New plans for new year

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.

"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.

Thanksgiving for year 2007

Today is the last day of 2007, it is during this time of the year that I always have that mixed feelings..even when I was working full time. On one hand, very thankful to God for the year that has passed but on the other hand, rather apprehensive about what's coming up in the new year - parenting challenges, business, job stability, health of family members..etc etc, uncertainties. Hm..dunno if it is becos my birthday is in January so the fear of growing old too ....ha ha.

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 :

1. Physical Provision :

a. Miracle baby - we prayed for our 3rd child and God provide us a bubbly, healthy and smiley bundle of joy in Aug this year, Nicole Yiang.
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!

c. Fast delivery - 3 hours of labor

d. My two elder kids Naomi and Nathan have indeed grown from strength to strength be it physically, spiritually and development in areas such as music, language and cogitive part..

2. Financial and Material Provision :

a. Granting Seb a new job in the area that is of his interest and a good and conducive environment.
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.

3. Mirale of Healing

a. Mum's constant pain and ill-health - God always heal when we pray. Amen !

b. Mum-in-laws' eyes - operated in 2006 but always complained that her eyes still feel uncomfortable. God healed her eyes during Good Friday service and since then didnt hear her complaining.

4. Mirale of Salvation

a. Mum-in-law was saved during the Good Friday service

5. Other provisions :

a. Providing us an opportunity to travel to ChiangMai and HK at the beginning and the end of the year to bond with the kids and enjoy ourselves
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.

Arts and craft home lesson - making animals out of straws!

Can you imagine making animal models, even playground and trees, out of drinking straws? Sebastian borrowed an art and craft book from the Central National Library and tried his hands on making a squid and butterfly for the kids. That made the kids happy for the whole morning.

It's good to expose the kids to creative arts so as to expand their imagination and appreciation for the arts.

Thomas the Tank Engine and Barbie

Nathan's first Thomas the tank engine set

Commercialism has hit the heart strings of children! Children these days are so blessed with expensive toys and gifts...

Naomi received a Barbie toy set as Christmas gift from a close friend of mine and she was so estatic when she opened it. It was a toy shown on a TV advertisement and she had been asking for it, much to my objection to buying it. Any how, she got her wish.

We got Nathan a Thomas the tank engine set as his birthday present last June. He has been asking for another add-on set this Christmas, again to our disapproval. That same friend granted him his wish this Christmas! So now, he can fix up the 2 sets to expand the tracks and have double the fun!

A casual and relaxing Christmas day

Our church does not have a tradition of having church service on Christmas day. Last Sunday's service saw us celebrating Christ's birthday with Hall 10 filled with Christmas worship songs and festive decorations on the stage and all. The children's Christmas service at Hall 9 was also packed with children witnessing a Christmas musical. Naomi and Nathan were thrilled with so much gifts and goodies from their Sunday School's teachers!




This morning, after going through some MSN chats with my father in-law and sister (with the kids busy playing with the "winks" feature), we decided to go for a picnic at East Coast Park. It's the first trip to the beach for Nicole! The other 2 kids played "bubbles" and we had an enjoyable time snacking and simply catching some cool breeze by the seaside. Boy, was the park crowded!

Merry Christmas, every one!

HK Disneyland Adventure

Nathan's smile tells it all... Photo with Pooh, his idol

Naomi with Snow White, one of her favourite Disney characters besides Belle.

Naomi and Nathan posing with statue of Mickey Mouse at the lobby of Disneyland Hollywood Hotel.

This is the first time the 2 elder kids (Naomi and Nathan) visit a Disneyland (15 to 16 Dec 07). They enjoyed themselves so much that they kept talking about it for days when we got back home.

Disneyland Hollywood provided a 2-day pass to Disneyland and even gave us a complimentary fastpass for any of the 3 designated fastpass rides. Nathan didn't like the rides (especially the Pooh ride and the Astro Blaster ride) as he was scared. Naomi liked the rides but was scared at the sight of the Disney characters during photo-taking sessions, except the Disney princesses. When we missed the meet-and-greet session for Princess Belle and Snow White, she cried with disappointment. We went back for the next session and she was overjoyed with meeting Snow White and Belle. What a fan of Disney princesses!

Even though Hong Kong Disneyland was quite a disappointment to me (after visited Disneyland in Anaheim, Tokyo and Paris, the one in Hong Kong seemed relatively small-scaled and lacked the pomps), the kids had a wonderful and magical adventure there.

Naomi's ballet performance at Crestar School of Dance

Naomi has been learning ballet at Crestar School of Dance for a few months now. During the school term holidays, she has an excellent learning experience from an intensive workshop --- "Australia Dance Exchange Holiday Workshop 2007", conducted over the past one week at Crestar's Marine Parade dance studio. Tonight was "Performance Day" at Nanyang Girls' High School's Siew May Auditorium. Nothing beats seeing the joy and excitement on her face on stage.

Here's a short video clip (above) on her class (pre-ballet/primary) item "My Teddy Bear", choregraphed by Ms. Emma Nickoll from Australia.