Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Some three weeks ago I wrote a post on ‘How to Stay Sane’ if you’re a Stay at home Mom. Practical tips that I hope will help us manage our days as fulltime moms.

But as I read through the tips, I think there should be another point added to the list.

We should … get our kids involved around the house.

When kids are actively involved in helping around the house, moms will end up having ‘more time’ to do other things (or, more time to relax and read the papers, eg.)

[Btw, I wrote a post on ‘getting kids involved around the house’ last year, click here to read it]

Anyway.

For our case, we try to get our kids involved as much as possible since they’re young.

Like for example,

Anya packs her own bag before school, puts on her socks and shoes, and opens the gate herself. She’d get the key, climb up the gate, unlock the padlock, and climb back down. And while she does all that, I have some time to get other things ready before leaving the house.

The kids clean and brush their own shoes in the bathroom every one or two weeks (and they LOVE this! The idea of having dirty shoes waiting to be brushed clean, soapy water and brushes in hands is just too much fun for them! hehe).

[note: Usually the shoes won’t be THAT clean afterwards, and I’d still need to brush them again. But the activity alone keeps them occupied and happy, AND I get some extra time doing other things too while they’re at it]

They’d need to tidy up their toys after play, and I’d sometimes ask them to help me carry our rubbish bags out, bring our dirty laundry from our bathroom to the laundry basket near our washing machine, etc.

And in the photo above, Anya and Vai were (having fun) brushing away the dirt and dust on our main gate with used toothbrushes and a damp cloth.

…

I believe it takes time, patience and consistency to teach our kids about being an active helper out around house.

And though it’s not easy, I must say it is necessary.

Because throughout the process, kids will not only learn about responsibility and independence, but also the importance of being a helpful part of the family.

Being appreciated members of the family.

At 2 years and 8 months, Vai still finds it hard to fully remember names of basic colours.

Oh, he always remembers black though. Because it’s the colour of one of his favourite toy cars, I guess! Hehe.

Anyway, we did this simple activity together the other day.

A simple and fun way of remembering names of shapes and colours.

I cut out different shapes, eg. triangles, squares, rectangles, circles (some were not quite ‘shapes’ with actual names though)

Then he glued and put different ones together and made ‘something’ out of them!

And as you can tell, he’s very happy, especially with his lorries and ambulance!

It’s been a while since the kids and I went out to a park. I mean, just the three of us.

And so when Wilson was away overseas last weekend, I told them I had a surprise! That they’d need to put on their sunblock lotion and hats, AND pack their little backpacks with icy cool water bottles and … sand-play equipments!

The kids were excited!

Out we went to Bukit Batok Nature Park on that very glary afternoon (yes, we went out in the middle of the day!).

The kids found a good cool spot under some wooden playground and had fun playing together.

While I had a bit of me-time reading a book.

It was a very warm day. But we managed to have a good day out together anyway.

One baby photo found.

Taken some two years ago when he was about eight months old.

Had four teeth, was still drooling.

And was somewhat ‘meat-ier’.

Some thoughts for today, as shared by Rev. Stephen Tong.

…

The greatest teaching in history about mankind is that mankind does not accept the teachings of history (read : man keeps on repeating the same mistakes again and again throughout history)

But, one who learns from history – although he himself may not have experienced its mistakes – will advance further in life and will learn more about life.

Because history is like the greatest professor that teaches mankind about life.

…

The question is, do WE learn from history?