Happy Chinese New Year 2012

Happy Chinese New Year 2012! It was a fun occasion for the kids not just because of the ang pow, soft drinks (only available at home during Chinese New Year), fireworks, but also precious time with their parents who have a week of holiday this year.

Little Hong Jin was so excited to meet with many relatives(old faces and new faces) and greeted them with his style of “Gong Xi Fa Cai, Hong Pao Na Lai”. He loves to watch the fireworks; whenever there is a firework sound from the neighborhood, he will quickly left whatever he is doing and find his father to grab him high to see the fireworks.

I can feel he is uneasy to let me go to work after a week of close companion.

Sister Jin Hui was on the other hand happy with no school day. She now begin to know the value of money, and kept negotiating with me to keep more of her ang pow money. Hope she will learn to calculate the money soon and no longer being cheated.(She was being cheated by a new friend to exchange RM 2 with 3 coins total to 80cents but she thought she was getting advantage).

Christmas Tree At Home

Two days before Christmas, Jin Hui asked, “Mummy, do we celebrate Christmas?” To her little mind, Christmas is a fun festival with Christmas present ….Santa Claus …and Christmas Tree but she never has all these! Haha, but she knows Santa Claus is fake; she told me “our world does not have Santa Claus”. It is true (because she never get surprise present from Santa Claus) but not totally true.

Well, we couldn’t bring her Santa Claus, but we can surprise them with Christmas present and Christmas tree AT HOME! Yes, why not we decorate our own Christmas tree.



Being so happy with the Christmas tree!

Ta..lah…here is our little Christmas tree, just the same height as little Hong Jin. He will be busy all day picking the ornament. They are also very excited to tell everybody that we have a Christmas tree at home! I think it warmed their little hearts; at least the Christmas is something to them this year.





As expected, he cannot allow his hand not to touch.





Attention is more on the christmas tree than the camera.







Are we over-rewarding the kids?

We give prizes for kids when they perform excellent in exam, finish their homework or helping with the household chores. I think modern parents are so addicted to this rewarding method and so am I. The situation can be sometimes out of control that the kids threaten back that he/she wouldn’t do what we want them to do if their demands are not fulfilled.  The questions rose: are we over-rewarding the kids?

After some reading, there are few things I need to be careful when I reward them next time.

1)      Reward based on good behavior not on good result

Children that have grown based on expecting reward can feel disappointed when it does not come. I once heard a story about a primary school student who expressed deep disappointment when he scored only 7A over 8 subjects. It was like the end of the world for him. When being asked further, it was the reward that he doesn’t get that upset him but not his feeling on the grade. Could you imagine whether he will still study hard when the rewards go away?

A long term more effective way is to reward the good studying habit rather than the result or score. This is of course more difficult to measure or monitor compared to reward based on their exam report, but it is more important that we instill their good habit or behavior since kids to ensure perseverance.

2)      Reduce the reward frequency

We need to increase the value of the reward to suit their ever increasing desire if we reward too much. After they have all sorts of toys, books, are them still be interested if you reward them with small items like sticker, coloring books or pretty pencil box? No, they will ask for more and I guess they will certainly ask for an expensive ipad or even smart phone one day.

Instead of rewarding, we need to help them focus on the self-satisfaction derived from the achievement they have made. It is the self-enjoyment that fuel further learning.

No more rewarding on finishing homework, but to reward based on self-discipline.

Hope I can reward her of taking good care of his brother one day.

Kinder graduation

There is going to be another 15 years I shall witness my daughter’s real university graduation….provided that she works hard enough. Now, it is a kinder version of her graduation; we are proud of her to see how she has developed the various skills like reading, writing, coloring, self-confidence, interpersonal skills and brave to perform in front of the public.  

She is still a very shy girl; she almost cried during her 4 years old dancing performance and was very stressful during the 5 years old performance, but this time I can see she was more relaxed and had fun. Thank you for all the teachers who have guided her and given her the opportunities to present in front of public.  

http://youtu.be/20HjbxSMLg0

A Big Big Happy Birthday To My Son and Daughter

  

Time flies and this November is my son’s TWO years old birthday and my daughter’s SIX years old birthday. As usual we throw a party for them to invite all the family members to celebrate together. Except this time my daughter invited her own friend…yes, she has her own friends now which I am happy for her that she began to socialize.

Can't wait to go to see his birthday cake

As for my little son, the highlight is while we sang the “Happy Birthday” song in front of the birthday cake. He was so excited about this moment; sing the song, blow the candle, and then cut the cake. Before everyone began singing, he was the first one to sing out loud “Happy birthday to you” and made everyone laughing. Then, he followed everyone to sing the whole “Happy Birthday” song and impatiently waiting for our instruction to blow the candle.

 

Happy Birthday, my dear son and daughter, May You Two Grow Up Happily and Healthily!

Sing Out Loud "Happy Birthday To Me"!





Feel funny after seeing everyone laughed at his own singing!



Having fun at Dino Trek

If your children love dinosaurs, why don’t bring them to the Dino Trek at the Bukit Mertajam’s Jusco Mall, Penang. We just brought our kids there last weekend and they were having great fun there. The admission fee for children is only RM 3.00 per person and for adult, if I remember correctly is RM 8.00 per person.

The owner, PETRONAS might invest much in this Dino Trek to make the dinosaurs so real and “alive”. I love the dinosaur’s egg parts which the eggs hatch and dinosaur babies came out. They looked so cute and they said the dinosaurs parent also take good care of their babies.   

My little son was a bit scared at first because of the giant size of the dinosaurs. But he and his sister enjoyed most at the dinosaur’s fossil finding sump. The big sister said it is like playing sand at the beach but with “air-conditioner on”; didn’t understand much about fossil finding actually.

There are also some games there for bigger kids, like gun shooting dinosaurs, running with dinosaurs and educational stuffs about dinosaurs.  

The giant dinosaur...it moves lively.

My favorite part :the dinosaur eggs and babies.

Jin Hui actions...shooting dinosaurs

The kids favorite...fossil finding or playing sand?

Show Me Victory Sign!

One day, we taught Hong Jin to show the “Victory” sign with his finger while we took his picture. He first learned seriously, see how he looked at his finger and puzzled how to show only the index finger and middle finger but to hide the others. He laughed finally after multiple tries and he just able to show ALL FIVE fingers instead of TWO fingers.

I think we need to teach him more about this, may be this is what terms as “eye-hand coordination” which is an important skill development as toddler. He also cannot do the “THUMBS UP” sign. Haha, he will show the index finger, but not the thumbs. Never mind, my little son, you will learn one day.

1. How to hide the fingers?



2. Never mind, I am just too little to know.



3. See, at least I can show FIVE fingers!