Motherhood – Page 14

THINGS THAT INSPIRED ME THIS WEEK

July 3, 2016 by Little Miss Honey 1,321 Comments

This week, June ended and July started. Wow, 2016 flies by so fast. It’s middle of the year. I always plan my month in my Belle De Jour Planner. I love writing down events and activities on my planner and making list. I feel more organized like that and I can only be productive if I plan things well.

This week also, my eldest son turned officially two. (Though I think he started his terrible twos earlier than his birthday haha). It is such a delight to see him grow everyday . He is a sociable extrovert like his dad and touchy-feely like his mom. We enjoy his increase of vocabulary day by day, his obsessive love for cars & trains, his hugs & kisses, his sweet disposition and cool dance moves. We still have to tame his iron strong will and now that he is in the stage of practicing his autonomy, it can be a challenge, haha.

Since we had an his advanced birthday celebration in Legoland, we opted for a mini celebration on the day of his birthday. We invited some of his playmates in the condo. My hubby, our nanny and I cooked some Pinoy specialities for his celebration.

I am still struggling to shed my post pregnancy weight. Yes, these pesky, sneaky 5 kg doesn’t want to go away. I tried to dig deep into my memory what were my strategies to lose weight before. I knew I lost weight when I am on a vegetarian diet and I do the After-6 Diet. So I am trying to return to my weekday vegetarian diet and eat less during dinner. This Sunday, I tried making the Scrambled Tofu from EatCleanLove recipe book. It doesn’t seem too bad. I still have some left so I could save it t for my lunch meals.

Here are a round-up of links I found online that inspired me this week:

Letter to parents with young kids like me

Illustrations that show being single can be awesome. I miss it sometimes.

Great tips for food photography

Blake Lively has an amazing take on parenthood

Secrets of working moms like me

I like this Tim Tebow guy

I am excited for next week! I hope you are too!

WHY WE HAVE FATHERS

June 21, 2016 by Little Miss Honey 25 Comments

Parenting is hard. I don’t know if I would survive it if I haven’t got my partner-in-crime with me this crazy job of parenting. I guess that is why God created fathers. I have seen other people though who have done the single parenting gig with great finesse. It can be done. I have seen my mom do it when my dad was working overseas. But it comes a time when my mom decided that we need a father figure in our lives so my mom & my siblings packed our bags and lived together with my amazing Papa in the Middle East. There are several wonderwomen and men who can do it all singlehandedly. But I have to say and admit that I am too weak to navigate the parenting journey alone.

I have lucked out in having my husband as my partner in parenting our kids. He always wanted to be a dad. So it comes a little easy for him to accept his part in this “job”. 50-50, right hubs?

It helps that my husband and I are opposites in our methods in raising our kids. My oversentimentality is balanced by his practical and logical thinking. If it was up to me, I would have showered my sons with excessive hugs and kisses but my husband would always be the one who remembers to brush our toddler’s teeth & remember to buy our baby’s formula milk (yes, I do mixed feeding) because we are running out of it. So without him, I would have a bad smelling kisses from Naj and a very hungry baby.

I am glad that our sons usually sleep through the night but once in awhile, they wake up due to soiled diapers and our toddler asked for milk at night. I would wake up at times but at times, my hubby does the waking up too to change our kids diaper or get milk for our toddler (our 3 months old son is breastfed at night). I am glad it is not all up to me. It’s nice that someone shares the responsibility.

You see, I am the silly one among the two of us. I love dancing with our sons and singing crazy made-songs with them. But I am not up for the rough play. Since I got sons and my toddler especially like the rough playing, I am glad he got his dad to play with him. They would horse around, catch ball, jump & tumble on the bed etc. His dad is his official playmate. I get to relax and just give him a hug after they are tired and sweaty.

I am never the patient one nor am I a born teacher. My elder son learns how to say his first few words because of my husband. My husband would consistently repeat to him words over and over again until he learns. He would bring him to the condo parking area and show him cars. My elder son’s first word was “car”. He learned “ball” from my husband to who bought him a small basketball to play with. Naj learned to dance when there is music because of my husband. They also have this special High-Five that only his dad and him can do. If it was up to me, Naj would still mumbling jibberish. Because when he speaks to me in jibberish, I replied back in jibberish alien talk also, haha. Just yesterday, Naj know how to answer the question, “How old are you?” He would say, “Two!” (which sounds more like Choo). Yes, his dad taught him that too.

My husband is the stricter one. Thank God for that. I am the weaker one. I can’t seem to be overly stern towards them. Though my husband and I promised we will raised our kids not to be spoiled. He don’t mind playing the bad cop to my good cop as long as we achieve what we hope for our kids – that they wont be self-indulgent little brats. Though, sometimes I try to be a bad cop so he wont always be the bad one all the time.

My husband is my yin to my yang in parenthood. Our strengths and weaknesses help us both to be better parents to our kids. I salute those people who can do it all alone. I am humbled by my realization that I cannot do this alone. I feel better going out with kids if my husband is with me compared to any other people who would accompany me with the kids. I feel more secure when he is with us. Plus I cannot imagine not having him to share all the daily funny, interesting discoveries with our kids. That is the best part. I get to share this wonderful journey with him, with someone who appreciate the little stories I have about our kids. We often get text messages during the day from each other, “Did you know Naj did this today…” “Fynn is so adorable, I’ll send you a photo I took of him..” One conversation, my husband said, “We are so lucky, we got great kids...”. I forgot to tell him, “Our kids and I are even more lucky, we got you” Father’s Day was a few days ago, in our book, it’s still Father’s Day and our kids & I want to say, “Thank you for being our rock and we love you!“

Cheers to all the dads in the world, stepdads, granddads, mommies who have to be daddies at the same time, foster dads, dads in heaven, dads in all shape & form. I know now why God created a father. He has a special role in every child. Let us thank them for doing the very best that they can for their kids…

To my amazing Papa, our strong silent hero, happy Father’s Day… We are blessed to have you in our life and my kids to have you as their Lolo. I love you!

DEVELOPING YOUR CHILD’S IQ & EQ AT PEOPLE IMPACT

June 17, 2016 by Little Miss Honey 48 Comments

As early as now, I am on a look out for a place for a play-based programme for Naj who is turning 2 years old this month. I intend to start him when he turns 2 years and a half. It is important for me that he will be guided in honing his intellect to prepare him for school-based learning. But I also want to find a school that not only concentrates on basic educational learning but also knows the importance of enhancing the EQ or Emotional Quotient. As a family physician, I understand the value of a wholistic approach, that psychological makeup is as important if not even more important than the intellectual aspect.

EQ or Emotional Quotient is defined as an individual’s capacity to recognize his own or other’s peoples’ emotions, to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour. I have read the bestseller book of Dr. John Medina, Brain Rules: How To Raise A Smart & Happy Child From Zero to Five stated that two of the key ingredients in raising happy child are letting them develop an empathy reflex and helping them make friends. You see, the emotional well-being are valued to raise a happy child.

I am glad to learn about People Impact, a learning centre that hold play-based programme that enhanced children’s IQ and EQ. I was privileged that I got to observe one Saturday class for 5-6 years old at the People Impact in the Upper Thomson branch.

People Impact has been training kids for more than 12 years and has developed 5 different certificated programs for kids 0-18 in Asia. Their programs focused on Communication, Self-Esteem, Leadership, Money & Time Management, Arithmetic & Linguistic Reasoning, Creativity and Critical Thinking. People Impact invested over US$4million in Research and Development, inviting leading professors from Harvard, MIT, Michigan University University of Hong Kong and Washington University. Currently besides Singapore, People Impact can be found in China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Korea.

Teacher CK, who is also one of the owners of People Impact Singapore was the teacher for the 1 pm class together with two co-teachers. There was a mixed of boys and girls in one session. There was a total of 6 students in one class. I learned that every month, there are certain themes so this month is all about Time.

I came a few minutes after the class started and they were starting on the first activities. I learned that class duration is around 1 hour and 45 minutes. It is divided in 3 activities.

1ST ACTIVITY: NUMBER BUDDIES

The kids were divided into 2 groups and was to remember the numbers the teachers announced to both group. Both groups strategized how they will remember the numbers. From afar while I observe that there are kids who display leadership and tried to assign numbers for their members to remember them. Then they were instructed by the teachers to touch the assigned numbers pasted in the whiteboard using their body parts while each members should also be connected by touching each other. This activity teaches the kids to enhance their memory, team cooperation, team strategization, numerical reasoning and leadership. I love that they are learning through play. They are having fun and playing at the same time.

2ND ACTIVITY: HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE

Teacher CK pulled out a wall clock which I recognized from IKEA because we have the same one at home. He taught the children how many seconds to 1 minute and made them count in unison seconds by watching the hands of the clock into 1 minute. Teacher CK even made them close their eyes to feel how long is 1 minute. Then the teachers went into 3 corners with different activities in every station. There was station where they stack paper cups into a pyramid, a station where they are asked to match the numbered balls to the numbered cups and a station where they get to transfer a ball using a plastic drinking straw in another box. Before doing the activity, they were ask what is the presumed time they can finish the task. They were told that it is now how fast or slow you can do the activity, it is more of how can the kids estimate the time they think can finish the activity.

It is nice to observe the kids. I see those timid one that hardly speak out in the start of the class, exceled in other practical skills. I see also some kids who observe closely their peers and do well on the activity after analyzing some techniques taken from their peers. I see also kids who are very patient in getting a task done and some who exhibit perseverance in some of their trying activities.This activity teaches time concept, experiencing how much one can achieve within a time limit, practice time estimation skills and taking time as a reference when planning a course of action.

I see that the kids are excited that they learned a new skill and they are happy when they can achieve an activity in a few seconds. There are smiles of triumph and I see camaraderies building among the kids as they cheer on for their peers who are doing a certain activity.

3RD ACTIVITY: DINO HUNT

The last activity was the most fun of all. I wish I can join them too, haha… Two groups again were divided. A photo of the room was given to both groups indicating where the dino stickers will be hiding. One group will go out of the room and study the photo while the other group will be the on responsible for finding the dino stickers based on the map given to them. Then both groups will swap places and do the dino hide & seek again. The kids enjoyed hiding them and when the other groups came in there were so excited in looking for the stickers.

She is so happy she found a dino sticker

This activity teaches dual representation, spatial relationship, leadership, team cooperation and visual memory & analysis. The kids are learning a lot of things and developing certain skills but at the same time, having a ball of a time with their friends.

After the 3 activities, they were asked by their teachers to write in the green piece of paper what they learn for that afternoon. They were given a brief recall of what they learned that afternoon. Then they were all given a star stickers for a job well done for the afternoon.

After the class, the parents were asked to come in the classroom without their kids. Teacher CK explained what the kids that afternoon and what People Impact is trying teach them.

Teacher CK even made them try out one of the activities among the parents to let them get a feel of what the kids did that afternoon. The parents even got assignments to see how long does their kids get to do certain daily activities at home like eating or bathing.

I love the fact that parents are very much involve in partnership with teachers in the children’s progress in education. I can’t wait for Naj to start school, discover new things, improve his creativity, enhance his EQ, develop his IQ and learn leadership skills.

Interested parents can sign up for a special 1 month class package at $288 (U.P.: $588) OR a single trial class of $5/child (U.P.: $20). Register by sending an email to info@people-impact.com.sg with your name and contact as well as your child’s name and age. You can code “littlemisshoney”. Registration will be completed upon payment. There programs are suitable from 3-16 years olds. Grab this offer before 31st October 2016.

PEOPLE IMPACT

Website: www.people-impact.com.sg

UPPER THOMSON BRANCH SINGAPORE HQ

213 Upper Thomson Road Level 3 Singapore 574348

Tel: +65 64514908

MARINE PARADE BRANCH

1 Marine Parade Central, #09 – 08 Parkway Center Singapore 449408

Tel: +65 6440 5520

CITY SQUARE MALL BRANCH

180 Kitchener Road #08-01

Singapore 208539

Tel: +65 6509 6570

TAMPINES BRANCH

3 Tampines Central 1 Abacus Plaza

Singapore 529540

Tel: +65 6694 8380

WEST COAST PLAZA BRANCH

154 West Coast Road #01-74

Singapore 127371

Tel: +65 6635 8573

GENERAL INFORMATION

info@people-impact.com.sg

OPERATING HOURS

Wednesday to Sundays

9am – 6pm hours

(Close on Monday, Tuesday and Public Holiday)

Note: for walk-in enquiries, please do contact the centre prior to your visit as the staff might be out for external workshops or events.