to play, communicate ideas and values, play or do crafts together, pray and read the bible together.
7. My personal plan this year, I hope to start a parenting website with information , newsletters etc soon so that I can share with other parents what I have learnt from parenting books, parenting courses,websites, my experience in Mindchamps and through teaching Kindermusik.
8. Hope to read one parenting book and one christian book every 2 mths.
9. On the spiritual side, I hope to be more diligent in my quiet time, to pray for my children and family needs on a daily basis and to enjoy the intimacy and to draw near to God.
10. As for family matters, I plan to have couple time alone with my husband once every month , to go out have dinner or lunch together , without the kids.
11. To incorporate on some of the teachings I have learnt during Focus on the Family seminar ie to draw up a family mission statement and to spend individual time with each kid and to discipline them using the methods taught.
12. To have family cell with/without my extended family.
I hope to achieve most of it if not all by end 2008. Hope is not wishful thinking : )
Let's see if I can do it when I blog at the end Dec 08.
Jan 5, 2008
New plans for new year
Jan 4, 2008
"The Brat Pack" -- Are kids any ruder today than they were a generation ago?
A very interesting read indeed. Sarah Mahoney, in her article "The Brat Pack" (Parents, March 2007 Issue, pp 122-126), believes that there is a "manners meltdown" for today's children. One of the main reasons is that today's busy working parents are too tired to discipline their children after a hard day's work. That aggravates the children's rude behaviour because of such "permissive" response from the parents.
Some parents are also being over-protective over their kids. They think that their kids are already stressed up in their school work and it's okay for them to be occasionally rude to them or even others instead of rebuking and correcting them. Other parents are also guilty of feeding their kids with over-sized portions of self-esteem, so much so that kids have rendered themselves more superior than other kids (even adults in some circumstances) in terms of talent and other gifted abilities. The TV media has also promoted rudeness as a cool act.
In her article, she quoted experts' advice to parents to serve as role models to our children. This in fact places the children in good stead in life compared to their peers because of their ability to show empathy to others and not to develop a self-centred approach to the world. It is said that rude children are more likely to face problems in school and even cause trouble to society when they grow up.
What is mind-boggling to me is that the choice of play toys can be influential in a child's perspective of rudeness! Toys encouraging rude behaviours include th breaking of wind from a teddy bear when pressed on its tummy (it should say "excuse me" after breaking of wind), and an ice-filled water gun that makes the squirt hurt.
Sarah also urges parents to set clear standards and communicate them consistently to the children, telling them the reasons behind the rules. For example, telling them not to interupt when someone is speaking. TV programs should be selective and limited whenever possible.
Personally, I try to be consistent in my counselling of my kids. Be real patient that you may need to keep reminding your children to say "please" and "thank you", or to sit still while dining. And you know what, I think my persistence pays off. Nowadays, Naomi and Nathan are behaving much better at meal times instead of running around. The trick is to also get our domestic helper to cooperate with you to maintain consistency in your teachings.
Dec 31, 2007
Thanksgiving for year 2007
Reflecting the past year...I am filled with many many thanksgiving to God.This year, our church fcbc has adopted the theme "Year of Victory" and indeed my family has seen many victories this year.
My list of thanksgiving :
b. Smooth and safe pregnancy though I have to oversee the renovation and shifting of the house. Packing the house ready for shifting...ssh..occassionally climbing up and down to pack cos I dont have a maid even at 7th mth of pregnancy. Really thankful for his protection!
b. Selling our old flat at a very good price that is way beyond our expected selling price and selling the flat on our own (saving the agent's comms) within the day that we advertised !
c. Thank God for helping us to get a bigger flat at a good price..now the prices has increased to $180K more for the same block. Seeing us through the renovation and the moving in smoothly before I delivered.
d. Granting our wish to move to the east and staying near my mum's and sibiling's flats. Naomi and Nathan are ecstastic to move here too since there are more people to bring them out for shopping and more visits to their aunties' homes.
e. God's financial provision for us even though I am not working full-time.
f. Helping me to achieve my goals working in MindChamps, financially and job satisfaction ie helping families and students to achieve beyond their potential. Achieve the Education Success Coach accrediation and also gotten two awards for achieving my targets.
b. Helping us to find a trustworthy and diligent maid at last ! Those who knows me , know that I have nightmare and episodes after episodes of maid horror stories. I can really write a book on "Foreign Domestic Workers 101" .
Last but not least... thank God for his protection and peace and his constant faithful love for us and our family ! Knowing the promises of God and that God is good all the time, we can face the new year 2008 with new hope, promises and many good things to come only if we seek him before anything else ! With this, we can move forward to the new year with anticipation and excitement ! Indeed, I have already have some new year resolutions already...looking fwd to fulfill them, with God's help, in the year 2008.
