One excellent book on building the character of a child that I’ve read (and re-read from time to time) is ‘Architect of the Soul II’ by Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong.

[Unfortunately, it's not written in English, but in Indonesian. The actual book title is 'Arsitek Jiwa II']

Here’s one small part of the book that I’d like to share with you today.

Do not assume that children below 12 are too ’small’ to understand anything. At 12 years old, the child’s mind is still fresh and ready to absorb new information.

After the age of 12, someone’s IQ doesn’t quite ‘develop’ much anymore. People may continually acquire more knowledge and information, but their IQ development basically stops at around the age of 12.

The IQ of a 12 year old child will not be much different 18 years down the road, ie. when he’s 30 years old.

What’s more important is whether he sharpens and exercises his mind well before he turns 30, because if he does, the ’sharpness’ of his mind will most likely be double by the time he turns 60.

On the other hand, if someone hardly uses / exercises his mind before he turns 30, he will find his own mind growing less and less sharp by the time he’s 60.

The Bible says that it’s good for young people to carry ‘a heavy burden’.

Do not be afraid if our kids face challenges in their lives.

If we tend to always help our kids with everything - not letting them fight through a challenge and find their own solution - we’re unconsciously training them to be passive, and to not use their mind to solve a problem.

If they’re trying to do something and are struggling, we shouldn’t quickly help and do the task for them.

When we let them face a challenge (like, when they find it hard to pedal their tricycle), they may cry and complain at first. But in the end, with us guiding and encouraging them, when they themselves finally manage to complete a challenging task, they will feel the sheer joy and sense of achievement!

Let’s not douse our kids’ fighting spirit by over-protecting them.

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Nowadays whenever I take the kids out, I’d bring along a few toys (mostly cars) and little books with me.

I put them into a little bag or at times, I just throw them into my own bag.

Though it’s a pretty obvious thing to do (ie. to bring along toys your kids like whenever you go out with them), I somehow haven’t been doing so.

Perhaps it’s because since Anya was much younger she can find ways to ‘entertain’ herself ? (and thus there’s no need for me to bring along any toys with me).

And so when I noticed the little bags filled with toys my friends bring along for their sons to play, I started thinking of bringing one of my own too.

And. Things work out really well! For Vai especially.

He - who often keeps ME busy when we’re on the go - now keeps himself busy playing with his toys on the bus, on the train, and even when he’s just waiting and sitting on his pram.

And if he used to want to get down and walk around the restaurant after he finishes his meal, he can now stay quite a bit longer at the table, and on the baby chair! Simply playing with his cars or creating imaginary stories with them.

Really. It’s been such a big help and I’d recommend this toy-bag idea to any parents I know.

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There are many positive things I can share about having two kids, but if I have to just name one right now, it’d be the fact that the little one often gets so interested in what the older one is doing that I can nowadays let them do stuff together, while I go about doing other things around the house.

They’d laugh, tumble and tickle each other silly.

They’ll play follow the leader, where one does something and the other tries to copy it (and yes, our home does get pretty noisy quite often!)

They’d drag my bolsters out to the living room and play horsie around the house (while I occasionally take a quick glance from the kitchen and roll my eyes knowing that they’re actually SWEEPING the floor too at the same time!)

When it comes to arts and crafts time, Anya prefers to do stuff by herself though (for obvious reasons).

Vai, being younger by 2.5 years, is still into very simple crafting and Anya doesn’t quite welcome his frequent distractions.

And so during such sessions I’d usually be hearing ”Mommmyy… Vai took away my glue without saying please!!!’ or ‘Vaiiiii … don’t scribble on my drawing!!!’ rather often.

Then usually seconds later they’d see me coming casually, neutralising the situation, telling everyone to play and not snatch nor scream at each other, to always say please when asking for someone else’s things, to appreciate someone’s work, to share what they have … blah blah blah.

[Yes, with two kids around, Mommy talks, explains and repeats herself a lot. It's pretty scary!]

Well.

Things sure are less simple now that we have two kids. There are good days and tough days, and yes, I do get grumpy and impatient too.

But really, if I have to weigh the good and the tough aspects of having two, the good still outweighs the bad, by a lot!

Well, at least that’s how we feel anyway.

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Here is one simple way to find out how much dust particles actually fly through the windows and into our home.

[Well obviously it won't measure exactly how much, but at least it can give us a rough idea]

What you need:

>> Paper

>> Scissors, a piece of string, and a very STICKY transparent sticky tape

Cut out the paper into whatever shape you and your kid likes, and cut out the inside part of it.

Then place the sticky tape across the hollow bit in the middle. It should all be covered, with the sticky part facing the other way.

Make a hole at the top of the paper and tie a string to it.

Now simply choose a spot where you’d like to ‘catch and measure’ the amount of dust coming in (remember to let the sticky side face out).

For our case, Anya chose our bedroom window (and she said she’d want to make more and hang them on all our other windows!)

Anyway. The next thing we do : wait and observe..

It’d be interesting to see how much dust it can collect in a few days. Or even a week or more.

It’s so easy to make, have a go at this yourself

PS: If you happen to make these too for your home, I’d LOVE to see how this experiment turns out for you too! If you live in a different country, better still!

Please email me your photos! Might post them here some time.

Purpose of this experiment: to observe the interesting differences in ‘air quality’ (read: flying dust, basically) in different local regions and countries!

Cool!

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One early evening.

The music was on and both kids were busy doing their own thing when Vai suddenly decided to join in the song and do some silly dance moves! Hehe.

Click HERE to view the clip!

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The Bible, in Romans 13, teaches us these four ethics and moral values that we should learn and apply in our daily lives:

>> Pay up what we should rightfully pay to others

>> Pay taxes to the government in ways that we rightfully should

>> Pay respect to someone in ways that he / she should rightfully be respected

>> Fear those who should rightfully be feared

These four values somehow tend to be ‘forgotten’ by many, even by those who see themselves as ’spiritual’.

Often we (consciously or unconsciously) take things for granted when we’ve received goodness consistently over a long period of time. We often fail to appreciate, respect or return what rightfully belongs to others.

I’m grateful for such a lesson, a reminder, for I know I need it from time to time. We all do.

May God continue to give us the much needed strength everyday.

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The so called ‘Asia’s largest airshow‘ is still on till tomorrow, and as we wanted the kids to see, hear and experience for themselves the aerobatics shows and displays, we all went there today.

And apparently, some 40,000 others did too! (Oh the sea of people was unbelievable!)

The weather was SO blazing hot, and the shuttle bus trip took so much longer than expected! About an hour, from the moment we queued up for the bus! Once we reached there the show already started (gah!) and we couldn’t enjoy the earlier parts of the aerobatic flying displays because we still had to go through quite a bit of a procedure to reach the ‘open field’.

We walked under a cover, went into a building to queue (again) and go through a metal detector checker (for everyone’s safety).

Hmm. I’ve got to say, the organiser’s control of the traffic and crowds were poor. AND we didn’t get to see the first thirty minutes of the show as the result! *rolls eyes*

Anyway, I still did enjoy the whatever remaining aerobatic flying displays we managed to catch.

Looking up, squinting while carrying Vai in my sling, the thunderous sounds of the planes made the whole experience at the time so ‘tangible’, so worth while!

Well, at least to me (and even more so for hubby, who’s very into aircrafts!).

The kids’ excitement kinda evaporated into warm air within half an hour of reaching the site though. Part of it is because of the long time spent queuing up and traveling on the shuttle bus, I guess.

Poor thing.

Towards the end, Vai leaned real closely to me and started to slowly doze away, in sweat. Anya kept her fingers stuck in her ears almost throughout the show. And she sure wasn’t her cheerful self with three big red ant bites on the sole of her foot (talk about timing!).

She insisted either to sit on the pram or be carried by Daddy. So that was quite a tough one for us (and for our arms and shoulders too!).

Well anyway.

It was an experience we’ll remember for quite some time. The good and the not-so-good parts of it all.

And we’ll come again the next time it’s held here in Singapore. Hopefully, everything’s much better too by then.

Photo credit:
All photos - other than that of my hubby with his camera - were taken by him, Wilson.

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Somehow Vai’s been showing quite a bit more interest in our camera lately.

He wants me to show him the results (from the camera’s LCD screen) after photos or videos are taken. And lets out a good cry too when I don’t!

And this is him today, looking at me through his so-called ‘viewfinder’, while I’m taking a shot of him. Hehe.

I guess he’s not quite fussed about the fact that he’s holding Anya’s pink hello kitty toy camera from McDonald’s upside-down!

Coz to him, getting the right ’style and look of a pro’ matters more perhaps? Well, at least until he can get his hands on the real stuff. Hehe.

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