This December school holidays season has been a busy one not only for us, but the children as well. Naomi and Nathan have had so much fun at the 3-day Chinese drama class held at the Marine Parade Community Club.
Today, the last day of class, the children had a mini-concert for the parents. Naomi was absent today due to her Crestar ballet rehearsal at the Victoria Theatre.
Nathan had a fun time singing along with the other children. It helped that Sean, his friend was in the same group.
Here's a snap shot of one of the 5 singing items performed by the group. The boy wearing the red Elmo tee is Nathan (Sean is in the front row wearing the GAP tee). It's amazing how young children could remember the lyrics and dance steps for all the 5 drama and dance items, with just 3 days of drama lessons!
Sept 13 marks a special day for my dear pastor Angela's wedding. She is really an old time friend, cell leader, zone supervisor (during cell days) and my current pastor. We are all looking fwd to her big day including my kids who have been looking fwd to it since the day she announced of her marriage plans last year...so finally the big day came. My G12 group did two special items ..one is a fun fun song which we changed the lyrics to the old time favourite oldie "I only want to be with you" and the other one was to thank her for everything in the ministry doing a montage with the "Thank you" song by Bob fits as the background music. Some photos - Didnt take many cos we were too excited with the preparation and talking to old time friends that we have not met for years during the reception :
I attended a seminar this afternoon, the "Complete Ways to Raise a Well-balanced Child" parenting masterclass and was glad that I had learnt some parenting tips from some of the speakers.
Ms Anna Jacob, a nutritionist and dietician, shared a memorable poem at the end of her presentation entitled "Memo from Your Child":
Have been searching for Private piano teacher for some time since last Sept.Both Naomi and Nathan were attending a piano school. The challenge with schools is that they have a very high turnover in teachers. The teachers are not paid alot after splitting the fees thus they would prefer to teach on private basis.
We held back our plans to change to private one on one class for Nathan , thinking that he may be too young to go on individual coaching. The last straw came when the school lost another good teacher again. Again we have to change teacher ! Arrgh
After asking friends, searching on the internet, calling a few teachers, we finally settled on one. Recommended by my ex-church friend who gave her good comments. Her rates are really very competitive for private coaching. In fact, we are paying much lesser than in the music school which is a group lesson for Nathan.
We also wanted them to switch to a weekday afternoon class so as to free them on Saturdays for other things like swimming lessons or just relaxing or waking up later on a Saturday morning.
Had our 1st lesson with Teacher LL today..the kids likes her and I find her patient and approachable.
Thank God for leading us to this teacher through my friend.
Havent been blogging for some time as I am really really busy. It seems that a SAHM is really not easy...a duty that I need to fulfill for 24 hours. For me, I am half a SAHM and WAHM so is a double whammy.
I really must salute all SAHMs without helpers - is really a tall order and a very challenging job indeed. I have a domestic helper and yet I am so busy ...
The other day, my husband showed me an article from Reader Digest which we thought that the author wrote it in a very humourous manner describing the qualities that made a good mother.
The qualities are :
1. Organisational skills , ability to drive and to be in two places at one time
2. Financial Skills if you have to budget for birthdays , weekly grocery shopping which was growing as fast as the kids
3. Good mathematical skills will come in handy when u are trying to divide 7 sweets among 4 kids
4.Chemistry and biology when your two year old shows you a blemish, you will have to be able to tell if it is the beginning of a flesh-eating disease or just a freckle. You will also need to know which laundry soap makes the baby itch, why the sky is blue etc
5. Good memory to remember all the birthdays, names of the stuffed animals, the child who likes peas and cant stand grape juice
6. Creativity to do the art and crafts, teaching them music, turn a nightgown and a roll of tinfoil into a fairy costume for party etc
(Taken from Reader Digest Nov 07 pg 81 - 83)
Really can identify with some of these qualities...esp now I have kids of different ages. Wonder how my mum cope in the earlier days of bringing us up..maybe we werent as inquisitive as the kids nowadays or we were not that demanding or ....
Thank God for all mothers. No matter whether you are SAHM, WAHM or working mums, I think u are all great : )
This afternoon while doing our work in our study room, both myself and Naomi felt ourselves swaying left and right for a few seconds. We looked at each other and I said "Is the earthquake !". We quickly rushed down to tell my helper and carry baby Nicole up to my room. Called my mum who is staying near my house and she said that she couldnt feel the tremors. 15 mins later, went to check the CNA website and true enough, Sumatra in Indonesia experienced a 7.2 earthquake. This is the 2nd time we felt the earthquake tremors since we have shifted here. The first time was in Aug and Sept when there was a major earthquake in Indonesia...
May God heal the earth from the fractures and protect the people from any death, injuries...
Today I conducted a home blessing in one of my cell member BK's new house. Though it was a small group, we however had a wonderful time fellowshipping with each other. The kids had a good time playing with her son in the front yard too.
We are very thankful that not only did we bless the house, BK's maid also accepted the Lord when Pastor asked her if she wish to.
Thank God for his presence and for blessing BK and her family incl her maid. The heaven rejoices even when one soul is saved. : )
Parenting is really not easy esp so when I stay at home. With me staying at home since my resignation from a full time job in Aug 06, I find that I may be giving myself too much pressure to do too many things that I planned to do while not working. Esp now that things are settled compared to previously when I have maid problems, renovating house, moving house, pregnancy, delivering etc.
Not that I am a perfectionist..people always say dont sweat the small stuff but really is easier said than done esp. when coaching them in their work, piano. Emotions run high and my expectations of them too.
Both Naomi and Nathan are considered fast learners or advanced in their age according to "external" standards but still... Maybe becos I am still working on a part-time basis...so tend to expect them to learn faster so that I can get down to my job.
Many parents are also faced with this problem, juggling between work, family, children and many other things... For Christians readers out there.. we really need to ask God to grant us the strength from God to carry us through and give us patience, unconditional love and help us be good role models for our kids to follow and in turn on pass these good values to their kids.
Having said all these, staying at home grants me joy too , seeing them grow and experiencing their first milestones. I didnt regret my decision to stay at home and work part-time as I strongly believe in making a difference in their growing up years by being there in their formative years.
Everyday, is a new learning experience for me...it is not learnt thr' books, parenting articles or anywhere : )
A week ago, I received a phone call from a photo studio offering us complimentary makeover and 2 digital shots to take home. We went ahead with the apppointment, though we expected some sort of sales speech following our shoot. Today being the 3rd day of the Lunar New Year, the studio was quite crowded..we were surprise that we dont have to wait too long for the makeup, photo-shoot as we were the 2nd family and there are plenty of studios and photographers.
Naomi and Nathan are especially excited with the hairdo and the dated Korean costumes which we wore for the 2nd round of photo shoot.
At the end of it, we took 50 shots but were disappointed that we couldn't buy just a few of the nice shots. The package price is way too expensive , so we just took the two complimentary digital photos. I must say that the photo shots are nice, and they dont really hard-sell...but we find that the package price is not value for money.
Seb and Myself may have been too harsh to Naomi and Nathan while helping them to practise on the piano. We both felt quite bad after flaring up at them - always not taking the practise seriously.
After reflecting, both of us felt that we should not have reacted this way, they are still young after all and we should not kill their joy of learning. It is really my desire to want to create a fun learning environment for the kids be it in academic, music learning etc...cos that's what I have learnt from Mindchamps. Only when you have fun learning, u will be motivated and you will remember when u've learnt. Especially for theory, it is pretty hard to teach them in a fun manner. Have been searching for good resources or even thinking of creating one myself , so that the kids can learn the theory through fun and games. Got to know about this software,PianoIsFun. It has got very good reviews, will purchase and update all of you on the progress of the kids in this area.
Is a relieve to have completed the 40 hours for parent volunteering at Kong Hwa School today. Clocked a total of 41 hours 5 mins. We hope that Naomi can get it as it is near to our home (10mins walk) and is a pretty good school - not so stressful as the super good schools and not too bad in their standard too. Actually, kinda of enjoy the phonics class and excusions that I have volunteered. So pray that we can get in ...when Pri 1 registration starts in June.
The Chinese New Year festive mood is in full swing! We visited Parkway Parade last weekend and the mall was packed with shoppers. Geraldine signed up as a member of Borders and got a 40% discount on some children's bargain books, much to the delight of the kids.
