After my children started primary school, all our vacation must be during school holidays. I wouldn’t want them to miss school. The disadvantage of this will be competing with others and it will be more expensive. Plus there will be traffic congestion for local attraction.

Take for example, Genting and Cameron Highlands will be packed with people. Every hotel will be added surcharges and prices for peaks will increase.

As parents, I will have to plan early. This year I planned my vacation for my children more than six months ahead. I managed to get good deals too. I already have plans for Raya and Dec holidays.

Planning ahead is good because you get the perfect hotel and location. The only risk will be if any emergency cases, I may lose my deposit. I am looking forward to Raya holidays! Have you plan for Dec holidays yet? By the way, you can also find lots of online deals if you book early.

I am glad my children seldom hog over my computer, iPhone or my hubby’s iPad. My hubby and I only allowed them to play when they get rewarded for good behavior, doing good things or getting good results. They also have schedule time, 1-2 hours a day in a week for computer games. Tim picked Saturday and Emily picked Friday.

If I ever need to punish them for bad behavior, I just take away their computer time. I am glad to say that I don’t always punish them. I also believed that some computer games improved their problem solving skills. However we should limit our children spending too much time on electronic gadgets.

By the way, they are still not allowed to play with the iPad because the screen protector has not arrived yet. It is a good training for them to refrain themselves from touching it. I don’t hide any of these gadgets, they are on my work table all the time. They have been thought to ask permission before using it.

Source of the picture above is from pulmolab.com

Last week, my gal complained her pipe is leaking. Actually she complained weeks before and I told her not to hold her urine. She told me that she didn’t. I also advise her to drink more water and go to the toilet more often. I always have to remind her to drink water. She is nothing like her brother, Tim drinks a lot of water.

Anyway, I took her to the doctor. After a few questioning, she suspected Urinary Tract Infection. Although there is no fever but it could happen. She asked me to do a urine culture test and she prescribed antibiotic for her. I have to wait 3 days for the result.

When I showed Emily the bottle to collect her urine, this was what she said.

Emily: The bottle is so small, how to urine in it?
Mummy: I will teach you and do for you.

Emily: Ai yeaaaaa.

Mummy: All done.

Emily: Why are you stealing my urine?

Mummy: Not stealing, the doctor wants to test to see if there is any germ.

It is definitely easier to collect urine at this age. I still remembered when I had to collect urine when she was 1 year old through to 2 years old. It was really a painful experience. She refused to pee when I want to collect. I had to wait for her to urine, which means every 10-15 minutes, I need to make her urine. It was frustrating when the diaper is wet and I missed it after many tries. Once I successfully collected and the nurse told me that the amount wasn’t sufficient or they accidentally spilled it.

Some tips for collecting urine at 1-2 years old if you have to:
1. Collecting very early in the morning or after she drank her milk.

4. After collection, place the bottle cover back and put it in the fridge before transporting to the clinic for testing. Make sure you label it, to prevent anyone from using it accidentally..hehehe.

Lets hope after she takes her antibiotic, the pipe will be fixed and no longer leaking.

I have learn, it is good for the school to have tough exam papers. If most of the school children do not perform well, then the teachers need to work harder to ensure the students know their stuff. Of coz, parents like me have to prep our children more to ensure they keep up to speed with the teaching.

I was happy to hear a comment from my boy’s English teacher that she will ensure all her class students know their stuff for the next exam. I am not sure how she will do it but I can see the passion in her. I am glad she wasn’t defensive but was able to ensure her students improve. Kudos to her!

I wonder how the BM teacher will react when I go and see her.

I learn something that is important for nurturing our children. If you observed, most (not all) children from very rich family may not be able to withstand issues when they encounter big problem. Reason, their parents has provided all they need or want. We call those children born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

As for children of the poor family, they somehow learn the survival skills. They will not let anything stop them from living. They have to do everything to get going. No maids to help them. If you observed, most CEO, company director or successful businessman, they came from a poor background.

Lesson for us, how you want your child to be? You need to nurture and train them. Not by giving everything they want or need. Nor by having other people do things for them. If you do that, they will not learn how things are done. Let them learn by making mistake and they will improve on it, hopefully to become a better person.

Often you hear of adult who do not know how to cook, do not know how to sweep the floor, do not know how to wash plates, who do not know how to clean up, who do not know how to fix a bulb, who do not know how to wash clothes or who do not know how to survive in the real world.

Even Bill Gates donated his fortune to charity rather than passing it down to his children. He does not risk spoiling his children with wealth and end up good for nothing.

Bottom line, we have to be careful what we give to our children.

Yesterday was Tim first day of school in P2. First day, already got Math’s homework. He is still a little confused with the question.

15 + __ = 30

Sometimes, it is difficult for children to understand, yeap the word is understand how to solve the equation. With Maths, it is not about memory on how to solve but to understand how to solve. That’s how I teach Maths.

Once you understand, you do not have to memorize. The way I teach it is:

Tim has 15 apples. Tim would always be the first person, since he is the first born
Papa needs 30 apples. How many apples, does Emily need to give papa?

He will know that, it would me 30-15 and he needs to write it in this format to solve it:

 30
-15
—–
—–

It takes a lot of practice to get it right. Well sometimes, questions can come in this way:

__ + 15 = 30

Story: Emily give papa 15 apples, Tim needs how many so that papa has 30 apples?

15 + 15 = __

Story: Tim gives papa 15 apples and Emily gives papa 15 apples, how many apples papa has?

30 = 15 + __

Story: Tim and Emily gives papa 30 apples, Papa keep 15 and give mummy the rest. How many mummy has?

15 + 15 = 20 + __

Story: Tim gives papa 15 apples and Emily gives papa 15 apples, how many papa has? 30
Papa keeps 20 and gives mummy the rest, how many mummy has?

15 + 15 = __ + 10

Story: Tim gives papa 15 apples and Emily gives papa 15 apples, how many papa has? 30
Papa keeps some and gives mummy 10 apples, how many papa has?

With the story, Tim will know whether he needs to use addition or subtraction to find the answers. If Tim understands the concept, he should have no problem solving it.

I didn’t know the H1N1 is really going bad in Malaysia. I heard a few school have H1N1 cases. However I bet it will be all covered up. Anyway, to protect my children, I must teach them to sanitize their hands as often as possible, especially before eating. Emily love sanitizing her hands and she would say “It smells good!”.

I got a lot of nice smelling sanitizing hand gel from US. I am sure they will love to use it. In my company in US, they put sanitizing dispenser near the washroom. Every time I come out, I would remember to sanitize my hands. I hope they do it here in Malaysia. I know some hospital do that.

If you have not gotten any sanitizing hand gel, go get a bottle now. Read a H1N1 reality story here.

The other day I was told a child was cane because she is slow, her work is untidy, unable to finish her homework and others. This is just not only happening in her school but a lot of Chinese school. I really sympathize with the child as she is living in fear every day all because her development is not on par with the school’s expectation.

Please parents out there, if your child is in this category, do change him/her into another school. Don’t let your child suffer in such a manner. I am still very unsupportive of canning for petty things. It just takes out the fun in learning. Your child is going to school in fear. What character do you think she/he will grow up to be? It is really quite sad to hear this.

In addition if the child is lacking behind in the school syllabus, she/he will not magically turn into a bright student overnight. She will lose interest in her studies and maybe even drop out. If you see this red warning signal, it is better to let her/him go to a National school. I have seen parents do that and their children excel. Of course, they are happier too. Don’t allow your child to suffer silently over your expectations.

Last week, I met with an incident and learned something from it, probably some tips for you, parents. I was at the gift wrapping counter in Jaya Jusco at Mid Valley. Mid Valley is always crowded and we have to be careful with our children.

At the gift counter which was also a service counter, I saw a gal in tears. She was very frightened. She is about 10-11 years of age. Yeap, you guess it, she lost her parents. She was smart to approach a Jusco staff saying that she lost her parents. The staff bought her up to the service counter, hoping for more staffs to help her out. They called the security guard who was communicating to other security guards to look for any parents who lost their kid. Probably her parents were still shopping and didn’t notice they lost their child. Hey it happen to me when I was 11-12 years old in Japan, read the later part for my story.

Being a mother, I kepoh with the service counter staff to ask them to make a public paging. The staff told me she was afraid of public paging and waiting for her supervisor to page. She can only do it in BM as she is not well versed with English. If they allowed me, I can do it for her. It is all scripted anyway.

She asked me and the guard whether she can do it in BM. Hrmm…I told her if the parents is a foreigner which I suspect because the gal look a little mix, the parents would not understand BM. By the way, the gal gave the staff a phone number but it has 10 digits. We suspect it is an overseas number. It starts with 04xxxxxxxx. Not Penang number ok! Penang only has 7 digits after area code. Hers have 8 digits.

Anyway after a long time, finally I heard them paged for the parents twice. I could not stay any longer to see the happy ending.

Note to all parents and myself, next time you go shopping, make sure your child carries your handphone numbers in paper. Teach the child to pass the phone number to security guards or staff with tags. Otherwise hold on to your child like precious diamonds!

For my story in Japan when I was 11+, yes I wondered away with other tourists on my own. My parents, bro, sis, uncle, aunt and cousins didn’t realize that I was on my own. I was walking on my own but not afraid. I think I knew my way back to the hotel. This is in the street of Toyko which I never set foot before. Imagine if I didn’t know my way back, I will be a lost child in Japan. Now thinking back, I felt I was protected.

Guess what, I met my family on the street and they were lost. I had to bring them back to the hotel. They claim it is very far to walk back and wanted to take a cab. I remember telling them that it is just across the street. 😛

Yesterday before bed, I had a fun time with my children. We switched roles, pretending to be each other:

Timothy, the mummy: Faster go brush your teeth now or I get the “sar tan” (aka cane)

Emily, the Timothy: It is Transformers, not transform us. *with angry expression*

Mummy, the Emily: Don’t touch me, go away. *whining sound*

I shall go no further otherwise all our secrets will get out.

We had a good laugh. We also acted out how the other person actions. It is really a good way to see ourselves in their eyes and let them see themselves too. You can try it at home with older kids.

I created a way to discipline my children by themselves. I told them during Christmas each will receive a present. The size of the present will depends on how good they are. When they are naughty, don’t listen to me or disobedient, I will start to put 2 hands apart and shrink, saying your present is getting smaller..*tit* *tit* *tit*. Instantly they will obey or listen.

Of coz, when they are good by doing things on their own, I will say “your present is growing bigger, bigger, bigger….oooh mummy cannot carry”. They will be very happy and excited. Emily would say, “Quick ask papa to carry!” Let’s hope this will lasts till Christmas.