Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Went with Anya to see the Musical Drama “You are Special” today (a few of my friends went with their kids too!).

[Click HERE to watch the storybook by Max Lucado in youtube.com]

I’ve always liked such musical performances, but after seeing Anya’s reactions during the show today, I think this particular story and theme is still a bit too ‘big’ for her to fully appreciate. Perhaps she’d enjoy it more when she’s closer to … five?

She sometimes wriggled and blankly looked at the stage. She sat on my lap and at times she asked to move back to her seat. Basically she’s quite okay, but since the whole thing was in English, she did ask LOTS of questions throughout the show.

Why are they dancing. Why is that man sad. Why did they laugh. Why are there trees on stage. What is that man saying. Why are they all holding boxes. Why are the lights off. Why is the curtain closed.

And so throughout the show, I softly whispered and explained to her what’s happening on stage (and added my own little interpretation of what the story’s trying to say).

Anyway. It was a nice two-some time for both of us!

And I sure hope Anya learned too that she’s indeed very special in the eyes of her CREATOR.

PS: Wilson took half-day off from work and looked after Vai nearby while we went for the show. How nice.

Whenever the three of us go out, that usually means the kids are generally the ‘happier’ ones and I’d be the more ‘physically tired’ one.

Carrying Vai in the sling when Anya naps in the pram. Going after Vai when he’s entered a shop all by himself. Entertaining Anya’s many questions. Or even handling her tantrums (which I’m not too sure why her Terrible Three days are simply NOT ‘gone’ yet).

But really. Somehow I prefer being outside rather than be confined in the four walls of our home.

I guess it’s because when we’re outside, there are simply more distractions for the kids. Birds and animals to observe. People, cars and buildings to see and talk about.

AND it’s always nice seeing them laugh and have fun.

Today’s public holiday here in Singapore and as planned we went to Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden with our friends and their kids.

And since hubby came along, each kid had one parent’s full attention! Which was GREAT!

We got there just after four and the weather was just nice. A bit cloudy and breezy. BUT, the place was PACKED with people, big and small.

We had to find our own little spot for the kids to play with sand. AND since Anya’s not as ‘agressive’ and fast as the other bigger kids when it came to getting on the playground equipments, she queued properly but didn’t get a turn. And so she played with sand before going over for some waterplay.

[Btw, I don’t wish to be the ‘protective Mom’ who clears MY child’s path and tells other kids to move out of the way because MY child wants to play on a particular equipment]

Oh well. Anyway.

Kids did play and had great fun!

It was a nice (though tiring) day out!

Lately I’ve somehow been thinking about kids and the way they value and view things around them.

And here’re some of my thoughts.

Little children heavily depend on adults, especially their parents and their main caregivers, when it comes to finding information on everything in their ‘world’.

They observe their surroundings, adults’ reactions to things, words they say and things they do.

If they watch a TV programme from the Animal Planet channel and their parents are often heard saying something like, ‘Oh look! The lions ate the poor little deer. How cruel!’, then their kids slowly learn to view lions, tigers and other similar ‘predators’ as cruel animals out to eat defenseless animals (rather than learning how in the animal world, there’s a food chain and predators hunt because they need to in order to survive).

And if we often make negative judgements in front of our children (like, ‘Urgh! That restaurant’s food doesn’t taste nice!), then our little ones will pick up similar judgements too (ie. negatively comment on things around them).

Other than the parents, kids also learn from the media, TV, teachers and friends when they start school. That’s why to me personally, I find it very critical for us parents to always try to be aware of our own actions and words as well as ‘monitor’ what our kids watch, read and hear.

Though it’s not always possible to control our kids’ environment, especially after they start school (ie. being physically away from us for a period of time), I personally believe we parents can still put in the needed effort to follow our kids’ developments and the kinds of exposure she’s getting. At home and outside.

It’s never an easy task, especially since perfect parents are non-existent.

But I guess we can always try our best.

Anya’s best friend, Hans, who’s now based in Sydney stopped by Singapore for a couple of days before going to Jakarta.

Before Hans and his family moved to Sydney last year, he used to spend quite a lot of playtime with Anya.

Somehow they have similar interests too, making them play well with each other (apart from the occasional not-wanting-to-share moments, of course)

And so when they got together yesterday and again today, it’s just SO cute.

They held hands, played, danced around, hugged, laughed and giggled. They even took their own photos (Anya turned the camera around and took a ‘self-portrait’ of them both).

Ah. It’s so sweet to see how these two little ones still view their boy-girl relationship as something pure and fun (unlike us adults who may see their super ‘lovey dovey’ behaviours and associate them with ‘boyfriend-girlfriend’ acts).

Really, I’m happy to see them both enjoying their time together so much.

Such sweet moments I’ll sure miss a lot.