Welcome to Leonny's site! If you're new at Everyday Things and you enjoy the site, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. This way you'll be notified whenever there's a new post! Thanks for visiting!

As our little ones grow, so is their curiosity. And the great thing about such increasing curiosity is that they get to discover new things about their world.

The ‘not-so-good’ aspect about it, well, while they test things out to see the ‘effects’ of their actions, they may venture into things that they’re not supposed to do.

Like, throwing toys around or pouring water onto the living room floor!

At first they may not ‘know’ that they’re not supposed to do them. But them being toddlers, generally even after we parents tell and explain - repeatedly - why some actions shouldn’t be done, they may choose to … not obey too.

Personally, I believe in letting kids know - since young - that there are consequences to everything. That we all need to learn and be responsible for our actions.

If they spill water onto the floor, they need to know that someone may slip and fall. And so we (including the child who spilled it) need to wipe the floor dry.

Today when Vai was drawing with crayons, he went to check out how his blue crayon would look on our dining chair!

He was vigorously colouring the chair when I realised what he was doing. I then gave him a firm ‘No no no!’, got down to his level, took his crayon, looked him in the eye and firmly told him how he’s to draw on his paper, not on furniture.

He got back to his paper. But within ten seconds, he went to draw on the dining chair, again! (This time, he chose the one next to the previous one).

After telling him again and again (the cycle happened for about 4 -5 times!), I decided to pack his crayons. I then gave him a damp cloth and explained to him how he’s to wipe the chair clean because he was the one who drew on them.

He managed to clean about 20% of it. And when I took over, I explained what I was doing while he watched me wipe the blue stains off the two chairs.

Hmm.

In such cases, yes it’d be much faster and easier if we just wipe it clean ourselves from the beginning. But if we tend to always do that, our little ones will miss out on an important life lesson - to be responsible and accountable for their own actions.

Worse, they’d gradually learn not to be too concerned about their own actions, because someone else will bear the consequences anyway!

Ah. Teaching our little ones need so much patience.

May God continually give us parents the needed persistence, consistency and wisdom in teaching our little ones.

…

Find out more useful tips on:

- How to teach responsibility

- How to teach your toddlers to do chores

- Getting your toddler to listen

Since our recent trip to Jakarta, Vai somehow starts to nap twice a day, instead of just once in the afternoon together with Anya.

And so today while Wilson’s away, Vai napped for some 45 minutes at noon, and thus Anya and I got a bit of one-on-one time. Something nice that we somehow can’t really have too often. Especially now that she’s started school.

I feel our days have become so much ’shorter’ too now that she goes to school. It’s like: wake up, eat, get ready for school, school time, come home, eat, nap, a bit of playtime, dinner, get ready for bedtime! And frankly I kinda miss having her around for ‘much longer’.

Anyway.

We did some simple activities together when Vai napped away.

She made sunflowers. We talked about flowers in general and I showed her some photos of sunflowers too from our laptop.

What we used:

- Yellow coloured paper for the petals
- Some used carton from Vai’s snack for the middle part
- Glue, scissors and crayons

It’s a simple activity for the kid and we get to chitchat with no ‘interruptions’ too. And oh, it’s also a great way for Anya to practice her ’shape cutting’ skills, I think.

Shortly after, Anya asked if she could nap for a while, and so while she dozed off, I then had some one-on-one time with the well rested little guy too, who’s now very much awake.

We cuddled up on the sofa and looked through some pictorial books together. We went through their names and Vai pointed at those he knows.

I’ve got to admit though, as I spent such a time with them, I didn’t get any housework, cooking, or cleaning up done.

But then again, I feel chores will always be there, and they can always wait for a while, but rare one-on-time with my kids doesn’t come by that often.

And given the options, I’d choose the latter.

A couple of months back, the friendly editor of the magazine, Becky, wrote in and asked me to be interviewed for their ‘Mum’s Diary’ feature. They’re doing a topic on Indonesian mothers who live overseas for their January 2008 issue.

[Thanks again Becky and the all-girls editorial team!]

Frankly I’ve never read the magazine’s Indonesian edition though I’ve heard lots of good stuff about it from friends. And when I finally did, I’ve got to say it does have heaps of great tips and articles nicely laid out in it! Sure is worth reading…

Anyway, if you’re one of the magazine readers and are visiting this site for the first time, here’s a big hello and warm welcome to you! Most welcome to browse around, check out past archives or drop me an email here.

PS: Click here to read the article